Palworld

Apparently, this also explains feature differences between the Xbox and Steam versions on PC, Including why the PC game pass version of the game does not yet have DLSS support.

Palworld launched on January 19 in early access form on Steam as well as on Xbox and Windows PC, day-and-date with Game Pass. Palworld overtook CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 to set Steam’s fifth highest peak concurrent player count with 1,291,967 online at the same time on Valve’s platform. Palworld is currently the most-played game on Steam, ahead of behemoths Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. It is just the sixth game ever to hit one million concurrents on Steam.

IMO, Pocketpair has really smashed it with this one - hope the new revenue allows them to spend some time improving the game. Seen quite a few requests for voice actors being added to the NPCs as one example.

Thought I'd also add some FYIs here too:

• Palworld is on Game Pass for PC and Xbox, so you may already have access
• Multiplayer has been having a few issues with the load, may be worth considering joining or hosting a dedicated server if you plan to play with others. Singleplayer is unaffected by the server issues

Highlights:

In the 24 hours since the early access game came out it already eclipsed Starfield’s highest concurrent Steam player count

“We had an emergency meeting with the Epic Games team and had them add an update to the Epic Games backend at short notice. We have confirmed that this has resolved the connectivity errors and issues when hosting co-op games on Xbox and PC.”

The eggs may be underground. I went through like 5 cakes wondering what was going on until I walked up and "found" the new eggs under the pen

Here are some glitches I've found so far that are fun and interesting.

Food Refresh - Press sort or move your food outside your inventory. It will be back @ 10:00

Pal-Catch Jump - Throw a palsphere at any pal, then climb on top of the sphere. When it finishes shaking it will launch you flying into the sky - very goofy.

Synergies with the next glitch

Faster Sliding/Gliding - Press 'C' to slide. When you slide down an incline, you pick up radical speeds. You retain speed as long as you never start walking.

At max speed, feel free to jump into a glider and you will retain your speed. I recommend the Pal Killamari as it's the best glider as far as I've seen @ Lv. 18

... Finally, combine these two glitches. Find any of those Simba rocks jutting out of the ground or possibly use the bottom side of a roof ramp. Position your pal-capture underneath, then rocket into it. Inconsistent, but if you hit the right angle you will redirect your momentum horizontally.

Underwater Base - Reddit warning: Here is the source for this glitch. I've been under the ocean, but not in the rivers. Pretty cool!

Wall-Clip - I used Nitewing for this. Ride your pal next to a corner. The rougher, the better! Next, spin or wiggle then get off. Eventually you will clip through the wall.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS ON THE OTHER SIDE

Worth noting, you can skip dungeon boss rooms by doing this. Should be possible to do high level dungeons and get silly loot early on but idk what that even does at this point XD

You can also go up towards the ocean because dungeons are literally underground. I refuse to risk my pals for this science however.

Infinite (Horizontal) Flight - Mount your flying pal and rise into the sky. When you run out of stamina, demount into your glider. Before you run out, make sure you're close to the ground so you don't take fall damage!! SUPER IMPORTANT because swimming without stamina costs a lot of health. Your flying pal should be nearby; Hold E to summon it towards. It will now have full stamina. Repat~

That's all I know so far. Share more if you find anything cool!!!

I have heard it runs on steam deck, but nothing about Mac yet.

Palworld is a really interesting fusion of genres - creature collecting, FPS, and base / factory building.

The creature collecting elements are strong even this early in the game - obviously you want to collect as many unique species of pals as possible, but there is also heavy incentive to collect individuals of species you already have. Each pal has unique traits that impact its work speed, work preferences, or combat strength, so you can spend some time collecting ideal pals. You also get extra exp for your first ten captures of a species, which is extremely important for progression. Finally, Palworld pulls some inspiration from Pokemon Legends: Arceus and has what it calls "Lucky Pals" - effectively alpha pokemon. These have boosted work capacity and battle capability.

I am not a huge fan of FPS games, so I can't speak as to how good the FPS elements are compared to other games. The combat generally feels very good - the hitboxes are on point, attacks are fast enough to be scary to dodge without feeling impossible. The first boss felt like a bit of a health sponge. I ended up dealing the majority of my damage myself rather than relying on my pals, which felt a bit sad, but I might just not be using the right pals.

Base building is extremely fun! Picking which pals work is a complex and meaningful choice, and watching them run around and go about their day is lovely. There are some bugs in this arena, which is to be expected - sometimes pals that are collecting items will get stuck in a loop of picking the item up, dropping it, picking it up again, forever. Sometimes pals get stuck on terrain and have to be reset using the palbox. Sometimes pals ignore jobs - this seems to largely affect heating jobs and handiwork jobs.

At this point in the game, I'm heavily dependent on my pals picking the right thing to work on, or else losing a lot of time assigning them to stations that are only active sometimes. I hope to see some refinement in these systems - a way to prioritize work would be extremely helpful. It would also be great to be able to set resource levels - something like "Keep 200 berries". Pals would work berry farms until you hit 200 berries in storage, then stop. I'm hoping for the complexity of factory building to continue to increase.

All in all I am loving the game so far - it's a lot of fun even in its current early access state, and shows a lot of promise going into the future.