RimWorld is a huge and complex game, and things only start to get even more interesting when you delve into the hundreds of mods available on the Steam Workshop. There are mods that completely transform the gameplay, introduce new ways to experience your colonists' lives, and small mods that make valuable QOL changes.
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Experienced players might have a mod-list for RimWorld that spirals into the several dozen, but for the purpose of this list, we've selected the best RimWorld mods, all available on the Workshop. Some of these mods change up the gameplay completely, but the core brutality of RimWorld still remains.
Updated January 8, 2023 by William Ritchie: With the release of the Biotech DLC, the modding scene of Rimworld has continued their hard work of tinkering on this expansive colony sim. The addition of children, controllable mechanoids and gene splicing shenanigans, have spurred modders to create even more great content. Rimworld is still receiving major updates, so it's exciting to imagine which of these features might make the jump to an official update. The stars are the limit for Rimworld modding, and the future is looking bright indeed.
19 HugsLib
HugsLib is right up there with the most subscribed mods in RimWorld history, and that's because it essentially acts as a database that allows for multiple mods to run simultaneously. Many, many mods for RimWorld will require you to have HugsLib installed just to be able to run.
Before you head on a mission to download hundreds of mods for the game, make sure to pick up HugsLib before you get started. The platform has been updated for the 1.3 update and many mods are currently supported via the Library.
18 Factional War
Factional War is a large mod created by Shadowrabbit that introduces four new raid events, on a scale much larger than any sort of raiding you've seen before in RimWorld. It really makes you feel like you're at the center of a massive war, although you don't have to get involved if you don't want to.
Faction Assault causes a massive war to appear on your map, Faction Bombardment cause two factions to fight each other across your map (you can swoop in for resources destroyed by their bombs), Faction Contention causes rare resources to spawn the map (you can grab these if you dare), and lastly, Faction Defense makes you a target of a huge wave of soldiers. Only to be done when you're prepared to fight.
17 1-2-3 Personalities
If you play RimWorld for its spiraling organic storytelling, then 1-2-3 Personalities is the perfect mod for you. It isn't too intrusive on the gameplay (coming with different module levels for you to pick from) but adds an extra level of flair to your pawn's characteristics.
Different personalities traits between your pawns can interact with each other, meaning your pawns will eventually form friendships or rivalries based on their beliefs. The mod is still a WIP but regularly updated, and is currently on version 1.4.
16 EdB Prepare Carefully
This is the highest-rated mod on the Steam Workshop, and for good reason. It allows the player to fully customize their starting location, colonists, and game scenario. The mod received its last update back in August 2020, although it works for the current 1.2 update for RimWorld.
EdB Prepare Carefully is a cool mod to experiment with. You can set yourself up for a challenging RimWorld run, or create a set of overpowered colonists that blitz everything and make it easy to build a ridiculous off-world base. The choice is totally up to the player.
15 DragSelect
This is the simplest and yet most powerfully useful mod, maybe on this entire list. Look. That's a bit of an exaggeration. But the DragSelect mod still deserves its place as a simple mod that doesn't impact gameplay but can save you several minutes every play session - want to select multiple boxes in your trade inventory at the same time? Now you can. It's that simple. Nothing massively game-changing here, but we can't ignore its usefulness.
14 Wall Light
This is not the most glamorous mod, but it puts something into the game that RimWorld fans never even knew they wanted: wall-mounted lights. With over 300,000 unique visitors to this mod on the Steam Workshop, clearly, the mod is an important one.
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Other features include the ability to add different colors to the lights, change the values of how much steel is required to build a wall-light, and an outline of the area which the light will make brighter. It's a simple mod that does its job very well.
13 Vanilla Expanded
This is not a single mod, but rather a collection of awesome mods that transform the vanilla RimWorld experience, without changing the mechanics too much. Vanilla Expanded adds new types of furniture, fresh textures, new colonist roles, and much, much more. If you love the brilliant mechanics of a simulation game, this mod doesn't interfere too much.
One of the best things about Vanilla Expanded is that you can chop and change which mods you want to use. Everything can be toggled on or off via the mod menu. Want more interesting farms? How about unique weapons? Then, this mod is the one for you.
12 RimHUD
RimHUD is a useful mod for all those data nerds out there. This expanded hud provides a lot more detail about your colonists. The graph of a colonist's food and recreation levels, for example, is a lot easier to see at a glance, rather than the ordinary static numbers.
The mod also places all details about your colonists in one place and can be resized to fit your screen. It's a simple but well-executed mod that makes a big difference to your RimWorld playthrough.
11 Hospitality
For a long time, wanderers and visitors to your colony just sort of ambled around and did nothing. They might, if you were lucky, have a run-in with some killer critters and drop some meat or loot for you, but that was about it.
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Hospitality takes those rudimentary mechanics and expands on them — massively. You can build guest rooms, flirt with other factions and build your reputation, or lock guests in a small, dark room until they go mad. The choice is yours.
10 Expanded Prosthetics And Organ Engineering
RimWorld's Expanded Prosthetics and Organ Engineering mod lets players get into the nitty-gritty of developing what are essentially super-humans. It all starts with a simple hook hand — pretty cool but not that sophisticated — and can lead to a full exoskeleton suit.
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This mod adds lots of new functionality for players to experiment with. If your colonists keep seeming to misplace their organs (however could that happen?) then you can just make them a brand-new set of lungs, a heart, a kidney — whatever you want.
