Characters

RimWorld is a game based on the story of its characters, either player-managed colonists or AI-controlled wanderers and raiders.

Each character has two sets of attributes, a basic set of skills and a two-part backstory (childhood and adulthood) that affect the starting skills and (in)abilities of the characters.

Skills

Basics Menus Game Creation Gameplay Pawns Plants Resources Gear Mods Pawns Menu Character Properties Character Types Character Properties Health Mood Needs Skills Thoughts Traits Social

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Every pawn in RimWorld has a set of skills which govern their speed and success in the various types of work.

Performing certain jobs will award experience points (XP) towards improving a pawn's skill, reflected by their skill level. A pawn's skill levels can be viewed by selecting the pawn with the cursor, then navigating to the Bio tab in the pawn inspect pane. Pawns may have a Passion for a skill which increases the rate of XP gain and mood, represented by an adjacent fire symbol in the pawn's Bio menu. Conversely, a skill may be entirely prevented by a pawn's backstory or traits, which is represented by " -- " dashes in place of the level number.

A high skill level will grant improved speed and success in relevant jobs, up to Level 20. A low skill level will result in slow, poor performance at a related job, including Construction failure, wild animal revenge, surgery failure, low harvest yields, or poor quality crafting products.

Possible pawn skills are Shooting, Melee, Construction, Mining, Cooking, Plants, Animals, Crafting, Artistic, Medical, Social, and Intellectual.

Summary

See also: Training

Skills are improved by performing certain associated jobs, although some few related tasks do not provide skill experience. Performing these tasks will earn the character experience points either per task completed or per second they are pursuing that task, both of which will eventually level up the skill. The resulting higher skill level then improves the performance in all associated tasks and types of work. Skills are leveled up individually, and there is no single "character level" as in many role playing games.

In some cases, special management tactics can be employed to more effectively or specifically steer the skill training in the colony, especially during periods of low work in colony development. See the main article on skill training for more information.

Skills vs work types

Skills and work types (or "tasks") are two different, but related, concepts. In some cases, like "mine" (work type) and "mining" (skill), there is an almost perfect correspondence, but in many other cases there is not: the work types "tailor" and "smith", for example, are associated with the crafting skill. Some tasks listed on the work tab do not even have an associated skill (eg. "haul", "clean" and "firefight").

The Work tab, where you assign tasks to colonists, indicates which skills are relevant for a given task (by mousing over a tick box). It also shows you if the colonist has a passion for those skills (with an icon in the tick box), and if a significant proficiency has already been acquired (by emphasizing the tick box border). Lower skill pawns have their work box darker, and higher skill pawns have it lighter. Extremely proficient pawns have a golden box. When assigning work to a pawn with low skill in a certain job, the box will have a red outline. Passions appear as extremely small flames at the bottom-right hand side of the work box. All these aspects are important for deciding how to assign tasks and types of work.

In general, you want colonists to perform tasks they are good at (it is productive for your colony), as well as tasks they are passionate for (improves the associated skill faster and also keep them happy while working).

Improving skills

Skill leveling in RimWorld is very similar to many role playing games: experience points are constantly earned, and the skill is leveled up when certain thresholds are reached. Importantly, the effect of a skill improves by level, but it costs more and more XP to gain another level in a skill. This means that skill training is more effective the lower the skill level is.

When a player pawn gains a new level in a skill, a text mote will be displayed.

Experience points are generally gained at consistent rate per unit time - that is, while the rate may vary from one task to another, when performing a given task the only other factor is the time spent doing it. As higher skill levels often increase the speed a pawn performs tasks, this means that more tasks must be performed to spend the same amount of time working and thus gain the same amount of XP. This is not true for all tasks however, and some will simply give a lump sum of experience for each task completed.

Regardless of how XP is gained, it is multiplied by Passion and Global Learning Factor in the following way:

Real XP gained = Global Learning Factor x Passion Multiplier x Base XP gained

Additionally, there is a soft cap of 4000 net XP gained per day per skill. Any XP gains past this point are multiplied by 20%.^[Clarify] This cap resets a few seconds after midnight. Any XP losses will apply against the net gain (e.g. if a pawn were to gain 4500 XP, but lose 1000, they would still remain 500 XP under the cap). Experience from Skilltrainers does not apply to this cap, nor is it affected by the 20% multiplier.

Passion

Passion for a given skill is indicated by the presence of flame icons next to the skill experience bar on the character's Bio tab. These passions increases the rate at which a pawn learns specific skills, and may provide them a mood boost when performing activities related to the skill. Skill gains from using a skilltrainer are influenced by passion, making the item more valuable when used by characters with a passion for the associated skill. Typically, passion cannot be gained or lost in an adult pawn's lifetime, however children may gain passions at growth moments and the addition or removal of Skill Aptitude xenogenes can also affect passions.^{[Incapable of?]}

The three levels of passion are:

	None:	No flames. 35% multiplier on experience gain. This is the most common passion level.
	Interested:	One flame. 100% multiplier on experience gain and +8 mood ("Minor passion for my work") while performing related tasks.
	Burning:	Two flames. 150% multiplier on experience gain and +14 mood ("Burning passion for my work") while performing related tasks.

Global Learning Factor

See also: Global Learning Factor

A pawn has a default Global Learning Factor of 100%. Some traits, implants, Genes, and Hediffs can effect Global Learning Factor as an Offset, or a factor. Offsets are added to the base value of 100%. Then, the sum is multiplied by any applicable factors. For example, a pawn with the Fast Learner trait and a Learning Assistant implant has a final Global Learning Factor of 195%.

Offsets

• Too Smart trait: +75%, while also inflicting a penalty to mental break threshold.
• Fast Learner trait: +75%
• Slow Learner trait: −75%
• Learning assistant implant : +20%
• Neural supercharger building : +25%
• Quick study gene : +50%

Factors

• Slow study gene : ×50%

Experience multiplier table

Global Learning Factor	25%	45%	50%	70%	100%	120%	125%	145%	175%	195%	200%	220%	250%	270%	275%	295%	300%	305%	320%	325%	345%
None	8.75%	15.75%	17.5%	24.5%	35%	42%	43.75%	50.75%	61.25%	68.25%	70%	77%	87.5%	94.5%	96.25%	103.25%	105%	106.75%	112%	113.75%	120.75%
	25%	45%	50%	70%	100%	120%	125%	145%	175%	195%	200%	220%	250%	270%	275%	295%	300%	305%	320%	325%	345%
	37.5%	67.5%	75%	105%	150%	180%	187.5%	217.5%	262.5%	292.5%	300%	330%	375%	405%	412.5%	442.5%	450%	457.5%	480%	487.5%	517.5%

Decay

Beyond skill level 10, XP points are continuously drained away. A skill level is lost only after falling to 0 XP points, and then losing a further 1000 points, preventing repeated level loss and gain right around a level threshold. Experience decay is strictly calculated based on the current skill level and is not directly affected by skill use; Instead, gained XP simply cancels out loss, and vice versa.

XP decays at an accelerated rate with higher skill levels. This means that all XP earned after 55,000 total XP (level 10) effectively has less value, especially for skills that a colonist does not use frequently, because it will disappear. In most cases, XP is gained by time spent on a skill, and not by effective work performed: Working faster does not make it easier or faster to gain XP, or compensate the decay loss. Level 20 (max level) is very difficult to acquire, usually only achievable by colonists solely dedicated to a single profession.

The Great memory trait halves the skill decay rate for a pawn. Pawns with the Perfect memory trait, which is only found on Creepjoiners, will not experience any skill decay at all.

Skill point acquisition strategy

The above implies that on average it is better to spread out the skill training over several colonists instead of having only one "expert", except for the artisan professions where it is usually good to have true experts in the colony.

For example, you need to acquire about 150,000 XP to make one colonist a "region-known master" (level 16); the same amount of XP would be enough to have three colonists at level 9 ("solid professional"). This avoids the risk of losing the only pawn that is capable of the task, and in most cases three level-9 workers are better than a single level-16 expert. Creating anything quality is a notable exception to this.

Experience table

Level 20 is the highest skill level achievable for a pawn.

Level	Name	Total experience required	Experience till next level	Experience decay rate (exp/day)
-	Incapable	-	-	-
0	Barely heard of it	0	1000	0
1	Utter Beginner	1000	2000	0
2	Beginner	3000	3000	0
3	Basic Familiarity	6000	4000	0
4	Some Familiarity	10000	5000	0
5	Significant Familiarity	15000	6000	0
6	Capable Amateur	21000	7000	0
7	Weak Professional	28000	8000	0
8	Employable Professional	36000	9000	0
9	Solid Professional	45000	10000	0
10	Skilled Professional	55000	12000	30
11	Very skilled Professional	67000	14000	60
12	Expert	81000	16000	120
13	Strong Expert	97000	18000	180
14	Master	115000	20000	300
15	Strong Master	135000	22000	540
16	Region-Known Master	157000	24000	840
17	Region-Leading Master	181000	26000	1200
18	Planet-Known Master	207000	28000	1800
19	Planet-Leading Master	235000	30000	2400
20	Legendary Master	265000	32000	3600

Note that these values are considered before gene levels (exp) if a pawn with good (skill) wants to go from level 4 to 5, they need 1000 skill exp points

List of skills

Using or applying skills will give experience in the skill, and improve the character's proficiency. How much experience is gained depends on the passion for the skill. See passion below.

On this page, where experience gains are listed, an "Interested" passion with 100% skill gain is assumed. Note that this is not the "default" passion; "no passion" at 35% gain is far more common.

Animals

For a list of skills that animals can learn, see Animals#Training.

The animals skill determines how well a character handles wild and domesticated animals, and increases the chance to go undetected while hunting wild animals.

Higher animals skill has the following benefits:

• Chance to tame a wild animal increases. Some animals can not even be attempted to be tamed if the animals skill is too low.
• Chance to successfully train a domesticated animal increases.
• Animal handling, such as milking and shearing certain livestock, becomes more efficient, with a lower chance of wasting products.
• Mastering an animal, as in having it follow you and obey your commands, becomes possible for more animal races. The more wild a race is, the higher the animals skill required to be assigned its master.
• It becomes less likely for a colonist hunting an animal to be detected by the animal, and the animal retaliating. It still requires shooting skill for the colonist to be able to kill the animal.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Animal Gather Speed	The speed at which this person milks, shears, and otherwise gathers resources from animals.	0.04	0.12
Animal Gather Yield	The percentage yield someone receives when they shear, milk, or otherwise gather resources from a living animal. Higher percentages reduce the chance of wasting the product.
Hunting Stealth	This stat reduces the chance of hunted animals attacking the hunter. A 0% score means no reduction. A 100% score means animals never attack.	0	0.05
Tame Animal Chance	The base chance this person will successfully tame an animal on any given attempt. The actual chance is also affected by the animal's wildness. Failed tame attempt can induce animal attacks, especially for more vicious animals.	0.04	0.03
Train Animal Chance	The base chance this person will make progress training an animal on a given attempt. The actual chance for a given attempt will also depend on the animal's wildness, whether it is bonded with the trainer, and so on.	0.1	0.05

Artistic

The artistic skill is the proficiency to create beautiful works of art at an art bench.

Higher skill increases the chance for a higher quality, in this case more beautiful, sculpture. Note that higher skill levels do not increase the speed of creating sculptures.

The beauty and market value of sculptures increases tremendously at the highest quality levels. Combined with the fact that trade partners pay more for works of art compared to other items, this makes artistic a useful skill outside of decorating the home base.

Not very useful in the early game, but once you have a well-established colony, having a permanent artist would be beneficial to it.

Construction

The construction skill governs a wide variety of colonist tasks, centered around creating structures in the game world; it is an essential skill in any colony:

• Making all kinds of structures, like furniture, walls, power lines and spaceship parts. If a structure can be placed on the ground in form of a blueprint, its construction is usually facilitated by this skill. Many structures require a minimum skill to make.
• Deconstructing existing structures back into raw materials.
• Building and tearing down roofs.
• Laying and removing flooring, like carpet, concrete and stone tiles.
• Smoothing rock walls and stone floors.

Higher construction skill will

• allow the construction of more difficult to build structures.
• increase construction speed; the base speed at 0 construction skill is 50%, this is increased additively by 15% for every skill level.
• reduce the chance of a construction effort to be "botched", which will result in some resources going to waste, and require the construction effort to be restarted (ie. all work is wasted). The base chance of success is 75%, increasing by about 3% per skill level to 100% at skill level 8.
• increase the chance to make higher quality items, for items that have a quality rating, such as furniture.

Construction outcomes are influenced by the manipulation and sight capacities of the colonist.

Experience is gained continuously while working on a construction project. At 100% work speed this seems to translate to roughly 82 experience per point of work required.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Construct Success Chance	The chance that this person will succeed in constructing something. Failing means wasting time and resources.
Construction Speed	Speed at which this person constructs and repairs buildings.	0.3	0.0875
Repair Success Chance	The chance that this person will successfully repair a broken down building using a component. Failing means wasting time and resources. Note that this only applies to repairing breakdowns, which is different from repairing damage.
Smoothing Speed	A multiplier on the speed at which this person smooths rough stone floors and walls.	0.3	0.0875

Cooking

The cooking skill affects how long it takes to cook meals and butcher dead creatures, as well as the Food Poison Chance for the person who eats the meal. It also affects Butchery Speed and Butchery Efficiency, how much meat is produced when butchering.

Cooking and butchering increase cooking skill. It is also trained by making smokeleaf joints at a drug lab and cooking psychite tea at a campfire or stove.

A Cooking skill of 8 is required to be able to cook every item, a skill of 9 achieves the minimum Food Poison Chance, and a skill of 10 gives maximum Butchery Efficiency - assuming a healthy but otherwise unaugmented pawn. Levels above this only increase the speed of tasks.

Project	Experience Given Per Task
Simple Meal	60
Fine Meal	110
Lavish meal	160
Pemmican	80

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Butchery Efficiency	The amount of meat produced when butchering flesh creatures. The actual amount is also related to the creature's size.	0.75	0.025
Butchery Speed	Speed at which this person butchers flesh creatures.	0.4	0.06
Cooking Speed	The speed at which this person cooks meals.
Drug Cooking Speed	The speed at which this person brews beer and tea, or makes simple drug products like smokeleaf joints.	0.4	0.06
Food Poison Chance	The probability that this character will inadvertently poison a meal they cook. Anyone who eats a food-poisoned meal will be temporarily debilitated with pain, weakness, and vomiting

Crafting

The crafting skill affects the creation of many of the items under the smith, tailor and craft work types. It does so in two ways; crafting quality and minimum crafting levels.

A pawn's Crafting skill is a driving factor in the Quality of produced Clothing, Armor, and Weapons. The quality of things such as Sculptures and Buildings are instead controlled by the Artistic and Construction skills respectively.

The speed of production for these tasks is unrelated to Crafting level, however, and is instead completely dependent on a pawn's General Labor Speed and the amount of labor required in the bill.

Many work bills of the Smith, Tailor and Craft work types have a required minimum Crafting skill level. This restricts the creation of some items to skilled crafters regardless of their possible quality.

The Crafting skill also determines the time required to shred mechanoids, and the amount of resources produced from doing so.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Mech Gestation Speed	A multiplier on the speed at which this mechanitor can form new mechanoids at a gestator.	0.75	0.025
Mech Repair Speed	A multiplier on how fast a mechanitor can repair mechanoids.	0.8	0.1
Mechanoid Shredding Efficiency	The amount of materials yielded when this person shreds a dead mechanoid for resources. The actual amount is also related to the mechanoid's size.	0.75	0.025
Mechanoid Shredding Speed	The speed at which this person can shred a mechanoid for resources.	0.4	0.06
Subcore Encoding Speed	A multiplier on how fast a mechanitor can create subcores.	0.75	0.1

Medical

Main article: Doctoring

The Medical skill level is the main factor for medical treatment quality and speed, surgery speed and surgery success chance.

Low quality treatment will increase the chance of infection, and the likelihood of permanent health conditions such as scars, in turn leading to chronic pain. Certain scars cause more than 10% pain, permanently weakening the consciousness of the patient, which reduces their work performance.

Medical surgery, if not successful, can fail in minor or major ways, even causing the death of the patient. The success rate is not only determined by the medical skill, but also other character stats like manipulation, eye sight and consciousness. It is not advisable to let an incapacitated doctor perform surgery.

Higher grade medicine and medical equipment like hospital beds and a sterile environment significantly boost the effectiveness of all medical treatments, independent of the skill level of the doctor.

Medical skill can be trained very quickly by performing euthanasia on fast-breeding animals such as chickens. This costs 1 medicine per procedure, but only requires herbal medicine. The procedure can be scheduled in the respective animal's health tab, and an animal sleeping spot must be available to perform the euthanasia.

Performing surgery trains the medical skill. The amount of XP that is awarded only depends on the duration of the procedure (varying by procedure and medical operation speed of the surgeon).

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Medical Operation Speed	The speed at which the character performs medical operations.	0.4	0.06
Medical Surgery Success Chance	The likelihood that a colonist will succeed when attempting to perform a surgery. The actual success chance is also affected by factors like facilities, room cleanliness, medicine used, the difficulty of the surgery, and inspirations. No matter how high this stat is, there is always a small chance of failure on any operation.
Medical Tend Quality	The base quality of tending given when tending wounds and illnesses. Final Tend Quality: ( ( ( ( (Medical Tend Quality Stat from Doctor) * (Medical Potency) ) + ( Medical Tend Quality Offset from Bed ) ) * ( 0.7 if Self-Tend) ). Multiplied by a random + or - 25% and clamped to between 0% and the Maximum Tend Quality from the medicine used. Standard bed is not a factor. Only hospital beds have a Medical Tend Quality offset. Light is not a factor of Medical Tend Quality. Light is likely a factor of Medical Tend Speed and Surgery Success chance. Cleanliness is not a factor of Medical Tend Quality. Cleanliness is a factor of Infection Chance. Indoors is not a factor of Medical Tend Quality. Indoors is a factor of cleanliness and thus Infection Chance. Higher tend quality will speed the recovery from injury.	0.2	0.1
Medical Tend Speed	Speed at which the character tends to wounds and illnesses.	0.4	0.06

Melee

The melee skill determines a characters' effectiveness with melee weapons namely, their chance to:

• Land a hit in melee (see Melee Hit Chance)
• Dodge a melee attack, when not aiming or firing a ranged weapon (see Melee Dodge Chance)

The tables below are post-processed chances for a healthy pawn.

Chance to hit Skill Level Standard Brawler Skill Level Standard Brawler 0 50% 62% - - - 1 53% 65% 11 81% 85% 2 56% 68% 12 82% 86% 3 59% 71% 13 83% 87% 4 62% 74% 14 84% 88% 5 65% 77% 15 85% 89% 6 68% 80% 16 86% 90% 7 71% 81% 17 87% 90.3% 8 74% 82% 18 88% 90.6% 9 77% 83% 19 89% 90.9% 10 80% 84% 20 90% 91.2%

Chance to dodge Skill Level Standard Nimble Skill Level Standard Nimble 0 0% 20% - - - 1 0% 22% 11 12% 33% 2 0% 24% 12 14% 33.5% 3 0% 26% 13 16% 34% 4 0% 28% 14 18% 34.5% 5 0% 30% 15 20% 35% 6 2% 30.5% 16 22% 35.5% 7 4% 31% 17 24% 36% 8 6% 31.5% 18 26% 36.5% 9 8% 32% 19 28% 37% 10 10% 32.5% 20 30% 37.5%

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Melee Dodge Chance	Chance to dodge a melee attack that would've otherwise hit. Characters will not dodge while aiming or firing a ranged weapon.
Melee Hit Chance	Chance to hit a target in melee. The target can still dodge even if we would've hit.

Mining

The mining skill determines how long it takes for a colonist to mine out each rock, and how much they can obtain from each mineral vein mined.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Deep Drilling Speed	A speed at which this person uses a deep drill to extract underground resources.	0.04	0.12
Mining Speed	A speed at which this person mines away walls.	0.04	0.12
Mining Yield	The percentage of mined resources a miner will produce. This applies to both wall mining and deep drill mining. This doesn't affect the production rate of rock chunks from deep drills.

Intellectual

This skill affects the speed at which research is completed.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Activity Suppression Speed	The speed at which this person can suppress unnatural entities. A higher speed means they take less time to suppress each entity.
Drug Synthesis Speed	How fast this character synthesizes complex chemical drugs.	0.3	0.0875
Entity Study Rate	The rate at which this person generates knowledge from studying unnatural entities.	0.08	0.115
Hacking Speed	How fast this person can hack into computer terminals.	0.75	0.025
Reading Speed	A multiplier on how fast this person can read.	1	0.02
Research Speed	How fast this person performs research and how quickly they can find things using scanning equipment.	0.08	0.115

Plants

The plants skill affects how fast a colonist sows and harvests growing zones, hydroponics and flower pots, and how fast trees and other vegetation is cut down. It also influences how much a colonist forages while in a caravan. Some plants require a minimum plants skill in order to plant them.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Foraged Food Amount	The amount of nutrition this person will automatically forage per day while traveling by caravan.	0	0.09
Plant Harvest Yield	The yield this person gets when harvesting plants. Low yields give a chance that this person will accidentally waste the harvest.	0.6
Plant Work Speed	Speed at which this person sows and harvests plants.	0.08	0.115
Pruning Speed	A multiplier on how fast this person can prune a Gauranlen tree to maintain their connection with it. Pruning is more of a contemplative psychic task than a physical one, so health factors like vision are unimportant here.	0.92	0.01

Shooting

The shooting skill affects a character's accuracy with ranged weapons.

The table below shows post-processed shooting accuracy per tile of distance for each skill level and trait combination, assuming the pawn is healthy:

Skill Level	Standard	Careful Shooter	Trigger-Happy	Skill Level	Standard	Careful Shooter	Trigger-Happy
0	89%	94.5%	84%	-	-	-	-
1	91%	95%	85%	11	97.25%	98.333%	95%
2	93%	95.5%	86%	12	97.5%	98.5%	95.5%
3	93.5%	96%	87%	13	97.75%	98.666%	96%
4	94%	96.5%	88%	14	98%	98.833%	96.5%
5	94.5%	97%	89%	15	98.167%	99%	97%
6	95%	97.25%	91%	16	98.333%	99.125%	97.25%
7	95.5%	97.5%	93%	17	98.5%	99.25%	97.5%
8	96%	97.75%	93.5%	18	98.666%	99.313%	97.75%
9	96.5%	98%	94%	19	98.833%	99.375%	98%
10	97%	98.167%	94.5%	20	99%	99.438%	98.167%

Note that shooting accuracy for the pawn is calculated per tile, meaning that while a trivial increase (like 1% or so) in shooting accuracy may not matter up close, it can make a huge difference in long distances.

For example:

• A colonist with shooting accuracy of 99% has a base accuracy of 72.5% against a target 32 tiles away.
• With 98% accuracy, the base accuracy against the same target becomes only 52.4%.

The base accuracy at various distances are listed when you check the information of a pawn. This can show the actual shooting performance of a pawn, especially at long ranges.

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Hunting Stealth	This stat reduces the chance of hunted animals attacking the hunter. A 0% score means no reduction. A 100% score means animals never attack.	0	0.05
Mortar Miss Radius Multiplier	A multiplier on the miss radius of a mortar used by this person. Smaller numbers means more accurate mortar shells.	0.2	-0.025
Shooting Accuracy	Base chance to not miss per cell of shot distance. Chance to hit is also affected by many other factors. A hit chance explanation for any shot can be seen by selecting a shooter and mousing over a target.

Social

The social skill affects the impact of social interactions on other characters' mood, the impact of gifts on faction relations, the recruitment chance for prisoners and trader prices. A small amount of experience is gained every time two colonists have a social interaction with each other. Characters have a talking stat that somehow interacts with this skill

	Description	Base Factor	Bonus Factor
Activity Suppression Speed	The speed at which this person can suppress unnatural entities. A higher speed means they take less time to suppress each entity.
Arrest Success Chance	How effective this person is in arresting people. This affects chance that this person will be able to arrest someone without resistance.	0.6	0.075
Conversion Power	How effective this person is at converting others to their own ideoligion. When this person attempts to convert someone else, this value multiplies the amount of certainty the other person loses.	0.3	0.0875
Negotiation Ability	How effective this person is as a negotiator. This affects the speed of prisoner recruitment, impact on faction relations when giving gifts, and the outcome of peace talks.	0.4	0.075
Social Impact	A multiplier on how much other people are affected by this person's social interactions.	0.82	0.0275
Suppression Power	A multiplier on a warden's ability to suppress slaves.	0.05	0.0225
Trade Price Improvement	When this person acts as a trade negotiator, buy and sell prices are improved by this percentage.	0	0.015

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Skills now cap at 20. Added cooking, medicine, artistic, crafting but currently do nothing. Rebalanced shooting and melee to make skill more important. Shooting accuracy split into misses due to equipment and misses due to skill.
• 0.2.363 - High level skills now decay. Passions system added.
• 0.9.722 - Old pawns now tend to spawn with higher skills. Low skill cooks can now cause food poisoning.
• 0.10.785 - Passion flames are now displayed subtly on the work overview screen. Reduced skill degradation rate. Reworked how skills generate so there will be more initial skill variation and age affect starting skills more.
• 0.12.906 - Animals skill added.
• B19/1.0 - Doing passionate work now affects mood instead of recreation. Adjusted balance of learning rates for various skills. Easier: Melee, shooting, social. Harder: Intellectual, growing, mining.
• 1.2.2753 - Pawns will now not lose their skill levels until they fall 1000 XP under zero. This stops pawns from quickly leveling up and down around a threshold. We now display a text mote when a player pawn gains a new level in a skill.
• 1.4.3527 - Fix: Can train shooting and melee on colony mechanoids.

Backstories

Childhood

Medieval lordling

"[Character] was a minor noble in an old kingdom on a medieval world. He grew up in a manor made of stone, served by bowing lowerclassmen.
Such a life teaches no technical skills and instils a lifelong aversion to manual labor - but [Character] learned early the ways of social manipulation."

• Construction: -1
• Growing: -1
• Mining: -1
• Social: +4

Medieval slave

"[Character] grew up pulling carts and digging holes on a medieval world. Simple manual labor is his/her oldest companion - along with the master's leash.
He/She didn't learn to read until age nine."

• Construction: +2
• Growing: +2
• Research: -3
• Mining: +2

Midworld nerd

"[Character] had a good birth, reasonable parents, and went to a decent school on a mostly well-governed midworld.
He/She was a consummate nerd, interested in technology and uninterested in people."

• Research: +4
• Social: -3

Urbworld urchin

"The urbworlds - ancient and deep industrial cityscapes bursting with humanity and poison.
[Character] grew up in the dark, unwanted reaches of such a place. He/She had to fight for every scrap of food."

• Shooting: +2
• Hand to Hand: +4

Vatgrown soldier

"[Character] wasn't made as a person, but as an instrument of destruction.
Growing in a bioweapons facility and taught combat during his/her accelerated growth, [Character] still has a proclivity for combat of all kinds and an aversion to human contact."

• Shooting: +4
• Hand to Hand: +4
• Social: -4
• Warden disabled
• Doctoring disabled

---

Adulthood

* Unavailable during character creation.

Assassin*

"[Character] was a professional assassin. He/She was cold, calculating, and made a good profit. In this business, an utter lack of empathy was an asset."

• Construction: -2
• Growing: -2
• Mining: -2
• Shooting: +10
• Hand to Hand: +10
• Researching disabled
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Constructing disabled
• Warden disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Colony settler

"[Character] was a settler on a new colony world.
Such a life requires a jack-of-all trades at basic hands-on tasks."

• Construction: +4
• Growing: +4
• Mining: +4

Con Artist*

"[Character] never created a thing in his/her life. He/She did, however, prove to be natural at getting others to give him/her what they had created."

• Social: +10
• Soldiering disabled

Courtesean*

"[Character] was used for his/her body by hundreds of customers in brothels on several planets. He/She gained some mental marks and a special kind of street smarts."

• Hand to Hand: +3
• Social: +8
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Constructing disabled

Deep space miner

"[Character] did the sweaty, grimy work of pulling metal out of asteroids on a deep space rig. He/She used his/her hands-on industrial skills daily - and wasn't bad in a bar fight either."

• Construction: +3
• Mining: +7
• Hand to Hand: +2

Illegal shipwright*

"There is a law that say that you're not allowed to put terawatt-range grasers on a cargo scow. Especially if you hide them under what looks like a communications dish for better ambush potential. [Character] discovered that there was great profit to be made, however, from those who are uninterested in these laws."

• Construction: +7

Medieval farm oaf

"Tilling, hoeing, guiding ox carts, pushing wheelbarrows. Digging ditches, planting seeds, predicting the harvest.
Medieval-level farmers aren't educated in the usual sense, but they know a lot about growing plants without technology. That said, such a life leaves one essentially incapable of participating in intellectual, technology-driven activities."

• Growing: +8
• Mining: +3
• Research disabled

Medieval lord

"[Character] was a lord on a preindustrial planet. He/She went to parties, managed the underlings, and even learned some swordplay.
His/Her soft hands did not hold a work tool during that entire time. He/She considers manual labor to be beneath him/her."

• Construction: -5
• Growing: -5
• Mining: -5
• Shooting: +5
• Hand to Hand: +5
• Social: +7
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Constructing disabled

Military commissar

"[Character] was an internal spymaster in an Imperial army battalion. He/She made sure that the men were loyal, and did not fall back unless ordered. This made him/her unpopular, but he/she gained great skill at detecting the slightest dishonesty."

• Shooting: +3

Navy scientist

"Interstellar warfare is won by technology, so imperial navies are always on the peak of modern research. Even better, they have first access to Transcendent artifacts because they find them in space.
[Character] worked in a navy lab."

• Research: +8

Pit Brawler*

"[Character] was 15 when he/she got in his/her first fight. He/She won, but more important was the enjoyment of his/her audience. Pit fighting turned out to be a lucrative career for those who could survive it. And it was even mostly legal."

• Hand to Hand: +8
• Researching disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Space Marine*

"[Character] was a warrior in an Imperial navy. His/Her job was to be punched into enemy warships, gun down the crew, and capture the ship intact. And he/she was good at it."

• Shooting: +7
• Hand to Hand: +5

Space pirate*

"Piracy appears everywhere that governments are weak and society spread thin. [Character] was part of this age-old part of human existence, extorting and smashing peaceful trade ships for profit."

• Shooting: +4
• Hand to Hand: +4

Urbworld entrepreneur

"In the urbworlds, most suffer. But someone has to run the corporations.
[Character] learned the skills of the trade - greasing palms and technical analysis. He/She is a sociointellectual machine."

• Research: +3
• Social: +6

Traits

Basics Menus Game Creation Gameplay Pawns Plants Resources Gear Mods Pawns Menu Character Properties Character Types Character Properties Health Mood Needs Skills Thoughts Traits Social

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Traits personalize and add flavor to your colonists by granting a wide variety of special bonuses or conditions to their day to day activities, and so encourage more complex player-conceived stories based on those individual characters. Traits provide physical or psychological abilities or limitations, likes/dislikes, behavior tendencies, personality quirks, and so on. Some are beneficial, some are harmful to the colonist or your colony as a whole. Some are constant, some only rarely triggered. Some can be more or less easily negated or manipulated to your advantage by catering to them (or denying them), others are more problematic or outright dangerous.

Mechanics

Only humans have traits. Most humans have 1-3 traits, with the possibility of an "extra" sexuality trait. Adults cannot gain new traits, and there is no way to remove traits.

Children usually only have a number of traits no higher than the number of growth moments they have reached, and babies have none. Children can attain a new trait every time they reach a new growth moment (birthdays 7, 10, and 13).

Trait acquisition

When a human is generated, it acquires traits according to this process:

• First, the pawn gains any traits that its "pawn kind" requires. For example, the titular mechanitor of The Mechanitor start scenario always has the Recluse trait.
• Second, if the pawn is being generated for a quest, it gains any traits required by the quest. For example, the imperiled noble from the Noble Wimp quest always has the Wimp trait.
• Traits from the pawn's backstories are then acquired, unless they would conflict with the pawn's "pawn kind". For example, a pawn with a backstory composed of the Cave Child childhood and the Scout adulthood would have the Undergrounder and Jogger traits. However, a hypothetical backstory that grants the Brawler trait will not grant it if the pawn is a "tribal archer", as that pawn kind specifically prohibits the Brawler trait.
• A trait count limit is chosen, based on the pawn's age. Babies and children under seven years of age have a limit of 0 traits; children with 7-9 birthdays, 1 trait; children with 10-12 birthdays, 1-2 traits; and anyone older, 1-3 traits, with no bias towards any particular number. If the pawn's current number of traits is lower than the trait limit, each 'missing' trait is filled in by a random trait, weighed based on each trait's commonality. The randomly gained traits cannot be any of the following:
  • Any sexuality trait (Asexual, Bisexual, or Gay)
  • Wimp, but only if the pawn is from a faction hostile to the player's faction
  • Any that the pawn already has
  • Any that conflict with a trait the pawn already has
  • Any prohibited by the pawn's "pawn kind" or backstories
  • Any that would disable a work type required by the pawn's "pawn kind"
  • Any that requires a work type disabled for the pawn
  • Any that would cause the pawn's minor mental break threshold to rise above 50%
• If the pawn is at least 13 years old, their sexuality is then determined. If the pawn has any romantic or ex-romantic relationship with someone of the same gender, they acquire the Gay trait. Otherwise, they may be Asexual, Bisexual, Gay, or straight (which is not a trait, merely an absence of the three sexuality traits). The random choice is weighted by each sexuality trait's commonality, or in the case of 'straight/no sexuality trait', weighted by the sum commonality of every non-sexuality trait that the pawn does not currently have. Note that since the Biotech DLC adds two traits with non-zero commonalities, sexuality traits are marginally rarer if Biotech is enabled.
• Afterward, the pawn's xenotype (if any) is determined. If certain genes are present, this can affect the pawn's trait set, either adding or suppressing traits.
• If the starting scenario forces any traits, the pawn gains any such traits. The "Forced trait" scenario part can be configured to apply to all pawns in the game, only the player's starting pawns, or only non-player pawns; it can also be configured to have a chance to trigger per pawn between 0-100%.
• Finally, if the pawn is a creepjoiner, it gains any traits granted by its benefit and/or downside.

Starting possessions

Certain traits may influence the initial possessions of your colonists in the pawn selection menu (either for creating a new game or selecting new colonists after a game over). Unless you have chosen the Naked Brutality start scenario or used the Scenario Editor to add the "no possessions" scenario part, each such colonist may have up to two possessions in their inventory. A stack of items counts as 1 possession. Possessions for each colonist are generated in the following order, ending prematurely if the colonist has two possessions:

• Ghouls never have possessions.
• Babies have between 30-40 units of baby food.
• If the colonist is addicted to a drug, they have enough of the drug to satiate the addiction for roughly 25-35 days.
• If the colonist has a genetic drug dependency, they have enough of the drug to satiate the dependency for roughly 25-35 days.
• If the colonist has hemogenic gene, they have 8-12 hemogen packs.
• If the colonist has an adulthood backstory that can grant possessions, there is a 25% chance for them to have those possessions. Note that, should a backstory be capable of granting multiple possessions, this process will still stop once the colonist has two possessions, and the backstory's possessions are always granted in the order they are defined in the backstory.
• Traits are accounted for only after all the above steps have been performed. There is a 25% chance for a colonist to receive possessions based on their non-suppressed traits. As with backstories, it is possible for this step to stop midway through once the colonist has two possessions; possessions are always granted in the order the traits present themselves, and per-trait they are granted in the order they are defined in the trait. For example, a pawn with the Psychopath trait has a 25% chance to gain a skull and a heart, but a pawn who already has a prior stack of flake due to a flake addiction would have a 25% chance to only gain a skull.
• If the colonist still has less than two possessions, there is a 6% chance for them to have a random possession. The list of possible possessions is lengthy, but does not include every possible item in the game.

Trait-affecting genes

Certain genes can modify a pawn's traits, either by forcing a trait to be added or suppressing a trait. Forced traits function as normal, though they are visible in the pawn's Bio tab in pale blue text. Suppressed traits do not have any effects, but are still visible in the pawn's Bio tab in dark grey text.

If a forced trait would ordinarily conflict with non-genetically forced trait(s) the pawn already has, the latter is/are suppressed. If it would ordinarily conflict with genetic trait(s) the pawn already has, the latter is/are removed. If a trait-granting gene is removed, the trait will also be removed (unless the pawn already has the trait independent of genes); this un-suppresses any traits it had suppressed which are not suppressed by another gene or trait, and restores any genetically-forced traits that were removed by that gene and which do not conflict with any other trait the pawn has (including suppressed traits). This almost always leads to intuitive results, with one exception: if a pawn has the psychically hyper/sensitive trait, also has the psychically dull/deaf gene in their germline (e.g. due to being a Yttakin), and then has the other psychic sensitivity trait gene in their xenogenes... removal of the xenogene will remove the trait it forces, but it will also not result in the restoration of the other gene's trait and will not un-suppress the psychically hyper/sensitive trait.

Click to

Name	Tooltip	Effect on traits
Pyrophobia	Carriers of this gene have an intense fear of fire. When fires are close, there is a chance they will have a mental breakdown at any moment.	Suppresses the Pyromaniac trait
Kind instinct	Carriers of this gene are high in trait agreeableness and are very conscientious. They rarely insult others or starts fights, and will sometimes offer kind words to brighten the moods of those around them. They also never judge people by their appearance.	Forces the Kind trait
Inbred	This genetic condition affects a person's fertility, immunity, and mental capacity.	Forces the Slow learner trait
Psychically deaf	Carriers of this gene are deaf to all psychic energy and influence outside their own minds. They cannot be affected by psychic influence, nor can they ever wield psychic power.	Forces the Psychically deaf trait
Psychically dull	Carriers of this gene are less psychically-sensitive than others.	Forces the Psychically dull trait
Delicate	Carriers of this gene take greater injuries than others from the same damage. They have thin, brittle bones and less binding molecules in joints and flesh.	Forces the Delicate trait
Extra pain	Carriers of this gene feel more pain than others given the same injuries. Neuron activity in the brain's nociception center is amplified, so pain feels extra-intense and fiery. This can be protective, but overall it's considered a negative and makes it hard to push through difficult situations.	Forces the Wimp trait

General traits

These traits are generalized into groups, organized roughly by topic but there are no such groupings laid out formally in the game. There are no relations or prohibitions between traits grouped together here unless noted (e.g. a colonist cannot be both "ascetic", wanting a minimal bedroom, and "jealous" of those with better bedrooms).

Lifestyle

One likes what one likes...

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Commonality	Possessions
Night owl	NAME likes to work at night. S/He gets a mood bonus if awake at night and mood loss if awake during the day. S/He doesn't get a mood penalty for being in the dark.	+ : Negates the −5 Darkness mood penalty from being in the dark +16 Night owl at night mood if awake during night (23:00 - 06:00) −10 Night owl in daytime mood if awake during day (11:00 - 18:00)	-	1.3	5-10 wake-up
Undergrounder	NAME has no need to experience the outdoors or light. S/He will never feel cooped up or get cabin fever, no matter how long s/he stays inside, and is not bothered by darkness.	+ : Negates the −5 Darkness mood penalty from being in the dark + : No Outdoors or Space need − : Added Indoors need +3 Undergrounder indoors mood when indoors / +4 Underground mood when underground −3 Undergrounder outdoors mood when outdoors + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it	-	0.2	30-60 raw fungus
Nudist	NAME enjoys the feeling of freedom that comes from being nude. They can handle clothing, but will be happier without it.	+20 Happily nude mood when naked −3 Constraining clothes mood mood penalty for wearing any apparel, except headgear and utility items	-	0.7	-
Masochist	For NAME, there's something exciting about getting hurt. S/He doesn't know why, S/He's just wired differently.	+5/+10/+15/+20 Masochist in pain mood for being in a minor/serious/intense/mind-shattering pain, replacing default −5/−10/−15/−20 and +3+5+7+9 from Pain:Idealized. +3 Masochist body strapped mood while wearing a slave body strap +2 Masochist collared mood while wearing a slave collar +/- : Negates all mood effects for both Skullspike:Desired and Disapproved + : Negates the −5 Fed on by OTHER mood penalty and -20 opinion malus from being fed on by a Bloodfeeder + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it	Wimp	0.5	-
Body modder	NAME feels limited in POSSESSIVE feeble human body. NAME often dreams of being enhanced by artificial body parts.	+4/+7/+9/+11/+12/+13 Body modder pleased mood for having artificial body parts and xenogenes. Each artificial body part grants 1 stage, and having any xenogenes also grants 1 stage. −4 Body modder frustrated mood if lacking any artificial body parts or xenogenes +8 opinion of other pawns per artificial body part they have, capped at +40. Any number of xenogenes counts as one artificial body part.	Body purist	0.9	-
Body purist	NAME believes the human body is limited for a reason. To her/him, artificial body parts are unethical and disgusting.	−10/−15/−20/−25/−30/−35 Body purist squeamish mood for having artificial body parts and xenogenes. Each artificial body part grants 1 stage, and having any xenogenes also grants 1 stage. −8 opinion of other pawns per artificial body part they have, capped at −40. Any number of xenogenes counts as one artificial body part. −20 Forced to take luciferium mood for 6 days when administered luciferium and −30 opinion of the doctor who did the operation for 120 days. Despite the description of this thought, body purists can administer luciferium to themselves and do not lose mood for doing so.	Body modder	0.7	-
Gourmand	NAME's life revolves around food. S/He gets hungry quickly, and if s/he is in a bad mood, s/he will often satisfy her/his-self by eating.	+4 Cooking skill +/- : So long as there is >10 human-edible nutrition worth of food in storage, the only possible minor mental break is food binge +50% hunger rate − : Food binges randomly occur with an MTB of 50 days	Ascetic	1	1-3 fine meals

Living space

How a colonist perceives the walls that they call "home"...

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Commonality	Possessions
Ascetic	NAME has forsaken physical comforts and enjoyments in favor of a simple, pure lifestyle. S/He will become unhappy if s/he has a bedroom that's too impressive. S/He also dislikes fancy food and prefers to eat raw. S/He never judges others by their appearance.	+ : Negates the −3 Ate without table mood penalty +5/+4/+3 Ascetic has awful-mediocre bedroom mood for having an Awful/Dull/Mediocre bedroom −5 Ascetic has impressive bedroom mood for having a Somewhat Impressive or better bedroom +/- : Mood not affected by quality of meal, including raw food, nutrient paste meals, and baby food +/- : Pawn beauty of others does not change pawn's social opinion on that pawn +/- : Mood unaffected by quality of crib (as a baby) +/- : Mood unaffected by gaining a royal title; losing a title; or, if currently titled, whether or not apparel, bedroom, and/or throneroom is appropriate to the title + : Gains the Minimal meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it ×50% Global Certainty Loss Factor	Greedy Gourmand Jealous	0.7	-
Greedy	NAME needs a really impressive bedroom. S/He gets a mood loss if they don't get what they want.	−8 Greedy for impressive bedroom mood for not having a bedroom −8/−8/−6/−4 Greedy for impressive bedroom mood for having an Awful/Dull/Mediocre bedroom − : Conceited	Ascetic Jealous	1	10-20 gold
Jealous	For NAME, it's degrading to have a less impressive bedroom than someone else. NAME gets a mood loss if any colonist has a more impressive bedroom.	−8 Jealous of OTHER's bedroom mood for not having the most impressive bedroom. + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it − : Conceited	Ascetic Greedy	1	-
Pyromaniac	NAME loves fire. S/He will never extinguish fires, and will occasionally go on random fire starting sprees. S/He will be happy around flames, and happier when wielding an incendiary weapon.	+2 Pyromaniac has incendiary weapon mood while wielding a weapon from the following list: incendiary launcher, smoke launcher, EMP launcher, molotov cocktails, plasmasword, toxbomb launcher, flamebow, hellcat rifle, or incinerator. +8 Used flame weapon mood for 0.33 days mood bonus for using a flame weapon either directly on a visible, non-downed enemy of the player faction who is not in a fogged region of the map, or attacking with it when such a pawn is in range of the attack anyways. This includes any weapon from the list above except for the hellcat rifle. +2 Beautiful fire mood: grants 1 stack per fire or lit building capable of having a 'fire overlay' (torch lamp, campfire; blood torch; darktorch, fungus darktorch, effigy, pyre, sacrificial flag; brazier; or darklight brazier) within 8 cells, within the same room, and not in a 'fogged' region of the map invisible to the player. Fire not from a lit building, and not on a pawn, grants 2 stacks of this mood bonus; each cell occupied by a lit pyre counts as 1 fire, granting up to 4 stacks in total. Incapable of firefighting Only possible extreme mental break is fire starting spree − : Fire starting sprees randomly occur with an MTB of 50 days −20% Market Value + : Gains the Flame meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it	-	0.8	Molotov cocktails 10-20 chemfuel

Social views

In a brutal world, what otherwise might be socially unacceptable or even unthinkable can be a positive survival trait for both you and your fellow colonists... See Human resources for comparative analysis.

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Commonality	Possessions
Bloodlust	NAME gets a rush from hurting people, and never minds the sight of blood or death.	+ : Negates all mood penalties for: Observing fresh corpses, Observing rotting corpses, Human butchering, Organ harvesting, Executions, Colonist/innocent prisoner deaths, Wearing tainted clothes; Blinding ceremonies from Blindness:Horrible, or Scarification ceremonies from Scarification:Horrible + : No opinion loss of someone who Harvests an organ, Executes a prisoner, or Kills a child +2/+4/+6/+8 Human leather APPAREL_NAME mood for wearing 1/2/3/4+ apparel items made out of human skin. +4 Bloodlust organ harvested mood for 4 days on harvesting an organ. +8 Witnessed death with bloodlust mood for 4 days on witnessing a human death. Witnessing means being awake, sighted, and either in the same caravan as the deceased or having line of sight within 12 cells of the deceased. +12 Killed someone mood for 4 days on killing a human. − : Four times as likely to start a social fight + : Unaffected by ideoligious prohibitions that would ordinarily prevent a pawn from executing prisoners + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it	Requires pawn to be capable of Violence	0.8	Axe Longsword
Cannibal	NAME was taught that eating human meat is wrong and horrible. But one time, long ago, S/He tried it... and S/He liked it.	+ : No mood penalty for: Observing fresh corpses, Human butchering, Guest or guilty prisoner deaths, Cannibalism; Ingesting hemogen packs; or Eating meat from Abhorrent, Horrible, or Disapproved +2/+4/+6/+8 Human leather APPAREL_NAME mood for wearing 1/2/3/4+ apparel items made out of human skin. +15 Cooked cannibalism mood for 1 day on eating a meal made with human flesh +20 Raw cannibalism mood for 1 day on eating raw human meat (including human corpses, although this may still trigger the −12 Ate corpse mood for 1 day penalty) + : No opinion loss of someone who Eats meat (Abhorrent, Horrible, or Disapproved) + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it	-	0.6	30-60 human meat
Psychopath	NAME has no empathy. The suffering of others doesn't bother them at all. They don't mind if others are butchered, left unburied, imprisoned, or sold to slavery - unless it affects them. NAME also feels no mood boost from socializing.	+ : No mood penalty for: Observing fresh corpses, Human butchering, Organ harvesting, Executions, Unburied colonists, Prisoners sold into slavery, Relative/colonist/friend/innocent prisoner deaths, Not being a bonded animal's master, Loss/death/release of bonded pets, Wearing human leather or dread leather; Child killing, Being in a colony with sad youngsters, Having a sad/enslaved/sick/growth vat-interred child, Not having had enough play (as a baby); Blinding ceremonies from Blindness:Horrible, Scarification ceremonies from Scarification:Horrible, or Killing innocent animals from Killing innocent animals:Abhorrent, Horrible, or Disapproved + : No opinion loss of someone who Kills a child or Kills an innocent animal (Killing innocent animals:Abhorrent, Horrible, or Disapproved) − : No mood bonuses from: Being nuzzled, Being a bonded animal's master; Being in a colony with happy youngsters, Having happy children, Having happy parents (as a child), or Having had lots of play (as a baby) − : No opinion gain from Chitchat, Deep talk (still loses opinion from hostile interactions); Teaching a child, or Taking a lesson (as a child) + : Unaffected by ideoligious prohibitions that would ordinarily prevent a pawn from executing prisoners or attacking innocent animals + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it ×50% Global Certainty Loss Factor	Kind	1	1 skull 1 heart

Combat

When it's us or them...

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Commonality	Possessions
Nimble	NAME has remarkable kinesthetic intelligence. S/He seems to dance around danger with preternatural grace.	+15 Melee Dodge Chance ×10% Trap Spring Chance	-	1	-
Brawler	NAME likes to fight up close and personal. S/He's accuracy is greatly increased in melee combat, but s/he'll be very unhappy if asked to carry a ranged weapon.	+4 Melee skill −10 Shooting skill +4 Melee Hit Chance −10 Brawler has ranged weapon mood while wielding a ranged weapon − : Disallows shooting passions +/- : Disallows Shoot Frenzy Inspiration	Trigger-happy Careful Shooter Wimp	1	1 knife
Tough	NAME has thick skin, dense flesh, and durable bones. S/He takes much less damage than other people from the same blows. S/He is extremely hard to kill.	×50% Incoming Damage Multiplier Stacks multiplicatively with other Incoming Damage Multiplier factors. See that page for further details.	Delicate	1.1	-
Wimp	NAME is weak and cowardly. Even a little pain will immobilize her/him.	−50% Pain Shock Threshold −15% Market Value ×200% Global Certainty Loss Factor − : Negates Pain mood buffs from Pain:Idealized , reverting mood from pain to the default values.	Brawler Masochist	1	-
Delicate	NAME has fragile skin and bones. She/He takes more damage than other people from the same blows.	×115% Incoming Damage Multiplier Stacks multiplicatively with other Incoming Damage Multiplier factors. See that page for further details. Note that the Delicate gene that can add this trait is incompatible with the Robust gene.	Tough	1	-

• See also Trigger-happy and Careful shooter, below.

Skills

When your colonists are not fighting for their lives...

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Commonality	Possessions
Too smart	NAME is too smart for her/his own good. S/He learns everything much faster than everyone, but can be quite eccentric.	+75% Global Learning Factor +12% Mental Break Threshold ×50% Global Certainty Loss Factor	Nerves spectrum traits Requires pawn to be capable of Intellectual	1	1 schematic
Fast learner	NAME has a knack for learning. S/He picks things up much faster than others.	+75% Global Learning Factor	Slow Learner	1	1 textbook
Slow learner	NAME is slow on the uptake. S/He picks things up much slower than others.	−75% Global Learning Factor ×50% Global Certainty Loss Factor	Fast Learner	1	-
Quick sleeper	NAME doesn't need as much sleep as the average person. Whether s/he's sleeping on a bed or on the ground, s/he will be fully rested in about two thirds the usual time.	+50% Rest Rate Multiplier	-	1.1	-
Great memory	NAME has a fantastic memory for detail. S/He will lose unused skills at half the rate of other people.	×50% Skill loss rate	-	1.1	-
Tortured artist	NAME feels alienated and misunderstood by other human beings. S/He will get a constant mood debuff, but gain a chance (50%) to get a creativity inspiration after a mental break.	50% chance of receiving the mental inspiration "Inspired Creativity" after a mood-caused mental break ends. Cannot be triggered by mental breaks caused by any reason other than mood e.g. psychic insanity lances, psycasts , genes , Void terror, or even randomly induced mental breaks from other traits. −8 Tortured artist mood (permanent) + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it	-	0.6	10-20 dye

Relationships

So... are you new on this rimworld?...

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Commonality
Kind	NAME is an exceptionally agreeable and giving person. S/He never insults others and will sometimes offer kind words to brighten the moods of those around her/him. S/He also never judges people by their appearance.	+ : Can use a unique 'Kind Words' social interaction, inflicting +5 Kind words mood for 2 days and gaining +15 opinion from the recipient for 20 days. The opinion boost can stack up to 10 times from the same Kind pawn with 0.9x stacked effect multiplier (for a potential opinion bonus of up to +97.7), and up to 300 stacks can be present overall. When choosing what social interaction to perform, Kind Words has a weighting of 0.01 (as opposed e.g. to chitchat's weighting of 1.00).+ : Will not Slight or Insult others + : Opinion of other pawns not changed by beauty, Annoying voice, Creepy breathing or disfigurement ×200% Global Certainty Loss Factor	Abrasive Psychopath	2
Abrasive	NAME always says exactly what's on their mind, especially if it's bugging him/her. That tends to rub people the wrong way.	− : 2.3x as likely to Slight or Insult others −15% Market Value ×50% Global Certainty Loss Factor − : Conceited	Kind Requires pawn to be capable of Social	1
Annoying voice	NAME's voice has a particularly grating, nasal quality to it, and tends to talk in barked, garbled phrases. This predisposes others to dislike them.	−25 opinion from non-Kind, non-deaf pawns −20% Market Value	-	0.5
Creepy breathing	NAME breathes heavily all the time, and sweats constantly. People find it creepy.	−25 opinion from non-Kind, non-deaf pawns −10% Market Value	-	0.5
Misandrist	NAME really dislikes and distrusts men.	−25 opinion of men		0.3 for men 1.7 for women
Misogynist	NAME really dislikes and distrusts women.	−25 opinion of women		1.7 for men 0.3 for women
Asexual	NAME has no sexual attraction to anyone at all.	+/- : Will not have romantic relationships with people.	Gay Bisexual	0.2
Gay	NAME is romantically attracted to people of their own gender.	+/- : Will only have romantic relationships with people of the same gender.	Asexual Bisexual	0.3
Bisexual	NAME is romantically attracted to both men and women.	+/- : Will have romantic relationships with people from either gender.	Asexual Gay	0.2
Recluse	The fewer people in NAME's faction, the happier she/he is. Being alone is best of all.	+ : Negates the −3 Denied joining mood for 6 days penalty from rejecting a pawn that wants to join the colony +/- : Mood based on the number of human pawns (including children, guests, and prisoners) in the colony. Humans on other maps, in caravans or inside a Cryptosleep casket/Transport pod/Biosculpter pod /Growth vat /Gene extractor /Subcore softscanner /Subcore ripscanner do not count. Ghouls do not count. Starting colonists in the The Mechanitor start scenario will always have this trait. Human Count Mood Human Count Mood 1 +12 11 −2 2 +8 12 −3 3 +6 13 −4 4 +4 15 −6 5-10 0 16+ −8	-	0.5

• The Gay/Bisexual/Asexual sexuality traits are unique in that they are the only ones that can generate after the 3 trait limit, resulting in rare pawns with 4 traits.
• See also the Beauty category of traits, below.

Spectrum traits

Theses are groups of related traits, that are inter-related and grouped by degree, creating a "spectrum" of good/bad/better/worse in that specific sphere of behaviour. A colonist can only have one trait from any single related spectrum for these traits, defining whether they are notably outside the norm for, for example, movement speed, or drug interest, or their physical (un)attractiveness.

Drug desire

These traits affect a colonist's likelihood to consume drugs.

Note that despite the common misconception, chemical fascination and interest pawns no longer randomly go on drug binges independent of mood.

Name	Description	Effect
Chemical fascination	NAME is utterly fascinated with chemical sources of enjoyment. Consuming recreational drugs will create a good mood, while abstaining will lead to increasing frustration over time and possibly drug binges. S/He will ignore directives to not use recreational drugs, and will consume more than a normal person.	Has Chemical need: causes −4/−8/−12 Chemical hunger mood the longer it has gone unsatisfied, and up to +3/+6 Chemical satisfaction mood when satisfied For Beer, Smokeleaf Joints, and Ambrosia only: functions as if "Take for Recreation" and "Take for Addiction" are checked on the Drug Policies tab regardless of the players choices. They will otherwise follow the Drug Policy regarding drugs carried and scheduled. NOTE: The colonist will still respect allowed areas and will not use forbidden stacks of any drug regardless of chemical need Unaffected by ideoligious prohibitions that would ordinarily prevent a pawn from taking or administering drugs
Chemical interest	NAME has an unusual interest in chemical sources of enjoyment. Consuming recreational drugs will create a good mood, while abstaining will lead to increasing frustration over time and possible drug binges. S/He will ignore directives to not use recreational drugs, and will consume more than a normal person.	Has Chemical need: causes −2/−4/−6 Chemical hunger mood the longer it has gone unsatisfied, and up to +1/+3 Chemical satisfaction mood when satisfied For Beer, Smokeleaf Joints, and Ambrosia only: functions as if "Take for Recreation" and "Take for Addiction" are checked on the Drug Policies tab regardless of the players choices. They will otherwise follow the Drug Policy regarding drugs carried and scheduled. NOTE: The colonist will still respect allowed areas and will not use forbidden stacks of any drug regardless of chemical need Unaffected by ideoligious prohibitions that would ordinarily prevent a pawn from taking or administering drugs
Teetotaler	NAME abhors the idea of gaining pleasure from chemicals. S/He strictly avoids alcohol and recreational drugs.	Will not go on drug binges Cannot be directed to take non-medical drugs −20 Forced to take drugs mood for 6 days when administered a drug, and −30 opinion of the doctor who did the operation for 60 days. −25 opinion of any pawns with chemical interest or fascination

Industriousness

These traits affect the colonist's Global Work Speed.

Name	Description	Effect
Industrious	NAME has an easy time staying on-task and focused, and gets things done much faster than the average person.	Global Work Speed +35% −-5 opinion of all colonists without the same trait
Hard worker	NAME is a natural hard worker and will finish tasks faster than most.	Global Work Speed +20% −-5 opinion of all colonists without the same trait or Industrious
Lazy	NAME is a little bit lazy.	Global Work Speed −20%
Slothful	NAME loves idleness and hates anything productive. S/He moves slowly and rarely stays focused on a task.	Global Work Speed −35%

Speed traits

These traits affect a colonist's walk speed.

Name	Description	Effect
Jogger	NAME always moves with a sense of urgency - so much so that others often fail to keep up.	Move speed +0.4 c/s
Fast walker	NAME likes to be where s/he's going. S/He walks quicker than most people.	Move speed +0.2 c/s
Slowpoke	NAME is always falling behind the group whenever s/he goes anywhere.	Move speed −0.2 c/s Disallows Go Frenzy Inspiration

Base mood

These traits affect the colonist's natural, constant mood.

Name	Description	Effect
Sanguine	NAME is just naturally upbeat about HER/HIS situation, pretty much all the time, no matter what it is.	+12 Sanguine mood (permanent)
Optimist	NAME is naturally optimistic about life. It's hard to get HER/HIM down.	+6 Optimist mood (permanent)
Pessimist	NAME tends to look on the bad side of life.	−6 Pessimist mood (permanent)
Depressive	NAME is perennially unhappy. S/He has trouble sustaining a good mood even when everything is fine.	−12 Depressive mood (permanent)

Nerves

These traits affect the colonist's mental break threshold.

Name	Description	Effect
Iron-willed	NAME's will is an iron shield. S/He keeps going through thick and thin, when others broke down long before.	Mental Break Threshold −18% Global Certainty Loss Factor ×25%
Steadfast	NAME is mentally tough and won't break down under stresses that would crack most people.	Mental Break Threshold −9% Global Certainty Loss Factor ×50%
Nervous	NAME tends to crack under pressure.	Mental Break Threshold +8% Global Certainty Loss Factor ×200%
Volatile	NAME is on a hair-trigger all the time. S/He is the first to break in any tough situation.	Mental Break Threshold +15% Global Certainty Loss Factor ×300%

Neurotic

These traits affect the colonist's mental break threshold and their global work speed.

Name	Description	Effect
Neurotic	NAME likes to have things squared away. S/He will work harder than most to attain this state of affairs, but HER/HIS nerves can get the better of HER/HIM.	Global Work Speed +20% Mental Break Threshold +8%
Very neurotic	NAME feels constantly nervous about everything that has to get done. S/He will work extremely hard to attain this state of affairs, but HER/HIS nerves can easily get the better of HER/HIM.	Global Work Speed +40% Mental Break Threshold +14%

Shooting accuracy

These traits affect the colonist's accuracy in ranged combat, as well as aiming time. Mutually exclusive with brawler.

Name	Description	Effect	Possessions
Careful shooter	NAME takes more time to aim when shooting. S/He shoots less often than others, but with more accuracy.	Aiming Time +25% Shooting Accuracy +5	1 bolt-action rifle
Trigger-happy	Pew! Pew! Pew! NAME just likes pulling the trigger. S/He shoots faster than others, but less accurately.	Aiming Time −50% Shooting Accuracy −5	1 autopistol

Beauty

Main article: Beauty (Pawn)

These traits influence a colonist's appearance and how it affects other colonists' opinions of them - as well as sexual attractiveness.

Each point of beauty corresponds to +20 opinion from other colonists, e.g. a colonist with 2 beauty will have +40 opinion, while another with -1 beauty will have -20.

Name	Description	Effect
Beautiful	NAME is exceptionally beautiful, with an exotic-yet-familiar facial structure and an arresting gaze. People are attracted to her/him before s/he even opens her/his mouth.	+2 Pawn Beauty
Pretty	NAME has a pretty face, which predisposes people to like her/him.	+1 Pawn Beauty
Ugly	NAME is somewhat ugly. This subtly repels others during social interactions.	−1 Pawn Beauty
Staggeringly ugly	NAME is staggeringly ugly. Her/His face looks like a cross between a drawing by an untalented child, a malformed fetus in a jar of formaldehyde, and a piece of modern art. Others must exert conscious effort to look at her/him while conversing.	−2 Pawn Beauty

Psychic sensitivity

These traits influence how much a colonist is affected by psychic phenomena.

Name	Description	Effect	Possessions
Psychically hypersensitive	NAME's mind is like a psychic tuning fork. S/He is extremely sensitive to psychic phenomena.	+80% Psychic Sensitivity	1 psychic foil helmet
Psychically sensitive	NAME's mind is unusually sensitive to psychic phenomena.	+40% Psychic Sensitivity	1 psychic foil helmet
Psychically dull	NAME's mind is psychically out of tune with others. S/He isn't as affected by psychic phenomena.	-50% Psychic Sensitivity	-
Psychically deaf	NAME's mind works on a psychic frequency different from everyone else. S/He just isn't affected by psychic phenomena.	-100% Psychic Sensitivity	-

Immunity

These traits influence how often colonists are infected by a disease.

Name	Description	Effect	Possessions
Super-immune	NAME has a naturally powerful immune system. S/He will gain immunity much faster than a normal person would, and can survive illnesses that would kill others.	Immunity Gain Speed +30%	-
Sickly	NAME has an awful immune system. S/He gets sick more often than usual, frequently with illnesses that nobody in the colony has been afflicted by.	Medicine skill +4 Randomly catches diseases independently from rest of the colony, with an MTB of 30 days. The caught disease is one that can be randomly acquired in the current biome, using the same weighting system as normal random disease incidents.	2-5 medicine 5-10 penoxycyline

Creepjoiner traits

These traits are never randomly assigned to pawns. They are normally found on creepjoiners, and therefore have powerful positive or negative effects to balance out the other strengths and weaknesses creepjoiners have.

Positive traits

These traits are considered benefits, to compensate whatever mysterious downside haunts the creepjoiner.

Name	Description	Effect
Perfect Memory	NAME has outstanding memory, both in terms of retaining information but also muscle memory. His/Her skills will never decay.	Skills cannot decay Always and only spawns on creepjoiners with the "Perfect Human" benefit, which also comes with the Industrious trait and a starting level of 14-18 for each skill.
Occultist	NAME has deep knowledge of the twisted patterns of dark psychic energy. S/He can study unnatural entities faster than others. S/He will also periodically teach this inhuman knowledge to others when s/he gets the chance.	Study Efficiency +100% Entity Study Rate +50% Can perform an "occult teaching" random social interactions, giving +1 dark research. This has a cooldown of 1 day; when off cooldown, it will always be the next random social interaction chosen.
Joyous	NAME has the ability to make everyone feel better and inspire them to be the best version of themselves.	+20 opinion from other pawns While not imprisoned or enslaved, +3 mood to all other non-prisoner colonists on the same map who are not currently in a mental break. The effect does not stack even if there are multiple Joyous pawns present. Pawns not of the player's faction cannot receive the mood buff. A Joyous pawn will not grant its mood bonus to anyone it is currently hostile to. Always and only spawns on creepjoiners with the "Joybringer" benefit, which precludes the "Disturbing" downside.
Body Mastery	NAME doesn't have basic needs like eating, sleeping, or comfort. His/Her body is driven by some unknown mechanism, which has turned his/her eyes completely white.	Food, Sleep, and Comfort needs disabled Eyes are white

Negative traits

These traits are downsides, meant to counterblance the creepjoiner's powerful benefits. Note that, unlike most other creepjoiner drawbacks, these traits are never hidden; as such, you be assured there are no other nasty surprises waiting for you.

Name	Description	Effect
Disturbing	NAME is a peculiar person who seems fixated on horrendous ideas. Talking to him/her is often upsetting.	− : Only ever selects the "strange chat" type when doing random social interactions, giving −2 OTHER rambling mood for 1 day to any non-deaf, non-inhumanized pawns in 9.9 cells radius. Unlike most other interaction types, strange chats can be performed without an explicit recipient. Non-inhumanized recipients gain −3 opinion of the initiator for 1 day. + : Gains the Morbid meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it Always and only spawns on creepjoiners with the "Disturbing" downside, which is precluded by the "Joybringer" benefit.
Void Fascination	NAME is strangely intrigued by unnatural entities and is easily enthralled by them.	+ : Negates all mood penalties for: Imprisoned with entity, Monster by my bed +6 Captured entity mood while there is at least one captured entity in the colony Only possible extreme mental break is entity liberator − : Entity liberation breaks randomly occur with an MTB of 60 days + : Gains the Void meditation focus type, replacing the Artistic meditation focus type if they had it

Obsolete traits

These are no longer found as-is in the current game version, though many of them have been renamed or reworked into one of the traits found above.

Name	Description	Effect	Conflicting Traits	Fate
Prosthophile	NAME feels limited in their feeble human body. NAME often dreams of going bionic.	+14 mood bonus for having a bionic body part −4 mood penalty for not having a bionic body part	Body purist	Replaced by Transhumanist
Prosthophobe	NAME believes the human body is limited for a reason. To them, bionic body parts are unethical.	−10 mood penalty for having a bionic body part	body modder	Replaced by Body purist
Green thumb	NAME has a passion for gardening. They get a mood bonus for every plant they sow.	+1 mood bonus from sowing a plant. Stackable up to 20 times.	-	Removed in Beta 19
Tunneler	NAME has no need for space. S/He will never feel cooped up or get cabin fever, no matter how long s/he stays indoors.	+ : No Outdoors need	-	Replaced by Undergrounder
Transhumanist	NAME feels limited in their feeble human body. NAME often dreams of going bionic.	+4 to +13 mood bonus for having artificial body parts −4 mood penalty for not having an artificial body part +8 to +40 opinion of other colonists for each part installed on them	Body purist	Replaced by Body modder

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Traits hidden as they did nothing.
• 0.7.581 - Brawler, prosthophile, and more added.
• 0.9.722 - Teetotaller and Chemical Fascination traits added
• 0.12.906 - Greedy, Jealous, Ascetic, Night Owl traits added.
• 0.17.1546 - Wimp trait added.
• 0.19.2009 - Undergrounder, Great memory, Tough, Gourmand, Sickly, Quick sleeper traits added
• 1.1.0 - Asexual trait added
• 1.2.2719 - Fix: Psylink counts as an artificial part for a transhumanist.
• 1.3.3066 - Transhumanist trait renamed to Body Modder. Kind description changed "NAME is a nice person. They have a tendency to brighten everyone else's day and never insult others." -> "NAME is an exceptionally agreeable and giving person. S/He never insults others and will sometimes offer kind words to brighten the moods of those around her/him. {PAWN_pronoun} also never judges people by their appearance.". Undergrounders have a new Need_Indoors, which is increased by spending time indoors, especially inside mountains.
• 1.4.3523 - Pyromaniacs are happier around fires and get a stacking (up to 4x) mood buff for nearby fires. This includes torches and campfires. “Wimp” trait’s pain shock threshold has been increased from 50% to 60%. Ascetics no longer get a negative mood debuff when eating nutrient paste meals. Plasmaswords and persona plasmaswords now provide the mood bonus to pyromaniacs like other incendiary weapons.
• After 1.4.3542 but pre 1.5.4062 - Chemical Fascination and Interest now only randomly take beer, ambrosia and smokeleaf joints, instead of any drug
• 1.4.3555 - Xenogenes count as artificial enhancements for body modders and body purists. Fix: Administer drug doesn't display that teetotalers will be unhappy if there is a chemical dependency gene present.
• 1.4.3557 - Fix typo: "yielding" -> "wielding" in pyromaniac trait description.
• 1.5 or prior - Pyromaniac thought mood effect reduced from +5 to +2 and description changed from "It makes me think of flame and fire. I'm so happy" to "It makes me think of flame and fire. I can't wait to use it." New thought added for using a flame weapon.
• 1.5.4062 - Rebalance brawler trait to offset skill more than mood - mood penalty for using ranged weapon decreased from −20 to −10, shooting accuracy penalty increased from −4 to −10. Added “pyro used fire weapon” thought. Ascetics ignore "Ate without table" thought. Fix: NRE related to pyromaniacs wielding fire weapons.