Events
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Events are driven by the currently selected AI storyteller. They range from everyday occurrences like passers by, to all out assaults on the colony.
Most events occur with an envelope icon that will appear down the right side of the screen. Other events will pause the game and pop up a window where the player must make a choice. Some events can also happen on temporary maps.
Usually, the color of the envelope will suggest the severity of the event. In general, blue envelopes denote good events, white envelopes denote neutral events, red envelopes denote threats and yellow envelopes denote bad 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.
All event title portions in parentheses below are variable. They can mention location, pawn and faction names, specific buffs or debuffs, or even have countdowns for the time variable events.
Big Threats
Enemy Attack
These events can take place from Base Builder difficulty onwards.
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.
Assault
Raided by (relationship) mom!
Different types of raids include:
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.
Drop pod sappers
Sappers
Mid-Base Assaults
A group of raiders arrives via drop pods directly in the player's base, leaving little time to prepare. Drop pods may punch through a constructed roof or thin rock roof, but not overhead mountains.
Sieges
Siege raids typically have a party of raiders arrive and set up a small camp along the edge of the map with a number of sandbag walls and mortars with a variety of Mortar shells. They will fire upon colonists, colony structures and any visitors or other raiders from factions they are hostile to, only stopping to eat and sleep. If their food or ammunition runs low, more drop pods will land to resupply the raiders.
Siege parties will abandon their camp and any remaining construction to assault the colony when their siege weapons are destroyed or they suffer significant casualties. Any remaining supplies and objects from their camp can be claimed, deconstructed and used by the player.
Infestation
A bug hive has emerged! It will slowly spawn bugs as well as produce additional hives. If you don't want it to infest the whole area, muster your forces and destroy it. But beware - the bugs will defend their hive.
Infestations will only spawn under an overhead mountain. Certain steps can be made to prevent an infestation such as installing your own floors and walls, but it is not known if the spawn chance can be eliminated entirely. Hives bring glow pods that glow for 20 days (as long as they’re installed) and can be reinstalled or sold. Hives produce Insect Jelly, this is the primary food source for the growing swarm. Each active hive will replicate every few game days (depending on difficulty), and the swarm of insects produced will dig themselves out of wherever they are stuck at. One user noted on Cassandra Classic difficulty Rough, the infestation stopped replicating at 30 hives each with 6.1 enemies on average, leaving 183 various insects to fight.
Infestation (deep drills)
In 1.0, when using a deep drill, you may dig into a hive of insects, which will awaken and attack your colony.
Manhunter Pack
This event can take place from Base Builder difficulty onwards.
A pack of man-hunting animals have entered the area. They will roam the region, hunting for humanoid flesh. If they see a colonist run behind a door, they will attempt to beat down the door. They'll leave the area in a few days.
A manhunter pack has 40% more points allocated to enemy spawning than an ordinary raid (i.e. a manhunter pack is 40% bigger than a standard raid), and animals from manhunter packs will congregate around your base for anywhere from 24 to 54 in-game hours before they all leave. While this is a negative event, it can be turned useful for taming as wounded animals can be healed and tamed afterwards. Dead animals can be hauled in for butchering, but if there are still active manhunters nearby just wait until they're sleeping. You'll have two days before corpses start rotting.
- Boars, Wargs or anything that runs faster than a baseline human can be very problematic to deal with even with moderately-well defended colonies because they can easily outrun humans, and they all typically arrive in very large numbers meaning they can easily overwhelm a colony.
- Explosive animals, especially boomalopes, are arguably easier to deal with in larger numbers as chain reactions can easily happen because of their large 3-square blast radius, meaning that even packs excess of 40 boomalopes can trivially be dealt with by half a dozen of people armed with automatic weapons (e.g. Charge Rifles, LMGs, Miniguns etc.)
Psychic Wave
A psychic wave is a pulse of psychic energy that immediately drives all members of a species 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.
Special
Special events only occur during certain circumstances.
Ancient Danger
This event is related to map generation and may not appear on every map. It may occur more than once per map.
"As (Colonist Name) draws near the ancient wall a sense of foreboding overcomes him. (S)He isn't sure why, but (s)he feels this dusty structure may contain great dangers" -message that appears when the first colonist walks near
A colonist approached a walled out area of the map partially or completely under a mountain that contains one or more of the following: ancient cryptosleep caskets, bugs with hives, mechanoids or treasure. Open at your own risk by blowing a hole in the wall or deconstructing a section. The cryptosleep caskets usually contain humans, but may also contain megascarabs or be empty. Opening or attacking any casket will cause all the others to open instantly. The Spacers inside the caskets may or may not be dead. If alive, they may or may not be wounded, or armed and hostile. It's even possible for pawns incapable of violence to melee attack. If they are not hostile and can walk, they will try to escape. Any alive Spacers inside may be captured and recruited, usually with a low recruitment difficulty percentage.
Ancient structures may include other treasures like psychic lances and pulsers. Luciferium can be found in these buildings. Pod people sometimes carry plasteel, components, and gold. The caskets can be claimed and used or deconstructed by the colony.
Friendlies
This event can only occur if relations with at least one other faction are friendly.
Friendly factions may send fighters to assist you when mutual enemies appear, such as pirates, manhunters or insectoids. These fighters may be specifically requested via the comms console at a hit to Goodwill, or the friendly faction may send them on their own at no cost to Goodwill. They won't assist against factions that they aren't hostile to.
Keep in mind that friendly fire will damage your relations with the aiding faction. On the other hand, rescuing their downed people will improve relations.
Friendlies vs Pirates
Friendlies vs Thrumbo
Friendlies have a strength of around 150 - 400 points, not enough against mid-late game raids on their own. Still, they can add a little to firepower and help in distracting the enemy.
Journey offer
This event can only happen once per playthrough.
A friendly AI transmits the location of a distant hidden ship that can help you escape the planet. To board the ship, you need to send out a caravan to trek long distances to get to it.
The ship spawns from 200 to 800 tiles away, with a tendency to spawn as far away as possible. With 100% generated worlds, it will usually spawn on the other side of the planet.
Once you reach the ship's location, you will find a ship with 18 ship cryptosleep pods and all the required structures, that may be suffering from different degrees of damage. The ship reactor is hibernating and will need 15 days to power up, and will attract lots of danger during that stage, so you will need to bunker up and build your defenses, and you have plenty of space to build a full base with the map size of a regular colony. After 15 days the ship is ready to launch, and you can choose to leave or stay for whatever reason.
You can build or deconstruct parts on the ship. This allows you to bypass the power up time and its associated threats simply by deconstructing and rebuilding the ship reactor, provided you have the materials ( 
125 + 
100 + 
25 + 
5) as well as the necessary research. You can also choose to expand the ship to accommodate more of your colonists.
Outpost destroyed
This is the notification that triggers when you successfully defeat all hostiles in an enemy base after invading them. After this you have 24 hours to capture any prisoners (there is usually at least one building suitable to turn into a cell), treat the wounded, pack up and leave.
Faction defeated
Should you destroy all bases of a faction, the notification will say that since you just destroyed the last faction base, the faction no longer exists.
You can still view the defeated faction in the menu, and it will show 'Defeated' below it. They won't send any raids, nor will they send caravans.
Destroying all enemies and befriending all other factions will make mechanoids the only remaining threat for all future raids.
Ransom (Time remaining)
This event can only occur if a colonist of yours was captured by another faction during a previous raid.
Another faction left the map with one of your downed colonists during a previous attack and will release that colonist to you... for a price. The offer will be good for 24 game hours. If paid, the colonist will immediately appear on your map border or be sent via drop pod.
Refugee Chased at (Settlement)
This event will not trigger if your faction doesn't have hostile relations with any other human faction. Pirate band factions should always be hostile since any attempt to improve relations with them is disregarded by design.
When this event triggers a window appears stating that an individual calls you via radio from nearby, seeking refuge from a faction that is hostile to you and chasing them. The player may choose 'Offer safety' or 'Ignore the message'. Ignoring the message will end the event.
Offering safety will spawn the individual as a colonist at the map's edge who proceeds towards the colony. Shortly thereafter (a delay between 1,000 ticks (16.67 secs) and 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs), the pursuing faction arrives in the form of a raid entering the map where the refugee appeared. Raids arriving this way are 35% stronger than usual. Still, those chasing raiders are also potential colonists if they can be captured and recruited.
The refugee immediately becomes a new colonist who will arrive unarmed and usually poorly clothed.
Roof collapsed
This event only happens if something is crushed by the falling roof. Otherwise, it's only a notification.
All roofs must be supported by a constructed or rock wall within 6 spaces with contiguous roof sections in between itself and that wall. If either of these conditions changes such as via an explosion or even demolition, then the roof will collapse.
If demolishing a building, it's recommended to use the Remove Roof Area tool to remove the roof first before deconstructing the walls.
Zzztt...
This event can occur anytime a power conduit has energy flowing through it. The conduit may suffer a fault, causing it to short circuit and start a fire.
If any batteries are connected, the fault will also discharge all stored power in the process, increasing the size of the explosion. Unconnected batteries (through a switch or separate power network) will not be affected.
The amount of stored power directly affects the size of the explosion, up to a maximum of 15 squares in diameter from a total of 90,000 Wd stored. The explosion can damage any nearby structures, items and colonists, as well as cause fires. The one section of power conduit where it occurred is often destroyed, cutting off power to anything past it unless there is another path for the electricity to flow.
Small Threats
(Animal) Revenge
An animal that was harmed will go mad and target whomever hurt it. The game will notify you if such an animal chosen for Hunting will likely attack if harmed, usually predators. Occasionally, all nearby pack members of that animal's species may start attacking their attacker, possibly killing them.
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. This event is particularly dangerous if a Boomalope or Boomrat turns, as they explode upon death and the latter can also reliably catch up to an unmodified human regardless of traits.
Generally Bad
Bad will
You've done something to anger another faction bad enough that they are now hostile to yours. This can happen if you arrest a faction member of theirs, rob one of their caravans or if they take too much friendly fire from your colonists, among other reasons.
Beavers!
A group of ravenous wood-munching alphabeavers appears at the edge of the map. They will continually eat trees (including any you're farming) and Saguaro cacti until they consume them all, unless you eradicate them first.
It is recommended to bring more than one colonist to exterminate them if you choose to. If one turns manhunter, the whole pack will become manhunters, which can turn individually weak beavers into a small army of killing machines.
Breakdown: (Machine)
One of your machines will break down and will not work until repaired with a component. If this happens to a hydroponics basin, any crops in it will wither and die unless repaired immediately.
This only applies to machines using electricity.
Breakup
A couple splits, complete with the Mood and Social penalties for both colonists.
Birthday
Character gains an age-related illness such as a bad back or cataracts. Some of these may be 'cured' by replacing those parts with bionics.
Due to age or a pre-existing health condition, they can also have a heart attack.
Blight
A crop blight emerges on some of your crops. Blighted crops will not grow and can spread the blight to other nearby plants while slowly dying.
To stop blight, the affected plants need to be cut or burned.
The blight starts at 10% severity, on 10% of your plants. It will progress slowly once plants are infected, and once it reaches 28% it can spread to nearby plants within a 4-tile radius.
Devilstrand mushrooms or any other plants with a 15-day or longer growing period are immune to blight.
Bonded animal's death
An animal with a bond to a colonist dies, affecting that colonist's mood negatively. Enemies may directly target your animals during attacks. Enemies, turrets or even your own colonists can even hit them unintentionally during shootouts, especially animals trained for Release and checked to follow your drafted colonists in the Animals tab. Wild predators may hunt and kill your animals, including bonded ones. Bonded animals can also fall into traps. It can even occur intentionally by slaughtering, euthanizing or manually drafting and attacking the bonded animal.
Bonded master's death
The inverse of a bonded animal's death. This time, it's the master who dies, through causes such as enemy raids, disease or large wild predators getting hungry.
When this happens, any animal that is bonded to the master will have a mental break. It can be a less dangerous one such as a dazed wander, or a more dangerous one such as a berserk rage.
This is one of the only situations where animals can have non-manhunter mental breaks.
(Colonist) hit trap
One of your stupid colonists stepped on one of your deadfall traps and managed to set if off.
This can only happen if your colonists are forced to tiptoe around an armed trap as there are no alternative trap-free paths for them to use.
Crashed ship part
A large piece of an ancient ship crashes nearby or within the colony, scattering chunks and debris. They have various negative effects on the map. To stop the effect, destroy the ship part by manually attacking it. Upon attacking it however, mechanoids will emerge to defend it. The size of the group depends on storyteller difficulty and colony wealth. All ship parts drop amounts of steel, steel chunks and silver once destroyed.
Ship parts of either type will change the weather around them to snowfall, even in deserts in the summer.
Poison ship
A Poison Ship event kills wild or domesticated all plants in an expanding circle, eventually reaching the entire map. Do not confuse this with the plant killing snow aura present on both Poison Ships and Psychic Ships. The poison kill crops randomly, including plants grown in Hydroponics basins. The affected areas will ultimately have dramatically reduced chances of maturing simple crops, and slower crops will end up nearly impossible to grow.
Psychic Ship
A hostile AI core projects a psychic drone that negatively affects the mood of all humans on the map. It begins low and grows progressively stronger the longer it stays. Therefore, it should be destroyed as quickly as possible. Colonists with psychic sensitivity traits may benefit or suffer more from its effect. The ship's AI is also capable of emitting psychic pulses that can drive a colonist to an immediate mental break, or nearby animals to madness.
Drone intensifies
If left alone long enough, the drone emitted from a crashed psychic ship will get worse as time goes on. Every 2.5 days the drone gets stronger, from -5 mood at the beginning up to -50 after 7.5 days.
(Drug) addiction
A colonist has taken too much of a drug and is now addicted. They will now need to regularly take that drug or suffer the withdrawal effects. See here for advice fighting addictions.
Cold snap
A cold snap makes the temperature of a colony drop for several days. It only occurs when the map's summer temperature is greater than 0°C and less than 15°C. Colonists will complain about the cold, especially sleeping in it if their rooms are not properly heated.
While this is generally good for item preservation, it can kill off crops, influence colonist moods and cause Hypothermia if colonists or animals stay in non-heated areas for a prolonged time. It also renders most of the plants in the area inedible (unless when it happens in warmer areas in which some plants are still edible), potentially causing tame animals to starve to death and wild ones to leave the map. With no other food, predators may attack colonists and tame animals. Snowing may also happen, depositing thick snow that can slow down outdoor movement significantly.
Jackets, dusters, parkas and tuques provide cold insulation for colonists, protecting them while they're awake, though they don't prevent mood loss caused by sleeping in cold areas.
Disease (Type)
Several of your colonists and/or prisoners will be afflicted with a disease. Which disease they are infected with depends on the biome. The number of infected depends on the disease and the cruelty of the storyteller. Only humanlikes can catch infectious diseases.
Non-blunt trauma wounds, treated or not, also have a chance to get infected. The chance depends on treatment quality and cleanliness of the environment. Animals can also catch infections at a greatly reduced rate compared to humans.
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.
Flashstorm
A localized, intense lightning storm in one area of the map. Causes big fires. Clicking the envelope icon offers the option to jump to the location where the strikes will be. It also has the side effect of disabling rain.
It affects a area with a radius between 45 to 60 tiles, and while active lightning will strike between every 320 ticks (5.33 secs) to 800 ticks (13.33 secs). Once it finishes no more rain can fall until 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins) has passed.
Heat wave
A heat wave sweeps the colony, driving temperature up for several days. It only occurs when the map's summer temperature is equal to or exceeds 20°C. Colonists will complain about the heat, especially sleeping in it if their rooms are not properly cooled. Additionally, things might rot in inadequately cooled freezers. There is also a chance for a fire to randomly appear on the map which can quickly spread and burn down an entire colony.
Heat waves sometimes can be deadly to unprepared colonies, mostly tribal ones since they have it harder to build air conditioners since they start without that technology and it takes longer to unlock it. For them it's advised to use passive coolers in rooms or food stockpiles to prevent food from rotting quickly and colonists and animals from getting a heatstroke. Dusters and cowboy hats provide heat insulation for colonists, protecting them while they're awake, though they don't affect mood caused by sleeping in hot areas.
Additionally some animals will leave the map if the temperature gets higher than they can stand.
Mental break: (Type)
One of your colonists or prisoners has had it and has a mental break. During this time, an afflicted colonist will be unavailable for control or colony work. Colonists or prisoners having a break may possibly cause more trouble for themselves or others, depending on the type of break. They may attack other people or animals (including dangerous ones), wander into a firefight, set fires, get out of their bed when they need medical treatment, etc. If you need to get your mental breaking colonists to stop doing what they're doing, draft another colonist and attempt arrest them. Warning: humans may refuse to be arrested and will gain a mood debuff if arrested. Downed colonists don't have to be arrested and may be rescued instead.
(Name): Heart attack
A character or tamed animal suffers a heart attack. Characters will go to rest to any bed assigned to Medical instead of returning to his or her own assigned bed and animals will return to the nearest empty animal bed or sleeping spot. Doctors will then proceed to attempt to resuscitate the victim, using medicine up to their assigned medicine level if available.
During a heart attack, people or animals can fall unconscious or even die if not treated in time.
Heart attack notification
Health tab
Overdose: (Colonist)
One of your colonists or animals has overdosed by taking too many drugs in a short amount of time and potentially permanent damage or death could occur.
Prison break
Prisoners have staged a breakout! They have somehow defeated the door lock and may seek weapons, fight, or try to escape. Prisoners are more likely to attempt breakout when they are unhappy, numerous and healthy. Prisoners who can't walk can't leave their beds to escape.
Since prisoners are technically part of the enemy faction, friendlies will engage them. This is helpful if you need to contain a larger break, though the use of weapons means they have a higher chance of outright killing the prisoner. Recapturing escaped prisoners from factions that have turned friendly since that prisoner was originally captured will not affect relations with that faction.
Psychic Drone
Drone in this case does not refer to "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle" but instead "To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz."
A Psychic Drone phenomenon affects all colonists of a randomly chosen gender, giving a strong negative moodlet (-15 for normal colonists). Colonists have no choice but to endure it as the point of origin is off map. Psychic sensitivity traits can be a big factor in the threat posed by this event. There`s also a positive version called Psychic soothe.
Animals are not affected.
Rejected proposal
After two characters fall in love, one of them proposed marriage but is turned down. The proposing one suffers a mood penalty of -18 for 25 days. They will stay together and may accept another offer in the future. Note that a later, accepted proposal will not remove the mood effects of the previous, rejected ones.
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.
Solar flares will cause coolers to fail, causing any frozen perishable goods to begin spoiling if warm enough outdoors. In cold areas, heaters will fail causing ground based greenhouse crops to quickly die as well. Cold temperatures can be abated with campfires though. Colonists will also be at risk of getting heatstroke or hypothermia if you're in an area with extreme temperatures and don't have other temperature control devices.
Crops grown in hydroponic basins will rapidly die regardless of the temperature. It's recommended to quickly Harvest any crops that can't be saved before they die.
Toxic fallout
A distant chemical fire has released a plume of poison over this entire region. Any person or creature not under a roof will be slowly sickened by the toxic dust settling out of the atmosphere. It will last for anywhere between a few days to over a month.
Toxic fallout causes Toxic buildup, which can permanently sicken pawns with dementia or eventually a carcinoma if it progresses far enough (40% severity onwards). However, the latter is treatable via operation with the use of at least Medicine, or removed via a surgery.
Plants including crops will wither under the fallout. It will usually wipe out or cause to leave the map all wild animals, as well as pose a serious threat to tamed ones unless they are restricted to a roofed area. If you are running low on food, wait for animals to die and then collect their corpses. Their bodies will be safe to eat, though they will quickly rot if left under the fallout. Once covered, these dead bodies follow the usual temperature rules for spoilage.
A notification will appear once the fallout has stopped.
Toxic fallout
Colonist acquired Dementia at 80% extreme level
Once moved to a safe place, creatures will need up to 12.5 days to recover.
Volcanic winter
A distant supervolcano has erupted and begun spewing millions of cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere. Ash in the atmosphere will obscure the sun. Temperatures will drop and plants will suffer for lack of sunlight. It could pass in a few weeks, or it might last many months.
Solar panels will not produce as much power, and plants will grow slower. Volcanic Winters also appear to significantly reduce the inflow of wildlife (observed in a Temperate Forest, 300x300, very few animals came in from Spring-Summer when there'd normally be many), which can easily lead to meat shortages and famine if you don't have sufficiently large farms for your colony.
When the event finishes the message: "Most of the volcanic ash has settled." will be displayed.
Generally Good
Ambrosia sprout
A grove of the mysterious ambrosia bush has sprouted nearby! If you wait for the plants to grow, you'll be able to harvest the delicious, pleasurable, and slightly addictive fruit.
A good way to harvest them is to draw a growing zone over them, but forbid sowing. Colonists will then automatically harvest the bushes when they are fully grown.
(Animals) join
Tamed dogs or farm animals join your colony.
(Animal) self-tamed
A random animal on the map becomes self tamed.
Previously tamed animals which return to the colony can self-tame. When doing so they retain all training they previously had.
Aurora
An aurora lights up the night sky, giving a +14 mood boost to anyone who is outside watching. It ends at day.
While in real life it only happens near the poles, on the rimworlds it can happen anywhere regardless of latitude.
Cargo pods
From time to time, cargo pods from the wreckage of the ship will fall out of orbit and land on your map. Each drop will contain only one type of resource in a random amount. The remains of the pods become pieces of slag, which can be refined into usable metal at an electric smelter. The pods have a chance of crashing through the roofs of any buildings, damaging any nearby furniture and structures.
Escape Pod
Rarely, an escape pod will crash land nearby. The Spacer occupant will be incapacitated, but can be rescued and treated or be captured and possibly recruited into the colony. It's possible for the person to be related to someone in the colony. This is indicated on the notice as Escape pod (relationship). Usually, this pawn will join the colony once healed. Still, the pawn has the opportunity to walk off on their own once healed and you will not gain any good will if they do leave the map once healed. If you do nothing, they have the same opportunity to stand on their own after awhile and walk off, depending on their injuries.
For a near-guaranteed way to recruit them, capture rather than rescue them. Their recruitment difficulty percentage is usually low and this will also train your warden's Social skill. Since he or she is a Spacer, there is no faction goodwill bonus for healing or releasing this stranger and no mood penalty for leaving an undesirable colonist candidate to die as long as you don't capture them first.
Good will
This notification will appear once relations have been improved with a Hostile faction enough that they will no longer be hostile. Common ways to improve relations include releasing prisoners from their faction or gifting silver via the comms console. Note that released prisoners must leave the map safely to receive the bonus.
Herd migration: (Animal)
A large herd of [animal]s is passing through the area. They won't attack unless provoked.
Inspiration: (Type)
One of your colonists has had a mental inspiration and will perform a certain task better for an amount of time.
Man in black
When danger comes, a stranger joins the colony to help.
This event seems to be triggered only when all of your colonists are downed.
As their namesake goes, men in black come in a full set of black clothing. They also come wearing a flak vest and always carry a revolver. They need not be skilled at shooting.
Marriage is on!
A couple that has been together for awhile will announce their engagement. The wedding will take place some time in the future. This allows players to have enough preparation time to build a Marriage spot if they choose. If not, any Gather Spot will do. Any built table or campfire by default is checked as a Gather Spot, but will be overridden by a Marriage spot. When the day of the wedding arrives, it will take place regardless of the entire colony's attendance. After the ceremony takes place, a reception will follow with everyone drinking, smoking and eating if hungry.
Colonists who do not reach the meeting point on time, such as those sleeping, fighting fires or lying incapacitated in bed, will not gain the mood buffs from the event. A quick Draft and Undraft should be enough to distract all capable colonists to attend. Colonists away in caravans obviously cannot attend.
If the couple happens to be busy at the exact moment the wedding is to take place, for example, because they are loading a caravan, those who are not members of the trade group will remain waiting at attendance and perform no task at all except for eating until the couple comes back. This can cause characters to get binges and no wardens or doctors looking out for prisoners can easily let captives break out.
New lovers
Two characters fall in love. Build them a 2 pawn bed and assign it so they can sleep together. This avoids a mood debuff for both colonists and occasionally gains them another buff.
New recruit
You'll get this notification whenever a Warden has succeeded in recruiting a prisoner.
Party
One of your colonists will throw a party, improving the moods of all attendees for some time and providing an opportunity for rapid Social changes. They will usually have beers and smokeleaf joints if available. Note that the player may have to wake up any sleeping colonists such as Night Owls or otherwise distract other colonists from their work so that they attend the party. An easy way to do this is by quickly drafting and undrafting them.
Colonists will continually get stacking mood buffs the longer they attend a party. Each stack adds +1 to mood, lasts 10 days and stacks up to 15 times.
The party by default will happen around an item checked as a Gather Spot such as a table or campfire, but may be overridden by building a party spot.
Similar to marriage ceremonies, characters that do not reach the party on time don't get the mood buffs.
Psychic Soothe
When this event triggers it gives a positive mood modifier (+15 for normal colonists) to all colonists of a randomly chosen sex. The event lasts between 1.5 to 3.5 days. It can be considered the opposite of the Psychic Drone.
Quest completed
You've done what was requested by other factions and will receive the reward at your nearest(?) base via pods, along with an improvement in relations. The reward will arrive forbidden, so you will have to un-forbid it before your colonists will haul it in.
Traders
Traders from other non-hostile factions can stop by your colony, whether specifically requested via the comms console or randomly on their own.
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. You will only receive this notification if you have built a comms console and it's powered.
You need to build orbital trade beacons so you can beam silver and items up to the ship to actually carry out transactions. You can still check the items for sale even without them however.
Wanderer joins
A random colonist arrives from a map edge and joins the colony immediately. Like most events involving other people, the wanderer has a chance to be related to an existing colonist. They will most likely be naked, so have some spare clothes ready just in case. Notification: A villager named (name) has arrived and is joining the colony. (Gender) is a (backstory).
Common character
Related character
Neutral
Affair
Somebody who is already married starts an affair with a single person.
Area revealed
A hidden area has been opened up on the map, with an appropriately colored event envelope regarding the nature of the reveal. It's often associated with opening an Ancient Danger, which are usually easy to find due to their large rectangular shape. It can also occur with opening buildings on maps, whether freestanding buildings on a map or opening enemy buildings during your own raids. It can also occur when mining, usually by accident when long straight lines are selected for digging. However, sometimes entrances to these areas can be seen on the map. Look along the edges of a mountain for one or more visible edge blocks facing inward. Mining this section out can reveal new mineral riches, new farmland, new animals, new threats... or absolutely nothing.
Find inward facing edges,
...and open up an entire valley.
more inward rocks
this area contains a threat
(Leader) died: (Faction)
This alert uses the title of the leader in question. For example, if the boss of a pirate band dies you will see 'Boss died'.
Occasionally, the leader of another faction will die. The popup window will announce his or her successor.
This will also happen if the leader personally comes to raid your base and is killed in action. Killing an enemy faction leader will give a mood buff for awhile to the colonist that accomplished this.
Raid with Faction leader presence
(Boss name) died / The new boss is (name)
Defeated hostile leader (name)
New (Leader): (Faction)
Similar to the Leader Died event, except this one occurs only when you've succeeded in both capturing and recruiting another faction's leader. The leader then places first at the colonist bar, instead of last.
Meteorite
A large meteorite has struck ground in the area. It has left behind a lump of [material]. During daylight, a large shadow will project on the ground which shrinks as it closes in.
Any colonists beneath the meteorite has a small while to escape before they are crushed by it.
Landed meteorite
Flying meteorite
Rare Thrumbos
One or more thrumbos will spawn at the edge of the map, staying around for awhile to eat anything they can, including your crops. The player can attempt to hunt or tame them, both of which are very difficult. If no action is taken, they will leave on their own after a few days.
Ship chunks
One or more ship chunks fall into the map. They can be deconstructed for components and a small amount of steel, but they can punch through roofs, damage structures near it, and extremely rarely land right on top of a colonist, killing them.
There is no notification for this event, simply a message on the top of the screen.
In Beta 18 the ship chunk creates an explosion upon landing. The falling chunks cast shadows on the ground, giving a little time for colonists to move out of the way.
Trauma savant
A colonist or tamed animal has suffered a brain injury and has gained great abilities from it at the cost of others, such as increased manipulation while losing the ability to speak and hear. It also restores the brain to full functioning despite the injury.
This only has a 12% chance to trigger on receiving brain injuries.
Traveler Visit
Occasionally, one or more members of a friendly faction will arrive, just passing through. They'll enter at one edge of the map and proceed across the map. They'll exit the map upon reaching another edge.
A drafted colonist can be directed to capture (arrest) one of the travelers. However, once the arresting colonist reaches the target, that entire faction will immediately turn extremely hostile, dropping to -76 Goodwill. This shift includes any other members of the same Faction currently there.
Relationship
Normally this isn't an event on its own, but rather an addition to other events that involve other pawns such as raids or traders arriving. In any instance of other humanoids visiting your base, there is a chance that one or a few of the visitors or raiders may be related to your existing colonists. Clicking the event envelope will show the relation.
If the visitor instance itself was an event, it will add "(Relationship)" onto the end of the envelope title. If the instance would only have been a notification otherwise such as other factions crossing your map, it will become a Relationship event on its own.
Visitors
Friendly faction members may stop by your settlement. Occasionally, they will have a few goods to trade. Like a regular trader they will mill about the player's colony for awhile. Unlike a regular trader, they don't have many goods with them, nor do they have as much silver to buy your goods.
Visitors possess no higher purpose otherwise. Still, their arrival could prove advantageous if the colony is assaulted by a mutual enemy while they are present.
Sometimes there will be a singular visitor. In this case, the game will notify you of the backstory of that visitor.
World incidents
Attack begun
This notification will appear when a caravan has arrived at a settlement chosen for attacking.
Bandit camp opportunity
Some ruffians are causing trouble nearby and other factions will pay you to wipe them out.
The bandit camp never times out and are weaker than regular enemy bases.
Destroying them increases goodwill by 8 and returns a payment worth 2000 to 3000 worth of silver, whether it consists of items or silver itself.
Caravan ambushed / (manhunters)
While travelling, one of your caravans will be attacked. The game will give you a mini map to defend it.
The attackers can be an enemy faction lying in ambush or a rampaging manhunter pack your caravan unfortunately trespasses upon. If attacked by humans, most minimaps have enough raw resources to build a quick jail cell for capturing any attackers before they die. Consider building a sleeping spot first, rescuing that attacker so that you can begin healing them first, then building the cell around them.
Caravan destroyed
All human members of your caravan have died. Anything carried by the caravan, including animals, will be lost to the wild.
Caravan meeting by (Caravan ID)
This is a pop up window rather than an event with envelope icon. While away from your bases, your caravans may randomly encounter other traders out in the world who would be happy to trade with you. Of course, you also have the option to attack them. Be careful, trade caravans are usually well defended.
Caravan ready
Once you've designated a caravan, you'll get this notification once all of the colonists, prisoners, animals and items have been assembled and left the map. It is now ready to send to other settlements or form another settlement of your own, if you've enabled multiple settlements in the game's settings.
Caravan request
Other friendly factions may make a special trade request of you. The popup will specify which goods they want, the price they're willing to pay for them and the deadline they want them by. They may pay in silver or make a trade for a different item. They will usually pay well over the standard price that those items would otherwise be. Which good they want and how much of it can be checked afterward by clicking on the requesting colony on the World tab.
This event is more likely the more colony wealth you have, up to 2x chance at 300,000 wealth.
Demand
A hostile faction approaches your caravan and demand that you give them items and hand over members as slaves. If you don't, they will proceed to assault the caravan.
You can see their number when they are demanding you hand over items.
Incapacitated refugee
[Name, adulthood background] of the Spacer faction contacts you on radio and requests help. He/She is wounded and unable to move. Without your help, he/she will die within X days. It may be dangerous there, so beware. The refugee will be anywhere from 2 to 13 tiles away from your base and will die between 7 to 15 days. For some strange reason the refugee is capable of holding out much longer than his bleeding rate would otherwise be if he was present at your colony, so an immediate rescue is not much different than rescuing moments before death. Entering that map however will speed up any bleeding.
Similar to the escape pod event, the refugee may not immediately join your colony upon rescue. If you heal the refugee, carry them off and he or she heals during the return home enough to walk, they may leave as soon as the rescuing caravan returns, eating your food during the entire trip. Just like the escape pod event, a near guaranteed way of gaining them as a colonist is to capture and recruit them. On most minimaps, there should be enough raw materials to quickly build a cell for capture, even building one around the refugee and healer while your healer heals.
Since he or she is a Spacer, there is no faction goodwill bonus for healing or releasing this stranger and no mood penalty for leaving an undesirable colonist candidate to die as long as you don't capture them first.
Item Stash Opportunity (Time Remaining)
Another faction leader will tell you of the existence of an item stash on the map. The items will often be guarded and others will gather the items first if you aren't fast enough getting to them.
There is a 50% chance that they will request a payment between 50 and 500 silver before informing you of the location. You must have enough silver near an orbital trade beacon to pay the price, and it must be done within 24 hours. You can postpone the request, in which the envelope will remain on-screen. Dismissing it via right-click is equal to refusal.
Item stashes will timeout between 10 - 30 days. They may have a quest item, 3 - 5 neurotrainer mech serums, or anywhere between 5 - 9 non-quest items. The total value is around 2000 - 3000 silver.
It is possible that the stash generates with an initially hostile faction guarding it, but Good will triggering before your colonists arrive at the stash will turn them friendly.
Once the defenders are defeated, you will have two and a half days before the game automatically reforms your caravan. The game will not collect the items for you, so you must either gather them yourself and leave the map or manually reform the caravan.
Peace talks
A hostile faction leader decides to drop his weapons and offers to talk things out for once. The offer expires after 15 days if ignored. Pirates will never attempt peace talks.
To participate, you will need to send a caravan with a capable negotiator. Once the destination is reached, the most capable negotiator in your caravan will proceed to talk with the leader to hopefully improve relations.
There are several outcomes of the incident, each being a subevent of its own. No matter the outcome, your negotiator will always gain social skill.
Peace talk triumph
The peace talks were very successful, giving a great boost to relations from 50 to 75. In addition, the faction will give a farewell gift of between 500 and 1500 silver.
Despite your triumph, if you don't manage to bring relations above 0, they will still remain hostile.
This has a base weight of 0.1.
Peace talk success
The talks were a success, and relations between the factions have warmed somewhat, from 25 to 75.
This has a base weight of 0.55.
Peace talk flounder
The talks were neither successful nor a failure, and relations remain unchanged.
This has a base weight of 0.2.
Peace talk backfire
The peace talks backfired, and relations have gotten worse than they started, from -10 to -50 relations.
This has a base weight of 0.1.
Peace talk disaster
The peace talks have failed so miserably that the faction hates you a lot more now, with a -25 to -75 damage to relations, as well as instantly turning hostile if they aren't already.
In addition, the angered faction sends a group of attackers after your negotiating party.
This has a base weight of 0.05.
Outcome chances
The actual outcome chances are dependent on the negotiator's Diplomacy Power stat, after going through a simple curve. To do this, the game calculates the bad outcome factor, of the negotiator first.
- At 0% power, the bad outcome factor is 4.
- At 100% power (healthy, lvl 10 Social), the bad outcome factor is 1.
- At 150% power (healthy, lvl 20 Social), the bad outcome factor is 0.4.
The new weight of each outcome is calculated afterwards.
- Triumph = 0.1 * ( 1 / Bad Outcome Factor)
- Success = 0.55 * ( 1 / Bad Outcome Factor)
- Flounder = 0.2
- Backfire = 0.1 * Bad Outcome Factor
- Disaster = 0.05 * Bad Outcome Factor
The sum total of the new weights is then calculated.
Finally, the probability of each outcome is calculated:
Probability of each outcome = New Weight ÷ Sum Total of Weights
Example
Take a level 15 Social negotiator as an example:
- The diplomacy power is 125%, corresponding to a bad outcome factor of 0.7.
- The new weight of each outcome, to 3 d.p.:
- Triumph = 0.1 * ( 1 / 0.7) = 0.143
- Success = 0.55 * ( 1 / 0.7) = 0.786
- Flounder = 0.2
- Backfire = 0.1 * 0.7 = 0.07
- Disaster = 0.05 * 0.7 = 0.035
- The sum total of new weights is calculated:
- 0.143 + 0.786 + 0.2 + 0.07 + 0.035 = 1.234
- Finally, the probability of each event, to 2 d.p.:
- Triumph = 0.143 / 1.234 = 11.58%
- Success = 0.786 / 1.234 = 63.69%
- Flounder = 0.2 / 1.234 = 16.21%
- Backfire = 0.07 / 1.234 = 5.67%
- Disaster = 0.035 / 1.234 = 2.84%
Prisoner rescue opportunity
A prisoner locked up in a hostile faction steals a radio and calls your faction for help.
You can send out a caravan to rescue the prisoner, in which you will find an enemy outpost with a revealed cell containing food and the prisoner, who will join once his or her cell is open, whether by your colonists entering the cell (Claim the door first for easy entry) or blowing a hole in the cell wall.
The event will expire if ignored.
World event letter
World map location
Event specific map
Event success notification
Precious minerals found
This event may only occur once the long-range mineral scanner is built and powered, and even then on average once every 30 days.
Your long-range mineral scanner has found a lump of precious resources nearby, either gold or jade. We don't know who or what - if anything - might be guarding it. The minerals are usually be guarded either by pirates or a manhunter pack.
Once colonists reach the spot, a temporary map will be generated with the precious mineral lump in the middle. After arrival and defeat of all enemies, you have 10 days to mine the lump and anything else around it. Prior to your colonists reaching it, the lump lasts for 30 days (or forever prior to 0.19/1.0).
Sub-events
These aren't quest events on its own, but may happen during other world events such as Incapacitated Refugee or Item Stash Opportunity.
Ambush
Enemies may enter the minimap a little while after your colonists arrive, or suddenly appear near the objective when your pawns draw close to it. It's a current bug that the threat of an Ambush will appear on the World tab before your colonists have triggered the actual ambush.
Sleeping mechanoids
When the map generates, sleeping mechanoids will be present near the objective. Going too close to them will awaken them, making them attack. While they are present, you cannot manually reform the caravan as the game notifies you that there are hostiles in the area, but you can still leave through the edges.
Game endings
When these happen, they signify that your game has ended, one way or another.
Game over
This happens when all your colonists are either dead, missing or left the planet. The game will show a UI which says that everyone is gone or dead, and allows you to return to the main menu or continue playing. It also says that someone may find a use for the wreckage of your base.
Should you decide to continue playing, events will continue to happen, which can affect the ruined base but not anyone. You can strike lucky and roll 'Wanderer joins' or 'Refugee chased' events, giving you a colonist to rebuild from.
Planetkiller
This event can only happen by configuring the starting scenario.
When it happens, the screen will fade to white, and a message will show that the planet is obliterated by a planetkiller and that you did not survive.
Unlike your regular 'Game Over', you cannot continue the game. Saved games (including permadeath) can be continued from their last saves, however.
Legacy events
Events from previous version of RimWorld.
Tornado
A tornado has touched down in this region, and will proceed to wreak havoc on anything in its way. There is small chance it may spawn at the map borders and eventually leave the map.
Tornadoes rapidly deal damage to any structure or item that is right beneath it. Any pawn underneath will rapidly receive scratches from the random objects blowing about in the wind.
Tornadoes are exclusive to Beta 18.
Event Data
| Category | Name | Common Name | Chance | Favorability | Min 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 | Raid | 9.0 | Bad | 0 |
| Big Threat | AnimalInsanity | Mad Animals!: (Animal name) | 1.0 | VeryBad | 1 |
| Big Threat | ShipPartCrash | Psychic Ship | 1.5 | Bad | 30 |
| Big Threat | ManhunterPack | Manhunter Pack | 2.0 | Bad | 15 |
| Big Threat | Infestation | Infestation | 2.8 | Bad | 20 |
| Special | RaidFriendly | Friendlies | 3 | Good | 0 |
| 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 | Beavers! | 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 | Zzzt... | 1.2 | Bad | 15 |
| General Bad | CropBlight | Blight | 2.5 | Bad | 8 |
| General Bad | ToxicFallout | Toxic Fallout | 0.25 | Bad | 180 |
| General Bad | VolcanicWinter | Volcanic Winter | 0.11 | Bad | 280 |
| General Good | TraderArrivalGeneral | (Trader type) | 13 | Good | 0 |
| General Good | TraderArrivalSlaver | Pirate Merchant | 4.5 | Good | 0 |
| General Good | TravelerGroup | Travelers | 8 | Good | 0 |
| General Good | VisitorGroup | Visitor(s) | 8 | Good | 0 |
| General Good | WandererJoin | Wanderer Join | 0.4 | VeryGood | 0 |
| General Good | ResourcePodCrash | Cargo Pods | 6.0 | Good | 0 |
| General Good | RefugeePodCrash | Escape Pod | 1.5 | Good | 0 |
| General Good | PsychicSoothe | Psychic Soothe | 1.0 | Good | 30 |
| Neutral | RefugeeChased | Refugee Chased | 2.5 | Neutral | 15 |
| Biome Name | Flu | Plague | Malaria | Sleeping Sickness |
Fibrous Mechanites |
Sensory Mechanites |
Gut Worms |
Muscle Parasites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arid Shrubland | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 60 | 60 |
| Desert | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 60 | 60 |
| Extreme Desert | 100 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 40 | 40 |
| Boreal Forest | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 50 | 50 |
| Tundra | 100 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 40 | 30 | 30 |
| Ice Sheet | 100 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| Sea Ice | 100 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| Temperate Forest | 100 | 100 | 100 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 50 | 50 |
| Tropical Rainforest | 100 | 100 | 160 | 140 | 30 | 30 | 80 | 80 |
| Biome Name | Mean Time Between Diseases |
Flu | Plague | Malaria | Sleeping Sickness |
Fibrous Mechanites |
Sensory Mechanites |
Gut Worms |
Muscle Parasites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arid Shrubland | 60 | 228 | 228 | 0 | 0 | 760 | 760 | 380 | 380 |
| Desert | 80 | 304 | 304 | 0 | 0 | 1013.33 | 1013.33 | 506.67 | 506.67 |
| Extreme Desert | 90 | 288 | 360 | 0 | 0 | 960 | 960 | 720 | 720 |
| Boreal Forest | 50 | 180 | 180 | 0 | 0 | 600 | 600 | 360 | 360 |
| Tundra | 80 | 256 | 320 | 0 | 0 | 640 | 640 | 853.33 | 853.33 |
| Ice Sheet | 80 | 33.33 | 26.67 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Tropical Rainforest | 30 | 216 | 216 | 135 | 154.29 | 720 | 720 | 270 | 270 |