Overview
I really enjoy playing RimWorld and it is probably the most fun game that I’ve ever played. So I wanted to share my experience on how to make RimWorld even more exciting with this carefully crafted list of mods.I’ve played with this mod list for a while and these mods are working really well together.
Introduction
Why this guide exists
I really enjoy playing RimWorld and it is probably the most fun game that I’ve ever played. So I wanted to share my experience on how to make RimWorld even more exciting with this carefully crafted list of mods.
I’ve played with this mod list for a while and these mods are working really well together.
A little note on modding
There are around 4000 mods available for RimWorld 1.0. And despite the fact that picking the right ones is already a challenge, even more difficult is to pick only compatible ones and to arrange them in the correct order.
Mods can affect game difficulty (in both ways). For example, there are mods in this list, that makes everything more challenging (hygiene and water needs), and there are also mods that can make game more forgiving (biopsy, balance tweaks).
Easy to install
- Subscribe to this mod, enable it and restart RimWorld [link]
- My current mod list is available by this link. Click “Subscribe to all”, wait for the download to finish and go to mods section inside RimWorld.
[link] - Now you have all the same mods, you just have to enable them in the correct order.
Go to this link and copy everything, starting from “Version…” – [link]
Then click on the file icon at the bottom of mod manager screen and click “Import mod list from string”. This will create the same list as I have from the string from your clipboard.
Mod List – Core
These are like mod libraries, required for other mods.
ModCheck
[link]
Better ModMismatch Window
[link]
HugsLib
[link]
JecsTools
[link]
Giddy-up! Core
[link]
Mod List – World Generation
Useful when starting new colony.
Prepare Landing
Helps a lot with picking the right spot for your colony on the planet map by adding filters and search.
[link]
EdB Prepare Carefully
Allows to edit colonists and loadout before creating the colony. I usually don’t use this mod and prefer random for more immersion, but sometimes it takes too much time to get desired skills randomly.
[link]
⚠️Prepare carefully is not compatible with Vanilla Hair Expanded. You can use either one of them, but not both! ⚠️
Map Reroll
Reroll geysers on game start if they are in a very poor spot.
[link]
Advanced Biomes
Adds a variety of new interesting Biomes.
[link]
Real Ruins
I really like to find new structures in RimWorld and this mod adds few to your starting location. You won’t actually benefit too much from leftovers as most of items already rotten away and usually you don’t have time to collect left valuables on start. But it is fun to explore.
[link]
Mod List – Massive Gameplay Changes
These mods are huge and adds a lot of items and strongly affect the gameplay.
Glitter Tech (No Surgery)
Adds a lot of advanced items and technologies. No surgery is because I use other mod for medical advancements.
[link]
Better Infestations
I always thought that vanilla infestations are kinda stupid and easily dealt with. With this mod insects will play as AI player – collecting food and building more hives and troops with it. The battles become much more serious as you have to be very careful, or your fallen men will be dragged to hives and eaten alive :OO The end is the same though – PURGE IT WITH FIRE!
[link]
Psychology
Adds uniqueness to your colonists and their lives with newly designed personalities, more interactions, mayorship, elections and mental illnesses.
[link]
Children, school and learning
Allows the expansion of your colony the “natural” way. Also adds teaching. This mod creates situations with questionable ethics, but it’s your game.
[link]
Hospitality
Completely overhauls the experience with visitors. You have to keep them entertained and protected. If guests are satisfied, they might leave some tips.
[link]
What the hack?!
With this mod you can hack mechanoids and use them as pets (or tanks). Super useful with next mod.
[link]
Giddy-up! Mechanoids
If having overpowered killer robot the size of a small house is not enough, now your colonists can ride them.
[link]
Giddy-up! Caravan
It was always strange for me, why animals are not rideable. This mod fixes it (probably making caravans much easier).
[link]
Giddy-up! Ride and Roll
Allows to ride animals across colony. Although this mod makes gameplay more easy too, I think this should be included in vanilla.
[link]
Mod List – Massive Gameplay Changes (p2)
Dubs Bad Hygiene
Adds hygiene needs and appropriate facilities. Also adds central heading. Some might say that RimWorld is becoming to look more like a sims now, but it always bugged me, why this is not included in vanilla? I mean, these are the basic needs and colony without toilets is looking really weird. Laying the pipes is a very fun activity, you have to plan ahead or at the end you will have to start everything from scratch.
[link]
Expanded Prosthetics and Organ Engineering
Adds lots of new prosthetics and bionic organs so you can create super soldiers (gardeners/miners). Most useful in late game.
[link]
A Dog Said… Animal Prosthetics
More transplantable organs and bionics for animals.
[link]
Mod List – Immersion / Balancing
Making RimWorld more realistic.
Let’s Trade!
Adds a variety of traders with speciality, that’s much more realistic.
[link]
Wild Animal Sex
Wild animals will start reproducing (that’s what animals do – eat and reproduce!). The best part is that you will have to control their expansion as too much predators will start killing your pawns and too much rodents eventually will have a mental break and to for a killing spree. Imagine 50 angry rats at your gates.
[link]
Harvest Organs Post Mortem
Adds biopsy and and ability to harvest organs/bionics from corpses. Yes, this is more challenging, to catch intruders alive for organs, but it is much more realistic that you can recover undamaged bionics from still warm pirate.
[link]
Snap Out!
Your pawns will try to help each other with mental breaks
[link]
Dubs Break Mod
Mental breaks will only happen if there is a good reason for this and never because of multiple little complaints. `Ate without a table` is not a good reason for going to a killing spree anymore.
[link]
Therapy
Mod that help emotional pawns to deal with their problems.
[link]
Ugh You Got Me
Less stupid fights between pawns. You don’t attack someone, who can easily kill you.
[link]
SF Grim Reality
Rebalances mood debuffs, making them much more realistic.
[link]
Greyer morals mod.
Until there is a mod that will distinguish criminals from other prisoners, this will balance out selling and harvesting prisoners, but you will still get debuffs.
[link]
[KV] Consolidated Traits
Adds lots of new traits, making pawns more different from each other.
[link]
Mod List – Immersion / Balancing (p2)
DontBlockDoorMod
Pawns will stop leaving stuff blocking doors.
[link]
Nature is Beautiful v2.5
For some reason, everyone hates nature in vanilla. I’ve installed some mods and have to disagree with this. So this mod is mandatory for pawns to see the beauty of nature.
[link]
No debuffs from pet killingselling
You can’t become a true farmer without this mod.
[link]
Metal Doesn’t Burn
It’s self explanatory and it’s a fact.
[link]
Chickens Efficient Light
Light shouldn’t consume that much energy. That’s not balanced and not immersive at all.
[link]
Realistic Rooms
Vanilla rooms requirements are just too absurd for this small world.
[link]
[RF] Pawns are Capable!
If you hate cleaning, but you are sitting in a pile of dirt, you have to do it anyways.
[link]
Prison Labor
Remember that it is not slavery if they are guilty. You can at least ask them to clean their rooms, I guess that’s fair.
[link]
Restraints
As it is said in the description “A more humane version of cutting off both legs”.
[link]
Turn It On and Off v1.3
Add basic principles of energy saving to the heads of your pawns.
[link]
Mod List – Immersion / Balancing (p3)
Less Arbitrary Surgery
Makes surgery more adequate and less randon.
[link]
Crafting Quality Rebalanced
Same for crafting, less random.
[link]
In-wall coolers and vents
Absolutely must have. I can’t play without this mod.
[link]
Melee Hunting
Strange that this is not in vanilla.
[link]
Simple sidearms
Pawns will carry more weapons, like pistol with rifle.
[link]
Combat Training
[link]
You don’t have to kill people to become better at shooting.
Tech Advancing
Brings a small portion of rpg advancement to RimWorld.
[link]
While You’re Up
This absolutely must be in vanilla game. Fixes lots of stupid behaviors.
[link]
Death Rattle
Some inhabitants of RimWorld will have a second chance in this cruel world. You can still save them.
[link]
Mod List – Immersion / Balancing (p4)
[FSF] Rain Washes Away Filth
Rain is good and it will make your map cleaner.
[link]
[SYR] Set Up Camp
With this mod you can set up a camp anywhere.
[link]
Field Medic
It is possible to give first aid right on the battlefield.
[link]
The Birds and the Bees
Adds reproductive organs and fertility.
[link]
Mod List – Interface
Interface tweaks, that probably should be included in vanilla.
Blueprints
Copy/paste buildings, removes hassle.
[link]
RPG Style Inventory
Good looking and informative pawn inventory page.
[link]
Animal Tab
Showing all animals.
[link]
RimWorld Search Agency
Search by name in multiple tabs.
[link]
Dubs Mint Menus
Much more informative menus.
[link]
RimHUD
Pawn menus will look much more like sims, but it is so much more informative and useful.
[link]
Work Tab
More detailed settings for work tab.
[link]
InventoryTab
See all your inventory.
[link]
ResearchPal
Very informative redesigned research tab.
[link]
Bionic icons
New icons for organs so you know what it is in advance.
[link]
Mod List – Interface (p2)
[WD] Soil Contrast
In vanilla it is a pain to distinguish regular soil from rich when you are busy with zoning.
[link]
Realistic Darkness
Nights will look more like nights.
[link]
Damage Indicators
Showing rpg-like hit indicators.
[link]
Pharmacist
Set different types of medicine for different types of injuries.
[link]
More Harvest Designators!
Chop fully grown trees, harvest fully grown plants.
[link]
Allow Tool
Massive allow/disallow.
[link]
Toggle Harvest
Disable harvesting (e.g. when you don’t want to change work priorities and also don’t want pawns to be distracted).
[link]
Veinminer
One-click harvest for minerals.
[link]
Smart Speed
Additional higher speed levels.
[link]
Pawn Rules
Set rule sets for allowed foods and other aspects of your pawns lives.
[link]
Mod List – Interface (p3)
Defensive Positions
Set standard positions for base defense.
[link]
Outfitted
Allows to set more detailed rules for your pawns outfits
[link]
Mod List – Animals
New pets and cattle. Almost all mods, that adds animals, require patch to be compatible with `A Dog Said…`, or new animals will just don’t have options for prosthetics.
Vanilla Animals Expanded – Cats and Dogs
Absolutely must have mod. How can you even think of getting through all this harsh experience without fluffy friend beside your bed?
[link]
Vanilla Animals Expanded – Livestock
Make RimWorld look more like a proper farm simulator.
[link]
Megafauna
Adds giant animals that are precious and dangerous.
[link]
Alpha Animals
Just like Megafauna, but adds even more creatures.
[link]
Vanilla Animals Expanded mods
More animals!
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
Mod List – Animals (p2)
Misc. Robots
Well, these are not actually Animals and can lower difficulty significantly. But I really like to have Roomba in my colony.
[link]
Mod List – Farming / Production
Mods for growing and crafting stuff.
VGP Vegetable Garden
Huge mode, adding lots of new vegetables and crafting options. Brings farming to next level. And the best part is all other addons, that comes with it (see mods below).
[link]
VGP More Veggies
[link]
VGP Garden Fabrics
[link]
VGP Garden Canning
[link]
VGP Garden Drinks
[link]
VGP Garden Gourmet
[link]
VGP Garden Medicine
[link]
VGP Garden Resources
[link]
VGP Garden Tools
[link]
VGP_CoffeeTeaDrugs
[link]
Mod List – Farming / Production (p2)
Smokeleaf Industry
Live in a self sustainable farm, growing weed with tegridy.
[link]
[RF] Fishing
Should be added to vanilla.
[link]
Fishing Nets
Same as fishing, but in industrial scale.
[link]
MendAndRecycle
Repair valuable items and scrap useless.
[link]
Quarry
Send pawns to hard work, digging chunks. Works best with prisoner labor.
[link]
Coal
Useful in early game for heating and power.
[link]
Mod List – Furniture
For some reason, there are very few decent furniture mods.
GloomyFurniture
The best furniture mod of them all. Just look at those adorable bedroom items :O Game becomes 20% more fun to watch with this mod only.
[link]
Gloomy Extra – Kitchen
And even more gloomy furniture.
[link]
Gloomy Vanilla Overhaul
More gloomy furniture, these are just perfect.
[link]
Vanilla Furniture Expanded
New furniture, new joy objects.
[link]
Vanilla Furniture Expanded – Production
New workbenches and linkable objects.
[link]
Vanilla Furniture Expanded – Security
Lots of new defence objects.
[link]
Doors Expanded
More doors and even two blocks width doors!
[link]
More Furniture
Obvious from the title.
[link]
RimWriter – Books, Scrolls, Tablets, and Libraries
Adds books.
[link]
Camping Stuff
Adds few items for camping. Useful for caravans and immersive.
[link]
Mod List – Furniture (p2)
[SYR] Doormats
Adds coziness to homes. Use with gloomy furniture for maximum effect.
[link]
[T] MoreFloors
Just more floors.
[link]
Concrete Walls
Just reinforced walls if you have lots of steel.
[link]
ED-Embrasures
Adds ability to shoot from behind the walls. Don’t overuse it or it will break difficulty. Probably not included in vanilla, because hiding from the walls is like a cheat (but completely realistic one).
[link]
GloomyEmbrasure
Fix to make embrasures gloomy.
[link]
Roof Support
Essential for field storages and animal shelters.
[link]
Dubs Skylights
Growing crops indoors should be available much earlier than space travel.
[link]
Statue of Colonist
With this mod you can build statue of the best of your pawns. Especially good with mayorship and elections.
[link]
More Sculpture
Adds very much variety to sculptures, making them great again.
[link]
Furnace
From one point, it allows you to burn everything alive almost free of charge. From the other point, you should be able to do it with regular fire. So I think it is balanced and useful.
[link]
Mod List – Furniture (p3)
[KV] RimFridge
Completely imbalanced fridges, but very realistic. I really don’t know why we have to create open fridge rooms and I really don’t like them. Must have.
[link]
Power Logic
From now on you can build a computer inside a RimWorld.
[link]
RT Fuse
Stop power shortcuts completely.
[link]
Wooden Pallet
These are not actually adding any more storage space, but making your warehouses much more neat and organized.
[link]
Extended Storage
You can store much more items in these crates, that will make the game slightly easier. I think other mods compensates this decrease in difficulty.
[link]
Mass Graves
Very useful for special parties.
[link]
Mod List – Apparel
More outfits!
Vanilla Apparel Expanded
Adds 40 new pieces of apparel.
[link]
Vanilla Armour Expanded
Adds more battle gear.
[link]
SF Faceplate V1.4
[link]
Mod List – Weapons
Adds more weapons, that should be at least no more imbalanced, than ones in glitter tech.
Vanilla Weapons Expanded
[link]
Metro Armory
[link]
Mod List – Hair
Of course more pretty hairstyles.
Vanilla Hair Expanded
[link]
Mod List – Mods that I’m trying right now
Mercenaries For Me
Adds ability to hire mercenaries. With this mod pack, you probably end up with a lot of silver and very hard dangers, trying to fix this disbalance. Having more regular men usually means even higher difficulty (because your colony will be considered richer). Mercenaries probably can solve this problem – providing necessary force and a good opportunity to spend some silver.
[link]
Tenants
I just really like the idea of having airbnb right inside my yayo cartel.
[link]
RimStory
Pawns will remember important dates and celebrate them.
[link]
Rimefeller
Advanced materials production chain using oil.
[link]
Rimatomics
Nuclear power and weapons.
[link]
Moody
Nice overview of your pawns.
[link]
WeaponStats
[link]
Mod List – Compatibility Patches
Mod List – Honorable Mentions
Mods that I am not using (not working/don’t fit with my play style)
Combat Extended
Completely changes combat mechanics, adding bullets and hit trajectories. It is a very interesting mod, but unfortunately it is not compatible with lots of other mods. If you wish to play Combat Extended, I will suggest searching for compatible mods first and creating separate list for this.
example: [link]
[link]
Star Wars – The Force
Adds siths and jedis along with force and special skills. The RPG progression system is completely new for RimWorld and it’s amazing what modders can do. I had lots of fun with this mod, but usually I prefer more realistic gameplay.
[link]
Rim of Madness – Vampires
With this mod you can play with vampires. There are several types of vampires with even more interesting skill progression system, then in Star Wars. For full Twilight immersion, next mod is mandatory.
[link]
Rim of Madness – Werewolves
Just like with vampires, this mod adds werewolves. Gameplay is a little different as pawns don’t need to drink blood and can transform into werewolf forms as they wish. Overall it seems more applicable to classic gameplay, so it is even possible to try Werewolves with your regular playthrough.
[link]
Call of Cthulhu
There are several mods that adds cults, dangerous creatures and major gameplay changes. Very interesting and probably deserves separate playthrough.
[link]
RimWorld: Medieval Edition
Adds items and technologies from the medieval period, but removes all advanced technologies. Very interesting, but even if there is a version that keeps advanced technologies, I just prefer future more.
[link]
Rah’s Bionics and Surgery Expansion
As I have read, Expanded Prosthetics and Organ Engineering is a fork of this mod with some new things. I’ve spent some time comparing these mods and played both, but stuck with EPOE.
[link]
Real Fog of Water
Adds fog of war, making the game much more difficult and interesting.
[link]
Apparello 2
Adds lots of new wearable items. I’ve played with this mod for a while, but apparel system in RimWorld doesn’t work well with this variety, meaning all your warehouses are filled to the top and menus are endless. It is really sad, but this mod just adds too much items as for me.
[link]
Mod List – Honorable Mentions (p2)
Common Sense
Pawn behavior tweaks in favor of immersion. It is not compatible with this mod list, probably because of pawn rules or other mod, tweaking pawn behaviors.
[link]
Release Animals into Wild
Useful immersion add-on, that allows to release domesticated animals, instead of killing them. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with this mod list, I don’t know why.
[link]
RT’s Weapon Pack Reloaded
Huge weapons mod pack, unfortunately creates duplicates with Vanilla Weapons Expanded.
[link]
Thanks Section
– Thanks Tynan for this genius game
– Thanks all mod creators for their great work
– Barky for RimWorld mod showcases https://www.youtube.com/user/BaRKy1911
Although I already knew about all the mods there, but still found many interesting things, that I haven’t discovered by myself.
– Thanks everyone reading this guide, please comment your opinion below.
Please also write if you find any errors in this guide or mod compatibility or if you have a suggestion of better mod loading order that will somehow improve compatibility.