The Empire has arrived. Their refugee fleet settles the rimworld, and seeks allies. Their honor-bound culture wields hyper-advanced technology, while bowing to the ancient traditions of kings and queens.

Colonists can complete quests to earn honor with the Empire. Honor brings Imperial titles like acolyte, knight, and baron. Build grand throne rooms for your noble as they rise through the royal ranks. Dress them in finery fit for a monarch, or the prestige armor of a great warrior. They'll make speeches from the throne, inspiring your people, and play piano, harp, and harpsichord.

Each title allows you to choose or upgrade an Imperial permit:

• Imperial troopers, janissaries, and cataphracts drop in to fight for you in times of need.
• Orbital strikes and orbital salvoes blast your foes from above.
  
• Shuttles take you where you want to go.
• Labor teams help when you are shorthanded.

There are multiple ways to develop psychic powers. Those who gain Imperial titles receive powers from the ceremonial Imperial bestower. Tribal colonists can commune with the mysterious anima tree to build their psychic link. Or, you can fight the Empire using stolen psychic technology acquired through quests.

There are a wide variety of psychic powers. Some are made for combat:

• Skip, chaos skip, mass chaos skip, chunk skip, and wallraise move people and objects across distances to gain tactical advantage. Extract wounded allies, cross no man's land, pull enemies into melee brawls, shift cover where you want it.
• Painblock and focus modify the mind for combat.
  
• Blinding pulse and vertigo pulse blind your enemies or force them to vomit uncontrollably.
• Neuroquake overloads every conscious being on the map in a huge wave of psychic energy.
  
• Berserk, berserk pulse, and manhunter pulse drive people and animals momentarily insane.
• Invisibility prevents your colonist from being seen during stealth approaches or escapes.
  
• Burden and stun slow and halt your foes.
• Smokepop blocks line of sight.
  
• Farskip moves a group of your people across the world.
• Bullet shield creates a small temporary safe zone for attack or retreat.
  
• Flashstorm calls down a storm of lightning.
• Waterskip showers fires with extinguishing water.
  
• Beckon mind-controls foes into approaching you.
• Neural heat dump moves neural heat to an ally so you can keep casting.

Others powers are useful for community management:

• Solar pinhole creates a long-lasting source of light and heat.
• Word of trust helps recruitment.
  
• Word of joy makes people happy.
• Word of love induces romantic attraction.
  
• Word of serenity ends mental breaks.
• Word of inspiration confers creative energy.

Psychic powers require psychic meditation. Each colonist meditates differently, depending on their title, backstory, and traits:

• Titled colonists meditate on their thrones according to Imperial tradition.
• Tribal colonists meditate directly in nature, to the anima tree itself or to constructed shrines or ancient stones.
  
• Morbid colonists with psychopath, cannibal, or bloodlust traits meditate to graves. It's more effective when the grave has a related person in it.
• Ascetic colonists meditate to blank walls.
  
• Pyromaniac colonists meditate to flame shrines made of braziers, torches, and campfires.
• Everyone can also meditate to sculptures.

This expansion adds a large variety of quest content. Since RimWorld is a story-generation game, quests aren't fixed like in other games. Instead, the system procedurally generates unique quests with every new game. Different goals, foes, guests, rewards, helpers, special threats, and world conditions combine to create endless varied stories and challenges. Quest givers may even provide special helpers during the quest - for example, a quest may ask you to fight a huge mechanoid cluster, but also include help from elite Imperial cataphracts to make the battle winnable.

Quests will reward you with Imperial titles, new allies, unique implants, archotechnological artifacts, gear, faction goodwill, and more.

• Imperial hospitality quests ask the player to host a group of Imperials. The guests may be injured or healthy, useful allies or helpless burdens, single or numerous. They may be hunted by mercenaries, pirates, mechanoids, or more. You might need to get the guests to an escape shuttle under fire.
• Refugee hospitality quests present a group of impoverished travelers asking for help. There are many outcomes. They may reward you later for your help, or betray you in the middle of the night. A third party may make you an offer to betray them. If you treat them well, they may spontaneously offer to join you. Since they have no faction, you can treat them with kindness or brutality.
  
• Animal hospitality quests see you caring for a group of animals struck with sickness or hunted by enemies.
• Prisoner hospitality quests ask you to keep prisoners under guard.
  
• Shuttle crash quests begin with a shuttle crashlanded near your colony, under attack by enemies. Quickly assemble a defense around the shuttle and help its defenders drive off the attackers while keeping the civilians safe, until the rescue shuttle extracts them.
• Monument quests ask the player to build a grand monument, and sometimes, to protect it from attacks.
  
• Aerial assault quests have you supply troops for an ally's airborne assault against a rival faction. A shuttle takes your troops into combat and extracts them.
• Colonist lending quests ask you to send some of your colonists to help an ally, leaving you to run the colony shorthanded.
  
• Mechanoid cluster quests threaten you with a mechanoid cluster at your colony, or at a site nearby, in exchange for a reward.
• Other quests quests present special combinations of raids, animal attacks, insect infestations, atmospheric effects, weather, and more, in exchange for rewards.

A new endgame quest comes after you have climbed the ranks of Imperial nobility. Host the Imperial High Stellarch and his elite Stellic Guards in your luxurious court, protect them from their enemies, and be invited to leave the rimworld as an honored Imperial guest.

Mechanoids can now create mechanoid clusters - groups of new mechanoid buildings which work together to present a unique tactical challenge.

Mech clusters always appear in an initially dormant state. The player can take the time to decide and execute a plan of attack. This puts the player on the offensive, which contrasts with the defense-oriented fights in the base game. Mech cluster elements include:

• World condition makers that poison the air, darken the sky, or create some other world condition.
• Shields to block bullets or mortar fire
  
• Factories to assemble new mechanoids over time.
• Beacons to call reinforcements.
  
• Turrets, mortars, and surrounding walls.
• Unstable power units which you can attack to create explosions, or steal.
  
• Alarm systems of various types.
• Mechanoid defenders including the new Pikeman sniper mech.
  
• Gloomlight units provide an extra reward if you eliminate the cluster with precision.

Each mech cluster generates with a unique layout, presenting a unique tactical puzzle. Some of them will require a frontal assault. Others may be susceptible to mortar bombardment. You may be able to plant explosives inside the cluster before waking it up. A few can be defeated with a key sniper shot to a critical structure. There are many other tactics. Mech clusters can even be used to your advantage if you can lure foes or undesired allies into them.

This expansion adds a ton of new gear. Some of them are unlocked through new techprints, which are special technology items acquired by quests, trade, or theft.

New combat equipment:

• Jump packs allow a user to fly across a battlefield.
• Plasma swords ignite targets.
  
• Zeushammers blast the target with an EMP pulse.
• Monoswords cut through almost any armor.
  
• Cataphract armor provides ultra-heavy protection.
• Locust armor is recon armor with an integrated jump pack.
  
• Grenadier armor is marine armor with a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher.
• Phoenix armor is heat-hardened heavy armor with an integrated flame launcher, for indoor flame combat.
  
• Broadshield packs deploy a local shield for tactical defense.
• Prestige armor comes in recon, marine, and cataphract forms. It displays status and enhances psycasting.

Persona weapons are unique melee weapons with built-in personalities. Bonding to one is a lifelong commitment. Each one has individual personality traits that give it special powers and quirks:

• Kill thirst weapons demand blood.
• Kind or mad thoughts affect a user's mood.
  
• Jealous weapons don't like it when you use any weapon except themselves.
• Psychic sensitizers or foggers affect a user's psychic sensitivity.
  
• Kill-focused weapons give instant psychic focus when they kill.
• Kill-happy or kill-sorrow weapons give happy or sad thoughts when they kill.
  
• Painless weapons block the user's pain entirely.
• Fast mover weapons increase movement speed.
  
• Hungry weapons increase the user's hunger.
• Neural cooling and Psy-meditative weapons allow faster psycast use.
  
• Freewielder weapons don't bond and can be used by anyone.

New body implants enhance a variety of aspects of anyone's physiology.

• Internal blades and poison teeth mean you always have a deadly melee attack.
• Drill arms and field hands improve mining and farming ability.
  
• Neurocalculators and learning assistants help with mental tasks.
• Gastro-analyzers make better cooks.
  
• Immunoenhancers, coagulators, and healing enhancers protect health.
• Skin hardening glands resist damage, but they're quite ugly.
  
• Detoxifier stomachs, reprocessor stomachs, and nuclear stomachs enhance digestion or remove the need for it.
• Circadian assistants and circadian half-cyclers reduce the need to sleep.
  
• Aesthetic enhancements make your colonists more popular.
• Love enhancers improve mood.

This expansion includes a new full album worth of new music by Alistair Lindsay, composer of the original RimWorld soundtrack.

There are 13 new tracks totaling 1:04:14 in length.