Palworld has barely been available in Early Access for a week and players are already fighting cheaters in online mode. The problems are so serious that developer Pocket Pair apologized on Steam and immediately released a new patch.
What problems do the players have? Palworld gamers write about their problems with cheaters on several social media platforms. A bigger problem is that some players seem to be able to steal other people’s Pals.
Reddit user Ironmeme420 posted a video of two other players visiting his camp. Their avatars attack the working Pals and throw black Palspheres at them. More and more Pals disappear while Ironmeme420 watches helplessly. A similar thing happened to redditor Atheist_Kitten, who writes about similar events in his own post.
The video by Ironmeme420
In fact, there is currently no legally obtainable or craftable Black Palsphere in the game. However, one commentator suspects the so-called Radar Sphere. The item can be used to catch other players’ Pals, even if the chances are slim. At the moment, the Radar Sphere has not yet been implemented in the game and has only been discovered through data mining.
A second problem is players who kill their fellow players: Palworld currently does not support PvP. However, this is a feature that Pocket Pal would like to implement promptly according to the current roadmap. On reddit, user Desperate-Painter152 reports that he was killed by two other players on server EU 0101.
Another user, wigglin_harry, asks the community for help in his post: He is looking for hacks for Palworld so that he can pay the hackers on his server home. According to him, a strange player spawned in front of him and managed to make a ton of items appear around him within seconds.
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The players suffer and the developer reacts
How did the developer react? Pocket Pair, the company behind Palworld, responded to the issues on January 25, 2024. In a post on Steam they address the players:
It is confirmed that some players are cheating on the official servers. We will apply a patch as soon as it is ready. At the same time, it is difficult to prevent cheating immediately and completely.
We will increase our focus on safety and try to create a gaming environment where everyone can play with peace of mind.
We sincerely apologize to all players affected by this incident.
We thank you for your continued support of Palworld.
Pocket Pair via Steam, January 25, 2024
What are the chances of a timely patch? In fact, the developer already released patch 0.1.3.0 during the day. This includes the following main changes:
Presumably the problems discussed on Reddit (stolen Pals, unwanted PvP, etc.) are affected by the measures against cheats and exploits. However, it remains to be seen whether Pocket Pair’s measures will be long-term sufficient to protect players from cheaters.
Basically, it is difficult to limit cheaters or hackers in online games. However, the fact that the Palworld developers react so quickly speaks volumes about them and their commitment to making the game a pleasant experience for everyone. Many players don’t even need exploits to have fun in the game: Palworld: Players grill difficult boss, developers think it’s “genius”