With Palworld's best gold-farming tool nerfed into the ground, players are making torture devices instead

Palworld
(Image credit: Pocketpair)

With their gold supplies drying up, Palworld players are turning to the Black Marketeer for help, but not in the way you might think.

Palworld's latest patch fixed a plethora of bugs and introduces various balance changes to Pocketpair's hugely popular survival game. Much to the disappointment of many, the patch also nerfed the most effective gold farming method, crafting and selling nails, and with that gone, players are resorting to other means to amass their fortunes, including torturing and killing the Black Marketeer.

As demonstrated by user DaybitZ on the Palworld subreddit, this involves crafting a hanging trap and placing it near the unsuspecting merchant to catch him. With the poor fellow helplessly swinging around, you then build a campfire below him to have him catch on fire. With his health bar depleted, he'll drop Golden Keys and upwards of 10,000 Gold. The Black Markeeter respawns, so you can get infinite gold supplies using this method, provided you can live with this on your conscience, that is.

With nails nerfed, I guess the black marketeer is the way to make gold. from r/Palworld

Some in the comments clearly don't seem to mind: "I found a second Black Marketeer, and I do the same to him," said one player. Another player, a step ahead in the murder market, says this has "always been my strategy."

Getting rich in Palworld doesn't mean you have to resort to murder, though, as others in the comments point out. (But really, where's the fun in not-murder?) You could run your own berry farm, spending your days planting, watering, and gathering those tiny edible fruits to make Baked Berries. 

Alternatively, you could round up a few Sibelyx's and make High Quality Cloth which fetches a handsome sum. You could also make salad or pizza, or as one Palworld player did, make a million gold from a honey farm by running the game continuously for some 900 hours.

You'll find plenty more survival, crafting, and creature catching in our guide to games like Palworld.

Anne-Marie Ostler
Freelance Writer

Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.

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