Nearly all of Palia’s gameplay is focused on crafting and gathering, with its various regions filled with trees to chop down, plants to forage, and both fish and bugs to catch. Players can construct a variety of different Crafters and workbenches that unlock new crafting recipes for each of the game’s skills to make use of the materials they collect in their travels.
With all the crafting and gathering activities in Palia, players may find themselves regularly on the verge of filling or even overfilling their inventory during their adventures. Therefore, it's essential to be mindful of the inventory space and manage the collected items effectively to continue enjoying the game without interruptions. The player can access chests only while in their housing plot, and making trips back to free up more space can be a hassle.
When the player’s inventory is full, the bars will turn red, and the player will no longer be able to collect items that would require placement in a new inventory slot. To prevent this from happening, the player will want to upgrade their backpack as soon as they can. Here's where players can get more inventory slots in their backpack in Palia.
How to Get More Inventory Slots in Palia
Thankfully, and expectedly, the free-to-play gamePalia does offer players the opportunity to increase their inventory space very early in their gameplay experience. The player enters Palia with two inventory bars unlocked, each featuring 8 item slots, offering a total of 16 inventory slots. The player’s use of tools is handled through its own separate menu, so these inventory bars can be swapped between to use the backpack's contents, including seeds, food, and other items.
While progressing through the early quests in the game’s main story, the player may eventually receive a quest called Zeki’s Expanded Backpack. This quest directs the player to visit Kilima Village’s General Store, managed by a cat-like Grimalkin named Zeki. It is possible to upgrade the backpack without obtaining this quest; the quest serves as a breadcrumb to lead players to the store and get the first upgrade if they've not already stopped by.
The General Store's location is labeled on the map and is easy to spot within the town square. Players may notice a signpost out front advertising a backpack, while the sign above the shop’s doors features a sprouting plant. Like many other residents of the village, the feline shopkeeper isn’t likely to be found hanging around his shop, but players can interact with the cash register to make any purchases or sell goods.
However, for the player to upgrade their inventory space in Palia, they need not interact with the cash register like they would with any other purchase. Instead, they should draw their attention to the left of the store’s counter, where they’ll spot a fancy display table featuring an advertisement for a Backpack.
Upon approaching the display, a prompt will appear offering the player the opportunity to purchase a Backpack upgrade for 500 Gold. Once the player purchases the bag upgrade, they will unlock a third inventory bar featuring an additional 8 item slots.
The display’s sign will update to feature the next available upgrade, the Large Backpack, which costs 5000 Gold, unlocking another 8 slots. The final upgrade, the Deluxe Backpack, will set the player back 50,000 Gold, adding the fifth and final inventory bar maxing their backpack’s capacity at 40 slots.
How Does Chest Inventory Work in Palia
While micromanagement of the player’s backpack can be frustrating, Palia’s craftable chests do offer some respite in the cozy game world. The first chest the player crafts is capable of storing a total of 400 items. This, unfortunately, does not mean it has 400 item slots, each capable of storing a “stack” of a set quantity of any item. Instead, the 400 item slots are the sum of each individual item stored within.
Thankfully, any furniture items can be stored in the chest but will not take up storage slots. Players can use the icons at the top of the chest window to view items matching specific categories. Large chests can be crafted upon learning recipes purchased from the Furniture Store.
Palia's open beta is available now on PC. A Switch version is also in development.
