RimWorld News

RimWorld's latest expansion, Odyssey, promises to add a pretty amazing amount of stuff to the game's already deeply layered space colony simulation. Between the customisable spaceship, orbital exploration, new biomes, quest system, and a whole machine hive mind threat to deal with, on paper it seems like the biggest expansion yet...
Read more.

Hello! We’re only one week away from Odyssey’s release! The new expansion launches on July 11, 2025. Please wishlist so you’re notified when it’s out.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3022790/RimWorld__Odyssey/
Today’s blog post looks at the creatures of Odyssey - over 40 new animals, additional ways to train pets, and quests built around legendary beasts. Plus, we’ll talk about fishing as a new way to feed your colony.

[h2]New animals[/h2]
Odyssey adds over 40 new animals to the world - creatures you can tame, train to work, trade for silver, bring in caravans, or raise into a loyal pack of bodyguards.

Let’s look at a few favourites.

Crows, flamingos, herons, macaws, quails: Birds - that fly! Murders of manhunter crows may descend on your colony. Pink flamingos wade through warm waters. Colorful macaws flap through the jungle canopy. And chubby quails make a great snack for your colonists. (Fun fact: Our artist painstakingly drew 24 frames per flier - that’s nearly 400 unique frames of flying.)

Porcupines: Cute and prickly, but try fighting one and your colonist will end up with a face full of quills.

Bog hounds: These tough pups descend from domesticated dogs, but they’ve adapted to harsh, toxic conditions and are no longer accustomed to human company. They’re scavengers that travel in packs, so attacking one means you’re attacking them all.

Colossus toads, bullfrogs: The first frogs in RimWorld - chunky, swamp-dwelling amphibians.

Otters, walruses, sea turtles, sea lions, seals: These aquatic friends are found along ocean coastlines. They tend to stick close to the water and not bother anyone, but hunters target them often due to their gentle, unsuspecting nature.

Mastodons, scimitar cats, greatwolves: Prehistoric megafauna that roam the glacial plains. These massive beasts make excellent companions, but they also make excellent fur parkas…

Lava snails: One of the few creatures adapted to the extreme heat of the lava fields. They’re big, slimy, slow-moving, and often farmed for food.

Hippos: Enormous semi-aquatic mammals that you do not want to mess with. Their powerful jaws can crush through armor and bone, so keep your distance.

Hermit crabs, stone crabs: These little guys crawl across coastal beaches, like on islands and archipelagos. They walk sideways too.


Pursuing quests will lead you to rare creatures. Rumours speak of the legendary alpha thrumbo - bigger, faster, and stronger than any thrumbo. And you’ve received a tip: one has been spotted roaming the wilderness with its herd. If you’re quick, you might be able to catch it. Will you attempt to tame and claim it as a majestic ally? Or hunt it down and harvest its priceless horn?


Then there’s the hive queen. Deep underground, insect hives can merge, creating a single bloated matriarch. She spews sludge and lays egg sacs, which hatch into writhing, acid-spitting larvae. She’s defended by her spawn, including the flying locust. Those that dare to venture into her lair can put her down, or attempt to tame the beast.


[h2]New ways to train animals[/h2]
Odyssey expands how animals can help around your colony. Many creatures can be trained to do new tasks around the base.

Your fluffy cat or panda can be trained to comfort colonists. They’ll nuzzle more often and give a bigger mood bonus - because really, that would make anyone feel better.


Pigs and raccoons can learn to forage, snuffling out treats like berries from the brush.

Creatures with claws like the megasloth and megavole can be taught to dig - they’ll slowly chip away at spots you’ve marked for mining.

Predators like wolves, bears, and big cats can be trained to attack specific targets. So you can sic your tigers on the raider that tried to kidnap your wife.


Train mastodons or elephants to use war trumpet, a bellowing roar ability that disorients your foes, making them slow and clumsy. The alpha thrumbo has a similar terror roar that causes enemies to break and flee in panic.


If you’re bold enough to tame the hive queen, she can be trained to use her egg spew on command - launching acidic sludge and birthing offensive larva. It’s disgusting and incredible.

Of course, not every creature is smart enough to be trained - for example, alligators’ reptile brains are too simple. But with the sentience catalyst, you can inject ultratech mechanites into any animal to increase its intelligence and trainability. Suddenly, your alligator can become a distinguished loyal bodyguard.


[h2]Fishing[/h2]
Cast your line and catch your next meal from rivers, oceans, or gaps in frozen lakes. Fishing is a reliable way to feed your colony - available year-round, even when your crops are frozen and wildlife is scarce. It’s safer than hunting… as long as the fish don’t nip your colonists’ fingers.

Different waters have different fish. Reel in big marlin and tuna from the ocean, freshwater salmon and bass from lakes, and piranhas from tropical rivers. Lucky fishermen may pull up unusual catches like treasure, drugs, bionic limbs, and other surprises.

Skilled fishermen are faster and catch more, but fish responsibly - overfishing could empty your only lake. And if gill rot, a parasitic fungus, hits the waters, your food supply could vanish overnight. Smart colonies have other food options as backup, like crops or pemmican or wild game.


Build a sleepy lakeside village with a shanty dock over the water, and feed your colonists and pets fresh catches. Trade fish for supplies with passing caravans. Use it as a protein source to cook higher-quality meals. You’ll also occasionally see animals like penguins, otters, and grizzlies fishing for themselves when they get hungry.

But fish aren’t the only ones in the water! Colonists now swim for fun - they’ll wade into jungle pools, marshy ponds, and hot springs to relax. Some Odyssey animals swim too - each with unique visuals as they paddle around.


[h2]Coming soon[/h2]
Thanks for reading. It’s only one more week until Odyssey releases on July 11, 2025. Wishlist so you’re notified when it’s out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3022790 Chat with us about the new animals over on Reddit, X, and BlueSky.

In next week’s final preview, we’ll go over the new quests, the mechhive endgame, and other miscellaneous bits in Odyssey.

- Tia!
Website | X | BlueSky | Reddit | Facebook

Hey again! We’re back with our second blog post about the upcoming Odyssey expansion.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3022790
Release date: Odyssey comes out on July 11, 2025! (If you missed the announcement, you can check it out here.) Wishlist Odyssey so Steam will let you know when it’s out!

Today’s blog describes Odyssey’s headline feature: the gravship. Your gravship is your flying home - a mobile colony you build, expand, move around the planet, and launch into orbit. Let’s get into it.

[h2]The gravship: your traveling base[/h2]
It starts when a grav engine falls from the sky, still functional despite the crash. Along with some salvaged gravlite panels, you’ve got the beginnings of your first gravship.


It starts small: a deck built from gravlite panels, the engine placed at the center, a few thrusters, chemfuel tanks, and a pilot’s console. Add some basic rooms - barracks, kitchen, storage - and get your colonists aboard.

The moment you take off, the world opens up.


Travel all over the planet. Explore exotic biomes, discover new landmarks, and chase quests across continents. Or, set your own goals: circumnavigate the globe in 100 days, recruit a team entirely made up of kidnapped enemies, collect one of every new animal, or build a gunship covered in turrets.

And when it’s time to leave? Just lift off. Your whole colony comes with you - colonists, animals, prisoners, gear, even the raiders who happened to be standing in your hallway.


Eventually, you’ll want more space. That’s when you start hunting for gravcores - rare gravtech you can only find in dangerous places. You’ll need to search through insect megahives, trap-filled ruins, and frozen space debris in low orbit, patrolled by human scavengers and killer mechanoids.

You can use gravcores to build gravship extenders so your ship can support more substructure, making room for bigger workshops, hydroponics gardens, and more. Or use them to create gravcore power cells as an advanced power solution that passively draws energy from the ship’s gravitational field. You can also use gravcores in signal jammers which allow you to slip past space defense systems and land on protected orbital platforms.

Some upgrades can only be acquired as rewards from grateful allied factions, ancient structures, and space wrecks. A fuel optimizer gets you more trips out of your chemfuel before refueling. The gravship shield generator creates a massive temporary shield around your ship, which can help you survive pirate drop pod ambushes. Activate it mid-raid and enjoy the protection it gives your colonists against enemy gunfire. And a pilot subpersona core provides a low-grade AI that reduces the chances of your pilot doing an oopsie while flying (though nothing can fully account for human error).


The gravship isn’t your only travel method. You can also build passenger shuttles - small, short-range vessels perfect for rescue missions, trade runs, or quick hops to places your gravship can’t go. They can be placed on your gravship’s substructure so you can take them with you if you decide to leave a map. Shuttles can also fly into orbit.

Whether you're a nomadic explorer, a flying trader carrying peacocks and porcupines, a stationary colony only using shuttles, or a hermit living in an asteroid, Odyssey opens up all kinds of new playstyles.

[h2]Space[/h2]
Yes, we’re finally going to space!

Space requires some prep to keep your colonists safe. Seal your ship with airtight walls to protect your colonists from the vacuum. Set up a life support system: oxygen pumps, heaters, and a stable power supply to keep it all running. Create airlocks by using vac barriers and metal doors, and equip your spacefaring colonists with vacsuits and vacsuit helmets, or other advanced armors.

As mentioned before - shuttles are also capable of entering orbit, as are transport pods. So it’s still accessible without building a gravship, you’ll just have less life support, and transport pods are one-way, so you’ll need to find a way back…


Gravships take you into low orbit where there are many orbiting objects to explore. Rare locations require you to build an orbital scanner which passively detects overhead orbital wrecks, satellites, asteroids, orbital platforms, and mech platforms. Alternatively, you can discover new orbital sites by hacking ancient uplink satellite dishes scattered around the planet.

Orbital wrecks: The history of a planet can be seen in its orbital debris fields, abandoned platforms and space stations. You can search these wrecks for valuable loot - if you're willing to fight off rival salvagers.


Satellites: Most are unmanned and inhospitable, built for narrow purposes like power collection, surveillance, or orbital weaponry. Landing on one means navigating the narrow bridges and travelling long distances between platforms to scavenge valuable technology. But many are still guarded by automated security systems - locked doors, turrets, and drones.

Asteroids may look like empty rocks, but they’re packed with value. Many still hold veins of plasteel, uranium, and gold ore - remnants of old mining operations that never finished the job. All asteroids are made of vacstone, a special rock type used to craft vacstone blocks and gravlite panels.

Some asteroids are more unusual. Rare archean trees occasionally grow directly on their surface, feeding on trace elements in the rock and transforming patches of barren stone into fertile soil. (A plucky spacefaring colonist might consider planting potatoes here.)

Occasionally, you’ll find asteroids with hollow cores where previous visitors have left stashes of treasure. You could break in, but come ready to deal with any remaining defenses.

(Tester screenshot: Example of an asteroid base with all expansions active.)

Orbital platforms: These floating platforms are orbital settlements used by trading guilds. They don’t appreciate visitors, so landing is considered an act of aggression. Just approaching them safely requires your ship to have a signal jammer aboard to get past the platform’s defenses.

You can also use an orbital scanner to find abandoned platforms if you’re not ready for these interactions. Just be careful of the defense systems. It’s also rumoured that fugitives tend to hole up in these places... and people pay good money to dig them out.

Mechanoid platforms: These wrecks promise the most advanced gravtech and unique treasures, but murderous machines still lurk in the shattered structures. It’s a maze of airless hallways, crawling with machines, turrets and sealed doors at every turn, with nowhere to flee except the void of space.


[h2]The gravship scenario[/h2]
Odyssey comes with a new starting scenario designed for experienced players who want to dive straight into gravship gameplay, or start a nomadic colony.

You begin with a three-person crew and a functional gravship, docked at an abandoned orbital relay. While salvaging equipment, your colonists unknowingly activate a mechanoid beacon. Within moments, a war alert pings across the void - and now, the mechanoids are hunting you.

They won’t stop until every last member of your crew is dead. To stop them, you must find and defeat the mechhive itself.


[h2]Next time[/h2]
Thank you for reading! Odyssey releases in 2 weeks on July 11, 2025. Wishlist so that you’re notified when it’s out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3022790
Let us know what you think over on Reddit, X, and BlueSky.

Next week, we’ll look at the new animals that you can tame, train, and eat in Odyssey.

See you soon!

- Ludeon Studios
Website | X | BlueSky | Reddit | Facebook