One of 2024‘s breakout hits is the monster-taming survival title Palworld. While still technically in early access, the game’s melting pot of popular genres has helped it quickly reach widespread popularity and achieve high sales since January 19. Now developer Pocketpair is ready to add more content to the game in the form of its first raid, called Bellanoir.
Revealed via a March 15 post on the game’s X (formerly Twitter) account, Bellanoir will be the inaugural raid for Palworld. While the post did not give any details on a release date for the raid beyond a nebulous promise that it will be “coming soon,” a short trailer did show off the central new Pal at the heart of the raid battle. Bellanoir, which also gives the raid battle its name, is a humanoid figure whose design makes it look like she is wearing a flowy black dress with long sleeves. Bellanoir floats with a blue flame underneath what appears to be the skirt of the dress and she has dark blue hair covering their face. Palworld has been accused of plagiarizing Pokémon since the game launched into early access, which Pocketpair has denied, and it’s easy to make comparisons between Bellanoir and Gardevoir, the Pokémon that first appeared in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
The trailer mostly focused on Bellanoir’s looks so we don’t actually know much about what Palworld’s raid battles will be like. Though the post announcing the raid warns players that “Only the most skilled Pal Tamers stand a chance against her.” It’s safe to assume raid battles will likely feel similar to world bosses in games like Diablo, offering players a high-level challenge.
The announcement of the first raid battle is an exciting update for Palworld. Since its launch into early access in January, subsequent updates to the game have focused on bug fixes and balancing changes, rather than substantial additions to content. Bellanoir changes that by introducing the first major gameplay update.
