In Rimworld Ideology you are thrust into a rim of beliefs and rituals. This DLC adds an entirely new system and a bunch of new content. You also have the ability to set up your Ideology exactly how you want it. Some of these beliefs will have their own styles and rituals as part of their faith. One such ritual is the scarification ritual, (also known as scarify). This guide will show you how you can Scarify pawns in Rimworld Ideology.
If you are here because the ritual is simply not appearing at all as an action, click here to scroll to the bottom of the page with the solution!
What is Scarifying/Scarification?
Scarification is a ritual act that can be performed in Rimworld Ideology if the belief is set up to allow it. In this ritual, a member of the religion will carve symbols into the target. The cutter gives a speech, cuts the symbols into the target and then says some more words. This is a minor ritual that will give a small mood boost either positive or negative depending on the quality of the ritual.
This ritual can happen at either a ritual spot or Ideogram within the colony. Scarification can only be performed on colonists that are fully apart of the colony. Prisoners and Slaves are not eligible.
How to Set Up to Scarify in Rimworld
In order to be able to scarify you must first pass a few checks. The first of which is eligibility to perform the ritual. When you are creating a custom Ideology, one of the first things you will have to decide is the religion’s Memes. These are your colony’s beliefs on general ideas such as pain, animals and trees. These are divided into three categories, low impact, medium impact and high impact. These categories show you how much the meme will influence your religion. For example, the Pain is Virtue Meme will not only enable Scarification but it will make it a requirement. If requirements of an Ideology aren’t met this will negatively effect your colonists’ moods.
When you are choosing your Memes, hover over them to see some more information on what they do. After you have selected your memes, select the Done button on the bottom right to move onto the next screen.
Adding the Scarification Ritual to an Ideology
Now we’ve gotten to one of the most important parts and that is deciding on having the ritual. On this screen you can see all the precepts and in-depth beliefs your followers will have. In this menu you can customize a bunch of different settings such as honored animals, weapons, relics and Rituals. Rituals is the part that we are interested in for scarification. If Scarification isn’t already on the list of available Rituals you can add it by selecting the Add Rituals… button. If this is grayed out then there is a conflict with some of your chosen memes. Not all beliefs allow all rituals. You will have to go back and change your memes until scarification is apart of the Ideology.
Once you have added this as a ritual you can also select and Edit the ritual to give it a name. There isn’t any reward for a successful scarification that you can choose from. The only reward that you can get is a mood boost for a short time.
You should also change the Precepts section at the top. Before you can scarify anyone they have to want to perform the ritual. You can change how much the followers want to be scarified by adding Scarification and a level to it. The highest level being Extreme meaning colonists will want to be scarred a lot.
Now that we have added the ritual into our religion, we can start the game and start a ritual!
How to Scarify/Start a Scarification Ritual
Now that we have started the game, set up your colony with the basic necessities. There are two different places where the ritual can be performed in Ideology. These two things are the Ritual Spot and the Ideogram. You can find both of these under Architect -> Misc. A Ritual Spot may be a good idea at first as it requires no materials to build but the Ideogram will give a bonus to any ritual being performed there so keep that in mind. Find a place to put down your spot and you can scarify.
To start a scarification ritual just select the ritual spot or altar and select the action. The ritual is never time or date specific meaning you can start it whenever you want. Once you have selected to start the ritual, you will be taken to another menu. This will let you decide who is going to be going through with the scarification and who will be performing the act. you can also decide which pawns will spectate the event. There are a bunch of different factors which will decide on the quality of the event.
Try to set one of your colonists as the moral guide before starting the scarification. If a moral guide is doing the ritual as the Cutter there will be a boost to the quality of the event. Only one colonist can be the Target at the time. Once you select the Begin button you will start the scarification ritual. Once the event is over everyone will get a mood buff or debuff depending on the quality of the event. The pawn who got scarified will also have a positive mood buff for a short time. Plus another permanent buff based on how scarred they are vs how scarred they would like to be.
Can’t see Scarify/Scarification Not Working/Appearing
If you have done everything correctly and still cannot see the ritual then there is a reason for that. The reason is that you may not have set the precepts. This is the feelings that the followers will have. Make sure you assign the Scarification precept high which will mean your colonists really want to get scarified.
You will have to wait until a colonist WANTS to be scarified before the ritual will appear. This means it may take a few days or even weeks in your game before it appears. If you want to perform the ritual faster, set the Precept of being scarified higher. When a colonist wants the ritual to be performed on them it will appear on the notifications on the right side. It will say *name of the scarification ritual* expected and you can hover over this notification to see which pawn/s are expecting it.