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Orbital Trade & Economics

By ScotPublished Updated Sources checked

Tactical Quick Answer

Trading with passing deep-space ships takes a powered Comms Console plus an Orbital Trade Beacon, and traders will only buy goods sitting inside the beacon's glowing perimeter. Anything they drop to you has to land unroofed or directly next to the beacon, so build a dedicated open-air stockpile for it. Trade and gifting also work as wealth control, which matters because raid severity scales with your absolute colony wealth and not with elapsed time.

The transition from early-game poverty to late-game self-sufficiency is gated by macro-economics and trade. You cannot produce everything you need yourself. You must engage with the wider planetary economy.

Orbital Trade Beacons​

Trading with passing deep-space ships requires specialized infrastructure. Ground caravans will visit you early on, but the best gear and raw materials come from orbit.

To trade with ships in orbit:

  1. Build a Comms Console and make sure it has power.
  2. Research Microelectronics and build an Orbital Trade Beacon. The beacon needs its own power too, at 40W, which is the step people miss when a trade inexplicably shows nothing for sale. It does not need to sit near the console.

The beacon covers a radius of about eight cells. Traders only buy goods inside that perimeter, and solid walls and doors cut the radius short, so a beacon walled into a corner covers far less than the glow suggests. Animals are the exception and can be sold from anywhere on the map.

Goods dropped to you land inside the beacon's range when the ground there is unroofed and not inside a pen, and otherwise fall as near the beacon as they can while avoiding roofs. The pen exclusion is the real trap: a large animal pen around your beacon can leave deliveries scattered. Build a dedicated, unroofed stockpile zone for the beacon and keep pens away from it. One security note, since it cuts the other way: roughly 40% of drop-pod raids that aim for your base center target a powered, unroofed beacon.

Faction Goodwill Manipulation​

You do not have to fight every faction on the planet. Hostile tribal or outlander factions can be turned into valuable allies through economic manipulation.

By constructing transport pods, you can load excess wealth such as cloth, surplus weapons, or raw silver and launch it into a faction base as a gift. The exchange rate starts around 1 goodwill per 40 silver of value and worsens as goodwill climbs, so the last stretch costs several times the first.

Two thresholds matter. A hostile faction turns neutral at goodwill 0, and neutral turns to ally at +75. Before you spend anything, check who you are dealing with, because pirates, savage tribes, and cannibal tribes sit permanently at -100 and can never be befriended at all. Gifts to them are simply destroyed.

Once allied, you can call for military aid from the Comms Console. Budget for it properly: each call costs 31 goodwill, runs a 24-hour cooldown, and needs you to still be at ally standing afterward. There is also a restriction that undoes the obvious plan. Tribal factions cannot provide military aid. Only outlanders and the Empire can, so gifting your way to an allied tribe buys you trade and safe passage but no soldiers.

Wealth Management​

Raid severity does not scale with time. It scales with Colony Wealth, counting stockpiled items at full value, buildings at half, and your pawns and animals on top. Colonist count feeds in as a separate term alongside it.

The curve is flat at both ends, which is worth knowing before you panic about it. Below roughly 14,000 wealth you contribute no raid points at all, and the wealth contribution caps out at 1,000,000, beyond which more wealth changes nothing.

Update 1.6.4850 closed one wealth trap. Ancient bridges and ancient heavy bridges now carry a market value of 0, which prevents the large wealth spikes that used to land on you when a map generated ruins over water.

One correction to a very common piece of advice. Raid points have no idea what your defenses look like. Buying marine armor and uranium slug turrets does not offset your wealth, it adds to it, since the armor counts at full value and the turrets at half. The real principle is that you want wealth converted into fighting power faster than it converts into threat, not that defense somehow cancels the wealth penalty. Routinely trading raw resources for gear you actually use is good practice for that reason, and gifting genuine surplus away is the only route that lowers the number outright.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Why can the orbital trader not see my items?

Check the beacon has power, since it draws 40W of its own and a dark beacon sells nothing. Then check the goods are genuinely inside its radius, remembering that walls and doors cut the area short even though the glow suggests otherwise. Animals are the exception and sell from anywhere.

What do I need to trade with orbital ships?

A powered Comms Console and a powered Orbital Trade Beacon, with Microelectronics researched for the beacon. The console makes contact with the passing ship and the beacon defines which of your goods the trader can buy. They do not need to be near each other.

Why should my trade stockpile be unroofed?

Deliveries land inside the beacon's range when the ground is unroofed and not inside an animal pen, and otherwise fall wherever they can nearby. The pen rule catches people out, so keep pens away from the beacon and leave the drop zone open to the sky.

Can I turn a hostile faction friendly in RimWorld?

Usually, at roughly 1 goodwill per 40 silver gifted, getting more expensive as goodwill rises. Neutral starts at 0 and ally at plus 75. Pirates, savage tribes, and cannibal tribes are the exception: they sit permanently at minus 100 and can never be befriended, so gifts to them are wasted.

Why are my raids getting so much harder?

Colony wealth drives raid points, counting items at full value and buildings at half, with colonist count as a separate term. Note that buying defenses raises wealth instead of offsetting it, so the goal is turning wealth into fighting power faster than it turns into threat. The wealth contribution is flat below 14,000 and caps at 1,000,000.