I will never stop playing that game. I would suggest playing with "Peaceful" difficulty level at first (and maybe choosing Phoebe Chillax as narrator) so you'll have time to advance. There's so much to discover and do anyway without everything trying to burn your house down.

I've got way to many hours in rimworld.

Some tips.

Psychic shock lances are must haves. You can't make them but they are easy to buy from traiders and settlements. Two uses and they are gone but so worth it. They cost about 600 with two uses so 300 a zap. Here are some great ways to use them.

Raider with a great set of skills and traits. Zap him and stockholm syndrom him. Raider with nice very expensive armor. Zap and strip. You just spent 300 silver to buy a few thousand worth of armor and removed a strong enemy. And it doesn't have the tainted trait because he didn't die. Raider with a mini gun or doomsday launcher. Zap now you have it and they don't. Raider grabbed one of your pawns and leaving the map. Zap.

Insanity Lance is also good. Notably against any pawns with a rocket launcher. Have it shot it's friends. Or a good meele raider. Zap and the raiders are dealing with it while you are getting in position.

Both are consumables that you have to find or buy but are so profitable and can save your bacon.

You can pause and see all stats and equipment. When raiders show up check for pawns with skills you need or dangerous weapons like doomsday launchers.

Home zone is also where they clean. Turn it off in areas you don't need cleaned like crops. This saves a ton of pawn time. It's also where they fight fires. So you need to add it back when there is a fire.

If you are using mods complex jobs is a great choice. It breaks down jobs into more categories. So for example anyone can tend wounds but only good doctors can do surgery.

Combat keeps ramping up if you don't take losses and as you gain wealth. So you can end up with a very brittle base where any attack that can hurt you also is a almost total wipe. Look up kill box designs. They are almost required.

If you don't have a kill box. Having a pawn in armor and a shield belt with a smoke launcher firing at it behind cover is great in combat. Put it just in front of your shooters. The raiders shot at it and it doesn't take much if any damage. Letting your shooter pawns fire away.

If you want other tips let me know or check out Francis John. He has good guides and some of his playthroughs are great. I recommend the tribal wizards playthrough for fun.

When that poor pawn gets stuck in Australia having to wall him self in to hide from the mechs, raiders, and bugs. Rebuilding the wall from the inside as they chew at it from the outside.

when starting a new game:

-set up a stockpile:

indoors, preferably shelves, but that's a goal to work towards

-stockpile some food:

starting with a talented grower makes early game easier. rice is best in the beginning, when it's beginning to stockpile switch to potatoes, when those stockpile to corn. each step requires less work by your pawns, leaving more time for other stuff.

-get a ranged weapon and some defenses

some bows if there's nothing else. first raid is alwaysa single melee guy, that's scripted, afaik. setup some sand bags or embrasures. walls/corridors to limit the range enemies can shoot at you.

-get batteries

super important! difficult to have a reliable food supply without those!

-get a freezer

also super important because of the above!

-set up a prison

last on the list, not that high of a priority...but still, get some more people!

and then do pretty much what you want...once early game is done, get some research done, plant some cotton, some herbal meds, set up a little medical area, etc.

this should get you to mid game fairly reliably!

Rimworld is great! But don’t forget to do research. Most of the early game is building yourself toward having a kitchen and functional refrigeration room. Along with trying to give colonists their own rooms and furniture.

Just make sure to take care of everyone’s needs!