Palworld’s First Major Update, Sakurajima, Out Now — Here’s What It Does

‘Pokémon with guns’ crafting and survival game Palworld has its first major update since its record-breaking launch in January, adding a new island, new Pals, and much more.

Steam version 0.3.1 and Xbox version 0.3.1 are both out now. The patch brings with it the Sakurajima update; Sakurajima is the new island where players can take control of a tower protected by a new faction called The Moonflowers. The island is home to many new Pals.

There’s multiplayer-exclusive content, too, in the form of an area in the Desiccated Desert. An oil rig controlled by the Rayne Syndicate is now in the ocean (here you work together with friends to defeat powerful enemies and claim resources such as crude oil). You can extract crude oil by unlocking and placing a new building, the cruise oil extractor, in certain spots around the world. The new material, Plasteel, can be made from crude oil. This is used to craft new high-tier equipment and spheres.

Meanwhile, the level cap is raised to 55, with new technologies available and a new upper limit for Pal’s capture bonus (10 to 12). The new raid, Blazamut Ryu, features the strongest Dragon Pal in the game.

There’s a tease for a meteorite event: “Meteorites or supplies will fall from space sometimes!” Palworld developer Pocketpair said in the patch notes, below. “There may even be an unknown Pal from outer space too…!?”

There’s loads more to the Sakurajima update, including new items, new weapons, a new merchant, Tower Boss hard mode, new cosmetics including for Pals, new buildings, a new lockpicking feature, and many improvements and tweaks. The building system is reworked and improved so basic construction should now be “much more intuitive and smooth,” Pocketpair said.

Of note: the Xbox version of Palworld now has dedicated servers, one of the big points of difference between the game on Microsoft’s console and Steam. However, there is currently no crossplay, which means Xbox and PC players cannot play together. Hopefully this is a feature added further down the line.

Palworld launched in early access form in January 2024 on PC via Steam and on Xbox as a day-one Game Pass title. It saw enormous popularity overnight, becoming one of the biggest game launches of all time. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Developer Pocketpair has said its staff has received death threats amid the Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied.

Soon after Palworld’s launch Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” At the time, IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue. Pocketpair recently insisted it has yet to hear anything from either Nintendo or The Pokemon Company. It has also teased Palworld on PlayStation.

Palworld update 0.3.1 patch notes:

▼New Content
・New Island – Sakurajima
⤷ A new island has appeared! Sakurajima!
⤷ Take control of the tower protected by a new faction “The Moonflowers”, and free this beautiful island from their control!
⤷ Sakurajima is home to many new Pals! Explore and find new species!

・Arena
⤷ An arena has appeared in the Desiccated Desert! Battle against other players to assert your dominance!
(Multiplayer exclusive content)

・Stronghold – Oil Rig
⤷ An oil rig controlled by the Rayne Syndicate has appeared in the ocean! Work together with your friends to defeat powerful enemies and claim valuable resources such as crude oil!

・Player level cap raised to 55!
⤷ Players can now adventure to level 55!
⤷ New technologies available
⤷ Upper limit for Pal’s capture bonus has been increased from 10 to 12

・New Resource – Crude Oil
⤷ You can extract crude oil by unlocking and placing a new building, the crude oil extractor, in certain spots around the world
⤷ New high-tier equipment and spheres can be crafted using the new material Plasteel which can be made from crude oil

・New Raid – Blazamut Ryu has arrived! The strongest Dragon Pal in the game!

・Meteorite Event
⤷ Meteorites or supplies will fall from space sometimes! There may even be an unknown Pal from outer space too…!?

・Tower Boss Hard Mode
⤷ Each tower boss now has a hard mode, allowing you to face them in their ultimate form!

・New Merchant – Medal Merchant
⤷ A merchant who will exchange a new item Dog Coin for rare items!

・New Items
⤷ Mysterious Accessory Box – Permanently increases the number of accessory slots by 1
⤷ Concentrated All-Purpose Pal Extract – Increases the rank of a Pal by 1 when used
⤷ Ring of Freight – Increases your carrying weight when equipped
⤷ Vital Remedy, Stamina Remedy, Might Remedy, Speed Remedy, Burden Remedy – These new remedies permanently strengthen the player’s base stats. Until now, players could only increase their stats when levelling up, but now you can reach MAX stats!

・New Weapons
⤷ Laser Rifle
⤷ Flamethrower
⤷ Gatling Gun
⤷ Grenade launcher
⤷ Guided Missile Launcher
⤷ Multi Guided Missile Launcher
⤷ Meteor Launcher

・New NPC cosmetic hats! Dress up like your favourite bosses!
⤷ Zoe Hat
⤷ Axel Hat
⤷ Lily Hat
⤷ Victor Hat
⤷ Marcus Hat
⤷ Saya Hat

・New Pal cosmetic hats! Dress up like your favourite Pals!
⤷ Lyleen Floral Cap
⤷ Sibelyx Hat
⤷ Leezpunk Hood
⤷ Killamari Cap
⤷ Cawgnito Hat
⤷ Ribbuny Headband
⤷ Lamball Helm
⤷ Dumud Helm
⤷ Swee Cap
⤷ Dazzi Hat
⤷ Cattiva Hat

・New Buildings
⤷ Cold Food Box – Feed your Pals while keeping your food nice and cool
⤷ Sulfur Mine and Coal Mine – Gather valuable resources at your base
⤷ Pal Disassembly Conveyor – Get rid of unwanted Pals automatically! Your heart will hurt less this way…
⤷ Wall-Mounted Sign – Make notes without taking up too much space
⤷ Refrigerated Crusher – An upgraded Crusher that can break down various items into different items

・New Feature – Lockpicking
⤷ You can now attempt to open locked treasure chests with the new lockpicking mini-game. Requires a Lockpicking Tool!

・New Feature – Pal Skins! (Cosmetics for Pals)
⤷ You can now change Pal’s skin at the new Pal Dressing Facility!
⤷ The “Sunglasses Cattiva” skin is now available for everyone! More skins will be added in future updates

▼Player
・Pal Box capacity increased from 480 Pals to 960 Pals
・Increased the maximum amount of power that can be enhanced by Lifmunk Effigies from 10 to 12
・Added a setting that prevents items from being automatically picked up if it will overencumber the player

▼Base Related
・The building system has been reworked and improved! Basic construction is now much more intuitive and smooth!
・Pillars have been added. The days of accidentally demolishing a supporting wall and the entire 2nd flood collapsing are over!
・Axis alignment function added
・Defensive walls can now be connected
・It is now possible to connect from the roof, walls, stairs, and pillars to the foundation (previously, connections could only be started from the foundation)
・New building material “Glass” has been added. Keep an eye on your cute Pals from inside with glass walls!
・The maximum base level has been increased to 25, and the number of bases allowed has been increased from 3 to 4 at level 25
・You can now change the maximum amount of guild bases from the game options
※Note: Too many bases may lead to performance issues
・You can now change the maximum amount of base Pals from the game options
※Note: Too many Pals at one base may lead to performance issues
・Implemented a private lock function for chests. Your friends won’t be able to steal your metal anymore!
・It is now possible to permanently assign a Pal to a specific facility from the Monitoring Stand
・Cakes will now be transported to chests as a priority
・Readjusted the work priority order for Pals
・Changes to defense facility specifications. Work pals will use them automatically even if they are not assigned to a specific facility
・Measures and mitigation for base pals getting stuck when a route cannot be taken

▼UI
・Added a lock function in the Pal Box menu
・Player crosshair colour can now be adjusted and fixed an issue where the crosshair would get stuck behind the player
・You can now craft items in units of 100x
・Added more types of custom map markers, and increased the placement limit to 300
・Statue of Power UI has been improved
・Improved sorting function of Pal Box, making it easier to find the Pal you want

▼World
・Junkyards have been added around the world! You might find some valuable items there…
・A new random event has been added. Find and steal eggs from “Monster Nests” hidden around the islands!

▼Pals
・New Pal Skills!

・Unique Skills
⤷ Jumping Stinger (Menasting)
⤷ Rocket Slam (Chillet)
⤷ Protection of Fertility (Lyleen)
⤷ Raging Flame Wave (Faleris)
⤷ Thunderbolt Heavy Tank (Grizzbolt)
⤷ Polyceraunos (Orserk)
⤷ Divine Disaster II (Shadowbeak)

・Neutral Skills
⤷ Air Blade
⤷ Holy Burst
⤷ Star Mine

・Fire Skills
⤷ Flame Wall
⤷ Volcanic Rain
⤷ Flame Funnel

・Water Skills
⤷ Splash
⤷ Wall Splash

・Grass Skills
⤷ Circle Vine

・Electric Skills
⤷ Thunder Rain
⤷ TriSpark
⤷ Thunderstorm

・Ice Skills
⤷ Icicle Line

・Ground Skills
⤷ Rockburst
⤷ Sand Twister

・Dragon Skills
⤷ Beam Slicer
⤷ Comet

・New Passive Skills
⤷ Philanthropist – Greatly reduces the time required to produce eggs
⤷ Impatient – Reduced cooldown on active skills
⤷ Infinite Stamina – Increased stamina (Only on mountable Pals)
⤷ Noble – Pals with this passive will give you an advantage when trading with merchants
⤷ Nocturnal – Pals with this passive become nocturnal and will work throughout the night

▼Multiplayer
・Added a new setting that always rejects guild invites

▼Balance Adjustment
・Due to the increase in accessory slots, accessories with the same name have been changed so they cannot be equipped more than once
・Defensive accessories have been balanced due to the increase in accessory slots.
・Due to the addition of many new Pals, some Pal breeding combinations have been changed
・Adjusted the selling price of all Pals. The selling price of Alpha Pals is now about twice that of the original species

▼Bug Fixes
・Mitigations have been added for an issue that caused PCs to freeze when closing the game
・Changed the grappling gun behaviour to make it less likely to get stuck
・Many many many other minor bug fixes

▼Other
・A warning will now be displayed if the GPU driver is too out-of-date

▼Soundtrack
・6 new songs have been added to soundtrack. If you have already purchased the game, please update the soundtrack.
*Please note that the soundtrack update may be delayed by about a day.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].