Palworld Weapons Guide — Subtypes, Ammo Lines and What the Numbers Actually Say

Start with the subtype split

115 weapon entries split into four subtypes, and the split is lopsided:

Ranged is the largest group at 51, so ammo planning eats more of a base than weapon choice does. Tools are second at 32 and they are not a rounding error: 8 axes, 4 pickaxes, 6 fishing rods, 5 grappling guns, 3 sphere launchers and 5 decal guns are separate entries, each with its own unlock.

Only a third of the set has a damage number — and the gaps are not random

36 of the 115 entries carry a damage value. Measured per subtype, the coverage looks like this:

That table is the most useful thing on this page, because it is backwards from what most players assume. Swords and axes are documented almost completely; guns are not. Of the 51 ranged weapons, only five report damage: Megaboost Gun 250, Core Eject Shotgun 230, Fire Bow 65, Poison Bow 65 and Three Shot Bow 40.

A damage chart built on this data will therefore always rank explosives and melee above firearms — not because firearms are weak, but because 46 of them have no number to compare at all. If you want to choose a gun, decide on ammo line, weight and reload economy. The damage column cannot help you there.

The single clearest example of why that matters: Megaboost Gun tops the ranged list at 250, and its own description says it boosts an allied Pal’s attack and defence, only “dealing damage instead” when fired at an enemy. It is a support tool wearing a gun’s stat line.

Melee is where the documented progression lives

Because 14 of the 21 melee entries carry real numbers, melee is the one place where the data can actually rank a chain:

Note the gap between Katana at 780 and Sword at 360: the jump is not gradual, it is a tier step. Note also that Beam Sword and Katana weigh the same 10 as a plain Sword, so the upgrade costs you materials, not mobility. That is the opposite of the gun tree, where heavier tiers load you down.

Every gun is its own ammo line

48 weapons consume ammo, spread across 31 ammo types. 22 of those 31 types are used by exactly one weapon.

The shared lines are few:

Everything else — Charge Rifle Ammo, Beam Launcher Ammo, Plasma Rifle Ammo, Gatling Gun Bullet, Flamethrower Fuel, Rocket Ammo, Meteorite Bullet, Laser Gatling Cartridge and the rest — feeds a single weapon.

The consequence is the most expensive mistake in a mid-game base: three guns in your bag usually means three production chains, three raw-material sinks and three inventory slots. Two guns that share an ammo line cost far less than three that do not. Handgun Ammo and Shotgun Shell cover four weapons each and are the cheapest way to stay supplied while climbing.

Weight is the second gate

113 of 115 entries report a weight, and the heavy end is concentrated:

• 50 — Gatling Gun, Plasma Multicutter
• 45 — Flamethrower
• 30 — eleven launcher and cannon entries, including Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Plasma Cannon and the four sphere/missile launchers

Light end: grenades at 0.1 each, so a stack of Frag Grenades costs almost nothing until you throw them. Bows sit between 6 (Old, Fire and Poison Bow) and 25 (Advanced Bow), with crossbows at 13 and the five-shot bows at 8. Rifles cluster at 15–20, with the heaviest shotguns at 24 and a couple of outliers at 5 (Heavy Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle).

Weight is not a tie-breaker — it is the reason a heavy loadout needs a mount before it needs a better gun.

Durability is barely documented

Only 23 of the 115 entries report a durability figure. What is there is clustered: 500 for the sword family (Beam Sword, Katana, Sword, Lily’s Spear, Primitive Sword), 400 for Boost Gun, Megaboost Gun, Pal Metal Axe and Pal Metal Pickaxe, 300 for refined metal tools, 250 for metal tools, and 850 for Plasma Multicutter. One outlier — 22222 on Legendary Meowmere — is a legendary variant stat, not a normal durability budget.

Treat any weapon with no durability entry as unknown rather than unbreakable. The field is simply absent for most of the set.

The axe and pickaxe chain is the one that pays

Tools carry the most honestly documented numbers in the whole file, and the gathering chain shows it:

Each halving of harvest time is a doubling of the damage number, and both entries in a tier share it. Four tiers across two tools is 8 of the 32 Tool entries, which is why tools dominate the subtype count without looking like weapons at all. The fishing rods (6 entries) follow a similar pattern but are built around which Pals they favour rather than a damage number.

Where to look next

• All 115 weapons, A to Z — the full reference table with each entry’s description.
• Weapons grouped by subtype — jump straight to the Ranged or Tool block.
• Weapons ranked by damage — read it with the coverage caveat above in mind.
• Weapon database — filter and sort the same dataset yourself.

How this page is sourced

Every figure here comes from the cached item data file, not from a guide someone else wrote: 115 entries, 51/32/21/11 by subtype, 36 with a damage value (14 melee, 14 tool, 3 grenade, 5 ranged), 48 ammo-consuming weapons across 31 ammo types, 113 with a weight, 23 with a durability. Where the source has no value, this page says so instead of filling the gap.

Related guides on Antewise

• all weapons
• by subtype weapons
• top attack weapons
• weapons database
• combat guide
• technology guide
• beginner guide