Trying to catch humans in Palworld can be a rather weird experience. We have wondered about this catching human fantasy with a Pokeball before but only Palworld had the guts to actually fulfill it. Now you can bring your human pets along to most activities in the game.
The question is, is there anything special needed to catch humans in Palworld? And most importantly, is it even worth it? Let’s uncover everything about this bizarre mechanic in Palworld.
Catching Humans in Palworld
As weird as it sounds, catching humans is very much possible in Palworld. It is not a glitch, it truly is a built-in feature of the game. Just keep in mind that the game does flash a prompt signifying that capturing humans with Pal Spheres is inhumane. Don’t listen to it and continue amassing your human pet army.
Just like catching Pals, you need to damage humans and then simply lob a Pal Sphere at them, hoping that the Capture Rate works in your favor.
Unlike Pals, you don’t get a catching chance while they are passive when you target them with the Pal Sphere; however, once you start fighting them, the chance numbers will appear just like any other Pals.
Similarly, you need to first weaken humans to increase your chances. Beating them down to the bare minimum health will ensure most kinds of Pal Spheres will capture the NPC. On the same note, the type of Pal Sphere and the level of the human NPC are the deciding factors for a successful capturing rate.
You can catch Low-level humans in Palworld using a Giga Sphere while level-30 and up NPCs like PIDF Elites have to be captured with a Legendary Sphere. Even so, capturing humans is no easy task in terms of wasted Pal Spheres.
In our testing, a level 30 PIDF Officer beaten to a pulp only had a 23% Capture Rate. You can scale this example to the level 50 Elites requiring multiple Legendary Spheres just to capture. You can easily throw 30 Legendary Spheres and still won’t catch them.
Is Catching Humans Worth It in Palworld?
It is generally not worth it to capture humans in Palworld. The only worthwhile NPCs to capture in the game are the different kinds of Merchants (more on this later).
The effort of taking on waves of PIDF forces and battling the Wanted system, not to mention the number of resources required to craft the Pal Sphere, especially Legendary Spheres, doesn’t reap as many rewards compared to getting your hands on a rare Pal with the same amount of trouble.
Here are some cons of capturing humans in Palworld:
- They all have a +1 Handiwork Work Suitability. Not worth it.
- There is an extremely low chance for humans to have any beneficial passive skills. You might capture one with powerful skills but that’s highly unlikely and not worth it in the grand scheme of things.
- When you bring them out as Pals, they only use melee attacks. They somehow don’t have their guns when used as Pals.
- You can not equip them with any special skills. The only skill they come with is Punch which is beyond useless.
- Humans as Pals have abysmal stats. They don’t have advantageous Attack, Defense, and Work Speed stats, including the highest levels of humans.
- You can not breed them at all. None of the humans have a gender assigned to them so they are useless in a breeding zone. And to put a stop to any strange fantasies, no you can not breed them with other Pals.
- They are not added to the Paldeck so there is no point in capturing them just to satisfy your completionist needs.
Now for the good news! The only human NPCs that you should catch in Palworld are the Merchants.
Wandering Merchants and Black Marketeers can be stationed at your base to provide you with your very own stores to replenish your ammo, buy materials, and even sell unwanted or valuable goods.
However, do not put them in your party. If you throw them out in the open, they will only follow you and fight if need be. You won’t be able to interact with them this way, and thus, the storefront is not accessible.
To make their store accessible, you need to first visit your base Palbox and assign them to your base. If you do so, they’ll begin roaming your base where you can interact with them and open up their shops and buy and sell as you please.
Having a merchant of every kind at your base just removes the hassle of finding them in the world. You can simply fast-travel to your base and just trade at your leisure.