What drains Pal sanity in Palworld?

Continuous work without rest, hunger, no beds, injuries from raids and being assigned to tasks the Pal is poorly suited for all reduce sanity over time.

What does a Hot Spring do in Palworld?

It restores sanity for Pals that use it, which is the most direct structural fix for a base whose workers are burning out.

What happens if Pal sanity hits zero?

The Pal becomes depressed and effectively stops contributing. Remove it from work, let it rest and eat, and it recovers.

Progression

How do you increase Pal sanity in Palworld?

Answer

Sanity recovers when Pals rest, eat well and use comfort structures. Build a Hot Spring, give every worker a bed, keep the feed box stocked and avoid overworking a small crew. Pals with very low sanity should be rested in the Palbox until they recover.

Sanity — the SAN value on a Pal's status screen — is the stat that decides whether your base actually produces anything. Health can be full while output is near zero.

What drains it

Continuous work with no rest
Hunger — an empty feed box drains sanity as well as health
No beds, so nothing recovers overnight
Raid damage and repeated combat at base
Bad task fit — a Pal doing work it is poorly suited for

What restores it

Hot Spring

The direct fix. A Hot Spring restores sanity for Pals that use it. On any base with more than a handful of workers it stops being optional. Build it centrally so Pals do not walk across the whole base to reach it.

Beds

One bed per assigned Pal. Under-bedding is the most common cause of a slow sanity decline that nobody notices until the base stalls.

Food

A stocked feed box with reasonable food keeps both hunger and sanity in a good place. Cooked food outperforms raw berries. The farming setup you build for Cake supplies this at the same time.

Fewer, better-matched Pals

A base with the right Pals for its jobs works faster and burns less sanity than a base crammed with mismatched ones. Work suitability for all 299 Pals is listed in our Paldex — match Mining Pals to the mining base, Handiwork and Kindling to production, Planting and Watering to the farm.

Emergency recovery

If a Pal is already depressed:

Unassign it from work.
Return it to the Palbox to rest.
Make sure food, beds and a Hot Spring exist before reassigning.
Use medical supplies for any status condition on top of low sanity — see how to heal Pals.

Base design that prevents it

Structure	Purpose
Hot Spring	Sanity recovery
Beds (one per Pal)	Night recovery
Feed box near work areas	Less walking, faster eating
Plantations + Cooking Pot	Sustainable food
Defence Pals and walls	Fewer raid injuries

Build these before expanding a base's worker count. Adding Pals to a base that cannot support the ones it has makes the problem worse, not better — see how many bases you can have for why splitting into specialised bases is usually the better move.

Why it matters for breeding

A Breeding Farm depends on a working base around it: Cake needs Wheat, Milk, Eggs, Honey and Berries, and every one of those comes from Pals doing their jobs. Sanity collapse anywhere in that chain stops egg production entirely.

Frequently asked questions

What drains Pal sanity in Palworld?: Continuous work without rest, hunger, no beds, injuries from raids and being assigned to tasks the Pal is poorly suited for all reduce sanity over time.
What does a Hot Spring do in Palworld?: It restores sanity for Pals that use it, which is the most direct structural fix for a base whose workers are burning out.
What happens if Pal sanity hits zero?: The Pal becomes depressed and effectively stops contributing. Remove it from work, let it rest and eat, and it recovers.