The Marked Men
"The outbreak doesn’t raise the dead. It destroys the living."
The Marked Men is a survival-horror outbreak overhaul that brings a rapidly spreading viral pandemic to RimWorld.
Unlike traditional zombie infections, the Marked Virus infects living humans, twisting them into violent, intelligent hosts driven by aggression, bloodshed, and the urge to spread the outbreak.
What begins as isolated incidents can escalate into roaming warbands, coordinated assaults, and continent-wide hordes capable of overwhelming entire factions.
Every battle creates new infection risks.
Every casualty is a potential threat.
Every survivor matters.
The Marked Virus is one of the most dangerous biological threats ever encountered on the Rim.
It spreads through:
- Physical contact
- Blood exposure
- Bodily fluids
- Infected injuries
- Outbreak incidents
- Certain mod integrations
The infected retain enough intelligence to use weapons, organize attacks, and actively spread the outbreak.
- Crossed Civilian
- Crossed Scout
- Crossed Hunter
- Crossed Shooter
- Crossed Raider
- Crossed Soldier
- Crossed Brute
- Crossed Pyromaniac
- Crossed Alpha
- Crossed Warlord
- Marked Man
The included Marked Survivors scenario places you in the aftermath of the initial outbreak.
Three survivors have endured the collapse of civilization and carry a rare natural resistance to the virus.
Features:
- Start with three resistant survivors
- Reduced infection chance
- Resistance can be inherited by offspring
- Resistance is not complete immunity
- Every infection remains dangerous
- Dedicated infected faction
- Custom storyteller
- Custom survivor scenario
- Progressive outbreak system
- Weapon-using infected
- Special infected variants
- Bloodborne transmission
- Contact transmission
- Inherited resistance system
- Dynamic outbreak events
- Roaming warbands
- Massive horde assaults
- Difficulty presets
- Performance optimization settings
- Extensive customization options
Supported content includes:
- RimWorld Core
- Royalty
- Ideology
- Biotech
- Anomaly
- Various Vanilla Expanded modules
- Additional supported mods
RJW Compatible
Optional integration is available for players who use RJW.
Large outbreaks can generate significant numbers of pawns.
To reduce performance impact, the mod includes:
- Horde management systems
- Spawn scaling options
- Performance presets
- Event throttling safeguards
- Optimization settings
Performance varies depending on hardware, colony size, storyteller settings, and total mod count.
Q: Does this add a new faction?
A: Yes. The Marked Men are a fully dedicated outbreak faction with unique raids, events, infected variants, and behaviors.
Q: Can colonists become infected?
A: Yes. Most recruited pawns are vulnerable to infection.
Q: Can pawns develop immunity?
A: Yes. Some survivors can recover and gain resistance, although survival is never guaranteed.
Q: Can resistance be inherited?
A: Yes. Resistant survivors may pass their traits to future generations.
Q: Is this save compatible?
A: Generally yes, although a new save is recommended for the intended outbreak progression.
Q: Was AI used during development?
A: Yes. AI-assisted tools were used for coding assistance, troubleshooting, testing support, and documentation. All gameplay systems were reviewed, integrated, and tested before release.
Q: Is this inspired by Crossed?
A: Yes. The mod draws inspiration from intelligent infected outbreak fiction and adapts those concepts into RimWorld’s storytelling framework.
Special thanks to @Wh1te_russh for the texture rework and for fixing texture inconsistencies.
