Colonist

Colonists are the new people of each RimWorld colony. Each colonist has specific skills, limitations set and a character background. In general, colonists are every human except for raiders/travelers/prisoners. The colonists come in various outfits based on their background, which can be seen by looking at the 'Character' tab in game.

Creation

Main Article: Characters

Upon creating a new colony, a screen where 3 colonists can be randomized individually is shown. Each of the colonists has a name, an age, a backstory, limitations, traits, and skills. The name, age, and traits all seem to not have any effect on the colonist.

Typical character creation screen

Backstory

Each colonist will have two parts to their backstory: childhood and adulthood. Each trait has a small story to go along with it, with the name of the colonist filled in for each story. Each different backstory has different effects on the colonist such as: increasing stats, decreasing stats, and disallowing certain tasks. Such information is important to consider when creating the first three colonists for the new colony, as future colonists can sometimes be hard to come by.

Childhood traits
Medieval Lordling -1 Construction -1 Growing -1 Mining +4 Social	Urbworld urchin +2 Shooting +4 Melee	Midworld nerd +4 Research -3 Social	Vatgrown soldier +4 Shooting +4 Melee -4 Social Warden disabled Doctor disabled	Medieval slave +2 Construction +2 Growing -3 Research +2 Mining

Adulthood traits
Medieval lord -5 Construction -5 Growing -5 Mining +5 Shooting +5 Melee +7 Social Cleaning Disabled Hauling Disabled Cutting Disabled Mining Disabled Growing Disabled Constructing Disabled	Deep space miner +3 Construction +7 Mining +2 Melee	Military commissar +3 Shooting	Colony settler +4 Construction +4 Growing +4 Mining	Medieval farm oaf +8 Growing +3 Mining Researching disabled	Urbworld entrepreneur +3 Research +6 Social	Navy scientist +8 Research

Playing

The game starts of with three colonists being dropped in on escape/transfer pods (as can be somewhat seen on the right) on the map. This is how the majority of colonists are introduced onto the map, although some will also walk into the map from the border. Colonists have a wide variety of outfits based on their job, which is determined by their backstory. In general the less manual-oriented colonists will have lab coats on, while the more labor-intensive colonists will wear a solid color.

Equipment

Main Article: Weapons

Colonists can be equipped with various items which are shown on their information panel while individually selected. They can only be equipped with one item at a time, and their skill with that item is determined by their skill with Shooting. An example of this can be seen below.

File:ColonistEquipped.png

Entrepreneur colonist equipped with a pistol

Overview

The overview screen allows the setting of what tasks each colonist is allowed to perform. Colonists will have a natural aptitude at a task, and have no check-boxes for tasks they are unable to perform. With the default prioritization, the priority of the tasks is preset, and can't be changed. An example of this can be seen below.

File:ColonistOverview.png

With default prioritization

As of build 243, one can prioritize a colonist's actions manually. To do this, one goes to the Overview menu, and checks the Manual Priorities box in the upper left-hand corner. The colonist has the numbers 1-4 in each check-box available, with 1 being the highest priority. If two or more tasks have the same prioritization number, then the colonist will do the task on the left of the menu first.

With manual prioritization selected

Thoughts

The Thoughts tab shows whatever your colonist is thinking, whether good or bad. These thoughts can increase or decrease happiness, increase or decrease fear, or sometimes do a mixture of the two.

For a more detailed list of thoughts, click here

Needs

The two needs in the game (as of build 254b) are food and rest. Both gradually degrade over time. Rest is replenished by sleeping in a bed or sleeping spot, while food is replenished by eating... well, food.

The Needs tab also shows the current effectiveness of the colonist, and also whatever filth they are carrying around with them (dirt, sand, ect.)