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Needs review: This page has not yet been re-verified against Palworld 1.0. Steps, paths and tool versions may need adjusting. Palworld 1.0 vs early access.

DataTable Modding Without Unreal Engine

Most of Palworld’s tunable values - Pal parameters, item definitions, drop rates, recipes, spawns - live in DataTables inside cooked .uasset files. You do not need Unreal Engine to change them: you can unpack the game’s data, edit the table directly in UAssetGUI, and repack the result as a mod.

This page is the community’s orientation to that workflow. The full, maintained step-by-step lives on the official modding wiki (linked in Credits); read it alongside this page.

The workflow at a glance

Section titled “The workflow at a glance”
  1. Extract the game’s data. Unpack the relevant .pak/container with repak, or browse and export in FModel, to get the cooked .uasset (+ .uexp) that holds the table you want.
  2. Open it in UAssetGUI. You need the correct mappings file (.usmap) for your game build so UAssetGUI can interpret the cooked data. Load the .usmap, then open the .uasset.
  3. Find the DataTable and edit rows. Navigate to the table export, edit the cell values (or add a new row by cloning an existing one and changing its row name and fields).
  4. Save, then repack. Save the .uasset from UAssetGUI, place it under the correct mod path, and pack it into a _P mod .pak - see Packaging & Pak Pipeline.
  5. Test in game and check the value actually changed.

Notes & gotchas from the community

Section titled “Notes & gotchas from the community”
  • Match the mappings to your build. The single most common failure is using a .usmap from a different game version - UAssetGUI then misreads the asset. Regenerate or re-download mappings for your current build. See Palworld 1.0 vs early access.
  • Clone, don’t hand-type, new rows. When adding a row, duplicate an existing one so every field and type is present, then change only what you need. Missing or mistyped fields are a frequent cause of the table failing to load.
  • Keep .uasset and .uexp together. Cooked assets are split across paired files; move and pack them as a pair.
  • A raw DataTable edit ships the whole table. If you only want to tweak a few values and play well with other mods, consider PalSchema, which patches data from JSON instead of shipping a full cooked table (fewer conflicts).

When to use this vs PalSchema

Section titled “When to use this vs PalSchema”
Use a raw DataTable edit when…Use PalSchema when…
You are comfortable in UAssetGUI and want direct controlYou prefer editing readable JSON
You are changing structural things a schema patch can’t expressYou are tweaking values and want to minimise mod conflicts
You are learning how the cooked data is actually laid outYou want your change to survive small game updates more easily

Credits

Section titled “Credits”

  • Guide shared by Guillotine, catering to complete beginners, bringing you to a working understanding of UAssetGUI for DataTables, blueprints and more.

    Source: Guillotine - original message

  • Canonical step-by-step: the With UAssetGUI category on the official Palworld Modding Wiki, which is kept up to date for the current game build.