Palworld fights 'cheating on the official server' with new patch, but 'it is currently difficult to completely prevent all cheating immediately'

Palworld - a player pets their large purple cat Grinmace

(Image credit: Pocketpair)

Palworld, currently the world's fourth largest religion, has a cheating problem. In a post on Twitter, the official Palworld account announced today that "Currently, some players have been confirmed to be cheating on the official server." The good news? Pocketpair just released a patch to fight back. The bad news? It might take a while to get a proper handle on it.

Palworld's 0.1.3.0 version hit Steam earlier today, containing "countermeasures against various cheats and exploits," but in an earlier tweet Pocketpair said that "It is currently difficult to completely prevent all cheating immediately," meaning the problem likely remains in some capacity. "We will continue to focus even more on security and aim to create an environment where everyone can play with peace of mind," read the studio's earlier tweet.

Pocketpair doesn't directly address which cheats Palworld's official server is currently being hit by, but it likely has something to do with community reports of hackers one-shotting everything, giving themselves enormous stocks of items, and even reportedly attaining server admin rights. I'm not sure if the glitch that PCG's Chris Livingston used to go to space counts as a cheat, but if it does we're very sorry.

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Anyway, none of those hacks—space thing aside—makes for a good time for the honest Poké- uh, Pal trainers out there, so it's no wonder Pocketpair is keen to clamp down as its game continues to go stratospheric. Luckily, a quick overview of the game's various community outposts doesn't make the problem sound too bad right now, but the thing about cheats and hacks is that they have a tendency to spread as people discover how to get them working. Hopefully, Pocketpair's patch stops things from spiralling.

After all, the game has sold a staggering number of copies and become 2024's first bonafide breakout hit, and I have to imagine at least a few of those millions of players would be more than happy to spoil other people's fun if given the opportunity. We'll keep an eye on the anti-cheating situation as Pocketpair makes its way down its Palworld roadmap, but if you want to make 100% sure you keep away from hackers in your Palworld multiplayer games, it might be best to stick to a passworded personal server for now.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.