How to Banish a Pawn in RimWorld (Door Icon, −3 Mood)
How to Banish a Pawn in RimWorld: Door Icon, −3 Mood
Select the colonist, open the Bio tab and click the small door icon in the top right corner, next to the rename pencil. Confirm the popup and they walk off the map. Everyone left behind gets "Colonist banished" at −3 mood for 6 days, or −6 if the game expects them to die out there. Faction goodwill does not move. They leave wearing their gear, so take back anything you want first.
Verified against Steam RimWorld 1.6.4871Core game unless a DLC is named. Hospitality's guest dismiss is a mod.
- Healthy: −3 for 6 days
- Left to die: −6 for 6 days
- Goodwill: no change
- Guilty: no colony thought
UI path
Where is the banish button?
It is on the Bio tab, the character card with name, backstory and traits. You won't find it on the Social tab or in the right-click menu.
- Click the colonist you want gone.
- Open the Bio tab.
- Click the door icon beside the rename pencil. The tooltip says Banish.
- Read the popup, then confirm.
Banishing from a caravan
Away from home, you banish through the caravan's own pawn list. You can't banish the last colonist in a caravan. A pawn who is downed, or dropped in weather their clothes can't handle, will most likely die after you leave them, and the colony takes the −6 version of the thought.
After confirm
What banish actually does
They keep what they carry
Weapon and apparel go with them, and so does anything in their inventory. If they carry the colony's best rifle or a power armor set, drop it or strip them before you click Banish. The popup's item list shows exactly what you will lose.
Goodwill only moves with other factions' people. Banishing your own colonist changes nobody's opinion of you. Goodwill comes from sending outsiders home: releasing a healthy prisoner from another faction gives +12, as long as they walk off the map with their wounds tended.
Numbers
Mood hit: −3, −6, and when it is zero
| Thought | Mood | Lasts | Max stacks | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colonist banished | −3 | 6 days | 5 | Healthy free colonist |
| Colonist banished to death | −6 | 6 days | 5 | The game expects them to die |
| Prisoner banished to death | −4 | 6 days | 5 | A prisoner dropped where they won't survive |
| Bonded animal banished | −6 | 6 days | 5 | Only the animal's bonded pawn |
| Guilty pawn banished | 0 | n/a | n/a | Colony thought skipped |
Extra stacks count at 0.75 of the one before, so a second banish in the same week adds −2.25, then about −1.7. Psychopaths ignore banishment, and so do Inhumanized pawns from Anomaly.
When it counts as "left to die"
The popup warns you when the pawn will most likely die. Usually the outdoor temperature is outside what their clothes can handle, they are bleeding badly, or they have a life-threatening condition. A parka and a tended wound before a winter banish keep the thought at −3.
Left to die also counts as a death for their friends and family. A lover gets "My lover died" at −16 for 30 days, and a parent gets "My son died" or "My daughter died" at −20 for 30 days. A clean banish does not trigger those.
Guilty pawns and the Ideology Trial
A pawn with the guilty status can be removed with no "Colonist banished" thought. With Ideology, the leader's Trial ritual is the reliable way to get there: a conviction makes the defendant guilty for 15 days, which covers banishing, arresting and executing them. Conviction is not guaranteed. It depends on the social skills of the accuser and the accused.
Troubleshoot
Why you can't banish them
Downed or a baby
They have to walk out. Tend them until they can stand, or carry them into a caravan and banish them on the world map.
Quest lodger
Pawns staying with you for a quest have no banish button. Getting rid of them another way usually fails the quest.
Prisoner or slave
The Bio button is for free colonists. Use the prisoner tab instead: release, execute, or enslave.
Last pawn in a caravan
The caravan screen blocks it. At home on a map there is no such check.
Decision
Banish vs arrest, release, execute
| Exit | Colony mood | Goodwill | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banish, healthy | −3, 6 days | 0 | You just want them gone |
| Banish, left to die | −6, 6 days, plus family death thoughts | 0 | Only if you accept the death thoughts |
| Arrest, then let them escape | −4, 6 days (Colonist prisoner escaped) | 0 | Never. It costs more than banishing |
| Arrest, then release | They get Was imprisoned, −6 for 12 days | 0 | Never for a kick-out, because a released colonist rejoins you |
| Release another faction's prisoner | +2, 6 days | +12 | You want goodwill |
| Execute | −2 if guilty, −5 if not | 0 | Ideology precepts can change this a lot |
| Sell to a slaver | −3, 4 days | Trade only | Prisoners and slaves you can sell |
The open-door "self-banish" trick costs mood. If you arrest a colonist and leave the cell open so they walk out, the colony gets "Colonist prisoner escaped" at −4 for 6 days. That is worse than the −3 from a normal banish.
Related: prison doors and escapes, execution and butchering mood, and room impressiveness if you need mood to soak up the −3.
DLC
Ideology, Royalty, Biotech, Anomaly
- Ideology: a Trial conviction gives 15 days of guilt, so you can banish, arrest or execute with no colony thought. Slavery and execution precepts change those exits, not the banish numbers.
- Royalty and quests: lodgers you agreed to host can't be banished from the Bio tab, and forcing them out fails the quest.
- Biotech: babies can't walk, so they can't be banished from home. Leaving a child to die gives the parents the −20 death thought.
- Anomaly: Inhumanized pawns don't get any banish thoughts.
Abandoning a second colony counts its leftover pawns as banished. See second colony death trap. For a cold-map banish, the warm gear page shows what keeps them alive long enough to count as a clean exit.
Short version
Default call for 1.6
- Take back the gear you want.
- Read the popup. If it says they will most likely die, warm them up or tend them first.
- Banish. −3 for 6 days is cheap next to a pyromaniac in a wooden base.
- If you want no mood hit at all, run an Ideology Trial and banish during the 15 days of guilt.
- If you want goodwill, release other factions' prisoners. Banishing never gives any.