Helena Joyce
In RimWorld, pollution is a serious issue that can have detrimental effects on your colony. It can cause toxic buildup in your pawns, reducing their health, and it can also lead to acidic smog, which slows plant growth and deteriorates items. To combat this, players can utilise a variety of strategies, such as manual cleaning, pollution pumps, or the use of Polux trees. Manual cleaning is a slow and dangerous task, as colonists will need a safe space to recover from the toxic buildup. Pollution pumps are an effective automated solution, but they require power and generate toxic wastepacks. Polux trees are a natural solution, metabolising pollutants without creating waste, but they are rare and require careful management to balance their pollution absorption with the rate of wastepack deterioration. Additionally, players must be cautious when disposing of wastepacks, as dumping them near other settlements can incur penalties, and dumping them at sea may have unforeseen consequences.
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What You'll Learn
- Toxic buildup: Pawns on polluted tiles accumulate it at 40% per day
- Pollution pumps: Automatically clean pollution when powered
- Polux trees: Consume pollution without creating toxic waste
- Toxic wastepacks: Dispose of them or face insectoid cocoons
- Acidic smog: Pollution causes this, reducing light and slowing growth
Toxic buildup: Pawns on polluted tiles accumulate it at 40% per day
Toxic buildup is a serious issue in RimWorld, especially when pawns linger in polluted tiles. The toxic buildup accumulates at a rate of 40% per day, which can have detrimental effects on the health of the pawns. This rate assumes no Toxic Environment Resistance or Toxic Resistance, and it is not mitigated by roofing the tile.
To address this issue, it is crucial to understand the sources of pollution and how it spreads. Pollution can be present on the world map during world generation or due to player actions. It is distributed in splotches, with heavily polluted areas surrounded by less polluted hexes. Dumping wastepacks on a hex using caravans or transport pods further increases pollution. Once a world map hex reaches its pollution capacity, the additional pollution spreads to neighbouring tiles, potentially affecting the player's colony.
To mitigate toxic buildup, there are several strategies to consider:
- Minimize exposure: Keep pawns away from polluted areas as much as possible. Ensure that they spend minimal time in polluted tiles to reduce the rate of toxic buildup.
- Use protective gear: Provide your pawns with protective apparel such as face masks, gas masks, or the Prestige robe. These items offer Toxic Environment Resistance, helping to slow down the accumulation of toxic buildup.
- Clean polluted areas: Utilize pollution pumps that automatically remove pollution when powered. However, this method converts pollution into toxic wastepacks, which still need to be managed effectively.
- Natural solutions: Polux trees can be used to consume pollution, but they only grow in highly polluted areas, and their seeds are rare.
- Manage wastepacks: Toxic wastepacks created by cleaning polluted tiles must be dealt with properly. Improper management can lead to the wastepacks melting and releasing the pollution back into the environment.
It is important to note that prolonged exposure to pollution can lead to severe health complications for pawns, including permanent dementia. Therefore, it is crucial to prioritize reducing toxic buildup and providing safe environments for your pawns in RimWorld.
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Pollution pumps: Automatically clean pollution when powered
Pollution pumps are an effective way to combat pollution in RimWorld. They are a building added by the Biotech DLC, which gradually clears pollution in a radius of 10.9 tiles around themselves when powered. It takes 200 W of power for a pollution pump to function, and it removes 1 tile of pollution every 15,000 ticks (4.17 minutes), or 4 tiles per game day.
The process of using pollution pumps results in the formation of toxic wastepacks, which must be hauled away. If these wastepacks are not dealt with, they will melt and put the pollution back onto the ground. This is a common issue with pollution management in RimWorld, as even when colonists are ordered to clean polluted tiles manually, the pollution is turned into toxic wastepacks.
To construct a pollution pump, you need to first complete the Electricity research project. Each pump requires 75 Steel, 1 Component, 4,000 ticks (1.11 minutes) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder, and a construction skill of 3.
It is important to note that pollution pumps are not the only way to combat pollution in RimWorld. Other methods include using Polux trees, which consume pollution, and face masks, which provide protection against pollution.
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Polux trees: Consume pollution without creating toxic waste
Polux trees are an effective way to combat pollution in RimWorld. These trees have evolved to metabolize pollutants, cleaning polluted terrain without creating toxic wastepacks. This is in contrast to other methods of cleaning, such as using pollution pumps or manual labour, which do create toxic waste as a byproduct.
Polux trees grow within polluted environments and can absorb pollution in an area similar to a pollution pump, affecting a 7-tile-wide circle. They draw pollutants from the ground through wide root networks and slowly clean the terrain. However, their effectiveness is hindered if buildings are constructed over their roots.
To maximize the benefits of Polux trees, strategic wastepack stack placement is key. Keeping wastepacks outdoors, unroofed, and away from rain will minimize deterioration, as each stack will suffer 4 points of deterioration per day, fully decomposing in 25 days. Placing wastepacks directly adjacent to the tree can help it clear pollution within 30 hours, minimizing additional degradation.
Additionally, consider enclosing the Polux tree within a room that does not infringe on its exclusion zone. By strategically roofing over wastepack stacks, you can prevent hit point deterioration and slow down the decay process, reducing the daily pollution generated by each stack.
By utilizing Polux trees and managing wastepack stacks efficiently, you can effectively combat pollution in RimWorld without generating additional toxic waste.
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Toxic wastepacks: Dispose of them or face insectoid cocoons
Toxic wastepacks are compacted packages of toxic waste that will slowly dissolve if not frozen. They are generated by several of the new buildings added in Biotech, especially those related to Mechanitors and Mechanoids. Mechanoid gestation chambers and rechargers will accumulate wastepacks in their internal storage as they're used. Larger mechanoids will generate more waste both when created and recharged.
Toxic wastepacks are a serious problem in Rimworld as they will pollute the surrounding terrain if they dissolve, deteriorate, or are destroyed. Each toxic wastepack that is destroyed or disintegrates creates 6 tiles of pollution. Any means of destroying wastepacks creates pollution, except for the wastepack atomizer. Dumping wastepacks on a hex will increase the pollution percentage of the hex by 0.05% per Wastepack dumped, or 1.3% per full transport pod.
When left unattended, toxic wastepacks will dissolve and release their contents into the groundwater. The scent of fresh poison can attract insectoids to the area, likely burrowing up into the room you were storing the toxic waste. When a toxic wastepack is destroyed, there's a chance for insectoid cocoons to emerge from the ground. These cocoons will hatch if a pawn comes within a small radius of it.
There are several ways to deal with toxic wastepacks. One way is to store them in a freezer to prevent them from decaying. Another way is to use a wastepack atomizer, which is a reliable way to destroy wastepacks without causing pollution. You can also use death acidifiers or subcore ripscanners, which exploitatively delete wastepacks carried on a pawn with the implant on death. Additionally, you can use pollution pumps and have colonists manually clean pollution, but these methods will generate more toxic wastepacks that will need to be dealt with.
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Acidic smog: Pollution causes this, reducing light and slowing growth
In RimWorld, pollution is largely the byproduct of recharging friendly mechanoids and using a toxifier generator. Each toxic wastepack that is destroyed or disintegrates creates six tiles of pollution. If there is enough pollution within four tiles of your world tile, a weather effect known as "acidic smog" will occur. This reduces light levels by 28%, slows plant growth by 50% (stacking with reduced light for a total of 22% growth), gives non-immune colonists a negative mood, and deteriorates items left outside.
To reduce the occurrence of acidic smog, you can lower the pollution level within four tiles of your world tile. Here are some strategies to reduce pollution:
- Use a wastepack atomizer to destroy toxic wastepacks without creating pollution.
- Utilize pollution pumps, which automatically remove pollution from the area when powered.
- Plant Polux trees, which consume pollution but only grow in sufficiently polluted areas, and their seeds are rare.
- Manually clean pollution via the Zoning tab by ordering colonists to clean it up. However, this will expose them to toxic buildup, and they will get sick over time without a clean space to recover.
- Use buildings to turn polluted tiles back into clean ones. However, this will create toxic waste packs, which must be dealt with to prevent them from melting and releasing the pollution back into the ground.
- Store wastepacks in a large freezer and then caravan them away from your colony.
- Dump wastepacks near enemy factions.
Additionally, you can mitigate the effects of acidic smog by:
- Keeping your items indoors to prevent deterioration.
- Maintaining a clean farming area to ensure crop growth.
- Creating a pollution-free "guest area" to accommodate quest NPCs.
- Equipping your colonists with anti-pollution gear, such as face masks or gas masks, to prevent negative mood effects and sickness when venturing outdoors.
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Frequently asked questions
There are several ways to reduce pollution in RimWorld, including:
- Using a pollution pump to turn pollution on the ground back into toxic wastepacks.
- Ordering colonists to clean up the pollution, though this will expose them to toxic buildup.
- Planting polux trees, which absorb pollution without generating toxic wastepacks.
- Dumping wastepacks far out at sea.
To prevent toxic buildup in your colonists, you can keep them in a room that isn't polluted, or provide them with simple cloth face masks, which offer 40% protection against pollution.
If left unchecked, pollution in RimWorld can cause a variety of negative effects, including toxic buildup in colonists, the emergence of insectoid cocoons, and the occurrence of acidic smog, which reduces light levels, slows plant growth, deteriorates items, and negatively affects colonists' moods.
