Rust inspired Palworld’s survival mechanics and in-game tasks.
Pocketpair’s description separates Palworld’s influences by function. Ark: Survival Evolved helped shape the game’s broad concept and creature-centered survival structure, while Rust provided a reference point for survival mechanics and the kinds of activities players perform in the world.
Rust is a multiplayer survival game built around gathering resources, crafting equipment, constructing bases, managing hazards, and surviving encounters with other players. Those systems helped inform Palworld’s resource loops, crafting progression, base activities, and task-oriented gameplay, even though Palworld adds creature collection, combat companions, and automation.
A common mix-up is to treat every influence as the same kind of inspiration. Minecraft is also associated with crafting and sandbox design, and Ark is especially important to Palworld’s creature-and-survival framework. But for the specific wording about survival mechanics and in-game tasks, the cited answer is Rust.