Alright, so lets eliminate some confusion with breeding. An no, not the kind in the other sections.
So lets start with a TLDR, because some of you won't read multiple paragraphs.
TLDR: Try to only breed pals with four or less unique traits you want, there's a 10% chance to inherit four traits.
Okay, so now the real deal.
Part 1 - Benefits of Breeding
With breeding, there are often two major goals. The first is to get a new pal, via breeding two different species. The second is to get the same species, with better or identical traits.
The former is too complex to go into detail, as there are thousands of combinations of pals to crossbreed. But in brief, under the hood every pal has a "breeding power" value, and when you breed two pals they average out. Whatever pal has the new value is the outcome. This is why it's 100% consistent what produce what, and why sites can make absurdly complex charts. I highly, highly suggest a site like paldb or palbreed for planning breeding chains, as they have comprehensive lists of pals with breeding combinations in and out from them.
The latter is the focus of this guide, as it also feeds into the former. When trying to make a new pal species, you often try to pass along good traits. Nobody wants an Anubis with all red traits that make them awful, after all. Ultimately, this is a form of optimization and isn't for everyone. However, breeding can give you a significant power boost and learning the basics can help with shortcomings. Even if it's just the same pal species, knowing how traits are inherited can help streamline the process.
Part 2 - Trait Inheritance, AKA 23&Me
In palworld, a pal can have up to four traits. When breeding, a pal can inherit up to four traits, with different chances for each number. The most important to remember is that there is a 10% chance to inherit four traits from the parents.
So how are traits selected? When looking at inheritance, each trait the parents have is added to a list, with no duplicates. Functionally, each unique trait is counted once, with shared traits not receiving any extra weights. With this in mind, you want to have no more than four unique traits on the parents to maximize the chance of passing them on. If you have less, that's fine, but in ideal circumstances you only have four or less desirable traits, and nothing else, at any given time. If you have undesirable traits, you'll need to breed it out ASAP.
The short version is that all unique traits are added to a list, and based on a chance up to four get inherited.
Because of this, we get breeding chains. While not the focus of this guide, you can crossbreed pals to pass inherited traits to a new species. By doing this repeatedly, hooking in multiple lines, you can create a totally different pal with traits from multiple sources. Within each step, the goal is to produce a male and female of the same species with the desired traits and only those traits split between them. It does not need to be an even split, and duplicates are harmless, but doing so allows you to breed the next step with perfect traits. While largely unnecessary, as explained later, this is a valid way to breed pals and you can absolutely do so.
Part 3 - Outbreeding, Because Inbreeding is Easy
Okay, so some pals start with inherent traits, like Cattiva, Relaxaurus, and even some bosses. Some of these traits are desirable, like Legendary. Others... well, not so much. Other times, you catch a pal and it has some fantastic traits, but some bad or suboptimal ones as well. This is where outbreeding comes in.
So remember, there's a percent chance for each trait to be inherited. If you get to the end of the breeding chain, and have excess traits, you're basically fighting additional probability to get the four target traits. You want that 10% to be a pure win, not to have a coinflip from a single excess trait.
So how do you remove a trait? Luck, mainly. You breed that step of your breeding chain until it disappears, and you have a clean pal with only desirable traits. You do NOT want to pass this trait more than one step, as you will want to keep pals with the best passives from the steps. They can be used for future breeding, after all. Ideally, this would be done with intraspecies breeding, as you can throw out bad ones afterwards.
It is much, much harder to outbreed than to breed traits in. This is because you're fighting multiple layers of probability. Not only do you have to roll the exact number you're trying to pass on, you also have to win the coin flip on what traits are inherited. If you roll too low, you might at least get a blank, but rolling too high risks Mutations. Speaking of which...
Part 4 - Mutation Mechanics
Okay, great, random chance for your random chance. Mutations is an umbrella for many things, but in Palworld there are two major ways it can occur. One, the less relevant, is any time you breed a pal there's a chance they get +1 to an IV. It's a low chance, and not really worth seeking out. The second is relevant, and it's a chance to get a non-inherited trait during breeding.
Whenever you breed a pal, there is a chance based on total traits that ANY breeding results can produce most, but not all, passives in the game. Exceptions are mainly exclusive or boss passives, like Legend.
So there are two ways this cuts in. A roll for mutations occurs any time the inheritance rolls greater than the number of traits available from the parents, or whenever there is a trait slot not being inherited.
Once again, this is not a bad thing. Mutations may be frustrating when you get them sometimes, but they also can produce fantastic traits that were not in the breeding chain. The latter can save you some steps, simplifying your chain entirely by accident.
Part 5 - Blanks in the Banks
So I've mentioned Blanks, but what are those? A Blank is a pal with no traits. While somewhat rare via breeding, they can occur due to a total trait inheritance failure alongside rolling no mutations. These are extremely useful, and can be used heavily in breeding programs. Having no traits makes them suck, sure, but it also means that they are great for interspecies breeding for new pals. They don't occupy trait slots during inheritance, so the other pal has no competition. They also make outbreeding much easier, as they aren't contributing traits to fluff out the inheritance list.
Always, if you get one, keep a blank for breeding. Imagine you want to breed a worker Anubis, and all you have a breeding chain from an already perfect pal. If you have Blanks, you have a 10% chance each step to inherit correctly. If you are using pals with traits, a single extra trait turns the step into a 5% chance. 10% plus a 50:50 on whether the ideal trait or unideal trait gets selected. This is why making and keeping Blanks is critical for breeding chains.
Part 6 - The More Yakumo
Okay, this is all great, but how do you make it easy? Yakumo, the greatest god bestowed gift upon the breeders.
Yakumo's passive gives a 30% chance, when you've properly blended their brethren's souls into them, to force their passive traits onto any wild pal you catch. You have to be riding them, or have them out, but this means a single perfectly bred Yakumo can nigh instantly create a perfect breeding line. Get your best traits onto Yakumo via interspecies breeding, and make a work and combat Yakumo. Now ascend them to max out their passive ability, and take them catching. Use your combat Yakumo on pals you want in your team, either immediately or later for bosses/zones, and use the work Yakumo on pals you want for your base. You'll end up with a bunch of pals with Yakumo's traits, and just breed the good ones(no excess, or outbreed inherent traits) until you get the new, shiny perfect pal.
By the way, Yakumo is the main reason long breeding chains are largely unnecessary, as once you have a prepared Yakumo you no longer need extensive chains. You may still need to occasionally chain breed, such as for pals that do not spawn wild, but Yakumo should be the only major chain you need to make.
Part 7 - Traits and You
So this is a bit meta oriented, so if meta isn't your thing... well to be honest, how did you get this deep into a breeding guide? We'll go over combat, base workers, travel, and utility pals in that order.
For combat, there are three main ways of thinking. The first is pure damage. This relies on well timed rotations to keep them alive, or Vampiric to give them lifesteal, or them just killing things faster than they die. The second is high defense, which is less popular due to timers on bosses. This is best if you plan to let your pals tank for you, while you use high damage weapons from afar. Better on raid bosses to a degree, but still not great. The third is a hybrid, with high offense and defense. Being in the middle, the DPS is lower than full damage, while being squishier and still needing some manual defense compared to full defense. Instead of giving a set of builds, I'll suggest options for offense and defense, and let you mix and match to preference.
Offense
Legend- Self explanatory. Damage, defense, and speed in one. Good on all combat pals.
Demon God- A good chunk of attack, and a smidge of defense. Good for all combat pals, but leaning more offense.
Swift- Good on pals with melee attacks, like Anubis. Lets them get into position for melee faster. Not the best for combat, but still a decent pick.
Serenity- Top tier pick on any offense pal. It reduces CDs on moves, letting them access their most powerful attacks faster. It also comes with a decent 10% attack boost.
Musclehead- A hefty 30% attack boost, but at the cost of 50% work speed. Great for combat pals, but only ones you plan to not let work in your base. Highly suggested for pals with limited work types, like Loupmoon, if you lack other desirable traits.
Defense
Diamond Body- The highest defense bonus available.
Legend- See above.
Burly Body- Tied for second highest with Legend.
Vampiric- This turns damage into health, like Lovander's passive. This is technically defensive, as it restores health and provides sustain, but is much more oriented to an offensive build.
For me, personally, I would go Serenity, Legend, Vampiric, and Demon God for most pals. For pals with inbuild defenses and/or melee, Anubis being a perfect example, I would consider dropping Vampiric for Swift based on personal preference.
Okay, now on to work pals. There are four major areas of consideration for work pals: Sanity, Food, Speed, and Work Speed.
In a properly built base with suitable numbers and placement for amenities, with good food, Sanity is not a major concern. Properly set up, a base can run on the harshest work setting and still maintain sanity. Thus, Sanity saving passives are not particularly useful. Of note, Sanity does not ever go down while in the ranch.
Food, however, remains a problem in some ways. Pals will eat until they are over 50%, and return to eat at below 50%. This can be overcome by having extremely nutritious food, but also by reducing hunger via passives. There is, however, a third option.
Speed. Making a Pal fast means they go to and from work faster. This includes eating, restoring sanity, and obviously work. Speed is, overall, a fantastic option for worker pals.
Lastly, and incredibly importantly, is work speed. This makes Pals work faster, and since each tier of work suitability is around a 3X multiplier to the last, it's fantastic and only gets better.
Once again, I will not be providing comprehensive builds. Just the main good traits, and a basic build I use or recommend.
Speed
Swift- Pretty straightforward. Make them zoomy.
Runner- A slightly worse Swift.
Work Speed
Remarkable Craftsmanship- 75% Work Speed is bonkers. Enough said.
Artisan- 50% work speed is bonkers. See above.
Work Slave- Another 30% work speed, but at the cost of 30% attack. Only good for pals who will never see battle.
Permanence
A special category, for Vampiric and Nocturnal. While Vampiric is a superior trait and suitable for combat as well, both provide 24/7 labor as they will no longer sleep. It will also help with raids, as they will be healthier than otherwise at the end. Extremely recommended to have one, preferring Vampiric if possible, unless you already have a nocturnal pal by default(Dark types, or special pals like Lovander).
Okay, my build is pretty simple: Remarkable Craftsmanship, Artisan, Swift on all base pals. For naturally nocturnal pals, slap a Work Slave or Runner on there by preference. Haulers should usually prioritize Runner, while crafters could go Work Slave. For diurnal pals, put Vampiric/Nocturnal on to keep them going 24/7. This gives high speed to get to jobs and SAN/food, keeps them going 24/7, and they work FAST.
Travel pals are important as well, and have special traits that boost them up. Boosting their Partner skill also helps, as many mounts gain speed from their partner skill. Most will also have a boost to their Stamina regardless.
So what makes a good travel pal? Two main things take the focus; speed and stamina. Stamina lets you run/fly/swim longer, while Speed takes you further in that time. There's arguments to be made that more speed is better in general, as Stamina
Speed
Speed
Swift- Pretty straightforward. Make them zoomy.
Runner- A slightly worse Swift.
Legend- While not as high as either in terms of speed boost, it also gives combat stats. Nice to have, as they will likely be on your team consistently.
Stamina
Eternal Engine- 75% stamina is a LOT of extra time. Combined with a high condense, it's a lot of airtime.
Infinite Stamina- 50% more stamina. Not as much as above, but still respectable.
Overall, there's some flexibility here. For a dedicated travel mount, Swift, Runner, Eternal Engine, and Infinite Stamina will let you pretty much travel anywhere in short time. If I was to make a more combat oriented, or just a bit more flexible, I'd drop Infinite Stamina for Legend.
Now the odd one, Utility Pals. These pals help or buff the player, the most known example being Gobfin. By merely existing, they give you buffs! Other types give bonuses to carry weight, act as gliders, or make working faster. Most of the time, they will only be out or in the party for specific functions, and not be an active combatant in most cases.
For this, there's a very limited list of options.
Vanguard- 10% damage boost for the player. Definitely doesn't hurt, and is generally useful.
Stronghold Strategist- The inverse of the above, giving 10% defense. While less impactful, it is still broadly applicable and not bad.
Motivational Leader- 25% work speed for the player. Early game, kinda useful. Midgame, awful. Lategame with stat potions. Good again, though still not amazing.
Mine/Logging Foreman- 25% higher efficiency in the appropriate task. Not bad, but pals can automate these later on.
Noble- Gives a small bonus when selling items. It's not much, but it's decent.
Overall, only Vanguard and Stronghold Strategist are always useful, with the others being more or less just kinda okay. Feel free to slap a Legend in there, or any other combat passives, into the other two slots. Noble is something to snag on a few pals, and only pull them out when selling things. If you have to manually mine resources due to insufficient tech, a mining pal with Mining Foreman can be a decent investment if easily available.
Conclusion
Welp, that's about it. A detailed explanation of way too many breeding mechanics, and some good suggestions for what to look for. In short, get Yakumos with perfect traits using your new understanding of inheritance, and carry your boy with you when you're hunting pals. Breed these near perfect pals into perfect versions, and use them to breed things you can't access easily... and crush the opposition.
