Menus

The Overview menu provides valuable information on the colony, surrounding factions, and the world.

Work

From the Overview menu you can set the tasks you want your colonists to perform, though some colonists cannot perform all tasks. For example nobles can only access research and firefighting whilst a settler can access all skills.

It is possible to get your base working very efficiently by managing who does what job; hover over a skill box to see the colonists proficiency score out of 20. This will help you decide who you want doing each task. Using the wrong people will slow down your progression. It is a good idea to study your colonist's skills and apply them to their strengths.

In standard mode colonists will either perform a task or not, with tasks on the left ranked more importantly then tasks on the right. In manual mode, each colonist's tasks can be prioritized from 0 (blank) to 4. 1 is the highest priority, 4 is the lowest, and blank tasks will not be performed. Properly utilizing manual mode can make sure everyone always has something to do and avoids idle colonists.

Factions

There are four different factions in the game besides your own: Tribes, Outlanders, Pirates, and Mechanoids. Each faction has its own unique characteristics and view of your colony. By default, only the Outlanders are non-hostile. However, attacking Outlander forces will cause them to retaliate and become hostile.

Tribes

The tribes are groups of neolithic people with basic weaponry such as bows and spears. They have probably inhabited the planet for a long time. They always wear tribal clothing, which is equivalent in stats to a standard shirt. People from this faction are usually very hard to recruit (difficulty 80+), though it is possible to do so. Tribe names often have words derived from Spanish, such as 'miñoca', 'legua', etc. They may not seem strong due to their low level of technology, but they make up for it with sheer numbers. It is not uncommon to see raids of over twenty tribesmen later in the game, even on lower difficulties. This faction is a formidable ally and foe alike. They may not be as dangerous as pirates but they are not insignificant.

Outlanders

Outlanders use the same equipment and technology as pirates, but do not behave the same. Outlanders by default are non-hostile but can be provoked into hostility. Due to their similarity to your colony they can be considered the standard faction. They often use similar equipment and tactics as normal pirates, but rarely use high level gear such as pulse rifles or snipers. Be nice to them and you will be rewarded, but anger them and you basically have another pirate group, except this one can be negotiated with.

Pirates

Pirates sport modern weapons and gear, though occasionally use advanced gear. It is pretty much impossible to negotiate with them. Pirates are the primary source of raids, usually attacking from the sides and occasionally dropping directly on your base. They kidnap incapacitated colonists if you leave them incapacitated and within reach. The Pirates can be considered the bad guys of Rimworld.

Spacers

Spacers are an off-map faction, similar to mechanoids. They affect your colony in the form of survivors from spaceship disasters, and often require medical attention in the aftermath of whatever they were escaping. Spacers can also often be found within the cryosleep caskets of ancient ruins. No one knows what scenario forced them into their prolonged sleep but those daring enough to awaken them should be prepared to defend themselves from an attack as the spacers sometimes lash out in dazed confusion. Sleeping Spacers often wield high tech weaponry and powerful armor, but managing to subdue them gains skilled allies who will willingly join your colony (recruit difficulty <40)

Mechanoids

The Mechanoids is a faction of robots that are formidable fighters. They come in two forms, Centipedes and Scythers. Centipedes are the Mechanoids's heavy infantry unit, coming equipped with a minigun, inferno cannon, or heavy charge blaster as well as tough armor. Centipedes are capable of dealing a great amount of damage to your colony. Their primary purpose is to soak up damage from static defenses while suppressing enemy infantry's movements. They cannot move quickly, so it is often possible to run around it in circles and not get injured. Use this to your advantage when combating Centipedes. Scythers are the Mechanoids's light infantry unit, coming equipped with a charge lance and lighter, though still durable, armor. Scythers can deal a great amount of damage per shot with their heavy weapon, and their range means that they can attack improvised turrets without retaliation. Their primary purpose is to pick off defenses and defenders, while maintaining enough mobility to chase down survivors. If at all possible, it is best to avoid engaging Scythers head on, as their weapon can do significant and possibly lethal damage in the first shot. Once killed, all Mechanoids drop metal and leave a mechanoid corpse which can be melted down for even more metal. A Mechanoid attack can easily destroy your colony if you are not prepared. They have a decent combat AI that utilizes each unit's strengths, making them a dangerous enemy. Mechanoids can invade from the edge of the map or they can be dropped directly into an unsuspecting base. Mechanoids are the enemies of the "Ancient Ship Crash" event in which they will emerge from the wreckage of their ship and attack if a colonist attacks it.

World

The World interface provides information about the world on which you find yourself. By default it is focused in on the site of your colony, though you can learn more about any area by clicking on its map tile. Currently the World menu provides the colony's coordinates, elevation, average temperature, biome, terrain, and rainfall. The map by default displays all of these features, but can be changed to display only one of these characteristics at a time (except for terrain and coordinates).

History

The History interface provides a variety of information on the history of your colony. This data is represented by three graphs, wealth, population, and colonist mood. The wealth graph has lines depicting total wealth, item wealth, and building wealth. The population graph shows the free population and prisoner population. The colonist mood graph only displays the average mood of all of the colonists. At the top of the three graphs is a series of colored circles that describe every random event that has occurred. Blue circles are positive or neutral events, yellow circles are negative events, and red circles are attacks. The event circles are chronologically in sync with the graph, so that each event happened at the time specified on the graph. The graphs can be filtered to include only results from the last 300, 100, and 30 days.

Statistics

The Statistics page contains a variety of miscellaneous information about the colony. It contains information on the Storyteller chosen and difficulty scale, total, item, and building colony wealth, the number of major threats and enemy raids, the total amount of damage taken and colonists killed, and the number of colonists launched into space.