Everything You Need To Know About The Palworld OCG Ready For Its Release

Palworld is getting its own card game, aptly named Palworld OFFICIAL CARD GAME, that puts its Pals, battles, and base building on your tabletop.

This article was produced in collaboration with our sponsor, Bushiroad.

Pocketpair is building on the massive success of Palworld by turning its gameplay into a tabletop experience. The Palworld OFFICIAL CARD GAME’s arrival is right around the corner, releasing on July 30, 2026, and we’ve broken down everything you need to know about how to play so you’re clued up and ready to go right away.

Pocketpair has teamed up with tabletop specialists Bushiroad to create its Palworld card game, and together, they really have done a tremendous job of replicating what it feels like to play Palworld in tabletop form. You’re not just pitting Pals against one another to see who wins. The TCG’s gameplay also includes base building, and gear you can assign to your Pals, just like the video game.

Card Types And Getting Started

Five types of cards will make up your 50-card deck - Pals, Gears, Structures, Events, and Souls. Pals and Souls are the most important cards, as your Pals will be the ones leading the charge, and Souls are needed to deploy them to your base, along with Gears, Structures, and Events, into the field of play, or your Base.

Before play begins, you need to place your shuffled main deck and your soul deck into the corresponding positions on your playmat.

Each player draws five cards from their main deck. Players are allowed to mulligan (redraw) by returning all drawn 5 cards back into the deck, reshuffling, and drawing five new cards. However, each player can only mulligan once per game.

Players will then decide who will go first through a simple game like rock-paper-scissors. Whoever is going second draws one soul card and places it into the Soul Area. The player going first will start with their Soul Phase by drawing two souls and placing them into their soul area. Each turn, players will draw two additional souls, up to a maximum of ten.

That player then needs to decide how they are going to use their turn. The cards they deploy into their base depend on how many souls they have in their soul area. The number in the top left corner of each card dictates how many souls are needed for that card to be deployed. If you have a Cattiva or a Lamball, for example, one of those cards can be deployed on your first turn, as they each only need two souls to enter the fray. The used souls then need to be placed into the rest position by turning them on their side.

Putting Your Pals To Work

You then need to decide what actions the cards in your base are going to take. Sticking with Lamball, the Pal can do one of three things if it doesn’t have any gear or is attached to a structure. It can either inflict damage on a Pal or structure in the opposing base, strike the player, or remain standing to block incoming attacks from the opponent's Pals. Once an action is taken, the card must be placed in the rest position, like the used souls.

If the player chooses to attack something in the opposing player’s base, a battle begins. The power number at the bottom of the card dictates how the battle will go. The Pals will inflict that power on the opposing Pal or Structure, and that’s also how much damage they can take before suffering defeat. If Lamball faced off against Cattiva, for example, Lamball’s 300 power would mean Cattiva would be sent to the graveyard as it only has 200 power, while Lamball would be left with 100 health points but would remain at 300 power. After each turn, the Pal's health points and power will reset to their original number. Defeated cards must be moved to the graveyard.

If you choose to attack the life counter, then you need to refer to the strike number. The aim of the game is to reduce your opponent’s life counter from ten to zero, so these strikes are pivotal to scoring a victory. The opposing player must flip cards from their deck equivalent to the number of strikes dealt. If they flip a card with a lucky symbol - the colorful stars in the top right corner - then they’re safe. If not, then their life counter must be reduced by the equivalent number of strikes delivered. Quick cards can also be played from your hand when it’s not your turn in an attempt to prevent strikes or battles.

Structures, Gear, And Events

After your opponent has performed all of their actions and it’s your turn again, you must stand all your cards by removing them from the rest position, draw a card from your main deck, and add two more souls to your soul area. It’s then time to repeat the main phase, but with more souls, and potentially the chance to add structures, gears, and events to the field of play.

Once a structure has been deployed, a Pal can be assigned to it. Different structures have different abilities. For example, the Primitive Furnace allows you to draw an additional card once it has a Pal working there. Structures have durability, so they can be destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

Gear cards are potentially your most powerful tool when played strategically. Gear cards can be rested to increase your Pal's power for battles. The Single-Shot Rifle card, for example, deals 1,000 damage to an opposing Pal of your choosing as soon as it’s deployed, almost certainly sending them to the graveyard. However, it cannot be used to reduce your opponent’s life counter.

Finally, you have Event cards. Event cards allow you to perform a one-time action that lasts for the duration of the turn. They’re effectively a Hail Mary that should be saved for when you need them most. The Reckless Charge card, for example, will up a chosen Pal’s Power by 300 until the end of the turn. Perfect to play if you have a Pal that looks like it might be headed for the graveyard, or if there’s an opposing Pal or structure you need to take out but you don’t have a powerful enough card for the job.

Continue taking turns, drawing cards, adding souls, and deploying Pals, structures, and gears to your base until either you or your opponent’s life counter has been reduced to zero. That player loses the game, and the surviving player is the winner.

Trial Decks And Booster Packs

You should now be prepped and ready to play Palworld’s official card game for the first time once it arrives on July 30. It’s recommended that new players use one of the two trial decks that will be released on July 30 so they’re guaranteed to have some of every type of card they’ll need to start playing right away.

A 50-card deck can only be made up of two colors - not including colorless cards. One of the release day trial decks will be built using red and blue cards, while the other will be made up of purple and green cards. The Palworld OFFICIAL CARD GAME's first booster pack, Dawn of Palpagos, will also be available to buy on the same day so that you can start to build custom decks of your own or to simply start collecting as many Pals as you can.