Top RimWorld Mods Worth Installing in 2024

Six years in and RimWorld still pulls in massive playercounts. A lot of that staying power comes from a modding scene that refuses to slow down. The Steam Workshop has thousands of options, so picking where to start can feel like its own colony-management problem. Here are five mods that consistently earn a spot in most loadouts.

Pick Up and Haul

A small idea with outsized impact. Vanilla colonists carry items one at a time, which is fine if you enjoy watching pawns walk back and forth for an entire in-game day. Pick Up and Haul tells them to fill their inventory first and dump everything in one trip. Long hauling chores get done in a fraction of the time, and your colony actually keeps up with itself.

Hospitality

Visitor events in vanilla are short and forgettable. Hospitality turns them into a system worth caring about. Guests can stick around, work alongside your colonists, or eventually ask to join if you treat them well. A dedicated guest tab handles management, and the proper visitor rooms you bothered to build finally have a payoff beyond decoration.

Vanilla Weapons Expanded

The vanilla weapon list is fine. It is also small. Vanilla Weapons Expanded fills the gaps with options that span medieval through sci-fi tech tiers, plus new tools for non-combat work. Pair it with Vanilla Armors Expanded and the entire combat arsenal feels rebuilt rather than patched.

Replace Stuff

Replace Stuff sits at over a million subscribers for a reason. It lets you upgrade walls and furniture in place instead of demolishing, hauling materials, and rebuilding from scratch. The change sounds minor until you go back to vanilla and feel the friction. Most players consider it near mandatory after a single playthrough.

EdB Prepare Carefully

The most subscribed RimWorld mod on Steam, and the cure for hammering "randomize" three hundred times until your starting trio stops including a pyromaniac chef. EdB Prepare Carefully gives full control over backstories, traits, skills and starting gear. Balanced presets exist if you want a fair opening, and unbalanced ones are right there if you want a head start.

Wrapping Up

These five mods cover the most common pain points without changing what makes RimWorld feel like RimWorld. The Steam Workshop holds hundreds more once the basics are in place, so treat this list as a starting kit rather than a stopping point.