Palworld: Known bugs and how to avoid them

Palworld is still in its Early Access stage, and bugs are plentiful in this stage of development. Pocketpair released multiple patches since day one, but there are still some game-breaking bugs that can seriously affect your experience. Other bugs can cost you hours of progress, which is always frustrating for anyone with a high-level character. Luckily, many of these can be avoided while waiting for Pocketpair to address these issues. In the meantime, here are the glitches still in the game at the time of writing and how they can be avoided.

Save file corruption

• One of the biggest game-breaking bugs in Palworld where save files could be deleted or corrupted after a crash. Since the game still suffers from crashes, this can put your saves at risk anytime.
  • Keeping a backup save often is highly advisable to ensure that your progress isn’t permanently lost. However, if you wish to restore your saves, first disable Steam Cloud Saving since cloud saves are inaccessible to your PC. Next, follow this file path to your save: “C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Pal\Saved\SaveGames” Find a folder with random letters and numbers since this is where your Backup folder is located. Once inside the Backup folder, enter the “World” folder. Go to the file with the second or third most recent timestamp and copy the “Players” folder, level.sav, and levelmeta.sav files within. Paste these files in the Backup folder, and when prompted to replace existing files, click Yes.
  • If you’re playing on Xbox Game Pass, uninstalling and reinstalling the game may fix the issue.

Endless loading screen

• This is a server side issue as Palworld’s servers are loaded to maximum capacity. Since the game has become very popular, many players are attempting to join its servers, which are at their limit.
  • Playing the game at quieter periods of the day can increase your chances of lowering load times. Resetting your internet connection may also help with connecting to Palworld servers faster. You may also delete Palworld’s cache files, which is in the following file path: “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local” Once you delete the Pal cache file, go to your game client where Palworld is located (either Steam or Xbox) and use the “Verify game file integrity” option for that client.

Items permanently lost on drowning

• When swimming, stamina is consumed; when it runs out, the player will take damage until they drown. The intended effect was for the items to be dropped near the last solid ground location that the player stood on before landing on water. Since there is no terrain or any surface for the item to be placed, the items that usually drop on death are lost forever.
  • Reloading a previous save will prevent the permanent loss of items. Always bring a flying and swimming mount to avoid player stamina consumption, especially in larger bodies of water.

Pals stuck in combat mode in certain terrain

• There is an issue with Pals fighting off base raids and staying stuck in combat mode despite the raid ending and being ordered back to work mode. This is caused by an enemy Pal clipping through the terrain, which prevents combat from ever resolving. The issue persists even after recalling it to the Palbox or logging back in.
  • This can be prevented by building a base on open areas with little terrain. An alternate solution would be to lure a hostile Pal to your base and have your base Pals fight it.

Capture Power permanently lost on Memory Reset Drug respec

• The Memory Drug is the only means for players to reallocate their stats if they’re unsatisfied with their current build. However, Capture Power gained from Statues of Power will also be reset, and since this stat is not allocated by normal means, your Capture Power is lost forever, making capturing high-level Pals extremely difficult.
  • Pocket Pair issued a statement to avoid using the Memory Reset Drug until they can release a fix for this bug.

Pals not fighting during combat

• There is an issue that Pals in your team will simply drop their aggro in a fight for no discernible reason in the middle of a fight. This is caused by a conflict of AI tasking between your worker Pals back at base and your combat Pals, which may cause the AI to glitch out.
  • Reloading a previous save may alleviate the issue. For prevention, lowering the item spawn count on the server is a possible solution. Disabling tasks on your base before fighting can also prevent this bug.

Desert terrain with no collision

• There are some spots on the desert biome that lack any collision, which causes players to fall through the map and drown on the water beneath the area.
  • Bringing a flying mount is essential for exploring the desert. Its easy to spot the areas that are affected by their muddy-looking texture and visual gaps in the ground.

Pal base AI glitches

• Clipping, pathing, and unresponsive AI are some of the issues Worker Pals face when it comes to base management. These include Pals not automatically defending the base during a raid, not picking up resources despite having full SAN, and AI pathing issues.
  • Your base layout is important to lower the chances of Pal AI malfunctioning. If the layout of the base is too tight or compact with obstacles, this could affect their pathing, Building your base on an open area with enough space for your Pals to navigate without problems.

While Pocket Pair continues to work in polishing Palworld and ironing out its bugs, taking extra caution ensures that your playtime continues unhindered by any inconveniences, Stay tuned to Palworld’s official Twitter for their upcoming fixes as they complete their development roadmap.