# RimWorld Update 1.6.4566 improves gravships, shuttles, and more

- Product: RimWorld (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rimworld)
- Vendor: Ludeon Studios
- Date: 2025-08-28
- Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/294100/view/498331094794371516
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rimworld/releases/2025-08-28-update-1.6.4566-improves-gravships-shuttles-and-m

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Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — New gravship launch interface to get colony animals and mechanoids onboard and remove neutral pawns before launching
- **added** — View range tool on pilot console to show gravship range without launching
- **added** — Snowy visuals for trees and plants in sufficiently snowy areas
- **added** — Vacskin gland prosthetic from the Empire that protects against vacuum (requires Odyssey and Royalty)
- **added** — Low gravity adapted gene for starjack xenotype (requires Odyssey and Biotech)
- **added** — Unique art for bridge borders in space
- **added** — Fishing as its own category in the work tab
- **added** — Ability to sow timbershrooms in glowforests with tree sowing research
- **added** — Ability for mechanitors to summon mechanoid bosses while in space
- **added** — Insect lair entrances are now collapsable
- **changed** — Shuttles can now safely land on items
- **changed** — Shuttles no longer destroy more roof than necessary when landing in buildings
- **changed** — Pawns no longer automatically remove vacuum-resistant apparel if in a dangerous vacuum
- **changed** — Rebalanced starjack xenotype genes to make them more useful in space
- **changed** — Sentience catalyst now removes roaming and fence-blocked status from animals
- **changed** — Reduced time to generate a 100% coverage world by about 40%
- **changed** — Reduced time required to load a 100% world save file
- **changed** — Added ability for mods to load textures from DDS files for faster loading
- **fixed** — Gravship scenario now requires starting with at least one colonist capable of intellectual work to prevent becoming stranded

Hello everyone, we’ve got a content update for RimWorld today!

Gravships have received some quality-of-life changes.

-  The new gravship launch interface lets you get your colony's animals and mechanoids onboard, and kicks visitors out. This makes takeoffs feel better and prevents accidental kidnappings.

-  The pilot console now has a "view range" tool that shows your gravship's range without going through the whole launch process.

-  Shuttles can now safely land on items, and they no longer obliterate a ton of roof when landing inside buildings - only the necessary roof.

-  When you’re in orbit, colonists won't automatically take off their life-saving, vacuum-resistant apparel if they're in a dangerous vacuum.

-  Mechanitors can summon the mechanoid bosses… in spaaaace!

-  We added a new vacskin gland prosthetic from the Empire that protects your colonists against vacuum. (This cross-expansion content only appears for those with Odyssey and Royalty).

-  We rebalanced the starjack xenotype to make them more useful in space - they have a new low gravity adapted gene which makes them faster and better workers while in orbit.
 Other improvements include a new category for fishing in the work tab, tree sowing research allows you to grow timbershrooms in the glowforest, and the sentience catalyst now stops farm animals from roaming away.

And just in time for the colder seasons, there are new snowy visuals for trees and some plants!

We’ve also made several technical improvements to the game. We reduced the generation and loading times for worlds with 100% coverage, as well as added some tools to help our modders.

This update should be compatible with all savegames and mods. The full changelog is below to browse.

If you need to report a bug, or you’re having a problem while playing, please join us on the **[official RimWorld development Discord](https://discord.gg/MC6eYAHuPu)**.

Have fun out there!
- Tia
(https://ludeon.com/blog/) | (https://x.com/LudeonStudios) | (https://bsky.app/profile/ludeonstudios.bsky.social) | (https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/) | (https://www.facebook.com/LudeonStudios/)

##### Changelog

-  Added new options to the gravship launch window to easily get colony animals and mechanoids onboard before launching, as well as to remove neutral pawns off the gravship.

-  Added a "view range" option to the pilot console which lets you quickly see the range of your gravship.

-  Added snowy visuals for trees and some plants when they’re in a sufficiently snowy area.

-  Added the vacskin gland prosthetic which protects against vacuum. Requires the Odyssey and Royalty expansion.

-  Added a “low gravity adapted” gene to the starjack xenotype, as well as rebalanced the starjacks genes. Requires Odyssey and Biotech expansion.

-  Bridges built in space now have unique art for their borders.

##### Improvements & Balance Changes

-  Fishing now has its own category in the work tab.

-  Pursuing mechanoids in the gravship scenario now arrive in two massive raids per gravship map and then stop.

-  The final mechhive raid will now be 50% stronger.

-  Improved rewards for destroying the mechhive. You now gain +50 reputation with all factions, and the colonist that destroyed the mechhive gains a larger and longer-lasting positive moodlet.

-  Mechanitors can now summon mechanoid bosses while in space.

-  Insect lair entrances are now collapsable.

-  Added the ability to sow timbershrooms in glowforests with tree sowing research.

-  Shuttles are no longer blocked from landing on items.

-  Passenger shuttles no longer destroy more roof than they need to when landing.

-  Allow quests to retarget themselves to suitable maps if they generate targeting an unsuitable one. In orbit, this allows you to accept quests that don’t work in space by flying down to the planet.

-  Gravships no longer clear pollution when landing.

-  Sentience catalyst now removes roaming and fence-blocked status from animals.

-  The gra

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/294100/view/498331094794371516]_