Pal Capturing Guide

Capturing pals is an integral part of the game and is practically required in the early tutorial sections of the game. Capturing pals in the game is not just as straightforward as throwing pal spheres at them; there are some factors that you need to consider that will increase your chances of capturing pals successfully. In this article, we will provide tips on how to effectively increase your chances of capturing pals in the game.

Pal Spheres

Pal spheres are necessary for capturing wild pals in the wild. Similar to Pokemon and its wide variety of Pokeballs, Palworld also has a good number of Pal Spheres that you need to craft and carry in order to capture Pals on different level ranges. When playing on the PC, you can press and hold the Pal Sphere button (Q by default) to see the base capture rate on the pal you're targeting before throwing the sphere. This capture rate will increase based on several factors that we will discuss further below. If you don't want to waste your spheres, you can always cancel the throw stance by pressing the right-click button on your mouse.

Pal Sphere Types

Stronger pals will automatically deflect low-tier spheres thrown at them or when they're completely agitated. When the latter happens, you just need to attack them and keep lowering their HP so you can try again. If the spheres you're using are significantly lower tier than the pal you're attempting to capture (like using the blue pal sphere against a Legendary pal), the pal will automatically deflect the sphere as well and you'll get a notification to use a different sphere instead. It is actually recommended to carry several types of spheres since they don't weigh that much anyway. You can also cycle through the different types of spheres in your inventory by pressing the [2] key on your keyboard.

Crafting Pal Spheres

You can conveniently craft your pal spheres back in your base. Regular pal spheres will only require a Primitive Workbench but higher-tier spheres will require Sphere Workbench, Sphere Assembly Line I, and Sphere Assembly Line II later on. Once you have unlocked the Sphere Assembly Lines, you'll be able to craft pal spheres in bulk. Several pals with Handiwork skill can also band together to rapidly produce your spheres, as long as you have enough resources to do so.

Aside from that, you also need to spend technology points to unlock the higher-tier spheres, as listed below:

Other Sources of Pal Spheres

Aside from crafting, you can also obtain pal spheres from various sources such as:

• Picking them up from the ground: You can find Pal Spheres on the ground while exploring. The tier of pal spheres you can get will depend on the area's average pal level.
• Loot from chests: as you open various treasure chests, you can collect spheres as well. The tier of the spheres you can get will depend on the rarity of the chest you opened.
• Loot from NPCs: Killing human enemies (like Syndicate members) will drop loot bags that may sometimes contain pal spheres. The tier of spheres you can obtain will depend on the NPC's level and the number of spheres you can get will depend on the level and drop multiplier you have enabled in your setting.

Increasing Capture Success Rate

Here are some factors that can affect your success rate. Take note that these will only be applicable to wild pals and alpha pals - not tower bosses. There's a method before to capture these special bosses and their overpowered pals through mods or exploits but it seems that this "bug" was inadvertently fixed by the developers in the recent update.

Character Level and Base Capture Rate

You can increase your base capture rate by toggling the world settings (before launching your world) and by increasing your capture level by offering Lifmunk Effigies to any Statue of Power. Your level will have some effect on the capture rate as well. For example, if you're around LV25 for example, it will be somewhat easier to capture low level pals even if they have full health. However, your end game goal is still collecting effigies and leveling up your base capture rate in order to increase your chances especially when trying to capture high level pals and alpha pals.

Lower their HP

Similar to Pokemon, it will be a bit easier to capture pals the lower their HP becomes. Just make sure to recall your pal when you're fighting with them to prevent them from killing the pal you wanted to capture accidentally. It's also a good idea to carry weaker weapons around (depending on the average level of pals you want to capture) so that you won't take them out in one shot or hit and you can carefully get their HP as low as possible to maximize your capture chance.

Immobilizing Pals

When throwing pal spheres, they must hit the pal in order to attempt capturing it. Missing your throw will waste the pal sphere (which will suck especially when you're using high-tier spheres). To increase your chances of hitting a pal, you must consider the following:

• Distance: The closer you are, the more likely you'll hit the pal with your thrown sphere.
• Attack animation: Avoid throwing your sphere when the target pal is at the beginning or already doing its attack animation. Unless you're familiar with the pal's moves, it's better to let them finish their attack animation before throwing your sphere to make sure that the pal won't dash past you or change their position.
• Frozen or Stun: One way to immobilize enemy pals is by summoning pals that can use skills that apply freeze or stun status. Alternatively, you can also spend tech points to unlock elemental grenades (ice and shock grenades) or get the Stun Baton. The Stun Baton is a melee weapon that doesn't deal that much damage but will easily electrocute a pal hit with it.
• Use Mines and Traps: There are elemental mines that can freeze and shock enemies as well as traps that can immobilize enemies. However, they're not as versatile as grenades and weapons.