Before the Tower · Chapter 1
Tower 1: Zoe & Grizzbolt
What this fight really teaches isn't the type chart — it's how to pace damage against a five-minute clock.
| Tower boss Pal | Recommended level | HP | Element | Counter direction | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grizzbolt | Lv10 | 12,900 | Electric | Weak to Ground | Newbie area |
Most people push this door open because the main quest walked them to it, not because they were ready. Grizzbolt is level 10 with 12,900 HP, which does not sound like much — but all you are carrying is an Old Bow, a handful of arrows, and one Pal you caught minutes ago and have not fed. The difficulty here was never how strong it is. It is whether you understand that when the five minutes are up, unfinished means starting over.
Pre-fight checklist
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Recommended entry level | The site data anchor is Lv10. That's the designed recommendation, not a safety margin. The candidate table below is computed as "catchable before Lv10, learnable before Lv10". |
| Element to bring | Grizzbolt is Electric, so Ground-element skills deal extra damage. Note that this is about the skill's element, not the Pal's own — a Neutral Pal can perfectly well learn a Ground move. |
| Your own kit | Your own ranged damage matters more than your Pal's, but at this stage all you have is a bow. From this site's 1.0 technology table: Old Bow and Arrow both unlock at Lv3, Fire Arrow at Lv6, Poison Arrow at Lv8; the Musket needs Lv21 and the Handgun Lv28, so neither exists before the first tower. Do not chase bullets the way older guides tell you to — just craft a full stack of arrows. Trading hits in melee is a pure loss on a timer. |
| Supplies | Feed the team before you walk in. A hungry Pal stops fighting, and a ten-second pause inside a five-minute window is enough to leave you short. |
Counter picks you can actually catch before this tower
Computed from this site's 1.0 data: wild, dungeon and alpha catches only, with skill-learning level at or below this tower's recommended level. High power does not guarantee a win — cooldowns, durability and your own weapon tier all count.
Ground coverage
Route and anchors Human guide experience (EA walkthrough layer; 1.0 pacing not yet re-verified)
This stretch of the starter area really only asks three things of you: catch a ground mount, put points into carry weight, and stock up on arrows. Behind the Ruined Church is the main Direhowl spawn — fast, small enough not to snag on terrain, and the smoothest ride available at this point.
The Small Settlement is worth a dedicated trip. Of the four NPC types in the village, the red-coated wandering merchant sells Pal Spheres, medicine and swords, and the bounty merchant takes your subjugation proofs — almost every supply gap before the first tower can be closed here.
Pick up the Lifmunk Effigies along the way. Higher capture power means every candidate Pal after this costs you noticeably fewer spheres.
Inside the tower
The tower fight is a sealed arena on a five-minute countdown. Grizzbolt's threat is concentrated in one close-range discharge AoE — if you're hugging it when the wind-up starts, you eat the whole thing. The correct rhythm is to hold distance and run a damage loop: let your Pal absorb the aggro while you supply steady output.
Zoe herself isn't the main threat, but she will break your rhythm. Don't chase her around the arena; time spent repositioning is damage you didn't deal.
Five minutes means you need to average about 2,600 HP per minute. If you're halfway in and the health bar is falling slower than the clock, that isn't an execution problem — it's a roster problem. Backing out to swap Pals costs less time than grinding to the buzzer and starting over.
Failure diagnosis
| What you're seeing | Fix this first |
|---|---|
| Time runs out with most of the health bar left | Your damage structure is short, not your footwork. Use the candidate table to add a Pal that genuinely carries a Ground-element move, then check whether your ammunition lasts the full five minutes. |
| Your Pal goes down early | The level gap is too wide. Go back to the starter area and bring the team close to Lv10 — durability becomes the bottleneck before type advantage does. |
| The discharge move one-shots you | You're standing too close. This fight never asks you to be in its face — pull back to mid range, use a ranged weapon, and let your Pal hold the aggro. |
After the fight
Clearing Tower 1 gets you the right to continue the main story, but the more useful prize is what you just learned: on a timer, total damage comes first and elements come second. Next up is the Grass-element second tower, which swaps your direction from Ground to Fire — start keeping an eye out for Fire Pals now.
Short answer in the starter guide: what to prepare before the first tower boss
Where every claim in this chapter comes from
Item by item: which source each number and claim came from, and which evidence layer it sits in. Whatever has not been obtained is listed as a gap rather than filled in by guesswork.
| Item | Evidence layer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended level | Site 1.0 data recomputation | PalDB 1.0 tower boss page: primary source for level, HP and element |
| HP | Site 1.0 data recomputation | PalDB 1.0 tower boss page: primary source for level, HP and element |
| Element and counter direction | Site 1.0 data recomputation | This site's 1.0 Pal, spawn and skill datasite/palworld/data/pals.json、pal-details.json、pal-skills.json |
| Counter-pick table | Site 1.0 data recomputation | Build-time recomputation script for counter pickssite/palworld/lib/tower-counters.mjs |
| Weapon and armor unlock thresholds | Site 1.0 data recomputation | This site's 1.0 technology table: weapon and armor unlock levelssite/palworld/data/a10-production-core.json |
| Route and anchors | Human guide experience | Area walkthrough distillation (EA 0.6.x experience layer)site/palworld/data/walkthrough-areas.json |
| Fight mechanics and dangerous moves | Human guide experience | Boss walkthrough distillation (tactics experience layer)site/palworld/data/walkthrough-bosses.json |
| Editor's in-game witness | Not obtained | No editor in-game witness for this tower yet; the recommended level is the data anchor only |