RimWorld – Xenohumans Overview Guide

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The Biotech DLC added a lot of new humanoid types in RimWorld, which are known as xenotypes.

Each base xenotype is very different from one another, as they have very different genes from one another. One might be able to spit fire, while another can super jump and live forever.

Recommended Read: How to Get Rid of Gut Worms in RimWorld

However, not each xenohuman type is equal. Some are just superior in almost every way.

So, to make sure that you understand all the xenohuman types and all of their abilities, here is an extensive overview of their characteristics.

Table of contents

All Xenotypes in RimWorld Explained

There are 10 base xenohuman types in RimWorld that players can either use from the start or slowly recruit during their playthrough:

  • Dirtmoles
  • Genies
  • Highmates
  • Hussars
  • Impids
  • Neanderthals
  • Pigskins
  • Sanguophages
  • Wasters
  • Yttakin

These xenohumans can also be categorized by their genes as heritable or non-heritable xenotypes.

Xenotypes with Heritable Genes in RimWorld

Dirtmoles

Dirtmoles in RimWorld are the xenotypes that should spend most of their time in mountain bases, without ever seeing sunlight.

These xenohumans even look like moles with their light gray skin and gray eyes. Here are all the genes that Dirtmoles have in RimWorld:

  • Fast Wound Healing – Injury Healing +200%
  • Slow Runner – -0.20 Move Speed
  • Intense UV Sensitivity – -20% Move Speed and -12 Mood in Sunlight
  • Strong Melee Damage – +50% Melee Damage
  • Nearsighted – -75% Long Range Accuracy and -50% Medium Range
  • Dark Vision – Darkness doesn’t affect Work Speed, and no Darkness Mood debuff
  • Great Mining – +8 and at least one level of Passion in the Mining skill
  • Light Gray Skin and Gray Eyes – Aesthetic genes

These genes make the Dirtmole a really good choice for a tunneler ideology and a fully committed mountains base playthrough. Their genes are also heritable, so you can easily make a full colony of Dirtmoles.

They can still be useful in a normal playthrough, as they can still function properly indoors. Using them as your designated miners is a great way to use them.

Impids

Impids are supernatural xenohumans that can spew fire. Though this ability is very cool, there are also a lot of disadvantages that Impids get for their incredible fire powers.

They are also very resistant to fire and heat, and look like little devils. A great debuff that they get is their poor skill with animals and plants, since they are supposed to live in deserts. 

Here are the genes that Impids naturally get, and can pass over to their offspring:

  • Fire Spew – Use an ability to shoot fire at enemies
  • Weak Immunity – -10% Immunity Gain Speed
  • Slow Wound Healing – -50% Injury Healing Speed
  • Very Fast Runner – +0.40 Move Speed
  • Unhappy – Permanent -5 Mood
  • Cold Weakness – Minimum Comfortable Temperature +5°C/9°F
  • Heat Super-tolerant – Maximum Comfortable Temperature +20°C/36°F
  • Fire Resistant – -90% Flammability and -75% Flame Damage
  • Weak Melee Damage – -50% Melee Damage
  • Poor Plants and Animals – -4 in the Plants and Animals skills
  • Beardless, Pale Yellow, Deep Red, or Orange Skin, Sandy Blonde or Orange Hair, and Mini-horns – Aesthetic genes

Impids can usually be found as hostile enemies since they are part of most of the hostile factions.

Neanderthals

If you want powerful melee fighters that don’t fall easily, then the Neanderthals in RimWorld are the way to go. These tanky beasts are really bad at things such as talking and research, but they won’t die off easily.

Here are the genes that Neanderthals come with in RimWorld:

  • Strong Immunity – +10% Immunity Gain Speed
  • Slow Runner – -0.20 Move Speed
  • Cold Tolerant – Minimum Comfortable Temperature -10°C/18°F
  • Heat Tolerant – Maximum Comfortable Temperature +10°C/18°F
  • Strong Melee Damage – +50% Melee Damage
  • Robust – -25% Incoming Damage
  • Reduced Pain – -50% Pain
  • Slow Study – -50% Global Learning factor
  • Aggressive – 200% Chance of Violent Mental Breaks and Social Fights
  • Poor Shooting, Social, and Intellectual – -4 in the Shooting, Social, and Intellectual skills
  • Heavy Jaw and Heavy Brow – Aesthetic genes

Pigskins

Pigskins are a hybrid between a human and a pig. This xenotype is really good if you don’t want to care about food quality. They can eat anything without any repercussions. Due to this, they are bad cooks, since they obviously don’t need it.

Otherwise, Pigskins are relatively normal. They just have a lot of physical traits that make them look like pigs. Here are all of their genes:

  • Strong Immunity – +10% Immunity Gain Speed
  • Reduced Pain – -50% Pain
  • Nearsighted – -75% Long Range Accuracy and -50% Medium Range
  • Strong Stomach – Immune to Food Poisoning
  • Robust Digestion – Removes Raw Food Mood debuff and +80% Raw Nutrition
  • Poor Cooking – -4 in the Cooking skill
  • Trotter Hands – -15% Manipulation
  • Pig Nose, Ears, and Voice – Aesthetic genes

Wasters

If you like the pollution mechanics in RimWorld then the Wasters are the right xenohumans for you. Wasters receive no debuffs from pollution, they actually thrive from it.

They are the perfect pawns to handle toxic wastepacks and polluted tiles in general. Ignoring this amazing advantage, Wasters aren’t that unique. These are the genes that make Wasters special:

  • Super Immunity – +50% Immunity Gain Speed
  • Total Antitoxic Lungs – Immunity to Toxic Gas and Environment
  • Aggressive – 200% Chance of Violent Mental Breaks and Social Fights
  • Unattractive – Beauty -1
  • Pollution Stimulus – Movement Speed and Consciousness buff when surrounded by pollution
  • Psychite Dependency – Dies without Psychite
  • Wake-up Impervious – Can’t get addicted to Wake-up
  • Poor Cooking and Artistic – -4 in the Cooking and Artistic skills
  • Awful Animals – -8 and no Passion in the Animals skill
  • Gaunt Head, Gray Hair, and Slate Gray Skin – Aesthetic genes

Yttakin

Similar to the Wookies in Star Wars, the Yttakin are a xenohuman race that is very sturdy and furry. They are one of the most interesting xenotypes that you can recruit in your colony.

They are incredibly good with animals, are very fast if they are nude, and are powerful in melee combat. One of the worst things about them is their sleep schedule. Here are the genes that Yttakin get to pass on to their children in RimWorld:

  • Animal Warcall – Control an animal to fight for you
  • Slow Wound Healing – -50% Injury Healing Speed
  • Psychically Dull – -50% Psychic Sensitivity
  • Naked Speed – Naked: +0.10 Move Speed, Clothed: -0.20 Move Speed
  • Aggressive – 200% Chance of Violent Mental Breaks and Social Fights
  • Strong Melee Damage – +50% Melee Damage
  • Sleepy – +40% Sleep Fall Rate
  • Robust – -25% Incoming Damage
  • Furskin – Minimum Comfortable Temperature -10°C/18°F, Remove Mood debuff for Naked
  • Furry Tail – Minimum Comfortable Temperature -10°C/18°F
  • Great Animals – +8 and at least one level of Passion in the Animals skill
  • Awful Mining – -8 and no Passion in the Mining skill
  • Roar Voice and Hulk Body – Aesthetic genes

Xenotypes with Xenogenes (Non-heritable Genes) in RimWorld

Genies

Genies are man-made xenotypes, which means that their genes are not heritable. They are extremely vulnerable to attacks but they are very smart and can craft all of your equipment with ease.

Here are the genes that Genies have in RimWorld:

  • Dead Calm – Non-violent Mental Breaks and no Social Fights
  • Delicate – +15% Damage Received
  • Extra Pain – -50% Pain Shock Threshold
  • Elongated Fingers – +10% Manipulation
  • Poor Plants and Animals – -4 in the Plants and Animals skills
  • Awful Social – -8 and no Passion in the Social skill
  • Great Crafting and Intellectual – +8 and at least one level of Passion in the Crafting and Intellectual skills
  • No Hair, Beardless, Thin Body – Aesthetic genes

Due to the horrible genes that the Genies have, they will always be stuck doing the two things they actually have a passion for: crafting and research. If you are lucky, you can also set them up to cook for your colony.

Genies by themselves can be pretty bad, but put together with other pawns, they become a very important part of the settlement.

Highmates

Highmates are a weird xenotype in RimWorld. They exist to make other pawns happy. Their main role is to be the lover of another pawn and increase their mood.

They are also Psy-sensitive, which allows them to be powerful psycasters. Combined with their incredible Social skills, Highmates can be incredibly powerful priests for your ideology. Here are the genes that make Highmates special:

  • Psy-sensitive – Psychic Sensitivity +20%, Meditation Psyfocus gain +10% per day, and +0.1 Neural Heat Recovery
  • Delicate – +15% Damage Received
  • Psychic Bonding – Romance always succeeds, buffs every time they initiate lovin’ with a pawn
  • Very Happy – Permanent +10 Mood
  • Heat Weakness – Maximum Comfortable Temperature ?5°C/9°F
  • Violence Disabled – Can’t hunt or fight
  • Kind Instinct – Will constantly befriend other pawns
  • High Libido – Increases chance of lovin’
  • Very Attractive – Beauty +2
  • Great Social – +8 and at least one level of Passion in the Social skill
  • Awful Plants and Mining– -8 and no Passion in the Plants and Mining skill
  • Blue, Sheer White, or Purple Skin and Long-haired – Aesthetic genes

Hussars

If you want a killing machine that nobody can stop, then the Hussars should be your first pick. Hussars are unstoppable when it comes to fighting, however, they are really bad in everything else.

Due to their traits, they can generally be a bit of a nuisance if paired with normal pawns. They can very often get into fights with other colonists, and they will usually leave the other brawler with a lot of bruises.

Here are the genes of the mighty Hussars, which allow them to be fighting machines:

  • Superfast Wound Healing – Injury Healing +400%
  • Reduced Pain – -50% Pain
  • Cold Tolerant – Minimum Comfortable Temperature -10°C/18°F
  • Heat Tolerant – Maximum Comfortable Temperature +10°C/18°F
  • Hyper-aggressive – 300% Chance of Violent Mental Breaks and Social Fights
  • Psychically Deaf – -100% Psychic Sensitivity
  • Partial Antitoxic Lungs – 50% Resistance to Toxic Gas and Environment
  • Unstoppable – Immune to Stagger
  • Go-juice Dependency – Dies without Go-juice
  • Awful Social, Plants, Animals, and Artistic – -8 and no Passion in the Social, Plants, Animals, and Artistic skills
  • Great Shooting and Melee – +8 and at least one level of Passion in the Shooting and Melee skills
  • Red Eyes and Short-haired – Aesthetic genes

Sanguophages

The best way to describe the Sanguophages in RimWorld is that they are vampires. Everything about them are traits of classic vampires. They don’t burn when they stay in the sun, but it does annoy them very much.

They are very powerful, they can never die from old age, illnesses, or wounds that don’t sever the head from the body, and they have unique battle abilities.

The Sanguophages are by far the best xenotype in RimWorld. However, they have a debuff that makes them extremely annoying to handle: deathrest.

Once every so often, they have to go to sleep for a really long time. Around 4 days. This can be horrible if a crisis begins during their deathrest. Due to this mechanic, they can never be vital to your colony.

Here are all the genes that Sanguaphages use to dominate RimWorld:

  • Bloodfeeder – Feed on the blood of pawns directly
  • Coagulate – Heal wounds
  • Gene Implanter – Make someone else a Sanguophage
  • Longjump Legs – Jump to a very distant location instantly
  • Piercing Spine – Launch a spine at an enemy
  • Ageless – Don’t age
  • Archite Metabolism – Improves genetic metabolism
  • Deathless – Can’t die unless brain, head, or neck is destroyed
  • Non-senescent – Immunity to carcinoma, heart attack, and chronic conditions
  • Perfect Immunity – Immunity to all diseases
  • Scarless – Heal scars, permanent injuries, and chronic conditions
  • Hemogenic – Needs Hemogen, -20 Mood if Hemogen Need is 0
  • Hemogen drain – -8 Hemogen a day
  • Deathrest – Needs to Deathrest every 30 days
  • Superfast Wound Healing – Injury Healing +400%
  • Psy-sensitive – Psychic Sensitivity +20%, Meditation Psyfocus gain +10% per day, and +0.1 Neural Heat Recovery
  • Fast Runner – +0.20 Move Speed
  • Tox Immunity – Immunity to Toxic Gas and Environment
  • Mild UV Sensitivity – -10% Move Speed and -6 Mood in Sunlight
  • Tinderskin – 400% Flame Damage
  • Pyrophobia – -10 Mood around fires, Chance of Mental Break around fires
  • Aggressive – 200% Chance of Violent Mental Breaks and Social Fights
  • Strong Melee Damage – +50% Melee Damage
  • Low sleep – -60% Sleep Fall Rate
  • Tinderskin – 400% Flame Damage
  • Robust – -25% Incoming Damage
  • Attractive – Beauty +1
  • Dark Vision – Darkness doesn’t affect Work Speed, and no Darkness Mood debuff
  • Strong Melee and Social – +4 in the Plants and Animals skills
  • Great Intellectual – +8 and at least one level of Passion in the Intellectual skill

That’s everything you need to know about the xenohuman types in RimWorld!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

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