Vixy: The Top Early Pal in Palworld

29 Jan at 21:55

An image of Vixy in Palworld. There are three of them. One of them is running smiling at the camera, another is eating food from a blanket and the other is sleeping.

Ana Diaz
(she/her) is a culture writer at Polygon, covering internet culture, fandom, and video games. Her work has previously appeared at NPR, Wired, and The Verge.

Palworld is out and it contains one of the best little pups — or maybe it’s a fox — that you’ll ever see. Its name is Vixy. It has bright eyes and a bushy tail, and it sort of reminds me of Eevee a little bit. This little ray of sunshine isn’t just cute, though. As it turns out, it’s actually secretly one of the most useful Pals in the game — especially in the early game. That’s because it can literally dig up infinite Pal spheres.

Palworld is the overnight sensation from the Japanese developer Pocketpair. The game blends influences from a wide variety of games and genres, including open-world exploration elements similar to games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as survival mechanics. The game also allows you to catch and build bases alongside cartoony creatures called Pals, which has led some to compare the game to Pokémon as well.

There is no Palworld without its titular Pals. They help you collect resources for your settlement, they fight alongside you, and they even serve as mounts to ride. No two Pals are alike, and each has their own utility. Some Pals you can ride, allowing you to soar through the sky. Others, like the caffeine-addicted cat Depresso, just bring a sense of character. Then there’s my buddy Vixy, who’s cute but just so happens to have a super-helpful ability: It can dig up loads of Pal spheres.

You can find Vixy in multiple spots, but I had an easy time finding them in the region just northwest of first boss fight with Zoe and Grizzbolt. It’s right by the waypoint named Desolate Church; you’ll know you’re in the right place because the soil has a reddish tint that’s easily visible from the map. Once you’re there, catching one is super easy. I found one that was level six and was able to damage it with the basic wooden club. From there, I ran around until I caught four or so of them.

Once you have your Vixy, you’re going to want to build a ranch at your base. A ranch can be unlocked at level five in the technology menu and costs 50 wood, 20 stone, and 30 fiber. Then all you have to do is release the Vixy at your base and let them get to work. Here is what my ranch looked like after ten or so minutes of work with four of them. (If yours doesn’t look like this, don’t worry. A lot of Pals will just automatically collect the spheres and put them away.)

A screenshot of a ranch in Palworld. It has four Vixy in it and they are all digging up blue Pal spheres that can be used to catch other Pals.

This ability is super nice in the early game since you need Pal spheres to catch more creatures. The standard Pal sphere that Vixy digs up won’t work on higher level Pals, but it’s still a big help to have lots of the standard sphere early on. This way, you don’t need to worry about collecting resources to craft Pal spheres, and you can go ham catching all the early-game Pals to level up your character.

Source: Polygon