Best starter Pals to catch in Palworld's early game

There are more than 100 creatures to discover in Palworld, but you'll only have access to a limited range in the early game environments - so here are the best starter Pals to add to your team.

When you first spawn in the Palpagos Islands, you'll have nothing but the flimsy cloth that's draped around your body. If you want to build up a strong base, farm resources, and level up fast in the game, you'll need a solid team of Pals to do the work for you.

Best starter Pals to catch in the early game

1. Cattiva

The first three Pals you'll come across in Palworld's starting area are Cattiva, Lamball, and Chikipi. While there's no reason you can't catch all three of them, the most useful one is definitely Cattiva. Each one you have on your team will enhance your Weight stat by 50 so you can carry loads more resources.

Another reason why Cattiva is such a good starter Pal is how useful it will be when deployed as a worker on your base. While my Chikipi waddled around doing nothing, Cattiva was hard at work farming Stone from nearby rocks so I had a huge supply to craft Pal Spheres and build essential workstations.

2. Foxparks

This fiery fox is a fun offensive addition to your team, mainly because you can use it as a flamethrower - which you may have seen in the game's trailers. To do this, you'll need to unlock Foxparks' Harness with Ancient Technology Points (available at Level 6) and craft it using a Pal Gear Workbench.

Foxparks is also an ideal starter Pal for your base, as the Kindling work trait means it can use its fiery breath to cook food and light any torches you place around your camp. This is especially important at night time when the darkness and cold can make wandering around quite dangerous.

3. Melpaca

Up next we have Melpaca, the adorable pastel-coloured alpaca-inspired creature that can be found when venturing a little further north of the starting area. Not only will it likely be a higher level than your current team members, but it's also the first Pal in the game that you can ride.

Before you can do this, you'll need to reach Level 7 and spend an Ancient Technology Point to unlock Melpaca's Saddle. You'll also need a Pal Gear Workbench (unlocked at Level 6) and enough resources to craft the saddle - but it's all worth it to have a mount to run around on!

4. Daedream

If you're brave enough to enter the cave near Rayne Syndicate Tower, you might just encounter a Daedream or two. These floating creatures are one of the first Dark-type Pals you'll be able to catch, which is important because having a variety of elemental types on your team is key to overcoming any opponent.

Once you unlock Daedream's Necklace from the Ancient Technology menu, it will follow you around and attack opponents even when you've not let it out of its Pal Sphere. If you have multiple Daedream's in your team, they'll all do the same - meaning you can have a squad of Daedream's attacking all at once!

While this ability is pretty OP in the early game, it can be frustrating when you're trying to catch a Pal in the wild, as you won't be able to stop your Daedream from attacking them. For this reason, it's best to leave them in your Pal Box when heading out to catch new Pals.

5. Eikthrydeer

If you're looking to level up from your Melpaca, then Eikthrydeer is the way to go. It's harder to catch than the aforementioned alpaca, but it makes up for that by being strong in battle and also - let's face it - much cooler to ride around on. You can craft its saddle when you reach Level 12.

Another reason I like Eikthrydeer so much is that it's one of the first Pals you encounter who has the Lumbering work trait. This means you can set it to work on a Logging Site at your base to constantly farm Wood, saving you the effort of chopping down trees when you need to craft items.

There are definitely better Pals to catch later on in the game, including mounts that let you fly and dragons that deal huge damage, but these are the top five Pals that I would consider to be 'early game'. Hopefully they help you out!

That's everything you need to know about the best starter Pals. Visit our Palworld homepage for more guides like the recommend specs for PC, how to play multiplayer, and whether Pals can evolve or not.