If you’ve ever sprinted away from a rampaging Alpha Lamball while fumbling with your inventory, you know how critical having the right tools at your fingertips is in Palworld. One of the first, and most underrated, tools you’ll unlock early on is the Pal Pod, and learning how to use the Pal Pod in Palworld correctly will save you hours of frustration and lost resources. Most new players only use it for basic storage, but it has far more uses that can streamline your base operations, exploration runs, and even boss fights. I’ve put over 200 hours into Palworld across multiple playthroughs, and I still keep 3 upgraded Pal Pods on my hotbar at all times for every mission.
How to Use the Pal Pod in Palworld for Catching & On-the-Go Storage
The core function of the Pal Pod is to give you extra storage for Pals when your 5-slot party is full, which is a game-changer for long exploration runs where you don’t want to fast travel back to base every time you catch a new Pal. To use it for catching, simply assign it to your hotbar, select it, and throw it at a wild Pal you’ve already lowered the health of, just like you would a regular Pal Sphere. You can catch Pals directly into the Pal Pod if your party is full, so you never have to pass up a rare spawn just because you don’t have space.
Beyond catching, you can move Pals between your party and the Pal Pod any time you’re not in active combat, which makes it easy to swap between utility Pals for gathering and combat Pals for fighting off wild attackers. If a Pal in the Pal Pod is injured, it will slowly recover HP over time without using healing items, which cuts down on your resource consumption during long trips. The only downside is that you can’t summon Pals from the Pal Pod directly into combat, so you’ll want to keep your main fighting team in your party slots at all times.
You can also drop the Pal Pod on the ground anywhere in the world to access its contents, which is perfect for quick inventory swaps when you’re out gathering resources. Just remember to pick it back up before you leave, or you risk losing it to wild Pal attacks or environmental damage.
Upgrading Your Pal Pod for Better Performance
The basic Pal Pod you unlock at level 2 works fine for early game, but upgrading it to higher tiers will drastically improve its utility for mid and late game play. You can unlock upgrade schematics as you level up your Technology tree, and you can craft upgraded versions at any workbench once you have the required materials. Each tier increases storage capacity, healing speed for stored Pals, and even adds a small catch rate bonus for Pals you throw the pod at.
- Basic Pal Pod: Holds 5 Pals, 10% HP recovery per 10 minutes of in-game time, no catch rate bonus
- Iron Pal Pod: Holds 10 Pals, 25% HP recovery per 10 minutes, 5% catch rate bonus for low-level Pals
- Steel Pal Pod: Holds 15 Pals, 40% HP recovery per 10 minutes, 10% catch rate bonus for all Pals below level 30
- Legendary Pal Pod: Holds 20 Pals, 70% HP recovery per 10 minutes, 15% catch rate bonus for all Pals, including Alpha variants
Legendary Pal Pods can cut healing time for stored Pals by 70% compared to basic models, which makes them ideal for high-level boss runs where your team takes a lot of damage between fights. You won’t find the legendary schematic in the regular Technology tree, though. You’ll have to farm level 40+ Alpha bosses in the volcanic biome to get the blueprint drop, so it’s worth running those fights a few times once you hit late game. Even if you only get one legendary Pal Pod, it will make a huge difference in your exploration efficiency.
Creative Pal Pod Uses for Base Management & Exploration
Most players stick to the basic catch and store functions, but there are a ton of lesser-known uses for the Pal Pod that will make your time in Palworld far less stressful. For example, if you have multiple bases spread across the map, you can use the Pal Pod to transport Pals between bases without having to walk them all the way or fast travel with your entire party. Just load up the pod with the Pals you want to move, fast travel to the target base, and unload them directly into the Palbox there.
You can leave a Pal Pod at a remote outpost as a temporary storage unit for Pals you catch while mining or logging, so you don’t have to interrupt your gathering runs to drop Pals off at your main base. I do this all the time when I’m farming coal in the volcanic biome – I leave a steel Pal Pod next to my mining outpost, and I deposit any fire Pals I catch there until I’m ready to head back. It cuts down on travel time by at least 60% for long resource runs.
You can also use the Pal Pod to pick up tamed Pals that are stuck in terrain, no need to fast travel home to reset their position. I ran into this issue last month when my level 50 Anubis got stuck under a rock near my farm base – I just pulled out my Pal Pod, selected the Anubis from the nearby Pal list, and stored it in the pod for a few seconds before placing it back down, good as new. It’s a tiny feature, but it saves you from having to recapture or respawn a Pal you spent hours training.
For boss fights, you can store extra healing or support Pals in the Pal Pod so you can swap them in quickly if your main healer goes down mid-fight. Just make sure you step far enough away from the boss to avoid taking damage while you swap Pals between the pod and your party.
Common Pal Pod Mistakes to Avoid
For such a simple tool, it’s surprisingly easy to make costly mistakes with the Pal Pod if you don’t know what to watch out for. The first and most common mistake is leaving a Pal Pod with rare or high-level Pals lying around unprotected. Wild Pals, enemy raiders, and even environmental hazards like wildfires can destroy a dropped Pal Pod in seconds, and if you don’t get back to the site within 5 in-game minutes, you’ll lose all the Pals stored inside for good. I learned this the hard way when I left a legendary Pal Pod with 3 perfect stat Alpha Pals next to a mining outpost, only to come back and find it destroyed by a rampaging Magma Wyrm.
Another mistake is filling your Pal Pod with low-level common Pals before you head out on a run to catch rare Alphas. You’ll run out of space right when you find that perfect spawn, and you’ll have to either release a common Pal or let the Alpha escape, both of which are frustrating. I always leave at least 3 empty slots in my Pal Pod whenever I head out exploring, just in case I run into a rare spawn I wasn’t expecting.
You also don’t want to leave Pals stored in your Pal Pod for long periods of time when you’re back at base. Stored Pals don’t work on base tasks, generate resources, or earn XP, so you’re wasting their full potential if you leave them in the pod for more than a day or two. Make it a habit to empty your Pal Pod into your main Palbox as soon as you get back from an exploration run, so all your Pals can contribute to base operations while you’re building or crafting.
At the end of the day, the Pal Pod is one of the most versatile tools in your Palworld arsenal, and it’s worth taking the time to master how to use the Pal Pod in Palworld to fit your playstyle. Whether you’re a casual player who just wants to catch cute Pals without running back to base every 10 minutes, or a veteran player grinding for perfect Alpha stats, the right Pal Pod setup will make every part of the game smoother. Don’t sleep on upgrading it early, and experiment with different use cases to see what works best for your base and exploration routine. Next time you head out for a run, make sure you’ve got at least one upgraded Pal Pod on your hotbar – you’ll thank yourself later.