How To Build A Food Storage Area in Rimworld

Food storage is one of the most critical systems in Rimworld. Without proper storage, your colonists’ food will deteriorate and rot, leaving you vulnerable to starvation. This guide walks you through the essential steps to build an efficient, temperature-controlled food storage area that keeps your supplies fresh and organized.

Understanding the Basics of Food Storage

The fundamental principle of food storage in Rimworld is temperature control. Food will deteriorate and rot if it’s not kept cool enough. The key to success is separating your kitchen area from your food storage area. While they should be close to each other to minimize travel distance for your colonists, keeping them separate has an important benefit: your kitchen doesn’t need to be cold, but your food storage does.

If your kitchen is too cold, your colonists will work slower while preparing meals. By maintaining separate rooms, you optimize both food preservation and colonist productivity.

Setting Up Your Food Storage Room

Creating the Storage Room

Start by building an actual room dedicated to food storage. This room will be the foundation of your storage system. Make sure the room is completely sealed off from the outside environment to maintain temperature control.

Creating and Configuring Stockpiles

Once your room is built, create stockpiles inside it. You can create multiple stockpiles if you prefer organization, though it’s not necessary. To configure a stockpile:

Select the stockpile and open the storage settings

Set the priority to “Critical” — this means colonists will prioritize storing items here above all else

Choose what items to store. You can either select specific categories (like “all meat and animal products”) or simply tick “all foods” to store everything

Setting priority to Critical ensures that your food storage is filled first before any overflow storage. If you want to create secondary storage with lower priority, you can add another stockpile and set it to normal priority. This way, colonists will only use the secondary storage after the critical storage is full.

Temperature Control Systems

Using Over-The-Wall Coolers

To keep your food storage cool, use an over-the-wall cooler. When installing:

Build the cooler on the wall with the blue side facing into the storage room

The hot side (where hot air exits) should face outward

Set the temperature to minus 10 degrees Celsius for optimal food preservation

However, simply installing a cooler isn’t enough. You need to account for heat loss when colonists open doors to access the storage. If you hover over your room, you’ll see the current temperature. Every time a door opens, warm air from outside enters, raising the temperature and making your cooler work harder.

Building an Airlock System

For maximum efficiency, create an airlock system. This involves:

Building an intermediate room (airlock) between your storage and the outside environment

Replacing standard doors with auto doors, as they open faster and allow less heat transfer

Installing two over-the-wall coolers — one pulling hot air into the airlock, and another pulling it out

To add a second cooler, go to your architect tab and select Temperature, then choose Over The Wall Cooler. Place it as the second stage of your cooling system.

Setting Multiple Coolers to the Same Temperature

Once you’ve built all your coolers, set them all to the same temperature. Press the temperature control button multiple times to set each cooler to minus 10 degrees (or your preferred temperature). This ensures consistent cooling throughout your storage system.

With an airlock system in place, when colonists open the outer door and bring in hot air from outside, that heat enters only the airlock chamber. The inner cooler then removes this excess heat before it reaches your actual food storage. This staged approach to heat removal means your storage room stays consistently cold — often reaching 0 to 2 degrees Celsius — even when doors are frequently opened.

Summary

Building an efficient food storage area in Rimworld requires three key elements: a dedicated room separated from your kitchen, proper stockpile configuration with Critical priority, and effective temperature control. While a basic setup with a single over-the-wall cooler works, an airlock system with auto doors and dual coolers provides superior efficiency and stability. By following these steps, you’ll ensure your colonists always have access to fresh food and maintain optimal productivity throughout your colony.

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