How to Get Tombstone: Level 17 and 10 Stone

The Tombstone is Palworld's gravestone prop, and it is one of only three structures in the game you can actually write text on. This guide covers the Technology level that unlocks it, the 10 Stone it costs, the fastest ways to get that Stone, and whether it beats the Sign for labelling your base.

Tombstone at a Glance

It sits in the Other category of the build menu alongside the Sign, the Silo and the Training Dummy, and it is the cheapest thing in that whole category to build. There is no work suitability attached, no crafting output and no upkeep — you place it, you inscribe it, and it stays put. Arriving with the Feybreak update, it is the only grave marker in the game, so if you want a memorial for a Pal that got one-shot by an Alpha, this is the only prop that does the job.

Detail	Value
Structure	Tombstone
Category	Other
Unlock	Technology level 17
Cost to unlock	1 Technology Point (not Ancient)
Build materials	10 Stone
Carry weight of that Stone	30
Gold value if you buy the Stone	120 Gold
Work needed to operate	None — it is a decoration
What it does	Holds a line of text you write yourself

How to Unlock the Tombstone

There is no quest, boss or hidden schematic gating this one. Hit player level 17, open the Palworld tech tree, and the Tombstone is sitting there for a single Technology Point — the cheapest tier of unlock in the game. Level 17 lands well before you have a proper mining operation running, which is fine, because 10 Stone is roughly one rock node's worth of swings with a starter pickaxe. The only real decision is whether that point is better spent elsewhere, and the table further down settles that.

Requirement	Detail	How to cover it
Player level 17	Unlocks the tech entry	Catching new Pals for Paldeck XP is the fastest early route
1 Technology Point	Standard point, not Ancient	How to Get More Technology Points and Ancient Points
10 Stone	The entire build cost	Mine any rock node, or buy it — see below
A base with build space	Placed from the Other tab	Best Base Locations in Palworld 1.0

Where to Get the 10 Stone

Stone is the least scarce material on the map, so this is a two-minute errand rather than a farm. Palpagos Islands carries 12,443 minable rock spots between the two node types, and every one of them respawns after you break it, so there is no route to plan and no competition for spawns. Ten Stone is a rounding error against that — the reason to care about Stone sourcing at all is everything you build after the Tombstone, like the Stone-hungry Water Fountain and Flower Bed further up the tree.

Mine It Yourself

Any pickaxe breaks rock, and at level 17 you will almost certainly be swinging the starter tier, which is slow but perfectly adequate for a 10-Stone order. Park a chest next to a cluster of nodes rather than hauling — Stone weighs 3 per unit, so even a modest stack starts eating your carry limit fast. If you have a Mining Pal in the party, drop it on a node and let it do the swinging: Digtoise sits at Mining rank 4 and is catchable early, while Anubis and Dualith hit rank 6 and Aegidron tops the game at rank 8 for when you are mining seriously later on.

Buy It from a Wandering Trader

Stone is priced at 12 Gold a unit, which makes the whole Tombstone a 120 Gold purchase — cheap enough that it is genuinely the lazy option if you happen to be standing at a stall with coin in your pocket. It is a terrible habit for bulk orders, though: the same 120 Gold buys almost nothing else useful, and Stone is the one material you will never struggle to find. Save the gold for the things you cannot mine, covered in What to Buy from Merchants.

What You Can Write on It

The Tombstone takes a custom text inscription, which puts it in a club of exactly three structures — the other two are the Sign and the Wall-Mounted Sign. Functionally all three do the same job: label a chest row, mark a base boundary, leave directions for guildmates on a shared server, or flag the spot where your bag dropped after a bad fall. The difference is purely cosmetic and logistical. The signs unlock 11 levels earlier and cost Wood, which you will have more of at that stage; the Tombstone costs Stone and reads as a grave marker, so it is the pick when you want the tone rather than the utility. The Wall-Mounted Sign is the only one of the three that hangs on a wall, which matters more than it sounds when you are labelling a storage room and do not want three props eating floor space.

Writable structure	Tech level	Cost	Placement	Best for
Tombstone	17	10 Stone	Ground	Memorials, graveyards, roleplay bases, boundary markers
Sign	6	10 Wood	Ground	Earliest option, general labelling and directions
Wall-Mounted Sign	6	10 Wood	Wall	Labelling chest walls without using floor space

Is the Technology Point Worth It at Level 17?

Level 17 offers seven entries totalling 11 Technology Points, and you will not have 11 points spare, so something gets cut. The honest ranking: the Heater and the Cooking Pot are the two that change how your base runs and should clear first, and the Primitive Sword is the only combat upgrade on the level. The Tombstone is a 1-point cosmetic — real value if you are building a themed base or playing on a server where labels matter, easily skippable if you are rushing progression. The saving grace is that it is the cheapest entry on the level and Technology Points keep accruing as you level, so skipping it now costs you nothing permanent.

Technology 17 entry	Type	Points	Verdict
Heater	Structure	2	Take first — cold nights stop being a problem
Cooking Pot	Structure	2	Take second — unlocks the real cooking recipes
Primitive Sword	Weapon	2	Only combat upgrade here; 15 Stone, 15 Copper Ingot, 2 Wooden Board
Pengullet Rocket Launcher	Item	2	Niche — needs a Pengullet and 20 Stone plus 20 Copper Ingot
Tombstone	Structure	1	Cheapest on the level; cosmetic, but the only grave marker in the game
Metal Shelf Set — unlocks the Iron Shelf and matching pieces	Furniture set	1	Skip unless you are decorating; 100 Copper Ingot is steep at this level
Piano Furniture Set — unlocks the Grand Piano and matching pieces	Furniture set	1	Pure decoration; no rush

Cheapest Stone Builds Compared

Ignore the wall and roof pieces for a second — those are building parts you place by the dozen, so their 3 Stone price tag is not a fair comparison. Among standalone props that cost nothing but Stone, the Tombstone is the cheapest thing you can build at 10 units, undercutting the Stone Lantern by 5 and the Faux Rock by half. That also makes it the earliest of the three: 17 against the Lantern's 55. If you want stone decoration in a low-level base, this is effectively your only option for the next 30-odd levels.

Stone-only build	Stone cost	Tech level	Category
Stone Wall	3	19	Foundations — a building part, placed in bulk
Tombstone	10	17	Other — cheapest standalone Stone prop
Stone Defensive Wall	10	19	Defenses
Stone Lantern	15	55	Furniture
Faux Rock	20	14	Furniture — decoration only, cannot be mined

Related Guides

The Tombstone is a two-minute build, so the useful follow-ups are the things that make the rest of Technology 17 affordable — Stone at scale, Technology Points, and a base laid out well enough that decoration is worth doing at all.