Pakleds have heavy foreheads, thick fringed lower eyelids and oddly vertical eyebrows. Most have sparse or receding hairlines and distinctly "pear-shaped" bodies. They are hardy and strong but not particularly agile. Their minimal language skills and simplistic approach to problem solving leads many species to underestimate their not inconsiderable capacity for cunning and resourcefulness. Pakleds are not innovators or conquerors, but they are some of the galaxy's most persistent survivors.

Pakleds are scroungers and scavengers, seeking out usable materials and jury-rigging their ships as they go. It is unlikely that they developed space travel on their own. More probably, they took the technology from some other species that exploited them as laborers, then made the fatal mistake of underestimating them. ( "We are tired of working. We will go home now. Give us your ship." Followed by relentless weapons fire that continues until the exploiters are barely even carbon burns on the bulkheads. "Thank you.") Pakleds are tireless laborers, easy to please consumers, and relentlessly unyielding hagglers. They can badger a Ferengi into giving them a discount just to get rid of them. Many species underestimate the Pakleds and wind up regretting it. They are ruthless in the pursuit of their goals and heedless of moral or ethical impediments.

Their native world is a passive, rather dry, deadly dull place. Pakled architecture and culture are simple and functional. Their comprehension of Art is minimal. The primary Pakled response to any work of Art is to squint at it, frown, then ask, "What does it do?" If the answer is not something practical, they ignore it.