There are some elements of Palworld that are just hitting too close to home. Whether it's the game having you face the idea of animal exploitation, or just having a literal creature called Depresso (with a facial expression to match), there are a handful of things that really just make you feel squeamish. This includes your Pals' sanity, which is centered around their work and how much of it they are doing.
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Sanity is not a mechanic that the game will walk you through very much, and can easily be something that you just ignore completely, without even realizing you are doing it. Fortunately, the Sanity mechanic can exist on its own without your influence, really, but it is still important to know how it works to get the most out of the game. The mechanic is there for a reason, and knowing the ins and outs of how it works can bring an entirely new dimension to maintaining your camp full of Pal workers.
Updated by Shane Black on January 31, 2024: This guide was updated to go into more depth with the process of Sanity dropped, and how players can help their Pals increase and get their Sanity back. It gives more useful information so that players won't be confused by the system. It also added more links to relevant guides and articles.
How Does Sanity Work?
Sanity is essentially exactly what it sounds like. Every single one of your Pals has its own Sanity, and the higher the Sanity, the more stable, happier, and healthy your Pal is. Maintaining that Sanity is essential to keeping your camp up and running, and the resources coming in at a consistent rate.
As a Pal continues to do work of any kind, their Sanity will decrease. As their Sanity decreases, they will become much less compliant and will take breaks more often and not do the work that you assign to them. They will slack off and that is bad for the production of your camp. Just like anyone would in their real-world jobs, right?
You can also see your Pals lose their Sanity when they are Hungry, which happens when they are not able to eat after working for a while. As they grow more Hungry, their Sanity will take a big hit.
When a Pal's Sanity gets low, they will be a lot less productive in their work, and will even refuse to follow any orders outright.
How To Increase Sanity
You will occasionally see a notification about a Pal taking a break, which is the game's way of automatically adjusting to a Pal's Sanity getting too low. This is nice so that you don't have to worry about it too much, but there are things you can do to proactively stop this from happening at all and boost your efficiency a ton:
- Pet your Pals often to show them your appreciation
- Build a hot spring for the Pals to relax in and recover from their work. The recipe for a Hot Spring is 30 Wood, 15 Stone, 10 Paldium Fragments, and 10 Pal Fluids
- Use the Palbox to rest a Pal who has been working too much
- Keep your Feedbox full of food at all times so that none of your Pals can go hungry
- Build a bed for each of your active Pals to have a place to sleep when it is night or else they will exhaust themselves
While there are a lot of Pals that can use a basic bed like the Straw Pal Bed, the bigger Pals are going to need you to craft a special kind of bed that they can use. These can be a Fluffy Pal Bed or a Large Pal Bed. Luckily, the game will warn you if you have a Pal at your camp that can't use the basic beds you already have.
Here the breakdown of the beds you can build:
|
Pal Bed Name |
Pal Bed Ingredients |
|---|---|
|
Straw Pal Bed |
|
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Fluffy Pal Bed |
|
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Large Pal Bed |
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It is also important to note that the higher quality of food that you feed to your Pals, the better their Sanity recovery will be. These are usually the recipes that require the most ingredients, such as Dumud Chowder and Mozzarina Hamburger. These will give you the most recovery for your Sanity.
All of the above options will help keep the morale around your camp as high as it can be, and will also make your experience in the game just better as you improve upon how your camp is operating. Of course, it requires a fair amount of monitoring on your part to make sure the Foodbox is stocked and whatnot, but taking that time to do it is worth it.
There are lots of mechanics to keep track of in Palworld. If you're confused about some of them, check out our guides on lowering your Wanted Level and surviving hot and cold areas!
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If you're grappling with locating Paldium Fragments in Palworld, delve into this guide for a comprehensive understanding on how to find them.