Palworld deserves kudos for actually following up on its success with bug fixes—Pocketpair now has the unenviable task of matching the sudden, unanticipated expectations that come with an indie breakout success with further support. The team’s stated mission goal on its roadmap—primarily a focus on squashing game-breaking bugs—is getting done.

Patch v.0.1.4.0 aims to fix some major issues. For starters, your mates can no longer steal your pals if they’re below 30% HP with a pal sphere—which is a relief, especially the targeting on those things is a touch wonky, making accidental pal napping (or in my case, pissing off a big mammoth that kills you) a real possibility.

There’s been a whole Paldeck of attempts to curb game crashes, including one save-melting bug that would brick games after “the total number of captured objects exceeds 7000”. This won’t revert any already-corrupted saves, though Pocketpair is “continuing to work on fixing this issue permanently.”

Another major issue that’s been squashed is the game’s respec system—achieved via “memory reset drugs”, which would disappear your characters hard-earned Pal capture bonuses obtained from Lifmunk Effigies. 

In terms of quality of life improvements, you’ll now also be able to “move at extremely low speed even when you have exceeded the weight limit”. Previously you’d just be rooted to the spot, forcing players to work around it with a glitch. Said glitch is still worth doing, though—our own Dave Jones tells me it still works at the time of writing, and it’s a lot faster than the intended method.

I think my favourite notes here, however, are the changes to the AI of the pals themselves—not because of the fixes, though they’re welcome. But because the whole thing reads like those Sims updates which need to emphasise that no, your Sims aren’t supposed to spontaneously wish to “Become enemy with child”.

Pals will no longer suffer executive dysfunction issues and “drop their items on the spot” while transporting them, cut down phantom ghost trees, nearly die to “unexplained falling damage”, float into the air like they’re being summoned for the rapture, or starve themselves to death on first-floor farms like the Sims I accidentally killed as a kid because didn’t put an exit ladder as well as an entry ladder in a swimming pool. I’m not still upset about that years later, honest.

Pocketpair’s current prerogative remains on playing whack-a-mole with the game’s bugs: “We will continue development placing top priority on fixing major problems and issues.” Regardless of your stance on the game, it is genuinely nice to see it getting support—though 2 million concurrent players is a pretty effective motivator for any studio. You can find a full list of the patch notes below.

Major fixes

• Fixed an issue where the game would crash under certain conditions
• Fixed an issue where if another player’s pal/base pal had HP 30% or less, it could be captured by using a sphere.
• Fixed an issue where enemy pals would get stuck in walls due to charge attacks.
• Implemented the first fix for an issue where the game would always crash and save data would be corrupted when the guild’s total number of pals captured reached around 7000.

*The game no longer crashes even if the total number of captured objects exceeds 7000. However, save data that has already been in this state (in the case of a server, the server’s world data) prior to this update will still be unable to load. We are continuing to work on fixing this issue permanently.

Key Configuration

• Added support for mouse side keys and numeric keypad in keyboard key configuration.

*Further improvements are currently planned, such as support for interact key configuration.

Player Issues

• Fixed an issue where players on dedicated servers and co-op (online) were receiving damage twice.
• Specifications have been changed so that you can move at extremely low speed even when you have exceeded the weight limit.
• Players will no longer pass through walls when dismounting.
• Fixed an issue where capture power strengthened by Lifmunk Effigies was reset when using memory reset drugs.
• Fixed an issue where armor could be equipped in the wrong slot.
• Adjusted camera positions of several Pals to make it easier to see when mounted.

Base Issues

• Specifications have been changed so that Pals who are manually assigned to a breeding farm will not become hungry and their manual assignments will not be removed.
• The key to lift Pals has been changed from F → V (Pad: X → Y) in order to prevent accidents.
• Reduced the speed and range of fire spreading on wooden buildings.
• Fixed an issue where manual work assignments could not be set at all under certain circumstances.
• Fixed an issue where extremely high-level Relaxaurus would attack the base during raids.
• Added several measures to prevent base Pals from getting stuck.
• Fixed an issue where Pals would get stuck while transporting items and would drop them on the spot.
• Fixed an issue where Pals at the base would continue to cut down trees that were already cut.
• Fixed an issue where Pals at the base were on the verge of death due to unexplained falling damage.
• Fixed an issue where Pals at the base would float under some conditions.
• Fixed an issue where if a farm was built on the second floor or above, work pals would be unable to move on the floors below.

Other

• Corrected incorrect text
• Measures have been added to prevent cheating and stealing other players’ Pals.
• Many other minor fixes such as the addition of a UI key guide.

We will continue development placing top priority on fixing major problems and issues. Thank you for your continued support of Palworld.