Catching Pals in Palworld: Spheres and Capture, Officially
Contents
Catching Pals is Palworld’s central mechanic, and everything else in the game rests on it: no tamed Pals means no combat support and no automated base. Here’s what’s officially confirmed by the Steam page and Pocketpair’s official developer page.
The basic capture mechanic
Steam’s phrasing is direct: you use Pal Spheres to capture weakened creatures and turn them into allies. That breaks down into two officially confirmed steps:
- Weakening. Before capture, the creature needs to be brought down to a state where it can be tamed — combat or some other way of lowering its resistance is a required part of the process, not an optional one.
- Throwing the sphere. The sphere itself is the tool that locks in the taming. The design mirrors the recognizable “creature capture” genre mechanic, though the official pages we checked don’t list specific sphere types or their individual stats.
What actually happens under the hood — the exact capture-chance formulas, or how weapons affect the weakening process — hasn’t been publicly disclosed by the developer on any official page we checked.
How many Pals are in the game
There’s a discrepancy between two official sources here, and it’s worth being upfront about it. Pocketpair’s marketing page says “Discover 200+ distinct Pals” — a rounded phrase typical of promotional copy. Meanwhile, the official 1.0 release changelog gives an exact figure: the update added 72 new Pals, bringing the total to 287. That suggests the “over 200” phrase on Pocketpair’s page most likely hasn’t been refreshed to reflect the current post-1.0 state — but since both statements genuinely appear on official pages, we’re reporting both honestly rather than picking one to match the other.
Where to look for rare Pals
1.0 reworked Wildlife Sanctuaries — according to the official description, they’re now protected areas with defense drones and spotlights. Players are offered a choice of approach: stay hidden or go in against the guards directly. Going by the logic of how these zones were introduced in 1.0, that’s also where the rarer Pals tend to concentrate — we cover the details of the new post-1.0 locations in our piece on Palworld’s major updates.
What happens to Pals after capture
Capturing a Pal is just the first step. From there, a Pal either travels with you as a companion or stays behind to work at your base. We cover the second option in more detail in our piece on base building and Pal work. Breeding already-tamed Pals with each other is a separate system, covered in our piece on Pal breeding.
What is officially not stated
- A complete list of all 287 Pals with names and stats isn’t published on the official pages we checked — that’s more of a wiki-level resource than something a developer’s marketing page provides.
- The capture-chance formula (whether sphere type, Pal level, or weapon matters) isn’t officially disclosed.
- The reason for the “200+” vs. “287” discrepancy — whether it’s simply a stale marketing phrase or an intentional rounding — hasn’t been separately addressed by the developer.
- The types of capture spheres and how they differ from each other aren’t detailed on the official pages.
If you come across a specific capture-chance percentage for a given Pal somewhere online, that’s community or data-mining research, not an official confirmation from Pocketpair.
Frequently asked questions
How many Pals are there in Palworld?
After the 1.0 release, the official Steam changelog lists a total of 287 Pals — the update added 72 new ones. Pocketpair's marketing page still uses the rounded phrase "over 200 unique Pals," which, going by the wording, looks like it hasn't been updated to match the current figure.
How do you actually capture a Pal?
The official description says you first weaken the creature, then throw a Pal Sphere at it to tame it. The developer doesn't publish exact numbers on success chance or sphere types on the pages we checked.
Can you catch Pals inside Wildlife Sanctuaries?
Yes, and rare Pals often live there. In 1.0, these zones were reworked into protected areas with defense drones and spotlights — meaning the approach to catching Pals there now involves either staying hidden or fighting the guards head-on.
Are all Pals aggressive?
The official description doesn't break this down directly. Going by the phrasing about "weakened creatures," the game's logic implies combat or at least weakening before capture, but there's no detailed breakdown of species behavior on the pages we checked.
Does the type of Pal affect how you can use it?
Yes, Pocketpair's official description mentions Pals can serve as combat support, transportation, or workers at your base — the exact use depends on the species, but there's no detailed classification on the official pages.