Keeping your RimWorld colonists comfortable is important if you want them to be happy. This is why understanding what is considered tattered apparel is good to know. Not all colonists are happy with wearing damaged clothing or armor. And this can lead to negative mood changes that you don’t want.
What is Considered Tattered in RimWorld
You can see the clothing condition near the bottom left corner where the bar is red due to it being below 50%.
A common misconception is that clothing quality plays a role in the negative modifier, “Wearing worn-out apparel” or “Wearing tattered apparel”. Unfortunately, this isn’t quite the case even though you’d think so. The quality of an item such as Awful or Good doesn’t matter here. Instead, it’s about the condition of the item as there’s a deterioration mechanic in RimWorld.
As clothing deteriorates from both the elements and being used, it will eventually become tattered. This is when the condition drops to 50% or lower leading to those negative modifiers. For example, if a colonist wears a shirt that’s anywhere from 20% to 50%, they’ll get “Wearing worn-out apparel” and lose -3 mood.
If you go a step further and have someone wear clothing that’s below 20%, the mood debuff is even worse. This provides -5 to their mood for, “Wearing tattered apparel”. Fortunately, there are a few solutions to keep your colonists from wearing damaged clothing and even getting better clothing.
How to Prevent Wearing Tattered Apparel
You can restrict your colonists from wearing tattered clothing by taking advantage of the Assign tab.
The more you play RimWorld, the more you’ll learn about its many complicated systems. One of which is the Assign button near the bottom of your screen. This section gives you more control over what your colonists wear, eat, and drugs they consume. For the purpose of this guide, we’re primarily looking at what outfits they wear.
By default, your colonists will have the “Anything” outfit selected. All this means is that they’ll wear anything regardless of its quality, condition, or anything else really. You’ll want to click the “Edit…” button next to this outfit as shown in the above screenshot. The window that appears has a slider bar near the top for hit points.
Click and drag the white bar on the left side to the right until it’s at 51% hit points. This makes it so any colonist using the “Anything” outfit will only wear clothing at 51% or above. They’ll actively search for better clothing once it drops below this point. With that said, I’m not positive offhand but I believe they will remove their clothing if there isn’t something to replace it with.
How to Make Clothing in RimWorld
Crafting new clothes for your people to wear is important to stay on top of the seasons. And you’ll want to keep clothes around that are in good condition.
If you want to make better clothing to replace tattered apparel, here’s what you need to know. First, you’ll need a fabric to produce new clothes. The two common ways to get fabric are cloth from growing cotton and leather from hunting animals. Once you have enough, you can create new clothes at a Crafting Spot or Tailor’s Workbench.
It’s important to mention that a Crafting Spot is limited as the only clothing you can make is Tribalwear and a Veil. This is why you’ll want to push for a Tailor’s Workbench even if it’s only a wooden one. If you can’t get the fabric needed for making new clothes, you still have a few options.
- Buy clothing from traders
- Buy the fabric you need
- Loot raiders for their clothing if it’s not too damaged
Regardless of what you do, you’ll want to make sure you have the right clothes for your environment. Keep an eye on the temperature near the bottom right corner to keep your people comfortable. Try to have an outfit ready for the cold season and the warm one too. While we didn’t make the video below, it also covers how to make clothing in RimWorld too.
If you have any other RimWorld questions, feel free to ask below for help. This is definitely a confusing game with a lot to learn and I don’t mind helping where I can. Keep an eye out for more guides on the way over time. A fun way to encourage more trading in your RimWorld game is using the Hospitality mod.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.