Best early game Pals to get in Palworld
Early game recommendations for both base-building and party companions.
Whilst Palworld is fairly easy to get to grips with, there are still plenty of aspects to become accustomed to, such as what Pals are best to catch during the early game.
You can often figure out where a Pal will work best by focusing on its intrinsic 'Partner Skill', but beyond that, there are some other elements worth taking into account.
In this guide, we'll be discussing what the best Pals to catch are in the early hours across both base-building and party companions in Palworld, as well as how Partner Skills, Work Suitability, and Passive Skills define a good Pal.
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Best Pals to catch early in Palworld
When starting a new game in Palworld, you start in the same location as every other player. This means the Pals you encounter early on will most likely be the same as many others.
However, as you grow your base and level up further, there are a few you'll want to keep an eye out for, for both combat and base-building in the opening hours of your journey.
In the next couple of sections, we’ll be running through which Pals we recommend to catch in the first few hours of your Palworld journey, with both base-focused and party-focused picks.
Best base Pals to catch early in Palworld
Something you’ll notice when inspecting the details screen of each Pal is that their Partner Skill will either be focused on usage within bases on more production-focused tasks, or outside of them with an array of combat-focused abilities to try out.
You’re free to pick whichever Pals you’d like for the jobs or gameplay focus you’re going for, but generally the Partner Skill can be a good indication of where their efforts might be best placed since – on top of their work suitability – this is an additional ability you can take advantage of.
Here are a few of the Pals I’ve found to be particularly helpful for base-building during my first few hours of Palworld:
Cattiva
You'll likely come across a Cattiva Pal very quickly in Palworld, around the same time you encounter Lamball – the sheep Pal. Cattiva can actually be rather useful to have both by your side out in the wilds, and working at your base since their Partner Skill boosts your carrying capacity by 50 when in your party, and if you have multiple, this number actually stacks, so if you were to go resource gathering, chuck in five of these and receive a hefty +250 to your carrying capacity.
Beyond that though, when stationed at your base, they have access to the Mining skill that'll let them mine away at Stone Pits for example, giving you a constant supply of stone each time you return from an expedition.
They can also take on further work such as running crafting workbenches, moving resources to chests, and working at berry plantations, thanks to their Handiwork, Transporting, and Gathering work suitabilities respectively. All together, this makes them rather handy to keep in your bases, and that’s where I’ve primarily had mine stationed throughout the game’s early hours.
Tanzee
In a similar fashion to Cattiva, Tanzee is another great Pal to have around within bases thanks to the various work suitabilities they have access to. Whilst they also have the Handiwork, Transporting, and Gathering traits, there are two others which make them particularly useful to have hanging out in your base – Planting and Lumbering are work suitability aspects that’ll sustain you with wood and more food, both of which are key resources, just like stone.
You could assign Tanzee to work on a specific part of your base – be that a ranch, crafting workbench, mine etc. making it great if there’s one particular resource you want a constant supply of – however, since you might want to pursue several resources early on across food and crafting materials, you might find you want to have a Tanzee to multi-task.
Initially, I had Tanzee working on bringing in more wood, but over time my approach has shifted, so I’ve had them set up in 'Automatic work mode'. In doing so, they’ve been moving from point to point within my base, carrying out various tasks it finds are applicable in any given moment. It does take a bit longer to acquire a lot of one specific resource, but if you find you’re away for an extended period of time, it’ll still no doubt rack up a considerable amount. Though keep in mind, if it’s a plantation you’d like Tanzee to work on, you’ll want a Water-type Pal to keep the area watered so that the seeds planted by Tanzee will grow. Speaking of…
Pengullet
As you begin to move further out from the area in which you start, you’ll discover more Pals. Similarly to Tanzee, Pengullet is one you’ll find a bit further out from the starting area, near the coast. Once you’ve caught one, you’ll be able to set them up either for dedication to the plantations, or in automatic work mode, so that they can juggle both that, and power the Crusher which can be useful for grinding materials down into other parts – such as wood into fibre, or stone into Paldium Fragments, both of which are used in various crafting recipes.
Vixy
Whilst Vixy has a work suitability that allows them to collect and gather from berry plantations, the real trick here is to set them up within a ranch as they’ll be able to dig up various items, including Pal Spheres which – if you’re anything like me – you spent a good chunk of the opening hours crafting alongside all the other resources. Whilst it might still be something I’d do from time to time, having the consistent generation of these from the ranch is certainly handy. Alongside this, you’ll also find Vixy can dig up other items like arrows and Gold too.
All-in-all, they’re just a solid companion to have hanging around the ranch, bringing in even more items and resources through the day. Paired with a Lamball and Chikipi, you’ll also have wool and eggs being generated on the regular too, a setup I’ve had going during the early hours.
If you're looking for more long–term recommendations of the best Pals to find for bases, be sure to check our guide dedicated to the best Pals for base building for the whole game.
Best party Pals to catch early in Palworld
Across all of the various Pals I’ve used in fights through the first areas you’ll first visit when starting Palworld, they’ve each felt like great backup to have in combat, dealing hefty amounts of damage and being strong for backup.
However, there are still some solid picks we think are worth taking with you as you roll out beyond the edges of your base, looking specifically at Pals you’re able to find and catch in those opening hours, here are a few different options that provide varying combat benefits.
Tanzee
Tanzee is one of the first Pals I discovered that requires an item to be crafted for it to have its Partner Skill unlocked. In this case, it was an assault rifle that Tanzee can use to fire a barrage of bullets at enemy combatants. Along with long-range, core attacks, the ability to craft the 'Cheery Rifle' ability is unlocked by spending Technology Points after reaching level 12. In combat, it’s best used at close-range due to its inaccurate firing, but when hitting enemies, it still had a decent damage output.
Cattiva
When taking on the first Rayne Syndicate tower, I seemed to have gone in a little unprepared, however thanks to the combination of different Pals I had with me, I managed to get through and succeed. Not only were they holding up against a fair amount of damage, Cattiva’s close-range and fast-paced attacks – seemingly their 'Punch Flurry' skill – was dealing high amounts of damage, and if it wasn’t for them, I likely wouldn’t have made it through the fight. This is even with a 10% reduction to their attack caused by the 'Coward' Passive Skill, meaning they were punching above their weight – no pun intended.
Teafant
If you’re looking for a more support-focused Pal to have with you in the early hours, Teafant is a handy pick, particularly with their 'Soothing Shower' Partner Skill that you can call in to have the Pal heal you for health you’ve lost. Having a Pal with this as a rechargeable ability can be useful in more demanding fights for when you need a quick pick-me-up. It’s admittedly not a big boost of health, but it’s something that’ll help in the early hours, and helped me keep my health up in those later moments during the Rayne Syndicate tower boss fight.
Fuack
I’ve not had as much experience with Fuack as the others, but in just a short time, I found that it was similarly able to put up quite a strong fight as others I was trying out. This Pal also has access to the 'Surfing Slam' Partner Skill, a close-range attack that has them fly and slam into the enemy you’re targeting – a little more risky and up-close than Tanzee’s assault rifle, but one that can be equally strong in its own right.
Foxparks
Initially, I wasn’t testing Foxparks out, but I’d seen some chatter online that they continued to be strong even at higher levels. Since they’re a Pal you can find pretty early on, I thought it’d be one to take for a spin.
The primary draw here is that, on top of its greater strength against Water and Grass-type Pals, it also has the 'Huggy Fire' Partner Skill. This ability lets you pick the Foxparks up and use it as a literal flamethrower that appears to remain rather strong even beyond these opening few hours. Using it in the Rayne Syndicate tower helped me provide a bit more offensive power myself outside of when Cattiva was dishing out the most damage too.
In general with Palworld though, it's worth keeping in mind that due to the various elemental weaknesses of Pals of differing types, you might find that’s cause for a shakeup in your party’s structure, to better combat the local Pals who may otherwise have greater resistance to your party makeup.
Skills and Work Suitability in Palworld explained
When you catch a Pal, there are a few attributes that are fixed and others that are random.
For example, a Pal's 'Partner Skill' and 'Work Suitabilities' are always the same, regardless of how many times you catch it. These are the skills with which it's worth thinking about where best to place your Pal - whether in your party, or set to work at one of your bases.
However, it doesn't mean you should always follow that, and some have both combat and base-building skills you can take advantage of - such as Lamball, who can be used as a shield in combat, but will also drop wool when assigned to a Ranch. As such, you might find the combat efficacy and abilities of one Pal to be more appealing than others you have at your disposal despite what their skills say.
On the flipside, there are other elements that can enhance or degrade certain stats and abilities of any given Pal and influence your choice further - these are a Pal's 'Passive Skills'.
These Passive Skills aren't necessarily worth following as the main pointer for what makes a good Pal, but they can boost – or reduce – its effectiveness in a particular role based on what perks roll on the Pal after it's been caught. Some skills will even be of a higher tier, highlighted by a yellow skill listing.
This means catching duplicate Pals can pay off as they might be better suited to a particular role depending on the bonuses they feature.
All of these elements are worth considering when trying to assign the Pals you’ve caught, and whilst the Partner Skills and Work Suitabilities are what you should focus on primarily, it wouldn't hurt taking into account those other aspects too, especially as you get deeper into the game.
For more guides like this one on Palworld covering all sorts from the best mounts to how to find and incubate Pal eggs, be sure to have a browse across all our guide pages as we continue to cover the game with a variety of tips, tricks, and explainers.