Palworld Best Pals: Top 20 S-Tier Picks After 1.0 (2026)

A ranking of Palworld best pals written before July 9, 2026 is already out of date. The roster jumped from roughly 215 to 287 that day, and most of the tier lists still floating around the internet were written for the smaller, pre-patch version of the game. That gap is the real problem this guide solves: not "what are good Pals," but which of the current 287 are worth your first few Pal Spheres right now, cross-checked against a tier list that's actually been updated since the patch landed.

TL;DR: Game8's current Palworld tier list places 21 Pals in its S-tier for the overall (combat and mount) category, two of them, Shaolong and Dandilord, confirmed new additions from the July 9, 2026 patch. This guide covers 20 of those verified S-tier picks (grouping one near-identical variant pair), plus the two S-tier support Pals from Game8's separate support-focused list, Orserk and Silvegis. It does not claim to rank all 287 Pals, because nobody has independently verified stats for all 287 yet, and a shorter accurate list beats a padded one.

Palworld best pals? (quick answer)

As of the weeks after 1.0, Game8's live tier list puts Anubis, Frostallion, Bellanoir, Jormuntide Ignis, Neptilius, and the newly added Shaolong and Dandilord in S-tier for combat and mounts, with Orserk and Silvegis leading the separate support-Pal rankings. None of that was true before July 9; the pre-1.0 meta had different top picks and a smaller roster to draw from.

Palworld best pals: key takeaways

• Palworld's roster grew from around 215 to 287 Pals on July 9, 2026, and every existing Pal's stats got rebalanced in the same patch.
• Game8's overall S-tier list (last checked in the weeks following 1.0) names 21 Pals; this guide covers 20 of them individually, folding one nearly-identical variant pair into a single entry.
• Shaolong and Dandilord are confirmed new-to-1.0 Pals that debuted directly into S-tier, a genuinely rare outcome for a patch-day addition.
• Orserk and Silvegis are the two S-tier support Pals on Game8's dedicated support tier list, published July 23, 2026, specifically for Palworld 1.0.
• This guide does not rank all 287 Pals. A verified 20-pick list beats an unverified complete one.

Overview: how this list is scoped and verified

This guide was built by cross-referencing Game8's Palworld tier list database, specifically its combined "Best Pals Overall" page and its dedicated Support Pals page, both of which show clear signs of being maintained past the 1.0 launch: newer Pal entries carry July 2026 publish timestamps and, in three cases checked directly, explicit text stating the Pal "is a [Type] Pal added in Version 1.0 of Palworld."

What this guide covers: 20 individually named S-tier Pals from the combat and mount category, plus the two S-tier support Pals from a separate ranking, each with base HP, Attack, and Defense stats and a plain description of what their partner skill does in a fight or on a mount.

What it doesn't cover: base-work rankings (a separate Game8 category built around Work Suitability rather than combat stats), breeding paths for every entry, or a claim to have independently verified all 287 Pals. Conflating "good in combat" with "good at mining" is exactly the kind of mistake that makes a tier list less useful.

The verified Palworld S-tier roster, part 1: mounts and heavy hitters

These ten sit at the top of Game8's overall S-tier, weighted toward combat stats and mount utility. Base stats are listed as HP / Attack / Defense.

Several S-tier picks on this list, Eidrolon, Shaolong, and both Frostallion forms among them, are ridden flying mounts rather than ground-based fighters.

1. Knocklem and Knocklem Ignis (Ground and Fire, 105/110/135 and 105/115/135). Both share the Iron Guardian Mode partner skill: activate it and the Pal's Attack and Defense spike by up to 200 to 210 percent for a limited window. That's not a typo, and it's the biggest single-skill stat swing on this entire list.
2. Eidrolon (Dragon/Dark, 115/125/120). A flying mount whose Attack and Movement Speed climb 2 to 6 percent for every other Dragon or Dark Pal riding in your party, rewarding a themed team over a random one.
3. Eidrolon Ignis (Dragon/Fire, 115/130/120). The Fire-aligned counterpart to Eidrolon, same flying-mount utility, same per-Pal scaling bonus, built around Dragon or Fire party members instead.
4. Bellanoir (Dark, 120/150/100). The highest raw Attack stat on this list. Its Nightmare Ray attack hits for up to 2.5 times normal damage at max partner skill level.
5. Bellanoir Libero (Dark, 120/150/100). Identical stat line to Bellanoir, different signature move (Nightmare Bloom, same up-to-2.5x multiplier), effectively a stylistic variant with the same ceiling.
6. Orserk (Dragon/Electric, 120/130/115). Every bullet that lands while Orserk is in your party stacks a 1 to 5 percent Attack and Defense buff on your active Pal, up to 30 stacks. It's also the top-ranked support Pal on Game8's separate list, more on that below.
7. Blazamut Ryu (Dragon/Fire, 105/130/125). A rideable mount that boosts Dragon damage to enemy weak points by up to 40 percent for the whole party, not just itself.
8. Shaolong (Dragon/Water, 140/135/120). Confirmed new to Palworld 1.0. Highest HP on this half of the list, a flying mount whose Attack rises 4 to 8 percent per additional Dragon Pal in the party.
9. Dandilord (Grass/Dark, 125/135/110). Also confirmed new to 1.0. Its activated skill poisons enemies on the player's attacks, and passively grants poison immunity to the whole party, which matters specifically in the World Tree area's toxic gas zones.
10. Moldron (Fire/Ground, 110/125/115). A mountable Pal with an Attack bonus scaling off Fire and Ground party members, useful as an early anchor for an elemental-themed team before you unlock its Ice variant.

GODEEPER: For the full picture of what 1.0 actually added beyond the Pal roster, our Palworld review covers the new Sunreach region, the story campaign, and how the patch has held up three weeks after launch.

The verified Palworld S-tier roster, part 2: the rest of the list

The remaining ten cover Ice, Ground, and Water specialists, plus two of the highest-Defense Pals in the current game.

11. Moldron Cryst (Ice/Ground, 110/125/120). Moldron's Ice-aligned twin, same mount function, its buff instead pushes Ice damage against weak points up to 40 percent.
12. Bastigor (Ice, 140/130/120). Tied for the highest HP on the full S-tier list. Mounted, it swings an ice hammer for up to 200 percent damage, a straightforward and very hard-hitting kit.
13. Frostallion (Ice, 140/140/120). One of two Pals on this list with a 140 Attack stat. As a flying mount it converts the player's attack type to Ice, applies a stacking Freeze effect, and adds up to 40 percent Attack.
14. Frostallion Noct (Dark, 140/140/135). The highest Defense stat of any Pal on this list at 135. Functionally the Dark-aligned version of Frostallion's flying-mount kit, right down to the up-to-40-percent Attack bonus.
15. Anubis (Ground, 120/130/100). Converts the player's attack type to Ground and adds 30 to 50 percent Attack while mounted, plus an evasive sidestep that triggers automatically in combat.
16. Jormuntide Ignis (Dragon/Fire, 130/130/100). Nullifies lava damage entirely for the whole party and boosts damage against Burn-afflicted enemies up to 65 percent, which is a real quality-of-life difference in the game's volcanic zones.
17. Silvegis (Dragon, 120/110/115). The second S-tier support Pal. Reduces shield regeneration delay by up to 60 percent and cuts damage taken by your shield by up to 80 percent while mounted or in party.
18. Neptilius (Water, 105/145/125). The single highest raw Attack stat on this entire list at 145. Follows up the player's attacks with water-spear strikes and lets you leap high off open water while mounted.
19. Hartalis (Neutral, 135/130/110). Generates a barrier that blocks incoming attacks entirely while mounted, and grants a triple jump, an unusually strong defensive-utility combination for a Neutral-type Pal.
20. Felbat (Dark, 100/105/110). The lowest raw stats on this list by a clear margin, and still S-tier, because its lifesteal partner skill (5 to 9 percent of damage dealt returned as Health) sustains a fight in a way flat stat totals don't capture.

Which S-tier Pals are brand new to Palworld 1.0

Two entries above, Shaolong and Dandilord, carry explicit confirmation in their Game8 database entries: each one's page states directly that it "is a [Type] Pal added in Version 1.0 of Palworld." Both also share a July 10, 2026 publish timestamp, one day after the patch went live, which lines up with the review's already-confirmed count of 72 new Pals arriving that week.

A third confirmed 1.0 addition, Dualith Noct (Ground/Dark), landed in A-tier rather than S-tier on the same list, so it's a near-miss rather than a headline pick, but it's worth knowing about if you're specifically hunting for what's actually new versus what just got a stat bump.

A few other entries, including Knocklem Ignis, Moldron, and Moldron Cryst, share that same July 10 publish batch and the "B"-suffixed Palpedia numbering typical of elemental variants, without the explicit new-addition text. Treat Shaolong, Dandilord, and Dualith Noct as the confirmed new-in-1.0 picks, and the rest of that batch as strong candidates without the same sourcing.

A roster that grew by a third in one update didn't just add filler: two of its new additions walked straight into the top tier, a stronger signal about patch balance than either would be alone.

I'll admit checking a couple dozen individual Pal pages for one specific sentence, "is a [Type] Pal added in Version 1.0," is not a thrilling way to spend an afternoon. But it's the only way to actually separate "new this patch" from "old Pal, new coat of paint," and most tier lists making that claim right now aren't doing it.

S-Tier support Pals: Orserk and Silvegis

Combat stats only tell part of the story. Game8 runs a separate Support Pals tier list, published July 23, 2026 specifically for 1.0, and it places exactly two Pals in S-tier: Orserk and Silvegis, both of which also appear on the combat list above.

Both are called out as useful even against Hard Mode Tower Boss fights, the game's toughest scripted encounters. Orserk's stacking buff reaches its ceiling fastest when paired with the Drone Launcher weapon, instead of grinding bullet hits one at a time. Silvegis can push shield damage reduction up to 80 percent at max partner skill level, a large multiplier for any prolonged fight.

Neither Pal is flashy in a screenshot. Both are the two the game's own toughest content specifically rewards.

Step-by-Step: how to actually land an S-tier Pal on your team

Wild Pals, armed or not, spawn in specific biomes, so knowing where to look matters as much as which Pal you're after.

1. Check the Pal's listed habitat before you go looking. Wild Pals spawn in specific zones tied to their element, and chasing a Water-type S-tier pick through a desert biome wastes time you don't need to lose.
2. Weaken before you throw a Pal Sphere. Capturing, not killing, a wild Pal grants both experience and its item drops, and higher-tier spheres raise your catch odds against stronger wild Pals.
3. Bank your first-catch bonus. Palworld grants extra experience for the first 12 times you capture any given species, so catching duplicates of a Pal you already own is not wasted effort early on.
4. Breed toward a specific target if the wild spawn is too rare or too tough to solo. Palworld's Breeding Farm mixes two parent species to produce offspring that can inherit passive traits, and 1.0's 72 new additions widened which combinations are worth testing.
5. Use the Statue of Power once you've caught duplicates. Feeding spare copies of a Pal into it pushes your best copy's stats past its base ceiling, which is how a caught-early S-tier Pal stays viable into the World Tree endgame.
6. Slot the new Awakening and Mutation systems in once available. These 1.0-era systems let a Pal's stats climb further than breeding alone would get you, and they apply to older Pals as much as the 72 new ones.

GODEEPER: If base building and Pal automation is the part of Palworld you actually came for, our Outbound guide hub covers a different co-op survival-crafting loop worth comparing it against, van builds instead of a fixed base, but the same core resource-and-automation itch.

Tips for building a 1.0 team

Match element coverage to zone, not to tier alone. An S-tier Fire Pal is still a poor pick for a fight against Fire-resistant enemies. The tier list ranks raw combat and mount utility, not matchup coverage, so keep at least one flex slot for whatever the current zone's dominant enemy type actually is.

Prioritize the confirmed 1.0 additions if you're starting fresh. Shaolong and Dandilord debuting directly into S-tier is a stronger signal than most patch-day roster additions get, since Pocketpair had every incentive to keep new Pals balanced against 215 already-established ones rather than obviously overtuned.

Don't sleep on Orserk and Silvegis just because they're not visually flashy. A support Pal that's independently confirmed against Hard Mode Tower Bosses on a separate, more recently published tier list is doing real work that a pure damage-stat comparison won't show you.

Cross-check any older Palworld tier list against a July 2026 or later source before trusting it. The stat rebalance that came with 1.0 touched every pre-existing Pal, not just the 72 new ones, so a bookmark from Early Access is actively unreliable now, not just outdated.

Common mistakes players make with this tier list

Assuming "S-tier" means "best at everything." Felbat is S-tier despite having the lowest stat totals on this list, purely because its lifesteal skill sustains fights in a way raw Attack numbers don't. Tier placement here reflects the Pal's role, not a universal power ranking.

Confusing the overall combat list with the base-work list. A Pal can be S-tier for mounts and combat while being mediocre for base automation, or the reverse. This guide only covers the combat-and-mount category plus the dedicated support-Pal ranking.

Treating "new to 1.0" as automatically better. Only three Pals in this guide have explicit confirmation as new additions. The other 17 are proven quantities that got rebalanced, not replaced, and several of them (Bellanoir, Jormuntide Ignis, Anubis) have been community staples since well before July 2026.

Skipping the Statue of Power and Awakening systems entirely. A base-stat S-tier Pal caught at a low level and never condensed or awakened will eventually get outscaled by a properly built A-tier Pal. Tier lists rank potential, not a guarantee.

Related Reading

• Palworld Review: 287 Pals Later, Is the 1.0 Worth It?: The full verdict on the 1.0 patch itself, including the new Sunreach region and three weeks of post-launch stability issues.
• Voidling Bound Review: Monster Taming Meets the Abyss: A direct-control creature-taming shooter that takes a very different approach to combat than Palworld's ranged, ridden-mount style.
• Outbound Guide 2026: Van Builds, Co-op, and Biomes: A co-op survival-crafting alternative for players who want the base-automation itch without Pals attached.
• Romestead Wiki 2026: All Biomes, Gods, Raids and Co-op Guide: Another god-gated survival-building loop, useful if Palworld's combat pace isn't what you're after.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best Pals in Palworld after the 1.0 update? Anubis, Frostallion, Neptilius, Bellanoir, and Jormuntide Ignis all sit in Game8's current S-tier, alongside newer additions like Shaolong and Dandilord. This guide covers 20 verified S-tier picks, not a guess at all 287.

How many Pals are in Palworld after the 1.0 update? 287 total. The July 9, 2026 patch added 72 new Pals on top of the Early Access roster and rebalanced stats for every existing one, which is why old tier lists no longer match the current game.

Are any S-tier Pals brand new to Palworld 1.0? Yes. Shaolong and Dandilord are both confirmed new additions in Game8's database, and both rank S-tier. Dualith Noct is a confirmed new A-tier pick from the same patch.

What is the best support Pal in Palworld 1.0? Orserk and Silvegis, per Game8's dedicated support tier list published July 23, 2026. Orserk stacks attack and defense buffs on your active Pal, while Silvegis cuts shield damage taken by up to 80 percent.

Does this list rank all 287 Pals in Palworld? No, and any list claiming to confidently rank all 287 without naming a source should be treated with suspicion. This guide covers 20 verified S-tier picks plus support standouts, sourced from a live, currently maintained tier list.

How do I actually get an S-tier Pal like Anubis onto my team? Catch it with a Pal Sphere in its listed habitat, or breed toward it at a Breeding Farm using two compatible parent species. Higher-tier spheres raise your capture odds against tougher wild Pals.

Did the 1.0 update change stats for Pals that already existed? Yes. Pocketpair rebalanced stats and abilities across the entire pre-1.0 roster alongside adding the 72 new Pals, so a Pal's Early Access tier placement doesn't necessarily hold in the current build.

References

• Palworld Best Pals Tier List, Game8
• Palworld Best Support Pals Tier List 1.0, Game8
• Palworld on Steam
• r/Palworld community on Reddit