Factions

Faction Types

There are three types of factions on the planet:

• Outlanders - They are always friendly to you by default, with a goodwill of 0 to 40. They have a technology level comparable to the industrial level, and can wear clothes or use gunpowder weaponry.

• Tribes - They may be friendly or hostile, with a goodwill of -75 to 40. They are neolithic, and use only the simplest of technology.

• Pirates - They are similar to the Outlanders, however they are always hostile, with a goodwill of below -80. They can never be reconciled with, and will always stay hostile.

Faction Bases

Factions have many bases generated when the world is created, which can be traveled to by forming a caravan or launching drop pods. If you send a caravan or drop pods to neutral or friendly factions it will initiate a trade. However, if you send it to a hostile faction you will start an assault on that base, which can be destroyed once the enemy flees. Then you have 24 hours to collect all the items you want before a caravan is automatically created to leave.

Faction Relationships

In Rimworld, one of the key gameplay features is the raids by enemy factions. When a new world is generated, various factions within the world are also added. These factions have varying relationships with your colony, and all of them may be your enemy from the start. As time progresses and your colony accumulates more wealth and grows larger, it may be a good idea to attempt to improve these relationships to even eventually have an ally to call upon in the worst of times.

Improving Relations

There are multiple ways to boost relations with an ally or enemy. The easiest, though more expensive, method of doing this is to contact them on the comms console and give them 300 silver for +13 base goodwill boost (greatly depends on social stat) if you have at least -70 rep. Secondly, there is the ability to take one of their fallen faction members and take them in as a guest and heal them. Returning a faction member in “good health” to the edge of the map and effectively to the faction members will improve the goodwill by +15. This means the member must be fully patched up at that time, but it does not matter if he has not fully healed, has permanent health damage such as scars or removed organs, or is sick from disease.

Keep in mind that removing organs lowers reputation by 20. Note, however, that for some enemy factions none of these activities improve relations if it's at -50 or worse.

Destroying Relations

There are several ways for to make an enemy out of a faction, most tend to be unintentional. First, when you call for reinforcements from a faction, this greatly damages relations, making it a last moment, “I’m about to die” choice to make. There is also the way to absolutely obliterate any good relations you have with a faction by attempting to arrest one of the faction members in your colony. This will immediately make them be considered an enemy and can be difficult to recover from, be it an accidental miss-click or intentional to get that really good herbalist. Finally, there is the normally accidental way, getting one of the faction members caught in crossfire. If one of the projectiles from your colonists hits another person, the faction will blame you and then consider you an enemy from then on until you can somehow repair your relations with them.

Events

A faction’s relationship with you in the game will determine how they interact with your colony, be it anything from just passing by to a full-scale attack.

Raids

Of course, one of the things that an enemy will do is attempt to raid your colony. The more they do it, the stronger the attacks become as time progresses. For a detailed explanation as to what can happen, visit the page Raiders.

Faction Assistance

Normally, this event will only occur if the player triggers it by asking for help in the comms console. This event is when a friendly faction is asked for help with an enemy attack. They will then spawn in a varying amount of troops near the edge of the map, and will proceed to make their way to your base. The moment one of their enemies is spotted, they will begin to enter defensive positions and fire upon them. After a period of time, they will then leave the map. Allied Factions can also send military aid every once in a while to help you out, and you will not lose any relation points or silver when they do.

Travelers

This is when a friendly or neutral faction’s members pass by the colony on their way from one end of the map to the other. The only time they spend on the map is walking from one end of it to another to then leave the map. Nothing special about that.

They will fight if they happen to encounter any hostiles while passing by.

Visitor(s)

This is when a group of people or a single person makes their way from the edge of the map where they spawned to your colony to just mill around there for a while and then leave the way they came. Sometimes they may have a few items to trade.

It is believed that this actually has no impact on relations with the faction, but can be nice if a common enemy attempts to raid you while they are there.

Trade Caravan

This is when a group of people come to trade with your colony. They often come with pack animals, and more goods and money to trade with than regular visitors.

They can come on their own, or be called to visit through the use of a comms console. Doing so will cost 600 silver, or 300 silver if goodwill is above 50, and allow you to choose the type of trade caravan.