RimWorld's Glitterworld Medicine: Eight Ways to Score the Rim's Most Valuable Medical Fix
In RimWorld, you acquire Glitterworld Medicine by trading with exotic goods traders, completing certain quests, calling in royal permits, or using mods that enable crafting. This ultra-rare medicine isn't craftable in vanilla, so colonists must rely on ingenuity to secure it. New to RimWorld? Start with our complete beginner's guide to learn the fundamentals before diving into advanced medical strategies.
Below we'll give a Quick-Start with immediate tips, then dive into advanced strategies and tools (from in-game tactics to useful mods) to ensure your colony always has that life-saving Glitterworld med when it matters.
Table of Contents
Quick-Start Guide 🚀
TL;DR: Build trading capacity early, save silver, and be ready to jump on any opportunity.
- Build a Comms Console + Orbital Beacon ASAP: This unlocks orbital traders (especially Exotic Goods traders who often carry Glitterworld Medicine). It's your ticket to buying rare items without leaving base. For optimal base layout and trading infrastructure, see our colony layout guide.
- Make Friends with Outlander Factions: Reach ally status (💙 75+ relations) with at least one outlander faction base. Allies can be called to send a caravan (for a fee) – request an Exotic Goods caravan to come trade.
- Stockpile Silver & Trade Goods: Glitterworld medicine costs ~ℳ50-70 silver each. Have tradeable commodities ready (excess crops, drugs like smokeleaf or flake, sculptures, etc.) so you can afford meds when a trader finally offers them. Learn more about effective trading strategies in our component trading guide.
- Check Quests and Ruins: Accept item stash quests that list medicine or mysterious Ancient Dangers on the map. These often yield a few Glitterworld meds as loot or rewards.
- Use Royalty Permits (if you have Royalty DLC): A noble with a Glitterworld Medicine Drop permit can call down 5 Glitterworld meds from orbit every 45 days.
- Don't Waste It: Set your colony's default medicine to Herbal or Standard for everyday injuries. Forbid your Glitterworld meds in storage so doctors don't use them on bruises by accident.
- Consider Mods for Crafting: If you're comfortable modding, install a mod like "Glitterworld Medicine Craftable" or "Glitterworld Medicine Production". These let you manufacture Glitterworld meds at a drug lab once you reach mid-game resources.
Why Glitterworld Medicine Matters
Glitterworld medicine is the best medicine in RimWorld – a futuristic ultra-tech medical kit from advanced glitterworlds. It has a medical potency of 160%, boosting treatment quality and surgery success far beyond normal medicine. Using it can literally mean the difference between life and death for a colonist with a bad infection or a critical injury.
However, by design you cannot craft Glitterworld medicine in vanilla RimWorld. Think of it like a frontier colony trying to get top-tier hospital supplies – you're on the rim, not a core glitterworld! The game forces you to obtain it through trade or luck, making it a limited resource.
The screenshot above shows how precious these medical supplies appear in a colonist's inventory – each unit represents a potential life-saving intervention.
In practical terms, a doctor using Glitterworld medicine can achieve tend quality well over 100%, significantly boosting immunity gain. For example, treating a severe infection with Glitterworld meds can save a colonist where normal meds might fall short. It's also nearly essential for safe surgeries on poor doctors: that +60% surgery success bonus may prevent catastrophic failures. For comprehensive medical care strategies and hospital setup, see our complete medical guide.
Vanilla Ways to Obtain Glitterworld Medicine
In vanilla RimWorld, every Glitterworld med you get is either bought, looted, or given. Here's a breakdown of legit methods:
Trade with Exotic Goods Traders
These are the #1 reliable source. Exotic goods caravan traders and orbital exotic trade ships can carry Glitterworld medicine for sale. You'll typically see a few units (2–5) in their inventory, priced around ℳ55 each (price varies with your social skill and trade bonuses).
Tip: Orbital traders refresh more often than caravans; having a comm console increases your chances.
Trade with Faction Bases
If you send a caravan to a friendly faction base (especially outlander unions or Empire settlements, not tribals), you can access their general goods stock which often includes medicines. Outlander towns usually have a medical trader or at least some stock of meds. For tips on managing trade caravans and setting up safe trading spots, check our caravan trading guide.
The caravans shown above demonstrate the kind of trading expeditions you'll need to organize to reach faction bases and secure precious Glitterworld medicine supplies.
Quest Rewards
Keep an eye on quests – especially those from friendly factions or the Imperial nobility. Sometimes a quest reward will be a cache of Glitterworld medicine (e.g., "Reward: 5 Glitterworld medicine" for helping a noble or raiding a stash for someone). For more quest strategies and faction management tips, see our beginner's guide.
Item Stash / Ancient Complexes
Some world quests generate an item stash or an ancient complex with treasure. These often have random loot. Glitterworld medicine can spawn in these stashes (sometimes explicitly mentioned, sometimes as random loot in safes or pods).
Raiders and Visitors
Rarely, you might loot a Glitterworld med from a raider or receive one as a gift from a visiting caravan. Raiders from high-tech factions or pirates sometimes carry a unit as part of their gear (e.g. carrying medicine to tend themselves).
Rich Explorer Scenario Start
If you absolutely want a guaranteed stash, starting a new colony as a Rich Explorer gives you 30 Glitterworld medicine at game start. That's a unique case: one rich person starts with advanced gear and meds.
Royalty DLC – Permit Drops
With the Royalty expansion, there's a permit your nobles can use: Glitterworld Medicine Drop. A Baron or higher can call down 5 Glitterworld meds in a drop pod, usable once per 45 days for free (or more frequently at an honor cost).
Vanilla Acquisition Methods at a Glance
Emergency Measures When You Have None
"Ever since baby Ash was born with Grave Infant Illness, I try to keep at least 10 in the colony. It's been a month and I still think about those last few days where the industrial medicine just [wasn't enough]..."
— Reddit player testimony
What can you do right now if you lack Glitterworld meds in an emergency? Let's break down emergency measures and triage:
Critical injuries like the brain damage shown above are exactly when you need Glitterworld medicine most – but what if you don't have any?
Maximize Your Medical Outcomes Without Glitterworld Meds
First, even without Glitterworld meds, skill and environment can save lives. According to RimWorld's mechanics, a good doctor in a good hospital with normal medicine can often pull a pawn through a tough illness – it might just be close. Here's how to push every advantage (for detailed medical strategies, see our comprehensive medical guide):
- Use the Best Medicine You Do Have: Switch the patient to industrial medicine (the regular one) if you have any; it's much better than herbal. If you only have herbal, use that over nothing. Never do "no medicine" for something like plague.
- Get a Skilled Doctor: Wake up your highest Medical skill pawn (preferably one with the Passion or traits like Medical Expert). A level 10+ doctor with normal medicine can sometimes achieve >70% tend quality, which might be enough.
- Improve the Hospital Environment: Move the patient to your best bed – ideally a Hospital Bed if you have one built (hospital beds improve treatment outcomes), or at least a bed in a clean, well-lit room. Sterile tiles give a cleanliness bonus to avoid infection and a tiny tend quality boost.
- Use Drugs and Tech: Some drugs can help a patient survive longer or a doctor perform better. For example, if you have Penoxycyline, it's a preventive – not useful after infection, but always have your colonists on penoxy schedule if malaria/plague is common.
Hard Choices: What If You Can't Save Them?
RimWorld allows some morally dark decisions. We'd be remiss not to mention these options, though whether you use them is up to your storytelling:
- Cryosleep Casket: If you have a cryptosleep pod, you can put a sick colonist into cryptosleep. This will halt their disease progression. They won't get better, but they won't get worse.
- Healer Mech Serum: If you happen to have a Healer Mech Serum (an Archotech item, often a quest reward), it can cure any one health condition instantly. Typically you'd save these for curing permanent injuries or brain damage.
- Organ Harvest for the Greater Good: This is grim, but if a colonist is on death's door from infection, some players will perform a last-minute organ harvest. (Gives your colony a severe mood debuff.)
Is It Worth Using? When to Save, When to Use
By now you understand how precious Glitterworld medicine is. New players often wonder, should I hoard it like gold? At ~ℳ60 a pop, it's one of the most valuable items per unit weight in the game. Using one on a simple cut can feel like wasting a fortune.
Save It for the Big Moments: Surgeries, Infections, and Extreme Cases
The general consensus in the community: Use Glitterworld medicine only for critical needs. For everyday wounds and minor illnesses, industrial medicine or even herbal (if the wound is trivial) will do. Glitterworld meds should be reserved for:
DO Use For:
- Surgery on vital or difficult parts
- Major infections or disease (plague, malaria, etc.)
- Gut Worms/Muscle Parasites (maybe)
- Immunity Boost for critical pawns
DON'T Use For:
- Bruises, cracks, minor burns
- Routine infections on healthy pawns
- Non-dangerous diseases
- Food poisoning or mechanites
A good rule of thumb: If the situation would cause you to reload a save or rage-quit if it went badly, that's when you apply Glitterworld medicine. 😂
How to Avoid Wastage: Managing That Precious Stock
So you've decided to save Glitterworld meds for the big moments. How to ensure they aren't accidentally used on trivial wounds?
Micro-manage with Forbid
Easiest vanilla method: Keep your Glitterworld medicine stack forbidden in storage. Forbidden items won't be used. This means by default doctors will use normal medicine (next best thing) for serious stuff. When you do want to use a Glitterworld med (say a surgery), you need to unforbid it right before the operation or treatment.
Per-Pawn Medical Settings
In each colonist's Health tab, you can set what medicine they are allowed for treatment. One strategy is to set everyone to Herbal as default, then manually change a pawn to Best only when they have a surgery scheduled or a dangerous illness.
Dedicated Stockpile and Zones
You can get fancy and have a small stockpile of Glitterworld medicine in a separate room that's not accessible to patients normally. For instance, keep it in a safe near your hospital but behind a locked door.
Is It Worth The Price? (Economic Perspective)
Some may ask: should I even buy Glitterworld medicine, or just stick to normal meds? After all, normal medicine is way cheaper (around ℳ20) and you can craft it with a good setup, whereas glitter is ℳ60 and you cannot make it in vanilla. Economically, is it a good investment?
The answer: If you can afford it, buy at least a few. Think of Glitterworld medicine as insurance. You might not need it often, but when you do, it's absolutely worth the price. One Glitterworld med can save a colonist who's worth far more than 60 silver in productivity or bonded-animal mood alone.
Mods for Crafting & Management
Not everyone is content with the RimWorld gods deciding when you get vital medicine. If you're open to modding (or using in-game tools like dev mode or scenario editing), there are several ways to take matters into your own hands.
Crafting Glitterworld Medicine – Top Mods 🛠️
"Glitterworld Medicine Craftable"
by AmUnRA • Updated Apr 2024
This simple mod just unlocks a Glitterworld med recipe at the drug lab. After researching a new project called "Glitterworld medicine crafting", you can craft it using:
- 1 normal medicine
- 1 Luciferium
- ~7x the work time of regular medicine
Using Luciferium makes thematic sense – you're basically refining an advanced super-drug into an ultra-medicine. It's a steep cost since luci itself is rare and valuable.
Compatibility: Updated through RimWorld 1.4/1.5. It's lightweight and only alters that recipe, so it shouldn't conflict with other mods.
"Glitterworld Medicine Production"
by MrHydralisk • Updated Apr 2024
A slightly more involved mod, suited for late-game industrial colonies. It adds a research called "Glitterworld medicine production". The recipe requires:
- 5 Synthread
- 1 Component
- 4 Plasteel
- 1 Industrial Medicine
Compatibility: Updated as of Apr 2024 and compatible with 1.3, 1.4, 1.5. Use this if you want a self-sufficiency endgame.
Smart Medicine Management – Mods to Automate Doctor Behavior
We discussed earlier how to manually forbid or toggle medicine usage. Mods can do this micromanagement for you:
Pharmacist (by Fluffy)
This mod allows you to set rules for what medicine to use for different categories of care. For example, you can configure:
- Glitterworld for surgery
- Industrial for treatment of serious wounds
- Herbal for minor wounds
- No medicine for trivial stuff
The doctor will automatically choose the appropriate type based on injury severity or illness. This prevents the "using Glitterworld on a bruise" scenario entirely.
Smart Medicine (by Uuugggg)
This mod has features like:
- Allowing doctors to carry medicine in their inventory
- Automatically use the best medicine for surgery regardless of patient setting
- Set a checkbox "use best medicine for next surgery" on a pawn
It's slightly different focus (inventory management for doctors on caravans or battlefields), but also helps prevent waste by making sure doctors have the right medicine on them when needed.
Other Cheats/Tools
If you really don't want to deal with scarcity and don't mind "cheating" a bit:
Dev Mode
RimWorld's developer mode lets you spawn items. You can open the dev menu, go to Tools – Spawn Thing, and create MedicineUltratech (the internal name for Glitterworld medicine) in your inventory. This of course is pure cheating in terms of gameplay, but hey – it's your game.
Custom Scenario Start
If you want more Glitterworld meds in your game without mods, you can create a custom scenario in the main menu. For example, add a "start with 10 Glitterworld medicine" to your favorite scenario (or even make drop pod scenarios where you drop with some).
Trading Mods or Increased Orbital Frequency
Some mods simply make traders come by more often or carry more goods. For instance, "Trading Spot" mod or "More Trade Ships" mod can indirectly help by giving you more chances to buy Glitterworld meds. Learn more about managing trader locations in our trading spot guide.
Summary & Action Steps
Build up trade infrastructure early, befriend an outlander faction, and always save a few Glitterworld meds for emergencies; if that's not feasible, use mods or scenario tweaks to secure a supply – your colonists' lives are worth it. Remember, the best medicine is prevention – check out our combat defense guide to minimize injuries in the first place.
Further Resources
- RimWorld Wiki – Medicine: Covers details on all medicine types and medical tending mechanics.
- RimWorld Wiki – Trading: Explains trader types, frequencies, and how to improve trade chances.
- Pharmacist Mod (Fluffy): Find it on Steam Workshop. Highly recommended to anyone who finds RimWorld's medicine usage too clunky.
- Sparkling Worlds Mod (Nexus): If you want a broader glitter tech experience with new events, a craftable Glitterworld medicine, and more ultra-tech stuff.
Good luck, and may your colony never run out of Glitterworld medicine when it truly needs it. Stay healthy on the Rim!