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Events are random occurrences that can strike a colony at any moment. They range from everyday occurrences like passers by, to all out assaults on the colony.

The player will be notified of an event's occurrence by an envelope icon that will appear down the right side of the screen. Envelopes are color coded according to whether the event is good or bad - blue envelopes denote good events, red envelopes denote bad events, and yellow envelopes denote neutral events.

Clicking an envelope will open up the message with a description of the event, and the option to either dismiss the notification or, where possible, go to the location of the event. Alternatively, notification messages can be dismissed without opening via right click.

Event Data

Category	Name	Common Name	Chance	Favorability	Minimum 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	Enemy Attack	9.0	Bad	0
Big Threat	AnimalInsanity	Psychic Wave	1.0	VeryBad	1
Big Threat	ShipPartCrash	Ancient Ship Crash	1.5	Bad	30
Special	RaidFriendly	Faction Assistance	3	Good	0
Special	AgentRevealed	Traitor	1.3	VeryBad	40
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	Alphabeavers	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	Faulty Conduit Explosion	1.2	Bad	15
General Bad	CropBlight	Mysterious Blight	2.5	Bad	8
General Good	TraderArrivalGeneral	Trade Ship In Range	13	Good	0
General Good	TraderArrivalSlaver	Slave Ship In Range	4.5	Good	0
General Good	TravelerGroup	Traveler Visit	8	Good	0
General Good	VisitorGroup	Faction Visit	8	Good	0
General Good	WandererJoin	Migrant	0.4	VeryGood	0
General Good	ResourcePodCrash	Cargo Pods	6.0	Good	0
General Good	RefugeePodCrash	Escape Pod	1.5	Good	0

Chance for disease by biome, in average number
of days between occurrences
Biome	Flu	Plague	Malaria	Sleeping sickness
Arid shrubland	150	150	-	-
Boreal forest	130	130	-	-
Desert	150	210	-	-
Temperate forest	140	140	140	-
Tropical rainforest	120	120	80	80
Tundra	140	180	-	-

Event Descriptions

Big Threats

Enemy Attack

Commonly known as a raid, this event comes in several types. The size of a raid is determined by your colony's wealth, and the difficulty setting of the AI Storyteller. It is possible for multiple raids to occur at the same time, possibly to the benefit of the player if both raids are from opposing factions.

Different types of raids include:

Sieges

Siege raids typically see a party of raiders set up a small camp with a number of mortars which could be High Explosive (HE) or Incendiary. They will fire upon colonists, colony structures, and visitors/other raiders whose factions are hostile to that of the besiegers only stopping to eat and sleep.

Siege parties will abandon their camp and assault the colony when they either run out of artillery shells, all of their siege weapons are destroyed, or they suffer significant casualties.

Assaults

Assault raids arrive either via the edge of the map, or by drop pod. They may assault the colony immediately, or stage for a time before launching their attack, allowing colonists time to take up defensive positions, or to skirmish/counter assault the attackers.

Mid-Base Assaults

Arguably among the most dangerous attacks, these assaults differ from normal assaults in that a group of raiders arrive via drop pod directly in exposed sections of the player's base, leaving them little time to prepare.

Psychic Wave

A psychic wave is a pulse of psychic energy that immediately drives a number of the local wildlife insane, causing them to attack the nearest human, and any animal that happens to be standing in their way. A psychic wave is not to be laughed at - most of the wildlife in RimWorld is quite fast, and can close the gap to a colonist before they can get off a second shot, often leading to the colonist being overwhelmed.

Ancient Ship Crash

This event sees a massive piece of an ancient ship crash down to the surface near (or even in) the colony. This ship part happens to contain a hostile AI core that emits a psychic drone that negatively affects the mood of all humans on the map. This drone begins low, but grows progressively stronger the longer the ship part remains, therefore it is advisable to destroy the part as quickly as possible. A colonist's psychic sensitivity traits may worsen or lessen the effect of the drone.

The AI is also capable of emitting concentrated bursts of psychic energy, driving one colonist to an immediate mental break, or a localized blast that drives all animals in the immediate vicinity insane.

Upon attacking the part however, a group of mechanoids will emerge to defend the crashed ship part and its AI core. The size of the group is dependent on colony wealth and storyteller difficulty.

Special

Faction Assistance

When a player is attacked, they can use the comms console call upon friendly factions with sufficient relations to send a group of fighters to assist them, at a cost of relations. It is important to observe relations between the friendly faction and the raiders however, as friendly factions won't assist you against people they aren't hostile to.

This event also has a chance to occur at random.

Traitor

This event is disabled and should be disregarded.

Small Threats

Mad Animal

When this event occurs, a single random animal on the map is driven insane. Like with the psychic wave, the insane animal will charge toward the nearest human, attacking any other animal or obstacle (doors, etc.) in its way.

General Bad

Eclipse

During a solar eclipse, solar generators cease producing power, and outdoor crops stop growing. Be sure to have power and food stored for times like these, or an eclipse coupled with a raid could be the death of an unprepared colony.

Solar Flare

Solar flares cause all electrical items on the map to stop working for the duration of the event. Solar flares are particularly dangerous for colonies that rely on turrets for defense, as they will be vulnerable to any raid that arrives during the solar flare.

Psychic Drone

A psychic drone is a phenomena that affects all colonists of a randomly chosen sex, negatively influencing their mood. Unlike the crashed ship part's AI, this drone has no physical source, leaving colonists no choice but to endure it. Psychic sensitivity traits can be a big factor in the threat posed by this event.

Faulty Conduit Explosion

At any moment, a power conduit may suffer a fault, causing it to explode and expel all stored power in the attached circuit in the process; the amount of stored power directly affects the size of the explosion - which can reach up to 15 squares in diameter with a total of 90,000 Wd stored.

Mysterious Blight

This event destroys most - if not all - of the colony's planted crops, including hydroponic crops. Be sure to keep a reserve of food to counter the issue.

Heat Wave

A heat wave sweeps the colony, driving temperature up for several days. Colonists will complain about the heat, especially sleeping in heat if their rooms are not properly cooled. Additionally, things might rot in inadequately cooled freezers.

Cold Snap

A cold snap makes the temperature of a colony drop for several days. This is generally good for food preservation, but can influence colonist moods and cause frost burns if colonists stay in non-heated areas for a prolonged time.

Alphabeavers

A group of ravenous wood-munching alphabeavers appears at the edge of the map. They will continually eat trees, and Saguaro cacti, until they consume them all, unless you eradicate them first.

General Good

Trade Ship In Range

When an orbital trade ship passes near the colony, players may spend silver to obtain resources or weapons, or alternately sell excess resources or weapons for silver.

Slave Ship In Range

Slave traders are rarer than regular traders, and traffic in that most precious of cargo - fresh colonists. Players can also sell unwanted prisoners to slave traders, however all colonists will suffer a mood penalty for doing so.

Traveler Visit

Occasionally, a group of friendly faction members will travel from one map edge to another, which may work in the player's favor should the group run across mutual enemies.

Faction Visit

A friendly faction visit consists of a group of friendly faction members arriving and milling about the player's colony. They currently possess no higher purpose, but their arrival could prove advantageous if the colony is assaulted by a mutual enemy while they are present.

Migrant

This event sees a random colonist arrive via the map edge, and join the colony immediately.

Cargo Pods

From time to time, cargo pods from the wreckage of the ship will fall out of orbit. These pods contain a random amount of resources, and pieces of slag, which can be refined into usable metal at a electric smelter.

Escape Pod

Rarely, an escape pod will crash land nearby. The occupant will be incapacitated, but can be rescued and recruited into the colony.