Worst Passive Skills In Palworld

This article is part of a directory: Palworld Guide Hub - Tips, Base Building, Best Pals, & More

Table of contents

Highlights

Pals in Palworld have unique passive skills, ranging from buffs to debuffs, affecting combat and hunger levels.
Avoid Pals with negative skills like Coward or Bottomless Stomach to prevent combat or food-related issues.
Passive skills like Pacifist or Slacker can severely hinder a Pal's usefulness, making them less effective in work or combat.

Upon capturing their first Pal, players will notice that each one has their very own set of randomly allocated passive skills. Each Pal will have 0-4 passive skills that will be active from the time that they are caught. These skills are ranked on a tier system from 3 down to - 3. Unfortunately, many of the passive skills available provide debuffs rather than buffs.

Palworld: 6 Best Defense Passive Skills, Ranked

Passive Skills can be especially helpful for Palworld players looking for extra buffs. For those prioritizing defense, here are the best options.

These are the passive skills that players will hopefully want to avoid while exploring the Palpagos Islands. Sometimes though, they are unavoidable. These examples are some of the worst passive skills, the type that actively makes the affected Pal worse rather than better. If a Pal is found with more than two of these skills equipped, players should reconsider their options and not use it for breeding.

7 Mercy Hit

Can't Finish Off Opponents

Tier: - 1
Effect: Will never reduce a target's health below 1

Finding a Pal with the passive skill Mercy Hit is not the end of the world but it is certainly an annoyance. Mercy Hit will prevent the affected Pal from finishing off an opponent meaning that someone or something else will have to do so instead.

However, it can also be quite useful in a given circumstance. It can be used to prevent an accidental death of a Pal the player is trying to capture. If this is a problem, players are better off crafting and using the Ring of Mercy, which will have the same effect.

6 Glutton

Will Need Feeding More Often Than Most

Tier: - 1
Effect: Satiety drops 10% faster

Glutton has the negative effect of making a Pal more hungry than others and needing feeding more often. When a Pal is hungry, their attack and defense stats drop by 20% so it can heavily limit the ability of the effect Pal in combat.

Glutton is one of the few passive skills that is natural on a certain Pal. It is a natural passive skill on one of the better Pals in the game: the Relaxaurus. Players will have to hope that no other skills on this list pop up when it is caught.

5 Coward

Struggles In A Fight

Tier: - 1
Effect: -10% to Attack

Players will likely come across the Coward passive skill early in their game. Coward is natural to Cattiva, one of the first Pals players are likely to encounter. Once captured, Cattiva will likely serve the purpose of working rather than fighting.

Palworld Pal holding weapon and Pal stat screen showing passive section

Palworld: 7 Best Attack Passive Skills, Ranked

Palworld players hoping to improve their combat potential should consider making use of these reliable attack passive skills.

The same can be said for other Pals randomly affected by this skill. 10% is a big enough drop to be felt at all stages of the game, but could still be viable with very powerful Pals.

4 Bottomless Stomach

Hungry All The Time

Tier: - 2
Effect: Satiety drops 15% faster

Being hungry is one of the major negative conditions within Palworld. Having one or more Pals with the Bottomless Stomach passive skill will make life very difficult. This will make a Pal more hungry more often and this comes with many difficulties.

Players will have to waste time finding more food for the Pal to try and prevent it from hitting 0 in hunger and beginning to lose health. When combined with the Glutton passive skill, the effects stack and the Pal would become borderline unusable.

3 Pacifist

Doesn't Believe In Violence

Tier: - 3
Effect: Attack - 20% to Attack

Pacifist and the passive skills already mentioned have the potential to ruin otherwise very effective Pals. A 20% debuff to attacking stats neutralizes Pals in the late game and severely damages them in the early to mid-game. 20% is too big a loss to make up elsewhere.

Once again the debuff can stack but can also be affected by positive passive skills. For example, if a player found a Pal with Pacifist and Ferocious (20% buff to attack), they would cancel each other out.

2 Slacker

Calls In Sick For Work

Tier: - 3
Effect: Attack - 30% to Work Speed

Some Pals are built for attacking, some for defending, and some for work. The worst-case scenario is getting Slacker on a Pal that a player planned to use for purposes outside of combat. A -30% to work speed is the biggest single debuff out of all the passive skills.

Palworld: 7 Best Passive Skills For Work, Ranked

There are several ways to increase work efficiency in Palworld. For those looking to do so with ease, here are the best passive skills available.

Slacker on a Pal like Cattiva essentially makes it almost useless to the player due to its skills being focused on maximizing working power and efficiency.

1 Brittle

Frail In Combat

Tier: - 3
Effect: Attack - 20% to Defense

The worst passive skill in Palworld is Brittle, as it is more damaging to the fundamental purpose of a Pal than any other. Brittle makes a Pal extremely difficult to use in the open world and combat. By reducing defensive capabilities by 20%, Brittle makes any Pal far more susceptible to damage.

This is especially bad in the later stages of the game. In difficult enemy encounters, taking more damage than anyone else on the battlefield will be the difference between victory and defeat.