Difference between revisions of "Advanced Endgame Guide"

From RimWorld Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m (re-cat)
(→‎Apparel: Removed suggestion of Jackets. Inferior to Dusters)
 
(78 intermediate revisions by 23 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Tocright}}
+
{{TOCright}}
If you have survived raids, solar flares, manhunter packs among other things to arrive this far into the game, congratulations! By now you should have a fully fledged colony with strong defenses and a plentiful supply of food and power. This guide discusses bringing a colony to full maturity, including the options of making new settlements and reaching one of the end-of-game scenarios.
+
If you have made it this far into the game, you have survived mechanoid raids, solar flares, manhunter packs, and many other horrible things, congratulations! By now you should have a full-fledged colony with strong defenses and a plentiful supply of food and power. This guide discusses bringing a colony to full maturity, including the options of making new settlements and reaching one of the end-of-game scenarios.
<p>''See [[Guides]] for more basic help.''</p>
+
 
 +
''See [[Guides]] for more basic help.''
  
 
== Defense ==
 
== Defense ==
Endgame colonies tend to be ''very'' rich. This will attract raiders to come in large numbers to try and plunder your colony to get at the wealth stored within. They can easily overwhelm your colonists so you must have a strong defense system and clever strategies in place.
+
Endgame colonies tend to be ''very'' rich. This will attract large numbers of powerful raiders who will attempt to plunder your colony to get at the wealth stored within. They can easily overwhelm your colonists, so you must have a strong defense system and clever strategies in place.
  
You can see [[Defense tactics]] for more defensive strategies.
+
You can see [[defense tactics]] for more defensive strategies, or [[defense structures]] for constructed defenses.
  
 
=== Mortar battery ===
 
=== Mortar battery ===
You can build a lot of mortars to bombard any incoming raiders. 12 - 16 should be easily affordable by an endgame colony, as well as the mortar shells needed to operate the mortars.
+
You can build a lot of mortars to bombard any incoming raiders. 5-6 should be easily affordable by an endgame colony, as well as the mortar shells and barrels needed to operate the mortars.
  
 
Mortars can be operated by any colonist as long as they are not incapable of violence.
 
Mortars can be operated by any colonist as long as they are not incapable of violence.
  
=== Stationary defenses ===
+
=== Killbox ===
If raiders come close you will have to rely on something else to defeat them.
+
A common and effective method to repel endgame-level raids is to build a wall around the base and then build killboxes. Killboxes funnel the raiders, allowing you to use traps efficiently and concentrate fire on raiders.
 
 
A way to do this is to build a wall around the base, then build killboxes. Killboxes funnel the raiders, allowing you to use traps efficiently and concentrate fire on raiders.
 
  
 
=== Requesting aid ===
 
=== Requesting aid ===
 
If you feel that you're overwhelmed, don't be afraid to request aid from your friendly factions.
 
If you feel that you're overwhelmed, don't be afraid to request aid from your friendly factions.
  
They will be glad to send a few fighters to help your efforts. Even though they aren't that powerful in combat compared to your endgame soldiers, they can still distract them for a while, giving you time to deal with the raiders. At this stage you can always sacrifice some goodwill; they can be repaired by rescuing any downed survivors of the reinforcement (capturing will bring instant bad will), or gifting them 300 silver (which shouldn't matter at all to an endgame base).
+
They will be glad to send a few fighters to help your efforts. Even though they aren't that powerful in combat compared to your endgame soldiers, they can still distract them for a while, giving you time to deal with the raiders. At this stage, you can always sacrifice some goodwill; they can be repaired by rescuing any downed survivors of the reinforcement (capturing will bring instant bad will), or gifting them.
 +
 
 +
If you have a [[noble]] {{RoyaltyIcon}} in your colony, you can use your [[permit]] to call in small squads of [[Empire#Pawns|Empire soldiers]] to assist you. If you feel really overwhelmed, you can also call these troops during the cooldown at a cost of extra honor.
  
 
== Construction ==
 
== Construction ==
Line 27: Line 28:
  
 
=== Power ===
 
=== Power ===
You should definitely have some [[geothermal generator]]s sitting around all your steam geysers by now. If you do not, then you should immediately get them.
+
Even if you have [[geothermal generator]]s sitting around all your steam geysers by now, that may not be enough to power an endgame base. You will need supplementary power sources in order to do so. Solar panels and [[wind turbine]]s should be built as needed, and you should have a great backup power supply enough for one or two days' worth of power as well. Generally, it follows the same rules as midgame power, except in a much larger scale.
  
However, even that isn't enough to power an endgame base. You will need supplementary power sources in order to do so. Solar panels and [[wind turbine]]s should be built as needed, and you should have a great backup power supply enough for one or two days' worth of power as well. Generally, it follows the same rules as midgame power, except in a much larger scale.
+
If you want, you can also have some [[ship reactor]]s to power your base. They provide a constant 1000W power, however they cost quite some resources, take up lots of space and can only be built outside. Even if you can afford it, you will need to consider where to put your reactors.
  
If you want, you can also have some [[ship reactor]]s to power your base. They provide a constant 1000W power, however they cost quite some resources, take up lots of space and can only be built outside. Even if you can afford it, you will need to consider where to put your reactors.
+
== Equipment ==
 +
 
 +
 
 +
=== Apparel ===
 +
You should have all your colonists wear [[duster]]s to provide additional insulation and protection. Dusters are preferable as they also provide protection to the legs. [[Parka]]s are not recommended except in very cold climates due to the lower protection it provides.
 +
 
 +
Soldiers can be equipped with full sets of [[power armor]] for maximum protection. You may want to buy power armor instead as crafting it costs a great amount of time, however crafting it can be cheaper than directly buying the armor and more readily available. Keep in mind that a high quality [[thrumbofur]] or [[devilstrand]] duster and flak vest combo may provide similar protection to [[power armor]] of a similar [[quality]].
  
=== Furniture ===
+
==== Textiles ====
You should strive to replace your old furniture (some probably in use for years) with newer, higher quality ones. Deconstruct them, and rebuild until you obtain one with a satisfactory quality ('satisfactory' here has a much different meaning than in early game). You can also use some more beautiful materials to build your furniture, such as [[silver]] or [[jade]]. Wood still works though, if you want to build a lot of furniture.
+
[[Hyperweave]] makes a good choice of fabric as it provides excellent protection. If you have slain some [[thrumbo]]s then [[thrumbofur]] also makes a equally good choice. Their rarity means that you may still have trouble amassing them in endgame even if you can easily afford them. [[Devilstrand]] works wonders as a replacement for these two options, as it provides lesser, but still excellent protection, and can be mass-produced with large enough fields. If none of these can be acquired, high tier [[leathers]], such as [[rhinoceros leather]] or [[heavy fur]] may be substituted.
  
You should give each colonist their own [[royal bed]] as they provide good comfort, beauty and rest effectiveness.
+
Wool, as always, provides excellent insulation in cold areas, though should be avoided for dusters due to its terrible protection. Generally, a parka made from the textiles mentioned above will generally provide both better protection and insulation than a wool duster.
  
== Equipment ==
+
Cloth should be avoided as it has the worst protection of any textile.
  
=== Apparel ===
+
=== Weapons ===
You should have all your colonists wear [[duster]]s or [[jacket]]s to provide additional insulation and protection. Parkas are not recommended except in very cold climates due to the penalties it incurs.
+
Your pawns should be equipped with the best weapons possible to survive the coming 15 day onslaught after building the ship. [[Charge rifle]]s should be given to as many pawns as possible, as it provides large amounts of damage with a decent burst shot count and armor penetration. With enough pawns, a single firing cycle can devastate huge groups of raiders. If charge weaponry is too expensive to equip every pawn with, give the higher shooting skill pawns [[assault rifle]]s and the lower skill pawns [[heavy SMG]]s. These weapons are not as good as the charge rifle, but come very close. [[Minigun]]s can also be devastating, spraying bullets throughout the killbox, and is especially effective during the late game because of the bunched up enemies. Equipping every pawn with one of these, though, would be incredibly expensive because of the massive 20 [[component]] cost for each minigun.
  
Soldiers can be equipped with full sets of [[power armor]] for maximum protection. You may want to buy power armor instead as crafting it costs a great amount of time, however crafting it is cheaper than buying it and also saves time. <br>
+
On the side of a killbox should be a small box with a single pawn with an [[EMP launcher]] or [[EMP grenades]] to stun any mechanoids coming in. EMPs can be lifesavers, providing a few extra seconds to take down lancers that otherwise would dismember pawns or to stop a centipede from firing another barrage.
Power armor does reduce work speed, so you may want to watch out for that.
 
  
==== Fabrics ====
+
== Founding a second colony ==
 +
If you think having only one colony is not stressful enough already and want to found another one, you can send a caravan to a new frontier and have some of your colonists start a new life there. They can serve many purposes, such as:
  
[[Hyperweave]] makes a good choice of fabric as it provides excellent protection. If you have slain some [[thrumbo]]s then [[thrumbofur]] also makes a equally good choice. Their rarity however means that you may still have trouble amassing them in endgame even though you can easily afford them.
+
=== Production bases ===
 +
The main purpose for the new settlement could be supplying the origin base with mined resources and other things that are difficult to obtain at your home base. Make sure that the supply base is close enough to your main base, to make resource transfer viable. This usually means it should be in transport pod range.
  
Your trusty [[devilstrand]] still works wonders in endgame as a mid-tier fabric; while [[synthread]] is cheaper in market value, it's not as cost-effective as you will need to find it at a trader's, while you can mass-produce devilstrand with large enough fields.
+
=== Ship Quest Preparation Bases ===
 +
This base can be used to prepare for the ship offer quest from Charlon Whitestone. Multiple of these colonies can be set up, like relay outposts to ferry your colonists to the quest destination once the preparations have been finished.
  
Wool, as always, provides excellent insulation if you need to go to cold areas.
+
''Note:'' you need to increase the colony limit in the game settings for this to be possible.
  
== New bases ==
+
This new settlement can be founded anywhere, as far away from your original base as you want. Make it as challenging or silly as you like.
  
If you think having 1 base isn't fun enough and want to start anew, you can settle in a new area.
+
=== Supplying the caravan ===
 +
Your frontier trek will need to bring quite a few things with them to be able to quickly establish themselves at the new colony location. Here is a checklist of a few things that you should bring:
  
You can build this base in a completely new area far from your original base.
+
* Enough food for the journey, and to get you through a few days after arriving. [[Pemmican]] and [[packaged survival meal]] are the best choice, like for any caravan.
 +
* [[Bedroll]]s for everybody to prevent negative moodlets from sleeping on the ground. They can also become your initial beds when settling down.
 +
* All kinds of medicine, including [[Glitterworld medicine]]. Bring [[penoxycyline]] if you go into a [[biome]] where that is needed, such as jungles. [[wake-up]] and [[go-juice]] can be useful to help with bootstrapping at the destination to increase the amount of hours a colonist can work, but should be taken sparingly to avoid addiction and overdoses. Bring recreational drugs to keep folks happy ([[beer]] and [[psychite tea]] are your best friends, but [[smokeleaf joint]]s should be avoided because of the [[consciousness]] penalty for smoking one).
 +
* [[Steel]] and [[components]] are required for many initial buildings. You won't know how much of these you will be able to mine at the new location immediately.
 +
* Weapons and armor! Each colonist should be provided with a set of mid-tier armor ([[duster]]s of a good material and a [[flak vest]]). [[Power armor]] can also be used, but anything heavier than [[recon armor]] will weigh your colonists down. Heavier power armor can be drop-podded to the new colonists after a basic base has been set up.
 +
* [[Gold]], [[silver]], [[flake]], [[yayo]], [[smokeleaf joint]]s, and maybe some valuable pieces of art can be brought for sale along the way and after arrival. All these items have a good value-to-mass ratio.
 +
* Charged [[battery|batteries]], and a [[vanometric power cell]] if you have one: these are ''invaluable'' for quickly getting a functioning settlement from scratch.
 +
* A [[psychic emanator]] if available, to help with new colony stress a little. [[Recreation]] items that you can use immediately if they are not too heavy should also be brought, such as [[chess table]]s, [[horseshoe pin]]s, or their tribal equivalents. [[Psychic foil helmet]]s can be useful, too, to block any psychic drones that might hit.
 +
* Hauling animals, such as dogs. Bring males and females, so you can keep breeding them. Keep in mind that some of them will require food along the journey ([[kibble]] is good).
 +
* [[Boomalope]]s, if you have them, as a source of [[chemfuel]] for [[chemfuel powered generator]]s as a first power source. This is especially great if they can graze while traveling, because that means you can bring them along for free.
  
=== Supplies ===
+
If your caravan animals will be able to graze along the route, you can bring a lot of food and leather in the form of livestock. Butcher a few of them at the destination, while keeping the rest to breed. [[Cow]]s are good, so are [[chicken]]s, or hauling animals. Caravans should depart in the spring, if possible, to allow animals to graze.
  
As the new base may be far from the original base, resupplying will not be easy. You will need to bring these supplies with you to build a successful base:
+
If your intended destination is in [[transport pod]] range, you do not have a problem because you can send practically unlimited supplies from your origin base. You could even send the materials to build a lot more cargo pods at the destination and repeat the process.
*Food: Obviously you need food for survival. You will need at least enough for the trip to the new destination, as well as enough to sustain your colonists until you can get a stable food supply up and working. Food does rot in caravans, so stock up on [[pemmican]] or [[packaged survival meal]]s.
 
*[[Medicine]]: For quick treatment of any injuries that may be sustained during raids, or diseases.
 
*[[Steel]]: Vital for construction and crafting.
 
*[[Component]]s: Vital for construction and crafting.
 
*[[Silver]]: For trading.
 
  
 
=== Resource compression ===
 
=== Resource compression ===
 +
You can "compress" raw resources for loading into caravans by building furniture which is lighter than the resources they will deconstruct into. It is your choice if you resort to such shenanigans as it is a very [[Wikipedia:Conservation of mass|unrealistic]] game mechanic.
  
You can compress resources for loading into caravans by building furniture which is lighter than the resources they will deconstruct into.
+
It means you will lose about 25% of the resources, but allows you to carry a lot of extra effective weight.
  
This means you will lose 25% of the resources, but it is well worth the extra space you can carry.
+
==== Stool compression ====
 +
You can compress stone blocks by building [[stool]]s. Each stool is only 3 kg but can be deconstructed into 18.75 stone blocks weighing between 16.88&nbsp;kg for slate, to 23.44&nbsp;kg for granite, meaning you can fit nearly eight times the weight of the stones.
  
==== Stool compression ====
+
==== Plant pot compression ====
 +
You can compress steel by building [[plant pot]]s. Each plant pot is only 2&nbsp;kg but can be deconstructed into 15 steel weighing 7.5&nbsp;kg, meaning that it can fit over three times the weight of the steel.
  
You can compress stone blocks by building [[stool]]s. Each stool is only 3 kg but can be deconstructed into 18.75 stone blocks for between 16.88kg for slate, to 23.44kg for granite, meaning you can fit nearly 8 times the weight of stone.
+
==== Flatscreen TV compression ====
 +
You can compress both steel and components in [[flatscreen television]]s. Each is only 8&nbsp;kg but can be deconstructed into 105 steel and 12 components for a total of 59.7&nbsp;kg, allowing you to fit almost 7.5 times its weight in resources.
  
==== Plant pot compression ====
+
=== Colonists ===
 +
Unlike at the start of the game, you have the choice from a lot of colonists to be your new colony founders. Compose a roster with a wide range of skills. Some skills are more important than others: construction especially is paramount, because you will need to build a lot of structures from scratch at your new home. Mining, cooking and doctoring should be covered at least twice, you will need a grower and a couple of ranged soldiers. Keep in mind that drug production requires intellectual skill, so even if you do not plan to do any research, you still need somebody clever to make drugs.
  
You can compress steel by building a lot of [[plant pot]]s. Each plant pot is only 2 kg, but can be deconstructed into 15 steel for 7.5 kg, meaning that it can fit over 3 times the weight of steel in it.
+
Do not bring anybody who has any [[ailment]]s, or otherwise a liability at your new destination (such as mentally unstable people, people with addictions, etc.). Colonists with these issues will slow down the caravan tremendously, as they will generally move more slowly and will probably have frequent mental breakdowns during the journey.
  
==== Flatscreen TV compression ====
+
If there are married, engaged, or loving couples in your base, do not split them up. That should be obvious but might be easy to miss until it is too late. If you want to be thorough, split up rivals and bring friends of pawns along to avoid social fights and insults early on.
  
You can compress both steel and components by [[flatscreen television]]s. Each is only 8 kg but can be deconstructed into 105 steel and 12 components for a total of 59.7 kg, allowing you to fit almost 7.5 times its weight in resources.
+
=== Trading along the route ===
 +
Visit as many communities as possible along your route. This will allow you to replenish food and buy all the rare items that you can find, like '"advanced components", "Glitterworld medicine", etc. You can even buy more colonists (slaves) and caravan animals, to increase your carrying capacity.
  
=== Colonists ===
+
=== What to do on arrival ===
Unlike the start of the game, you have the choice of you various colonists to choose from in order to start a new home. Pick a roster that among them has someone that masters each skill, except Research (which doesn't matter as research is global and you'll likely have already finished all research). Always have 2 or more doctors in case 1 of them is downed and you need someone else to patch him up before he recovers to be able to treat himself.
+
Build the colony like how you built the first colony. You can build slightly more than before, as you can bring more than before. On the first day, build a basic shelter with a barracks and a freezer room to store food. Plant some fast growing produce like [[rice]].
  
=== Production bases ===
+
If you have some firepower, it is a good idea to seek out and clear the ''Ancient Danger'' at the new location immediately after. Build some prison cells and open the [[cryptosleep casket]]s. This will get you some possible new recruits and some good gear. You can also take the gear from the survivors and return them into the cryptosleep caskets; recruit them later on. You will probably have some vacant caskets where you can put some of your colonists as well – this will reduce the amount of bedrooms and food needed while you establish the new place.
  
Besides starting a new base, if you want to feed your main base(s), you can choose to start a mining or farming base in a location nearby. Make sure that it is close enough to your main bases so you can easily transfer resources between the bases and your production base.
+
Building the rest new colony should be straightforward; after all, you have done that at least once already...
  
 
== Ending the game ==
 
== Ending the game ==
 
+
There are four ways to officially "win" the game, two of which are [[DLC]]-exclusive:
Currently, there are only 2 ways to end the game on your own accord: building a ship or travelling to a hidden one.
+
* Research and build a spaceship, then launch it.
 +
* Travel to Charlon Whitestone's "event ship", which is offered to every colony at some point early in the campaign.
 +
* House the high stellarch for 12 days after reaching the [[title]] of count, protecting him/her from any threats that come your way, and keeping the mood of the stellarch above 40%. Afterwards, everyone may leave the rimworld on a shuttle. This requires the [[Royalty DLC]].
 +
* Find the Archo Nexus with aid from other factions in exchange for a wealthy colony and awaken the Nexus. This requires the [[Ideology DLC]]
  
 
=== Building a Ship ===
 
=== Building a Ship ===
 
{{main|Ship}}
 
{{main|Ship}}
 +
If you were not desperately trying to escape the planet already (e.g. from an incoming "planet killer", which thankfully only happens by modifying the starting scenario), building the escape ship has probably not been your main concern so far.
  
If you weren't desperately trying to escape the planet (e.g. incoming planetkiller), shipbuilding would not concern you at all, until you arrive at this stage of the game.
+
The ship is very research and resource intensive to build. It requires a lot of [[plasteel]] and [[advanced component]]s. Your colony probably needs an extensive preparation phase just to gather these resources.
 
 
Ships are extremely expensive; each colonist needs a [[ship cryptosleep casket]] for themselves which costs 500 steel, 4 components and 5 uranium. In addition, the other parts of the ship also cost a hefty amount to build.
 
  
Everything on the ship needs to be researched, with some costing great amounts of research time dedicated to it. If your goal is to escape ASAP, have as many hi-tech research benches connected to multi-analyzers, then prioritize researchers to research as much as possible. Miners should be digging up metallic resources from [[Deep drill|deep underground]] as their first priority, so as to provide resources for your construction project.
+
Normally there are not enough advanced components available from trade to cover the entire ship construction, so you will need to craft them. This requires regular [[components]], quite a bit of plasteel and many work hours. It is practical to run at least two [[fabrication bench]]es, possibly even in shifts, to make the components. You also need a [[persona core]], which is rare but readily available by calling factions. [[Plasteel]] can be acquired readily by either using the [[ground-penetrating scanner]] and then deep drilling, or [[long-range mineral scanner]] followed by sending a mining caravan. For the latter, remember to bring pack animals to carry the plasteel. Once resources have been gathered up, try to build the ship as close to the center of your base as possible.
  
 
=== Journey Offer ===
 
=== Journey Offer ===
 +
{{main|Ship to the stars}}
 +
Traveling to the event ship is a very long trip, but spares you the substantial research and resource investment into building a ship yourself. See the main article for more in-depth information about this event, and how to tackle it.
  
{{main|World Quests Guide#Journey offer}}
+
Keep in mind that you get only one shot at the event location. If critical ship parts of the event ship get destroyed during the final assault, it is often no longer practical to end the game, especially if you have not already researched all the ship technology. To prevent any parts from being destroyed, you can tame a large amount of pack animals and caravan over enough pre-made stone blocks to surround the ship in a 3 to 4 layer thick wall, and enough left over to provide living quarters and a killbox.
 
 
Journeying to the ship is arguably cheaper as you don't need to expend huge resources to build a ship (each ship can easily cost tens of thousands of steel for an endgame-sized colony). However, you need plenty of supplies to sustain your colonists over the long journey, as well as the 15-day waiting time for the ship to power up.
 
 
 
To speed up the journey, install bionic legs on as many colonists as possible.
 
  
Remember to bring medicine because you can get ambushed and you will need something to patch up injuries or treat illnesses (especially infections). You also need to build defenses to protect the ship.
+
All of the guidelines given in the section [[Advanced Endgame Guide#Founding a second colony|founding a second colony]] above apply here as well. Treat the event like establishing a new colony from scratch at the event ship location. The old colony will be abandoned, so you can take all the best equipment and gear with you. Bring all the good weaponry and armor you can carry, because you will need it during the 15 day onslaught.
  
=== Bringing food ===
+
Note that the journey to the event ship can be very long, up to a year in very unfavorable conditions. In many cases it is much shorter however. If there are good road connections you can get there in less than 20 days on many maps. This is not a particularly difficult journey, if well planned. The main dangers on such a long trip include colonists getting sick, the caravan getting ambushed causing medical emergencies, as well as everybody being in a poor mood eventually. These things combined can make the trip much longer than initially planned. These problems can be amended by settling down temporarily and treating any problems if necessary. If the distance is especially long and lacking roads (such as in a very mountainous world), you can set up multiple "relay bases" between the ship and your colony, to ferry your colonists from the main colony to the ship once preparations are done with [[transport pod]]s.
  
To bring as much food as possible, make [[pemmican]], as it's light yet energy packed, perfect for long distance travel. If you need to travel for longer than 75 days, you will need to bring [[packaged survival meal]]s as well as these last indefinitely.
+
The caravan food supply will most likely be the least of your worries, because food can be bought along the way (unless everybody on the map is your enemy; in that case the journey will be very difficult).
  
Journey offers tend to spawn as far away as possible, meaning you will need to pack food for '''years'''. Colonists are unable to carry that much food on themselves to sustain them for that long, so you will either need to set up camp to forage/plant food, or bring [[muffalo]] with you. Muffalo will not use up your precious food supplies, but can slow down your caravan due to their slower speeds.<br>
+
If you have enough [[go-juice]] and [[luciferium]], you can use an all-in strategy by getting everybody on both drugs for the entire journey and throughout the ship event. You will need 1 luciferium every six days for each colonist on the trek, as well as plenty of go-juice to keep people, well, ''going'' and to cover addictions. Some additional luciferium can probably be purchased along the route, but do not count on it, as your pawns will go insane and eventually die without it.
A single muffalo can bring 4083 pemmican (enough for 127.6 days for a lone colonist, though it will rot before all is consumed) or 183 packaged survival meals (86.9 days for a lone colonist).
 
  
==== Trading for supplies ====
+
=== Royal ascent ===
 +
{{Royalty|No category}}
 +
If you have the [[Royalty DLC]] installed you have the alternative of asking the high [[Empire#Stellarch|stellarch]] over to your colony for a short stay. They will bring along 4 of their [[Empire#Stellic warden|personal guards]], which are very powerful combat units. All [[Empire#Stellic warden|stellic wardens]] and [[Empire#Stellic defender|stellic defenders]] will have a [[title]] of knight, special black and red [[prestige cataphract armor]] and [[prestige cataphract helmet]]s, and will be equipped with high end weaponry and [[artificial body parts]]. Furthermore, they will also spawn with a decent skill for their combat type (shooting or melee between 11 and 16) and will have a 30% chance to spawn with a brain implant.
  
A viable alternative to bringing massive amounts of food is to bring more valuable items instead, then barter for supples as you slowly proceed towards the ship. With light yet valuable items such as drugs, you can carry a lot more worth with you.
+
Both the stellarch and the guards are under your control, enabling you to command them where or when to shoot, move and to retreat into a safe place. In addition, the stellarch and guards are all [[psycast]]ers, further helping with colony defense.
  
Note that carrying lots of high-value items will attract pirates so be well-guarded against threats.
+
The stellarch should be protected at all costs. They may be equipped with a ultratech melee weapon, but should not be used in combat unless in the most dire of situations.  
  
==== Base hopping ====
+
They should also be put on a drug schedule, putting them on [[yayo]] and [[flake]] every day, providing a +70 mood bonus when taken together. The stellarch may develop an addiction, but you will not be penalized for this. The only thing to watch out for is a drug overdose, which may kill the stellarch. Note that with the [[Ideology DLC]] enabled, the Empire's [[ideoligion]]{{IdeologyIcon}} may dislike drugs.
  
A more time-consuming method of reaching the journey destination is to bring less, but settle down regularly to restock on supplies.
+
=== Archonexus ===
 +
{{Ideology|No category}}
 +
If you have the [[Ideology DLC]] installed and you have at least 4 living faction that are not permanently hostile to you, you can alternatively follow this ending. At random times, a quest will pop up from a random non-permanently hostile faction that will offer an archonexus map fragments in exchange for your colony base of $350k worth of wealth (and be in an ally relation with them). Upon accepting the quest, you will be kicked out of the colony control, but you are permitted to bring up to the following with you:
 +
* 5 Colonist
 +
* 5 Creature
 +
* 1 Relic
 +
* 7 Items
  
If you plan on growing food, it's best to settle days before the growing season to make the most out of it. Also do so before you completely run out of food, for you need time to set up and grow/ gather food.
+
If the creature and/or colonist had items in their equipment or inventory, it will not be brought with them and you will need to use your seven item slots to bring along items, any clothing (minus utility belt items){{Check Tag|Clarification needed|Clothing only or apparel only?}} will be taken along however. Anything and anyone that aren't brought with you will be gone forever with any known ties and bonds severed, and you will be sent to a new world, acting as a "fresh start" with existing items, experience and colonist/animal/relic with you. Furthermore, any research done from the last map will be required to be researched again, so its recommended to immediately start rebuilding the base the moment the new colony is set up. Your colonists will keep all their equipped items, [[Artificial body parts|implants]], royal [[titles]] {{RoyaltyIcon}}, [[psycasts]] {{RoyaltyIcon}}, and even positive/negative thoughts, so take the time to make sure everyone is ready before you depart.
  
Keep in mind that raids and other events will happen should you decide to settle down. Not that caravans are risk-free either.
+
Upon arrival of a new colony map, to advance further into the quest, a colonist must decipher the archotech structure that lies next to where the new colony is before doing the above again.
  
=== Endgame defense ===
+
Once the third archonexus map fragment has been obtained, the map to the archonexus will appear but you will not be kicked out of the colony this time. Send every colonist to the archonexus through any ways, kill off any mechanoid present in the map, and activate the Archonexus to end the game. As there are only a few mechanoid present, it is easy to dispatch them with ranged weapon.
  
For both ships, they need 15 days to start up, during which they will attract danger. You will need to set up heavy defenses to guard your ship against them.
+
Be wary that this will end the game after activating the archonexus.
  
 
{{nav/guides}}
 
{{nav/guides}}
 
[[Category:Guides]]
 
[[Category:Guides]]

Latest revision as of 15:36, 18 December 2023

If you have made it this far into the game, you have survived mechanoid raids, solar flares, manhunter packs, and many other horrible things, congratulations! By now you should have a full-fledged colony with strong defenses and a plentiful supply of food and power. This guide discusses bringing a colony to full maturity, including the options of making new settlements and reaching one of the end-of-game scenarios.

See Guides for more basic help.

Defense[edit]

Endgame colonies tend to be very rich. This will attract large numbers of powerful raiders who will attempt to plunder your colony to get at the wealth stored within. They can easily overwhelm your colonists, so you must have a strong defense system and clever strategies in place.

You can see defense tactics for more defensive strategies, or defense structures for constructed defenses.

Mortar battery[edit]

You can build a lot of mortars to bombard any incoming raiders. 5-6 should be easily affordable by an endgame colony, as well as the mortar shells and barrels needed to operate the mortars.

Mortars can be operated by any colonist as long as they are not incapable of violence.

Killbox[edit]

A common and effective method to repel endgame-level raids is to build a wall around the base and then build killboxes. Killboxes funnel the raiders, allowing you to use traps efficiently and concentrate fire on raiders.

Requesting aid[edit]

If you feel that you're overwhelmed, don't be afraid to request aid from your friendly factions.

They will be glad to send a few fighters to help your efforts. Even though they aren't that powerful in combat compared to your endgame soldiers, they can still distract them for a while, giving you time to deal with the raiders. At this stage, you can always sacrifice some goodwill; they can be repaired by rescuing any downed survivors of the reinforcement (capturing will bring instant bad will), or gifting them.

If you have a noble Content added by the Royalty DLC in your colony, you can use your permit to call in small squads of Empire soldiers to assist you. If you feel really overwhelmed, you can also call these troops during the cooldown at a cost of extra honor.

Construction[edit]

By now you should have a vastly expanded base, no matter what playthrough you are going for.

Power[edit]

Even if you have geothermal generators sitting around all your steam geysers by now, that may not be enough to power an endgame base. You will need supplementary power sources in order to do so. Solar panels and wind turbines should be built as needed, and you should have a great backup power supply enough for one or two days' worth of power as well. Generally, it follows the same rules as midgame power, except in a much larger scale.

If you want, you can also have some ship reactors to power your base. They provide a constant 1000W power, however they cost quite some resources, take up lots of space and can only be built outside. Even if you can afford it, you will need to consider where to put your reactors.

Equipment[edit]

Apparel[edit]

You should have all your colonists wear dusters to provide additional insulation and protection. Dusters are preferable as they also provide protection to the legs. Parkas are not recommended except in very cold climates due to the lower protection it provides.

Soldiers can be equipped with full sets of power armor for maximum protection. You may want to buy power armor instead as crafting it costs a great amount of time, however crafting it can be cheaper than directly buying the armor and more readily available. Keep in mind that a high quality thrumbofur or devilstrand duster and flak vest combo may provide similar protection to power armor of a similar quality.

Textiles[edit]

Hyperweave makes a good choice of fabric as it provides excellent protection. If you have slain some thrumbos then thrumbofur also makes a equally good choice. Their rarity means that you may still have trouble amassing them in endgame even if you can easily afford them. Devilstrand works wonders as a replacement for these two options, as it provides lesser, but still excellent protection, and can be mass-produced with large enough fields. If none of these can be acquired, high tier leathers, such as rhinoceros leather or heavy fur may be substituted.

Wool, as always, provides excellent insulation in cold areas, though should be avoided for dusters due to its terrible protection. Generally, a parka made from the textiles mentioned above will generally provide both better protection and insulation than a wool duster.

Cloth should be avoided as it has the worst protection of any textile.

Weapons[edit]

Your pawns should be equipped with the best weapons possible to survive the coming 15 day onslaught after building the ship. Charge rifles should be given to as many pawns as possible, as it provides large amounts of damage with a decent burst shot count and armor penetration. With enough pawns, a single firing cycle can devastate huge groups of raiders. If charge weaponry is too expensive to equip every pawn with, give the higher shooting skill pawns assault rifles and the lower skill pawns heavy SMGs. These weapons are not as good as the charge rifle, but come very close. Miniguns can also be devastating, spraying bullets throughout the killbox, and is especially effective during the late game because of the bunched up enemies. Equipping every pawn with one of these, though, would be incredibly expensive because of the massive 20 component cost for each minigun.

On the side of a killbox should be a small box with a single pawn with an EMP launcher or EMP grenades to stun any mechanoids coming in. EMPs can be lifesavers, providing a few extra seconds to take down lancers that otherwise would dismember pawns or to stop a centipede from firing another barrage.

Founding a second colony[edit]

If you think having only one colony is not stressful enough already and want to found another one, you can send a caravan to a new frontier and have some of your colonists start a new life there. They can serve many purposes, such as:

Production bases[edit]

The main purpose for the new settlement could be supplying the origin base with mined resources and other things that are difficult to obtain at your home base. Make sure that the supply base is close enough to your main base, to make resource transfer viable. This usually means it should be in transport pod range.

Ship Quest Preparation Bases[edit]

This base can be used to prepare for the ship offer quest from Charlon Whitestone. Multiple of these colonies can be set up, like relay outposts to ferry your colonists to the quest destination once the preparations have been finished.

Note: you need to increase the colony limit in the game settings for this to be possible.

This new settlement can be founded anywhere, as far away from your original base as you want. Make it as challenging or silly as you like.

Supplying the caravan[edit]

Your frontier trek will need to bring quite a few things with them to be able to quickly establish themselves at the new colony location. Here is a checklist of a few things that you should bring:

  • Enough food for the journey, and to get you through a few days after arriving. Pemmican and packaged survival meal are the best choice, like for any caravan.
  • Bedrolls for everybody to prevent negative moodlets from sleeping on the ground. They can also become your initial beds when settling down.
  • All kinds of medicine, including Glitterworld medicine. Bring penoxycyline if you go into a biome where that is needed, such as jungles. wake-up and go-juice can be useful to help with bootstrapping at the destination to increase the amount of hours a colonist can work, but should be taken sparingly to avoid addiction and overdoses. Bring recreational drugs to keep folks happy (beer and psychite tea are your best friends, but smokeleaf joints should be avoided because of the consciousness penalty for smoking one).
  • Steel and components are required for many initial buildings. You won't know how much of these you will be able to mine at the new location immediately.
  • Weapons and armor! Each colonist should be provided with a set of mid-tier armor (dusters of a good material and a flak vest). Power armor can also be used, but anything heavier than recon armor will weigh your colonists down. Heavier power armor can be drop-podded to the new colonists after a basic base has been set up.
  • Gold, silver, flake, yayo, smokeleaf joints, and maybe some valuable pieces of art can be brought for sale along the way and after arrival. All these items have a good value-to-mass ratio.
  • Charged batteries, and a vanometric power cell if you have one: these are invaluable for quickly getting a functioning settlement from scratch.
  • A psychic emanator if available, to help with new colony stress a little. Recreation items that you can use immediately if they are not too heavy should also be brought, such as chess tables, horseshoe pins, or their tribal equivalents. Psychic foil helmets can be useful, too, to block any psychic drones that might hit.
  • Hauling animals, such as dogs. Bring males and females, so you can keep breeding them. Keep in mind that some of them will require food along the journey (kibble is good).
  • Boomalopes, if you have them, as a source of chemfuel for chemfuel powered generators as a first power source. This is especially great if they can graze while traveling, because that means you can bring them along for free.

If your caravan animals will be able to graze along the route, you can bring a lot of food and leather in the form of livestock. Butcher a few of them at the destination, while keeping the rest to breed. Cows are good, so are chickens, or hauling animals. Caravans should depart in the spring, if possible, to allow animals to graze.

If your intended destination is in transport pod range, you do not have a problem because you can send practically unlimited supplies from your origin base. You could even send the materials to build a lot more cargo pods at the destination and repeat the process.

Resource compression[edit]

You can "compress" raw resources for loading into caravans by building furniture which is lighter than the resources they will deconstruct into. It is your choice if you resort to such shenanigans as it is a very unrealistic game mechanic.

It means you will lose about 25% of the resources, but allows you to carry a lot of extra effective weight.

Stool compression[edit]

You can compress stone blocks by building stools. Each stool is only 3 kg but can be deconstructed into 18.75 stone blocks weighing between 16.88 kg for slate, to 23.44 kg for granite, meaning you can fit nearly eight times the weight of the stones.

Plant pot compression[edit]

You can compress steel by building plant pots. Each plant pot is only 2 kg but can be deconstructed into 15 steel weighing 7.5 kg, meaning that it can fit over three times the weight of the steel.

Flatscreen TV compression[edit]

You can compress both steel and components in flatscreen televisions. Each is only 8 kg but can be deconstructed into 105 steel and 12 components for a total of 59.7 kg, allowing you to fit almost 7.5 times its weight in resources.

Colonists[edit]

Unlike at the start of the game, you have the choice from a lot of colonists to be your new colony founders. Compose a roster with a wide range of skills. Some skills are more important than others: construction especially is paramount, because you will need to build a lot of structures from scratch at your new home. Mining, cooking and doctoring should be covered at least twice, you will need a grower and a couple of ranged soldiers. Keep in mind that drug production requires intellectual skill, so even if you do not plan to do any research, you still need somebody clever to make drugs.

Do not bring anybody who has any ailments, or otherwise a liability at your new destination (such as mentally unstable people, people with addictions, etc.). Colonists with these issues will slow down the caravan tremendously, as they will generally move more slowly and will probably have frequent mental breakdowns during the journey.

If there are married, engaged, or loving couples in your base, do not split them up. That should be obvious but might be easy to miss until it is too late. If you want to be thorough, split up rivals and bring friends of pawns along to avoid social fights and insults early on.

Trading along the route[edit]

Visit as many communities as possible along your route. This will allow you to replenish food and buy all the rare items that you can find, like '"advanced components", "Glitterworld medicine", etc. You can even buy more colonists (slaves) and caravan animals, to increase your carrying capacity.

What to do on arrival[edit]

Build the colony like how you built the first colony. You can build slightly more than before, as you can bring more than before. On the first day, build a basic shelter with a barracks and a freezer room to store food. Plant some fast growing produce like rice.

If you have some firepower, it is a good idea to seek out and clear the Ancient Danger at the new location immediately after. Build some prison cells and open the cryptosleep caskets. This will get you some possible new recruits and some good gear. You can also take the gear from the survivors and return them into the cryptosleep caskets; recruit them later on. You will probably have some vacant caskets where you can put some of your colonists as well – this will reduce the amount of bedrooms and food needed while you establish the new place.

Building the rest new colony should be straightforward; after all, you have done that at least once already...

Ending the game[edit]

There are four ways to officially "win" the game, two of which are DLC-exclusive:

  • Research and build a spaceship, then launch it.
  • Travel to Charlon Whitestone's "event ship", which is offered to every colony at some point early in the campaign.
  • House the high stellarch for 12 days after reaching the title of count, protecting him/her from any threats that come your way, and keeping the mood of the stellarch above 40%. Afterwards, everyone may leave the rimworld on a shuttle. This requires the Royalty DLC.
  • Find the Archo Nexus with aid from other factions in exchange for a wealthy colony and awaken the Nexus. This requires the Ideology DLC

Building a Ship[edit]

If you were not desperately trying to escape the planet already (e.g. from an incoming "planet killer", which thankfully only happens by modifying the starting scenario), building the escape ship has probably not been your main concern so far.

The ship is very research and resource intensive to build. It requires a lot of plasteel and advanced components. Your colony probably needs an extensive preparation phase just to gather these resources.

Normally there are not enough advanced components available from trade to cover the entire ship construction, so you will need to craft them. This requires regular components, quite a bit of plasteel and many work hours. It is practical to run at least two fabrication benches, possibly even in shifts, to make the components. You also need a persona core, which is rare but readily available by calling factions. Plasteel can be acquired readily by either using the ground-penetrating scanner and then deep drilling, or long-range mineral scanner followed by sending a mining caravan. For the latter, remember to bring pack animals to carry the plasteel. Once resources have been gathered up, try to build the ship as close to the center of your base as possible.

Journey Offer[edit]

Traveling to the event ship is a very long trip, but spares you the substantial research and resource investment into building a ship yourself. See the main article for more in-depth information about this event, and how to tackle it.

Keep in mind that you get only one shot at the event location. If critical ship parts of the event ship get destroyed during the final assault, it is often no longer practical to end the game, especially if you have not already researched all the ship technology. To prevent any parts from being destroyed, you can tame a large amount of pack animals and caravan over enough pre-made stone blocks to surround the ship in a 3 to 4 layer thick wall, and enough left over to provide living quarters and a killbox.

All of the guidelines given in the section founding a second colony above apply here as well. Treat the event like establishing a new colony from scratch at the event ship location. The old colony will be abandoned, so you can take all the best equipment and gear with you. Bring all the good weaponry and armor you can carry, because you will need it during the 15 day onslaught.

Note that the journey to the event ship can be very long, up to a year in very unfavorable conditions. In many cases it is much shorter however. If there are good road connections you can get there in less than 20 days on many maps. This is not a particularly difficult journey, if well planned. The main dangers on such a long trip include colonists getting sick, the caravan getting ambushed causing medical emergencies, as well as everybody being in a poor mood eventually. These things combined can make the trip much longer than initially planned. These problems can be amended by settling down temporarily and treating any problems if necessary. If the distance is especially long and lacking roads (such as in a very mountainous world), you can set up multiple "relay bases" between the ship and your colony, to ferry your colonists from the main colony to the ship once preparations are done with transport pods.

The caravan food supply will most likely be the least of your worries, because food can be bought along the way (unless everybody on the map is your enemy; in that case the journey will be very difficult).

If you have enough go-juice and luciferium, you can use an all-in strategy by getting everybody on both drugs for the entire journey and throughout the ship event. You will need 1 luciferium every six days for each colonist on the trek, as well as plenty of go-juice to keep people, well, going and to cover addictions. Some additional luciferium can probably be purchased along the route, but do not count on it, as your pawns will go insane and eventually die without it.

Royal ascent[edit]

If you have the Royalty DLC installed you have the alternative of asking the high stellarch over to your colony for a short stay. They will bring along 4 of their personal guards, which are very powerful combat units. All stellic wardens and stellic defenders will have a title of knight, special black and red prestige cataphract armor and prestige cataphract helmets, and will be equipped with high end weaponry and artificial body parts. Furthermore, they will also spawn with a decent skill for their combat type (shooting or melee between 11 and 16) and will have a 30% chance to spawn with a brain implant.

Both the stellarch and the guards are under your control, enabling you to command them where or when to shoot, move and to retreat into a safe place. In addition, the stellarch and guards are all psycasters, further helping with colony defense.

The stellarch should be protected at all costs. They may be equipped with a ultratech melee weapon, but should not be used in combat unless in the most dire of situations.

They should also be put on a drug schedule, putting them on yayo and flake every day, providing a +70 mood bonus when taken together. The stellarch may develop an addiction, but you will not be penalized for this. The only thing to watch out for is a drug overdose, which may kill the stellarch. Note that with the Ideology DLC enabled, the Empire's ideoligionContent added by the Ideology DLC may dislike drugs.

Archonexus[edit]

If you have the Ideology DLC installed and you have at least 4 living faction that are not permanently hostile to you, you can alternatively follow this ending. At random times, a quest will pop up from a random non-permanently hostile faction that will offer an archonexus map fragments in exchange for your colony base of $350k worth of wealth (and be in an ally relation with them). Upon accepting the quest, you will be kicked out of the colony control, but you are permitted to bring up to the following with you:

  • 5 Colonist
  • 5 Creature
  • 1 Relic
  • 7 Items

If the creature and/or colonist had items in their equipment or inventory, it will not be brought with them and you will need to use your seven item slots to bring along items, any clothing (minus utility belt items)[Clarification needed] will be taken along however. Anything and anyone that aren't brought with you will be gone forever with any known ties and bonds severed, and you will be sent to a new world, acting as a "fresh start" with existing items, experience and colonist/animal/relic with you. Furthermore, any research done from the last map will be required to be researched again, so its recommended to immediately start rebuilding the base the moment the new colony is set up. Your colonists will keep all their equipped items, implants, royal titles Content added by the Royalty DLC, psycasts Content added by the Royalty DLC, and even positive/negative thoughts, so take the time to make sure everyone is ready before you depart.

Upon arrival of a new colony map, to advance further into the quest, a colonist must decipher the archotech structure that lies next to where the new colony is before doing the above again.

Once the third archonexus map fragment has been obtained, the map to the archonexus will appear but you will not be kicked out of the colony this time. Send every colonist to the archonexus through any ways, kill off any mechanoid present in the map, and activate the Archonexus to end the game. As there are only a few mechanoid present, it is easy to dispatch them with ranged weapon.

Be wary that this will end the game after activating the archonexus.