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Getting Started in RimWorld

Welcome to the Rim. This is a story generator masking as a sci-fi colony sim. Your first colony will fail, and that is part of the design. Here is how to keep your next one alive just a little longer.

The Core Loop​

RimWorld is about managing chaos. You start with limited resources, a handful of colonists, and an environment that actively wants you dead. The core loop revolves around:

  1. Securing Basics: Food, shelter, and temperature control.
  2. Assigning Work: Setting up work priorities so the right pawn does the right job.
  3. Expansion: Building workbenches, defenses, and better rooms.
  4. Handling Threats: Surviving raids, disease, and environmental hazards driven by your chosen AI Storyteller.

Day One Priorities​

The moment you land, hit the spacebar to pause. Do not let time run until you have a plan.

1. Zone Your Stockpiles​

Your supplies deteriorate if left outside and unroofed. Create a Dumping Stockpile Zone away from your main living area for chunks and corpses. Create a regular Stockpile Zone near where you plan to build, set it to accept all raw resources, and make sure you build a room around it quickly to prevent decay.

2. Secure Shelter​

Find an existing ruin or build a simple wooden structure. Do not build individual bedrooms yet. A single barracks is fine for the first few nights. Throw down sleeping spots or wooden beds inside the room.

3. Establish a Food Source​

You land with some packaged survival meals, but they run out fast.

  • Check the wildlife tab and hunt passive animals like alpacas or deer.
  • Find wild berries and set them to be harvested.
  • Build a campfire or a fueled stove to cook simple meals. Raw food gives your pawns food poisoning, which ruins their productivity.
  • Lay down your first growing zones. Rice is the fastest-growing human food crop and gets you food security early on, but it requires a lot of labor. Switch to corn for your main food supply once your colony is stable.

4. Work Priorities​

Open the Work tab. Switch it to "Manual Priorities" by checking the box in the top left. This gives you a 1 to 4 numbering system instead of simple checkmarks. Set Firefight, Patient, and Bed Rest to priority 1 for everyone. After that, assign roles based on skills. Put your best cook on Cooking priority 1, your best builder on Construction priority 1, and so on.

Early Game Traps​

New players often fall into these specific pitfalls.

  • Building completely out of wood: Wood is fast and cheap, but it burns. A single flashstorm or raider with a molotov ruins your entire base if it is entirely wooden. Upgrade to stone blocks as soon as you research stonecutting.
  • Over-recruiting: Taking on every pawn that crashes in an escape pod seems like a good idea. It is not. Every pawn increases your colony wealth (which makes raids harder) and consumes more food. If a pawn has terrible stats or traits like Pyromaniac, let them leave.
  • Ignoring Mood: A mental break at the wrong time ends colonies. Keep your dining area clean, build a horseshoe pin for recreation, and make sure your pawns sleep in comfortable beds.

Once you survive your first week, you need to expand your knowledge of the simulation's deeper systems: