The Arrogant Pal Critic & Arrogant Gourmet in Palworld: 64 Trades Nobody Runs
Two NPCs in Palworld hand out Slab Fragments, Applied Handbooks, Kinship Peaches, Gold Keys and 20,000 Gold Coins in exchange for things you already own. The Arrogant Pal Critic wants to be shown particular Pals — 54 different ones. The Arrogant Gourmet wants particular dishes — ten of them. Neither asks you to fight anything, and between them they are a source for several items that are otherwise raid drops or RNG. Almost nobody runs either list.
The Arrogant Pal Critic
The Critic is a straight exchange: bring the Pal it names and take the listed items. The list is organised into nine tiers, labelled Area A1 through Area I1, which run from starter Pals to endgame ones — and the rewards scale steeply across them.
At the easy end, Area A1:
| Pal | Reward |
|---|---|
| Lifmunk | Pal Sphere ×10, Copper Key ×1 |
| Direhowl | Training Manual (S) ×3, Low Grade Medical Supplies ×3 |
| Tombat | Mega Sphere ×4, Low Quality Recovery Meds ×4 |
| Penking | Training Manual (M) ×3, Medical Supplies ×1, Gold Coin ×100 |
| Kingpaca | Advanced Technical Manual ×1, Eikthyrdeer Stew ×2, Silver Key ×1 |
| Mammorest | Speed Remedy ×1, Hyper Sphere ×10, Mammorest Steak ×1 |
At the hard end, Area I1:
| Pal | Reward |
|---|---|
| Gildane | Large Pal Soul ×6, Chromite ×15 |
| Smokie | Ultra Sphere ×9, Hexolite Quartz ×5 |
| Prunelia | Giant Pal Soul ×4, Gatling Gun Ammo ×12 |
| Nitemary | Ultimate Sphere ×7, Energy Cartridge ×6 |
| Warsect Terra | Training Manual (L) ×3, Blazamut Ryu Slab Fragment ×1, Circuit Board ×2 |
| Omascul | Training Manual (XL) ×2, Xenolord Slab Fragment ×1, Diamond ×4 |
| Celesdir | Burden Elixir ×1, Futuristic Technical Manual ×2, Gold Coin ×20,000 |
| Bastigor | Applied Handiwork Handbook I, Ancient Technical Manual ×2, Gold Coin ×20,000 |
Compare the two ends. Area A1's Lifmunk pays ten Pal Spheres; Area I1's Bastigor pays a permanent work-suitability upgrade, two Ancient Technical Manuals and twenty thousand gold. That is a two-hundred-fold jump in gold alone, so the list is worth revisiting as you progress rather than clearing once and forgetting.
The Payouts Worth Travelling For
Most of the 54 entries pay spheres, manuals and meds. These are the ones that pay something you cannot easily get elsewhere:
| Bring | Get | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Kitsun, Reptyro, Sekhmet | Bellanoir's Slab Fragment ×1 each | Raid summoning material — three separate sources |
| Warsect Terra | Blazamut Ryu Slab Fragment ×1 | The only listed non-expedition route here |
| Omascul | Xenolord Slab Fragment ×1 | Same, for the Xenolord raid |
| Kingpaca Cryst | Applied Transporting Handbook I | Permanent +1 Transporting |
| Lyleen | Applied Watering Handbook I, Gold Coin ×7,500 | Permanent +1 Watering |
| Bastigor | Applied Handiwork Handbook I, Gold Coin ×20,000 | The most valuable single trade |
| Gildane | Chromite ×15 | A fifteen-unit lump of a late material |
| Smokie | Hexolite Quartz ×5 | Endgame crafting input |
| Katress Ignis | Legendary Sphere ×5 | Top-tier capture spheres, free |
| Hangyu Cryst | Gold Key ×2 | Chest access |
| Blazamut | Starfruit ☆2 ×1, Giga Sphere ×13, Precious Pelt ×1 | Statue of Power fuel |
Three Bellanoir Slab Fragments sit on this list — from Kitsun, Reptyro and Sekhmet, all mid-tier Pals rather than endgame ones. If you are trying to assemble a Bellanoir raid and short on fragments, that is three you can collect without an expedition timer.
Four Applied Handbooks appear across the two NPCs — Transporting, Watering and Handiwork from the Critic, Kindling from the Gourmet. Each is a permanent +1 work suitability, and the Handiwork one in particular is the job that touches the most stations at your base.
The Arrogant Gourmet
The Gourmet — listed in some places as the Arrogant Foodie — works the same way with cooked food. The whole list is ten entries:
| Bring | Get |
|---|---|
| Broiled Dumud | Silver Key ×5 |
| Pancake | Giga Sphere ×18 |
| Rushoar Gyoza | Training Manual (L) ×3 |
| Fried Gloopie Balls | Kinship Peach ×1 |
| Broncherry Rib Roast | Treasure Map ×1 |
| Omelet | Training Manual (XL) ×2 |
| Reindrix Stew | Stamina Remedy ×1 |
| Grilled Lamball | Hyper Sphere ×8 |
| Salad | High Grade Medical Supplies ×1 |
| Mammorest Steak | Applied Kindling Handbook I |
The Kinship Peach for Fried Gloopie Balls is the standout. Kinship Peaches take a Pal to maximum trust in ten uses, and their usual source is a hard expedition at a 100% rate — meaning a 30-to-60-minute timer per peach. A plate of Gloopie Balls is faster than that.
The Mammorest Steak trade is the other one to prioritise, because an Applied Kindling Handbook I is a permanent +1 to the job that gates your high-tier cooking and smelting stations — and, neatly, Mammorest Steak is itself a reward from the Pal Critic for showing it a Mammorest. Show the Critic a Mammorest, take the steak, hand the steak to the Gourmet, walk away with a Legendary consumable.
Notice how ordinary the ingredients are. Pancake, Omelet, Salad, Grilled Lamball — these are early-game recipes, and they pay eighteen Giga Spheres, two Training Manual (XL) and five Silver Keys respectively. Nothing on this list requires endgame cooking.
Why These Two Are Worth Knowing
Four categories of reward here are genuinely hard to get another way:
- Slab Fragments summon raid bosses, and their normal route is the Pal Expedition Station — one expedition, 30 to 60 minutes, and a chance rather than a guarantee. Five fragment trades sit across these lists.
- Applied Handbooks are the only permanent work-suitability increase in the game, and otherwise come from raid RNG at 33.3%, one-off Ancient Ruin chests, or 300 Dog Coin apiece.
- Kinship Peach is the fastest route to maxed trust and otherwise costs an expedition slot.
- Legendary and Ultimate Spheres are the top capture tiers, handed over for showing a Katress Ignis or a Nitemary.
The catch is exactness. The Critic wants the specific Pal named — a variant will not substitute for its base form, and vice versa. The Gourmet wants the specific dish. That is why these lists go unused: there is no prompt telling you that the Kitsun in your box is worth a Slab Fragment.
The efficient way to use them is backwards. Decide what you want — fragments for a raid, a Handiwork book, a Kinship Peach — then look up which Pal or dish buys it, rather than walking the list top to bottom. Most of the 54 Critic entries are spheres and manuals you do not need.
And check the list again after every progression step. The nine tiers are gated behind the Pals you can actually catch, so an entry that was impossible at Level 30 is a five-minute detour at Level 60.
Practical tips
- 54 Pal trades and 10 dish trades, none of which require fighting anything.
- Kitsun, Reptyro and Sekhmet each pay a Bellanoir's Slab Fragment — three raid summons.
- Bastigor is the single best trade: an Applied Handiwork Handbook plus 20,000 Gold.
- Fried Gloopie Balls buy a Kinship Peach — max trust in ten uses, no expedition timer.
- Show the Critic a Mammorest for a Mammorest Steak, then trade the steak to the Gourmet for a Kindling handbook.
- Work the lists backwards — decide what you want, then look up what buys it.
Running your own Palworld 1.0 server
Both of these lists reward a world you keep coming back to rather than one you restart: the tiers unlock as you progress, and the Slab Fragments you collect are the setup for raids your group runs later. On a dedicated Palworld 1.0 server the world stays live between sessions so those fragments and trades are still there when everyone is free, and your base keeps cooking the dishes the Gourmet wants while you are offline. Full crossplay lets the whole group contribute, and one-click backups protect the run.
Conclusion
Palworld has two collector NPCs that almost nobody works through. The Arrogant Pal Critic takes 54 different Pals across nine tiers from Area A1 to I1, paying spheres and manuals at the bottom and Applied Handbooks, Slab Fragments and 20,000 Gold Coins at the top — with Bastigor the single best trade and Kitsun, Reptyro and Sekhmet each handing over a Bellanoir's Slab Fragment. The Arrogant Gourmet (also listed as the Arrogant Foodie) takes ten cooked dishes, most of them early-game recipes, and pays Silver Key ×5, Giga Sphere ×18, a Treasure Map, a Kinship Peach and an Applied Kindling Handbook I. Between them they are a non-RNG source for four things that are otherwise raid drops or expedition timers. Work the lists backwards — decide what you need, then find what buys it — and recheck them after each progression step, because the tiers open up as your roster does.
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