Palworld Weapons and Tech Tree Guide: What to Unlock First

Tech points come slow in Palworld, and the tree is packed with unlocks that look handy but mostly aren't. Burn points on the wrong stuff early and you end up grinding levels just to afford the crossbow you needed an hour ago. The order pretty much sorts itself out once you know which picks carry you and which ones are traps. Here's the cheap stuff to grab first, how bows, guns, and melee actually stack up, what ammo costs to make, the gear that changes how you move, and the late-game weapons worth hoarding points for.

Early Tech Points Priorities Before Level 20

How points work (and why they feel tight)

You earn 6 technology points per level, plus 1 for every fast travel statue you light up, plus 1 the first time you beat each Alpha Pal, and 5 the first time you clear a Tower Boss. Ancient technology points are a separate pool (the purple tree), and those only come from Alphas and Tower Bosses. So early on you're working with a trickle.

Most rows in the tree cost 1 to 3 points, and a single level can have eight or nine items sitting on it. You can't have it all. That's the whole game.

Build your base before your weapon pile. The free starter row (Primitive Workbench, Stone Pickaxe, Stone Axe, Palbox, Wooden Club) costs nothing, so grab it and move on. From there the early priorities are survival and food, not guns.

What to grab, in roughly this order

1. Palbox (level 2, 1 point). Without it you can't catch or store Pals, and your Pals do most of your fighting for you early.
2. Cloth Outfit (level 4). Cheap warmth, and the cold regions will chunk your health bar without it.
3. Feed Box (level 4) and Berry Plantation (level 5). A food setup that runs itself stops you from fussing over hunger every two minutes.
4. Crusher (level 8) and Primitive Furnace (level 10). Ingots gate almost everything past level 10, so get smelting and crushing early.
5. Old Bow and Arrow (level 3). Your first real ranged weapon, and arrows are nearly free.
6. Three Shot Bow (level 10, 2 points). Fires three arrows for the price of one, huge value.
7. Crossbow (level 13, 2 points). The first big damage jump.

The weapon path before firearms

The Old Bow is weak (65 base attack) but it costs almost nothing, and the arrows are wood and fiber, which you trip over everywhere. Most of your early scrapping is you plinking away from the back while your starter Pals hold the front line.

The Three Shot Bow at level 10 is one of the best value picks around. Three arrows leave the string and it only burns one from your stack, so your output roughly doubles for two points. Then the Crossbow at 13 lands at 280 base attack, which is a massive step up from the Old Bow's 65. Once the crossbow is in your hands, the early Alpha Pals and Syndicate camps get a lot less scary.

| Weapon | Unlocks | Ammo | Base attack (Common) | |---|---|---|---| | Old Bow | Level 3 | Arrow | 65 | | Three Shot Bow | Level 10 | Arrow | 40 (x3 arrows) | | Crossbow | Level 13 | Arrow | 280 |

Those are Common-rarity numbers straight off the wiki. Higher rarity schematics push them up a lot, but you won't see those for a while.

Things to skip for now

• Ranch (level 5). Nice later, not day one.
• Furniture sets. Pure looks, and they eat points you need.
• Most Pal saddles and Pal gear. Only grab the one for a Pal you actually use.
• The Poison Bow line. Fine, but the crossbow is the real goal, so don't detour.

Firearms Versus Melee Weapons in Early Combat

Melee is a stopgap

Melee weapons are cheap and ask for no ammo: Wooden Club (free, starter row), Stone Spear (level 4), Bat (level 7), Metal Spear (level 13). You knock them together at the Primitive Workbench from stone and wood.

The catch is that Palworld is a game where things hit hard, and closing to swinging distance means you eat every hit on the way in. Early on your health pool is small, and there's no real reason to trade blows when a bow lets your Pals take the aggro instead. Keep a club or spear on your bar for the odd thug you bump into indoors, or for finishing something you've already stunned. Past that, melee points are better spent elsewhere.

Bows are the early workhorse

For roughly your first 20 levels, bows do the heavy lifting. Arrows are basically free, there's no gunpowder or ingot cost per shot, and you fire from behind your Pals. The Old Bow into Three Shot Bow into Crossbow chain covers everything you'll fight before firearms show up. The crossbow in particular hits hard enough that a lot of players skip straight past the early guns and keep using it well into their 20s.

When guns show up

Firearms don't really kick in until level 21, when Coarse Ammo unlocks. The Musket (level 21) is the first gun: 1000 base attack per shot, but it's a single-shot with a long reload, so the damage comes in bursts.

The "makeshift" line is the cheap auto-fire tier. Makeshift Handgun (24), Boost Gun (25), Makeshift SMG (26), Makeshift Shotgun (30), and Makeshift Assault Rifle (31) almost all run on Coarse Ammo, which is convenient. Per-shot they hit softer than the crossbow, but they fire fast and hold more rounds.

Per-shot numbers stay low on the makeshift guns (the Makeshift SMG is around 100, the Makeshift Assault Rifle 170, the Makeshift Shotgun 215). The appeal is sustained fire, not burst. Pull the trigger on a crossbow once and it still outhits any of them on a single shot.

How to actually think about it

Melee carries you for the first hour or two. Then bows take over and stay good into the mid-20s. Then guns pull ahead once Coarse Ammo is cheap to make. You don't need to rush firearms. The crossbow at 13 is honestly enough to clear the first tower and several Alphas. Spend those early weapon points on bows, and let guns wait until you've got a furnace churning out ingots.

| Option | Role | Ammo cost | Verdict | |---|---|---|---| | Melee (club, spear) | early stopgap | none | fine for an hour, then drop it | | Bows (old bow to crossbow) | early workhorse | nearly free | your main damage to around level 20 | | Musket and makeshift guns | first firearms | Coarse Ammo (ingots + gunpowder) | takes over around level 21 and up |

Ammo Crafting and Resource Costs Compared

Why ammo economics matter

Guns are only as good as your ammo supply, and ammo eats ingots and gunpowder in a hurry. The cheap early round is Coarse Ammo (level 21, 1 point), and it's the backbone of the whole makeshift tier. One batch crafts 20 rounds from 2 Ingot and 1 Gunpowder. That's a great deal, and more weapons run on it than any other ammo type. The Musket and every makeshift gun all feed from the same box, so one recipe loads five different guns. That alone makes it worth unlocking the moment you hit 21.

The ammo tiers

| Ammo | Feeds | Rough cost | |---|---|---| | Arrow, Fire Arrow, Poison Arrow | bows and arrow crossbows | wood, fiber, cheap Pal drops | | Coarse Ammo | Musket and all makeshift guns | 2 Ingot + 1 Gunpowder per 20 | | Handgun Ammo | Handgun, Old Revolver | ingots + gunpowder, a bit pricier | | Rifle Ammo | Single-shot Rifle | more ingots per batch | | Shotgun Shells | shotguns | ingots + gunpowder | | Assault Rifle Ammo | Assault Rifle | mid-tier cost | | Grenade, Missile, Charge ammo | launchers and Charge Rifle | expensive, late-game mats |

Every step up the ammo ladder costs more ingots and gunpowder per batch, and the heavy stuff (Grenade Ammo, Missile Ammo, Charge Rifle Ammo) wants rarer materials too. Arrows stay cheap the whole way through, which is a big part of why bows keep being relevant long after you'd expect to retire them.

Tips for not running dry

• Buy Coarse Ammo from the small-settlement merchants early on. When ingots are scarce, paying around 120 gold a stack beats burning your first metal on bullets.
• Set a Pal with the right work suitability on the Weapon Workbench and queue a big batch before you log off. Wake up to a full box.
• Keep one stack of each ammo type you use on your bar, and dump the rest in a chest. Ammo weighs almost nothing (Coarse Ammo is 0.025), but your bag fills up with other junk fast.
• Don't bother crafting heavy ammo until you actually own the launcher that fires it. Hoarding Grenade Ammo at level 25 is a waste of good mats.

Unlocking Grappling Hooks and Gliders for Exploration

Gliders: grab the parachute early

The Normal Parachute (level 5, 2 points) is one of the best value unlocks in the game. It costs 10 Wood and 2 Cloth to craft, you press jump while falling to deploy it, and it turns every cliff into a shortcut instead of a death drop. Its glide speed is only 50 and it drains stamina, but for two points it pays for itself the first time you walk off a mountain by accident.

It later gets replaced by the Mega Glider (level 18, 2 points) and eventually the Giga Glider (level 40), both of which glide faster and farther. Grab the parachute at 5, the Mega Glider when you hit 18, and don't stress about the Giga until endgame.

The Grappling Gun is the one that really matters

The Grappling Gun sits on the ancient tree at level 12 and costs 1 ancient technology point. Craft it with 10 Paldium Fragment, 10 Ingot, 30 Fiber, and 1 Ancient Civilization Part. It fires a hook that yanks you toward whatever it latches onto, and it changes how you get around. You can zip up cliffs, cross gaps, and skip whole chunks of climbing.

The catch is the ancient point. You only get those from beating Alpha Pals (1 each, first kill only) and Tower Bosses (5 each, first clear). The easiest early source is the first tower, Zoe and Grizzbolt, which most players can clear with a crossbow and a decent Pal team somewhere in the level 10 to 15 range. One clear funds the Grappling Gun and then some.

The upgrade line

The Mega Grappling Gun (level 17) and Giga Grappling Gun (level 31) cut the cooldown and extend the range, so later on you're chaining grapples almost nonstop. They're worth grabbing as the points come in, but the basic one at 12 is the pick that actually matters. Everything after is just polish.

How to combine them

The classic combo: grapple upward to gain height, then pop the glider to cover distance on the way down. It chews through stamina, sure, but it lets you cross terrain your ground mount can't, and it's faster than walking almost anywhere. Once you add a flying mount later, you've got three ways to get vertical, and the map shrinks a lot.

Late-Game Weapons Worth Saving Tech Points For

The trap: spending on every makeshift gun

It's tempting to unlock the whole makeshift line because each one is only 2 or 3 points. Don't. The makeshift guns are a bridge into firearms, not a destination. They hit soft per shot and you'll replace them fast. Pick one or two that fit how you play (the Makeshift SMG for spray, the Makeshift Shotgun for close-up) and save the rest of your points for the real gear.

Bows stay relevant

The Compound Bow (level 32) is the peak of the bow line. It lands at 1100 base attack on Reinforced Arrows, which are still cheap to make. For a lot of players it's the smartest mid-game unlock, because you get near-gun damage at arrow-tier ammo costs. The Advanced Bow later pushes bow damage into the thousands (5800 base at Common), but it needs Hexolite and Advanced Arrows, both late-game, so treat it as an endgame project.

The real guns

Once you're past the makeshift tier, the proper firearms open up: Handgun (level 28), Old Revolver (level 33, around 600 per shot), Single-shot Rifle (level 36, your sniper), SMG (level 37), and Double-barreled Shotgun (level 39, 190 base). The Assault Rifle is the general-purpose king of the rifle tier (320 base, full-auto, on Assault Rifle Ammo) and it stays useful deep into endgame content. These need the Weapon Workbench (20), then the Weapon Assembly Line (32) and its later upgrades to craft, so budget points for the benches too, not just the guns.

The heavy hitters

Save room for the explosive and energy weapons, because that's where the real damage lives. The Grenade Launcher (3000 base per round) and Guided Missile Launcher (5900, homing) melt groups and bosses alike. The Charge Rifle is the single hardest-hitting standard weapon in the game at 12500 base per charged shot. The Flamethrower (450) and Gatling Gun (375) trade raw per-shot punch for sustained fire, and Grizzbolt's Minigun (level 40) is the meme pick that absolutely shreds anything in front of it.

Collab and special gear

There's also a handful of crossover gear floating around. The Tides of Terraria set (the Vortex Beater and Meowmere among them) and the ULTRAKILL Core Eject Shotgun are fun extras more than must-haves. Grab them if you like the flavor, but they won't replace a Charge Rifle for raw output.

Where to actually put your points

If you have to pick, the Compound Bow at 32 gives you bow-tier damage for arrow-tier ammo costs, so it's usually a smarter unlock than a fourth makeshift gun. From there, the Weapon Assembly Line and the Assault Rifle round out the kit, and then you start saving for the Charge Rifle and the launchers. The makeshift line carried you this far. Now it's time to retire it. And that's the real takeaway: once Reinforced Arrows are cheap to craft, the Compound Bow does gun-level damage for arrow-level cost, and that trade is hard to beat.