Beat the Freeze: RimWorld Warm Gear That Actually Saves Lives
A colonist with no clothes is comfortable down to 16 °C. Every piece of clothing pushes that number lower, and hypothermia only starts once the air is 10 °C colder than whatever the colonist's comfort line has become. A normal muffalo wool parka alone moves the line to −40 °C. Everything below comes down to those two numbers.
RimWorld 1.6Core game numbers. Royalty, Ideology, Biotech, Anomaly and Odyssey notes are marked where they apply.
Parka: material × 2.0
Tuque: fabric × 0.5
Muffalo wool: 28
Comfort line and danger line
Open a colonist's Gear tab and look at the comfortable temperature range. In winter, only the low end counts.
- Comfortable minimum. For a human with nothing on it is 16 °C. Each worn item subtracts its cold insulation. Below this line the colonist normally gets a cold mood penalty, but the cold does not add any hypothermia yet.
- Hypothermia line. 10 °C below the comfortable minimum. Below this, the Hypothermia condition starts to build. It heals once the colonist is back above the comfortable line (their own line, clothes and genes included). Between the two lines it stops growing but does not heal.
Each item's cold insulation is simple multiplication:
Normal muffalo wool parka: 28 × 2.0 × 1.0 = 56. Comfortable to 16 − 56 = −40 °C, hypothermia below −50 °C.
| Outfit (Normal quality unless named) | Cold insulation | Comfortable to | Hypothermia below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing | 0 | 16 °C | 6 °C |
| Cloth T-shirt and pants | 7.6 | 8 °C | −2 °C |
| Plainleather tribalwear | 8.8 | 7 °C | −3 °C |
| Cloth parka only | 36 | −20 °C | −30 °C |
| Cloth parka, cloth tuque, cloth pants, cloth button-down | 53.3 | −37 °C | −47 °C |
| Muffalo wool parka only | 56 | −40 °C | −50 °C |
| Muffalo wool parka and tuque, cloth pants and button-down | 78.3 | −62 °C | −72 °C |
| Marine armor and helmet, devilstrand button-down and pants | 81.2 | −65 °C | −75 °C |
| Legendary thrumbofur parka, muffalo wool tuque | 136.4 | −120 °C | −130 °C |
Genes from Biotech shift the same line: cold tolerant −10 °C, cold super-tolerant −20 °C, furskin −10 °C, and cold weakness +5 °C. They add on top of clothing.
The comfort line, one layer at a time
The material matters more than the quality
The parka has the biggest garment factor in the game, 2.0, so it doubles whatever the material brings. Picking a warmer material is usually easier than waiting for a masterwork.
| Material | Cold insulation | Normal parka | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guinea pig fur | 38 | 76 | Guinea pigs. Tiny animals, so you get very little per kill. Best saved for parkas. |
| Sealskin, thrumbomane (Odyssey) | 36 | 72 | Sealskin from seals, thrumbomane from butchering alpha thrumbos. |
| Thrumbofur / megasloth wool | 34 | 68 | Thrumbos (dangerous) / megasloths (shearable). |
| Heavy fur, alpaca wool, chinchilla fur | 30 | 60 | Megasloths (heavy fur), chinchillas, and alpacas, which are an easy ranch animal. |
| Muffalo wool | 28 | 56 | Muffalo herds. The standard cold-biome choice. |
| Sheep wool, bison wool, hyperweave | 26 | 52 | Hyperweave is a protection fabric. Using it only for warmth wastes it. |
| Wolfskin | 24 | 48 | Wolves and wargs. |
| Synthread | 22 | 44 | Trade only. |
| Devilstrand, bluefur, bearskin, foxfur | 20 | 40 | Devilstrand's strength is armor and durability, not warmth. |
| Cloth | 18 | 36 | Cotton fields. See how to get cloth. |
| Plainleather and most other leathers | 12–16 | 24–32 | Generic leathers, pig, lizard, human, dog, rhino, elephant. Patchleather is only 9, so a patchleather parka gives just 18. |
Quality multiplies the whole piece
| Quality | Awful | Poor | Normal | Good | Excellent | Masterwork | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insulation factor | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.8 |
A legendary heavy fur parka (30 × 2.0 × 1.8 = 108) is warmer than a normal thrumbofur parka (68). An awful muffalo wool parka still gives 44.8, which beats a normal cloth parka. If your tailor is weak, a warmer material fixes more than a re-roll.
One outer coat, one hat, then fill the skin layer
Clothing goes into layers. Two items in the same layer that cover the same body parts can't be worn together, so a colonist who puts on a duster takes the parka off.
Outer layer
Parka 2.0 beats jacket 0.8, robe 0.8, duster 0.6 and the Royalty/Biotech cape 0.6. A flak jacket gives a fixed 14.4 at Normal quality, whatever it is made of. Swap dusters for parkas when the cold season starts, then swap back for summer. The duster also protects from heat (0.85), the parka does not.
Hat
Tuque 0.5, fabric only (cloth, wool, synthread, devilstrand, hyperweave), and it needs Complex Clothing. A muffalo wool tuque adds 14. Ideology's tailcap is the same 0.5 but made from leather. Simple helmets give only 0.15 of their metal.
Middle layer
The flak vest sits under the parka, so you can wear both. It only adds 1 cold insulation at Normal quality, but you keep the parka.
Skin layer
Button-down shirt 0.26, T-shirt 0.22, pants 0.20. Small, but a wool shirt and pants add about 11 to 16 together. Tribalwear (0.55) covers shirt and pants at once and is made at a crafting spot without research.
How long a colonist has below the hypothermia line
Hypothermia grows faster the further the air is below the colonist's hypothermia line. Close to the line it grows at a minimum speed. The hours below are in-game hours for a healthy human starting from zero and standing in that cold without a break. Death can come earlier, since a downed colonist can die from other causes.
| Degrees below the hypothermia line | Shivering (4%) | Serious (35%) | Extreme (62%) | Death (100%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to about 12 °C | ~1.3 h | ~11 h | ~20 h | ~32 h |
| 20 °C | ~0.7 h | ~6.5 h | ~11.5 h | ~18.6 h |
| 30 °C | ~0.5 h | ~4.3 h | ~7.7 h | ~12.4 h |
| 50 °C | ~0.3 h | ~2.6 h | ~4.6 h | ~7.4 h |
- Extreme hypothermia (62%) limits consciousness to 10%. The colonist is down and can't walk to a fire, so somebody has to carry them.
- Frostbite becomes possible once hypothermia passes 37% while the air is below 0 °C. It can cost fingers, toes, ears and noses.
- Recovery starts only above the colonist's own comfortable minimum, not just above the hypothermia line. A room that is merely "less cold" keeps the condition where it is. Frostbite can still happen there if hypothermia is already past 37% and the air is below 0 °C.
A colonist in a cloth T-shirt and pants has a hypothermia line of about −2 °C. At −25 °C that is 23 degrees below, which means extreme hypothermia in about 10 hours. Shivering starts within the first hour, so you'll usually see it coming.
A first winter plan that works
- Research Complex Clothing early. The parka recipe has no research requirement of its own, but it can only be made at a hand or electric tailoring bench, and both benches need Complex Clothing (600 research points). The electric bench also needs Electricity. Tribal starts can make tribalwear at a crafting spot in the meantime.
- Collect wool and fur in autumn. One parka takes 80 material, a tuque 20. Shear muffalo and alpacas, and keep wolf, bear and other fur instead of selling it. Mixed leather is fine for the first round.
- Parkas before tuques. A cloth parka gives 36, a cloth tuque 9. Give everyone a parka first.
- Set outfit policies. In the Assign tab, give outdoor workers a policy that allows parkas and blocks dusters in winter, or they'll walk out in whatever they wore in summer.
- Heat where people sleep. A campfire heats a small room up to 28 °C and needs wood. An electric heater (175 W) needs Electricity research. Sleeping above the colonist's comfortable minimum lets hypothermia heal overnight. A room above 16 °C works for everyone, even without clothes. To keep heat in, build an airlock and follow these colony layout tips.
Ice sheet and sea ice
These are usually far below freezing all year, so parkas are needed from day one. No plants grow wild, so materials come from animals, traders and raiders. Start with heated rooms and keep trips outside short until everyone has a parka.
Cold snap in a mild biome
A cold snap drops the outdoor temperature by up to 20 °C for 1.5 to 3.5 days, fading in and out over a few hours. It can only start when the seasonal temperature is above 0 and below 15 °C. Keep a few jackets or parkas in storage even if your summers are warm.
Wearing a parka and still freezing?
- A duster, jacket, cape or flak jacket replaced it. They share the outer layer. Check the Gear tab.
- It's a cloth or leather parka in deep cold. Plainleather gives 32, which means hypothermia below −26 °C. Rebuild in wool or fur.
- No hat. A tuque is the cheapest extra layer. When the "Need warm clothes" alert counts spare clothes in storage, it only counts coats, shirts and pants, so stored tuques won't clear it.
- The alert looks ahead. It compares each colonist against the coldest of today's temperature, this twelfth and the next three, so it can show up while the weather still feels fine.
- A child is wearing a kid parka. Biotech's kid parka has a factor of 1.5, not 2.0. Add a tuque.
- Cold weakness gene. Adds 5 °C to the comfortable minimum.
- Worn-out clothing. Damage doesn't lower insulation, but ratty and tattered clothing gives a mood penalty (−3 and −5), and pieces that wear out completely are destroyed. Replace them before winter.
New to cold starts? Read the beginner walkthrough for your first days before winter arrives.