Summary
RimWorld features an array of custom difficulty settings that let players tailor the game to their unique preferences. These settings offer a way to customize various aspects of the gameplay, including the overall challenge, story events, and the behavior of the AI storyteller. Players can adjust the game's pace, the frequency and intensity of threats, and choose between a relaxed experience or a grueling survival test. The custom difficulty options provide a deep level of control, ensuring that players of all skill levels can shape RimWorld to match their desired style of play.
How to Access Rimworld Custom Difficulty Settings
1. Launch Rimworld.
2. Select New colony.
3. Pick a scenario and click Next.
4. Choose Custom.
Rimworld Custom Difficulty Settings
Threats
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Threat Scale | Controls the size and difficulty of threats, including raids and infestations. | 0% - 500% |
| Major Threats | Option to include significant challenges such as large-scale raids, infestations, and mechanoid encounters. | Toggle |
| Quest Threats | Determines whether quests involve violent encounters or remain peaceful. | Toggle |
| Intro Threats | Activates fixed introductory threats for an early game challenge. | Toggle |
| Predators Hunt Humans | Wild predators actively seek out and attack colonists. | Toggle |
| Extreme Weather | Includes severe weather events that can impact the colony. | Toggle |
| Wastepack cocoon infestation | (Biotech DLC) Adjust the chance of insect cocoons arriving when a wastepack is dissolved. | 0% - 500% |
Economy
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Harvest Yield | Controls the quantity of materials obtained from harvesting plants and crops. | 0% - 500% |
| Mining Yield | Adjusts the amount of materials extracted from mining. | 0% - 500% |
| Butchering Yield | Sets the yield of resources obtained from butchering meat, leather, and mechanoids. | 0% - 500% |
| Research Speed | Influences the rate of research progress. | 0% - 500% |
| Quest Rewards | Adjusts the value of rewards obtained from quests. Quest rewards also increase with higher threat levels. | 0% - 500% |
| Raid Loot | Controls the value of loot carried by raiders. Scaled based on threat level. | 0% - 500% |
| Trade Price Disadvantage | Impacts trading prices, increasing purchase costs and reducing sale profits. | 0% - 50% |
| Turret Rearm Cost | Adjusts the cost of refilling turrets. | 1% - 100% |
| Scaria Rot Chance | Likelihood of a corpse immediately rotting due to Scaria infection. | 0% - 100% |
| Enemy Death on Downed | Increased chance for enemies to perish instantly when incapacitated, affecting prisoner availability. | 0% - 100% |
General
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Colonist Mood | A permanent mood adjustment for colonists and prisoners. Their base mood is 50%. | -20 - +20 |
| Food Poison Chance | Adjusts the likelihood of getting food poisoning from meals. | 0% - 500% |
| Animal Revenge Chance | Increases the chance of a wild animal attacking when injured. | 0% - 500% |
| Infection Chance | Controls the likelihood of wounds becoming infected. | 0% - 500% |
| Disease Frequency | Influences the frequency of random disease events. | 0% - 500% |
| Insect Spawning Rate | Adjusts the rate at which insect hives produce new insects. Lower values increase time between spawns. | 0% - 500% |
| Deep Drilling Infestations | Modifies the chance of triggering an infestation while deep drilling. | 0% - 500% |
| Friendly Fire | Adjusts the likelihood of friendly fire incidents. This setting affects direct shots that would hit their target. It doesn't prevent damage from explosions or missed shots. | 0% - 100% |
| Colonist Instant Kills | Reduces the chance of colonists dying instantly from attacks. Damage is adjusted to down them instead. | 0% - 100% |
| Map Generation Ancient Threats | Ancient structures may contain dangerous threats like mechanoids and insectoids. | Toggle |
| Map Generation Natural Hives | Dormant insect hives may spawn in natural caves during map generation. | Toggle |
| Add Unwavering Prisoners |
(Ideology DLC) Add unwaveringly loyal prisoners who cannot be recruited and do not have reduced resistance. They function like regular prisoners and can be enslaved. |
Toggle |
Player Tools
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Player Can Build Spike Traps | Allows the player to build traps like spike traps and IED traps. | Toggle |
| Player Can Build Turrets | Enables the player to build static turrets. Captured turrets can still be used if disabled. | Toggle |
| Player Can Build Mortars | Allows the player to build mortars. Captured mortars can still be used if disabled. | Toggle |
| Classic Mortars | Mortars do not require reinforced barrels and are balanced for ease of use. Classic Mortars brings back the pre 1.3 mortars: no barrel swaps needed after 20 shots, a wider forced miss radius (13 instead of 9), and a higher steel cost for shells by 10. The Mortar Miss Radius Multiplier still applies. | Toggle |
Adaptation
Adaptation controls the rate at which the game's difficulty increases when the player performs well. It is represented by an "adaptation score" that gradually increases over time, indicating that the game will become more challenging. However, when the player takes damage, this adaptation score is reduced, signaling that the game should ease up on the difficulty.
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Adaptation Growth Rate | This setting adjusts how fast the adaptation score grows over time. Lower is easier. | 0% - 100% |
| Adaptation Impact | This setting adjusts how much the adaptation score affects the difficulty. Lower is harder. | 0% - 100% |
| Wealth-independent Progress Mode | By default, the game adjusts the challenges based on the colony's wealth and other factors. In this mode, the game removes wealth as a factor and instead uses a fixed timeline for increasing difficulty. The challenge will increase as time passes, regardless of the colony's progress. This mode offers a unique skill-based challenge but can be unforgiving if things go wrong, and it may also become too easy if the player gets ahead of the curve. | Toggle |
| Years until Maximum Threat | In wealth-independent mode, this setting determines how many years it will take for the game to reach its maximum difficulty level. Even with this setting, the game will still consider other factors, such as the number of colonists the player has. | 1 - 20 |
Ideology
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Low Pop Conversion Boost | Boosts the chances of converting a single colonist to the player's starting ideology. The selected value multiplies the conversion chance and reduces the impact of opposing conversion attempts. The effect is strongest with one colonist, halved with two, and nonexistent with three or more. | 0% - 100% |
Anomaly
| Setting | Description |
| Standard with Monolith | The default Anomaly experience. Anomaly threats are connected to the activation of the void monolith. |
| Ambient Horror | The monolith remains absent, and Anomaly threats are uncommon but can still arise unexpectedly. This setting is ideal for players who want to engage with Anomaly content without it dominating their gameplay. The monolith endgame is unavailable in this mode. |
| Anomaly Incidents Disabled | Anomaly threats are completely disabled. Players who prefer to avoid Anomaly content altogether can choose this option. |
| Standard with Monolith | ||
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Anomaly Threats Inactive | Controls the likelihood of Anomaly-related major threats when the monolith is inactive. Only certain minor Anomaly incidents can occur when the monolith is inactive. | 0% - 100% |
| Anomaly Threats Active | Adjusts the percentage of Anomaly-related major threats when the monolith is active. The percentage increases by 1.5x at monolith levels 2, 3, and 4. | 0% - 100% |
| Study Efficiency | Boosts research gained from studying unnatural entities. | 0% - 500% |
| Ambient Horror | ||
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Anomaly Threats | Adjust the percentage of Anomaly-related major threats | 0% - 100% |
| Study Efficiency | Boosts research gained from studying unnatural entities. | 0% - 500% |
Children
| Setting | Description | Value |
| Disable Children | Prevents pregnancy and the appearance of human babies/children unless chosen as starting colonists. | Toggle |
| Babies Always Healthy | Ensures human babies are born healthy and removes the risk of miscarriage or childbirth death. | Toggle |
| Child Raiders | Includes child combatants in hostile raids. | Toggle |
| Child Shamblers | Spawns reanimated child shamblers. | Toggle |
| Child Aging Rate | Controls the aging speed of babies and children. | 100% - 600% |
| Adult Aging Rate | Controls the aging speed of adult colonists. | 100% - 600% |
