This Palworld best pals-angled piece follows the resource-build-fight loop instead of gacha language. Where to put the base is a separate question; this covers how the inside of it should be staffed.
Palworld 1.0.5 Snapshot: Three Changes That Touch Your Base
Applicable version: v1.0.5 (2026-09-15)
Ancient Bark drops to Lv.1
1.0.4 lowered the Work Suitability required to gather Ancient Bark to Lv.1 (source: official Palworld v1.0.4 notice, 2026-09-07). That is the core change here: bark moved from a late-game material to something a young base produces steadily.
Building caps became a server setting
The same patch added a server setting letting admins cap buildings per player (source: same notice). On a shared server this directly blocks the "lay out a huge footprint then fill it in" approach.
Frame cap and Palpedia
1.0.4 raised the PC default frame cap to 120 and added name search plus Work Suitability notes to Palpedia (source: same notice). 1.0.5 only fixed terrain and building textures loading at visibly reduced resolution for some players (source: official v1.0.5 notice, 2026-09-15). The Palpedia suitability text is worth using: it puts each Pal's jobs in the catalogue.
For context on scale: since the 1.0 launch on 2026-07-10 the Pal count is 287, the level cap moved from 65 to 80, and Awakening and Mutation were added alongside the Sunreach floating island and the World Tree endgame area (source: official 1.0 changelog, 2026-07-10). The 80 cap and the new regions raise the ceiling on base output, which is why "fill everything, optimise later" stopped being efficient.
Palworld Work Suitability: Specialist or Generalist
What Work Suitability means
Work Suitability is the set of jobs a Pal can do at your base, with higher levels meaning faster work (source: in-game Pal panel and Palpedia). It decides which production line a Pal belongs on, not how strong it is in combat.
Specialists versus generalists
A specialist does one job with stable output and simple scheduling. A generalist covers several jobs but is slower at each. A correction worth making: this is not "generalists are always better", it is "use specialists when lines are stable and generalists when you are short on bodies".
Gathering versus transporting
Gatherers knock resources loose; transporters move them into boxes. Mixing the two makes Pals shuttle between points and lowers real throughput. The rule is one job per Pal per line.
Palworld Base Lines: From Wood to Ancient Bark
The three early lines
Wood and stone, food, and crafting (workbench and furnace). Staff them separately; mixing them makes all three slow.
The Ancient Bark chain
With bark at Lv.1, the chain reduces to "one gathering Pal, one tree, one box" with no high-suitability specialist required (source: official v1.0.4 notice, 2026-09-07). The real value is turning bark output from luck into staffing.
What Ancient Bark is for
Bark feeds advanced buildings and gear, and demand spikes during rebuilds (source: in-game recipes). It is a "lots at once, nothing in between" material, so a steady low-rate chain is enough and maxing it is waste.
Boxes and distance
Put boxes next to the line, never across the base. Every extra metre of hauling cuts real output, and it is the most invisible loss in base layout.
Palworld: How Many Pals a Base Needs
The standard roster
A base that runs smoothly needs roughly two to three gatherers, two crafters, one or two transporters and one food Pal (source: community base consensus, not an official figure). Too many Pals block each other; too few stall the line.
Why the roster number moves with the patch
Every balance patch that touches Work Suitability changes the roster math. When bark needed a specialist, one slot was permanently spent on it; now that slot can feed crafting instead. Check the patch notes before copying an older roster, because a layout that was optimal two patches ago is often just short one crafter today.
Night shift and rest
Lines stop at night, so night staffing belongs to crafting work that does not need light. That keeps output more continuous than staffing the whole base around the clock.
Where the cake line goes
If you breed, isolate the cake line: one cake takes 5 Flour, 8 Red Berries, 7 Milk, 8 Eggs and 2 Honey (source: in-game recipe). It eats bodies and floor space, and mixing it into the main line slows both.
Palworld 1.0.5 Rebuild Order
Gathering first
Step one is always more gathering. Without materials every downstream machine idles.
Then crafting
Once gathering is stable, add crafting. The bottleneck is usually how many stations run at once, not how many Pals you have, so add stations before bodies.
Box placement
Place boxes by proximity: one by the gathering node, one by the crafting bench, one at the exit. Three boxes cut hauling distance more than a warehouse full of them.
Storage last
Expand storage last. Improvise with boxes while the line stabilises and plan storage once output is steady, or you will move boxes twice.
Mind the building cap
On a shared server, check the admin's per-player building cap first (source: official v1.0.4 notice). A low cap kills the "spread out then fill in" approach, so plan the rebuild backwards from the cap.
Palworld FAQ
Does Ancient Bark still need a high-suitability Pal?
A: No. Since 1.0.4 the requirement is Lv.1, so an ordinary gatherer handles it (source: official v1.0.4 notice, 2026-09-07).
How many Pals should one base have?
A: Roughly two to three gatherers, two crafters, one or two transporters and one food Pal; overcrowding makes Pals block each other (source: community consensus, not official).
Are generalist Pals worth keeping?
A: Use specialists on stable lines and generalists only when you are short on Pals, since generalists are slower at every job.
Does the building cap apply to single player?
A: No. It is a server setting the admin controls per player (source: official v1.0.4 notice).
Palworld Base Action List
- Confirm Ancient Bark gathering produces steadily before anything else.
- Separate gathering, crafting and transporting staff.
- Keep boxes next to the line they serve.
- Add crafting stations before adding Pals.
- Check the server building cap before planning an expansion.
Patch notes and production data are revised in the GameHub guide section .