Palworld Research Lab: What to Research First
In Palworld 1.0, the Pal Labor Research Lab is too big to finish quickly: its 168 researches ask for 3,663 Ancient Pal Manuscripts between them. Research in this order: the cheap first rung of the work you do most, that work type's two Research Tips, the building unlock you need, the effects you will feel, and Base Pal Enhancement last.
- Researches1689 work types
- Building unlocks10the rest are bonuses
- Manuscripts, all of it3,66311 researches need none
- Unlocks atTech Lv 19Pal Labor Research Lab
This page answers one question: which Lab research first. The structure page, Pal Labor Research Lab, has the build cost; here every number about the researches is read from the game's 1.0.5 research table.
On this page
What the lab does
The Pal Labor Research Lab unlocks at Tech Lv 19. The game describes it as "a facility for conducting research on the various tasks of Pals", where assigning Pals to the facility makes research progress and grants permanent benefits.
The table holds 168 researches in 9 work types: Handiwork, Kindling, Watering, Planting, Generating Electricity, Lumbering, Mining, Cooling, Medicine Production. Each research costs materials and a work amount. The work amount is a size, not a time: the files do not say how much work one Pal does per second, so compare the amounts with each other and do not turn them into minutes.
Starting a different research stops the one in progress, and the game asks you to confirm, so finish one before you start the next.
What to research first, in order
Follow the steps top to bottom for the first work type you invest in, then repeat for the next. The order is ours; the costs and effects in it are the game's.
Take the cheap first rung of the work you do most
Every work type starts with one cheap research. 7 of the 9 cost 50,000 work, and 4 of the 9 ask for no ancient item at all (Handiwork, Kindling, Mining, Medicine Production). Its speed line starts at +10% work speed for that type, such as Handiwork Speed 1 for Handiwork.Add that work type's two Research Tips
Each work type has 2 Research Tips, each +10% research speed. The game's own text says "Research Speed of" the work type, so they speed up that type only. For Handiwork the two tips cost 700,000 work, 1.3% of the 53,200,000 work in the whole Handiwork branch, so they pay for themselves if you plan to research most of it.Take the building unlock you actually need
10 researches unlock a building: the matching tech-tree entry stays locked with "Must research" until you do. Each costs 15,000 to 500,000 work and 5 Ancient Pal Manuscripts, so they are cheap. Take only the ones whose building you will place.Pick the effects you will feel
After that it is a choice by goal; the lists below show what exists. Egg hatching, crops, material savings and expedition rewards each have their own rows, and the costs rise with every rung, so buy the first rungs of several lines before the last rungs of one.Leave Base Pal Enhancement and the top rungs for last
Base Pal Enhancement is 27 researches at +2% attack or defense of base Pals each. Together they hold 92,050,000 of the tree's 264,025,000 work (35%) and 1,325 of its 3,663 manuscripts (36%). The top rungs of a speed line are the same kind of bargain: Handiwork Speed 1 gives +10% for 50,000 work, and Handiwork Speed 6 gives +10% for 10,000,000, about 200 times as much.
What counts as ours, what as the game's
The game's: every cost and every effect on this page. Ours: the order, and calling +2% for that much work a poor price. If your base defense is what keeps you alive, your order will differ, and that is fine.
The researches that unlock buildings
These are the only researches that open something new. Each one also needs the building's own tech-tree level, shown in the last column.
| Unlocks | Work type | Work | Manuscripts | Tech Lv |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large Toolbox | Handiwork | 200,000 | 5 | 20 |
| Flame Cauldron | Kindling | 200,000 | 5 | 21 |
| Fountain | Watering | 150,000 | 5 | 23 |
| Flower Bed | Planting | 150,000 | 5 | 24 |
| Silo | Planting | 200,000 | 5 | 25 |
| Stump and Axe | Lumbering | 150,000 | 5 | 28 |
| Mining Cart | Mining | 150,000 | 5 | 30 |
| Witch's Cauldron | Medicine Production | 200,000 | 5 | 32 |
| Snowman | Cooling | 15,000 | 5 | 33 |
| Electric Pylon | Generating Electricity | 500,000 | 5 | 48 |
Effects worth a look, by goal
Values are the game's own: "Egg Hatching Speed +5%" is stored as a 5 and shown as a percent. A minus sign is a saving.
- Eggs. Incubation Acceleration has 4 steps under Kindling (+5%, +10%, +5%, +10%) and 4 under Cooling (+5%, +10%, +5%, +10%). The files do not say whether the two lines add up. The Cooling line costs far less work.
- Crops. 10 researches speed crop growth or raise the harvest, under Watering and Planting.
- Cheaper crafting. 9 researches cut the materials a type of item costs, by 5% or 10% per step. 10 more give a chance of extra items from the same craft.
- Expeditions. 10 researches shorten expeditions or raise their rewards, under Lumbering and Mining.
- Crude oil. Three steps at +20%, +30%, +40% oil extraction speed, all under Mining.
What the whole tree costs
Why not finish it? The ancient items run out first. Across the tree the researches ask for 3,663 Ancient Pal Manuscripts (157 researches), 1,430 Ancient Civilization Parts (110) and 235 Ancient Civilization Cores (27). Only 11 of the 168 researches ask for none of the three. The game's item text says the Ancient Pal Manuscript "may be found by Pals during expeditions" and is "required for advancing research".
Cooling is the cheapest branch to finish: 1,575,000 work for all 19 of its researches, about 34 times less than Handiwork. Handiwork, Kindling, Generating Electricity and Medicine Production hold the long chains.
| Work type | Researches | Work | Manuscripts |
|---|---|---|---|
 Handiwork | 22 | 53,200,000 | 424 |
| Kindling | 20 | 51,050,000 | 447 |
| Watering | 18 | 16,550,000 | 412 |
| Planting | 19 | 17,000,000 | 403 |
| Generating Electricity | 18 | 49,850,000 | 416 |
| Lumbering | 18 | 15,850,000 | 396 |
| Mining | 19 | 17,300,000 | 387 |
| Cooling | 19 | 1,575,000 | 421 |
| Medicine Production | 15 | 41,650,000 | 357 |
What the game files do not say
Three things players ask are not in the research table, so this guide leaves them open. How long a research takes: the work amount has no per-Pal speed next to it. Whether the Kindling and Cooling egg lines stack: the table lists both and says nothing about combining them. And how many Pals can work on one research at once.
The table also carries a flag called bIsEssential on 69 rows. The game's text never explains it, so this page does not use it.
Pages to keep open
Related guides
Sources
Pal, item and skill values come from the game's own data files; map counts from paldb.cc; mechanics from the Palworld Wiki (CC BY-SA 4.0).