Trade

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In RimWorld, colonists can trade with passing trade vessels to buy and sell resources, gear, and slaves/prisoners.

Trading vessels will often pass within comms range during a limited time. A blue notification will appear at the right of screen to announce the trade ship and its type. A simple notice at the top of the screen will declare when the trading vessel has left comms range and can no longer be traded with.

Each type of trade ship will buy and sell only certain types of items. Selection varies with each passing ship as they typically don't carry every item that they deal in.

Bulk Goods - Trades in general building resources such as steel; also beer, chocolate, and medicine.

Exotic Goods - Trades in the rares items such as sculptures, televisions, telescopes, apparel, bionic body parts, neurotrainers, gold, uranium, and glitterworld medicine.

Pirate Merchant - Trades in slaves/prisoners, weapons, body parts, medicine, and beer.

Combat Supplier - Trades in weapons, armor, artillery shells, and medicine.

To enable trading, a colony must have a powered comms console and an orbital trade beacon. Prisoners can be sold directly from their cell. Any goods the player wishes to trade must be within the orbital trade beacon's area of influence, which can be displayed by selecting the beacon. Any colonist can be ordered to trade with available vessels by selecting them and right-clicking on the comms console. The higher the social skill of the selected colonist, the better the trade prices will be. After selecting the trading vessel, the trade interface opens.

The trade interface shows what commodities are available to trade, the colony's stock, trader's stock, and the prices to buy and sell. To trade, simply click and hold the number listed under "Drag to trade" next to the appropriate item, and drag it either to the left to buy, or to the right to sell.

Note that prices listed in green are cheap, and prices listed in red are expensive.

In RimWorld, silver is used as currency, so 1 silver = $1.00 on the trade interface.

Trade tips

• Colonists with a higher social skill using the comms console will negotiate lower buying prices for everything but the commodities (0.5% per social skill point).
• Likewise, colonists with a higher social skill will negotiate for higher selling prices for everything but the commodities (0.5% per social skill point).
• Selling a prisoner is profitable, but has a negative impact on the happiness of all colonists (excludes psychopaths).
• Food and textiles can be quickly grown on hydroponics tables, which makes farming a viable income source, provided there's enough manpower to tend to the crops.
• Its recommended to put your comms console in or near the bedroom of the colonist with the highest social skill for convenient trading.
• Trade ships carry a limited amount of silver, so they may not be able to buy everything you wish to sell.
• Sculptures can be created with a sculptor's table and sold to traders. Since trade ships carry a limited amount of silver you may find that you cannot sell a very expensive sculpture.