Events

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For a guide to survive events, see Events Guide.

Events are driven by the currently selected AI storyteller.

Most events that occur create a Letter, an envelope icon on the right side of the screen. Other events will pause the game and pop up a window where the player must make a choice. Usually, the color of the envelope will suggest the severity of the event; blue envelopes are good events, grey is neutral, yellow is bad, and red denotes direct threats.

Many event titles are variable. They can mention location, pawn and faction names, specific buffs or debuffs, or even have countdowns for the time variable events.

Major Threats

Major threats can appear from Base Builder difficulty onwards. They mostly consist of direct attacks to your colony. Their size depends on the raid points mechanic; generally increasing in strength with wealth, colonist count, and difficulty.

Enemy attack

Commonly known as a raid, this event comes in several types. It is possible for multiple raids to happen at the same time, even of opposing factions.

Arrival methods

Tribal-level factions can't use drop pods, so are limited to assaults.

• Assaults: Arrive at the edge of the map, either by walking or by drop pod. They may assault the colony immediately, or stage for a time before launching their attack, giving you time to prepare.
• Center drop: Raiders immediately attack via drop pod, centered on of one of your colonists. There is 40% to drop on an unroofed orbital trade beacon if one is present. Drop pods can go through constructed and thin rock roofs, but not overhead mountain.
• Scatter drop: Raiders immediately attack via drop pod, which have gone "haywire" and will disperse throughout the map.

Types

• Smart: "Unusually clever", will try and avoid traps and turrets.
• Sappers: Sappers will try and mine or break walls to create the shortest route to a colonist's bedroom.
• Breachers: Appears with breach-type raiders, such as tribals with breach axes or termite mechanoids. Breachers will attack walls indiscriminately, as opposed to sappers having a target. The rest of the raid acts as normal.

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  Assault

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  Raided by (relationship) mom!

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  Drop pod sappers

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  Sappers

Siege

Sieges are a special type of raid. They arrive in drop pods, along with supplies. They will construct sandbags and mortars, and will continously be supplied with food and mortar shells. They will fire at colonists, colony structures, and other pawns they are hostile to. Sieges will directly assault the colony after a long time (a few days), if their mortars are destroyed or unbuildable, or after sufficient casualties.

It is possible to steal a critical material (like components) and prevent them from completing construction. This is largely possible with a psycaster using both Invisibility and Skip, with enough heat capacity to cast both 2-3 times in a row.

Strategies to force sieges to attack include the sniper rifle (watch out for other snipers), a psychic animal pulser, or your own mortars.

Infestation

Main article: Infestation

Infestations come with hives and insectoids. Hives will produce insect jelly, but will rapidly create insects, too. If you don't want it to infest the whole area, muster your forces and destroy it. But beware - the bugs will defend their hive.

In order for a regular infestation to spawn, there must be an open area with the overhead mountain roof, within 30 tiles of a colony structure, and a temperature above -17 °C (1.4 °F). Light, and temperatures below -8 °C (17.6 °F) reduce the chance of infestations.

The Too Deep: Infestation is a seperate event. Insects can still arrive, but this event has seperate mechanics.

Manhunter pack

For the mental state that makes these animals hostile, see Manhunter.

A pack of scaria-infested animals have arrived, hunting for human flesh. A manhunter pack has 40% more points (i.e. 40% more "raiders") than a regular raid. When killed, scaria has a chance to instantly rot a corpse, which makes them inedible and creates rot stink. A single animal can arrive and the event will still be called a "pack".

Manhunters will roam the region, attacking any human they can path to. The animals can't enter doors, but if they see a colonist run behind a door, they will attempt to beat down the door. If left alive, they will congregate around your base for anywhere from 24 to 54 in-game hours before they all leave.

Psychic Wave

Immediately drives local wildlife insane, becoming manhunter. Unlike a manhunter pack, these animals were already on the map, so won't instantly rot like with scaria.

Like with a manhunter pack, the selected animals will roam the region, attacking any human they can path to. The animals can't enter doors, but if they see a colonist run behind a door, they will attempt to beat down the door. Unlike with scaria, the manhunter status will end when the animals need to sleep.

Crashed ship part

For the help guide, see Defense_structures#Crashed_ships.

For information on the ship parts themselves, see Crashed ship parts.

A large piece of an ancient ship crashes nearby, along with a pack of mechanoids. The mechs will generate dormant, but will awaken when they or the ship part are attacked. While the ship part is still active, they will activate an intensifying negative effect on the map.

Defoliator ship

A crashed defoliator ship kills all wild or domesticated plants in an expanding circle, up to a radius of 100 tiles. The poison kills crops randomly, including plants grown in hydroponics basins. Crops will end up nearly impossible to grow.

Psychic ship

A ship part projects a psychic drone which negatively affects the mood of a specific gender. It begins low and grows progressively stronger the longer it stays. Psychic sensitivity increases or decreases the drone's effect.

The ship's is also capable of emitting psychic pulses that can drive a colonist to an immediate mental break, or nearby animals to madness.

Drone intensifies

If left alone long enough, the drone emitted from a crashed psychic ship will get worse as time goes on. Every 2.5 days the drone gets stronger, from -12 mood at the beginning up to -48 after 7.5 days.

• 

  Defoliator ship

• 

  ''Psychic ship

Mech cluster

Main article: Mech cluster

Mech clusters are similar to crashed ship parts that come with more advanced structure, with buildings like walls, turrets, and unstable power cells. They also spawn dormant, but can come with activators, able to wake up from proximity or over time. They can come with on-map condition causers, such as sun blockers or EMP dynanmos.

Problem causer

Main article: Condition causer

A condition causer has appeared within 10 world tiles of your colony, creating a negative effect. It must be destroyed to stop the effect. Some conditions may be situationally good, such as a psychic suppressor (male) when you only have females in the colony.

Extreme weather

The following events can appear from Base Builder difficulty onwards.

Flashstorm

A localized, intense lightning storm within a radius between 45 and 60 tiles. Active lightning will strike between every 320 ticks (5.33 secs) to 800 ticks (13.33 secs). Once it finishes, no rain can fall until 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins) has passed. This can create big fires. It lasts between 0.075 and 0.1 days, and will not reoccur for 15 days. Clicking the envelope icon offers the option to jump to the center point.

This can also be caused by the Flashstorm Psycast , but will not show up as a notification.

Toxic fallout

"A distant chemical fire has released a plume of poison over this entire region that will slowly settle out of the atmosphere. It will last for anywhere from a few days to an entire season."

Toxic fallout is a dangerous event which causes toxic buildup to any pawn not under a roof. Toxic fallout also gives a −5 moodlet when outside. It lasts between 2.5 and 10.5 days, will not occur before Day 60 of the colony, and will not reoccur for 90 days.

For humans, a moderate buildup - 40% severity, or 2.5 days left outside - is enough to potentially cause permanent damage, from either dementia or carcinoma. Death happens at 100% severity. Animals have 50% Toxic Resistance, so buildup increases at half the rate, but exposed animals will eventually die. When animals die with toxic buildup, there is a chance, scaling with severity, for their corpse to immediately rot. All plants, including trees, will wither during the fallout. Crops can be protected under a roof, but without a sun lamp, they'll rot anyways. Insectoids and mechanoids are fully immune.

In Biotech, several new objects give Toxic Resistance, which counter the effects of the fallout. These include the face mask, gas mask, detoxifier kidney and detoxifier lung. Genes can make humans completely immune to toxins.

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  Toxic fallout

• 

  Colonist acquired Dementia at 80% extreme level

Volcanic winter

"A distant supervolcano has erupted and begun spewing millions of cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere. Ash in the atmosphere will obscure the sun. Temperatures will drop and plants will suffer for lack of sunlight. It could pass in a few weeks, or it might last many months."

Volcanic winter lowers the temperature and natural light, which in turn weakens solar generators and slows plant growth. They also appear to significantly reduce the inflow of wildlife (observed in a Temperate Forest, 300x300, very few animals came in during Spring-Summer when there would normally be many). This can easily lead to meat shortage and famine if you do not have sufficiently large farms for your colony. Volcanic winters will last between 7.5 and 40 days, will not occur before Day 60 of the colony, and will not reoccur for 140 days.

Random

Quests

Main article: Quests

Quests are a class of event that provide conditions to be met or actions to be performed to gain a reward. There are a wide variety of quests, which are listed on the quest page.

Good

Ambrosia sprout

An ambrosia sprout among the trees

A grove of the mysterious ambrosia bush has sprouted nearby! If you wait for the plants to grow, you'll be able to harvest the delicious, pleasurable, and slightly addictive fruit.

Ambrosia bushes are the only way to harvest ambrosia, a safe mood boosting social drug. A good way to harvest them is to draw a growing zone over them, but forbid sowing. Colonists will then automatically harvest the bushes when they are fully grown.

It can only happen in the following biomes:

• Tropical rainforest
• Tropical swamp
• Temperate forest
• Temperate swamp
• Boreal forest
• Arid shrubland

Animals join

Tamed dogs or farm animals from off-map join your colony.

Animal self-tamed

A random animal on the map becomes tame, and immediately joins the colony. Previously tamed animals can self-tame, where they retain all training they previously had.

You should probably check the "Animals" tab immediately and assign the animal to an appropriate zone, unless you want to let it move unrestricted.

Aurora

An aurora lights up the night sky, giving a +14 mood boost to anyone who is outside watching. While in real life it only happens near the poles, on the rimworlds it can happen anywhere regardless of latitude. It ends at day and otherwise lasts from 0.125 to 0.35 days.

Cargo pods

From time to time, cargo pods will fall out of orbit, containing a random amount of single type of resource. The remains of the pods become steel slag chunks, which can be refined into usable metal at an electric smelter. The pods have a chance of crashing through the roofs of any buildings, damaging any nearby furniture, structures or any pawn they land on.

Herd migration: (Animal)

A large herd of animals is passing through the area. They won't attack unless provoked.

This event only occurs in the following biomes:

• Sea ice
• Ice sheet
• Tundra
• Desert
• Extreme desert

Party

One of your colonists will throw a party around a party spot, or if unavailable, a gather spot (table or campfire). Colonists will continually get mood buffs the longer they attend a party.^[Detail] Each stack adds +0.8 to mood, lasts 10 days and stacks up to 10 times, for a max buff of +8 mood. In addition, a party provides many social opportunities. They will usually have beers and smokeleaf joints, if available, and eat meals even when not hungry.

Pawns that don't attend won't get mood buffs. Players may have to draft and undraft pawns to get them out of work. If too many pawns are drafted at once, or if a raid happens, then the party will be called off.

Psychic soothe

When this event triggers, the soothe gives a positive mood modifier (+16 for normal colonists, more or less depending on the Psychic Sensitivity) to all colonists of a randomly chosen sex. It can be considered the opposite of the Psychic Drone. It lasts between 1.5 and 3.0 days and will not reoccur for 15 days.

(Trader type)

This event, without a faction mentioned, occurs when an orbital trade ship passes near the colony and you have a powered comms console. Players may trade to obtain resources or weapons, or alternatively sell excess items for silver, which is always accepted by traders. Note that orbital trade ships can appear even when the comms console is turned off, so check the console during a solar flare.

You need to build orbital trade beacons before contacting them so you can beam silver and items up to the ship to actually carry out transactions. You can still check the items for sale even without them however.

(Trader type) from (Faction)

This event with the faction name mentioned means the traders are terrestrial. Trader caravans from other non-hostile factions can stop by your colony, whether specifically requested via the comms console at a hit to good will or randomly on their own with no penalty.

Transport pod crash

A downed and injured occupant falls from the sky, containing members of a faciton or neutral, unaffiliated spacers. A friendly or neutral occupant can be rescued to a medical bed, while a hostile member must be put into a prison bed.

Once healed, non-hostile crash victims will either join your colony out of gratitude, or walk away to return to their faction. You can instead capture a non-hostile person, but their faction (if not spacer) will turn hostile.

Since you rescued him/her. Character joined your group!

Baby

A transport pod may crash with a baby instead of the regular occupant, and will always appear as a friendly faction/neutral refugee/unaffiliated. You can choose to ignore it and let it starve to death, or adopt the baby by selecting it and click "Adopt". Rarely, the corpse of the baby's parent can also appear next to it, still in pristine condition.

People arrived

A random colonist arrives from a map edge and joins the colony immediately. Like most events involving other people, the wanderer has a chance to be related to an existing colonist. They will most likely be naked, so have some spare clothes ready just in case. Notification: A villager named (name) has arrived and is joining the colony. (Gender) is a (backstory).

With Ideology, the colonist that joins the colony will have a randomized Ideoligion. This event can also occur at 50% rate if an Ideoligion's event result set for this event is "Beautiful/Fun/Good / Unforgettable", with said colonist with the same Ideoligion as the masses of the colonist in the colony.

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  Common character

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  Related character

Wild (wo)man wanders in

A random person with no faction wanders into your colony and will mill about the map. You have the option to Tame this person with a minimum Animals skill of 7. Doing so will convert them to into a completely normal colonist. Sometimes, they may not be able to resist the harshness of nature and may fall unconscious (ex: Toxic Fallout, extreme temperatures), allowing you to rescue them like transport pod crash victims. Arresting them will not allow you to recruit or enslave them like regular prisoners, they must be tamed or rescued.

Wild humans have a 50% chance of attacking when harmed, and 10% if taming fails.

These wild (wo)man may have random Ideoligion with Ideology.

Unlike other animals, wild people will not flee from gunfire. Cannibal wild people can hunt human pawns for food like a predator. It is unclear if this applies to non-cannibals as well.^{[Detail needed]}

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  Wild man wanders in

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  Wild man joins without "taming"

Traveler Visit

Occasionally, one or more members of a friendly faction will arrive, just passing through. They'll enter at one edge of the map and proceed across the map. They'll exit the map upon reaching another edge.

A drafted colonist can be directed to capture (arrest) one of the travelers. However, once the arresting colonist reaches the target, that entire faction will immediately turn extremely hostile, dropping to -76 Goodwill. This shift includes any other members of the same Faction currently there.

Visitor(s)

Friendly faction members may stop by your settlement. Occasionally, they will have a few goods to trade. Like a regular trader they will mill about the player's colony for a while. Unlike a regular trader, they don't have many goods with them, nor do they have as much silver to buy your goods. Visitors possess no higher purpose otherwise, but will fight mutual enemies.

Sometimes there will be a singular visitor. In this case, the game will notify you of the backstory of that visitor.

Royal Tribute Collector

Main article: Royal tribute collector

If you are not hostile to the Empire, Royal Tribute Collectors will visit the colony approximately twice a year. Tribute collectors are essentially Empire-only trade caravans that exclusively accept gold and prisoners in exchange for Honor.

Gauranlen pod sprout

A Gauranlen pod has sprouted nearby! Harvest it to collect a Gauranlen seed. This special seed can be used to plant the majestic Gauranlen tree. Your colonist can connect with Guaranlen trees and make them spawn resources and helpful dryads to work or fight for you.

A pod will appear somewhere with the current map. Harvesting it yield 1-2 Gauranlen seed. This event occurs roughly every 60 days in every biome except Ice Sheets and Sea Ice, and this time is decreased to roughly every 30 days for tree connectors. This event can also occur if an Ideoligion's ritual result is set to trigger this event and performing the ritual receives a "Beautiful/Fun/Good/Unforgettable" quality.

Polux tree sprout

A polux tree may appear whenever there is enough pollution around. It will consume and clean up said pollution, but will not do so if it or its roots are under a roof.

Bad

Beavers!

A group of ravenous wood-munching alphabeavers appears at the edge of the map. This only occurs in the arid shrubland and tundra,and only when outdoor temperature is above the alphabeaver's minimum comfortable temperature of -40 °C (-40 °F). It will not reoccur for 30 days.

Beavers will act like any other animal. But due to their unique diet and extreme hunger, beavers will continually eat trees and Saguaro cacti they can reach, including any you're farming. They will continue until there's no wood left, unless you eradicate them first.

Birthday

Character gains an age-related illness, such as bad back or cataracts. They may be cured by using the healer mech serum, luciferium, a biosculpter pod, or the Scarless gene. Some may be 'cured' by replacing the affected parts with bionics.

Due to age or a pre-existing health condition, they can also have a heart attack.

Blight

Main article: Blight

Blighted crops with an indicator above them.

Blight is a disease that infects domesticated plants with a growing period shorter than 15 days. Blighted crops will not grow or yield anything when harvested, and the blight will spread to other nearby plants within 3 tiles. These plants must be cut in order to avoid further spread. Trees, wild, decorative plants, and devilstrand mushrooms are immune to blight.

Blight starts on one of your crops, at 10% severity, affecting 20% of your plants (40% initial plants affected has been witnessed in December 2020). It will progress slowly once plants are infected, and once it reaches 28% it can spread to nearby plants within a 4-tile radius.

It will not reoccur for 30 days.

Disease

Colonists (including prisoners and slaves) or animals will gain a random disease. Biome influences both the amount of disease and its selection. Multiple pawns can get a disease, but 1 event can only affect colonists or animals.

Sickly pawns will get sick with a MTB of 30 days, independently of the rest of your colonists.

Eclipse

A moon has moved in front of the sun, causing an eclipse. Without light, solar generators won't function, and outdoor crops stop growing. It lasts between 0.75 and 1.25 days.

If reliant on solar power, make sure to have batteries for times like these, or an eclipse raid can be extra threatening.

Heat wave

A heat wave sweeps the colony, driving outdoor temperatures unusually high for 1.5 and 3.5 days. There is also a chance for a fire to randomly appear on the map, which can quickly spread. It only occurs when the map's summer temperature is at least 20 °C (68 °F), and will not reoccur for 30 days.

The major risks are coolers failing to freeze food, and heat stroke to your colonists and animals. Summer clothing like cowboy hats and tribalwear can mitigate the heat, and passive coolers can help make indoor temperatures bearable.

Psychic drone

For the moodlet, see Mood#Exotic.

'Drone' in this case does not refer to "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle" but instead "To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz." A psychic drone affects all colonists of a randomly chosen gender, giving a strong negative moodlet. The drone can vary in severity, from low (-12 mood) to extreme (-40 mood). Psychic Sensitivity will multiply the effect on the drone. It lasts between 0.75 and 1.75 days and will not reoccur for 15 days.

Colonists have no choice but to endure it, as the point of origin is off-map. Psychic foil helmets, drugs, and other mood-enhancers can help deal with the effects. Animals are not affected.

Solar flare

Solar flares cause all electrical devices to stop working for its duration, from 0.15 to 0.5 days. Wood-fired generators and chemfuel generators will still burn fuel during this time.

• Colonies that rely on turrets for defense will become vulnerable to raids.
• Heaters and coolers will stop working. In extreme temperatures, crops will die and colonists can be at risk of heatsroke or hypothermia. Campfires and passive coolers are low-tech options that work even in a solar flare.
• Crops in a hydroponics basin will rapidly degrade, regardless of the temperature. It's recommended to quickly harvest any crops that can't be saved before they die.
• Occasionally an orbital trade ship may arrive during the event, so it is wise to check out the Comms Console as soon as the event ends or risk getting the ''<trader> has left comms range" notification while unaware of their presence. If a ship leaves during a solar flare, you will be notified that the trader has left, although this is only a minor message in the upper right of the screen.

Due to its length, most of the adverse effects are manageable.

Zzztt...

This event can occur anytime a power conduit has energy flowing through it. The conduit may suffer a fault, causing a short circuit. They may also occur if certain objects are left unroofed and are exposed to rain or snow. Short-circuits outside of rain/snow will not reoccur for 8 days.

This short circuit will either result in a fire, or, if any batteries are connected to the circuit and contains at least 20Wd, a firey explosion centered on the tile, that increases with energy stored. The explosion deals 10 Flame damage and setting objects on fire. If the explosion radius is greated than 3.5 tiles, a second explosion of 30% radius deals 50 Bomb damage, which can extinguish fires. The fault will also discharge all stored power in batteries in the process.

The explosion radius is controlled by the following equation:

Explosion Radius = clamp( sqrt(Sum of all stored power) * 0.05, 1.5, 14.9)

Or in other words, the radius will be at least 1.5 tiles, and at most 14.9 tiles, with a bomb explosion of 4.5 tiles. This occurs when a total of 90,000 Wd is stored.

Unconnected batteries, such as through an open switch or on separate power network, will not be affected. Power networks which contain only batteries and no conduits will not experience this event. Power networks which contain only conduits will only have a single tile on fire, as there's no stored power to be discharged.

Incidential

These events aren't triggered by the storyteller. Instead, they come from various other game mechanics.

Good

Friendlies

This event can only occur if you are allied with at least one other faction and have enemies on screen. These fighters may be immediately requested via the comms console at a -25 goodwill penalty, or the allied faction may send them on their own at no cost.

Allied factions may send around fighters to assist you when mutual enemies appear, such as pirates, manhunters or insectoids. They won't assist against factions that they aren't hostile to. They will follow the same attack pattern as any Raider would do when this event occurs, with a few exceptions: They don't sap or breach due to their intention of being here, but they can drop pod or set up a siege point upon arriving. They have a strength of around 150 - 400 points, which is helpful, but not enough to take many raids on their own.

Keep in mind that friendly fire will damage your relations with the aiding faction. On the other hand, rescuing their downed people will improve relations.

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  Friendlies vs Pirates

• 

  Friendlies vs Thrumbo

Masterwork

One of your colonists has produced an object of masterwork quality.

Legendary Work

One of your colonists has produced an object of legendary quality.

Man in black

When your colonists are no longer able to defend themselves, a stranger may join the colony to help. As their name indicates, men in black come in a full set of black clothing. They also come wearing a flak vest and always carry a revolver. However, their skills and traits are fully randomized. It seems to be much rarer when starting a single colonist scenario.

This event seems to be triggered only when all of your colonists are downed at your base. The man in black will not appear on the temporary maps generated for world quests. However, if all your surviving pawns are downed elsewhere, it is possible for the man in black to appear at your base. (Testing is needed to see how these events are affected by allowing multiple colonies in the scenario editor.)

Prior to 1.1.2618 it is possible to get a Man in black who is a pacifist, incapable of caring, etc., who would thus be of limited use to a colony in which all pawns are downed and wounded.

New recruit

You'll get this notification whenever a Warden has succeeded in recruiting a prisoner. It also appears if a transport pod crash victim chooses to join your faction.

Meteorite

A large meteorite has struck ground in the area. It has left behind a lump of [material]. During daylight, a large shadow will project on the ground which shrinks as it closes in.

Any colonists beneath the meteorite has a small while to escape before they are crushed by it. The map tile will read: Meteorite (incoming).

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  Flying meteorite

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  Crashing meteorite, with explosion

• 

  Landed meteorite

Outpost destroyed

R.I.P. some pirate faction, nobody will remember you.

This is the notification that triggers when you successfully defeat all humanlike hostiles in an enemy base after invading them (not counting turrets, which need to be neutralized separately). After this you have a while to capture any prisoners (there is usually at least one building suitable to turn into a cell), treat the wounded, pack up and leave before enemy reinforcements arrive in the form of a raid.

Faction defeated

Should you destroy all bases of a faction, the notification will say that since you just destroyed the last faction base, the faction no longer exists.

You can still view the defeated faction in the menu, and it will show 'Defeated' below it. They won't send any raids, nor will they send caravans.

Destroying all enemies and befriending all other factions will make mechanoids the only remaining threat for all future raids.

Persona Core Offer

A non-hostile faction will notify you that they know where an Persona core is located: a critical component for building a ship. They will want 1500 silver for this information. However, you can only make this request at the comms console with factions which have at least +40 relations.

Ransom (Time remaining)

This event can only occur if a colonist of yours was captured by another faction.

Another faction captured one of your downed colonists somehow and will release that colonist to you... for a price. Common methods for capturing your colonists include grabbing downed colonists while retreating from a raid or downing an entire caravan.

The offer will be good for 24 game hours. If paid, the colonist will immediately appear on your map border or be sent via drop pod.

Rare Thrumbos

Two to six thrumbos will spawn at the edge of the map, staying around for a while to eat anything they can, including your crops, but not including anima trees. The player can attempt to hunt or tame them, both of which are very difficult. If no action is taken, they will leave on their own after a few days. It will not reoccur for 13 days.

Reactor ready

You have completed the 15 day warm up period for starting a ship reactor. If the rest of the necessary ship parts have been built, it may now be launched. Raids and sieges will drop considerably after this period is over.

Ship chunks

This event doesn't have an envelope, but rather appears in the notification bar up top, assuming these chunks don't strike your colony or pawns. One or more ship chunks fall onto the map. They can be deconstructed for 5-6 components and 20 steel. Rarely they can punch through roofs, damaging structures near it. Extremely rarely, they can land right on top of a colonist, killing them.

In Beta 18 the ship chunk creates an explosion upon landing. The falling chunks cast shadows on the ground, giving a little time for colonists to move out of the way.

Trauma savant

This event only has a 12% chance to trigger upon one of your colonists receiving a brain injury.

A colonist has suffered a brain injury and has gained great abilities from it at the cost of others, gaining 50% extra manipulation while losing the ability to speak, hear, and have any social relationships. It also restores the brain to full functioning, despite the injury.

Quest completed

You've done what was requested by other factions and will receive the reward at your nearest(?) base via pods very close to your buildings, along with an improvement in relations. While they attempt not to, the pods may also crash through your roof, so be prepared to repair them.

Anima tree sprout

If an anima tree was killed by any means, this event can occur within a few days from the last death of the tree, appearing at random places that are unaffected by its radius.

Bad

Ancient danger

Main article: Ancient shrine

As (Colonist name) draws near the ancient wall a sense of foreboding overcomes him(her). (S)He isn't sure why, but (s)he feels this dusty structure may contain great dangers

— Message that appears when the first colonist walks near.

This event is related to map generation and may not appear on every map. It may occur more than once per map. While listed as a danger, they are usually harmless until disturbed.

A colonist approached a walled out area of the map partially or completely under a mountain. It contains one or more of the following: ancient cryptosleep caskets, bugs with hives, mechanoids or treasure. Open at your own risk, by blowing a hole or deconstructing a section of the wall.

First, you'll need to deal with hostiles outside. Then, opening or attacking any casket will cause all the others to open instantly. The cryptosleep caskets usually contain humans, but may also contain megascarabs or be empty. The Spacers inside the caskets may or may not be dead. If alive, they may or may not be wounded, or armed and hostile. It's even possible for pawns incapable of violence to melee attack. If they are not hostile and can walk, they will try to escape. Any alive Spacers inside may be captured and recruited, usually with a low recruitment difficulty percentage.

Ancient structures may include other treasures like psychic lances and pulsers. Luciferium can be found in these buildings. Pod people sometimes carry plasteel, components, and gold. The caskets can be claimed and used or deconstructed by the colony.

Animal revenge

An animal that was harmed will go mad and become manhunter. When you select an animal to be hunted, the game will notify you if it has a chance for revenge and what the percentage is. Occasionally, all nearby pack members of that animal's species may start attacking their attacker.

Death

One of your pawns has died unintentionally. Slaughtering an animal or euthanizing a colonist or prisoner will not produce this event.

Drug addiction

A colonist has taken too much of a drug and is now addicted. They will now need to regularly take that drug or suffer the withdrawal effects. See here for advice on fighting addictions.

Heart attack

A character or tamed animal suffers a heart attack. Characters will seek out a medical bed or their assigned bed for treatment. Animals will return to the nearest empty animal bed or sleeping spot. Doctors will then proceed to attempt to resuscitate the victim, using medicine if allowed and available.

During a heart attack, people or animals can fall unconscious or even die if not treated in time.

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  Heart attack notification

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  Health tab

Mental Break

Main article: Mental break

One of your colonists or prisoners has had it and has a mental break. During this time, the afflicted colonist will be effectively unavailable, will not do colony work and can not be drafted. They will use forbidden doors and items. They will also attend to their needs such as sleep, recreation, and eating.

Depending on the nature of the mental break, there are several ways to handle the situation:

• Wall the person in – this is only possible if they wander to a suitable location.
• Try to arrest them. They will possibly resist and need to be beaten down, causing injury. This will also give them a fairly long-lasting mood debuff ("I was arrested!") after you release them from jail. Arresting temporary members will immediately cause their faction to become hostile.
• Wait out the situation - This takes a while for most minor breaks.

Overdose

Main article: Overdose

One of your colonists or animals has overdosed. There is a risk of overdose when taking any hard drug, as well as when taking too many non-social drugs in general. This can cause permanent damage or even death.

Predator hunting

A wild, hungry predator has targeted one of your colonists or animals for killing and eating. Unlike the majority of threats in the game, predators will not stop attacking once a pawn is downed.

You may want to get this colonist or animal to safety. Drafted colonists will defend themselves. To defend your animals, if there is enough distance, zone them to safety. Otherwise, move a drafted colonist to fire on the predator.

Prison break

Prison break

Prisoners have staged a breakout! They are able to open doors and attempt to escape. They are more likely to attempt breakout when they are unhappy, healthy and numerous*, and when their prison has more doors. It's not clear if the number of prisoners in a room actually increases the chance of any single prisoner breaking out, or if the combined individual chances of all present create that greater likelihood.^{[Detail Needed]}

Using low damage weapons is advised when containing a prison break to avoid a risk of killing them. Since prisoners are technically part of an enemy faction, any friendlies on the map will engage them. This is helpful if you need to contain a larger break, though the use of higher-powered weapons means they have a higher chance of outright killing the prisoner. Recapturing escaped prisoners from factions that have turned friendly since that prisoner was originally captured will not affect relations with that faction.

Roof collapsed

This event only happens if something is crushed by the falling roof. Otherwise, it's only a notification.

All roofs must be supported by a constructed or rock wall within 6 spaces with contiguous roof sections in between itself and that wall. If either of these conditions changes such as via mining, an explosion or demolition, then the roof will collapse. Damage is dealt to the head and shoulders. Note that falling roofs underneath a mountain will instantly kill any pawn unfortunate enough to be crushed.

If demolishing a building, it's recommended to use the Remove Roof tool to remove the roof first before deconstructing the walls.

Too Deep: Infestation

Insectoid infestations can spawn when actively digging from a deep drill. Insectoids, but not hives, will pop out around the drill's area. These do not have the overhead mountain requirement like regular infestations. However, they are often smaller in number, and are unable to reproduce due to the lack of hive.

Faction

Allied: (Faction)

Relations with another faction have risen above +75 and you are now allied with them. They may now assist you against mutual enemies.

Enemy now neutral: (Faction)

This notification will appear once relations have been improved with a Hostile faction enough that they will no longer be hostile. Common ways to improve relations include releasing prisoners from their faction (which must leave the map safely to receive the bonus), having successful peace talks or providing gifts.

Hostile faction

Badwill: Friendly traders face a mechanoid raid, loses members and turns against the player.

You've done something to anger another faction bad enough that they are now hostile to yours. This can happen if you arrest a faction member of theirs, rob one of their caravans or if they take too much friendly fire from your colonists, among other reasons. Rough factions that are neutral/allied will naturally decay goodwill, until they become hostile again.

Leader died

Occasionally, the leader of another faction will die, sometimes through no action on your part. The popup window will also announce his or her successor.

This alert uses the variable title of the leader in question. For example, if the "boss" of a pirate band dies you will see 'Boss died', if the "chief" died, then it will read 'Chief died', and so on.

This will also happen if the leader personally comes to raid your base and is killed in action. Killing an enemy faction leader will give a mood buff for a while to the colonist that accomplished this.

New Leader

Similar to the Leader Died event, except this one occurs only when you've succeeded in both capturing and recruiting another faction's leader. The leader then places first at the colonist bar, instead of last.

• 

  Raid with Faction leader presence

• 

  (Boss name) died / The new boss is (name)

• 

  Defeated hostile leader (name)

• 

  Chief of a hostile tribe recruited to colony.

Informational

These events serve purely to give information about the game, and have no physical gameplay implications.

About: Electricity

Appears when you finish researching Electricity. Reminds you of the power of electric appliances, and the power infastructure required to mantain them.

About: Getting advanced components

Appears when you finish researching Fabrication. Reminds you that you need an advanced component to build a fabriciation bench, and potential means of obtaining one.

About: Launching the ship

Appears when you finish researching Starflight Basics. This is a simple reminder about the dangers of powering up the ship reactor once built. Once turned on, the number of raids will greatly increase for the next 15 days.

Summer

This event occurs at the beginning of the summer quadrum, if you are lacking suitable apparel for winter's temperatures. It merely informs you that you are ill-prepared for the winter. Grow some more food and get some warm clothing. Plan ahead for any additions to your colony during these seasons, including recruits and born animals.

Unwaveringly loyal

Appears when you first capture an unwaveringly loyal prisoner. They are unable to be recruited as a colonist or be converted, but can be released, enslaved, or used for a variety of human resources.

About: Anima tree linking

Appears when an anima tree has 20 anima grass around it. Reminds you that a colonist with Natural meditation can begin the linking ritual, gaining a level of psycasting in the process.

Baby Prep

Appears when a human's pregnancy is at its third trimester. Labor will happen without warning within the next 6 days, so prepare a clean hospital with a good doctor.

Social

New lovers

You receive the announcement that two characters have become lovers, and "now want to sleep together". These are usually colonists, but a pair of prisoners can also become lovers. They will receive mood boosts or debuff proportional to their opinion of their partner ranging from ? to ? for ? and ? opinion.^[Values?]

Starting the moment their new relationship is announced, couples will immediately have a -4 mood debuff for "sleeping alone", even if they won't get their first chance to sleep together for hours. This can be rememdied by assigning both pawns to a two person bed, such as the double sleeping spot, double bedroll, double bed or royal bed. A double bedroll is prefered when in a caravan. Couples that sleep in the same bed can also perform Lovin' for a mood boost to both partners.

Breakup

A couple splits, complete with the Mood and Social penalties for both colonists. The one initiating the break-up is better off than the other in the couple.

Rejected proposal

After two characters fall in love, one of them proposed marriage but is turned down, which may result in the couple breaking up. The proposing one suffers a mood penalty of -18 for 25 days. They may accept another offer in the future. Note that a later, accepted proposal will not remove the mood effects of the previous, rejected ones.

• 

  Breakup

• 

  A character woos another into a romance and she agrees

• 

  Rejected proposal

Marriage is on!

A couple that has been together for a while will announce their engagement. The wedding will take place some time in the future, at a marriage spot, or any gathering spot (table or campfire) in lieu of one. Both fiancees and married pawns, like lovers, will want to sleep in the same bed. They receive mood boosts or debuffs depending on the relationship with their couple. They can also receive a mood boost from lovin'.

When the day of the wedding arrives, it will take place regardless of the entire colony's attendance. Pawns will sometimes take the family name of their partner upon marriage. After the ceremony takes place, a reception will follow with everyone drinking, smoking and eating if hungry. Getting married, as well as taking part in the marriage ceremony, gives a substantial, fairly long-lasting +40 mood buff to the newly weds, and +20 to attendees.

Colonists who do not reach the meeting point on time, such as those sleeping, fighting fires or lying incapacitated in bed, will not gain the mood buff from the event. A quick "draft" and "undraft" for everybody but the couple should be enough to coerce all capable colonists to attend. Colonists on caravans obviously cannot attend.

If the couple happens to be busy at the exact moment the wedding is to take place, for example, because they are drafted or loading a caravan, those who are not members of the trade group will remain waiting at attendance and perform no task at all, except for eating until the couple comes back.

Affair

Somebody who is already married starts an affair with a single person. It is possible for your colonists to cheat on their lovers who aren't members of your faction.

Divorce

A married couple has divorced; as a normal break up, but with worse mood penalties.

• 

  Susy has accepted Mat's marriage proposal...

• 

  Affair

World incidents

For a guide to survive these events, see World Quests Guide.

Attack begun

This notification will appear when a caravan has arrived at a settlement chosen for attacking.

Bandit camp opportunity

See also: Offense tactics

Some ruffians are causing trouble nearby and other factions will pay you to wipe them out.

The bandit camp will time out and are weaker than regular enemy bases.

Destroying them increases goodwill by 8 and returns a payment worth 2000 to 3000 worth of silver, whether it consists of items or silver itself.

Caravan ambushed / (manhunters)

While traveling, one of your caravans are attacked. The game will give you a mini map to defend it.

The attackers can be an enemy faction lying in ambush or a rampaging manhunter pack your caravan unfortunately trespasses upon.

Caravan battle won

This event will tell you if your people won their fight, and can reform the caravan on the world map.

Caravan arrived at (Location)

This is a simple notification that your caravan has arrived at their destination.

Caravan lost

All human members of your caravan have died, or have been downed on an event map. Anything carried by the caravan, including animals, will be lost to the wild.

If colonists were downed but not killed while fighting human enemies, it is possible for some of them to appear later in a Prisoner Rescue Quest.

Caravan meeting by (Caravan ID)

This is a pop up window rather than an event with envelope icon. While away from your bases, your caravans may randomly encounter other traders out in the world who would be happy to trade with you. Of course, you also have the option to attack them. Be careful, trade caravans are usually well defended.

Caravan ready

Once you've designated a caravan, you'll get this notification once all of the colonists, prisoners, animals and items have been assembled and left the map. It is now ready to send to other settlements or form another settlement of your own, if you've enabled multiple settlements in the game's settings.

Demand

A hostile faction approaches your caravan and demand that you give them items and/or hand over members as slaves. If you don't, they will proceed to assault the caravan.

You can see their number when they are demanding you hand over items.

Peace talks

A hostile faction leader decides to drop his weapons and offers to talk things out for once. The offer expires after 15 days if ignored. Pirates will never attempt peace talks.

To participate, you will need to send a caravan with a capable negotiator. Once the destination is reached, the most capable negotiator in your caravan will proceed to talk with the leader to hopefully improve relations.

There are several outcomes of the incident, each being a subevent of its own. No matter the outcome, your negotiator will always gain social skill.

Peace talk triumph The peace talks were very successful, giving a great boost to relations from 50 to 75. In addition, the faction will give a farewell gift worth between 500 and 1500 silver.

Despite your triumph, if you don't manage to bring relations above 0, they will still remain hostile.

This has a base weight of 0.1.

Peace talk success

The talks were a success, and relations between the factions have warmed somewhat, from 25 to 75.

This has a base weight of 0.55.

Peace talk flounder

The talks were neither successful nor a failure, and relations remain unchanged.

This has a base weight of 0.2.

Peace talk backfire

The peace talks backfired, and relations have gotten worse than they started, from -10 to -50 relations.

This has a base weight of 0.1.

Peace talk disaster

The peace talks have failed so miserably that the faction hates you a lot more now, with a -25 to -75 damage to relations, as well as instantly turning hostile if they aren't already. In addition, the angered faction sends a group of attackers after your negotiating party.

This has a base weight of 0.05.

Outcome chances

The actual outcome chances are dependent on the negotiator's Diplomacy Power stat, after going through a simple curve. To do this, the game calculates the bad outcome factor, of the negotiator first.

• At 0% power, the bad outcome factor is 4.
• At 100% power (healthy, lvl 10 Social), the bad outcome factor is 1.
• At 150% power (healthy, lvl 20 Social), the bad outcome factor is 0.4.

The new weight of each outcome is calculated afterwards.

• Triumph = 0.1 * ( 1 / Bad Outcome Factor)
• Success = 0.55 * ( 1 / Bad Outcome Factor)
• Flounder = 0.2
• Backfire = 0.1 * Bad Outcome Factor
• Disaster = 0.05 * Bad Outcome Factor

The sum total of the new weights is then calculated.

Finally, the probability of each outcome is calculated:

Probability of each outcome = New Weight ÷ Sum Total of Weights

Example

Take a level 15 Social negotiator as an example:

1. The diplomacy power is 125%, corresponding to a bad outcome factor of 0.7.
2. The new weight of each outcome, to 3 d.p.:
   • Triumph = 0.1 * ( 1 / 0.7) = 0.143
   • Success = 0.55 * ( 1 / 0.7) = 0.786
   • Flounder = 0.2
   • Backfire = 0.1 * 0.7 = 0.07
   • Disaster = 0.05 * 0.7 = 0.035
3. The sum total of new weights is calculated:
   • 0.143 + 0.786 + 0.2 + 0.07 + 0.035 = 1.234
4. Finally, the probability of each event, to 2 d.p.:
   • Triumph = 0.143 / 1.234 = 11.58%
   • Success = 0.786 / 1.234 = 63.69%
   • Flounder = 0.2 / 1.234 = 16.21%
   • Backfire = 0.07 / 1.234 = 5.67%
   • Disaster = 0.035 / 1.234 = 2.84%

Rescuee joins

Should you succeed in rescuing a prisoner or you offer help to an incapacitated refugee, he or she will immediately join your faction.

Sub-events

These aren't quest events on its own, but may happen during other world events such as Incapacitated Refugee or Item Stash Opportunity.

Ambush

Enemies may enter the minimap a little while after your colonists arrive or suddenly appear near the objective when your pawns draw close to it. It's even possible for animals to lie in wait.

Sleeping mechanoids

When the map generates, sleeping mechanoids will be present near the objective. Going too close to them will awaken them, making them attack. While they are present, you cannot manually reform the caravan as the game notifies you that there are hostiles in the area, but you can still leave through the edges.

Game endings

When these happen, they signify that your game has ended, one way or another.

Game over

This happens when all your colonists are either dead, missing, or left the planet. The game will show a UI which says that everyone is gone or dead, and allows you to return to the main menu or continue playing. It also says that someone may find a use for the wreckage of your base.

Should you decide to continue playing, events will continue to happen, which can affect the ruined base but not anyone. You can strike lucky and roll 'Wanderer joins' or 'Refugee chased' events, giving you a colonist to rebuild from.

Welp, time to start a new game I guess...

Planetkiller

This event can only happen by configuring the starting scenario.

When it happens, the screen will fade to white, and a message will show that the planet is obliterated by a planetkiller and that you did not survive.

Unlike your regular 'Game Over', you cannot continue the game. Saved games (including permadeath) can be continued from their last saves, however.

Ouch.

Legacy events

Events from previous versions of RimWorld.

Bonded animal's death

Both of these bonded death events were simplified into the Death: (Pawn) event.

An animal with a bond to a colonist dies, affecting that colonist's mood negatively. Enemies may directly target your animals during attacks. Enemies, turrets or even your own colonists can even hit them unintentionally during shootouts, especially animals trained for Release and checked to follow your drafted colonists in the Animals tab. Wild predators may hunt and kill your animals, including bonded ones. Bonded animals can also fall into traps. It can even occur intentionally by slaughtering, euthanizing or manually drafting and attacking the bonded animal.

Bonded animal dies affecting the owner's mood.

Bonded master's death

Both of these bonded death events were simplified into the Death: (Pawn) event.

The inverse of a bonded animal's death. This time, it's the master who dies, through causes such as enemy raids, disease or large wild predators getting hungry.

When this happens, any animal that is bonded to the master will have a mental break. It can be a less dangerous one such as a dazed wander, or a more dangerous one such as a berserk rage.

This is one of the only situations where animals can have non-manhunter mental breaks.

Breakdown: (Machine)

In previous versions, this was its own event. Now it's just a notification.

One of your machines will break down and will not work until repaired with a component. If this happens to a hydroponics basin, any crops in it will wither and die unless repaired immediately.

This only applies to machines using electricity.

Tornado

A tornado has touched down in this region, and will proceed to wreak havoc on anything in its way. There is small chance it may spawn at the map borders and eventually leave the map.

Tornadoes rapidly deal damage to any structure or item that is right beneath it. Any pawn underneath will rapidly receive scratches from the random objects blowing about in the wind.

Naturally forming tornadoes are exclusive to Beta 18. You can still use the Tornado generator to spawn them in for defense purposes.

Event Data

Category	Name	Common Name	Chance	Favorability	Min Time Before Repeat (days)
Disease	Flu	Flu	varies by biome	Bad	varies by biome
Disease	Plague	Plague	varies by biome	Bad	varies by biome
Disease	Malaria	Malaria	varies by biome	Bad	varies by biome
Disease	SleepingSickness	Sleeping Sickness	varies by biome	Bad	varies by biome
Big Threat	RaidEnemy	Raid	9.0	Bad	0
Big Threat	AnimalInsanity	Mad Animals!: (Animal name)	1.0	VeryBad	1
Big Threat	ShipPartCrash	Psychic Ship	1.5	Bad	30
Big Threat	ManhunterPack	Manhunter Pack	2.0	Bad	15
Big Threat	Infestation	Infestation	2.8	Bad	20
Special	RaidFriendly	Friendlies	3	Good	0
Small Threat	AnimalInsanitySingle	Mad Animal	5	Bad	3
Small Threat	ColdSnap	Cold Snap	3	Bad	30
Small Threat	HeatWave	Heat Wave	3	Bad	30
General Bad	Beavers	Beavers!	1	Bad	15
General Bad	Eclipse	Eclipse	3	Bad	30
General Bad	SolarFlare	Solar Flare	1.5	Bad	30
General Bad	PsychicDrone	Psychic Drone	1	Bad	30
General Bad	ShortCircuit	Zzzt...	1.2	Bad	15
General Bad	CropBlight	Blight	2.5	Bad	8
General Bad	ToxicFallout	Toxic Fallout	0.25	Bad	180
General Bad	VolcanicWinter	Volcanic Winter	0.11	Bad	280
General Good	TraderArrivalGeneral	(Trader type)	13	Good	0
General Good	TraderArrivalSlaver	Pirate Merchant	4.5	Good	0
General Good	TravelerGroup	Travelers	8	Good	0
General Good	VisitorGroup	Visitor(s)	8	Good	0
General Good	WandererJoin	Wanderer Join	0.4	VeryGood	0
General Good	ResourcePodCrash	Cargo Pods	6.0	Good	0
General Good	RefugeePodCrash	Escape Pod	1.5	Good	0
General Good	PsychicSoothe	Psychic Soothe	1.0	Good	30
Neutral	RefugeeChased	Refugee Chased	2.5	Neutral	15

Weight of each disease per biome

Biome Name	Flu	Plague	Malaria	Sleeping Sickness	Fibrous Mechanites	Sensory Mechanites	Gut Worms	Muscle Parasites
Arid Shrubland	100	100	0	0	30	30	60	60
Desert	100	100	0	0	30	30	60	60
Extreme Desert	100	80	0	0	30	30	40	40
Boreal Forest	100	100	0	0	30	30	50	50
Tundra	100	80	0	0	40	40	30	30
Ice Sheet	100	80	0	0	30	30	0	0
Sea Ice	100	80	0	0	30	30	0	0
Temperate Forest	100	100	100	0	30	30	50	50
Tropical Rainforest	100	100	160	140	30	30	80	80

Mean time per disease by biome (in days)

Biome Name	Mean Time Between Diseases	Flu	Plague	Malaria	Sleeping Sickness	Fibrous Mechanites	Sensory Mechanites	Gut Worms	Muscle Parasites
Arid Shrubland	60	228	228	0	0	760	760	380	380
Desert	80	304	304	0	0	1013.33	1013.33	506.67	506.67
Extreme Desert	90	288	360	0	0	960	960	720	720
Boreal Forest	50	180	180	0	0	600	600	360	360
Tundra	80	256	320	0	0	640	640	853.33	853.33
Ice Sheet	80	33.33	26.67	0	0	10	10	0	0
Tropical Rainforest	30	216	216	135	154.29	720	720	270	270

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Electrical devices now short-circuit and cause fires if left out in the rain while running.
• 0.8.657 - Beavers! event added
• 0.11.877 - Toxic fallout, Volcanic winter, Chased refugee, Psychic sooth, Manhunter pack events added. Manhunter pack is exclusively made up of Wargs.
• 0.12.906 - Manhunter packs can use animals besides wargs. Farm Animals Wander In, Self Tame, Poison ship and Flashtorm events added. Animals join is exclusive to farm animals at this point.
• 0.12.910 - Poison ship now only drops one ship part instead of 2-3.
• 0.12.914 - Flashtorm are much less intense
• 0.14.1236 - Fixed many events never firing. Threat cycle event maker will no longer queue events it doesn't have the points to fire.
• 0.14.1241 - Toxic fallout, flashstorm and volcanic winter are now disabled in Free Play difficulty. Toxic fallout and volcanic winter are now rarer.
• 1.1.0 - Pawns now sometimes take the family name of their partner upon marriage
• 1.1.2654 - Increase toxic fallout earliestDay from 20 to 60. Reduce base chance from 0.14 to 0.12. Increase volcanic winter earliest day from 30 to 60.
• 1.3.3066 - Alphabeaver event will happen even if the outdoor temperature is above their minimum comfortable temperature.