Did they introduce an additional way of pernanently strengthening a Pal that I'm not aware of? My Lovander has +60% HP/ATK/DEF/work speed from souls, is 4 stars, an alpha, with the best attacks and traits possible, maxed on skill fruits, and level 60.
No, thats peak currently. Still kind of feels underwhelming when I throw a similar Frostallion (technically the strongest Pal in the game in raw stats) at something like a tower boss and it gets its ass beat in less than a minute. I don't expect them to carry me, but they should put up more of a fight than a wet fart. You really only feel the power a pal has during raids, but thats also because you got 25 pissed off AI firing off on the same target at once.
There do exist books to raise their work levels, but I haven't come across enough of them to know to what extent. If I had to guess, its like 1 more work level per catagory, per pal.
Speaking to what Noebel said, some of these new passives are:
Demon God - +30% ATK, +5% DEF
Diamond Body - +30% DEF
Remarkable Craftsmenship - +75% Work
Vampiric - Life Leech + Nocturnal
Vampiric does not work for the player on mounts. I've tried.
Edit: Each catagory of Research has a task for a +2% increase to attack and defense of pals in the base. Useful for raids. The bounty tokens you now get for beating an Alpha Pal the first time give a +2% increase to an elements type damage. I don't know if this is exclusive to the player and/or party pals. These are far more situational boosts.