I wouldn’t say I’m a great gamer, but I do like to learn. And when I start a new game and struggle to figure it out, while some might give up entirely, I fight back. I become increasingly determined to figure it out in spite of the game itself. So, I wanted to start a new series here where I share some of my tips and tricks for these games that really, really don’t hold your hand to start off with. Let us begin with one of my favourite games of all time! This is my list of tips and tricks for Rimworld – to help you get gud, scrub!
1. Staring off with wood is fine, but upgrade ASAP
One of the first things you’ll want to do when you boot up a new game in Rimworld is establish a base for your pawns. Now, unless you’re a masochist and have chosen to set up on an icesheet biome, the most efficient way to do this is by cutting down trees and building your base out of wood. And while this is a perfectly valid technique to get you out of the elements, it’s definitely not recommended to keep this setup forever. My very first colony fell apart due to a rather unfortunately timed electrical discharge, which occurred in the middle of a raid. It meant my entirely wooden base burnt down and all my colonists died simultaneously, either from fire or being shot in the head. Safe to say, it was not a good day.
So, when you can look to start stockpiling stone chunks and break them down to stone slabs via the stone cutting table. Then try and replace as much of the wood around your base as possible. I recommend doing this in small chunks too, so don’t deconstruct it all at once. Do section by section to minimise the chance of a raid leaving you vulnerable.
2. Don’t be afraid to build into your surroundings.
It can be tempting to just build a base far away from everything else on your map. After all, then you can start from scratch and mould your base to your liking. But there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of what’s around.
Building into old ruins or a nearby mountain can mean faster building, and even defensive advantages during those first few raids where you are at your most vulnerable. This is especially true if you’re doing a sole survivor or naked brutality run, where you need to honestly be a bit of a coward until more people join your colony.
3. Just grow rice
I’ve personally never found growing anything other than rice to be all that beneficial. Sure, growing potatoes or corn can yield slightly more per harvest, but due to the speed that rice grows, comparatively, I just really can’t find a reason to grow anything else. As long as you having a competent cook and gardener in your colony, making a butt ton of simple meals with rice and the occasional meat if you have a good hunter, is perfectly satisfactory for your pawns.
I barely even bother with fine or lavish meals unless I have an overwhelming amount of stock in my storage and want to just clear some space. All this talk of rice is now making me hungry… rice is just the best!
4. If a pawn is being a problem, just arrest ‘em!
If you have a gourmand pawn in your colony and they’re about to go on a food binge, no doubt resulting in the last of your stocks effectively going down the drain, you are not as helpless as you may feel. Simply arrest them! If you draft another pawn you can select the colonist in question and select to arrest them. It will also often show the likelihood of success, so if that number is low, it’s worth either selecting another pawn to do it, or maybe reconsidering it depending on the situation.
If you are successful, your pawn will be taken to a jail cell and temporarily removed from your colony members list until you release them. This then breaks the action they were doing, potentially ending a fatal fight, or stopping them from eating the last of your food. It will give them and some of the other colonists a small mpod penalty though, so just keep that in mind. But, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the good of the colony.
5. Don’t underestimate the importance of giving your colonists bedrooms
I’ve seen many new players over on Twitch or YouTube just piling all their colonists into one room. And while for space saving purposes that’s a fair reason, it can actually lead to a lot of unhappy pawns. Unless they are seeing each other romantically, pawns will often get a minus mood penalty if they share a room. So avoid this by ensuring each pawn has a nice room, complete with simple furnishings like a bedside table, wardrobe and even a plant pot.
This simple upgrade means easy mood boosts literally every single day due to their room having pleasant surroundings. When things in your colony get dicey mood-wise, knowing that this will bring up their moods after sleeping every night, can honestly mean the difference between a pawn breaking down or not, so it’s well worth the investment.
6. Make areas for your animals
This isn’t as pertinent now with many animals being confined to pens with recent updates. But some animals are still free to roam, so this is worth exploring. You will notice in the information tabs that most colony animals by default can roam anywhere. And while this can be ok, when a raid happens or a predator wanders onto the map, it can lead to a dead colony animal real fast. And that can lead to some big mood penalties, especially if that animal was bonded.
My suggestion is to always make 2 designated areas for your animals. One for them to wander around in, not alowing them to stray too far from the base just in case, and another I often title, ‘safety.’ This second zone is where I immediately switch them all to when a raid or another emergency happens where they may get caught in the crossfire. If you’ve never done much area zoning before, simply navigate over to the allowed areas section in architect >zones. Then you can map out these areas for your animals. Don’t forget to assign these areas to them though afterwards, otherwise they won’t know which one is for them.
7. Traps in early game are the GOAT
If you struggle to get past the early game, I am assuming it’s because you haven’t taken advantage of traps. Especially if you’re running naked brutality, traps will mean the difference between surviving long enough to get your first new colonist, and not making it at all. I recommend crafting traps as soon as you can, and then creating a solid trap corridor.
You can do this just with wood if that’s all you have. Usually I just create a Z leading up to the entrance of my base’s outer wall. Along this Z path, I pop a slew of traps, but not before placing doors along the Z, so my pawns can simply just walk on out. Just remember to leave a gap somewhere so that the raiders can enter the trap corridor and then SNAP, you go on to live another day on the Rim.
So, that was just some of my tips and tricks for Rimworld!
I hope these tips and tricks for Rimworld can help you make an amazing, fruitful base in your next game filled with happy, healthy pawns. If you’d like me to share even more tips and tricks for Rimworld, or any other game, just let me know in the comments below. And hey, before you click off why not check out our other gaming posts right here, or even go subscribe to our company YouTube channel – cos we’re awesome like that!
