What Is Palworld? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Links

• What Is Palworld?
• When Was Palworld Released?
• What Platforms Is Palworld Available On?
• Palworld PC Requirements
• Which Platform Should You Play Palworld On?
• How Does Palworld’s Multiplayer Work?

Key Takeaways

• Palworld is an Early Access creature-collector game that resembles Pokemon, but with an open-world survival-craft approach.
• The game also draws inspiration from other games like Satisfactory, Ark: Survival Evolved, and Rust.
• Palworld supports both single-player and multiplayer. It is available on Windows and Xbox, with cross-platform support coming in a future update.

Palworld has taken the gaming world by storm thanks to its marked popularity at release. But what is Palworld about? And is it really just Pokémon with guns?

What Is Palworld?

Palworld is an Early Access creature-collector survival game made by Japanese indie game company Pocketpair. It features “pals”; monsters that you can capture and collect. It gained massive traction due to its likeness to Pokémon, but its open-world survival-craft approach makes it more like a Pokémon life simulator. Still, you won’t struggle to see the similarities between the games, from the cute and colorful nature of the pals to the way you capture and organize them in a “Paldeck .” But there’s a whole lot more to the game than just catching pals.

The game draws inspiration from multiple genres, and you can see similarities with Satisfactory in terms of the ability to create an automated assembly line for weapons, farming, and building. There are also obvious inspirations from Ark: Survival Evolved or Rust in terms of how the world looks and feels.

Your pals aren’t just for fighting, feeding, and showing off; they also have jobs. Some can help you smelt metal, cook, water plants, and even craft items. There is a whole job system that you can take advantage of to make your base into a productive empire running on pal-power.

The game supports both single-player and multiplayer. You can play solo in your own world or with up to four players on a personally hosted server. You can also join official or community servers with up to 32 players.

When Was Palworld Released?

Palworld was released on January 19, 2024 in early access on Steam, the Xbox Store, and the Microsoft Store. It was released in a very early access state that had plenty of bugs and issues, but still garnered 7 million sales in the first five days.

What Platforms Is Palworld Available On?

Palworld is currently available on Windows, as well as the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. You can get it through Steam or Xbox Game Pass (including Xbox PC Pass).

However, there’s currently no crossplay between the platforms, as they’re not the same version. Cross-platform support will be released in a future update, according to the developers.

Palworld PC Requirements

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Palworld’s minimum PC requirements on Steam state that you should at least have an i5-3570K process, 16GB of RAM, and a GTX 1050 GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM. Meanwhile, the recommended specs are an i9-9900K processor, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 2070 GPU.

Our mid-tier recommendations, based on our experience of the game, are these specs:

• i5 10600K or Ryzen 5 5600X CPU
• 16GB of RAM
• RX 6600 XT or GeForce RTX 3060 GPU

These specs should get you over 60FPS on medium settings. But you could always lower the graphics settings to get a higher framerate. Check out how to figure out your PC’s specs in case you can’t find them. They don’t need to exactly match these, but if the performance is close, you should be fine.

Which Platform Should You Play Palworld On?

While it is cheaper to play Palworld on Xbox Game Pass, the developers are having a hard time getting the updates released as quickly as on Steam due to Microsoft’s verification systems.

We recommend playing on Steam for the most up-to-date experience. However, when the Xbox Game Pass version eventually gets updates as quickly as on Steam with cross-play enabled, it’ll be up to your preference.

Another benefit of Steam is that buying it through the storefront means you can play it on a Steam Deck. You can also use the Steam Deck’s Remote Play feature to stream the title.

How Does Palworld’s Multiplayer Work?

Palworld’s multiplayer works similarly to Minecraft. Joining someone’s world creates a new character that starts from scratch.

Unfortunately, multiplayer is not like Valheim—where your character’s progression is kept between servers. For a game that has a skill tree, transferring your character progression is pretty important.

We suggest sticking to one world that your friends play in, and let the host be the one who plays the most. You could always pass the latest save file around to play on while your friends aren’t online.

You can find the save file for the Steam version in\AppData\Local\Pal\Saved\SaveGames\(SteamUID) . This folder will contain a folder with a bunch of numbers. You can send this folder to your friends if you want to play in the world if the host isn’t online.

Palworld, in its early access state, risks feeling a lot like just another survival-craft entry on Steam. While its crafting and building system doesn’t stand out, the integration of pals into this system is actually done well, and makes it unique.

Some pal integrations seem a little forced, but for the most part, they add to the experience instead of feeling like an afterthought. Palworld has the potential to become so much bigger, especially with future updates and player feedback.