If you’ve hit the midgame grind in Palworld and found yourself stuck waiting for enough crude oil to build that first generator or make high-tier ammo, you’re not alone. A lot of new players skip over learning how to farm crude oil in Palworld until they hit a wall, and that delay can set your base progression back hours, if not days. Crude oil is one of the most versatile late-game resources, and you’ll need hundreds of units to keep your base powered, craft heat-resistant armor, and make the kinds of weapons that let you take on alpha bosses without breaking a sweat. I’ve spent dozens of hours testing different farming spots and setups, so I’ve cut out all the bad methods to bring you only the most reliable, low-effort ways to get all the crude oil you’ll ever need.
Best Locations to Farm Crude Oil in Palworld
The first step to a consistent oil supply is picking a location that fits your current player level and base building goals. You can only get crude oil from dark, bubbling oil seep nodes scattered across the map, so you’ll want to pick a spot with as many clustered seeps as possible to get the most out of a single base slot. I’ve tested every cluster on the map, and these three spots are far and away the best options for all playstyles:
- Desert North of Plateau of Beginnings: This is the best spot for new players, accessible as early as level 20, with 12 clustered oil seeps and only low-level sand Pals to watch out for. The only downside is occasional sandstorms that slow movement, but they only last a minute or two at most.
- Southeastern Volcanic Island: For mid-game players level 35 and up, this area has 18 oil seeps packed into a small space, meaning you can cover all of them with a single base core. You will need heat-resistant armor to avoid taking constant damage, though, and the area has high-level fire Pals that can attack unprotected bases.
- Western Snowy Mountain Foothills: This spot is ideal if you already have a base in the snow biome for farming ice or Paladius. It has 9 oil seeps, no extreme weather effects, and only mid-level ice Pals that are easy to fend off if you have fire-type Pals on your team.
You don’t have to stick to these spots if you find a smaller cluster closer to your main base, but the larger clusters will give you far more output per base slot, which is a big deal when you only have a limited number of base slots to work with. I still use the desert cluster for my main oil farm 100+ hours into my save, since it’s so low-maintenance.
Optimal Pals for Automated Crude Oil Farming
You can mine oil seeps by hand with a metal pickaxe, but it’s slow, tedious, and a huge waste of your time. The best way to farm oil is to set up automated mining with Pals that have high-level mining skills, so you can collect hundreds of units while you’re off exploring or fighting bosses. You don’t need rare, endgame Pals to make this work, either.
Digtoise is the best early-game option for oil farming. It has level 3 mining, is super easy to catch in the starting desert area around level 18, and will happily mine oil seeps nonstop if you keep it fed. The only catch is that Digtoise has low stamina, so you’ll want 3 or 4 of them on your farm to cover breaks. If you’re mid-game, Gorirat is a great upgrade: it has level 4 mining, higher stamina, and rarely takes long breaks, so 2 of them can cover a 12-seep farm easily.
For endgame setups, Anubis is the perfect all-in-one option. It has level 4 mining and level 3 transport, so it will mine oil seeps and carry the crude oil straight to your storage chest without needing a separate transport Pal. I run 2 Anubis on my volcanic oil farm and get 80+ units of crude oil per hour of real time, no input needed from me at all.
How to Build a Low-Effort Crude Oil Farm Base
You don’t need a fancy, fully kitted out base for your oil farm. The whole point is to make it as low-maintenance as possible, so you can set it and forget it. I’ve found that the simplest setups work the best, and you can build a fully functional oil farm in less than 10 minutes with basic materials.
First, place your base core within 50m of as many oil seeps as possible, so all the seeps fall within your base’s build area. Next, place a small storage chest within 20m of the middle of the seep cluster, so your Pals don’t have to walk far to drop off oil. Add 4 to 6 Pal beds and a basic food trough within the same 20m radius, and stock the trough with berries or raw meat to keep your Pals fed. You don’t need to power this base unless you want to add an oil refinery on site to turn crude oil into gasoline immediately, which cuts out the need to transport oil back to your main base.
One trick I picked up after wasting hours on low-output farms is to adjust your base’s work priorities so only mining and transport are enabled. If you leave other priorities like crafting, farming, or base repair turned on, your Pals will waste time on random tasks instead of mining oil. I made this mistake on my first farm, and my output tripled as soon as I turned off all unrelated work tasks. If you’re farming in a high-risk area like the volcanic island, add a 2-high wood wall around the base to keep random wild Pals from attacking your miners. It takes 2 minutes to build and saved me from losing 3 Digtoise to a random alpha Suzaku on my second playthrough.
Common Crude Oil Farming Mistakes to Avoid
Even with a good setup, small mistakes can tank your oil output and waste your time. I’ve made all of these mistakes myself, so you don’t have to. Avoiding these simple errors will make your farm run far smoother with almost no extra effort.
Mining oil seeps by hand is the biggest waste of time for most players. Hand mining is 3x slower than using a level 3 mining Pal, and you could be spending that time exploring, catching new Pals, or upgrading your main base. Only mine by hand if you need 10 or 20 units of oil right away for an urgent craft. Overloading your oil farm base with extra features is another common mistake. If you add crop plots, crafting stations, or breeding pens to your oil farm, your Pals will split their time between tasks and you’ll get 50% less oil per hour. Keep this base single-purpose to get the maximum output.
Forgetting to stock food for your Pals is another easy mistake that will stop your production dead. If your Pals get hungry, they’ll stop working to wander around looking for food, or even leave the base entirely if they get hungry enough. I keep a stack of 100 berries in the trough of each of my oil farms, and it lasts for weeks of real time before I need to restock it. You also don’t need to build more than 2 oil farms at once, unless you’re running a massive industrial base with dozens of generators. Most players only need 50 to 100 units of crude oil per week for regular use, so wasting 3 or 4 base slots on oil farms will just take away space for other resource farms you need more.
At the end of the day, you don’t need fancy gear or rare Pals to get a steady supply of this critical resource. Once you learn how to farm crude oil in Palworld the right way, you’ll never find yourself stuck waiting for fuel to power your generators or craft that next tier of gear again. I still use the same desert oil farm I built at level 22, and it’s given me all the oil I need for 100+ hours of playtime, so don’t overcomplicate it. Start small, pick a location that fits your current level, and tweak your setup as you unlock better Pals and building options, and you’ll have more crude oil than you know what to do with in no time.