George In The Meta
What RimWorld mods do I actually run?
By George In The Meta ·
Short answer: the RimWorld mods I can't play without are the quality of life ones. I've got over 1,200 hours in RimWorld, and right now I run 21 mods on top of all five expansions. And if you're new, I'd skip the mods that add more depth until you've learned the game: you need to learn the game before you add the depth.
Which RimWorld mods can't I play without?
The RimWorld mods I can't play without are the quality of life ones. These are the ones in my current list, pulled straight off my PC on 17 October 2026, with what each does per its Steam Workshop page:
| Mod | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dubs Mint Menus | Searchable menus for building, bills, research, gear, plants and surgery |
| EdB Prepare Carefully | Set up your starting colonists, gear and presets before you land |
| Character Editor | Edit any colonist's skills, traits, genes, health and gear |
| RPG Style Inventory Revamped | Shows a colonist's gear as an RPG-style paper doll |
| Resource Delivery Helper | Hover over a blueprint to see which materials it still needs |
| SimpleCameraSetting | Zoom range and speed, smooth zoom, and a camera that follows a colonist |
| Pocket Sand | Buttons to swap weapons between a colonist's hands and inventory |
| Just Leave Already | Lets colonists leave a map by walking off the edge |
| Fahrenheit and Celsius | Shows temperatures in both units |
Dubs Mint Menus alone has over a million subscribers on the Workshop, and Prepare Carefully has 1.6 million.
What else is in my RimWorld mod list?
The rest of my RimWorld mod list is content, visuals and the libraries those mods need. Four are frameworks that do nothing on their own: Harmony, HugsLib, the Vanilla Expanded Framework and Vehicle Framework, which "does not include any vehicles on its own".
The content mods are Vanilla Vehicles Expanded (cars, boats and aircraft), Vanilla Apparel Expanded (40 new pieces of clothing), Giddy-Up 2 (riding animals), RunAndGun (shooting while moving) and Perspective Shift, which lets you control one colonist directly with WASD like a top-down RPG. For looks, I run Vanilla Textures Expanded and Better Trees with its Djeeshka-style textures.
Which RimWorld mods should new players avoid?
New RimWorld players should avoid the mods that add more depth. You need to learn the game before you add the depth. For example, Combat Extended: if you go straight into that without knowing vanilla combat, I think you're going to screw yourself over in the future.
Combat Extended replaces RimWorld's combat almost completely. Vanilla's percentage hit chance is gone: bullets follow a trajectory and hit what's in their path, so "someone crouching behind sandbags can only be shot in the head". Guns need ammo, with types like armour-piercing and high-explosive. Armour works on penetration, so "a rifle bullet will go straight through a synthread parka but will completely bounce off a legendary power armor". It also adds weight and bulk limits and automatic loadouts. It "requires a new save, and cannot be removed from existing saves", and mods that add weapons, animals or factions need patches to work with it.
Where do I find new RimWorld mods?
A lot of the time, when I'm trying and picking new RimWorld mods, it's because I'm watching YouTubers and copying their mod lists from their videos. The three I watch:
- ambiguousamphibian lists his mods as text in his video descriptions. His July 2026 Survival Island video runs Better Trees and its Djeeshka textures, Fahrenheit and Celsius, Prepare Carefully, Character Editor, Harmony and HugsLib, and a lot of my list overlaps with his.
- Hazzor publishes Steam Workshop collections for many of his videos, though not every one.
- veequeue, who goes by VQ, links a Steam collection in each video description and keeps a standing collection of vanilla-friendly mods for 1.6.
Will RimWorld mods work on 1.7?
RimWorld mods should work on 1.7, according to Ludeon. Its announcement of update 1.7 on 12 October says "your mods shouldn't need any changes to work on 1.7", even though the game moves to Ludeon's own Waylith engine. Some mods will show in yellow as possibly unsupported just because the version number changed, and saves move between 1.6 and 1.7 both ways. 1.7 is only on the unstable beta branch for now.
FAQ
What are the best quality of life mods for RimWorld? The ones I can't play without: Dubs Mint Menus, EdB Prepare Carefully, Character Editor, RPG Style Inventory and Resource Delivery Helper.
Should a new player use Combat Extended in RimWorld? I wouldn't. Learn vanilla combat first: Combat Extended changes how shooting, armour and ammo work, and it can't be removed from a save.
Do RimWorld mods work on 1.7? Ludeon says most mods shouldn't need any changes for 1.7.