RimWorld Traits Guide & Traits Tier List [2024, 1.5+]

Not sure which traits you should have on your pawns, or which traits your Biotech babies should get? This traits guide should give you everything you need to know to choose the best trait in every situation.

Huge thanks to MortalSmurph on my Discord, as this is a joint guide we've made!

If you are interested in more RimWorld guides please let me know in the comments or by hitting the like and subscribe buttons. I really do appreciate it!

In addition, I have a ton of crazy, max difficulty, no-pause allowed challenges on the channel (both with and without mods). Here are two of my favorites:

I am also LIVE on Twitch 5+ days a week! Come hang out, watch, participate, or quietly lurk! Everyone is welcome.

---------- TIMESTAMPS ----------
0:00 - Intro
0:15 - What is this Guide?
0:39 - You're Wrong!
1:26 - Tough
2:00 - God Pawns
2:44 - The Big 6 Tier
2:47 - Sanguine & Iron Willed
3:48 - Industrious
4:30 - Fast Learner
5:51 - Jogger
6:54 - Quick Sleeper
8:00 - All Positive Tier
8:17 - Hard Worker, Fast Walker, Steadfast, Optimist
8:29 - Super Immune
8:43 - Great Memory
9:28 - Nimble, Kind, Masochist
9:47 - Mostly Positive Tier
10:06 - Brawler
10:20 - Ascetic
11:05 - Body Modder
11:28 - Tortured Artist
12:35 - Trigger Happy vs Careful Shooter
13:45 - Very Neurotic, Neurotic, Too Smart
15:06 - It Depends Tier
15:17 - Night Owl & Undergrounder
15:49 - Nudist
16:18 - Psychic Sensitivity etc
16:50 - Recluse (Biotech)
17:18 - Chemical Interest & Fascination
20:52 - War Crimes Tier
20:54 - Psychopath, Bloodlust, Cannibal
21:33 - Gamified Traits
22:07 - Social Tier
22:12 - Social Issues Explained
23:41 - Social Impact
24:11 - Social Chart
24:29 - Rebuff Traits
24:54 - Negative Tier
25:10 - Greedy & Jealous
25:49 - Teetotaler
26:05 - Wimp
26:26 - Gourmand & Pyromaniac
27:23 - Slowpoke
27:40 - Body Purist
27:55 - Pessimist & Nervous
28:10 - Big Negative Tier
28:13 - Delicate (Biotech)
28:42 - Depressive & Volatile
29:05 - Lazy & Slothful
29:30 - Sickly
30:09 - Slow Learner
31:05 - It Depends

---------- WATCH LIVE ----------
Adam is LIVE on Twitch 5+ days a week! Come hang out, watch, participate, or quietly lurk! Everyone is welcome.

For RimWorld content, Adam streams challenge modes of the game such as no-pause losing is fun difficulty.

---------- CONNECT ----------

---------- THE GAME ----------
"A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more."

---------- CREDITS ----------
Channel: AdamVsEverything on Twitch
Channel Mods: count_me_out, crazycaitycat, ivaxava, phoenixhinotori, raix1122
Editor: AdamVsEverything
Game: RimWorld
Developer: Ludeon Studios

---------- INFO ----------
This RimWorld guide / RimWorld tutorial teaches:

RimWorld Guide / Tutorial -
RimWorld Traits
RimWorld Traits Guide
RimWorld Biotech Baby Traits
RimWorld Biotech Children Traits
RimWorld Traits List
RimWorld Traits Tier List
RimWorld Tier List

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#RimWorld #RimWorldtutorial #RimWorldGuide

[AdamVsEverything]

EDIT: 1.5 did not add new traits or change existing - this guide is still applicable for 1.5! Yes the 'Creepjoiners' can have new traits like 'Perfect Memory' but those are events and not accessible for the player to roll without mods/dev mode.

REMEMBER - These are more CATEGORIZED than RANKED. I thought that was relatively clear with all the 'It Depends' :P
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
0:15 - What is this Guide?
0:39 - You're Wrong!
1:26 - Tough
2:00 - God Pawns
2:44 - The Big 6 Tier
2:47 - Sanguine & Iron Willed
3:48 - Industrious
4:30 - Fast Learner
5:51 - Jogger
6:54 - Quick Sleeper
8:00 - All Positive Tier
8:17 - Hard Worker, Fast Walker, Steadfast, Optimist
8:29 - Super Immune
8:43 - Great Memory
9:28 - Nimble, Kind, Masochist
9:47 - Mostly Positive Tier
10:06 - Brawler
10:20 - Ascetic
11:05 - Body Modder
11:28 - Tortured Artist
12:35 - Trigger Happy vs Careful Shooter
13:45 - Very Neurotic, Neurotic, Too Smart
15:06 - It Depends Tier
15:17 - Night Owl & Undergrounder
15:49 - Nudist
16:18 - Psychic Sensitivity etc
16:50 - Recluse (Biotech)
17:18 - Chemical Interest & Fascination
20:52 - War Crimes Tier
20:54 - Psychopath, Bloodlust, Cannibal
21:33 - Gamified Traits
22:07 - Social Tier
22:12 - Social Issues Explained
23:41 - Social Impact
24:11 - Social Chart
24:29 - Rebuff Traits
24:54 - Negative Tier
25:10 - Greedy & Jealous
25:49 - Teetotaler
26:05 - Wimp
26:26 - Gourmand & Pyromaniac
27:23 - Slowpoke
27:40 - Body Purist
27:55 - Pessimist & Nervous
28:10 - Big Negative Tier
28:13 - Delicate (Biotech)
28:42 - Depressive & Volatile
29:05 - Lazy & Slothful
29:30 - Sickly
30:09 - Slow Learner
31:05 - It Depends

[con]

I love how Tough is so universally good that it deserves it's own rank.

[acksOldPeople]

I've got a delicate colonist that has taken damage twice in total. The first was a single swipe from a boar that ripped her arm off, and the second was a slap from a monkey that ripped an eye out.

[ladaleenglish]

not once did i ever think to seperate colonist with bad socials they just beat the crap out of each other until they have cathartic fights and then there best buds lol

[bookle]

10:24
update for 1.5, ascetic no longer has a mood debuff for eating without a table.

[ManaPotionArtisan]

Personally don't mind some of the bottom traits, as long as there is some use for them. Like wimp+neurotic can be my dedicated researcher, and slow learner+nudist is a free meat shield or cannibal food.

The ones I can't stand are pyromaniacs and "resource eaters" (gourmand and the two drug traits) irregardless of whatever high-tier trait they might also have.

One pyro I had burned an entire forest and half my base while in the middle of being raided. The resource-eaters are self explanatory.

[cookiesz]

damn, having the whole list up 1 second in, that is very nice for people who just want a quick glance

also, just off a 2 second glance, I feel like slow learner could have been its own tier at the bottom like tough is its own at the top

[torymiddlebrooks]

Deeply appreciate that you are so detailed with your videos. I am at 2500 hours in this game and this has been very helpful still.

[hideshisface]

One more thing on industrious - it is absolutely amazing for crafters as well. Sure, if you have a production specialist, this stacks with bonuses from it... And considering that some of the more complex armours and weapons have pretty hefty workload attached to them - this is a wonderful time-saver. Although, one must remember one thing - learning many of the skills is corelated to how much time a pawn spends doing the task - so faster work is not always beneficial in terms of pawns learning, ironically.

Ascetic is a double edged sword in my opinion - it is convenient early on, but preference for shoddy accomodations and food also means no mood buffs from better quality stuff you will eventually have.
Body modder to me is basically a free mood buff - unless you are running a body-purist colony that shuns bionics - eventually your pawns are guaranteed to lose body parts... So why not have something extra from it?

Trigger-happy vs careful shooter - in the end it boils down to one simple fact - disadvantages from trigger-happy are very small for a combat pawn and these pawns are going to reach high levels of shooting where accuracy penalty won't matter any longer. Penalty from careful shooter is pretty much permanent.

Careful shooter has niche use on sniper rifles - if you need to snipe the annoying mortar or something like that - careful shooter WILL be more reliable... But here comes trigger-happy again - deficiencies of trigger happy can be further mitigated by bionics, gunlink, and shooting specialist AND masterwork/legendary weapons.

Nudist - this is a meme trait, basically. BUT it can be hilarious - with armourskin gland, tough pawns - you basically get a colony of perpetually happy walking tanks. But temperatures become a problem.

Psychic sensitivity is a double edged sword - because psychic drones can become pretty devastating. Psychic heat is manageable for the most part, and not every power really benefits from psychic sensitivity increase.

[kylewelch]

11:25 Keep in mind, with Biotech, Mechanitor’s mechlink counts as a body modification, and will please body modders. I am unsure about the further implants, but it certainly counts for the first check.

The importance here is that a mechlink is self-installed, so you can do a solo transhumanist more easily.

[Adam-rsen]

Adam, thank you so much for breaking down the game in such detail without being... abrasive or annoyingly voiced. So many youtubers have such an insufferable speaking cadence or attitude that I literally can't watch them because it pains me too much. You're just a normal guy that's putting together a LOT of helpful and detailed content. It shouldn't be as hard as it seems to be but you're on the top of my list. THANKS!

[denaytan]

IMO, Body Modder is a serious top-tier trait. I often play in such a way that results in me having colonies with dozens of people in them on max sized maps, and in that environment it becomes rare for relationships to start between colonists. Often, relationships only start if by pure coincidence two people in roughly the same age range happen to have the same job within the colony, or their jobs take them to the same room so frequently that positive relationship memories can accumulate faster than they dissipate. Body Modder mitigates this issue because of the simple fact that body modders gain an opinion bonus for colonists with modded bodies. Biotech allowing us to manually tell pawns to romance one another does mitigate this issue a bit, but opinion is still an important factor. Not to mention that the aesthetic improvement parts provide both the beauty opinion bonus and the body modder opinion bonus at the same time, which actually makes them worth using in my eyes outside of social pawns who lose their noses in combat.

[philip]

I want to say thank you for showing your end result at the beginning of your video. That is very helpful to get the most important information quickly.

[craigblum]

One of the best Rim World guides I have ever seen. Loved your Anima Tree guide too

[phrozehniv]

Love your guide and tier content! Keep it up.

Love your long form stuff, but the new edited content is awesome as well. We just need more of em! Really like the new direction of your channel!

[animaeversor]

While I had a good understanding of these, seeing all the breakdowns and comparisons was insightful. It probably depends but I might have learnt a thing or two. Nice work!

[everinghall]

For me personally, industrius/samguine are the best traits.
Industrious saves you time on work, which saves you mood.
Sanguine buffe your mood, which means you van work longer hours and are less likely to have a mental break at the worst possible time in combat, these traits will save you more pawns than tough, which only really comes into play when you slip up and let a pawn take hits the shouldnt be taking.

Btw industrious makes medical faster, truly a must for combat medics, when you need to gtfo you can have your industrious doctor patch up wounded in the field and use painstop so they can march themselves to safety, which saves you a pawns manpower in carrying them.
Industrious is just so, so good.

[ojuelegba]

Even better if you have biotech, when the new update drops you can have the fast learner trait and put the fast learner gene in someone and they will stack, same with jogger. The opposites also apply, slowpoke, slow learner etc

[starburst]

Tortured artist + too smart = level 20 crafter that can double fist legendaries since they are always breaking and learn fast.

[Alister]

An amazing, intelligent breakdown of the different traits. It could have been 'this is S tier, this is B tier!', and totally missed all the nuance and strategy. I have nearly 2000 hours in the game, and I still learned something from this video!