Palworld 1.0: Best Hardwood Farming Spots at Twilight Dunes and Sakurajima
Palworld’s move out of Early Access on July 10 brought a new mid-tier crafting material called Hardwood, and players chasing it now have two clearly confirmed hotspots to target: the desert trees of Twilight Dunes and the cherry blossom groves of Sakurajima island. Hardwood is a new crafting material added with the Palworld 1.0 update. Guides from PC Gamer, Video Games Chronicle and Game8 all point to the same core farming routes, with Hardwood becoming essential once players start pushing into the game’s higher-level tech tree.
Pocketpair confirmed Palworld 1.0 released on July 10, 2026, closing out more than two years in Early Access. The update overhauled large parts of the crafting system, and Hardwood quickly became one of the resources new and returning players struggle to locate without a pointer.
Twilight Dunes: The Early-Game Desert Route
Hardwood can be found fairly early on in the Twilight Dunes, before later becoming available upon reaching the Dancing Sakura Shrine area. According to PC Gamer, the useful fast-travel anchor here is the Anubis Dunes point, located northeast of the Anubis statue and boss arena.
Bisect Hosting’s own farming guide backs this up, noting that players who start a new save file should generally work their way until they access the Twilight Dunes, where cutting the Mesquite Trees yields Hardwood and Fiber. The desert zone doubles as the territory of the Anubis Alpha Pal, so it’s worth combining a Hardwood run with a capture attempt if a player’s team can handle a boss-tier encounter.
Tool-wise, nothing exotic is required. A Metal Axe is enough to harvest trees comfortably in either zone, per PC Gamer’s own testing, which rules out any need to wait for a special late-game tool before starting to stockpile.
Sakurajima’s Cherry Blossom Groves for Bulk Farming
Once players are geared for tougher fights, Sakurajima becomes the go-to bulk farm. Video Games Chronicle reports that plenty of Hardwood can be found on Sakurajima, the island northwest of the starting area that also hosts Moonflower Tower, a level 55 challenge.
The island’s namesake trees are the key resource here: Sakurajima is an island covered in sakura trees, and these cherry blossom trees are a hardier wood than what’s found near the starting area, making them the best spot to farm Hardwood. Game8’s own guide confirms the source material, noting that Hardwood can be obtained by cutting down any Sakura Tree on Sakurajima Island, easily identifiable by their pink foliage.
Players should go in prepared. VGC warns that there are dozens if not hundreds of sakura trees surrounding Moonflower Tower, but the area also holds high-level Pals and an enemy base, so getting too close without being ready for high-level battles is risky. German outlet MeinMMO independently corroborates the island as one of three viable farming zones, alongside Sakurajima the cherry blossom island in the northwest of Palpagos Island, Feybreak the large island in the southwest, and Twilight Dunes the desert with the Anubis statue.
What All That Hardwood Actually Unlocks
The grind has a clear payoff. PC Gamer notes that 10 Hardwood is needed per High Quality Wooden Board once the craft unlocks at level 43 in the tech tree. Beyond boards, Bisect Hosting’s recipe breakdown shows Hardwood feeding into some of the game’s most sought-after gear, including the Ultimate Sphere, which requires 10x Paldium Fragment, 5x Pal Metal Ingot, 10x Hardwood, and 1x Plasteel, and the Double-Barreled Shotgun (Common), which needs 30x Refined Ingot, 7x Polymer, and 25x Hardwood.
Older weapon recipes weren’t spared either. A separate report on the 1.0 patch changes notes that double-barreled shotguns previously used only refined ingots and polymers but now require Hardwood too, with the same change applied to metal bats, rifles and grenades. Anyone returning to an existing save after the update should expect their old crafting queues to suddenly demand a resource they’ve never had to farm before.
Automating the Grind With a Logging Site or Pals
For players who’d rather not keep flying back to the same two islands, base automation is the long-term answer. Bisect Hosting’s guide explains that once a player reaches the late game, they can build an Ancient Material Synthesizer using 50x Paloxite Ingot and 10x Ancient Civilization Core, then assign a Pal with a high-level Lumbering Work Suitability, such as Celesdir or Hartalis, to automatically produce Hardwood at the base alongside other resources.
Hunting is a viable side option too, since certain Grass-type Pals drop Hardwood upon capture or defeat, giving players a reason to detour if they spot the right creature mid-farm. VGC also points out the obvious quality-of-life move for anyone settling near Sakurajima long-term: setting up a base in the area, once it’s safe to do so, lets worker Pals harvest Hardwood passively without further manual chopping.
For Australian and New Zealand players jumping back in post-launch, Palworld 1.0 rolled out simultaneously across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S with no regional staggering reported, so there’s no need to wait on local storefronts before chasing down these Hardwood routes.
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