Loading screen

The Loading screen is a screen displayed during initial world generation and when continuing from a save file. The loading screen displays the currently enabled DLC and mods, along with a random game tip. The background of the loading screen uses the same artworks as the start menu.

Core tips

Interface

• You can dismiss letters and messages by right-clicking on them.
• You can hold the ⇧ Shift key to queue orders on your colonists.
• You can right-click and drag to reorder colonists on the colonist bar.
• You can select the previous or next colonist with the , and . keys.
• Many menus allow you to click and drag a setting to 'paint' it over many entries. This even works for things like outfits or food restrictions.
• In the work tab's manual priorities mode, 1 is first priority, while 4 is last priority.
• Each colonists' mood is displayed in the background of their icon in the colonist bar at the top of the screen.
• Shift-clicking the name of a work type in the Work tab changes settings for all colonists at once.
• Right-clicking a number in the Work tab using manual priorities will reduce the priority instead of increasing it.
• You can hold the Alt key to show detailed information about a specific tile.

Combat

• In a gunfight, always be behind cover! Right-click and drag to have your drafted fighters form a line.
• Right-click and drag to have your drafted fighters form a line. Bunched-up targets are easy to hit!
• Smoke totally prevents turrets from detecting targets, but people can still shoot with reduced accuracy.
• When designing defences, assume enemies will get inside using drop pods or tunnels. Build internal defensive positions.
• Foggy or rainy weather reduces the accuracy of ranged weapons.
• You can analyze the chance a shot will hit by selecting the shooter and placing the mouse over the target.
• Turrets explode when they take a lot of damage. Don't put them too close together, and don't put your people too close to them.
• Some animals explode upon death. You can use transport pods to drop animals on enemies. Think about it.
• If you need help in a fight, call your allies using the comms console.
• Maddened animals will attack any human, including your enemies. You can use this.
• EMP bursts will temporarily disable turrets and shields.
• EMP bursts instantly break personal shields.

Hunting

• The hunter stealth stat reduces the chance of animal attacks. It is affected by the hunter's animals and shooting skills.
• Animals are more likely to attack when harmed from close range. Long-range, slow-firing weapons are safest for hunting.
• Entire herds of animals may attack you when you try to hunt them. Accept the risk before hunting, or choose weaker prey.
• If you hunt boomrats and boomalopes when it's raining, their deaths won't cause forest fires.
• Carefully-slaughtered animals yield more meat and leather than those who were killed violently.

Caravans

• Place the caravan hitching spot where you want your caravans to form up. It's usually best to place it near your storage areas.
• During encounters away from home, you can place a caravan hitching spot to keep your animals from wandering.
• Caravans move faster if they include rideable animals like horses, donkeys and dromedaries.
• Smaller caravans get attacked less often because they're less visible.
• Before forming a caravan, collect the items you want to send in a stockpile near your caravan hitching spot. This will make packing much faster.
• If you have untrained animals in your caravan, you can split them into a separate caravan before attacking an enemy, to keep them out of the fight.
• Don't forget to pack medicine on your caravans.

Game style

• RimWorld is a story generator, not a skill test. A ruined colony is a dramatic tragedy, not a failure.
• Some colonists are worse than useless. Bad allies are part of the challenge.
• If you can't defend against a threat, make a caravan and run. You may lose your home, but your story can continue.
• When you have more wealth, more powerful enemies attack. If you want the challenge to scale with time instead, select 'Wealth-independent progress mode' in the storyteller settings.

Building

• Avoid using stone for doors. They open very slowly, which wastes your colonists' time.
• Put chairs in front of workbenches so workers can sit comfortably while working.
• Mechanical structures break down and require replacement components. Don't build things you don't need.
• Be careful what you construct on bridges. Bridges collapse easily under explosions, and your buildings will go with them.
• Clean rooms increase research speed, improve medical outcomes, and reduce food poisoning. Sterile tiles make rooms extra-clean.
• Building your whole colony in one structure saves resources, but also makes it difficult to contain fires.
• Terrain affects movement speed. Build floors to help your colonists get around quicker.
• Different terrain has different inherent cleanliness levels. Tiles are inherently clean; dirt is inherently dirty.
• Some floor types are faster to clean than others. It takes much longer to clean carpet compared to metal tile.

Diplomacy

• You can give prisoners as gifts. Giving a prisoner back to their own faction will be highly appreciated.
• You can request specific types of trade caravans using the comms console.
• You can use transport pods to send gifts directly to other factions' bases - even your enemies. This improves faction relations.

Animal and ranching

• Straw matting ignores filth. Use it as the floor for your barn.
• Some animals produce a lot of filth. Keep your elephants and cattle outside.
• Predators won't hunt animals which are on the other side of fences or barricades.

1.5

• It's never game over. If everyone is dead or gone, you can create new wanderers to take over the remains of your colony.
• Store books in bookcases. This increases the beauty of a room, makes nearby research benches faster, and increases the XP and recreation gained from reading.
• Want a newly crafted item to be taken to a specific shelf? Once a shelf is named or linked with other shelves, it will appear as a hauling destination in the bill's “Details...” window.
• You can change to a 12 hour clock, or change Celsius temperatures to Fahrenheit, in the options menu.
• When targeting a colonist with an ability or item, you can also target their portrait in the top colonist bar.

1.6

• Some buildings are more efficient if they're in a dedicated room. Workbenches in their own room make a workshop. Research benches in their own room make a laboratory.
• You can rename bills in the bill details dialog.
• Friendly fire can't happen if the shooter is close to their ally. You can safely put melee colonists in front of gun-wielding colonists.
• Right-click on certain buttons in the orders menu for additional options. For example, you can forbid all items on a map or cancel all hunting jobs.
• Hold the ⇧ Shift key while scrolling the map to scroll faster.
• Shelves aren't just for show. They increase your storage capacity by holding multiple items on the same spot.
• Mechanoids have some psychic sensitivity. Use a psychic lance on one to turn a fight.
• Most colonists hate eating insect meat. Turn it into chemfuel using a biofuel refinery.
• Pressing Z will let you search the map for items, creatures, buildings, and more. You can search the world map too.

Misc

• Keeping prisoners together saves space. However, prisoners kept together will try to break out together.
• Enemy faction bases are very well-defended. You don't need to attack them - but be well-prepared if you choose to try.
• Cute tame animals will nuzzle your colonists, improving their mood.
• Assign your herbivorous animals to areas with lots of grass. They'll eat the grass and spare you the need to feed them.
• If someone has a serious infection in a limb, you can remove the limb to save their life.
• Sloshing through water makes people unhappy. Build a bridge when you can.
• Luciferium can heal scars - even those on the eye or brain. It is, however, a permanent commitment. ^Correction
• Work and movement speed are affected by lighting. Everything is slower in the dark.
• Deep underground caverns have a naturally stable temperature, even if it's very hot or cold outside.
• Mountain bases are easy to defend. The downside is that people go crazy spending too long underground. And giant insects.
• Prisoners will join much quicker and attempt fewer breakouts when they're in a good mood.
• You can have multiple researchers working simultaneously at multiple research tables.
• Geysers heat up rooms if enclosed. This can be dangerous, or useful.
• Explosions extinguish fires in their blast radius. This makes artillery shells useful for stopping fires when there is no other choice.
• Even serious setbacks don't mean the game has to end. Try playing out a lost battle - often the best stories come from the darkest situations.
• Keep weapon stockpiles away from your prisons. Prison breaks are much more dangerous with guns and explosives.
• When taming animals, make sure you have enough food of the correct type to feed them.
• Dropping a stone or slag chunk in a doorway will force it open, leaving you vulnerable to hostile wildlife and raiders.
• Clean labs with sterile tile give research speed bonuses.
• You can change storyteller and playstyle at any time through the options menu.
• The more factions you are allied with, the more random traders and military aid you will receive.
• You can use drug policies to have your fighters carry combat drugs like go-juice. A quick dose at the start of combat can win the battle.
• Set schedules with long stretches of one activity to minimize travel time.

Royalty tips

Nobles

• Some title permits allow the holder to call for military aid. This can save you in a tough moment.
• Nobles from the Empire will demand all the privileges of their title. Your own titled colonists will be more flexible, unless they are greedy or jealous.
• Prestige armor and eltex apparel will also satisfy the apparel requirements of royal titles.
• If a title holder dies, their title goes to their chosen heir.
• You can change the heir of a title holder through the comms console. However, this requires completing a ritual. ^Correction

Implants

• The Empire bestows a free level of psylink upon anyone who earns the title required to use it.
• Psylink neuroformers can be acquired through quests. These items can give a person psychic powers.
• Gaining a new level of psylink grants knowledge of one random psychic power.

Psycasts

• Psychic powers can give you significant advantage in combat.
• Using a psychic power on an ally will harm faction relations - but only if it has negative effects. ^Correction
• Psychic invisibility doesn't wear off when you attack.
• Going over your neural heat limit can save you in a desperate situation - but the psychic breakdown can last a while.
• Creatures with higher psychic sensitivity are affected more by psychics.
• Dressing your psycasters in eltex gear will increase their neural heat limit and dissipation rate.

Mech clusters

• When fighting a mech cluster, try shooting their power cells. They explode, dealing heavy damage to surrounding creatures and structures.
• Some mech clusters remain dormant until disturbed. Use that time to prepare your attack.

Misc

• The Imperial royal tribute collector arrives twice per year, and accepts prisoners and gold in exchange for honor.
• You can safely walk right past a dormant mech cluster, as long as you don't attack it or trigger a proximity activator.
• The psychic skip power works on self, allies, enemies, and even items. The tactical possibilities are endless.
• You can carry a downed ally while using the jump pack. Aerial rescues save lives.

Ideology tips

• Slaves work slower than normal colonists due to lack of motivation.
• Terror-inducing buildings affect anyone within a 5-cell radius.
• Sleep accelerators increase colonists' sleep quality, but also increase hunger rate.

Biotech tips

• Mechanitors can summon powerful mechs. Fight them yourself - or draw them into your enemies.
• Children can sleep in the same room as parents and other children without any negative mood effect.
• The more polluted nearby world tiles are, the more often you'll get acidic smog.
• When starting a new game, you can create custom xenotypes with any genetic combination you want.
• Enemies are less likely to attack children when they are unarmed. Keep kids safer by not giving them weapons.

Anomaly tips

• The skip abduction psychic ritual prioritizes nearby enemies, letting you abduct raiders on your map.
• Have an unwaveringly loyal prisoner? The brainwipe psychic ritual will make them recruitable.
• Want to finish a basic Anomaly research project faster? Advanced entities will contribute to your current basic research project if you don't have an active advanced project.

Odyssey tips

• Use the magnifying glass button in the bottom-right of the world map screen to search for landmarks or quest locations.
• In addition to vacsuits, marine and recon armor can also keep people alive in space.
• Fish in larger bodies of water. Larger ponds yield more fish per catch.
• The larger a body of water is, the higher the chance that it will have uncommon fish.
• Gasses like smoke or rot stink will dissipate faster in the vacuum of space.
• Insect sludge terrain slows most creatures - but not insects.

Version history

• Version 1.1.0 - Added loading screen tips.