Palworld: How to Beat Zenara & Astralym on Hard Mode

Hard Mode turns Zenara & Astralym into a raid-style fight where your own weapons barely scratch the boss. Player damage is cut to 0.5x while damage taken jumps to 1.5x, so your Pals have to do the work. The reliable way through is a stack of Level 80 Majex Pals loaded with defensive passives, kept alive long enough to break the final barrier.

Quick answer: Deploy Level 80 Majex Pals with Immortality, Legend, Serenity, and Diamond Body, keep yourself safe near the Palbox, and either revive fallen Pals with Lyleen Noct or swap low-health Pals into the Palbox so you have healthy Pals left to break the final barrier.

Why Majex is the Pal to use

Majex works because it has a small body and pairs cleanly with the four strongest defensive passives in the game. A small hitbox means fewer of Astralym’s wide attacks land, and the passives keep the Pal alive through the beams and tornadoes that would delete anything else.

Detail	Value
Pal	Majex (Level 80)
HP	17,300
Passives	Immortality, Legend, Serenity, Diamond Body
Skills	Phantasmal Arcana, Apocalypse, Sand Twister, Circle Vine

Necromus is another strong pick for this fight. It normally phases through enemies, but Astralym’s giant hitbox stops that, so Twin Spears, Apocalypse, and Sand Twister all connect repeatedly. Give it the same defensive passives if you go that route.

Gear and party setup

Because your damage barely matters here, you can run Common gear and Common Beam Launchers. The Beam Launcher’s real job is to interrupt the boss, not to deal damage. The Phantom Ring rounds out the loadout.

Inventory screen with the first weapon slot highlighted while equipping the Beam Launcher — The inventory screen with the first weapon slot selected while equipping Common gear and Beam Launchers. Image: Pocketpair

Your support Pals depend on which method you run. For the revive plan, bring Lyleen Noct to bring fallen Pals back, plus Silvegis for shields and Menasting and Menasting Terra for defense.

Palworld box storage screen showing the party of Majex and support Pals prepared for the raid — The box screen showing the support lineup, including Lyleen Noct for reviving fallen Pals. Image: Pocketpair

Method 1: Revive fallen Pals with Lyleen Noct

Deploy 10 Majex Pals at the start of the fight and keep 5 in the Palbox as backup. Let the Majex Pals attack while you focus entirely on dodging Astralym’s opening giant beam.

When the barrier phase begins, some Majex Pals will fall. Move the dead Pals into your party, use Lyleen Noct’s partner skill to instantly revive them, and redeploy them into the fight.

When the boss flies to the center to charge its energy attack, fire the Common Beam Launchers to stun it out of the move before it goes off. This is the main thing your weapon is for.

Deploy your 5 backup Majex Pals during the final barrier phase to break through and finish the boss.

Majex Pals attacking Astralym during the final barrier phase of the Hard Mode fight — Backup Majex Pals deployed to break the final barrier and end the fight. Image: Pocketpair

Method 2: Swap low-health Pals into the Palbox

This version skips reviving and instead preserves Pals by pulling them out before they die. For support, swap in Herbil, Teafant, and Silvegis. The idea is to enter the final phase with a group of healthy Pals ready to go.

Deploy all 15 Majex Pals at the start to burn through the first phase as fast as possible. Stand near the Palbox in the middle of the arena so you can manage them quickly.

Palworld cinematic intro with a hold-to-skip prompt shown before the second fight — The intro cutscene with the hold-to-skip prompt before camping near the Palbox. Image: Pocketpair

As Majex Pals take damage, swap the low-health ones back into the Palbox to keep them alive. Rotate in fresh Pals so the pressure on the boss never stops.

When the boss winds up a giant beam or other big area attack, recall every Pal into the Palbox at once. This prevents a full team wipe from a single hit.

Box storage screen with an empty slot highlighted while recalling a Pal during a beam attack — Selecting a storage slot to recall a Pal into the Palbox and dodge the incoming beam. Image: Pocketpair

Once the final barrier phase begins, deploy the healthy Pals you saved to break the barrier and secure the win.

Watch out for the phase change

When Astralym drops to 60% HP, it surrounds itself with an explosive glowing light and shifts into its second phase. Its attacks gain extra effects and hit harder from that point. Keep an eye on the health bar so the transition doesn’t catch you standing in the open.

Throughout the fight the boss cycles between Rocky Impact, Holy Burst, Psycho Gravity, and Meteorain, all in the 600–700 power range. None of these are worth tanking, which is why the Palbox recall is so useful when a big one is about to land.

Confirming the clear and the reward

You know the fight is done when the final barrier breaks and the boss goes down. Clearing Hard Mode Zenara & Astralym gives you the Psycho Gravity Skill Fruit, a 700-power Dark skill that slams enemies into the ground using gravity.

Both methods fail the same way, which is losing all your active and backup Pals before the barrier phase. If that happens, you have nothing left to break the barrier and the run stalls out. Keep your revive timing tight in Method 1, or pull Pals out earlier in Method 2, and you’ll have enough survivors to close it out.