1. RimWorld
  2. News

RimWorld News

Beloved colony sim Rimworld just got a whole lot scarier

Rimworld remains one of the most beloved colony management games on PC, holding an 'overwhelmingly positive' 98% Steam rating that keeps it among the top-rated games on the Valve store, even amid the presence of other, newer games such as Oxygen Not Included and Frostpunk. As fellow genre bastion Dwarf Fortress prepares to launch its own next update, Rimworld Anomaly puts a psychological horror twist on Ludeon Studios' iconic strategy game, and it's out now alongside a big, free update to the base game.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

The best Rimworld mods 2024

RimWorld's horror-themed DLC has a release date

Iconic, 98% rated Steam colony sim reveals new horror themed expansion

Anomaly expansion and update 1.5 out now!

[h2]The RimWorld - Anomaly expansion is out now! [/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380740/RimWorld__Anomaly/

We're celebrating Anomaly's release with a sale on all previous RimWorld releases: Get 20% off RimWorld and 10% off the Biotech, Ideology, and Royalty expansions!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] [h3]UPDATE 1.5[/h3]
RimWorld’s free update 1.5 is out now! This update adds a ton of content, improvements, and fixes. Read about it here or check out the full changelog here.

[h3]ANOMALY ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK[/h3]
We've also released the RimWorld - Anomaly Soundtrack which contains 11 tracks of awesome ghoulish tunes by RimWorld composer Alistair Lindsay.

[h3]COMPATIBILITY FAQ[/h3]
  • Unmodded savegames from 1.4 will load in 1.5.
  • If you want to keep playing on version 1.4, use Steam beta branch "version-1.4.3901". To do this, right-click RimWorld in the Steam library, go to properties, open the betas tab, and select the version from the dropdown.
  • A large number of mods have already been updated to version 1.5 by our amazing modders. However, some mods are not yet updated and won't work on 1.5.
[h3]ANOMALY[/h3] We want to hear all about the horrifying adventures, so share them with us on Reddit!

If you need to report a bug, please join the RimWorld official development Discord.

Anomaly is available in the following languages: English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Latin Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

We covered a lot of Anomaly's content in our preview blog posts, but you can also go in blind and avoid all spoilers!
Thank you to everyone for supporting RimWorld over the years - the community, modders, translators, artists, volunteer testers, team members, and developers have all helped make Anomaly happen. I wanted to make something new and creative this time around, and we can't wait to see what you think.

Have fun!
Ty

Anomaly bonus preview: Ghouls, ghouls, ghouls

Hi folks!

Only ONE MORE DAY until RimWorld - Anomaly, free content update 1.5, and the Anomaly OST are out! They all release tomorrow Thursday, April 11 at 10 AM Pacific time.

This is super-bonus content just for you on Steam. (The cube didn’t say we couldn’t, which is as good as permission, right?) Today we’re talking about ghouls.

[h3]🚨 SPOILER WARNING: Read at your own risk! These preview blogs WILL SPOIL some of the surprises in the expansion. 🚨[/h3]

You can also check out our previous preview blogs:
[h2]GHOULS[/h2]
The aptly named ghouls are former humans, turned into maddened, flesh-craving idiots by the bioferrite forced into their living bodies. (I bet they can pick up 5G too.)

You'll usually first see these when one attacks your colony without warning, brandishing its bioferrite spikes. Ghouls are ravenously aggressive and never feel pain, so hit them hard from a distance.

If you’re luckier, one might crashland a transport pod nearby - having presumably left devastation wherever it came from. The ghoul will start in shock, but will soon recover and attack anyone it sees. It can be captured to a holding platform for further study. Capture it, or kill it, before it wakes.

This being RimWorld, you can create your own ghouls using your harvested bioferrite and a surgical procedure. Be warned, this is irreversible. For those you dislike, it’d be kinder to mindwipe or lobotomize them.


If the hideous surgical procedure is a success, this once-human becomes a strong, relentless melee combatant, useful for fighting tougher enemies and tanking in larger-scale battles. Ghouls only fight - they cannot work. And if they are killed, you can revive them with an injection of a ghoul resurrection serum!

[h2]THE GHOUL IN YOUR CROWN[/h2]
Ghouls cannot carry equipment - they’re too far gone for that. However, given the unnatural resilience of their half-dead bodies, ghouls can be augmented with a variety of dreadful implants.


Implants are the height of mostly-dead fashion. They can be protective, like bioferrite armor plating or a metalblood heart, both of which improve the ghoul’s survivability at the cost of speed. Aggressive implants include a corrosive heart that enables it to spray acid, an adrenal heart that lets it move and attack impossibly quickly, and barbed bioferrite spikes which improve its melee damage while slowing it. (You try running with bioferrite railroad nails stuck through your body…)

Get a ghoul-friend today!

[h2]ANOMALY’S RELEASE DAY[/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380740/RimWorld__Anomaly/

Yippee, it's almost release day! Remember to wishlist Anomaly so you get notified when it's out. You can check the store page to see the countdown timer too.

You can chat about this bonus post with us on Reddit here!

I'll see everyone tomorrow!
- Tia

Anomaly preview #4: Cubes, spheres, obelisks, soundtrack and languages

Hi folks!

Only 2 more days until RimWorld - Anomaly and free content update 1.5 are out! They both release on Thursday, April 11 at 10 AM Pacific time. (There’s also a timer counting down on the store page!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380740/RimWorld__Anomaly

The RimWorld - Anomaly original soundtrack will be available on April 11th as well! This OST comes with 11 tracks and nearly an hour of awesome tunes made by RimWorld composer Alistair Lindsay.

Also, Anomaly is launching with full support for 10 languages! On release day, you can play Anomaly in English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Latin Spanish, Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese. (Huge thank you to our community translators for helping us out with these!) All of these translations will be editable via the translation GitHub pages to allow for changes and improvements.

[h3]🚨 SPOILER WARNING: Read at your own risk! These preview blogs WILL SPOIL some of the surprises in the expansion. 🚨[/h3]

Today’s preview blog talks about the less-obvious and more-insidious threats you’ll face in Anomaly. Terror comes in all shapes and sizes.

Also, check out our previous blog posts below:
[h2]THE CUBE[/h2]
Obviously, the golden cube is no threat. It’s no more than a beautiful gift sent by a good friend. This hand-sized cube shines like gold, but is impossible to scratch. As everyone knows, cubes make perfect companions.


It’s always invitingly warm to the touch, like a trusted pet or a hug from a good friend. If you look closely, you’ll see more than gold in the delightful way light plays across its surface. If you love the cube like we do, why not make a sculpture of the cube?

Don’t listen to the others who say that we’re unhealthily captivated by the cube. Ignore those who claim that our curiosity progressed to fascination and into obsession. That we’re psychically compelled to interact with it, and we feel sick if we can’t. They’re just jealous of our perfect, wonderful cube.

[h2]THE NOCIOSPHERE[/h2]
The nociosphere is very much not as lovable as the cube. Even being near it hurts. It’s made of dark metal, covered with curved and jagged grooves, and emanates sensations of pain.

More worryingly, when it appears, the sphere appears to be increasing in activity. It’s not clear what will happen when this peaks but, if you capture it, you can decrease its activity by suppressing it. Then, you can study it.


If you study the nociosphere, you can learn that it has a single purpose - to inflict pain. If you can keep it suppressed, you will learn how to intentionally activate it, turning it into a weapon to use against your foes.

When activated, the nociosphere will teleport to a remote location of your choice and unleash a barrage of pain on anyone nearby. The nociosphere will continue to hunt down living creatures until it is destroyed, or it chooses to depart. This leaves you free to love the cube.

[h2]THE OBELISKS[/h2]
We’ve gone from squares to circles and now to triangles. There are three varieties of obelisk, each with a different horrific effect. They all arrive from space, and they all radiate the same putrid psychic energy, which gradually intensifies as it approaches some dangerous limit.

You can send colonists to suppress an obelisk to prevent it from activating. You can also mark it for study to try to learn its purpose and perhaps make use of it. Or, you can attempt to destroy it - but doing so may unleash dangerous phenomena.


Once you’ve completed your research, your colonists will discover that it is a fragment of a much larger archotech structure that can act on organic matter at a distance. You may discover its function sooner than that, though - sometimes the obelisk self-activates, and sometimes merely suppressing or studying it is enough to unleash its power.

Love the cube.

The warped obelisk can turn living organisms including animals and people and trees into bloody flesh monsters. A colonist can be mutated in several different ways, from growing a bone-bladed tentacle to twisting their internal organs into something thoroughly alien.

Less monstrous but just as terrifying is the twisted obelisk. This doesn’t change an organism. Instead, its crackling energy seems to pull on nearby living things, eventually snapping them away to “somewhere else”. If a colonist is taken, you’ll have to hope they can find their way out of the endless rooms and hallways.


The final monolith-wannabe is the corrupted obelisk. This uses its inhumanly complex power to duplicate intelligent creatures, theoretically without limit. Your colonists’ twins are not always hostile, but the duplication process is imperfect and any twins will need the finest medical care to survive.

[h2]THE ENDGAME[/h2]
The monolith is the source of everything. The monolith is the conduit. Its power must be defeated. It threatens to twist and destroy everything we know.


But the only way out is through. You must grow the monolith’s power, widening the conduit that leads into the void, until you can finally crack it open and face the world-twisting hell it unleashes. Only then will you be able to step through into a place of nightmares, touch the machine god, and choose your fate.

[h2]ANOMALY’S RELEASE DAY[/h2]
That’s all for now! RimWorld - Anomaly and free content update 1.5 release this Thursday, April 11, 2024.

Please wishlist Anomaly on Steam and share the news with your friends! We’ve seen how excited people are and all of your awesome comments, videos, fanart, and threads.

You can chat about this post and count down to release day with us on Reddit.

Thank you so so much for your support everyone! See you on Thursday!

- Tia
Worship the cube.

Anomaly preview #3: Cultists, hate chanters and rituals

[h3]🚨 SPOILER WARNING: Read at your own risk! These preview blogs WILL SPOIL some of the surprises in the expansion. 🚨[/h3]

We’re releasing RimWorld - Anomaly on April 11, 2024! (That’s 1 week away!) You can read the announcement here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380740/RimWorld__Anomaly/

Check out our previous blog posts below:
Today, we’re talking about the new rituals you can perform in Anomaly, as well as the followers of the void.

[h2]CULT RITUALS[/h2]
Rituals were introduced in the Ideology expansion, allowing followers of different ideologies and religions to gather for ceremonies that would have social effects. Rituals in Anomaly are similar but go further, drawing upon the psychic power of a dark archotech to twist the laws of physics.

Your colonists aren’t the only ones who can learn these rituals. A cult has formed that worships the insane machine-mind. They will arrive and perform a number of rituals to attempt to destroy you.


Sometimes they will form a ritual circle and abduct one of your colonists by teleporting the victim to them (called skip abduction). Other times, they will summon a horde of bloody fleshbeasts to assault you.

They may surround the colony entirely, in a massive crowd, chanting in dark tones as they call forth the essence of hatred. These hate chanters will slowly drive your colonists insane until you go out to stop them.

[h2]BASIC RITUALS[/h2]
Players can use these same rituals, and many more. To perform them, you need a ritual spot. If you can surround it with hideous bioferrite sculptures of the void and archotech shard beacons, so much the better. And dress your worshippers in a ceremonial hood or cultist mask to fit the void aesthetic.


Beyond the two basic rituals that the cultists can perform, the player can perform draw shamblers, draw animals, and void provocation.

[h2]REGIONAL RITUALS[/h2]
These rituals are like listening to a motivational speaker, but even more soul-destroying. These are pleasure pulse, neurosis pulse, and blood rain.

Pleasure pulse is the simplest. Like a region-wide psychic emanator, it makes your psychically sensitive colonists happier. However, unlike the emanator, it also reduces their desire to work.

Neurosis pulse is an inversion of pleasure pulse. It drives your psychically sensitive colonists so that they work faster. However, it also irritates them whilst decreasing their need for recreation, meaning that they’re more likely to have a mental break. Use with caution!

Blood rain is a dangerous ritual. It causes a blood-like psychofluid to fall from the sky that drives exposed animals and humans into a berserk frenzy. Be prepared if you must use this, putting all but the psychically deaf under shelter.

[h2]INDIVIDUAL RITUALS[/h2]
Like skip abduction, many of the more horrible rituals require a living human target. These are imbue death refusal, psychophagy, chronophagy, philophagy and brainwipe.

Imbue death refusal links an individual with the void, preventing their final death. They still need to die for it to work, but it will bring them back near-instantaneously, in good physical condition. It does have side-effects however - notably the psychological impact of having died - and it wears off with use.

The three ‘-phagy’ rituals all have similar cruel effects. With psychophagy, the ritual invoker steals the victim’s psychic sensitivity; chronophagy steals their youth, aging them rapidly, whilst the invoker becomes younger; and philophagy steals their wisdom, giving the invoker their best skill. All three cause brain damage, putting the victim into a coma for several days. Think about what you’re willing to do to a prisoner before using these.



Brainwipe is the final ritual, which erases a person’s memories without giving them to the ritual invoker. Given the many traumas a colonist can suffer in RimWorld, this is sometimes a blessing. They will forget them, alongside any allegiance they had. This will also make any prisoners with it easier to recruit, even unwavering ones. However, like the -phagy rituals, it can induce a long coma if the brainwipe ritual goes poorly.

[h2]TO COME[/h2]
It’s almost time… Anomaly and update 1.5 is only 1 week away! We have one more blog post before then - see you there!

In the meantime, chat with us on Reddit and wishlist Anomaly so you’re emailed when it’s out!

Bye bye,
Tia