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๐ฐ Trade & Economy
๐ก Orbital Trade โ Make Money Without Leaving Home
Orbital trading is the most basic way to do business in RimWorld. You don't have to move a muscle โ just sit in your base and wait for trade ships to come to you.
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Orbital Trade Beacon | When powered, only tradeable items in its range are available for orbital trade; use the build preview and item range as the final check. |
| Comms Console | Needs a pawn to operate it to call / answer trade ships |
| Ship Types | Stock and buying rules vary by trader type. Open the trade window, then filter around the colony's current need. |
| Call Ground Caravan | You can request a ground caravan from a friendly faction through the comms console; trust the current game UI for the silver cost. |
| Gifting | Gift pods can improve faction relations. Decide whether the colony currently needs the materials more than the relationship gain. |
๐ก Tip: Put the freezer and sell-stock inside the beacon's real coverage first. Walls affect coverage, so use the in-game build preview while placing it.
๐ซ Ground Caravans โ Go Out and Do Business
- Forming a caravan: On the world map, select pawns + animals โ choose "Form Caravan" โ they'll gather supplies automatically
- Mounts matter: Horses / donkeys / dromedaries increase caravan speed. Without mounts, travel is painfully slow
- Danger on the road: Caravans can be ambushed en route โ bring some weapons and medicine
- Settlement trading: Friendly faction bases give a settlement trade bonus, but count round-trip time, supplies, and home defense before leaving.
- Gifting diplomacy: Bring goods to factions as gifts โ one trip can boost relations significantly
- Pre-departure check: Enough food (caravans eat on the road), enough medicine, check the season (winter slows travel)
๐ Wealth & Raid Difficulty
This is the core mechanic every RimWorld player must understand โ every point of your wealth determines enemy strength.
| Wealth Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Building Wealth | Every wall, every floor counts โ don't over-decorate |
| Item Wealth | Everything stored in your stockpiles counts โ don't hoard |
| Pawn Wealth | Every colonist, every bionic implant counts โ bionics add a lot of wealth |
| Animal Wealth | Your animals count too โ don't keep more than you need |
| Raid Points | Wealth converts to raid points โ determines how many enemies come and what gear they bring |
โ ๏ธ Core Logic: If your wealth grows faster than your defenses, you're dead. Hoarding is the #1 cause of death for new players. Before you have solid defenses, don't mine like crazy and don't pave floors with gold.
๐ฑ Trading Tips
- Best things to sell: Drugs (flake / yayo / wake-up) > Sculptures (large marble sculpture) > Clothing (duster, leather) > Organs (use with caution โ affects mood)
- Worth buying: Components (too expensive to craft early on), Industrial medicine (stock up mid-game), Shock lance / Shield belt (from rare goods traders)
- Price factors: Use a stronger social pawn to negotiate and read the price tooltip in the trade window; difficulty and the trading partner also affect the outcome.
- Don't sell: Advanced components (you'll need them later), Uranium (power armor), Plasteel
- Emergency cash: Smelt unwanted weapons for steel, disassemble mechanoid corpses for components + plasteel
๐๏ธ Drop Pod Logistics
- Basic principle: Drop pods can launch supplies to any location on the map
- Use 1 โ Gifting: Launch gifts at friendly settlements for instant goodwill boost
- Use 2 โ Resupply: Caravan ran out of supplies on the road? Launch drop pods from base to resupply
- Use 3 โ Transfer: Move supplies between multiple bases
- Fuel: Drop pods need fuel (chemfuel), refined from wood / food at a refinery
- Batch launch: Can't fit everything in one pod? Deploy multiple pods in a salvo
๐งพ Sort Stock Before You Open a Trade Window
Trading is not just selling whatever fills a stockpile. Separate items by purpose first, so a useful sale does not create a future shortage.
| Bucket | What to do | How to judge it |
|---|---|---|
| Survival floor | Keep it; do not trade it for quick silver | Food, routine medicine, usable weapons, materials already needed for construction |
| Near-term plan | Reserve a portion, sell the excess | Items for the next research goal, season, caravan, or defense upgrade |
| Idle stock | Sell, gift, or dispose of it first | Duplicate weapons, unwanted apparel, and goods with no assigned purpose |
๐ก Set one or two objectives per trade: restock medicine, buy components, acquire a specific defensive item, or turn idle goods into silver.
๐บ๏ธ When to Caravan and When to Stay Home
- A new colony: use visiting traders and communications first; do not remove your main labor or fighters for an ordinary deal.
- Stable food, healthcare, and home defense: then consider a caravan with a shopping list and enough margin for return.
- Expansion or long travel: check season, supplies, route, and who remains to defend the base. Leaving home is a labor project, not a silver button.
- Wealth outruns defense: reduce idle stock and strengthen the colony before accumulating more expensive goods.
Use wealth management to decide what is safe to keep, and temperature and refrigeration for perishable travel supplies.
๐ฐ Turn money into colony survival
1. What to sell and buy: fix the weakest link first
| Stage | Sell first | Buy first | Leave alone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early, short on labor | Extra leather, duplicate weapons, idle stock | Medicine, components, emergency food, basic weapons | Large furniture and useless luxuries |
| Production is stable | Repeatable clothing, processed goods, and surplus crops | Components, key materials, urgently needed gear | A production line that consumes more labor than it returns |
| Midgame expansion | High-value, low-bulk finished goods | Medical, defensive, and replacement equipment | Spending every last bit of silver |
โ
A successful trade: food, medicine, defense, or production becomes clearly safer afterward. A larger silver number alone is not success.
2. Three trade situations
- An orbital trader arrives: sell compact high-value goods first and buy components or medicine. Do not search the entire stockpile at the last minute.
- You are forming a caravan: calculate travel days, supplies, route, and the base's remaining defenders. Do not take every capable colonist.
- You suddenly have a lot of money: check whether wealth grew beyond your current firepower and population. Improve defense and medical coverage first.
For the wealth trade-off, see Wealth Management; for product supply, see Crafting & Production.
๐งญ Once silver arrives, do this next
๐ Version and source check
Scope: base game 1.6 series; last checked 2026-09-19. Beacon range, trade stock, and caravan-request costs can vary with version, DLC, and mods, so use the current game UI before committing to a trade.
Sources for this page: Ludeon 1.6.4850 update notes, RimWorld Wiki: Orbital Trade Beacon, and RimWorld Wiki: Trade.