Why Palworld Apologized For Fixing A Major Glitch

"Palworld" hasn't quite maintained the hype from when the game first debuted in January, but it still has a large and dedicated player base. That's because the game has proven itself to be so much more than "'Pokemon' with guns," and developer Pocketpair has plans to support it for a long time to come. On February 26, the developer dropped its latest patch, which addressed a slew of bugs affecting everything from Pal behavior to save data. It also undid an extremely popular glitch, prompting an outright apology from the developer. Usually patches get backlash for bringing new glitches into a game. It's not often that game developers ask for forgiveness after actually solving an issue, but if you've been enjoying this particular weird "Palworld" exploit, then it makes a good bit of sense. 

The new patch was fairly substantial, and some of the fixes included in it seemed to have actually slipped past the development team. Just hours after unveiling patch v0.1.5.0, Pocketpair took to Palword's social media channels to apologize for a fix that it hadn't even listed in the patch notes. While addressing other issues in the game, Pocketpair unintentionally fixed a genuinely fun glitch that was allowing players to capture tower bosses and add them to their team. Players naturally weren't thrilled by this change, and they let their opinions on it be heard. 

Before the patch, players had figured out an incredibly convoluted way to get their hands on tower bosses. The glitch involved triggering a wanted level and fast-traveling to the targeted boss, then entering the arena to essentially break the game, causing the boss to freeze up as Palpagos Island Defense Force members flood into the fight. At that point, players could capture the boss with a regular Pal Sphere. From there, all that was required was for the player to return to the title screen and reload the game, ditching that pesky wanted status while holding onto a newly-acquired Pal (and their owner). Pocketpair's apology makes it clear that the team didn't intend to erase this glitch with the latest patch, but anyone familiar with game development knows that patches always bring along unintended side-effects.

As a result of various bugs that we fixed in the most recent patch, a bug that allowed players to capture the tower boss was unintentionally fixed.

We apologize for inadvertently fixing a bug.

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) February 27, 2024

Some players were quick to call for Pocketpair to officially add the capture of tower bosses into the game. This is likely going to become an even more popular opinion as time goes on, because some people are learning about this glitch for the first time — now that it's too late to try it out for themselves. Others interpreted the tone of Pocketpair's apology to mean that the developer might actually have future plans this particular "bug."

am I reading this right? you didn’t mind us catching the tower bosses? 👀

— g lux (@gluxiv) February 27, 2024

And some, naturally, took this as an opportunity to voice their frustrations about other problems with the game, like an issue with auto saves on Xbox and Game Pass copies of the game that Pocketpair has said it hopes to address in its next patch.

I just wish yall would fix the bug that prevents my world from saving I can't play anymore 💀

— Jacobtk15 (@jacobthomasken2) February 27, 2024

Pocketpair might not have fixed this bug on purpose, but the developer is probably just fine with it being removed from the game for now. Tower bosses are supposed to be seen as monumental threats, and players who captured them were able to breeze past content that otherwise would have been more challenging. Plus, the company has already unveiled plans for adding PVP to the game, and it's easy to see how players having tower bosses in their arsenal might skew the balance in a Pal arena.

That said, Pocketpair has also shown itself to be very responsive to player feedback. It's entirely possible that sometime down the road we'll see this bug restored to the game, albeit with some supporting systems to keep it from completely breaking the game's balance. For now, players can rest assured that it's only a matter of time before someone else finds an amazing in-game exploit like this one.