Orbital Trade Ships Ghosting You? Fix RimWorld's Dry Spell
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Introduction
▼When RimWorld players ask for "more trade ships," they usually mean one thing: orbital traders are too scarce and it's hurting their gameplay. You finally built your communications console, stocked goods to sell, and then… months go by with no orbital trade ship. We've all been there – watching our corn rot and our sculptures gather dust, praying for that elusive bulk goods trader.
Why does this happen? In vanilla RimWorld, orbital trade ships are a random event controlled by your storyteller. There's roughly a 15-day mean interval per orbital trader event under Cassandra or default settings – meaning on average maybe 2–4 ships a year, but RNG can swing wildly. It's not uncommon to have none for a long stretch and then two back-to-back. New to RimWorld trading? Check out our complete beginner's guide to learn the fundamentals before diving into advanced trading strategies.
In this guide, we'll cover:
- Understanding why trade ships are so rare
- Vanilla strategies to get more trading opportunities
- The best mods for increasing trade ship frequency
- Balancing considerations for more frequent trading
Quick-Start Guide (For the Desperate)
▼If you're mid-game and absolutely need a trade ship ASAP, here are fast solutions:
1. Double-check the basics
Make sure you have a powered comms console and at least one orbital trade beacon placed in an unroofed stockpile area. Without these, orbital traders will come and go without you ever knowing!
Items must be within the blue beacon range to trade with orbital ships.
2. Call in a land caravan
While waiting for an orbital trader, use the comms console to request a trade caravan from a friendly faction. It costs –15 goodwill (you'll owe them a favor) by default. If you have at least one ally, you can do this every 4 days.
3. Caravan out yourself
Form a caravan with some sellable goods and visit a nearby settlement. This takes time and is risky in hostile biomes, but it guarantees a trading session. For efficient caravan management, see our guides on caravan hitching spots and controlling trader locations.
4. Use Developer Mode (cheat)
Activate dev mode in the Options menu. Then on the top of the screen, click the purple debug actions icon and find "Execute incident". Select Orbital trader arrival. A trade ship will appear overhead immediately.
5. Install a quick mod
The fastest mod solution is "Trade Ships No Matter What." Subscribe and enable it, and by default it will force an orbital trader to appear within 3 days. This mod ignores storyteller rules and guarantees regular trade ships.
Why Orbital Trade Ships Are So Rare in Vanilla
▼Orbital traders feel rare because… well, they are. RimWorld's event system was tuned to make orbital traders an occasional luxury. In fact, many players notice that prior to the 1.2 update, trade ships were more common.
Storyteller RNG
Orbital trader events are controlled by storytellers just like raids, infestations, and crop blights. The default base chance is relatively low - about once every 15 days is standard. However, that's an average. You might theoretically get two orbital traders in one week and then none for a season.
How Each Storyteller Affects Trade Ships
- ▶ Cassandra Classic: Tries to spread out events somewhat evenly. Orbital traders compete with other "good" events.
- ▶ Phoebe Chillax: Gives long gaps between events of any kind - meaning long gaps between traders as well.
- ▶ Randy Random: All bets are off. You might get 3 trade ships in a month or zero in two years - it's purely random.
For a comprehensive guide to storytellers and difficulty settings, including how they affect all aspects of gameplay, check out our complete storyteller guide.
Important Facts About Orbital Traders
- ✓ Faction relations don't matter: Orbital traders are not tied to factions at all. They're always "independent" ships. You could be at war with everyone and still get orbital traders.
- ✓ The early-game trading slump: By mid-game (year 2+), you likely have lots of stuff to sell and new needs, but traders are still just as rare as early game.
- ✓ Patch changes: In RimWorld 1.0, you got traders much more often, whereas in 1.2 and beyond they show up "orders of magnitude less often".
"There is a certain trade bottleneck period in the early-to-mid game when you finally have some goods to trade, but not enough money to call a caravan... And orbital traders are so random that you really can't rely on them. There is no solution besides sending your pawns on what will very possibly be a suicide mission with all your precious goods, or sitting around twiddling your thumbs and waiting for someone to visit you, and praying that they're the right kind of trader... Neither is very fun."
— RimWorld Forum User
Communications console displaying an orbital trader arrival notification
The Baseline: What Vanilla Gives You
▼Let's summarize what vanilla RimWorld offers for trade opportunities, so you know what to expect if you don't use any mods:
Orbital Trade Ships
- • On average ~2-3 per year (could be more with luck, or zero if unlucky)
- • Require a powered comms console + orbital trade beacon
- • Each stays for about 1 day when they come
- • Types: Bulk Goods, Exotic Goods, Combat Supplier, etc.
Faction Trade Caravans
- • Approximately 4–6 times per year if you have friendly factions
- • Can be requested from allies for -15 goodwill
- • Arrive on foot (or animals) for face-to-face trading
- • Usually bring fewer goods than orbital traders
Visitors & Other Traders
- • Random visitor groups that might trade a few items
- • Orbital drop events (cargo pods with resources)
- • Special events like Royal Tribute Collector (with Royalty DLC)
Quests & Outposts
- • Some quests result in trade opportunities
- • Trading at faction bases your caravan visits on the world map
- • Quest rewards that give resources directly
Knowing this, it's clear vanilla expects you to use all these avenues. If you're only waiting for orbital ships, you're actually missing out on the faction caravans which are more frequent.
Why players prefer orbital traders:
Orbital traders have unique advantages: they bring big stockpiles of diverse goods and lots of silver, and you don't have to feed or house them or worry about them being killed by raiders (they're safely in space). So it's totally understandable to want more of them!
Vanilla-Friendly Strategies to Increase Trading
▼Before resorting to mods or cheats, try these in-game (lore-friendly) methods to get more trading done:
Make Friends and Call Caravans
If you have at least one friendly faction (relationship ≥ +75 is Ally), you possess a superpower: the ability to call in a trade caravan. From the comms console, you can request a caravan from an ally. You even get to choose what type of trader they send.
The cost: -15 goodwill points (so if you were at +80, you'll drop to +65)
How to get allies? Rescue people and let them leave, do quests for factions, send them gifts, or release their prisoners – all these can raise relations. Having multiple allies lets you stagger caravan requests among them for a steady flow of traders. Learn more about faction relationships and trading mechanics in our faction tech levels guide.
Tip: Each faction has a 4-day cooldown for requests. Two allies could theoretically allow you to call a caravan every ~2 days (alternating).
Faction relations interface showing allied factions available for trade caravan requests
Leverage the Royalty DLC
If you have the Royalty expansion, use these unique trading perks:
- ⚜ Imperial Orbital Trader: Once a colonist reaches the title of Baron/Baroness, the Empire will send an orbital trader of their own occasionally.
- ⚜ Royal Tribute Collector: The Empire regularly sends a special caravan that buys gold and prisoners for royal favor.
- ⚜ Royalty Quests: Some quests reward resources or even trader visits. Always read quest rewards.
Caravanning and Strategic Base Location
Accept that orbital trade is fickle, and make sure you can trade the old-fashioned way:
Strategic Settlement: Place your colony within a day's travel of multiple faction towns. This gives you "markets" on demand.
To make caravanning easier:
- → Research Packaged Survival Meals for longer trips
- → Tame muffalos or dromedaries as pack animals
- → Invest in Transport Pods for faster trade route networks
Need specific components for your trade infrastructure? Our component trading guide shows you which traders stock the components you need for building advanced trading equipment.
In-Game Scenario Editing
If starting a new game, use the Scenario Editor to include regular trader events:
How to do it:
- When creating a new scenario (or editing one), choose Add part
- Select Incident → Orbital trader arrival
- Set it to repeat every X days (e.g., every 7 days)
- These forced incidents will occur on top of normal storyteller events
This is a vanilla-friendly "cheat" that keeps things "in-lore" (perhaps your colony is on a major trade route). It requires starting a new game, but guarantees regular trade ships.
Mod Solutions: Get More Trade Ships
▼RimWorld's modding community has you covered. Here are the most popular and useful mods that specifically address the frequency of trade ships:
Mod configuration interface for adjusting orbital trade ship frequency and settings
"More Trade Ships" (Classic Mod)
The OG mod for this issue. It simply increases the rate at which orbital trade ships appear, roughly to how it was back in Alpha 13 (when trade ships were quite common).
- Lightweight, compatible with virtually everything
- Doesn't require a new game
- Might get double trade ships occasionally
- No configuration - fixed increase
- Still relies on storyteller RNG
- Original mod discontinued (use "More Trade Ships (Continued)")
Trading Options (Configurable Frequency)
If you like precisely controlling how often traders come, this mod adds an interface where you can dial up or down various parameters:
- • Orbital traders frequency: Set traders per period (e.g., 1 trader every 4 days)
- • Caravan frequency: Adjust how often faction caravans visit
- • Trader stock scaling: Configure traders to carry more items or silver
- Highly configurable to your preference
- Compatible with most mods
- Safe to add/remove from saves
- Requires user tweaking
- Extra mod menu to navigate
- Settings might need adjustment over time
Trade Ships No Matter What (Guaranteed Traders)
This mod takes a brute-force approach: it triggers an orbital trader event every X days no matter what, completely independent of storyteller logic.
Default setting: Trade ship every 3 to 5 days (configurable)
It runs on its own schedule, ignoring all other factors. Even if your storyteller is ignoring you, a trade ship will still come on schedule.
- Guarantees a steady flow of orbital traders
- Plug-and-play, works mid-game
- Fixes a vanilla bug where uranium might never appear
- Can feel like a "cheat" if set very low
- Might break immersion with clockwork traders
- Could make game too easy if overused
Call Trade Ships (Summon for a Price)
This mod adds a nuanced, in-lore mechanic: it lets you "call" an orbital trade ship at will from the comms console, in exchange for silver.
How it works: Pay ~500-600 silver (configurable) to have a trade ship arrive within a day.
It parallels the existing mechanic of calling land caravans for goodwill, but uses silver instead and calls a ship. You can even choose what kind of trader you want.
- Interactive and immersive
- Choose the trader type you need
- Balances convenience with a cost
- Relies on having silver to pay
- Must remember to call them
- Early game might lack funds to use it
Other Notable Mods
Trader Stock Multiplier
Doesn't change frequency, but multiplies the amount of goods and silver traders have. Makes each visit more valuable.
Vanilla Trading Expanded
Overhauls trading mechanics with a trading spot, banking system, and player-called trade events. Deeper trading gameplay.
Interactive Mod Comparison Tool
▼Compare the different trader mods and find the one that best fits your play style:
What's most important to you?
Calculate Expected Trade Ships
Use this calculator to estimate how many trade ships you'll get per year with different settings:
Balancing Considerations
▼Getting more trade ships is awesome for your economy – maybe too awesome. Be mindful of these balancing aspects:
Wealth and Raids
With frequent trading, you'll accumulate wealth faster (selling stuff for silver, buying shiny gear). RimWorld's storytellers will answer that with stronger raids. Don't be surprised when your wealth graph spikes and a huge raid follows! For strategies on managing wealth and defending against stronger raids, check out our storyteller difficulty guide.
Resource Saturation
Part of the RimWorld experience is scarcities that drive gameplay (needing components leads you to dig machinery or do quests, etc.). If you have constant traders, you can buy your way out of scarcity easily. This can diminish the survival feel. For tips on managing resource scarcity and production chains, see our component management guide.
Not All Traders Are Equal
Even with more frequent traders, you might still get unlucky in terms of trader type. You might badly need a bulk goods trader but only get weapons dealers and exotic goods traders.
Event Flooding
If you push things to extremes (a trade ship every single day and a faction caravan every week), you'll have a very busy colony. Some players love that, some might find it reduces the storytelling ebb-and-flow.
Compatibility & Conflicts
Running multiple mods that do the same thing is unnecessary and could lead to weird effects. For instance, don't run More Trade Ships and TSNMW together – you'll either get tons of traders or they might override each other.
Personal Anecdote
"In one of my colonies, I was in a tundra region far from any friendly bases. Year 3 rolled around, and I had not seen a single orbital trader. My storage was overflowing with artisan sculptures and excess crops. I decided to install the Call Trade Ships mod out of sheer desperation.
As soon as I had it, my colonist spent 600 silver to request an orbital bulk goods trader. Within 8 in-game hours, 'A trade ship is passing nearby!' – it was like music to my ears. We sold off 2000 units of corn and 50 sculptures that had been clogging our halls, and in return we bought components and advanced medicine that we couldn't craft.
After that, I set up a personal rule: I'd only call a trader if it had been over a season with none arriving naturally. This made the game more fun for me, without making it a cakewalk – I still had to pay, and I still faced big raids from the wealth influx."
FAQ: More Trade Ships in RimWorld
▼In unmodded RimWorld, orbital trader events occur roughly once every 15 days on average. This is not a guarantee – it's random. You might see 2 in one month or go 3 months with none. Overall, expect a couple per year under Cassandra storyteller, potentially less under Phoebe or wildly variable under Randy.
First, ensure the comms console is powered and you have an orbital trade beacon placed with your items. Without a beacon, you can still get the notification of a trade ship but won't be able to trade anything except silver. If you're new to trading mechanics, our beginner's guide covers the basics of setting up trade infrastructure.
If you have those and still got zero traders in a whole year, it's likely just bad luck. Orbital traders are rare. However, if it's been multiple years, consider that a mod conflict or scenario setting might be preventing traders. In that case, a mod like Trade Ships No Matter What can override it.
Not in the game settings, unfortunately. Your options without mods are:
- • Use the scenario editor to force trader incidents (requires new game start).
- • Choose Randy Random storyteller, who might give more frequent events by chance.
- • Rely on ally caravans by making friends (not orbitals, but still trading).
- • Use dev mode to trigger traders manually (essentially a cheat).
Relations: No, orbital traders are independent. They'll come regardless of who you're friends or enemies with.
Wealth: Indirectly, yes. They don't come more often if you're wealthy, but the trader's inventory is somewhat influenced by your progress (e.g. they carry more expensive items later in the game). Also, a higher colony wealth can lead to the storyteller triggering more raids instead of good events like traders, as a form of challenge balancing.
Yes, as long as the area around it is not roofed or at least has one tile open to the sky. Orbital traders deliver goods via drop pods that prefer to land on beacon tiles. If those tiles are under a constructed roof, the drop pods will phase through the roof (as of 1.4) and still land.
If it's under a mountain roof (thick roof), they can't, so they'll find the nearest open spot. To be safe, keep at least one beacon tile unroofed or use it in an outdoor stockpile.
Further Resources
▼For more on trading mechanics and mods, check out these resources:
RimWorld Wiki: Trade
Covers trade beacon setup, trader types, and base game mechanics.
Steam Workshop: RimWorld Mods
Find all the mods mentioned in this guide and more trading enhancements.
Related Guides
Happy trading on the Rim! May your storage rooms be empty and your silver plentiful.