Open your tech menu for the first time after a boss fight and you’ll spot a second tab sitting next to your normal one, mostly empty, gated behind items with names like Egg Incubator and Wing Pack. That’s the Ancient Technology tree, and it runs on a completely separate currency from the Technology Points you earn just by leveling up. You can hit level 50 with a maxed-out regular tech tree and still have zero Ancient Technology Points to your name, because the only way to earn them is by beating things, not by grinding XP.
This guide covers all four ways to actually earn Ancient Technology Points, not just the two most guides mention, a level-by-level table of what’s worth unlocking early versus saving for, and what to do once you’ve cleared the easy one-time sources and still need more. If you’re brand new to the game, our Palworld beginner’s guide covers the rest of the early game before you’re ready to worry about Ancient Technology at all.
Ancient Technology Points vs. Regular Technology Points
Regular Technology Points unlock the base crafting tree, the campfire, the stone pickaxe, the basics, and you get a fresh batch every time you level up. Ancient Technology Points unlock a separate, parallel tree of higher-tier items, and leveling up alone never grants a single one [1]. Every Ancient Technology Point has to be earned by beating a specific boss or consuming a specific item, and with a handful of exceptions, each source only pays out once.
That one-time-only rule is the part that catches new players off guard. Farm the same Alpha Pal five times and you’ll get five sets of loot, but only the first kill or capture pays an Ancient Technology Point. Miss that distinction and you’ll spend an evening re-clearing a boss camp for a currency it stopped giving out three fights ago.
The 4 Ways to Earn Ancient Technology Points
Here’s the full source checklist, ranked by point value per encounter:
| Source | Points | Repeatable? |
|---|---|---|
| Tower Boss (first clear) | 5 | No, one-time per tower |
| Alpha Pal (first defeat or capture) | 1 | No, one-time per Alpha |
| Bounty Target (first defeat or capture) | 1 | No, one-time per target |
| Ancient Technical Manual (consumed) | 1 | Yes, renewable loot |
Tower Bosses pay the most per fight at 5 points each, which is why every farming guide tells you to prioritize them first. See our Tower Boss Guide for the counter-Pal breakdown on each one. One flag worth raising here: sources don’t agree on how many Tower Bosses currently exist. One widely-cited count puts the roster at 9 total (45 points available), naming Bjorn and Bastigor as a later addition on top of an 8-boss base roster [9], while another guide counts 7 towers for 35 points. Rather than pick one silently, treat the higher figure as the ceiling and check in-game how many towers are actually active on your map, since new towers have been added post-launch and the count keeps moving.
Alpha Pals are the volume source. There are roughly 70+ scattered across the map, each worth 1 point on first defeat or capture, no more. Our Alpha Pal Locations guide ranks the ones actually worth the detour instead of sending you after all of them.
Bounty Targets are the source most players miss entirely. They work exactly like Alpha Pals except the targets are human instead of Pal, marked on the map with a purple hood icon, and the first defeat or capture of each one pays the same 1-point bonus an Alpha would. Repeat kills still drop Bounty Tokens for trading, just no further Ancient Technology Points.
Ancient Technical Manuals are the only renewable source on this list. They’re a consumable item found in loot chests, concentrated in Wildlife Sanctuaries and higher-level dungeons, never sold by merchants and never dropped by enemies directly. Consuming one grants 1 point and destroys the manual. Because chest loot resets over time, Manuals are the closest thing to a farmable Ancient Technology Point income once every Tower Boss, Alpha, and Bounty target in your save has already paid out.
Who Should Farm What First
The right order depends on what you’re actually trying to unlock and how much risk you can stomach:
| Player Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Clear the first 2-3 Tower Bosses for the 10-15 point head start, then unlock Egg Incubator and Grappling Gun immediately. Skip Bounty hunting until your combat Pals can handle a 5-minute Tower timer without dying. |
| Casual player | Alternate Tower Bosses with whichever Alpha Pals sit on your existing travel routes. Don’t detour across the map for a single point; let them come to you. |
| Hardcore/optimizer | Full Tower clear first for the 5-point efficiency, then a dedicated Bounty sweep, since Bounties are the most commonly skipped 1-point source and the fastest to miss permanently. |
| Completionist | Track every Alpha and Bounty on a checklist as you explore, since both are permanently missable once defeated without noting it, and stockpile Manuals from every Sanctuary chest instead of spending them immediately. |
What Ancient Technology Points Actually Unlock
The early tree is inexpensive and front-loads the biggest quality-of-life gains. Egg Incubator and Grappling Gun both cost a single point and unlock around level 10-12, and both are worth grabbing the moment you have the points, since the Incubator cuts hatching time for breeding runs and the Grappling Gun solves the early-game mobility problem of being overweight and stuck.
| Unlock | Level | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Egg Incubator | 10 | 1 |
| Grappling Gun | 12 | 1 |
| Pal Essence Condenser | 14 | 2 |
| Hip Lantern | 15 | 2 |
| Breeding Farm | 19 | 2 |
| Single-shot Sphere Launcher | 26 | 4 |
| Extra Weapon Holster | 27 | 5 |
Notice the cost curve: the first ten unlocks average 1-2 points each, then it roughly doubles by the high 20s. That’s the tree telling you something worth listening to; the cheap early items are cheap because they’re broadly useful, not because they’re minor. Spend on them without hesitation. The expensive mid-tier items, like the Sphere Launchers, are worth checking against your current capture strategy before committing, since a launcher upgrade only matters if you’re actually short on captures at your current Pal roster.
A few of the mid-tier unlocks are easy to overlook because they don’t sound exciting on paper. Anti-Gravity Belt and the upgraded Enhanced Hip Lantern both land in the low-to-mid point range and read like pure convenience items, but they solve real friction: the Belt softens fall damage during vertical base builds, and the lantern frees up an accessory slot you’d otherwise spend on a light source. Neither is a must-unlock the moment it’s available, but neither should sit ignored for 20 levels either, since a 2-point cost is trivial once you’re clearing Tower Bosses regularly.
Late-Game Priority: The 6-9 Point Items
Past level 65 or so, Ancient Technology Points stop being a “grab it when you can” resource and start requiring real planning, because the last four major unlocks eat 6 to 9 points each, and Ancient Technology Points don’t come cheap or fast at that stage of a save.
| Unlock | Level | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Triple Jump Boots | 70 | 6 |
| Soralite Quarry | 72 | 7 |
| Ancient Hatchery | 76 | 8 |
| Wing Pack | 80 | 9 |
Two of these have a catch worth knowing before you save up for nothing: Triple Jump Boots at level 70 stays locked even at the right level and point total until you’ve also defeated the PIDF Tower boss, and the level-71 Azure Covenant Flag Set carries the same boss-gate [5]. If you’re hoarding points for one of these two and haven’t cleared that specific Tower yet, you’re not actually close, you just look close.
Decision tree for your last 20-ish points before level 80: if you’re still capturing Pals by hand at endgame, put points into Triple Jump Boots first for the extra vertical reach on capture positioning. If your base’s egg output has flatlined, Ancient Hatchery pays for itself faster. If neither applies and you just want to see the rest of the map, Wing Pack is the single most expensive Ancient Technology unlock in the game at 9 points, and it’s priced that way because unlocking flight this late genuinely changes how you play, not because Pocketpair wanted to gate content behind a grind wall.
Once the Free Points Run Out
Most guides stop at “here’s what to unlock” and leave you stuck once every Tower, Alpha, and Bounty in your save has already paid out. At that point Ancient Technical Manuals are your only lever left, and the strategy shifts from hunting bosses to running Sanctuary and high-level dungeon chest routes on a loop, since those chests are the only confirmed Manual spawn locations and they refresh over time rather than being one-time drops. It’s slower than a Tower Boss clear, but it’s the only source on this list that doesn’t dry up. Treat it as a background loop rather than a dedicated farming session: loot every chest you pass on the way to something else, stockpile whatever Manuals turn up, and check back on a Sanctuary you’ve already cleared once you’re a few levels higher and better equipped, since chest contents can reroll on your next visit even though the boss itself won’t respawn.
FAQ
Can I get Ancient Technology Points from leveling up?
No. Character levels only grant regular Technology Points for the base crafting tree. The two systems don’t overlap at all, which is exactly the confusion that sends players searching for this currency in the first place.
Do dungeon bosses give Ancient Technology Points?
Not directly. Dungeon and cave bosses don’t pay out an Ancient Technology Point on their own, but their loot chests are one of the two confirmed spawn locations for Ancient Technical Manuals, so clearing them still helps indirectly.
Is it worth re-fighting an Alpha Pal I already beat?
Only for loot or a better capture, never for a second point. The one-time-per-target rule applies to every source on this list except Manuals, so repeat kills are strictly a loot-and-XP decision, not a currency one.
Sources
- The Palworld Wiki, “Technology” [1]
- The Palworld Wiki, “Ancient Technical Manual” [2]
- Game8, “How to Get Ancient Technology Points Fast” [3]
- Game8, “Best Ancient Technology and How to Unlock” [4]
- GAMES.GG, “Palworld 1.0 Guide: All New Technologies and How to Unlock Them” [5]
- GameRant, “Best Way to Get Ancient Technology Points in Palworld” [6]
- AllThingsHow, “Palworld 1.0: How to Farm Bounty Targets and Spend Bounty Tokens” [7]
- xGamingServer, “Palworld Ancient Technology Points: How to Farm and Spend Them” [8]
- Game8, “List of All Tower Bosses” [9]
Mechanics, point values, and level requirements verified against the current live version at time of publication. Pocketpair has added new Tower Bosses and technologies post-launch before, so treat exact totals as a snapshot rather than a permanent ceiling, and check your own in-game tech menu for the current count.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.