Palia: A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide

Image: Singularity 6 Corporation via HGG

Human Made

Penned by Brittany Alva

Brittany is our resident Palia and Honkai: Star Rail specialist.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Being a human in a community of other races isn’t easy, especially when the only things left of the humans who came before you are ruins and confusion. 

Palia, the ultimate cozy MMO, places you in that position, and while you’re farming with friends and building relationships with characters, there’s plenty more you need to know to thrive in the land.

Here’s everything you need to know about hopping into the world of Palia in our beginner’s guide.

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Meet the Townspeople

There are all kinds of people across Palia, and most of them are situated in Kilima. The people of Kilima are pretty friendly, and you’ll get to know their faces as you do countless quests and other things. 

However, until you get to that point, you can reference them here.

Jina

Jina is the first person you meet when loading into Palia, and you’ll learn about the humans of Palia’s past throughout your adventures in the game. She’s pretty friendly, and she’s always seen with Hekla at her side.

Hekla

Since she’s always with Jina, Hekla is the second being you’ll meet in the land of Palia. She’s a Goldur, and she’s incredibly friendly and caring with her friends. 

Tish

When it comes to furniture crafting, Tish is your girl. She’s the leader of the Furniture Crafting Guild, and she’s another friendly face who’s always willing to lend a helping hand. 

Reth

If you’re looking for the best chef around Kilima, then talk to Reth. The renowned cook works at Ornuu’s Horn Inn, and you can buy recipes from him while he’s there. He likes to call himself a troublemaker, but he’s a loyal and caring friend. 

Ashura

Ashura runs Ornuu’s Horn Inn, and he’s one of the best resources in town for new residents. He’s always helping you figure out what to do and who to talk to, and he’s respected around town.

Kenli

Kind Mr. Kenli is the mayor of Kilima. While he holds the title, his laid-back demeanor often leads him to direct mayoral duties to others.

Eshe

Eshe is Mr. Kenli’s wife, and she’s the real powerhouse behind Kilima. While she can be abrasive and intimidating at first, she cares about the village and the townspeople.

Kenyatta

Kenyatta is Kenli and Eshe’s daughter, and she works at the Town Hall. However, she’s not a fan of the job, and she’s often bored with it. She instead enjoys people who are as smart as she is and abhors useless conversation. 

Zeki

The General Store is run by Zeki, a Grimalkin who’s crafty and business savvy. His business deals are sound, but he does run a black market in the area, and you may be able to find your way into it. 

Sifuu

Sifuu the blacksmith is one of the most powerful people in Kilima. She used to put that strength to the test as a monster hunter, but retired to raise her son in a safer way.

Hassian

Sifuu’s son, Hassian, is the hunter around town. While he can be rough around the edges, his care for the local good boy, Tau, proves he has a heart.

Tau

Tau is the local dog that enjoys pets and quality time with the people across Palia. However, he is technically Hassian’s companion, and he generally follows him around. 

Jel

If you’re looking for new threads, talk to Jel. His passion for fashion and cosmetic things is clear in everything he does, and he’s very friendly.

Einar

Einar is the other Goldur in town, and he’s the local fisherman. He’s almost always fishing near the village, and he excitedly helps those who want to learn more about fishing. 

Badruu

Despite having the cringiest puns in all of Palia, Badruu is one of the most helpful people in the village. He’s a farmer, and his giant heart is something his entire family has in common.

Delailah

Delailah is Badruu’s wife, and she’s just as much a farmer as her husband. She takes care of the farm and her family with an abundance of love, and she’s another pillar of the village.

Nai’o

As the oldest son of Delailah and Badruu, Nai’o is working hard to follow in their footsteps and become the town’s next farmer. Like his parents, he’s very friendly.

Auni

Auni is Delailah and Badruu’s youngest child, and he’s the local mail courier. He also enjoys catching bugs, and he’s very helpful to newcomers of the village.

Hodari

Hodari is the main miner in town, and he’s the head of the Mining Guild. He can seem rough around the edges, but he’s a devoted father who wanders into town every so often.

Najuma

Najuma is Hodari’s daughter, and she’s the best inventor in town. She’s the only other child besides Auni, but she prefers to be alone and spends more time outside of town compared to in it. 

Caleri

Caleri is the local librarian, and she’s as stern as the horn-rimmed glasses she wears would portray. She views the library as a place of power, and as such, she’s careful of who she lets check out books.

Elouisa

Caleri’s twin sister, Elouisa, is another researcher of Palia. She’s always coming up with theories, and you can find her wandering the various ruins around the land. 

Chayne

Chayne is the gentle priest and cleric of the Dragon Shrine. He’s very friendly, and he’s the friendly foundation of religion across Palia.

Tamala

Tamala is the most elusive and mysterious character in Palia, and she’s often found out foraging. She doesn’t come in the village often, and you’ll need to seek her out in order to find her.

Building Friendships

When you interact with the people of Palia, you’ll oftentimes notice that you’re earning their friendship off to the side. This friendship is pretty important, and the responses you choose have a direct influence on how quickly you’ll gain their friendship. Raising their friendship levels gives you access to new items and who knows what else in the future.

Beyond speaking to them, you can raise your friendship with villagers by giving them items. You can give items every in-game day, and there are specific things they’ll want every week. You’ll have to talk to the villagers and find out what they want, though, and other villagers may share what other people want, too. 

Love and Relationships

Friendship isn’t the only relationship you can have with villagers – many of them are romanceable, too. You can find love with several of the villagers, and you can tell which ones are romanceable by the heart level they have beside their name. 

Once you become close to these villagers, you’ll get an option to romance them. You can also express your intent by gifting them a Box of Chocolate, which can be bought at the General Store.

Additionally, monogamy isn’t a thing around Palia. You can romance all the eligible characters if you’d like, or just one. 

Player Dialogue Options and Elements

When you’re prompted to respond around Palia, you’ll notice little icons beside the options. At first glance, these don’t make a lot of sense. However, they actually denote what kind of personality your character has.

There’s one for each element: fire, earth, air, and water. On the main menu, you can see what the affinity you’ve chosen most is. While you don’t have to exclusively choose one element to respond as, it does help you control what your personality is – it’s easier to keep track of your main element if you don’t stray from choosing it too often. 

The Map

The map in Palia is incredibly useful once you know the best ways to use it. You can access the map by pressing ‘M.’ You’ll do this often as you can see where every NPC is (as long as you’ve met them). 

You can also navigate to an NPC by clicking the wheel of your mouse over them. This is how you place any point on the map. If you’re trying to follow a moving target (like a character), then the location point will continue to follow them.

While the minimap isn’t extremely helpful, the navigation bar along the top works with the points you drop on the map. This helps you know which direction to go by turning where you do and keeping you on track while you’re looking for something or someone. 

Quests

The map will also show you quests, even if you haven’t received them. The quest giver will have a yellow flag by their name, and you can target them like normal to go get it. There are also glowing yellow areas where quests are at, and pinning quests will show you where to go on the map as well.

Renown

While Gold is a major currency in Palia, it’s not the only thing you’ll use to barter with. Renown is another resource that you’ll obtain through quests, befriending villagers, and even just going about your day. 

Renown can be used to increase your focus, and you can use it at shrines like the Dragon Shrine and the Phoenix Shrine where you first came to Palia. It can also be used to buy Wits at Town Hall, which allows you to expand your home and plot. In other words, it’s just as valuable as Gold is, and you’ll want to manage it carefully. 

Focus

Just like in real life, Palia has a Focus mechanic that’s directly related to how hungry your character is. When you’re doing activities on an empty stomach, you’ll gain the least amount of experience possible. However, when you eat, you can get a multiplier on the experience you gain. 

Keeping food on your person is important for this as you don’t ever want to waste time in an MMO. You’ll start the game and naturally gain a few recipes here or there, and you can buy more from Reth at the Inn.

You can also get multipliers on your focus from the Phoenix Shrine, and you can upgrade your max Focus at the Dragon Shrine. Both of these cost Renown. 

Your Home

One of the places you’ll visit the most in Palia is your home. This area of land is yours to decorate, and you’ll also place your farming plots and your crafting machines here as well. While it starts as a tent, you’ll be able to build yourself a home pretty early on. 

This area is also home to a lot of materials, and you’ll want to clear this up as soon as possible. 

Customizing Your Land

There are two main ways to customize your home area. First, you can use the CTRL key to directly grab things and move them around. This is pretty easy to do, and you’re able to see how something looks before you place it. However, it can be annoying to move multiple things like this (unfortunately, if you’re moving things from inside one building to another, you’ll need to use this method). 

The other way is to press ‘H’ while on your land. This will pull up the editor, and you can move things quickly and easily while getting a birds-eye view of your farm. This can be quicker, but you don’t get to see what it looks like from your actual playing view. 

While in either method, you can change the angle of items by pressing ‘Q’ or ‘E.’ If you’re trying to place an item, then highlight it in your inventory by pressing the number it’s on. From there, left click, and you’ll be able to place the item where you want it.

Activities

There’s a lot you can do in Palia. These all have their own skill levels, and you should make sure to keep them all leveled up as much as possible. You can ensure you’re getting the most out of your time by eating (i.e. raising your Focus) before doing any of these activities. 

You can equip any of the necessary tools for these activities by opening the tool wheel with ‘R’ and clicking on the tool you need. Over time, you’ll want to upgrade your tools. If you keep up with this from the beginning, you can progress through things a lot easier. 

Gardening

The first time you leave your home plot after first visiting it, you can go talk to Badruu to learn how to farm. He’ll ask you to meet him at your home plot, and once you do, he’ll give you a watering can and plow. 

Gardening takes a bit of coordination between a couple things. First, you’ll need to place soil areas. Once you’ve done that, you can plow them by equipping and using your hoe. While the plowed areas will become little squares, you’ll need to maneuver your character to actually plow every spot. And yes, you can accidentally plow over the areas you already plowed and erase them, so be careful. 

Once you’ve got areas down, you’ll highlight the seeds in your inventory and ‘place’ them the same way you would furniture. 

After that, you can water them by equipping and left clicking. You’ll need to make sure your watering can has water, and you can refill it anywhere there’s water by right clicking while you’ve got it equipped. 

Your crops will grow a little bit every in-game day as long as you water them. However, if you don’t water them, they’ll weed over and stop growing. This isn’t a major issue – all you need to do is remove the weeds by clicking ‘F’ and watering them again. 

Plants take different amounts of time to grow, but when they’re ready, you can harvest them by pressing ‘F.’ 

Mining

The first thing you’ll learn to do is mine. This is a pretty straightforward task. In most cases, you’ll need to swing the pickaxe multiple times in order to get the rocks you need. A blue progress bar will show you how much you have left.

You can get the pickaxe from Hodari when you first go to your home plot.

Foraging

Foraging includes two things: chopping trees and gathering things you find as you travel. Things like mushrooms, flowers, and other natural things count toward this. In order to forage those kinds of items, all you have to do is press ‘F.’

Once you’ve visited your home plot for the first time, you’ll have access to an axe. Once it’s equipped, you can chop trees. Pretty much everything you need in the beginning of the game requires wood of some sort, so chopping trees is the perfect thing to do if you’re bored. 

Fishing

After you build and craft your first tent and Storage Box, Auni will come visit you and give you your first mail. In this, you’ll have a letter from Einar, and he’ll include a fishing pole as a birthday present of sorts. He’ll also implore you to go speak with him to learn how to use it.  

After euqipping your fishing rod by water, you can left clik to aim and throw your line out. A fish will eventually bite, but you’ll need to wait for a bigger bite before left clicking to reel it in (the only way to describe a bigger bite is that the visual effect will be more – you’ll see it as long as you watch your screen). 

You’ll have to manually reel the fish in by holding down left click. However, you’ll need to keep the fish in the green area in the water. Sometimes the fish will dart out and the circle will turn red, and you can move the fishing rod until it’s green again. While you’re moving the rod, let go of left click or else the fish may escape.

Hunting

You’ll get a letter from Hassian the first time you get mail that has a bow, arrows, and the recipe to craft arrows in it. Similar to Einar and fishing, Hassian will ask you to come learn how to use the weapon before you use it. 

Hunting is a game of patience just like real-life hunting is. You’ll need to take your bow out and aim by right clicking. You can shoot an arrow while like this by left clicking and releasing. 

While some smaller creatures might only take one arrow before being downed, you’ll need to hit larger animals multiple times. However, after you hit them once, they’ll run. You’ll need to follow them without getting too close to spook them away. Once they start running, you can try hitting them again – just like many other things, hunting in Palia mimics real-life hunting surprisingly well. 

Insect Catching

The first time Auni brings you mail, he’ll also give you some sink bombs for catching insects. He’ll also teach you how to use them if you ask him about it. 

In order to catch a bug, you’ll need to equip stink bombs and throw them at the bug you want to grab. They’ll briefly be stunned, and some may try to get away afterward. Keep nailing them with stink bombs, and they’ll eventually be yours for collecting. 

Crafting

Once you go to your home plot for the first time and finish Hodari’s quick debris-clearing request, you’ll be tasked with placing a Crafting Table he gives you. This let’s you craft everything from arrows to furniture, and it’s a staple of your life in Palia. 

Interacting with the Crafting Table will let you make different things as long as you have the materials and recipe for them. There are sometimes other crafting machines you’ll need, like a Sawmill, but the main device is the Crafting Table.

Many times, after you’ve crafted something new, your character will get inspired. This will pop up a few different shadowed objects that you can choose to learn a recipe for. This is a fun way to unlock new things to craft, and it rewards you for creating new things. You can tell if you’ve crafted something by the green checkmark when you’re looking at the recipe at your Crafting Table (or the lack of one). 

Cooking

After you’ve visited your home plot once and come back to the village to learn how to garden from Badruu, you can speak to Reth to learn how to cook. He’ll teach you how to make a campfire and how to make a simple meal. 

Once you’ve crafted and placed your campfire, you can interact with it and cook (as long as you have the recipe for anything). Once you place the ingredients, you’ll have to wait for it to cook. After it’s done, you can collect it and eat it or sell it for more Gold.

Multiplayer Communities

A big part of any MMO is the community, and Palia is no exception. While you’re running through the land, you’re more than likely going to run into other people who are playing the game. There’s also an in-game chat that you can use to talk to people online. 

For those who want to take it one step further, there are Communities where friends can join together to play the game. There are several benefits to being in a community, and some quests will require you to be in one in order to complete it. 

How to Join a Community

You’ll need to be invited to join a Community. If you don’t have any friends that play the game, then you can always ask in the Server chat for Communities that may be recruiting. Once you’ve been invited to one, you’ll see it under the Community tab that looks like a house on the main menu. 

You can also create a Community in this same area. 

The Benefits of Being in a Community

Beyond actually being able to finish certain quests, communities are helpful for resource gathering. You can request items from your Community members, which can help you accomplish certain tasks much quicker than you would on your own. Likewise, you can help your friends if they need things as well.

Your Community members can also visit your home area and water your crops – considering plants need to be watered every in-day game (and these in-day games keep rolling no matter where you are or if you’re even online), having friends who can help your crops grow is super helpful. This again expedites your ability to get resources – crops – and it can help you get through specific quests quickly. 

Until the game has its first events and other live-service-esque things, it’s not clear whether or not Communities will have more benefits. However, it is known that future events will be able to be done with friends, so there may be benefits as well. Check back in the future for more updates. 

Purchasable Content

Palia is a free-to-play, live-service game. Of course, that leads many to wonder if it’s pay-to-win or actually free, and the good news is that Palia doesn’t charge for anything other than cosmetics! Of course, some of these outfits are enticing, and if you’d like to support the developers and wear cool swag, then you can do so by purchasing them from the Premium store (which is available on the main screen and in Jel’s shop).

Tips and Tricks for Beginners

While having all this information is great, some things may be easier to digest with a to-do list. Here are some tips and tricks for beginners of Palia to get the best early-game experience.

Keep Resources

Resources in any game are important, and Palia is no exception. There are plenty of things you’ll need as you go through the game, and it’s easier to have these things on hand and ready compared to finding 100 pieces of wood every time you need it. 

You’ll get chests and the ability to craft them early, and they’re very helpful for storing these items. Your inventory space is pretty limited in the beginning, so unloading into these every chance you get is ideal. 

Sell Forageables

While you want to keep resources, the first thing you want to start selling is forageables. Gold is pretty important, and having enough of it in the beginning makes it much easier to progress without getting stuck. 

You can sell things by placing them in the shipping bin in front of your home plot. This resets every in-game day, and you’ll be paid the next time you go home. You can see a total for how much you’ll earn the next time it runs when you click on the shipping bin. 

You can also sell things to shops, but not every shop will be wiling to buy what you want to sell. Try to think about what shop would sell what you’re trying to sell and check there first. 

Another thing you may want to consider selling is ingredients and meals you get early on. While Focus is important, you can manage your renown and meals you make yourself with cheaper ingredients to make quick cash by selling the reward meals and ingredients you get. 

Don’t Ignore Focus

Focus is incredibly important – while you can ignore the bonus multipliers you get, it makes progressing through the game much slower and harder. This isn’t ideal in an MMO, even if you want to take things at a leisurely pace.

If you don’t enjoy cooking and having to wait for meals, then you can focus on using the Phoenix Shrine to get the most out of the meals you do have.

Meet Everyone

One of the best things about Palia’s map is that you can see where any NPC is at any time. However, you have to have met them or they just show as a gray face. Make it a priority in the beginning of your journey to meet all the gray faces on the map – this will save you a lot of time moving forward.

Join the High Ground

That’s everything you need to know to succeed in the coziest MMO of them all, Palia. The game offers an endless amount of things to do, and there are more planned things to come. Let us know your favorite thing about Palia in the comments below, and feel free to subscribe below for more Palia and gaming content.

Until next time, fellow human!