[Guten] Early Water Building

After subscribing, enable the mod in-game under Options → Mod Management (Palworld mod support is opt-in).

MULTIPLAYER

SERVER + CLIENT MOD — install on the host/server AND every player LINUX DEDICATED SERVERS: NOT SUPPORTED. This mod changes game data through PalSchema, a Windows-only UE4SS DLL. Use a Windows host, or the Windows server under Wine/Proton.

Mod not updating?

If a new version does nothing, the mod loader has not reinstalled it: it trusts its own install record instead of checking the disk, so the mod looks active in the mod list and does nothing. Close the game, open Steam → right-click Palworld → Manage → Browse local files, delete the loader's install record for this mod and start the game — it will reinstall it from scratch:

• Mods\ManagedMods\GutenEarlyWaterBuilding

If it still does not come back, unsubscribe and resubscribe with the game closed — a fresh download always makes the loader reinstall. PalSchema itself has the same problem: staying subscribed does not reliably keep it up to date, and an old copy makes its mods do nothing without any error. If this mod stops working, unsubscribe from PalSchema, resubscribe with the game closed, and check the version it reports.

Build on water in the early game. The Aquatic Construction Kit unlocks at technology level 13 instead of 23, and its recipe drops to four materials you already have lying around.

How it works

Building on water needs one key item, the Aquatic Construction Kit — you only have to carry it, it is never consumed, and one lasts forever.

• Technology level: 23 → 13
• Materials: Cement 30, Copper Ingot 10, Wooden Board 15 → Wood 50, Stone 50, Aquatic Pal Fluids 10, Paldium Fragment 10
• Crafting time (level 1 station): about 20 minutes → about 1m40s
• Crafted at: High Quality Workbench (level 11) and up, same as vanilla

The technology stays in the Ancient Technology tab and still costs the same single ancient technology point, so it is still something you unlock on purpose — just early enough for a base on the water to be a plan instead of a retirement home.

Level 13 is not an arbitrary number twice over. The Ancient Technology tab draws exactly one slot per level and never puts two technologies on the same one, so the mod has to land on a free slot or the technology exists and is drawn nowhere. And the kit is crafted at the High Quality Workbench, whose own technology is level 11.

Nothing else about water building changes: the kit behaves exactly as in vanilla and foundations go down under the same rules. Crafting EXP is scaled down along with the recipe, so the cheap kit cannot be farmed as an EXP loop.

Game version 1.0.3 did part of this

The 12 August 2026 patch moved the kit from level 66 to 23, cut its cost from 4 ancient technology points to 1, and rewrote the recipe. That is exactly what versions 1.0.x of this mod were for, so those versions are now redundant.

From 1.1.0 the mod does what the patch did not: it takes the technology down another ten levels, to 13, and keeps its own recipe, which is cheaper than the new vanilla one and about twelve times faster to craft.

Existing saves

Works on an ongoing game. The technology tree and the crafting recipes are read live, so the new level and recipe apply the moment you load in. Already past level 13? The technology is simply sitting there waiting to be unlocked.

Uninstalling

Safe. Level and recipe go straight back to vanilla. Two things survive on purpose, because they live in your save: a technology you already unlocked stays unlocked, and a kit you already crafted stays in your inventory and keeps working.

More recommended mods

• Auto Unlock Tech - the Aquatic Construction Kit still costs ancient technology points, which one of them stops charging you
• Bigger Base Area - a base out on the water is still measured by the same build radius

See all my Palworld mods