Some call Palworld “Pokémon with guns,” but once you set foot on the Palapagos Islands, you’ll quickly become disillusioned. Yes, there are 100 Pals to catch in Early Access, but that’s not all you’ll be doing.
Each Pal in Palworld has strengths both inside and outside of the base, and in the early game, getting your base up and running quickly will help your gameplay immensely.
Of course, you’ll also need combat Pals to survive while you’re scavenging for resources. Here are the best starting Pals to catch at the start of your Palworld adventure.
Lambal
Pros:
- Lots of features for the base
- Produces useful materials
- Can be used as a shield (if you have enough strength)
Lamball is one of the first Pals you encounter in Palworld, and the game will tell you how to catch him in the tutorial. He’s not much of a fighter, but Lamball can build structures, craft gear, and transport resources.
Once you unlock the ranch, you can breed Lamball for its wool, which is used to repair armor – this will come in handy. Finally, thanks to its special ability, Lamball can be used as a shield to protect itself from damage – handy while you have no armor.
Cattiva
Pros:
- Automated stone mining
- Picking Fruit for Eating
- Planting plants
Cattiva is another common Pal near your spawn. It’s easy to catch, so you can gather an army to mine the stone from the quarry in your base.
The stone will be useful for crafting spheres, allowing you to add more helpers to your squad. Cattiva can also collect items, fruits and berries – this will feed you and your pets.
Fox Parks
Pros:
- Cooking meat
- Smelts ore
- Can serve as a portable flamethrower
Foxparks is much more useful in combat due to his fire attacks. Especially when used as a flamethrower due to his special ability. This makes it easy to deal with opponents.
And at the Foxparks base, you can cook meat and smelt ingots in a primitive furnace. Ingots are needed to improve the base and craft.
Lifmunk
Pros:
- Cuts down trees for timber
- Planting a crop
- Can serve as a shoulder turret
There is no such thing as too much wood in Palworld, and Lifmunk is the best lumberjack assistant. He can also plant and collect berries to feed you and other pets. You can brew potions from these berries. And if you throw Lifmunk in a medieval workshop, he will brew them.
Once you’ve upgraded the tech tree to level 11, you can upgrade the Lifmunk into an assault rifle. Its special ability allows it to sit on your shoulder and shoot at targets.
Penguin
Pros:
- Watering crops
- Excellent help at the base
- Can be fired from a flare gun
- The cutest guy
While Lifmunk plants the berries, Pengullet is one of the few that can water them early on, which speeds up growth and helps keep everyone else fed.
Pengullet can also craft, build, and use a crusher to turn stone into paldium shards for orbs. And at a high enough tech level, it can be loaded into a rocket launcher for massive damage.
Daedream
Pros:
- Master of Combat
Daedream is decent offensively and his dark element is very useful early in the game. But he is much better as a support due to his excellent special ability.
Once you’ve built a Pawl equipment bench and reached level 11, you can craft a Daedream necklace to access its special ability. It allows any Daedream in your party to follow you and back up your attacks with a blast of darkness. The more of them with necklaces, the stronger the blasts.
Eikthyrdeer
Pros:
- A more efficient lumberjack
- Significantly improves combat capabilities
- An easily tamed early mount.
The early areas of Palworld are full of Eikthyrdeer, kill them for leather to craft Daedream necklaces. But one is worth sparing: it’s a much better woodcutter than Lifmunk, and also one of the first mounts.
To use it, you need to build the Eikthyrdeer saddle, and for this you will need the skills of all the Pals from the list. But then you will be able to move further from the base, and on horseback you will get access to his attacks – this will seriously strengthen you in the first hours.