What difficulty should you use in Palworld?

Palworld finds itself in a unique position, attracting both monster catchers and survival enthusiasts. Your interests can influence the level of challenge you’ll enjoy the most, so let me show you what difficulty you should use in Palworld.

Related: Palworld Review

How to pick the perfect difficulty in Palworld

Palworld has four difficulty settings, and these are tied to the world you play in.

If you’re not interested in the crafting or survival aspects of Palworld, you’ll have a much more streamlined experience with the Casual settings. Casual mode makes battles and catching Pals easier. Resource gathering is faster, and there’s no penalty for dying.

Normal difficulty can sometimes be quite challenging, but the most significant difference is what happens when you die. You drop all of your held items upon death, which can be brutal if you die in an awkward place. This penalty isn’t so bad in multiplayer, as your friends can revive you if they reach you within a short time limit.

While subjective, I find the grind reasonable on the regular difficulty setting. The death penalty is harsh enough to promote calculated play, and progress isn’t too slow.

Survival Crafting veterans may prefer the Hard settings. This mode makes Pals noticeably tougher to catch, and progress is much slower with lower EXP gains. If you die in Hard mode, you drop all your Pals and gear, making it tougher to recover.

How do Custom Settings work in Palworld?

The fourth difficulty setting is Custom, allowing you to shape every aspect of the game as you see fit. I recommend playing on one of the default difficulty settings first, as you’ll have a good idea of the parts of Palworld you’d like to tinker with.

Palworld offers an impressive amount of customization options. You can make the game extremely easy or unrelentingly difficult. Every aspect of the game can be tweaked here. You can alter damage values and EXP rates — and even change Stamina and Hunger. You may need to experiment with the Custom settings to create the perfect game, but it’s great to have such in-depth options like this without requiring mods.

If you’re just starting and can’t find Fiber, check out our guide on where to get it.