Character Index
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Humans & Factions | Pals & Pal Elements | Lamball to Celaray (1-25) | Direhowl to Gorirat (26-49) | Beegarde to Ragnahawk (50-74) | Katress to Anubis (75-100) | Jormuntide to Bellanoir (101-112)
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Player Character
Player Character
The Player Character
One of many customizable presets.
Appearance in the trailers.
The customizable character that you play as. They suddenly find themselves stranded in the Palpagos Islands filled with creatures called Pals and have to find a way to survive among them.- Anti-Hero: If the Player didn't become an absolutely sadistic cannibal slavedriver, they would fall around either Pragmatic Hero or Nominal Hero simply because the factions that The Player goes against are much more malicious. Bonus points if the Player treats their pal well.
- Badass Normal: You're a human being with no powers, and yet with weapons you can still fight alongside your Pal allies against dangerous factions and Olympus Mons. Caution must be exercised since you're vulnerable if the attacking Pal ignores your Mons and comes after you. A big risk is failing to capture a wild Pal in a Sphere, as it's a massive Berserk Button for the wild monsters. They'll lunge right at you as soon as they bust out, so always keep your distance.
- Benevolent Boss: While there are many options to be cruel to your pal, the game does also encourage the player to just be this. Not overworking your pals, providing them a good bed, warm bath and also good food.
- Character Customization: You can choose your name, sex, hair, muscle mass, voice, and skin color in whatever way you want. You can even change your skin to bright green if you wish!
- Combat Pragmatist: To catch a Pal, you beat them up until their health is low enough to lob a Pal Sphere at them. You could leave the fighting to your Pals, but nothing is stopping you from helping them by whacking your opponent over the head with a bat or shooting them up with arrows or bullets.
- Featureless Protagonist: The character's skin color, hair, face, gender, and voice can be customized as the player sees fit and the game doesn't allude to any past with them.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The Player Character starts as a weak castaway with nothing but the rags they call clothes on their back. But once they have access to a workbench and better materials, they become a formidable force on the Palpagos Islands, taking on many of the islands' dangers with a small army of cute and equally dangerous creatures.
- Glass Cannon: While the Player can eventually dish a lot of damage with weapons like grenades, rocket launchers and other guns, they'll never be able take as much punishment as their Pals.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Aside from the multiple customizations you can choose from, you can also name your character whatever you wish.
- Hero Protagonist: It can swing both ways depending on your actions, but treating your Pals well and setting up a massive base for them to work and play in, can see you creating a Monster Town in a once barren wilderness.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Player Character shows up on the islands after getting shipwrecked, but they raise hell by taking on several of the Palpagos Islands' factions and their leaders. By the time of the late game (in its current state), almost all the factions are gunning for the Player because they've been that much of a thorn in their sides.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Gender has no bearing on gameplay whatsoever. Hell, it doesn't even have any bearing on your voice or face options, meaning you can play as a heavily bearded lady if you want.
- Villain Protagonist: There's nothing stopping you from being a sadistic slavedriver who works your Pals to the bone, only to butcher them or sell them off to a black market dealer the second they've outlived their usefulness. That's not even getting into the possibility of being a human trafficker who regularly raids wildlife preserves just like the Rayne Syndicate, too.
- You Wake Up on a Beach: How the Player Character (i.e., us) ends up on the Palpagos Islands. They wake up on a beach surrounded by pieces of a broken boat, implying they are a victim of a shipwreck.
Human Factions
Palpagos Islands Defense Force (PIDF)
Palpagos Island Defense Force (PIDF)
- Animal Wrongs Group: A more sinister version than the Free Pal Alliance. Whereas the FPA are the quintessential hypocritical fanatics, the PIDF likely falls into the "exploitation masquerading as protection" version. They have a number of nature preserve islands around the edges of the map with rare, sometimes exclusive Pals, and protect them with patrolling elites to prevent poaching. However, if you go to these islands, not only are they desolate wastelands rather than lush reserves, they're also covered in "Beautiful Flowers" that are used to create some of the more questionable medicines in the game like the Suspicious Juice, which when paired with the PIDF Leader's journal implies that they're using the islands as a source of drugs to make and sell to fund their operations.
- City Guards: If you commit crimes on the Palpagos Islands and are caught, you'll have these guys to answer to.
- Expy: This is basically how Grand Theft Auto would parody the Japan Self-Defense Force. Their characters also draw parallels to STAG.
- Hammerspace Police Force: If you commit a crime, they'll be deployed en-masse to hunt you down.
- I Fought the Law and the Law Won: Fighting back to resist arrest will probably only make things worse, as attacking a PIDF officer constitutes assault on top of whatever other charges you have and the more crimes you commit, the more dangerous the PIDF officers sent to fight you. Also taking cues from Grand Theft Auto, they constantly respawn right on top of you.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Because the early access version of the game does not have an arrest mechanic, PIDF officers will always shoot to kill.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: The Reliable PIDF Officer in the Small Settlement implies they act like this, mentioning that people moving away from the settlement to get away from the Rayne Syndicate has harmed his income, while also saying that you can hire him if you need help (though you currently cannot do so, and it's not clear if that's standard PIDF procedure or if he's just that desperate for cash).
- Loophole Abuse: Attempting to resist the PIDF by fighting back seems hopeless, as this only causes you to gain assault charges and send stronger forces after you. However, if your Pal attacks and kills them, this doesn't count as your crime, and it's possible to shake off your Wanted Meter if your Pal kills all the PIDF around you.
- Putting on the Reich: Downplayed, but they wear helmets that strongly resemble stahlhelms, black uniforms, and knee-high jackboots.
- Teleporting Keycard Squad: Normally they're not seen around very much, but as soon as someone sees you committing a crime, they deploy en-masse to attack you.
- You All Look Familiar: All PIDF officers share the same character model. Additionally, one of the possible random encounters is a merchant with two guards that also use the PIDF model.
Rayne Syndicate
Rayne Syndicate
- Elite Mooks: The aptly named Syndicate Elites pack very powerful rocket launchers that can kill you or your Pals with a single shot or even a near miss.
- Evil Poacher: They're played up as this, due to them terrorizing the people of Windswept Hills while seeking and capturing rare Pals. Their outposts also feature caged Pals looking utterly miserable, which you have the option to free and take in.
- Evil Versus Evil: You can stumble upon Syndicate mooks fighting with Free Pal Alliance Zealots.
- Expy: Between their outfits and their MO, it's not hard to read them as a Terrorists Without a Cause version of Team Rocket and STAG.
- Gas Mask Mook: Their uniform includes a face-obscuring mask that resembles a gas mask with glowing eyepieces.
- Giant Mook: Syndicate Crushers are massive Syndicate goons much larger than any regular human that wield equally large miniguns.
- Glass Cannon:
- Syndicate Grenadiers have grenades that explode a huge area for heavy damage but don't have much more health than the common Thug or Hunter.
- Syndicate Elites have rocket launchers that deal devastating area damage, but their health is just about as low as a Thug's or Hunter's.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Syndicate Cleansers wield flamethrowers that can deal constant damage while setting players and Pals on fire.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Oftentimes, the Pals they try to kill can end up killing them instead.
- Lethal Joke Character: Syndicate Elites can be caught like any other human and use the weak Punch move instead of their fearsome rocket launcher. However, their punch move deals rocket launcher damage, allowing them to deal surprisingly massive damage to things in a single punch.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Rayne Syndicate members all wear masks with glowing red eyes and they’re a band of Evil Poachers who won’t hesitate to attack you.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: As the player ventures into higher-level zones, the Syndicate mook types that one encounters increase in power and difficulty:
- Syndicate Thugs are the weakest Syndicate mooks which use makeshift handguns and clubs to attack you, and are found in early-to-mid game areas.
- Syndicate Gunners are often found in early- to mid- game outposts, and wield assault rifles.
- Syndicate Hunters, Grenadiers and Cleansers are found in mid- to late- game areas and can deal serious damage with their shotguns, grenades, and flamethrowers respectively.
- Syndicate Crushers are large, hulking minigun users found in mid- to late- game outposts or the Sand Dunes, having far more health than Hunters, Grenadiers, and Cleansers while outputting sustained damage from their miniguns.
- Syndicate Elites wield very powerful rocket launchers and are only found in the northeastern section of the Sand Dunes.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: They're not above attacking Pals that are way higher-leveled than them, such as level 5-20 Syndicate mooks fighting a level 30+ Mammorest. The end result is predictably getting completely demolished by their would-be victim.
- The Syndicate: While Zoe is the only leader they have that's seen in-game, her diaries and their presence throughout the island would imply the scope of their poaching is a lot wider than what we see.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Syndicate Grenadiers attack by throwing grenades, which deal heavy damage. Fortunately, the blast radius of their grenades is indicated by a red circle before the grenade goes off.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: As of initial release, the miniguns and flamethrowers they use are unobtainable by players.
Free Pal Alliance (FPA)
Free Pal Alliance (FPA)
- Animal Wrongs Group: They will attack you on sight, presumably just for being a Pal Tamer. Their leader also believes that human lives are below those of Pals, a belief the rest of the members possibly share. That being said, they do still lock up Pals and attack wild Pals for no apparent reason, just like the Rayne Syndicate. While this may seem like Gameplay and Story Segregation due to them not being fully coded, it's possible they're Straw Hypocrites, as one of their locations is called Hypocrite's Hill and Lily's diary implies they do so to raise money for the PIDF's assistance. Their members can also drop Herb-Roasted Lamball or Chikipi Sauté, both of which are forbidden under their leader's belief system because they're dishes made from Pals.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The FPA might seem like the most benevolent group on the Palpagos Islands, but they're just as nasty and morally corrupt as the other factions. Their goal of Pal and human coexistence is a cover that hides their actual objective of Pal supremacy. Their leader, Lily, is kind and compassionate to the Pals and only the Pals, while she treats her fellow man and followers with contempt. While some FPA members have drunk her Kool-Aid, most act as poachers and eat Pal meat behind her back, which goes against their core tenets.
- Blind Weapon Master: All FPA members wear black blindfolds, whether they are armed with crossbows, rifles, or wooden clubs.
- The Commandments: Lily has five commandments for the group documented in her diary (not that they seem to care):
- Thou must not eat Pals.
- Thou must not overwork Pals.
- Thou must not abuse Pals.
- Thou must not use Pals for experiments.
- Thou must risk thy life to protect Pals.
- Evil Luddite: They carry relatively crude and low-tech weaponry and dress in old-fashioned robes, so they're likely not too big on technology.
- Expy: Between their outfits and their characterization as an Animal Wrongs Group whose goons go around beating the stuffing out of Pals, with their leader being the only one that seems to actually believe in their cause, it's not hard to read them as a more violent parody of Team Plasma.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Oftentimes, the Pals they try to kill can end up killing them instead.
- Light Is Not Good: They dress in white and green to symbolize a connection to nature, and are also a bunch of crazy Animal Wrongs Group fanatics.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: They use crossbows as their ranged weapon of choice instead of guns.
- Straw Hypocrite: The Free Pal Alliance; an Animal Wrongs Group that supposedly protects the titular mons from exploitation. While their leader Lily is a Misanthrope Supreme who loves Pals more than people, her mooks don't seem to be drinking her kool-aid, as they act as Evil Poachers and eat Pal meat in spite of their core tenets. To drive the point home even further, they have a major presence in an area labeled "Hypocrite Hill".
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: FPA members use a unique crossbow that launches electrified bolts.
- Zerg Rush: Raids by them tend to take the form of well over a dozen (minimum) guys with clubs just bumrushing your camp all at once, trying to beat you to death.
Brothers of the Eternal Pyre
Brothers of the Eternal Pyre
The pyre burns all to ash...It is as cruel as it is beautiful. Sorrow and anguish, and the love that begets them...All should be put to the flame.
The Brothers are a religious faction that worships fire for its ability to provide warmth and destruction. They see themselves as protectors of the natural world and view the use of technology for genetic manipulation, practiced by factions like the PGRU, as an abomination. Axel Traverse leads the group as their new high priest. He's a skilled but blood-thirsty warrior who fights alongside his powerful Dragon/Electric-elemental Pal, Orserk.- Admiring the Abomination: Downplayed with the creed of the faction where they admire both the beauty and cruelty of fire.
- Composite Character: Brothers of the Eternal Pyre is somehow a composite gang of the Epsilon cult and Ballas gang, both from Grand Theft Auto V, as well as the Chelonia cult and Van der Linde gang from the Red Dead Redemption series.
- Corrupted Character Copy: They serve as a counterpoint to Team Skull, the villain group they reference (who are in themselves a deconstruction of elements of Pokémon's "journey" structure):
- They both mechanically act similar to other hostile NPCs encountered in their games, but their point of origins are very opposed. While Team Skull is formed from trainers who couldn't overcome the journey as a rite of passage for one reason or another, The Brothers are just a straightforward gang of asshats running around with dangerous weapons and causing trouble simply because they can.
- Team Skull is a Found Family who ultimately genuinely care about each other and their Pokémon. The Brothers of the Eternal Pyre are more or less only a team because they're all Blood Knight personalities.
- Outside of Pokémon, they're basically what if cults and street gangs were going out for wanton violence or even outright terrorism.
- Expy: More or less a Team Skull from Pokémon Sun and Moon as well as Los Panteros from Saints Row (2022), armed with flamethrowers and much more bloodthirsty.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: They all wield flamethrowers to attack. Which is not as smart as you'd think with fire elementals and firearms being semi-common.
- Flamethrower Backfire: They're especially susceptible to this if you can get behind them.
- Gangbangers: While they're basically similar to The Klan, their speech denotes themselves being more in line with typical street gangs.
- Glass Cannon: Their flamethrowers can hit pretty hard if they can get in range... which is a big if considering they're also Made of Explodium.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Martyrs have glowing orange eyes.
- Kill It with Fire: Their signature weapons are flamethrowers and they are very enthusiastic about using them.
- Motive Decay: The group started out as a religious organization dedicated to the worship of fire in both its purifying and deadly forms. Under Axel, they've devolved into a group of bloodthirsty pyromaniacs.
- Required Secondary Powers: They're immune to the effects of lava, which is quite handy given they spawn in areas with exposed lava pools.
- Sacred Flames: According to a peaceful fire worshipper you can meet at Fisherman's Point near Mount Obsidian, the Brothers of the Eternal Pyre's beliefs are based around worshipping fire in all its forms, both purifying and deadly. Too bad the cult under Axel couldn't care less about the philosophy as opposed to just burning things for the hell of it.Flame-worshipping Villager: To us Brothers of the Eternal Pyre, the flame is a holy thing.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: A cult-street gang combination wanting to cause mayhem with no reasons whatsoever.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Their flamethrowers, as the player cannot use one in any way as of the early access release (barring Foxparks' Partner Skill).
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Nope. Their flamethrowers have a surprisingly long range, will set you on fire and do quite a lot of damage.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Ironically enough, fire, given where they're usually found (read: a volcano). Because their flamethrowers' fuel tanks are flammable and explosive, setting them on fire tends to kill them very quickly, especially since they're always found in groups, so igniting them will set off a devastating chain reaction.
PAL Genetic Research Unit (PGRU)
PAL Genetic Research Unit (PGRU)
- Composite Character: Of the Anime's more sinister versions of Team Rocket and Galactic, combining the latter's hi-tech aesthetic and equipment with the former's Evilutionary Biologist methodology.
- Dark Is Evil: They dress all in black, and are an amoral research group exploiting Pals to create bioweapons.
- Doom Troops: Research Unit Executioners, their frontline troops, are equipped with dark armor and masks with red eyepieces that make them look sinister and threatening. They also have the weaponry and bulk to back up their looks.
- Elite Mooks: Their troops are heavily armored and equipped with devastating weaponry, and are found at higher levels than any other human enemies in the game. They even outlevel the majority of Pals in their operating area.
- Evil Versus Evil: Sometimes, they can be seen fighting against Syndicate mooks (including a crusher). The PGRU will usually come out on top due to their more damaging energy weapons and flamethrowers.
- Fun with Acronyms: "Genetic Research Unit" comes out as GRU, an acronym shared by the infamous Soviet and Russian foreign military intelligence agency. However, the "PAL" acronym, aside from being "Pal" written in all caps and a satirical take on HAL Laboratory, is never explained, but is nonetheless fitting.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: PAL Genetic Research Unit is both a satirical take and a sinister version of HAL Laboratory.
- Outside-Context Problem: They exist in their own corner of the Palpagos Islands and never interact with any of the other factions, nor the merchants or villagers. If you never go to that island there's no way to know they even exist.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Averted. Unlike the Syndicate and Free Pal Alliance mooks, PAL Genetic Research Unit Executioners will usually avoid attacking wild Pals, and even if they do get into a fight, they'll usually win thanks to their powerful energy weaponry and flamethrowers.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: As of initial release, the bizarre energy pulse weaponry and the flamethrowers they use are unobtainable by players.
Faction Leaders
In General
Left to Right: Zoe, Lily, Axel, Marcus, and Victor.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Aside from elemental weaknesses, all faction leaders seem to take more damage when you attack the person riding around on and commanding the Pal.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: All of them can use more than three Active Skills each, unlike each of your Pals which can only have three Active Skills equipped.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: You're not intended to capture these guys. Attempting to do so triggers a message stating that they're immune to Spheres.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: They have considerably higher health than other enemies of the same level; Zoe, for instance, has over 30000 HP at Level 10, at which point most Pals don't even have a twentieth of that. Most of the fight thus boils down to whittling down their health while avoiding their attacks. Justified, as they're also partially made to be taken on with a team in multiplayer.
- The Dividual: They fight mounted on their Pal of choice, and the two of them are treated as a single entity with a single health bar.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Somewhat justified, as the game is in early access (at time of writing). The tablet you rely on points out that the towers these bosses control are the key to getting to the gigantic tree out over the ocean. In essence, once you beat them, you oust them from the tower. In gameplay, they're not only re-challengeable and not stopped, but defeating them yields no way to reach the tree the tablet points you towards.
- The Leader: The faction leaders lead their respective groups across the Palpagos Islands.
- Padded Sumo Gameplay: Compared to Alpha Pals of the same level, Tower Bosses deal less damage and take more damage, but their gargantuan amounts of health offsets the extra damage dealt. The end result is a battle of attrition where you need to defeat them before time runs out, compared to the much faster-paced battles against Alphas.
- Recurring Boss: Of a sort — you can repeat battles with them as much as you want either to level grind or just for fun, meaning there's no real indication that you killed them outright after your first win over them, at least in the game's early access state at the time of writing.
- Time-Limit Boss: Their boss fights have a 10-minute time limit in order to prevent players from winning via cherry-tapping them for extended periods.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: When you beat them and take their control of the towers away, they appear nowhere else unless you challenge the tower again for a rematch, so what actually happens to them is unknown. As the game is in early access, it just seems to be a case of Palworld being unfinished, and thus Justified.
Zoe Rayne
Zoe Rayne
"That's why I know I have no choice but to survive in this tiny little world."
The leader of the Rayne Syndicate and owner of the electric Pal Grizzbolt. Her tower is located in the starting region, Windswept Hills.
- Anti-Villain: She's mostly doing her own thing for the sake of survival. The only reason she's the leader of the Rayne Syndicate is because she's the daughter of the previous leader. Her diaries suggest that no one in the Rayne Syndicate really respects her. Compared to the other faction leader bosses you fight, Zoe is definitely the least malicious, as she doesn't even know who or why she's fighting as she is forced to stay in the tower and protect it. Despite being at the top ranks, she has to stay vigilant as any signs of weakness can cause the faction to turn on her. Then there's the part where she likes to know more about the world outside of the island and actually liking the Free Pal Alliance philosophy.
- Authority in Name Only: Played for Drama. She's the official leader of the Rayne Syndicate, but read her diary and you'll find she got that title only because she's the previous leader's daughter. She doesn't like the Syndicate much and the higher-ups had no issue with locking her in a cage to keep her in line.
- Corrupted Character Copy: In any regular Pokémon game, she'd be the main character, but she's specifically a nod to Ash Ketchum, being a friendly, naive child who left home, formed a strong bond with an Electric elemental Mon, and traveled around a series of islands having adventures. Since this is Palworld and not Pokémon though, she's a thorough deconstruction of that idea. She had to leave home not To Be a Master, but because her single father abandoned her, and the bond she formed with Grizzbolt almost got her beaten to death by the local Team Rocket expy when she tried to free Grizzbolt and escape, only to find she had to go back to them because she didn't have the knowledge or skills to survive even a day on her own. She has to keep training not to prove her skill or win competitions, but to be just enough of a threat that her own 'friends' don't decide to kill or abandon her, and despite all that, or perhaps because of it, she's still the weakest boss in the game by leagues.
- Determinator: Abandoned as a child, she was raised by Grizzbolt and the members of the Rayne Syndicate, which her father founded. She states she was kept alive because she was the daughter of one of their bosses. However, she also states that she doesn't believe that the Syndicate cares anything about her, a belief she still holds even as she's worked to the top of their ranks. This only adds more fuel to her will to survive, knowing any sort of weakness would cause them to turn on her.
- Expy: She's likely a fusion of both Marnie character-wise and Junko Enoshima design-wise.
- In addition, her Hidden Depths, admin status, attire, and black-and-purple color scheme bring to mind Plumeria from Pokémon Sun and Moon.
- Irony: She likes the philosophy of the Free Pal Alliance even though the syndicate she leads is in a Forever War with them.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Despite being the eponymous leader of the Rayne syndicate, Zoe Rayne is the least malicious of the faction leaders. Yes, she's the leader of a group of violent criminals, but it's all but stated she's only in it for survival purposes. The other faction leaders have much more malicious goals.
- Only Friend: Zoe and her Grizzbolt are this to each other.
- Parental Abandonment: Her exact words state this:"I don't have a family. My father disappeared a long time ago and I've never seen my mother's face."
- Poor, Predictable Rock: All of her Grizzbolt's attacks are Electric-elemental, meaning that they will do less damage against Ground-elemental Pals, which are also effective against her.
- Skilled, but Naive: She fights well, but doesn't know who or why she's fighting, which she writes about twice, and she also knows nothing about the world other than the island, though she'd like to. Unfortunately for her, nobody else in the Syndicate knows the answers, either.
- Starter Villain: The Rayne Syndicate are the first human enemies the player encounters, and defeating Zoe completes the tutorial.
- Token Good Teammate: While not exactly a saint, she is the most sympathetic faction leader compared to Lily, Axel, Marcus, and Victor.
Lily Everhart
Lily Everhart
"Your life in the service of protecting Pals is a small price to pay. The flesh and blood of humans exist only for the glory of Pals."
The leader of the Free Pal Alliance and owner of the grass Pal, Lyleen. Her tower is located in the Frostbound Mountains in Verdant Brook.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Lily Everhart is a corrupted copy of N from Pokémon Black and White. While N treats his underlings in Team Plasma with respect, Lily is all too willing to sacrifice her underlings for the Pals. Additionally, while N values Pokémon greatly due to growing up around them and his beliefs that humans abuse Pokémon stem from an abusive and manipulative father figure, Lily takes this to the extreme and independently came to the conclusion that humans are a danger to Pals, and thus values human life less than those of Pals. Finally, N seeks to achieve his goals non-violently, while Lily decides that be best way to achieve her goals is with liberal use of violence.
- Cuteness Proximity: Lily's general attitude toward the Pals is this. She calls the Pals noble beings with great intellect, reflexes, adaptability, and adorable to look at. During her boss fight, she smiles and blushes like a little schoolgirl when she hugs Lyleen before attacking the Player (i.e., us).
- Earthy Barefoot Character: She goes barefoot as part of her nature-lover image. One has to wonder how she doesn't get cold given where her tower is located.
- Evil Vegetarian: Her fanatical devotion to praising Pals over her fellow humans naturally extends to a vehement opposition to eating Pals.
- Exposed to the Elements: Despite being in one of the colder parts of the islands (i.e., the Frostbound Mountains), she wears clothes more suited for the spring, summer, or the starting area of the map (i.e., the Windswept Hills). She's even barefoot, but Lily is unbothered by the snow and harsh elements.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: As the leader of the Free Pal Alliance, she's the only leader who doesn't use a Pal Sphere to summon her Pal, instead calling Lyleen to drop in from above.
- Inhumanable Alien Rights: Lily firmly believes that eating a Pal is the ultimate sin."Eating a Pal for food is akin to blasphemy against God."
- Jerkass Has a Point: She's not wrong to think the Pals deserve better treatment — you catch them by beating them over the head with a bat or shooting them with arrows or bullets before subjecting them to harsh labor or selling them on the black market for gold if you choose. Valuing Pals above human life is probably a bit excessive, though.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Lily is a religious fanatic who worships Pals, believing her fellow man to be beneath their mons.
- Not So Stoic: During her boss fight intro, Lily strolls it with a cold, serious gaze. The moment she summons Lyleen and jumps onto her back for the fight, she starts cuddling her Pal with a smile and blushing cheeks before returning to her serious look.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In her second diary entry, she talks about how she first met Lyleen while attacked by poachers (likely Rayne Syndicate members). Using the fog to her advantage, she wiped them out single-handedly by stabbing them all from behind. The heroic act apparently earned Lyleen's trust as she healed Lily's gunshot wounds. In return, Lyleen got Lily's companionship, loyalty, and worship.
- The Only Believer: Her diary entries imply that she's the only member of the group who sincerely follows her group's tenets while everyone else breaks them under her nose, presumably to pay for the PIDF's help.
- Start of Darkness: Her second diary entry. Lily starts off misanthropic, but still believes that humans and Pals should work together cooperatively and be treated as equal partners. After killing several Syndicate members to save Lyleen, though, the misanthropy takes over and she ditches the idea of 'equal partners' in favor of Pal supremacy.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: She hates people and is thus extremely speciesist. While she has followers, the very fact that they're people means she doesn't value them beyond being expendable soldiers. This, in turn, causes her followers to disrespect her behind her back by knowingly breaking her rules out of spite for her callousness and become more of a gang than an actual protection group. Simply put, her treating her subordinates like dirt and expecting them to genuinely believe in her cause is a self-defeating fool's errand at best, and at worst, it's genuinely pitiable delusion.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Texts from diaries and Pal entries reveal humans and Pals lived and worked in a mutual relationship, but they drifted apart over the years. Lily vehemently believes this and wants to return to this harmonious time. If her second diary and introduction to her boss fight show, peacefully taming Pals without violence is possible. The problem is that she values the life of Pals over the lives of her fellow man, whom she doesn't hold in high regard. By the time the Player washes up at the islands, Lily has become fully misanthropic, with her dream of human and Pal coexistence replaced with Pal supremacy. She fully expects her followers to give up their lives for the sake of the Pals.
Axel Traverse
Axel Traverse
"I'm lookin' for a fight, a real tough brotha from another motha; throwin' in the towel ain't gonna cut it."
The leader of the Brothers of the Eternal Pyre and owner of the electric-dragon Pal Orserk. His tower is located on Mount Obsidian in the west.
- Blood Knight: Going by his written rap in his journal, the man is big on battling and is actively looking for powerful opponents to throw down with.
- Corrupted Character Copy:
- Of Team Skull's Guzma. Guzma is a legitimately nice guy under his gruff exterior, and is only really being evil because the true villain made him feel like he was worth something after failing his journey and making something of his life. As such, all his goons are actually loyal to him and for good reason. Axel, by contrast, has no ties to anyone, his team comes off like a Cult of Personality used to fulfill his need for violence, and it's implied his goons are only loyal because they buy into and/or take advantage of his nonsensically violent needs.
- Of Dutch van der Linde. While Dutch had a strong bond with his gang before breaking out due to his instability alienating his fellow gang members, Axel doesn't have any ties with his gang, who instead create a Cult of Personality around him and feed his need for more violence without question.
- Flat Character: His only real motivation is that he wants to have a life or death struggle with a worthy adversary. He doesn't have a whole lot more going on aside from that (unlike, say, Zoe), and out of the villainous factions, his gang is the most straightforward and without a goal other than being hostile for the sake of it.
- Hidden Depths: Played With, he has written lyrics for a rap which you can find, but all the rap is about is how much he really wants to fight someone.
- Uniformity Exception: He is the only one of his group to not use the fire elemental theming, instead opting to theme his dress after electricity and use an electrical Pal called Oserk instead.
- Worthy Opponent: As he lays out in what seems like a song of his own writing, he's been looking for one to have a proper knock-down fight to the death with.
Marcus Dryden
Marcus Dryden
"If I let 'em get carried away, they'll just go off demanding rights that ain't fit for garbage like them."
The leader of the Palapagos Islands Defense Force and owner of the fire Pal Faleris. His tower is located in the Desiccated Desert in the northeast.
- Badass Longcoat: Love him or hate him, the man knows how to make an impression.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: He keeps his own Faleris drugged and obedient by feeding it the same drugs he distributes to people, even denying it meals by substituting some of them with "that white sand". He even knows that his Faleris might turn on him out of hunger if he didn't keep it so addled.
- Big Bad: Despite not being the Final Boss, he's responsible for a lot of the islands' problems, including the corruption and hypocrisy of the Free Pal Alliance, the villagers' drug problems, and the declining population. The Rayne Syndicate is the only problem he's not provably involved with, although he's certainly not in any rush to deal with them either.
- Dirty Cop: Marcus made a fortune by selling drugs to the community he was supposedly protecting, then arresting his customers for possession while fining them and confiscating his own product to sell again later.
- Dirty Coward: You wouldn't expect a guy like Marcus to be a coward, but his diary reveals he's secretly worried that his Faleris will turn on him and eat him once he runs out of the "white sand" he's been feeding it.
- Expy: He's basically a pastiche of other video game Dirty Cops, particularly Frank Tenpenny.
- Functional Addict: His Faleris is kept high on and addicted to the very same drugs he distributes and confiscates. Despite this, it's still capable of fighting by his side under a drugged obedience, but Marcus notes that there's a nonzero chance it might turn on him.
- Genre Savvy: A number of his Faleris' attacks are Electric-elemental to fry any Water Pals seeking to capitalize on its Water weakness. Faleris doesn't learn any Electric skills naturally, meaning that Marcus must have used Skill Fruit on it.
- Greed: Not only did he make a fortune ripping people off, but to salt the wound, his Big Entrance involves throwing money in the air and laughing haughtily.
- Jerkass: He's an arrogant asshole who abuses the people he and his police force are supposed to protect by giving them drugs, having them arrested and fined, taking back the drugs, and repeating the process all over. His diary reveals he's also been giving his Faleris those same narcotics to keep it docile, even though Pals are already loyal to their trainers when they capture them.
- Villain with Good Publicity: When approaching the city he runs near his tower, the Apathetic Citizens say they owe their lives to his protection and warn the Player Character not to antagonize him.
Victor Ashford
Victor Ashford
"We must question whether Pals inherently possess a distinct energy source essential for their own existence. Further investigation is required."
The leader of the PAL Genetic Research Unit and owner of the dark Pal, Shadowbeak. His tower is located in the Land of Absolute Zero in the north.
- Eerie Arctic Research Station: His tower essentially serves as one of these.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For all the horrible things he does, he draws the line at experimenting on humans.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: He seems to be very ice-themed, with him floating in a snowy tornado, and his Shadowbeak having a plethora of Ice attacks despite it not normally learning any Ice moves naturally.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Seeks to use Pals to create Bioweapon Beasts. Shadowbeak is apparently the first experiment he can genuinely call a success.
- Expy: Doubles as a Shout-Out to Resident Evil villains. He shares his last name with the Ashfords, a family that are part of an organization full of crazy Evilutionary Biologists that care only about the results of their research, but he has a personality more strongly comparable to Albert Wesker and Lucas Baker.
- Final Boss: The last of the Tower Bosses the player faces.
- For Science!: There's little he won't do in the pursuit of knowledge, and since he's basically stuck on the island, he has no reason to do the things he does other than because he wants to.
- Genre Savvy: Around half of his Shadowbeak's attacks are Ice-elemental, which will make quick work of any Dragon-elementals the player uses to counter its Dark-element. Shadowbeak doesn't learn any Ice-elemental moves normally, which means Victor genetically engineered those moves onto it to cover its weakness.
- Irony: He invented the Pal Condensation Chamber, allowing you to merge Pals of the same type together to make them stronger. He favors a Pal that is nearly unique, meaning he can't benefit from the process he invented.
- Lean and Mean: His character model is nearly a full head taller than the Player Character, but he's much thinner in build than Axel or Marcus.
- Mad Scientist: He's an Evilutionary Biologist in an Eerie Arctic Research Station trying to use the game's titular mons to create Bioweapon Beasts.
- Mirror Character: To the player character. Everything that the player is incentivized to do to get stronger is something he's also done, inventing new weapons, discovering new processes, abusing Pals, condensing them and force-breeding them, studying every detail about them. To most players, he represents the dark side of this, doing it to extents that no player ever would think about with a flimsy justification for doing it. To especially evil or sadistic players, though, he's the opposite, since he at least has a reason that isn't just For the Evulz and he seems to draw the line at doing this to other humans, something players aren't obligated to do.
- Playing with Syringes: He conducted hideously cruel experiments to try and create the perfect Bioweapon Beast.
- Psychic Powers: Victor has some kind of psychic power, as his intro shows him levitating in a snowy tornado as he deploys Shadowbeak.
- Power Floats: His intro shows him walking into the arena and then levitating into the air as he deploys Shadowbeak.
- Viler New Villain: Compared to Zoe, Lily, Axel, and Marcus, he's definitely the most malevolent of the Tower Bosses. Going by his journals, the things he does to Pals are even worse than anything you could do to them at your most cruel, seeing as you cannot merge Pals in ways that would make even Albert Wesker vomit in disgust.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Figures that the white-haired Bishōnen of the Tower Bosses would be the most evil out of all of them.
Others
The Castaway
"The Castaway"
A mysterious person who arrives at the Palpagos Islands before the Player Character. The Castaway left a series of diaries for the Player to come across, telling his story. Notably, they were apparently the one to dub the creatures there "Pals", the name being given out of their desire to foster cooperation and companionship with them.- Awesomeness by Analysis: He found the Palpagos Islands after looking at the globe's geological features and islands and noticed something strange when he saw that a particular area was "empty". According to him, something should be there, and he was surprised no one else saw an apparent absence in that place.
- Better with Non-Human Company: Not willingly, as they tried to find other humans, or at least some semblance of civilization on the Palpagos Islands. All the Castaway had were his Pals, who followed him to the ends of the earth.
- No Name Given: Downplayed. Aside from his alias as "The Castaway", we don't know his real name.
- Here There Be Dragons: What drew him to the Palpagos Islands in the first place was the inexplicable absence of any documented landmass there. He knew there couldn't be nothing out there, and was compelled to explore.
- Hero of Another Story: He also went on a journey on the Palpagos Islands and recorded his experiences with the Pals, people, and the factions left on diaries for us to come across.
- Meaningful Name: As his name implies, he, like our Player Character, was lucky enough to wash up on the Palpagos Islands after getting shipwrecked.
- Nothing Is Scarier: When he tried to go to the island by boat, he noticed a massive fog cloud surrounding it, making it impossible to discern it from the sea. When he tried to turn around, an even deeper fog enveloped him, and he was attacked by... something. Whatever attacked him destroyed his ship, but he survived and washed ashore. He wonders if whatever attacked and destroyed his boat was tied to whatever was trying to keep the islands hidden.
- Sanity Slippage: At several points, he nearly lost himself given the circumstances of being shipwrecked by an unknown entity and stranded alone with monsters in uncharted lands and unable to escape.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: He surmises Pals are a form of an Energy Being, and the ancient's technology with teleporters and Pal Spheres were man's attempts to artificially replicate this energy — a power they were thoroughly unable to control. Whenever trying to uncover how it works or what exactly was responsible for the destruction of the ancient civilization on Palpagos, wild Pal monsters attack him, forcing him to retreat. The Castaway soon determines the monsters are acting beyond mere aggression, and are actively protecting the secrets of the islands.
- Took a Level in Cynic: At one point, the Castaway had his army of Pals kill Rayne Syndicate members. The Castaway justifies this as that he wasn't the one that killed them directly.
- Uncertain Doom: It's not known what became of him or his monster party. His last (chronological) journal entry shows he rediscovered ancient monuments and statues to the Pals worshipped as gods. Presumably, he had an ill-fated encounter with a legendary Pal.
- The Voice: Never seen, yet we learn a lot about the Palpagos Islands via the diaries.
The Black Marketeer
The Black Marketeer
"I trade in any kind of Pal... Whether it’s stolen Pals, or even prohibited types... Take a look."
Also known as the Black Market Merchant, the Black Marketeer buys and sells Pals in exchange for gold coins like the standard Pal Merchant. Unlike his more "clean" counterpart, he doesn't care about the rules and regulations on selling Pals and will sell you rare and high-value Pals that you won't see other merchants selling (such as those found only in the Wildlife Sanctuaries). If you want to get ahold of powerful Pals that are generally hard to find out in the open, these guys are your bet. You just got to find out where they're hiding first.- Black Market: They're Obviously Evil merchants dressed like medieval executioners that deal in all sorts of mons, with a lot of the ones they have to offer being rare ones only found in Wildlife Sanctuaries and thus obtained illegally. They won't try to harm you or rip you off in any way, but they also make no bones about the fact that their goods are often very illegal. They even have special menu options labeled "Buy contraband" and "Sell contraband", although at the moment, regular Pal merchants will accept from you all the same things they do (including humans).
- Creepy Cave: Where they set up shop. You can find a Black Marketeer, along with multiple cages, guillotines, and scattered items, in a cave at the end of long and winding tunnels of an abandoned mineshaft. It all adds to the fact this merchant isn't like all the rest.
- Gatling Good: Attacking them will prompt them to whip out a minigun and fill you full of lead.
- Obviously Evil: Not only do they dress like medieval executioners with a mask resembling a Slasher Smile, they tend to have hideouts lined with torture devices. They won't try to harm you or rip you off in any way, but they also make no bones about the fact that their goods are often very illegal.
- Sent Into Hiding: Unlike the normal Pal Merchants you find in the open or in towns, the Black Marketeer is generally more difficult to find than any other type of merchant, which makes sense considering their illegal businesses. You'll find them in long winding caves or abandoned mineshafts, so bring a torch or a Pal that glows in the dark.
- Screw the Rules, They're Not Real!: He has no regard for the rules and regulations on selling Pals. And on the wild and untamed Palpagos Islands, where various factions are fighting for control, while his practices are unethical, he's not "wrong" either.
- Stone Wall: When captured, they will no longer be able to deal damage with their punches, but with their 20,000+ health, they'll be able to take a serious beating before going down.
