How big your base can get
The Palbox makes the area around it a base. Its level sets how many Pals can work there and how many bases you can have: up to 30 workers (base level 30) and 4 bases (base level 25). The Palbox levels guide lists what to build for each level.
On a dedicated server the owner can change these caps in PalWorldSettings.ini: BaseCampWorkerMaxNum goes up to 50 workers per base and BaseCampMaxNumInGuild up to 10 bases per guild (default 4). Pocketpair warns both raise the server's processing load (official settings). Add workers only when you have jobs for them.
Tell Pals what to do: the Monitoring Stand
The Monitoring Stand lets you allow or block each kind of work. Use it before adding more Pals: turn off the jobs that distract your miners, waterers and generator Pals so each one sticks to its station, and keep one separate hauler. The upgraded stands also lower the SAN your workers lose.
- Crops piling up? Assign a hauler (Transporting) and watch where the items go.
- Station idle but you have a worker who can do it? Check that job isn't blocked on the stand, that the Pal can walk there, that it isn't asleep, and that it isn't hungry or low on SAN.
Keep everyone fed
Pals eat from the Feed Box when they're hungry. Keep it close to where they work, with a straight, open path to it, and watch your slowest or biggest Pal walk there and back. If it gets stuck or circles, move the box before adding workers.
Better food lasts longer. In the game's numbers a Red Berry is worth 15 food, Baked Berries 21, and a Jam-Filled Bun 51 plus 6 SAN. Jam-Filled Buns need flour, so add a Wheat Plantation and a Mill early. The Cold Food Box with an Ice Pal keeps food from spoiling.
Starving after a night away? Fix it in this order: check the Feed Box has food when you log out and in, check haulers are actually filling it, then upgrade the food and the farm. One always-on server in the player reports burned through about 300 cooked berries in eight hours with level 22–24 workers. Check the hunger icons too: a big new Pal can eat more than your farm makes, so add it after your food is steady.
Keep SAN (mood) up
Hard work lowers SAN. A Hot Spring restores it, so put it near the workstations: a July player guide estimated Pals may skip trips to a hot spring more than about nine foundation tiles away. The real test is whether workers reach it from their station without circling, climbing or getting stuck.
One of each of these helps the whole base (the game says a second copy does nothing): the Alpha Wave Generator slows SAN loss, the Beta Wave Generator raises work speed and the Flower Bed raises gathering speed. Passives help too: see never hungry or tired passives.
Storage that saves trips
Put a chest next to each production cluster so haulers make short trips, and leave open space around every station. The Item Retrieval Machine lets you use items from every chest in the base from one spot, and the Guild Chest shares its items across all bases where you place one.
Player tip: a builder in October used the Item Retrieval Machine as a drop-off point with quick-stack (Shift+R on PC), and kept a separate chest for ammo and spheres so a bulk deposit doesn't swallow them. Keep the area where new Pals appear next to the Palbox clear: recessed chests there sometimes trapped newly deployed Pals.
Layout and paths
- Build for your biggest Pal. Leave room to turn and a clear way in. In a cramped base, a small or floating worker can beat a bigger Pal with a higher work level. Compare output over one in-game day.
- Use the building modes. Look for Axis Alignment to line things up and Replace Mode to swap wall and floor materials.
- Trace the edge before you build walls (player report, September): one builder lays a 3×3 foundation grid with the Palbox snapped in the middle, runs seven foundations out from the middle of each side, adds two pieces on each side of each arm's tip, joins the corners and fills the diagonals with triangles. Check it against the live base circle before placing stations for good.
- Test where raids can get in (player reports, September–October): raids have climbed ledges that looked impassable, while some open-looking bases went a long time without one. Watch a raid in your own world before trusting a wall or a cliff.
- Big stations near the edge (player report): roughly half inside the base circle worked for ranches and expedition stations. Check the station still works after you reload.
- Stacking stations on furniture is a player trick that can change with patches. Test one station before copying it.
- Defensive walls: one builder found that a stone ceiling lined up exactly with a defensive wall broke the wall when a railing was removed. Offset the seams and test on a small sample.
Pals that boost the whole base
These partner skills work just by having the Pal at your base. The numbers are the game's, from partner skill level 1 to max. The same skill from two copies doesn't stack.
Picking the crew
- One worker per key job, plus a hauler. Players report better coverage with a dedicated miner, waterer and generator Pal than with all-rounders, especially early when work books are scarce. Pick the hauler on Best haulers.
- Night coverage: most Pals sleep at night. Use night workers or the Insomnia passive (10,000 gold at the Surgery Table). See night shift passives.
- Early and midgame picks players name: Digtoise for mining, Suzaku for kindling, Azurobe or Jormuntide for watering. Late game, players spend work books on small workers with easier paths, like Kitsun Noct (kindling) and Smokie Cryst (cooling).
- Condense with the job in mind. Stars 1 to 3 each add +1 to one job, highest job first, and star 4 adds +1 to all of them. A Pal with only one job gets all four in it (Eidrolon goes from Transporting 6 to 10), so single-job workers are the best ones to condense when you're short on handbooks. Every Pal page shows its four-star levels; the Pal Essence Condenser previews the change before you confirm.
- Compare haulers by how fast the drop pile clears over a full cycle, not just their level. Speeds and loads for every hauler are on Best haulers.
Power and big production
Electric machines need a Power Generator run by an Electric Pal. Mining, smelting, hauling and power are one chain: an extra miner only helps if the rest keeps up. If machines slow down, test one generator with one heavy machine and watch whether charge drops, then add capacity or move refining to its own base. Upgrade the station that slows you down first: players found the next furnace or kitchen tier beat adding workers to old stations.
The Pal Labor Research Lab gives permanent boosts to whole kinds of work. Research the job you wait on most.
Oil anywhere: the High-Pressure Crude Oil Extractor makes Crude Oil even where there's no oil field, on open ground with nothing built under it, but it uses 3,000 power (the regular Crude Oil Extractor uses 2,000). If it stops, watch your stored power while it runs. One player charged four accumulators before switching it on (player report).
When to split into more bases
If haulers and food routes can't keep up, give each bottleneck its own base: crafting, breeding and ranching, oil. A builder also reported better frame rates after moving crafting and breeding away from a crowded main base. If you raise a raid army, give it a base with open space and nothing valuable nearby. The Palbox Control Device lets you run a base from wherever you build it.
On a server, if workers are hungry or sick after everyone logs out, first watch the food, hauling and work mode while you're online. In an emergency, put the affected Pals in the Palbox before logging out. Server owners: check bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers too, which deletes the bases of guilds nobody logs into. See the fix-it page.
Next up
Last checked November 7, 2026. Unofficial fan guide, not made or endorsed by Pocketpair.