How to Level Up Fast – Palworld

In Palworld, level defines everything. Not only do all Pals in your party cap out at your current Player Level (reducing their abilities to your level if they are higher), but seemingly everything – from Technology to player stats – is in some way tied to your level. Despite this, leveling in Palworld can seem extremely slow, especially for how common and difficulty higher-level Pals and Bosses are. 

But don’t despair! In this guide, we will explain the best methods to level your character, outlining the three best techniques to use and how to choose between them. By the end of this guide, you’ll be ready to rank up fast and take on challenges that would’ve been impossible otherwise.

—

Game Stages and Farming Methods

For the sake of clarity, let’s go over what each of the “stages” of game mean, as used in this article. These are not official designations, and the actual difference between each “stage” is arbitrary: you will need to decide for yourself where you are at in them. That said, here is how to tell roughly what stage of the game you are in:

• Early Game: This stage is where you are just starting your journey. You have acquired few pals (especially few Alpha Pals), most of the map is still unexplored, and you still only have a single base at Base Level 10 or lower. This stage extends until you are comfortable exploring the central islands of the game and have started a Secondary Base in more dangerous territory.
• Mid Game: By this point, you are established. You’ve beaten one or two bosses, you have a few Alpha Pals, you have two full operational bases (and might be starting a third Extreme Base), and you have mostly or completely explored the Central Islands and have started to explore the climate-dependent Extreme Islands.
• Late Game: At this point, you have almost completely explored the map, including the extreme zones. You have captured nearly all of the Alpha Pals at least once, have defeated the Tower Bosses, and have 3 Bases set up for max productivity across the Islands. Your primary remaining goals at this stage should be to complete your Technology Tree, and so your need for XP is higher than ever while your other goals are likely to have dwindled.

There are 3 primary ways to focus on leveling up in Palworld. All three of these are useful to try at any stage of the game, but each is more effective during certain parts of your journey (Early, Mid, or Late game).

• The Travel Method (Early Game): Focus on Exploration. This method sees players travel around, trying to activate Fast Travel points, acquire eggs and effigies, and capture common pals. It is most beneficial in the Early Game.
• The Capture Method (Mid Game): Capture sets of 10 Pals. This method focused on honing in on single targets, capturing 10 of each Pal in the wild to get XP bonuses while also filling out your Palbox and acquiring unique resources. It is most beneficial in the Mid Game.
• The Alpha Method (Late Game): Capture or Defeat Alphas. This method is the fastest way to get XP, and can most reliably be done after players have unlocked most of the map via Fast Travel and most gear they need. It focuses on capturing or defeating out Alpha Pals in a rotation to maximimize XP growth. It is most beneficial in the Late Game.

The Travel XP Farming Method (Early Game)

By far the slowest method of XP gain, you can opt to focus on traveling and capturing single instances of common Pals while you are still trying to level up. Since most Pals are non-hostile to begin with, and most hostile Pals can be avoided once you have a mount, this is an extremely safe method of grinding, even if it is not particularly fruitful.

To make best use of the Travel Method, you should capture the first instance of any given Pal you come across. Not only will this get you information on Pals that you can later use when base or party planning, but it is also much quicker to do than the Capture Method, letting you move on quickly so you can keep traveling.

The key advantage to the Travel Method in the early game, though, is that its focus on travel means you can very quickly unlock Fast Travel Points, find Effigies and Eggs, and set yourself up for a much easier game going forward. The ability to fast travel anywhere, have at least 1 instance of most Pals, and get your capture rate up via effigies will mean that anything you do going forward will be quicker, accelerating your progress going forward at the expense of slower leveling in the moment.

Another advantage of this method, especially early on, is that Fast Travel locations will always give you 1 Technology Point when you activate them, and so by activating as many as possible early on, you prevent yourself from becoming starved for points and can generally always count on having some spare for when you need to unlock something urgently.

The Capture XP Farming Method (Mid Game)

Capturing Pals is a quick way to earn XP in Palworld. The trick to this method is to focus on a single type of easy-to-find Pal at a time, and fighting them until you’ve captured 10 of them (getting the XP reward) before moving on to the next kind of Pal.

While it isn’t as fast as the Alpha Method, the Capture method is much more reliable, safe, and consistent: there are always Pals around, you don’t have to wait for respawn timers, and small groups of non-alpha Pals are rarely a danger to the player unless they are significantly higher level than they are.

This method also has the added benefit of quickly growing your stock of Pals and resources, since you get a Pal’s resources whenever you capture them. Because you are likely to be short on labor and rare, Pal-dropped resources in the mid-game – after you’ve explored most of the island and have a healthy base and Pal pool, this is often an excellent strategy to start with. If you find a Pal merchant, this method can also be exceedingly lucrative, as you can sell off most of the duplicate Pals you acquire for massive profit, to mention nothing of selling off excess drops.

The Alpha XP Farming Method (Late Game)

The fastest way to level, by far, is to capture or defeat Alpha Pals (and Tower Bosses) whenever you can. You should aim to take on Alpha Pals that are at or above your level, so long as you are strong enough to defeat them. In practice, a full party of player-level Pals can usually take on an Alpha that is 5-10 levels higher than them reliably, depending on difficulty.

This method does pose a risk, however. Not only are you likely to end up with Incapacitated Pals, but you are actually very likely to die yourself against powerful Alpha Pals, and should be cautious against any Alpha of a higher level than you, as their damage can easily wipe out a player’s health bar. General fighting tips are always useful, but primarily you should let your Pals do most of the fighting. It is better for a Pal to get knocked out than for you to be killed, after all.

 This method has the difficulty of requiring you to either explore or wait for Alpha Pals to respawn (either in the overworld or in dungeons), and that it doesn’t let you mutlitask much once you start facing off against Alpha’s you’ve already collected. By the late game (after you’ve explored the islands, captured most Pals 10 times, and defeated all bosses and Alphas at least once), this becomes essentially the only reliable method of XP acquisition.

The drawbacks to this method, including its danger, wait timers, and minimal productivity outside of XP generation, means that it is usually not best for the early game. While those who are just starting out should try to capture Alpha Pals when possible (and will likely gain a lot from doing so), farming them isn’t as lucrative or useful as the other methods of XP gain.

Now that you have the key to gaining XP at any stage of Palworld, you are all set to explore new horizons, fight more deadly enemies, and put a greater percent of the Pal population to work in your ever-expanding industrial operations. Nobody call PETA.