Table of contents

Highlights

  • Players in Palworld need to carefully choose their team of Pals, as they can only bring along five companions at a time.
  • Having a strong team of Pals is crucial for survival in the early stages of the game, as players lack proper armor and protection.
  • Different Pals have unique abilities that can be useful for specific tasks, such as scavenging for resources, healing, or providing support in battles.

Life on Palworld's Palpagos Islands can be dangerous. With Syndicate Thugs and members of the Free PalAlliance on murderous rampages, it’s not enough to just pick the right pals for a base – players need a reliable team of pals at their side as well. Pokemon fans might be used to having six companions at their side, but Palworld players need to be more discerning with their choice since they can only bring along five Pals.

Related
Palworld: The Best Pal Of Each Type, Ranked

There are nine types of Pals available to be captured in Palworld, each with different benefits and drawbacks. Here are the best Pals of each type.

Survival is a key element of Palworld's early-game, and players don’t have much in the way of armor or protection to help them survive. That’s why a strong team of Pal companions can make the difference between life and death in the first few levels of the game.

10 Cattiva

A PalTo Upgrade Carrying Capacity

hilarious-palworld-clip-makes-it-look-like-cattiva-is-digivolving-game-rant

Once players set up a Palbox and establish their first base, they need lots of supplies to kick things off: wood, stone, fiber, and paldium fragments to name just a few. The problem is that until players put a few experience points into carrying capacity, there’s a limit to how much they can carry at once.

Fortunately, one of the first pals players can catch is Cattiva. This cat-like pal is far from a powerful fighter, so players are advised to select a different pal to defend themselves in a scuffle. However, when it comes to scavenging for crafting resources and supplies, Cattiva is invaluable. Cattivas each have the Cat Helper partner skill, in which they carry supplies and increase the player’s maximum carrying capacity by 50. Even better, this partner skill stacks, meaning a whole team of Cattivas can let players carry huge loads, potentially adding an extra 250 to a player’s total carrying capacity. This helps pal tamers build their base even faster and more efficiently.

9 Lamball

A PalThat Shields Players From Attacks

Player using Lamball as a shield

Early-game armors protect players from some of the smaller Pals’ attacks, but there’s a limit to how much protection they offer when a tamer is swarmed by enemies or face-to-face with an Alpha Pal. Until they level up enough to unlock better shields and armor, Lamball can come in handy instead.

Once players reach the mid-game, they’ll only ever use Lamball for wool or maybe even food. However, in the early hours, Lamballs can save players’ lives thanks to their partner skill, Fluffy Shield. Some might feel like monsters holding up an innocent sheep between them and a barrage of bullets, but when HP is close to 0, a Lamball can make the difference between life and death.

8 Celeray

A Fast-Moving Glider Pal

Player gliding with a Celeray

As players make their way from the starting point of Palworld, one of the first things they’ll notice about the world is how many hills and mountains are dotted around the map. While players are free to jump, climb, and sometimes even fly on pals, sometimes it’s easier to just glide from a high point.

Related
Palworld: Best Pals For Transporting Items

Pals can do a lot of various tasks in Palworld, and some are very good at transporting items around for players.

Normal parachutes can only get players so far before they run out of stamina. However, it’s worth unlocking and crafting Celaray’s Gloves at Level 7 so you can use this handy pal to glide instead. By hanging from a Celaray, Paltamers can glide further and faster before their stamina runs out, allowing them to explore even more of the map.

7 Teafant

Best Early-Game Healer

palworld teafant heal water

It isn’t easy restoring HP in Palworld. Without potions available to down at a moment’s notice, players usually have to run from a fight and wait for their HP to recover by itself. That’s why it’s always useful to have a healer in hand.

Although Teafant is far from a competent fighter, it can be a real lifesaver for tamers who come across a huge swarm of enemies and need to refill their HP bar quickly – and, without efficient armor in the early-game, this happens often. Teafant's partner skill, Soothing Shower, shoots water from its trunk to cure wounds and restore the player's HP.

6 Daedream

Best PalFor Constant Support

PALWORLD-DAEDREAM-BASE

When players are in the heat of battle, it can be a real pain to swap out Pals who have fainted or are getting too weak to fight. As soon as a Pal goes back into a Pal sphere, the player is on their own, vulnerable as they're surrounded by vicious enemies. However, any tamer who has a Daedream never has to worry about being alone again.

Available at Level 6, Daedream’s Necklace is a craftable item that unlocks Daedream’s partner skill, Dream Chaser. This skill allows Daedream to be out next to the player at all times, even when another Pal has been sent out to battle. This means that players who are in a real pinch can bring out at least two pals at once to fight by their side.

5 Eikthyrdeer

Best Early-Game Mount

Eikthyrdeer from Palworld

Although it’s far from the best open world in gaming, one of Palworld’s strengths is the sheer size of its map. If players want to explore the further reaches of the Palpagos Islands, they need the help of a few pals to travel faster. Although there are numerous mounts in the game, Eikthyrdeer is one of the best and can be found very early on.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to reach Level 12 and unlock the Eikthyrdeer Saddle, letting players use the partner skill Guardian of the Forest to mount this pal and explore every nook and cranny of the map. However, it could take a while for players to find all the materials needed to craft this saddle so early on in the game.

4 Lifmunk

Best Gun-Toting PalFor Attacking

Fighting enemies with Lifmunk in Palworld

It might seem slightly overpowered to have a couple of Pals able to wield guns so early on in the game, but it was important for Pocket Pair to live up to the reputation of “Pokemon with guns.” That’s why players don’t need to stray too far from where they start the game to come across two pals who can use guns: Tanzee and Lifmunk.

Related
Palworld: Best Locations To Mine Ore

Ore in Palworld is used to make ingots for crafting and building purposes. Here are a few great locations where players can farm ore.

Players can choose to use whichever pals they want, but if they want to select just one gun-toting pal to boost their attack power, Lifmunk has the edge over Tanzee. Lifmunk’s partner skill Lifmunk Recoil can be unlocked a whole level earlier than Tanzee’s, packs a bigger punch, and allows players to control its accuracy.

3 Nitewing

Earliest Flying Mount In The Game

Nitewing from Palworld

Although Level 15 is getting on towards the mid-game, the first pal that players can use to fly is a Nitewing. Nitewings spawn pretty close to the starting location, but players have to level up first to unlock and craft the Nitewing saddle before using this pal as a flying mount.

Nevertheless, it’s absolutely worth getting a flying mount in a team as soon as possible. With so many hills and mountains dotting the landscape of the Palpagos Islands, it’s much easier to get around by flying. Players can see pals from a greater distance, travel more easily, and picking up Lifmunk effigies suddenly becomes a breeze.

2 Foxparks

Destroy Enemies With A Ferocious Flamethrower Pal

Palworld_Foxparks

A fox with the power of fire is nothing new. Just look at Pokemon’s Vulpix who in turn was inspired by the kitsune of Japanese mythology. However, Foxparks stands out from the crowd with its must-have partner skill for any Pal tamer’s team.

Players can unlock Foxparks’s Harness as early as Level 6 and make the most of its partner skill, Huggy Fire. This transforms Foxparks into a flamethrower, allowing the player to pick up their Foxparks and dowse nearby enemies in flames. Since new players have very few effective weapons to choose from early on, this makes Foxparks a real game-changer.

1 Pengullet

Obliterate Enemies With An Over-Powered Rocket Launcher

Fighting enemies and Pengullet’s Rocket Launcher in Palworld

Pengullet is a fairly unassuming pal that players come across early on in the game, as soon as they get to a body of water. Although they’re not immediately a valuable asset to a pal tamer’s team, their partner skill can help out in a pinch against even the toughest enemy.

Pengullet’s partner skill is Pengullet Cannon, unlocked once players craft the Pengullet Rocket Launcher at Level 17. When used, the player loads Pengullet into a rocket launcher and fires it towards enemies where it explodes on impact and does massive damage. Although this does incapacitate Pengullet, it can take out hordes of enemies in one go.

Palworld
Palworld

Released
January 19, 2024
Developer(s)
Pocket Pair, Inc.
Genre(s)
Open-World , Shooter , Survival