RimWorld Beginner's Guide — How to Start, Survive and Thrive
RimWorld for beginners: the story generator explained, your first colony setup (Crashlanded), pawns, the three needs, raid defense, and how to stop dying in the first 30 days.
RimWorld Beginners Guide — Survive Your First Colony (Crashlanded)
RimWorld is a colony management sim / story generator — you manage a group of survivors (pawns) after a crash landing, building a colony on a hostile planet where every event (raids, mental breaks, diseases) becomes a story. If you're searching "rimworld beginners guide," you want the first-30-days playbook: what to build, how to keep pawns alive, and how to survive your first raid. Here it is — written for the standard Crashlanded start.
What RimWorld Actually Is
- Genre: colony sim / survival management (often described as "Dwarf Fortress made accessible" with a heavy story-generator focus)
- The premise: three crash-landed survivors must build a functioning colony on an alien world, against raids, weather, disease, and their own moods
- The hook: it's a story generator — the game "writes" stories from your colonists' lives (the famous "losing is fun" design: disasters make the best stories)
- Scale: one colony, typically 5–20 colonists, over years of in-game time
Like DST, RimWorld has no "victory" you must achieve — the goal is surviving (and optionally escaping the planet via the ship quest, or any of the DLC endgames). The game is played for the story.
The First Colony Setup (Crashlanded)
Crashlanded (3 colonists) is the beginner start. Setting it up right:
- Location: pick a temperate forest tile — mild climate, good growing, balanced resources. Avoid extreme biomes on your first run.
- Character creation: look for colonists with no major health problems and no "Pyromaniac" trait (it burns your base). Any of the starter trio can work — the game rerolls until you get someone usable.
- Immediate build order (first day):
- A shelter (4×4 or larger room, walls + door)
- Stockpile zone inside the shelter
- A growing zone (rice — fastest crop) as soon as you can plant
- Beds (wooden) for all colonists
- Day 2–7: research Smithing (for weapons/armor), build a fridge/stockpile for food, set up defensive positions (sandbags near the likely raid approach)
Each colonist has three work priorities (Manual/Auto). Beginners lose colonies by having everyone do everything. Set one colonist's priority to Cooking, one to Growing/Construction, one to Research/Crafting — a dedicated cook stops the "everyone starves because nobody cooks" spiral.
The Three Things That Kill Beginners
1. Starvation (the #1 killer)
- Plant rice immediately; cook meals (simple meals) — raw food gives a mood penalty
- Butcher animals and cook meat; hunt when food runs low
- A fridge (cooler set below freezing) keeps food from spoiling
2. Mental breaks
- Every pawn has needs (food, sleep, recreation, mood). Low mood → mental break (tantrums, wandering, dazes)
- Prevent: cooked meals (mood bonus), decent bedrooms, a joy activity (horseshoe pin, chess table), and no corpse piles in sight
- The "Pyromaniac" trait causes fire-starting breaks — avoid it as a beginner
3. Raids (they come on schedule)
- First raid usually arrives days 8–15. Before then: weapons (at least one shooter), armor (flak vest/pants if researched), and cover positions (sandbags)
- How raids work: they scale with your colony's wealth — a bigger base = harder raids. Don't over-build early; wealth control is a real strategy
RimWorld's raids scale with colony wealth (buildings, items, colonists). Beginners stockpile everything → wealth spikes → brutal raids. The fix: build what you need, keep valuable loot in stockpiles, and upgrade defenses before hoarding valuables.
How to Survive Your First Raid
- Draft your colonists (the Draft button) and move them to your sandbag line
- Focus fire: select all pawns and right-click one raider — kill the raiders one by one (don't let each pawn pick a different target)
- Fight in cover: sandbags/stone chunks give accuracy bonuses and reduce damage
- Aftermath: bandage wounds, haul the bodies (or bury them), patch the damage — and grab the raiders' weapons (early game, their guns are better than yours)
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I start a colony in RimWorld?
Pick Crashlanded, choose a temperate forest tile, and build: shelter → stockpile → rice growing zone → beds → research Smithing. Set dedicated cook/grower/researcher priorities.
What is RimWorld actually about?
Colony management + story generation: survivors crash-land, build a colony, and the game generates stories from their survival — raids, mental breaks, diseases, relationships.
What are the best starting characters in RimWorld?
Any healthy colonists without the Pyromaniac trait. Look for decent Cooking/Construction/Research skills and no major health conditions.
How do I survive my first raid in RimWorld?
Have weapons and sandbag cover ready before day 10, draft your colonists to the defensive line, focus-fire raiders one at a time, and grab their weapons afterward.
Is RimWorld hard for beginners?
Yes, in the "losing is fun" sense — but the first-30-days checklist above (rice, cooked meals, one cook, sandbags, wealth control) prevents the classic beginner deaths.
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Last updated: August 11, 2026.