How to use Developer Mode in Rimworld

How to use Developer Mode in Rimworld

The Developer Mode or Dev Mode in short is a tool for testing the game and its mods. It allows you to see what’s there in the game without doing all the research and actually playing it (or walking through it).

When you enable it, there are 9 icons at the top; the middle one is what we usually want to use.

You can choose “Give trait”, select the trait you want, and then click the tile where your pawn is present to give the trait to them.

If you want to remove a trait, use a text editor to open your save file and remove the trait manually.

The “spawn pawn” trait allows you to spawn the animal you want; you can tame the animal with the “Tame animal”, etc.

Also there is a white skull among those 9 icons - this is “God Mode”, and clicking on it gives the ability to build for free. To disable it, just click on the skull again.

To spawn the stuff you need, use “Try to place Stack of 75 near”. (1)

How to Enable the Dev Mode

You simply need to tick the “developer mode” line in the game’s settings. There you will find:

• Open the debug log. It allows you to browse through the whole game’s log, which contains all the actions, and under each action there are functions that detect errors.

• Open the package editor. You can create def files with it right in the game, which means redefining the functions, which can be helpful in mod creation but requires some knowledge.

• Open the view settings. With it you can customize the interface and the information output.

• Open the debug action menu. This is sort of a “cheats” tab, since it allows you to recreate any condition for your colony, such as attack, threats, etc.

You can check the full list of its options here.

How to Re-enable the Dev Mode

After enabling the Dev Mode for the first time, a file called ‘DevModeDisabled’ is created in the config folder - this folder is not in the same place where the game install files are - you can find it in ‘Drive:/Users/User/Appdata/LocalLow/Ludeon Studios/Rimworld by Ludeon Studios/Config’.

To get there, you need browse through the file manager with the “show hidden files' option enabled, or just use Start+R, then type %appdata%, then go one level up (or back from the Roaming to AppData), then ‘LocalLow’ > Ludeon Studios > Rimworld by Ludeon Studios > Config. (2)

A Word of Caution

You need to delete the single file only - ‘DevModeDisabled’. If you delete the whole Config folder (which will be recreated afterwards), you will loose your settings, knowledge base and mod list.

How to Remove a Medical Condition with Dev Mode

There are bottoms at the top of the screen, so you just select the fifth from the left, called ‘Open Debug Actions Menu’, then under ‘Tools’ - ‘Pawns’ select ‘T- Remove Hediff’, and click your pawn.

You will get the list of all the Hediffs or Health Differences that your pawn has; now you simply need to click the one you want to get rid of, that’s all. (3)

But be aware that too much meddling with these configs may bug the game.

How to Add/Remove Animal Bonds

There is a command is called T:Add/remove pawn relation in the debug menu, so you can select it and choose the desired animal. When a pop up appears, select “Remove' or ‘Add’ to delete or establish bonds between any pawn on the map. (4)