Palworld (PC) - Open-World Survival Adventure aka Pokemon With Guns - 2024 | v1.0 July 10, 2026

[Karbuncle]

I don't know how much of it trickled in after EA launch as this is my first return, but 1.0 feels fresh. Tons of noticeable additions, lots more direction in the (air quotes) story, base QoL out the wazoo. And 50% less jank (which is still quite janky).

Only complaint at the moment is how fast I level, can't even keep up with the tech unlocks and some new things are sneaking by me because of it. But still having an enjoyable second go-round, I dig it.

I think depending on what Difficulty you play as, theres an Exp bonus applied? You can go into the Server settings when creating a world (or before playing) and adjust it down if you need too.

[Kachiko]

I put mine at .30 percent and it's been a good curve. Just catching 5 of most pals I find has kept me about even with where the game's quests and locations want me to go to. Base game "difficulty".

[Celeras]

I don't know about difficulty because I never actually loaded up Single Player, but I'm the dedicated host and it's set to 1.0 (all default). I'm ahead of the crew though so changing it now wouldnt help that, but they don't seem as into round 2 anyway. No biggy.

[Souj]

I completely skipped Pokemon Scarlet and Violet because I was tired of Pokemon refusing to do anything new and cutting corners with the actual tech of the games. I know nothing of Palworld except that Nintendo tried to sue them for being too similar. Is it worth looking into this game? I’m sure it wouldn’t be a replacement for the nostalgia and fondness of earlier Pokemon games, but is there anything there to this?

[Tyrath]

After you into survival crafting games? Because it's pokemon mixed with that. Less strict on the survival aspects, at least on the difficulty I played on

[Souj]

After you into survival crafting games? Because it's pokemon mixed with that. Less strict on the survival aspects, at least on the difficulty I played on

I like the idea of survival crafting games, I suppose. Is the crafting the main goal and the Pals a means to an end, or is it like, you more need to craft food and shelter along your journey to progress?

[Karbuncle]

I like the idea of survival crafting games, I suppose. Is the crafting the main goal and the Pals a means to an end, or is it like, you more need to craft food and shelter along your journey to progress?

You have stationary bases you build up and can assign pals to to do tasks at the base... help you craft, cook, make items, farm, etc. You build work-stations to craft there, you build beds for Pals to work in, and you do need to manage your Pals but honestly so long as you have basic things (beds, springs) they maintain themselves. Crafting is mostly for gathering new gear and Palspheres(to capture pals), but also includes cooking and so forth. Both aspects of the game (Creature capture and Base building) are pretty equally important aspects to the game, and I think they mesh well if you let them.

But the gameplay loop as it were is going on from this base and catching new pals and going through the "story" and beating the tower trainers to get to the end. Its an open world map and some regions are much higher level so you need to level up along the way. You can have up to 4 bases if you want, but 1 is fine if you're just casual(you can adjust this in settings though).

Theres also traits Pals can randomly have, which is where Breeding comes in if you want to breed your perfect pal for battle or for base work. You do need to eat in order to not die, but its not intrusive at all and you can just collect berries and if you want and eat nothing else, though some of the more complex recipes increase your stats, work speed, attack, etc.

[Souj]

I might check it out then. I’d have preferred to play it on Switch, but I guess thatll never happen lol. Maybe pick it up on Steam.

[Tyrath]

Is anyone running a BG server for this?

I have a single player save file but I started in EA. Things seem so different now.

[Karbuncle]

I just started over entirely on a personal server, I wanted to experience 1.0 fresh

[Kachiko]

I started over, but then I got pissed at the base building aspect. I suppose you can say there's more to do but it's still mostly base babysitting with the occasional expeditions to do the quests and catch pals along the way. Still no music, bases suck to build, and I don't think you can material transfer so you have to micro that as well. I'd have thought more would have been done, but for someone who's never played it, it should last longer than EA did for me.

[Karbuncle]

If by material transfer you mean between bases… I do think that is a thing but I don’t know what level the thing you build for it is.

[Celeras]

Is anyone running a BG server for this?

I have a single player save file but I started in EA. Things seem so different now.

If y'all want to play on my fresh 1.0 dedicated you're welcome. It's like 200+days in because I host 24/7 since 1.0, but besides myself (lv50) my friends barely logging in. Only 4 of us even if they get active though so probably wouldn't be very different than playing by yourself, unless a couple here hop in