RimWorld Royalty

RimWorld Royalty is an expansion for RimWorld that brings the Empire to the rimworld. The Empire’s refugee fleet seeks allies, and its honor-bound culture combines hyper-advanced technology with the ancient traditions of kings and queens. You can earn Imperial titles, develop psychic powers, take on procedurally generated quests and face new mechanoid threats.

Imperial titles

Your colonists can complete quests to earn honor with the Empire and rise through titles such as acolyte, knight and baron. Build grand throne rooms for nobles, dress them in finery or prestige armor, and let them make speeches from their thrones to inspire your people. Nobles can also play piano, harp and harpsichord.

Each title lets you choose or upgrade an Imperial permit. These can send Imperial troopers, janissaries or cataphracts to fight for you, call orbital strikes or salvoes, provide shuttles for travel, or bring labor teams when you are shorthanded.

Psychic powers

Colonists can develop psychic powers in several ways. Those with Imperial titles receive powers from the ceremonial Imperial bestower; tribal colonists can build a psychic link by communing with the anima tree; and quests can provide stolen psychic technology to use against the Empire.

Psychic abilities include combat powers for moving people and objects, controlling or disabling enemies, changing the battlefield and supporting allies. Skip, chaos skip, mass chaos skip, chunk skip and wallraise let you reposition people or objects: you can extract wounded allies, cross no man’s land, pull enemies into melee or move cover. Painblock and focus modify the mind for combat; blinding pulse and vertigo pulse blind enemies or make them vomit; and neuroquake sends a huge wave of psychic energy through every conscious being on the map.

Other powers can drive people or animals temporarily insane, conceal a colonist, slow or stop foes, block line of sight, move a group of your people across the world, or create a temporary safe zone. You can also call down lightning with flashstorm, extinguish fires with waterskip, beckon foes into approaching you, or transfer neural heat to an ally so you can keep casting. Community-focused powers create light and heat, help with recruitment, improve happiness, induce romantic attraction, end mental breaks or grant creative energy.

Using psychic powers requires meditation. How a colonist meditates depends on their title, backstory and traits:

• Titled colonists meditate on thrones according to Imperial tradition.
• Tribal colonists meditate in nature, at the anima tree, or at constructed shrines or ancient stones.
• Morbid colonists with psychopath, cannibal or bloodlust traits meditate at graves. This is more effective when the grave holds someone related to them.
• Ascetic colonists meditate at blank walls.
• Pyromaniac colonists meditate at flame shrines made from braziers, torches and campfires.
• All colonists can meditate at sculptures.

Procedural quests

The expansion adds quests that are procedurally generated for each new game. Goals, enemies, guests, rewards, helpers, special threats and world conditions combine in different ways. Quest givers may provide special help: for instance, a quest to fight a huge mechanoid cluster may also send elite Imperial cataphracts to make the battle winnable. Rewards can include Imperial titles, allies, unique implants, archotechnological artifacts, gear and faction goodwill.

Quest types include hosting Imperials who may be hunted by mercenaries, pirates or mechanoids; helping impoverished refugees who might later reward or betray you; caring for sick or hunted animals; and guarding prisoners. A shuttle-crash quest has you defend crash survivors, protect civilians and help the shuttle’s defenders repel attackers until a rescue shuttle arrives. Other quests ask you to build and sometimes defend a monument, supply troops for an ally’s airborne assault, lend colonists to an ally, or confront a mechanoid cluster at your colony or a nearby site. Further quests combine threats such as raids, animal attacks, insect infestations, atmospheric effects and weather.

After reaching the higher ranks of Imperial nobility, you can host the Imperial High Stellarch and his elite Stellic Guards in your court. Protect them from their enemies, and you may be invited to leave the rimworld as an honored Imperial guest.

Mechanoid clusters

Mechanoids can create clusters of new buildings that work together to pose tactical challenges. Clusters begin dormant, giving you time to plan an attack. Unlike the defense-oriented fights in the base game, these encounters put you on the offensive.

A cluster can include buildings that poison the air, darken the sky or create other world conditions; shields against bullets or mortar fire; factories that assemble mechanoids; and beacons that call reinforcements. Turrets, mortars, walls, alarm systems and mechanoid defenders—including the new Pikeman sniper mech—may also be present. Unstable power cells can be attacked to cause explosions or stolen, while mech nodes provide an extra reward if you eliminate a cluster with precision.

Every cluster has a generated layout and a different tactical puzzle. Some call for a frontal assault, while others may be vulnerable to mortar bombardment, explosives planted before the cluster wakes, or a sniper shot at a critical structure. You can also try to lure foes or unwanted allies into a cluster.

New equipment

The expansion adds gear, including technology unlocked through techprints—special technology items acquired through quests, trade or theft. New combat equipment includes jump packs for flying across a battlefield; plasma swords that ignite targets; zeushammers that deliver EMP pulses; and monoswords that cut through almost any armor. Cataphract, locust, grenadier and phoenix armor offer heavy protection or specialized equipment, while low-shield packs provide local tactical defense. Prestige armor comes in recon, marine and cataphract forms, displays status and enhances psycasting.

Persona weapons are unique melee weapons with built-in personalities. Bonding with one is a lifelong commitment, and its traits can grant powers or quirks: some demand blood, affect the user’s mood, object to other weapons, change psychic sensitivity, grant instant psychic focus on a kill, or make the user happy or sad when it kills. Other persona weapons block pain, increase movement speed or hunger, help with psycast use, or do not bond and can be used by anyone.

New body implants affect colonists’ abilities and physiology. Internal blades and poison teeth provide a deadly melee attack; drill arms and field hands improve mining and farming; neurocalculators and learning assistants aid mental tasks; and gastro-analyzers improve cooking. Immunoenhancers, coagulators and healing enhancers protect health, while skin-hardening glands resist damage. Detoxifier, reprocessor and nuclear stomachs alter digestion or remove the need for it; circadian assistants and half-cyclers reduce the need for sleep; and aesthetic enhancements and love enhancers affect popularity and mood.

New music

The expansion includes 13 new tracks by Alistair Lindsay, composer of the original RimWorld soundtrack, with a total runtime of 1:04:14.