The poll is the global popularity vote Pocketpair announced in its official notice on October 20, 2026: the top three Pals are Sekhmet, Solenne and Chillet, and the top three characters are Zoe, Auri and Saya. The same notice also confirmed that the next update, Palworld: Side by Side, arrives in winter 2026.
One vote, two pieces of news, and plenty of people stop right there and start worrying: should I really go catch the number one? Should I stock up before the winter update? So let us walk through it together, one thing at a time: how to read this poll, what the last two patches actually changed, and what is worth doing before winter.
One point needs to come first, though: this is not a tier list. Treat it as a team-building guide and you will probably be disappointed in your first hard fight. Popularity and combat strength are two different things; one measures how much people like something, the other measures numbers. They overlap now and then, but most of the time they do not.
Sekhmet Takes First: What This Poll Is Really Saying
The results first: two lists, six names
The top three Pals are Sekhmet in first, Solenne second and Chillet third; the top three characters are Zoe first, Auri second and Saya third. Both lists are official counts, not a community tally.
There is a second point worth noting: the notice says this year drew more votes than last year, and the full ranking along with per-language results are available on the voting site. More votes means more people were willing to cast a ballot for a single Pal. That actually says something: players are no longer treating it as just a grind game.
One quick reminder: do not mix the two lists together. The character list is NPC popularity and the Pal list is Pal popularity. Zoe taking first does not mean you need to raise a Pal that is like Zoe.
Looking at those six names, one thing deserves a note of its own.
Popularity and Power Are Two Different Things
The poll measures who is better liked, not who is stronger.
So what decides a vote? Looks, how easy it is to catch, how long it kept you company early on, whether it saved a fight the moment you were about to fold, or simply whether the first few hours felt smooth with it. None of that has much to do with combat numbers. The Pal that carried you through your first night is one you may remember for a long time, and it was probably not your highest damage dealer.
So there is exactly one correct way to use this list: see what the community loves, and guess where the developers might take content next. Use it to rank damage output and you are facing the wrong way.
That is really all the poll is good for. Close the voting page, get back into the game, and there is a more mundane topic waiting: your base.
Your Base, Not Combat, Is What Eats Your Day
Single-Role Specialists, or Flexible All-Rounders?
The everyday efficiency bottleneck sits in your base, not in combat.
The most trouble-free arrangement is one Pal, one job: the higher a Pal's Work Suitability level, the steadier its output. Multi-role Pals look like they can do everything, but in practice they lose output by constantly switching tasks, and the longer the line, the more obvious it gets. Stand there and watch for ten minutes and you will see it: it is always walking, never working.
What the Level Actually Affects
Work Suitability level sets the efficiency tier for gathering and crafting: the higher the level, the more you get per cycle. The mechanic is not new; what is new is that the developers eased it once recently.
v1.0.4 lowered the Work Suitability needed to gather Ancient Bark to Lv.1. It looks like a small tweak, but it effectively cuts out the early-game gate on wood-type resources. New saves no longer need a dedicated high-level Pal for this, and the first few dozen hours go much more smoothly.
Fill the Post First, Then Pick the Pal
So how do you lay it out? The usual approach in Palworld base guides is to split work by production line: gathering specialists on the gathering line, Handiwork specialists on the crafting line, Transporting specialists on the hauling line.
Order matters. Assign posts by production line first, then find Pals for each post; that is far less work than picking a strong Pal and then figuring out what it can do. The first approach takes ten minutes, the second eats a whole evening and ends with you realizing it is blocking all three lines at once.
Let us park the base for a moment. The developers have also shipped a few patches lately. They are small, but two of them directly affect the save you are playing right now.
What Changed in the Last Two Months: v1.0.4 and v1.0.5
Version changes decide what you should grind now and what you should wait on. These two patches are one light and one heavy, so it is better to take them separately.
v1.0.5: Only Two Fixes
v1.0.5 (2026-09-15) fixed two things: some players had terrain, buildings and other textures loading at a visibly reduced resolution, and some map icon filters were switched off unexpectedly after a respawn.
Both are experience fixes with no numbers involved. They may not seem worth a separate mention, but anyone who got bitten by the second bug remembers it: you are halfway across the map and suddenly every marker is gone. That stings more than losing your gear. Fixed is fixed.
Also, the version number is right there in the Steam announcement title. v1.0.5 belongs to the 1.0 release patch line, not early access, so do not get tripped up by version numbers in older guides.
v1.0.4: The Changes That Actually Touch Your Save
v1.0.4 (2026-09-07) changed a lot more: Work Suitability for gathering Ancient Bark lowered to Lv.1; the default PC frame rate cap raised to 120; Palpedia gained name search and Work Suitability descriptions; PalCritic exchange items changed, with Sakurajima moving from Selyne to Dogen and Sunreach from Bastigor to Faleris Aqua; and a new server setting lets admins cap the number of buildings per player.
Run through this against your own save and at least two of them will hit you right away.
If you are building a base, watch the building cap. On multiplayer servers the admin may already have set a limit, so ask before you plan your Palworld base location and then decide how dense the layout can be. Otherwise the blueprint looks great and then, at the thirtieth foundation, the game tells you that you have hit the ceiling. That one stings.
If you are farming PalCritic exchanges, the items have changed hands. Do not camp Selyne on an old guide: it is Dogen now, and Sunreach went from Bastigor to Faleris Aqua as well. Guides expire; official announcements do not.
That covers the patches. Next comes the thing people ask about most lately: the winter update.
Winter's Side by Side: Only One Sentence Is Confirmed
Officially, There Is a Time and a Name
The October 20 notice states that the next update, Palworld: Side by Side, will launch in winter 2026, with more information to follow. Beyond that, on content, version number and exact date, not a word.
That is all of it. Still, the name itself is interesting: side by side, walking shoulder to shoulder. It does not sound like a pure numbers expansion; it sounds like it is about relationships. Of course, that is only the feeling the name gives off. The developers never said so, and we will not write it into a guide as fact.
Beyond the name, the parts the developers left unsaid have been circulating quite busily in the community.
The Rumors Running Hot
Claims about how many new Pals there will be or how big the new map is had no official source as of 2026-11-01.
We can wait on that kind of news, but we will not write it into a guide as fact. The reason is not complicated: players who stock materials and level up obscure Pals based on wrong information lose dozens of hours, while whoever wrote it deletes one post and moves on. So we would rather write less.
So what can you do in the two months between now and winter? Really just three small things.
Three Things You Can Do Before Winter
First, sort out the Work Suitability roles at your base. After the update there will most likely be new production lines or materials, and a base with clear roles is cheap to relocate, while a base in a mess takes a full day just to tear down.
Second, tidy up the passive skills on the Pals you use most and get the breeding line's foundation in place. Passives are a long-term asset: however the version changes, good passives never lose value.
Third, stock up on basic materials. That holds before any major update, and there is no need to overthink it.
That 10% Bundle: Is It Any of Your Business?
Last, something about your wallet rather than the guide, a quick note in passing.
The Steam bundle of Palworld and Graveyard Keeper 2 went on sale on October 28, 2026, with 10% off for buying both. If you already own one of them, you can use Steam's Complete the Set feature to get the other at the discounted price.
So should people who already own Palworld buy it? First work out whose discount this actually is.
The real value of this bundle is Graveyard Keeper 2 at a discount, not a discount on Palworld. If you want to play the other game, buy it; that is two helpings of fun. If you do not, paying extra for a game you will most likely never open just to save 10% is not saving money, it is spending more.
Palworld FAQ
Is Sekhmet, the Number One in the Popularity Poll, the Strongest Pal?
A: No. The poll measures popularity, and the official announcement published rankings only, with no power data of any kind. Team building still comes down to Work Suitability and combat role.
Does Ancient Bark Still Need a High Work Suitability Level?
A: No. v1.0.4 already lowered the Work Suitability needed to gather Ancient Bark to Lv.1 (official announcement, 2026-09-07), so you can assign it from the early game.
Is There a Confirmed Date for the Winter Update?
A: No. The official statement only says Palworld: Side by Side launches in winter 2026; the exact date and content have not been announced.
Palworld Action List for This Month
- Assign base Pals by production line; single-role specialists come before multi-role Pals.
- Check PalCritic exchange items: Sakurajima is now Dogen, Sunreach is now Faleris Aqua.
- On multiplayer servers, confirm the per-player building cap before planning base density.
- Sort out passive skills on the breeding line and keep combinations open for the winter update.
- If you want Graveyard Keeper 2, the bundle from October 28 has 10% off.
We checked the poll results, version changes and bundle details against official Steam announcements, and we will cover the winter update once the developers announce it. Upcoming breeding and base routing guides will go into the GameHub guide section. If you would like to work through the assignment math for your own base layout, leave a comment at gghubs.com.