There are a few different ways to get more colonists in Rimworld. Some of the methods rely solely on chance. Different storytellers and difficulty settings will affect your chances at getting new colonists through storyteller events. Straight off the bat, here are a few different ways of getting more colonists in Rimworld:
- Changing the starting settings when setting up the game
- Saving colonists through the in-game events
- Buying new colonists from slave traders
- Converting enemy prisoners into colonists
- Converting cryo-sleeping colonists from ancient dangers
- Taming a ‘wild’ person
- The man in black joins
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Starting with more colonists
When starting a new game in Rimworld you can choose to start with more colonists than the default setting. Firstly select the New Game option in the main menu. The first screen will have you choosing a starting scenario. If you click the Scenario Editor at the bottom of the UI you will be able to change the game settings however you wish. Once you have clicked this button you will come to a new screen. Tick the Edit mode option on the left hand side of the UI. From here you can change all kinds of settings for your playthrough including the amount of colonists you sill start with. See the image below.
The Starting people will be the actual amount of colonists you will begin the game with and the chosen from option will give you a few different colonists to pick from on the next screen where you select which colonists you want. If you have already started your game and can no longer change these settings then read on to discover other ways of getting more colonists.
Getting colonists through in-game events
You can acquire new colonists through various random events that happen in the game. Although this method is mostly based on luck, if you can manage to do them right you will secure yourself a new colonist. There are various events where you can have a new colonist as a reward such as the Prisoner Rescue quest. (see image below). When this quest triggers you are told a prisoner in a nearby camp has managed to steal a a radio and contact you about rescue. If you can manage to get to his position on the map and dispatch the enemies, (or have them flee the camp) this person will join your colony.
There are other quests where you can earn yourself a new colonist although for the sake of time and possible spoiler material I won’t go into detail on all of them. They are very self explanatory when they do appear and will appear in you quest box. There is a chance an injured person will crash land on your map as well. They can either already be affiliated with a faction, or just on their own. If you rescue and heal this person in a bed there is a chance they will join your colony. If they choose not to join your colony and go back to their own camp, you will get a relation boost instead when they leave the map in good health.
Buying new colonists from slave traders
Among the trading caravans in Rimworld slave trading is also apparently allowed. Buying slaves in Rimworld functions the same was as buying any other item in Rimworld. In contrast you can also choose to sell your colonists at any point in time to slavery. This will give every colonists a large mood debuff though.
You can purchase new colonists as you would with any other commodity in Rimworld through the trading menu. Have one of your colonists approach the trader with the ‘?’ other their head and start the negotiations. Different colonists will have different prices depending on their skills, traits and health. Colonists with bionics will be more expensive as their health and general manipulation will be higher.
You colonists will not get a mood debuff from buying slaves. The colonists you purchase will have a positive mood buff for a limited time due to the fact that you freed them from slavery.
Converting Enemy Prisoners into Colonists
Enemy raids can be a great source of new colonists if you know how to deal with them. If you manage to knock an enemy to the ground without killing them you will be able to take them in as a prisoner. First you will need to set up a bed or sleeping spot in a room that is enclosed by walls and a door. Select the bed and change it to a prisoner bed.
Once you have downed an enemy, select your colonist and right-click the enemy. Select the option Capture.
After you select the capture option your colonist will take the pawn to your prison area that you have built. Each prisoner will need their own bed. Now that you have a prisoner successfully in your colony click on the prisoner and select the Prisoner menu in the UI.
You can see the levels here that tell you how hard a prisoner is to recruit and how long it will take. Once you have selected Recruit as an option any colonist you have assigned to Warden will occasionally come and chat with the prisoner in the hope to build trust and reduce their resistance. How quickly a prisoners resistance is broken is based on a few things. One of them is how happy/comfortable the prisoner is. If you build them a nice little prison cell and keep them well fed a prisoner will great quicker. If you are having trouble getting a prisoner to trust you check their mood levels and see what kind of things can be installed to the prison cell to make their life better. Another factor in recruiting is your Warden’s social skill. A high social skill will be able to convince a prisoner to join the colony quicker.
Once you have broken down the resistance of a pawn your warden will try to convince them to join your colony. Every time they do this they will have a random chance to succeed, based on the prisoners Recruitment Difficulty.
Converting Cryo-Sleep pawns
In every map in Rimworld you will come across an area known as an ancient danger. These map just be closed-in buildings pre-spawned on the map, or may be inside mountains. When one of your colonists walks near one of these areas a pop-up will appear on the screen indicating that they feel a bad prescience within the area. Inside an ancient danger will lie enemies, being either ancient mechanoids or insect creatures. Once you dispatch these enemies you may come across cryo-pods within the room. These may consist of pawns that chose to be put on ice for hundreds of years. By selecting a colonist and opening up the caskets you will awaken all of the pawns sleeping inside. Be aware that they may turn hostile upon seeing your colonists. You can capture and recruit these pawns the same way that you do with prisoners, as shown above.
Taming a ‘Wild’ Person
Occasionally, you may be alerted that a wild man or woman has entered the map. These are primitive wild people that have never interacted with people before. These wild people can be tamed in the same way that you would tame animals. To interact with these wild people click on them and select the Tame option.
Wild people function the same way as animals and taming attempts will be made with some type of food found in the colony. The taming chance will depend on your colonists’ Animal skill and be aware that unsuccessful taming attempts may result in the wild person attacking your colonist! If this happens and you manage to knock them down you can always capture them and recruit them through the prisoner method as shown above.
The ‘Man in Black’ joins
The last method that we are going to talk about is a little bit out there but should be talked about none-the-less. The man in black joining is a random event that may happen to your colony under the right conditions. If all of your pawns are incapacitated in some way the game may spawn the Man in Black. This is a pawn that immediately joins your colony and may give you a second chance at rescuing people. Even after you manage to rescue all of your colonists the man in black will remain apart of your colony for good.
That is all the different ways that you can get a colonist in Rimworld! I hope this guide has helped you grow into a large colony/town. If you have any more tips or methods to getting more colonists I’d love to hear them! Drop a comment down below and help your fellow Rimworld players out.
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