Palworld’s Cattiva has secretly joined Core Keeper as a new combat pet in the Riders of the Underground update. Find out more details about the crossover and how to get Cattiva below.
Palworld x Core Keeper Brings Cattiva to the Mining Sandbox
Collaboration Started as Playful Banter
Palworld has officially crossed over with Core Keeper, with Cattiva now available as a pet in Pugstorm’s procedurally generated mining sandbox. Pocketpair announced the collaboration on September 23, 2026, on Palworld’s official X account, directing players to Core Keeper’s recently released Riders of the Underground update. Additionally, the post mentions color variations for Palworld’s cat mascot.
The crossover has also been brewing publicly for months. Back on February 26, 2026, Palworld community manager John "Bucky" Buckley and Core Keeper game director Fredrik Präntare joked about bringing Cattiva into Core Keeper through Pocketpair’s official Discord server. A Reddit post archiving the conversation shows Präntare asking for permission to use Cattiva, and Pocketpair effectively giving him the go-ahead.
At the time, the conversation was playful enough, with Bucky commenting that it was "pretty obvious we were just goofing around." But now it’s clear that sometime between the first exchange, the two parties followed through on the bit. At the time of writing, there have been no known appearances of Core Keeper content in Palworld.
Notably, Bucky has also been going back and forth with Sean Murray, adding fuel to the rumors of Palworld's collaboration with No Man's Sky.
Riders of the Underground Secretly Added Cattiva
Cattiva had actually been hiding in the game for three days before Pocketpair’s reveal. Core Keeper’s free 1.3 major update, Riders of the Underground, launched on September 21, 2026, bringing a new sub-biome, saddles for mounting, and a wealth of content from more enemies, equipment pieces, and gameplay fixes. Pugstorm’s patch notes listed three new pets: Hoppet, Zeos Jr., and "something lazy that can be found in The Desert of Beginnings."
With Pocketpair's official reveal, players now know that the cryptic pet is Cattiva. Players can discover the Pal by finding a Lazy Egg and then hatching it using the Egg Incubator. Once hatched, Cattiva is primarily a melee brawler with an innate critical hit chance and the ability to stun targets on melee hits.
Fan reception to the crossover has been largely enthusiastic, with players celebrating another indie collaboration and asking for even more Pal pets and mounts in Core Keeper. Some have also pointed to another fan favorite and unofficial mascot, Chillet, especially if Pugstorm made it rideable to take advantage of the new mount system.
Players coming from Core Keeper can check out the lazy cat in Palworld. Check out our review for Palworld's full release below:
Palworld 1.0 Review | A Dense Survival Sandbox That Makes Every System Count
Sources:
1.3.0.1 Major Update - Riders of the Underground
Core Keeper x Palworld Collaboration
