All difficulty levels in Rimworld Console Edition explained

Rimworld Console Edition is a story generator above all else. While that means that events mostly play out before your eyes, leaving you with very little control over them, there are difficulty options that can change how your story goes. This guide explains all difficulty levels in Rimworld Console Edition, so you know exactly what you’re signing up for.

Related: How to make a hospital in Rimworld

All difficulty levels explained

We’ve listed every difficulty level in Rimworld Console Edition below by the section in which they appear. Rimworld has a few sets of difficulty levels for you to choose from, all of which have an impact on your experience.

Game type difficulty levels

There are two game type difficulty levels. The first is Tutorial, which is an incredibly basic introduction to Rimworld, but one we recommend all new players try before any other difficulty level. After that, there’s New Colony, which will see you start a brand new colony without and tutorials to help you along the way.

Scenario difficulty level

There are four scenarios to choose from with each new game. These change what you have when you start your new colony and can dramatically alter the way events play out.

• Crashlanded: Here, you start with three colonists who have crashlanded on an unknown rimworld. You’ll also get a small pool of resources to get you started, but nothing that will make building a base that easy.
• Lost Tribe: This one has you start with five colonists. Blood machines destroyed your home, and this is all that remains of the tribe. You lack any technology, so this scenario is much tougher than the others, but you do get a few resources, including weapons, to start things off.
• The Rich Explorer: This scenario starts with just one colonist; you start with some decent technology, resources, and weapons, but your colonist will lack certain skills due to their cushy life back home. This makes the early game extremely oppressive.
• Naked Brutality: In this scenario, you also start with one single colonist. You’ve been tricked into coming to this rimworld and you have nothing as a result. This is the hardest scenario for all players and not one that should be taken lightly.

AI Storyteller difficulty level

The AI Storyteller you pick won’t change how difficult your experience is. Instead, they alter how events play out and how often you’ll come up against struggles.

• Cassandra Classic: Cassandra creates story events on a classic increasing curve of challenge and tension. The events will become more intense as time goes by, but you’ll have a lot of space between them to recover, rebuild, and prepare for whatever’s next.
• Phoebe Chillax: Phoebe gives you loads of time between the disasters that come along. However, when you select this AI Storyteller on a higher difficulty, she’ll throw more enemies and other dangers at you in events than you might think you can handle.
• Randy Random: Randy has absolutely no rules to follow. You might get three events at once, you may get none for an hour. With this AI storyteller, you can’t predict what’s going to happen. This can be the highest difficulty option, but you never really know with Randy.

Difficulty Level

Finally, there’s the Difficulty Level. This is a little easier to understand because it’s a sliding scale from easiest to most challenging.

• Peaceful: Major threats are disabled, but you’ll still face challenges like diseases, mental breaks, and mad animals. This is a mode for those who want to build with no real pressure and enjoy the experience.
• Community Builder: Weaker threats appear, but they’re weakened, so you don’t need to worry too much about them. This is perfect for players that want to build a colony and have some manageable dangers to deal with.
• Adventure Story: The planet is dangerous, but you’ve still got room to rest. You’ve got room to pursue weird goals in this mode, but it’s still a tough strategy experience.
• Strive to Survive: There will be triumph and tragedy in your story. This is a difficult mode for players who want some punishment and don’t feel like having a break between bouts.
• Blood and Dust: Even if you play well, the brutal survival challenges in this mode will kill your colonists. You need to anticipate threats and deal with them before they even happen, looking for ways to kill anything that could kill you long before it has the chance.
• Losing is Fun: This is the toughest difficult mode in the game. You’ll have huge threats crashing on your colony all the time. You’re going to struggle, everything is going to be difficult, and you’re not going to survive if you aren’t as brutal as the world. You’ve been warned. We recommend learning how to build a hospital and heal your colonists before even considering this Difficult Level.

Save Type

Once you’ve picked your difficulty level, you’ll need to choose your Save Type. This determines how you save your game and whether you can save scum through dangers. In Commitment Mode, you only save when you quit, so you can’t load a previous save and try to succeed against a threat that’s already killed you. In Reload Anytime Mode, you can reload anytime. This is the mode for those who definitely want to reach the end of the story and will make a few save files along the way to get around tough encounters.