Save Your Colonists: RimWorld Bleeding Crisis Solutions That Actually Work
RimWorld 1.6 · Core
Fast answer: herbal medicine comes from harvesting healroot — you never craft it. Industrial medicine is the only craftable tier: research medicine production, build a drug lab, then bill make medicine (1 herbal + 1 neutroamine + 3 cloth). glitterworld medicine has no recipe in Core — buy or loot it. Neutroamine also has no craft recipe; it is the usual bottleneck.
The three medicine kits
| Item | How you get it | Medical potency | Quality max | Market value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| herbal medicine |
Harvest healroot (not a workbench recipe) | 0.60 | 0.70 | 10 |
| medicine |
Drug lab after medicine production | 1.00 | 1.00 | 18 |
| glitterworld medicine |
No recipe — trade / rewards | 1.60 | 1.30 | 50 |
Herbal also rots (150 days before rotting). Higher potency improves tend quality and multiplies surgery success; quality max caps how good a tend can be with that kit.
Do this in-game: craft industrial medicine
-
Open the bottom bar tab research F6 and finish medicine production (1500 points, Industrial). Prerequisites: drug production + microelectronics basics.
research → medicine production -
Build the bench: architect → production → drug lab (75 steel, 6 components; needs drug production research; Construction 4).
architect Tab → production →
drug lab
-
Click the drug lab → Bills tab → add make medicine (or the ×4 bulk bill). Crafter needs Crafting 4 and Intellectual 4. Work skill is Intellectual.
-
Stock the three ingredients next to the lab (or in a nearby stockpile the bill can reach):
+
×1
herbal medicine
+
×1
neutroamine
→
×3
cloth
×1
medicine
Crafting work 700 per unit. The ×4 bulk bill makes 4 per cycle.
Neutroamine has no recipe in Core. Buy it from traders, loot it, or salvage quest rewards. If the bill sits idle with herbal and cloth on hand, you are waiting on neutroamine — not a broken drug lab.
Herbal: grow healroot (do not craft it)
-
architect → zone → growing zone (or hydroponics), then set the plant to healroot.
architect → zone → growing zone → healroot -
Sown healroot: 7 days to mature, 800 sow work, Plant skill 8 minimum. Wild healroot grows slower (10 days) but still yields 1 herbal medicine per plant.
Glitterworld is buy-only
glitterworld medicine has no craft recipe. Watch exotic traders and quest rewards. Save it for critical surgery and life-threatening infections — its quality cap (1.30) and potency (1.60) are the best Core offers.
Why better medicine matters
- Herbal never tends above 0.70 quality — fine early, weak against infection climb.
- Industrial caps at 1.00; glitterworld at 1.30.
- Wound infection: untended severity +0.84/day; immunity +0.6441/day; a tend applies −0.53/day for 12 hours. Better tend quality is how you walk severity down.