RimWorld Beginner's Guide: Day One, Stockpiles, Growing Zones, Work Priorities and Mood

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1. Start classic and gentle Crashlanded is the most balanced first scenario: three colonists and some supplies. In the difficulty list, the in-game descriptions recommend peaceful and community builder for new players. Cassandra Classic or Phoebe Chillax are good first storytellers.
2. Keep the tutor on The game offers a tutorial and shows hint notes in the corner as you play. Leave them on for your first colony; it is the fastest way to learn what sits in each Architect category.
3. First job: a stockpile Press Tab for the Architect menu and draw a stockpile from the Zone category. Items scattered by the crash will be hauled there. Moving the stockpile under a roof later keeps things from deteriorating in the weather.
4. Open a growing zone Draw a growing zone from the same category and pick a crop. Soil fertility affects growth; the plant's info box tells you how long it takes to mature. Start with food crops and leave luxuries for later.
5. Beds and a roof For the first night place sleeping spots from Furniture, then build a small walled barracks. Sleeping on the ground or outdoors hurts mood. Enclosed spaces get roofed automatically; use the roof overlay to check.
6. Set work priorities Open the Work tab with F1 and tick which jobs each colonist does; let the best cook cook and the best miner mine. Enable manual priorities to rank jobs with numbers 1-4.
7. Build a cooking spot Build a campfire or fueled stove from Production and add a meal bill. Raw food hurts mood. Setting the bill to 'do until X' makes the cook stop once stock is full.
8. Plan cold storage Food spoils in heat. Once you have power, put a cooler in an enclosed room to make a freezer, with the hot side venting outside. Until then keep food stocks small and fresh.
9. Start research Build a research bench and pick a project from the Research tab (F6). Early goals are usually electricity and better cooking or crafting benches; the tab shows what each project unlocks.

• Pause oftenPausing with Space to give orders is not cheating, it is how the game is played. When a raid arrives, someone gets hurt or an important letter pops up, pause first and think second.
• Don't forget the home areaColonists only clean, repair and extinguish fires inside the home area. Make sure new buildings are included using Expand home area.
• Read mood from the Needs tabSelect a colonist and open Needs to see exactly what is hurting their mood: sleeping outside, ugly surroundings, raw food, lack of recreation. Find the cause in the list instead of guessing.
• Use the scheduleThe Schedule tab (F2) lets you assign sleep, work, recreation or anything for each hour. In the same tab you can restrict allowed areas to keep colonists away from danger.
• Drafting stops workColonists drafted with R only follow your orders; the in-game description says they will not work, eat or rest. Undraft them when the danger is over.
• Defend at a choke pointColonists scattered in the open are easy targets. Grouping behind cover such as sandbags and meeting enemies in a narrow passage cuts losses; check the Security category of the Architect menu.
• Choose your huntsMark animals for hunting in the Wildlife tab (F5). Some animals fight back; read the notes in the info box before sending a colonist after something big.
• Make a dumping zoneDraw a separate dumping stockpile for rock chunks and junk so your main stockpile stays tidy and haulers do not waste trips.
• Know your save modeNew game settings let you choose Reload Anytime or single-save Commitment mode. On your first colony Reload Anytime lets you learn from mistakes without losing everything.
• Leave the Workshop for laterThe Steam page lists Steam Workshop support for mods. Still, a vanilla first run makes it easier to tell whether a problem comes from the game or a mod.

• Leaving the stockpile outdoors: items deteriorate in the weather and food rots.
• Letting everyone do every job: the worst cook ends up cooking; assign roles in the Work tab.
• Cooking huge food stocks before a freezer exists: meals spoil and effort is wasted.
• Forgetting to undraft: drafted colonists do not work or eat.
• Ignoring mood: raw food, sleeping outside and no recreation pile up until a mental break is unavoidable.
• Starting on the hardest setting: the in-game descriptions recommend high difficulties for experienced players.

This guide was written for version: Guide written in September 2026 for the base game without expansions. Keys can be rebound under Options > Keyboard; expansions and mods may add tabs.

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