RimWorld, the hit colony-management sim from Ludeon Studios, is a game of managing needs. RimWorld players must guide their fledgling colony through pirate raids, cold snaps, and all manner of other dangers, while at the same time, colonists must be kept healthy, happy, and well-fed.
Starvation is an ever-present danger for RimWorld's colonists, and players must be careful to keep food stocks high enough to last. This can be tricky, however, as just like RimWorld's Herbal Medicine, certain food types rot into inedibility in only a few days. Fortunately, there are several methods that RimWorld players can use to make their food stocks last longer, keeping their colonists fed through the longest winters.
How to Preserve Food in RimWorld
The simplest way to preserve food stocks in RimWorld is to focus on foodstuffs that have a particularly long shelf life. Corn, Raw Fungus, Potatoes, and Rice will all last over a month at room temperature, making them ideal choices to fill a larder. When using these long-lasting foods, it's important to only cook enough Meals for the next 1 or 2 days at a time. This is because once a meal has been cooked, it will only take 4 days to spoil, no matter how long its ingredients would have lasted raw, and no matter whether the cook has the worst or best traits in RimWorld.
Some players will be more reliant on meat than crops to fulfill their RimWorld colonists' need for food, generally those who can't grow a lot due to poor soil fertility, extreme biome temperatures, or colonists with poor Growing skills. For these players, and any who'd prefer to stock large amounts of Meals, the best option for preserving food in RimWorld is refrigeration. Any food stored in a room that is between 10C and 0C will spoil more slowly, with the preserving effect increasing as the temperature approaches 0. Any food that is stored in a room below 0C will freeze, preventing it from spoiling indefinitely.
How to Build a Freezer in RimWorld
As items are stored on the ground or on shelves in RimWorld, players will have to build a walk-in refrigerator/freezer to preserve their food. The cheapest way to build a refrigerator is to simply create a room that is open to the outside, though this only works when the biome temperature has dropped below 10C. The food will also deteriorate, a separate process from rotting, unless a vent or forced-open door is used to connect the room to the outside instead of an empty space. This is similar to the system which helps keep colonists in a good mood by providing them with enclosed bedrooms to sleep in.
For a more sophisticated freezer, and one that can function in any biome, players will have to have completed the Air Conditioning research. This research unlocks access to Coolers, electrical devices that require RimWorld's Components and can be fitted into walls to maintain a low temperature in the room they're facing into. Two or three Coolers should be sufficient to keep a moderately-sized freezer below 0C in even the hottest biomes, preserving the food inside for as long as the Coolers receive electricity.
RimWorld is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
