Palworld is a monster-catching game like many others. You have orb-shaped devices that can capture creatures, you weaken said creatures, you catch them in the orb, and you can use them in battle. The conceit is pretty familiar, only Palworld takes things up a notch by allowing you to catch humans. Yes, the various NPCs you meet in Palworld are fair game for capture - though you'll get in trouble if you do it.
This guide will show you how to catch humans in Palworld. That's the easy part - the tough part is getting away with it, and not being beaten to death by the authorities in the process.
Catching Humans
NPC humans show up in a few different ways in Palworld:
- Merchants occasionally show up your bases, peddling goods for sale
- Syndicate goons show up in Raids, trying to steal items from your base, and you can come across them attacking Pals in the wild
- You may encounter NPCs out in the field whom you can speak to for items or information
Regardless of how you come across a human, catching them is the same as catching a Pal. Simply lower their health with attacks, chuck a Pal Sphere at them, and cross your fingers. If you did enough damage - and if you're lucky - the human will remain in the Pal Sphere, and you can thereafter place them in your party or deploy them at your base.
Should you bother catching humans? Aside from the novelty of essentially owning slaves... which isn't cool... no, humans aren't really worth the bother. There are a few reasons why:
- Humans are, on average, much harder to catch than Pals. You'll eat up a lot of Pal Spheres grabbing one.
- Humans are weaker in combat, and have no elemental attacks.
- Humans can only help you with workbenches in bases, where Pals can often cover a variety of different jobs.
- Humans are boring. Just look at those Pal designs. You would really prefer to use some schmoe you found on the side of the road over a legendary bird? C'mon.
All that aside, there's one other reason to avoid catching humans: It's against the law in Palworld. Assaulting and attempting to catch humans is considered 'inhumane', and the police will show up to stop you. This leads to 'Wanted' status.
Escaping Wanted Status
Whenever you commit a crime in Palworld you'll enter Wanted status, displayed in the top-right corner of the screen. There are, in general, two ways to become Wanted:
- Assault, kill, or attempt to catch humans (doesn't apply to Syndicate raiders)
- Enter protected sanctuary areas
Whenever you become Wanted you'll find yourself surrounded by Palapagos Island Defence Force (PIDF) units. Which units you encounter depend on the severity of your crimes, though they will always have guns and strong armor. PIDF units also follow you around if you try to flee, and can teleport to your location if you get too far away. Even using Fast Travel isn't enough to escape Wanted status.
There are two ways to end Wanted status:
- Flee. Flee for your life. Although the PIDF are tenacious, they have apparently given up after you spend enough time escaping. It sounds as though hopping on a flying Pal may be key to getting away scot-free with a crime. (I haven't succeeded at this yet, but I've heard others have. Give it a try!)
- Die. If you get knocked out you'll immediately lose your Wanted status, and everything will go back to normal. This means you'll drop your gear, of course, so you should probably try to die near one of your bases, so you can easily retrieve all your stuff.
The one thing you do not want to do is fight back, unless you're interested in raising your Wanted level. As you stack up crimes the quality of the PIDF officers following you rises, becoming tougher and better-armed with each offence. Eventually you'll be chased by so many enemies that you won't stand a chance. Of course, if you want to cause as much trouble as you can before they take you down...
One last thing to note: If you became wanted because you attacked and captured a human NPC, fear not. Yes, you may be taken down by the authorities, but when you come back to life you'll still have the human counted among your Pals. As long as you can safely get at your dropped items again you can catch as many humans as you like, with no long-term repercussions.