How to get more colonists? (New player here!)

[jz_kalika]

I'm stuck at the 3 colonists I started with and can't seem to get more (and with 3 it seems very slow to advance). I've read up on different ways to get colonists but haven't had any luck with the methods.

I've so far only had 1 raider, I captured him and tried to convert him a few times (without success) before he attempted a jailbreak and I had to kill him.

I've had friendly visitors one time (but it was a group of like 10 of them so I didn't want to attack anyone in case they retaliated).

Other than that it doesn't seem like I've even had an opportunity.

Am I missing something? I'm playing on Chillax and the level right below sandbox, about 2 seasons into the game. I have 1000+ crops and 1000+ hay stored up with some animals, steady electricity, but without more colonists it seems really slow to progress on the more manual things like crafting / cooking / taming / research.

Any help is appreciated!

[Terripan]

The pirate jailbreak kill was unlucky. I assume you shot him, cause I've almost always meleed prisoners, because of the lower risk to kill them. Since your playing on Phoebe, there are longer spaces between raids, so getting people like that is going to be tough. It is hard to progress with only 3 people, at the very least you want 6 in a colony. If you get lucky, you might get the escape pod event or wanderer joins.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

There are other events, probelm is they are RNG. Escape pods, wanderer joins, someone being chased and requesting refuge, quests for injured/downed pawns on world map.

A more sure way would be to buy a slave from a trader. You could likely call in and request a trader or travel to a nearby town.

[Mr W]

For the next time you have a prisoner break, just pummel the escapee with blunt weapons or just your fists.

[drunkonlife]

Also, the next time you capture someone, check the prisoner tab to see if they are even recruitable. In some cases, you chances are like 1%.

[Panicsferd]

I wonder as well that difficulty and storyteller play a part as well.

I am new myself, but been watching a ton of let's plays so I kind of know some things and I decided to go randy since most lets plays I've watched used that storyteller. I chose the "some challenge" difficulty and as of now I'm at 5-6 colonist, one was a refugee, and one was a raider I recruited.

I think with randy it can be a tad easier to get more colonist since the events are randomized and not at a set pace, also I think randy allows higher pop before things spiral out?

Originally posted by drunkonlife:

Also, the next time you capture someone, check the prisoner tab to see if they are even recruitable. In some cases, you chances are like 1%.

Yeah I had a tribesman, and the seem tougher then bandits.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by jz_kalika:

...I've so far only had 1 raider, I captured him and tried to convert him a few times (without success) before he attempted a jailbreak and I had to kill him.
...

If you're still just getting "one raider raids" then you haven't yet been playing long enough or your base wealth isn't high enough yet to get larger raid parties, more exposure to the RNGs that get you additional colonists, etc..

You're fine. If you want to hurry things along a bit, work on your defenses a bit, make sure you've got decent weapons for everyone, and then build up your wealth. Make some art, some decent furniture, get some accumulated stuff in your stockpile, etc. Then, you'll get larger raiding parties. Examine each raider before battle and try hard to capture the best ones. (Make sure you have some prisoner beds and have assigned some of them as medical beds, too.)

As time progresses, you'll get more random events dealing with spontaneous joins, drop pods, people in distress, etc. That just takes some time and may be reduced a bit due to Chillax. (Raid frequency may be reduced, too.)

I'm still a noob, but I'd be surprised if Chillax didn't provide slightly more non-combat ways of gaining colonists than other narrators.

You could change narrators, temporarily, to get some additional raids, I suppose.

[Blue Mouse]

Good advise above, also consider building a specific room for prisoners and make it nice, give them a nice bed, chairs, tables etc., this will make them happy and will help with recruitment. Also try to only have a single warden or "social" person so their skill will rise.
Just because someone has a 99% recruitment chance doesn't mean you have 1% chance, you can raise that, and it may take a long time but that also means your social colonist will raise their skill so its easier in the future.

[TSense]

BUY SLAVES IN THE NEXT TOWN

This is Rimworld, not Simcity.
No matter the problem, the answer is Slavery, Drugs, Organ Stealing or Cannibalism.
Welcome on the f* Rim

[RoboGerbil]

pheobe chillax has a very low critical threshold for pawns. she wont give you extra ones for being understaffed like the other storytellers. going to the escape>options>storytellers you can change your storyteller and dificulty at a whim. try changing it to randy normal for a bit. randy has a 5 pawn ciritcal threshold, so he will actively try to give you two more pawns. after that set it to cassandra easy for easy raiders to capture.

[Greep]

Phoebe just straight up gives less events all around. If you want an easy mode with more action, cassandra on easy difficulties is better.

The storytellers actually don't have any impact on the size of raids and severity of bad events. Phoebe is less events, cassandra is lots of events, and randy is somewhere in the middle but with no "cadence": you will sometimes get clusters of events and periods of nothing happening at all.

Quickest way to get pawns is through raids, so cassandra is what you'd want if you want more pawns. Cassandra has a limit on pawns of about 12 though, and randy has viritually no limit, so keep that in mind.

[Pyro]

I mostly get mine by converting raiders.

Bring plenty of medicine, food, and some extra sleeping bags every time you send a caravan out on a mission. You can capture people in the field, if there's a structure you can use as a prison. (Chopping down trees and building a prison hut is also viable.)

You'll want to treat them on the scene, as fast as possible, to try to avoid infections, and wait until they're no longer at death's door before making the trip home.