Best Weapons in Palworld 1.0

There's one fundamental difference that Palworld emphasises over its competitors - gearing yourself up, and not just your cute sidekicks. Crafting weapons, armor, and accessories can be no easy feat, usually requiring large quantities of precious metals and sometimes abstract materials. As a result, players should be cautious when selecting weapons to construct, as it might be quite a while until you meet the crafting requirements for another weapon.

You'll want to think ahead and decide which weapon will provide the most value for you and which is the best overall investment. However, that's easier said than done, as many weapons are locked behind different Workbenches, which are extremely arduous to construct. So, we've compiled a list of the Best Weapons in Palworld 1.0 to help you identify your favourites to craft.

Best Weapons in Palworld 1.0

This guide will identify weapons that are 'worth' the upgrade and material usage, with early-mid game options at the start of each table followed by the best late-game options to finish each table.

Best Melee Weapons

For the early game, you'll want to craft a melee weapon that doesn't require too many precious materials, as you'll want to utilize them to craft more important items and buildings. Melee damage can be extremely reliable and a huge help when trying to capture new Pals, rather than letting your Pal nuke their health bar and instantly kill them.

Melee Weapon	Crafting Requirements	Explanation
Metal Spear	25 Wood 11 Stone 9 Ingots	You'll want to start off by obtaining a Metal Spear as fast as you can, which will likely carry you for a while and allows you to keep a little more distance away from your enemy while you strike them down.
Meowmere	20 Iron Ingots 20 Paldium Fragments 20 Coal	Your knight in shining armour that will carry you a VERY long way in Palworld is Meowmere. Unlike the other Terraria collaboration weapons, you don't need to rely on a lucky schematic to craft this a-meow-zing sword. If you're a fan of cats and easy splash damage, you'll love this sword. You'll have to spend Ancient Technology Points to unlock it at level 30 - you won't need to upgrade your melee weapon for quite some time afterwards.
Katana	19 Pal Metal Ingots 1 High Quality Wooden Board 2 Corrosive Solvent	We're advancing to Pal Metal now. Your next worthwhile upgrade is the Katana. Melee weapons aren't a necessity in Palworld, but they're definitely a nice weapon to have if you're running low on ammunition, or don't want to expend the resources to craft bullets. You'll sit on the Katana for quite a while, as the next crafting requirements are quite a step up - but usually you'll be utilising ranged weapons and Pal damage more frequently than melee weapons.
Beam Sword	28 Plasteel 95 Paldium Fragments 19 Nightstar Sand 1 Computer	You'll need to upgrade your workbenches, furnaces, and basically everything else to unlock the Beam Sword - with extensive crafting requirements, we're definitely ramping up the material costs. However, it's definitely worth it as the Beam Sword deals significant damage to enemies.
Laser Sword	47 Soralite Ingots 237 Paldium Fragments 28 Bio Batteries 2 AI Cores	Boasting an even heavier crafting requirement is the Laser Sword, and it's certainly no walk in the park. You'll need to best the Sunreach floating islands to grab yourself this lightsaber straight out of Star Wars. But it's definitely 100% worth it to instantly dispose of enemies, and oddly satisfying.

Best Bows

Bows are the first ranged weapons that you'll gain access to in Palworld, providing you with a great opportunity to train your aim before graduating to firearms. However, you can stick with a bow if you really want to, as there are some pretty strong late-game archery options.

Bow	Crafting Requirements	Explanation
Crossbow	47 Wood 38 Stone 9 Iron Ingots 1 Nail	Once you feel the need for a better ranged weapon, you can craft yourself a Crossbow for some lovely upgraded arrow velocity. The crafting recipe is relatively simple, and the materials won’t take you too long to gather. The Crossbow gives you respectable ranged damage for quite a while in Palworld, especially if you use special arrows with elements that Pals are vulnerable to.
Compound Bow	47 Refined Ingots 38 Fiber 9 Nails	Your next worthwhile upgrade is the Compound Bow, providing you with around five times the firepower of your previous bow. It's an amazing investment considering how quickly you can melt bosses compared to how strong you were before, and it also looks really cool. However, you'll need to upgrade to Reinforced Arrows, which require Refined Ingots to craft and can feel somewhat wasteful depending on your resource stockpile.
Advanced Bow	38 Plasteel 23 Carbon Fiber 19 Nightstar Sand	With yet another upgrade yielding five times your previous bow power, the Advanced Bow is a considerable step up in material requirements. Plasteel is usually a pretty slow grind with slow kindling speeds and exhaustive material gathering - you should definitely prioritise base buildings and other upgrades before bagging this bow. Additionally, Advanced Arrows also require Plasteel, which puts even more strain on your resources if you try to craft this weapon early on.
Mechanical Bow	38 Soralite Ingots 19 Carbon Fiber 190 Paldium Fragments 2 AI Cores	Your final bow upgrade is the Mechanical Bow, with a massive 20,000 attack power. The Mechanical Bow requires you to make multiple upgrades to your base buildings and conquer the Sunreach floating islands. However, this upgrade is incredibly worthwhile; it's extremely strong and completely melts enemies.

Best Firearms

A good firearm is definitely the key to winning a boss fight - you can stay at a safe distance and whittle down their health while letting your Pals take most of the aggro.

Firearm	Crafting Requirements	Explanation
Makeshift Handgun	33 Iron Ingots 9 High Quality Pal Oil 28 Fiber	As your first firearm choice, you could opt for the Makeshift Handgun. It's definitely a huge step up from bows, as you can fire much faster and easily whittle down healthbars with headshots. This firearm uses Coarse Ammo, which you can naturally stockpile by looting chests, scrap piles, and killing human enemies.
Makeshift Assault Rifle	66 Iron Ingots 19 High Quality Pal Oil 57 Fiber	If you're vibing with firearms and want to grab your next upgrade, the Makeshift Assault Rifle is a great way to test out faster-firing weapons without investing too much and wasting too many resources. The Makeshift Assault Rifle is a huge step up from the crafting requirements of a pistol.
Laser Rifle	47 Pal Metal Ingots 38 Plasteel 4 Bio Batteries 2 Computers	As one of the first high-tech firearms you can craft, the Laser Rifle is the perfect place to start. You'll need lots of workbench upgrades and a huge amount of materials.
Drone Launcher	70 Paloxite Ingots 40 World Tree Holy Water 8 AI Cores 5 Ancient Civilization Cores	The Drone Launcher fires ... drones, can you believe it? You can spawn up to 9 drones that will surround you and target nearby enemies. It's an extremely fun weapon to use, and works amazingly when combined with other strong weapons, as the drones persist when you swap to other firearms.
Beam Scatter	50 Paloxite Ingots 50 Soralite Ingots 5 AI Cores 5 Ancient Civilization Cores	If you're a shotgun lover, you'll want to pick up the Beam Scatter as your final close-range weapon. You'll literally melt any foe in your path, but might sometimes find yourself a little too close to the danger. The blast is very wide and you'll find it hard to miss your shots.
Plasma Rifle	80 Paloxite Ingots 50 Bio Batteries 8 AI Cores 7 Ancient Civilization Cores	As one of the most powerful weapons in the entire game, you should at least test out the Plasma Rifle if you want to become the most dangerous threat in the Palpagos Islands. The Plasma Rifle's shots chain to multiple enemies,

My favorite weapon was definitely the handgun variants; there's something so satisfying about hitting precise headshots rather than mindlessly spamming assault rifle rounds.

Whatever weapons you ultimately decide to craft, let it not be understated how expensive ammunition crafting can be.