There are a variety of different types of Merchant spread across the islands of Palpagos. From Seeds to Ammo and everything between, there’s one who sells what you need. Here’s the rundown of all static Merchants, where to find them and what they sell. 

Whether you’re running low on ammunition while flush with gold or you just fancy a new piece of headgear, there’s a Merchant in Palpagos somewhere who likely has what you’re looking for. They’re technically called ‘Wandering Merchants’, but in opposition to their name they do not move, so they’re easy to find when you need something or have stuff to sell.  

Small Settlement Merchant

To find this Merchant, head to the Small Settlement just northwest of the starting location. Pass the level 30 PIDF Officer and run to the far end of the village. In the hut on the left-hand side, you’ll find this Merchant. He sells headpiece Schematics along with basic necessities for life in the wilderness.

Here’s everything you can get here, along with the price:

Duneshelter Merchants

You’ll need to level up a fair amount before you can realistically head to this settlement without being killed by the level 40-50 Pals in the surrounding area of Dessicated Desert. Once you’ve managed it, though, it’s well worth it. 

There are two merchants in Duneshelter, both offering different wares for sale. The Wandering Merchant in the green coat offers a variety of Schematics and Ammunition, while the Merchant in the red coat offers items to help you and your Pals survive in the wilds of Palpagos.

If you’ve ventured here ill-equipped and you’re struggling with the climate of the Dessicated Desert, you’ll find armor here to suit both the daytime heat and the nighttime cold.

Here’s everything for sale from the Merchant in the green coat in Duneshelter:

And here’s everything you can get from the Merchant in the red coat in Duneshelter:

Fisherman’s Point Merchants

You’ll find Fisherman’s Point on the Southern Coast of Mount Obsidian and just like the settlement in Duneshelter, you’ll need to get somewhere between level 40 and 50 to get here comfortably. 

There are two Merchants here as well, in the same red and green coats. They sell similar items to those that can be purchased in Duneshelter, with different headpiece Schematics being up for grabs and Skill Fruits that you may have a hard time finding otherwise.

Just like with the Merchant in Duneshelter, you’ll find some armor here to prepare you for the heat of the Volcano nearby.  

Here’s what you can get from the green coated Merchant in Fisherman’s Point:

Here’s what’s up for grabs from the Merchant in the red coat at Fisherman’s Point

There is a Pal Merchant in a blue coat at all three of these locations as well. Their ‘stock’ of Pals changes each time you teleport into the area, though, so you’re just going to have to check in with them to see whether you can get any Pals to add to your Deck.

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There are 135 Pals in Palworld if you count all of the variants as separate Pals, but players are obsessing over just one of them. Depresso is the living embodiment of adult life, and players can’t get enough of his less-than-enthusiastic approach to life and responsibilities. 

Why do people love Depresso?

Right from the moment you throw a ball at Depresso’s face and then proceed to force it into servitude at your base camp, the Pal’s demeanor just screams, “I don’t want to be here” and personally, I think that’s a feeling that everyone can relate to. 

Whether it's mining at the breakneck speed of one hit every two seconds or relaxing face down in the spring, Depresso encapsulates the commonly experienced feelings of many of the 8 million players of Palworld - we don’t want to do what we’re doing, but we have to, so we’ll do it while distracting ourselves by counting the hours until we can go to sleep. 

On that note, Depresso also shares another thing in common with most people over the age of 18 - he’s addicted to caffeine. His partner skill is “Caffeine Inoculation” and comes with the following description:

“When activated, Depresso drinks a massive amount of energy drinks, causing its movement speed to increase.”

Now I don’t know about you, but as someone who performs best after more than one cup of morning coffee, I’ve never felt so seen by a video game. 

Don’t let Depresso’s resting bitch face mislead you, though. According to the Pal’s description within the Paldeck, while he might not have many friends because of the ‘grouchy look on its face’, Depresso is actually very kind-hearted and will happily feed stray Vixy when they’ve strayed too far from their pack.

I can’t help but relate to this little dude and I’m glad to say I’m not alone in feeling that way. Players all over social media, from Twitter to YouTube, are sharing their love for Depresso. The term “Depresso cured my depression” has become more popular than anyone could have predicted.

And yes, I may be a little biased on this because I have a huge amount of love for Depresso, I’m addicted to caffeine and I’ve been told that I, too, have a serious case of resting bitch face, but he’s inspired fan art and compilation videos that bring joy to all those who see them and moments of comedy within the game that can’t be rivaled. I mean look at his animation for relaxing in the spring.

It’s not difficult to understand why this Pal has become so popular among players. He’s not only relatable but funny in that relatability. He doesn’t put up a front as many of us have to do on a daily basis and yet, he’s loved anyway. Isn’t that what we all want, at the end of the day?

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Tower Bosses in Palworld are tough to take down due to their powerful skills and massive health pools. It sure would be great if you can capture them, right? Actually, as of now, you can use a glitch or exploit to capture tower bosses in Palworld.

The glitch seems to have been discovered by a user on Reddit a few days ago. Following the patch on January 25 for both Steam and Xbox versions, the exploit still exists. I managed to capture two Zoe & Grizzbolt Tower Bosses for my Palworld team using the glitch.

Steps to capture tower bosses in Palworld using a glitch

I would say the best thing about this glitch is how simple it is to pull off. I attempted it four times and managed to capture two bosses, giving me a 50/50 chance to get away with it.

To get a boss on your team, you're going to have to break bad a bit. Your first step should be to go to a human town and assault one of the villagers or guards. This will give you a Wanted rating, making it so hostile PIDF Guards spawn around you. I suggest going to the Small Settlement to the west of the starting area:

Now that you're wanted, use the Fast Travel point to teleport to a Tower Boss and load into the boss fight. It's okay to skip the cutscene! I managed to get the glitch to work without having to watch the whole clip.

Get close to the boss to manipulate the PIDF Guards to shoot the boss instead of you:

If you do it right, the boss' attention will move from you to the guards. At that moment, throw a Pal Sphere (any will do) at the boss' back. Instead of a line saying that the boss is immune to capture, the exact opposite happens:

Congrats! You managed to capture yourself a Tower Bosses in Palworld using a glitch. You can add the boss to your team, and it'll come with the same skills and massive health pool. Zoe & Grizzbolt, for example, have 30,550 health points. Reddit users have claimed you can follow the steps to capture every boss in the game.

You will need to either die or respawn after catching the boss to "reset," so to speak, and then go back and get your stuff. But for the power of catching a brand-new boss? Seems like a decent trade-off.

Naturally, I expect Pocketpair to eventually remove the exploit from the game. It'll probably be wise to do so before the team adds PvP mode. Then again, having a version of PvP with nothing but bosses clashing would be kinda killer.

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After plenty of online speculation around whether it would actually happen, The Pokémon Company has released a statement about "another company's game" released in January 2024. And we can say what we're all thinking: Palworld.

Though the company doesn't name Palworld or Pocketpair outright, the assumption is that's what this statement is about, unless Prince of Persia has a super-secret stage I don't know about. But the statement says The Pokémon Company has received "many inquiries" regarding another company's game released in January 2024, and TPC says it intends to "investigate and take appropriate measures" to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property (IP) rights related to Pokémon.

"We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future," the company signs off.

I'm not your Pal, buddy

After what's felt like ages, in Internet time, of speculation over whether The Pokémon Company would take notice and do anything about the similarities between the Pals of Palworld and its own pocket monsters, this is at least a firm declaration that the company is paying attention.

I can't really speak to any legality for or against here, I just write the video game blogs. But I'd have to imagine that certain efforts like the Pokémon mod for Palworld didn't do much to douse the fuse on this powder keg.

We'll see now if Pocketpair makes any response, even though they weren't explicitly named. In a recent interview with Automaton, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe said: "We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies."

Other than that, we'll just have to wait and see whether TPC's investigation results in them taking any action. I used to think I'd always look back on the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard announcement as the most stunning start-of-year declaration, but now the War of the Monsters might give it a run for its money.

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With 6 million players and already proven popularity, Palworld players are expecting big things from Pocketpair. Our first glimpse of the Early Access roadmap for Palworld shows that the team is already working on even more content for the survival game.

Prior to the ridiculously successful launch of Palworld, Pocketpair promised a “one year roadmap” shortly after launch. Although this is more of a vague guideline of what’s to come, it gives a lot of hope for the future of Palworld.

At the top, Pocketpair confirms it's focusing on addressing "critical issues" with Palworld, prioritizing fixing those problems. This includes world date rollbacks and the loading screen persisting when trying to load into new worlds.

New Pals and areas to explore

Most importantly, at least in my opinion, the team at Pocketpair have promised the addition of new Pals to capture, though they’ve not given any hints as to how many will be added or how soon. 

They’ve also said that they’re looking to add more islands, which means that we’re not going to be short of new places to explore any time soon.

PvP and battle content

One of the most exciting updates is the chance to pit our Pals against other players. With their arsenal of weapons and special abilities, it could be entertaining to watch them duke it out.

Pocketpair have been very vocal about their desire to add PvP into the game and on Steam, they state that they’re already “testing PvP internally”, so this addition seems like may be coming sooner rather than later. 

They’re also looking to put Raid Bosses into the game, which will likely require multiple people in order to complete. There’s no word on how this will work yet.

Steam - Xbox Crossplay

Right now, players on Xbox cannot play with those who purchased the game on Steam, but that looks to be changing some time soon. That should make it easier for people across different platforms, including those on PC via Game Pass, to all party up.

In the same realm of updates, they’re also planning on implementing Server Transfers and Migration.

Pal trading

Pocketpair didn’t go into this too specifically, so we’re unsure whether you’ll need to be on the same server in order to exchange Pals to further your Pal Deck completion endeavors. But this should hopefully let you share around the captures, rather than keep them all to yourself. 

Building systems updates

Again, we weren’t given any specifics about what these updates would actually be, but here’s hoping that the roof building gets just a little bit less convoluted. On top of this, Pocketpair are also hoping to add more buildings and elements which play into the survival aspect of the game. 

Steam Workshop support

With the controversy surrounding the recently cancelled Pokémon mod, there definitely seems to be interest in adding onto the foundation of Palworld. So it’s no surprise to see that Pocketpair will be allowing Steam Workshop support for the modders within the now rather large community of players. 

Updates to Pal AI

I cannot reasonably write this part without mentioning my biggest complaint about the game - Pals have absolutely no idea how to organize anything and it drives me mad. 

Within the Roadmap, Pocketpair have said they’re going to be working on improvements to Pal AI. Whether this improvement will be to organization, preventing them from getting stuck inside of rocks (how do they always manage to do this?) or preventing the situation where my Lifmunk is trying to juggle 20 pieces of rock and failing miserably. Either way, I for one am looking forward to this particular update.

No dates were given for when these updates on the Palworld roadmap will start to arrive.

The post Palworld gets a new roadmap, with PvP and Raid Bosses in the works appeared first on Destructoid.

The Palworld Steam and Xbox/Game Pass version debacle continues thanks to patch 0.1.1.0 that arrived on January 23. To the surprise of many, including myself, Paldium Crystals got renamed to Ancient Civilization Parts in Palworld on Xbox and PC Game Pass.

To bring anyone confused up to the present, the Steam version of Palworld differs from the version on Xbox/PC Game Pass. Those playing the latter are actually a patch or two behind, even with the latest update.

According to developer Pocketpair, the reason is due to certification requirements. The Steam users are playing, 1.2.0, is still going through Microsoft certification. Presumably, as versions are certified, players of Palworld on Xbox will soon get caught up with their Steam friends.

Paldium Crystals are Ancient Civilization Parts, and another item needs them now

The two versions of Palworld are different in gradual ways. When the game launched, Xbox and Game Pass players were on version 0.1.0.0 as opposed to version 0.1.2.0 on Steam. The former version lacked some quality-of-life improvements such as faster crafting, and it also didn't have an option to quit the game. Really, I was forcing the game to quit after every session.

But things are slowly being brought up to par, and Xbox and Game Pass users are feeling the changes. As mentioned, Ancient Civilization Parts, materials earned by beating bosses, were called Paldium Crystals on Xbox until the patch.

But that's not all. Egg Incubators didn't require Ancient Civilization Parts to be crafted, but now they do — much to one player's chagrin. I also learned earlier today that the Statue of Power you can build for your base no longer needs an Ancient Technology point to unlock. You can build it at level 6 for 20 Stone and 10 Paldium Fragments.

There may be more instances of changed names or requirements, which will no doubt either confuse or annoy Xbox and Game Pass players. Hopefully, the two versions will soon be the same and we'll no longer have situations where I need to ask other Destructoid staff members what the name of those spark plug things are anymore.

What else does Palworld patch 0.1.0.0 bring?

Ignoring the aforementioned item changes, the patch doesn't really do a whole lot. A black screen issue is fixed for users on both Xbox and PC. For PC players specifically, here's what the patch does:

• Your controller is now recognized
• Key guide is now displayed correctly
• An exit button has been added to the main menu

The developer notes that bugs and sound issues have also been fixed.

The post PSA: Confusingly, Palworld Paldium Crystals are now Ancient Civilization Parts on Xbox and Game Pass appeared first on Destructoid.

As soon as the Internet first got its first look at juggernaut-to-be Palworld, many began accusing it of looking a lot like, well, let's not play that game — you know what I'm talking about.

Still, it seems as if it's not enough to quench all that thirst for Pokémon content, as YouTuber ToastedShoes posted a video of a modded version of the game, replacing the pals with Pokémon and making the main character Ash.

Mechanics-wise, Palworld seems to remain essentially the same, but it feels like a weird new thing. It's hard to avoid looking at Misty holding a shotgun and not think of the possibilities for a zombie apocalypse game set in the world of Pokémon.

The mod isn't out yet for everyone, but Nintendo has shown they're watching by immediately taking down ToastedShoes' original announcement of the mod. ToastedShoes claims he wants to give people access to the mod as soon as he sees fit.

This mod gives me all sorts of mixed feelings. Hurting pals might feel weird sometimes, but we've known them for what, not even a week? Vanilla Palworld allows players the excuse that Pals are trying to usurp the place that Pokémon have in our hearts to instill great violence upon them. Pokémon, on the other hand, are the creatures most of us grew up loving and not wanting to 360º quickscope.

That's why I feel much worse for laughing at the idea of clobbering a poor Wooloo to death and seeing it rolling down a hill like a ball than I would its Palworld counterpart.

The same goes for seeing Pikachus doing mining work. Shocking stuff — is what I would say if they were using their electric powers instead of those pickaxes.

Even though Palworld combines elements such as survival, building, gunplay, and the possibility of committing acts of unbridled cruelty, many still refer to it as just "Pokémon with guns". That's both reductive and dumb because the name Gunkémon was right there. You can now enjoy this wild ride on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox X|S.

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If you've stepped into the gaming world for even a yoctosecond these past few days, you'll have heard of Palworld. Maybe it's a bit cliché to say it's taking the industry by storm, but the data shows just how massive it's been in such a short span of time.

We've already spoken about how the game has been smashing Steam records, but the numbers just keep going up and up. At the time of writing, not only has Palworld surpassed 1.8 million players within the last few minutes, but it's also become the second-most-played Steam game ever, according to stats from SteamDB. This puts it ahead of Valve's own Counter-Strike 2.

On top of that, a recent tweet from the developer says the game has now sold more than six million copies. That's in the space of four days, remember?

Let me catch my breath, please!

I seriously can't keep up with the figures. Between pitching this story and writing these very words, Palworld seems to keep breaking expectations. By the time this article gets published, I'm anticipating news about how it's elevated itself above human comprehension and has taken over the very cosmos.

But how long can something like this last? It's not even been a week, but the number of people playing has exceeded what anyone could have predicted. It's knocked the Steam Deck off its number one spot, which is something that even the most hyped-up games struggle to do.

And the best part is, it is still in Early Access. It's pretty bug-ridden (it's straight up crashed my Xbox twice already, to the point where I thought it had bricked the console at one point), but there's something about a "Pokémon-with-guns" game that's got everyone talking. Surely the bubble will burst soon, yeah?

The post Palworld just keeps hitting milestone after milestone appeared first on Destructoid.

You may have noticed that at the bottom corner of your screen in Palworld, there is a string of numbers indicating what version you're playing. Steam and Xbox Game Pass have different versions, and here's why.

A report from Windows Central highlighted comments from Pocketpair reps in the Palworld Discord server. There, Pocketpair's community manager, Bucky, explained a bit about what's going on with the different versions. The problem is that every game's version has to go through Microsoft's certification queue. This is something Pocketpair has no control over, though the team is "desperately trying to speed up," it highlights on Discord.

It's argued that Xbox isn't necessarily "behind," but yet it is. Our list of differences demonstrates that this is the case. Nevertheless, you can enjoy the game on Xbox Game Pass without really noticing you're playing an earlier build.

Until features parity is reached, keep collecting Pals, building weapons, and having fun with this survival game that shocked the world by being one of 2024's first hits.

The post Palworld on Xbox and Steam have different versions – Here’s why appeared first on Destructoid.

Pocketpair, the devs behind the surprise record-obliterating Palworld, have just warned players about one specific bug that might seriously hinder their gameplay experience.

If you're familiar with the "Memory Reset Drug", which is used to reset character stats, take heed. The developers warn that there's a possibility that it can permanently reduce one's capture power.

Pocketpair says it's investigating this issue and advises players to refrain from, uh, doing drugs until they fix this issue.

The developers don't specify exactly how much of your capture power will go down if this bug knocks on your door, but we have to assume your capture abilities will take a non-negligible hit. This sucks, especially if you've already committed to using these, but as far as release bugs go, it could've been much worse.

Palworld has hit Steam and the Xbox Game Pass like a meteor — one of those from sci-fi tales that come full of wacky alien lifeforms. After not even 24 hours out, the Pokémon-inspired title was already doing numbers high to the point of dwarfing recent mega-hits such as Lethal Company.

Some Pokémon fans have been pretty vocal in accusing Palworld of being nothing more than an edgy clone, but whether or not you care for it, I find it very hard to ignore all of the awesome — albeit sometimes questionable — things that this new title brings to the table.

As for this bug, it's completely natural for issues such as this to hit a game on launch, and it's expected that it'll get fixed soon.

You can now capture cute animals and even human NPCs on Steam and the Xbox Game Pass.

The post Palworld devs warn about “impossible to recover from” bug appeared first on Destructoid.

Pocketpair's Palworld is a very pretty game with adorable creatures and hilarious moments that provide no end of fun for players. However, they’ve left out something that many Palworld players think would improve their gameplay experience - Photo mode. 

Within the first day of playing, I racked up 11 hours of adventure with my Pals and shared a lot of screenshots of my progress. I’m not alone, either. Over a million players joined the game within the first eight hours of the Beta being released and many of them are saying the same thing — why no photo mode?

Palworld desperately needs a photo mode

With seemingly endless wild areas to explore across a huge map with stunning scenery, it’s infuriating to try and take screenshots only to have the UI blocking half of the view. Take, for instance, this screenshot I took of this Desolate Church:

It’s beautiful, true, but wouldn’t it just be so much better without the Tutorial and menu infiltrating the vista? 

It’s not just the scenery that I’d love to take photos of, either. At one point, my Eikthyrdeer started complaining that he was hungry, and I couldn’t figure out why. There was plenty of food available, it wasn’t blocked and he wasn’t injured. But then I found him. Stuck in a tree:

It’s not just the UI itself that’s bothersome when trying to take photos, it’s the sheer amount of UI. Everything piles on top of each other to create what feels like a very cluttered and claustrophobic screen.

As I said, I’m not alone in dreaming of UI-free pictures of my Pals and the world around me on the Palapagos. Players on the Community Forum of Steam are practically begging for it too. 

The good news is that the game is in the very early stage of Beta, meaning that there’s no telling what could be added to the game over the coming months. Hopefully, seeing so many players asking for this feature will spur Pocketpair into implementing it. I’m sure that if we do, there will be a lot of stunning in-game shots coming our way in the future.

The post Palworld is missing one pretty big core feature: Photo mode appeared first on Destructoid.

It turns out that the idea of "Pokémon with guns" appears to be pretty popular. Pocket Pair, the developers behind Palworld, have announced that their fledgling title is already selling incredibly well.

How well, you ask? Well, the team revealed that sales for the newly released game have already crossed the million copies sold mark - and that was in just eight hours.

Described by the development team as a "monster-catching, survival and crafting game", Palworld just launched yesterday on Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview. It's also available for Xbox Game Pass, though the subscription service isn't typically accounted for in sales figures.

Momentum was strong for Palworld leading up to its release. The night before launch, the game was ranked third on Steam's Wishlist page. On top of that, the hodgepodge project is currently trending on X at the time of this article being published.

I describe Palworld as a hodgepodge project because it seems to borrow lots of different ideas from other notable games. In his recent impressions of the Early Access build, Destructoid's Eric Van Allen noted that on top of there being similarities to the Pokémon series, there are also elements of Breath of the Wild, Rust, Valheim, and Monster Hunter incorporated throughout too.

Again, Palworld will remain in an Early Access/Game Preview build for at least a year according to its Steam page. There are plenty of additions and changes that Pocket Pair plans to implement in the coming months. Amongst them will be new monsters to catch, new areas and dungeons to explore, fresh buildings and items for survival, and more. The development team also noted that they "are also considering incorporating entirely new game systems based on player feedback and ideas."

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I keep hitting refresh on the SteamDB page of Palworld. Each time I do, the numbers keep shooting up. Despite the fact that Pocketpick's new game has only come out today – in Early Access as well – the numbers suggest it's going to be a big hit.

When the third-party Steam tracking website posted on Twitter/X earlier, it said Palworld had already reached over 110,000 concurrent players. At the time of writing, that number has gone up to 329,563.

The Top Sellers list on Steam shows it's shot to the number two position (behind the Steam Deck, natch). While this isn't too unusual for a brand-new game that's got some hype behind it, it could well be a sign of things to come for the cute, Pokemon-inspired survival game.

What exactly is Palworld?

If you haven't heard of or are familiar with Palworld yet, don't worry. I wasn't until literally two days ago. If you want a nice breakdown of what the game's like and how it plays, a couple of our writers took a quick look at it.

The Steam page has this to say about it:

Fight, farm, build and work alongside mysterious creatures called "Pals" in this completely new multiplayer, open world survival and crafting game!

It has a little bit of everything, from what I can tell. Well, maybe not everything, but certainly enough for most gamers to get into. I must admit, I'm quietly curious myself. To such an extent that I'm currently downloading it through Xbox Game Pass. May as well, right?

The post Palworld is already seeing over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam appeared first on Destructoid.

There are a few games that seem to crop up at random trailer-filled showcases, promising something that looks so strange it's nigh-unbelievable. Sometimes, the trailers turn out a little too good to be true. Palworld, somehow, is not one of those.

Pocketpair's Palworld is about living on an island with a variety of mysterious, fantastical creatures called Pals. What you do from there is your choice; train them, use them to fight the evil poaching syndicate, or build an exploitative industry around them. Even sell or eat them, it's really your call.

To call this "Pokémon with guns" is fairly accurate, sure. Palworld wears its inspirations on its sleeves. It's also a bit more, and a bit stranger, than that concept would imply. So we here at Destructoid tasked two of our bravest adventurers, Eric and Zoey, with venturing deep into the Early Access build of Palworld to learn more. They are different people now than they were before, but they also know a fair amount about Palworld. Here are their takeaways.

Zoey Handley: More like a hostile acquaintance

Palworld is not my pal. I don’t mean to say that I think the game is of poor quality or I didn’t enjoy it. What I have played, I’ve certainly enjoyed. Palworld is less Pokémon with guns and more Ark: Survival Evolved with Pokémon. It’s a survival crafting game, and it succeeds in the way it manages to make hours disappear.

But it’s not my pal because it won’t let me play it. Every hour or so, Palworld hard crashes my computer. Straight up. Everything stops, I see a black screen, and I have to turn my PC back on.

I hate flashing my credentials, but I worked in I.T. for nine years. Troubleshooting a video game is a lot easier than remotely fixing a lawyer’s proprietary software. But Palworld didn’t give me a lot to go on. It doesn’t blue screen my PC. It just shuts it down entirely. There’s no minidump log, and the Windows event viewer doesn’t give a stop error. It just says, “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first.” I have very little data to figure out what’s going wrong. It’s like Palworld broke into my apartment and held down the power button on my PC until it did a hard shutdown.

It’s like clockwork. Everything works fine, and then it’s all over. Palworld at least saves often, so each time I re-entered the game, I didn’t have to repeat too much. I considered just playing through the crashes like I did when Fallout: New Vegas was new, but I’m concerned that too many hardware crashes would run the risk of corrupting portions of my hard drive.

I’m, therefore, hesitant to play any more of Palworld until there’s a patch for the game or a driver update for my GPU. That’s a shame because I started up the game just to check on something, and I really wanted to start playing. And then, on the main splash screen I noticed the message “Palworld is in Early Access. You may encounter bugs or crashes.”

That I certainly did.

I did enjoy the nearly three hours I played. As far as survival crafting games, it feels a bit simple. There is a nice twist of assigning captured Pals to your base to both hold the fort and take care of some of the chores.

Yep, it sure seems promising. I just wish I could play it.

Eric Van Allen: Oops, I built a factory

At some point, midway through crafting an Assault Rifle upgrade for my Grass-Type Pal Tanzee, I had to pause and reflect on what I had done. I was about to put a military rifle in the hands of a somewhat-sentient animal, a seemingly innocent and adorable creature, hoping it spraying bullets in a general direction would be the ace-in-the-hole I needed against a particularly tough boss trainer.

I considered it, decided it was cool, and went back to work.

That's been my takeaway from Palworld so far: a game full of surprises. Granted, I had only followed it through novelty up to this point. It was the game that would show up at an SGF or Game Awards or similar stream, and I'd remark it was the "Pokémon with guns game," and move on.

Yet part of me wanted to see if this would be a Days Before-esque disaster waiting to happen. Kudos to Pocketpair, this absolutely isn't. In fact, it's maybe one of the year's early surprises.

While Palworld has you catching monsters, it's not just about training and battling like its Game Freak-developed inspiration. And to be clear, I don't think it's a reach; everything about Palworld has a legally-distinct approximation vibe, down to the clever names, elemental typing, and even visual designs.

So after an hour or so of running around, catching monsters and seeing the open world expand, I figured that was the draw. There's not really a funnier moment in gaming, in recent memory, than realizing that to catch my first Pal, I'd have to beat them up with my own fists to weaken and capture it. A novel appeal, one that'd make for some funny videos on socials.

But it was once I started building out my base back home that I saw the real draw. Or maybe, at least, the draw for me.

While every Pal can be taken into combat and used as a sidekick, alongside your own create-a-character's martial capabilities, they can also be put to work back at your base. And as I dove deeper into the Work Suitability specialties that dictated each Pals' talents, and how those could automate production, I feel deep down the rabbit hole.

My sole focus was now building a humming, fine-tuned factory for producing goods and advancing technology. Like a Sid Meiers Civ gunning for the Science Victory, I was storming through the tech tree, building up a machine of Pal labor to get me there. Once-natural resources, like Stone and Wood, became hubs I could set adorable Cattivas to work on, accruing my precious resources.

I sought out Pals not for their combat prowess, but for what they could do for my base: transport goods, craft items, seed fields, and water the crops. As my workshops and buildings expanded, I constructed a small fort, and soon had to defend it against invaders.

What's impressive to me is that Palworld is pretty openly following in design footsteps. As much as there's Pokémon, especially Legends: Arceus, in this game, there's also Breath of the Wild and Rust, Valheim and Monster Hunter. And like a hearty stew, everything simmers right until it blends together.

I'm hesitant to pin any full appraisals to the game yet, as I've mostly wiled away the hours building a humming, ethically questionable hub of production and economy. It seems like there are bosses to conquer in some manner of story, and probably some formidable Pals to fight and win over. I'm just pleasantly surprised that Palworld not only works, but works so well. It's genuinely enjoyable, even for me, someone who takes a while to warm up to the survival genre. As a Dyson Sphere Program and Satisfactory fan, the engaging automation certainly helps.

We'll continue to follow Palworld as it develops throughout Early Access. But right now, Pocketpair has managed to both deliver on its surreal vision, and still create something that feels like more than just a novel "what-if" mash-up of ideas.

The post Palworld mixes monster catching, guns, and survival, and it mostly works appeared first on Destructoid.

Game Pass subscribers have had plenty to celebrate in January. The service saw some heavy hitters arrive in the first half of the month, including Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the Resident Evil 2 remake. But it's not done yet. More games are coming to Game Pass to round out January.

For fans of psychological horror, one such game is already available to download. Those Who Remain, a story-driven horror game, is now on Game Pass — as of January 16. The game did earn some rather mixed reviews when it launched in 2020 but now sits with a 'Mostly Positive' rating on Steam.

All the games coming to and leaving Game Pass in January 2024

Three games are heading to the service this week. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank and F1 23 are coming to Game Pass on January 18 for console and PC, with the former also available on the Cloud. Yep, after committing some tax evasion, I guess Turnip Boy needs to find a quick method to turn around some cash. I do wish the guy finds something less illegal to do in the future. On January 19 comes Palworld, the Pokémon-esque open-world adventure where your captured beasts can wield guns. Hell yes.

Microsoft included a few notable updates coming to the games this month. First, Dead By Daylight will receive Alan Wake content on January 30. Turbo Golf Racing's 'Pet Pack' and Naraka: Bladepoint's Season 11 Bundle are both available now.

Finally, we have a couple of games leaving the service on January 31. Get your final missions for Hitman: World of Assassination complete before the end of the month, because Agent 47 is on the next plane out of here. F1 2021 is also leaving EA Play.

The post Brotato and Palworld are joining Game Pass to round out January 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

Pocketpair has announced the date for the Early Access release of Palworld – the legally distinct Pokémon game with guns. It will launch on January 19. Accompanying the announcement is a new trailer.

Palworld is an open-world crafting survival game that features monsters extremely reminiscent of Nintendo’s Pokémon series. The twist is that rather than tame them through friendship, you blast them with an array of firepower. You’ll also need to do some base building to keep your Pals a place to eat and rest.

The trailer shows off some other… uh, trainers, who wield some legally distinct Pokeballs. Palworld allows for up to 32 players. PVP battles are planned but won’t be in the initial Early Access launch.

The derivative nature of Palworld’s concept sort of undermines the weirdness of it. However, I have to admit that recent looks into it have looked pretty fun. With something like this, I’d almost expect the devs to quickly spit something out to capitalize on the novelty of the concept, but that doesn’t look like what’s going on here. The developer seems to be taking their time in developing it.

On the other hand, Pocketpair doesn’t exactly have the best track record, but that’s not always the whole story. I’m at least curious enough to try it.

Palworld launches into Early Access on PC January 19, 2024.

The post Pokemon with guns game Palworld launches into Early Access January 19 appeared first on Destructoid.

That’s overt

As part of Summer Game Fest 2023, Pocketpair has shown off more of Palworld, a “multi-player, open world, survival, crafting game,” that is definitely looking just like “Pokemon with guns.” Just look at that art style. Beyond that, it’s been revealed that it will be released into Early Access in January 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXhfwoPJfm0

Along with this is a new trailer that hammers home how much Pokemon Palworld is going for. There’s fantasy, adventure, children, and then someone pulls out a minigun. I really can’t say I don’t see the appeal, but it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow at its intentionally derivative nature.

Palworld will be coming to PC via Early Access sometime in January 2024.

The post “Pokemon but with guns” Palworld is coming January 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.