One of the main advantages of playing games on PC is the ability to access the main files of a game. A lot of developers are choosing to leave the developer mode inside the game in order for players to test game mechanics and tweak settings. Rimworld is one such games where players can enable the dev mode in order to ‘Cheat’ or change parts of the game whenever they wish.
This guide will go over how to enable and activate dev mode in Rimworld and some of the features available with this enabled.
Contents
| How to Activate Dev Mode |
| Spawning Items With Dev Mode |
| Edit Ideology Mid-Game With Developer Mode |
| Enabling God/Creative Mode With Dev Mode |
How to Activate the Developer Mode in Rimworld
Activating dev mode in Rimworld is a lot easier than it is in other games. You won’t have to go through files or change any settings for this manually. You can activate dev mode from inside the game.
To activate dev mode, boot up Rimworld as usual. It shouldn’t matter which version of the game you’re running. From the main menu, open up the Options menu. Whilst in the options menu there is a setting on the right side which reads Development Mode. By default this is deactivated. You can activate dev mode by selecting this.
Once this is activated there will be a green tick next to this setting. This shows that the setting is enabled and you will be able to use the dev tools in-game.
What Can You Do With Dev Mode?
There are a wide variety of uses of the developer mode in Rimworld. The main purpose of this mode is for the developers to test the game out. Using this mode you can make events happen whenever you wish, spawn items and any manner of other things. I’ll go over some of the main benefits of activating dev mode in your game of Rimworld.
Spawning Items With Developer Mode
One of the main benefits of using this mode is the ability to spawn whichever items you wish in your game. You can activate Developer Mode whenever you wish in the middle of a save. This is a great way of saving a starving colony if you are really stuck. Just spawn some food for your colonists to eat!
To spawn items, load up your game. You will notice a bar at the top middle of the screen with a variety of buttons. These are only available in Dev Mode. To spawn items in Rimworld, first open up the Debug Actions menu. This is the button which you can see in the image below.
You will then be presented with a rather bland looking UI. This will have a very large list of different things you can do. Luckily, these actions are grouped under different headings in order to find them easier. You can also filter actions in the search bar at the top left. There is a group called Spawning. No surprise you will find the actions for spawning under this setting.
To spawn items you wish, you will find most items under the action Try place near stack of… The others, such as food, can be found under different actions.
Changing Your Ideology After Starting With Dev Mode
Have you created an Ideology with the DLC but are unhappy with some of the settings you have chosen? Unfortunately there is no way in the vanilla game of Rimworld to edit this after you have started. Luckily, using the developer mode you are able to edit basically everything about your Ideology mid-game.
To change your Ideology mid-game open up the Ideology panel with Developer Mode enabled. (You can do this by selecting the light-bulb: Ideoligions button at the bottom right of the screen.) Whilst viewing your Ideology, toggle the Dev:Edit mode button at the top right of this menu. There will be a green tick next to it when successful and you will be able to edit everything about your Ideology/religion.
Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made to the Ideology remember to select the Save button at the top of the menu.
You can also edit any of the Ideologies present in your game. This includes the pirate ideologies and all of the faction religions. To do this, simply select them on the left column of this menu and edit them the same way you change your own.
Activating God/Creative Mode in Rimworld
Another great feature available to those using Dev Mode is the ability to build for free. Those who have played other creative building games like Minecraft know this better as Creative Mode. With God Mode in Rimworld you are able to build whatever you want instantly, for free. This will not consume any resources either.
God Mode is great for players who have always wanted to build their dream colony but are suffering through surviving far enough into the game. You also will not need to research anything in order to build it with God Mode. You simply have access to everything and can build whatever you wish.
To toggle God Mode on/off you can select the Skull icon at the top bar where the other developer tools are located. This can be seen outlined in the image above. When you have God Mode enabled you can see the text “God mode” located under the left icons.