If you’ve ever tried to craft the popular Onion Soup for your Pals only to hit a wall because you have no onions to throw in the pot, you already know how tricky it can be to track down this basic but essential crop. Most new players skip farming early on, but even seasoned players often struggle to find consistent sources for rare crop seeds. We’ve spent dozens of playtesting runs testing every possible source, and we’re breaking down exactly how to get onion seeds in Palworld without wasting hours running in circles. It’s easier than you think once you know where to look, and you’ll have a steady supply in no time to keep your base stocked.
How to Get Onion Seeds in Palworld: 3 Core Reliable Sources
There are only three consistent ways to get onion seeds across all Palworld maps, no matter which difficulty level you’re playing on. We’ve ranked them by accessibility and drop rate so you can pick the best option for your current progress level:
If you’re still in the early game with no base set up, looting is your best bet. If you already have a few thousand gold saved up, buying seeds will save you hours of random looting. If you already have a small farm going, harvesting existing onions is the cheapest way to build up a huge seed stock over time.
You won’t find onion seeds from low-level grass near the starting beach, so don’t waste your time hacking every patch of dandelions near your first spawn point. You need to head to higher elevation areas with thicker, darker green grass to get drops from foraging. Human enemy camps in level 15+ regions also have a 20% drop rate for onion seeds in regular chests, so clearing out small raider camps is a great way to pick up extra seeds while also grabbing gold and other resources.
Step-by-Step Guide to Farming Onion Seeds Efficiently
Once you have at least 5 onion seeds to start with, farming is by far the most efficient way to get an unlimited supply without spending any more gold or running around looking for loot. You don’t need any high-end tech to get started, either.
First, build a basic farm plot using wood and stone, which unlocks at level 5. Plant your seeds, and make sure you assign a Pal with the Watering work suitability to your base so they can keep the crops hydrated. If you leave crops unwatered, they’ll take twice as long to grow, and some may even die before you can harvest them. You don’t need to water them yourself if you have a dedicated Pal for the job, which frees you up to focus on exploration or base building while your crops grow.
When your onions are fully grown in roughly 20 in-game minutes, harvest them. Each fully grown onion plant will give you 1 onion for crafting, plus 2 to 3 extra onion seeds. That means if you plant 10 seeds, you’ll get between 20 and 30 seeds back when you harvest, doubling or tripling your stock every crop cycle. You don’t need any special fertilizer for this, though using high-quality fertilizer can speed up growth time by 30% if you have extra resources lying around.
We recommend setting up a dedicated farm section with at least 20 plots for onions once you hit level 10. It’s a small investment that will pay off for the rest of your playthrough, since onions are used in some of the best mid and late-game food recipes in the game. Even if you don’t cook a lot, extra onions sell for 150 gold each at vendors, so a large onion farm can be a great passive income stream too.
Where to Buy Onion Seeds and What to Expect
If you don’t want to wait for drops or build a farm right away, buying seeds is the fastest option, as long as you have a bit of gold saved. There are two types of vendors that sell onion seeds reliably, no matter which map you’re playing on.
First, wandering merchants that spawn near small settlements and road crossings often carry onion seeds in their inventory for 100 gold each. These merchants spawn randomly, but we’ve found they show up most often in the grassy plateau areas west of the starting beach, usually near groups of Gumoss and Lamball spawns. Always check a wandering merchant’s full inventory before you leave, since they sometimes hide seed listings at the very bottom of their item list. You can also trade extra Pals to wandering merchants for gold if you don’t have enough cash on hand to buy seeds.
Second, the permanent farming vendor that you can unlock to move into your base at level 12 sells onion seeds for 80 gold each, which is 20% cheaper than the wandering merchant price. Unlocking this vendor only requires completing a short side quest to clear out a small enemy camp near the central plateau, so it’s well worth doing as soon as you hit level 12 if you plan to do a lot of farming. Having a permanent vendor at your base also means you don’t have to run across the map to restock on seeds whenever you want to expand your farm.
One thing to note: vendors only stock 10 to 15 onion seeds at a time, so you’ll need to wait a full in-game day for their inventory to reset if you want to buy more. We usually buy out their entire stock every time we visit to build up our seed bank as fast as possible. It’s a small upfront cost that pays off very quickly once you start harvesting and selling extra onions.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Looking for Onion Seeds
We’ve made all of these mistakes ourselves during our first few playthroughs, so we’re breaking them down to help you avoid wasting time and resources.
First, don’t waste your time looting low-level areas. Onion seeds only drop from grass, chests and enemies in areas that are at least level 15 or higher, so you won’t find them near the starting beach no matter how much grass you cut. You can check the level range of any area by opening your map and hovering over the region name to make sure you’re looking in the right place. If you’re still under level 10, it’s probably better to save up gold to buy seeds instead of trying to loot them, since you’ll struggle to survive in higher level regions anyway.
Second, don’t sell all your onions when you’re low on gold. It’s tempting to sell extra crops for quick cash early on, but every onion you keep to harvest seeds will give you two or three more plants down the line, which will earn you far more gold long-term. If you need extra cash early on, sell extra wood or stone instead of your first few onion harvests. You can also sell extra common Pals to wandering merchants for quick cash without hurting your long-term progress.
Third, don’t forget to assign a farming Pal to your base to harvest crops automatically. If you leave mature onion plants sitting unharvested for more than an in-game day, they’ll wilt and disappear, and you’ll lose all the extra seeds you would have gotten from them. A Pal with level 2 farming suitability can harvest an entire 20-plot farm in less than a minute, so it’s a huge time saver. You don’t even need a high-level Pal for this, common low-level Pals like Lifmunk often have farming suitability right from the start.
Finally, don’t use onion seeds as crafting materials directly — always plant them first to get more seeds and full onions. You get way more value out of every seed if you grow it out instead of using it raw in recipes, even if you need onions right away. The only exception is if you only need one onion for a last-minute craft and don’t have any fully grown crops on hand, but that’s a rare situation you can easily avoid with a small farm.
Tracking down your first batch of onion seeds doesn’t have to be a frustrating scavenger hunt, and once you have a steady farm set up, you’ll never run out again. Whether you choose to loot, buy, or farm your first set, the small effort you put in to figure out how to get onion seeds in Palworld will pay off for the rest of your playthrough, from better food for your Pals to more valuable items to sell for gold. Next time you’re planning out your base upgrades, don’t forget to leave space for a small onion farm — you’ll thank yourself later.