How to keep your Pals happy in Palworld

Keep your fluffy friends happy, healthy, and ready to work.

An image of a group of Lamballs from Palword
Image via Pocket Pair

Your Pals in Palworld can be an invaluable asset to your crafting, exploring, and resource harvesting, as well as being cute and cuddly companions. However, if you don’t look after them properly, they might become unhappy.

Recommended Videos

Palworld is a game that throws you in at the deep end with very few tutorials, so a lot of the mechanics and gameplay are learned as you go, including how to maintain the happiness of your Pals. With this in mind, we are going to be looking at everything you can do to keep your Pals happy, healthy, and mentally stable.

What is Pal Sanity in Palworld?

An in-game screenshot of the player character petting Cremis in Palworld
Why would you not want to keep these precious babies happy? Screenshot by Dot Esports.

When it comes to maintaining the happiness of your Pal, you need to understand Pal Sanity. Each Pal has their own Sanity meter, and—as the name suggests—it relates to the mental well-being of the Pal in question. You can see the Sanity number above the head of each Pal, with a number that depicts the Pal’s current level of Sanity.

Pals with a high Sanity meter will be motivated to continue their tasks around your base and work their best. As the meter depletes, they will be less inclined to work and become unproductive. The Sanity meter is a good way to keep track of each Pal’s happiness and healthiness, so keep an eye on it at all times. 

How does the Pal Sanity meter decrease in Palworld

An in-game screenshot of a sleeping Cattiva in Palworld
The red lines above a Pal’s head will appear when they are unhappy. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Several conditions can affect your Pal’s Sanity meter and lead to various conditions such as Depression, Hunger, and Exhaustion. Keeping your Pals from suffering from these conditions is the key to maintaining their happiness.

Increasing and maintaining your Pal’s Sanity Meter in Palworld

Feeding Pals and building a Feed Box

An in-game screenshot of the Feed Box from Palworld
Pals will go to the box and feed themselves if you keep it well stocked. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Hunger is one of the conditions that will keep popping up regularly in Palworld for both yourself and your Pals. You can manually feed your Pals by selecting a food item in your inventory and choosing a Pal, or by selecting the Feed Pal option on the command wheel. But Pals will feed themselves automatically when you have a Feed Box.

Once you have reached level four, you will be able to craft a Feed Box using 20 Wood. When it is built and placed in your base, interact with the Feed Box to add food. To do this, drag the food you have in your inventory into the Feed Box.

An in-game screenshot of the player transferring food into the Feed Box from Palworld
Grab your food item from your inventory and move it to the Feed Box to stock it. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

When it comes to what to feed your Pals, you can go with simpler options, such as Red Berries (you can build a Berry Plantation with 20 Wood, 20 Stone, and three Berry Seeds to grow berries relatively early), but this won’t always be enough to keep some Pals sustained for long.

Make sure you have a campfire in your base so you can cook slightly more advanced meals, as these will be preferable for some Pals. There are other kinds of foods that you will be able to make once you have discovered the ingredients, but don’t forget to cook up the raw ingredients and add them to the Feed Box so that your Pals can feed themselves. 

Feed Bags

Small Feed Bag recipe in Palworld
The Feed Bags automate the feeding process. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Another way to keep your Pals fed and happy is by unlocking the Feed Bag item, which allows you to automatically feed both yourself and your Pals when hungry without having to keep navigating to your inventory to do so or constantly restocking the Feed Box. 

There are several different kinds of Feed Bags, with the more advanced versions unlocking more food slots for automatic consumption. You will need to unlock the recipes to craft the Feed Bags by earning Ancient Technology Points, as they are an Ancient Technology item. These points can be gained by defeating bosses. 

Building Beds 

An in-game screenshot of various Pals sleeping in Palworld
Sleep peacefully, my fur babies. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

To avoid exhaustion and discomfort, your Pals will need beds to sleep on. If they have beds, they will be well-rested and comfortable, so you will need a bed for each Pal that is roaming in your base. The first Pal bed you can craft in the game is the Straw Pal Bed, which can be unlocked in the Technology tab. 

When you get to level 24, you will be able to craft a better bed—the Fluffy Pal Bed—which will increase the amount of Sanity and the HP your Pal will recharge while sleeping.

An in-game screenshot of the player creating a Pal bed from Palworld.
The Straw Pal bed is the easiest bed you can make for your Pals. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

You will also be able to unlock larger Pal beds for your bigger Pals further down the line, so they too can sleep more comfortably and recharge their HP and Sanity. 

Build your Pals a Hot Spring

An in-game screenshot of Lifmun in the Hot Springs in Palworld
The Hot Springs is a place for your Pals to unwind. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

While sleeping and eating are good ways to keep your Pal’s basic needs taken care of, their hard work can be rewarded with a special treat when you reach level nine. You’ll be able to unlock the Hot Springs from the Technology tab, which is a great way for your Pals to chill out, relax, and regenerate their Sanity meter. 

Cure Sick or Injured Pals

A crafting menu in Palworld with Medical Supplies highlighted.
Treating your sick Pals is a must to keep them happy. Screenshot by Dot Esports

When your Pal’s Sanity meter starts to deplete, there is a chance that they could become Sick, Injured, Overfull, Weakened, or even Depressed. You can help them with these ailments by giving them medicine.  

You can begin to craft your own medicines when you have unlocked the Medieval Medicine Workbench at level 12. You will need 30 Wood, 10 Paldium Fragments, and 5 Nails to craft it.

When you have the Medieval Medicine Workbench unlocked, you can use Pals who are skilled in Medicine Production to help you craft various medicines to aid Pals with ailments (and yourself if it is needed).

Give your Pals cuddles

An in game image of the player petting Foxsparks from Palworld
Give them all the pets. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

You can pet any of your Pals by accessing the Pal wheel and hovering over the “Pet” option. This will give you the chance to give your Pals some well-deserved pets, and they will be grateful for the love. You will know when your Pal is happy from pets—or in general—as some cute graphics will appear around their head. 

Let them rest in the Palbox

An in game screenshot of the Palbox from Palworld
Let your Pals chill in the Palbox to get some rest and recuperation. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Last but not least, you can simply return the suffering Pal to the Palbox to give them a break. They will regenerate health and Sanity while in the Palbox, so don’t forget to swap out the Pals in the box with your Pals in the base from time to time so that everyone gets a chance to rest. 

So there you have everything you need to know about keeping your Pals happy in Palworld. Keep your Pals happy, and they will repay you for it with hard work, love, and lots of cuteness. 

Author
Image of Antonia Haynes
Antonia Haynes
Antonia Haynes is a freelance general gaming writer for Dot Esports who resides in a small seaside town in England where she has lived her whole life. Beginning her video game writing career back in 2014, and having an avid love of gaming since childhood, she became a staff writer in 2018 before becoming freelance in 2023 with her role at Dot Esports. Her ideal day would consist of junk food, fluffy pyjamas and video games because quite frankly going outside is overrated.