Ludeon Studios, the developer of the management sim RimWorld, has always done a great job of listening to player input. Many of the mods players made to add assets or fix bugs have been integrated into the vanilla game.
Despite RimWorld constantly improving, there are still a number of mods that are near as iconic as the game itself. All the mods listed can be found in the Steam Workshop on RimWorld’s community page. RimWorld may be one of the most influential games of the genre, but you’ll soon be wondering how you ever played without these mods.
10 Verbose
If you’re like me, it doesn’t matter how many hundreds of hours you’ve put into a game: if a description is paragraphs long, you will never read it. So my dumb goblin brain is pleased with the mod Verbose by It’s Phoenix!, which rephrases and paraphrases loads of the in-game descriptions.
The most helpful changes are those made to informative entries, especially ones about surgeries, production equipment, and world events. While it's important, Verbose is the lowest on the list since it functions as an edit of content that already exists.
9 RunAndGun
Not every encounter with an enemy can be planned. RimWorld’s very nature means tragedy is always around the corner, especially when it comes to defending your base from danger. That’s where Run And Gun by roolo comes in, a fairly basic mod that allows your pawns to move and shoot at the same time.
Such an act doesn’t seem so unrealistic an aid during combat. The mod is placed at number nine because some players might prefer the added challenge of having to strategize pawn placement.
8 Anthro Race
Listen, you don’t have to be a furry to enjoy a mod that adds dozens of anthropomorphic races to RimWorld. And if you are, more power to you. It’s a gosh darn alien planet, so why wouldn’t you be surrounded by alien creatures?
Since the creation of Anthro Race by R-MK, multiple alien races have been added to the base game. As such, the mod is fairly low-ranked, and no longer quite as essential. Nevertheless, the anthro sprites are cute, and the many types of animal heads and tails add variation to your pawns.
7 Vanilla Expanded Framework
Vanilla Expanded Framework is the first item on this list that’s truly game-changing. Spawned by a collaboration of modders, this framework enables the creation of new assets such as clothing, armor, and weapons. Many of these new armors and guns are some of the best in the game, and the incredible variety of items adds excitement to crafting and looting.
Other creators have used this framework to develop new tools, foods, domesticated animals, and plants. The mod isn’t ranked any higher because these items appear in the world at random, which might mess with immersion.
6 P-Music
Since downloading P-Music, playing without it active feels like listening to the world’s tiniest playlist. Don’t get me wrong, RimWorld’s soundtrack is one of the best, even if it's short. But P-Music by Peppsen doesn’t just add new music; the music has been composed in the pursuit of fitting with the game’s soundtrack.
The mod creator pulls this off surprisingly well, such that you might not be able to tell what music is vanilla and what isn’t. This mod sits in the middle of the list since it’s a topical change, but nothing motivates you to embrace the alien frontier like these well-written, inspiring tracks.
5 Interaction Bubbles
Without Interaction Bubbles by Jaxe, what’s the point of pawn interactions to begin with? Interaction Bubbles allows you to see pawn interactions as they happen with little dialogue bubbles underneath them. Watch pawns chat during a party, catch one try, and fail to flirt with three different pawns, or else watch two child pawns become best friends.
The hilarious nonsense pawns say would otherwise go unnoticed if you couldn’t monitor them so easily. It isn’t ranked higher because it doesn’t necessarily influence gameplay, but it does greatly enhance storytelling potential.
4 Yayo’s Animation
Are you sick of waiting for a pawn to attack an enemy, only to realize they aren’t in combat mode? Yayo’s Animation mod fixes so many issues by visualizing pawn ailments, actions, and emotions with custom animations. No longer must you go into the menus in a fit of paranoia, wondering which pawn is on the brink of death or mental collapse.
Now there are visual cues for everything life throws at your pawns, which enhances gameplay so much. Yayo’s mod ranks highest among mods that only affect one aspect of the game, and turns your settlement into a lively place.
3 RimHud
How do you live without RimHud? RimHud by Jaxe displays all the information you could need about a pawn on the spot. You get to see their ailments, their general mood and well-being, even their skills and which ones they learn faster. You can also edit basic pawn behavior in this menu, such as enabling the pawn to fight back whenever attacked, or to give them a specific diet.
RimHud provides a concise, detailed, summary view of basically everything you need to know about a pawn at that moment. So no more wondering if your pawns successfully fought off that infection, or are still having a mental break. RimHud is here for you.
2 Character Editor
When you play RimWorld with Character Editor by modder VOID, it adds all the best parts of The Sims to an already comprehensive sim experience. Mess with character traits, skills, and ideologies, either to customize the dynamic between your first set of pawns or to fix Greedy ones.
It’s basically a method for cheating the ideology system and isn’t ranked any higher because using it to remove annoying traits is a little too tempting. But it's a powerful tool for endless pawn customization, so it earns the number two spot. Use it to set up your starters, perhaps challenge yourself with belligerent or needy pawns, or further evolve your belief systems mid-game.
1 Pick Up and Haul, Common Sense
Though this list is meant to highlight more of the unique features added by mods, nothing beats a utility mod that eases the most infuriating base game issues. Pick Up and Haul by Mehni and Common Sense by avil do functionally similar things. Pick Up and Haul allows pawns to carry multiple items in their inventory, and if near an item in need of hauling, will pick it up and bring it on their way back to the base.
Among many other things, Common Sense encourages pawns to haul every item they need to craft to the crafting table at once, as well as clean the surrounding area before sitting down to eat or craft. Both of these mods work in tandem to shave off hours of annoyance waiting for items to be hauled, and areas to be cleaned. They sit at number one simply because productivity and general happiness skyrockets when using these mods.