Expeditions Explained in Palworld

Expeditions in Palworld can be an excellent way to passively farm resources as you build and adventure. They allow you to make use of the many captured Pals a player will typically have stored up, which otherwise don't serve much purpose besides adding to one's collection and waiting patiently to be swapped into your party or as workers on your base.

Unlocking Expeditions

The Palworld Expedition Dispatch screen with nothing unlocked.

To begin going on Expeditions, you must first unlock the Pal Expedition Station and construct it at your base. This represents a significant base upgrade, as it will allow you to start passively farming various kinds of high-value items using your excess Pals. This particular upgrade can be unlocked at Level 15 for 2 Technology Points. It has a relatively low material cost of 20 Wood, 20 Stone, and 5 Paldium Fragments, but it's also pretty large and may be difficult to place if you haven't planned ahead.

Initially, you may notice that none of the Expedition destinations are unlocked, depending on which bosses you've defeated. The first destination you're likely to want to unlock is locked behind the Rayne Syndicate Tower boss fight against Zoe and Grizzbolt. Defeating the duo unlocks the easiest expedition location. Even if you have unlocked other locations, you may have a hard time meeting the Firepower thresholds of those locations at first (as discussed more in the next section).

Running a Successful Expedition

The assignment screen for sending Pals on Expeditions in Palworld.

Every Expedition has a set Firepower total that needs to be reached to guarantee the maximum reward. Each Pal you add to an Expedition adds to the Firepower total, with the exact amount seemingly tied to its level and attributes. Going over an Expedition's Firepower total is also beneficial, as it reduces the total amount of time necessary for the expedition to complete and continues to ensure the reward from that expedition is maximized. Unless you're likely to need a particular Pal that you have in storage soon, it's usually worth just sending whichever Pals are available (and the game has plenty of Pals you're likely to pick up and forget about) until you've at least maximized the reward you'll gain. There's a caveat to this point, however, discussed in the later section on risk.

With that in mind, it should be noted that an Expedition will tie up a Pal, making them unusable for other purposes until they return from the Expedition (although you can cancel Expeditions, sending Pals home early). Because the individual contribution of a given Pal tends to be pretty small when it comes to Expeditions (there's a reason you can send up to 100 Pals at once), there isn't much harm in keeping a Pal you might need later.

Notable Rewards

The Expedition Dispatch screen from Palworld.

Expeditions offer many worthwhile rewards, with the value of rewards increasing with the more difficult Expeditions. These potential rewards are also clearly laid out on the menu where you select a particular destination. You aren't guaranteed to get everything on the list on every expedition, but you will get a decent amount of whatever your Pals do bring back. Note that even if you send one Pal and the reward percentage is at 0% or 1%, you'll still technically be rewarded after the expedition, although that's rarely going to be worth the time investment.

Some notable rewards from the first destination on the list, the Cave in the Grassland, include Ancient Civilization Parts, Mega Spheres, and Ancient Pal Manuscripts (which are needed for the research projects made available at the Pal Labor Research Laboratory, obtained at Level 20).

Risks of Expeditions

A Depresso from Palworld relaxing in a Hot Spring in a manner which makes it look dead.

The risks involved in Expeditions seem to be fairly minimal. If you send off enough Pals on an expedition that you've met the necessary Firepower threshold, you will receive the maximum reward. Furthermore, even if you don't meet that threshold, you'll still be rewarded when an expedition returns. All you need to do is wait, and you will get a random selection of rewards based on the location the Pals were sent to. The only real downside is that the adventuring Pals won't be available, but you can also cancel an Expedition if it becomes critical that you get a Pal that was sent away now rather than when they would ordinarily return.

With this said, Expeditions seem to have some level of risk involved, despite no losses occurring during the tests run for this article. Different destinations are marked with different Risk ratings (Low, Medium, High) and there doesn't seem to be a consensus online as to what this means; there are anecdotal reports of players permanently losing Pals sent on expeditions, but there doesn't seem to be a readily available source showing this occurring. At the very least, you may want to avoid sending your toughest Alpha Pals and any other Pals that you've invested significant resources in until there is more clarity on this matter.

Hardcore Gamer

Expeditions Explained in Palworld

Quick Links

Unlocking Expeditions

Running a Successful Expedition

Notable Rewards

Risks of Expeditions

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