Endgame Palworld is a very different game from the one you play at level 30. Once you are throwing yourself at level 60 raid bosses and hard-mode towers, raw attack numbers stop mattering as much as partner skills, animation speed, hitbox size, and whether a Pal can survive long enough to finish its combo. The 1.0.3 balance pass shuffled several familiar names, and a few long-time favorites no longer earn their party slot.
Quick answer: Build a party around Knocklem or Knocklem Ignis if you want the Pal to do the damage, or around Frostallion plus four Gobfins if you want to do it yourself. Both clear every hard-mode tower and raid boss currently in the game.
Endgame combat Pals tier list (v1.0.3)
Every Pal below is ranked as a primary attacker, meaning the one you actually send out to fight. Pure buff Pals are handled separately further down, because they distort the ranking if you mix them in.
| Tier | Pals |
|---|---|
| S | Knocklem, Knocklem Ignis, Bellanoir Libero, Necromus, Neptilius, Frostallion, Orserk, Hartalis, Felbat, Eidrolon, Eidrolon Ignis, Anubis, Jetragon, Selyne |
| A | Blazamut Ryu, Shaolong, Dandilord, Bastigor, Frostallion Noct, Jormuntide Ignis, Bellanoir, Moldron, Moldron Cryst, Silvegis, Xenolord, Lovander, Icelyn, Wixen, Finsider Ignis, Omascul, Azurmane, Lyleen Noct, Dualith, Dualith Noct, Renjishi, Aegidron, Celesdir Noct |
| B | Azurobe, Azurobe Cryst, Jormuntide, Blazamut, Eye of Cthulhu, Ghangler, Ghangler Ignis, Paladius, Lyleen, Grizzbolt, Chillet, Chillet Ignis, Xenogard, Celesdir, Wixen Noct, Bushi, Bushi Noct, Leafan, Helzephyr, Helzephyr Lux, Incineram, Incineram Noct, Beakon, Quivern, Splatterina, Elizabee, Sweepa, Fenglope Lux, Croajiro Noct, Shadowbeak |
| C | Astegon, Menasting, Grintale, Prixter, Finsider, Verdash, Chillet, Herbil, Suzaku Aqua, Robinquill Terra, Vanwyrm |
This ranking reflects the state of the game after the 1.0.3 update, as of August 2026.
How these Pals were ranked
Placement assumes the fully invested version of a Pal, so Awakened, fully condensed, and carrying a rainbow passive spread. What separates the tiers is how much of that investment actually converts into damage on a boss.
| Tier | What it means |
|---|---|
| S | Clears Ultra Raids and hard-mode tower bosses without needing a specific team built around it. |
| A | Strong enough for the same content, but either slightly behind the top picks or best kept as a second attacker. |
| B | Fine for late-game content, but needs a particular build, element matchup, or party composition to keep up. |
| C | Situational counters or budget picks with average stat lines and no fight-ending tools. |
Two things drag Pals down more than anything else. Large hitboxes make them easy targets and awkward inside dungeons and enemy bases, and slow or clunky attack animations get interrupted before the damage lands. A Pal with a great attack stat and a bad animation loop will always lose to a smaller Pal with a reliable partner skill.
Why the S-tier Pals sit at the top
Knocklem and Knocklem Ignis are the outliers of the entire list. Their Guardian Mode partner skills are self-buffs that stack attack and defense to a degree nothing else matches, and a properly built Knocklem can clear hard-mode towers while the player contributes zero damage. Both variants already have strong base stats and a usable default skill pool, so they need less breeding work than most top-tier options.
Bellanoir Libero is the cleanest boss killer. Its Nightmare Stare partner skill is enormous, its stats are built for endgame content, and its small model means it fights properly in dungeons and cramped enemy bases instead of clipping into geometry. Bellanoir itself remains a solid A-tier stand-in and can be caught much earlier from the level 35 raid.
Necromus is the biggest winner of the recent patch. Its Twin Spears attack was fixed and now hits for genuinely massive damage, which pushed it from a mount you tolerated in fights to a front-line attacker. Neptilius brings the same kind of pressure in water, with follow-up attacks and its Thalassonic Laser tracking targets across an arena.
Frostallion and Frostallion Noct earn their spots through element swapping rather than their own attacks. Both convert your damage to Ice or Dark and hand you a flat attack boost while mounted, and both apply their status effect through your shots, which is why Frostallion anchors most player-damage parties. Orserk is close behind if you are running bullet weapons, and Hartalis pairs offense with Sacred Barrier, which blocks incoming attacks while mounted.
Anubis is the one S-tier entry with a real asterisk. Its attack stat, auto-dodge in combat, and mid-game availability make it one of the most efficient Pals in the game, but its Ground typing leaves it exposed in boss fights that throw Grass damage at you. Swap it out for those specific encounters rather than trying to force it through.
Pals that lost ground in 1.0.3
Shadowbeak is the most notable drop. Divine Disaster, its signature move and the entire reason it was a default pick, was nerfed, and without it the Pal is a fast flyer with unremarkable combat output. It still works as a mount, just not as your damage dealer.
Astegon fell for structural reasons rather than a stat change. Its oversized hitbox soaks damage it should be dodging, and its close-range attack animations are slow and awkward enough that it loses damage windows against anything that moves. It remains excellent in your base for mining, which is where it should stay.
Vanwyrm has been fully outclassed by newer elemental boosters and no longer justifies a party slot. Azurobe moved the other way and now sits at the top of the mid tier as a reasonable Water option if you have not bred a Neptilius or Shaolong.
Note: there are current bugs around mounted combat that cause Pals to forget their attacks. Anything that depends on mounting and dismounting mid-fight, or on a saddle to enable its partner skill, is less reliable than its stats suggest.
Booster Pals are not part of this ranking
Gobfin, Gobfin Ignis, and Dumud are not attackers and they are not competing with the Pals above. They exist to multiply someone else’s damage, and judging them on their own combat output produces a misleading list. Four Gobfins are still mandatory for the highest-damage player builds, and Dumuds are what keep a Knocklem rotation running.
Vanwyrm Cryst belongs in the same group. Its value comes from the headshot damage bonus it grants and from how it manages aggro during a fight, not from anything it does to a boss directly. Utility Pals like Galeclaw sit outside the ranking for the same reason.
Pal damage vs player damage: which build to breed
There are two viable endgame templates, and they demand very different breeding projects. A Pal damage build runs two to five Knocklems rotated with Dumuds as boosters to keep partner skill uptime at 100 percent, which requires a minimum of two Knocklems. A player damage build runs four Gobfins alongside one main Pal, either an element swapper such as Frostallion or a Felbat or Lovander for the lifesteal.
| Knocklem build | Gobfin build | |
|---|---|---|
| Gear needed | No legendary weapons required | Scales heavily with better gear |
| Party swapping | One party handles every boss | Needs extra Pals to swap elements |
| Pal quality | Wants near-perfect Pals | More forgiving on passives |
| Player input | Minimal | Constant |
| Damage ceiling | High, but weak against Xenolord | Highest in the game |
| Other uses | Towers and raids | Also required for the Oil Rig |
If you only want to breed one army, the Gobfin route is the safer investment because the Oil Rig and Xenolord both demand it anyway. For base raid defense, Paladius, Jormuntide Ignis, and Bastigor carry the load, with two or three rescue Pals such as Blazamut Ryu, Jetragon, Paladius, or Faleris Aqua on standby.
The fights this tier list is measured against
Tier placement only means something relative to the content you are clearing. These are the encounters that set the bar.
| Encounter | Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Xenolord | 60 | The hardest raid check; a team that beats it beats everything else |
| Bjorn & Bastigor | 60 | Highest tower bosses in both normal and hard mode |
| Other hard-mode towers | 55 | Fall over to anything that handles Bjorn and Bastigor |
| Blazamut Ryu | 55 | Mid-tier raid boss |
| Bellanoir Libero | 50 | Entry-level raid boss |
| Oil Rig | 60 | Huge health pools and heavy damage; built for looting, not fighting |
The Oil Rig is the exception to everything above. The efficient run does not stop to kill enemies at all, only the chopper. A Galeclaw, a Felbat or Lovander parked on a roof, and two or three Gobfins let you grapple and glide between the small chests, firing rockets to heal rather than to clear the deck.
The gap between an S-tier Pal on paper and one that performs is almost entirely condensing and passives, so pick one or two Pals from the top tier and finish them rather than half-building six. Knocklem and a Frostallion-plus-Gobfin party cover every fight in the game right now, and anything in A tier is a legitimate substitute if the breeding lines you already own point that way.
