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 5 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
• Ascending through the archonexus
• Awakening the void
• Defeating the mechhive

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. Awakening the void and destroying the mechhive will allow the game to continue with all current colonists, including those who took part in the event.

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.

If all colonists are gone or killed, then a wanderer event or refugee chased quest can restart the colony.

Game Over

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. This message 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 after eight in-game hours have passed, using a menu similar to the game creation menu. After seven new groups have been created, the option will no longer be available. It is still possible to continue by waiting until a wanderer event appears.

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

The planetkiller is an optional deadline enabled at scenario creation. You will have a certain number of days or years before the planetkiller strikes, shown at the bottom right of the screen. Once the deadline arrives, 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. This option is effectively a race to escape the planet through a different ending before certain death.

Analysis

The different endings offer wildly varying rewards:

• Ship to the stars, royal ascent , and the archonexus have no reward at all besides a job well done as credits roll. In fact, these endings will likely cost you many resources and result in pawn injuries.
• Void awakening either results in the acquisition of a powerful void-touched colonist, or global faction goodwill.
• The mechhive either results in the complete shutdown of all mechanoids, or the acquisition of a cerebrex node

Each ending requires colony-wide planning and preparation. You will need to stock weapons, medicine, and food. There will be multiple raids or revenge enemy waves. You may not be able to tend crops, hunt, or easily leave your map while the ending is in progress.

Multiple endings with the same colony

• Void awakening can result in a powerful pawn that does not need to sleep, boosting productivity. You can battle raids with their void terror ability. It is also possible to duplicate this colonist.
• While the void awakening ending is in progress, regular enemy raids will not spawn. You are able to power up the ship to the stars and/or host the nobles for royal ascent at the same time, which drastically reduces the difficulty of these endings. Royal ascent places multiple cataphracts under your control for free to fight the entities.
• The mechhive ending can shut down all mechanoids, permanently. This makes other endings more predictable, as you will only face human raids. Mechanoid clusters or crashed ship parts that land on your map while you work on other endings will effectively be free resources. The mech shutdown persists even as you sell your colonies for the archonexus ending, and the squad of mechs that guard the archonexus itself will also be shut down.
• You are only required to send one human to space as part of ship to the stars and royal ascent. This pawn can be a prisoner or someone disposable, so that you do not lose your valuable other pawns.
• The final part of the archonexus must be the last event you do, because gameplay is not allowed to continue after archonexus ascension.

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.
• Odyssey DLC Release - Mechhive ending added.