If you've yet to acquire a flying mount in Palworld, then the Grappling Gun is a great way to traverse difficult terrain early on. Though it isn't great for combat since it doesn't pull Pals towards you, it does let you zoom up to the top of cliffs without having to worry about a slow climb or your rapidly depleting stamina bar.
Since this tool counts as ancient technology, you'll need to do more than simply level up in order to unlock it, but the process isn't too complicated. Here's how to unlock the Grappling Gun in Palworld, get the necessary materials to craft, plus how it works.
How to craft a Grappling Gun
To get yourself a Grappling Gun in Palworld, you're first going to need to reach level 12 and acquire some Ancient Technology Points with which to unlock the schematic in the Technology menu. You can get these defeating bosses like Zoe and Grizzbolt at the Rayne Syndicate Tower, or by defeating the Alpha Pals that are marked with icons on your map.
While the former rewards you with more Ancient Technology Points, the latter will give you the Ancient Civilization Parts you also need to make the gun.
Once researched, you can craft your Grappling Gun at either the Primitive Workbench or the Weapon Workbench for:
- Ten Paldium Fragments
- Ten Ingots
- 30 Fibre
- One Ancient Civilization part
To smelt ingots you'll need to mine ore, build the Primitive Furnace, plus acquire a Pal with kindling work suitability like Foxparks to operate it. If you defeated an Alpha Pal you should already have the Ancient Civilization Part that you need, but if not, you'll have to hunt one of those down—Chillet is an easy first Alpha Pal to fight since it's low level and located in the Windswept Hills starting area. If you find you like the gun, you can unlock and craft a Mega Grappling Gun at level 17, but you'll need more points and parts.
How to use the Grappling Gun
The Grappling Gun functions like any other in Palworld; you aim and fire with left and right mouse trigger, but instead of bullets, it launches a zipline that'll pull you towards where you shot. As mentioned, it won't work on Pals at all, so it's primarily intended as a tool to help you get up cliffs before you acquire a flying Palworld mount.
I'd suggest pairing it with a parachute since sometimes you won't stick to the cliff and start climbing, so having a glider helps you drift into it instead of just falling to your death. If you jump off cliffs, you can also kind of use the Grappling Gun to swing, though experiment with this at your own peril, since it's definitely more dangerous than slowing your fall with a parachute.
