Rimworld General FAQ

1.  What is Rimworld?
Read the fucking OP

2.  Is it like Dwarf Fortress/Gnomoria/etc.
Yes and no.  Each have their own pros and cons.

3.  What is the General for?
Game discussion, advice, posting puppers, /comfy/ bases, lamenting the lack of fuckable Thrumbos.

4. Should I buy it?
Ask for a download link in the thread, and try it out first.  If you like it, buy it.

5.  What kind of Colonists should I go for?
Whatever seems fun to you, honestly.  But if you want a relatively balanced start, make you have someone at decent levels of Mining, Construction, Growing, Shooting, Research, Cooking.  These can be spread among your three colonists (beginners should ignore the other two starting scenarios).

7.  This map is huge, where do I pick?
To start off, try to land on Boreal Forest or Temperate Forest.  Make sure the temperature range isn't extreme (Colonists like 50F-70F).  If you can, go for something with a year-long growing period.

6.  Okay, I'm in the game, now what do I do?
Whatever you want, really.  It's pretty open-ended, and while there is a definite end-goal (build a spaceship and leave) almost no one actually bothers and just sees how long they can survive.  Generally the prompts in the game won't steer you wrong initially.  Just make sure you make seperate bedrooms for everyone, get power going, start a method of cooking food, and begin growing crops.

7.  Everything is burning down, help/I ran out of Steel, now what
Don't make your walls out of wood.  It burns too easy and has really low health.  Steel is a precious commodity and should be kept.  Find an existing area to live in or build into a mountain until you research Stonecutting.

8.  I followed your advice and still ran out of Steel.
Probably because the game defaults to Steel as the construction material for everything.  For furniture you can go almost anything, but Wood works well enough to start out with.  Many of the Production Benches can be made with a little steel and some wood, which is probably the best option early on as well.  To select what kind of material to use in construction of something, right click on it and it brings up a menu.  If all else fails, mine into a mountain and hope you strike steel.

9.  I need more Components
There's a production bench that lets you make a Component for 25 Steel, but it's late game and costs 30 components to build.  The best way is traders, deconstructing fallen ship parts, mining compacted machinery, and disassembling dead mechanoids.

10.  I keep dying to Raids, how do I stop them?
By using the Security build options.  Enemies with guns will always try to hide behind cover, usually a wall that still gives them line of sight.  Place traps there and near the entrance of your base.  Put sandbags near your own cover and you should be okay.  Later on you can build a roof over a 'killbox' and put your troops there, as hit chance goes down if they are in the shade (obviously don't put a lamp in there).

11.  My Electricity use is high, but I don't have much
Make sure you have Standing Lamps instead of Sun Lamps.  Sun Lamps are for growing crops in-doors.

12.  How do I deal with Infestations?
Lots of death.  Fire.  Heating up the room to the point they melt.
Generally you want to make sure you don't get them, because they are a pain in the ass.  Make sure to always replace walls in rooms with actual walls instead of mountainside.  Clean all rubble/rock chunks.  Smooth rough floor inside of mountains.

13.  I have temperature problems.
Make a large 'main hall' with corridors attached (don't seal the corridors off with a door).  From these corridors add on your workshops/bedrooms.  Put a heater and/or cooler in the main area, and then vents from the 'central' area into all the rooms.  It should make it much easier.

14.  I still have temperature problems.
Chances are you didn't follow my advice above for choosing a place to land, or you beat a game and decided to try something harder.  Two key concepts to dealing with temperature extremes are insulation and airlocks.  Insulation is exactly how it sounds, generally you want all outer walls to be 2-blocks thick instead of just one, it helps to keep the temperature from transferring.  There are other, more intense methods, but usually 2-layer walls is sufficient.
Airlocks refers to using a system of two doors seperated by a single space between temperature sensitive areas (IE a Freezer and the Kitchen, or the base and the outside).  Basically you want something like XOX where X is a door and O is empty space.  They obviously need walls all the way to both doors.
Also make sure your base is fully roofed.

15.  Why do my colonists sometimes eat raw food or avoid eating at the table?
No one is really sure, but as far as we can tell it doesn't apply the mood debuff so just ignore it.

16.  My Colonists keep getting pissy, help
Try to address their needs, or at least the ones you can (No, you can't do anything about the guy who gets Rebuffed 20 times by the married gay woman).  If you get bad shit like that, try to get the Colonist in question to eat a Fine/Lavish Meal and to drink some beer.

17.  Why do people like Psychopath/Cannibal Colonists?
Because, in base game, Psychopaths are able to freely harvest organs (which brings in big money) without a mood penalty.  They can also freely sell Prisoners as slaves.
Cannibals are popular because, after a raid or two, you have plenty of meat for a long time.

18.  Can you tame Thrumbos?
Yes, but there is only a 1.5% chance at 20 Animals.  Plus they have a huge appetite and eat entire trees.  Generally not worth it.

19.  Are Moisture Pu-
No.

20.  Why do people in screenshots have chairs at their production benches?
It adds comfort bonuses to people using them for long periods of time.  Try it.

21.  Do we have a recommended mod list?
I don't know, check the OP.