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Trading

Trading turns surplus goods into silver, and silver into things you need. In the trade window you browse goods, set quantities, check the running balance, and accept the deal.

For the game-mechanics side (which trader buys what, how prices and markup work, what is worth selling), see the RimWorld wiki's Trading article and Trade price improvement.

How trading starts

You never open the trade window directly. A colonist has to physically reach the other party first.

A trader visits your colony

Caravans from other factions sometimes wander onto your map. Select one of your colonists, then press ] on the lead trader to open the context menu and choose Trade. Your colonist walks over and the window opens when they arrive.

A higher Social skill on the colonist you send means better prices.

You visit a settlement

Send a caravan to a settlement. With the caravan selected on the world map, press ] on the settlement's tile. The orders there include traveling to the tile to visit and trade, and (for a hostile target) attacking. Choose the trade option, and the trade window opens when the caravan arrives.

Before making the trip, you can preview what a settlement is willing to buy. Navigate to the settlement on the world map, press G to open its gizmos, and choose Show Sellable Items. See Previewing what a settlement will buy below.

An orbital trade ship calls in

Build a comms console and an orbital trade beacon (both require the Microelectronics research), and trade ships passing overhead become reachable. When a ship is in range, send a colonist to the comms console: press ] on the console and pick the ship. Only items within range of a beacon can be sold this way; anything you buy drops in by pod onto the beacon's open tiles. See the wiki's Comms console article for details.

Inside the trade window

When the window opens, the mod announces who you are dealing with and the two keys you will reach for most, for example "Trading with Bob's Caravan (bulk goods trader). Alt+B for balance, Alt+A to accept." The game pauses while you trade.

There are two ways to look at the same window. The classic view is the default; press Ctrl+Tab (Option+Tab on macOS) to switch to the table view and back at any time. The mod remembers the view you used last, and Options > RimWorld Access has a Default Trade View setting as well.

The classic view

The window is organized into sections. Left and Right move between the three goods sections, with the trade summary in the middle. Tab and Shift+Tab hop between the goods area and the toolbar, and bring you back to the section and row you left:

  • The trader's items (first section, named after the trader): what they have for sale. Entering it tells you how much silver the trader will have once the current deal goes through.
  • Trade Summary: a running list of everything queued so far, plus a balance line. This section only appears once you have queued at least one item.
  • Your items: what your colony or caravan can sell. Entering it tells you how much silver you will have after the deal.
  • The toolbar (Tab): the game's two sort dropdowns, then Accept, Reset, Cancel, Sellable Items, the gift toggle, and Switch to Table View. Left and Right walk the buttons here, and Enter presses one.

Each section remembers your cursor position when you switch away and back. If the section you left has emptied in the meantime, you land at the top of the nearest one.

Browsing the goods

Up and Down move through the list. Home jumps to the first item; End jumps to the last. Start typing to jump to an item by name (typeahead works here as elsewhere); Backspace edits the search and Escape clears it.

Each item is announced with its name and anything you have queued on it, then the counts and prices, then the description. Items both sides carry show both prices at once so you can compare directions. When RimWorld colors a price as a good or bad deal in the visual window, the announcement says so: "great deal" or "pricey" when you are buying, "good offer" or "poor offer" when you are selling. The counts, prices, and description live in the details part of the announcement, so the Configure Spoken Announcements screen can move them or turn them off.

Reading prices and your silver

Silver is the currency for almost all trades. (Royal tribute collectors trade for honor instead; the mod says "favor" in place of silver in that case.)

To hear how much silver each side has, press Alt+B: "You have X silver. Trader has Y silver." Worth checking before a large buy, since a trader can only pay you with the silver they are carrying.

For the full reason behind a single item's price, put the cursor on the item and press Alt+P. That opens a navigable price breakdown showing the market value, trader markup, your colonist's Social bonus, and so on. In the trader's list it explains the buying price; in your list, the selling price. To open the full info card for an item, press Alt+I.

Buying and selling

Each item starts at a quantity of zero. In the trader's list, adding to the quantity buys; in your list, adding sells. The announcements say "Buying 10" or "Selling 5" plainly, followed by the running total, for example "Buying 10 Steel, value 43 silver."

Press Enter to drop into the quantity chooser for the current item. Inside it:

  • Up and Down change the amount by one.
  • Shift+Up / Shift+Down change it by ten.
  • Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down change it by a hundred.
  • Type a number to set that amount. In the trader's list a bare number buys; in your list it sells. Lead with - to sell or + to buy regardless, for example -10 sells ten. Backspace fixes a typo.
  • Home sets the maximum sell amount; End sets the maximum buy amount.
  • Enter or Escape returns to the list.

Without opening the chooser, - decreases and + (or =) increases the current item's amount by one, Shift+Up / Shift+Down by ten, Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down by a hundred, and Shift+Home / Shift+End jump to the maximum sell or buy.

To zero out an item, press Delete or Alt+R. To wipe every pending trade and start clean, press Shift+Alt+R.

Checking the running deal

Once you have queued at least one item, Tab to the Trade Summary section to hear the whole deal: what you are buying, what you are selling, and a balance line at the end. The balance reads "Net balance: Spending 50 silver," "Net balance: Receiving 100 silver," or "Net balance: Balanced trade," and Enter on it reads both sides' silver. If you remove the last queued item, this section empties and the mod returns you to the goods.

The table view

The table view is the same window as one sortable list laid out the way the game draws it. Up and Down move through the rows, Left and Right move between the columns (name, your count, sell price, trade amount, buy price, the trader's count, mass, market value), and Enter on a column header sorts by that column. Every trading key above works here too.

Completing the trade

Press Alt+A to accept. The mod confirms with "Trade completed successfully," your colonist hands over the goods, and anything you bought is delivered. You can also close the window and return to the same trader later while they are still around.

If the trader does not have enough silver to cover what you are selling, the mod warns you and asks for confirmation before proceeding. A trader can only pay with the silver they are carrying. They pay what they can, and you do not receive goods to make up the difference, so check their silver with Alt+B before a large sale.

To leave without trading, press Escape. (If you are in the quantity chooser, the first Escape closes it; the second closes the window.) The mod announces "Trade cancelled."

Giving gifts

Press Alt+G to toggle gift mode. In gift mode you hand items over for goodwill rather than silver, so the mod moves you to your items, and silver itself joins that list so you can gift some. The balance line shows the goodwill you will gain, for example "Goodwill +15." You cannot gift to a hostile faction or while trading for royal favor, and the mod will tell you if you try.

Previewing what a settlement will buy

Before sending a caravan on a long trip, you can check what a settlement wants. On the world map, navigate to the settlement, press G for its gizmos, and choose Show Sellable Items. This opens a read-only list:

  • Tab / Shift+Tab: switch between category tabs.
  • Up / Down: move through items; Home and End jump to the ends.
  • Type to search by name; Backspace edits the search; Escape clears it, then closes the window.

The window also shows when the settlement last restocked (or that it has not been visited yet), so you can judge whether the trip is worth making.

Learn more

We handle the buttons; the wiki handles the strategy. For trader types, markup rates, what sells well, calling orbital traders, and the comms console, read the RimWorld wiki's Trading article. For price bonuses from Social skill, see Trade price improvement.

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