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Where to learn RimWorld

These docs teach you the mod: which keys do what, how the screens work, how to drive RimWorld from the keyboard. They are not a strategy guide. RimWorld is a deep game, and the learning resources that exist for it are extensive. This page points to the ones I recommend.

My tutorial video

I recorded a walkthrough of my first accessible game. It covers the early colony arc from landing through first threats, narrated as I go.

Watch the RimWorld Access tutorial

The RimWorld wiki

rimworldwiki.com is the authoritative reference for game mechanics. It covers everything: temperature and food spoilage, what each trait does, the mood system, the health system, how raids scale. It is large and actively maintained. RimWorld Access mirrors vanilla RimWorld closely, so the learning resources written for the wider community work for you too.

The wiki's own Basics overview is a good first read if you want an overview of the game's flow before diving in. A few articles I find myself returning to:

RimWorld YouTubers

For strategy and a feel for how experienced players think, RimWorld has a large community of creators on YouTube. Narrated playthroughs work well by ear: the player talks through priorities, explains decisions, and signals when to worry and when to relax. Putting a beginner playthrough on in the background is one of the faster ways to absorb the game's rhythms.

I learned the game from sighted players and YouTubers before this mod existed, and that approach still holds up.

Prior art in blind gaming

Before RimWorld Access, blind players had very few games of this depth to play. If you are coming from the blind gaming community, the closest familiar reference is Castaways by Aprone, a survival and colony game that has long been a well-regarded option for blind players. Castaways is available here.

Other complex management games, like Oxygen Not Included, became accessible after RimWorld Access. If you have played one of them, the genre's logic will carry over.

Start gentle

The single best piece of advice for a new player: start on a low difficulty or peaceful.

RimWorld's difficulty range is enormous. On peaceful, raids are infrequent and mild, and there is breathing room to learn the controls and the rhythms of colony life without a crisis every few minutes. Once the keyboard feels natural and you have run a colony for a while, a harder start will make a lot more sense. There is no reason to learn the controls and survive a death spiral at the same time. You do not need to start a new game to raise the difficulty later: you can adjust it in settings on a running save.

Your first colony is supposed to be a bit of a mess. That is how it goes for everyone.