Palworld, the “Pokémon with Guns” Game, Already Has a Mod that Adds Real Pokémon

Palworld, the new survival game with Pokémon-like creatures and a wide array of firearms for both trainers and “Pals” alike, is a surprise hit. It’s sold over 5 million copies in less than a week, which is an astonishing number for something widely written off as a meme game with the dismissive nickname “Pokémon with guns.” What’s not astonishing is that it only took three days for modders to make that turn that nickname into a reality. It’s now able to mod the characters in Palworld to replace them with actual Pokémon characters. 

The mod’s trailer, shared on TikTok and Twitter by its creator Toasted Shoes, reveals that Palworld‘s main character has been replaced with Ash Ketchum, who we all know as the former protagonist from the Pokémon anime. You play as Ash and have Pikachu help you fortify your stronghold, with Brock and Misty as companions, and even fighting Jessie from Team Rocket as one of the earlier bosses. Toasted Shoes promises a longer look at the mod in a YouTube video on Jan. 23.

Palworld already has a Pokemon mod

Full video on my YouTube tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/X1ohT6mJiT

— Toasted (@ToastedShoes) January 22, 2024

As discourse surrounding the game ravages, the common word being thrown around is “lawsuit”—as in many are expecting Palworld to be hit with a lawsuit by the suits over at Nintendo. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. However, this isn’t the first time Pokémon have been modded into a big survival game. Back in 2017, the aforementioned Ark: Survival Evolved received a mod from the developer Mystic Academy called Pokémon Evolved. Mystic Academy was greeted with a DMCA notice, but contrary to what you may think it was not issued by Nintendo or The Pokémon Company. Another modder, working on their own Pokémon mod for Ark, filed the DMCA notice. Since then the notice has been lifted, and Pokémon Evolved is still up for download on the Steam Workshop to this day. It’s important to mention this because Nintendo never actually got involved. Only time will tell what the future holds for Palworld, with or without Pikachu. Just don’t shoot Psyduck, please: he has it rough enough as it is.