Walkthrough

You spawn with nothing. Punch trees and rocks for Wood and Stone, and grab the glowing blue Paldium Fragments scattered near the cliffs - you will burn through all three constantly. Open the Technology menu every level to spend points, then place a Primitive Workbench and craft a Stone Axe, Stone Pickaxe and a club. Activate the Great Eagle Statue at spawn to enable fast travel. Steer well clear of the level 38 Mammorest stomping around the meadow - it will flatten you in one hit.

Craft a batch of Pal Spheres - each costs one Paldium Fragment plus Wood and Stone. Weaken Lamball, Cattiva and Chikipi with your club, then throw from behind for a back-catch bonus. Prioritize Lifmunk for its shoulder-mounted SMG partner skill and Foxparks for kindling work later. Aim to catch ten of every species you meet: each tenth catch of the same Pal pays out a big chunk of bonus experience, and chaining those bonuses is by far the fastest way to level through your first ten levels.

Drop your Palbox on flat ground near spawn - the open rise between the Hill of Beginnings and the Grassy Behemoth Hills statue keeps wood, stone and Paldium nodes in working range. Assign jobs: Lamball for handiwork and transporting, Cattiva for mining, Lifmunk for lumbering and planting. Build a campfire to cook Baked Berries, then a Berry Plantation so food never runs dry. Work through the base missions in the Palbox menu for free rewards, and keep everyone fed or productivity collapses.

Head off exhaustion and sanity problems before they start. Build a Feed Box stocked with Baked Berries, a Straw Pal Bed for every worker, and a Shoddy Bed for yourself so you can sleep through dangerous nights. Unlock the Old Bow for real ranged damage - it carries you until the Crossbow - plus a Cloth Outfit for cold evenings. Add a Wooden Chest to keep materials sorted and a Repair Bench to fix tools instead of recrafting them. This handful of cheap structures is the difference between a base that runs and one that riots.

Small Syndicate camps dot the hills - look for smoke and wooden watchtowers. The thugs sit around levels 5 to 10, drop Gold Coins and spheres, and most camps hold a caged Pal you can free straight into your team, no sphere needed. Loot everything. Swing by the Small Settlement northwest of spawn too: the Pal Merchant sells cheap workers, and the Wandering Merchant sells Milk, Eggs and Wheat Seeds you will want for cakes later. Tag Fort Ruins as a travel point while you sweep the region.

Northeast of spawn, past the Grassy Behemoth Hills statue, a level 11 Alpha Chillet patrols an open hilltop arena. It is Ice and Dragon typed, so Foxparks and other Fire Pals shred it while you plink away with the Old Bow - just sidestep its rolling charge. Beating it grants a huge experience burst plus Ancient Technology Points, but catching it is better: Chillet becomes an excellent early mount once you unlock its saddle. Alphas respawn after roughly an hour, so you can return to farm this fight for levels and points.