Your first day (and days)

[TheNewTeddy]

Despite playing rimworld for some time, I've never been able to do well at all, ever. More than half the time I cheat, using god mode, and dev mode.

My problem is that first day. How the heck do I get past that first day? Most of the guides I've seen are very lax on details, telling you do do X, Y, and Z, then showing a picture of a base after a week, where Q, J, and P have been done, despite not ever being mentioned.


My questions are:

Where do your colonists sleep the first night?

Possible answers:
On the ground outside
In a sleeping spot on the ground outside
In a sleeping spot on the ground inside, all together
In a sleeping spot on the ground in individual tiny bedrooms
etc etc etc
right up to in royal beds in individual large bedrooms with gold tile floors.

I've never figured this out. I always feel I'm spending far far too much time building my base and not nearly enough doing everything else.

Any advice would be great.

[Tagasaki]

First few days, create a small shelter, doesn't matter whether it's in a cave or ancient ruins. Then create a stockpile/growing zone, small too. Then create something to make food or just eat raw and/or create items. Repeat and expand.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Where my pawns sleep the first night depends completely on the biome and other factors.

For instance.. if I'm doing an ice sheet and I need to get a structure built for them to sleep in, then all my effort goes towards that and they sleep on sleeping spots inside the structure.

If I have a lot of hauling to do and it's a decent climate, I'll just slap some sleeping spots outside in a convenient spot for the night, and probably delete them in the morning.

If I have a decent structure near my landing site that I will use, then I may build beds for the first night. Beds the first night just really aren't that important, I find it much more important that the 3 pawns are near each other in case of emergency.

[DariusWolfe]

(Note, the below is for typical biomes where the environment won't immediately kill you)

Priority 1 is always to find a place. Proximity to the landing spot is very nice, but not absolutely required, if there's a better spot. A ruined building is a good start, because you can usually just repair a hole or two with temporary wooden or steel walls, pop a roof on it, and you've got shelter.

Priority 2 is getting your perishables under a roof. I don't worry too much about wood, though it's technically perishable, because I expect to use it up before it runs out. Mostly I'm worried about medicine and food (though food to a lesser extent, for the same reason as wood)

Priority 3 is sleeping space. If you've got a good constructor, you can have them build a few single beds. I normally use Double Beds only for my colonists, but the Single Beds will come in handy as medical beds or prisoner beds once you're established. Otherwise, sleeping spots are better than nothing, so long as they're under a roof.

Priority 4, can be the next day, is food. If you have a cook who's capable, always try to do Fine Meals, as they're a better use of resources, and provide more nutrition, and a mood boost. Keeping the supplies on hand is difficult, so you'll probably eat a lot of Simple Meals, and that's okay, but whenever possible, do Fine Meals. If you found a temporary place, but don't plan to stay there, it might not be worthwhile to build a stove, so Simple Meals from a Campfire will do until you're more established. But definitely get at least a few good sized animals killed and butchered before you start to run low on PSMs.

If the environment is one where Winter will suck, get crops in the ground no later than the beginning of Autumn. I prefer Potatoes, Rice and Berries, as they all grow quickly, and it makes for a variety of meals, which I pretend matters.

As soon as you've got the basics down, you should start looking toward dedicated areas for different tasks, like individual bedrooms, a kitchen, cold storage, dining room, etc. Use your colonists negative moodlets as a guide for what to prioritize in the first few days, after basic shelter and food are taken care of.