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π Prisoners, Recruitment & Breakouts
1. Four steps after a capture
Do not haul every downed raider home. A prisoner consumes medicine, food, warden time, and defensive attention. First decide whether this is a long-term problem your colony can afford.
| Order | Check now | Do next |
|---|---|---|
| β Safety | Is there still fire, an enemy, or an untreated colonist? | Stabilize your colonists first, then right-click a downed target to capture. |
| β‘ Bed space | Is there an enclosed room with an empty prisoner bed or sleeping spot? | If not, place an indoor sleeping spot and mark it for prisoners first. |
| β’ Cost | Injuries, addictions, chronic conditions, and your current medical load. | Do not displace urgent care or medicine for a pawn you do not need. |
| β£ Destination | Skills, traits, unwavering loyalty, and the role your colony lacks. | Set Recruit or Release in the Prisoner tab; do not leave a captive occupying a bed without a purpose. |
2. The minimum viable cell: enclosed, sleeping, fed, treated
A bed alone is not a prison. Capturing requires an enclosed room with an empty prisoner bed; prisoners still need food, workable temperature, and medical attention.
| Must have | How to check | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosure | Walls, doors, coolers, and similar barriers fully close the room. | A held-open door or one missing wall tile lets a mobile prisoner walk off the map. |
| Prisoner bed | Select a bed or sleeping spot, set it for prisoners, and verify it is free. | Mixing colonists with prisoners; the room will convert to prisoner use. |
| Food and temperature | Check that food can reach the cell and that it is not too hot or cold. | Locking the door but letting the captive collapse from hunger or exposure. |
| Medical care | When treatment is needed, check medical settings and available medicine. | Capturing a badly injured pawn and never checking the treatment queue. |
3. Recruitment: resistance first, persuasion second
Set the prisoner to Recruit and ensure at least one colonist is assigned to Warden work. Wardens talk to the prisoner and reduce resistance; recruiting attempts start only after resistance reaches zero.
| What you see | What to do | Do not mistake it for |
|---|---|---|
| Resistance above 0 | Keep the recruit order, give a socially capable colonist Warden work, and keep the cell livable. | A stalled process; recruitment cannot succeed yet. |
| Resistance at 0 | Keep watching recruitment attempts and your actual staffing need. | A guaranteed recruit on the next conversation. |
| Unwaveringly loyal | Do not schedule it as an ordinary recruitment project; release it or use an appropriate DLC mechanism separately. | Something ordinary recruiting will solve by waiting longer. |
Prisoner mood and the warden's social ability affect progress. When someone does join, use Work Priorities and Mood System so bad scheduling does not immediately create a new crisis.
4. Recruit, release, or do not keep them
| Situation | Better action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You lack a doctor, cook, builder, or grower; the pawn fills that role and is supportable | Recruit | Population should remove a current bottleneck, not merely raise headcount. |
| The pawn cannot be ordinarily recruited, or its conditions would consume the colony long-term | Release or do not capture | One fewer pawn to guard is often safer than one more problem. |
| Their faction is not permanently hostile and they can leave the map healthy | Release | It may improve relations; check the faction and current game message instead of assuming it will. |
| You only need to stop a colonist's mental break | Use the mental-break emergency guide first | Arresting your own pawn has later relationship and mood costs; it is not routine management. |
5. During a breakout: close routes, then use low damage
Breaking-out prisoners can open doors and may take nearby weapons. Breakout events are rolled per prisoner, so holding more people also creates more opportunities for one to happen.
- Pause nonessential jobs: draft nearby colonists and shut doors toward the armoury, hospital, and outer exits.
- Keep weapons away from the door: clear dropped weapons and dangerous items, and separate the main armoury from the prison.
- If you want the pawn alive, do not overkill: use melee or low-damage control, recapture once downed, then treat them.
- Fix the route, not only the result: check held-open doors, gaps, bed status, and the shortest path to the map edge.
If a breakout overlaps a raid or fire, return to colonist safety, fire, and injuries first. See Combat & Defense for positions and retreats, or Medical Care for a crowded treatment queue.
π Version and source check
Scope: base game 1.6 series; last checked 2026-09-19. Prisoner controls, faction outcomes, and available handling methods can vary with DLC, mods, and storyteller settings, so confirm the current Prisoner tab and in-game prompts before committing.
Sources for this page: Ludeon: update 1.6 announcement and RimWorld Wiki: Prisoner.