Which RimWorld DLC is truly essential in 2025? We ranked them all from best to worst to help you figure out what’s worth picking up right now.
With the launch of Odyssey, the RimWorld universe keeps getting bigger and weirder. More stuff to manage, more chaos to survive. But not every DLC hits the same.
So we broke it all, talking about Odyssey too, with first impressions while it’s still hot off the digital press.
| Game | Release | What's DLC About? | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | RimWorld Royalty | 2020-02-24 | Navigate the intricacies of noble titles and psychic powers, indulging in quests and ceremonies to rule your colonies. |
 | RimWorld Ideology | 2021-07-20 | Craft unique cultures and moral systems, shaping colonists' actions through beliefs, rituals, and ideological warfare. |
 | RimWorld Biotech | 2022-10-21 | Dive into genetic modification, enhancing humans and animals with advanced bionics to bolster survival strategies. |
 | RimWorld Anomaly | 2024-04-11 | Encounter mysterious disruptions and phenomena, challenging players to adapt their strategies in unpredictable environments. |
 | RimWorld Odyssey | 2025-07-11 | Embark on space adventures across new planets, engaging with alien species and expanding colonies throughout the galaxy. |
RimWorld: Anomaly
| Release date: | 2024-04-11 |
| Genre: | Simulator & Strategy & Indie |
| Developer: | Ludeon Studios |
This DLC drags RimWorld into cosmic horror. You’ll fight flesh beasts, mind-controlled colonists, cultist raids, and weird events like blood rain or invisible stalkers.
It leans hard into paranoia and mystery. Inspired by stuff like The Thing or Cthulhu, it brings fear and unpredictability to colony life.
The goal isn’t just survival anymore. Now you’re studying unknown threats, capturing them, and using their bizarre properties against other enemies. You build a containment facility, create serums from monsters, craft void gear, and eventually deal with a terrifying machine god.
It’s more than new enemies. The whole approach to combat and resource use shifts. You get new tactics, new risks, and a very different rhythm.
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RimWorld: Biotech
| Release date: | 2022-10-21 |
| Genre: | Real Time Strategy (RTS) & Simulator |
| Developer: | Ludeon Studios |
This is the genetics and machines update. Biotech gives you families, gene editing, and mech armies.
You can raise kids with specific traits or just grow soldiers in tanks. Gene systems are huge, and you can mix-and-match from traders, prisoners, or random encounters.
New factions roll in with wild gene sets, like pig-people or toxin lovers. You can also go full machine overlord by growing and psychically controlling your own mechanoids. They work, fight, and clean up after your colonists but also produce toxic waste that needs managing.
You get new bosses, pollution mechanics, and deeper tech systems. It makes colonies more complex, but also more satisfying.
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RimWorld: Ideology
| Release date: | 2021-07-20 |
| Genre: | Real Time Strategy (RTS) & Simulator |
| Developer: | Ludeon Studios |
This DLC turns belief systems into gameplay.
Every colonist gets a personal ideology with rules about food, clothes, combat, and culture. You can create your own: nudist cannibals, underground tree-huggers, anything.
Each belief system affects moods, social roles, rituals, and even how buildings look. You get new leaders, moral guides, and dryad-linked tree powers. New quests tie into relic hunts and social events. There’s also a colony-resetting endgame path if you want to go all in.
It brings role playing to the front and ties into everything your colony does.
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RimWorld: Royalty
| Release date: | 2020-02-24 |
| Genre: | Real Time Strategy (RTS) & Simulator |
| Developer: | Ludeon Studios |
This was the first major DLC and it brought noble ranks and psychic powers.
You earn titles from quests and get perks like orbital strikes or elite bodyguards. Nobles demand luxury and special rooms but give back in serious firepower.
Psychic abilities come from Imperial tech, special trees, or stealing them. They range from crowd control to healing or enemy manipulation. There are also new procedural quests, guests, new gear, and a big ending event with the Empire.
It adds politics, powers, and gear while keeping the base game structure.
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RimWorld: Odyssey
| Release date: | 2025-07-11 |
| Genre: | Real Time Strategy (RTS) & Simulator |
| Developer: | Ludeon Studios |
Odyssey is all about movement and discovery.
You build a gravship and turn it into a flying colony. Fly to new regions, collect resources, raid ruins, and bring it all back.
There are five new biomes and tons of landmarks. You explore, mine, fish, and fight in toxic war zones, glowing forests, frozen mammoth lands, and volcano-heavy regions. You also go into orbit to scavenge wrecks and satellites while managing oxygen, pressure, and rival scavengers.
Early reviews are glowing at 95%. It’s still new, but it’s already shaking up how people play.
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RimWorld Keeps Evolving
Each DLC didn’t just add content, it changed the way the game feels. Royalty gave us hierarchy and powers. Ideology made culture a core system. Biotech brought long-term growth and pollution. Anomaly brought horror and chaos. And Odyssey added movement and adventure.