Best Passive Skills In Palworld

Passive skills are innate buffs (or debuffs) your Pal comes with upon capturing in Palworld. Depending on the nature of the passive effect, it can have either a positive or negative influence on the Pal. You will be looking to grab the best traits to fill the 4 available passive slots to optimize your Pal’s efficiency.

Depending on what role your pal performs, certain skills can be better than others, like Work Speed for working Pals, and Attack or Defense for combat machines. As long the passive compliments your desired role, you will be good to go.

Unlike the active skills in Palworld, Passive skills can’t be taught, swapped, or turned off. Your only chance is to breed the Pals with the desired skill to pass the desired effects to other offspring, and even then it is based on RNG.

The process can be troublesome at times but if you know what you are looking for then it can be made much easier. This is why we have ranked the best passive skills you can get your hands on in Palworld.

TIP

Passive skill buffs can be stacked. Similarly, you can get skills with opposite effects which can cancel out other buffs or debuffs.

8. Workaholic

Tier: 3
Effect: SAN drops 15% slower

Workaholic passive skill is a good skill if you are struggling with keeping up with Sanity problems in Palworld. This trait is best suited for pals working in your home base as SAN or Sanity is not an issue while in the open world.

Workaholic also helps with lowering the amount of breaks your Pal takes so they slack off less, increasing their work efficiency. To further reduce breaks and food costs, pair the Workaholic skill with the Diet Lover passive.

FYI

Work speed increases the animation time as well other than the general increase in efficiency. For example: the significant reduction in time of egg laying animation of Pals with the faster workspeed buff. This, however, does not impact the production time of the tasks.

7. Musclehead

Tier: 2
Effect: Increases Attack by 30% and lowers Work Speed by 50%

Musclehead is a passive build for an aggressive playstyle. The buff is generally useful but trading off your pal’s versatility may not be worth it.

The only situation where Musclehead is great is either the pal is bad at working, or you are building a force to be reckoned with. If your Pal fits in either of these scenarios, then the Musclehead passive skill is a powerful addition to your kit.

6. Ferocious

Tier: 3
Effect: Increases Attack by 20%

A simple but permanent damage boost for your Pal. The Ferocious passive effect is a general passive that will come in handy regardless of your Pal’s type.

While it is more combat-focused, it can still prove useful while defending your base from intruders, either solo or in multiplayer mode. The best thing is that there is no trade-off like the skill mentioned above.

5. Swift

Tier: 3
Effect: Boosts Movement Speed by 30%

Swift is a highly sought-after passive skill for flying mount pals in Palworld. There is a lot to explore in Palworld with fast travel points being few and far between, making traversal hectic and time-consuming which is why mounts are so indispensable.

The best of these mounts are the flying pals like Quivern but they can sometimes feel slow due to their flying speeds. This is where Movement Speed comes in, with the Swift passive effect proving the highest 30% boost.

TIP

The 20% Movement Speed buff by the Runner passive skill is a good stand-in for Swift.

4. Artisan

Tier: 3
Effect: Boosts Work Speed by 50%

Artisan provides the biggest passive buff for base pals in Palworld, a Work Speed bonus. This passive effect can turn any Pal into a work machine, boosting productivity. The resource-gathering workers will make the best use of Artisan passive, like Petallia and Jetragon.

3. Elemental bonus

Tier: 3
Effect: Increases elemental damage by 20%

Skills: Celestial Emperor, Flame Emperor, Lord of the Sea, Ice Emperor, Earth Emperor, Spirit Emperor, Lord of Lightning, Lord of the Underworld, Divine Dragon

There are specific passive skills for each element in Palworld that boost the elemental damage of a Pal by 20%. It is an extremely strong buff as all attacks are elemental in nature.

It is also one of the most difficult and demanding passives to get. They do not appear normally and can only be obtained by defeating the Alpha Pals or by capturing certain Legendary Pals. Also, to pass on these passives to other pals is exclusively through breeding.

2. Lucky

Tier: 3
Effect: Boosts Work Speed and Attack by 15%

Lucky is an exclusive skill acquired by capturing the bigger shiny versions of Pals. It boosts both the combat and work suitability of your pals. The universal nature of the buff without compromising any of your Pal’s utilities makes Lucky an amazing skill to have.

FYI

Lucky Pals are similar to normal Pals but much bigger in size with enhanced abilities. Aside from the visual clue, you can also hear a shimmering sound when near these Lucky Pals in the wild.

1. Legend

Tier: 3
Effect: Attack and Defence is increased by 20% and Movement Speed by 15%

The most powerful, all-rounder passive buff in Palworld is Legend. It combines all the traits you will ever need, no matter what role you put your Pal in.

Much like the elemental bonuses, you can only get this by capturing the Legendary Pals in Palworld. Fortunately, it can be transferred through breeding so you can hand over this power to any Pal of your choice.