How to get More Colonist - RimWorld Guide for Beginners [2024, 1.4+]

[@AdamVsEverything]

This guide has taken me the longest to make out of any I have done so far, but I also think it is probably one of the most asked RimWorld questions I get. As always, just let me know if you have any questions or if you have ideas for more RW guides. And, as always, thanks for watching!

[@rauminen4167]

Yeah, I don't think this video answers the question though. This just answers how does someone get new colonists in general. Those who ask this probably know all that and want to know how to get more. Stuff like - set up a second/third colony, keep it low wealth and population, transfer the new joiners over (which you usually do) - set up a huge prison triage next to the killbox and prioritize everyone even barely capable to do doctoring for the duration of the raid to save as many as you possibly can, decide who to keep later. The training stacks up over time too. - set up an oven for the kill tunnel instead of traps, down the whole raid without killing them - set up multiple beautiful prisons, distanced, but with exits leading to the animal sleeping area/pens/turrets. Don't store weapons near there - so you don't end up having to kill them when you've been feeding them for days.

[@AdamVsEverything]

@@rauminen4167 As the title suggests, this is a guide for beginners who do not know the different ways you get colonists, s it is answering quite literally. I can definitely do a more advanced guide on getting more recruits and things at some point, but that wasn't the intent of this one.

[@rauminen4167]

@@AdamVsEverything Yep, fair enough

[@Narvre]

Imo your guides for rimworld are the highest quality out there. No clickbait, no nonsense, simple smart and well laid out, you can tell you're a writer.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks! I noticed that a ton of RW guides are like 20-40 minutes long, which seemed crazy to me. I'll make sure to make all my guides only as long as the 'need' to be. Thanks for watching!

[@PenIronBox]

I've never checked that 'reward preference' thing, didn't know that's how you 'force' the quests to send you free pawns more often! Thx!

[@AdamVsEverything]

Yep! Turning off goodwill and honor will make it so all rewards are wealth based, so all three choices can be items, colonists, etc.

[@TheQweerdeer00]

@@AdamVsEverything this just made my whole playthrough. I'm new so thank you.

[@ichifish]

Yeah, this makes a big difference, especially in the early years.

[@adamf7126]

New colonist dies ? No biggy. Don't go eating without a table though.

[@AdamVsEverything]

New colonist dying is the exact same amount of stress as eating without a table once for some reason, lol

[@killingfeveronline_archives]

@@AdamVsEverything I think it's because of the social system, I believe relationships have an impact on the mood penalty? I know lovers and spouses do but not sure about friends. Rivals dying does increase mood though. Additionally observing the corpse is an additional mood penalty, and I'm not sure if colonist deaths stack or not, but it makes sense to me why it's been done this way in a game where death isn't uncommon lol

[@Grinningswen]

Hey screw that- some of us would KILL for a table!!! The democrats are trying to take our tables!!!

[@ichifish]

Wow great guide. It never occurred to me to turn off "honor" and "goodwill" as quest rewards to increase the likelihood of colonists being offered. A couple of additional suggestions: I HIGHLY recommend using the "banish" button liberally in the early game. Unless you're playing wealth-independent mode growing slowly and only recruiting the best pawns is very much in your favor. The banished debuff only lasts three days. For the "chased pawn joins" event, if you're willing to spoil it a bit you can check the wiki for the job types. It will show you if they're incapable of anything. Keep in mind that jobs ≠ passions, so a doctor or a researcher won't necessarily be passionate in that job. I LOVE the refugee quests. A great kind of tension and opportunity. Something I learned the hard way about refugees joining: refugees join *individually*. I had two refugees and accepted the bad pawn (volatile, gourmand, staggeringly ugly) because I thought he was speaking for both of them (the other was one of the best pawns I've ever seen). Turned out he was speaking for himself!

[@AdamVsEverything]

lol, I remember you commenting about that refugee quest on another video (maybe the 20 year run, I can't recall). Man, I have such bad luck with refugee quests. Even if I keep them super happy I think I've only had someone want to stay 1-2 times and all the rest were backstabs. Also, good point about the banish. The mood debuff is really low and doesn't last long at all so sometimes allowing a runaway and then just banishing them as soon as they step on the map if they are terrible is definitely the way to go.

[@ichifish]

​@@AdamVsEverything Yeah, I'll probably be bitching about that damn offer for years. It all worked out in the end, though. I eventually recruited a kind woman (improbably named aquagirl) for Hammond and set them to researching together. They became the happiest couple in the colony! Even with the backstabbers I usually get enough work out of them - especially the no joy general labor stuff - to make it worth it. I've only had two out of 8-10 traitors that have been bad. Once I lost two bonded animals and an eye, and the other time I only had two colonists and this brawler refugee waited until they were both down with the flu and recovering from a raid to lay into them. On the upside, the man in black who showed up was one of the best characters I've seen: iron-willed, industrious, ascetic with 5-6 passions.

[@Rig0r_M0rtis]

You can get around the banish debuff. I make a prison near map edge, leave the door open then arrest the pawn I want to get rid off. The prisoner then escapes the prison through the open doors and is gone.

[@triforchestra5974]

I don’t even own Rimworld, but I watch anyway to hopefully boost the KZbin algorithm numbers for the channel

[@AdamVsEverything]

lol, thanks Orchestra, it definitely helps out.

[@SarujinieUras]

My very first colony ended in disaster when a wild warg killed two of my starting three, then immediately I was raided and the last was downed. The Man in Black (nicknamed "Fugly") showed up to save me, but it turns out he was a pyro, lit the storage, bedrooms, and farm ablaze, and was beaten to death by the enraged survivor, who then lost an eye to a roof collapse and bled to death inside a burning building.

[@kyledonnelly8069]

I've been using the 'Endless Rimworld' mod for weeks now, the same game has been running, each time a colonist dies, someone shows up a day later to take over, just a random. I have a graveyard full of scores of ex colonists, just a grim reminder to how often I died. Actually the most insane thing, I usually get to about 8 before I'm overun on Randy Random on Losing is fun commitment. Barely can get by, best is when I get a random colonist who won't do things like medical then just gets sick and dies.

[@AdamVsEverything]

That is an interesting mod. If your final colonist dies to something like a mech attack does the mod force the mechs to leave before the new autojoin occurs?

[@kyledonnelly8069]

@@AdamVsEverything no he just spawns at edge of map so you can either build a base nearby by and try to take yours back or move to a new location. Makes losing hurt but gives you a continue option without feeling like you cheat the game.

[@xzardas541]

I know this is kinda old but I like to crack open ancient danger super early on, 8-10 traps can deal with most enemies inside and you get a chance to grab free pawns from cryptosleep and use cryptosleep casket to store good pawns with bad scars bad back etc. until you have means to fix them. and you do not need to feed them for the time being, yay.

[@AdamVsEverything]

For sure. I was going to do just that in my most recent crazy challenge run but we spawned with no visible ancient dangers. I am guessing it was buried in the mountain somewhere. :(

[@xzardas541]

@@AdamVsEverything I scan mountain with mele weapon, when it looks like crazy mess of empty spaces in roughly square shape I tunnel towards it. Got masterwork charge rifle and power armor set. On the other hand it turned one naked guy raids into full siege so maybe doing it on 500% dificulty was a bad idea. But on wealth independent mode it is life saver.

[@realaccount3887]

i thought that, until i got a centipede inside one

[@Scatteredpast]

The colonist bar at the end of the guide definitely made me laugh, the socials and the "like subscribe comment etc" stuff and then...Dan. Bless Dan.

[@themagicalbeast6188]

My recomendation? If you start with a solo colonist, do anything and I mean anything to get a second. It sucks if your only colonist gets malaria, infection, plague or flu. That self tend penalty is huge and getting up to eat and use medicine is detrimental. Get a second colonist to heal and feed the patient. Dont wait for a random new colonist such as space crashes or someone being desprite for help, its too inconsistant. I reccomend drafting your colonist and capturing a visitor, anyone who isnt incapable of caring. Dont be picky! Then you can recruit them. Raiders are good to but make sure they go down only by bleeding, else they have a high chance to just die for no reason. You can have a door open in your base and 1 spike trap. Level up your construction to 3 by just building a bigger base for rooms you can use. Once the raider triggers the trap just run around or trap them in your base to break stuff, as in the early game its only wood stuff. Of course any fires should be put out soon as. Make sure your growing enough food for 2 pawns, so you can actually feed them once you get them. I reccomend 30 of ether rice, potatoes or corn per pawn. In that order rice grows the fastest with corn giving the most harveset yeild saving on labor. Maybe plant a little psychoid in case you get a waster from biotech. If your planning on doing a solo start ensure starting pawn has a passion or double passion in plants. You need food and wood, its too important. Else you will be spending all your time farming at plants 0 with no passion. It can be done just a slow commitment.

[@randymetivier2891]

Thanks for the guide

[@AdamVsEverything]

My pleasure!

[@pbdlcommish7813]

Great guide!

[@AdamVsEverything]

Glad you think so!

[@mateuszslawinski1990]

There's also "guard my prisoners for me" quest where you get pawn(s) as prisoners for certain amount of time. You can always recruit them (and fail the quest, but it's not a big deal).

[@ChrisInmanTN]

Thanks for the video!

[@AdamVsEverything]

My pleasure!

[@MrGhosta5]

If you have a cannibal + psychopath pawn you can easily abuse the story teller. While you have less pawns then the game wants you to, you get join events very frequently. You can have your psychopath harvest the new pawns organs until they die and then eat them. You're now back under the pawn curve so the game sends you another pawn.

[@benabaxter]

A guide on conversions would be really great.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks! Will add it to the list.

[@sneezyfido]

And in Biotech you can breed new pawns! I like the choice you get in traits, but it sure does take a very, very long time. On the prisoner front, I haven't gotten any new prisoners since upgrading my defenses. They tend to just die :(

[@vikishand]

Nice guide, Adam :) /Nightspark/

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks, Nightspark!

[@theof4853]

just here to fuel my organ harvesting addiction

[@conely2463]

beans. Quite colonists indeed.

[@HyperionCSS]

this guide definitely needs an update for ideology and biotech

[@Swampe84]

Shock Lance. That way you can pick and choose which of the raiders you want to knock out and capture

[@AdamVsEverything]

Yep, always nice to have. Does suck when you give them brain damage though (even though it is rare).

[@Swampe84]

I've never had anyone get brain damage. Do Luciferium repair it?

[@jsaurman]

3:00 Just so everyone knows, there are mods which will allow you to see more info about the colonist before you make a decision to rescue them.

[@themendorean]

Did they nerf the ideology conversion bar ? I remember it used to be absurdly hard to convert someone And now with literally 2 attempts I do it easily I even started spreading my ideology to other factions lol

[@AdamVsEverything]

They did change it in a few ways. It is easier the fewer pawns you have. It's also easier if they are happy (used to be the opposite), mainly for prisoners.

[@DominG0S_OS]

Is funny, because most of my new colonist come from survivors from raids

[@jonathannorthcutt4132]

Is it still true that on the refugee quest if they dont show a time to leave (ie you accept it and the time remaining isnt displayed on the quest tab) that they'll betray you 100% of the time? Or did they change it so its not as easy to tell

[@AdamVsEverything]

No, they changed this with 1.3.

[@jonathannorthcutt4132]

Thats good it was kinda easy to cheese it knowing beforehand if they will turn hostile.

[@thedarkside6354]

Oh I was always arresting wild man and asking why that doesnt work 🤣

[@AdamVsEverything]

Yeah, it was nice when it was possible...but it's been a few years lol

[@thedarkside6354]

@@AdamVsEverything 😂😂

[@raiwenduravwin3166]

Despite all logical reasoning, violence does not appear to be the best way to get more colonists.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Well, you can violence the enemies into being downed so you can capture them as prisoners.

[@Chelsea_2001]

*_P_* *_S_* *_Y_* *_C_* *_H_* *_I_* *_C_* *_S_* *_H_* *_O_* *_C_* *_K_* *_L_* *_A_* *_N_* *_C_* *_E_*

[@purplefloydds484]

I got this question on my mind for a while, what is the best weapon to knock out a pawn? I always try to use fists but they still die for some reason.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Unfortunately, no matter what weapon you have, as your pawn count grows you'll be more and more likely to insta-kill someone on down. One of the few ways to circumvent this in vanilla is do down through heat. You can make a hot box to roast raiders/traders/etc and then when they are downed open the doors, deconstruct some walls, or remove some ceilings. The heat won't insta-kill them even with high population and you can scoop them up and put them in your prison. Of course that is not always doable. Another option is to get a mod that adds non-lethal weapons. I believe there is a 'Vanilla Expanded' mod that adds things like rubber bullets and gas canisters, for instance.

[@cavareenvius7886]

There is the psychic\Psionic Lance. It's a Leser Canon that knocks people out without hurting them but has only two Uses That is how I got most of my pawns. I bought mine from the caravan. They are pretty expensive early game but with enough pemmican you can buy almost anything (seriously, I made more then 10.000 silver with only pemmican)

[@Tomoose736]

If I were you I’d stick your lower quality art pieces in that space between the beds. It’s easier to break down your prisoners if they are happy... or at least keep them alive a bit longer if you’re using them as organ farms.

[@AdamVsEverything]

I generally do, depending on the playthrough. The base from this guide was just something quick I threw together with Developer mode. In my most recent challenge run we had a 'Wondrously Impressive' barracks prison with jade walls and legendary art. It was pretty silly. You can check out the playlist for that here, if interested! -> kzbin.info/aero/PLQWnHloPSfq5G3GNZ3T5xmZbO9sbmTPQR

[@itshenry8977]

I sort of, enslave so i never had a big problem with this

[@zachgaskins3731]

am I hearing Satisfactory music in the bg?

[@AdamVsEverything]

Not sure if it is exact, but it is similar. It is probably a track from the 'P Music' mod I use for RimWorld. Here is the info about it and the songs: ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=20541.0

[@Dmgx32]

i just bought it yesterday and i already clocked 6 hours... i have over 1000 potatos and 1000 rice..

[@AdamVsEverything]

Welcome to the addiction!

[@Dmgx32]

@@AdamVsEverything I've literally been playing all day this is a different kind of addiction

[@jakodarex]

@@Dmgx32 do you still play

[@RealMisterDoge]

@@Dmgx32 give us the update, homie, how did the colony fare?

[@Bloodlyshiva]

For how many people?

[@kittydaddy2023]

I have 2 recluse colonists. How do I get rid of colonists? It's too crowded around here. -3

[@polllarej]

Hahahaha...there are so many colonists now!

[@AdamVsEverything]

I need more O_O

[@noahriding5780]

Is there a max number of colonists you can have?

[@AdamVsEverything]

No

[@noahriding5780]

@@AdamVsEverything thx for the reply.

[@sashoogaming]

HI adam how about building tutorial :) thanks in advance

[@AdamVsEverything]

Definitely on the list! I will probably be waiting for 1.3 full release to make some new guides, though, just in case things change from now until then! (So 2 weeks or so)

[@Mannycabby]

Good video

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks!

[@peeziy]

what do you do when a prisoner has 0 resistance but still wont join you

[@AdamVsEverything]

I've never had that happen. Just be sure that in their 'Prisoner' tab the bubble for 'Recruit' is checked. Then ensure someone has the warden job as a high priority (preferably someone with good social). It is also important to note that you can no longer arrest and recruit wild people this way. SO if your prisoner was a wild person before, you're going to have to tame them instead.

[@rtg5881]

*me now with biotech with shelves full of 70 ovums and counting*

[@darkstone6069]

well after i make an new game an angry big boi killed two of my people there is 3 human 2 dead one left after that i buried them and i reseted

[@AdamVsEverything]

Nice that you buried before the reset :P

[@Amirhossain-ew4cq]

Thanks a lot...is there any pregnancy or something?!

[@AdamVsEverything]

There is not. Though you can find mods for pregnancy and families.

[@MaraKhai]

What is this mod that shows the colonists as dots when you zoom out? What's the name of the mod?

[@AdamVsEverything]

Camera Plus

[@MaraKhai]

@@AdamVsEverything thx ^o^

[@MaraKhai]

@@AdamVsEverything i am from germany and i love your videos about rimworld. thank you for your content.

[@brunobautista6316]

Pro tip: make the undesired colonist be "guilty". Then, you can banish/execute (harvest organs) without mood debuff

[@AdamVsEverything]

That is definitely good to do and is much easier now with 1.3 and Ideology (for anyone that doesn't know, they added an icon of a gavel to easily show when someone is considered guilty - you can even perform an execution on guilty colonists for mood boosts if your ideology supports it).

[@xcMad]

good video

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks!

[@sawyerschultz6205]

...in my 2.5 k hrs in rimworld i never saw "reward preferences"...HOW!?!?!?

[@samljer]

Forced joins that arent what i want i have zero issue killing lol

[@Shinyellowaffle]

How do you banish???

[@guntavarenykvistr7946]

So if no raids are happening just buy em

[@raah5583]

I don't understand why there is no pawn pregnancy in the core game

[@AdamVsEverything]

It'd get the game banned or rated for an older audience in many countries. Not to mention all the war crimes that would come up with them. 'Hmm, if I have a prison camp and use word of love to have them pump out babies how old should the kids be before I slaughter them for human leather in order to make the most profit?' etc.. :P

[@raah5583]

@@AdamVsEverything Ah yes. Obviously. I didn't think it that far.

[@benabaxter]

Also, most games in-lore shouldn't go 15 years, anyway.

[@beconscious578]

there is a mod that will allow this

[@raah5583]

@@beconscious578 I know. That is why I said "CORE game".

[@PMPierrePoilievre]

I have played for almost 70 hours on the same game in solo. Still nothing. Pod crashes, they just get a freebie heal and fk off into the abyss. There's literally no way to get new pawns, im constantly stuck at 3, its fking annoying. Please help

[@hozic9929]

I never sadly get these

[@rickysmyth]

1:55 you say mood debuff by banishing. Don't you just arrest them, open the doors and let them leave in order to avoid that? Tynan forgot to program a difference between prisoners of your own faction and that of an enemy faction you see

[@AdamVsEverything]

That was patched after 1.3. If you do that you now get an 'escaped prisoner' debuff. It was fixed at the same time as the 'as long as you drop them before you get them to the prison room they never get the 'was arrested debuff!'. I used to use both of those before the change. So no, not anymore.

[@rickysmyth]

@@AdamVsEverything ah right. There are a whole lot of videos about Rimworld and I wish they would delete the ones that are out of date. I remember the days when spike traps used to be free to reset

[@KorliWolf]

Can offically say that i am the 69th comment. I would just like to say, that this video is very helpful, i just have one problem... ALL MY PAWN KEEP KILLING EVERYONE SO I CANT CAPTURE THEM, AND RANDY'S NOT GIVING ANYONE, HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO RECRUIT A DEAD GUY?!

[@AdamVsEverything]

The higher your population the more likely enemies are to die instantly when downed, unfortunately. One thing that circumvents this, though, is heat. You can make a hot box to overheat normal attacking raiders, then, when downed, remove wall/closed door/ceiling/etc to make the temperature stabilize so you can run in and scoop up a bunch of prisoners. Not as effective anymore now that most raids are breachers or sappers, though. :(

[@Ian-zu2mt]

Dam i am not allowed to sell there organs?

[@JT_Howls]

i dont have the recruit option for my prisoner , why

[@AdamVsEverything]

Was the prisoner a wild person? They removed the ability to recruit wild people in that way. If they were not a wild man/woman then it could be a mod conflict or issue.

[@budlikycz2445]

I am really looking only for how to recruit because since the Ideology dropped I am having constant issues with everyone being different and it fucking sucks and makes so fucking furious. Okay, information I am looking for is not here....

[@AdamVsEverything]

This guide is from way before Ideology was ever announced. Best way to convert and recruit is basically -> Imprison, use conversion ritual on cooldown, use spiritual guide's convert ability on cooldown, set all of your high social pawns to wardening (multiple pawns can help convert per day, unlike recruiting). You can either set to recruit once they are converted or, what I typically do, set to drop resistance first, then convert, then recruit.

[@gianlucabv3095]

alguien q hable español y me explique :c?

[@AdamVsEverything]

Lo siento. No hablo mucho español.

[@gianlucabv3095]

@@AdamVsEverything nothing happens bro it's just that I love your videos but I don't understand much because I don't know English xd

[@tacomc.derpington965]

kenya

[@AdamVsEverything]

Kenny

[@ripmorld9909]

In the ideology DLC you can set your ritual to summon people out of nowhere, sky lantern is the best ritual for these kinds of cheeses

[@AdamVsEverything]

This was made way before Ideology. Also, I think the best is the drum festival. It not only gives more mood than most festivals overall, but it gives a work speed boost in addition to the 50% chance at autojoin (if you set it for autojoins).

[@ripmorld9909]

@@AdamVsEverything Oh, that’s good to know, I do sky lantern because it only cost wood

[@ZackyBonkPH]

First, get a good pc... More colonist = lag :(

[@AdamVsEverything]

Unfortunately that only helps to a point. Rimworld is not well optimized and only utilizes one core. Even with mods to help optimize, it just starts slowing down incredibly even on beastly PCs.

[@ZackyBonkPH]

@@AdamVsEverything yeee rimthread kinda helps but oof most of my mods are incompatible to it

[@ZackyBonkPH]

Ill hope the next update can help at cause yeah i have 2 cores (i-3 5k intel) and yeah so it stop mostly eating my r a m

[@ZackyBonkPH]

Update i use rocketman then limit my mods to only 100+ max

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

Just make your first base a concentration camp and farm raids lmao.

[@williammitchell6254]

Why do people like this, I usually only use 6-8 colonist anymore than that and they lose the personality to me

[@AdamVsEverything]

Because everyone likes things differently. Some like super small colonies, staying pretty close to the crashlanded scenario numbers, others try to get in the high double-digits. It's one of the good things about RimWorld, there are a crap ton of ways to play.

[@memdic6987]

>You may think that you buy a slave, but actually you buy their freedom, so they join you as a free colonist! Ideology update: N̵̡̝̖͈͎̻͕̲̖͚͉͌̑̇̾̃̃͂̅̎͑̄̅̋͠͠ǫ̶̢̢̫̞͓̠͈̫̥̳̤̈́̔͆́ͅt̶̨̞̖̗̀͛̏́ ̷̖͙́̉͋̅̊͋̌́́̋̈́͌͠ḁ̴͈͓̓͠n̸̤͓͇̤̞͍͉͊̔̒͌̍͂͛̕y̵̢̨̧̘̼̱͓̙͚̳͇͑m̸̩̫͇͎͚̥̱̝͇̭̜̝̲͚̍̓̄̑̋̊͌̒́̀̔̿͌̈́͛͌̓͘ơ̶͈͔͇͉͉̰͉͈̫͂̓̓̈́́̂͋̅̋̕͜͜͝͝r̴̛͇̤̥̥̠̃̏́̀̔̇̿̒̓͆ê̶̳̬̲͝