![[Top 15] RimWorld Best Mods For A New Experience](/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_image_2x_1240xauto/public/2024-07/mod_article_header_image_thanks.webp?itok=2xYnZlOd "[Top 15] RimWorld Best Mods For A New Experience")
Although it may seem hard to believe with a game as expansive as Rimworld, you might want to shake things up one way or another after a long enough time in the game. Well, you’re in luck! Rimworld has a robust and incredibly talented modding scene full of skilled mod authors; best of all, it costs nothing to start!
For the best modding experience, I recommend having all of the available DLC for Rimworld, which adds an array of fun content all on its own. That said, I’ll mark what DLCs are required for what mods if necessary so there won't be any guesswork. This list will predominantly cover game-altering mods that add new content or alter vanilla content rather than quality-of-life adjustments or visual changes, so keep that in mind!
Another consideration one should hold onto is that this list can’t so much as hope to scratch the surface of the entire Rimworld modding scene. A lot of these mods are going to be made by fairly prolific creators in the space, so please check out their other work! They’re incredibly skilled and passionate people providing excellent content for free, the least anyone could do is check out their other work!
Oh, and as a disclaimer for new modders, some mods rely on other mods to work. That shouldn’t be a problem, as the Steam workshop makes downloading dependencies as easy as can be! Just click the “subscribe to all” button when subscribing to a mod with dependencies and you should be good to go!
As a last note, I am only going to list mods available for version 1.5, the most recent update to Rimworld as of writing this. There are some mods still in the process of being updated that I would have included otherwise, but I wanted a list of mods you could install and play with right now!
With all that said and done, let’s get started!
15. Orion’s Hospitality - Orion
I am only hospitable to bugs and vermin because they follow all my commands.
Visitors in vanilla Rimworld tend not to stick around long, mostly just stopping by for a brief stint before leaving. With Orion’s Hospitality, you can offer these wandering visitors a place to stay the night for money and gifts. You can even recruit colonists from visiting factions!
Key Features:
- Build accommodations for wandering wayfarers.
- Charge visitors for a place to stay, or keep your beds free to use!
- Receive gifts for your hospitality! Happy guests might even help out around the colony!
- Recruit visiting talent from other factions.
- Sell goods to visitors.
Get it Here:
14. Rimsenal: Augmented Vanilla Pack - 삼치구이/CeroForGrill
This image was not strategically cropped in any way to cut out anything of any nature. No I will not elaborate.
The armory of weapons and protection available to you in vanilla Rimworld isn’t the most expansive, but each piece fits a niche. Rimsenal: AVP adds new weapons and armor that fit right into the vanilla balancing, giving you more ways to specialize your warrior colonists!
Key Features:
- 28 new weapons
- 5 new pieces of armor
Get it Here:
Rimsenal - Augmented Vanilla Pack
13. Dub’s Bad Hygiene - Dubwise
Listen, I can understand why people are hesitant to add yet another colonist need that needs tending to but hear me out. Dub’s Bad Hygiene adds hygiene and bodily waste mechanics to Rimworld, for those like me who like a touch of extra realism. I assure you that poop and pee is necessary for my immersion.
Key Features:
- Bodily waste and hygiene mechanics.
- Showers, tubs, and toilets for every tech level.
- New ways to heat or cool down your colonists, such as boilers and Air-con units.
Get it Here:
12. Geological Landforms - m00nl1ght
Sometimes to spice things up, you just need a little change in scenery.
If you ever felt that the map generation could use a little extra spice, this is the perfect mod for you! Geological Landforms adds new, unique terrain traits like valleys, craters, and inlets to give you new challenges to face when building your base! It might seem like a simple change, but it makes a world of difference in how you plan out your colony!
Key Features:
- 36 new landforms across all biomes.
Get it Here:
11. [JDS] Simple Storage - JangoD’soul
I pray to this mod every night, it's a godsend for disorganized people like me.
You probably find it odd that most of your storage simply sits on the ground of your warehouse. Yeah, vanilla has shelves, but their functionality is fairly limited. Simple Storage adds shelves, barrels, crates, and more to give you a more visually appealing and organized way to store your supplies!
Key Features:
- New storage options for the organizationally minded, or those sick of building massive generic warehouses.
- New storage furniture that fits right into the base game’s aesthetic.
Get it Here:
10. T's Samurai Faction - Trickity
In a setting where knights, tribes, and high-tech imperial factions all co-exist, the potential for new factions is essentially endless. This mod adds a new samurai-inspired faction archetype along with some furniture, weapons, and armor to play with! It also includes a new storyteller and scenario to spice up your next playthrough!
Key Features:
- 3 new samurai-inspired factions to fight or befriend.
- 13 new weapons
- 18 new pieces of clothes and armor
- 6 new pieces of furniture
- New storyteller, Mifune Misfortune.
- New starting scenario.
- Japan-inspired food like sake and dango
Get it Here:
9. [RH2] Uncle Boris' - Used Furniture - Chicken Plucker and SirLalaPyon
I like this mod almost exclusively for the Xbox 360 it adds.
Ever wanted a more contemporary military style for your next colony? Or maybe you’ve always yearned unto the cosmos to give your colonists their own Xbox 360? In any case, this mod gives you access to some cool furniture that’ll give your base a little spy/military thriller vibe.
Key Features:
- Adds 22 new pieces of furniture.
- New recreation activities and functional furniture, such as the laptop or radio.
Get it Here:
[RH2] Uncle Boris' - Used Furniture
8. Medieval Overhaul - Made by SirLalaPyon, updated by EvilEyes and ViralReaction for 1.5
This is a big one. Medieval Overhaul completely reworks the medieval tech level found in the base game, expanding it to be far more interesting and viable in the long term. It also changes existing crafting systems, ensuring this mod will completely shake up your medieval colonies!
Key Features:
- Reworks the entire medieval tech level.
- Loads of new crops, foods, crafting tables, animals, biomes, armor, and weapons! It has it all and it has a lot of it!
- More complicated resource processing. No longer will cotton fall off the plant as perfect cloth! Now it must be loomed.
- Beekeeping! Just in case you wanted bees!
Get it Here:
7. Interaction Bubbles - Jade
Your colonists are constantly speaking and interacting with one another, about specific topics too! You might not be aware of this because these quaint little interactions are tucked behind a couple of menus.
Interaction bubbles will show in little bubbles exactly how your colonists are interacting!
Key Features:
- Helps to make your colony feel more alive by making colonist interactions more visible.
Get it Here:
6. Research Reinvented - PeteTimesSix
I really cannot stand vanilla research sometimes, this mod might as well have saved my life.
I doubt that any of you are delighted by the process of research in vanilla Rimworld. It’s static, takes a long time, is visually unremarkable, and…. Uhhhhhh… I don’t wanna do it. Research Reinvented adds a slew of new ways to conduct research, from material analysis to talking shop with other factions.
Key Features:
- More involved, and often faster, research methods.
- Ability to build prototypes of furniture.
Get it Here:
5. Biotech Expansion - Lennoxite
Maybe it goes without saying, but this mod series adds to the xenotype mechanics added by the Biotech DLC. It adds several new xenotypes and gives you these xenotypes’ genes to play around with in the xenotype editor!
Key Features:
- New, unique xenotypes.
- New xenotype genes.
Get it Here:
Biotech Expansion - All Modules
4. Rimatomics and Rimfeller - Dubwise
Just don't let the reactor blow up.
Power is a constant balancing act, but it’s also fairly straightforward in vanilla Rimworld. Fuel goes in, power comes out. Dubwise has added two new ways for your colonies to power up by adding oil and nuclear-powered options to light up your colonies!
These new power options’ logic isn’t as simple as A to B, but taking the time and resources to learn to build a nuclear reactor is incredibly satisfying once it's up and running.
Key Features:
- Oil and nuclear power!
- Alternative resource acquisition through oil processing.
- Nuclear weaponry!
Get them here:
3. Vanilla Expanded - Oskar Potocki
Vanilla Expanded is a project so vast in scope that I find it difficult to describe. Essentially, the Vanilla Expanded series adds to the game in various aspects but keeps the spirit of the base game. These changes are split across many, many mods, so you can pick and choose what you do and don’t want in your game!
Key Features:
- Expands on almost all aspects of the vanilla game and DLCs.
- Modular modding experience with quality consistent with the main game.
- New factions, storytellers, and even new mechanics!
Get it Here:
2. Vehicle Framework - Smash Phil
For years, I would refuse to travel the world map. I didn’t find it particularly fun, plus it felt like an eternity waiting for your colonists to arrive at their destination. This mod completely changed my outlook by adding buildable vehicles to make traversal more bearable!
This mod will require other mods that actually add the vehicles, as this one just makes it possible, so I’ll link a couple extra below!
Key Features:
- Adds vehicles to Rimworld, including some combat land vehicles, boats, and airplanes!
- Simplifies traversal. No more pack animals to maintain and less food to account for!
Get it Here:
Get vehicles here:
Vanilla Vehicles Expanded - Tier 3
1. Save Our Ship - Thain and Kentington
Are you tired of being grounded on the same planet? Want to explore the stars with your colonists? Well Save Out Ship 2 offers just that!
Build your very own spaceship or steal one. Heck, why wait? You can start your colonists on a spacecraft if you’re the impatient type!
SOS2 is genuinely among the most impressive mods available right now, heck I didn’t even know much about it before researching for this article but I promise it’s well worth your time.
Key Features:
- Spaceships to build, take, or start in.
- Travel to new planets.
- New ending - Build the Archotech Spore!
- Shuttlecraft when used with Vehicles Framework!
Get it Here:
