Can you drown in Palworld?

Exploring and navigating the environment in Palworld can be thrilling because there are new resources to find and pals to beat or capture. However, there are times when you need to swim to specific areas or cross rivers, and you may be wondering if drowning is a possibility.

Just about any game that has a swimming feature these days also has an “oxygen” meter or something of the sort to prevent you from swimming everywhere. Let’s look at Palworld’s take on swimming and whether you can drown.

Can you drown in Palworld?

Yes, you can drown in Palworld, and it’s pretty easy to do if you don’t monitor your stamina gauge. Just like running, fighting, and mining for resources, swimming depletes your stamina gauge.

However, how fast it depletes depends on whether you’re swimming leisurely or fast, and by this, I mean using the sprint button or toggle in the water. Even idling in the water can deplete your stamina gauge.

Once your stamina gauge runs out, your character will perish, and you’ll have to respawn and collect your belongings. It’s not ideal and can lead to venturing into tricky situations without the proper clothing. So, if you can, it’s best to avoid drowning; thankfully, there are ways to do this.

How to avoid drowning in Palworld

Although you can’t stop yourself from drowning in Palword once your stamina gauge runs out, there are steps you can take to ensure you avoid drowning, and they include the following:

1. Avoid swimming across lakes or rivers unless necessary. The best way to avoid drowning is to minimize your time in the water.
2. Stick close to land. If you’re exploring the waters to find parcels of land with eggs or treasure, it’s best to stay within range of land. That way, if your stamina gauge turns orange, you can climb out of the water, recover your stamina, and then hop back in and continue your journey.
3. Avoid “sprinting” in water. Sprinting consumes your stamina pretty quickly, and if you’re trying to traverse a vast lake or river, you can drown before reaching the other side. But there is no harm in sprinting across small ponds unless you get stuck or idle for too long.
4. Idle on land, not in water. Whether you’re basking in the sunset or waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting pal (or escape from one), it’s best not to idle in water for too long because it can slowly deplete your stamina.
5. Increase your stamina stat. While health, weight, and attack might be the more popular stat options, you should also consider increasing your stamina stat because it means you can swim, mine, log, and fight for longer. It’s a versatile stat that helps make exploration and farming much easier.

One of my favorite activities in games is to explore. I will jump off that high cliff to see if I get fall damage and explore every nook and cranny to find treasures or hidden places. However, while exploring, I found myself in a cavern beneath a mountain, with no way out, and all of my escape efforts resulted in my character falling off a wall and drowning.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get back into this cavern to get my loot because that would mean there’d be no way to get out, which meant I had to re-craft everything—it was horrible. While I would never tell you not to explore because that’s the best part of discovering new lands, I would say that you need to be careful while exploring and swimming because drowning is a real pain.

So, be careful, have fun exploring, and avoid drowning. Or, at the very least, avoid drowning in remote, hard-to-get-to underground mountainous caverns.