There are twelve work suitabilities a Pal can have, and the level next to each one is either a hard gate (resource nodes) or a speed multiplier (structures). Get the gates right first — a coal base staffed at Mining Lv2 produces exactly nothing.
Handiwork and Transporting are the two jobs every base needs. Ore needs Mining Lv2; Coal and Pure Quartz need Mining Lv3. Plantations need Planting, Watering and Gathering. Find a Pal for any job with the Work Suitability Finder.
Verified on patch 1.0.3 (12 August 2026).
All 12 jobs, and what each one really covers
| Suitability | What it does | Typical structures |
|---|---|---|
| Kindling | Generates fire to run heat-based facilities | Campfire, Cooking Pot, Furnace, Heater |
| Watering | Irrigates crops and runs water-powered structures | Plantations, Crusher, Mill |
| Planting | Sows seeds, starting the crop cycle | Berry, Wheat and other Plantations |
| Generating Electricity | Produces power for electrical infrastructure | Generators and anything that needs power |
| Handiwork | Crafting, construction and repairs | Every workbench, plus building anything you place |
| Gathering | Harvests ripe crops and collects field items | Plantations |
| Lumbering | Chops trees and works logging sites | Logging Site |
| Mining | Extracts stone and minerals from nodes | Stone Pit, ore/coal/quartz/sulfur nodes, Coal Quarry |
| Medicine Production | Crafts medical items | Medieval Medicine Workbench and successors |
| Cooling | Runs cooling facilities and preserves food | Cooler, refrigeration, Egg Incubator temperature control |
| Transporting | Moves items from workstations and the ground into containers | All chests |
| Farming | Produces a fixed item per species when assigned to a Ranch | Ranch |
Oil Extraction exists in the game's work-suitability table but is not present on any Pal in the roster. If a tool or spreadsheet shows thirteen columns, that is why the last one is always empty — Crude Oil comes from oil rigs and pumps, not from a worker.
Which levels are hard gates
These are the thresholds where a Pal below the number does nothing at all, rather than working slowly.
| Target | Suitability | Minimum level |
|---|---|---|
| Ore node | Mining | 2 |
| Sulfur node | Mining | 2 |
| Coal node | Mining | 3 |
| Pure Quartz node | Mining | 3 |
| Coal Quarry structure | Mining | 1 |
Note the trap in the last row: the Coal Quarry accepts a Mining Lv1 worker, but its workload is enormous, so level still decides whether it produces usefully. Gates and multipliers are not the same thing.
Which jobs matter most
| Tier | Jobs | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Essential in every base | Handiwork, Transporting | Handiwork builds and crafts everything; Transporting is the only thing that empties workbenches into chests |
| Essential per base type | Mining, Kindling, Lumbering | Ore/coal bases and every furnace stall without them |
| The plantation trio | Planting, Watering, Gathering | All three are required for a field to actually yield; missing Gathering is the classic failure |
| Situational | Generating Electricity, Cooling, Medicine Production | Needed once you unlock powered structures, incubators and medicine benches |
| Passive income | Farming | A Ranch produces without input and restores the Pal's Sanity while it grazes |
The highest-level Pal for every job
Taken from per-suitability tables, verified August 2026. These are the ceiling, not a requirement — most bases run fine on level 3–4 workers.
| Job | Top Pal(s) | Lv | Level 9 alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kindling | Renjishi, Jormuntide Ignis | 10 | Flaracle, Dupin, Eidrolon Ignis, Faleris, Suzaku |
| Watering | Shaolong | 10 | Jormuntide, Neptilius |
| Planting | Dandilord | 10 | Lyleen, Broncherry |
| Generating Electricity | Orserk | 10 | Solmora Lux, Azurmane |
| Handiwork | Selyne | 9 | Level 8: Anubis, Sekhmet, Solenne, Venusa, Renjishi, Dandilord |
| Gathering | Jetragon | 10 | Starryon, Omascul, Gildane |
| Lumbering | Celesdir Noct, Silvegis | 10 | Celesdir, Hartalis, Paladius, Necromus |
| Mining | Tetroise Primo | 10 | Knocklem, Knocklem Ignis, Menasting Terra, Pierdon |
| Medicine Production | Silvance | 10 | Lyleen Noct, Bellanoir Libero |
| Cooling | Bastigor, Frostallion | 10 | Univolt Cryst, Pierdon Cryst, Whalaska, Whalaska Ignis |
| Transporting | Eidrolon | 10 | Knocklem, Knocklem Ignis |
| Farming | Published tables list which Pals have Farming but not their levels; pick by the item produced instead — see ranch drops | ||
One work suitability reference says levels "typically naturally range from 1 to 8" with 10 achievable. Another set of 1.0 tables lists Pals at 9 and 10 natively. We report the data-side numbers and flag the conflicting wording rather than silently picking one.
Early-game picks that are actually catchable
The level 10 Pals above are late-game captures. Before that, aim for anything with Handiwork 3+ and one dedicated Transporting body, then upgrade job by job as your Paldeck fills.
Work speed: everything that multiplies output
| Lever | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Suitability level | Speed multiplier at structures | The biggest single factor; a Lv10 replaces several low-level workers |
| Pal Labor Research Laboratory | Up to +50% per work type across 6 ranks | 10 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 10 / 10; costs materials, Ancient Pal Manuscripts and millions of gold |
| Food buffs | Work speed increase while active | Confirmed, but exact values vary by dish |
| Passive skills | Work speed modifiers, positive and negative | See the passive skills guide |
| Pal Essence Condenser at max rank | +1 to every work suitability the Pal has | Can push a Lv3 miner to Lv4 and over a gate |
| Sanity | Low SAN means slacking and sleeping | Effectively a large negative multiplier |
Maxing the Condenser adds +1 to all of a Pal's work suitabilities. That turns a Mining Lv2 Pal into a Lv3 one — the difference between ignoring coal and mining it. It is often cheaper than hunting a rarer species.
Sanity, and why a good worker suddenly stops
| Drains SAN | Restores SAN |
|---|---|
| Forced work, e.g. via a Monitoring Stand | Hot Spring or High Quality Hot Spring within reach |
| Hunger or starvation | A stocked Feed Box the Pal can path to |
| Nowhere to sleep | One Pal Bed per worker |
| Prolonged overwork | Grazing in a Ranch (Farming Pals), or feeding from the command menu |
Sustained low Sanity applies a Depression debuff on top of the slacking. No numeric thresholds or recovery rates are published by primary sources, so this guide states none.
How to use this in practice
- List the structures at each base, then list the suitabilities they need — staff to that list, not to a tier list.
- Check every mining base against the gate table above before blaming pathing.
- Use the Work Suitability Finder to find every Pal at a given job and level, then the automation guide for where to put them.