If you’ve ever tried to craft your first set of metal armor or a sturdier base door in Palworld, you’ve probably hit a frustrating wall when you realize you’re completely out of leather. That’s where knowing how to make leather in Palworld saves you from running around half-protected or using flimsy stone tools that break after three swings at a rock. I’ve spent dozens of hours testing the fastest ways to get consistent leather supplies on both solo and multiplayer servers, so this guide cuts out all the annoying trial and error for new and returning players alike.
What You Need First to Make Leather in Palworld
You don’t need any fancy late-game tech or rare drops to start producing leather, which is why it’s one of the first core crafting skills you should master early on. You don’t need any rare tech or late-game items to start making leather, so you can start building your supply within your first hour of play if you plan ahead. The first thing you’ll need is to reach level 6, which unlocks the tanning station recipe in your technology tab. Level 6 is the earliest you can unlock the tanning station, and it only costs 10 wood and 5 stone to build, so you can put one down in your starter base right away. You’ll also need a steady supply of hide, the raw material used to make leather, which drops from most neutral and aggressive pals across the map. Once you have all those pieces in place, you’re ready to start making leather without any hiccups.
Fastest Ways to Farm Hide for Leather Production
You can’t make leather without hide, so the first step to building a steady supply is finding the most efficient pals to farm for drops. A lot of new players make the mistake of going after high-level, rare pals for hide, but that’s almost always a waste of time. Never waste time farming high-level boss pals for hide, because they take way longer to kill and drop far less hide per minute than common, low-level pals you can one-shot with a stone club. The best pals to farm for hide, depending on your level, are:
- Lamball: The most common pal on the starting plateau, drops 1-2 hides per kill, runs away instead of attacking so you can farm dozens in 10 minutes even at level 1
- Cattiva: Spawns all over grassy areas, drops 1 hide per kill, often travels in groups of 3-4 so you can farm multiple at once without moving far
- Kelpie: Spawns near rivers and lakes across the map, drops 2-3 hides per kill, only hostile if you attack first, great for mid-level players who can take them down in 2-3 hits
- Arsox: Spawns in the northern pine forest areas, drops 3-4 hides per kill, a bit tanky but worth the effort if you need hundreds of leather for large base builds
Pro tip: Bring a pal with the "gathering" work suitability along with you when you farm hide. They’ll automatically loot every corpse you leave behind, so you don’t have to stop and pick up every drop manually. That cuts down your farming time by almost 30% in my experience, especially if you’re farming large groups of Lamball or Cattiva.
How to Optimize Your Leather Production Line
Once you have a steady supply of hide coming in, you can tweak your setup to make leather faster and avoid unnecessary downtime. First, assign pals with high handiwork suitability to your tanning stations. Pals like Foxparks, Cattiva, and even Lamball work much faster than pals with no handiwork skill, so you’ll get more leather per hour from the same number of stations. If you need a lot of leather at once, you can build multiple tanning stations side by side – they don’t take up much space, and you can run as many as you have available pals to staff them. Always keep a stock of at least 50 hides in your base storage so your tanning stations never run out of materials to process while you’re out exploring. I’ve made that mistake more than once, coming back to my base after 2 hours of exploring to find my tanning stations ran out of hide 10 minutes after I left. You can speed up tanning time by 20% if you place your tanning stations under a covered roof instead of out in the open, too. It’s a small buff that adds up quickly if you’re running multiple stations around the clock. Following these simple steps will cut down the time it takes to make leather in Palworld by more than half, so you can spend more time exploring or catching new pals instead of waiting for crafting to finish.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Leather
Even with a solid setup, there are a few common mistakes that can leave you short on leather when you need it most. First, never sell raw hide to wandering merchants. Leather sells for 3x more per unit than raw hide, so you’re throwing away free gold if you don’t process it first. Second, don’t assign your high-level combat pals to work at tanning stations. Don't use your high-level combat pals to work tanning stations – keep them free to go out and farm more hide, which is a way better use of their time. Third, don’t wait until you need leather to start farming it. A single set of metal armor takes 12 leather to make, and a full perimeter wall for a medium base takes more than 200 leather. If you wait until you’re ready to craft those things to start making leather, you’ll be stuck waiting hours for production to catch up. I always keep at least 100 leather in my storage at all times, so I never have to pause my plans to go farm hide last minute. Another small mistake: don’t forget that you can also get small amounts of leather from looting chests in abandoned villages and towers. It’s not enough for bulk production, but it’s a nice bonus if you’re already exploring those areas.
At the end of the day, knowing how to make leather in Palworld is one of the most essential basic skills you can pick up early on. It unlocks almost every useful piece of gear and base building item you’ll need for the first 20 hours of play, and even late game you’ll still go through hundreds of units for repairs and high-tier armor sets. Don’t overcomplicate it – stick to farming low-level common pals for hide, keep your tanning stations staffed with fast handiwork pals, and keep a small stockpile on hand at all times. I still keep 3 tanning stations running 24/7 on my main multiplayer base, and I haven’t had a leather shortage in months. It’s a small setup that pays off huge for every part of your Palworld playthrough.