Best early team formula: 2–3 specialist workers at base + 1 mount + 3 combat Pals with element coverage. Catch for roles first, species prestige second.
How to evaluate an early Pal (simple score)
- Work Suitability rank for a job you actually run (Kindling Lv2 beats a mediocre fighter).
- Partner Skill usefulness (mount, haul, combat buff, utility).
- Availability near spawn (a “perfect” Pal you can’t reach yet is worthless today).
- Passives (nice, but don’t reset your whole run hunting legends in hour two).
Must-fill roles before “dream team” hunting
| Role | Why | What “good enough” looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Kindling | Smelting + cooking uptime | Reliable furnace fueling without babysitting |
| Watering | Farms | Crops don’t dry out overnight |
| Planting | Farms | Seeds replanted without you |
| Handiwork | Crafting speed | Queues finish while you explore |
| Lumbering / Mining | Raw materials | Chests refill without hand mining every stack |
| Mount | Map tempo | You stop walking every ridge |
| Combat core | Camps / Towers | You win same-level fights without full wipes |
Early combat team templates
Template A — Balanced clear team
- 1 Fast melee pressure Pal
- 1 Ranged / caster Pal
- 1 Flexible element counter (swap per region)
- Player focuses weakpoint DPS + spheres / support items
Use this for open-world camps and dungeons. Keep the swap slot intentional: if the next zone is Fire-heavy, bring Water/Ice coverage.
Template B — Catching team
- Pals that apply useful CC/status or safe chip damage
- Avoid overkill moves that one-shot your capture target
- Player carries higher-tier spheres + berries/status items
Capture teams are not the same as boss teams. If you keep accidentally killing targets, strip high-burst Pals from the party.
Template C — First Tower prep
- Stack the Tower boss’s weak element
- Bring food for both you and Pals
- Enter only when your gear tier matches the region, not when you “feel brave”
Worker team at base (practical roster size)
Early bases run best with a small, fully assigned crew rather than 15 half-useful Pals. A clean target:
- 1–2 Kindling
- 1 Watering
- 1 Planting
- 1–2 Handiwork
- 1–2 Lumbering
- 1–2 Mining
- 1 Transporting once logistics clog
Condenses change as buildings unlock, but the principle stays: every base Pal should have a job during peak production hours.
When to replace early Pals
- You unlock a clearly higher Work Suitability rank for the same job.
- Your combat Pals are underleveled for the next biome by a wide margin.
- You start breeding and can lock better passives into the same species line.
Do not butcher your entire economy because a new Pal looks meta on a tier list. Swap one role at a time.
Passives worth noticing early
Prioritize work speed / craft-related passives for base staff, and move speed / attack / defense passives for adventuring teams. Mixed “kinda okay” passives are fine until breeding comes online. Perfect IV-chasing is a mid/late activity.
