The goal of this guide is to explain what all the passive skills of the Pals do.
At the end of this guide I will also include some tips on what skill combination you could achieve through breeding, depending on what you want your Pals to do.
Introduction to Passive Skills
What are Passive Skills?
When you capture a Pal, you will get a message on the right telling you what Pal you captured, its level, a description for the Pal, and its Passive Skills, which are shown as tags underneath its description.
Take this Lamball as an example, it has one Passive Skill tag – Fragrant Foliage.
Passive Skills are essentially modifiers for Pals. One Pal can have up to four different Passive Skills, you can get these Pals with either a lucky catch, or by breeding Pals to combine their Passive Skills.
Each Passive Skill has its own rank, representing whether or not it’s a positive or negative modifier, with the highest rank being 3 and the lowest being -3. In the example above, you can see that Fragrant Foliage is a rank 1 modifier, because it has an arrow pointing up. The higher the Passive Skill rank, the rarer it is. Keep in mind that you cannot level up these Passive Skills, but you can stack them, remember that a Pal can only have a maximum of 4 Passive Skills!
These Passive Skills can greatly benefit your adventure in various ways, some will boost your player stats, some will boost your Pals’ stats, and some will boost your Pals’ working efficiency.
I personally recommend breeding your Pals so you can have all the work-related Passive Skills you want on one Pal, and all the combat-related Passive Skills you want on another.
List of Passive Skills
Pal Overall Stats
| Rank | Name | Effect |
| 1 | Brave | +10% Attack. |
| 3 | Ferocious | +20% Attack. |
| -1 | Coward | -10% Attack. |
| -3 | Pacifist | -20% Attack. |
| 1 | Hard Skin | +10% Defense. |
| 3 | Burly Body | +20% Defense. |
| -1 | Downtrodden | -10% Defense. |
| -3 | Brittle | -20% Defense. |
| 1 | Aggressive | +10% Attack. -10% Defense. |
| 1 | Sadist | +15% Attack. -15% Defense. |
| 1 | Hooligan | +15% Attack. -10% Work Speed. |
| 2 | Musclehead | +30% Attack. -50% Work Speed. |
| 1 | Masochist | -15% Attack. +15% Defense. |
| 1 | Dainty Eater | -10% Hunger drain. |
| 3 | Diet Lower | -15% Hunger drain. |
| -1 | Glutton | +10% Hunger drain. |
| -2 | Bottomless Stomach | +15% Hunger drain. |
| 1 | Nimble | +10% Movement Speed. |
| 2 | Runner | +20% Movement Speed. |
| 3 | Swift | +30% Movement Speed. |
Pal Element Attack & Element Defense
| Rank | Name | Effect |
| 1 | Zen Mind | +10% increase to Neutral attack damage. |
| 1 | Abnormal | +10% decrease to incoming Neutral attack damage. |
| 1 | Blood of the Dragon | +10% increase to Dragon attack damage. |
| 1 | Dragonkiller | +10% decrease to incoming Dragon attack damage. |
| 1 | Fragrant Foliage | +10% increase to Grass attack damage. |
| 1 | Botanical Barrier | +10% decrease to incoming Grass attack damage. |
| 1 | Capacitor | +10% increase to Lighting attack damage. |
| 1 | Insulated Body | +10% decrease to incoming Lighting attack damage. |
| 1 | Veil of Darkness | +10% increase to Dark attack damage. |
| 1 | Cheery | +10% decrease to incoming Dark attack damage. |
| 1 | Coldblooded | +10% increase to Ice attack damage. |
| 1 | Heated Body | +10% decrease to incoming Ice attack damage. |
| 1 | Power of Gaia | +10% increase to Earth attack damage. |
| 1 | Earthquake Resistant | +10% decrease to incoming Earth attack damage. |
| 1 | Hydromaniac | +10% increase to Water attack damage. |
| 1 | Waterproof | +10% decrease to incoming Water attack damage. |
| 1 | Pyromaniac | +10% increase to Fire attack damage. |
| 1 | Suntan Lower | +10% decrease to incoming Fire attack damage. |
Pal Working Efficiency
| Rank | Name | Effect |
| 1 | Conceited | +10% Work Speed. -10% Defense. |
| 1 | Work Slave | +30% Work Speed. -30% Attack. |
| 2 | Serious | +20% Work Speed. |
| 3 | Artisan | +50% Work Speed. |
| -1 | Clumsy | -10% Work Speed. |
| -3 | Slacker | -30% Work Speed. |
| 1 | Positive Thinker | -10% SAN drain. |
| -1 | Unstable | +10% SAN drain. |
| 3 | Workaholic | -15% SAN drain. |
| -3 | Destructive | +15% SAN drain. |
Pals Buffing Player
| Rank | Name | Effect |
| 3 | Logging Foreman | +25% Player Logging Efficiency. |
| 3 | Mine Foreman | +25% Player Mining Efficiency. |
| 3 | Motivational Leader | +25% Player Movement Speed. |
| 3 | Stronghold Strategist | +10% Player Defense. |
| 3 | Vanguard | +10% Player Attack. |
Special Passive Skills
| Rank | Name | Description | Effect |
| 3 | Lucky | Exclusive to the rare shiny and large Pals. If you breed Lucky Pals together and get a Pal with the Lucky modifier, that Pal does not appear larger like its parents will, but it will still have the Lucky effects. Could be a bug. | +15% Work Speed. +15% Attack. |
| 3 | Flame Emperior | Exclusive to Blazamut only. | +20% increase to Fire attack damage. |
| 3 | Ice Emperior | Exclusive to Frostallion only. | +20% increase to Ice attack damage. |
| 3 | Earth Emperior | Exclusive to Anubis only. | +20% increase to Earth attack damage. |
| 3 | Celestial Emperior | Exclusive to Paladius only. | +20% increase to Neutral attack damage. |
| 3 | Lord of the Sea | Exclusive to Jormuntide only. | +20% increase to Water attack damage. |
| 3 | Lord of Lightning | Exclusive to Orserk only. | +20% increase to Lightning attack damage. |
| 3 | Lord of the Underworld | Exclusive to Necromus only. | +20% increase to Dark attack damage. |
| 3 | Legend | Currently exclusive to Jetragon, Frostallion, Paladius and Necromus. The Developers may add more Pals with this Passive Skill in the future. | +20% Attack. +20% Defense. +15% Movement Speed. |
| 3 | Divine Dragon | Currently exclusive to the Jetragon only. The Developers may add more Pals with this Passive Skill in the future. | +20% increase to Dragon attack damage. |
My Combinations
Please keep in mind that these are my own personal combination and they may not be the best out there! You are free to create your own combinations!
Worker Pals
My opinion is that the higher the work speed, the higher the efficiency. So here is what my combination would be for a dedicated worker Pal.
Artisan (50% Work Speed)
This modifier is the best highest Work Speed bonus you can have currently.
Serious (20% Work Speed)
This modifier is the second best Work Speed bonus, combining with Artisan your Pal will have a total of 70% bonus Work Speed.
Work Slave (30% Work Speed, -30% Attack)
Because this Pal will be dedicating its whole life to working for us, it does not need to have any Attack. I picked this over Conceited since it only gives 10% Work Speed boost, but Work Slave gives 30%.
Options: Workaholic (-15% San drain), Diet Lover (-15% Hunger drain) or Lucky (+15% Work Speed, +15% Attack)
These are optional and you can choose whichever one you want, since these are all very decent.
Attack Pals
These pals will be your damage dealers.
Musclehead (30% Attack, -50% Work Speed)
This Pal won’t be doing any work, and Musclehead is the best modifier for Attack boost as of current.
Ferocious (20% Attack)
The second best Attack bonus modifier.
Burly Body (20% Defense)
The current best Defense bonus modifier. I think it’s always good to have a good amount of defense because the further you venture out, the harder the Pals will be.
Options: Any Elemental Damage or elemental Defense bonus, Swift (30% Movement Speed) or Lucky (+15% Work Speed, +15% Attack)
This one is really up to you. I personally would choose Lucky because I prefer having overall Attack bonus. But if you are trying for a specific build targeting a specific element, then feel free to swap these out for your own. The Speed boost is also good if you are attacking while riding on your Pal.
Player-Buffing Pals
These Pals will be focused on buffing the player instead of having the best stat for itself.
Stronghold Strategist (10% Player Defense)
Improves player’s defense by 10%, pretty self-explanatory.
Vanguard (10% Player Attack)
Good if you are fighting alongside your Pals, more damage is always good to me!
Motivational Leader (25% Player Speed)
Gotta go fast!
Options: Logging Foreman (25% Player Logging Efficiency), Mine Foreman (25% Player Mining Efficiency), or Swift (30% Movement Speed)
This one is also up to you to decide. I personally would add Swift to turn the Pal into a good travel mount.
Motivational Leader’s description is misworded by the way. It increases the player’s work speed rather than movement speed. You can put a Pal in your party with the effect and see your work speed stat go up by 25%.
Well, you can check it out in-game and see for yourself it boosts crafting speed for the character if that Pal is in the party. I made sure to double check myself before posting my earlier comment, so I am confident in what I said.
It’s just the description of Motivational Leader has a typo in that the developers said “player speed” instead of player work speed. “Player speed” implies movement speed is increased.
There’s also Motivational Leader that increases player speed
Anyone know if pal attack bonuses effect their logging and/or mining speed?
From what I’ve seen and experienced so far, it’s a bit of both.
If you tell your Pal to harvest a tree or a pile of rocks that spawns in the world, then it will harvest them faster if they have high damage. But if it’s the logging or mining camps that you can build in your base, then all that matters is the work speed. ^^
Thanks! I just caught a shiny in my first hour and wonder if/how I can get traits on in without breeding, any advice?
Unfortunately the only way to combine them is through breeding, although I do have to say, the breeding process can get quite hectic sometime because there is a chance of the Passive not being passed down to the offspring, or they get complete different Passive than the parents.
But through time and patience, you will eventually have the Pal with all the Passive Skills you are looking for. ^^
Just wondering if you need to have the pal in your party for the boost or it has to be out of the ball?
Just have them in your party and you will have the boosts! No need to have them out of the ball. ^^
So the pals movement speed passive works on mount pals too? Good to know.
Can the same kind of pal have different passive skills? Because one of the first pals I’ve ever caught was that Lamball, but mine had “Wooly Shield” as passive skill. (It kind of reminds me of Maple from that anime lol)
Wooly Shield is the partner skill and not a passive skill, Partner skill is like an ultimate ability of sort.
Hi guys sorry for bothering, may i ask if upgrading the pals (the star system using recicled pal of the same specie) upgrades SOMEHOW the ability? i know it says lvl2 etc, but how does that affect to the actual effect of the skill? more stamina? more range or dmg? sorry for the poor english, thanks in advance
Upgrading the Pals only upgrades their stats, it does not upgrade their Passive Skills. ^^
If by ability, you meant the Partner Skill, then yes. E.g. the Cat Helper (Cattiva) adds +50 weight and +10 per each level of the Partner Skill.
The player buffing passive trait has to be in the party, Your base or palbox doesn’t count. You can check for yourself whenever the buff is working. As your stats in the menu are updated real time in-game whenever a buff is applied.
Just thought I’d say upgrading the Pal also upgrades the partner skill. But partner skills are not “passive skills”, even if some of their effects are passive in how they work. Cattiva’s partner skill gives you 50 extra max weight while it’s in the party for example. Upgrading it to max makes it so it gives 100 max weight while in the party.
Lunaris also adds max carry weight, base 80, unsure when upgraded though haven’t caught enough yet, lol
lyleen has spirit emperor which is the grass special skill for 20% to grass damage
Do you mind listing if a pal will always have a certain skill? Such as Relaxaurus always having glutton or Digtoise always having hard skin
Yes, some Pals will always come with a certain skill.
How do the player buffing passives work? do you have to summon them or just leave them in your party?
Just leave them in your party. Some require the appropriate Pal Gear in order to unlock the passive bonus (e.g. +100 Weight of Broncherry).
and just in case you wonder, the bonuses do stack so you can have several buff pals (even of the same species) in your team.
I am curious as well about cross-breeding legendary Pals. Seeing if you can pass on their unique passive traits to other Pals if you use a cross-breeding Pal calculator or something. My ideal scenario is a fast mount with Legend, Swift, Runner, and Nimble. Making for a 75% movement speed bonus. And then getting the riding skill to level 5 using the condenser for the max movement speed in the game.
swift and runner stack, definitely worth trying to get for a travel mount
Do any of the base work passives affect resource drops at the ranch or is it just Partner Skill?
Sadly none of the work passives affect the drop with Pals that has the Ranching skill, I was pretty sad to find out about that. :c
all of the special passive skills can be bred down, not just lucky.
Is the chance to get 4 passives just incredibly terribly low?
I’ve bred over 60 of the same dude, with both parents having 3 out of 4 skills yet I can’t get a 4/4
It is very hard to get the max 4 passives but once you have the breeding farm set up you should be good to go! ^^ I think you just got very unlucky because personally I was able to get 4 passives relatively quick once I have the parents that I want to combine.
May RNGsus be with you with your breeding project!
Motivational Leader doesn’t buff player movement speed, it buffs player’s crafting speed. They should probably edit the ingame descriptor, as with its current wording is deceptive.
do the pals need to be outside or just in the party for the effect to trigger?
Pals only needs to be in the party in order for the effects to trigger. You are only allowed to have one party Pal outside, there are some Pals that will stay outside if it’s in your party and they will help you in battle, a good example of a Pal that does this is Daedream, when you make a collar for it, it will make the Daedream follow you and fight enemies with you.
Hopefully this can be of use to you! ^^
thx mate, another question. Does efficiency mean the speed or the amount of the harvest is increasing or both?
Efficiency means the speed. ^^
Too many refer it as efficiency instead of speed because think the faster they work, the more efficient they will be.
Higher work speed means the faster they can generate resources at the Logging and Digging site, as well as being able to work at their work stations faster, which is why I personally think it means it’s more efficient.