In Palworld, you can put your Pals to work in your base and have them toil to create more materials and resources for your adventure. But as you work your Pals on your base you might notice Pals slacking off, working less, or even becoming depressed and sleeping all day.
So how do you prevent this? What causes Pals to become depressed, and how can you cure it when it happens? Below is a guide to making sure your Pals are the happiest, and how to cure their depression should they fall into a slump.
Preventing Pals from becoming Depressed in Palworld
While Pals love to work, and have preferences on the work they do, if you overwork a Pal they’ll drop in Sanity or SAN. If their Sanity drops too far, they’ll become depressed, refuse to work, slack-off, and spend their time sleeping.
A Pal’s Sanity will drop for three reasons:
- Having no place to sleep.
- Being Hungry.
- Working at a station such as a Monitoring Stand or Quarry.
You can avoid Pals becoming depressed by keeping their Sanity high. To do this, make sure Pal’s have access to a Food Basket so they can eat when they become Hungry, make sure they have a bed to sleep in, and somewhere they can relax, such as a Hot Spring or High Quality Hot Spring. Certain Pal Traits will also reduce the loss of SAN.
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Additionally, if a Pal’s SAN drops too low, too fast, it may be time to take them off work duty for a while. Replace them with a different Pal. Pals stored in the Computer will slowly regain Sanity over time.
Sanity or SAN in Palworld
Pals in Palworld have a Sanity score, which will deplete as they work on jobs around your base. On their info panel, this is displayed as SAN, and will be a score out of 100. A Pal with less than around 70 SAN will start to slack off. At less than 50 SAN a Pal is likely to develop the Depression debuff.
How to cure depressed Pals in Palworld
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If you do find a Pal has fallen into depression, it’s time for restorative action. You'll need to use High Grade Medical Supplies on a Pal to cure the Depression status. To do this, you'll either need to craft them at the Medieval Medicine Workbench. The Medieval Medicine Workbench requires you to be level 12 and unlock it with technology points. You'll then need to build High Grade Medical with five ingots, five horn, and five bone.
You'll also need to increase their SAN manually to prevent them from just getting the Depressed status again. This can be done by feeding the Pal, and giving them a break. This can only be done to a Pal who doesn’t have full Hunger, but usually a depressed Pal won’t immediately be full.
Next make sure to prevent the Pal from working. You’ll need to either take this Pal into your main team, and pet and feed them, or leave them in the Computer for storage. Pals who don’t work will slowly regain Sanity over time, and once they’ve hit 100 SAN, their Depression status will be removed.
An ‘alternative’ method
Palworld is a game which isn’t afraid to shy away with the dark elements of monster/Pal owning and capture. As a result, you don’t have to cure your Pal’s depression. If you have enough Pals, you can work them until they break, then just replace them with another Pal. Capture enough Pals and you can cycle through the Pals you need and you'll never have to worry about the Pals who do become depressed. You could even use the Butcher Knife to 'dispose' of them. It's not the nicest way of treating your Pals, but then again, neither is putting them to work in the first place.
