Palworld tips and tricks for beginners

Here is all the essential information you need to survive and thrive in Palworld

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

Looking for Palworld tips for beginners? Palworld is a creature capture game full of colourful ‘Pals’. Elemental creatures that can form a team and help you in combat or can be assigned to work at your base and help produce crafting materials.

As you expand your base and fight to complete the full Paldeck , you’ll face new survival challenges. Join us as we go through the crucial top tips for beginners that will help you in your first few hours of Palworld and beyond.

Take a look at the Palworld early access trailer here, if you’re one of the handful on Earth who hasn’t yet played it.Watch on YouTube

In this guide:

• Palworld map
• How to assign Pals to jobs
• Prioritise Cloth
• Spend Technology Points wisely
• Watch for healthbars
• Berries are your friend
• Build a Parachute
• Strategic spawning
• Find a mount
• Prepare for raids
• Get free Pals at Syndicate Camps
• Know your elements
• Other ways to get rare Pals
• Other quality-of-life tips

Palworld map

To help you with your adventures through the Palpagos Island, we’ve built an interactive Palword map to make your Pal collecting journey a little easier. Here, you’ll find key locations of things to help you progress through the game like alpha pals, dungeons, eggs for an Egg Incubator and more.

How to assign Pals to jobs

Lifting a Celaray Pal to assign it to a job at a base |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

One of the key things that separates Palword from other creature capture games is the survival crafting element. In the game, you can assign jobs to Pals to get them to log, mine, farm and gather materials. This is a very useful tool, but it can feel limited early on. To increase your base building capabilities, you need to build a Palbox.

Once you build a Palbox, you can house up to 480 Pals inside. Alas, you can’t have that many living loose on the base, but you can increase the number of worker Pals available to you by levelling up your base. This can be accessed via the Missions prompt at the Palbox. To unlock more working Pals on your base, you need to focus on these tasks.

Once you have a slot free for a Pal, simply drag their portrait from within the Palbox to the ‘Pals at base’ section of the menu. This will drop the Pal into your base. Pals are clever critters and will usually go to tasks automatically if they are proficient in them.

To manually assign a job to a Pal, walk towards them and lift them . Then launch them towards the activity you want them to focus on.

Prioritise Cloth

Cloth can be made at any Primitive Workbench |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

The most cumbersome survival mechanic in the early game of Palworld is the cold system. If you’re out at night without clothing or a torch, your character will slowly start to freeze to death.

Although torches are relatively easy to make, they take up a vital hand slot. Instead, you can make clothes from Cloth to stave off the cold. To do so, you’ll need Wool which you can get by either defeating a Lamball or by assigning them to a Ranch at your base.

Turn the Wool into Cloth and the Cloth into clothes at a workbench . As you level up you’ll unlock clothing recipes that will give you better protection against both Pals and harsh climates.

Spend Technology Points wisely

Technology Points menu where you can unlock new crafting specs |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

As you increase your player level in Palworld you’ll accrue Technology points . From the main menu, the Technology tab holds crafting recipes for many pieces of equipment and Pal skills. While it can be tempting to spend them all straight away, it’s best to be prudent and check your Palbox first.

Palbox missions often require you to build things for your base, meaning you’ll need Technology Points to unlock the crafting specs first. Often you can get stuck on a Palbox mission because you’re waiting to level up your main player level first. If in doubt, it’s good to keep a small surplus of points on hand.

If you’re desperate for points it is worth noting that you can also get a Technology point for every new waypoint you discover.

Watch for healthbars

An Alpha Mammorest Pal in combat |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

When hunting new Pals, keep in mind a general rule - the lower their health bar, the easier they are to catch . You can also get a bonus chance for success if you sneak up behind a Pal.

During the throes of combat it can be easy to lose track of the Pal’s health, especially if you have other Pals involved in the same fight. If the Pal gets to zero health, it will fall unconscious and you won’t be able to catch it . For that reason, be extra mindful in combat, especially if you have a Pal tethered to you as they will automatically attack.

Berries are your friend

Plant Berries at a Berry Plantation for a constant supply |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

In the first few days of a Palworld playthrough, you’ll need something for yourself and Pals to eat. Berries are plentiful and bushes respawn after a few days . You can also unlock a Berry Plantation and grow your own. This is an easy system to establish and keep your Pals well-fed.

Build a Parachute

Parachutes make traversal much easier in Palworld |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

Traversal in Palworld can be somewhat slow if you have a low stamina capacity. Climbing cliffs and getting across ravines are a lot easier once you have a Parachute . You can build a Parachute once you unlock the recipe for it at level five . Just remember that you can only glide for as long as your stamina lasts, the minute you run out of stamina you’ll hurtle to the ground.

For extra style points, pair your parachute with a Grappling Gun and sling your way from cliff to cliff like Lara Croft.

Strategic spawning

Waypoints in Palworld act as fast travel destinations |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

When you die in Palworld, you drop all your items including the clothes off your back. Don’t worry though, you’ll get a little red cross to mark where you died and you’ll be able to recover your loot.

Upon death, you’ll be presented with a map and be asked to choose a place to respawn in the game. Be mindful that wherever you choose to respawn you’ll have no tools or clothes and will start to feel the cold as soon as it gets dark. For that reason, it is usually a good option to just respawn at your base where you can get some backup clothes or a torch and then use your Palbox to then fast travel to where your last location of death was.

Find a mount

Direhowls are surprisingly fast mounts and obtainible early on in Palworld |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

There are some Pals that can be used as a mount to significantly speed up traversal. There are ground, swimming, gliding and flying mounts but you’ll first need to catch the Pals and then unlock the crafting specs for their saddles in the Technology menu.

Even so, it’s well worth doing as the stamina in the early sections of Palworld is rather lacklustre. The fastest mount for early sections of Palworld is by far the Direhowl . Although these creatures hunt in packs, it isn’t too hard to capture one early. When you do, exploration becomes a lot more fun and less of a chore.

Prepare for raids

An Alarm Bell wil give you warning before raids against your base |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

Even if you’re playing offline you will receive a raid on your base from time to time by enemy NPCs. Fortunately, you can build alert systems at your base to deal with these effectively.

I recommend building an Alarm Bell early on as you’ll be able to command your Pals from here and order them to defend your base. Often when I have a raid I don’t need to do anything, my Pals will take care of it for me.

As you progress through the game and gather more materials like Pal Fluids , Coal , Ancient Civilization Parts and more, you’ll be able to craft better defenses like stone walls to protect your base. Be sure to check out our best base locations guide where we go through the best places to live that are near these resources and are easier to defend.

Get free Pals at Syndicate Camps

Syndicate Camps will usually contain a caged Pal you can rescue |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

You can get rare Pals that are from biomes you haven’t even visited yet at Syndicate Camps . These are hostile camps where NPCs will attack you on-sight. Usually, they have a Pal locked in a cage at the centre of these camps. When you defeat the NPCs and unlock the cage, the Pal will be instantly teleported to your Palbox . This is an excellent way to find rarer Pals if you don’t have access to better capture Spheres yet.

Know your elements

Palworld type chart with all elements |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

The above picture is a Palworld type chart and is a good representation of how elements work in the game. Essentially each element has another element that they are strong or weak against. This means when fighting a Pal, it’s good to pick an opposing Pal with opposite elemental abilities. For example, Electric Pals are strong against Water types but weak against Ground types .

With this information, you can tailor your Pal team to the boss you are fighting and increase your odds of success.

Other ways to get rare Pals

Incubating Eggs can lead to rare Pals |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

As we’ve discussed, when you’re starting in your Palworld playthrough, it isn’t advisable to travel to higher map levels straight away. If you’re eager to get your hands on rare Pals there are a couple of other methods, however.

• Hatching Pals from Eggs: As you traverse the Palworld Map, you’ll come across a variety of Pal Eggs in the Wild. These can be hatched in an Egg Incubator for a surprise Pal. Usually the larger the Egg, the more uncommon the hatched Pal will be. Check our full Egg Incubator guide for more info.
• Breeding Pals: As you level up, you’ll be able to unlock a Breeding Farm where you can breed new, rarer Pals if you’re lucky. We have a full Breeding Guide for more info but essentially each Pal pair will give a percentage chance for producing different offspring. Some Pals like the Elphidran Aqua and the Reptyro Cryst can only be obtained through breeding.

Other handy things to know about Palworld

Image of a Dinossom Pal |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Pocketpair

Along with the above Palword tips, here’s a selection of things to do in a new game to save yourself some hassle:

• Spheres: There are six different types of Spheres that increase in quality. You can craft these once you unlock them in the Technology tab. Make sure you focus on these as they will instantly increase your chance of catching rare Pals.
• Shield: There is also a crafting recipe for a Shield. It’s a type of force field that will regenerate out of combat and is well worth the investment.
• Small Feed Bag: Within the Technology tab (on the right-hand side) is a purple ’ Ancient Technology ’ section that contains more recipes. The Small Feed Bag is worth the investment as it will automatically feed you and your team Pals with food from your inventory. This is an upgrade that will save you the faff of manually doing it yourself.
• Check for trapped Pals: At your base you may receive the message that your Pals are hungry even though they have a full Feed Box supply. This is usually because they are trapped on a piece of environment. The easiest way to reset a Pal is to re-allocate them at a Palbox.
• Keep an eye on SAN: SAN is a sanity meter which monitors a Pal’s work ethic. If their SAN falls they will become demotivated and may stop working. Luckily, there are nourishment activities you can invest in to keep your Pals happy, like the Hot Spring.

That rounds off our guide to the best Palworld top tips for beginners. Hopefully, this will give you a helping hand as you take on the charms of Palworld and complete the full Paldex . For more Palworld content, check out our guide to the best Pals in Palworld and get yourself the optimal companions for combat, ranch life and more.

Palworld

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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