Palworld Hard Mode Bosses: Unlock, Levels, Drops and Expeditions

Short answer: Palworld's hard mode bosses are the Tower Bosses fought a second time on Hard. Since 1.0 they unlock only after you beat Auri & Shaolong at the Azure Covenant Tower, the last tower on the main route. Hard versions run from level 72 to level 80, still have the 5-minute timer, and drop a hat, a Training Crystal and a chance at a tier-4 schematic. The best reward is not a drop at all. Each Hard Mode clear unlocks a new top-tier expedition.

Checked against Palworld v1.0.5 (released 15 September 2026)

Pocketpair's 1.0 changelog: "The unlock requirement for Hard Mode Tower Bosses has been changed to defeating the boss in the Azure Covenant Tower." Guides that say "beat six faction leaders" describe early access. The 1.0 notes also say Hard Mode levels were re-tuned for the new level cap of 80.

Every Hard Mode Tower Boss

The Hard levels for Zoe, Lily, Axel, Marcus and Victor match on the wiki and the 1.0.5 game data. For Saya, Bjorn and Auri they come from the game data only, because the wiki's tower table hadn't been updated for 1.0 when we checked.

The early towers are where the jump hurts most. Zoe goes from level 10 to 72. The first boss you ever fought comes back as an endgame fight, with its own support troops: Hard Mode spawns special "Tower" variants of each faction's soldiers that appear nowhere else.

Two rules carry over from Normal mode. The timer is five minutes (1.0 cut it from ten), and if it runs out you are killed and thrown out. You can re-enter and try again as often as you like.

What Each Boss Drops on Hard

Every Hard Mode boss drops three things at 100%: its faction hat, a Training Crystal (raises one Pal's level by one) and another copy of its Key Sphere. On top of that, there is a chance at a large Lotus and at a tier-4 schematic:

The hats are guaranteed, so they come on your first clear. The schematics are 1-in-10, so plan on a few runs of whichever boss guards the one you want.

The Real Reward: Hard Mode Expeditions

Each Hard Mode clear permanently unlocks an expedition at the Pal Expedition Station. Pocketpair's 1.0 notes put these at the "Highest" danger level and rebalanced their rewards to include the Kinship Peach. All eight take two hours, recommend 1,600,000 firepower, and require 20 Pals of one element:

Slab fragments are the reason to care. The in-game description says to "combine all of them to create a Slab", and a Slab is what you offer at the Summoning Altar to call a raid boss to your base. Here the fragments come back with every run instead of from dungeon chests. The PAL Genetic Research Laboratory and the Smuggling Warehouse also happen to return both halves of the Cryogenic Coolant recipe.

The Ninth Hard Fight: Zenara & Astralym

The final boss has a Hard version as well. In the 1.0.5 data it is the Blightstar Calamity, level 100, far beyond anything else in the game. It drops the Zenara Hat and the Psycho Gravity skill fruit, and clearing it unlocks The World Tree's Forbidden Area, a two-hour expedition recommending 2,100,000 firepower that returns ancient relics and Radiant Gems. Treat it as the last thing you do, not the next one.

Three Different Things Called "Hard"

Palworld uses the word for three unrelated features, which is why search results are confusing:

Beating Hard Mode bosses does not need the Hard difficulty preset, and switching a world to Hard does not unlock the tower rematches.

Server Angle

Tower fights are co-op, so your group fights them on whatever rules the server runs. Everything that decides how brutal a level-80 rematch feels is in PalWorldSettings.ini:

• PlayerDamageRateAttack / PalDamageRateAttack for damage dealt, and PlayerDamageRateDefense / PalDamageRateDefense for damage taken. These are world-wide multipliers, and nothing in Pocketpair's documentation exempts bosses from them.
• DeathPenalty decides what you lose when the timer kills you. On ItemAndEquipment or All, a failed Hard attempt means a walk back to the tower entrance for your gear.
• EnemyDropItemRate is documented only as "Dropped item quantity multiplier". We could not confirm whether it touches boss reward tables, so do not count on it doubling your schematic chances.

If you run a dedicated server, stay on a current build. Pocketpair's 1.0.3 patch fixed a bug where "on dedicated servers … Fast Travel could activate unintentionally during Tower Boss battles", which is an easy way to lose a five-minute attempt. Every setting above is covered in Palworld Dedicated Server World Settings Explained, and they are yours to change on a hosted Palworld server.

Common Questions

How do you unlock hard mode bosses in Palworld?

Beat Auri & Shaolong at the Azure Covenant Tower. After that, every tower boss you have already defeated can be challenged again on Hard from its tower entrance.

What level are the Palworld hard mode bosses?

72 to 80. Zoe is 72, Lily 74, Axel 76, Marcus 78, and Victor, Saya, Bjorn and Auri are all 80. The Hard Zenara & Astralym fight is level 100.

What do hard mode tower bosses drop?

A guaranteed faction hat, Training Crystal and Key Sphere, plus a chance at a large Lotus and a 5–10% chance at a tier-4 schematic. Each clear also unlocks a Hard Mode expedition.

Is hard mode the same as Hard difficulty?

No. Hard Mode is the tower-boss rematch. Hard difficulty is a world preset, and Hardcore is permadeath. They are separate switches.

What to Read Next

• Palworld Dungeon Locations and Loot covers the other source of slab fragments and Alpha fights.
• Palworld Passive Skills: The Ones Worth Breeding For: level-80 fights are won by Pals built for damage.
• Palworld Best Flying Mounts, Ranked helps with the commute between eight towers.
• Cryogenic Coolant is fed by two of the Hard Mode expeditions.
• Palworld Dedicated Server World Settings Explained covers damage multipliers, death penalty and difficulty presets.
• Palworld Admin Commands & Moderation Guide is for when a boss fight goes wrong on a shared server.

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