Palworld’s Early Access has had a fantastic start—read our first impressions—though numerous enhancements could still benefit the game. Each of us has spent anywhere from 40 to 90 hours in the game since its launch, and together, we’ve compiled a list of 20 improvements we hope to see in future patches. With the game’s success, having sold at least eight million copies, Pocketpair is receiving plenty of feedback from its players. Hopefully, the team will prioritize quality-of-life updates along with new features to keep the game exciting and fresh. Although the suggestions are numbered, they are not in any specific order.
20. Filter and Search Options
For a game with at least 130 Pals, it’s surprising there’s no search bar in its user interface. Palworld could greatly benefit from improved filter and search options, as well as a feature to favorite specific Pals to prevent accidentally butchering them or using them in the condenser. When collecting dozens of the same Pal for condensing purposes, the UI needs to do a better job showing the one you intend to keep.
19. Display Capture Bonus on Paldeck
Although you can select a Pal in the Paldeck to see your Capture Bonus progress, a numbered counter (x/10) displayed under the elemental affinity in the Paldeck’s left pane would make it much easier. This change would enable players to quickly scroll through the Paldeck and identify which Pals haven’t earned their collection bonus, without needing to click on each one individually.
18. Map Marker System Improvements
The map marker system in Palworld could benefit from two improvements. First, the system needs the ability to share markers with other guild members. It’s slightly annoying to have to notify everyone when something is worth marking. The second suggestion is to add more variety to the map markers, such as merchants or treasure chests.
17. Guild System Improvements
The guild system in Palworld is quite basic currently; however, at a minimum, players should be able to invite others to the guild without needing to walk up to them. In addition, the game should consistently display guild members’ locations on your map. It’s unclear why we sometimes can’t see each other on the map, but it seems that you must physically encounter a player each time you log in for them to appear on your map.
16. False Swipe-Type Mechanic
Not that Palworld needs more ideas from Pokémon, but the game could benefit from a false swipe-type mechanic. For those unfamiliar, this is a restrained attack that prevents the target from being incapacitated, so you can start attempting to capture it. Currently, if you’re setting out to capture Pals, you must be very cautious when using your own Pals as combat companions. Oftentimes, your companion ends up incapacitating your target.
15. Improvements to the Pal Condenser
The Pal Condenser is a great feature in Palworld, but it’s clear that it’s not fully developed. One suggestion for improving the Pal Condenser is to allow depositing Pals to contribute to progress without requiring the full requisite amount. This would make managing the Palbox much easier. Another idea is the ability to break down Pals and obtain a material that contributes towards condensing progress. It wouldn’t have to be a 1:1 ratio. For instance, you could sacrifice five Pals to receive a material equivalent to one complete Pal for condensing purposes. Consider it an exchange system, akin to Hearthstone’s dust system, where disenchanting a card yields dust that helps craft the card you want.
14. Objects Clipping Through Ground and Walls
We have encountered this issue numerous times during our hours of playtime. Our Pals often glitch through the walls we’ve set up around our base area, leading them to starve and become depressed since they’re unable to open the gate and return. In addition, our Pals have fallen through the ground, requiring us to reset them through the Palbox.
13. Explosive Weapons Cause Pals to Glitch Around
If you’ve used Pals like Mossanda, Mossanda Lux, or Jetragon with their explosive weapons, you’ve likely noticed that it causes mobs to glitch around. For instance, firing Mossanda’s Grenade Launcher at a group of enemies causes them to abruptly move to one location, then reset to another within a second or two. This is particularly frustrating when trying to capture a target with a Pal Sphere, as it often leads to wasting the sphere. As related to our previous point, these weapons are infamous for causing bosses to disappear when they are inside caves.
12. Setting Priorities for Transport Tasks
The inability to direct Pals where to drop off specific materials can become quite annoying. Our current workaround involves filling feed boxes with cotton candy or honey, preventing Pals from automatically distributing food with timers into these boxes. It would be nice to instruct Pals where to place certain materials or, at a minimum, have the AI default to the nearest storage that already contains that item. Currently, food items rarely end up in a fridge or cooler box by default.
11. Rebalancing Crafting Material Requirements
As we progressed further in the game, we noticed we were spending significantly more time gathering materials than capturing Pals. We believe Palworld needs to rebalance the quantity of crafting materials required for certain items, especially Spheres. It shouldn’t be necessary to dedicate one person solely to gathering materials all day, so that others in the guild can go out and capture Pals. There were days when I spent three to four hours gathering materials and crafting spheres before I could even begin capturing Pals. Yes, some of this process can be automated with an optimal base location with resources, it still doesn’t address the excessive amount of materials needed.
10. Pals Should Not Obstruct Building
Early in the game, I enjoyed using the Daedream, as it allowed me to have two Pals out simultaneously. However, the issue was that the Daedream followed me everywhere, making it extremely frustrating to work on my base. Pals should not obstruct the placement of structures within the base, particularly the Pals that are wandering around. Setting up beds neatly for the Pals was a challenge because they would rush over to build one, forcing me to wait until they moved aside to place the next one.
9. Breeding Assignment Intermittently Cancels
Overall, the breeding system in Palworld is quite basic currently, but it’s fine for what it does. The issue we’ve encountered is that Pals sometimes wander off, especially when they’re hungry, and then become distracted by another task, leading to the breeding assignment being canceled.
8. Simplifying Material Transport Between Bases
While we understand the reasoning behind the limit of three bases, Palworld should make migrating from one base to another much easier. Given the number of cool locations to build in Palworld’s giant map, players shouldn’t need to spend half a day moving a base. A simple solution, like a chest that enables item transport from one base to another, would work easily enough.
7. Relocating Structures Without Disassembly
Considering Palworld refunds all materials when dismantling a structure, it’s somewhat odd that Pocketpair didn’t include a feature allowing you to pick up and move a structure around your base. A major issue with this is that dismantling a structure returns all materials to your inventory. I can’t even count how many times I got frustrated because I would become encumbered and stuck trying to precisely place objects in the base.
6. Streamlining Upgrades for Building Materials
In line with the previous point, there should be a more streamlined method to upgrade the material type of your buildings. Having to demolish an entire building to upgrade from wood to stone, and then again for a metal upgrade, is extremely time-consuming. Conan Exiles implemented a system years ago that works well; it’s surprising that more crafting survival games haven’t adopted a similar approach.
5. Better Pal Pathing
Although it’s not clear from the screenshot, the Jormuntide Ignis is actually stuck while inside the base. Pocketpair has acknowledged the need for improved Pal pathing, so we’re just stating the obvious. Nevertheless, it remains one of the game’s more frustrating aspects when a Pal gets stuck inside the base, leading to starvation, injury, and depression.
4. Task Priority Setting for Pals
Pals that can perform various work tasks might seem ideal for a base, but they often end up doing the one task you don’t want them to do. While we understand the game’s desire for simplicity by not providing more options, it’s frustrating to see an Anubis chopping trees when there are Pal Spheres that need building. At the very least, Pals should prioritize the work task it excels at.
3. Optional Snap Grid for Base Building
While foundations, walls, and stairs snap to one another, other structures do not. Palworld would benefit from an optional grid system to at least align storage chests, assembly lines, and Pal beds neatly. We can’t be the only ones who prefer things neat and straight, which currently, causes us to spend far more time than necessary positioning objects precisely in the base.
2. Post-Level 40 Scaling and Capturing Pals
When we initially set up our server, we kept all the default settings, with one exception: We chose to disable item dropping on death. But once we got around level 40, leveling felt like it hit a wall. Up to that point, progression was smooth, but from level 40 onwards, we spent an excessive amount of time gathering materials to craft the best Pal Spheres for a higher chance of capturing the Pals needed for decent experience. We eventually boosted the experience rate, since getting to level 50 started to feel like a real chore.
1. Better Interface for Pal Task Management
We were surprised to find that, upon building the Monitor Stand, it didn’t offer the option to assign a Pal to a specific task. While Palworld does have a system where you can pick up a Pal and throw them towards a desired task, this method seems like it doesn’t work half the time. The other half of the time, picking up the Pal itself becomes an issue. In short, the current system is largely ineffective, and players clearly need the ability to individually assign Pals to specific tasks.
