RimWorld Important Notes guide screenshot

Important Notes

Important Notes



This section collects critical warnings, common pitfalls, and essential knowledge that can make or break your colony. Read these before diving in—they will save you from many frustrating restarts.

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Irreversible Choices & Permanent Consequences



  • Character Creation & Starting Scenario: Your three starting colonists (pawns) and their traits, passions, and backstories are semi-random. While you can reroll as many times as you like, once you land on the planet you cannot change your starting pawns' traits or backgrounds (unless you use dev mode or mods). Pick wisely: avoid starting with a pawn who has Pyromaniac, Chemical Fascination, Gourmand, or Volatile unless you know how to manage them. A Wimp or Too Smart can be problematic early.

  • Colony Location: After landing, you cannot move your colony without mods. The tile you choose affects climate, terrain, resources, and threats. A temperate forest with year-round growing is the easiest start. Swamp, jungle, tundra, or extreme desert are significantly harder. Picking a map with Marble or Granite stone types is beneficial for building. Granite is the strongest wall material; Marble is less durable but beautiful. Choose your arrival tile carefully.

  • Colonist Death: Death is permanent (unless a resurrector mech serum is used later). Losing a key pawn to a stray bullet or a maddened squirrel can end a colony. Install prosthetics and bionics to replace lost limbs, but death is final without rare items.

  • Quests & Rewards: Accepting a quest often spawns a raid or other threat. The reward is usually worth it, but once you accept a quest, the event is unavoidable. Carefully read the quest description—some have time limits, some spawn immediate dangers. If you cannot handle a raid right now, don't accept.

  • Faction Relationships: Attacking a neutral or friendly faction's traders, settlements, or caravans permanently reduces your goodwill. Going to -100 relations triggers permanent hostility (they become an enemy faction). You can attempt to rebuild relations via gifts, but it takes many resources. Avoid turning neutral factions into enemies unless you are prepared for constant raids from that faction.

  • World Map & Caravans: Sending out a caravan and leaving your colony undefended can result in a raid that destroys it while your colonists are away. Always keep at least a few capable defenders behind. Also, caravans can be ambushed en route and suffer casualties. Plan routes through friendly territory if possible.

  • Rituals & Dark Archeotech: Some late-game events, like the Desecration ritual or using the Archonexus core, can have permanent colony-wide effects. Read the description carefully before committing. The Archonexus ending requires selling your entire colony—irreversible.


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    Missable Content & Timed Opportunities



  • Ancient Complexes (DLC: Ideology): On the world map, you can find ancient complexes with valuable loot and dangers. These appear randomly and despawn after a certain time or after you leave the area. If you see one nearby, visit it before it vanishes.

  • Quest Timers: Many quests have a time limit. If you ignore them, you lose the opportunity. Some rewards are unique (special weapons, archotech items). Check the timer and prioritize if the reward is critical.

  • Trade Ship Schedules: Trade ships visit randomly. If you are low on a resource, you might miss a chance to buy/sell. Build a Comms Console early and call traders if you have the goodwill or silver.

  • Seasonal Events: Events like Toxic Fallout, Volcanic Winter, or Cold Snap can last for days or longer. Missed preparation (growing food indoors, stockpiling medicine) can ruin a colony. Always have a buffer of 20-30 days of food and medicine.

  • Prisoner Recruitment: Captured pawns have a chance to join your colony over time. Missed opportunity if you execute them without trying to recruit (unless they are harmful). Some pawns have excellent skills worth the wait.

  • Royal Ascent Quests (DLC: Royalty): These quest chains come randomly and lead to the Empire ending. If you refuse or fail them, you may not get another chance for a long time. Accept if you are ready for increased difficulty.


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    Difficulty Spikes & Common Pitfalls



  • First Raid (Day 1-3): The very first raid is usually a single, weak enemy, but it can catch you without weapons. Have at least one pawn with Shooting skill 3+ and a ranged weapon (bolt-action rifle or revolver) before landing. Avoid melee-only starting scenarios.

  • Mad Animal Events: Early game, a maddened squirrel or rabbit can injure or kill an unarmored pawn. It seems funny until your doctor is downed. Keep pawns indoors or draft them when you see a manhunter animal.

  • Season Change: The first winter can be brutal if you didn't stockpile food and firewood. In cold biomes, growing season ends abruptly. Build a freezer (cooler) even in temperate regions to store excess food.

  • Large Raids (First Mechanoid Cluster): Mechanoid clusters (DLC: Royalty) or simply larger human raids (around 10-15 enemies) appear after your colony wealth crosses ~100,000. This is a major difficulty spike. Do not bloat your colony wealth too fast by creating expensive items or farming excessive silver. Invest in defenses (turrets, traps, killboxes) proportional to your wealth.

  • Manhunter Packs: A herd of 20+ manhunter animals (e.g., elephants, rhinos) can wipe out an unprepared colony. Always have a stone-walled building to retreat into. Animals cannot smash through stone walls (only wood or steel).

  • Mental Breaks: A pawn with very low mood can go on a murderous rampage, start a fire, or wander in the open. Keep mood high with impressive dining rooms, recreation, and beauty. A single mental break can destroy your stockpile of components if they set fire to the workshop.

  • Infestations (Mountain Bases): If you build into a mountain (overhead mountain roof), you risk insect infestations. They spawn in dark, warm areas. Light prevents spawns, but overhead mountain tiles always allow spawns regardless of light. Use turrets, firefoam poppers, and a dedicated killbox for infestations. Avoid building deep mountain bases early.


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    Grinding Traps & Efficiency Warnings



  • Manual Labor Over Automation: RimWorld rewards automation. Building a Research Bench early and rushing Microelectronics (for solar panels and batteries) is almost mandatory. Research Stonecutting to make walls from stone blocks (fireproof, durable). Do not waste time hauling stone chunks manually—build a Stockpile Zone near the construction site and let pawns do it.

  • Over-Farming: Planting more crops than you can harvest leads to spoiled food. A ratio of 10-15 rice/corn plants per colonist (depending on soil fertility) is sufficient early. Expand gradually.

  • Excessive Base Expansion: Building too many rooms too quickly drains resources and cleaning time. Keep a compact, efficient base until you have a dedicated constructor and cleaner.

  • Crafting Without Plans: Producing excessive weapons, clothing, or art before you need them just increases colony wealth, attracting bigger raids. Craft only what you need or have a specific trade plan.

  • Animal Training: Training animals requires constant interaction. A single handler can train many animals, but over-training large herds (e.g., 50 muffalo) becomes a micromanagement nightmare. Keep animal counts manageable.

  • Mod-Related Grind: Installing many mods (especially those adding complex systems like Rimatomics, Pandemic, etc.) can reduce performance and increase cognitive load. Stick to a few essential mods until you understand the game's baseline.


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    Online Etiquette & Anti-Cheat (Single-Player Game)



    RimWorld is a single-player game. There is no official online multiplayer, anti-cheat, or etiquette rules. However:
  • Multiplayer Mod: The Zetrith Prepatcher and Multiplayer mod allow cooperative play. If using that mod, be respectful of your co-op partner's decisions. Do not steal their items, ruin their base, or troll them. Communicate.

  • Modding & Cheating: Using dev mode or console commands is allowed—it's your game. However, using cheats in multiplayer mods might be considered unfair. Always disclose if you enable dev mode in a co-op session.

  • Screenshots & Spoilers: Some players prefer to discover story events (like The Ship ending) themselves. If posting on forums or Reddit, use spoiler tags.

  • No Built-in DRM: If you bought the game from GOG or Steam, there is no intrusive anti-cheat. Modify files as you wish.


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    Save Management Advice



  • Multiple Save Slots: Use at least three rotating save slots. RimWorld does not autosave by default (you can enable autosave in options, but it overwrites only one save). Manually save before major events (quests, caravans, battles).

  • Named Saves: Give descriptive names like "Pre-Raid Week 2", "After Winter", etc., so you can revert to specific moments.

  • Permadeath (Randy's Challenge): There is a permadeath mode (Rough/Blood & Dust) that disables manual saves—only one save, and you cannot reload. This is risky. Most players start with Reload Anytime mode to learn.

  • Save Corruptions: Mod conflicts can corrupt saves. Regularly back up your save folder (`%AppData%/../LocalLow/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios/Saves` on Windows) to an external location. Avoid uninstalling mods mid-game; that can break saves.

  • Autosave Interval: Set autosave to every 1 or 2 days. But be careful—if a bad event happens and the game autosaves after, you lose your pre-event state. Keep a manual save slot for emergencies.


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    Things Players Commonly Regret Not Knowing Earlier



    1. Fire is the enemy: Wooden walls and floors burn. Upgrade to stone blocks as soon as possible. Keep a firefoam popper in your storage area.
    2. Batteries explode: If batteries are left outside or get wet, they short-circuit and cause fires. Build a roof over your battery bank and use a Conduit that is separated by a switch to disconnect them when not needed.
    3. Turrets need power & components: Early turrets (steel turrets) are weak but cheap. They require components to build and repair. Don't build too many before you have a steady component supply.
    4. Cold snaps kill crops: Even in a temperate forest, a cold snap can freeze outdoor crops. Build a greenhouse (sun lamp + heater) or store enough food for 30 days after summer.
    5. Prisoners can be recruited: You don't have to execute or release all prisoners. If they have useful skills, try to recruit them via the Social tab. It takes time but is worth it.
    6. Animals can haul: Train pack animals (muffalo, alpaca) to haul items. This frees up colonist time. But be careful: trained animals can also wander into dangerous areas.
    7. Infections kill: A minor scratch can lead to a deadly infection if not treated with medicine. Always have at least herbal medicine (grow healroot) and a clean hospital (bed, light, vitals monitor later).
    8. Recurring events: The AI Storyteller has a hidden point system ("wealth") that determines raid size. Avoid hoarding silver or valuable items (gold, jade) unless you can defend them.
    9. Colonist moods are critical: Keep expectations realistic. A colonist who expects a lavish meal but only gets a simple meal gets a mood debuff. Adjust meal policies in the Assign tab.
    10. Pawn relationships matter: Colonists with relatives on the map get buffs. If a colonist's spouse dies, they will suffer a severe mood penalty. Keep married couples safe.

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    Final Warnings



  • Don't trust Randy Random: Randy might give you 3 seasons of calm, then hit you with a triple raid while a solar flare knocks out your turrets. Always be ready.

  • Mind the story: RimWorld is about emergent storytelling. Losing is part of the journey. Don't get too attached to a colony; each failure teaches you something.

  • Check your difficulty: The default "Cassandra Classic" on Strive to Survive is challenging enough for most. Setting it to Losing is Fun will guarantee frequent disasters. Lower it if you feel overwhelmed.


Remember: every colony dies eventually. The goal is to tell a compelling story. Use these notes to avoid cheap deaths and unfair surprises, but embrace the chaos.

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End of Important Notes guide. Good luck, rim-dweller!