Endings

While RimWorld can be played for as long as you want, the game can come to an end in a few different ways. Counting all available DLC, there are 4 distinct ways to see the credits screen:

• Finding or building a ship to take you to the stars
• Joining the court of the High Stellarch of the Empire
• Awakening the archonexus
• Awakening the void

There are also two other ways to get a form of game over:

• Have all colonists dead or kidnapped
• The planetkiller. Note: this only appears after being enabled in the game's scenario.

Colonists left behind after a ship launch or the royal ascent quest can continue the colony where it left off. If all colonists are gone or killed, then a wanderer event or refugee chased quest can restart the colony. Awakening the void will allow the game to continue with all current colonists, including those who took part in awakening the void. The archonexus and planetkiller will destroy the planet, ending the game permanently. With these two endings, you can restart from a previous save, even with permadeath mode.

Ship to the Stars

Launch a ship to space, guided by an AI persona core. Both the "Ship to the Stars" quest (i.e. journey offer) and building your own ship give the same ending.

Briefing

Requirements:

• Have a functional ship. Either travel to the journey offer, or build your own ship.
• Activate the ship reactor, which takes 15 days. During this time, you will be assaulted by many raids. The Ship Startup event will have 10 cycles of 1.5 days each. During each cycle, you may be attacked by either 1 or 2 raids, randomly. That makes the minimum possible number of Ship Launch raids during the event 10 and the maximum 20. This is completely independent from, and in addition to, your storyteller, who will send their own raids on their normal schedule. The Ship Launch raids have a minimum of 500 Raid points.
• Each colonist or animal requires their own ship cryptosleep casket to leave the planet, which may be desired on a personal level. The journey offer ship has space for 18 colonists. Only one loaded casket is required to launch the ship.

Failure conditions:

• Destruction of the ship reactor.

Failure simply means that you will have to do the process over again. The game won't end, so long as colonists are still alive.

Journey Offer Failure:
These following factors will make the journey offer ship unavailable or invalid:

• Destruction of any vital ship part. If you can rebuild the ship part, then everything is fine.
• The Ship to the Stars quest does not generate. (There is a minimum distance - spawning near the center on a smaller 30% map can rarely cause spawn to be invalid. Being surrounded by impassible ocean/mountain may also cause generation to fail)
• Doing the archonexus chain of quests - this makes the journey offer invalid.

You can still build your own ship, possibly using the components of the old one.

Obtaining a ship

There are two ways to get a functional spaceship:

• The journey offer (the actual "Ship to the Stars" quest).
• Building your own ship.

Traveling to the journey offer

Journey offer event ship.

You will receive the Ship to the Stars quest in roughly 20 days from colony start. The quest creates an event space within 200 to 800 tiles from your original settlement, usually as far away as possible. This means that a world generated with 30% map coverage will make traveling to the event tile a much less arduous task than a world with 100% coverage.

You can reach the ship as soon as the quest spawns and you have the physical ability to make the trip. However, the ship itself is worth about 55000, which is in addition to the wealth from your defenses and colonists. Wealth directly contributes towards the size of the raiders via the raid points mechanic - tribals stuck with short bows are ill advised to enter the ship's tile.

There are multiple approaches to actually reaching the ship:

• Make the one-way trip.

This trip can take anywhere from a quadrum to 2 years, depending on the map and map coverage. Pack food. Or a way to buy food. In addition, colonists will automatically forage for food, so long as the biome supports it - see Foraged Food Amount for factors. A tribal colony with multiple colonists great at Plants could survive off foraging alone, but most realistic colonies will need to bring extra.

Each baseline colonist requires 32 pemmican / berries or 2 packaged survival meals per day. Ambushes, mental breaks, food poisoning, and the season can all slow the caravan down, so bring more than what the game's estimated travel time states. In practice, you can also buy food with light and valuable goods like silver, gold, and drugs, so long as at least 1 friendly faction base is within your path. Alternatively, you can settle down for a short while to get more food - see the next subsection for details.

Usual caravan tips apply. Bring bedrolls so that your colonists do not sleep on the ground (construct the bedroll, then uninstall it to bring as an item). Mental breaks slow the caravan down, but minor and major breaks are otherwise harmless. And due to the lowered expectations moodlets, colonists will be somewhat happy. Horses or other ridable pack animals like donkeys are highly recommended to speed up the trip, though they must be fed when unable to graze.

• Be nomadic, creating multiple settlements.

Any passible tile not adjacent to a faction base can be settled, for as long or as little as you want. Whenever it's a pitstop to hunt animals and grow a batch of rice, or a semi-permanent encampment, settling can be a viable means to travel to the destination. You could play the entire game this way if so desired.

• Relay to the location with transport pods.

Pod launchers and transport pods take a total of 110 steel, 2 components, and 150 chemfuel to carry 150kg of weight to 66 tiles. As one drop won't be enough to make it to the ship, you will need to settle at the landing site and build another set of pods. Steel can be mined or deconstructed at the landing site, reducing the weight per pod to 9kg.

Transport pods are faster than traveling, but require pods to be researched, and a lot of components. With many colonists, it can get very expensive to launch all the pods, even without considering the steel. You should have a great miner and good construction pawn, and ways to regulate mood between the relays. An alternative is to simply use 1 set of transport pods to make the trip faster, traveling the rest of the way by foot.

• The farskip psycast, with the Royalty DLC.

Farskip will send a non-burdened caravan of any size anywhere on the world, so long as another conscious colonist is already there. This is a very easy method to bringing everybody to the journey destination, so long as you have a level 5+ psycaster that actually has far skip.

Send 1 pawn, preferably great at Plants, preferably with a horse, alone to the ship. This pawn should not be the farskip user. When the pawn is (almost) there, send a caravan with the farskipper along with your rest of the colony, including food and supplies. You can leave a pawn at the colony if you feel the need to go back at any time.

Building the ship

Minimum amount of resources to create a functional ship, with space for 1 colonist. 8x13 in size.

To build a ship, you will need:

• The following projects researched: Starflight Basics, Starflight Sensors, Vacuum Cryptosleep Casket, Starship Reactor, Johnson-Tanaka Drive, and Machine Persuasion. This will require 21,800 research points, not counting any prerequisites. For tribes, research is doubled.
• A total of 3 ship engines, a ship computer core, a ship reactor, a sensor cluster, and as many ship cryptosleep caskets as desired (at least 1). A ship structural beam is required for ship caskets and only ship caskets - each beam can support 8 caskets. Ship parts cannot be built over a roof, though they can be roofed over afterwards.
• The minimum possible resources for a ship are  1740 steel,  740 plasteel,  294 uranium,  42 advanced component,  12 component,  74 gold, and  1 persona core.

To get the resources for the ship, most players will use either a deep drill + ground-penetrating scanner or a long-range mineral scanner. You can also get supplies from traders, though each trader only has so much material. Generally, the most difficult material to get are the advanced components - you'll want multiple crafters and multiple fabrication benches to manufacture them.

The persona core is also a troublesome item. The most consistent way to get one is to ask any faction with 40+ goodwill on the comms console, for the cost of 1500 silver. This spawns an item stash quest, which will be guarded by a few raiders. You can also get one through regularly generated quests.

Notably, the ship reactor can be activated as soon as it is built. As gathering the supplies and actually constructing the other ship parts increases your wealth, it is technically optimal to start the reactor without the other ship parts. This also makes it easier to build 3-4 layers of walls around it, practically making it a non-target outside of breachers or sieges.

• Forming a second colony

It is possible to form a second (third, fourth...) colony solely for the purpose of the ship. To have access to multiple colonies, change the maximum colony setting (in Options/Gameplay). Transport pods from your main colony will provide necessary supplies. The ultimate goal is to minimize wealth, decreasing the size of raids. This also increases the relative strength of certain defenses, like traps, turrets, and the immediate military aid from a comms console.

N.B. There is a minimum of 500 raid points for any raid caused by the ship launch, no matter how much wealth you have. Before accounting for colonist count or other factors, you can have up to 94,000 "storyteller wealth" in Strive to Survive difficulty (100% threat scale) before raids start to become bigger. At the maximum of 500% threat scale, you have a leeway of roughly 30,000 wealth. Values will become smaller for each colonist you have. Storyteller wealth is similar to colony wealth, but buildings only count as half.

Ideally, you should send 1-2 pawns with good Plants, Construction, and Medical into a temperate/warm biome, so they can be self-sustaining. A mountain tile can be good for its natural defense - while the ship cannot be built under overhead mountain, you can use the mountainous terrain as protection. Build the reactor (and possibly the rest of the ship), surround it in multiple layers of walls, and prepare for the ship launch.

The downside is pretty simple: work. Setting up a colony and sending all those transport pods is a lot of extra time, both for the player and colonists. You won't have access to any pre-existing defenses in your colony, so you will have to rebuild accordingly. Plus, you will lose mood bonuses from impressive Dining / Recreation / Bedrooms, unless you bring some sculptures in. Ultimately, you should not have to feel forced to establish a second colony - it's disabled by default, after all.

Ship launch

The ship launch is the 15-day activation period of the ship reactor. You will be hit with constant human and mechanoid raids, 10-20 in total plus threats that may be normally fired via the storyteller. If the ship is complete and remains intact, then your colonists can board the ship and leave the rimworld.

The ship launch event is broken into 10 cycles of 1.5 days each. Each 1.5 day cycle sends one or two raids with a 50% chance for each option. The ship launch raids now have 500 Raid Points minimum, which is roughly equivalent to 8 human enemies. Some Storyteller fired threats will still fire during the ship launch.

Launch preparations

• (Journey Offer) Make accommodations for your colonists.

Like with any colony, a great dining and recreation room goes a long way towards improving colonist mood. You can also take the time to make sculptures, grow food / drugs, and gather other supplies you'll need. Relax - you can take as long as you'd like to start the ship.

If needed, then weapons and armor can be created on site. Extra ship cryptosleep caskets and one ship engine can be deconstructed to make some charge rifles.

• Protect the ship.

That much is clear. Surrounding the ship with multiple layers of walls will keep it safe from most enemies. Raiders (other than breachers and sappers) will never target a wall if there is a combatant target (colonist, powered turret) they can access without a breaking a wall/door. Walling off the ship is harder with the journey offer ship, though 1-2 layers of walls are still recommended.

If you've built the ship on an established colony, then you should already have general defenses against raiders. If not, then build some. Make killboxes if so desired.

• (Optional) Take the devil's bargain.

Luciferium improves a colonist's overall performance, at the cost of permanent addiction. However, addiction - on a gameplay level - does not matter once you've entered space. 3 doses of luciferium are required per colonist to last the ship launch, if the ship is actually complete (i.e. don't do this with just a ship reactor).

Ship defense

Raids can happen as soon as you press the "Activate Reactor" button. The startup sound doesn't even have to complete for enemies to appear.

There isn't anything different about ship launch raids in particular. The ship is not some sort of special target - if you've surrounded it with walls, then it will be safe from ordinary raids. The raids will be just as large as a regular raid, with access to all of the same strategies and arrival methods.

At any point, a colony should be prepared to fight breachers, sappers, sieges, and drop pods landing directly into the base, as well as standard frontal attacks. Manhunter packs and infestations will not happen because of the ship launch, though the storyteller can still cause these events to happen. In Biotech, wealthier colonies should prepare for fighting all 3 mechanoid commanders.

Note that all those raider corpses and weapons will contribute towards raid points, making each successive raid of the ship launch that much larger. Fire is your best means of disposal, though an electric crematorium works when it's raining.

In addition to actually fighting the raids, you'll have to contend with a potentially much larger issue...

Mood management

Staying awake all night shooting at raiders isn't a particularly fun experience, at least for those without bloodlust. A drop pod raid ruining your recreation room will make everybody suffer. Even minor mental breaks can be devastating - having a colonist wander out of cover mid-fight is very dangerous. Therefore, avoiding mental breaks should be your #1 priority. Things can quickly spiral out of control if colonists die while your base is already in shambles.

• Set up a polyphasic schedule. This means alternating between Recreation and Sleep, and only Recreation and Sleep (ex. repeat 3 hours sleep, 5 hours recreation, three times). Colonists will still be able to work once both needs are satisfied, or if you prioritize the work task.
• Use fine meals or lavish meals. Lavish meals give +12 mood, and you can cook them before you start the reactor. Alternatively, you can have your colonists default to fine meals, and order them to eat a lavish meal once mood gets too low. Meals can be eaten regardless of how full a colonist is.
• Use drugs. Like with luciferium, drug addiction does not matter (on a gameplay level) once your colonists have left the planet, so long as you have some drug left. Note that hard drugs still have a risk of overdose. All drug moodlets stack completely, even for similar drugs like yayo and flake. You can set a drug policy for colonists to carry drugs, to be taken as needed.
  • Beer gives a +10 moodlet for only -2% Manipulation, if you drink only 1 or 2 a day. Psychite tea gives a +12 moodlet and ambrosia, +5, for no downsides so long as withdrawal is avoided.
  • Use wake-up if you need stuff done *immediately*, such as repairing the outer walls of your colony. It also gives a +5 moodlet and restores Rest.
  • Yayo gives +35 mood. Use if you need to stop mental breaks, now. Flake gives another +35 moodlet, but comes with a higher overdose chance. Use flake if yayo alone isn't enough.

Ending - Leaving the planet

You've launched the ship! Your AI will now try to guide the ship to a safe place. It might find a prosperous planet for you in this system, Or, it may undertake a centuries-long journey to another star. It might even decide to hide under ice on an asteroid for a few thousand years, waiting for someone to build a new glitterworld here. You'll find out when you wake up.

— Endgame text for Ship Launch on new ship or from Journey Offer

After the ship is complete, and the reactor activated, you can set your colonists off to space. Each colonist or animal requires their own ship cryptosleep casket. Once you confirm the launch, you hear the roar of rocket engines as the screen fades to white. The credits roll as the ending theme song plays. The credits will list colonists who died to commemorate them.

Royal Ascent

Host the High Stellarch, and leave the rimworld on a shuttle.

Briefing

Requirements:

• Have a colonist of Count rank and not be hostile to the empire faction.
• Have a spare bedroom suitable for a stellarch at the time of acceptance (see Titles#Table of Requirements). Your count must also have a suitable bedroom.
• House the High Stellarch for 12 days, which is a controllable guest. Like the ship launch, you will be assaulted by a massive quantity of raiders. You can't just use a cryptosleep casket to preserve the stellarch until the end.
• You will also receive 4 cataphract-level soldiers (Stellic Wardens or Defenders). These soldiers can die without consequence. Like any other soldier guest, they will have the +12 On Duty moodlet. They are always nobles of Knight or Dame rank, so they will come with psycasts and be conceited.
• The High Stellarch must be kept above 25% average mood for the duration of his stay.

Failure conditions:

• High Stellarch dies.
• High Stellarch mood is too low for too long.
• The empire faction becomes hostile to you.

Your count/countess does not have to stay alive in order to successfully complete the quest.

The Royal Ascent quest will be offered again periodically if it is failed. It takes roughly 22 days from failure to get this quest again. This quest technically fails if you abandon the colony it asks for, but it will refire again.

Housing the stellarch

The stellarch will come with the clothes necessary for his stature. You'll have to provide for the rest of a conceited noble's needs.

The noble requirements for stellarch are exactly equal to that of the count rank. In specific:

Throne & Bed

Throne

• Area 80, Impressiveness 160
• All fine floored
• Grand meditation throne
• 1x Piano, 6x column, 2x brazier, 2x drape

A throne room can be shared by multiple nobles. This means that you can use the same room as your count. However, each noble requires their own throne.

Bed

• Area 30, Impressiveness 80
• All fine floored
• Royal bed
• 1x Drape, 1x end table, 1x dresser

Couples can share a royal bed, but your count and the stellarch will need separate rooms.

The impressiveness can easily be met by meeting the space/fine floor requirements, and using a few sculptures. The rest of the requirements don't need much explanation. For a comparison of the fine floors available to you, see Fine floor#Analysis. Ideally, you'll want the stellarch's rooms to be somewhat defensible, in case of drop pod raids. At the very least, have some avenue for escape.

Food

Lavish meals should be your go-to food for the stellarch, due to the +12 mood boost. Humans require 2 meals a day, so that's 24 lavish meals if none of your other colonists are eating them. You may want to set colonists (and the guards) to not eat lavish as a result. Chocolate is the other food that can be farmed and ingested safely.

Insect jelly, milk, and berries can be used in a pinch, but all come at the risk of food poisoning. Beer can only be ingested so much until you black out. Ambrosia cannot be farmed consistently. If required, fine meals will provide a net −3 moodlet when ingested.

Surviving the onslaught

The onslaught of raids will consist of 8 cycles of 1.5 days each. During each cycle, you may be attacked by either 1 or 2 raids, randomly. That makes the minimum possible number of Royal Ascent raids during the event 8 and the maximum 16. This is completely independent from, and in addition to, your storyteller, who will send their own raids on their normal schedule. Royal Ascent raids have a minimum of 500 Raid points.

• Raids are still the same.

For raiders, the stellarch isn't targeted any differently than a regular colonist. Against most raid types, keeping them inside a bedroom should be enough for the purposes of safety. Be prepared for any type of raid possible. Most likely, it will be drop pods that are the greatest threat to the noble's life.

• Use what you have.

The stellarch is a level 6 psycaster. The stellic guards can be up to level 3 psycasters. Use these powers. Don't shy away from bringing the stellarch in combat - just keep them in the backlines. Even low level abilities like Stun and Vertigo Pulse can be very useful, let alone staples like Skip, Berserk, and Berserk Pulse. Unfortunately, your guests are unable to use permits.
With the Biotech DLC, it is likely that some or all of the stellic guards will be hussars. This xenotype has its perks, such as superfast wound healing, reduced pain, and go-juice resistance, but they are psychically deaf, meaning no psychic powers are usable without xenogerm replacement. They also come with a dependence to go-juice, so remember to get some.

• Don't anger the empire.

Friendly fire can occasionally lower goodwill with the empire. A poorly aimed Berserk Pulse or Neuroquake can make the empire hostile. Ideally, you should use caravans or drop pods to send gifts until you reach +100 goodwill, and then prepare extra pods filled with goodies just in case.

Mood (Stellarch & Colonist)

In practice, the mood of the stellarch shouldn't be too much of an issue - so long as your base is intact. Lavish meals, a suitable throneroom and bedroom, extremely impressive dining/recreation rooms, and a constant recreation/sleep schedule means that a well-off colony shouldn't even have to worry about minor mental breaks. However, things are bound to go wrong with so many raids. A few splatters of blood can make a bedroom unsuitable for a noble. Ideally, you should be avoiding any mental breaks - the minor break threshold is 35% for a regular pawn, which is greater than the 25% requirement for the quest.

Because keeping mood is important for everybody, both general purpose and (practically) stellarch only methods of increasing mood are included.

Ways that don't hinder combat:
Mostly transposed from the Ship Launch section

• Clean stuff up. Dirt and blood will quickly lower the Impressiveness of any room they are in.
• Set up a polyphasic schedule. This means alternating between Recreation and Sleep, and only Recreation and Sleep (ex. repeat 3 hours sleep, 5 hours recreation, three times). Colonists will still be able to work once both needs are satisfied, or if you prioritize the work task. The stellarch can't work at all, so there's no reason not to have constant recreation or meditation.
• Have lavish meals for everybody. For colonists and guards, fine meals will stack with lavish meals. Meals can be eaten regardless of how full a colonist is. You may want to assign colonists and guards to fine meals by default, and manually order them to eat lavish once a day.
• Use drugs. Nobles can get addicted, and you won't get penalized.
  • Beer, psychite tea, and ambrosia (if you have it) all give positive moodlets at 0 risk of death.
  • Use wake-up if you need stuff done *immediately*, such as repairing the outer walls of your colony. It also gives a +5 moodlet and restores Rest.
• Watch out for ideoligion. The empire's ideoligion will be different than yours. Don't expect to butcher humans and not peeve off the stellarch. Unless you've edited the empire's ideoligion accordingly.

Ways that hinder combat:

• All the drugs. Get blackout drunk. Smokeleaf becomes a valid option. Yayo and Flake are "safe" - overdoses are technically a positive, since they render a pawn unconscious. Just beware of the tiny chance of death from a major overdose.
• Joywires. Installing a joywire is not considered a harmful operation, and gives a permanent +30 moodlet. The consciousness penalty does make the target easier to kill, however.
  • However, Word of Joy is considered harmful, despite being the exact same effect. It gives a −25 goodwill penalty with the empire, increased to −30 if it is towards natural goodwill. But because it lasts for 7 days, Word of Joy can still be viable to use.

Even in the base game, there's always a chance that the stellarch is a teetotaler, so plan ahead. And with the Ideology DLC, the empire's ideoligion will often contain the Drugs: Medical Only or Drugs: Medical / Social precept. This precept can be removed at the start of the game, but otherwise cannot be circumvented. This precept also makes waster and hussar pawns unhappy taking the drugs they need to survive.

Ending - Joining the royal court

You've escaped on the Imperial shuttle! The high stellarch will now welcome you into the Imperial flotilla as an honored noble party. You might stay in the Imperial court and jockey for political power. Perhaps you'll avoid the drama and focus on enjoying ultratech luxuries. Or, you might even buy a ship and set a course for your long-lost home. The choice is up to you.

— Endgame text after the shuttle containing the Stellarch departs with at least one colonist from the colony inside.

Once the onslaught is over, a shuttle will come pick the stellarch and your colonists up.

While the shuttle's actual loading screen can only fit 1000kg, you can load infinitely many colonists by selecting the colonist, right clicking the shuttle, and clicking "get in the shuttle". The stellic guardians do not need to be loaded into the shuttle, even if they are still alive.

The Archonexus

Awaken the archonexus core, unleashing insurmountable power into the world.

Briefing

Requirements:

• The Archonexus quest appears once you have reached $150,000 wealth. To accept the quest, you must have a colony of at least $350,000 wealth and be allied with a specific faction. If no factions are available to ally, then "a group of wild people" will offer the quest for no extra requirement.
• Sell your colony for an archotech map piece. If you had multiple colonies, all of them will be sold. You will start a new colony anywhere on the map, and are able to create a new ideoligion. Research is reset to Crashlanded.
  • Analysis of signal chip, powerfocus chip, and nano structuring chips is not undone by the research reset.

• You will get all the items from your original scenario, and can bring the following:
  • 5 colonists, with all their apparel, including any armor (but not their weapons or utility slot)
  • 5 animals. Does not include mechanoids
  • 1 relic.
  • 7 stacks of items.
• Get a total of 3 colonies to $350,000 wealth. Study the major archotech structure and then the grand archotech structure. These give a mood debuff for nearby pawns who are not psychically deaf, increasing as you get closer. They cannot be destroyed by any means.
• Once the third map piece is obtained, you don't need to restart again. You can travel with all of your current colonists to the archonexus core. It is guarded by a small amount of mechanoids, but they start dormant and do not actually need to be fought. Regardless, the mechs are likely to be little challenge for a colony who has reached the archonexus.

Failure conditions:

• None, besides a colony wipe.

Overall, the archonexus is the most relaxed of the three endings, but easily the longest. You could do multiple ship launches by the time it takes to reach the archonexus. This quest line should be treated as a "New Game Plus" with your favorite colonists, rather than some form of ultimate ending. Note that increasing wealth still increases the power of standard raids, so you'll have to contend with those for the entire time.

Gaining wealth/allies

Wealth can be gained by simply progressing through the game. Perform vast deep drill or long-range mineral scanner operations. Outfit all your colonists with bionics and full sets of marine armor / cataphract armor. Build a luxurious base, and wonderously impressive rooms. The mechanitor is a natural way to increase wealth - a mechanoid army is powerful and wealthy. Basically, you don't need to rush it. The more prepared you are for the new colony, the better.

The Production Specialist role is valuable for increasing quality of items, which increases both wealth and functionality. A set of masterwork charge rifles is bound to boost your wealth by the tens of thousands, and it serves a function. Combine with masterwork/legendary sculptures, armor, royal beds, and 350k should be hit in no time.

If you still need to make some cash, check out the money making guide. Important note: colony wealth does not care about actual silver, just Market Value. As you always sell at a market loss, selling your goods is actually counterproductive towards increasing wealth.

Theoretical wealth transport

With the right combination of DLCs active, it is theoretically possible to bring over $350,000 wealth with you to the next colony, in the right set-up. A legendary gold plate armor and crown, thrumbofur formal shirt and pants, and hyperweave face mask are worth 37,890. A full set of bionics are worth 40,607, along with a base of 1,750 for humans. Note that psylinks and mechanitor implants do not add wealth. With 5 pawns, you'll reach well over 392,000 wealth. This is in addition to the relic, brought items, and animals.

However, you'll need to study the major archotech structure / grand archotech structure to completion, ally any requisite factions, and deal with the raids boosted by the incredible wealth.

Allies

You can easily ally any faction within 66 tiles by loading a transport pod full with valuable goodies like flake. For a colony with deep drills, a ground-penetrating scanner, and a fabrication bench, the cost of each pod is trivial. By the time you reach the wealth threshold, you should have enough stuff to spare.

If there isn't a faction base within pod range, then things get a bit harder. You'll have to make a caravan and send stuff this way - flake is great due to how light it is. A transport pod or shuttle can launch the first leg of the trip, then a horse can run the rest.

Founding a new colony

You have the freedom to pick any location, and have the ability to reform or make an entirely new ideoligion. Otherwise...

Things to bring

• 5 Colonists

With colonists, treat the new colony like... a new colony. You'll want, at the very least, Plants, Construction, Cooking, Medical, and Intellectual roles to be fulfilled. You may want to bring virtually any other skill, too. Of course, you can just bring your 5 favorite colonists and hope things turn out for the best.

It's best not to bring a luciferium addict to a new colony, or at least, only bring 1 of them.

• 5 Animals

Bring animals that you can feed. Grazers are preferred. Note that dryads will vanish after about a quadrum of time.

• 1 Relic

If you have a charge rifle, or any other relic that is a weapon, then bring that. Otherwise, there's no point not bringing whatever relic you already have.

• 7 Items

If your scenario has food and medicine, then you shouldn't need to worry about those. Materials like steel and plasteel can be obtained at any time. Instead, focus on weapons and things that can help rebuild, possibly components and advanced components. If you started with Naked Brutality, then you'll need to bring some essentials with you.

See #List of items for how much you can bring at a time.

Studying the archotech structures

Considering how long it takes to get to $350,000 wealth again, the actual study of the archonexus should be a non-issue. At the very worst, you can hook a sacrifical pawn up with constant doses of yayo until it finishes the research.

Do not build your colony near the Archotech Structure! A wide area near the structure gives your pawns a major mood debuff and also kills your crops before they can mature. You may want to forbid this area in your assigned Zones.

List of items

Item	Max Allowed	Value of Max
Beer	50	600
Ambrosia	20	300
Luciferium	50	3500
Flake	25	350
Go-juice	25	1325
Wake-up	25	875
Yayo	200	4200
Smokeleaf joint	50	550
Installable body parts (organic or artificial)	1	2,800 Any archotech prosthetic
Most raw food Pemmican Kibble	200	-
Meals Inc. Packaged survival meals	40	-
Chocolate	80	240
Milk	80	152
Insect jelly	150	1200
Eggs (any)	10	70
Herbal medicine	20	200
Medicine	10	180
Glitterworld medicine	5	250
Component	10	320
Advanced component	5	1000
Chemfuel	100	230
Neutroamine	25	150
Hay	400	240
Silver	1000	1000
Gold	100	1000
Steel	80	152
Plasteel	80	720
Wood	150	180
Uranium	80	480
Jade	80	400
Stone blocks (any)	100	90
All textiles (Inc. thrumbofur and hyperweave)	80	1120 Thrumbofur
All weapons	1	18,060 Leg. Golden Warhammer 13,060 Leg. Golden Longsword
All utility items	1	1,200 Various
Inert relics	0	-
Mini-turret Mortar	0	-

Ending - The Archonexus Core

You've invoked the archonexus core. The world fills with a blinding light and time seems to slow...
The machine god has noticed you. Nobody can predict what happens next. It may destroy you, or communicate with you directly, or transport your consciousness to another plane of reality. You sense a vast, inhuman structure of infinite fractal complexity flowing into your mind. Time and scale begin to dissolve. It's terrifying. It's beautiful...

— Endgame text after invoking the Archonexus core.

Once activated, the game ends permanently. Unlike with the other 2 endings, you cannot continue with colonists left behind. You can restart from a previous save, if so desired.

The Void

The void quest is only available if you have not selected the "Ambient horror" mode of Anomaly in your storyteller settings.

The Monolith

Main article: Monolith

Your map begins with a monolith structure which is initially dormant. A colonist approaching the monolith will cause an ominous letter notification. If you have moved to another map or added the Anomaly DLC after starting the game, a "Strange Signal" quest will appear which optionally spawns a monolith on your map.

Having a colonist attune to the monolith begins the Anomaly quest in full. You will gain an entity codex, and the Anomaly research tree will unlock.

If you chose the Anomaly starting scenario, the monolith will be dormant for several days after landing, but then twist and become active automatically without approaching it.

The Codex

Main article: Entity

In order to advance, you must encounter and defeat entities in the codex. Encountering entities also reveals hidden research options in the tech tree. Entities can optionally be captured for research progress using containment, but the monolith itself can also be studied for research points. The Work tab calls this job "Dark Study".

After researching the Void provocation ritual, you can optionally summon an entity event on your schedule rather than waiting for the storyteller to do it. The ritual prioritizes sending entities you have not encountered.

Once you have encountered 7 basic entities (out of 8), you become able to attune the monolith again. Attuning begins the advanced phase. More dangerous entities can appear from now on.

After you have encountered 12 advanced entities (out of 17), the monolith becomes attunable again. Attuning this last time will awaken the monolith and begin the Anomaly quest endgame.

Monolith endgame

Before attuning you should stockpile food, weapons, and medicine for a week-long colony siege, at minimum. Unnatural darkness will descend on your colony during part of the event, so outdoor farming and hunting will not be easy.

You will have a few days of prep time before the monolith finishes twisting. When the event begins, two void structures and multiple entity patrols appear around your map. Similar to the noctolith/noctol events, you will need to foray out of your base and approach each structure. This time, the void structures must be activated rather than destroyed with weapons. Activating a structure is a research-type task that requires a few seconds of work by one colonist. Activating a structure will also cause an immediate revenge entity attack, such as from chimeras, sightstealers, gorehulks, or shamblers.

After activating both structures, you will be given a two-day break while the monolith twists again. At the conclusion of the break, unnatural darkness will descend on your colony and three more void structures will appear that need to be activated, this time while also dealing with the darkness.

You technically have unlimited time during this event (if you can survive indoors), so retreat back to your base after destroying each structure to fight off enemies, heal, and regroup as needed. Use tools like flood lights, Disruptor flare packs, and the solar pinhole psycast to traverse the darkness easier and weaken any light-sensitive entities.

After you activate the last structure (for a total of 5), the monolith will become a portal to the metal hell that multiple colonists can enter, but only one can interact with the Void Node. The specific colonist you select is important, see below.

Specifics

Stage 1

Other major threats cannot occur during the Anomaly endgame event. There will not be standard raids, infestation nor other major threats, nor threats sent by quests and even the ship launch will not occur.

After activating the monolith the precursor to Unnatural darkness will occur. The map will be devoid of sunlight perpetually. The map will not become overwhelmingly dark and there will not threats hidden in dark areas of the map. Colonists will not take damage when they wander into unlit areas.

Two Void structures will land on the map and Metalhorrors will appear with them.

A Fleshbeast attack event will occur.

Wandering singular Noctols and Gorehulks will appear from the map's edge in very low numbers. If these wandering entities are killed another will wander in from the map's edge. The map will constantly have low numbers of singular wandering entities.

Activating the two Void structures is required to progress to the next stage. After activating either Void structure, an attack of assorted entities will appear from the map's edge. The attacks may consist of Shamblers, Gorehulks, or Devourers.

Stage 2

After activating the second Void structure, there will be a 2 day delay until the beginning of the second stage. Notification of Dimming Sky will be given via a yellow letter.

Singular Noctol and Gorehulk wanderers will still continuously patrol about the map and new entities will be spawned if any are killed.

After the two day wait, three Void structures will appear on the map and be accompanied by Metalhorrors.

The sky will dim into full Unnatural darkness. Any colonist in a dark area will be damaged by mysterious entities.

Activating any of the three Void structures will cause entity attacks from the map's edge. These entity attacks can consist of Shamblers, Gorehulks, Devourers, Sightstealers or Noctols.

Once all 3 Void structures are activated the Monolith will begin to twist. After 4 hours, the "twisting" of the monolith will intensify, Metallhorrors will appear around the monolith, and the monolith will become a portal to Metalhell. Activating the Monolith one last time will send one colonist to Metalhell and allow the player to end the event.

Entering the Metal Hell

(name) has activated the monolith and been ripped from our spacetime into another place. (name) finds himself/herself in a room of jagged metallic spikes. Every surface is slick with dark fluid and the air vibrates with power. This metal hell is a connecting channel to an inhuman hyperintelligence.

After activating the Void Monolith, the colonist will be teleported to the metal hell, where the void node is located. Keep in mind that all other colonists are still subject to attacks on the outside map.

Move the colonist over to the center and interact the void node, you will be prompted with two options to conclude the quest.

A writhing sphere of crackling psychic energy rises before (name). Its surface swells and twists, warping the space around it. (name) feels it inside his/her mind, deeper than any normal human sense. It defeats logic and sets him/her adrift in the void. He/She stands on the shoreline of an infinite black ocean of power, and it beckons him/her in. (name) shakes himself/herself back to reality. Nearby archotech devices support the sphere along fragile connections. (name) could disrupt them, closing this link between worlds and putting an end to the terrifying phenomena that have plagued your home. Or, He/She could step into the sphere and merge with the void. It's unknown what lies beyond, or what dark powers could be gained from such an inhuman act.

When an option is chosen, these immediately happens:

• The unnatural darkness on your map lifts
• All void structures, void metal mass, void metal floors on your map are removed
• All living entities on your map outside containment are instantly killed via the destruction of their brain part
  • This also instantly kills fleshmass nucleus and nociosphere, dropping a large amount of materials
  • Void monolith, harbinger tree, death pall, pit gate, fleshmass heart, blood rain, obelisks, inactive unnatural corpse, golden cube are not affected
• The metal hell starts collapsing, leading to the chosen ending in few seconds

There is no way to leave the metal hell without choose an ending option.

Ending - Disrupt the link

The psychic flows destabilize and the archotech machinery begins to scream. The swirling void flickers. (name) feels it spilling beyond its limits and collapsing into itself, all at once. The metallic cavern begins to twist, reshaping like the chamber of a massive heart. Before (name) has a chance to scream, he/she blinks out of existence. (name) has rejected the void. His/Her story continues...

— Endgame text after disrupt the link.

Once you confirm disrupt the link, you hear the decompression explosion sounds as the screen fades to white. The credits roll as the ending theme song plays.

After the credits screen display, the following things will occur:

• All factions that you could ally will receive a one-time bonus +50 goodwill.
• The colonist that disrupted the link gains a +14 Closed the Void moodlet for 60 days.
• All other colonists gain a +8 Void Closed moodlet for 30 days.
• The void monolith is named "collapsed monolith" and becomes dormant, random Anomaly events return to the same level as before it was awoken.
  • The monolith can still be studied for advanced Anomaly research points.
• Spawn 10 shards around the collapsed monolith.
• Spawn 3 monolith fragments around the collapsed monolith.
  • They provide additional sources of advanced Anomaly research points, which is useful since most Anomaly events are disabled.
• All colonists in the metal hell returns to your colony at the monolith site after a 5 to 10 seconds delay; items dropped in the metal hell are lost.

(name) has reappeared. He/She is weary from his/her efforts, but otherwise healthy. By closing the channel to the void, (name) has stopped any more unnatural phenomena from entering our world. Hostile entities in the area have all fallen to the ground, lifeless. Tales of his/her heroism are sure to spread far and wide.

— Letter after the pawn returned.

Ending - Embrace the Void

(name) steps into the void and the black ocean floods into him/her, overwhelming every sense, suffusing every cell in his/her body and every thought in his/her mind. The void node has been refocused away from the world, towards one single person. The void structures scream, torn from their otherworldly foundation, then blink out of existence. (name) has embraced the void. His/Her story continues...

— Endgame text after embrace the void.

Once you confirm embrace the void, you hear the zapping sounds of the void node as the screen fades to white. The credits roll as the ending theme song plays.

After the credits screen display, the following things will occur:

• Several effects applied to the colonist that embraced the void:
  • Gains the Void Touched hediff:
    • 100 HP/day regeneration
    • Rapidly regrows limbs and organs (like a ghoul)
    • ×200% Study efficiency
    • ×200% Psychic sensitivity
    • Disables the need for sleep
    • Disables the need for comfort
    • Gains the Void Terror ability:
      • Causes one target pawn to flee in terror until they are exhausted.
      • 5 charges, recovers one charge every 3 hours
    • Set eyes color to grey if no artificial eyes installed
    • The colonist will randomly mutter, like creepjoiners with "Disturbing" drawback do, which upsets other colonists with a stackable −2 mood debuff
  • Gains the Inhumanized hediff (if colonist didn't already have it):
    • Pain −50%
    • Unable to form social relationships
    • −16.0C Minimum comfortable temperature
    • −12 Animals skill
    • −12 Artistic skill
    • −12 Social skill
    • Disables the need for beauty
    • Disables the need for outdoors
    • Nullifying a large amount of thoughts
    • Permanent +8 Void Pleasure moodlet
    • Can be rehumanized by Brainwipe psychic ritual
  • Gains Death Refusal with 4 charges
    • Even if the pawn already has charges from other sources, such as the imbue death refusal psychic ritual, the total is still set to 4 charges and any additional charges are simply lost.
    • When killed, activate Death Refusal to self-resurrect, replacing any vital organs. Resurrection sickness and scarring are possible.
  • Set hair color to white; can be undone by a styling station
  • Gains a +14 Embraced the Void moodlet for 60 days
• The void monolith remains active at Level 4; dangerous Anomaly events will continue to occur as your storyteller decides
  • The monolith can still be studied for advanced Anomaly research points
• All colonists in the metal hell returns to your colony at the monolith site after a 5 to 10 seconds delay; items dropped in the metal hell are lost

(name) has reappeared. He/She looks withered by the inhuman thought-patterns of the void. All traces of humanity have left his/her eyes. (name)'s mind and body are now permanently linked to the dark void of inhuman rage. Powered by this new connection, (name) no longer feels tethered to mortal needs like comfort or sleep. He/She has gained the ability to induce terror in others using the power of the void. The monolith is awakened. It hums louder with (name)'s reappearance, a reminder that its connection to the void has been opened and made permanent.

— Letter after the pawn returned.

Post-Anomaly

The game continues normally after completing the monolith quest, allowing you to optionally pursue another ending.

Colony End

Everyone is dead or gone. This story is over. Perhaps someone else will find a use for the ruins of this place.

— Popup text when there are no controllable colonists left.

Whenever all your colonists are dead, kidnapped, or have left the planet, your colony is now abandoned. Does not appear with the archonexus ending or the planetkiller.

When this happens, you have the option to create new wanderers to start the colony again.

Planetkiller

At near-lightspeed, the planetkiller weapon slammed into the ground with the force of a trillion hydrogen bombs. Like a water balloon shot with a rifle, this world liquified under the impact and sprayed its molten guts across the cosmos. Part of [planet name] is now a small asteroid belt. The rest is a molten, radioactive hellscape, constantly rippling with kilometers-high planetquakes. You did not survive.

— Popup text after the planetkiller weapon drops into the planet.

See also: Planetkiller event

If the Planetkiller is enabled at the scenario, then you will have a certain number of days or years before the planetkiller strikes, shown at the bottom right. Once the timer hits, the entire map will fade to white with the weapon obliterating the rimworld planet, and a message will be shown on your screen to state you didn't survive the impact, only allowing you to return to main menu as it permanently ends your game, regardless whether or not your colonist has escaped.

Version history

• 1.1 - Credits now list the memory of colonists who died.
• Royalty DLC Release - Royal ascent ending added.
• Ideology DLC Release - Archotech ending added.
• 1.5 - New wanderers option after a "game over".
• Anomaly DLC Release - Void ending added.