Palia Focus Mechanic Explained, Leveling, Rewards And More

For players who have just started their in-game journey or are playing on their preferred platform, Palia features plenty of unique features and mechanics that add to the overall gameplay experience. As they'll be putting in plenty of hours into building their dream home or completing quests, much time will also be spent on leveling their Skills, which is where Focus comes into play.

Leveling up Skills requires plenty of time using them to earn Skill Points, which can be achieved faster and more efficiently using the Focus mechanic. Players unsure what Focus entails can continue reading this explainer guide, which unpacks how Focus works, how to level it up, and if there are rewards to be earned in Palia.

Palia Focus Mechanic Explained: How Does It Work?

In plain terms, Focus is an in-game mechanic critical to players' experience (XP) accumulated in-game. This is represented by a Focus Bar on the screen in the top left corner below their player name and will inform players of how much Focus they currently have.

Players can fill their Focus Bar mainly by consuming food, like items acquired through foraging, harvested crops, and prepared dishes. The latter can be obtained by purchasing recipes from Reth's Cooking Guild Store, given as rewards for completing quests and tasks or discovering them in the open-world environment.

Each food item, crop, and dish will grant players Focus Points, which differ from each other when hovering over them within the Backpack Inventory, Storage Chest, and the Cooking Guild Store. After consuming them, the Focus Bar will fill up, and when it's at max, players can receive a Focus Bonus for any XP earned after completing a quest or task.

However, when the Focus Bar has been depleted, don't worry, as the player won't pass out or die; the bar will remain empty until they've eaten. Similarly, when the Focus Bar is depleted, this usually occurs when doing Skill-based tasks such as fishing, gardening, and mining, which will prevent players from gaining a Focus Bonus.

This is vital when leveling up their Skills, so players must keep their Focus Bar mostly filled when acquiring Skill Points. This, in turn, helps to level those Skills up and make various items available from their respective Guild Stores.

How To Level Up Focus In Palia?

Players cannot level up their Focus similarly to their Skills; however, they can increase their Max Focus, and the Focus Bonus percentage gained when using their Skills. This can be achieved using Renown, one of the in-game currencies earned from leveling Skills, fulfilling players' requests, and completing quests and achievements.

Renown can be used to increase the Max Focus, the amount of Focus required to fill up their Focus Bar, and the Focus Bonus, the amount of Focus received from eating, and the percentage of Focus gained from Skills. When starting in Palia, players will have their Max Focus set to 200 and the Focus Bonus set to 20%; in other words, players will gain 20% XP from Skills.

Increasing the Max Focus can be done when visiting the Dragon Shrine at Maji's Hollow, east of their Housing Plot. The Max Focus limit is currently set to 1,000, in which they'll spend 100 Renown for every 50 Focus gained before gaining 25 Focus after the Max Focus is at 500 Focus and finally gain 10 Focus after reaching 750 Focus.

Increasing the Focus Bonus percentage can be done by finding the Phoenix Shrine located at Phoenix Falls, the starting location of all players' journeys in Palia. Similarly, it will also cost players 100 Renown to increase it, starting with 100 Renown for a 5% bonus earned before gaining a 2.5% bonus after hitting 50% Focus Bonus and then gaining a 1% bonus after reaching 75% Focus Bonus.

What Rewards Can Be Earned For Focus In Palia?

Technically, you can be rewarded for gaining Focus and not leveling it up, which may be valuable to a certain degree. There's an Accomplishment or in-game Achievement series called Focus Check, which rewards players when they reach certain milestones when gaining Focus.

According to its in-game descriptions, Focus Check I, II, III, IV, and V have objectives that must be met as players can earn them when gaining Focus from eating foods. Players will receive Renown as a reward, which could be used to increase their Max Focus and Focus Bonus or for other uses like purchasing Writs at City Hall.

Let's look at all the objectives and rewards for the Focus Check Accomplishment series in Palia:

• Focus Check I: Gained 1,000 Focus after eating food
  • Reward: Five Renown
• Focus Check II: Gained 5,000 Focus after eating food
  • Reward: 15 Renown
• Focus Check III: Gained 50,000 Focus after eating food
  • Reward: 30 Renown
• Focus Check IV: Gained 500,000 Focus after eating food
  • Reward: 60 Renown
• Focus Check V: Gained 1,000,000 Focus after eating food
  • Reward: 100 Renown

Finally, prioritizing which Focus attribute to increase will differ based on playstyle, but its effects will be realized much later in the game. Increasing the Max Focus first will ensure players have a max Focus Bar for a longer duration, and increasing the Focus Bonus first will increase the XP gained exponentially but will come at the cost of it depleting much quicker.

It's up to the players to decide what's more manageable to sustain, whether it be Max Focus or Focus Bonus, and be prepared to have some food on hand when it starts to get low. We have explained in our guide some of the best food that significantly increases their Focus Bar, with details on acquiring the recipes to ensure that their Focus Bar remains full and so too are their bellies.

Palia is currently available via the Epic Games Store and in Open Beta for PC, as players can install the game launcher detailed in this guide. The game is now available to download for Nintendo Switch as of 14th December 2023.