Palworld has inarguably become one of the most fascinatingly astounding successes in the gaming industry, toppling all expectations and scrutinies a hundred times over with 19 million Pal adventurers and counting, all in less than a month.
It’s broken multiple Steam records and captured headlines with its staggering concurrent player counts, and of course, all of that is thanks to the tireless work of the team at Pocketpair. Having come a long way since the yesteryears of Craftopia, they’ve done everything in their power to ensure that Palworld’s experience is as enjoyable, shamelessly addicting, and streamlined as possible for everyone.
That’s come in the form of multiple hefty patches that have helped remedy several issues the game initially faced after release, particularly with server stability, which was understandably buckling under very unexpected pressure. However, thanks to its incredibly swift financial success, Pocketpair was able to implement the necessary infrastructure fixes in impressively short order.
Not long after, it was publicly disclosed by Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe that the actual server costs just for February would be just shy of $500,000 USD, all to ensure that the Palworld servers never “degrade” or go down at any point whatsoever. That unflinching dedication has put a shiny Penking feather in their cap, and proved that they’re in this for the long haul.
As their work continues, players on the game’s official Discord and beyond have continued to express what they hope to see going forward, and one particular, unresolved issue that keeps popping up in conversations is the inability to recover misthrown Pal Spheres.
As discussed recently by Reddit user ‘Rikashey’, one of the most frustrating things that continues to bother players everywhere is whenever you hurl a Pal Sphere at a wild Pal with the intent to capture it and it decides to dodge right as you throw it, it effectively sends that Sphere to the digital trash can forever. It feels less painful with regular blue Pal Spheres that become nearly useless anyway later in the game, not to mention you can buy them in bulk from any Wandering Merchant or find them lying on the ground just about everywhere.
However, when it comes to the higher tier spheres, essentially from Giga all the way up to Legendary, each botched throw feels like a proverbial punch in the gut. That lost sphere is also lost effort in gathering the resources for things like Refined Ingots, Paldium, and Cement, which take considerable time to craft before even getting to craft the spheres themselves. Furthermore, that’s still not even accounting for the crafted ammo and other items you use to weaken the Pal itself for capture.
Say you only have five Ultra Spheres on hand to go and pursue a Pal in one of the higher level areas like Mount Obsidian or the Land of Absolute Zero. You make the trek there, whether it’s by flying in bursts or teleporting if you’re lucky, and soon enough you find your target.
You catch its attention with a bullet or a grenade perhaps, and it immediately starts bombarding you with attacks. You’re forced to dodge roll to and fro, and after pouring more than enough artillery in to better your odds, you make the fateful throw. The Pal zips to the side unexpectedly, you lose one Ultra Sphere.
In a panic, you immediately toss another and it bounces off, another gone. That leaves you with just three spheres to seal the deal. It breaks free of two of them, and you’re left wondering if it was even worth it as you throw your last chance. Either you luck out or you sulk away empty-handed, forced to go all the way back to your base to make more.
Sometimes it’s not even that type of scenario. Perhaps you just want to summon a Pal you already have from your party, and in a classic derp moment you fumble the wrong button and toss a Hyper or Ultra Sphere instead. Even when it was not meant to be used, down the drain it goes at the cost of your hubris.
It’s undeniable that many of us have faced this never-ending toil, and it begs the question of how viable it would be to be able to recover at least some Pal Spheres tossed in error. Have them tumble to the ground nearby, and remain interactable for a certain period of time before they disappear. That could even provide a unique twist to the challenge of capturing a high-level Pal, giving you another chance in the moment where you might have been left with none.
Even in the event of still losing out to an overly stubborn Pal, you would have at least had the opportunity to flex your maneuverability skills, and it would make the battle feel even more dramatic and well-earned. Most importantly, being able to recover those meticulously crafted Pal Spheres would help stretch them out at least somewhat further, reducing the amount of time you otherwise have to spend recouping your stores at the assembly line.
Best of all, in those terrible moments where a sphere tumbles out of your inventory by accident while you’re trying to do something else, you could go hastily retrieve it and salvage the embarrassment. Sorry but that fickle, last-second ‘Cancel’ button just isn’t enough.
So Pocketpair, as you continue making this game even more amazing than it already is, please throw us this one…bone. Let us keep our spheres a modicum of our dignity, at least so our Pals don’t mutiny over having to craft more objects of ethical-ish imprisonment and burn down our bases while we sleep.
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