RimWorld colony simulator game artwork for the new Biotech expansion

[Update]: The Biotech expansion has now arrived, and I'm happy to say that things are looking quite good so far!

A fair bit of time has gone by since the previous Ideology expansion, but the RimWorld team has now returned with the announcement of a massive new expansion - Biotech. As the name might imply, the upcoming Biotech expansion will bring with it gene editing technology that lets you collect and implant an assortment of alien genes in order to create a wide variety of super-human or super-monstrous colonists.

With the Biotech expansion colonists will also be able to become pregnant and give birth - both naturally and via technological means. Depending on how well you treat your new additions, as well as much effort you put into their education, you will be able to give them numerous traits and passions to help shape their adult life and make them a valuable member of the colony. Or if you don't particularly care what they are capable of and you just need cheap workers and soldiers, you can simply use the always-handy growth vats to pump them out by the dozens!

RimWorld colony simulator game screenshot of a school area from the Biotech expansion

If you're so inclined, you can even turn your colony into a giant school

The most exciting part of the Biotech expansion, however, is the simple fact that you'll now able to control and create an army of mechanoids! These can range from simple labor robots that will help out with tasks most colonists don't feel like doing, to massive high-tech war machines that are capable of not only devastating everything before them, but also shielding their allies in the process. Quite handy!

Naturally, all of this does come with a rather significant downside - creating mechanoids will spew out a fair bit of pollution that will block the sunlight, irritate your colonists' lungs and potentially even cause hibernating insects to emerge and attack anything within reach. And if the pollution gets really bad, you can end up with a nearly uninhabitable wasteland where only twisted variants of plants and animals are capable of surviving. So if you're planning to go full mechanoid, make sure you have some sort of plan for handling pollution - even if that means 'exporting' it to a nearby pirate colony.

No exact release date has been given just yet, but RimWorld's Biotech expansion will be launching at some point this October. Once it does, I'll make sure to let you know.

Until then, you can read a few more tidbits about the Biotech expansion and its development over at Steam. Enjoy!

RimWorld colony simulator game screenshot of a mechanoid construction factory from the Biotech expansion

RimWorld colony simulator game screenshot of a gene editing lab from the Biotech expansion