Don’t you just hate it when a glitch you exploit in your fave video game gets fixed? I do, too, and apparently, so do Palworld players. Developer Pocketpair recently patched up a popular bug-turned-feature in the Pokémon clone that let players do something they weren’t actually supposed to: capture tower bosses. After squashing the glitch, though, the studio has since apologized, saying the fix was an “unintentional” mishap that came about as a result of the game’s recent update.
Update version 0.1.5.0 dropped on February 26 for Steam. (Xbox is having some issues with things like auto-saves, so the new patch isn’t on that console yet.) It fixes some specific problems with the game, such as Pals getting stuck in the environment, while also addressing more general hitches for a smoother experience overall. However, while putting Palworld under a hot iron to eliminate those pesky creases, Pocketpair also “inadvertently [fixed]” the tower-boss-collecting glitch, the company said on Twitter.
See, stuffing these big bads into a tiny ball was never meant to be in the cards. Tower bosses, as the name might suggest, are powerful monsters that reside—all Rapunzel-like—deep within various skyscrapers in the Palpagos Islands. There are five of them that you can battle, but if you do very specific things—aggro the police to get the “wanted” status, fast-travel to any tower, avoid attacking the tower boss so that the 5-0 can do it, then throw a Palsphere at the boss—you can break the game just enough to capture them and make them do your dirty work. And since they’re hella OP, folks were using them to steamroll anything and everything.
But now, it’s time to cue the waterworks because players were shook by the fix. “Let us capture tower bosses : v,” posted one user on Twitter. “OMG, saying ‘sorry’ for fixing a bug? Now that’s a new one! Next time let’s keep those happy little accidents, yeah?” tweeted another. “Oh wait…we weren’t supposed to be able to catch them!??” questioned a third tweeter with a crying GIF. Folks aren’t doing OK.
Kotaku has reached out to Pocketpair for comment.
While it sucks that a bug the community seemed to enjoy so much has been Thanos-snapped out of the game, that might not have any impact on Palworld’s popularity. The monster-collecting survival sim recently surpassed 25 million players, proving that “Pokémon with Guns” was, in fact, something people actually wanted. You can check out the full patch notes below:
Palworld Update Version 0.1.5.0 Patch Notes
Major Fixes
- Implemented backup of save data on the world selection screen
- Resolved issue of unnecessary data accumulating in save data
Key Configuration
- Added fully supported keyboard key configuration
Guild
- Modified specification to allow guild members to be removed when not logged in
Player Issues
- Changed long-press operation during player tasks to allow continuous work by pressing the work button once (This is switchable in the options settings)
- Fixed issue where riding in prohibited hunting areas would not result in a crime
- Improved interaction accuracy with adjacent objects
Pals
- Changed specifications so that when a Pal is instructed to “attack aggressively,” the Pal will attack enemies indiscriminately even if they are not in combat
- Corrected an issue to allow Pals of rank 1 or higher to be selected as concentrated material (higher-ranked Pals yield more points when concentrated)
- Fixed bug where if a large amount of experience points were gained and the level increased to 50 at once, Pals would not learn any active skills
- Mitigated an issue where using Mossanda’s partner skill “Grenadier Panda” on a dungeon boss would cause the boss to get stuck in walls
Base Issues
- Fixed an issue where base Pals would get stuck on top of a logging site, etc.
- Added measures to prevent the issue where base Pals would wander around and get stuck at the border of the base area
- Fixed an issue where Pals at the base would get stuck repeatedly starting transportation tasks and the light bulbs icon would appear over and over again.
- Added measures to prevent the issue of base Pals getting stuck in the farm on a roof
- Fixed an issue where work Pals would get stuck in the summon space of Palbox when restarting the server on a dedicated server.
- Adjusted the default work priority of base Pals (Anubis will prioritize manual labour)
- Significantly relaxed building restrictions for stairs and triangular roofs
- Fixed an issue where sound would play in an infinite loop when Pals at the base used certain active skills.
- Specifications changed so that all changes in environmental temperature are added up (if you put 4 campfires next to each other, the surrounding area will have the temperature of a volcano)
- Implemented “relax” working style on the monitoring stand
Balance Adjustment
- Significantly strengthened mining power for Digtoise partner skills
- Fixed the abnormally high selling price of nails
- Significantly increased the number of police officers who appear when a crime is committed
- Added electric shock effect to Free Pal Alliance’s crossbow
- Adjusted the flight distance of Sphere Launcher and Scatter Sphere Launcher.
- Increased the SAN value recovery amount of high-quality hot springs
Network Related
- Renovated the server lobby
- [Search by server name] will now work
- Added the ability to view online players on a dedicated server
- (On community servers, this will only be displayed if the setting is enabled)
Other
- Fixed the issue where Day 5 Memo was not placed
- You can now adjust the in-game brightness in the settings
- Fixed many minor bugs
- Corrected various incorrect text
- Improved measures against cheating
