How to Get the Ancient Workbench and All It Crafts

The Ancient Workbench is the bench that builds the Soralite and Ancient gear tiers — the Ancient Armor and Mechanical Bow end of the game, and nothing below it will make any of them. This guide covers the technology level it sits behind, the three build materials and where each one comes from, what the whole project really costs in raw ore, the five Pals that can legally work it, and all 68 items it turns out.

Ancient Workbench at a Glance

This is the last production bench Palworld hands you and it behaves unlike every other one. It draws 2,000 electricity, and out of 480 buildable structures only the Ancient Furnace and the High-Pressure Crude Oil Extractor pull more. The part that catches people out is that you cannot use it — the interaction prompt never appears for the player, because the bench is a Pal-only station. Assign the right Pal and the queue runs; assign the wrong one and it sits idle no matter how many workers your base has.

How to Unlock the Ancient Workbench

Reach character level 67, open the Palworld technology tree and spend 5 technology points. Unlocking it is the easy half. The bench cannot be built, powered or fed without three earlier structures already standing, because each of its materials is made at exactly one place and none of those places is the Ancient Workbench itself. Budget for the whole chain below before you commit the points — run all four at once and you are pulling 6,400 electricity, which is more than a single generator tier covers.

Build this first	Tech Lv	Power	Why you need it
Production Assembly Line II	42	400	The only bench that makes Bio Battery, Computer and Thermal Core
Advanced Workshop	62	1,000	The only bench that makes AI Core — and every gear recipe here needs them
Ancient Furnace	66	3,000	The only furnace that smelts Soralite Ingot
Ancient Workbench	67	2,000	The bench itself

Crafting Materials and Where to Make Them

Three lines on the build screen, and the middle one is the entire project. Five AI Cores are worth 252,940 gold apiece at merchant rates — roughly 1.26 million of the bench's 1.67 million total value — and each one swallows 10 more Soralite Ingots on top of the 50 the bench lists. That is 100 Soralite Ingots in total, and at 700,000 crafting workload per bar the smelting alone is 70,000,000 workload. The bench's own 1,000,000 build cost is the smallest number in the whole job.

Material	Qty	Made at	Recipe per unit	Value each
Soralite Ingot	50	Ancient Furnace	2 Soralite + 2 Pure Quartz	7,200
AI Core	5	Advanced Workshop	5 Computer + 10 Soralite Ingot + 2 Thermal Core + 1 Ancient Civilization Core	252,940
Bio Battery	20	Production Assembly Line II	1 Electric Organ + 1 Refined Ingot + 1 Carbon Fiber	2,230

Soralite Ingot ×50

Two Soralite and two Pure Quartz per bar, smelted at the Ancient Furnace. Soralite only comes out of Sunreach, and there are 226 Soralite nodes on the map — a small number compared to the 1,632 Ore nodes you are used to, so plan a route rather than wandering. Killing works too: Jetragon hands over 10 per kill at 100%, and Pierdon Cryst gives 4–5. Pure Quartz is easier at 607 nodes, and Pierdon Cryst drops that as well, which makes it the single most efficient Pal to farm for this bench.

AI Core ×5

Five Computers, 10 Soralite Ingots, 2 Thermal Cores and 1 Ancient Civilization Core each, at the Advanced Workshop, at 5,000,000 crafting workload apiece. The Ancient Civilization Core is the hard gate: only two Pals in the game drop it, Silvance and Dandilord, one guaranteed per kill. Both are World Tree bosses, so five AI Cores means five boss clears — and pleasingly, those same two Pals are among the handful that can then work the bench you are building. The full Ancient Civilization Core guide covers the fight order.

Bio Battery ×20

One Electric Organ, one Refined Ingot and one Carbon Fiber each at the Production Assembly Line II, and at 20,000 workload they are the only cheap thing on the list. Count 70 Electric Organs rather than 20, because the Computers inside your AI Cores eat 50 more. Prixter Lux drops 4–5 per kill at 100%, so around fifteen kills covers the entire build.

Full Raw Material Cost

Trace every sub-recipe down to things you mine, shoot or pump and one Ancient Workbench comes to the fourteen materials below. The 1,200 Wood at the top looks alarming and is not — it burns into the 600 Charcoal that the Carbon Fiber needs, and wood is the one thing your base already produces on its own. The rows that actually decide your timeline are the 200 Soralite, which is a Sunreach trip, and the 5 Ancient Civilization Cores, which is five World Tree boss fights and cannot be shortcut, bought or farmed anywhere else.

Raw material	Total needed	Where to get it
Wood	1,200	Any tree — burned into 600 Charcoal for the Carbon Fiber
Ore	515	1,632 Ore nodes, or an Ore Mining Site at technology level 24
Pure Quartz	300	607 nodes, or Pierdon Cryst at 4–5 per kill
Coal	220	824 Coal nodes, or Blazamut at a flat 10 per kill
Soralite	200	226 nodes, all in Sunreach, or Jetragon at 10 per kill
Flame Organ	160	37 Pals drop it — Blazamut gives 10, Suzaku 5–10
Crude Oil	150	185 oil fields with an extractor, or 56 oil rig crates
High Quality Pal Oil	100	Mammorest at 5–10 per kill, 25 Pals in total
Sulfur	70	655 Sulfur nodes, or Pierdon at 4–5
Electric Organ	70	Prixter Lux at 4–5 per kill, 23 Pals in total
Venom Gland	20	Menasting at 5–10 per kill
Chromite	20	Buried — needs a Metal Detector, or Silvegis at 2–3
Hexolite Quartz	20	635 nodes, all in Feybreak
Ancient Civilization Core	5	Only Silvance and Dandilord, 1 guaranteed each

Which Pals Can Work the Ancient Workbench

This is where most finished Ancient Workbenches sit dead. The bench posts two job requirements at once — Handiwork Lv. 6 and Medicine Production Lv. 6 — and only 13 Pals in the game reach Handiwork 6 while only 7 reach Medicine Production 6. Exactly five clear both bars on their own, and those five are the clean answer: park one of them in the base and the bench never stalls. Silvance is the pick if you can only bring one, since its Medicine Production 8 is the highest rating any Pal has in that job and it drops the Ancient Civilization Cores you need anyway.

Pal	Handiwork	Medicine	Where it comes from
Silvance	6	8	World Tree boss — drops Silvance's Plume and 1 Ancient Civilization Core
Selyne	7	6	Wild, 40 spawn spots — the highest Handiwork of the five
Bellanoir Libero	6	7	Raid boss, no wild spawns
Wistella	6	6	Wild, 40 spawn spots and an alpha — much the easiest of the five to get
Dandilord	6	6	World Tree boss — also Planting 8, so it doubles as a farm worker

If none of those five are on your roster yet, cover the two jobs with two Pals instead of one. Solenne has the best Handiwork in the game at Lv. 8 but no Medicine Production at all, so it needs a partner; Lyleen Noct at Medicine Production 7 and Mycora at 6 are the two easiest ways to fill the other half. Craft speed is not a tiebreaker here — every Pal in Palworld has the same base craft speed of 100, so the only thing that separates these workers is which jobs they qualify for.

All 68 Items the Ancient Workbench Crafts

Sixty-eight items name the Ancient Workbench as their bench, and for all 68 it is the only one — there is no fallback, no slower alternative, no schematic that reroutes them to a weapon assembly line. That set breaks down into 5 armor lines, 10 weapon lines and 8 ammo types, with each gear line having four craftable rarities unlocked by its Lv. 1 to Lv. 4 schematic. Every single one of the 60 gear recipes wants AI Cores and Ancient Civilization Parts; building the top rarity of all ten weapon lines and all five armor lines would take 492 AI Cores, so keep the Advanced Workshop running long after the bench is up.

Ancient Armor and Helm

This is the strongest armor in Palworld and it is not close. The three resistance variants top out at 1,092 defense and 3,120 HP, plain Ancient Armor sits just behind at 1,040, and Ancient Helm at 650 defense beats the next best head slot — the Hexolite Helmet at 455 — by nearly 200. Start with plain Ancient Armor: it is the cheapest of the four bodies at 60 Soralite Ingots and 6 AI Cores, and the resistance versions cost Paloxite Ingot instead, which is a different farming trip. Even the Lv. 1 schematic version is worth building at 880 defense, so do not sit on a low-rarity schematic waiting for a legendary.

Armor	Defense (Lv. 4)	HP	Materials for the Lv. 4 craft
Lightweight Ancient Armor	1,092	3,120	60 Paloxite Ingot, 14 AI Core, 100 Corrosive Solvent, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Heat-Resistant Ancient Armor	1,092	3,120	60 Paloxite Ingot, 10 AI Core, 12 Thermal Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Cold-Resistant Ancient Armor	1,092	3,120	60 Paloxite Ingot, 10 AI Core, 100 Cryogenic Coolant, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Ancient Armor	1,040	3,120	60 Soralite Ingot, 6 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Ancient Helm	650	1,560	40 Soralite Ingot, 5 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts

Weapons

Ten weapon lines, and six of them are the outright best in their class — compare attack only against the same weapon type, since a bow's per-shot number and a shotgun's per-pellet number are not the same measurement. Mechanical Bow at 24,000, Beam Launcher at 16,800, Laser Sword at 2,400 and Prototype Shotgun at 1,400 all sit at the top of their categories with nothing else close. The one honest exception is the rifles: Plasma Rifle at 2,232 is the best sustained-fire gun here, but the Charge Rifle from the Advanced Weapon Assembly Line posts 15,000 on a charged shot, so it is a different weapon doing a different job rather than a straight upgrade. The Plasma Rifle also carries 100,000 durability, the highest on this bench by a factor of three.

Weapon	Class	Attack (Lv. 4)	Materials for the Lv. 4 craft
Mechanical Bow	Bow — best in class	24,000	80 Soralite Ingot, 40 Carbon Fiber, 400 Paldium Fragment, 6 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Beam Launcher	Launcher — best in class	16,800	200 Paloxite Ingot, 100 Bio Battery, 20 AI Core, 20 Ancient Civilization Core, 10 Ancient Civilization Parts
Tactical Grenade Launcher	Launcher — 2nd	8,066	160 Soralite Ingot, 30 Corrosive Solvent, 10 Thermal Core, 10 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Laser Sword	Melee — best in class	2,400	100 Soralite Ingot, 500 Paldium Fragment, 60 Bio Battery, 6 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Plasma Rifle	Rifle — best sustained	2,232	160 Paloxite Ingot, 100 Bio Battery, 16 AI Core, 14 Ancient Civilization Core, 10 Ancient Civilization Parts
Heavy Assault Rifle	Rifle — 46-round mag	1,938	200 Soralite Ingot, 100 Carbon Fiber, 60 Bio Battery, 10 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Combat SMG	Rifle — 50-round mag	1,587	100 Soralite Ingot, 60 Carbon Fiber, 40 Cryogenic Coolant, 8 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Prototype Shotgun	Shotgun — best in class	1,400	120 Soralite Ingot, 80 Carbon Fiber, 10 Thermal Core, 10 AI Core, 9 Ancient Civilization Parts
Beam Scatter	Shotgun — 38-round mag	609	100 Paloxite Ingot, 100 Soralite Ingot, 10 AI Core, 10 Ancient Civilization Core, 10 Ancient Civilization Parts
Drone Launcher	Melee slot — deploys drones	240	140 Paloxite Ingot, 80 World Tree Holy Water, 16 AI Core, 10 Ancient Civilization Core, 10 Ancient Civilization Parts

Ammo

Every one of these guns fires ammo that only this bench makes, which is the practical reason the Ancient Workbench is a permanent fixture rather than something you build, use once and demolish. The good news is the ammo is cheap next to the guns: 250,000–300,000 workload a batch against 112,000,000 for a weapon. Mechanical Bow Ammo is the standout at 2 Soralite Ingots for ten arrows and no second material at all, while the energy rounds want Paloxite Ingot and Bio Battery and are the ones worth queuing overnight. Note that Plasma Rifle Ammo comes out 20 to a batch for the same materials as a 10-round beam batch, so the Plasma Rifle is by some way the cheapest gun here to actually feed.

Ammo	Materials	Output	Feeds
Mechanical Bow Ammo	2 Soralite Ingot	×10	Mechanical Bow
Heavy Assault Rifle Ammo	2 Soralite Ingot, 10 Gunpowder	×20	Heavy Assault Rifle
Combat SMG Ammo	2 Soralite Ingot, 6 Gunpowder	×20	Combat SMG
Plasma Rifle Ammo	1 Bio Battery, 3 Paloxite Ingot, 2 Soralite Ingot	×20	Plasma Rifle
Prototype Shotgun Ammo	4 Soralite Ingot, 8 Gunpowder	×10	Prototype Shotgun
Tactical Grenade Launcher Ammo	4 Soralite Ingot, 10 Gunpowder	×10	Tactical Grenade Launcher
Beam Launcher Ammo	1 Bio Battery, 6 Paloxite Ingot, 2 Soralite Ingot	×10	Beam Launcher
Beam Scatter Ammo	1 Bio Battery, 3 Paloxite Ingot, 2 Soralite Ingot	×10	Beam Scatter

Ancient Workbench vs the Other Ancient Stations

Three stations in the entire build menu demand two work suitabilities at Lv. 6, and all three are Ancient-tier. They are worth comparing before you plan a base, because their staffing problems are completely different. The Ancient Workbench is the friendliest of the three: five Pals cover both its jobs at once. The Ancient Kitchen needs Kindling 6 alongside Handiwork 6, which Flaracle and Renjishi both manage. The Ancient Furnace is the awkward one — Kindling 6 and Cooling 6 are opposite elements and no single Pal in Palworld has both, so that station always takes a pair of workers.

Station	Tech Lv	Power	Work required	Pals covering both
Ancient Workbench	67	2,000	Handiwork 6 + Medicine Production 6	5
Ancient Furnace	66	3,000	Kindling 6 + Cooling 6	0 — needs two Pals
Ancient Kitchen	70	—	Kindling 6 + Handiwork 6	2

Is the Ancient Workbench Worth It

If you want the best gear in Palworld, it is not optional — it is the only bench that makes any of it, and it makes the ammo too. The honest cost is one Sunreach mining trip for 200 Soralite, five World Tree boss clears for the Ancient Civilization Cores, and a base grid that can spare 2,000 electricity on top of the Ancient Furnace's 3,000. Get Wistella first if you have none of the five workers, since it is the only one with a wild alpha and it clears both job requirements on its own. Then queue plain Ancient Armor before anything else: 1,040 defense and 3,120 HP for the cheapest recipe on the bench is the single biggest power jump left in the game.

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