Palworld devs accidentally patch the tower boss capture glitch with v0.1.5.0: "We apologize for inadvertently fixing a bug"

What you need to know

• The biggest and arguably the most popular exploit in the creature capture survival game Palworld was the tower boss capture glitch that allowed players to catch tower bosses like Zoe and Grizzbolt that have drastically more health than standard Pals.
• This bug was patched recently with the arrival of version v0.1.5.0 on Steam, though developer Pocketpair says its removal was a complete accident caused by other bugfixes. "We apologize for inadvertently fixing a bug," the studio wrote in a post.
• Tower bosses that were captured before the update can still be used at the time of writing. The original glitch also still works on the Xbox and Microsoft Store versions since v0.1.5.0 hasn't gone live on those platforms yet, though it's expected to soon.
• The v0.1.5.0 update also introduced a large variety of other fixes and improvements, including significant upgrades to Pal AI in combat and during base work.

While players have discovered a wide variety of different useful glitches and exploits in Palworld — you can refresh food expiration timers, duplicate items, and revive fallen Pals instantly, for example — none of them hold a candle to the power of the tower boss capture bug. With this, players could easily catch tower bosses and use them in battle, taking advantage of their sky-high health pools to easily dominate any fight in the game.

Many players expected developer Pocketpair to quickly patch out the glitch given how wildly overpowered it is, but it actually survived multiple bugfix updates since the game's January 19 launch...until now. Following the arrival of version v0.1.5.0 on Steam on Monday evening, the tower boss catching exploit stopped working, which led many to believe it was stealthily fixed with the update. According to Pocketpair, though, this resolution came inadvertently, as fixes for other bugs ended up taking care of this one as well.

"As a result of various bugs that we fixed in the most recent patch, a bug that allowed players to capture the tower boss was unintentionally fixed," wrote the studio in a post on social media. "We apologize for inadvertently fixing a bug."

While Pocketpair's apology does seem to indicate that the developer didn't consider fixing the glitch to be a priority, I wouldn't expect a rollback or anything of that sort. I'm sure someone will make a mod that restores it in some way, though — and when they do, I hope the process is more intuitive than the original method. For the exploit to work, you had to aggro PIDF soldiers, lead them into a tower boss fight, and get them to accidentally shoot the boss before you could capture it with a Pal Sphere.

The good news is that all tower boss Pals captured before the v0.1.5.0 update can still be used in combat or as workers in your Palworld bases (I verified this with my test save and my captured Zoe and Grizzbolt before writing this), so for now, you don't need to worry about losing busted companions you got previously. Also, the patch hasn't gone live for the Xbox or Microsoft Store versions yet, so if you play on those platforms, you still have a window of opportunity to use the glitch before it's gone.

It'll be interesting to see how Pocketpair chooses to deal with remaining tower boss Pals moving forward, if it does anything about them at all. Right now, Palworld is strictly a PvE game, so some ridiculously tanky summons here and there aren't ruining things for anyone. We know some form of PvP is coming in the future thanks to the Palworld roadmap, though, and when it does, we may see the developer step in to restrict the use of caught tower bosses or remove them outright.

On top of laying the tower boss capture exploit to rest, Palworld version v0.1.5.0 also brings a number of different fixes and improvements to the "Pokémon with guns" third-person survival game. The most significant of these are some big upgrades to Pal AI combat and base work behavior, but there are lots of other bugfixes and enhancements, too. The full patch notes can be viewed in the section below.

Unquestionably, Palworld is the biggest game of 2024 so far, and launched with unbelievable success that dwarfs the numbers of other popular new games like Helldivers 2. Just days after its Early Access release, it broke 2 million concurrent players on Steam alone and became the second most-played Steam game of all time, with its 2,101,867 peak only beaten by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' 3,257,248 record from 2018. It also had the biggest third-party Xbox Game Pass launch in history, and over 7 million fans played it through the Xbox ecosystem by the end of January.

Palworld version v0.1.5.0: Patch notes

Below are the full version v.0.1.5.0 patch notes, taken directly from the official news post on Palworld's Steam page as well as a post from the game's official X (Twitter) account.

Major Fixes

• Implemented backup of save data on the world selection screen
• Resolved issue of unnecessary data accumulating in save data

Key Configuration

• Added fully supported keyboard key configuration

Guild

• Modified specification to allow guild members to be removed when not logged in

Player Issues

• Changed long-press operation during player tasks to allow continuous work by pressing the work button once (This is switchable in the options settings)
• Fixed issue where riding in prohibited hunting areas would not result in a crime
• Improved interaction accuracy with adjacent objects

Pals

• Changed specifications so that when a Pal is instructed to "attack aggressively," the Pal will attack enemies indiscriminately even if they are not in combat
• Corrected an issue to allow Pals of rank 1 or higher to be selected as concentrated material (higher-ranked Pals yield more points when concentrated)
• Fixed bug where if a large amount of experience points were gained and the level increased to 50 at once, Pals would not learn any active skills
• Mitigated an issue where using Mossanda's partner skill "Grenadier Panda" on a dungeon boss would cause the boss to get stuck in walls

Base Issues

• Fixed an issue where base Pals would get stuck on top of a logging site, etc.
• Added measures to prevent the issue where base Pals would wander around and get stuck at the border of the base area
• Fixed an issue where Pals at the base would get stuck repeatedly starting transportation tasks and the light bulbs icon would appear over and over again.
• Added measures to prevent the issue of base Pals getting stuck in the farm on a roof
• Fixed an issue where work Pals would get stuck in the summon space of Palbox when restarting the server on a dedicated server.
• Adjusted the default work priority of base Pals (Anubis will prioritize manual labour)
• Significantly relaxed building restrictions for stairs and triangular roofs
• Fixed an issue where sound would play in an infinite loop when Pals at the base used certain active skills.
• Specifications changed so that all changes in environmental temperature are added up (if you put 4 campfires next to each other, the surrounding area will have the temperature of a volcano)
• Implemented "relax" working style on the monitoring stand

Balance Adjustment

• Significantly strengthened mining power for Digtoise partner skills
• Fixed the abnormally high selling price of nails
• Significantly increased the number of police officers who appear when a crime is committed
• Added electric shock effect to Free Pal Alliance's crossbow
• Adjusted the flight distance of Sphere Launcher and Scatter Sphere Launcher.
• Increased the SAN value recovery amount of high-quality hot springs

Network Related

• Renovated the server lobby
• [Search by server name] will now work
• Added the ability to view online players on a dedicated server
  • On community servers, this will only be displayed if the setting is enabled

Others

• Fixed the issue where Day 5 Memo was not placed
• You can now adjust the in-game brightness in the settings
• Fixed many minor bugs
• Corrected various incorrect text
• Improved measures against cheating

We are currently working on an issue where auto-save fails on the Xbox and Xbox Game Pass versions. We expect that this will be resolved in an upcoming update.

We will continue development placing top priority on fixing major problems and issues. Thank you for your continued support of Palworld.

Palworld is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, and Windows PC via either the Microsoft Store or Steam. It's quickly become the biggest and one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of 2024 so far, and it's also playable through Xbox Game Pass.