Palworld is getting better! Versions 0.4-0.6 review

I took a break from Palworld since the Feybreak update. But it felt fun to start a fresh world instead with all the changes I missed. Honestly, Palworld is getting better after the crossover with Tides of Terraria major update!

The outstanding surprise from new playthrough:

• We can create custom Pal parties similar to composing battle teams.
• They added Fencing! And the fences look amazing with the combination of pillars.
• There are heaps of new dungeon layouts and traps!
• New Pals!
• Version 0.4 Pal Labor Research Laboratory extends the game’s longevity by making use of Pal Expeditions. Furthermore the labor research unlocks many different perks such as increasing speeds to kindling, mining, lumbering etc., chance to generate more items from crafting, reduce expedition times, or increase expedition rewards. Some other invaluable perks include reduced electricity use, increased battery capacity, and handiwork perks. Your whole playthrough becomes a big project.
• Rampaging Pals in 0.4 adds new encounters in exploration. Loot Predator Cores for crafting. But they rarely spawn.
• 0.5’s addition of the official photo mode feature! This is such a great addition for Early Access.
• Higher level cap with more resources and tech! Indeed it’s a very good time to come back to 0.6 with the expansion of settlements, missions, and random events.
• They’ve added more passive skills. Yet Nocturnal is still a game changer passive skill. Remarkable Craftmanship (+75% Work Speed) will be a highly sought passive skill.
• In 0.6, Pals will have a Trust Mechanic: higher trust means higher stats. This boosts attack, defense, and even work speed stats. According to the change log, if a Pal with a weaker stat gains your higher trust, the adjustment will be greater. Hence weaker Pals will still shine!
• Just when I thought I couldn’t love Chillet even more! Chillet serves as a very fast mount on water. It swims very fast to Sanctuaries or Oil-rigs!
• And there’s fishing now! You can also build a fishing pond in the base!

The good additions:

• I have to mention that friends can join your server via cross-plays.
• The arena is a welcomed addition.
• The Pal Dimensional Storage adds 320 more Pal boxes and virtually removes worries of running out of space for new Pals.
• Your base gets different a type of visitor, the Pal Recruiter. And yes, we need more visitor types.
• I like that they’ve added Zoe’s story. Lily may be the next character to get a story and become a potential ally.
• Addition of more low-tier firearms: I like the AK47 with coarse bullets.
• Be able to loot Faction Schematics from raiding faction bases (or faction built camps on the map). Faction schematics are themed structures or props that you can build on your base.
• Building a Palbox Control device allows you to build another access point to your Palbox around your base.
• Drafting table can combine your blueprints to create higher tier items.
• Raid Faction bases scattered on the map to collect Faction schematics.
• Being able to replace a tile or a wall instead demolishing and rebuilding it.
• New plantations such as the Carrot, Onion and Potato plantations.

What I hope they improve:

• [Bug] Active Pals in your party attacks the visitor Pal Recruiter when set to Attack Aggressively while staying the base.
• Stacking plantations seems to be on the developer’s bug radar. It’s harder to stack plantations now. But it’s fine as I don’t stack plantations anymore.
• It seems that there’s a waypoint bug between the Palbox and stairs. An empty 1×1 tile before the stairs fixed the pathing bug.
• The game still needs to address its memory leaks and performance dips when the game runs long. I’m on an 8-pal base with a second floor at level 43. The base is not decked yet. I’m playing solo and I start out with at least 60fps but it gradually dips to 45fps when I get to my busy base.
• I completely misunderstood of how Zoe would be my ally. Although she is now an NPC on the map.
• There is still no auto-forward key!
• They still need to improve the way Pals satisfy their hunger in order to save trips to the Feedbox. It appears that Pals do not fully fill themselves while eating. They’ll eat a conservative amount of food and leave. I understand that this doesn’t exhaust the feedbox for the other Pals. But the game needs an algorithm for Pals to know that there’s plenty of food in the feedbox. And then they can proceed to fill their hunger. So alternatively, I need to place more feedboxes closer to work areas or provide better food items.
• Certain tech needs to be unlocked now through story progression or through the Pal Labor Research Laboratory first. Then you’ll need to spend those Technology Points.
• Chillet still has no paw pads!

The Verdict

The three major updates have added a ton of content that made me happily fall behind. Moreover the updates are steering the game toward the right direction. I’m reading feedbacks that the developers are listening to the players.

Still I mentioned some things that I wish they improved such as the Pal’s hunger meter in the base. Perhaps I should write on how to make Palworld even better. Though imagine this much content in 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6. How about 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9? We’re already seeing more and more islands on the world map. That is if Palworld keeps up this trend of incremental update toward version 1.0.