As much as Palworld focuses on exploration and monster-gathering, it is very much a base-building experience. In order to survive - and thrive - on Palpagos Island you will need at least one base, if not more. Better roll up your sleaves and get to work.
This guide will help you set up new bases in Palworld. Creating a base is one of the first things you'll have to do when you start a new game, and much of your time is spent maintaining, and growing, your new home.
Setting up a new base is relatively simple. All you have to do is find a nice, flat area and create a Palbox. A level 2 Technology that you'll learn shortly after the game begins, the Palbox costs very little to set up:
- 1 Paldium Fragment. You can fnd Paldium Fragments sitting on the ground, or by bashing small, blue lumps of rocks.
- 8 Wood. You'll find Wood sitting around in the form of sticks, and you can chop down trees - with your bare hands, if necessary - to get more.
- 3 Stone. Stone comes from big heaps of rocks, or, like the other resources, is found laying around on the ground.
It should only take a few minutes to gather the resources required to create a Palbox. Palboxes serve the following functions:
- They store any Pals you don't have in your party
- They serve as Fast Travel points
- They establish the boundaries of each base, serving as the centerpoint
- They allow you to upgrade your base, unlocking slots for additional Pals that can work at the base, as well as increase the number of bases you can establish on the map
All of these functons are quite important. For the moment, though, we're more interested in the Palbox serving as the centerpoint for a new base. With a few exceptions you can set up bases virtually anywhere on the world map, so long as you have enough space available. You're mainly held back from buildng in clearings relegated to boss battles, which are marked on the map screen, and camps held by hostile factions.
There are a few things you should keep in mind when establishing a new base:
- Ideally you want to set up in spots with lots of natural resources. This means trees, rocks, Ore deposits (shiny and metallic-lookng lumps), and Paldium deposits (blue rocks). Having an easy source of food nearby can't hurt, either, but you can always get around that by making your own food.
- You want to set up in locations with a natural bottleneck, if possible. This cuts down on the number of places you'll need to defend whenever your base gets raided. The tops of plateaus are usually a good choice for this purpose.
- You should avoid areas that have an existing Great Eagle statue, unless you really want something nearby. You'll sort of defeat the purpose of the Great Eagle statue if you set up a base right next door.
If you're just starting a new game then your starting location should serve as the spot for an ideal first base, though you can explore a bit inland if you're not satisfied. As you poke around Palpagos Island you'll find many spots that can serve well as new bases.
You can have up to three bases per save file in Palworld. You can't set them up immediately, however, and will need to upgrade your first base to earn the other two. More on than below.
Note for people who have trouble setting up a new base! When you go to set up a Palbox you'll see a bounding box that surrounds the object. If something is in the way - a rock, a Pal, a zone that doesn't allow for construction, even yourself - this bounding box appears as red. You can't establish a new base until you find a spot that's blue. If everything looks red, no matter where you go, it probably means that you need to rotate the bounding box until you are standing outside of it. Consult the bottom of the screen for rotation controls.
Getting Started
Once you have a base established you'll need to build it out. A functioning, thriving base typically requires the following:
- A full complement of Pals that can handle jobs while you're away
- One or more sources of food, tended by Pals that can handle the workload without you
- A Feed Box for your Pals, so they can get their own food
- Easy sources of Wood and Rock, preferably ones constructed by you and managed by Pals
- Nearby sources of Ore and Paldium, hopefully accessible by your Pals
- Containers to hold items and resources
- Suitable bedding for your Pals - note that every Pal needs a bed, or they will get stressed and stop working
- Defensive positions - early on this just means establishing a bottleneck with walls, though later on you'll want defensive emplacements where your Pals can fire on incoming enemies
These are the necessities for each of your bases. Items and resources are not shared between bases unless you physically move them back and forth, so you'll want access to everything you need whenever you swap bases to do something. You likely do not need the same crafting facilities at every base, and can keep them at your starter base.
When you're just starting out in Palworld your base will be at Level 1. Creating new structures can unlock new opportunities to expand your base, which is where upgrading comes in.
Upgrading Your Bases
Whenever you interact with your Palboxes you'll see an option to perform a Base Upgrade. Base Upgrades improve two elements of each of your bases:
- How many Pals can work at the base
- How many bases you can have in total
Each Base Upgrade requires you to fulfil some sort of construction requirement, usually on par with your current level, or within a few levels. Base Level 13, for example, requires you to construct two Fluffy Pal Beds, as well as deploy at least 12 Pals to your base simultaneously. Fluffy Pal Beds are a Level 24 Technology, so you'll need to be Level 24 at a minimum to upgrade your base to this level.
Base Levels apply to all of your bases. If you were to create a second base at level 15, for example, you could immediately deploy 15 Pals to the new base, as you can deploy one new Pal per Base Level. This isn't necessarily wise, as you'll need to supply all of those Pals with food and bedding, but it still makes creation of the second base quite a bit quicker.
At the moment you can upgrade your base to Level 19 at a maximum. As Palworld grows this number will likely rise. The Base Upgrades and their requirements are as follows:
- Level 1 - Starting level
- Level 2 - min. Player Level 2 - Build a Wooden Chest and deploy one Pal
- Level 3 - min. Player Level 3 - Build a Primitive Work Bench and a Shoddy Bed
- Level 4 - min. Player Level 4 - Build a Feed Box and a Straw Pal Bed
- Level 5 - min. Player Level 5 - Build a Campfire and a Berry Plantation, deploy four Pals
- Level 6 - min. Player Level 6 - Build a Pal Gear Workbench and a Statue of Power
- Level 7 - min. Player Level 8 - Build a Crusher, a Stone Pit, and a Logging Site
- Level 8 - min. Player Level 10 - Build a Hot Spring, a Primitive Furnace, and a Berry Plantation
- Level 9 - min. Player Level 12 - Build a High Quality Workbench and a Medieval Medicine Workbench, deploy eight Pals
- Level 10 - min. Player level 14 - Build a Cooler Box and a Sphere Workbench
- Raises number of available bases to 2
- Level 11 - min. Player level 17 - Build a Cooking Pot, a Wheat Plantation, and a Mill
- Level 12 - min. Player Level 20 - Build a Weapon Workbench
- Level 13 - min. Player Level 24 - Build two Fluffy Pal Beds, deploy twelve Pals
- Level 14 - min. Player Level 27 - Build a Sphere Line Factory and a Power Generator
- Level 15 - min. Player Level 32 - Build a Weapon Line Factory and a High Quality Hot Spring
- Raises number of available bases to 3
- Level 16 - min. Player Level 36 - Build two Large Pal Beds
- Level 17 - min. Player Level 39 - Build a Refined Metal Chest
- Level 18 - min. Player Level 42 - Build a Production Assembly Line 2
- Level 19 - min. Player Level 44 - Build an Electric Furnace