Endings

While RimWorld can be played for several hours or indefinitely, the game can come to an end in a few different ways, two of which ends your current game permanently.

For endgame tips, see Advanced Endgame Guide - Ending the game.

Temporary Ending

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 colonist left in all visible map.

These endings will not end the game permanently, but instead can go on even when there are no colonist left to control if you chose 'Keep Playing' instead of exiting to main menu. Anytime if the 'wanderer joins' or 'refugee chased' events trigger, you can resume playing.

Colony End

If and when the final colonist is lost (dead, kidnapped or left the planet), the game will present a message that everyone is dead or gone. If you continue playing, there is very little to do, but time continues to pass and events still trigger.

Ship Launch

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 there. 'You'll find out when you wake up.
— Endgame text for Ship Launch on new ship or from Journey Offer

If a spaceship is constructed you can load some or all of the colonists into the ship cryptosleep caskets to depart the planet.

To launch the ship, select the ship computer core and click the 'Launch ship' button. Starting up the ship takes 15 days, during which your colony will be attacked frequently. Any colonists not on the ship will be left behind. 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.

Journey Offer

After a short time the game will present a message that a friendly AI has offered you passage on his spaceship. The location is marked on the world map by a purple flag (or circle when zoomed in) and will be a considerable distance away. You can send colonists there by caravan or land in by transport pod, but the long journey will take many legs.

Charlon Whitestone friendly AI
Journey destination

Launching the friendly ship is much the same as launching a colony ship.

To launch the ship, select the group of colonists at the journey destination and click the 'Take off' button. Any colonists not with the ship will be left behind. 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.

Leave with the Stellarch

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.

An alternative game ending with the Royalty DLC, it gives you the quest "Royal Ascent" in which you must have the Stellarch himself visit your colony together with 4 of his personal guards and you must house them for 12 days. You need to have a Count or Countess as well as having enough throne & Bedrooms for your nobility that meets their standards as well as an extra for the Stellarch himself. While the Stellarch is visiting you must keep him safe from harm and keep his mood above 25%.

Permanent Ending

These endings will end the game permanently. You can still continue from your last saves if you had saved one.

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 AI Tania 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.

Awaking the Archonexus

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.

An alternative game ending with the Ideology DLC, it gives you the progressive quest "The Archonexus", which functions as a sort of New Game+ mode.

For the first phase of the quest, you must ally with a particular faction and then give them your colony with at least $350k worth of wealth. Afterwards, you can select to keep up to:

5 colonists. Their clothes^{[Clarification needed]} will be retained, but not weapons or utility gear (they may still be brought as items).
5 animals.
1 relic, which may be worthless if you've changed ideoligion (until you gain members of the old ideoligion).
7 items; multiples of the same item can be brought, up to a limit. Each such item has a specifically defined max stack size you can take (e.g., 1 weapon, 20 herbal medicine, 40 packaged survival meals all count as 1 "item", each).

You will then choose a location on the same world map to start a new colony, and are offered a chance to change your ideoligion - all 5 colonists will become members of it. Any research not unlocked as part of the "Classic Start" will be reset. Existing pawns and animals still exist within the game state, and may show up again as visitors or raiders. Faction relations are reset, however honor and titles are retained.

Warning: "Ship to the Star" (Journey Offer) will be rendered as a failure once you decided to pursue this ending, meaning to still reach said ending, you have to build your own ship past the first map shard as said endgame quest will no longer generate.

For the second phase of the quest, you will need to get a colonist to decipher at one of the nearest archotech structure, then again sell a colony worth $350k in wealth.

After the third map fragment is obtained, the location to the archonexus will be found. While it is guarded by mechanoids, they can be dispatched off quickly and all colonist can be sent over to activate the archonexus. The game will end permanently upon activation of the nexus, and after exiting the credits screen, you will be greeted back to the main menu.

The starting endgame text and how the colonist "escapes" is different from the other 2 endings.

Item	Max Allowed	Value of Max
Beer	50	600
Ambrosia	20	300
Luciferium	50	3500
Yayo	200	4200
Smokeleaf joint	50	550
ARTIFICIAL AND ORGANIC BODY PARTS	1
Mini-turret	0	-
Mortar	0	-
ALL MEALS INC PSMS	40
Kibble	200	220
Pemmican	200	280
Chocolate	80	240
Milk	80	152
Insect jelly	150	1200
ALL EGGS	10
Herbal medicine	20	200
Medicine	10	180
Glitterworld medicine	5	250
Component	10	320
Advanced component	5	1000
Chemfuel	100	230
RAW PLANT FOOD BASE	200
Hay	400	240
Silver	1000	1000
Gold	100	1000
Steel	80	152
Plasteel	80	720
Wood	150	180
Uranium	80	480
Jade	80	400
Cloth	80	120
Synthread	80	320
Devilstrand	80	440
Hyperweave	80	720
ALL WOOLS	80
ALL LEATHERS	80
Shield belt	1	390
Smokepop pack	1	166
Psychic shock lance	1	550
Psychic insanity lance	1	650
Granite blocks	100	90
Limestone blocks	100	90
Marble blocks	100	90
Sandstone blocks	100	90
Slate blocks	100	90
ALL WEAPONS	1	18,060 Leg. Golden Warhammer 13,060 Leg. Golden Longsword
Orbital bombardment targeter	1	1,200
Orbital power beam targeter	1	1,200
Orbital mech cluster targeter	1	1,200
Tornado generator	1	800
Inert relics	0	-
Jump pack	1	645
Low-shield pack	1	430