The 10 Best RimWorld Mods in 2023

If you're ready to spice up your RimWorld gameplay but aren't sure where to start, here are 10 of the best RimWorld mods available. RimWorld has thousands of player made mods available on the Steam Workshop. Mods can do nearly anything from adding new gameplay features, quality of life fixes, and even multiplayer.

Best RimWorld Mods in 2023

RimWorld is a colony management simulation where you control a group of survivors as they attempt to escape from their dangerous, alien world. It’s a very deep and engrossing experience, requiring you to manage your colonists’ moods, resources, and defenses lest they be torn apart by all manner of nasty creatures. Since its release in 2015, Steam Workshop support has been added and modders have expanded the gameplay possibilities even more. From adding smaller quality of life tweaks to total conversions, you can find nearly any type of mod for your RimWorld colony.

Gamers that are well-versed with life on the rim may have dozens of mods ready to go. However, adding so many mods can be overwhelming and not all mods are compatible with each other. Luckily for you, today we’re going to go through 10 of the best RimWorld mods that will make your colonies even more efficient, immersive, and fun. But first, let’s take a quick detour on how to install RimWorld mods off of the Steam Workshop.

How to Install RimWorld Mods With the Steam Workshop

Luckily, installing and maintaining RimWorld mods is a cinch. On Steam Workshop, installation is as simple as finding the mod you want, and clicking the subscribe button. Once you are subscribed to a mod, it will automatically download the next time RimWorld is launched.

When you’re browsing the Workshop, make sure you check the description of mods for any dependencies. A lot of mods these days, and some in this list, have dependencies from HugsLib and Harmony. These mods act as a framework for mod developers, so it is a good idea to subscribe to these mods. 

Visit RimWorld's Steam Workshop page to download mods.

Visit RimWorld’s Steam Workshop page to download mods.

Once you’ve subscribed and launched RimWorld, you’ll want to click into the Mods menu and make sure your new mods are enabled. You’ll also want to take a look at your mod load order. This usually isn’t a problem, except for when it is and you’ll need to reorder the plugins within the mods menu. 

RimWorld Multiplayer Mod

Let’s start off with the fantastic RimWorld Multiplayer mod. This mod, as you can imagine, lets you play cooperatively with other people. Now you can build the perfect settlement with your friends! Better yet, all of the official expansions are supported and even many mods will work too! Additionally, it uses the Steam API so there’s no need to port forward unless you’re connecting via IP. There’s no limit on the player count here, but the mod author recommends no more than 8 players at a time. 

If you’re looking to experience life on the rim in a new light, the multiplayer mod is a great first choice. RimWorld is a great multiplayer title to boot! By working together with others, you can delegate tasks and really optimize your base. If you’d rather not share your base, you don’t have to – RimWorld Multiplayer mod supports multiple colonies at the same time. 

The RimWorld Multiplayer Mod supports the latest official patches, all DLC expansions, and even a lot of mods work with it.

The RimWorld Multiplayer Mod supports the latest official patches, all DLC expansions, and even a lot of mods work with it.

Download the RimWorld Multiplayer mod from Steam Workshop.

Wall Light Mod

The Wall Light mod is simple, but it’s very handy for almost any colony and it is one of the most popular mods on the Steam Workshop. This mod lets you add lights to your walls. That’s it. Other than that, each light functions very similar to the lamps your colonists can place on the ground, but these are a space-saving alternative. There are options to change their color, how much power the lights use, and other miscellaneous settings so you can personalize it to your liking.

The Wall Light saves a little bit of space since the lights are built into the wall.

The Wall Light saves a little bit of space since the lights are built into the wall.

Download the Wall Light mod from the Steam Workshop.

Vanilla Expanded Mod

If you’re playing RimWorld without any mods, you may find yourself wishing for more weapons, armors, enemies, wildlife, or factions. That’s where Vanilla Expanded comes in. Vanilla Extended is a series of mods that build off of each other to expand just about every mechanic in RimWorld. Vanilla Expanded has individual mods for just about everything you can think of, from adding Vikings to laser weapons to plants and fishing. This is a fantastic collections of mods that adds much needed variety and life to colonies.

I don’t recommend subscribing to every single mod within the Vanilla Expanded umbrella. Instead, I recommend taking a look through the whole collection so you can pick and choose what piques your interest. I use several of these on my colonies, such Vanilla Weapons Expanded, Vanilla Plants Expanded, and Vanilla Animals Expanded.

My favorite segment is the Vanilla Animals Expanded mod. It adds dozens of new creatures to tame or hunt.

My favorite segment is the Vanilla Animals Expanded mod. It adds dozens of new creatures to tame or hunt.

View the Vanilla Expanded Collection at the Steam Workshop.

Map Designer Mod

Sometimes you’re going to need the perfect map to create the perfect colony. That’s where the Map Designer mod comes in! Map Designer will adjust your map and create all sorts of nifty shapes and environmental features that otherwise wouldn’t exist within RimWorld. For example, have you ever wanted to create a colony on an island, or in a valley with a chokepoint through the mountains? Map Designer will let you do all of that and more. 

After just a few minutes, I was able to create this circular island with a river snaking through it.

After just a few minutes, I was able to create this circular island with a river snaking through it.

Download the Map Designer mod from Steam Workshop.

Set Up Camp Mod

Normally, caravans have to “settle” and create a new colony if they want to explore an empty tile. This can be annoying because this creates a brand new, permanent colony. That’s where Set Up Camp comes in, which lets you create a temporary camp or outpost. You can use the camp for anything, such as hunting, mining, and healing your colonists.

Set Up Camp fixes the underdeveloped caravan system within RimWorld, and that’s why it is one of my favorite RimWorld mods. If you’re low on food, you can have a group of your colonists go just outside of your main base and hunt for food or other resources. If you’re low on steel, you can set up a temporary mining camp to haul more resources back to your base. Or, most importantly, if your colonists are on their way back from raiding and need a quick place to bandage their wounds, a temporary camp may just save your colonists from an untimely infection.

The Set Up Camp mod will generate a wild area for your caravan to explore.

The Set Up Camp mod will generate a wild area for your caravan to explore and harvest.

Download the Set Up Camp mod from Steam Workshop.

Camera+ Mod

This is another simple mod, but it has a profound impact on how immersive RimWorld can be. Camera+ will let you zoom in so much that you can practically see the pores on your colonists’ faces. It also lets you zoom way out to get a bigger picture of your base and where it’s located on the map.

My favorite part of Camera+ is that it lets me get up close and personal for the moments that really matter – weddings, parties, executions, surgeries, etc. I have numerous screenshots of my colonists going through intense moments, and I’m really able to capture these events and remember how sentimental they are because of Camera+.

Best RimWorld Mods 2023 - Camera+

The Camera+ Mod makes RimWorld a more immersive experience.

Download the Camera+ mod from Steam Workshop.

Tech Level Progression Mod

One unfortunate fact about tribal colonies is that their tech level is stuck at the neolithic tech level, even if you’ve researched electricity and other advanced projects. Worse yet are the “research penalties” affecting all technologies higher than your current tech level. Luckily, that is no longer a problem with Tech Level Progression. As you can imagine, this mod lets you increase your technology level as you research more advanced tech.

By default, this mod will increase your tech level if your colony researches 75% of your current tech level’s research projects. For example, if you’re a tribal colony and you research 75% of the neolithic projects, you’ll advance into the medieval tech level. Skip those pesky research penalties and take your colonies to the peak of technological innovation! 

With the Tech Level Progression Mod, you can take a colony from tribal to archotech with zero research penalties.

With the Tech Level Progression Mod, you can take a colony from tribal to archotech with zero research penalties.

Download the Tech Level Progression mod from Steam Workshop.

Dubs Bad Hygiene Mod

Dubs Bad Hygiene adds new hygiene and sanitation mechanics for your colonists to engage in. That includes lovely porcelain thrones, showers, water temperature, expanded air conditioning, irrigation, kitchen sinks, and more!

Other colony management games, such as Oxygen Not Included, have similar hygiene mechanics, so it’s nice to have a solution that brings RimWorld up to parity. The mod creator, Dubwise, has several other really neat mods as well including one to build a nuclear reactor and harness the energy to create new weapons and technologies. Check out his full collection if you are interested.  

Now you can sit on a toilet while on the rim.

Now you can sit on a toilet while on the rim.

Download Dubs Bad Hygiene mod from Steam Workshop.

RimFridge: Now with Shelves! Mod

Are you tired of having your colonists go into your giant, unorganized freezer just to get a meal? RimFridge is your answer to that! It adds several variations of a refrigerator, allowing you to chill or freeze meals and other temperature sensitive goodies. By placing up to three items in it, you can conveniently have food items and medicine easily accessible for your cooks and doctors.

RimFridge is such a good tool because RimWorld is all about organization. Minimizing your colonist’s walking time can drastically improve their efficiency, so having a RimFridge in your dining room, kitchen, or hospital may be the difference between a mental break and a happy colonist.

Keep your meals accessible and cold with the RimFridge mod.

Keep your meals accessible and cold with the RimFridge mod.

Download the RimFridge: Now with Shelves! mod from Steam Workshop.

Medieval Overhaul Mod

If you fancy building a medieval town and castle, the Medieval Overhaul mod right up your alley. This mod heavily expands the early-to-mid game by adding dozens of medieval themed weaponry, armors, furniture, and crafting stations. This is the perfect mod to build a heavily fortified castle, including ballistae to mount on your battlements.

Morphing RimWorld into a medieval colony manager is not a simple task. Therefore, there are a lot of new systems and gameplay elements included in this mod. For example, the mining and smithing systems. Mining will now give you raw ores, which will need to be smelted with coal into usable ingots. Similarly, the production lines for wood and leather have been altered and include many new items.  There’s even a new biome called the Dark Forest, which has new vegetation and creatures to discover.

There are full suits of armor, many tiers of weaponry, and even new quests for your colonists to embark on. If you’re interested in doing a medieval themed playthrough, this is one of the best RimWorld mods you can install.

One of the best RimWorld mods is Medieval Overhaul, a mod that will convert your RimWorld colony into a thriving medieval settlement.

Build the castle of your dreams in Medieval Overhaul

Download the Medieval Overhaul mod from Steam Workshop.

Conclusion

The beauty of RimWorld modding is that you can pick and choose which mods to use, and customize your game however you want. Whether you’re looking for a “vanilla plus” experience with a handful of new gameplay elements, or something a little more drastic like a total conversion, the choice is up to you. What are your favorite RimWorld mods? Let us know some of your go-to mods in the comments.

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