In RimWorld, one person, or rather every colonist that comes with a specific character traits, influences your chances of surviving in game with them in a range of activities, ranging from mingling with others to dealing with a difficult situation and living through it. Some traits are minimal, while others can change the outcome of survival of your colony.

Importance of Traits 

Traits influence a settler’s specific patterns of behavior, psychological well-being, productivity, social rank, and even their fighting skill. Although some traits may seem inconsequential at first, their cumulative effects over time become significant, especially in stressful situations like attacks, epidemics, or scarcity of vital resources.

Understanding what each trait entails is critical to successfully establishing and maintaining a settlement. This knowledge can be applied when choosing your starting crew or when you are recruiting a wanderer.

Best Traits That Benefit Your Colony

Tough

Tough is arguably the most powerful combat trait in RimWorld. Every attack aimed at the pawn would only do half the damage. This makes them very difficult to either kill or down. Surviving struggles with colonists, manhunters, and even intense hand-to-hand combats that would instantly down most individuals is a feat for these individuals. These colonists also excel as frontline fighters, guards for prisons, and as paramedics.

Fast Learner & Great Memory

These two traits are incredibly useful for developing colonists into specialists. Fast Learner gives a 75% bonus to skill gain, meaning the colonist improves much faster, especially in jobs they’re passionate about. Great Memory slows skill decay at higher levels, ensuring your best pawns stay sharp over time. Together, they’re ideal for crafting, medicine, or research roles where long-term skill growth is crucial.

Sanguine and Optimist

Mood is everything in RimWorld, and these two traits are silent heroes. Sanguine gives a permanent +12 mood boost, while Optimist provides +6. Higher mood reduces the chances of mental breaks and increases the likelihood of inspirations, temporary boosts to skills or productivity. Colonists with good mood traits are more stable, easier to manage, and more likely to excel when you need them most.

Industrious and Hard Worker

Time is your most valuable resource, and work-speed traits help you make the most of it. Industrious colonists work 35% faster, while Hard Workers get a 20% boost. These bonuses add up quickly, an industrious constructor can raise walls and structures in record time, while a hard-working grower can handle more farmland with fewer resources.

Jogger and Quick Sleeper

Mobility and downtime are often overlooked, but they’re just as important as mood and productivity. Joggers move faster, allowing them to respond to threats, haul items, or rescue allies more efficiently. Quick Sleepers need less rest, which means more uptime for work and fewer bottlenecks in shift-based schedules.

Iron-Willed and Steadfast

These traits reduce the likelihood of mental breaks by raising the colonist’s mental threshold. Iron-Willed lowers it by a massive 18%, making the pawn incredibly resilient during crises. Steadfast is a slightly weaker version but still valuable. Pair these with mood-boosting traits, and you get colonists who almost never lose control.

Bloodlust

At first glance, Bloodlust might seem risky, colonists with this trait enjoy killing and violence, but it has hidden benefits. They gain mood boosts from combat, are unfazed by corpses, and get along well with other aggressive colonists. In violent colonies or frequent combat scenarios, Bloodlust helps keep your killers happy and focused.

Super-Immune

This trait increases immunity gain speed by 30%, which can be a literal lifesaver in the early game when medicine is scarce. Super-Immune colonists recover from infections and diseases faster and are less likely to die from common illnesses like flu or malaria.

Traits to Be Cautious Of

• Pyromaniac is infamous for burning down colonies, especially because they’ll start fires even with a full mood bar. They’re unpredictable and rarely worth the risk.
• Depressive and Pessimist constantly lower a colonist’s mood, making them prone to breaks even in otherwise stable environments.
• Slow Learner and Slothful reduce skill gain and work speed, slowing down your entire operation.
• Wimp causes colonists to collapse from even light pain, making them useless in battle.
• Jealous and Greedy can be managed with some effort, but they add complexity, especially when building individual bedrooms.
• Gourmand, like Pyromaniac, has a tendency to randomly go on food binges. It also makes the pawn hungrier more often, leading to increased food consumption and disruption.

How to Build a Good Team with Traits

The best colonies usually mix practical traits with stability traits:

• Combat Units: Tough, Iron-Willed, Jogger, Bloodlust
• Builders/Growers: Industrious, Hard Worker, Fast Learner, Optimist
• Doctors/Researchers: Super-Immune, Fast Learner, Great Memory
• Social Roles: Beautiful, Kind (if you care about diplomacy or romance)
• Stability Roles: Sanguine, Quick Sleeper, Iron-Willed

If you’re playing with Ideology or Biotech DLCs, these preferences might shift a bit, especially if you’re customizing roles and expectations. Still, many of the same core traits hold up no matter the expansion.

Traits shape how colonists behave, how they work, and whether your colony flourishes or falls apart. Some traits, like Tough or Sanguine, are clearly powerful, but the real secret is balance. Pair high-efficiency traits with mood stability and resilience, and you’ll find yourself with a group of colonists that can take on nearly anything the Rim throws at them.