Coming Soon: Palia
Palia is a new cozy MMO-life/fantasy sim from Singularity Six. You play as a human who is teleported thousands of years in the future. Humankind is extinct, survived by ruins and folklore. You’re not the first human to arrive in Palia, but you are among the first humans this quiet community of farmers, hunters, gatherers, and robots has ever seen. You must find your place in Palia and learn how to survive in a fantastical new world.
Palia moves to Open Beta on 10 August, but I was lucky enough to win a key on a Twitch stream for the Closed Beta. I will not be reviewing until the full release, as so much can change. I can confidently say I have not fallen this hard this fast for a life-sim style game since Animal Crossing: New Horizons showed up just in time in 2020.
Singularity Six are committed to creating a calm, gentle, and inclusive MMO. For one, you can’t die. There are no violent raids against mythical beasts and long treks from the grave to reclaim your belongings. When you fall from a great height, you tuck and roll. When you go in water too deep, the screen goes black and you teleport back to safety, no questions asked. You grow and cook food, but it’s to improve the efficiency of leveling up your skills, not keeping you alive. You also never need to sleep.
There are so many paths to explore in Palia that the early stages can be a bit overwhelming. The choices are yours to make, and no choice is the wrong choice. Once you get your plot of land, cut down some trees and break some rocks, and place your tent and campfire, you’re unleashed upon the world. You start with basic versions of the tools you need to do everything in the game except farm. That comes a few minutes later with dirt and seeds, as well.
I can offer some helpful tips and recommendations before you start your own story in Palia on Thursday.
Get used to the axe and pickaxe animations on your own plot by clearing out the whole fenced in area. You’ll need that wood and stone soon enough.
Introduce yourself to all the NPCs. Everyone can offer you quests, and you earn more quests by leveling up your relationships through discussion and gift-giving.
For fishing, you need to be patient. Wait for the parenthesis to form around your bobbin, then keep them around your fish as you reel them in.
Keeping your prestige (food) meter full makes every task earn more experience. It also makes it easier to aim while hunting, catching bugs, and fishing.
You can connect up to eight wooden chests on your property to increase your storage space. You can also buy bag upgrades in the general store to increase your mobile storage space.
Finally, you cannot sell furniture in-game (yet). Build the tools, like forges and sawmills, but stick to what you actually want in your eventual home.
While there is a paid cosmetic shop in-game, you always have access to all the hairstyles, tops, bottoms, and accessories from the character creator screen. You do not have to spend money and no cosmetic offers you an advantage. These extra costumes are on the pricey side and exist to help Palia create a revenue stream for their otherwise free to play game.
I’ve put far more happy hours into Palia over the last week than I’m comfortable admitting to. I also haven’t found an official in-game counter for it, so I’ll choose blissful ignorance on this one. I will say that I’ve enjoyed my time exploring Palia, building friendships and relationships, farming, crafting, cooking, hunting, catching bugs, fishing, gathering, and completing quests as I learn more about this beautiful future world.
Palia will be available in Open Beta on Thursday, 10 August on PC. Full releases on PC and Switch are slated for the end of the year.
