Scheduling in Rimworld can be very dull, which is why for a long time I stuck to the default anything and sleep schedule. However, it is not the best schedule. Your pawns will not be efficient and it will actually take longer to complete projects and tasks. It’s actually better to define your pawn’s sleep, work, and recreation times to have better control of your colony’s workings.
Like anything in Rimworld, there are many variables that you have to consider when deciding what is best for your colony’s needs. For instance, night owls and quick sleeper traits would change the pawn’s sleep schedule compared to other pawns. Once your colony scales to larger sizes you can also start taking into account other crew members who do similar jobs and should be considering scheduling shifts for your colony members. There are a few factors to consider when considering your colonists with similar jobs, as trying to fit 2 cooks in one place is a bit of a challenge and not very efficient. I think if you put one cook on one shift and the second on another, that will work wonders for a colony of greater sizes. It is great to have your colonists work the same shift each day, this way you can keep them both entertained and well rested with sleep. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same, but it will enable you to arrange your colonists to have their sleep schedules coincide.
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Rimworld Default Schedule
The default pawn schedule isn’t actually that bad. It will keep the pawns happy, but they may not be the most efficient. Nonetheless, if you are new to Rimworld or just simply want to enjoy the game without Min-Maxing you can rest assured that keeping the default Rimworld schedule as-is.
The default schedule provides pawns with 8 hours of sleep and then anything the entire time they are awake. This means as soon as the pawn needs recreation or meditation they will interrupt whatever they are currently working on and go fulfill that need. In sense, this can be good as your pawn will always be happy and their mood will remain positive. However, it can be frustrating when you have a big project in the colony and it takes double the time to complete because pawns keep taking breaks from working on it.
Rimworld Night Owl Schedule
Night Owl traits of a pawn make it so they enjoy sleeping from late morning through early evening and being awake through the night to the morning. This trait isn’t necessarily bad, but you do have to make sure you adjust the pawn’s schedule accordingly. The Night Owl trait actually defines the sleeping hours as 11h-18h so you can easily set their work, recreation, and meditation to your colony’s needs.
I tend to set two work shifts during the pawn’s awake time with a two-hour lunch in between. This allows a decent chuck of focus to get objectives done while leaving enough time throughout the day for recreation or meditation needs. Leaving blocks of time as anything allows the pawn to do whatever is in more demand or even continue working longer if they are fulfilled.
Rimworld Standard Schedule
Here’s my go-to schedule layout for my pawns that I find works nicely. I start by specifying 8 hours of sleep time for all pawns and take into account any night owl pawns. Then I specify 1-hour recreation right after waking and right before the end of the day sleeping. That leaves 1-hour blocks before and after their work shifts along with a 2-hour block of anything for a lunch break in the middle of their shift.
What this does is allow for recreation to be fulfilled after waking before they begin work. The anything blocks of time allow the pawn to continue finishing recreation or allowing to begin working early depending on their morning needs. The same goes for their lunch break, they can pause work for recreation or meditation, or simply keep working if they are good on those things. Lastly, at end of shift, we have another anything block of time to work overtime finishing a job, or stop to fulfill recreation or meditation.
Setting Up Schedules
When you start to have larger colonies it can become cumbersome and quite annoying to keep setting up pawn schedules. Luckily, Rimworld has provided a copy/paste function to easily change schedules of similar pawns.
The left icon is the copy command
The right icon is the paste command
These commands are often overlooked or forgotten about but can make setting up your colony’s scheduling and work priorities so much easier and quicker. It’s especially handy for night owls as they almost always have similar schedules between each other. So, simply copy/paste and then make any minor adjustments needed for the particular pawn.
Rimworld Quick Sleeper Schedule
If your pawn has the quick sleeper trait then you may be wondering how to adjust their sleep schedule time. The quick sleeper trait increases their rest rate multiplier by +50% which translates to the pawn only needing two-thirds (2/3) of the normal time to become fully rested and waken.
For hours of sleeping, I would give the pawn 5 hours of sleep with the sixth hour being anything. What this does is provides full guaranteed sleep for the five hours where during the 6th hour they will awaken as their rest bar becomes full before the hour completes. This is due to the normal 8 hours being reduced to 5.3 hours with the quick sleeper trait.
Above is a partial screenshot of a quick sleeper’s schedule. The blocks of time inside the red outline would be designated for sleeping hours whereas the 6th block being anything will be partially used until the rest bar fills completely and the pawn wakes up.
You may have a pawn with both the quick sleeper trait and the night owl trait. You’d simply follow the same logic, but apply it to the night owl schedule as seen previously above. For the sake of representation, I marked the added time as work above, but you can set it to anything and still have a beneficial schedule.
What about Bed Quality Level, Does it Affect Sleep Time in Rimworld?
Yes, the item quality level of the bed will speed up the amount of time required for the pawn to become fully rested. However, dressers and end tables will not affect the resting rate of the pawn.
