My Ratings for Every Vanilla Rimworld Trait

10/1/21 - Really late on adding this note, but this article is for the 1.0 version of Rimworld. While some points still hold true even in later versions such as 1.1 and 1.3, I have updated the article to reflect this (and fixed some grammar issues).

Rimworld is a game I've been playing on and off for about a year, often bingeing for days at a time before getting bored of the colony I'm managing and moving on. I especially enjoy the game for the numerous details that encourage strategic thinking, though new players may find themselves overwhelmed even after playing through the tutorial. One aspect of the numerous details within the game are the traits that colonists may have up to three of. Traits can provide a wide variety of effects that are beneficial or detrimental, though often they have both. Furthermore, specific situations may determine how useful or harmful the effects are.

Having played Rimworld for a fair amount of time and also because I feel like it, in this article I will rate all the traits available in the latest version 1.0 version of unmodded Rimworld while playing one of the preset scenarios with explanations for my ratings. A higher rating generally indicates that in my opinion, assuming all other factors are equal, a colonist with this trait is more desirable to have in my colony. Traits will be ordered from the highest rated to the lowest.

Cannibal - 10/10

I consider Cannibal the best trait in Rimworld for a few reasons. While some of these benefits are shared with the Psychopath and Bloodlust trait, Cannibal is especially helpful because every event that produces fresh human corpses suddenly becomes a beneficial food source for a colonist with this trait. This improves survivability in biomes where food sources are scarce such as Ice Sheet and Sea Ice.

Specifically, the act of eating human meat by a Cannibal grants excellent, easily accessible mood bonuses in the form of Raw Cannibalism and Cooked Cannibalism. These would normally cause a mood penalty of 20 and 15 respectively, but they instead grant a mood bonus of 20 and 15 respectively to a Cannibal and the two bonuses can be stacked. Wearing human leather clothing also grants a small mood bonus for a Cannibal, much like it does for a colonist with Bloodlust. Both of these factors make mood management incredibly easy and can lead to consistent inspirations for the colonist.

As for the benefits shared by the other aforementioned traits, Cannibals can butcher humans without consequence and they don't mind seeing fresh corpses or leaving colonists unburied. All of these normally would also cause a fairly serious mood penalty. Human butchering is especially useful when it comes to what a Cannibal can do since it produces Human Meat and Human Leather. Human Meat, in addition to being good for feeding to a Cannibal, is also good for feeding to animals as is or in the form of Pemmican or Kibble. Human Leather has a high market value and while it may be a liability to keep it for an extended period since raids will become more threatening, they make for an excellent gift to other factions especially in later stages of the game when raids become enormous.

However, while I may give the Cannibal trait a perfect score, it has a minor downside in that other colonists without the Cannibal, Bloodlust, or Psychopath trait will have a reduced opinion if the Cannibal butchers humans (-10) or eats raw human meat (-5). This can easily be overcome with a deep talk or some chitchat, but some caution is advised to ensure a rivalry doesn't develop due to the potential for social fights. Personally, I advise only feeding cooked human meat to a Cannibal when possible to avoid that opinion reduction.

Industrious - 9.5/10

Industrious is a fantastic trait because it increases the colonist's global work speed by 35% with minimal downside. This results in a significant increase in productivity that allows the colonist to work faster than colonists typically can even in complete darkness, where their global work speed is 108%. The small downside is that colonists with Industrious slightly dislike other colonists without the Industrious or Hard Worker trait. This results in a -5 opinion by default, but is worsened if a colonist has the Lazy (-20) or Slothful (-30) trait. With that said, I consider Lazy and Slothful colonists undesirable due to their global work speed penalty, so the inevitable enmity an Industrious colonist has towards them results in a nice mood boost upon the entirely "unintentional" death of a Lazy or Slothful colonist.

Jogger - 9.5/10

Jogger is an excellent trait that increases a colonist's movement speed by approximately 8.7%, or from 4.6 cells per second to 5 cells per second. Colonists tend to move around a lot even if they are assigned to tasks such as research, meaning this trait benefits even in such situations. This trait particularly shines in situations where a colonist needs to outrun an enemy to survive. This includes other humans without this trait as well as any animals that move at up to 5 cells per second themselves.

Furthermore, this trait scales well with effects that augment movement speed such as bionics. In fact, a colonist with Jogger who has a Bionic Leg and an Archotech Leg (which grants 137.5% movement, or 6.875 cells per second) is nearly as fast as a normal colonist with two Archotech Legs (which grants 150% movement, or 6.9 cells per second).

Fast Learner - 9/10

Fast Learner is a strong trait that increases experience gain rate by 75%. This bonus is multiplicative, meaning skills with no passion are learned at 61.25% of the normal rate, skills with minor passion are learned at 175% of the normal rate, and skills with a burning passion are learned 262.5% of the normal rate. Because of this, the Fast Learner trait especially thrives if a colonist has some skills with flames of passion, which will then cause them to excel at a rate even normal colonists with burning passion in the skill cannot match. The ultimate result with a bit of time investment is a colonist that is incredibly exceptional at skills they are passionate about and maintaining skill levels against experience decay will be easier because of the higher experience gain rate.

However, this trait requires a bit of a time investment to yield great results unlike some others, especially the traits I rated higher than this one. This means colonists without Fast Learner, but with some high skill levels, may be more useful overall. A Fast Learner with few flames of passion is also not too great because while they may learn all their skills a little faster, gaining experience at 61.25% of the normal rate is still quite slow. This means becoming exceptional in a skill with no passion will still be time-consuming and higher skill levels will be laborious to maintain.

Bloodlust - 9/10

Much like this post says, Bloodlust is an excellent trait that provides a variety of benefits along with a small downside. It shares benefits with the Cannibal trait in that a colonist with Bloodlust can observe or butcher human corpses with no personal mood penalties. Benefits are also shared with Psychopaths in that a colonist with either trait largely does not mind tragedies such as the death of allies. Colonists with Bloodlust also have a unique benefit that allows them to observe rotting human corpses with no personal mood penalty, which makes them good candidates for the disposal or burial of rotting human corpses.

Colonists with Bloodlust can gain mood bonuses from wearing clothing made out of Human Leather. However, in my opinion they are more suited to wearing tainted clothing with superior stats because they suffer no mood penalty for doing so. Considering how often I've had a raider with useful equipment die instead of going into pain shock, it's nice to have a colonist who can wear the gear without penalty.

Bloodlust also enables a colonist to gain substantial mood bonuses when killing humans or observing the death of other humans. These mood bonuses are so great that it should easily result in inspirations or at least provide effective immunity to mental breaks while they are active. However, the mood benefits for both cases lasts for a few days and humans are not always readily available to kill without some consequence. Because of this, I usually find other mood benefits such as those a Cannibal has access to superior by comparison.

Finally, Bloodlust multiplies the chance of a social fight occurring by 4. I personally really dislike social fights because the outcome of them can result in a colonist's death or permanent loss of body parts. Therefore, this is a liability to consider if a colonist with Bloodlust isn't friendly with another colonist. This is a distinct possibility if the colonist with Bloodlust butchers humans regularly among other reasons, but it can also happen if compatibility is poor.

Overall, Bloodlust is a fantastic trait despite the downside and I will usually welcome a colonist with it with open arms as long they're not wrought with numerous other flaws, especially those that negatively affect social interactions.

Kind - 8.5/10

Contrasting with the social fight-happy Bloodlust trait is the Kind trait that helps to reduce the chance of social fights. Considering how often colonists like to slight or insult each other even with positive compatibility, having a colonist who is not a social liability is incredibly convenient. A Kind colonist will not start a social fight or cause mood penalties through insults, but instead can boost the mood of other colonists with kind words, though this happens very rarely. Kind colonists can ultimately cause a positive feedback loop where they become everyone's friend since the inevitable deep talks and kind words they share with others decreases the chance they will be slighted or insulted in return.

Unfortunately, much like in real life, kindness can only get so far and in this case the Kind trait provides nothing direct in the way of other benefits such as an increase in productivity or combat potential.

Too Smart - 8/10

Being too smart is to a colonist's benefit because even if they are somehow incapable of using the Intellectual skill, this trait provides the benefits of Fast Learner, except it has a fairly significant downside of increasing the mental break threshold by 12%. This means a colonist with this trait and no other mental break threshold modifying traits must have their mood maintained at 47% to avoid risking a mental break. By default, this means the colonist must have some mood bonuses since the base mood level will not typically be enough (it's not 50% by default, despite the wiki saying so). This usually won't be too difficult to do but some events that reduce mood such as Psychic Drones may require extra attention.

Beyond that, this trait is basically another Fast Learner in terms of the benefits it provides and will stack with it if a colonist somehow has both traits, which is something I have very rarely run into but is worth considering.

Very Neurotic - 8/10

This trait increases global work speed by 40%, which is better than the Industrious trait. Considering Fast Learner was rated lower by comparison, Very Neurotic should have a higher rating than Too Smart since it is better than Industrious, but has a similar downside of increasing the mental break threshold like Too Smart does. However, Very Neurotic increases the mental break threshold by 14% instead of 12%, which may make mood management a little more difficult in situations where mood is reduced. Ultimately, this means the benefits of Very Neurotic are stronger but so is the downside, earning it a similar rating as Too Smart.

With that said, it is worth mentioning Very Neurotic colonists don't look down upon others who are not hard workers, which would normally slightly reduce the colonist's opinion of them.

Transhumanist - 8/10

At first glance, this trait seems like a detriment because of the mood penalty of 4. Fortunately, this is a fairly easy penalty to combat because any sort of artificial body modification counts towards making a colonist with this trait happy. Referring once again to a post I linked above, the most practical way to go about doing this is to install Cochlear Implants onto the colonist since other lower grade artificial body parts such as Peg Legs and various prosthetics can reduce productivity greatly. In any case, once a colonist with this trait has even a single artificial body part, they gain a modest boost to their mood that stacks to the point of being slightly better than the Sanguine trait (+13 vs +12). This is somewhat daunting to do since it requires the colonist to have 6 artificial body parts, but this is reasonable to achieve at later stages in the game.

This trait also provides another benefit which I like even more. Since a Transhumanist colonist has a reduced chance of having other beneficial traits that scale well with bionics because of the fact colonists can only have up to three traits, it may be more practical to install bionics onto other, more productive colonists. Since a Transhumanist colonist likes artificial body parts so much, they have an improved opinion of other colonists with them up to a whopping 40. This in turn leads to them slighting and insulting those colonists less if at all. Ironically, Cochlear Implants are once again a pretty good way to help improve social interactions involving Transhumanist colonists before bionics are easily available.

Overall, this trait is great because it effectively rewards the installation of the strongly beneficial bionic body parts and the detriment is not too difficult to counteract even in the relatively early stages of a colony's development.

Tough - 8/10

This is the first of a few combat-oriented traits in Rimworld and in my opinion it is by far the best. The Tough trait reduces damage taken by 50%. This not only provides the colonist with more staying power in a combat situation, it also helps to prevent them from losing organs and body parts, especially more fragile ones that tend to get lost such as eyes. The destruction of some organs or body parts, such as the brain or the torso, leads to death. This is also useful in the rare case a social fight happens, since less damage will be dealt overall.

Another benefit to consider is that all injuries recover at a set rate and a Tough colonist is less likely to have severe injuries that take multiple days to heal. To put this another way, a Tough colonist effectively heals from their injuries twice as fast since they took half the damage to begin with.

Overall this is a great trait to have especially on a melee combatant. I personally try not to have my colonists get injured if possible and do not specifically seek a colonist with this trait. However, if I happen to get one, I typically put such a colonist in more risky situations since they can afford to suffer more injuries than usual.

Sanguine - 8/10

This simple trait provides a permanent, unconditional mood boost of 12 to the colonist with it. This is great for helping to avoid mental breaks and makes it much easier to trigger inspirations. However, it's not as powerful as some other mood boosting effects such as the ones provided by Cannibal and Bloodlust. Furthermore, a moderate mood boost is only one of many benefits I would prefer to see a colonist have, which limits how powerful this trait is compared to many I have rated higher. With that said, it's still a welcome sight to see on randomly generated colonists.

Hard Worker - 7.5/10

Hard Worker is a weaker version of the Industrious trait, increasing global work speed by 20%. This gives colonists with it an edge compared to normal colonists in terms of getting things done, but not at the level I'd consider it stronger than any trait I have rated higher than it. This trait also has the same downside as Industrious where they'll see any colonist without the Industrious or Hard Worker trait as lazy and have -5 opinion of them.

Fast Walker - 7/10

Fast Walker is a weaker version of Jogger, with the bonus being half as strong by increasing movement of the colonist by 0.2 cells per second instead of 0.4. While the point of improved productivity applies since colonists tend to move around a fair amount so getting places faster helps with that, I cannot say the same about the benefits this trait provides in combat. This relatively minor increase in movement speed helps much less with kiting since stopping to shoot incurs a fairly significant delay that this trait is much less capable of compensating for. The result is colonists will have a much harder time inflicting much-needed injuries that would slow the foe's movement speed on their own, which ultimately demonstrates how much less powerful this trait is despite providing an entirely positive effect.

Quick Sleeper - 7/10

Quick Sleeper increases the rate at which rest is gained by 50%, which is a major boon to productivity due to the reduction in time spent sleeping. I personally do not seek this trait because I favor utilizing other ways to improve rest effectiveness. Specifically, I try to build higher quality beds and eventually Royal Beds and I also install Bionic Stomachs, which provides so much rest effectiveness I actually have colonists resting before their scheduled time to rest because they wake up so early. Adding the Quick Sleeper trait would make this happen sooner, which would not be optimal for a colony I want to be completely resting at night so that they have a sleep schedule similar to the many animals I keep in addition to reducing the chance of sleep disturbance.

With that said, I cannot argue against the objective benefit of being able to simply do more over an extended period of time because a colonist with this trait sleeps less. I would personally give such a colonist a completely open schedule and have them sleep at any time they desire to maximize this benefit and would be happy with the productivity increase even if it comes at the expense of some minor mood debuffs.

Beautiful - 7/10

A colonist with this trait will be strongly liked by other colonists due to the +40 opinion they will have of said colonist. This greatly reduces the chance of the colonist being insulted or slighted and can lead to positive social interactions, but it is worth keeping in mind the colonist themselves may initiate negative social interactions especially if they become a target for unwanted romance. There's not much benefit otherwise much like the Kind trait, but this benefit is powerful enough in terms of improving the social aspect of running a colony that I believe it's worth the 7/10 rating. Just try not to get the colonist killed due to the long duration mood penalties for losing a friend.

Optimist - 7/10

Optimist is a weaker version of the Sanguine trait, increasing mood by 6 permanently. This provides much of the same benefits that Sanguine does, but to a lesser degree, which leads to a lower rating. However, I personally am not rating it all that much lower because I believe it's nice to have an easy mood boost to the point I would consider that quality itself well above average.

Iron-willed - 7/10

On paper, Iron-willed is a stronger trait than even Sanguine because it technically equates to an 18 point boost in mood because it reduces mental break thresholds by that amount. However, on a normal colonist it will actually only reduce the mental break threshold by 4%. This is because there are minimums for each mental break threshold. These thresholds are 1% for Extreme (down from 5%), 16% for Major (down from 20%), and 31% for Minor (down from 35%). The result is that this trait is technically worse than even the Optimist trait in terms of effective mood gain.

However, I gave it an equal rating as Optimist because it synergizes with other traits that increase the mental break threshold but provide a beneficial effect such as Too Smart or Very Neurotic. If a colonist has either trait and Iron-willed, they will have the minimum possible break thresholds as well as the benefit of either aforementioned trait. While this is not an optimal set of traits for a colonist, I believe this combination is strong enough to warrant giving Iron-willed a higher rating than expected.

Undergrounder - 6.5/10

Undergrounder is another trait I do not specifically look for in my colonists but I cannot deny its benefits. These benefits primarily allow a colonist with the trait to thrive in a mountain base because they will never be afflicted by mood debuffs due to failing to go outside enough or being in an area that's too dark or cramped. This also benefits sedentary colonists such as researchers and crafters who I often find may end up needing to go outside periodically at the risk of suffering mood penalties.

However, it is worth mentioning all of these benefits specifically apply to nullifying some negative effects on mood. A colonist with this trait will still suffer work penalties from darkness, which means this is surprisingly not a great trait for miners.

Trigger-Happy - 6.5/10

While I personally prefer that colonists with no effect to their shooting ability, I think Trigger-Happy has more potential to be good compared to Careful Shooter. While their accuracy is fairly poor at longer ranges, the ability to shoot up to twice as fast is handy. This not only provides more chances to land a shot, but it means less time is spent standing still to shoot, which helps with kiting enemies. Being able to shoot faster also makes weapons with a noticeably longer wind-up time to shoot such as miniguns and LMGs, which already have horrible accuracy anyways, better to use.

By the way, after some experimentation, a colonist with this trait shoots about 66% faster using an Assault Rifle, which is my favored weapon of choice.

Night Owl - 6.5/10

Night Owl increases a colonist's mood by 16 at night and decreases it by 10 during the day. They also do not suffer a mood decrease in darkness. Based on information from the wiki, this means it is undesirable for a colonist to be awake in between 11:00 and 18:00, which is when the colonist will consider it to be daytime. However, this can cause problems because events that require the colonist to be awake may happen during that time period. Furthermore, colonists sleeping during that time period may have their sleep disturbed and miss out on potentially beneficial social interactions. Finally, once it's possible to increase rest effectiveness by a massive amount, a colonist will only need a few hours of sleep each day, meaning they will be awake when they don't want to be.

With that said, the huge mood boost is something that cannot be overlooked and it's possible to account for some of the drawbacks such as the one relating to social interaction and sleep disturbance by adjusting the schedules of other colonists. Because of this, I at least consider the trait above average.

Super-immune - 6/10

The Super-immune trait increases the rate of immunity gain while sick by 30%. While this is not relevant often, death from a disease or infection is a very real threat especially early on and this trait heavily trivializes a colonist's ability to survive it even if everyone is a terrible doctor. In fact, it may be possible to survive diseases without tending to the sickness at all, though I still recommend doing so to reduce the rate of disease progression.

With that said, this trait does not affect non-lethal conditions such as mechanite diseases, gut worms, and muscle parasites. Diseases and infections also have a variety of counterplay to deal with them. A good doctor and/or good medicine can help to ensure survival with high tend quality. Furthermore, preventative measures can be taken since some diseases can be stopped by regularly taking Penoxycyline and infection chance can be reduced by using a clean room when tending to wounds.

Pretty - 6/10

This trait is a weaker version of Beautiful, increasing opinions of the colonist by 20. This helps to improve social interactions, but it won't help as much to reduce to chance of negative interactions. Much like the Beautiful trait, a colonist with this trait has the same chance of negative interactions with other colonists.

Masochist - 6/10

The Masochist trait provides the benefit of increasing a colonist's mood instead of decreasing it when they are in pain. This is good for any situation when the colonist may be in pain, such as after receiving some wounds fighting off a raid. The most notable benefit, however, is when the colonist is afflicted with a non-lethal condition that will last a fairly long time such as the aforementioned mechanite diseases. These conditions by default cause at least the Moderate Pain thought, which would normally decrease mood by 10, but for a Masochist it increases it by 10 instead. This factor alone makes me believe the trait is at least above average.

However, it is generally undesirable for a colonist to be in pain. Even with fairly minor pain, consciousness can be affected, which in turn reduces the colonist's ability to do many activities especially those that are strongly affected by Manipulation and Moving. This is severe enough to the point I prefer to use Painstopper when I see a colonist get afflicted with one of the mechanite diseases since it negates the productivity reduction due to pain and turns the condition almost entirely into a beneficial effect due to the inherent bonuses it provides.

Furthermore, it is not easy to intentionally get desirable scars to permanently benefit from the Masochist trait. Aside from the fact scars have a fairly low chance of happening even with untended wounds, only a few body parts are worth having scars on due to the serious detriments that can be caused if body parts such as limbs are scarred. Specifically, the best area to scar is the Torso since it has a lot of health and only causes pain if scarred.

Overall, I can't say I think highly of the Masochist trait but because it has no apparent downsides, I believe it deserves the rating I have given it.

Neurotic - 6/10

This is a weaker version of the Very Neurotic trait, increasing global work speed by 20% but also increasing the mental break threshold by 8%. This trait is largely a worse version of Hard Worker, which is a trait I only consider to be fairly good. While it's nice that colonists with this trait won't dislike other colonists that aren't hard workers less by default, the increase in mental break threshold doesn't justify the overall moderate benefit in my eyes.

Nimble - 6/10

Nimble increases a colonist's melee dodge by 15.0, which translates into a substantial increase in percentage chance to dodge melee attacks (+8% chance at 20 melee skill, far more at lower melee), allowing them to escape threats more often and improving their ability in melee combat. This is quite useful even for colonists who prefer to shoot from a distance since it helps to account for human error. For example, one may underestimate how fast a manhunting animal is approaching and a colonist may take a couple of hits, which Nimble will improve the chances of dodging. One situation I often make mistakes on is that I take unnecessary damage when an enemy raid is leaving. This is because while enemies are relatively harmless while retreating, they will still occasionally melee valid targets if they are too close and will always do so if their way out is being blocked.

With that said, colonists ideally shouldn't be taking melee damage unless they are a dedicated melee combatant, so this trait has fairly narrow benefits outside of that niche and serving as training wheels for less experienced players.

Steadfast - 6/10

Steadfast is a weaker version of the Iron-willed trait, decreasing mental break thresholds by 9%. This means there is less wasted benefit due to the minimum break thresholds I mentioned when discussing Iron-willed. However, the mental break threshold reduction doesn't nullify the detrimental effects of beneficial traits such as Very Neurotic and Fast Learner, meaning there is less synergy with those traits. This trait is entirely beneficial though, which is why I believe it deserves a 6/10 rating.

Ascetic - 5.5/10

Ascetic provides a slew of benefits and detriments that culminate into me judging it as a slightly above average trait. When it comes to benefits, an Ascetic is actually happy with an awful bedroom, increasing mood by 5 instead of decreasing it by 4. They can also eat raw foods and nutrient paste meals without a mood penalty, though the 2% chance of food poisoning for eating the former still applies.

However, they dislike sleeping in a bedroom that is slightly impressive or better, which not only nullifies the mood benefits for doing so but also decreases mood by 5. They also cannot gain mood benefits from meals that improve mood such as Fine and Lavish Meals. Despite this outlook, a colonist with Ascetic does thankfully gain mood bonuses from an impressive recreation and dining room.

I personally tend to make bedrooms as impressive as reasonably possible and run colonies with few colonists who I can then feed Fine or Lavish Meals, which makes the trait almost entirely a downside when paired with my playstyle. This can be played around by giving a colonist with this trait an awful bedroom on purpose. The benefits provided by this trait also work well in the early game when room impressiveness is low and mood-boosting food is unavailable.

However, problems could arise if a colonist with this trait romances a colonist without the trait, which is exactly what happened during one of my playthroughs. The mood boost from being with their partner far outweighed the detrimental effects of the Ascetic trait, but kept the benefits from being as great as they could have been and reduced the chance of inspirations.

In any case, the trait modulates mood in fairly minor ways, so it's not going to be fantastic by any means.

Great Memory - 5.5/10

Personally, I use the Mad Skills mod to change how experience decay works so that level decay cannot happen, but the decay rate is normal otherwise. However, in an unmodded version of Rimworld, experience decay is a very real problem to consider especially at higher skill levels and Great Memory cuts the decay rate in half. This makes it much easier to maintain useful skills such as those that affect the quality of produced objects like Crafting, Artistic, and Construction.

However, I personally do not consider this trait that powerful for a few reasons. First is because traits that increase experience gain such as Fast Learner will maintain a skill's level almost as easily and allow the colonist to raise other skills faster. Second is because skill decay becomes more severe the closer the skill level gets to 20, making it reasonably easy to maintain a skill level up to about 17, after which the experience loss per day increases by 600 per skill level normally. Finally, level 10 in most skills, which is how high a skill can go without suffering experience decay, is usually enough to make the colonist proficient at activities associated with the skill. For example, Construction work stops failing at level 8 and 10 in Plants is all that's needed to plant anything in the game.

Overall, much like Steadfast, this trait purely provides a benefit, but the effects are weaker and more niche by comparison. Other, stronger traits can also provide a similar benefit and more, so a slightly above average score is what I believe the Great Memory trait deserves.

Psychically Deaf - 5.5/10

I do not like any of the traits that modify psychic sensitivity since they largely affects how beneficial and detrimental a few mood-altering events are. However, being able to entirely ignore the negative effects of Psychic Drones and Psychic Ships is considered a benefit in my eyes even if that means a colonist does not benefit from the rare Psychic Emanator structure, Psychic Soothe Pulser, or Psychic Soothe events. The 100% psychic sensitivity reduction is also stronger than the Psychic Foil Helmet, which reduces psychic sensitivity by 90%. Because of these factors, this is the only psychic sensitivity trait that earns a score above a 5.

Psychically Dull - 5/10

This trait is similar to Psychically Deaf, but instead reduces psychic sensitivity by 80% instead of 100%. This is good enough to massively reduce the effects of negative psychic effects and make the usage of a Psychic Foil Helmet unnecessary. I would still rather have other traits on my colonists, but this one is far from the worst to have.

Teetotaler - 5/10

A colonist with Teetotaler dislikes drugs and those who enjoy using them. The fact a colonist with this trait refuses to use drugs at all can be both a benefit and detriment. I usually try to keep my colonists from using drugs, so it's convenient to have one fewer colonist where I have to manually set their drug policy. However, some drugs are very beneficial (such as Luciferium) or low-risk to use (Ambrosia and Psychite Tea) and I may find myself using them if I have a surplus of such drugs. This especially applies to low-risk drugs since it's possible to avoid addiction entirely while reaping the benefits.

Speaking of addiction, a colonist with Teetotaler dislike drug addicts and any colonist with the Chemical Interest or Chemical Fascination traits. I consider all of these factors detrimental to have on a colonist, so while there are negative social interactions that could be problematic, I usually avoid them by sacrificing the offending colonist to give a free mood boost to any who loathe the idea of taking drugs. Incidentally, the act of taking drugs itself is not seen as abhorrent, so other colonists can safely take drugs without upsetting someone with Teetotaler as long as they do not become addicted.

Overall, I consider this trait remarkably average because it has a slight downside along with a slight upside. While I would dislike the sort of intolerance practiced by one with this trait in real life and have choice words to say about how government policy has been shaped around such a mentality instead of something more concrete such as evidence, in Rimworld this trait is okay.

Psychopath - 5/10

The rating for this trait may be controversial to some because Psychopath has a slew of unique benefits that effectively allow the player to commit various atrocities without consequence. Like colonists with Bloodlust and Cannibal, a Psychopath colonist can butcher humans and look upon human corpses without penalties to their mood. In addition, they do not care about the lucrative act of organ harvesting, which normally harms colonist mood significantly, or selling other humans into slavery. Finally, they do not mind death much like a colonist with Bloodlust, but their lack of caring is so extreme they don't even mind seeing the execution or euthanizing of fellow colonists.

However, I give this trait an average rating because there are numerous social and mood-based detriments that I believe cannot be ignored. For a start, animal bonding and nuzzling do not provide a mood boost to a Psychopath. However, the more significant issue is that Psychopaths do not gain increased opinion of other colonists through Chitchat and Deep Talk, which are the primary ways to improve opinion. To make things worse, opinion of other colonists still decrease if they are insulted or slighted. The result is that it's almost impossible for a Psychopath colonist to have positive relations with anyone including family and lovers because a Psychopath almost always has a chance to start a negative interaction and the opinion loss from negative interactions other colonists have with them are more likely to eventually cause an eternal rivalry. This in turn leads to social fights, breakups, and other unpleasant social outcomes.

Overall, I can't say I view the Psychopath trait all that highly. It's great when multiple colonists have the trait because it opens up more options for what the player can do especially with their prisoners with none of the drawbacks. However, having a critical mass of Psychopath colonists also may lead to a lot of social fighting and general unpleasantness and even having one can be a liability due to the permanent risk factor they pose as a cause of negative social interaction. These factors culminate into an entirely average score from me.

Careful Shooter - 4.5/10

A colonist with this trait takes 25% longer to shoot, but shoots with 25% increased accuracy, making it the opposite in effect compared to Trigger-Happy. While the improved accuracy is welcomed, especially when considering the accuracy values on the graph I linked above, taking a little longer to shoot is problematic in my eyes. It reduces the amount of projectiles shot which have the potential to inflict damage even if they miss, making the trait potentially worse in a firefight involving many raiders. It also makes kiting harder since more time to line up a shot gives more time for an enemy to catch up to the colonist, meaning they may sustain injuries even though they are more capable of consistently inflicting injuries.

Overall, while I don't think the trait is entirely bad, I do consider the increased shooting time a significant detriment that the benefit cannot make up for. It gives enemies too much extra time to close the distance and get extra attacks in compared to a normal shooter.

Psychically Sensitive - 4.5/10

This is the third trait that affects psychic sensitivity and it increases the stat by 40%. As I've established above, I prefer reduced psychic sensitivity, but don't think the effects of these traits are significant enough to cause the rating to deviate all that far from the average because psychic effects happen from events or rare items. With that said, stronger psychic drones may make it more necessary to wear a Psychic Foil Helmet than usual for a colonist with this trait.

Brawler - 4/10

The Brawler trait increases the Melee skill of a colonist by 4 and increases melee hit chance by 4.0, but reduces Shooting skill by 4 and decreases mood by 20 if they equip a ranged weapon. This looks great on a colonist who likes to melee, but the increased hit chance is largely the only benefit that matters because of how quickly combat skills can be raised (even if melee can be risky). The increase in hit chance doesn't seem that great from my limited testing, especially when the Nimble trait can provide a much more useful +15.0 to melee dodge. 

The mood loss downside can be an annoyance because being unable to use ranged weaponry without having a good chance of experiencing a mental break can be problematic in combat situations where one needs all their colonists helping in a firefight. I personally very much dislike the lack of flexibility even if it's not as bad as an incapability provided by a background.

Overall, I don't think this trait is too bad on a melee colonist, but I rarely have a dedicated melee combatant since my colony is often filled with bears ready to fight in melee for me. Also, it would be better to have Nimble, Tough, and Jogger in my opinion.

Psychically Hypersensitive - 4/10

This trait is the last of the ones that affect psychic sensitivity and it is by far the most polarizing because it increases psychic sensitivity by 100%. Negative psychic events will be an extreme detriment to colonists with this trait, potentially decreasing mood by as much as 60 (instead of 30). A Psychic Foil Helmet is basically mandatory to wear at all times when negative psychic events occur in a typical situation. This can be problematic if combat occurs during the event, such as if a Psychic Ship lands and is attacked. In my opinion, these facts alone make this trait below average even if positive psychic events and effects are amplified greatly.

Nudist - 4/10

A colonist with this trait dislikes wearing clothes, reducing their mood by 3 if they do so. On the other hand, if they wear only headgear or belts, they will gain 20 mood. While the benefit of this trait is great, it is also situational. What immediately comes to mind is that extreme temperatures will make it unreasonable to wear next to nothing without suffering detrimental effects. Having nothing to protect the body during combat is also problematic because while the colonist won't necessarily have to worry about getting their head blown off, they will be easy to damage everywhere else.

Overall, as powerful and accessible as the mood benefit is, it also comes with the downsides of not wearing clothes that makes it unreasonable to benefit from in some situations which, to be fair, can be micromanaged. Thankfully, the small mood loss from wearing clothes is not all that severe since it is half as bad as the negative mood loss from the Pessimist trait.

Chemical Interest - 4/10

This is the first of a number of traits that is definitively meant to be bad since it only grants negative effects. In this case, the detriment is relatively minor since the social drugs a colonist with this trait may binge on occasionally are not as deadly or addictive, though Beer can be problematic due to the permanent damage it can cause. It is also possible to prevent a binge by walling off a drug stockpile (forbidden doors will not work) or disposing of the drugs. I personally recommend either of these measures since going on a drug binge is the equivalent of a mental break and makes the colonist impossible to control for some time, making them unproductive in the meantime.

Greedy - 4/10

The Greedy trait is an annoying inconvenience that decreases mood by up to 8 if a colonist with this trait does not have at least a Slightly Impressive bedroom. This is not as easy to do in the early game and can make a colonist with this trait a hindrance due to the moderate mood loss. It's not too difficult to make an impressive enough bedroom afterwards though, which means in this situation the worst thing this trait does is take up a valuable trait slot.

Gay - 3.5/10

Despite what some may say to the contrary, being gay (or any other sexual orientation) in real life is entirely okay and not something people should be persecuted for. 

Unfortunately, in Rimworld, this trait can be a hindrance in social situations because due to random generation, recruiting multiple colonists of the same sex with this trait who have high compatibility and attraction with each other is unlikely. This means that a colonist with this trait may attempt to romance other colonists who won't return their feelings and be approached by colonists of the opposite sex. This leads to a lot of failed romances, which in turn causes reduced opinions and mood loss. I won't go as far as to say a colony would be destroyed socially though since attraction between colonists varies and romancing requires a high opinion to begin with, which means the chance of social fights is fairly low. However, a potential source of endless mood reduction due to rebuffing is without a doubt problematic.

Incidentally, the Psychology mod completely removes this trait in favor of assigning all colonists a rating on the Kinsey scale, which allows for a more realistic variety in sexual orientation and frees up a trait slot that is otherwise occupied by a largely detrimental trait.

Pessimist - 3/10

This trait is the complete opposite of the Optimist trait, decreasing mood by 6 permanently. This is not one of the worst effects possible, but definitely still something I would rather not see on a colonist due to the increased risk of mental breaks and reduced chance of inspirations.

Wimp - 3/10

The Wimp trait reduces a colonist's pain shock threshold all the way down to 20%. In some situations, this is actually beneficial since downed colonists are not subject to being targeted for attacks by raiders or manhunting animals, reducing the chance of further injuries. In others, it may help to seal their fate such as when they are being hunted by an animal or when the raiders want to kidnap someone. What makes this trait problematic for me is that something as trivial as Food Poisoning can down a colonist with this trait for a moderate period of time. Contracting a mechanite disease is also a major issue, since it inflicts exactly enough pain to down a colonist with this trait, incapacitating them for an extended period of time.

Overall, the trait is manageable and can save a colonist in some situations, but is seriously detrimental to the point of making a colonist unusable in others.

Sickly - 3/10

The Sickly trait increases the probability of the colonist contracting a disease and they can independently catch diseases other colonists didn't contract. They also gain a bonus of 4 to their Medicine skill. This trait is clearly detrimental but manageable to a degree since Penoxycyline can negate some of the diseases that can be caught. However, from my understanding a colonist with this trait is also vulnerable to the non-lethal diseases, meaning they may be inflicted with the problematic Gut Worms and Muscle Parasites among other diseases.

Overall, I usually don't see this trait causing too many problems for the colonist with it, but that's also because I don't tend to keep them long.

Jealous - 3/10

The Jealous trait is similar to Greedy in that it revolves around room impressiveness. In this case, a colonist with Jealous must have the most impressive bedroom or they will suffer a penalty of 8 to their mood. This is manageable, but highly annoying especially if the colony has couples who would benefit from sleeping in the most impressive bedroom. Room impressiveness can also change due to various factors such as the destruction of property or rooms becoming filthy due to dirt or blood. Ultimately, this trait causes additional annoying micromanagement for a colonist who may not even be that great especially since one of their trait slots is filled by this obviously detrimental trait.

Body Purist - 2.5/10

The Body Purist trait is the opposite of the Transhumanist trait because instead of liking artificial body parts, they hate them. This means that a colonist with this trait will suffer a severe mood penalty of up to 35 if they have artificial body parts and their opinion of other colonists with body parts can go as low as -40. The worst part is there is no benefit for having no artificial body parts on any colonist, making this trait entirely detrimental. The only nice thing I can say about this trait is that it's easy to avoid the mood penalty.

Nervous - 2.5/10

Nervous increases the mental break threshold of a colonist by 8%. This makes them a little more likely to suffer a mental break, especially a minor one, which is a liability I would rather not have. This detriment is manageable compared to worse traits though.

Ugly - 2.5/10

A colonist with the Ugly trait is disliked by other colonists, who will have -20 opinion of this specific colonist. This will increase the chance of negative social interactions, which in turn may lead to social fights involving this colonist. There is some slight hope in that the colonist with this trait doesn't have an increased chance of initiating negative social interactions themselves, meaning they have a small chance of being able to sway the opinions of their peers.

One positive effect of the Ugly trait that was not considered strongly due to rating criteria is the death of a colonist with this trait may cause a mood increase to other colonists due to reduced opinion. This can be useful for those okay with using one of their colonists as a sacrificial lamb.

Chemical Fascination - 2.5/10

Like Chemical Interest, a colonist with this trait will occasionally binge on drugs. In this case, they will binge on the more dangerous hard drugs, including ones that are lethal on their own such as Flake. All of the hard drugs are also highly addictive, though Psychite addiction is at least manageable with Psychite Tea. Hard drugs also have a tendency to cause seriously detrimental long-term side effects such as brain damage. Managing a colonist with this trait is the same as one with Chemical Interest in that a walled-off drug stash should be made or all drugs should be destroyed.

Annoying Voice/Creepy Breathing - 2/10

These traits provide a near-identical effect in that other colonists will have -25 opinion of a colonist with either of these traits. This is slightly worse than the Ugly trait, meaning that these traits accordingly get a slightly lower rating.

Misandrist/Misogynist - 2/10

Misandrist and Misogynist are another pair of traits with similar detriments. In this case, a colonist with the former trait will hate men and the latter trait will hate women. This will cause them to have -25 opinion of all colonists they hate. This is a major social liability unless one is highly selective with their colonist choices since colonies will usually have roughly the same amount of men and women. This means a colonist with one of these traits will have a much higher chance to initiate negative social interactions with about half of the colony.

One could argue that these two traits are technically not as bad as Annoying Voice or Creepy Breathing since there are fewer instances of reduced opinion. This is true to a degree, but the intensity of the reduced opinion alone is cause for concern since that can lead to a negative feedback loop that then results in a social fight. Also, I would rather have a new colonist suffer from mood reductions due to poor social interaction than established colonists. Finally. it's less beneficial to dispose of a colonist with this trait, which as I mentioned before is not something I consider strongly, but at least a colonist considered ugly dying technically may provide some benefit.

Lazy - 2/10

The Lazy trait reduces a colonist's global work speed by 20%, not only earning the ire of colonists with the Hard Worker or Industrious trait but also generally being less productive at any activity affected by the global work speed. There are some uses for a reduced work speed that relate to gaining experience as mentioned here. However, I personally think it's better to modulate a colonist's stats, such as their Manipulation or Consciousness, to alter work speed instead of relying on having a colonist with this trait who I may need to be productive at some other point in time. I guess it's not too bad to have on a hauler or dedicated combatant.

Slowpoke - 2/10

The Slowpoke trait reduces movement for a colonist by 0.2 cells per second, reducing their effectiveness in combat especially when kiting. Productivity is also slightly reduced especially if a lot of movement is involved. This trait is sort of the opposite of Lazy in that it would be okay to have on a more sedentary colonist such as a researcher or crafter, though it goes without saying I'd rather not have a colonist with this trait at all.

Gourmand - 1.5/10

Gourmand is an annoying trait that can be very problematic in the early game in particular. This is because a colonist with this trait has 50% increased hunger rate, causing them to lose so much hunger they may end up eating three meals per day instead of two. Furthermore, they can randomly go on food binges regardless of their mental state much like a colonist with the Chemical Interest or Chemical Fascination trait can go on a drug binge. Food binges are not as detrimental usually, but will effectively incapacitate the colonist for some time. The bonus of 4 to the Cooking skill does next to nothing to offset both of these detriments especially in colonies that rely on a diet of Nutrient Paste.

Overall, a colonist with this trait is a liability who can end up causing food shortages or worsening them. They're not as bad to have in a colony with an abundance of food, though the chance of a food binge will reduce productivity.

Depressive - 1.5/10

Depressive grants a permanent mood penalty of 12 to the colonist, further increasing the chance of mental breaks and denying inspirations compared to the Pessimist trait. In fact, one should expect minor mental breaks to be a common possibility for a colonist with this trait even with good mood management. This becomes more apparent at higher difficulty levels.

Volatile - 1/10

...However, Volatile is an even worse trait when it comes to making mood management for a colonist miserable. While it doesn't reduce the chance for inspirations like Depressive does since this trait doesn't incur a mood loss, increasing mental break thresholds by a whopping 15% means minor mental breaks happen at 50% mood. This is normally a fairly neutral point for mood and a good threshold to maintain regardless of the situation. A colonist with this trait might suffer a mental break though and while minor mental breaks aren't the worst thing in the world, they at the very least make the colonist unproductive and in the worst case it might kill them and other colonists.

Staggeringly Ugly - 1/10

A colonist with this trait will be greatly hated by other colonists, who will have -40 opinion of them. This is more than enough to make social fights an issue and it is unlikely that a colonist with this trait will establish many positive relationships. There is a slim chance, however, if compatibility between colonists is high.

Slothful - 0.5/10

Slothful is a terrible trait that reduces global work speed for the colonist by 35%. This greatly reduces productivity and even makes the act of cleaning a laborious task. Much like with Lazy, a few tasks are thankfully not affected by this trait, but most colonists in general will do at least one activity that is governed by the global work speed, so that's not much solace. This especially applies to my playstyle, which involves using a few colonists who each have multiple sets of tasks.

Abrasive - 0.5/10

I consider Abrasive to be one of the worst traits in the game. While this is likely an overestimation, having over double the chance to insult and slight other colonists can be a serious problem even if the colonists have high compatibility with each other. This in turn leads to social fights and mood losses from repeated insults that are liable to happen unless the colonist has deep talks for however long they remain in the colony to maintain high opinion and eliminate negative social interactions. The mood loss from insults is especially notable to keep in mind since unlike its polar opposite, the Kind trait, insults are generally far more likely to happen than kind words when it comes to social interactions.

Overall, it is best not to risk having a colonist with this trait in the colony. As I said above, it's possible to get lucky and have a colonist with this trait somehow be on good enough terms with every other colonist to the point slighting and insulting will not happen, but this is so extremely unlikely that it's not worth the downsides that come with this trait.

Pyromaniac - 0/10

Pyromaniac is the trait that seems to be considered the worst among Rimworld players and despite trying to find a reason why that might not be the case, I am inclined to agree with the popular opinion here.

To start, this trait surprisingly has a small upside where a colonist with this trait gains 5 mood by equipping a weapon capable of causing fires such as the Molotov Cocktail.

However, this cannot make up for the fact that a colonist with this trait is incapable of firefighting and can randomly enter a mental state where they try to start fires. Much like the Chemical Interest and Chemical Fascination trait, this mental state can happen regardless of mood. Unfortunately, much like with the food binges caused by Gourmand, there is no way of stopping a colonist from entering the mental state of going on a fire-starting spree. It is possible to reduce the damage dealt by the fires started by constructing things out of stone and dedicating a colonist to putting out fires immediately. The problem is that in the case of the former, there are always flammable objects in the base such as stockpiled Chemfuel and in the case of the latter, a Pyromaniac colonist not only renders themselves unproductive during their mental state, but also renders another colonist unproductive.

Overall, this trait is exceptionally bad. It might not be bad to the point of turning the colonist into a hat, but having a random chance to be unproductive and forcing another colonist to be unproductive to stop the fires they start is enough of a detriment in itself. Add in the possible chance of setting fire to an object that will spark and explode, which is a very real possibility in colonies from the mid-game onward, and it's time to consider banishing the colonist at the very least.