Condensing: make one Pal stronger with its copies

What condensing does

The game's own help page says it best: Pals have a rank, and a higher rank means higher abilities. A higher rank can also make its Partner Skill stronger. You raise a Pal's rank with Pal Essence, made by putting other Pals of the same kind into a Pal Essence Condenser.

Each rank is a star, from ☆0 (just caught) to ☆4 (the top). The Pals you use up are gone for good; the game warns you before it starts.

What you need

The Pal Essence Condenser unlocks at level 14 (2 Technology Points) and costs 20 Paldium Fragment, 20 Ingot and 5 Ancient Civilization Parts.

Then you need copies of the Pal you want to boost. In 1.0 it takes 48 copies for all four stars (it was 116 before 1.0):

How to condense, step by step

1. 1

   Build a Pal Essence Condenser at your base and walk up to it: Pal Condensation Menu.

2. 2

   Select Base Pal: the one you want to keep and make stronger.

3. 3

   Select Pals to use as essences: copies of the same Pal from your party or Palbox. The Automatically select from new Pals and … from old Pals buttons fill the list for you.

4. 4

   Read the Completion Prediction. It shows the new star and the new levels before anything happens.

5. 5

   Press Begin Condensation. The essence Pals vanish, and your Pal "has become stronger thanks to the noble sacrifice of its companions".

Two warnings the game gives you: if you pick a Pal that already has stars as essence, it asks if you're really sure. And if you add more than the Pal can use, the extra points are wasted. Keep your best Pals (good passives, high stats) out of the essence list.

Starfruit: the shortcut

Starfruit raise a Pal's rank with no copies at all. Use one on a Pal like any other item.

Each Starfruit ☆1 to ☆4 only does its own step (☆3 → ☆4 for the ☆4 one), and they come from the Medal Merchant. A Ripe Starfruit raises any Pal by one star, from the PIDF Bounty Officer.

What gets better

Partner Skill

When a Partner Skill shows two numbers in brackets, like Anubis's "Attack by (30~50)%", the first is at ☆0 and the second at ☆4. A few big ones:

• 
  Jelliette Jelliette Drop: 55% → 95% at ☆4
• 
  Katress Mystical Black Magic: 40% → 80% at ☆4
• 
  Grintale Glaring Cat's Eye: 50% → 75% at ☆4
• 
  Anubis Guardian of the Desert: 30% → 50% at ☆4

Work levels

Stars 1 to 3 each add +1 to one job: the Pal's highest job first, then its next highest, starting again at the top if it has fewer jobs. Star 4 adds +1 to every job. Work levels stop at 10. For example, Anubis goes like this:

1. ☆1 +1 Handiwork
2. ☆2 +1 Mining
3. ☆3 +1 Transporting
4. ☆4 +1 to every job

That is why Eidrolon, with only Transporting, goes from 6 to 10, while Mimog only reaches Transporting 5. Every Pal page shows its own levels at ☆4, and the haulers page compares them.

Stats

The game says higher ranks mean "higher abilities". The exact numbers are in the game's code, not in the files we read, so we don't print a guess. The Condenser's Completion Prediction shows them for your Pal.

Plan one Pal

Pick a Pal to see what each star gives it.

Who to condense first

• Your fishing and salvage helpers. Jelliette gives 55% → 95% more fishing items and Jellroy 55% → 95% more salvage, both from your party. Players condense them first for World Tree farming. Player tip
• Your sphere thrower. Katress has a 10% → 50% chance to keep a thrown Pal Sphere, and Neutral Pals drop 40% → 80% more.
• Your egg helper. Grintale has a 50% → 75% chance of an extra Pal Egg when you pick one up, so condensing it speeds up making copies for everything else.
• Your mount. Players catch a few fast mounts like Direhowl, keep the one with the best speed passives, and condense it with the rest. Player tip
• Workers with one or two jobs. All three single-job steps land on the same job, so a one-job Pal gets the most out of each star. Check the Completion Prediction before you spend copies. Player tip

You don't need to condense Mimog to open locked chests: since 1.0 its skill works at ☆0 (chests that need a work job still need that job).

Getting 48 copies

Catching is fine for the first few. After that, breed: two parents of the same Pal always make that Pal. Put cake in a Breeding Farm, use Vegetable Cake for two eggs at a time, and hatch them in an incubator. Use a condensed Grintale in your party when you pick up eggs.

Keep Pals with rare passives or high stats apart from the ones you plan to use up. The breeding calculator shows every way to make a Pal.