YMMV / Palworld

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Chillet's expression when the player is petting it infamously looks like it's… enjoying the petting a bit too much.
  • In the Portugese localization, "Pal" is still "Pal", which happens to sound exactly like a slang term for "penis" in Brazilian Portugese ("pau", which means "wood" or "stick" but has the exact same euphemistic usage as those words in English). Brazilian fans have naturally had a field day with the game, particularly with NPC dialogue talking about large and powerful Pals and players mounting Pals and collecting Pal Fluids.
• Annoying Video Game Helper:
  • The Daedream's Necklace as well as Dazzi's Necklace allow Daedreams/Dazzis in your party to act alongside you, even if they're not your current active Pal. While this mini firing squad can be a great help at killing enemies, they're also very prone to killing a low-HP Pal you were about to capture, and since they still count as characters when it comes to base building placement, they make it nearly impossible to build anything in their space until you put them in the Pal Box.
  • Flopie is also rather infamous due to its respective necklace allowing it to pick up and give you nearby items. These also include many, many very heavy rocks, often leading to Flopie over-encumbering you with its gifts.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The "Reincarnated Guy" that one can find is a parody of Isekai-genre characters who can be encountered on the shore near the Small Settlement. He appears to be a level 50 cop who ended up on the Palapagos Islands after getting hit by a truck, and he gained powers that lets him make pizza appear out of nowhere. Like most Isekai protagonists, he's also ludicrously powerful, having more health than Victor and Shadowbeak and is completely uncatchable (0% even with legendary spheres) while the pre-patched tower boss glitch doesn't work on him. The entire character's existence clashes so much with both the game's lore and setting to the point where he appears more like a one-off parody or joke which ultimately doesn't affect the rest of the story.
• Cheese Strategy:
  • Flying mounts can be used to avoid several threatening and dangerous attacks in the game, making potentially deadly encounters easy. Tocotoco and Beegarde can't get you with their suicide explosions if you're far too high up. Certain moves that strike the ground under the target (i.e. Spine Vine, Iceberg, Blizzard Spike, Rock Lance) will also become unable to hit. Mind you, the player isn't the only one who uses this, as Marcus Dryden and his Faleris will also exploit their aerial advantage for all it's worth.
  • Alpha Anubis's Forceful Charge won't stop until it hits an enemy or travels a certain distance without hitting one. Terrain doesn't count as an enemy, so you can bait it into using the attack near a group of trees and get it stuck, letting you shoot it with impunity.
  • A tactic that was patched out in 0.2.0.6 consisted of luring Jetragon off one of the many cliffs near its spawn point, where it would lose a huge chunk of its health, if not flat out die, from Falling Damage.
  • Related to the above tactic is the "Stairway to Heaven", where you build a tall ramp or tower into the sky, provoke Pals into running up after you, and then deleting the tile they are standing on or tricking/knocking them off the platform, causing them to fall to their death. Again, nerfed slightly by the 0.2.0.6 update making floating and flying Pals are immune to Falling Damage.
  • Palboxes are buildable near boss arenas and Pals stationed at bases will attack anything that is hostile. This has led to the tactic of building a Palbox near a field boss, deploying a horde of powerful Pals at the base, then provoking the field boss into attacking and then luring it to the base where the gathered Pals will immediately Zerg Rush it. Alternatively, a field boss' health does not regenerate if you respawn within a certain vicinity of them, so building a Palbox near a particularly tough boss can mean that even if they manage to defeat you, you can respawn within close proximity without giving them a chance to heal. In fact, this is exactly how a Raid Boss works, with their altar being built at a Base so that all your Pals will whittle down its insanely high amount of health.
  • Black Marketeers are merchants that will sell you Pals that are implied to be illegally obtained. While they can be killed for a substantial amount of money, their high health (exceeding that of many Pals); high level; equipment of a powerful minigun and a very strong Pal make fighting them a challenge. However, players found a way to trivialize fighting them by catching them in the hanging traps, hitting them once, and then building a campfire underneath them.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Due to the cruelties you can commit in the game (not helped by how trailers and promotional materials hyped up the Video Game Cruelty Potential and Black Comedy), many people assume that your character is forced to be a villain protagonist, ignoring that many of the cruelest acts are completely optional, and you have the option to play in a more heroic way. Additionally, abusing Pals leads to them slacking off, getting injured and just ruining productivity in general.
  • It has been claimed that the designs of the Pals and other art assets are AI generated. This is mostly due to game's detractors misinterpreting (deliberately or otherwise) some statements from the PocketPair CEO where he hints that he is okay with AI generated art and because the company developed a game where players generate art using AI.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Getting a high-quality assault rifle then breeding a Chillet and 4 Gobfins, all with Vanguard, and upgrading them as much as possible is the standard late-game build because it's the easiest way to get the absurd DPS necessary to take down Victor and Shadowbeak before the timer runs out. By swapping Chillet out for an appropriate mount, this same layout can also easily deal with all five Legendaries. This tactic was nerfed after the boost from riding Spell Blade mounts was nerfed from a max of 2.0x to 1.2x, putting them on a similar level to the non-mountable ones like Anubis.
  • Almost all players' bases will be set up near clusters of ore veins, since you need a lot of ore to craft high-end ammo and equipment and the only real way to get ore was to mine it from deposits before 0.2.0.6 added a buildable ore mine structure. In particular, there's a location south of the Free Pal Alliance tower that's rich in both ore and coal (which is used in Carbon Fiber and better metal ingots) which seems purpose-made to be a base location, as it's a mountaintop plateau almost exactly the size of a base area.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Forcing animals to act as meat shields against actual guns and sweatshop labor wouldn't be as funny if they were anything but Pokémon expies (including Lamball, a blatant Wooloo Expy, being usable as a Bulletproof Human Shield while crying), and you even have the capability to butcher and eat them. The game's promotional material milks the Black Comedy of this for all it's worth.
  • Pengullet's Partner Skill. Instead of having the Pengullet do anything on its own, the player grabs it and shoves it inside a rocket launcher to shoot it at enemies, and the Pengullet blows up on contact. Cruel? Probably. Hilarious? Absolutely.
  • The abrupt dissonance between the two lines in Nitewing's Paldeck entry makes it darkly amusing:
    "It carries newborn Pals to its nest and raises them as a surrogate parent. Once the baby Pal has fattened up, it hunts them."
  • Lyleen's Paldeck entry contains another Mood Whiplash, making it darkly amusing too:
    A docile Pal full of love. It watches over small Pals who have lost their parents. It uses a full-power Solar Blast to discipline naughty Pals.
• Crossover Ship: Despite the huge fandom rivalry with Pokémon, Salazzle and Lovander have become a popular pairing in fanart.
• Dancing Bear: Ask anyone who hasn't played the game about it, and chances are they'll only know it as "Pokémon with guns" due to the promotional material playing up that aspect of the game. When the game was released in early access, a lot of players were pleasantly surprised to find it was a lot more than that.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Vanwyrm in the Bamboo Groves are very dangerous foes, especially if the player doesn't have heat-resistant armor. They're common encounters that attack you on sight, hit like trucks^note They have a huge base 115 attack stat, higher than any other early-game foe you've encountered thus far, put on constant pressure with fast-cooldown ranged moves, often appear in pairs, are tough to catch, and have a nasty tendency to set you on fire for massive damage over time. It doesn't help that a couple of the fast-travel points on the first island just so happen to be in or around the Bamboo Groves, meaning you can basically be spawn-camped by these things if you die and have to go back for your stuff or get sucker-punched as soon as you arrive.
  • Robinquill is one of the tougher Pals in its habitat, is aggressive toward the player and is hard to catch, and has ludicrously powerful long-range attacks, including Seed Mine, which covers a large area with exploding seeds that can easily one-shot a player through shields due to hitting multiple times (while other Pals like Broncherry can learn Seed Mine as well, Robinquill is by far the most prolific user). If it doesn't kill you immediately, it has a tendency to leave you entangled and rendering you unable to run, jump, or dodge, so its next shot most likely will.
  • Beegarde are fast and spawn in groups, and infamously have the powerful Suicide Attack Bee Quiet, which blows them up to inflict massive damage. Even when they're not exploding in your face, they spam Wind Cutter and Poison Blast, both of which have fast projectiles, very low cooldowns and a chance to inflict status effects, letting swarms of Beegarde chip players and their Pals to death very quickly. Finally, unlike the other exploding Pal Tocotoco, Beegarde move faster and aren't lower-leveled than other Pals in the area, making them harder to kill before they blow up on you.
  • Syndicate Grenadiers have a sizable Area of Effect attack telegraphed with a red circle indicating the blast radius, and if you or your pals don't book it out of there in time, their grenade explodes for massive damage. While the player is capable of dodging this (assuming they aren't in the middle of a firefight with the other thugs or even a wild Pal), most AI-controlled Pals aren't so lucky, often taking massive damage in the process. And heaven help you if they appear in a raid to deal huge area damage to your immobile structures and multiple base Pals.
  • Syndicate Elites are an upgrade to the Grenadiers, attacking from long range with very powerful rocket launchers that can quickly kill you and your Pals with even a near miss. Like with Grenadiers, expect several base Pals and structures to suffer heavily if they appear in a raid.
  • PAL Genetic Research Unit Executioners are better off avoided by unprepared players. They tend to spawn at higher levels than the Pals in their operating areas and hit stupidly hard with their exclusive energy weaponry, always show up in squads, and tend to be more aggressive and more accurate than most human enemies.
  • Brothers of the Eternal Pyre Martyrs are also tough enemies who appear in squads and pack flamethrowers with a surprisingly long range that will almost always set you on fire for extra damage.
• Difficulty Spike: Zoe is essentially the tutorial boss, only level 10 and easily beatable with a decent Pal. The second boss, Lily, is a little harder but with a bit of knowledge of elemental advantages, decently leveled Pals, and good gear, is manageable. The next boss however, Axel, fights at a whopping level 40 which is only 10 levels away from the early access level cap. Not only does his Orserk hit insanely hard and is incredibly aggressive, this is also the point of the game where boss health starts scaling absurdly high. If a player hasn't been paying attention to passive skills at this point, they certainly will be now because otherwise they will be timed out for not being able to deal enough damage if they haven't already been beaten down.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Pokémon, big time. This is specifically because of the comparisons between Palworld and later generations of Pokémon (with the ninth generation being the most common comparison). Fans of Palworld claim that it's a "potential competitor" to Pokémon (with some even stating it's going to dethrone it^note which, on a purely objective note, is a bit of an ask considering just how massive Pokémon is as a franchise) with innovation, while Pokémon fans claim that it's just another "cheap knockoff" while bringing up that some of the designs are blatant copies of other species. That being said, splits are starting to show within the respective fandoms as the growing playerbases begin to recognize that the parody aspect of Palworld is as affectionate as it is deconstructive. It is noted that there are fans of both games who lament that, setting aside the guns and general brutality, this level of quality is what Pokémon could have if the mainline games were not trapped by an annual release schedule.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Palmons" for the creatures in the game, mostly used by players that can't help reflexively calling them "Pokémon" and thus use this as it rolls off the tongue better than simply "Pal". Hilariously, Palmon is the name of a Digimon, making things even more confusing at times.
  • Mossanda and Mossanda Lux have been referred to as "Helium Panda" due to their appearance and their odd floatiness.
  • Due to Anubis looking like a Lucario wearing ancient Egyptian clothing, it has earned the somewhat politically incorrect nickname "Ethnic Lucario" thanks to Honest Trailers.
  • Marcus's Faleris has been referred to as "Cocaine Bird", "Coke Bird", "Crack Tweety", "Powder Parrot" or "Meth Chicken" thanks to his diary entries revealing that he has been drugging the Pal and that it's addicted to the drugs (described as "white sand").
  • The Pal condenser has been referred to as the "Pal blender", smoothie machine, juicer, juice machine and other such nicknames both from the appearance and because it's implied that that Pals "condensed" are turned into a slurry that enhances a Pal of the same species that drinks it.
  • Lovander earned the nickname "Pink Lizard Rapist" from a tweet.
  • Jormuntide Ignis is often referred to as "Cake Snake" for its serpentine form and because its high Kindling skill often sees it being used to bake cakes for breeding.
  • Orserk earned the nickname of "Zap Whale" for its Electric-elemental typing and its design being based off an orca.
  • The four level 50 Alpha Pals Paladius, Necromus, Frostallion, and Jetragon have been referred to as the Ferocious Four for their difficulty.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • In comparison with the fandom rivalry towards Pokémon, there actually is some considerable overlap with, of all things, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. More specifically, an overlap with Shadow the Hedgehog and its own themes of "cute woodland animals with guns", combined with comparing the memorable "faker" scene between Sonic and Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2 to the Pokémon/Palworld rivalry. Fans of both joke that Shadow was ultimately quite ahead of his time in that aspect, to the extent he is sometimes treated as a "Legendary" Pal in-universe, and plenty of memes were made about Shadow teaching all the Pals how to use guns.
  • Palworld and Helldivers II fans also have some overlap, due to both games being released within less than a month of each other, while surpassing the quality of certain AAA games released by higher-end studios. A quickly-taken-down Steam scam that sold fake copycat "games" of both Palworld and Helldivers II ironically also brought the two even closer together.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The humble nail. It has a simple production chain — two ore are smelted into one ingot which is crafted into two nails. Each nail sells for 160 gold to a trader, effectively letting you turn ore into gold extremely easily and efficiently and setting up a base as a nail factory allows a player to just buy almost everything they need. This was patched out in 0.1.5.0 by decreasing the sale price of nails to a measly 20.
  • Thanks to a Good Bad Bug, it's possible to capture Tower Bosses and use them as Pals. The weakest has 30000 health at level 10 and all their health goes up even higher as they level up^note To put it in perspective, the Level 50 Legendary Pals have anywhere in between 8000 to 14000 health, making them nearly unkillable in battle. These tower bosses also have a plethora of skills to choose from with Victor/Shadowbeak and Lily/Lyleen having Secret A.I. Moves in Dark Whisp and Multicutter, respectively. Version 0.1.5.0 removed this exploit.
  • Seed Mine is a Grass-Elemental move that has the potential to deal ridiculous damage for a relatively low cooldown of 13 and a seemingly average 65 power. The 65 power attack applies to the projectile itself as well as every one of the seeds it splits into. Against larger grounded enemies that move around (especially Alphas and Tower Bosses excluding Faleris), this move can hit multiple times, allowing surprising amounts of damage to be stacked up while having a high chance to inflict the Entangled status to slow them to a crawl. Finally, you don't have to search Skill Fruit trees for the Seed Mine skill fruit, as the Merchant in Duneshelter sells it.
  • Anubis, the one Pal only available as a Level 47 boss, as well as bearing a must-have Handiwork stat of 4, can be obtained as early as around Level 19 or higher, as it is the guaranteed result of breeding between either of these combinations: Celaray^note very common on certain shorelines and always available at extremely low levels and Relaxaurus^note can be found around the center of the map and are around level 15-20, Cinnamoth^note Around level 20 in the central forest area and Vanwyrm^note Level 10-15 in the Bamboo Groves, and Penking and Bushi, which the latter two are both lower-leveled bosses in the game. As long as you have all of the resources to make cakes and don't mind waiting a while for them to cook, either of these two breeding combinations can net you an excellent crafting pal for your base fairly early on.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Direhowl are rather common all over the islands and are the first aggressive Pal you will likely encounter. While anyone capable of venturing beyond the starting area shouldn't have a problem taking care of them, they're just dangerous enough to be annoying and often attack in pairs or groups at a point where all your weapons are single-target.
  • Rushoar, for pretty much the same reasons as Direhowl. They also possess a charge attack with decent range and knockback, which can screw with your attempts to navigate and/or inflict fall damage, but they tend to show up at low levels so they're not likely to pose an actual threat as opposed to a mere annoyance.
  • It's basically impossible to pass through the area north of the starting island without being attacked by at least two Galeclaw a minute. Despite not being the strongest thing in their habitat, these birds have basically no self-preservation instinct and will dive-bomb you in droves, which can weaken you for things like Robinquill to finish off or distract you while you're fighting something else.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Examples that are still present:
    • When you attempt to capture a Pal, your Pal Sphere will float in the air until it either fails or succeeds in doing so. In that time, it's possible to jump on top of the ball. After a successful capture, you'll be rocketed straight up into the sky. Combine this with the glider and it's a pretty useful way to get your bearings in unexplored areas during the early to mid game. Just don't try this if you haven't unlocked it yet for obvious reasons.
    • Thanks to glitchy furniture hitboxes, people have used them to make unusual buildings such as staircases, lampposts, and stacked farms.
    • Using a powerful but long-cooldown attack when mounted on a Pal, then dismounting it will somehow allow the Pal to recharge this attack and likely use it immediately. This allows you to execute attacks like Faleris's Phoenix Flare twice in succession, which can put a good dent in the health of Alpha Pals.
    • Due to their rotund model and its habitat being full of trees, Mozzarina has a notable tendency to spawn on top of said trees very often. It looks utterly hilarious seeing a plump cow balancing on top of a tree.
    • The "Crumbling Wall Exp" glitch consisted of building three platforms, three walls attached to the platforms, attaching a two segment long roof facing outwards, attaching a staircase to the roof and then placing a wall at the junction of the staircase and second segment. This is recognized as a valid building spot, but actually attempting to build the wall causes the new wall to instantly break, dropping lumber and granting experience points from building the wall.
    • If you climb onto a dungeon wall and then feed your pet, then mount it, you're almost guaranteed to end up through/above what surface you were climbing. You can walk, ride, and fly around plenty of out-of-bounds areas with such, and even use this trick to skip a dungeon path and get straight to the boss (and/or the rewards behind it, which normally require the boss's defeat).
    • If a mountable Pal clips inside terrain and you attempt to ride it, you'll get pulled inside the terrain. This is easily remedied by releasing your Pal outside the terrain and attempting to ride it, pulling you out.
    • In order to prevent food from going bad, you had to build a cooler and assign a pal to keeping it cool, something that takes up a slot and requires you to be a certain level to build... Or you could just hit the Sort button on the container, which resets all the food rot timers. This also works in your own inventory.
  • Examples that have been fixed:
    • By getting guards to attack you before entering a Tower to fight the boss, they will spawn during the tower boss fight. As long as the Guards are the only ones to deal damage to the boss, it becomes possible to capture that Tower's boss along with the human, allowing you to use those bosses as Pals. And boy howdy can they be absolute Game Breakers, given that not only are their boss mechanics and overinflated stats perfectly intact when caught, but they'll only get stronger as they level up. This was removed in version 0.1.5.0, much to the anger of some players as noted in an apology on the game's official Twitter/X account.
    • While it was quickly patched out, it was possible for Pals attempting to transport large quantities of materials to get stuck in a loop of picking up and dropping the same objects repeatedly. This would simply be annoying if it weren't for the animation making it look like the Pal is uncontrollably defecating wood/rocks.
    • The Nature Preserve islands are filled to the brim with rare, powerful Pals that you can't find anywhere else save for a few available as bosses along with treasure chests full of powerful items, but just setting foot on them is a crime that'll get the PIDF on your trail. However, the emphasis is on "setting foot": the game never checks if you're actually ON the island until your feet make contact with it, which means staying mounted on a flying Pal like Beakon will let you flaunt your poaching in front of the PIDF Elites patrolling the island who only turn hostile if you're committing a crime, which you technically aren't, because the game says you aren't. This was patched out in 0.1.5.0; now riding in the nature preserves will be considered trespassing and the PIDF patrols there will turn hostile.
    • Freezing an enemy and then shooting them with a rocket launcher will hurl them into the sky where they will promptly die to fall damage. This will no longer work in 0.2.0.6.
    • There used to be a glitch where you could butcher a ridable Pal, and then then mount it immediately after it's been butchered. The Pal will remain alive and in your party. You could then drop the Pal on the ground and it would be perfectly unharmed. You can then repeat this cycle to gain infinite drops. 0.2.0.6 patched this out.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Early concept art of Pokémon had a lot of the trainers wielding whips and early drafts had trainers be active participants in the battles. As stated by Ken Sugimori: "At one time, the protagonist would fight as well. But then we asked ourselves “If you can fight on your own, what’s the point of having Pokémon?” In Palworld, you are not only free to participate in the battles with everything from wooden clubs to rocket launchers, but it's almost mandatory to do so. Increased further with the introduction of Pal tamers; they'll also join the battle by shooting you or your Pals.
• Hype Aversion: Shockingly. People vociferously discussing the game once it entered early access and the countless claims that it was finally going to be the "Pokémon killer" because of its runaway success have earned the ire of Pokémon fans who want nothing to do with Palworld and/or view it as plagiarizing Pokemon, as well as gamers who aren't interested in RPGs or Survival Sandbox games.
• Hype Backlash: With how popular the game is and its dominance in online discourse, there are people who've complained that the game leans too heavily into Video Game Cruelty Potential, Phonýmon parody, Black Comedy and memery instead of actual gameplay, or how derivative the game is of other games to the point where it lacks a proper identity.
• Junk Rare: The rarely-seen Elizabee has a small chance to drop the Elizabee's Staff, a melee weapon which has 150 power. Most of the player's early ranged weapons like the Makeshift Handgun or Crossbow hit harder, while the Refined Metal Spear unlocked at level 34 has over twice its damage at 310 power. The only upside is that the Staff doesn't cost anything to repair. Beegarde also can drop Beegarde's Spear with similar power, drop rate and repair cost to Elizabee's staff, but they are at least much more commonly encountered than Elizabee.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Many early-game pals get Overshadowed by Awesome by late-game Pals that sport far better stats, moves, base utility, and Partner Skills. Some are even overshadowed by other early-game ones, such as Fuack being a downgrade from Pengullet, who has better defense, HP, slightly less Attack, the same proficiencies with the addition of Cooling, while also learning better Ice skills and has a Partner Skill that deals way more damage and is likely to hit more targets.
  • Digtoise has one of the highest mining skill levels in the game, making it a perfect Pal for a mining outpost...or so it seemed. In practice, there were way better Pals to station at a mining outpost due to its high food consumption and low damage output to mineral deposits. The 0.1.5.0 patch drastically boosted its mineral deposit damage, turning it into one of the best miners… to the point where it even overshadows a fully condensed Astegon or Blazamut.
  • The 0.1.5.0 update turned the electric heater into this. Previously, it was the only way to raise the ambient temperature high enough for some of the eggs to be at a comfortable temperature. With the revamped 0.1.5.0 temperature system, it was better to simply stack campfires since they were less expensive, did not require Pal operation, and were available at a lower level.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Of course, there were talks about how Palworld is "Pokémon Gun" (in reference to the eighth generation of Pokémon games being Sword and Shield).
  • 'Throw a Sphere!'
  • What the Fuack?!^ExplanationDue to Fuack's name being one letter away from "fuck", many Palworld fans tend to use Fuack's name as a substitute, such as "what the Fuack" or "get the Fuack off my land", essentially making the pal's name a Precision Fuack-Strike.
  • Is that a monkey? He's got a gun!^ExplanationMany were quick to equate these panels from "Box Full of Evil" with Tanzee, due to Tanzee literally being a monkey with an automatic rifle
  • "Batman, there's no laws against the Pals, Batman!"^{Explanation (NSFW)}Based on an audio clip where Joker reveals he caught a Lopunny and plans to have sex with it. Batman is appropriately horrified, shouting, "It's an animal, Joker, you can't!" Joker then states that since there are no laws against having sex with Pokémon, he can do it. Swapping 'Pokémon' with 'Pals', and you have a good vision for the reams of Video Game Cruelty Potential the fandom encourages with Pals, alongside, uh… other elements. This is especially used in compunction with Lovander and Lunaris.
  • Chillet's face when pet^ExplanationWhen petting Chillet, the face it makes is rather interesting, to say the least; see Accidental Innuendo above. Rule 34 artists definitely took notice. Potentially ascended in PocketPair's April Fools 2024 gag, with Chillet themselves acknowledging it.
  • Chillet Walk^ExplanationWith Chillet being an Expy of Furret, people recreated the various Furret Walk memes with Chillet as well.
  • I got a gift for you! *shoves multiple rocks down your pants* ^ExplanationFlopie has gained infamy for its ability to pick up items upon crafting its respective gear, which includes very heavy stones and ores, which can easily over-encumber you if you're carrying too much. This sometimes lead players to advise others not to craft it if they plan to keep Flopie in their party.
  • "YOU ARE REPLACEABLE" ^ExplanationA common use for the Pengullet-shaped training dummy courtesy of this Reddit post.
  • Depresso's grumpy, unenthusiastic demeanor has made it a meme in general for being relatable to a lot of people, but its mining animation (gently tapping rocks with a pickaxe while not even trying to put effort into it) became a standout as a representation of people being forced to work while they'd rather do literally anything else.
  • More Espresso, Less Depresso ^ExplanationA common slogan relating to Depresso's need for caffeine. Has appeared often on a lot of fan-made merch.
• Misaimed Fandom: Much of the point of Lovander, much like its inspiration Salazzle, seems to be to gross people out versus titillate them. Also like Salazzle, this had the complete opposite effect, with it becoming high-octane Rule 34 fuel.
• Nightmare Fuel: At first glance, Killamari is a rather cute creature for one with such a horrible eating method… Then you unlock the ability to use one as a glider, and you'll see the utterly horrifying case of Lamprey Mouth on the underside, after which you'll understand very quickly how this thing can suck the brains and other organs out through their prey's skulls. Worse still, using Killamari as a glider puts you exactly where it wants you, with your head under its brain-sucking mouth.
• Not-So-Cheap Imitation: Many people, including new converts to the game, dismissed the game as "Pokémon with guns", and thought it was going to be a meme-tier game that was quickly forgotten. But almost nobody expected this game to be such a success, and it can be attributed to the sheer quality of the game's creature-collecting mechanics, the polish of its graphics, exploration and crafting, and being for many people a game that was released in a time people were starved for both a good Pokémon game and a good survival crafting game. The game, predictably, sold 25 million copies by the end of the month, a number that took Pokémon Scarlet and Violet a whole year to reach 24 million. However, many people are ultimately having the game in contention on how original it truly is, due to the massive Broken Base this game spawned alongside the larger fracturing in the Pokémon fandom for how complacent the franchise has become to not even come close to this level of polish despite being the most successful franchise in the world.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Many gamers have described the game as "Pokémon but with guns", while ignoring the Digimon franchise; they've had mons with guns in there for decades, complete with one, Revolmon, that just outright is a gun.
  • This isn't the first time we've seen monsters do stuff like cook and make fire for their tamer. There's a scene in Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life where one of Marcus' soldiers commands a Chikorita to cut the white carrots, and Cyndaquil makes a fire in the chimney.
• Popular with Furries: Given the premise of "Pokémon with Guns", the furry fandom was already following the game for potential furry content, but the reveal of Lovander the curvy sex-obsessed salamander had them wasting no time drawing plenty of "fanart" of it. The rest of the animal-type Pals weren't far behind, such as Lamball, Chillet, and Cremis for lovers of Ridiculously Cute Critters and Katress on the more anthropomorphic side of things.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Digtoise was considered one of worst miners to use at a base due to its combination of low damage to ore deposits and it consuming large amounts of food. The 0.1.5.0 patch tripled/quadrupled its ore damage as a base miner, turning it into one of the best base miners especially once fully condensed, even surpassing a fully condensed Astegon and Blazamut.
  • Surfent Terra was usually considered a strict downgrade to Surfent, as it couldn't even be ridden on water and had no other special ability. The 0.2.0.6. patch gave it a new niche of reducing the weight of ore when in the team, which set it apart from regular Surfent.
• Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic:
  • The 0.1.5.0. patch includes an option for continuous work by pressing the work button once.
  • The heat system was also revamped in 0.1.5.0 so the game counted the number of environmental heat sources. Previously, the game only counted the type of environmental heat sources. This led to bizarre scenarios such as the incubator being surrounded by campfires and the game saying that the egg was too cold because it only counted a single heat source.
  • Building stairs and triangular roofs became much easier in 0.1.5.0 as they loosened the building restrictions for them. 0.2.0.6. loosened them even further.
  • Condensing Pals used to be a tremendous pain because you had to have all the Pals on hand to condense and condensed stars could not be carried over. Patch 0.2.0.6. now allows partial condensation and condensing a starred Pal into an unstarred Pal will transfer the condensed stars over.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Egg hatching is widely disliked due to how time consuming it is (egg hatching progress is determined in real-time) and how finicky the heat system is (and falling out of the proper temperature range can extend egg hatching time up to twice as long). Thankfully, there is an option in world settings to disable the time for egg hatching and make them hatch instantly.
  • Breeding also gets its share of criticisms. Unlike egg hatching, the timer cannot be disabled in the world settings and it is determined in real time. Furthermore, the frequency of Passive Skill mutations occurring makes it hard to pass down the Passive Skills you actually want to the offspring, causing wasted time, eggs and cake. In particular, cake proves to be a huge time sink as it has one of the longest manufacturing times of any item in the game.
  • The requirement to hold down a button or key to craft items, construct buildings or hatch eggs is despised for being pointlessly time consuming. The 0.1.5.0. patch includes an option for continuous work by pressing the work button once.
  • Base building was never a particularly liked mechanic, but of the buildable pieces, stairs and triangular roofs were particularly despised for their finicky building requirements. The 0.1.5.0. patch loosened the building restrictions for them.
  • Ironically, revamping the heat system in 0.1.5.0 to remedy the previously mentioned scrappy mechanic of only counting the type of environmental heat sources instead of the number, introduced the problem of people burning to death when they use Fire-elemental Pals, freezing to death when they use Ice-elemental Pals, or worst of all, burning to death in their bases because of them using campfires for lighting or cramming a bunch of furnaces in a room for crafting.
• Scrappy Weapon:
  • Almost every player would much rather use bows than melee weapons in the early-game, given that bows have far better damage and the obvious advantage of letting you keep your distance from murderous critters. The only real advantage of melee weapons is not requiring ammo, which is largely a moot point considering how easy it is to collect materials for arrows, and even if you wanted to just deal chip damage to a Pal you're trying to capture, basic picks and axes do pretty much the same thing.
  • The musket, despite being the first gun you have access to, is often considered less practical than the crossbow due to its massive damage being let down by its horribly long reload time; as such, not keeping the crossbow around is just asking for trouble from multiple enemies, especially since performing a dodge roll interrupts the reload. It doesn't help that the musket has a tendency of one-shotting Pals you're trying to catch due to said massive damage per shot as well as the Makeshift Pistol, which uses the same ammo but is far more effective, is only a couple levels away anyway (and is even purchasable if you know where to look, forgoing the need to research it).
• Self-Fanservice: Despite the more mature theming of the game, the character designs don't get much more risque than in Pokémon itself, but that hasn't stopped fans from anthro-ifying Lovander and some other animal-based Pals, turning Dazzi into a shortstack, and boosting Zoe Rayne's curves. Also, some fan artists involved in kinky (and risqué) stories were quite "inspired" when they discovered that the game lets you catch and sell humans.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: A Pal-less run. This is a difficult and time-consuming undertaking that creates an Early Game Hell. Without cheating or messing with the world settings, you have to spend a long time collecting resources. The fastest way to take down the Faction Leaders, is to sell (a lot of) wood to the merchants to afford a handgun. Then defeat Beakon for a chance it will drop the Legendary Handgun schematics. Then harvest the ingot required from Bushi to craft said weapon. You can make things a little easier for yourself mid-game by catching humans, but that's considered "inhumane". Another option is to use shock grenades but that requires farming for a lot of electric organs.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: Many people online have accused the game of outright stealing design elements from Pokémon to use in developing the Pals in Palworld, with some going so far as to believe Nintendo and/or Game Freak would file a Cease and Desist against the game. This is a rather complicated issue given that it was specifically made as a parody. It's to the point where people have accused the game's art assets of having been AI generated (thanks to CEO comments and a different game published by the same company where players generate AI art), despite Palworld beginning development in 2021 when powerful AI image compilers like Midjourney didn't even exist, let alone have any popularity. And even more strangely, The Pokémon Company themselves has been rather cool on the situation, claiming that they will investigate the potential IP infringement issues in 2024, but is otherwise not actually filing suit.
• Spiritual Successor: While it was obviously intended as a mature Pokémon parody, many of its elements — such as being a Survival Sandbox game where players are encouraged to tame monsters for both combat and work, and where these monsters can be killed as well as cared for — make it an unintentional successor to ARK: Survival Evolved as well, even sharing a similar level up system.
• That One Attack: Several attacks in the game can hurt a lot or be tricky to avoid. On the plus side, most of these attacks become extremely useful if your Pal has them.
  • Lightning Streak makes a line of small but powerful lightning bolts. This means it can hit large Pals multiple times, tripling or even quadrupling its already-high damage if its target is big enough with each hit having an additional chance to stun. Pals with this skill can hit far above their level because of this multi-hit property.
  • Wind Cutter may be the basic Grass skill, but its projectile is extremely fast and the attack is barely telegraphed, making it very hard to dodge. The low damage doesn't mean too much when it can hit players a lot more reliably than more powerful skills, and like most Grass skills, it has a chance to entangle the player and render them a sitting duck. Furthermore, this attack's fast-firing speed and decently-sized hit radius also allow it to often knock away any Pal Spheres you throw at its user.
  • Blizzard Spike is a very powerful Ice-elemental attack that the player can easily see coming — the Pal will take a few seconds generating a large ice spike above their head before launching it at their target. The powerful initial hit isn't hard to avoid if it targets the player, as it can be dodge rolled from... but the icy mist that comes out still hits for the same amount and will almost certainly hit and freeze the player (who won't be far from the impact) if they don't stop rolling, causing them to become a sitting duck for a follow-up attack. Pals are almost certainly going to be hit and frozen over as they can't dodge this far compared to the player.
  • Beegarde have Bee Quiet, a Suicide Attack that they will use with impunity that deals MASSIVE damage. One attack can take out half your health bar even with armor, and since they tend to travel in groups it's not uncommon to have two or more of them run up to you and explode in the span of a few seconds. And they attack the player on sight just to top it all off. Finally, unlike the other exploding Pal Tocotoco, Beegarde move faster and aren't lower-leveled than other Pals in the area, making them harder to kill before they blow up on you.
  • Alpha Anubis' Forceful Charge, one of his signature Ground skills where he does a rushing punch towards you or a Pal. This attack hits for ungodly amounts of damage, often one-shotting your entire shield (and if you get hit by it, you take over 1000 damage) and he veers to track the target, meaning that if you dodge too early, he'll adjust his course to strike you with it. It's by far one of his most dangerous moves unless you exploit a Cheese Strategy. His other two massive-power attacks are more avoidable by getting out of the red radius before he executes them.
• That One Boss:
  • Out of all the Alpha Bosses, Anubis is one that gives many players trouble if one fights them the proper way. They have a sky-high attack stat combined with three different high-power moves that deal obscene amounts of damage, one-shotting your shield and tearing massive chunks out of your health (if not one-shotting you from full) while making very quick work of Pals. One of these attacks is Forceful Charge, an especially tricky to avoid dash punch that tracks you. All these, plus their tendency to dodge after getting hit, makes Anubis a boss that gives you almost no room for error — a single misstep can lead to broken shields or even getting one-shotted.
  • Bushi is fairly painful compared to the other Alpha bosses of the same level, due to its absurdly high attack stats paired with tricky-to-dodge attacks like Wind Cutter and Icicle Cutter (the former of which is wicked fast, and the latter of which has a wide hitbox and goes through pillars). Its exclusive skill Iaigiri, while predictable after you've fought it once or twice, can also easily catch first-time players off-guard and shred through their health.
  • Marcus Dryden is generally agreed to be the most obnoxious of the Tower bosses because his Pal, Faleris, is constantly flying. This means there are a surprisingly large number of Pal attacks that can't hit them at all and many more that are much less likely to connect, putting the burden of damage-dealing on the player a lot more than usual. Complicating things, they have several powerful attacks that aren't blocked by the pillars, one of which stuns if it hits and deals damage multiple times, bypassing the protection against massive damage normally offered by shields.
  • Victor Ashford and his Pal Shadowbeak are a nightmare for solo players not because of their moveset or damage but because of the sheer amount of health they have. Killing them within the time limit requires optimizing for dealing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible, such as loading up a team of Pals that have high-damage high-cooldown moves then cycling through them to exploit the fact their skills cool down when they're not out, or having four Elite Tweaked Gobfins while riding a Chillet so that the player's guns can deal high amounts of Dragon-Type damage. Any strategy that relies on defense, attrition, or careful play will simply run out of time.
• That One Level:
  • The Verdant Brook area is pretty much a constant warzone, between Robinquill and Galeclaw attacking you everywhere you go to Free Pal Alliance members riling up the local wildlife and often dragging you into the fight. At night, all of the above will be sleeping... only to be immediately replaced by aggressive Loupmoon that hit like a truck with their claws, Cawgnito that are passive but if provoked can teleport into your face to peck you to death, and the aggressive Helzephyr which also hits like a truck should any of their fortunately-inaccurate attacks manage to get you.
  • Gobfin's Turf is one of the most dangerous places that an unprepared player can stumble upon while exploring. As the name suggests, it's teeming with hostile Gobfins that won't hesitate to gang up on you. They will unleash a barrage of attacks that are hard to dodge and deals a good amount of damage. You and your pal's health will get chipped out pretty quickly, making it challenging to reach the fast travel point. However, in the late game, it becomes a suitable location to farm for Pal Fluid.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!:
  • It did not take long for people, even amongst some fans and active players of Palworld, to rake the game over the coals due to how similar the creature designs are to Pokémon's, picking out design elements among dozens of Pals to demonstrate how derivative they are.
  • To a lesser extent, the game's early access has been criticized for being too derivative of other works and genres, thus creating a game that can feel uncoordinated and uncreative. Some feel that Palworld is not distinct enough from contemporary open world games with survival and crafting elements such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and the Horizon series. Others feel that apart from the Black Comedy Animal Cruelty, Palworld doesn't do much else to distinguish itself from other Mons Series as compared to games like Cassette Beasts. Palworld also draws concerns of being derivative from another violent Wide-Open Sandbox game franchise Grand Theft Auto, in regards to the Wanted Meter system (which visually resembles Red Dead Redemption II with the red rectangle and black "WANTED" word on the top right) and Hammerspace Police Force. The tech and leveling system has also been criticized for being derived from ARK: Survival Evolved.
• Viewer Species Confusion:
  • Many people assume that Depresso is a cat, especially due to its resemblance to the Pokemon Espurr. However, it's actually a koala, as revealed by its Japanese name "Ndakoala" (ンダコアラ) while the folder for its data is named "NegativeKoala". The confusion is further compounded by Depresso lacking both the koala's distinctive nose and ear shape.
  • Incineram and its Noct variant are another case of this. Each Incineram's English and Japanese name ("Hellgoat" (ヘルゴート) for base and "Abyssgoat" (アビスゴート) for Noct), imply it's an ovine or caprine animal. However, its face is rather canine in nature, and its title is the "Hyena of the Wild" (or "Hyena of Darkest Night" for Incineram Noct), although this might also imply they fit the niche or behaviour of hyenas while not being one themselves.
  • A number of players are confused on whether Arsox is a bovine or ovine, especially due to its name having "ox", but it resembles a bighorn sheep with curled horns seen in rams, and its flames resemble the fluffy coat of a sheep. Its Japanese name "Bullferno" (ブルフェルノ) and its data folder name "FlameBuffalo" indicate that it's a buffalo, and not a ram, while the curled horns are meant to be similar to that of a cape buffalo's.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Palworld has a bright, colorful artstyle with very cute mons roaming around the world. Aside from the dialogue calling a Pal a "cheeky bastard" when it escapes a thrown Pal Sphere, there's also some not very child friendly things present like free reign to indulge in Video Game Cruelty Potential, including enslaving humans via capturing them in Pal Spheres and feeding your Pals drugs. And of course, there's Lovander and its implied rapist tendencies. Good luck explaining that to a young child.
• The Woobie: Zoe can be considered this to those that bothered to look around for her diary entries. Instead of being a malicious mob boss like you'd expect, she ultimately doesn't have any actual power over the Syndicate and would actually like to explore the world more, and only fights because she's expected to and for simple survival since weakness would very likely cause her own subordinates to turn on her. All this makes her quite easy to pity compared to the other Tower bosses.

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