Palworld: Player Damage/Gobfin Build

This guide is for players who want to be the main damage dealer in place of their pals. It will cover which technologies to learn and a rough levelling guide. This build works by breeding gobfins with vanguard and stronghold strategist to boost player damage & defense.

Each gobfin with vanguard passive gives approx 25~33% dmg increase on normal difficulty.
When paired with high player attack stats & high damage weapons, players can expect to deal alot more damage at the later levels.

Pros:
+High damage in end game
+You dont need to breed a full team specifically for each element
+You dont have to care about IV/stats on your pals.
+The only legendary mount you need is Frostallion to fight jetdragon.

Con:
-Slow middle to mid-late game progression
-Mobility can sometimes be an issue as not all “apply elemental damage to player damage” mounts are flying
-Low carry capacity
-Very ammo dependant. No ammo, no damage.
-Equipment dependant. (you’re bringing a gun to a pal fight)

The priority of stat points is as follows:
1) 150 to 170 Stamina & 800-900 Weight
3) 8 to 10 points to HP (You cant deal damage if you’re dead)
4) Rest into attack

The following is a general guide. There’s alot to do so it’s fine if you find yourself completing some tasks at a later level than what’s stated in the guide.

Levels 1-20:

• Build your first base at a venue with ores (Recommended: Ores near Chillet Alpha)
• Focus on automating food, wood, stone & ore mining
• Catch 4 daedreams & craft daedream’s necklace
• Catch atleast 8 tombats. You will be rotating them in base for your ore mining operations.
  If you choose to keep chillet ore base late game, consider turning this into a ore/cooking/production facility. Move breeding & ranch to other bases.
• Catch chillet everyday
• At lv15+ Defeat first tower boss with chillet and 4 daedreams. Use chillet as distraction & CC freeze, withdrawing chillet whenever it’s targeted with a skill. Teaching ground moves and seed mine helps heaps.

Level 21-40:

• You are going to do alot of breeding. Run dungeons n bosses while breeding and take things slow. You have a good chance of getting a rare pistol schematic. Which is needed for fighting the 3rd boss.
• Breed chillet for Vanguard, Burly, Hard Skin & Masochist. You can make a 1-2 Star condensed Chillet to progress with the game while waiting.
• Breed 4 gobfins with vanguard & Stronghold strategist. Their IV/stats do not matter. Get four 4 star condensed gobfins. If possible, teach Shockwave to chillet to make catching gobfins easier. This provides you with a low damage electric attack that stuns & removes the need for stun batons.
• Catch atleast 10 Beeguards and condense into two 1 Star Beeguards. Place 1 in ranch to start collecting honey. Switch them out if they get stressed.
• Catch atleast 5 vanwyrms, craft saddle and condense. This will be your main mode of transport till you hit lv 37.
• Catch atleast 10 Beeguards and condense into two 1 Star Beeguards. Place 1 in ranch to start collecting honey. Switch them out if they get stressed. Condense further if playing coop.
• If you have no plans to leave your starting ore base, build a coal mining base. Skip sulphur as you can buy bullets. To make life easier, consider catching both green and red wandering merchants for an endless supply of bullets and resources.
• At lv 21-24, you might still be breeding & catching gobfins Use hyperballs to make this process easier. The higher catchrate reduces the grind and resource drain.
• At lv 25+, defeat Lilly & Lyleen. Your team should consist of chillet and 4 gobfins w vanguard & stronghold strategist. While mounted on Chillet, teach them the importance of having a musket for home defence.
• At lv 28+ start catching ragnahawks and breeding them for vanguard, swift, burly & masochist. This will provide you with a relatively fast ragnahawk with high defence. The biggest drop in DPS is always due to your mount dying.
• Catch Reptylos to replace tombats in your bases.

Level 40 – 50:

• At Lv40+, fight Axel & Orserk with chillet & 4 gobfins. Use chillet & gobfins as a distractions, withdrawing it whenever Orserk is using skills. With a rare pistol, you should be able to finish the fight before the timer ends. You can use your gobfin’s Angry Shark for a chance to freeze Orserk.
• Once your ragnahawk is condensed 3 Star with max hp/def upgrades, start rushing level 45 dungeons in frozen north for pump shotgun blueprints. If you havent bred Anubis, start using your pump shotgun to catch Anubis & replace the Reptylos.
• Breed Azurobe for Vanguard, Burly, Hard Skin & Masochist. Azurobe provides water elemental damage which is vital for fighting Marcus & Faleris. Run dungeons in frozen north ice caves while breeding to get pump shotgun schematic & attack+2 pendants. Condense to 3 star or better.
• Level 45 fight marcus with pump action shotgun/assault rifle, gobfins n Azurobe. This is one of the easier fights for this build.
• Level 50 fight shadowbeak boss with your 4 star condensed chillet and 4 gobfins.

The following Technology points are CRITICAL:
Saddles: Chillet, Ragnahawk, Azurobe, Vanwyrm
Pal items: Daedream’s Necklace (for early game)
Utilities: Grapple Gun (Helps heaps when overweight)
*Weapons: Old Bow, Single Shot Rifle, Pump Action Shotgun, Rocket Launcher
*Weapons can be skipped if you are able to pick up their schematics.

The following Technology points are OPTIONAL:
Saddle/Pal Items: Rushoar/Astegon for mining & Every other element conversion pal/mount
Weapons: Bullets, Makeshift Pistol & Musket (Makeshift pistol can be bought @ Fishing Village for 17k, Musket can be bought @ Duneshelter for 37k)

The following items should be avoided unless you have excess points to spend.
Club/Sword/Stone/Metal/Refined Spear (It’s generally very awkward/cumbersome to melee while riding your mount)
Cloth Armour (In the early game, you will rely on torches for light radius. Torches give warmth and light radius. Tundra armour is 1 point more & provides you with access to cold areas.)
Triple Shot Bow (Hardly better than old bow & quickly replaced by crossbow.)
Pistol (Does less damage than Makeshift Pistol)
Double Barrel Shotgun (You get the pump action soon enough).
Every other saddle in game.

Gobfins:
Do not waste pal souls on your gobfins. They’ll hardly ever be on the field.

Elemental Conversion Mounts: (Eg: Ragnahawk/Beakon/Helzyphr, etc)
Increase their HP & Defence stats. This will reduce the likelihood of them dying. Priority should go to Ragnahawk as it will be your main mode of transport once the saddle is available.

Elemental Change Pals:
The only 2 pals I would use in this category are Anubis & Verdash.
If you really have to use them, prioritise HP & Defence before increasing attack. The longer they live, the better your chances are.

There will be points in the game you will require gold. Eg: buying musket/makeshift pistol/ammo, buying resources, etc.
Here are two methods for earning gold.

1) Black Marketeer:
The black marketeer drops 10-15k gold and 1 gold key.
The following is an easy solution to easily and effortlessly kill the black marketeer.
He will respawn when the server is restarted.

• Learn Hanging Trap.
• Use it to trap the black marketeer
• Building a campfire below the black marketeer
• Shoot arrows occasionally until the black marketeer dies
• Pick up loot (10-15k gold + gold key)
• Repeat the above by visiting another black marketeer. If you play solo, exit to title and start your session again.The black marketeer will respawn.

2) Nails
This simple money making method works best by catching a wandering merchant to make it easier to sell to. If you caught a trader, set it as a base pal and sell to him. Remove him when you are done to free up space for more production.

• Make nails
• OPTIONAL: Assign trader to production line to make it easier to sell
• Sell nails to trader

Do not raise base level above 15.
At base level 15, you can build 3 bases, each with 15 pals.

Build 1-2 bases, not 3.
Less is sometimes more. With 1-2 bases, you have the option of using the spare palboards as teleports.

Where should I build my bases?
Here are a few good locations. I will not be covering all locations as it is too time consuming.

Ore Mining:
156, -395
3, -527

Coal Mining:
-96, -114 (Great for early game coal mining. 4 nodes are easily accessed by pals.)
-701, -637

Ore + Coal Mining:
188, -37

Why do you use chillet in the early-mid game?
Chillet is needed for fighting Shadowbeak and can be obtained early in the game. Might as well save some time and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

Why did you skip Univolt?
You’ll outgrow Univolt too quickly. If you really want a univolt, I suggest condensing it to max 2 stars and dont waste souls on it. Your time is better spent breeding chillet, rangahawk & gobfins at that point in the game.

Your guide didnt specify how to get wool/cloth/milk/flour/eggs. How do I get these resources?
Milk/eggs/cloth/wool are probably best bought from the Wandering Merchant. High quality cloth is probably best sourced by placing Siblyx in your ranch. Flour/wheat is best obtained by placing 2-3 wheat fields in your base.

Why do you use burly, hard skin & masochist on your mounts?
In tough fights, you’ll find your mount dying before you do. Increasing its defences and further upgrading @ statue of power will improve the likelihood your mount survives and continues providing you with a damage buff.

Why do you emphasise on Chillet/Ragnahawk/Azurobe?
Chillet works well for crowd control by freezing enemies & can be obtained early in game with little effort, providing you with a damage boost and a mild increase in mobility. Additionally you need it against the current final boss, Victor/Shadowbeak.
Ragnahawk is one of the most agile flying mounts in game and can fly in caves/mineshafts/dungeons. This makes it a breeze to clear lv45 ice dungeons quickly.
Azurobe is needed against Marcus/Faleris as Ragnahawk and Chillet are not effective. You can also use Azurobe to fight other fire type Alphas.

How do i breed my pals?
To breed pals with 2 desired passives: (Eg: Gobfins)
1) Catch 2 pals, each with the one of the traits you desire. One should be male, the other should be female.
2) Breed until you have a pal with both skills.

To breed pals with 4 desired passives: (Eg: Ragnahawk)
1) Catch 4 pals, each with the one of the traits you desire. 2 should be male, 2 should be female. All 4 should not have any other skills.
2) Breed the first pair until you have a male & female with both skills.
3) Breed the 2nd pair until you have a male or female with the 2nd combination of skills.
4) Take the resulting pals from steps 2 & 3 and breed them until you have all 4 desired traits on one pal.

I cant kill alphas/bosses, help!
Level up until you are atleast the same level as the boss and check their elemental weakness.
There is a damage reduction if you are below the boss/alpha’s level.

According to some sources, tower bosses are around the following levels as they are meant to be cleared as a party. This info could be wrong and subject to change as the game is still in alpha/early access.
Zoe/Grizzbolt Level 15, weak to ground
Lilly/Lyleen Level 25, weak to fire
Axel/Orserk Level 40, weak to ice & ground
Marchs/Faleris Level 45, weak to water
Victor/Shadowbeak Level 50, weak to dragon

My mount keeps dying, what should I do?
When your mount is on low hp, your gobfins can help to soak damage while your mount recovers HP. Try not to use your mount against mobs it’s weak to. Consider bringing a second mount that doesnt share the same weakness.

Dont forget to:
1) Breed for passives such as burly, masochist and hard skin
2) Condense to 4 Star
3) Upgrade hp/def at Statue of Power

The midgame grind is painfully slow. Any way to speed it up?
Change egg hatching time. On solo normal, egg hatching is 2x. If you are on multiplayer, set egg hatching time to 1x or 2x. By default, egg hatching is 20x on multiplayer.

I have trouble bringing my best team into the field to exploit the weaknesses of alphas/bosses weak to water/dragon/grass/ground. These elements do not have flying mounts.
Use your 3rd base as a teleporter or change your team to ragnahawk, element conversion pal & 3 gobfins. Pump shotgun, long range rifle & rocket launchers are your best friends.

Ground and grass do not have mounts that change my element. What should I do?
Two options.

Option 1:Maxing out Ragnahawk + gobfins
Condensing ragnahawk & gobfins to 4 Star should provide you with enough damage against most elements. At around lv44 , approx 20 shotgun shells will bring Anubis Alpha to low enough hp to capture.

Option 2: Verdash & Anubis
Fighting alongside Verdash & Anubis provides you with grass & ground type attacks respectively.

I want to further reduce the grind. How do I go about it?
Replace all mounts with fenglope, ray hound or galeclaw. Your damage will be lower and you will not benefit from damage type advantage. Dark type pals will take 50% less damage from your attacks. You are fully reliant on dodging to avoid dying. If you can live with these, you’ll be fine. Always carry resources to build a palbox with to teleport.

I occasionally run into situations where my entire team is weak to a specific element or my mount is ineffective against. How do I work around this?
Dismount and use your pals as meatshields, withdrawing them when they are targeted with a skill. You can further reduce this likelihood by breeding a gobfin ignis with vanguard/stronghold strategist or replacing a gobfin with a different mount/pal that applies X element to player attacks.