Boss Drops

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The game's premise, which involves using firearms and equipping Pals with them, has earned it the nickname "Pokémon with guns". Other elements, such as using Pals for food or as manual labor in mines and factories, have also garnered a mixed reaction, with praise for its gameplay, content, and satirical premise, but criticism for its reliance on shock humor and for its use of unoriginal designs and mechanics. The satirical tone of promotional material, with references to labor laws and illegal hunting, sparked interest in the game exploring the dark undertones of the creature-collecting genre.

In Their Own Story

The game's reveal trailer was met with high engagement on social media and mixed reception, ranging from excitement to disgust. Some viewers thought that the game was fake, a sentiment that surprised the development team. It also received some skepticism due to the unfinished state of the developer's earlier work, Craftopia. In Brazil, the game's publicity was boosted due to the pronunciation of pal being similar to pau in Portuguese. Pau can mean 'wood' but is also sexual slang for penis. Both players and journalists made various puns when discussing the game and the Pals due to this double meaning.

Reader's Guide

In Palworld, players control a customizable avatar from a third-person perspective and explore the open-world Palpagos Islands. Players must manage their hunger level, craft basic tools, gather materials, and build bases that act as fast travel points. Unlocks through a technology tree allow the player to craft and use weapons, structures, and decorations. The islands are inhabited by 287 different types of creatures called Pals, which players directly engage in combat with to weaken and then capture using "Pal Spheres". Pals can also be bought on the black market through non-player characters or traded with other players. After obtaining Pals, they can be summoned to battle or stationed at bases to assist with tasks such as scavenging, crafting, and cooking depending on their type. Each Pal has a Partner Skill, allowing further utility by using them as weapons or mounts. The game's bosses include various factions, such as the Rayne Syndicate, the Free Pal Alliance liberation movement, the Brothers of the Eternal Pyre, the Palpagos Islands Defense Force, and the Pal Genetic Research Unit. These factions are led by powerful Pal trainers who reside in towers across the islands and are the game's main boss battles. The factions include human NPCs who occasionally spawn in the world, either patrolling or battling each other, who are hostile to the player and can fight them with weapons. The game features a wanted level system; if the player commits a crime, usually against humans, other human NPCs will become hostile and defense force troopers will spawn to attack them until they are killed or evade their pursuers.

Did You Know?

• Palworld sold over one million copies in its first eight hours of early access on January 19, 2024.
• The game reached over 2,000,000 concurrent players on Steam on January 24, 2024, becoming the first game since PUBG: Battlegrounds to achieve this feat.
• The game's character animator was hired after CEO Takuro Mizobe reached out to a hobbyist animator on YouTube who had been uploading combat animation videos and Girls' Frontline fan content.
• The main character designer for the Pals was initially rejected during an October 2020 recruitment drive for illustrators, but was hired when she reapplied in February 2021.
• By February 1, 2024, the game sold 12 million copies on Steam and had reached 7 million players on Xbox.