Palworld 1.1 Update Guide: What Pocketpair Confirmed (And Ruled Out) & How to Plan Your Base Now (2026)

You’ve spent the last two weeks putting off a base redesign. The logic was airtight at the time: 1.1 is coming, and maybe it ships automated crafting. Maybe it adds a new island. Maybe the level cap finally jumps to 80. So you left your storage in a mess, kept dumping materials into a dozen mismatched chests, and told yourself you’d reorganize when the update landed.

Then August 13, 2026 happened.

Pocketpair posted a photo of a whiteboard that read “Palworld v1.1 Brainstorming Session,” and John “Bucky” Buckley — the studio’s head of publishing and communications — spent the next week on X doing something unusual: listing what the update will not include. He asked for ideas, collected somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 replies, and then started crossing things off. No new continent. No level cap bump. No new Pals. No bigger base.

That’s the useful part, and most players missed it.

Everyone is treating 1.1 like a feature announcement they can plan around. It isn’t. It’s a brainstorming session, and the only hard information we have is the list of things Pocketpair ruled out. That list is a plan. This guide walks you through what’s confirmed, what’s excluded, and — most importantly — what you should do with your base and your resources right now, while you wait.

You Scrolled 2,000 Replies Looking for a Feature List — You Won’t Find One

The scene: you open X on August 13 and see Buckley’s post. The replies are a flood. Someone asks for a new island. Someone asks for a full Pal variant system. Someone asks for automated factories. You scroll, looking for the reply where Buckley confirms something.

There isn’t one.

Here’s the honest read of what actually happened. On August 13, Pocketpair confirmed that planning for v1.1 had started. That’s it. No release date. No patch notes. No confirmed feature list. Buckley opened the floor for community ideas, and then answered the biggest ones by ruling things out rather than confirming anything in.

The reasons he gave matter more than the features. Buckley said the team does not want to spend a year building a massive update. After 1.0 launched on July 10, 2026 — bringing 72 Pals, the Sunreach region, and the World Tree — the goal is a tighter, faster cadence, not another year-long content drop. Palworld has reportedly pulled in around $700 million in revenue, and the studio’s attention is split: a Palworld Online mobile game is already in development. A slow, sprawling 1.1 doesn’t fit that picture.

For context, the two patches since launch were both small and surgical. 1.0.1 was bug fixes. 1.0.3 reworked the Stat Fruit economy and moved Jetragon down to Level 70 — a balance patch, not a content drop. If you haven’t caught up on those, our 1.0.3 update guide covers both of the changes you’re still playing on today. The pattern is clear: Pocketpair is shipping small, targeted fixes right now, and 1.1 is being scoped the same way.

So if you were waiting to make base decisions until 1.1 delivered something concrete, stop. You’re waiting on a document that doesn’t exist yet.

The Ruled-Out List Is the Useful List

This is counterintuitive, so slow down here.

A list of things a game will not add feels like anti-news. It reads like a developer saying no. But for planning purposes, a confirmed exclusion is worth more than ten “we’re open to ideas.” A “maybe” tells you nothing — you can’t build a base around a maybe. A hard “no” tells you exactly what to stop preparing for.

Think about it this way. If Pocketpair had said “1.1 might add automation,” you’d still have to guess. You’d hedge. You’d keep a corner of your base empty, hold off on the production layout, maybe leave that third base slot open just in case. But when Buckley says “automation is not planned for 1.1,” the decision makes itself: build the best automation the current version supports, with the tools in the game right now, because nothing better is coming in this patch.

The exclusion list is the only part of this announcement with decision-making power. Everything else is a suggestion that might never ship.

What 1.1 Won’t Add: The Full Exclusion List

Buckley confirmed these are not in the plan for 1.1:

• A new continent, island, region, or biome. No new map space. If you’ve been holding a base slot open in case a new zone drops, free it up now.
• A level cap increase. No +10 or +20 levels. The game stays at the current cap, so your 70–80 progression, the Jetragon unlock, and your Ancient Technology Points are all unchanged.
• New Pals or Pal variants. This is the big one for collectors. Buckley’s reasoning is blunt: the game already has 200+ Pals, and building a full variant system for them would take over a year. It’s not happening in 1.1.
• A bigger base. No larger base radius. The maximum structure count and the circle you build in now are what you get.
• Automated manufacturing. No hands-off factories or assembly systems beyond what already exists. The current base building and automation tools are the ceiling for now.
• New Tower Boss interactions. The existing Tower Bosses aren’t getting new mechanics in this patch.

Here’s the same list as a table, with the action each exclusion unlocks for you:

That table is your to-do list in negative space. Every “no” tells you to stop waiting and start building with what’s real.

The “Wait for Automation” Failure

Here’s a failure I watched a lot of players walk into over the last week, and it’s worth spelling out because it’s so easy to repeat.

The mistake: You put your base on hold because “1.1 might add automation.” You didn’t expand your production line. You didn’t clean up your storage. You left your third base slot empty in case a new island appeared. You told yourself it was efficiency.

The actual reason it backfires: Every one of those assumptions was already ruled out, publicly, on day one of the announcement. Automation isn’t coming in 1.1. A new island isn’t coming in 1.1. So the “waiting” wasn’t efficiency — it was lost play time. Every hour you spent in a half-built base was an hour you could have been producing spheres, ingots, and bred Pals.

The recovery: Decide now, with the current rules. Build the best production line the current version supports. Use your third base. Clean your chests. If you need the layout, the base building guide walks through the three-base strategy, Pal assignment, and the compact-layout principles that’ll matter even more if 1.1 shrinks the big facilities. The update, when it arrives, is shaping up to be quality-of-life work — which rewards a base that’s already running, not one that’s been frozen in place.

Decision Framework: Build, Hoard, or Wait Right Now

So what do you actually do today? Here’s the if-then framework I’d hand a friend, based entirely on what’s confirmed.

If you’ve been saving a base slot for a new zone → build it out now. There’s no new island coming in 1.1. Turn that empty slot into a mining outpost, a breeding farm, or an oil rig. The resources and materials guide covers what each specialist base should farm.

If you’ve been holding off on leveling because “the cap might rise” → stop holding. The cap isn’t moving in 1.1. Push your current progression as far as it goes, and spend your Ancient Technology Points without hoarding them for a hypothetical future. The technology and progression guide shows you how to budget them.

If you’ve been waiting to breed or build with new Pals → don’t. Variants and new species aren’t in this update. Breed from the roster you have, with the passives you can already get.

If your base is cramped and you’re hoping for more room → the room isn’t coming. Learn to build compact. Shrink your footprint, tighten your layout, and free space by cutting redundant structures.

If your storage is a disaster and you’re waiting for a better system → this is the one place where a small hedge is reasonable. A better storage system with search and filtering is on the “maybe” list for 1.1. But “maybe” is not “confirmed.” Don’t leave your chests a mess waiting for it. Organize what you have now. If 1.1 ships a storage rework, a base that’s already sorted will absorb it cleanly. If it doesn’t, you’re still better off today.

What the “Maybe” List Means for Your Base

Now the positive side, with the honesty it deserves. Buckley framed 1.1 around quality-of-life and balance — smaller, tighter improvements instead of big content. The specific ideas floating around are still just ideas. None are confirmed. Here’s what’s on the table, and how to prep for each without betting your base on it.

Shrinking large facilities. The Assembly Line and the Pal Expedition station are huge, and players have asked Pocketpair to shrink their footprints so bases have more usable room. If this ships, it’s a pure win for compact building. Until it does, don’t tear your base apart — but you can future-proof by keeping your biggest structures near the edge of your base circle, so a smaller replacement is easy to slot in later.

Better storage and Palbox management. Search, filters, better organization. Again: unconfirmed. The best prep is to sort your chests now and label them by type — ore, wood, food, spheres, breeding stock. A storage rework doesn’t help a base whose items are already scattered across twelve identical chests. If you want a head start on the Palbox side, our Pal management guide covers the current organization tools.

Balance tweaks and possible decoration. Vague, but harmless. Balance changes might shift which Pals are worth breeding, and decorations are cosmetic. Don’t over-plan around either.

The through-line: every one of these “maybes” rewards a base that’s already clean, compact, and running. None of them reward waiting.

The Bottom Line

Palworld 1.1 is a brainstorming session, not a patch. The only hard facts are the exclusions: no new island, no level cap bump, no new Pals, no bigger base, no automation, no new Tower Boss mechanics. That’s it. Everything else is a “we’re open to ideas.”

Here’s what to do with that:

1. Stop waiting. The features you were hedging for are already ruled out. Build now, with the current rules.
2. Use all three base slots. No new zone is coming, so stop saving room for one.
3. Keep leveling and spending Ancient Technology Points. The cap isn’t moving.
4. Breed and build with the Pals you have. No variants or new species are coming in 1.1.
5. Sort your storage and build compact. The possible 1.1 changes — shrinking facilities, better storage — reward a base that’s already tidy.

The one trap to avoid is the “wait for the big update” mindset. Buckley was explicit: the team doesn’t want to spend a year on 1.1. The update is shaping up to be small, tight, and quality-of-life focused. That’s not a reason to freeze your game. It’s a reason to play it now.

Related Guides

• Palworld 1.0.3 Update Guide — the last real patch, and the changes you’re still playing on
• Palworld Base Building Guide — the three-base strategy and compact layouts
• Palworld Resources & Materials Guide — what each specialist base should farm
• Palworld Technology & Progression Guide — budgeting your Ancient Technology Points
• Palworld Pal Management Guide — Palbox organization and assignment
• Palworld Base Defense Guide — keeping your compact base alive through raids