Trade

From RimWorld Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Basics Menus Game Creation Gameplay Pawns Plants Resources Gear Mods
Gameplay Menu Caravan Combat Cover Drafting Environment Events Factions Firefighting Quality Quests Research Rooms Time Trade

Colonies can trade with other factions by using caravans and orbital trade ships via a comms console and orbital trade beacon. Tradeable commodities can include prisoners and slaves,Content added by the Ideology DLC animals, furniture, gear, resources, food, drugs, works of art, and much more, running almost the entire spectrum of items in RimWorld, depending on the exact trader, what they have in stock to offer and what they are interested in buying from you.

BUY QUANTITY SELL
ALL ONE positive = buy
negative = sell
ONE ALL
<< < may type # here > >>

To initiate a trade, a colonist simply contacts the lead trader. With visiting caravans, this pawn is signified by a yellow question mark "?" above them; select your trader, right-click the visiting trader, and select "Trade", and the selected pawn will march out to meet with the trader. For Orbital traders, who are not physically present on any map (see below), similarly, but right click the comms console and select the party you wish to trade with. When the two come together on the map (your colonist and trader or your colonist and comms console), a Trade menu will pop up. You can make a (partial) trade then, or not, or close this menu and continue with the game, then repeat the process later, as you wish.

Note that colonists that have "Social" disabled (due to backstories) cannot initiate trade nor activate a comms console.

Actual trade prices are determined by Trade Price Improvement, a stat based off the Social skill of the colonist actually doing the trading. Trade Price Improvement is influenced by your trader's ability to speak and hear. Damage to any such parts will hurt your trade prices, and you may wish to consider selecting, training, or otherwise acquiring a different designated trader.

The trade interface shows what commodities are available to trade - the trader's stock, your colony's current available stock, and the prices to buy and sell.

  • Items that the foreign trader has no interest in are shown grayed out at the bottom of the list; other traders may want them in the future, but this one does not (see below for more information).
  • Animals that have been downed are not listed for trade.
  • All traders carry a limited amount of silver, so they may not be able to buy everything you wish to sell. You can still give them things over this value but everything they receive will be for free, as they cannot afford to pay. In this instance it is likely better to not sell the items or to take the excess in useful or resalable items rather than get nothing in return.
  • Selling a prisoner is profitable, but has a negative impact on the happiness of all colonists (excludes psychopaths).
  • Prices listed in green are cheap (does not appear with base-game traders), while prices listed in red are expensive.


Game progression

Early game

Caravans consist of one or more faction members often with pack animals and/or tamed animals in tow. Players can either form their own caravan or wait for others to visit their own colony. To trade with a foreign passing caravan, direct a colonist (preferably with high social skill and thus Trade Price Improvement) to speak with the caravan member who has a yellow question mark above the head. Stored items will be eligible to sell and appear in the trade window. Purchased items will be dropped in the location where the trader was standing and will need to be hauled.

Sometimes, foreign caravan members may fight each other and accidentally drop items from their gear inventory.

Later game

After researching the Microelectronics project, a comms console and an orbital trade beacon can be built, which allow:

  • Satellite calls to request caravans to allied factions at a cost of 15 goodwill (or 700/1100 silver prior to 1.0). You can only call for a caravan from a given friendly faction once every four days.
  • Interaction with orbital trade ships which will stay around for a limited time. A blue notification will appear at the right of your screen to announce the trade ship and its type. After it's gone, a simple notice at the top of the screen will note when the same vessel leaves comms range and can no longer be traded with. Each trade ship varies in type, which determines its inventory.

To trade, order a colonist to interact with the comms console. Only items located within range of an orbital trade beacon can be traded. Purchases will be sent via drop pods to a beacon's open-air tiles, drop pods will phase through constructed roofs otherwise. If all beacon tiles are covered, drop pods will land at the nearest eligible tile. Colonists using the comms console use the same Trade Price Improvement stat as when making trades in person. Prisoners can be sold directly from their cell even if not in range of a beacon and tamed animals can be sold from anywhere on the map. The trade value of a prisoner or animal is based on their capabilities, injuries and skills.

Trade prices

Trade prices are based on the market value. In general the selling price is significantly lower than the buying price. This is however dependent on several modifiers that can be seen in the tooltip when hovering over an item's price in the trading dialog.

First of all goods from the colony are sold at 60% market value, and bought at 140% market value. These are further affected by the both the storyteller's economic and difficulty settings.

Some traders will charge 2x the price for the certain good, in addition to the multiplier on buying. Selling remains at normal price.

Trade Price Improvement

This multiplier is affected by the stats of the chosen colonist. This is listed on the tooltip as "Your negotiator bonus: -x%". Additionally factions offer a 2% discount when trading at a base.

Sell Price Multiplier

The selling prices of the following item types are affected by this multiplier. Note that this doesn't affect the buying price.

Type Factor
Furniture x0.7
Sculptures x1.1
Weapons x0.2
Techprints Content added by the Royalty DLC x0.1

The multipliers make it more difficult to farm raids for profit, because weapons dropped by dead enemies are not valuable in trade. It also means that crafting weapons in your colony only makes sense for personal use, and not for selling. The game encourages creating art for sale, as it is more profitable than all other items.

Types of traders

By technological level

  • Neolithic traders are tribal in nature and will be limited to selling neolithic level items.
  • Outlander traders come from other faction settlements and are not restricted to a specific technology level of items.
  • Orbital traders, or trade ships, are not affiliated with any faction, and can only be seen if you have a powered comms console. Orbital traders are always "high tech", although certain types (e.g. Farming, or Bulk goods) may offer items that are not particularly distinguishable as such (i.e. cows and corn, and wooden tables and wool jackets, are the same whether the source is neolithic or glitterworld).

By physical presence

  • Faction settlements that engage in trading. They buy/sell everything within their technology level, have the most extensive stocks and offer a 2% discount.
  • Land convoys have a physical presence on the map. They will leave the area if the temperature is deemed too dangerous for them to continue trading. They and come in to types:
    • Visitors are small groups that carry all of their goods on their person. They may or may not have items for trade; even if they do, they often have few items and little silver to trade with.
    • Trade caravans are large groups that carry their goods on pack muffalo or dromedaries, depending on climate. They have a moderate amount of items and silver to buy trade with.
  • Orbital traders have no physical presence. They have large amounts of items and silver to trade with, and have the same trader types as outlanders.
Visitors but not traders, no character with (?) sign overhead.

By inventory

Note that different merchants tend to only accept items of the general category that they offer - so don't necessarily expect to trade your wooden sculptures for firearms, nor your piles of smokeleaf for televisions, nor your herbal medicine for venison, nor your valuable chinchilla furs for slaves, depending on exactly what type of trader is offering them. This is not true if you travel to a village site to trade, as then there is no "filter" as to what is offered or accepted beyond the general tech-level of that tribe.

All traders accept silver, gold, components, insect jelly, and packaged survival meals, and many will accept pack animals*.

(* Combat Suppliers and War Merchants are not interested in pack animals, and Mining Goods traders are not interested in pack animals or food. Note that any trader will not trade for an animal if the current temperature is outside that animal's Comfortable Temperature Range (which can be found in the article on that particular animal).)

All traders offer components.

Bulk goods trader

Bulk goods traders deal in food and basic materials, such as steel, wood, components, gold, and textiles, as well as clothing, furniture and domestic animals.

Combat supplier

Combat suppliers deal in melee and modern weapons, modern armor, mortar shells, (non-herbal) medicine, and art sculptures.

Exotic goods trader

Exotic goods traders deal in rare and valuable items such as artifacts, televisions, telescopes, apparel, bionic body parts, advanced components, drugs, skilltrainers, some furniture, plasteel, gold, uranium, glitterworld medicine, and "psychic" weapons, among others. They may also offer pack animals and animals of the wilder variety, or those not native to the local biome. They do not accept raw plant material, not even drug precursors.

Shaman merchant

The tribal variant of the exotic goods trader, the shaman merchant deals in lower tech versions of the same, including smokeleaf. He also may offer high-tech medicines and "psychic" weapons.

Slaver

Slavers deal in slaves/prisoners, weapons, body parts, medicine, and drugs. The chance of traders carrying prisoners should go down as colony population goes up. A healthy slave (yours or theirs) has a value of around 1,000 silver or maybe a little more, less if they are suffering from a permanent injury, and a lot less (down toward 100 silver) if they are currently badly injured, even if they are healing up. Damaged goods are damaged goods, apparently.

With the Ideology DLC, bought people will either join as a colonist or as a proper slave.Content added by the Ideology DLC This is listed per person on the trade menu. Otherwise, slavers will only sell future colonists.

(The outlander variant of this trader was previously called a "pirate merchant" and they are still referred to as such in both discussion and the game code. Note that despite the name, outlander factions, not pirate factions, send "pirate merchants".)

War merchant

The tribal version of the Combat Supplier, this merchant offers simple melee weapons and neolithic ranged weapons, predatory-type animals, and tribal-level (non-complex clothing) apparel of all sorts.

Trader inventories

Faction base

Faction bases have an extensive inventory and deal with most things. They take 30 days to restock. The remaining time can be checked in "Show what will buy".

Outlander base

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 800 3000
Component x1 20 70
Steel x1 300 600
Wood x1 200 400
Plasteel x1 -50 200
Cloth x1 100 300
Gold x1 -50 200
Neutroamine x1 50 200
Chemfuel x1 300 500
Chocolate x1 -30 70
Beer x1 -40 100
Medicine x1 25 50
Telescope x1 0 1

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Mortar shells x1 1 - 2 kinds 20 each 40 each All mortar shells except antigrain warhead
Textiles x1 1 - 2 kinds 400 Silver 800 Silver All Textiles
Resources x1 2 - 4 kinds 400 Silver 800 Silver All resources except silver
Raw food x1 2 - 4 kinds 400 Silver 800 Silver All except fertilized eggs
Meals x1 1 - 2 kinds 12 each 50 each All meals
Furniture x1 3 - 4 kinds 1 each 2 each All furniture
Animals x1 2 - 4 kinds 3 each 8 each Most animals
Clothing x1 10 - 16 kinds 1 each 1 each All clothing
Drugs x1 3 - 4 kinds 750 Silver 1500 Silver All drugs
Ranged weapons x1 3 - 6 kinds 1 each 1 each All ranged weapons
Melee weapons x1 3 - 4 kinds 1 each 2 each All melee weapons
Armor x1 2 - 4 kinds 1 each 1 each All armor
Body parts/ Implants x1 2 - 4 kinds 1 each 1 each All body parts or implants
Exotic items x1 1 - 4 kinds 1 each 2 each Rare items
Artifacts x1 1 - 4 kinds 1 each 1 each All artifacts
Apparel x1 3 - 6 kinds 1 each 10 each All apparel
Art x1 5 - 10 kinds 1 each 1 each Sculptures
Televisions x1 1 - 2 kinds 1 each 2 each Tube television, Flatscreen television, Megascreen television
Slaves x1 -1 - 2 1 each 1 each -

Neolithic base

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 800 3000
Component x2 3 10
Steel x1 200 300
Wood x1 500 600
Cloth x1 200 300
Gold x1 -40 120
Pemmican x1 500 1000
Herbal medicine x1 15 30

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Textiles x1 1 - 2 kinds 300 Silver 700 Silver All Textiles
Resources x1 3 kinds 200 Silver 600 Silver All resources except silver
Raw food x1 3 - 5 kinds 300 Silver 800 Silver All except fertilized eggs
Clothing x1 4 - 12 kinds 1 each 1 each Neolithic clothing
Animals x1 2 - 4 kinds 1 each 5 each Wildness below 70%
Animals x1 1 - 2 kinds 1 each 4 each Powerful animals
Drugs x1 1 - 2 kinds 400 Silver 1000 Silver Beer, smokeleaf joint, psychite tea
Ranged weapons x1 2 - 4 kinds 1 each 1 each Neolithic ranged
Melee weapons x1 2 - 4 kinds 1 each 2 each Neolithic melee
Slaves x1 -1 - 2 1 each 1 each ---
Artifacts x1 0 - 3 kinds 1 each 1 each All artifacts

Caravan

Trade caravans have a moderate amount of items to buy and silver to trade with.

Outlander

Outlander bulk goods trader caravan

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 750 1200
Component x1 30 40
Advanced component x1 -10 2
Steel x1 250 400
Chemfuel x1 250 400
Neutroamine x1 70 160
Beer x1 -100 100
Chocolate x1 10 40
Reinforced barrel x1 1 4

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Raw food x1 3 kinds 150 Silver 600 Silver All except fertilized eggs
Textiles x1 ? ? ? All Textiles
Food x1 ? ? ? Chocolate, Kibble, Pemmican
Drugs x1 ? ? ? All drugs
Clothing x1 10 kinds 1 each 1 each All clothing
Furniture x1 3 kinds 1 each 1 each All furniture
Animals x1 1 kind 3 each 4 each Farm and pet animals with a wildness of max. 70%.
Buys art and musical instruments.

Outlander combat supplier caravan

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 750 1200
Medicine x1 10 20
Techprint x1 1 1

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Ranged weapons x1 ? kinds 5 each 5 each All ranged weapons
Melee weapons x1 6 kinds 1 each 1 each All melee weapons
Mortar shells x1 1 - 2 kinds 3 each 15 each All mortar shells except antigrain warhead
Armor x1 5 kinds 1 each 1 each All armor
Buys art, high tech armor, musical instruments and drugs.

Outlander slaver caravan

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 750 1200
Medicine x1 2 5
Slaves x1 2 4

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Drugs x1 2 - 4 kinds 600 Silver 1000 Silver All drugs
Mortar shells x1 1 - 2 kinds 1 each 10 each All mortar shells except antigrain warhead
Animals x1 1 - 2 kinds 1 each 3 each All animals with TradeTag AnimalFighter
Buys art and musical instruments.

Outlander exotic goods trader caravan

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 750 1200
Component x1 6 20
Advanced component x1 1 4
Plasteel x1 50 150
Gold x1 40 80
Glitterworld medicine x1 2 8
Techprint x1 3 3
Telescope x1 0 1

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Prosthetics x1 2 - 4 kinds 600 Silver 1000 Silver All prosthetics
Televisions x1 1 - 2 kinds 1 each 1 each All televisions
Exotic items x1 3 kinds 1 each
(7 luciferium,
40 Hyperweave)
1 each
(25 luciferium,
120 Hyperweave)
All exotic items except glitterworld medicine and advanced component
Artifacts x1 2 - 2 kinds 1 each 1 each All artifacts
Animals x1 1 - 2 kinds 1 each 3 each All animals with TradeTags AnimalUncommon, AnimalFighter, AnimalFarm and AnimalPet
Buys art, musical instruments, exotic buildings, psylink neuroformers and common and royal empire implants.

Neolithic

Orbital

In order to trade with an Orbital trader, you first must be able to make contact with them. This requires 3 things:

  1. a powered comms console
  2. a powered orbital trade beacon
  3. an Orbital Trader currently in the area - they are not always up there.

If you have the first two, you will be automatically notified when the third appears. The trader leaves in 16 hours, or 40,000 ticks (11.11 mins), after arrival.

Orbital traders usually come with large stocks corresponding to their trader type. You cannot "request" a specific type of orbital trader the way you can when contacting allies.

Note that you can only trade items within the trade beacon's range.

Bulk goods trader

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 2000 4000
Component x1 15 30
Steel x1 500 800
Wood x1 500 800
Plasteel x1 100 400
Cloth x1 200 600
Medicine x2 20 30
Gold x1 50 200
Neutroamine x1 100 200
Chemfuel x1 200 600
Chocolate x1 -70 100
Beer x1 -70 100

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Textiles x1 1 - 2 kinds 2200 Silver 4000 Silver All Textiles
Resources x1 2 - 4 kinds 800 Silver 1500 Silver All resources except silver
Raw food x1 2 - 4 kinds 800 Silver 1500 Silver All except fertilized eggs
Meals x1 1 - 2 kinds 15 each 30 each All meals
Furniture x1 0 - 3 kinds 1 each 2 each All furniture
Clothing x1 10 - 20 kinds 1 each 1 each All clothing
Drugs x1 2 - 4 kinds 1000 Silver 2000 Silver All drugs
Animals x1 2 - 4 kinds 10 each 20 each Animals with wildness below 70%

Commonality: 2


Combat supplier

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 2000 4000
Component x2 5 10
Medicine x1 30 50

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Mortar shells x1 1 - 2 kinds 20 each 40 each All mortar shells except antigrain warhead
Ranged weapons x1 5 - 6 kinds 1 each 1 each All ranged weapons
Melee weapons x1 5 - 6 kinds 2 each 3 each All melee weapons
Armor x1 8 - 10 kinds 1 each 1 each All armor

Commonality: 1


Exotic goods trader

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 2000 4000
Component x2 5 30
Gold x1 200 400
Plasteel x1 100 400
Glitterworld medicine x1 5 30
Neutroamine x1 100 500
Telescope x1 1 1

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Drugs x1 3 - 4 kinds 2000 Silver 3000 Silver All drugs
Exotic items x1 3 - 5 kinds 1 each 2 each Rare items
Body parts/ Implants x1 3 - 5 kinds 1 each 1 each All body parts or implants
Artifacts x1 2 - 4 kinds 1 each 1 each All artifacts
Art x1 4 - 8 kinds 1 each 1 each Sculptures
Televisions x1 1 - 3 kinds 1 each 1 each Tube television, Flatscreen television, Megascreen television
Furniture x1 1 - 4 kinds 1 each 2 each All furniture
Animals x1 1 - 2 kinds 2 each 3 each Animals with wildness above 60%

Commonality: 1


Pirate merchant

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 2000 4000
Component x2 5 10
Beer x1 -300 300
Medicine x2 5 15
Neutroamine x2 100 400
Chemfuel x2 50 200

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Slaves x1 2 - 3 1 each 1 each ---
Ranged weapons x1 -1 - 2 kinds 1 each 1 each All ranged weapons
Armor x1 -2 - 2 kinds 1 each 1 each All armor
Body parts/ Implants x1 -4 - 5 kinds 1 each 1 each All body parts or implants
Artifacts x1 -5 - 1 kinds 1 each 1 each All artifacts
Drugs x1 3 - 6 kinds 2000 Silver 3000 Silver All drugs

Commonality: 1

Visitor

Outlander visitor

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 50 250
Component x1 -2 5
Packaged survival meal x1 3 6
Medicine x1 1 6
Cloth x1 ? ?
Chocolate x1 ? ?

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Drugs x1 -1 - 1 kinds 100 Silver 300 Silver All drugs
Techprint x1 0.5 chance 1 1 -
Ranged weapons x1 0 - 1 kinds 1 each 1 each All ranged weapons
Clothing x1 0 - 1 kinds 1 each 1 each All clothing

Neolithic visitor

Name Price Min Stock Max Stock
Silver N/A 50 250
Pemmican x1 40 80
herbal medicine x1 1 4
Cloth x1 ? ?
Chocolate x1 ? ?

Groups of items:

Group Price Variety Min Stock Max Stock Items
Drugs x1 -1 - 1 kinds 200 Silver 400 Silver Beer, smokeleaf joint, psychite tea
Techprint x1 0.5 chance 1 1 Techprint
Ranged weapons x1 0 - 1 kinds 1 each 1 each Neolithic ranged
Melee weapons x1 0 - 1 kinds 1 each 1 each Neolithic melee
Clothing x1 0 - 1 kinds 1 each 1 each All clothing

Trader behavior

Trade caravans that come to your colony usually pick a random spot outdoors where they will simply wander around and wait for your colonists to send a negotiator for trade. This spot may be in a ridiculous place, such as the middle of a river. When hungry visitors may use the colony's tables and chairs for dining.

Leaving the map

A trade caravan will usually leave as soon as the merchant pawn becomes tired (the first notch on their sleep need), though they can still be traded with while walking towards the edge of the map. If the merchant has a different sleep need than other members of the caravan for some reason, caravan members may end up sleeping on the floor when exhausted.

Sometimes, foreigners will leave your map before you have the chance to interact with them. They may start social fights amongst themselves, fight rival factions, or get attacked by wild animals. The caravan may also leave the map on their own if the temperature becomes too high or too low for them or their animals, similar to raiders. Foreigners who get downed can be rescued, either by their own members or by yourself for a goodwill bonus. Any items dropped can be unforbidden without damaging relations, however stripping clothes from anyone unconscious causes a loss of goodwill.

Tips

Sell if you have enough cloth

Notes

  • There is no trade bar for "silver"; that's just listed at the top of the trades column, and gets adjusted as items are selected to buy/sell. Once a trade is accepted, the difference in silver (positive or negative) automatically goes from one party to the other, up to the limit of that party's silver in stock. (Trader's silver can be seen under their "Gear" tab, your silver can be seen under Inventory/Raw Resources.)
  • You cannot buy back prisoners you just sold as a way to insta-recruit anyone (exploit prevention).
  • You can trade your expensive items (weapons, sculptures) for other desirable items if the trade ship doesn't have enough silver to complete the transaction. Of course, the amount of silver you can gain is lower, but it is usually better to have a lot of cheap items than an expensive one in your store. Sometimes you have items so expensive that no trader can buy them.
  • When selling pack animals, they will bring any items that they are carrying along with them.

Version history

  • 0.0.245 - Traders are now rarer but carry more goods.
  • 0.7.581 - New trade system and interface. Traders carry and buy any item, including prosthetics, neurotrainers, organs, slaves, weapons, apparel, commodities.
  • 0.11.877 - Slave trader changed to pirate merchant, can still show up to buy slaves even when your population is high (though they may not carry any). A11B Fixed pirate merchants only bringing slaves when population is high. Reworked how slave prices are calculated so they take injuries, capacities, and skills into account better.
  • 0.13.1135 - Ground-traveling trade caravans from other factions added.
  • Beta 19/1.0 - Exotic goods outlander traders will no longer trade furniture. Some traders will now buy only some types of animals, not all. Traders will no longer accept typical short-life meals (paste, simple, fine, lavish)
  • 1.1.2563 - Fixed bug that would cause traders to restock daily.
  • ? - Farming trader, which offered domestic animals and various meats and vegetables, and Mining goods trader, which offered raw metals and plasteel, stone blocks, jade, chemfuel, and high-explosive shells, were removed.