Palworld left early access and hit its full 1.0 release on July 9 2026 in the Americas and July 10 for the rest of the world. The patch notes run 27 pages, so here is the short version: floating Sky Islands, a real World Tree endgame, a fresh batch of Pals, building on water, and reworked bosses. Here is everything new.
Sky Islands
The headline addition is the Sky Islands, a set of floating zones suspended in the air above the Palpagos Islands. This is Palworld's first real push into vertical exploration. Until now the map was something you spread out across; in 1.0 you also climb and fly upward to reach land that simply did not exist in early access.
Getting up there is half the appeal. The Sky Islands reward flying mounts and traversal Pals, and they open a whole new layer of the world to build in, farm, and fight through. If you had run out of places to explore, you now have an entire sky to go through.
The World Tree and a real endgame
Early access always ended with a shrug: you beat the towers, then made your own goals. 1.0 fixes that with the World Tree, which anchors a proper endgame. It is the destination the rest of the map now points toward, and it gives long-running saves a reason to keep going after the last tower falls.
This is the single biggest structural change in the update. If you have poured dozens of hours into a base and a Pal roster, the World Tree is finally the content those hours were building toward.
New Pals to catch
You cannot ship a Palworld update without new Pals, and 1.0 brings some memorable ones:
- Sky Dragon, a fitting flagship for a patch built around the sky.
- Sword Eel, which is exactly as strange as it sounds. You can wield it like an improvised broadsword, so a Pal doubles as a weapon.
- Tree Guardian, tied thematically to the new World Tree region.
- Giant Whale, a massive Pal that suits the new water and sky content.
Catch rates and hatching still run on the same config knobs as before, so if you want these in your Paldeck faster on your own server, our best server settings guide covers PalCaptureRate and PalEggDefaultHatchingTime.
Build on the water
One of the most requested features finally landed: water-based building. 1.0 adds water foundations and water furniture, so you can put a base out on the surface instead of being pinned to dry land. Coastal and open-water builds are now on the table, which opens up map spots that were decorative before.
Reworked tower bosses and sanctuaries
The tower bosses got a rework and feel more dynamic to fight than the early access versions. If the tower fights had gone stale for you, they are worth another run on 1.0.
Alongside that, the Wildlife Sanctuaries and No-Hunting Zones were overhauled. These are the protected areas where rare Pals live, so the changes affect where you go hunting for the good stuff and how those runs play out.
Should you start a fresh save?
The good news: 1.0 does not wipe your save. Your world, your Pals, your bases, and your guild all carry over, and you can load straight back in after updating.
The nuance: Pocketpair recommends starting a fresh world for the full 1.0 experience. A lot of the new content is baked into world generation, including the Sky Islands, the reworked sanctuaries, and the terrain around the World Tree. An old save keeps its original layout, so those zones will not appear the way they do on a brand-new map.
How to decide:
- Keep your save if you have a base and a Pal roster you are attached to, and you just want to explore what you can reach.
- Start fresh if you were ready for a reset anyway, or you want the World Tree and Sky Islands generated properly from the start.
If you keep your world, the step-by-step is in our update your server to 1.0 guide.
Play 1.0 with friends
1.0 is best in co-op, and crossplay now spans Steam, Xbox, PS5, and Mac, so your whole group can be on the same map regardless of platform. The cleanest way to get everyone onto 1.0 together is a dedicated server that stays online whether or not the host is playing, and that supports up to 32 players.
On a DoomHosting server the update is automatic: a restart runs SteamCMD and pulls the latest build, so your world is on 1.0 without a single command. Servers start at $6.00/mo for 6 GB of RAM on Ryzen 9 class hardware, with instant setup, backups, config editing from the panel, full FTP access, DDoS protection, and 24/7 support. New servers get 50% off the first month with code SUMMER26.
Rent a Palworld 1.0 server and be exploring the Sky Islands with your friends today. If you are setting one up for the first time, our dedicated server setup guide walks through it from scratch.
