Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

v0.31:Wound

2011-08-24T00:31:15Z

Piecewise: /* Scarring */

{{quality|Exceptional|21:13, 30 March 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

There are five different levels of injury in the game, ranging from none to complete part loss.
Shown using the default* colors, they are:


:{| border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1 style="background: black"
|-
| '''NONE: No recorded active wounds on the part.'''
|-
| '''MINOR: Any damage that doesn't have functional/structural consequences (might be heavy bleeding, though).'''
|-
| '''INHIBITED: Any muscular, structural, or functional damage, without total loss.'''
|-
| '''FUNCTION LOSS: An important function of the part is completely lost, but the part is structurally sound (or, at least partially intact). '''
|-
| '''BROKEN: The part has lost all structural integrity or muscular ability.'''
|-
| '''MISSING: The part is completely gone. '''
|}

:''(* The [[color]] of wounds can be changed in {{L|Init.txt}}.)''

== Missing limb ==

As the name implies, this signals that a limb has been completely severed. Dwarves with severed limbs frequently either die of blood loss or linger in the {{L|hospital}} permanently. Those who recover may find themselves unable to perform the same tasks as they had in the past.

Dwarves without arms are unable to {{L|haul}} items, but are still able to gather crops or work in a workshop. Once created/gathered, the items simply remain where they are until another dwarf comes along to move them. They are also unable to equip armor/clothing, but this won't stop them from biting/kicking in combat. Armless dwarves are unable to operate {{L|screw pump}}s.

== Function loss ==

The new cyan "Function loss" appears to be impairment of an organ for which "broken" or "bruised" would not make sense. Internal organs and eyes have been observed to turn cyan, signaling failures of sight, liver function, and other maladies.

A dwarf can also suffer nervous damage to sensory and/or motor nerves. For example, motor nerve damage to a leg means that the dwarf will never be able to stand up again, which will show as "Ability to stand lost" in the specific dwarf's personal health screen, in addition to nervous damage information. Sensory nerve damage causes pain to disappear and is thought to make a creatures' attacks weaker. With a crutch applied, dwarves with leg nerve damage can become mobile / useful again. Damage to spinal nervous tissue disconnects all nervous function below the damaged point. For the upper and middle spines this can include the lungs, so damage leads to suffocation.

If you want your dwarves to heal spinal nerve damage, go into the {{L|raw file|raws}}, find the tissue_template_default and set [HEALING_RATE:100] to the NERVE_TEMPLATE. Optionally, specify 2000 for a much slower rate; bone has a healing rate of 1000, so this will make nerve damage heal at half the speed of broken bones. However, this does not affect other nerves, as they apparently do not count as "nervous tissue".

== Scarring ==

Dwarves who sustain major injuries may never fully heal—the part will always remain listed in their Wounds section as "Minor" or "Inhibited", and the dwarf's description in his Thoughts and Preferences screen will note that he bears scars. (Of varying degrees and types, {Tiny, very short, short, long, very long, massive, huge, etc.} {Jagged, Dent, Straight, etc.}) This may result in notes in the {{L|Health screen}} such as "Ability to grasp somewhat impaired". This means that one of the creature's grasping parts (usually hands) has lost the ability to grasp. Military dwarves with inhibited ability to grasp will not hold a weapon in the crippled arm. If one wants a crippled warrior to keep using weapon, the dwarf must be manually set not to use a shield.

v0.31 Talk:Symptoms

2010-04-12T15:52:15Z

Piecewise: Created page with 'toady mentioned in a df talk that becoming enraged is a possible symptom of the new venom ( in relation to a question about 28 days later style zombies). Do we know if he was jus…'

toady mentioned in a df talk that becoming enraged is a possible symptom of the new venom ( in relation to a question about 28 days later style zombies). Do we know if he was just being hypothetical or if this is a hidden syndrome?

v0.31:Iron man

2010-04-11T23:13:33Z

Piecewise:

{{av}}
Man shaped and the same average size as a adult human. Usually, if not always, leaves behind masterwork statues of random things such as werewolves or marlins. Emits some kind of corrosive or poisonous gas which causes a condition called "Iron man Cough". This disease is very slow to become effective (takes several in game hours) compared to most venom and is marked by coughing up blood. Sleeping seems to cure the disease.

40d:Giant desert scorpion

2010-04-11T08:58:24Z

Piecewise:

{{av}}
{{CreatureInfo|name=Giant desert scorpion|symbol=S|color={{COLOR:6:0:0}}|bones=N/A|chunks=10|meat=10|fat=1|skulls=N/A|skin=Chitin|biome=* Badland [[40d:desert|desert]]
* [[40d:Rock|Rock]] desert
* [[40d:Sand|Sand]] desert
|wiki=no}}

[[Image:Scorpion-panel2-col.png|thumb|200px|left|A giant desert scorpion doing what it knows best.]]

The '''giant desert scorpion''' is a high-[[40d:value|value]] creature commonly found in [[40d:desert|desert]]s and although they aren't found in large numbers they are dangerous combatants.
*They are capable of using a paralyzing poison.
*They cannot be stunned because they feel no pain.
*They have excellent vision so ambushing them is difficult{{verify}}.

However only their tail is poisonous and they don't attack with it often, needing to latch on to their prey with their pincers first.

Their corpses can by used to [[40d:extract|extract]] giant scorpion venom* and an antidote* to it. As with all animals, they can be sold to [[40d:caravan|caravan]]s. When [[40d:butcher|butcher]]ed they will leave no [[40d:bone|bone]]s or [[40d:skull|skull]], and the "[[40d:hide|hide]]" they will leave is called [[40d:chitin|chitin]], but can be processed the same as any [[40d:leather|leather]].
:''(* These items have only a trade value, and serve no other purpose inside a dwarf fortress.)''

Some frustrated scorpions have been reported to be invading fortresses to destroy [[wood]]en constructs and their <tt>[BUILDINGDESTROYER:1]</tt> supports this claim. Due to the relative scarcity of wood in their [[40d:biome|biome]] they often end up going well out of their way to find wooden [[40d:construction|construction]]s to rip up; [[40d:archery target|archery target]]s have proven to be a popular, er, target.

As of DF2010 Giant Scorpion poison no longer paralyzes but causes minor neurological degeneration. It appears that this does not progress beyond "minor rot" regardless of repeated doses of the venom. it effects the brain, upper and lower spinal cord and occasionally neck muscles. it is slow to effect but can be quite annoying as it may never heal.

{{Game_Data|[CREATURE:SCORPION_DESERT_GIANT]
[NAME:giant desert scorpion:giant desert scorpions:giant desert scorpion]
[TILE:'S'][COLOR:6:0:0]
[MODVALUE:10]
[LARGE_ROAMING][FREQUENCY:5][DIFFICULTY:3]
[EXTRACT:giant desert scorpion venom:7:0:1]
[EXTRACT_VALUE:100]
[EXTRACT_PARALYZE]
[EXTRACT_ANTIDOTE:giant desert scorpion antivenin:7:0:0:100]
[NATURAL][PET_EXOTIC]
[PARALYZEIMMUNE]
[GENPOWER:4]
[BLOODTYPE:W][CHITIN]
[PETVALUE:2500]
[GRASSTRAMPLE:10]
[LARGE_PREDATOR][SAVAGE]
[CARNIVORE]
[NOPAIN][EXTRAVISION][NOSTUN][NOEMOTION][NOSKULL][NOBONES]
[BUILDINGDESTROYER:1]
[NOFEAR]
[PREFSTRING:enormous tails]
[BODY:SPIDER:2EYES:HEART:GUTS:BRAIN:TAIL:TAIL_STINGER:UPPERBODY_PINCERS]
[SIZE:10]
[MAXAGE:20:30]
[ATTACK:MAIN:BYTOKEN:TAIL_STINGER:sting:stings:1:6:PIERCE][SPECIALATTACK_INJECT_EXTRACT:50:100]
[ATTACK:MAIN:BYTYPE:GRASP:snatch:snatches:1:6:GORE][ATTACKFLAG_CANLATCH][ATTACKFLAG_WITH]
[FAT:1]
[ALL_ACTIVE]
[BIOME:DESERT_BADLAND]
[BIOME:DESERT_ROCK]
[BIOME:DESERT_SAND]
[STANDARD_FLESH]
[HOMEOTHERM:10067]
}}
{{Creatures}}
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Venom]]

v0.31:Giant cave spider

2010-04-11T08:53:51Z

Piecewise:

{{av}}
{{CreatureInfo|name=Giant cave spider|symbol=S|color={{COLOR:7:0:0}}|bones=?|fat=?|skin=Yes|skulls=?|chunks=?|meat=?|biome= * Subterranean Caverns}}
:''A large underground monster with eight legs and sharp, venomous teeth.''

'''Giant Cave Spiders''' are far different from your regular cave spider; Those were just treats for your cat. Giant cave spiders are big as a horse and will make treats ''of'' cats, dwarves and the occasional careless adventurer. You can find Giant Cave Spiders in, obviously, caves, caverns and most underground areas. They are extremely dangerous as they feel no pain so they can't be stunned, they can poison creatures and have the ability to shoot webbing to ensnare their prey.

Giant cave spiders are fortunately (depending on your point of view) not a rarity anymore, and there are dozens present in the underground caverns, deep below the surface. They can be extremely hard to kill, so watch out.

They are both benefit and hazard, hazard being obvious and benefit due to their webs. Giant cave spider silk is worth much more than ordinary cloth, and they can produce endless amounts of it.

If you see one in adventure mode an announcement, "You've spotted a Giant Cave Spider!" will appear.

Giant cave spider venom appears to be a neurotoxin which causes progressive paralysis and is ultimately fatal due to suffocation as the victim's diaphragm succumbs and ceases to function. Poison effects set in relatively quickly with complete paralysis at phase 5(360 seconds) and death usually occurs at around 1300 seconds.

{{Game_Data|[CREATURE:SPIDER_CAVE_GIANT]
[DESCRIPTION:A large underground monster with eight legs and sharp, venomous teeth.]
[NAME:giant cave spider:giant cave spiders:giant cave spider]
[CASTE_NAME:giant cave spider:giant cave spiders:giant cave spider]
[CREATURE_TILE:'S'][COLOR:7:0:0]
[PETVALUE:2500]
[PET_EXOTIC]
[BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_CHASM]
[UNDERGROUND_DEPTH:1:2]
[THICKWEB][WEBIMMUNE][AMBUSHPREDATOR][PARALYZEIMMUNE]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:SILK:SILK_TEMPLATE]
[WEBBER:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SILK]
[NO_SLEEP]
[NOPAIN][EXTRAVISION][NOSTUN][NOEMOTION][NOFEAR]
[LARGE_ROAMING][FREQUENCY:20][DIFFICULTY:3]
[POPULATION_NUMBER:3:4]
[CARNIVORE][NATURAL]
[BUILDINGDESTROYER:1]
[LARGE_PREDATOR]
[SAVAGE]
[GRASSTRAMPLE:10]
[PREFSTRING:mystery]
[NOBONES]
[BODY:SPIDER:2EYES:HEART:GUTS:BRAIN:MOUTH]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:CHITIN_MATERIALS]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:CHITIN_TISSUES]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:EXOSKELETON_TISSUE_LAYERS:CHITIN:FAT:MUSCLE]
[SELECT_TISSUE_LAYER:HEART:BY_CATEGORY:HEART]
[TL_MAJOR_ARTERIES]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:STANDARD_HEAD_POSITIONS]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:SINEW:SINEW_TEMPLATE]
[TENDONS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SINEW:200]
[LIGAMENTS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SINEW:200]
[HAS_NERVES]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:ICHOR:ICHOR_TEMPLATE]
[BLOOD:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:ICHOR:LIQUID]
[CREATURE_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[GETS_WOUND_INFECTIONS]
[GETS_INFECTIONS_FROM_ROT]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:PUS:PUS_TEMPLATE]
[PUS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:PUS:LIQUID]
[BODY_SIZE:0:0:10000]
[BODY_SIZE:1:0:50000]
[BODY_SIZE:2:0:100000]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:LENGTH:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:HEIGHT:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:BROADNESS:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[MAXAGE:20:30]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:POISON:CREATURE_EXTRACT_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:frozen giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:frozen giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_NAME:LIQUID:giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_ADJ:LIQUID:giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:boiling giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_ADJ:GAS:boiling giant cave spider venom]
[PREFIX:NONE]
[ENTERS_BLOOD]
[SYNDROME]
[SYN_NAME:giant cave spider bite]
[SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE:SPIDER_CAVE:ALL]
[SYN_INJECTED]
[CE_PARALYSIS:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:SIZE_DILUTES:START:5:PEAK:10:END:20]
[ATTACK:STING:BODYPART:BY_CATEGORY:MOUTH]
[ATTACK_SKILL:BITE]
[ATTACK_VERB:bite:bites]
[ATTACK_CONTACT_PERC:100]
[ATTACK_PRIORITY:MAIN]
[SPECIALATTACK_INJECT_EXTRACT:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:POISON:LIQUID:100:100]
[ATTACK_FLAG_CANLATCH]
[ALL_ACTIVE]
[HOMEOTHERM:10040]
[CASTE:FEMALE]
[FEMALE]
[CASTE:MALE]
[MALE]
[SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:CHITIN]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:BROWN:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:chitin:SINGULAR]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:EYE:EYE]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:BLACK:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:eyes:PLURAL]
[SELECT_MATERIAL:ALL]
[MULTIPLY_VALUE:4]}}

v0.31:Giant cave spider

2010-04-11T08:31:17Z

Piecewise:

{{av}}
{{CreatureInfo|name=Giant cave spider|symbol=S|color={{COLOR:7:0:0}}|bones=?|fat=?|skin=Yes|skulls=?|chunks=?|meat=?|biome= * Subterranean Caverns}}
:''A large underground monster with eight legs and sharp, venomous teeth.''

'''Giant Cave Spiders''' are far different from your regular cave spider; Those were just treats for your cat. Giant cave spiders are big as a horse and will make treats ''of'' cats, dwarves and the occasional careless adventurer. You can find Giant Cave Spiders in, obviously, caves, caverns and most underground areas. They are extremely dangerous as they feel no pain so they can't be stunned, they can poison creatures and have the ability to shoot webbing to ensnare their prey.

Giant cave spiders are fortunately (depending on your point of view) not a rarity anymore, and there are dozens present in the underground caverns, deep below the surface. They can be extremely hard to kill, so watch out.

They are both benefit and hazard, hazard being obvious and benefit due to their webs. Giant cave spider silk is worth much more than ordinary cloth, and they can produce endless amounts of it.

If you see one in adventure mode an announcement, "You've spotted a Giant Cave Spider!" will appear.

Giant cave spider venom appears to be a neurotoxin which causes progressive paralysis and is ultimately fatal due to suffocation as the victim's diaphragm succumbs and ceases to function.

{{Game_Data|[CREATURE:SPIDER_CAVE_GIANT]
[DESCRIPTION:A large underground monster with eight legs and sharp, venomous teeth.]
[NAME:giant cave spider:giant cave spiders:giant cave spider]
[CASTE_NAME:giant cave spider:giant cave spiders:giant cave spider]
[CREATURE_TILE:'S'][COLOR:7:0:0]
[PETVALUE:2500]
[PET_EXOTIC]
[BIOME:SUBTERRANEAN_CHASM]
[UNDERGROUND_DEPTH:1:2]
[THICKWEB][WEBIMMUNE][AMBUSHPREDATOR][PARALYZEIMMUNE]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:SILK:SILK_TEMPLATE]
[WEBBER:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SILK]
[NO_SLEEP]
[NOPAIN][EXTRAVISION][NOSTUN][NOEMOTION][NOFEAR]
[LARGE_ROAMING][FREQUENCY:20][DIFFICULTY:3]
[POPULATION_NUMBER:3:4]
[CARNIVORE][NATURAL]
[BUILDINGDESTROYER:1]
[LARGE_PREDATOR]
[SAVAGE]
[GRASSTRAMPLE:10]
[PREFSTRING:mystery]
[NOBONES]
[BODY:SPIDER:2EYES:HEART:GUTS:BRAIN:MOUTH]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:CHITIN_MATERIALS]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:CHITIN_TISSUES]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:EXOSKELETON_TISSUE_LAYERS:CHITIN:FAT:MUSCLE]
[SELECT_TISSUE_LAYER:HEART:BY_CATEGORY:HEART]
[TL_MAJOR_ARTERIES]
[BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:STANDARD_HEAD_POSITIONS]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:SINEW:SINEW_TEMPLATE]
[TENDONS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SINEW:200]
[LIGAMENTS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SINEW:200]
[HAS_NERVES]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:ICHOR:ICHOR_TEMPLATE]
[BLOOD:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:ICHOR:LIQUID]
[CREATURE_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[GETS_WOUND_INFECTIONS]
[GETS_INFECTIONS_FROM_ROT]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:PUS:PUS_TEMPLATE]
[PUS:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:PUS:LIQUID]
[BODY_SIZE:0:0:10000]
[BODY_SIZE:1:0:50000]
[BODY_SIZE:2:0:100000]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:LENGTH:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:HEIGHT:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER:BROADNESS:90:95:98:100:102:105:110]
[MAXAGE:20:30]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:POISON:CREATURE_EXTRACT_TEMPLATE]
[STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:frozen giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:frozen giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_NAME:LIQUID:giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_ADJ:LIQUID:giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_NAME:GAS:boiling giant cave spider venom]
[STATE_ADJ:GAS:boiling giant cave spider venom]
[PREFIX:NONE]
[ENTERS_BLOOD]
[SYNDROME]
[SYN_NAME:giant cave spider bite]
[SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE:SPIDER_CAVE:ALL]
[SYN_INJECTED]
[CE_PARALYSIS:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:SIZE_DILUTES:START:5:PEAK:10:END:20]
[ATTACK:STING:BODYPART:BY_CATEGORY:MOUTH]
[ATTACK_SKILL:BITE]
[ATTACK_VERB:bite:bites]
[ATTACK_CONTACT_PERC:100]
[ATTACK_PRIORITY:MAIN]
[SPECIALATTACK_INJECT_EXTRACT:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:POISON:LIQUID:100:100]
[ATTACK_FLAG_CANLATCH]
[ALL_ACTIVE]
[HOMEOTHERM:10040]
[CASTE:FEMALE]
[FEMALE]
[CASTE:MALE]
[MALE]
[SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:CHITIN]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:BROWN:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:chitin:SINGULAR]
[SET_TL_GROUP:BY_CATEGORY:EYE:EYE]
[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:BLACK:1]
[TLCM_NOUN:eyes:PLURAL]
[SELECT_MATERIAL:ALL]
[MULTIPLY_VALUE:4]}}

40d:Dwarf

2010-02-12T07:05:56Z

Piecewise:

{{CreatureInfo|name=Dwarf|symbol=☺|color={{COLOR:3:0:0}}|butcher=no|bones=6|chunks=6|meat=6|fat=3|skulls=1|skin=Yes|biome=Any}}
__NOTOC__
[[Image:Dwarf.jpg|206px|thumb|An engraving of a dwarf.]]

'''Dwarves''' are "intelligent" [[humanoid]] [[creatures]] that live in [[fortress]]es carved from [[mountain]]s. They are the featured [[civilization|race]] of [[Dwarf Fortress mode|Fortress Mode]] and are also one of the races playable in [[Adventure Mode]]. They are mainly interested in acquiring wealth and rare [[metal]]s, especially [[adamantine]]. They are [[alcohol]] dependent and work slowly if deprived of it for long. Their most hated enemies are the [[goblin]]s.

Dwarven [[children]] become adults at their twelfth birthday.

In accounts of exploits or [[fun]], the generic name [[Urist]] is sometimes used in place of any specific dwarf name. Several nicknames for dwarves also exist; one of the more common is '''dorf'''*, but there are others that are less polite.
== Dwarves in Fortress Mode ==

Dwarves are a [[trading]] race and will send a [[caravan]] every year in the [[Calendar|fall]]. [[Immigrant|Immigrants]] will be attracted to your fortress as your wealth grows, prompted by the stories of your wealth and the goods that the dwarven traders bring back from your fortress. The immigrants arrive every spring. If your fortress is particularly successful, some immigrants might even decide to come early in smaller groups and arrive in late fall in addition to the wave that normally arrives during spring. Dwarves die at around 150-170 years of age.

=== Living among them ===

You cannot start your fortress where another fortress exists.

=== Living near them ===

If you start your fortress near an existing fortress (not one you built), the large [[human]] caravan and dwarven traders will be replaced with a large dwarven caravan. This means you will not receive an outpost liaison (could be a bug with the current version), but you will receive large quantities of dwarven made goods, including a few [[bars]] of random metal and several pieces of [[steel]] [[armor]] of random quality (usually you get that anyway).

== Dwarves in Adventure Mode ==

Dwarven fortresses do not have any [[shop]]s, but usually have a variety of fighters to recruit. You can receive quests from their monarch at their capital city.

Dwarven characters always start with [[steel]] or [[iron]] [[weapon]]s and [[armor]], making them the best-equipped race. Unfortunately, [[human]] armor is too large for them to wear, and humans are the only race with shops, so all armor upgrades will have to come from looting dwarven fortresses. Most human weapons must be wielded two-handed by dwarves, due to their size.

Dwarves have the highest natural armor of the adventuring races, at +1, but are one [[size]] smaller than [[Elf|elves]] and humans, so they cause less damage and absorb less damage. Dwarves are the only race that sometimes enters a [[martial trance]] when beset by many foes, which gives them combat bonuses.

== Mythology ==

In real-life mythology, dwarves are much like humans, but generally prefer to live underground and/or in mountainous areas. In their fortresses they have accumulated treasures of [[gold]], [[silver]], and [[gem|precious stone]]s, and pass their time fabricating costly weapons and armor. They are famed [[miner]]s and [[Metalsmith|smith]]s, although, like humans, they can specialise in any number of trades. Generally shorter than humans, they are on average stockier and hairier, and usually sport full beards. Though slow runners and poor riders, dwarves are excellent warriors and defenders of their strongholds. Dwarves have the ability to forge magical items, which shows off their culture's and species natural craftsmanship. For instance, dwarvish smiths created some of the greatest and most powerful items of mythology, which inspired the in-game [[strange mood]]s and [[Legendary artifact]]s.

== The history, physiology and culture of Dwarves ==
==='''"On the Origin of Dwarves"'''===

Long before our times, during the times of yore when great beasts stalked the darkness and tore civilization’s forebearers asunder, there came to this world a strange new race: the dwarves. The ancestry of the dwarves is muddled and confused, often times contradictory, impossible, incestuous or all three. This can mainly be contributed to the dwarven tendency to keep their history through the use of engravings, rather then books or even oral tradition. Dwarves, being a subterranean people, rarely create paper and lack the memories to pass down stories of their ancestors in any reasonable fashion; this inability is mostly blamed on their near constant state of inebriation. Also unfortunate to would be historians is the dwarven tendency to place these historical engravings 60 feet underground and surrounded by all manner of deadly traps, questionable architecture and various slavering beasts. If one didn’t know better it would seem as though they are deliberately hiding their past.

Through what can be recovered the origin of dwarven kind (according to their creation myths) is as follows:

Once, long ago, a particularly ugly and foul tempered mountain goat raped a particularly hairy and insane Mandrill atop a pile of stones and vomit. From this coupling was born the first of dwarven kind, the Mountain King. He was born with a battle ax and bottomless tankard clutched in his tiny hands and his body was covered in such copious amounts of hair that he might easily have been mistaken for a bearded bear cub. The Mountain King was raised by a Granite Boulder and grew strong upon a diet of booze, cave mushrooms and the blood of his enemies. At age 4 he killed a bear in a staring contest and at age 7 he domesticated the first wagon. Upon his ascendance into manhood he destroyed the boulder which had raised him and reshaped it into the first anvil, Proclaiming

“reg limar, abod ber, avuz thol, or mabdug, nokor buket!”

These words would echo forever through dwarven kind, though it is said that another phrase was within this motto. The lost phrase is said to have been

“gatiz emar agak.”

Though what this phrase means has been lost to us and inquiries to dwarven historians often end in violence. What little can be gathered is that it seems to relate to animal husbandry.

His childhood behind him, The Mountain King set about founding the first Mountain Home, digging out most of the mountain by himself using only his bare hands and frighteningly calloused manhood. His lavish home now complete and balanced entirely upon a single pillar he set out to make his name known and to find a wife worthy of baring his fuzzy offspring. The first civilization he came upon were the elves, a race of naked and eternally beautiful feyfolk who abhorred the use of trees or animals for any means. It was said that when they met the Mountain King was in the process of beating a mountain lion to death with a wolf. The elves, in their kindness, attempted to persuade the Mountain King to follow their naturalistic ways. In response the mountain king tore off the head druid’s face and promptly began using it as his undergarments. Before the shocked elven masses he announced:

“etar linem etes gubel lor,

Which, roughly translated, means

“Your King Blows my Bulbous tool.”

Since this epochal meeting the relations between the elves and dwarves have continued to be tense, often times ending in massive forest fires, rampant cannibalism, horrifying dismemberment or, worst of all, crossbreeding. His duty done, the Mountain King continued his journey through the primal world. He next came upon the goblins and was delighted to find that their skinny limbs and necks broke with even the gentlest of hammer blows. After a brief campaign of recreational genocide the Mountain King grew bored of his new playthings and continued on, leaving the goblins broken and scattered, connected only by their intense hatred of small, bearded people. This hatred continues to this day, resulting in nearly constant goblin raids against dwarven settlements. Unfortunately, goblin’s limbs and neck still snap with the ease of twigs, making these valiant efforts more or less meaningless.

The last race which the Mountain King discovered was that of Humans, still in their fragile and frightened infancy. Taking rare pity upon the gangly and awkward race, the Mountain King gifted them with weapons, armor and booze, ensuring a stable business and war partner as well as drinking buddy for generations to come. It was after finding this last race that the Mountain King realized he was still without a wife and was beginning to feel the effects of his decades of celibacy. After a tour of countless brothels and leaving a swath of broken pelvises and dislocated jaws behind him The Mountain king finally returned to his home. Determined to have his bride, the Mountain King built a tower to the heavens themselves and petitioned Armok, God of Blood, to grant him a wife. Armok Agreed, on the condition that all their descendants from first to last be cursed with a tendency to die horribly. The Mountain King gladly agreed.

The wife which he was given, The Queen of All Stone, was truly a rightful receiver of his seed and wore a beard that could match his own. It was from these two that all dwarven kind sprang (or walked, being that dwarves don't really spring, hop, jump, skip or do anything that means removing more then one foot from the ground.)

From this common ancestor onward the genealogy is scattered and unsure, engraved upon bars of soap and metal beds across the world. Many believe that the first child of the Mountain King was a girl by the name of Urist. Records become scarce beyond this but what little can be found indicate that she was notorious trickster and prone to paranoid mania, preferring to remain isolated. From this point on we can only guess.

==='''Urist's anatomy'''===
Dwarves are, by weight, 40% Body hair, 30% alcohol, 6% calluses, 12% anger, 7% muscle, 1%skin and 4% miscellaneous. Their blood does not have different “types” rather it has a variety of “proofs”. Their bone structure is not unlike that of a man, though much stouter and more dense. The exceptions to this comparison come mostly from two places, the legs and the head. Dwarves, for whatever reason, lack knees and are therefore incapable of things like hopping, skipping, running in a dignified manner or bending down without falling prone. Dwarves, however, seem to prefer it this way and regard anything requiring knees as being the actions of “elvish silly nannys”. Several of the other strange anatomical designs are centered in the head and the curious structure of the dwarvish skull. A dwarf’s beard is actually connected directly to the bones of his jaw and palate and is comprised of a thick mane of hair like cartilage growths. These growths are actually quite sensitive to certain stimuli and allow a dwarf to detect things like an abandoned pigtail sock, even from miles away.

The dwarven skull is composed of only two very thick bones, one being the mandible and the other consisting of the entire rest of the cranium. This strange configuration seems to be an adaptation to generations of cave-ins and the popular dwarven drinking game “Smash rock with face”. Unfortunately the thick and solid skull compresses the dwarven brain and induces a species wide mental syndrome not unlike severe bipolar disorder. This means that dwarves are highly susceptible to sudden and often violent mood swings, shifting between murderous rage and enthralled stupor with only a particularly nice sock or table as the cause. Another interesting anomaly, or lack of anomaly, is that of the dwarven liver. Dwarves, as a race, are dependent on alcohol from birth; it has been proven that it is not simply conditioning but that the dwarven body is actually dependant on alcohol to perform at it’s best. While the exact process that makes them dependent and why it is so necessary is still unknown, it does appear as though the dwarven body is paradoxically not equipped to deal with the massive amounts of alcohol it must imbibe. The dwarven liver is by no means more effective or efficient when it comes to filtering the massive amounts of booze that a dwarf drinks, leading to liver failure to be the leading cause of death among dwarven kind (followed closely by “bludgeoned to death by enraged soap maker.”)

Beyond these obvious abnormalities are the less known and harder to distinguish differences in dwarven anatomy. Dwarves are a methodical and stubborn race to the point that every aspect of their life is directly influenced. Dwarves work, party, drink and sleep in marathon like stints, often times continuing a single party or drinking binge for months on end and their inherent stubbornness makes it nearly impossible to change tasks quickly even if their lives depend on it. It is far from unknown to hear of a dwarven fortress falling to invading hordes simply because the fortress guard were in the middle of a 6 month nap or drinking themselves comatose. This tendency has lead to the adage “oblivious as a dwarf on break”.

Beyond their stubbornness Dwarves also exhibit a variety of odd behaviors, some of which seem to be related to their physiology while others are more idiosyncratic. A dwarf’s chosen profession seems to influence his thought patterns in radical ways, often leading to specific phobias and reckless behavior. Non-military dwarves, for example, seem to universally develop a crippling fear of all animals, even the most harmless. It’s not uncommon to see panicking works-dwarves running in abject terror from things like mountain goats and perturbed llamas. Military dwarfs, on the other hand, seem to completely lose their sense of self preservation and run heedlessly into battle, ignoring tactics in favor of fanatic yelling. So removed from their sense of fear are the warrior women that they often carry their children into battle, a tactic which often ends in tragedy; It should be noted, however, that there are few sights more frightening then a dwarven woman, bare from the waist up, holding a suckling newborn in one hand and a battle ax in the other, charging toward you.

The debate on the subject of dwarven depression and anger is a complex one at best and is hard to study without significant risk to life and limb. It’s a well known fact that dwarves are particularly mentally unstable and subject a great many psychoses. One, as yet unproven, theory asserts that this tendency toward madness is actually a inborn limiting mechanism to control the number of dwarves occupying a certain area. It is a documented fact that, as a dwarven civilization grows in population the risk of insanity and depression also increases. Indeed it is impossible to walk into a thriving dwarven civilization and not see at least a handful of raving mad-dwarves screaming at the walls. The Theory asserts, however, that these harmless, though insane, individuals are not the purpose of the madness, merely a unforeseen failing. The true purpose of the madness is to limit population numbers through murder, suicide and random dwarfslaughter. Indeed it does seem that large dwarven civilizations are often brought down by internal subterfuge, mass suicide and ritual murder (or by poor architectural planning).

This inherent tendency toward insanity, whatever it’s cause, seems to have given dwarves an odd sense of art as well as particular building talents. Dwarves are known world over for their proficiency in metal working and weapon crafting as well as mechanical skill, however it is their decorative arts that are perhaps the most interesting. Take for instance a random piece of dwarven armor, a copper gauntlet in this case. It’s construction is of the highest order and it is menacing with iron spikes, however perhaps the most frightening thing is it’s decoration. Recreated in painstaking detail is an image of a horse. The horse is screaming. Often times things such as dining room walls and children’s toys are adorned with images of violent slaughter, terrible holocausts and the occasional giant mushroom. Its not known exactly why dwarves would decorate their homes in such manner, but the scenes of violence actually seem to stave off fits of madness and violence, perhaps acting in some sort of primitive cathartic manner. Or perhaps Dwarves just genuinely enjoy images of bloody dismemberment and triangles.

==='''"War. Peace and Fell moods"'''===

The Dwarven society is a complex and puzzling one, when compared to our relatively simple human society. Where as we seem to be guided mostly by instinct and desire, dwarves are driven by an entirely different kind of morals and ambitions. For instance, it is still completely unknown, even by the dwarves themselves, where their orders come from. Despite the existence of nobles within their society dwarves seem to act independently yet, paradoxically, also as a whole. For the non-informed imagine it like this. One dwarf may decide to mine out some stone, while another may decided to cut stone blocks and yet another may decide to assemble these blocks into a wall. These dwarves do these actions without the knowledge of what their fellow dwarves are doing and they seem only to do this on a whim. Theories of hivemindism abound, but perhaps the most interesting theory is that, in line with dwarven creation myth, the dwarves are being influenced and semi-puppeted by Armok, dwarven god of blood. However, these speculations remain simply blind guesses.

A brief glance at dwarven society reveals it to be something like Feudalism, with many settlements under the ultimate control of a Monarchy. However, in depth study reveals that the tiny fraction of nobles actually seem to have very little to do with anything outside of trade relations. The prevailing opinion of the dwarven working class is that nobles are slightly touched in the head and their orders border on delusional. Its common for nobles to attempt to restrict the trade of items that do not exist and often can not exist in a specific settlement; they’re also known for their strange obsessions over seemingly random objects and will demand their manufacture, much to the annoyance of the general masses. Some believe that nobles are simply dwarves which have some how escaped whatever force binds and orders the rest of the workers, leading them to be unreliable and mentally unsound without the external control. In this situation the Aristocracy is seen more as an aggravating and demanding elephant graveyard, a position that the worthless and potentially dangerous of dwarven society are “promoted” to in order to keep them away from weapons or heavy machinery.

The possible exceptions of this rule lie within the dwarven justice system, specifically with the sheriff and the Hammerer. Dwarven law is seemingly draconian in many ways, but is also rather progressive. Dwarves put a great emphasis on the lives of living creatures (so much so that they consider the killing of a tame, non-food animal equivalent to murder) and as such have no capital punishment. What they have instead though, could be said to be even worse. Dwarves have three forms of punishment: Imprisonment, beating and Hammering. The first two are relatively minor, with even the harshest of beatings generally resulting in only minor injuries, it is the final punishment which is the most feared. The Hammering is doled out by the Hammerer, the dwarven equivalent of an executioner who wields a war hammer rather then an ax or sword. Hammering is simply that, the condemned receives repeated blows with the war hammer until either the sentence is carried out or the criminal is dead. While death is not the express purpose of the hammering it is often a side effect, with the other outcome usually being serious, crippling injury. Unfortunately one of the crimes which can possibly net this debilitating consequence is that of failure to comply with work orders, meaning that innocent dwarves may have their heads caved in for their inability to make glass in the middle of a frozen tundra. Its not surprising that nobles tend to meet their ends under suspicious circumstances and are often found under mysterious cave ins or floating face down in the moat.

Despite their warrior mentalities and fierce personalities dwarves have shown themselves to be passive aggressive at best (and aggressively passive at worst). While they are known for their fighting ability and boastful nature they rarely conduct war as an invading force, preferring instead to let the foolhardy enemies break themselves upon a fortresses walls. A common dwarvish saying that of “The best place to insult your enemies is behind forty feet of stone.” Its not to say that the most famous dwarven conflicts were those between dwarves and other sentient beings, far from it in fact. Perhaps the greatest example of the, ahem, quirkiness of dwarven culture is that the grand fortress of Boatmurdered. Boatmurdered endured the normal hardships of a dwarven settlement, namely constant raids from goblins and an inherently unstable society, but there was one main difference: Elephants. It is, to this day, not known as to why the settlement was founded so close to the forest of “Tuskydeath”, but the outcome was nothing less then horrifying on all sides. For years the dwarves and elephants traded blows, usually resulting in the brutal impalement or trampling of dwarves or the imprisonment or death of the elephants. This conflict culminated in the creation of a “doomsday device” which was used to halt aggressive flooding as well as to flash boil most of the wildlife. Since the final fiery end of Boatmurdered a fragile truce seems to have been enacted between the elephants and the dwarves, if only to prevent such slaughter from ever occurring again.

Unfortunately one creature continues to be a continuous hazard to dwarven kind is that of carp. The official myth of the dwarves is that Armok created the carp out of river rocks and instructed them to mutilate random passersby. Regardless of their origin carp are considerably dangerous to dwarves, fisher dwarves in particular. Its not uncommon for fisher dwarves to be dragged into the river by swarms of these blood thirsty beasts. Some dwarves die as they are snatched off bridges or while gathering water and are never seen again, at least in one piece. Worse then river carp are the popularly named “death pool carp” or carp that have become trapped in murky pools. These pools are death traps and can be fatal to anything which wanders too close. Perhaps the most terrifying is the idea of what dwarves refer to (in hushed tones) as skeletal carp. These creatures are the remains of carp, animated through dark means, and are reported to be “faster then a beak dog and stronger then an orge” as well as nearly immune to any sort of conventional weapons. There are reports of hordes of these strangely animate corpses galloping across the bleak and blasted wastes, tearing apart anything which gets in their way. Exactly how a fish, undead or not, can gallop is something beyond this writer’s comprehension.

===The Book of Job(s)===

Dwarven culture is one dominated by toil and greed, leading most dwarves to be little more then glorified workhorses for the vast majority of their lives. It was once remarked of a dwarven miner that “there has never been a life as cruel or mercifully short as his”. In general dwarven labor is separated into two categories, crafting and hauling things about. For instance, a carpenter is considered a craftdwarf, as he creates useful objects from a raw material; a woodcutter is considered a hauler because his job consists mainly of chopping trees and lugging them around till he inevitably dies during some sort of animal attack. Almost known dwarven professions have been complied and documented here for the sake of…well, record keeping.

'''Mining:'''
The noble, humble and very crushable miner is a job of both great importance and great ineptitude. On one hand the lives and livelihoods of all other dwarves depend on their ability to carve away the mountain and protect their comrades from the harshness of outdoor living. On the other hand their only discernable skill is the ability to swing a pick and (usually) not get crushed by falling rocks (maybe). It should be noted that, though both the job and the worker are relatively simple, the work does tend to produce sculpted, muscular dwarves ripe for military usage. Let us not forget the tales of dwarven work camps being defended by Herculean miners, their massive arms bulging as they embed pickaxes into elven hearts and minds.

'''Wood Cutting:'''
The wood cutter is much like his miner counterpart: essential to many facets of the modern fortress and yet requiring the rough mental equivalency of a wagon wheel. However the wood cutter faces many more dangers in his line of work, from braving the horror of the wide open sky to battling the various forest creatures (sometimes including elven assassins). Unfortunately the woodcutter gains even less recognition then the miner, probably because the material he harvests only has a small set of uses within a well established fortress.

'''Carpentry:'''
Carpenters make various things out of wood, a practice that was deemed “Dangerously elf-like” many generations ago. Because of this carpenters are viewed either as outcasts (if they enjoy their job) or as unfortunate souls doing a terrible duty out of necessity (if they don’t like their job). While it is grudgingly acknowledged that some wooden things are necessary, at least early on, this does not mean that dwarves have to like this fact. In the grand scheme of things dwarves view carpentry as somewhere between manure shoveler and rapist on the scale of social agreeability.

'''Masonry:'''
A mason has a strange place within dwarven society. They’re generally seen as respectable by most, their job being one of the more useful and in demand; however they are also sometimes seen as heretical and dangerous. This belief stems from a common dwarven idea that the mountain and natural stone are all around better then anything that they or any of the other races could through together; as such it’s seen as rather impertinent that a mason would try to “improve” on the natural rock by making unnatural things out of it. However the groups that think this tend to be small fringe groups, many of which also believe that the masons are a world spanning cabal intent on taking over the world and then carving all the mountains into giant cheese statues.

'''Stone detailing/engraving'''
Engravers are an odd bunch, perhaps the most innately subversive group in any dwarven fortress. During times of relative calm they enjoy carving things like triangles and mushrooms, perhaps in an attempt to create some sort of weaponized boredom. However, in troubled times they delight in covering every flat surface in an endless array of disturbing images; its not uncommon for dwarven bedrooms to be adorned with mosaics of the inhabitant’s loved ones being gored by elephants or trampled by goats. Engravers are often described by their peers as “arseholes”.

'''Animal Training:'''
Despite the job title this dwarf seems to have the perplexing task of randomly releasing various terrifying animals from their cages and promptly getting mauled. It seems that occasionally they may accidentally domesticate one of these snarling beasts but this can probably be chalked up to chance.

'''Animal Care:'''
See Butcher

'''Health care:'''
See Burial

'''Fish Cleaning, small animal dissection, fish dissection;'''
Dwarves with any of these jobs seem rather unbalanced and are prone to fire starting and bed wetting. It’s advised that one should keep at least ten feet from them, for a variety of very good reasons, not the least of which being that they are coated in the internal fluids of untold house pets.

'''Butcher:'''
The butcher serves essentially the same purpose a human butcher does, though dwarven butchers seem to prefer battle axes to meat cleavers and enjoy their job a great deal more. While dwarves can live quiet healthily on a diet of Plump Helmets they are renown for their delight in all manners of carnivorousness and as such the Butcher is seen as a welcome friend, a bloody and wide eyed bartender. The difference here is that the drinks are undercooked and made from cats.

'''Leatherworking:'''
Dwarves have a code of morals surrounding animals that is strangely familiar. They abhor the torture or mistreatment of their furry companions but seem to have no problem slaughtering, skinning, and eating them wholesale as long as it’s done in a specific manner. This means that there is often a vast amount of usable leather from various beasts and house pets just laying around the fortress, making leatherworking a stable job in deed. Dwarves seem to possess a strange affinity for elf leather products, perhaps a hold over from the leather thong of their great forefather the Mountain King.

'''Tanning'''
This is the middle man between pet and sock, the great equalizer of life and upholstery. The tanner has the glorious job of taking the semi-rotten skin of various animals (and occasionally people) and transforming it into fine leather to be used as a raw material. It’s unknown how dwarfs go about this process, as the human method of tanning requires large tracts of time, various foul chemicals and generally produces an odor that is noticeable for miles. The dwarven Tanneries are, by comparison, tiny workshops often located next to living quarters or even within kitchens. When questioned about this perplexity dwarven tanners whistle and attempt to look uninterested

'''Farming:'''
Dwarven farming takes two paths, the normal aboveground farming which we are familiar with and more exotic underground growing. Dwarves seem to prefer the act of farming underground, even if they occasionally delight in the exotic brews made possible by above ground plants. Beyond the dwarven nutritional staple of booze the farms serve a lesser purpose of producing food and raw materials. Dwarves seem unconcerned about what they eat in most cases and can easily live out their lives subsisting on a diet of Dwarven wine, plump helmet and the occasional side of cat meat; This leads to an overwhelming majority of plump helmet farms which in turn leads a dwarven farm to resemble a scene from Alice in wonderland, albeit a dark, dank, vomit reeking wonderland populated by manic-depressive midgets.

'''Fishing:'''
Depending on the area the job of a fisherdwarf can either be a luxury or a death sentence. In most areas the work of a fisherdwarf is dangerous only because of its need to be outside, amongst wild animals and horrible sky. However if carp are involved this normally menial job becomes a game of roulette, with every moment being just another chance to die. From the few historical carvings we have we know that the dwarves once had a 4th punishment, in addition to their current triad of prison, pummeling, and pounding; this fourth punishment entailed forcing the condemned to fish in a carp infested river till he was finally set upon by the beasts. This punishment was eventually banned, partially because it was deemed too cruel and partially because it tended to have a mortality rate of 4 or 5 rather then the intended 1 as guards and spectators were also dragged to their fishy end.

'''Soap Making'''
Strange does not begin to describe this particular labor, The strangeness of it stems from the fact that dwarves are seemingly incapable of using soap for it’s intended washing purposes, choosing instead to stacking it about or simply trade it away. The soap maker himself seems perplexed by his creation yet continues to make it. Various men have tried to instruct the dwarves in the use of their creation however they remain seemingly mentally blocked from comprehending it’s purpose. However men have also tried to teach the dwarves the meaning of being on fire and were equally unsuccessful, so perhaps there is simply some sort of cognitive dissonance involved.

'''Furnace operation:'''
There is a saying which goes “When a dwarf and fire are wed, the former will inevitably end up dead.” This, above all else, accurately describes the dwarven relationship with things hotter then body temperature. As such it’s surprising that furnace operation is such a safe job, indeed there are no reports of fatalities directly relating to the furnace operator’s job (unless being caught in a cave in counts). How this record is maintained appears to be a complete mystery to all involved, including the Operators themselves. However, since it seems to take the average Operator something like a week to do even the simplest of tasks one could surmise that the record is the result of extreme safety measures or simple cowardice.

'''Wood Burning:'''
Wood burners lead a charmed life, revered as heroes for their use of fire to destroy the scourge that is aboveground nature, yet constantly hunted by elven assassins for the same reason. Wood burners are often local celebrities and are the pride of a fortress but the position is rarely volunteered for. The elves, in their endless attempts to destroy dwarven values, have singled wood burners out for death. The term of a Wood burner is usually ended when he his found face down with an oak arrow embedded in his spine.

'''Lye and Potash making:'''
This labor includes letting ash float in water and then letting that water dry out (maybe). It also includes setting one’s hair on fire in a desperate attempt to liven up one’s bleak, ashy existence.

'''Weaponsmithing:'''
The act of making a hammer with another hammer, creating the paradox of “where did the first hammer come from?” Weaponsmiths are often hulking brutes of considerable strength, perhaps second only to dwarven accountants in sheer muscle mass. Their job mainly consists of lifting something heavy and smacking it against something hot till something sharp is made. They are considered the backbone of the army, both for their skill in weapon creation and for their general propensity to cave in goblin skulls with their hammers.

'''Armoring:'''
The rival of weaponsmithing, it’s not uncommon for interfortress arms races to pop up as weaponsmiths and armors compete to one up each other. (in this case however I’m referring to the ancient dwarven tradition of “arms races” in which the participants drag themselves around the fortress using only one arm.)

'''Blacksmithing and metal crafting:'''
The work that doesn’t fall into either armoring or weaponsmithing is relegated to the humble blacksmith. The Metalsmith makes the much more mundane objects needed by the fortress, including cups which no one uses and coins that generally have no value.

'''Gem cutting and setting'''
Gem cutters are the jewelers of the dwarven world and are known for their flamboyant nature and sequin cloaks. They are often found, prancing about the tunnels with small hammers, gathering the raw material for their labor before returning to the shop to gently chisel away. While not a particularly proud part of the fortress gem cutters are tolerated for the vast wealth they bring in. Curiously they’re all named Shirley. Gem setters are a fair bit more dignified, even if their casual attire is a jewel encrusted codpiece.

'''Bonecarving:'''
A habit most pick up in jail is actually a time honored tradition within dwarven society. It’s well known that dwarves prefer to use just about every part of an animal (not because of any sort of ethical ideal, but because it increases profit) and that they have a vicious sense of ironic humor; as such the act of turning elephant bones into arrows with which to shoot more elephants is seen not only as cost effective but as a genocidal good time.

'''Stonecrafting:'''
One thing that dwarven society is never short of is spare rocks and it is the stoneworker’s job to turn all this useless debris into equally useless trade goods. Some of the strangest things a stonecrafter can make are stone musical instruments. How exactly one is expected to play a stone harp is lost on this author.

'''Woodcrafting:'''
Like carpenters, woodcrafters are often the object of ridicule and anger. They do, however, have one talent which brings them some social standing: the ability to make wood bolts for crossbows. As mentioned before dwarves have a love of poetic justice and as such greatly enjoy killing elves with wooden arrows. A famous dwarven general once said of a particular conflict with the elves: “They demanded to know what we had done with all their precious trees. So our archers showed them.”

'''Glassmaking:'''
Dwarves have a perilous relationship with glass. On one hand it’s fragile, a quality dwarves detest. On the other it’s shiny and involves fire in it’s creation, both qualities which they love. Regardless of their opinions on the substance glass tends to have few if any practical uses within a fortress, being that windows aren’t exactly a necessity a mile beneath the earth. Much like the stonecrafter the glass maker seems to focus his efforts on building things like Goblets which dwarves never use and toys which will invariably shatter into some child’s hands and eyes. However, unlike the stonecrafter, the glassmaker’s raw material is time and resource consuming to create. This leads to the common impression that dwarven glassmakers are insane.

'''Siege Engineering and operation:'''
Merchants of death on a grand scale, Siege engineers create the dwarven weapons of mass destruction: the ballista and the catapult. Regarded as talented though a bit off, as they tend to test their wares on migrants and unsuspecting wildlife, much to their own delight.

'''Mechanics:'''
The dwarven mechanic is usually considered one of the most intelligent of dwarven society, capable of constructing everything from power generators to deadly traps. Oddly enough they require only one type of mechanism to do this, though the number of these mechanisms varies from machine to machine. Humans have for years tried to discover the method by which such complex apparatuses can be constructed with only 2-3 parts and have in-so-far been unsuccessful. Another mystery is the way in which mechanics can mechanically connect two objects, even across massive distances, with only two of these mechanisms. When we questioned a dwarven mechanic by the name of Hertz about this seemingly impossible phenomenon he merely shrugged and replied “Ich habe keine Idee, aber es ist recht interessant.”

'''Weaving:'''
While the task of weaving is usually relegated to the women of other races dwarves hold no such sexist policies. Instead they have much more dangerous policies, like capturing enormous spiders and feeding them a constant diet of crippled goblins in order to harvest the spider’s web for high value silk production. It should be noted that the dwarves also do not discriminate who to feed to said spider based on sex, race or age; in other words it’s equal opportunity murder all around.

'''Dyeing'''
A favorite activity of dwarves, especially those near volcanoes or cliffs.

'''Clothes making:'''
Dwarves are a simple race when it comes to clothing, many wear and in fact prefer to wear simple clothing. Of course this simple clothing invariably degenerates into rags prompting the creation of new clothing. After all, spending is better then mending. Counter intuitively though the post as clothier is rarely filled, meaning that the demand for new clothing often goes unanswered. When asked why so few are willing to become a clothier most dwarves will simply scream and run, while the few braver souls will recount stories of horrible carnage and destruction. It is believed, after careful study, that the loom is actually a distant cousin of the Wagon; however, unlike the wagon, the loom is capable of moving of its own accord. Loss of life and limb is rife.

'''Milling:'''
Dwarves tend to do this when they should otherwise be working.

'''Hunting:'''
In theory this is the practice of bludgeoning, stabbing or shooting various wildlife to death in order to use their carcass as food or raw materials. In reality it’s the practice of wandering into the forest, getting trampled or gored and then dragging one’s crippled self back to the fortress where one then occupies a bed for the rest of one’s natural born life.

'''Brewing:'''
Brewers a loved above all others in their community and in the cases of exceptional brewers almost worshipped. A master brewer will often have a harem of comely young women (or nubile young boys) along with substantial treasure and fame. However a brewer who disgraces the practice by brewing sub-par drinks will be ridiculed and despised, or in some extreme cases publicly lynched. It should be noted that many of the aforementioned actions and decisions happen while the participants are extremely inebriated on said brewers beer. This has lead to the adage “Madder then a Dwarf on Sewer Brew”

'''Plant gathering:'''
The act of tearing various plants out of the ground for various purposes, the favorite of which is “just to annoy the blasted elves”.

'''Milking:'''
Dwarves are quiet odd in their choice of which animal to milk. While all manner of mammals are available to dwarves, including the cow, camel, ox and goat, dwarves instead choose a insect as their only source of milk. Beyond this they chose a maggot that many dwarves find detestable and that can only be milked one a season. When asked why they would do something so counter intuitive most dwarves look embarrassed and attempt to change the subject.

'''Cheese making:'''
Because milk is a rather rare commodity in dwarven society, for aforementioned reasons, the prospect of cheese is rather dubious. Because of this dwarven cheese is actually extremely valuable, equal to dragon meat. This author wonders if the choice of “Dwarven” cheese rather then “purring maggot” cheese has something to do with this, though dwarven cheese implies rather disturbing things in and of itself.

'''Cooking:'''
Dwarven cooks are only grudgingly excepted into society, mainly because they are seen as an unnecessary step between the raw meat of the butcher and a potential meal. The dwarves are not particularly unreasonable in this either as it is a well documented fact that dwarven cooks do not, in fact, cook anything. Raw meat, plant products and Minced wine are simply mixed together to create “roasts” and “biscuits”. While these names may sound appetizing the reality of the matter is that they are gelatinous masses of grayish moist unhappiness. While many outsiders think that the miasma found around kitchens is the result of rotting food it is actually the result of the cooking itself.

'''Trapping:'''
Imagine, if you will, a great and grizzled mountain man with a long flowing beard and eyes shining like two great lumps of coal. Imagine this man holding a bear trap. Imagine this man chasing a mouse with this bear trap. This is the basic scenario of dwarven Trapping.

'''Architecture'''
The dwarven architect is often uneducated and inexperienced, sometimes picked simply because he is the closest to the current construction job. Thus thrust into his new position the unfortunate victim usually fails terribly, often ending in the deaths of several masons and the stranding of many more. In order to avoid embarrassment the project foreman has the architect jailed and supposedly executed. However, rather then actually executing him the foreman simply gives the victim a false beard to wear over his real one and then reintroduces him into society. By the end of his life time the average dwarf is reported to be wearing no fewer then 3 false beards over his real one.

{{Game_Data|[CREATURE:DWARF]
[NAME:dwarf:dwarves:dwarven]
[TILE:1][COLOR:3:0:0]
[GENPOWER:3]
[INTELLIGENT]
[TRANCES]
[BENIGN]
[CANOPENDOORS]
[PREFSTRING:beards]
[BODY:HUMANOID:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:HUMANOID_JOINTS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:5FINGERS:5TOES:MOUTH]
[STOUT]
[MAXAGE:150:170]
[ATTACK:MAIN:BYTYPE:GRASP:punch:punches:1:2:BLUDGEON][ATTACKFLAG_WITH]
[ATTACK:SECOND:BYTYPE:MOUTH:bite:bites:1:1:GORE][ATTACKFLAG_CANLATCH]
[CHILD:12][BABY:1][MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE]
[DAMBLOCK:1]
[FAT:3]
[SIZE:6]
[EQUIPS]
[CAVE_ADAPT]
[DIURNAL]
[CRAFTSMAN_NAME:craftsdwarf:craftsdwarves]
[FISHERMAN_NAME:fisherdwarf:fisherdwarves]
[HAMMERMAN_NAME:hammerdwarf:hammerdwarves]
[SPEARMAN_NAME:speardwarf:speardwarves]
[CROSSBOWMAN_NAME:marksdwarf:marksdwarves]
[AXEMAN_NAME:axedwarf:axedwarves]
[SWORDSMAN_NAME:swordsdwarf:swordsdwarves]
[MACEMAN_NAME:macedwarf:macedwarves]
[PIKEMAN_NAME:pikedwarf:pikedwarves]
[BOWMAN_NAME:bowdwarf:bowdwarves]
[SPEECH:dwarf.txt]
[STANDARD_FLESH]
[HOMEOTHERM:10067]
[LAYERING:50]
[ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT]
[SWIMS_LEARNED][SWIM_SPEED:2500]
[PERSONALITY:IMMODERATION:0:55:100]
[PERSONALITY:VULNERABILITY:0:45:100]
[PERSONALITY:STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS:0:55:100]
}}
{{creatures}}
[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Races]]
[[Category:Humanoids]]

40d:Adventurer mode

2009-08-13T18:50:54Z

Piecewise: /* Dealing with wounds */

In '''adventurer mode''', you pick a race ([[dwarf]], [[human]], or [[elf]]) and start out in either a [[Site|town]] of your race or in a previous [[fortress]] you played on. You can receive [[quest]]s, venture into the wilderness to find [[caves]], abandoned towers and other [[Site|villages]]. You can even visit your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] and find whatever riches were left to be guarded by the [[creatures]] that sealed the fate of your [[fortress]].

The user interface differs somewhat from [[fortress mode]]; you may want to refer to the [[Adventure Mode quick reference|quick reference]] guide, or examine the detailed [[controls]] page. [[Site map]] may also prove useful.

== Your first adventure ==

=== Picking a race ===
When it comes to picking a race, there is difference in [[skills]]. [[Dwarves]] cannot wear [[human]] sized [[armor]], and are somewhat limited in the [[weapons]] they can wield due to their size. [[Elves]] have a slightly different set of [[skills]]. [[Humans]] are generally fairly well-balanced, and are the easiest to acquire quests from. Each race fares differently in combat; you may wish to look at the races' pages for the finer details.

=== Choosing skills ===
Basically, if you want to start with a [[weapon]], you need to avoid having the most points spent in unarmored/[[wrestling]]. If you, for example, choose to start out with most points in [[swordsman]], you will start out with a [[sword]]. When you have chosen your preferred set of [[skills]], you can press {{key|Enter}} to embark. The higher the [[skills]] in [[weapons]]/[[armor]] determine the quality of the equipment you start out with.

All the [[skills]] you see CAN be improved through use in game, so don’t worry about spreading them out completely evenly. In general, pick the [[skills]] you think you’re going to use. The [[skills]] are pretty self explanatory but its recommended that you put at least a few points into [[shield]] / [[armor]] and into a type of weapon. Be warned that [[weapon]] [[skills]] generally take a while to level up, so placing a good deal of points into a singe weapon may be to your advantage. Also keep in mind that your skills determine what kind of equipment you have in the beginning, ie high sword skill means you’ll start with a sword. For information on the weapons and the other aspects of combat, please check the combat section. It might also be a good idea to use a point or two for swiming, otherwise you might end up drowning in a puddle.

=== Setting out ===
If you chose human, you will start out inside the Mead hall. You will see the Mayor (purple) as well as the occational townsperson. Press {{key|k}} and talk to the Mayor. Press 'services' for a [[quest]]. You can talk to the Citizens and recruit them to your party for some additional combat aid if they feel like it (note, people with no combat skills are unlikely to follow you, and the major and town guards never will.) If you choose dwarf, you start out in a region just outside the entrance to a given fortress. There is a [[mayor]] or the [[king]] himself inside the fortress.

Be sure to read the [[Adventure Mode quick reference]] or use the help files for more information on the commands in Adventure mode.

=== Survival ===
Congratulations, you’ve created a character and are now about to embark on your fantastic adventure! For now, lets focus on the bare bones of staying alive shall we? First things first, you need food and water. If you’re a human you start with some, but baring that you may need to find a waterskin. These can be bought in human towns, specifically at the shop. DO NOT STEAL THESE OR ANYTHING ELSE. Do not pick anything up and walk outside the store before you trade for it. Why? Because you are currently weak and your neck is currently arrow bait. After getting the water skin, simply find a water source and hit (Shift+I) to interact with the object. Press the letter of the Water skin and you should be able to fill it from the water source. After it’s full press (e)to open the Eat menu and select the water. Food can be acquired from stores eaten in the same way.

Now that you know how to work your mouth we can move on to miscellaneous tips for survival. Firstly, you are very tasty and chances are (unless you’re an elf) the wildlife will soon be attempting to eat your face. A bear or cougar isn’t too much of a problem because there’s only one, the real problem will be wolf packs.
A single wolf is easy to dispatch, but a dozen or so can prove very problematic indeed. Beware large packs until you’ve gained a little experience. Secondly, do not piss off the towns folk, as they tend to have guards. Lastly, beware of taking quests or attempting things before you’re ready, as you will more then likely have tons of [[fun]]
=== Civilization? ===
Elves live out in the forest, literally. Although defined to specific regions on the map, they have no structural wealth whatsoever. Some trees are named.

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road. Human villages are highly modular. The small 5x5 buildings are citizen houses and are marked with an "H" on the town auto-map. Medium buildings are stores, marked with a symbol that indicates what they sell - food, weapons, clothing, and two kinds of trinkets (incidentally, armor and clothing is sold in the same building). As of the current version, you start in the mead hall which is marked with an "M" on the automap. There are one or two apartment buildings buildings which are two stories, with six rooms a story; they are also marked with an "H." There are two really large buildings - the "T"emple and the a fort-like building that is marked with "K." Temples tend to have two or three levels, and a pool of water, while the "K" buildings are three or four floors high and are almost entirely empty (they will occationally contain random smatterings of clothing though, if you're looking for things to sell.)

Dwarves live underground. Their entrances are large square pits with stairs around the perimeter, and a row of leading down into the fortress halls at the bottom. The main halls are wide and have pillars near the walls, long and occasionally turn corners. Different levels in the fortress are marked by a row of ramps with two pillars on the side (walk towards the side of the ramp that has the pillars) and, although the number of floors in a fortress can vary, they are usually little and only become deep if the lay of the land above is variable. There are one 1-tale wide hallways, empty rooms, and scant Dwarves in these pre-fab fortresses. It's obvious the computer is playing a completely different game than you are in [[Fortress Mode]]!

Goblins live in [[obsidian]] towers, usually found built in twos, though they both don't necessarily have to be built up. One could be a "tower," one could be an over-glorified "basement." There is probably a temple nearby, completely similar to human temples. Goblin towers have tight 1-wide hallways, spacious and empty rooms, and strange hall extensions that end in remote cross-like dead-ends. Like dwarf fortresses, there is rarely anything in a Goblin tower asides from Goblins, and they have a strange tendency not to attack non-Goblin visitors. They seem to have lots of children.

You may come across what the map defines as a "Goblin" city that is actually populated by Humans or Dwarves living in or around the towers.

=== Trading ===
In towns you can find merchants inside some [[buildings]]. Talk to them to trade with them. After buying an item, you must pick it up manually from somewhere in the shop. {{K|l}}ook around for an item without $ signs around it.

==== Selling ====
You can also sell things to traders. Bones, corpses, body parts and rocks are not valuable, no matter how attached you are to a particularly aerodynamic kobold head. Small creatures discovered while {{k|L}}ooking Carefully may be worth a small amount of money. In order to sell or buy items, stand adjacent to the shopkeeper in his store, and {{k|k}}onverse with the shopkeeper. Select "Trade" and press {{k|enter}} to open the trade window.

Select each non-worthless item you wish to sell, and then set a price using the following format{{verify}}:
* {{k|a}} asking for 9000☼
* {{k|s}} +100☼
* {{k|d}} +10☼
* {{k|f}} +1☼
* {{k|g}} reset to 0☼
* {{k|h}} -1☼ (offering)
* {{k|j}} -10☼
* {{k|k}} -100☼
* {{k|l}} offer 9000☼

The use of these keys may seem non-intuitive, and this is further complicated by the limit on your available offers by your current financial health.

Shopkeepers are used to adventurers with inflated ideas about the value of their goods, so it may be simplest to ask for 9000☼ for your goods, or offer 1☼ for theirs and suggest a {{k|t}}rade. The shopkeeper will counteroffer with the actual value of the goods, and will be quite delighted to accept a {{k|t}}rade at the price they've just quoted to you. You can then purchase things with your store credit. After the trade sessions, the balance of your coins will appear on a small table next to a chest.

[[Category:Adventurer mode]]

====Theft====
You may also pick up the item before buying it, but you should never walk out of a shop carrying an unbought item, as that is theft. It is punishable by death if you are caught, and excommunication if you are not. On any occasion when you have stolen goods from a store, ie goods bounded by the $$ signs, the game requires you to exit the site ''and'' travel a considerable distance before allowing you to travel. This may make a getaway more difficult if your adventurer is not already faster than anyone else. This only applies to goods in stores; killing townsfolk and taking their personal things, including those of the shopkeep still only requires exiting the site. The moment you are out of sight, you will be able to warp out as usual. Theft and murder remain within entities; even depopulating one country and stealing all its things will not generate ill response in another country.

====Managing coins====
Coins can and will encumber your adventurer, eventually reducing your speed. To reduce that effect you can try to exchange your copper and silver coins for gold ones. To do that you can purchase goods from a merchant to the sum of your copper coins, then sell them back. Check the merchant's chest to see how much gold and silver coins they have. You can delay the problem by selling your loot to many merchants, as they will try to pay you in higher denomination currency first.

A few goods are strictly superior to all forms of coinage as a store of value, most commonly giant cave spider silk items. A suitably sneaky (or powerful) adventurer can murder a few dwarves for such items for trade and sale for human goods. Giant cave spider silk is a non-renewable resource in a given world. Please harvest sustainably.

=== Equipping your adventurer ===
After acquiring [[armor]] from one source or another, you'll most likely want to equip it. To do this, first make sure it is in your possession--not on the ground. You can then {{key|w}}ear it, granted you don't already have too much on that equipment slot already. You can {{key|r}}emove or {{key|d}}rop inferior equipment as necessary.

[[Weapons]] and [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shields]] are handled differently. There is no explicit equipment command. Instead, they are automatically equipped when you either {{k|g}}et them from the ground or {{k|r}}emove them from your [[backpack]] - provided the hand that would wield them is free. So in order to change [[weapons]] or [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|Shields]] you would need to {{k|p}}ut your equipped weapon into your [[backpack]] and then {{k|r}}emoving your new desired weapon. You do not need to drop weapons and equip new ones etc. Simply remember the {{k|r}}emove command and the {{k|p}}ut into container command.

It should be noted that the world of DF seems to have a lot of left handers, so do not be surprised if your character holds the weapon with the left hand and the [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shield]] with the right hand.

== Traveling the world ==

=== How-to ===
You can walk around the whole world tile by tile if you wish, but given the size of the world, you might want to consider using another method. Pressing {{key|T}} will let see a very zoomed out map of the surrounding area. Moving about on this map is much faster, as well as it heals your adventurer, keeps him from starving, dehydrating, or getting tired. To exit this screen and explore the area you've reached, press {{k|>}}.

If there is more than one feature such as a [[Site|town]] or group of [[creatures]] on that map tile you will get to choose which one you want to arrive near.

Also while traveling on the world map, there is a chance that your adventurer can get randomly ambushed by enemies. When that happens, you must survive by either fighting them off or hide from them.

Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]] is not normally advisable; however, it is possible to do so by holding {{key|Alt}} while pressing the appropriate movement key. Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]], depending on how high you jumped, will most of the time cover your eyes in blood, which lessens visuals.

=== Finding quest locations ===
After receiving a [[quest]], you will be able to track its location using the {{key|Q}}uest log. Initially it will just give you the location on the {{key|T}}ravel map, though a lesser-known feature is its use in finding the cave entry (or other such target) once you're already in the [[Site map|local map]]. Bring up the quest log again, highlight the quest objective you're after, and {{key|z}}oom to it. It should then provide you with a local map of your current area, complete with a 3x3 box of flashing squares. This box indicates the general location of the cave's mouth. You'll still have to do some searching, but at least it's narrowed down for you. You can bring up this map at any time that you're in the local area of a quest objective.

The compass on the left of the screen will also greatly help you in finding the entrance; the direction indicated should place you within one screen's distance of the entrance before it turns into "---".

=== Visiting abandoned fortresses ===
If you start an adventure in a world with one or more abandoned [[Fortress|fortresses]], you can take your adventurer to see the sites of your previous endeavors. When you find one of your old [[Fortress|fortresses]], you will find that everything is a mess. Items are scattered about, things are smashed up and there are probably new hostile inhabitants that you will need to fend off. Visiting your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] might prove to be rewarding, since you can find [[armor]] and [[weapons]] you made (if you made any). The best thing to be found in your [[fortress]] would probably be any left behind [[Legendary artifact|artifact]] [[weapon]] or [[armor]]. This is also probably the best (and only?) way to get [[Legendary artifact|artifact-quality]] [[weapons]] and [[armor]].

Also remember to check out any [[Engraving#Engravings|engravings]] you made while in [[fortress mode]]. When checking out [[Engraving#Engravings|engravings]] in adventure mode, they reveal a lot more specific information about the event that is engraved.

=== Combat ===
== The Weapons ==
Weapons are basically divided into ax, sword, spear, pike, mace, whip, bow and hammer, with various versions of these taking up the gray area. Swords are your jack of all trades weapon, doing reasonable slashing damage. They come in short, long and two handed varieties, with the two handed doing the most damage and the short doing the least. Axes are similar to swords and do slashing damage as well. They come in 3 types, battle ax, great ax and halberd. The battle ax does slightly less damage then the long sword while the halberd does the same damage as a two-handed sword. The Great ax is generally too large to use, but it does slightly more then the halberd in damage. The spear does piercing damage and is ideal for damaging internal organs and causing heavy bleeding and unconsciousness. It has no variations. The spear is much more likely to become stuck in its target, which can be a great benefit if used right and a curse if not. The Pike is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a spear. The mace and the hammer are generally the same thing, simply a big metal thing to club your enemies over the head. As expected, they do high damage but their bludgeoning attacks tend to be slower and less effective , if more hilarious, ways to dispatch your foes. The Maul, a hammer, is the highest damaging weapon in the game. The last weapon is the whip, which does gore damage. Its relatively weak but has its uses. The bow throws arrows, which act as tiny spears. Basically, a bow and crossbow is like having a very slow, long range spear.

== Weapon Tactics ==
Sword: Once again, your general fall back weapon. It’s good against almost everything, if not being that great against almost anything. Works well against both living and non-living enemies as it actively dismembers them.

Ax: Pretty much the same as a sword, though some people believe it hacks off limbs more commonly. Good against organics, acceptable against anything else.

Spear/Pike: Ok, here’s where we get a little bit more advanced. The spear is most effective against organic creatures because of two abilities, pierce damage and stick ins. Piercing damage does major harm to internal organs, causing pain, bleeding, vomiting, unconsciousness and death. Stick-ins are when the weapon becomes stuck in the target, allowing it to be twisted. Twisting increases bleeding and causes extreme pain. Because of these two factors spears and pikes are ideal for single combat against organic targets. The are less effective against multiple enemies (because of the stick-ins lowering kill-to-turn ratios) and are even less effective against non-organic enemies (ie bronze colossus).

Mace/hammer: These weapons rely on their ability to turn your opponent into a tasty pulp through repeated wacking. They break bones and bruise flesh, meaning that aside from a critical hit they generally are less likely to mortal wounds quickly. They are great for crippling organics and non-organics alike, but when it comes to a swift, efficient death they are generally less then perfect. The exception to this is high strength and mace/hammer skill which allows for instant head crushing.

Whip: The whip uses gore damage, which is similar to a cross between slash and pierce. It can cut off limbs but is more likely to slice up organs and cause extreme pain and bleeding. A few hits will generally render an opponent unconscious and perhaps even badly injured enough to eventually bleed to death. However, the whip is a slow outright killer, sometimes needing dozens of blows to actually finish its target.

Bow (and arrows): Arrows are much like spears, because of their piercing damage and all the benefits it has. The benefits it has however are its range and its ability to target multiple enemies. They are most effective against organic targets. You, unfortunately, are organic, which makes archers one of your biggest problems.

== Non-weapon tactics ==

Besides your weapons you have two other major forms of attack: Wrestling and throwing.

Wrestling: Wrestling can be preformed by standing next to an enemy and pressing (Shift+a) and then (enter) to switch to wrestling. You can wrestle any enemy, however things such as wolves, bears and big cats do not allow you to perform the more advanced moves. After catching hold of a body part you can perform a lock, which allows you to further sprain, break or cripple an opponent. With a free hand you can perform even more advanced moves, such as gouging out eyes or stealing weapons. To gouge eyes grab a head with an open hand, to steal a weapon, grab the weapon and then check your inventory with (Shift+I). press the button corresponding to the weapon and then press a to gain possession of it.

One of the best tactics for fighting high level weapon masters is to either break his weapon hand or to steal his weapon, essentially making him no more dangerous then a normal peasant.

Throwing: Throwing is the skill of…well basically throwing shit. And vomit. And bugs and spears and rocks so on. Just about anything can be thrown, sometimes with devastating results. While it seems like weapons (and arrows) tend to be more reliable in their damage causing abilities when thrown, just about anything can potentially be lethal. Picking up a worm and hucking it right through a dragon’s skull is not only possible, but has been done on multiple occasions. A warrior with a high throw skill is often times more dangerous with an arrow then a trained archer is.

=== Wounds ===
You or your enemy are going to get hurt in the course of your adventures and its pretty useful to know exactly what’s happening when you are. Here’s a quick guide to the various aspects of wounds.

== Wound indicators ==
Wounds come in several colors and are indicated on the status screen (press z to see your own status screen while pressing (l) to look at your enemy’s). The status screen will list your body parts in different colors to indicate how damaged they are.
White-unhurt and feeling fine

Light gray-slightly damaged, think a nasty scrape or cut.

Brownish yellow-moderately damaged, such as a mild sprain or the like

Yellow-Broken. Applied to joints it means literally broken, while applied to upper and lower body it generally means organ damage.

Red-Badly damaged. If you got this then chances are you’re in bad shape. Severely broken bones or ruptured organs. If this status is effecting anything even remotely vital you’re more then likely on your way to the grave.

Gray-lopped off or cut out. This is when you completely lose a body part. Effects include massive pain and bleeding along with ruining your promising juggling career.

== Wound effects ==
Hands-damage to the fingers or wrists can cause you to drop your held items, but usually only with yellow level damage. Losing a hand entirely gives you a serious handicap, which will more then likely lead to fun in the future.

Feet-Causes slowed movement and falling. If removed can cause permanent slowed movement. Removing both can cause a continuous on ground effect.

Legs-similar to feet, though often has increased bleeding and pain effects. Loss of one will usually result in death by bleed out. Even if you survive you’re more then likely on your way to death. Severed legs do make a lovely club though.

Arms- Damage to almost any part of the arm can cause items to be dropped. Loss of an arm is perhaps even worse then the loss of a leg, due to the loss of weapon and wrestling capabilities. Loss of both arms is both tragic and hilarious.

Head-Contains the brain, ears, mouth, nose, eyes and throat. Ears, nose and mouth are officially useless and can be cut off in an effort to appear cool. The brain, eyes and throat are however less disposable. Damage to the eyes results in loss of vision, permanent if the eyes are removed, and terrible pain. Its usually not possible to bleed to death from the loss of the eyes though. The throat is highly sensitive and damage causes both extreme bleeding and suffocation effects. The brain is the most important thing you’ve got and damage to it is an almost instant death. Any wound it receives will more then likely cause instant unconsciousness and severe bleeding.

Upper body. Contains the heart, lungs, upper spine and liver and kidneys. Both the kidneys and liver have similar effects, namely heavy bleeding and pain upon injury. The spine causes nervous system damage, which can have several, sometimes permanent effects. The lungs control breathing, so piercing them can cause suffocation. The heart is the main organ of the circulatory system and damage to it is almost always fatal through bleeding.

Lower body: Contains various organs like the stomach and spleen, all of which have the same effect of bleeding, pain and nausea. Nausea leads to vomiting, which make the wounded creature unable to attack. There is also the lower spine which has similar effects to the upper spine.

== Attack types and their wounds ==
Pierce-dangerous to organic creatures, you included. Often times objects with the pierce effect will become lodged in their target. Removing the weapon from its lodged position causes both increased pain and bleeding but often times can alleviate certain symptoms the piercing has caused.

Bludgeon: Breaks bones and cripples joints. Generally less dangerous to the internal organs then other damage. The danger comes from its ability to incapacitate you and then turn your head to mush.

Slash: Dangerous for its ability to sever limbs and cause bleeding. Beware its habit of decapitation.

Gore: Shreds internal organs, causing all sorts of nasty side effects. Almost worthless on non-organic enemies but can cause severe problems for you living sorts.

== Dealing with wounds ==
In adventure mode your wounds will heal if you travel (shift + t) and they’ll recover just about anything except a lopped off limb. If you can’t travel the best thing to do is try and run from battle if you’re badly wounded, since running will give you time to stop bleeding and suppress the pain. Beware dropping your weapon and make sure to pick it up before you make a run for it. If an arrow strikes you in the chest its best to leave it there while an arrow to the extremities can be removed.

=== <s>Living Shields</s> Companions ===

If you recruit some new members to your party, you'll not only gain extra damage output, you'll also have someone else to take the damage instead of you!

When you first start out, the easiest <s>human shields</s> friends to recruit are the drunks. They are found in human towns inside the [[tavern]] with the [[Mayor]] (the building you start in if you play a human). They will gladly come with you and block some blows for you. Drunks will usually attempt low-skill [[wrestling]] and (mostly) damage-less punches. Don't expect them to last long when you meet that [[Giant]] you are supposed to kill. Drunks are much rarer in the current version of the game, so it's unlikely that you'll find one.

To recruit someone into your party, press tal{{k|k}}, move the cursor over them, and press {{k|enter}}. Then in the conversation that follows, simply pick 'Join' from the list of options to ask them to accompany you. [[Children]], the Mayor, and [[Guard]]s don't want any part of this silly adventuring malarkey, but the occasional peasant will be bored enough to join you.

More detailed searches of towns of various races can yield other adventurers with some actual skills. The generally have a single weapon skill ([[Maceman]], [[Swordsman]], [[Spearman]] and so on) and some armor appropriate to the wealth of the town they were occupying. You will also find Guards around towns, and while they are combat-capable they will not shirk their duty in order to accompany you on your adventures.

Some otherwise eligible companions may rebuff your offer of becoming a living shield for one of the following reasons:

If the prospective meat shield considers himself more skilled than you are, he may rebuff you with, "Ha! Such enthusiasm from one such as yourself."
This can be remedied by training your skills until he judges you a bit more skillful than he is.

Another reason for someone to refuse to die protecting you is that you already have the maximum of 12 companions, and they will rebuff you by asking, "With a band so large, what share of the glory would I have?"
But look at it this way, at least your total party size is 13 when you count yourself! Now that's lucky!

Another possiblity is to asked your old, retired adventurers for help. They'll never say no unless your party is too big and they should be pretty capible since you trained them.

==== The Perils of the Wild ====
You’ll face many creatures on your travels, several mega and semi-mega bests included if you’re taking quests. Heres a quick look at the more dangerous beasts (sentient or not) that you’ll meet.

== The Mega and Semi-mega beasts and the sentient races ==

Bronze Colossus: Probably one of the hardest beasts to combat due to its massive strength, impressive natural armor and complete ignorance of pain, fear and bleeding. Bronze Colossi are basically walking, dwarf crushing statues that will never stop unless beheaded or outright obliterated. They have no organs and do not bleed, making them impossible to knock unconscious. Their immense strength makes them unlikely to give in to wrestling moves (though if you can manage to lock and break a limb it will snap off rather then just becoming useless.) Because of these resistances all you can really do is hack / shoot and hope that it dies before you do.

Dragon: The main danger of these beasts is their massive fire breath, which can consume dozens of spaces. A high block still is recommended before you fight them. A spear is a great weapon here, as it allows you to potentially knock them unconscious within a few turns. Arrows are also good, though staying at a distance can be dangerous because of the fire breath. Beware their bite, as it can cause major damage.

Hydra: a joke really, as It seems to lack the regenerative powers of its mythological cousin. It has 7 heads, but damage to one is as serious as damaging the head of a one headed beast. More then likely you’ll have it unconscious in a few turns regardless of what you use.

Titan: basically an organic bronze colossus. It is essentially a larger, stronger human, with all the weaknesses being the same. Piercing and goring damage can quickly weaken and incapacitate these beasts, but keep an eye out for its wrestling, which can cause some bad joint damage.

Cyclops: A weaker, smaller titan with one eye. Eye+arrow=win

Ettin: A two headed giant. Basically a stronger human, usually unarmed. Just hack it until it dies.

Giant: Just a giant human like thing. Stab it in the neck or break its limbs for massive damage.

Minotaur: Only thing really dangerous about this guy is his horns. Pretty good wrestler but nothing that should give a reasonably prepared adventurer any problems.

Humans: Should you wander into battle against a human force its in your best interest to disable their archers first. The only real danger humans have is their numbers and their use of items. Disarming or crippling dangerous guards or weapon maters is highly recommended, since as soon as they are weaponless they are essentially as good as dead.

Elves: They have wooden equipment, making them laughable most of the time. Once again, the only real threat is their archers and even then they are less dangerous then humans. Elves are generally known for being annoying dicks so its recommended that you slaughter the lot. If you are an elf its recommended that you have tons of fun.

Dwarves: Their advantage is their steel weaponry and crossbows. Their disadvantage is that their mountain homes are generally so large that you’ll only rarely fight more then one or two. Disable their weapon masters and archers then throw their own axes at them. Juggle their heads in front of their children.

Goblins: Like weaker dwarves, with less armor and less skill. They have a feeble sense of morals, meaning that they will only sometimes attack you after you hurt one of their friends. You can basically cleave right through them with ease.

== Other Humanoids == These are creatures that in shape resemble something human, but have no society.

Antman: A half man half ant hybrid which lives in chasms. They have higher natural armor then a man, but rarely use tools. As long as you’re armed they should pose no problem.

Batman: Half man, half bat that lives in caves and chasms. They can fly and use weapons, though they rarely do. Attacks with punches and bites; the bites are the most potentially damaging because they cause gore damage. He is the night.

Blizzard man: Frosty’s asshole brother. Blizzard men are creatures of pure ice that strangely still have organs. They can bite and punch, with biting doing the most damage. They will melt in normal temperatures so they are only found in freezing areas.

Dark gnome: Mischievous mountain folk who enjoy hard liquor. They‘re basically dwarfs but smaller and no where near as dangerous. Its rare that you’ll even find them, but if you do they should pose no threat to you. They punch and bite but neither is noticeable.

Fire Imp: Little gremlin like things that are either constantly on fire or made of fire. They’re found only in subterranean lava pits, meaning that you’ll have to go searching for them if you’re ever gonna see one. They only bite (does burn damage rather then gore), but their real danger comes from their ability to set you on fire. Ranged combat is recommended, though darting forward, attacking and then jumping away might be effective if you have no other choice. They can also breathe fire at you though, so its again recommended to stay back.

Firemen: Like the fire imps, but better. They have the bronze colossus syndrome of having no organs, not bleeding, feeling pain or being able to have weapons stuck in them. They too can set you ablaze, but they’re much harder to kill before they do it. Bludgeoning can break and hence sever their limbs. Recommended that you fight from a distance. Luckily these things only live in underground lava, so you’ll never find them without going into very specific places.

Frogman: No not those things Race Banon was always killing, but half man half frogs that live in underground water. They can’t equip weapons and are very small, making them almost completely non-threatening.

Iron man: Millionaire Tony Stark puts on his…oops wrong one. Ironmen are like firemen but less dangerous because they aren’t on fire. They are basically smaller, less dangerous Bronze Colossi. When killed they leave a valuable iron statue. They appear only in chasms.

Leechman: Half man, Half leech, all sexy. They have no bones, but curiously do have arms (but no legs). They can suck blood, but considering they have no bones and every blow will almost always strike a vital organ its a lot more likely that blood will be coming out of it then you.

Lizardman: Half man, half lizard; lives in underground water. Punches and bites along with the ability to use items. Similar to many of the other half breeds, but with one notable exception. He’s a lizard.

Magma man: A man made of pure magma. Everything about this guy is the exact same as the fire man, with the exception that he can’t breathe fire. This makes him less dangerous at a distance. Stay back and throw stuff at him.

Merpersons: Tiny little mermaids and mermen. Not dangerous at all, and relatively rare to boot. They can equip items but you’ll probably never see one anyway.

Mountain Gnome: The same as a Dark Gnome, but less evil. Same things apply here.

Mud man: Like Ironman but made of mud. Can’t equip items and only has a weak punch as a form of attack, making it about as threatening as a mudpie. Lives in underground water.

Orge: The middle ground between giant and human. Their punches and bites do a surprisingly small amount of damage, though they can use weapons. As with any big, organic moron its recommended to try and damage their organs to quickly incapacitate and kill them. Piercing damage is very useful.

Olmman: Half man, half blind cave salamander. Think Golum but even more messed up and without eyes. Their bites are surprisingly strong. Found only in subterranean water and even then only rarely. (personal note: Olms are pretty damn awesome things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olm) they’re even on the money in one country.)

Ratman: Seems to attack with 4 turtle men cronies, who are surprisingly good warriors. But seriously, they’re about as weak as actual rats. They only come from chasms so don’t worry about them too much.

Slugman: Do I even have to say? it’s a dang slug man, do you think its dangerous? Its not. Just stab it in its deformed face.

Snail man: Think slug man, but with a shell that doesn’t actually offer any protection.

Snakemen: The only real threat these guys pose is their ability to inject poison by biting. If it does bite you its your best bet to try and quickly kill the snake man before his poison takes effect, since it can incapacitate you.

Troglodyte: Small, reptilian creatures that live underground. Not dangerous unless they attack in swarms and even then they are easily beaten by even a novice adventurer. Use organic combating techniques to deal with them.

Troll: There’s no real difference between this thing and an orge. Kill them both the same way.

Werewolf: Or wolfman. Attacks alone and only bites with a goring attack. Bite can be dangerous but the fact that there is only one of him makes it a lot easier to fight. Fun to wrestle for experience.

== Wildlife == Here’s the rundown of all the mundane beasties that you’ll run into

Beak dog: Basically what happens when parrot gets combined with Velociraptors. They’re a little smaller then a man but quick and use their beaks and claws effectively. Try not to get caught in the center of a group of them, backpedal and cut them down as they give chase.

Black Bear: These will only ambush you one on one, and given their relative small size and forgettable strength they should pose little threat unless you’re completely unskilled and unarmed. Because there’s only one they can be useful for wrestling practice since you can focus all your attention on them.

Bonobo: I’ve never seen one myself, though I’ve been told they’re ape like things. Considering their squishy organs it would be best to stab them in the groin.

Camel: Its…a camel. You’ll probably never see one.

Carp: BEHOLD, FOR ARMOK BREATHED LIFE INTO THE VERY ROCKS IN THE RIVERS AND COMMANDED THEM TO GO FORTH AND MUTALATE RANDOM PASSERS BY. TO HIS DWARVEN FOLLOWERS HE EXPLAINED IT THUS, “FUCK YOU”-the tome of Armok, chapter 2. In all seriousness though, while they may be freaking fresh water sharks in the fortress mode, carp aren’t too dangerous in adventure mode. Their biggest advantage is their environment, being water which you can not breathe.
Cat: IT’S A KITTY! Anyways, you’ll almost always have too many of these things in fortress and you’ll never see them in adventure. Even if you did, what would you do with them? You wouldn’t hurt them would you? Fucking Nazi.

Cougar: Like a kitty, but bigger. Cougars are good wrestling practice and good shield training as well, what with the fact that Cougars suck so hard. If you get killed by this thing it was either insanely lucky or you have no arms.

Cow: It’s a cow. Kill it for free hamburgers. I’m actually not even sure if you can find the dang things in adventure mode.

Deer: You might see these running away from you in the woods. They’re harmless but good wrestling practice if you feel like strangling a defenseless animal.

Dog: WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF I’ve never seen one of these in adventure mode, but its pretty obvious what they are huh?

Donkey: Pulls wagons and things like that. You might see one but its not really worth attacking them.

Elephants: In prior versions elephants were murderous berserkers, but thankfully they’ve been made a little more realistic. They’re just as big and strong as you’d expect, but won’t bother you unless you walk up and stab’em a few times. Reasonably dangerous, so don’t poke them unless you’re ready.

Elk: Much like deer, though a little bigger and usually solitary

Fox: Another small animal that you’ll most likely never see. If you do however, its proper to light them on fire and scream “YIFF IN HELL”.

Giant bat: Bigger then a minotaur and more dangerous at times. Often encountered in low visibility areas where they can take you by surprise. Its best to avoid caves until you’re confidant in your blocking and combat skills.

Giant Cave Spiders: You’ll only rarely encounter these, because of their limited environment. You’ll know they’re near from the webs which hang around their homes. They are NOT to be meddled with. First and foremost, they do not feel pain and will never stop unless killed. Their high number of legs makes it likely that you’ll pointlessly hack away at the limbs while the mouth bites your head in half. Beyond these aspects the spider uses poison and sticky webs to ensnare you. Your best bet is to throw/ shoot it from a distance. If you can’t do that, use other piercing or goring weapons to damage its organs. Despite its ignorance toward pain, it still bleeds like any other animal, so a pierced heart is very effective.

Giant cave swallow: Pretty much harmless things, just big birds. If they harass you, break their wings and strangle them to death for wrestling points.

Giant Eagle: A major problem in fortress mode is little more then a pesky annoyance in adventure mode. If they are giving you trouble though, attempt to wrestle and break one of their wings. This should ground them and make them a much easier target.

Grizzly Bear: A little bigger then the Black Bear, though basically the same. Good for both wrestle and shield points. If they’re really giving you a hard time try catching both hands and its throat. This should not only make it impossible for it to attack, but also give you wrestle points.

Groundhog: Little rodent thingies. Zombie ground hogs are useful to strangle for wrestling experience. Besides that they’re only really good as golf balls for your putter (read Morningstar)

Hoary Marmot: A tiny forest dwelling creature. As harmless as it is delicious.
Horse: A beast of burden sometimes seen in human towns. They have an odd habit of going rouge and kicking children to death. Not to mention they’re some how smart enough to pull crossbow bolts out of their own legs. May cause random insanity if they attack a influential citizen.

Naked mole dog: Think enormous naked mole rat. Unless you’re both unarmed and unskilled these things are basically very bleedy shrubbery to hack your way through.

Mountain Goat: it’s a goat, that lives in the mountains. Likes to kill goblins and its not uncommon to find a few legends about goblin slaying goats. (On a personal note, I once found a goat named Bonecrusher or something like that, which only had one leg. One leg and 7 kills, including a Swordmaster. Don’t fuck with that goat)

Mule: Like a horse, but more inbred. Chances are you’ll never see them.

Musk Ox: Beasts of burden used by elves. Another thing you won’t see.

Pike: The fish, not the weapon. They’re nothing close to the carp and should be little more then particularly squishy speed bumps to you.

Raccoon: Forest rodents that you’ll never see. Make a nifty hat.

Rhesus Macaque :A nettlesome trickster in fortress mode, they are almost never seen in adventure mode. Even if you see them they’re very skittish and a single blow will send them running. Give’em a good strangle if you can catch one.

Unicorn: The random homicidal tendencies of the horse mixed with a dash of magic and a horn. They’re very aggressive for some reason, though not too hard to bring down. Watch out for that horn and stay away until you’re at least competent.

Whale: Big aquatic beast. Not dangerous unless in skeletal mode.

Wolf: And last but not least, the humble and numerous wolf. This is what is gonna be attacking you from now till forever. They’re dangerous the first few ambushes, but they quickly become nothing but barely noticed time wasters. Great for training up armor and shield, as they attack in packs and hence hit you many times, often with no effect. Early on, just be careful not to get caught in the middle of a pack and you’ll be fine.

== Modifiers ==
Zombie: Zombie animals are just like their normal counterparts, with a few major exceptions. Firstly, they are no longer effected by pain or bleeding and their organs no longer matter. They are also much slower. This combination of increased difficulty in killing and decreased speed about evens out their threat level. Not too dangerous, unless the creature they’re based on is already strong.

Skeletal: All of the advantages of Zombie with none of the bad effects. Skeletal creatures are all immune to pain and do not bleed, but they remain just as quick as their living counterparts. Large skeletal beasts, such as dragons or whales are truly a terror to face.
[size=3]

=== Avoid the impossible ===
Some things are harder than others. Decide for yourself if this is due to unbalancing of the game, realism or simply to add to the variety of challenges.

==== [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelob Shelob]'s in-laws, aka Giant Cave Spiders ====
Unless you are a legendary or better (ok, its not possible to go beyond legendary..) bow-/crossbowman, you should at all costs AVOID giant cave spiders (Unless, of course, you enjoy [[Fun]])!! They shoot a web at you, making you immobilized while they rip your limbs off one by one. Then when you finally break free from the web, and can attack again, you've probably lost your arms while lying on the floor and the spider is about to throw you by your head up into the roof. Cave Spiders bleed to death eventually, but they know no fear nor pain, meaning they will not black out even if you manage to inflict serious damage including severed limbs. They are also capable of surviving red-level wounds to the body and legs and multiple severed limbs for long enough to eviscerate an adventurer. Leave these for the living shields to deal with while you slip out the other way, ideally from the cave entirely, never to return.

Even if you are a legendary projectile weapon user, reconsider attacking a giant cave spider because in the tight quarters of a cave you might be shooting it from stealth when a giant rat or something similarly stupid walks next to you and triggers your loss of cover. The spider would then punish your arrogance immensely.

''Note'': If absolutely required they ARE killable, but you need luck, and lots of it. Adept swordsman + Proficient [[shield]] user + Skilled ambusher manages to sneak up on it and then counterstrike + block does the job. In a suicide swordsman test run I had dethoraxation (decapitation for spiders) = instakill on the first counterstrike, second GCS got a mortal wound before it webbed me and bled to death while trying to chew through me, only broke sword wielding hand and leg. Third spider broke my shield hand and had me mortally wounded in no time after that, although I eventually killed it after unwebbing myself. That makes it ~2.5/3 chances to win, not bad for a rookie. And I was healed after each successful spider kill.

''To conclude'': Basically, as long as your shield wielding hand is intact (and shield skill is high of course) you have pretty good chances of survival in 1 on 1, otherwise you're dead. Any extra armor (in my case exceptional full plate + normal armor skill) also helps in glancing off their bites.

Another interesting thing is that before fighting one of them I threw a spear at it and it lodged in the wound, and it seems that the spider has a priority to break my grip as it repeatedly successfully broke my grip every time(that happened ~5-6 times in a row) I grabbed the lodged spear. That points to a possible distraction for a GCS in case of soloing it.

==== Arrows ====
Don't take on quests where you need to kill elite bow-/crossbowmen! Generally, avoid flying arrows! Why? Because bow/crossbowmen have the tendency to see farther than you can. They are therefore able to fire at you from beyond your sight, making it hard to see where the arrow(s) are coming from. You may therefor end up chasing the shooter in the wrong direction, giving the shooter even MORE time to turn you into a pin-cushion. Of course, this is only the case if you manage to survive the first 3-4 arrows, because arrows are BAD for anyone but the shooter's health. Piercing hits like arrows are much more likely to damage internal organs, and while you might shrug off a moderate blunt hit to the chest a similar piercing hit could directly damage one or both lungs or your heart and instantly kill you.

One extremely useful survival tip is to immediately drop prone (with the s key) as soon as you notice you are being shot at. Prone targets move more slowly, but seem to be much harder to hit with ranged attacks than standing ones. This is also worth noting to avoid wasting ammunition on fallen targets.

Another solid solution is to get behind something as quickly as possible and try sneaking. Even when caught in the open cover as flimsy as a single tree may be sufficient to begin sneaking. Sneaking around trees can also sometimes act as a compass for determining the direction of the shooter. By checking when and where sneaking is possible, the approach vector of any given observer or close cluster of observers can be extrapolated.

Finally, since archers are generally sentient, most (besides mayors) can be killed in their sleep.

If you do accept a quest against an elite bowman or crossbowman and manage to reach melee range, immediately grapple its weapon, ideally by dropping yours and pulling the weapon out of its grasp entirely before throwing it away.

=== Training yourself ===
Gaining stats ([[Attributes|strength, agility, toughness]]) helps a lot when fighting. How to best train yourself?

==== Throwing ====
To find rocks simply hit {{k|l}} and look at any rock coulored tiles some of these will be simply called by the rock name (e.g. [[limestone]]) and cannot be picked up but some will be called pebbles. Rocks are practically free ammo. When you find a tile with [[pebbles]], pick up a lot of them (there are infinite rocks), and start throwing them. You can simply throw them at the tile you are standing at. Every throw will gain you 30 points toward the skill "Throwing", and will after a while increase your stats (Strength, agility, toughness). You will need to throw 600 rocks to reach legendary Thrower (starting with no skill).

For best efficiency, drop all of your gear (including held but not worn items) and empty out your backpack near your throwing location. This is done in order to keep your inventory simple for the rock-throwing portion. Then pick up a ton of rocks by pressing {{k|g}}-{{k|a}} over and over- ideally one would pick up 600 rocks at a single time, but you will probably get bored before then. Then, mash {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} over and over until all of your rocks are thrown back at the floor. If you are not a legendary Thrower after this, repeat. Afterwards, remember to pick up your gear and re-fill your backpack.

''Alternate way'' : It could be difficult to repeat the {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} sequence without making mistake. So you can just alternate {{k|t}}-{{k|enter}} quickly : The first {{k|t}} will open the inventory, the second will chose the rock which is in "t" position, and {{k|enter}} will throw it. In the same fashion, when collecting rock, prefer a tile where the rock is on "b" position : If you quickly alternate {{k|g}} and {{k|a}}, sometime you will open the [a]nnouncement panel, which will slow you down. Another solution to this is to switch the ''pick up'' and ''announcements'' keys, so you can press {{k|a}} to pick up an item and {{k|a}} to pick up rock.

Thrown objects are also a cheap way to injure enemies before they reach you if you are a melee fighter.

You can also throw other stuff you find, like flies, beetles, worms, and even vomit or [[sand]]. If you have a tendency to chop off enemy limbs, you can even throw these limbs. Killing zombies with their companion's severed heads and feet is always good for a laugh. [[iron_man|Iron men]] are fun, because they leave behind a nice [[statue]] for the taking which can be thrown. Arrows and weapons seem to be particularly deadly when thrown because they deal the same damage as they would in melee, including piercing or slashing damage type, but even the most innocuous or silly items can come up with a kill.

Most thrown objects deal blunt type damage, so they will break and bruise limbs, but arrows and weapons can deal their normal damage types. This is particularly useful to consider when trying for a desperate one-shot kill on a [[Giant Cave Spider]] that's about to web you and shred you into little chunks, as piercing attacks like thrown arrows and [[spear]]s damage internal organs (making them more likely to get a one-hit kill, as an enemy can live through having the outside of their head moderately damaged but not from having the same amount of damage done to their brain) and thrown axes or swords can sever body parts and leave deep gashes (leading to massive bleeding or slit throats).

==== Bow/Crossbow-skill ====
This skill trains in the same fashion as throwing. You gain skill per shot, not per hit. This is a more expensive skill to train than throwing because you need to buy (or find) arrows/bolts, but is also a much more deadly skill. Fired projectiles do much more damage than thrown ones, and are also piercing type weapons which can do crippling damage to internal organs. The majority of thrown weapons are blunt and will do much more superficial bruising and bone-breaking damage- at best, a lucky hit will break someone's spine or damage internal organs to a small degree. Shooting arrows at enemies is fun, because it is very efficient and will destroy enemies quite easily.

Sadly, this also goes for enemy bow/crossbowmen. You will often be shot in the leg and crippled by an enemy you can't even see, who will then proceed to shoot you in the face until you die - which won't be very long afterwards unless you manage to find something to hide behind. This is somewhat avoidable - train in sneaking to avoid being seen by enemies that could otherwise perforate your skin, and get a good shield and armor to better keep arrows. (See below for both skills).

Make sure to take extra <s>meat shields</s> companions along with you if you're planning on using ranged weapons, it'll take time before you level the appropriate skill to bash things with your weapon in melee so it's imperative you stay out of the fighting till then. Drunks are particularly useful here, as they love to dive on things and collapse into a massive wrestling pile which you can take pot-shots at. Don't worry, you can't hit your guys. Not that you'd care.

==== Wrestling ====
Since melee weapon skills are hard train because not every hit gives points towards the skill, why not train your [[wrestling]]? When you are alone with a unconscious enemy, why not break some limbs before finishing it off? Monsters often try to break your arms and legs, so having a bit of skill in wrestling will help break those locks a lot, and breaking that legendary swordsmans sword hand at the beginning of the fight will make him laughably weak. Also, training wrestling is a quicker way to better stats (strength, agility, toughness) because gain points per move instead of per "hit". Wrestling also handles dodging skill which is very handy to have.

A good way to train wrestling is to find an undead region on the map- preferably Sinister if you remember the map layout from Fortress Mode. Obtain a pack of zombie herbivores therein, preferably of small size- do not attempt this with zombie [[elephants]]. Slaughter every zombie in the vicinity of this pack of herbivores but the one that you think is the most crippled, making sure to pick one with a throat to leave alive.

Press {{k|c}} and change your combat preferences from Strike to Close Combat. This means that your default attack when you press towards an enemy to making a random wrestling move, or the continuation (joint lock, break) or (strangle) if you have a break/strangle-able area held.

Then, walk over, and grab the zombie's neck (yes, with your weapon or shield- it is quite optional to drop what you're holding) and begin strangulation by holding the direction the zombie is strangling in. You will make several strangles per second and gain approximately 15 XP (tentative measure) per strangulation. Zombies cannot die from this, so you will earn enough XP to become legendary within a few minutes.

When your character becomes tired, break off from strangling and walk it off- you become less tired by ambling about aimlessly. If you become too hungry or thirsty to continue, just run away or destroy the zombie, {{k|T}}ravel, and then repeat after moving a square and back.

This can also be done at ruins, but you run the risk of weapon-carrying enemies and especially weaponmaster quest-zombies. In an undead ruin, there are also far, far more monsters in the area compared to hunting down a pack of undead animals.

Alternatively, wait until nightfall, and wrestle a sleeping enemy. Sleeping enemies are unconscious, and cannot detect you if you sneak. The autocombat will cause your adventurer to break limbs, grab and release bits of clothing, and other nonlethal attacks. Occasionally random chance will cause a chokehold; simply step back a tile and then resume. In this manner, you can train wrestling extremely quickly without the dangers of wandering in an undead zone.

Yet another alternative is presented by fish. No harmful wrestling moves can be performed on them so cornering a carp, tigerfish, or milkfish will raise wrestling quickly, while training swimming. Avoid hippopotamus infested waters.

A final option presents itself when exploring caves, there are many weak enemies to be found here, choose one (say a ratman) and walk up to it, grabbing it perform a takedown. Before it can stand up grab its arm and try to break it, as soon as it gets up perform another takedown, continue to break all the joints in both of your <s>toy's</s> <s>victim's</s> opponent's arms and then move on to legs, finally gouge out its eyes and begin strangling it to death. This gives you plenty of wrestling exp with very little risk as the enemy will only get in one or two strikes before being taken down after which it will prioritize standing back up.

==== Swimming ====
Having no swimming skill in Adventure Mode is not a particularly good thing if you intend to go near water. Anyone with no swimming skill who falls or is pulled/pushed into water will begin to drown immediately if it is over 4/7 deep, and will also be unable to climb out of water this deep - usually resulting in instant death.

To voluntarily jump into a pond or [[river]] you have to {{k|Alt}}-move off the edge of the land. This will present you with a choice of walking out into the open space above the water (immediately and unsurprisingly followed by a one-story fall) or moving directly into the water. To get back out, {{k|Alt}}-move into the riverbank/pond edge.

As long as you have at least some Swimming skill, you will be able to move around in deeper water and will gain Swimming skill for every tile you move. Without Swimming, you will have to find depth 4 water to voluntarily paddle about in with your water wings on for your first skill points. Any deeper and you'll start to drown, any shallower and you can't swim in it. Hit {{k|m}} to set your swimming options.

Another option is to find a body of water with a ramp into it. Walk down the ramp into the water, which will cause you to start "drowning". However, you can simply walk back out after 10 turns or so to stop drowning, and you will have gained some swimming skill. Repeat until you reach novice skill. If you don't have an abandoned fortress set up for this, slopes into water can be found at ocean beaches.

All in all this makes Novice Swimming an excellent starting skill, as you can (eventually) get Legendary skill simply by swimming back and forth in two squares of water and get lots of stat points in the process. However, this is mind-numbingly dull so good luck with that. One should also keep in mind that water in cooler areas may suddenly freeze when the sun starts to go down, and thus instantly kill any creatures within. As such, it's a good idea to do your training laps somewhere warm.

It also seems that you are not able to move out of water of less than (7/7) onto the river bank. In addition, while you are swimming, you can not move to the travel map! You must first leave the water.

You can crosstrain Ambushing while Swimming to save time- if you start with no Ambushing and Novice Swimming, you will be an Accomplished or Expert Ambusher, give or take, by the time you are a Legendary Swimmer. For more on Ambushing, see below. You can also crosstrain melee skills with swimming by picking a river and swimming down it, training Ambush when it's quiet and training melee when it's not. Some rivers have very high densities of fish, giving you lots of targets to hit. They will tend to gather up, bumping into and slowing each other down ahead of you for you to kill and an adventurer will be all but invincible against non-sturgeons after a few statgains. Just remember that Hippos have the right of way.

NOTE: Water does NOT currently cleanse fire, if you are burning, jumping into a pool of water will not save you

==== Ambushing ====
The Ambusher skill is the parent to the {{k|S}}neak ability, which makes you character move more slowly and stealthily to avoid being noticed. Sneak cannot be activated if an enemy can currently see you, but you can use it immediately if you break line of sight somehow. Sneaking around will increase your Ambusher skill even if nobody is around to see you.

Unfortunately, the best way to train Ambushing is to start sneaking and just hold a direction to run, until you've run 18,000 squares (assuming you started with no skill). This takes a long time, so you may wish to train sneaking just by sneaking whenever possible while playing the game normally in order to avoid boredom.

Sneaking is particularly useful for avoiding ranged attacks, as even Novice skill allows you to get within four or five squares of an enemy before they spot you reliably. It is relatively easy at normal levels of skill to stand anywhere but right next to an enemy and not be spotted for a long time, if ever. However, standing next to sombody without them spotting you is difficult even with legendary skill. However, even if they spot you moving next to them they will only get one shot at you which is a lot better than the hundreds they would have had if you'd been blundering around in the dark too far away to even see them when they opened fire.

If you are far faster than the enemy you can sometimes swoop in, attack, and back off to 1-square distance where you are less visible. Sometimes they will spot you, but other times you can literally slice off the opponent's leg and retreat to a safe distance. This may occur because enemies can only make checks to see if you are sneaking during their own turns, and a very fast (2000+ speed) player can run in, stab them, and retreat to a safe distance before their turn comes up.

The skill also has a valuable part to play in the noble art of running away. As long as you can get out of sight of all the enemies after you at once - such as around a corner indoors, or ducking behind a tree outside - you can start sneaking and head off in another direction. If your skill is too low however the enemies might be close enough to see you as soon as you try to sneak off.

The most useful part of sneaking is undoubtedly the 'stealth throw'. While firing a missile weapon or attacking in melee will get you noticed immediately, throwing things at people will not. Stock up on dead enemies' weapons, clothing and severed body parts and you can pretend you're some gruesome comedy version of Sam Fisher. You know you want to.

==== Armor and Shield Use ====

Armor User lets you wear heavy armor without slowing down, and might control the passive block rate of armor - a very useful skill, if true, because it controls how often your shiny full plate suit will actually work.

Shield User helps the block roll you make when you are attacked. A Legendary Shield User is far, far more capable of taking on enemies, especially projectile-based weaponmasters whose bolts and arrows are blockable with a shield to a far greater degree than with one's torso, so it is worthwhile to train these two skills.

Normally, you gain 10 Shield User XP per time you block an attack with a shield, and 2 Armor User XP per time you are attacked while wearing armor. This means that to gain the 18,000 XP necessary for legendary, you must block 1800 strikes, and be attacked at least 9000 times. Naturally, this could take some time- time in which a low-skill adventurer may die from attacks by worthy opponents.

However, a useful shortcut exists- if you find a small zombie herbavore to strangle in the above wrestling training method, you can also (if it is a small and non-dangerous animal such as a zombie [[groundhog]]) {{k|s}}it down next to it (to minimize your own speed and thus get attacked more often) and hold {{k|5}} to sit down next to the animal and block its attacks over and over. This is still slow, but leagues faster than waiting to train while fighting- it also means that you are probably not in any danger assuming you picked a sufficiently pathetic type of animal.

Warnings- Make sure that you have your {{k|c}}ombat preference set to Close Combat, otherwise you may counterstrike and kill the zombie. This way, you will wrestle it during a counterstrike instead of doing something that may actually hurt it such as counterstriking with your weapon.

It is probably also preferable to start with a modicum of skill in Armor and Shield using to make sure you don't accidentally get instakilled or crippled and are good at blocking with your shield to gain XP fast. You'll also want to have non-crappy armor and a good shield or two (dual wielding shields may increase your ability to block) to maximize your ability to block and to make sure you are taking as little as possible damage, if any at all, during training.

=== Exploration ===
== Basic exploration tips ==
When traveling it’s a good idea to avoid evil areas until you’re reasonably powerful, as they tend to contain stronger enemies. Also avoid caves for this same reason, you never know when a dragon is lurking in the shadows. Remember that only human towns have shops, so don’t die of hunger wandering the dwarves mountain homes looking for that allusive Applebees. Water can be had from rivers and stagnant pools, though fast traveling (shift + t) makes thirst and hunger go away. If you are exploring caves, make sure to have some water and food with you, as some can be quite deep.

== Fortress exploration tips. ==
If you’ve abandoned a fortress in the world you’re now adventuring in then you can find that same fortress on the map. Ask townsfolk about the surroundings and eventually they’ll mention the fortress and its direction. From there you need only to follow the directions till the fortress shows up on your map.
The perils of fortress exploration
If your fortress was abandoned or destroyed their’s more then likely a reason why. Be it magma overflows, flooding, goblin sieges or perhaps digging a little too deep there are likely to be remnants of your downfall somewhere in the remains. Wild beasts and sentient invaders alike will more then likely be slugging it out in your once grand halls. Beyond this there is the danger of forgetting what lever does what and accidentally flooding the room with lava or collapsing the entrance.
= The advantages of Fortress exploration =
Depending on how advanced your fortress was it may contain extremely rare, powerful or valuables items. Raiding fortresses is the only way to get adamantine items and wafers, as well as the only way to get artifact weapons. Beyond this, you can read the engravings on the walls in order to fill your legends list.

= Preparation =
Whatever destroyed your fortress is what is going to be squatting in it now. If a goblin siege took you down, then prepare to fight some gobbies. If the horrors of the deep raped your little dwarven ass then prepare to fight those. If they drowned then find some waterwings etc. Make sure you’re fully stocked on arrows (if you use them) as well as water and food. Leaving anything you don’t need back in the tavern in town is a good idea too, as it lets you carry more loot.

= Plumbing the Deep =

While wandering the halls of your old fortress its best to secure each floor one by one, to avoid being ambushed. Explore one entire floor then move on to the next. This isn’t a requirement but it can help in finding the best loot as well as insuring against surprise arrow buttsex. If you start to get overburdened with all the loot climb to a secure floor and dump it in a pile. You can come back for it after you’ve finished exploring. Also note that, while traps no longer work, their components (giants blades, spiked balls etc) remain just as lethal in your hands. Also note that you can pick up and throw ballista bolts.

= What to do with all your newly acquired wealth =

Not much I’m afraid. While masterwork adamantine weapons are very useful and the raw chunks of adamantine are extremely valuable there’s nothing to really buy with them. The adamantine weapons you find are the strongest in the game and shops will never sell anything above iron so once you’ve got the weapons there’s pretty much nothing more you need. This will most likely be fixed in up coming versions (perhaps paying a blacksmith to make you weapons).

=== Summary ===
*Avoid flying arrows
*Throw rocks/statues/socks/bugs/sand/coins/arms/heads/swords/arrows/kitchen sinks at enemies that still haven't reached you
*Train your stats before taking on your first quest-monster

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Adventurer mode]]

40d:Adventurer mode

2009-08-13T18:49:47Z

Piecewise: /* Non-weapon tactics */

In '''adventurer mode''', you pick a race ([[dwarf]], [[human]], or [[elf]]) and start out in either a [[Site|town]] of your race or in a previous [[fortress]] you played on. You can receive [[quest]]s, venture into the wilderness to find [[caves]], abandoned towers and other [[Site|villages]]. You can even visit your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] and find whatever riches were left to be guarded by the [[creatures]] that sealed the fate of your [[fortress]].

The user interface differs somewhat from [[fortress mode]]; you may want to refer to the [[Adventure Mode quick reference|quick reference]] guide, or examine the detailed [[controls]] page. [[Site map]] may also prove useful.

== Your first adventure ==

=== Picking a race ===
When it comes to picking a race, there is difference in [[skills]]. [[Dwarves]] cannot wear [[human]] sized [[armor]], and are somewhat limited in the [[weapons]] they can wield due to their size. [[Elves]] have a slightly different set of [[skills]]. [[Humans]] are generally fairly well-balanced, and are the easiest to acquire quests from. Each race fares differently in combat; you may wish to look at the races' pages for the finer details.

=== Choosing skills ===
Basically, if you want to start with a [[weapon]], you need to avoid having the most points spent in unarmored/[[wrestling]]. If you, for example, choose to start out with most points in [[swordsman]], you will start out with a [[sword]]. When you have chosen your preferred set of [[skills]], you can press {{key|Enter}} to embark. The higher the [[skills]] in [[weapons]]/[[armor]] determine the quality of the equipment you start out with.

All the [[skills]] you see CAN be improved through use in game, so don’t worry about spreading them out completely evenly. In general, pick the [[skills]] you think you’re going to use. The [[skills]] are pretty self explanatory but its recommended that you put at least a few points into [[shield]] / [[armor]] and into a type of weapon. Be warned that [[weapon]] [[skills]] generally take a while to level up, so placing a good deal of points into a singe weapon may be to your advantage. Also keep in mind that your skills determine what kind of equipment you have in the beginning, ie high sword skill means you’ll start with a sword. For information on the weapons and the other aspects of combat, please check the combat section. It might also be a good idea to use a point or two for swiming, otherwise you might end up drowning in a puddle.

=== Setting out ===
If you chose human, you will start out inside the Mead hall. You will see the Mayor (purple) as well as the occational townsperson. Press {{key|k}} and talk to the Mayor. Press 'services' for a [[quest]]. You can talk to the Citizens and recruit them to your party for some additional combat aid if they feel like it (note, people with no combat skills are unlikely to follow you, and the major and town guards never will.) If you choose dwarf, you start out in a region just outside the entrance to a given fortress. There is a [[mayor]] or the [[king]] himself inside the fortress.

Be sure to read the [[Adventure Mode quick reference]] or use the help files for more information on the commands in Adventure mode.

=== Survival ===
Congratulations, you’ve created a character and are now about to embark on your fantastic adventure! For now, lets focus on the bare bones of staying alive shall we? First things first, you need food and water. If you’re a human you start with some, but baring that you may need to find a waterskin. These can be bought in human towns, specifically at the shop. DO NOT STEAL THESE OR ANYTHING ELSE. Do not pick anything up and walk outside the store before you trade for it. Why? Because you are currently weak and your neck is currently arrow bait. After getting the water skin, simply find a water source and hit (Shift+I) to interact with the object. Press the letter of the Water skin and you should be able to fill it from the water source. After it’s full press (e)to open the Eat menu and select the water. Food can be acquired from stores eaten in the same way.

Now that you know how to work your mouth we can move on to miscellaneous tips for survival. Firstly, you are very tasty and chances are (unless you’re an elf) the wildlife will soon be attempting to eat your face. A bear or cougar isn’t too much of a problem because there’s only one, the real problem will be wolf packs.
A single wolf is easy to dispatch, but a dozen or so can prove very problematic indeed. Beware large packs until you’ve gained a little experience. Secondly, do not piss off the towns folk, as they tend to have guards. Lastly, beware of taking quests or attempting things before you’re ready, as you will more then likely have tons of [[fun]]
=== Civilization? ===
Elves live out in the forest, literally. Although defined to specific regions on the map, they have no structural wealth whatsoever. Some trees are named.

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road. Human villages are highly modular. The small 5x5 buildings are citizen houses and are marked with an "H" on the town auto-map. Medium buildings are stores, marked with a symbol that indicates what they sell - food, weapons, clothing, and two kinds of trinkets (incidentally, armor and clothing is sold in the same building). As of the current version, you start in the mead hall which is marked with an "M" on the automap. There are one or two apartment buildings buildings which are two stories, with six rooms a story; they are also marked with an "H." There are two really large buildings - the "T"emple and the a fort-like building that is marked with "K." Temples tend to have two or three levels, and a pool of water, while the "K" buildings are three or four floors high and are almost entirely empty (they will occationally contain random smatterings of clothing though, if you're looking for things to sell.)

Dwarves live underground. Their entrances are large square pits with stairs around the perimeter, and a row of leading down into the fortress halls at the bottom. The main halls are wide and have pillars near the walls, long and occasionally turn corners. Different levels in the fortress are marked by a row of ramps with two pillars on the side (walk towards the side of the ramp that has the pillars) and, although the number of floors in a fortress can vary, they are usually little and only become deep if the lay of the land above is variable. There are one 1-tale wide hallways, empty rooms, and scant Dwarves in these pre-fab fortresses. It's obvious the computer is playing a completely different game than you are in [[Fortress Mode]]!

Goblins live in [[obsidian]] towers, usually found built in twos, though they both don't necessarily have to be built up. One could be a "tower," one could be an over-glorified "basement." There is probably a temple nearby, completely similar to human temples. Goblin towers have tight 1-wide hallways, spacious and empty rooms, and strange hall extensions that end in remote cross-like dead-ends. Like dwarf fortresses, there is rarely anything in a Goblin tower asides from Goblins, and they have a strange tendency not to attack non-Goblin visitors. They seem to have lots of children.

You may come across what the map defines as a "Goblin" city that is actually populated by Humans or Dwarves living in or around the towers.

=== Trading ===
In towns you can find merchants inside some [[buildings]]. Talk to them to trade with them. After buying an item, you must pick it up manually from somewhere in the shop. {{K|l}}ook around for an item without $ signs around it.

==== Selling ====
You can also sell things to traders. Bones, corpses, body parts and rocks are not valuable, no matter how attached you are to a particularly aerodynamic kobold head. Small creatures discovered while {{k|L}}ooking Carefully may be worth a small amount of money. In order to sell or buy items, stand adjacent to the shopkeeper in his store, and {{k|k}}onverse with the shopkeeper. Select "Trade" and press {{k|enter}} to open the trade window.

Select each non-worthless item you wish to sell, and then set a price using the following format{{verify}}:
* {{k|a}} asking for 9000☼
* {{k|s}} +100☼
* {{k|d}} +10☼
* {{k|f}} +1☼
* {{k|g}} reset to 0☼
* {{k|h}} -1☼ (offering)
* {{k|j}} -10☼
* {{k|k}} -100☼
* {{k|l}} offer 9000☼

The use of these keys may seem non-intuitive, and this is further complicated by the limit on your available offers by your current financial health.

Shopkeepers are used to adventurers with inflated ideas about the value of their goods, so it may be simplest to ask for 9000☼ for your goods, or offer 1☼ for theirs and suggest a {{k|t}}rade. The shopkeeper will counteroffer with the actual value of the goods, and will be quite delighted to accept a {{k|t}}rade at the price they've just quoted to you. You can then purchase things with your store credit. After the trade sessions, the balance of your coins will appear on a small table next to a chest.

[[Category:Adventurer mode]]

====Theft====
You may also pick up the item before buying it, but you should never walk out of a shop carrying an unbought item, as that is theft. It is punishable by death if you are caught, and excommunication if you are not. On any occasion when you have stolen goods from a store, ie goods bounded by the $$ signs, the game requires you to exit the site ''and'' travel a considerable distance before allowing you to travel. This may make a getaway more difficult if your adventurer is not already faster than anyone else. This only applies to goods in stores; killing townsfolk and taking their personal things, including those of the shopkeep still only requires exiting the site. The moment you are out of sight, you will be able to warp out as usual. Theft and murder remain within entities; even depopulating one country and stealing all its things will not generate ill response in another country.

====Managing coins====
Coins can and will encumber your adventurer, eventually reducing your speed. To reduce that effect you can try to exchange your copper and silver coins for gold ones. To do that you can purchase goods from a merchant to the sum of your copper coins, then sell them back. Check the merchant's chest to see how much gold and silver coins they have. You can delay the problem by selling your loot to many merchants, as they will try to pay you in higher denomination currency first.

A few goods are strictly superior to all forms of coinage as a store of value, most commonly giant cave spider silk items. A suitably sneaky (or powerful) adventurer can murder a few dwarves for such items for trade and sale for human goods. Giant cave spider silk is a non-renewable resource in a given world. Please harvest sustainably.

=== Equipping your adventurer ===
After acquiring [[armor]] from one source or another, you'll most likely want to equip it. To do this, first make sure it is in your possession--not on the ground. You can then {{key|w}}ear it, granted you don't already have too much on that equipment slot already. You can {{key|r}}emove or {{key|d}}rop inferior equipment as necessary.

[[Weapons]] and [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shields]] are handled differently. There is no explicit equipment command. Instead, they are automatically equipped when you either {{k|g}}et them from the ground or {{k|r}}emove them from your [[backpack]] - provided the hand that would wield them is free. So in order to change [[weapons]] or [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|Shields]] you would need to {{k|p}}ut your equipped weapon into your [[backpack]] and then {{k|r}}emoving your new desired weapon. You do not need to drop weapons and equip new ones etc. Simply remember the {{k|r}}emove command and the {{k|p}}ut into container command.

It should be noted that the world of DF seems to have a lot of left handers, so do not be surprised if your character holds the weapon with the left hand and the [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shield]] with the right hand.

== Traveling the world ==

=== How-to ===
You can walk around the whole world tile by tile if you wish, but given the size of the world, you might want to consider using another method. Pressing {{key|T}} will let see a very zoomed out map of the surrounding area. Moving about on this map is much faster, as well as it heals your adventurer, keeps him from starving, dehydrating, or getting tired. To exit this screen and explore the area you've reached, press {{k|>}}.

If there is more than one feature such as a [[Site|town]] or group of [[creatures]] on that map tile you will get to choose which one you want to arrive near.

Also while traveling on the world map, there is a chance that your adventurer can get randomly ambushed by enemies. When that happens, you must survive by either fighting them off or hide from them.

Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]] is not normally advisable; however, it is possible to do so by holding {{key|Alt}} while pressing the appropriate movement key. Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]], depending on how high you jumped, will most of the time cover your eyes in blood, which lessens visuals.

=== Finding quest locations ===
After receiving a [[quest]], you will be able to track its location using the {{key|Q}}uest log. Initially it will just give you the location on the {{key|T}}ravel map, though a lesser-known feature is its use in finding the cave entry (or other such target) once you're already in the [[Site map|local map]]. Bring up the quest log again, highlight the quest objective you're after, and {{key|z}}oom to it. It should then provide you with a local map of your current area, complete with a 3x3 box of flashing squares. This box indicates the general location of the cave's mouth. You'll still have to do some searching, but at least it's narrowed down for you. You can bring up this map at any time that you're in the local area of a quest objective.

The compass on the left of the screen will also greatly help you in finding the entrance; the direction indicated should place you within one screen's distance of the entrance before it turns into "---".

=== Visiting abandoned fortresses ===
If you start an adventure in a world with one or more abandoned [[Fortress|fortresses]], you can take your adventurer to see the sites of your previous endeavors. When you find one of your old [[Fortress|fortresses]], you will find that everything is a mess. Items are scattered about, things are smashed up and there are probably new hostile inhabitants that you will need to fend off. Visiting your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] might prove to be rewarding, since you can find [[armor]] and [[weapons]] you made (if you made any). The best thing to be found in your [[fortress]] would probably be any left behind [[Legendary artifact|artifact]] [[weapon]] or [[armor]]. This is also probably the best (and only?) way to get [[Legendary artifact|artifact-quality]] [[weapons]] and [[armor]].

Also remember to check out any [[Engraving#Engravings|engravings]] you made while in [[fortress mode]]. When checking out [[Engraving#Engravings|engravings]] in adventure mode, they reveal a lot more specific information about the event that is engraved.

=== Combat ===
== The Weapons ==
Weapons are basically divided into ax, sword, spear, pike, mace, whip, bow and hammer, with various versions of these taking up the gray area. Swords are your jack of all trades weapon, doing reasonable slashing damage. They come in short, long and two handed varieties, with the two handed doing the most damage and the short doing the least. Axes are similar to swords and do slashing damage as well. They come in 3 types, battle ax, great ax and halberd. The battle ax does slightly less damage then the long sword while the halberd does the same damage as a two-handed sword. The Great ax is generally too large to use, but it does slightly more then the halberd in damage. The spear does piercing damage and is ideal for damaging internal organs and causing heavy bleeding and unconsciousness. It has no variations. The spear is much more likely to become stuck in its target, which can be a great benefit if used right and a curse if not. The Pike is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a spear. The mace and the hammer are generally the same thing, simply a big metal thing to club your enemies over the head. As expected, they do high damage but their bludgeoning attacks tend to be slower and less effective , if more hilarious, ways to dispatch your foes. The Maul, a hammer, is the highest damaging weapon in the game. The last weapon is the whip, which does gore damage. Its relatively weak but has its uses. The bow throws arrows, which act as tiny spears. Basically, a bow and crossbow is like having a very slow, long range spear.

== Weapon Tactics ==
Sword: Once again, your general fall back weapon. It’s good against almost everything, if not being that great against almost anything. Works well against both living and non-living enemies as it actively dismembers them.

Ax: Pretty much the same as a sword, though some people believe it hacks off limbs more commonly. Good against organics, acceptable against anything else.

Spear/Pike: Ok, here’s where we get a little bit more advanced. The spear is most effective against organic creatures because of two abilities, pierce damage and stick ins. Piercing damage does major harm to internal organs, causing pain, bleeding, vomiting, unconsciousness and death. Stick-ins are when the weapon becomes stuck in the target, allowing it to be twisted. Twisting increases bleeding and causes extreme pain. Because of these two factors spears and pikes are ideal for single combat against organic targets. The are less effective against multiple enemies (because of the stick-ins lowering kill-to-turn ratios) and are even less effective against non-organic enemies (ie bronze colossus).

Mace/hammer: These weapons rely on their ability to turn your opponent into a tasty pulp through repeated wacking. They break bones and bruise flesh, meaning that aside from a critical hit they generally are less likely to mortal wounds quickly. They are great for crippling organics and non-organics alike, but when it comes to a swift, efficient death they are generally less then perfect. The exception to this is high strength and mace/hammer skill which allows for instant head crushing.

Whip: The whip uses gore damage, which is similar to a cross between slash and pierce. It can cut off limbs but is more likely to slice up organs and cause extreme pain and bleeding. A few hits will generally render an opponent unconscious and perhaps even badly injured enough to eventually bleed to death. However, the whip is a slow outright killer, sometimes needing dozens of blows to actually finish its target.

Bow (and arrows): Arrows are much like spears, because of their piercing damage and all the benefits it has. The benefits it has however are its range and its ability to target multiple enemies. They are most effective against organic targets. You, unfortunately, are organic, which makes archers one of your biggest problems.

== Non-weapon tactics ==

Besides your weapons you have two other major forms of attack: Wrestling and throwing.

Wrestling: Wrestling can be preformed by standing next to an enemy and pressing (Shift+a) and then (enter) to switch to wrestling. You can wrestle any enemy, however things such as wolves, bears and big cats do not allow you to perform the more advanced moves. After catching hold of a body part you can perform a lock, which allows you to further sprain, break or cripple an opponent. With a free hand you can perform even more advanced moves, such as gouging out eyes or stealing weapons. To gouge eyes grab a head with an open hand, to steal a weapon, grab the weapon and then check your inventory with (Shift+I). press the button corresponding to the weapon and then press a to gain possession of it.

One of the best tactics for fighting high level weapon masters is to either break his weapon hand or to steal his weapon, essentially making him no more dangerous then a normal peasant.

Throwing: Throwing is the skill of…well basically throwing shit. And vomit. And bugs and spears and rocks so on. Just about anything can be thrown, sometimes with devastating results. While it seems like weapons (and arrows) tend to be more reliable in their damage causing abilities when thrown, just about anything can potentially be lethal. Picking up a worm and hucking it right through a dragon’s skull is not only possible, but has been done on multiple occasions. A warrior with a high throw skill is often times more dangerous with an arrow then a trained archer is.

=== Wounds ===
You or your enemy are going to get hurt in the course of your adventures and its pretty useful to know exactly what’s happening when you are. Here’s a quick guide to the various aspects of wounds.

== Wound indicators ==
Wounds come in several colors and are indicated on the status screen (press z to see your own status screen while pressing (l) to look at your enemy’s). The status screen will list your body parts in different colors to indicate how damaged they are.
White-unhurt and feeling fine

Light gray-slightly damaged, think a nasty scrape or cut.

Brownish yellow-moderately damaged, such as a mild sprain or the like

Yellow-Broken. Applied to joints it means literally broken, while applied to upper and lower body it generally means organ damage.

Red-Badly damaged. If you got this then chances are you’re in bad shape. Severely broken bones or ruptured organs. If this status is effecting anything even remotely vital you’re more then likely on your way to the grave.

Gray-lopped off or cut out. This is when you completely lose a body part. Effects include massive pain and bleeding along with ruining your promising juggling career.

== Wound effects ==
Hands-damage to the fingers or wrists can cause you to drop your held items, but usually only with yellow level damage. Losing a hand entirely gives you a serious handicap, which will more then likely lead to fun in the future.

Feet-Causes slowed movement and falling. If removed can cause permanent slowed movement. Removing both can cause a continuous on ground effect.

Legs-similar to feet, though often has increased bleeding and pain effects. Loss of one will usually result in death by bleed out. Even if you survive you’re more then likely on your way to death. Severed legs do make a lovely club though.

Arms- Damage to almost any part of the arm can cause items to be dropped. Loss of an arm is perhaps even worse then the loss of a leg, due to the loss of weapon and wrestling capabilities. Loss of both arms is both tragic and hilarious.

Head-Contains the brain, ears, mouth, nose, eyes and throat. Ears, nose and mouth are officially useless and can be cut off in an effort to appear cool. The brain, eyes and throat are however less disposable. Damage to the eyes results in loss of vision, permanent if the eyes are removed, and terrible pain. Its usually not possible to bleed to death from the loss of the eyes though. The throat is highly sensitive and damage causes both extreme bleeding and suffocation effects. The brain is the most important thing you’ve got and damage to it is an almost instant death. Any wound it receives will more then likely cause instant unconsciousness and severe bleeding.

Upper body. Contains the heart, lungs, upper spine and liver and kidneys. Both the kidneys and liver have similar effects, namely heavy bleeding and pain upon injury. The spine causes nervous system damage, which can have several, sometimes permanent effects. The lungs control breathing, so piercing them can cause suffocation. The heart is the main organ of the circulatory system and damage to it is almost always fatal through bleeding.

Lower body: Contains various organs like the stomach and spleen, all of which have the same effect of bleeding, pain and nausea. Nausea leads to vomiting, which make the wounded creature unable to attack. There is also the lower spine which has similar effects to the upper spine.

== Attack types and their wounds ==
Pierce-dangerous to organic creatures, you included. Often times objects with the pierce effect will become lodged in their target. Removing the weapon from its lodged position causes both increased pain and bleeding but often times can alleviate certain symptoms the piercing has caused.

Bludgeon: Breaks bones and cripples joints. Generally less dangerous to the internal organs then other damage. The danger comes from its ability to incapacitate you and then turn your head to mush.

Slash: Dangerous for its ability to sever limbs and cause bleeding. Beware its habit of decapitation.

Gore: Shreds internal organs, causing all sorts of nasty side effects. Almost worthless on non-organic enemies but can cause severe problems for you living sorts.

== Dealing with wounds ==
In adventure mode your wounds will heal if you travel (shift + t) and they’ll recover just about anything except a lopped off limb. If you can’t travel the best thing to do is try and run from battle if you’re badly wounded, since running will give you time to stop bleeding and suppress the pain. Beware dropping your weapon and make sure to pick it up before you make a run for it. If an arrow strikes you in the chest its best to leave it there while an arrow to the extremities can be removed.

=== <s>Living Shields</s> Companions ===

If you recruit some new members to your party, you'll not only gain extra damage output, you'll also have someone else to take the damage instead of you!

When you first start out, the easiest <s>human shields</s> friends to recruit are the drunks. They are found in human towns inside the [[tavern]] with the [[Mayor]] (the building you start in if you play a human). They will gladly come with you and block some blows for you. Drunks will usually attempt low-skill [[wrestling]] and (mostly) damage-less punches. Don't expect them to last long when you meet that [[Giant]] you are supposed to kill. Drunks are much rarer in the current version of the game, so it's unlikely that you'll find one.

To recruit someone into your party, press tal{{k|k}}, move the cursor over them, and press {{k|enter}}. Then in the conversation that follows, simply pick 'Join' from the list of options to ask them to accompany you. [[Children]], the Mayor, and [[Guard]]s don't want any part of this silly adventuring malarkey, but the occasional peasant will be bored enough to join you.

More detailed searches of towns of various races can yield other adventurers with some actual skills. The generally have a single weapon skill ([[Maceman]], [[Swordsman]], [[Spearman]] and so on) and some armor appropriate to the wealth of the town they were occupying. You will also find Guards around towns, and while they are combat-capable they will not shirk their duty in order to accompany you on your adventures.

Some otherwise eligible companions may rebuff your offer of becoming a living shield for one of the following reasons:

If the prospective meat shield considers himself more skilled than you are, he may rebuff you with, "Ha! Such enthusiasm from one such as yourself."
This can be remedied by training your skills until he judges you a bit more skillful than he is.

Another reason for someone to refuse to die protecting you is that you already have the maximum of 12 companions, and they will rebuff you by asking, "With a band so large, what share of the glory would I have?"
But look at it this way, at least your total party size is 13 when you count yourself! Now that's lucky!

Another possiblity is to asked your old, retired adventurers for help. They'll never say no unless your party is too big and they should be pretty capible since you trained them.

=== The Perils of the Wild ===
You’ll face many creatures on your travels, several mega and semi-mega bests included if you’re taking quests. Heres a quick look at the more dangerous beasts (sentient or not) that you’ll meet.

== The Mega and Semi-mega beasts and the sentient races ==

Bronze Colossus: Probably one of the hardest beasts to combat due to its massive strength, impressive natural armor and complete ignorance of pain, fear and bleeding. Bronze Colossi are basically walking, dwarf crushing statues that will never stop unless beheaded or outright obliterated. They have no organs and do not bleed, making them impossible to knock unconscious. Their immense strength makes them unlikely to give in to wrestling moves (though if you can manage to lock and break a limb it will snap off rather then just becoming useless.) Because of these resistances all you can really do is hack / shoot and hope that it dies before you do.

Dragon: The main danger of these beasts is their massive fire breath, which can consume dozens of spaces. A high block still is recommended before you fight them. A spear is a great weapon here, as it allows you to potentially knock them unconscious within a few turns. Arrows are also good, though staying at a distance can be dangerous because of the fire breath. Beware their bite, as it can cause major damage.

Hydra: a joke really, as It seems to lack the regenerative powers of its mythological cousin. It has 7 heads, but damage to one is as serious as damaging the head of a one headed beast. More then likely you’ll have it unconscious in a few turns regardless of what you use.

Titan: basically an organic bronze colossus. It is essentially a larger, stronger human, with all the weaknesses being the same. Piercing and goring damage can quickly weaken and incapacitate these beasts, but keep an eye out for its wrestling, which can cause some bad joint damage.

Cyclops: A weaker, smaller titan with one eye. Eye+arrow=win

Ettin: A two headed giant. Basically a stronger human, usually unarmed. Just hack it until it dies.

Giant: Just a giant human like thing. Stab it in the neck or break its limbs for massive damage.

Minotaur: Only thing really dangerous about this guy is his horns. Pretty good wrestler but nothing that should give a reasonably prepared adventurer any problems.

Humans: Should you wander into battle against a human force its in your best interest to disable their archers first. The only real danger humans have is their numbers and their use of items. Disarming or crippling dangerous guards or weapon maters is highly recommended, since as soon as they are weaponless they are essentially as good as dead.

Elves: They have wooden equipment, making them laughable most of the time. Once again, the only real threat is their archers and even then they are less dangerous then humans. Elves are generally known for being annoying dicks so its recommended that you slaughter the lot. If you are an elf its recommended that you have tons of fun.

Dwarves: Their advantage is their steel weaponry and crossbows. Their disadvantage is that their mountain homes are generally so large that you’ll only rarely fight more then one or two. Disable their weapon masters and archers then throw their own axes at them. Juggle their heads in front of their children.

Goblins: Like weaker dwarves, with less armor and less skill. They have a feeble sense of morals, meaning that they will only sometimes attack you after you hurt one of their friends. You can basically cleave right through them with ease.

== Other Humanoids == These are creatures that in shape resemble something human, but have no society.

Antman: A half man half ant hybrid which lives in chasms. They have higher natural armor then a man, but rarely use tools. As long as you’re armed they should pose no problem.

Batman: Half man, half bat that lives in caves and chasms. They can fly and use weapons, though they rarely do. Attacks with punches and bites; the bites are the most potentially damaging because they cause gore damage. He is the night.

Blizzard man: Frosty’s asshole brother. Blizzard men are creatures of pure ice that strangely still have organs. They can bite and punch, with biting doing the most damage. They will melt in normal temperatures so they are only found in freezing areas.

Dark gnome: Mischievous mountain folk who enjoy hard liquor. They‘re basically dwarfs but smaller and no where near as dangerous. Its rare that you’ll even find them, but if you do they should pose no threat to you. They punch and bite but neither is noticeable.

Fire Imp: Little gremlin like things that are either constantly on fire or made of fire. They’re found only in subterranean lava pits, meaning that you’ll have to go searching for them if you’re ever gonna see one. They only bite (does burn damage rather then gore), but their real danger comes from their ability to set you on fire. Ranged combat is recommended, though darting forward, attacking and then jumping away might be effective if you have no other choice. They can also breathe fire at you though, so its again recommended to stay back.

Firemen: Like the fire imps, but better. They have the bronze colossus syndrome of having no organs, not bleeding, feeling pain or being able to have weapons stuck in them. They too can set you ablaze, but they’re much harder to kill before they do it. Bludgeoning can break and hence sever their limbs. Recommended that you fight from a distance. Luckily these things only live in underground lava, so you’ll never find them without going into very specific places.

Frogman: No not those things Race Banon was always killing, but half man half frogs that live in underground water. They can’t equip weapons and are very small, making them almost completely non-threatening.

Iron man: Millionaire Tony Stark puts on his…oops wrong one. Ironmen are like firemen but less dangerous because they aren’t on fire. They are basically smaller, less dangerous Bronze Colossi. When killed they leave a valuable iron statue. They appear only in chasms.

Leechman: Half man, Half leech, all sexy. They have no bones, but curiously do have arms (but no legs). They can suck blood, but considering they have no bones and every blow will almost always strike a vital organ its a lot more likely that blood will be coming out of it then you.

Lizardman: Half man, half lizard; lives in underground water. Punches and bites along with the ability to use items. Similar to many of the other half breeds, but with one notable exception. He’s a lizard.

Magma man: A man made of pure magma. Everything about this guy is the exact same as the fire man, with the exception that he can’t breathe fire. This makes him less dangerous at a distance. Stay back and throw stuff at him.

Merpersons: Tiny little mermaids and mermen. Not dangerous at all, and relatively rare to boot. They can equip items but you’ll probably never see one anyway.

Mountain Gnome: The same as a Dark Gnome, but less evil. Same things apply here.

Mud man: Like Ironman but made of mud. Can’t equip items and only has a weak punch as a form of attack, making it about as threatening as a mudpie. Lives in underground water.

Orge: The middle ground between giant and human. Their punches and bites do a surprisingly small amount of damage, though they can use weapons. As with any big, organic moron its recommended to try and damage their organs to quickly incapacitate and kill them. Piercing damage is very useful.

Olmman: Half man, half blind cave salamander. Think Golum but even more messed up and without eyes. Their bites are surprisingly strong. Found only in subterranean water and even then only rarely. (personal note: Olms are pretty damn awesome things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olm) they’re even on the money in one country.)

Ratman: Seems to attack with 4 turtle men cronies, who are surprisingly good warriors. But seriously, they’re about as weak as actual rats. They only come from chasms so don’t worry about them too much.

Slugman: Do I even have to say? it’s a dang slug man, do you think its dangerous? Its not. Just stab it in its deformed face.

Snail man: Think slug man, but with a shell that doesn’t actually offer any protection.

Snakemen: The only real threat these guys pose is their ability to inject poison by biting. If it does bite you its your best bet to try and quickly kill the snake man before his poison takes effect, since it can incapacitate you.

Troglodyte: Small, reptilian creatures that live underground. Not dangerous unless they attack in swarms and even then they are easily beaten by even a novice adventurer. Use organic combating techniques to deal with them.

Troll: There’s no real difference between this thing and an orge. Kill them both the same way.

Werewolf: Or wolfman. Attacks alone and only bites with a goring attack. Bite can be dangerous but the fact that there is only one of him makes it a lot easier to fight. Fun to wrestle for experience.

== Wildlife == Here’s the rundown of all the mundane beasties that you’ll run into

Beak dog: Basically what happens when parrot gets combined with Velociraptors. They’re a little smaller then a man but quick and use their beaks and claws effectively. Try not to get caught in the center of a group of them, backpedal and cut them down as they give chase.

Black Bear: These will only ambush you one on one, and given their relative small size and forgettable strength they should pose little threat unless you’re completely unskilled and unarmed. Because there’s only one they can be useful for wrestling practice since you can focus all your attention on them.

Bonobo: I’ve never seen one myself, though I’ve been told they’re ape like things. Considering their squishy organs it would be best to stab them in the groin.

Camel: Its…a camel. You’ll probably never see one.

Carp: BEHOLD, FOR ARMOK BREATHED LIFE INTO THE VERY ROCKS IN THE RIVERS AND COMMANDED THEM TO GO FORTH AND MUTALATE RANDOM PASSERS BY. TO HIS DWARVEN FOLLOWERS HE EXPLAINED IT THUS, “FUCK YOU”-the tome of Armok, chapter 2. In all seriousness though, while they may be freaking fresh water sharks in the fortress mode, carp aren’t too dangerous in adventure mode. Their biggest advantage is their environment, being water which you can not breathe.
Cat: IT’S A KITTY! Anyways, you’ll almost always have too many of these things in fortress and you’ll never see them in adventure. Even if you did, what would you do with them? You wouldn’t hurt them would you? Fucking Nazi.

Cougar: Like a kitty, but bigger. Cougars are good wrestling practice and good shield training as well, what with the fact that Cougars suck so hard. If you get killed by this thing it was either insanely lucky or you have no arms.

Cow: It’s a cow. Kill it for free hamburgers. I’m actually not even sure if you can find the dang things in adventure mode.

Deer: You might see these running away from you in the woods. They’re harmless but good wrestling practice if you feel like strangling a defenseless animal.

Dog: WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF I’ve never seen one of these in adventure mode, but its pretty obvious what they are huh?

Donkey: Pulls wagons and things like that. You might see one but its not really worth attacking them.

Elephants: In prior versions elephants were murderous berserkers, but thankfully they’ve been made a little more realistic. They’re just as big and strong as you’d expect, but won’t bother you unless you walk up and stab’em a few times. Reasonably dangerous, so don’t poke them unless you’re ready.

Elk: Much like deer, though a little bigger and usually solitary

Fox: Another small animal that you’ll most likely never see. If you do however, its proper to light them on fire and scream “YIFF IN HELL”.

Giant bat: Bigger then a minotaur and more dangerous at times. Often encountered in low visibility areas where they can take you by surprise. Its best to avoid caves until you’re confidant in your blocking and combat skills.

Giant Cave Spiders: You’ll only rarely encounter these, because of their limited environment. You’ll know they’re near from the webs which hang around their homes. They are NOT to be meddled with. First and foremost, they do not feel pain and will never stop unless killed. Their high number of legs makes it likely that you’ll pointlessly hack away at the limbs while the mouth bites your head in half. Beyond these aspects the spider uses poison and sticky webs to ensnare you. Your best bet is to throw/ shoot it from a distance. If you can’t do that, use other piercing or goring weapons to damage its organs. Despite its ignorance toward pain, it still bleeds like any other animal, so a pierced heart is very effective.

Giant cave swallow: Pretty much harmless things, just big birds. If they harass you, break their wings and strangle them to death for wrestling points.

Giant Eagle: A major problem in fortress mode is little more then a pesky annoyance in adventure mode. If they are giving you trouble though, attempt to wrestle and break one of their wings. This should ground them and make them a much easier target.

Grizzly Bear: A little bigger then the Black Bear, though basically the same. Good for both wrestle and shield points. If they’re really giving you a hard time try catching both hands and its throat. This should not only make it impossible for it to attack, but also give you wrestle points.

Groundhog: Little rodent thingies. Zombie ground hogs are useful to strangle for wrestling experience. Besides that they’re only really good as golf balls for your putter (read Morningstar)

Hoary Marmot: A tiny forest dwelling creature. As harmless as it is delicious.
Horse: A beast of burden sometimes seen in human towns. They have an odd habit of going rouge and kicking children to death. Not to mention they’re some how smart enough to pull crossbow bolts out of their own legs. May cause random insanity if they attack a influential citizen.

Naked mole dog: Think enormous naked mole rat. Unless you’re both unarmed and unskilled these things are basically very bleedy shrubbery to hack your way through.

Mountain Goat: it’s a goat, that lives in the mountains. Likes to kill goblins and its not uncommon to find a few legends about goblin slaying goats. (On a personal note, I once found a goat named Bonecrusher or something like that, which only had one leg. One leg and 7 kills, including a Swordmaster. Don’t fuck with that goat)

Mule: Like a horse, but more inbred. Chances are you’ll never see them.

Musk Ox: Beasts of burden used by elves. Another thing you won’t see.

Pike: The fish, not the weapon. They’re nothing close to the carp and should be little more then particularly squishy speed bumps to you.

Raccoon: Forest rodents that you’ll never see. Make a nifty hat.

Rhesus Macaque :A nettlesome trickster in fortress mode, they are almost never seen in adventure mode. Even if you see them they’re very skittish and a single blow will send them running. Give’em a good strangle if you can catch one.

Unicorn: The random homicidal tendencies of the horse mixed with a dash of magic and a horn. They’re very aggressive for some reason, though not too hard to bring down. Watch out for that horn and stay away until you’re at least competent.

Whale: Big aquatic beast. Not dangerous unless in skeletal mode.

Wolf: And last but not least, the humble and numerous wolf. This is what is gonna be attacking you from now till forever. They’re dangerous the first few ambushes, but they quickly become nothing but barely noticed time wasters. Great for training up armor and shield, as they attack in packs and hence hit you many times, often with no effect. Early on, just be careful not to get caught in the middle of a pack and you’ll be fine.

== Modifiers ==
Zombie: Zombie animals are just like their normal counterparts, with a few major exceptions. Firstly, they are no longer effected by pain or bleeding and their organs no longer matter. They are also much slower. This combination of increased difficulty in killing and decreased speed about evens out their threat level. Not too dangerous, unless the creature they’re based on is already strong.

Skeletal: All of the advantages of Zombie with none of the bad effects. Skeletal creatures are all immune to pain and do not bleed, but they remain just as quick as their living counterparts. Large skeletal beasts, such as dragons or whales are truly a terror to face.
[size=3]

=== Avoid the impossible ===
Some things are harder than others. Decide for yourself if this is due to unbalancing of the game, realism or simply to add to the variety of challenges.

==== [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelob Shelob]'s in-laws, aka Giant Cave Spiders ====
Unless you are a legendary or better (ok, its not possible to go beyond legendary..) bow-/crossbowman, you should at all costs AVOID giant cave spiders (Unless, of course, you enjoy [[Fun]])!! They shoot a web at you, making you immobilized while they rip your limbs off one by one. Then when you finally break free from the web, and can attack again, you've probably lost your arms while lying on the floor and the spider is about to throw you by your head up into the roof. Cave Spiders bleed to death eventually, but they know no fear nor pain, meaning they will not black out even if you manage to inflict serious damage including severed limbs. They are also capable of surviving red-level wounds to the body and legs and multiple severed limbs for long enough to eviscerate an adventurer. Leave these for the living shields to deal with while you slip out the other way, ideally from the cave entirely, never to return.

Even if you are a legendary projectile weapon user, reconsider attacking a giant cave spider because in the tight quarters of a cave you might be shooting it from stealth when a giant rat or something similarly stupid walks next to you and triggers your loss of cover. The spider would then punish your arrogance immensely.

''Note'': If absolutely required they ARE killable, but you need luck, and lots of it. Adept swordsman + Proficient [[shield]] user + Skilled ambusher manages to sneak up on it and then counterstrike + block does the job. In a suicide swordsman test run I had dethoraxation (decapitation for spiders) = instakill on the first counterstrike, second GCS got a mortal wound before it webbed me and bled to death while trying to chew through me, only broke sword wielding hand and leg. Third spider broke my shield hand and had me mortally wounded in no time after that, although I eventually killed it after unwebbing myself. That makes it ~2.5/3 chances to win, not bad for a rookie. And I was healed after each successful spider kill.

''To conclude'': Basically, as long as your shield wielding hand is intact (and shield skill is high of course) you have pretty good chances of survival in 1 on 1, otherwise you're dead. Any extra armor (in my case exceptional full plate + normal armor skill) also helps in glancing off their bites.

Another interesting thing is that before fighting one of them I threw a spear at it and it lodged in the wound, and it seems that the spider has a priority to break my grip as it repeatedly successfully broke my grip every time(that happened ~5-6 times in a row) I grabbed the lodged spear. That points to a possible distraction for a GCS in case of soloing it.

==== Arrows ====
Don't take on quests where you need to kill elite bow-/crossbowmen! Generally, avoid flying arrows! Why? Because bow/crossbowmen have the tendency to see farther than you can. They are therefore able to fire at you from beyond your sight, making it hard to see where the arrow(s) are coming from. You may therefor end up chasing the shooter in the wrong direction, giving the shooter even MORE time to turn you into a pin-cushion. Of course, this is only the case if you manage to survive the first 3-4 arrows, because arrows are BAD for anyone but the shooter's health. Piercing hits like arrows are much more likely to damage internal organs, and while you might shrug off a moderate blunt hit to the chest a similar piercing hit could directly damage one or both lungs or your heart and instantly kill you.

One extremely useful survival tip is to immediately drop prone (with the s key) as soon as you notice you are being shot at. Prone targets move more slowly, but seem to be much harder to hit with ranged attacks than standing ones. This is also worth noting to avoid wasting ammunition on fallen targets.

Another solid solution is to get behind something as quickly as possible and try sneaking. Even when caught in the open cover as flimsy as a single tree may be sufficient to begin sneaking. Sneaking around trees can also sometimes act as a compass for determining the direction of the shooter. By checking when and where sneaking is possible, the approach vector of any given observer or close cluster of observers can be extrapolated.

Finally, since archers are generally sentient, most (besides mayors) can be killed in their sleep.

If you do accept a quest against an elite bowman or crossbowman and manage to reach melee range, immediately grapple its weapon, ideally by dropping yours and pulling the weapon out of its grasp entirely before throwing it away.

=== Training yourself ===
Gaining stats ([[Attributes|strength, agility, toughness]]) helps a lot when fighting. How to best train yourself?

==== Throwing ====
To find rocks simply hit {{k|l}} and look at any rock coulored tiles some of these will be simply called by the rock name (e.g. [[limestone]]) and cannot be picked up but some will be called pebbles. Rocks are practically free ammo. When you find a tile with [[pebbles]], pick up a lot of them (there are infinite rocks), and start throwing them. You can simply throw them at the tile you are standing at. Every throw will gain you 30 points toward the skill "Throwing", and will after a while increase your stats (Strength, agility, toughness). You will need to throw 600 rocks to reach legendary Thrower (starting with no skill).

For best efficiency, drop all of your gear (including held but not worn items) and empty out your backpack near your throwing location. This is done in order to keep your inventory simple for the rock-throwing portion. Then pick up a ton of rocks by pressing {{k|g}}-{{k|a}} over and over- ideally one would pick up 600 rocks at a single time, but you will probably get bored before then. Then, mash {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} over and over until all of your rocks are thrown back at the floor. If you are not a legendary Thrower after this, repeat. Afterwards, remember to pick up your gear and re-fill your backpack.

''Alternate way'' : It could be difficult to repeat the {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} sequence without making mistake. So you can just alternate {{k|t}}-{{k|enter}} quickly : The first {{k|t}} will open the inventory, the second will chose the rock which is in "t" position, and {{k|enter}} will throw it. In the same fashion, when collecting rock, prefer a tile where the rock is on "b" position : If you quickly alternate {{k|g}} and {{k|a}}, sometime you will open the [a]nnouncement panel, which will slow you down. Another solution to this is to switch the ''pick up'' and ''announcements'' keys, so you can press {{k|a}} to pick up an item and {{k|a}} to pick up rock.

Thrown objects are also a cheap way to injure enemies before they reach you if you are a melee fighter.

You can also throw other stuff you find, like flies, beetles, worms, and even vomit or [[sand]]. If you have a tendency to chop off enemy limbs, you can even throw these limbs. Killing zombies with their companion's severed heads and feet is always good for a laugh. [[iron_man|Iron men]] are fun, because they leave behind a nice [[statue]] for the taking which can be thrown. Arrows and weapons seem to be particularly deadly when thrown because they deal the same damage as they would in melee, including piercing or slashing damage type, but even the most innocuous or silly items can come up with a kill.

Most thrown objects deal blunt type damage, so they will break and bruise limbs, but arrows and weapons can deal their normal damage types. This is particularly useful to consider when trying for a desperate one-shot kill on a [[Giant Cave Spider]] that's about to web you and shred you into little chunks, as piercing attacks like thrown arrows and [[spear]]s damage internal organs (making them more likely to get a one-hit kill, as an enemy can live through having the outside of their head moderately damaged but not from having the same amount of damage done to their brain) and thrown axes or swords can sever body parts and leave deep gashes (leading to massive bleeding or slit throats).

==== Bow/Crossbow-skill ====
This skill trains in the same fashion as throwing. You gain skill per shot, not per hit. This is a more expensive skill to train than throwing because you need to buy (or find) arrows/bolts, but is also a much more deadly skill. Fired projectiles do much more damage than thrown ones, and are also piercing type weapons which can do crippling damage to internal organs. The majority of thrown weapons are blunt and will do much more superficial bruising and bone-breaking damage- at best, a lucky hit will break someone's spine or damage internal organs to a small degree. Shooting arrows at enemies is fun, because it is very efficient and will destroy enemies quite easily.

Sadly, this also goes for enemy bow/crossbowmen. You will often be shot in the leg and crippled by an enemy you can't even see, who will then proceed to shoot you in the face until you die - which won't be very long afterwards unless you manage to find something to hide behind. This is somewhat avoidable - train in sneaking to avoid being seen by enemies that could otherwise perforate your skin, and get a good shield and armor to better keep arrows. (See below for both skills).

Make sure to take extra <s>meat shields</s> companions along with you if you're planning on using ranged weapons, it'll take time before you level the appropriate skill to bash things with your weapon in melee so it's imperative you stay out of the fighting till then. Drunks are particularly useful here, as they love to dive on things and collapse into a massive wrestling pile which you can take pot-shots at. Don't worry, you can't hit your guys. Not that you'd care.

==== Wrestling ====
Since melee weapon skills are hard train because not every hit gives points towards the skill, why not train your [[wrestling]]? When you are alone with a unconscious enemy, why not break some limbs before finishing it off? Monsters often try to break your arms and legs, so having a bit of skill in wrestling will help break those locks a lot, and breaking that legendary swordsmans sword hand at the beginning of the fight will make him laughably weak. Also, training wrestling is a quicker way to better stats (strength, agility, toughness) because gain points per move instead of per "hit". Wrestling also handles dodging skill which is very handy to have.

A good way to train wrestling is to find an undead region on the map- preferably Sinister if you remember the map layout from Fortress Mode. Obtain a pack of zombie herbivores therein, preferably of small size- do not attempt this with zombie [[elephants]]. Slaughter every zombie in the vicinity of this pack of herbivores but the one that you think is the most crippled, making sure to pick one with a throat to leave alive.

Press {{k|c}} and change your combat preferences from Strike to Close Combat. This means that your default attack when you press towards an enemy to making a random wrestling move, or the continuation (joint lock, break) or (strangle) if you have a break/strangle-able area held.

Then, walk over, and grab the zombie's neck (yes, with your weapon or shield- it is quite optional to drop what you're holding) and begin strangulation by holding the direction the zombie is strangling in. You will make several strangles per second and gain approximately 15 XP (tentative measure) per strangulation. Zombies cannot die from this, so you will earn enough XP to become legendary within a few minutes.

When your character becomes tired, break off from strangling and walk it off- you become less tired by ambling about aimlessly. If you become too hungry or thirsty to continue, just run away or destroy the zombie, {{k|T}}ravel, and then repeat after moving a square and back.

This can also be done at ruins, but you run the risk of weapon-carrying enemies and especially weaponmaster quest-zombies. In an undead ruin, there are also far, far more monsters in the area compared to hunting down a pack of undead animals.

Alternatively, wait until nightfall, and wrestle a sleeping enemy. Sleeping enemies are unconscious, and cannot detect you if you sneak. The autocombat will cause your adventurer to break limbs, grab and release bits of clothing, and other nonlethal attacks. Occasionally random chance will cause a chokehold; simply step back a tile and then resume. In this manner, you can train wrestling extremely quickly without the dangers of wandering in an undead zone.

Yet another alternative is presented by fish. No harmful wrestling moves can be performed on them so cornering a carp, tigerfish, or milkfish will raise wrestling quickly, while training swimming. Avoid hippopotamus infested waters.

A final option presents itself when exploring caves, there are many weak enemies to be found here, choose one (say a ratman) and walk up to it, grabbing it perform a takedown. Before it can stand up grab its arm and try to break it, as soon as it gets up perform another takedown, continue to break all the joints in both of your <s>toy's</s> <s>victim's</s> opponent's arms and then move on to legs, finally gouge out its eyes and begin strangling it to death. This gives you plenty of wrestling exp with very little risk as the enemy will only get in one or two strikes before being taken down after which it will prioritize standing back up.

==== Swimming ====
Having no swimming skill in Adventure Mode is not a particularly good thing if you intend to go near water. Anyone with no swimming skill who falls or is pulled/pushed into water will begin to drown immediately if it is over 4/7 deep, and will also be unable to climb out of water this deep - usually resulting in instant death.

To voluntarily jump into a pond or [[river]] you have to {{k|Alt}}-move off the edge of the land. This will present you with a choice of walking out into the open space above the water (immediately and unsurprisingly followed by a one-story fall) or moving directly into the water. To get back out, {{k|Alt}}-move into the riverbank/pond edge.

As long as you have at least some Swimming skill, you will be able to move around in deeper water and will gain Swimming skill for every tile you move. Without Swimming, you will have to find depth 4 water to voluntarily paddle about in with your water wings on for your first skill points. Any deeper and you'll start to drown, any shallower and you can't swim in it. Hit {{k|m}} to set your swimming options.

Another option is to find a body of water with a ramp into it. Walk down the ramp into the water, which will cause you to start "drowning". However, you can simply walk back out after 10 turns or so to stop drowning, and you will have gained some swimming skill. Repeat until you reach novice skill. If you don't have an abandoned fortress set up for this, slopes into water can be found at ocean beaches.

All in all this makes Novice Swimming an excellent starting skill, as you can (eventually) get Legendary skill simply by swimming back and forth in two squares of water and get lots of stat points in the process. However, this is mind-numbingly dull so good luck with that. One should also keep in mind that water in cooler areas may suddenly freeze when the sun starts to go down, and thus instantly kill any creatures within. As such, it's a good idea to do your training laps somewhere warm.

It also seems that you are not able to move out of water of less than (7/7) onto the river bank. In addition, while you are swimming, you can not move to the travel map! You must first leave the water.

You can crosstrain Ambushing while Swimming to save time- if you start with no Ambushing and Novice Swimming, you will be an Accomplished or Expert Ambusher, give or take, by the time you are a Legendary Swimmer. For more on Ambushing, see below. You can also crosstrain melee skills with swimming by picking a river and swimming down it, training Ambush when it's quiet and training melee when it's not. Some rivers have very high densities of fish, giving you lots of targets to hit. They will tend to gather up, bumping into and slowing each other down ahead of you for you to kill and an adventurer will be all but invincible against non-sturgeons after a few statgains. Just remember that Hippos have the right of way.

NOTE: Water does NOT currently cleanse fire, if you are burning, jumping into a pool of water will not save you

==== Ambushing ====
The Ambusher skill is the parent to the {{k|S}}neak ability, which makes you character move more slowly and stealthily to avoid being noticed. Sneak cannot be activated if an enemy can currently see you, but you can use it immediately if you break line of sight somehow. Sneaking around will increase your Ambusher skill even if nobody is around to see you.

Unfortunately, the best way to train Ambushing is to start sneaking and just hold a direction to run, until you've run 18,000 squares (assuming you started with no skill). This takes a long time, so you may wish to train sneaking just by sneaking whenever possible while playing the game normally in order to avoid boredom.

Sneaking is particularly useful for avoiding ranged attacks, as even Novice skill allows you to get within four or five squares of an enemy before they spot you reliably. It is relatively easy at normal levels of skill to stand anywhere but right next to an enemy and not be spotted for a long time, if ever. However, standing next to sombody without them spotting you is difficult even with legendary skill. However, even if they spot you moving next to them they will only get one shot at you which is a lot better than the hundreds they would have had if you'd been blundering around in the dark too far away to even see them when they opened fire.

If you are far faster than the enemy you can sometimes swoop in, attack, and back off to 1-square distance where you are less visible. Sometimes they will spot you, but other times you can literally slice off the opponent's leg and retreat to a safe distance. This may occur because enemies can only make checks to see if you are sneaking during their own turns, and a very fast (2000+ speed) player can run in, stab them, and retreat to a safe distance before their turn comes up.

The skill also has a valuable part to play in the noble art of running away. As long as you can get out of sight of all the enemies after you at once - such as around a corner indoors, or ducking behind a tree outside - you can start sneaking and head off in another direction. If your skill is too low however the enemies might be close enough to see you as soon as you try to sneak off.

The most useful part of sneaking is undoubtedly the 'stealth throw'. While firing a missile weapon or attacking in melee will get you noticed immediately, throwing things at people will not. Stock up on dead enemies' weapons, clothing and severed body parts and you can pretend you're some gruesome comedy version of Sam Fisher. You know you want to.

==== Armor and Shield Use ====

Armor User lets you wear heavy armor without slowing down, and might control the passive block rate of armor - a very useful skill, if true, because it controls how often your shiny full plate suit will actually work.

Shield User helps the block roll you make when you are attacked. A Legendary Shield User is far, far more capable of taking on enemies, especially projectile-based weaponmasters whose bolts and arrows are blockable with a shield to a far greater degree than with one's torso, so it is worthwhile to train these two skills.

Normally, you gain 10 Shield User XP per time you block an attack with a shield, and 2 Armor User XP per time you are attacked while wearing armor. This means that to gain the 18,000 XP necessary for legendary, you must block 1800 strikes, and be attacked at least 9000 times. Naturally, this could take some time- time in which a low-skill adventurer may die from attacks by worthy opponents.

However, a useful shortcut exists- if you find a small zombie herbavore to strangle in the above wrestling training method, you can also (if it is a small and non-dangerous animal such as a zombie [[groundhog]]) {{k|s}}it down next to it (to minimize your own speed and thus get attacked more often) and hold {{k|5}} to sit down next to the animal and block its attacks over and over. This is still slow, but leagues faster than waiting to train while fighting- it also means that you are probably not in any danger assuming you picked a sufficiently pathetic type of animal.

Warnings- Make sure that you have your {{k|c}}ombat preference set to Close Combat, otherwise you may counterstrike and kill the zombie. This way, you will wrestle it during a counterstrike instead of doing something that may actually hurt it such as counterstriking with your weapon.

It is probably also preferable to start with a modicum of skill in Armor and Shield using to make sure you don't accidentally get instakilled or crippled and are good at blocking with your shield to gain XP fast. You'll also want to have non-crappy armor and a good shield or two (dual wielding shields may increase your ability to block) to maximize your ability to block and to make sure you are taking as little as possible damage, if any at all, during training.

=== Exploration ===
== Basic exploration tips ==
When traveling it’s a good idea to avoid evil areas until you’re reasonably powerful, as they tend to contain stronger enemies. Also avoid caves for this same reason, you never know when a dragon is lurking in the shadows. Remember that only human towns have shops, so don’t die of hunger wandering the dwarves mountain homes looking for that allusive Applebees. Water can be had from rivers and stagnant pools, though fast traveling (shift + t) makes thirst and hunger go away. If you are exploring caves, make sure to have some water and food with you, as some can be quite deep.

== Fortress exploration tips. ==
If you’ve abandoned a fortress in the world you’re now adventuring in then you can find that same fortress on the map. Ask townsfolk about the surroundings and eventually they’ll mention the fortress and its direction. From there you need only to follow the directions till the fortress shows up on your map.
The perils of fortress exploration
If your fortress was abandoned or destroyed their’s more then likely a reason why. Be it magma overflows, flooding, goblin sieges or perhaps digging a little too deep there are likely to be remnants of your downfall somewhere in the remains. Wild beasts and sentient invaders alike will more then likely be slugging it out in your once grand halls. Beyond this there is the danger of forgetting what lever does what and accidentally flooding the room with lava or collapsing the entrance.
= The advantages of Fortress exploration =
Depending on how advanced your fortress was it may contain extremely rare, powerful or valuables items. Raiding fortresses is the only way to get adamantine items and wafers, as well as the only way to get artifact weapons. Beyond this, you can read the engravings on the walls in order to fill your legends list.

= Preparation =
Whatever destroyed your fortress is what is going to be squatting in it now. If a goblin siege took you down, then prepare to fight some gobbies. If the horrors of the deep raped your little dwarven ass then prepare to fight those. If they drowned then find some waterwings etc. Make sure you’re fully stocked on arrows (if you use them) as well as water and food. Leaving anything you don’t need back in the tavern in town is a good idea too, as it lets you carry more loot.

= Plumbing the Deep =

While wandering the halls of your old fortress its best to secure each floor one by one, to avoid being ambushed. Explore one entire floor then move on to the next. This isn’t a requirement but it can help in finding the best loot as well as insuring against surprise arrow buttsex. If you start to get overburdened with all the loot climb to a secure floor and dump it in a pile. You can come back for it after you’ve finished exploring. Also note that, while traps no longer work, their components (giants blades, spiked balls etc) remain just as lethal in your hands. Also note that you can pick up and throw ballista bolts.

= What to do with all your newly acquired wealth =

Not much I’m afraid. While masterwork adamantine weapons are very useful and the raw chunks of adamantine are extremely valuable there’s nothing to really buy with them. The adamantine weapons you find are the strongest in the game and shops will never sell anything above iron so once you’ve got the weapons there’s pretty much nothing more you need. This will most likely be fixed in up coming versions (perhaps paying a blacksmith to make you weapons).

=== Summary ===
*Avoid flying arrows
*Throw rocks/statues/socks/bugs/sand/coins/arms/heads/swords/arrows/kitchen sinks at enemies that still haven't reached you
*Train your stats before taking on your first quest-monster

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Adventurer mode]]

40d:Adventurer mode

2009-08-13T18:48:34Z

Piecewise:

In '''adventurer mode''', you pick a race ([[dwarf]], [[human]], or [[elf]]) and start out in either a [[Site|town]] of your race or in a previous [[fortress]] you played on. You can receive [[quest]]s, venture into the wilderness to find [[caves]], abandoned towers and other [[Site|villages]]. You can even visit your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] and find whatever riches were left to be guarded by the [[creatures]] that sealed the fate of your [[fortress]].

The user interface differs somewhat from [[fortress mode]]; you may want to refer to the [[Adventure Mode quick reference|quick reference]] guide, or examine the detailed [[controls]] page. [[Site map]] may also prove useful.

== Your first adventure ==

=== Picking a race ===
When it comes to picking a race, there is difference in [[skills]]. [[Dwarves]] cannot wear [[human]] sized [[armor]], and are somewhat limited in the [[weapons]] they can wield due to their size. [[Elves]] have a slightly different set of [[skills]]. [[Humans]] are generally fairly well-balanced, and are the easiest to acquire quests from. Each race fares differently in combat; you may wish to look at the races' pages for the finer details.

=== Choosing skills ===
Basically, if you want to start with a [[weapon]], you need to avoid having the most points spent in unarmored/[[wrestling]]. If you, for example, choose to start out with most points in [[swordsman]], you will start out with a [[sword]]. When you have chosen your preferred set of [[skills]], you can press {{key|Enter}} to embark. The higher the [[skills]] in [[weapons]]/[[armor]] determine the quality of the equipment you start out with.

All the [[skills]] you see CAN be improved through use in game, so don’t worry about spreading them out completely evenly. In general, pick the [[skills]] you think you’re going to use. The [[skills]] are pretty self explanatory but its recommended that you put at least a few points into [[shield]] / [[armor]] and into a type of weapon. Be warned that [[weapon]] [[skills]] generally take a while to level up, so placing a good deal of points into a singe weapon may be to your advantage. Also keep in mind that your skills determine what kind of equipment you have in the beginning, ie high sword skill means you’ll start with a sword. For information on the weapons and the other aspects of combat, please check the combat section. It might also be a good idea to use a point or two for swiming, otherwise you might end up drowning in a puddle.

=== Setting out ===
If you chose human, you will start out inside the Mead hall. You will see the Mayor (purple) as well as the occational townsperson. Press {{key|k}} and talk to the Mayor. Press 'services' for a [[quest]]. You can talk to the Citizens and recruit them to your party for some additional combat aid if they feel like it (note, people with no combat skills are unlikely to follow you, and the major and town guards never will.) If you choose dwarf, you start out in a region just outside the entrance to a given fortress. There is a [[mayor]] or the [[king]] himself inside the fortress.

Be sure to read the [[Adventure Mode quick reference]] or use the help files for more information on the commands in Adventure mode.

=== Survival ===
Congratulations, you’ve created a character and are now about to embark on your fantastic adventure! For now, lets focus on the bare bones of staying alive shall we? First things first, you need food and water. If you’re a human you start with some, but baring that you may need to find a waterskin. These can be bought in human towns, specifically at the shop. DO NOT STEAL THESE OR ANYTHING ELSE. Do not pick anything up and walk outside the store before you trade for it. Why? Because you are currently weak and your neck is currently arrow bait. After getting the water skin, simply find a water source and hit (Shift+I) to interact with the object. Press the letter of the Water skin and you should be able to fill it from the water source. After it’s full press (e)to open the Eat menu and select the water. Food can be acquired from stores eaten in the same way.

Now that you know how to work your mouth we can move on to miscellaneous tips for survival. Firstly, you are very tasty and chances are (unless you’re an elf) the wildlife will soon be attempting to eat your face. A bear or cougar isn’t too much of a problem because there’s only one, the real problem will be wolf packs.
A single wolf is easy to dispatch, but a dozen or so can prove very problematic indeed. Beware large packs until you’ve gained a little experience. Secondly, do not piss off the towns folk, as they tend to have guards. Lastly, beware of taking quests or attempting things before you’re ready, as you will more then likely have tons of [[fun]]
=== Civilization? ===
Elves live out in the forest, literally. Although defined to specific regions on the map, they have no structural wealth whatsoever. Some trees are named.

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road. Human villages are highly modular. The small 5x5 buildings are citizen houses and are marked with an "H" on the town auto-map. Medium buildings are stores, marked with a symbol that indicates what they sell - food, weapons, clothing, and two kinds of trinkets (incidentally, armor and clothing is sold in the same building). As of the current version, you start in the mead hall which is marked with an "M" on the automap. There are one or two apartment buildings buildings which are two stories, with six rooms a story; they are also marked with an "H." There are two really large buildings - the "T"emple and the a fort-like building that is marked with "K." Temples tend to have two or three levels, and a pool of water, while the "K" buildings are three or four floors high and are almost entirely empty (they will occationally contain random smatterings of clothing though, if you're looking for things to sell.)

Dwarves live underground. Their entrances are large square pits with stairs around the perimeter, and a row of leading down into the fortress halls at the bottom. The main halls are wide and have pillars near the walls, long and occasionally turn corners. Different levels in the fortress are marked by a row of ramps with two pillars on the side (walk towards the side of the ramp that has the pillars) and, although the number of floors in a fortress can vary, they are usually little and only become deep if the lay of the land above is variable. There are one 1-tale wide hallways, empty rooms, and scant Dwarves in these pre-fab fortresses. It's obvious the computer is playing a completely different game than you are in [[Fortress Mode]]!

Goblins live in [[obsidian]] towers, usually found built in twos, though they both don't necessarily have to be built up. One could be a "tower," one could be an over-glorified "basement." There is probably a temple nearby, completely similar to human temples. Goblin towers have tight 1-wide hallways, spacious and empty rooms, and strange hall extensions that end in remote cross-like dead-ends. Like dwarf fortresses, there is rarely anything in a Goblin tower asides from Goblins, and they have a strange tendency not to attack non-Goblin visitors. They seem to have lots of children.

You may come across what the map defines as a "Goblin" city that is actually populated by Humans or Dwarves living in or around the towers.

=== Trading ===
In towns you can find merchants inside some [[buildings]]. Talk to them to trade with them. After buying an item, you must pick it up manually from somewhere in the shop. {{K|l}}ook around for an item without $ signs around it.

==== Selling ====
You can also sell things to traders. Bones, corpses, body parts and rocks are not valuable, no matter how attached you are to a particularly aerodynamic kobold head. Small creatures discovered while {{k|L}}ooking Carefully may be worth a small amount of money. In order to sell or buy items, stand adjacent to the shopkeeper in his store, and {{k|k}}onverse with the shopkeeper. Select "Trade" and press {{k|enter}} to open the trade window.

Select each non-worthless item you wish to sell, and then set a price using the following format{{verify}}:
* {{k|a}} asking for 9000☼
* {{k|s}} +100☼
* {{k|d}} +10☼
* {{k|f}} +1☼
* {{k|g}} reset to 0☼
* {{k|h}} -1☼ (offering)
* {{k|j}} -10☼
* {{k|k}} -100☼
* {{k|l}} offer 9000☼

The use of these keys may seem non-intuitive, and this is further complicated by the limit on your available offers by your current financial health.

Shopkeepers are used to adventurers with inflated ideas about the value of their goods, so it may be simplest to ask for 9000☼ for your goods, or offer 1☼ for theirs and suggest a {{k|t}}rade. The shopkeeper will counteroffer with the actual value of the goods, and will be quite delighted to accept a {{k|t}}rade at the price they've just quoted to you. You can then purchase things with your store credit. After the trade sessions, the balance of your coins will appear on a small table next to a chest.

[[Category:Adventurer mode]]

====Theft====
You may also pick up the item before buying it, but you should never walk out of a shop carrying an unbought item, as that is theft. It is punishable by death if you are caught, and excommunication if you are not. On any occasion when you have stolen goods from a store, ie goods bounded by the $$ signs, the game requires you to exit the site ''and'' travel a considerable distance before allowing you to travel. This may make a getaway more difficult if your adventurer is not already faster than anyone else. This only applies to goods in stores; killing townsfolk and taking their personal things, including those of the shopkeep still only requires exiting the site. The moment you are out of sight, you will be able to warp out as usual. Theft and murder remain within entities; even depopulating one country and stealing all its things will not generate ill response in another country.

====Managing coins====
Coins can and will encumber your adventurer, eventually reducing your speed. To reduce that effect you can try to exchange your copper and silver coins for gold ones. To do that you can purchase goods from a merchant to the sum of your copper coins, then sell them back. Check the merchant's chest to see how much gold and silver coins they have. You can delay the problem by selling your loot to many merchants, as they will try to pay you in higher denomination currency first.

A few goods are strictly superior to all forms of coinage as a store of value, most commonly giant cave spider silk items. A suitably sneaky (or powerful) adventurer can murder a few dwarves for such items for trade and sale for human goods. Giant cave spider silk is a non-renewable resource in a given world. Please harvest sustainably.

=== Equipping your adventurer ===
After acquiring [[armor]] from one source or another, you'll most likely want to equip it. To do this, first make sure it is in your possession--not on the ground. You can then {{key|w}}ear it, granted you don't already have too much on that equipment slot already. You can {{key|r}}emove or {{key|d}}rop inferior equipment as necessary.

[[Weapons]] and [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shields]] are handled differently. There is no explicit equipment command. Instead, they are automatically equipped when you either {{k|g}}et them from the ground or {{k|r}}emove them from your [[backpack]] - provided the hand that would wield them is free. So in order to change [[weapons]] or [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|Shields]] you would need to {{k|p}}ut your equipped weapon into your [[backpack]] and then {{k|r}}emoving your new desired weapon. You do not need to drop weapons and equip new ones etc. Simply remember the {{k|r}}emove command and the {{k|p}}ut into container command.

It should be noted that the world of DF seems to have a lot of left handers, so do not be surprised if your character holds the weapon with the left hand and the [[Armor#Shields and Bucklers|shield]] with the right hand.

== Traveling the world ==

=== How-to ===
You can walk around the whole world tile by tile if you wish, but given the size of the world, you might want to consider using another method. Pressing {{key|T}} will let see a very zoomed out map of the surrounding area. Moving about on this map is much faster, as well as it heals your adventurer, keeps him from starving, dehydrating, or getting tired. To exit this screen and explore the area you've reached, press {{k|>}}.

If there is more than one feature such as a [[Site|town]] or group of [[creatures]] on that map tile you will get to choose which one you want to arrive near.

Also while traveling on the world map, there is a chance that your adventurer can get randomly ambushed by enemies. When that happens, you must survive by either fighting them off or hide from them.

Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]] is not normally advisable; however, it is possible to do so by holding {{key|Alt}} while pressing the appropriate movement key. Jumping off [[Cliff|cliffs]], depending on how high you jumped, will most of the time cover your eyes in blood, which lessens visuals.

=== Finding quest locations ===
After receiving a [[quest]], you will be able to track its location using the {{key|Q}}uest log. Initially it will just give you the location on the {{key|T}}ravel map, though a lesser-known feature is its use in finding the cave entry (or other such target) once you're already in the [[Site map|local map]]. Bring up the quest log again, highlight the quest objective you're after, and {{key|z}}oom to it. It should then provide you with a local map of your current area, complete with a 3x3 box of flashing squares. This box indicates the general location of the cave's mouth. You'll still have to do some searching, but at least it's narrowed down for you. You can bring up this map at any time that you're in the local area of a quest objective.

The compass on the left of the screen will also greatly help you in finding the entrance; the direction indicated should place you within one screen's distance of the entrance before it turns into "---".

=== Visiting abandoned fortresses ===
If you start an adventure in a world with one or more abandoned [[Fortress|fortresses]], you can take your adventurer to see the sites of your previous endeavors. When you find one of your old [[Fortress|fortresses]], you will find that everything is a mess. Items are scattered about, things are smashed up and there are probably new hostile inhabitants that you will need to fend off. Visiting your old [[Fortress|fortresses]] might prove to be rewarding, since you can find [[armor]] and [[weapons]] you made (if you made any). The best thing to be found in your [[fortress]] would probably be any left behind [[Legendary artifact|artifact]] [[weapon]] or [[armor]]. This is also probably the best (and only?) way to get [[Legendary artifact|artifact-quality]] [[weapons]] and [[armor]].

Also remember to check out any [[Engraving#Engravings|engravings]] you made while in [[fortress mode]]. When checking out [[Engraving#Engravings|engravings]] in adventure mode, they reveal a lot more specific information about the event that is engraved.

=== Combat ===
== The Weapons ==
Weapons are basically divided into ax, sword, spear, pike, mace, whip, bow and hammer, with various versions of these taking up the gray area. Swords are your jack of all trades weapon, doing reasonable slashing damage. They come in short, long and two handed varieties, with the two handed doing the most damage and the short doing the least. Axes are similar to swords and do slashing damage as well. They come in 3 types, battle ax, great ax and halberd. The battle ax does slightly less damage then the long sword while the halberd does the same damage as a two-handed sword. The Great ax is generally too large to use, but it does slightly more then the halberd in damage. The spear does piercing damage and is ideal for damaging internal organs and causing heavy bleeding and unconsciousness. It has no variations. The spear is much more likely to become stuck in its target, which can be a great benefit if used right and a curse if not. The Pike is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a spear. The mace and the hammer are generally the same thing, simply a big metal thing to club your enemies over the head. As expected, they do high damage but their bludgeoning attacks tend to be slower and less effective , if more hilarious, ways to dispatch your foes. The Maul, a hammer, is the highest damaging weapon in the game. The last weapon is the whip, which does gore damage. Its relatively weak but has its uses. The bow throws arrows, which act as tiny spears. Basically, a bow and crossbow is like having a very slow, long range spear.

== Weapon Tactics ==
Sword: Once again, your general fall back weapon. It’s good against almost everything, if not being that great against almost anything. Works well against both living and non-living enemies as it actively dismembers them.

Ax: Pretty much the same as a sword, though some people believe it hacks off limbs more commonly. Good against organics, acceptable against anything else.

Spear/Pike: Ok, here’s where we get a little bit more advanced. The spear is most effective against organic creatures because of two abilities, pierce damage and stick ins. Piercing damage does major harm to internal organs, causing pain, bleeding, vomiting, unconsciousness and death. Stick-ins are when the weapon becomes stuck in the target, allowing it to be twisted. Twisting increases bleeding and causes extreme pain. Because of these two factors spears and pikes are ideal for single combat against organic targets. The are less effective against multiple enemies (because of the stick-ins lowering kill-to-turn ratios) and are even less effective against non-organic enemies (ie bronze colossus).

Mace/hammer: These weapons rely on their ability to turn your opponent into a tasty pulp through repeated wacking. They break bones and bruise flesh, meaning that aside from a critical hit they generally are less likely to mortal wounds quickly. They are great for crippling organics and non-organics alike, but when it comes to a swift, efficient death they are generally less then perfect. The exception to this is high strength and mace/hammer skill which allows for instant head crushing.

Whip: The whip uses gore damage, which is similar to a cross between slash and pierce. It can cut off limbs but is more likely to slice up organs and cause extreme pain and bleeding. A few hits will generally render an opponent unconscious and perhaps even badly injured enough to eventually bleed to death. However, the whip is a slow outright killer, sometimes needing dozens of blows to actually finish its target.

Bow (and arrows): Arrows are much like spears, because of their piercing damage and all the benefits it has. The benefits it has however are its range and its ability to target multiple enemies. They are most effective against organic targets. You, unfortunately, are organic, which makes archers one of your biggest problems.

== Non-weapon tactics ==
Besides your weapons you have two other major forms of attack: Wrestling and throwing.

Wrestling: Wrestling can be preformed by standing next to an enemy and pressing (Shift+a) and then (enter) to switch to wrestling. You can wrestle any enemy, however things such as wolves, bears and big cats do not allow you to perform the more advanced moves. After catching hold of a body part you can perform a lock, which allows you to further sprain, break or cripple an opponent. With a free hand you can perform even more advanced moves, such as gouging out eyes or stealing weapons. To gouge eyes grab a head with an open hand, to steal a weapon, grab the weapon and then check your inventory with (Shift+I). press the button corresponding to the weapon and then press a to gain possession of it.

One of the best tactics for fighting high level weapon masters is to either break his weapon hand or to steal his weapon, essentially making him no more dangerous then a normal peasant.

Throwing: Throwing is the skill of…well basically throwing shit. And vomit. And bugs and spears and rocks so on. Just about anything can be thrown, sometimes with devastating results. While it seems like weapons (and arrows) tend to be more reliable in their damage causing abilities when thrown, just about anything can potentially be lethal. Picking up a worm and hucking it right through a dragon’s skull is not only possible, but has been done on multiple occasions. A warrior with a high throw skill is often times more dangerous with an arrow then a trained archer is.

=== Wounds ===
You or your enemy are going to get hurt in the course of your adventures and its pretty useful to know exactly what’s happening when you are. Here’s a quick guide to the various aspects of wounds.

== Wound indicators ==
Wounds come in several colors and are indicated on the status screen (press z to see your own status screen while pressing (l) to look at your enemy’s). The status screen will list your body parts in different colors to indicate how damaged they are.
White-unhurt and feeling fine

Light gray-slightly damaged, think a nasty scrape or cut.

Brownish yellow-moderately damaged, such as a mild sprain or the like

Yellow-Broken. Applied to joints it means literally broken, while applied to upper and lower body it generally means organ damage.

Red-Badly damaged. If you got this then chances are you’re in bad shape. Severely broken bones or ruptured organs. If this status is effecting anything even remotely vital you’re more then likely on your way to the grave.

Gray-lopped off or cut out. This is when you completely lose a body part. Effects include massive pain and bleeding along with ruining your promising juggling career.

== Wound effects ==
Hands-damage to the fingers or wrists can cause you to drop your held items, but usually only with yellow level damage. Losing a hand entirely gives you a serious handicap, which will more then likely lead to fun in the future.

Feet-Causes slowed movement and falling. If removed can cause permanent slowed movement. Removing both can cause a continuous on ground effect.

Legs-similar to feet, though often has increased bleeding and pain effects. Loss of one will usually result in death by bleed out. Even if you survive you’re more then likely on your way to death. Severed legs do make a lovely club though.

Arms- Damage to almost any part of the arm can cause items to be dropped. Loss of an arm is perhaps even worse then the loss of a leg, due to the loss of weapon and wrestling capabilities. Loss of both arms is both tragic and hilarious.

Head-Contains the brain, ears, mouth, nose, eyes and throat. Ears, nose and mouth are officially useless and can be cut off in an effort to appear cool. The brain, eyes and throat are however less disposable. Damage to the eyes results in loss of vision, permanent if the eyes are removed, and terrible pain. Its usually not possible to bleed to death from the loss of the eyes though. The throat is highly sensitive and damage causes both extreme bleeding and suffocation effects. The brain is the most important thing you’ve got and damage to it is an almost instant death. Any wound it receives will more then likely cause instant unconsciousness and severe bleeding.

Upper body. Contains the heart, lungs, upper spine and liver and kidneys. Both the kidneys and liver have similar effects, namely heavy bleeding and pain upon injury. The spine causes nervous system damage, which can have several, sometimes permanent effects. The lungs control breathing, so piercing them can cause suffocation. The heart is the main organ of the circulatory system and damage to it is almost always fatal through bleeding.

Lower body: Contains various organs like the stomach and spleen, all of which have the same effect of bleeding, pain and nausea. Nausea leads to vomiting, which make the wounded creature unable to attack. There is also the lower spine which has similar effects to the upper spine.

== Attack types and their wounds ==
Pierce-dangerous to organic creatures, you included. Often times objects with the pierce effect will become lodged in their target. Removing the weapon from its lodged position causes both increased pain and bleeding but often times can alleviate certain symptoms the piercing has caused.

Bludgeon: Breaks bones and cripples joints. Generally less dangerous to the internal organs then other damage. The danger comes from its ability to incapacitate you and then turn your head to mush.

Slash: Dangerous for its ability to sever limbs and cause bleeding. Beware its habit of decapitation.

Gore: Shreds internal organs, causing all sorts of nasty side effects. Almost worthless on non-organic enemies but can cause severe problems for you living sorts.

== Dealing with wounds ==
In adventure mode your wounds will heal if you travel (shift + t) and they’ll recover just about anything except a lopped off limb. If you can’t travel the best thing to do is try and run from battle if you’re badly wounded, since running will give you time to stop bleeding and suppress the pain. Beware dropping your weapon and make sure to pick it up before you make a run for it. If an arrow strikes you in the chest its best to leave it there while an arrow to the extremities can be removed.

=== <s>Living Shields</s> Companions ===

If you recruit some new members to your party, you'll not only gain extra damage output, you'll also have someone else to take the damage instead of you!

When you first start out, the easiest <s>human shields</s> friends to recruit are the drunks. They are found in human towns inside the [[tavern]] with the [[Mayor]] (the building you start in if you play a human). They will gladly come with you and block some blows for you. Drunks will usually attempt low-skill [[wrestling]] and (mostly) damage-less punches. Don't expect them to last long when you meet that [[Giant]] you are supposed to kill. Drunks are much rarer in the current version of the game, so it's unlikely that you'll find one.

To recruit someone into your party, press tal{{k|k}}, move the cursor over them, and press {{k|enter}}. Then in the conversation that follows, simply pick 'Join' from the list of options to ask them to accompany you. [[Children]], the Mayor, and [[Guard]]s don't want any part of this silly adventuring malarkey, but the occasional peasant will be bored enough to join you.

More detailed searches of towns of various races can yield other adventurers with some actual skills. The generally have a single weapon skill ([[Maceman]], [[Swordsman]], [[Spearman]] and so on) and some armor appropriate to the wealth of the town they were occupying. You will also find Guards around towns, and while they are combat-capable they will not shirk their duty in order to accompany you on your adventures.

Some otherwise eligible companions may rebuff your offer of becoming a living shield for one of the following reasons:

If the prospective meat shield considers himself more skilled than you are, he may rebuff you with, "Ha! Such enthusiasm from one such as yourself."
This can be remedied by training your skills until he judges you a bit more skillful than he is.

Another reason for someone to refuse to die protecting you is that you already have the maximum of 12 companions, and they will rebuff you by asking, "With a band so large, what share of the glory would I have?"
But look at it this way, at least your total party size is 13 when you count yourself! Now that's lucky!

Another possiblity is to asked your old, retired adventurers for help. They'll never say no unless your party is too big and they should be pretty capible since you trained them.

=== The Perils of the Wild ===
You’ll face many creatures on your travels, several mega and semi-mega bests included if you’re taking quests. Heres a quick look at the more dangerous beasts (sentient or not) that you’ll meet.

== The Mega and Semi-mega beasts and the sentient races ==

Bronze Colossus: Probably one of the hardest beasts to combat due to its massive strength, impressive natural armor and complete ignorance of pain, fear and bleeding. Bronze Colossi are basically walking, dwarf crushing statues that will never stop unless beheaded or outright obliterated. They have no organs and do not bleed, making them impossible to knock unconscious. Their immense strength makes them unlikely to give in to wrestling moves (though if you can manage to lock and break a limb it will snap off rather then just becoming useless.) Because of these resistances all you can really do is hack / shoot and hope that it dies before you do.

Dragon: The main danger of these beasts is their massive fire breath, which can consume dozens of spaces. A high block still is recommended before you fight them. A spear is a great weapon here, as it allows you to potentially knock them unconscious within a few turns. Arrows are also good, though staying at a distance can be dangerous because of the fire breath. Beware their bite, as it can cause major damage.

Hydra: a joke really, as It seems to lack the regenerative powers of its mythological cousin. It has 7 heads, but damage to one is as serious as damaging the head of a one headed beast. More then likely you’ll have it unconscious in a few turns regardless of what you use.

Titan: basically an organic bronze colossus. It is essentially a larger, stronger human, with all the weaknesses being the same. Piercing and goring damage can quickly weaken and incapacitate these beasts, but keep an eye out for its wrestling, which can cause some bad joint damage.

Cyclops: A weaker, smaller titan with one eye. Eye+arrow=win

Ettin: A two headed giant. Basically a stronger human, usually unarmed. Just hack it until it dies.

Giant: Just a giant human like thing. Stab it in the neck or break its limbs for massive damage.

Minotaur: Only thing really dangerous about this guy is his horns. Pretty good wrestler but nothing that should give a reasonably prepared adventurer any problems.

Humans: Should you wander into battle against a human force its in your best interest to disable their archers first. The only real danger humans have is their numbers and their use of items. Disarming or crippling dangerous guards or weapon maters is highly recommended, since as soon as they are weaponless they are essentially as good as dead.

Elves: They have wooden equipment, making them laughable most of the time. Once again, the only real threat is their archers and even then they are less dangerous then humans. Elves are generally known for being annoying dicks so its recommended that you slaughter the lot. If you are an elf its recommended that you have tons of fun.

Dwarves: Their advantage is their steel weaponry and crossbows. Their disadvantage is that their mountain homes are generally so large that you’ll only rarely fight more then one or two. Disable their weapon masters and archers then throw their own axes at them. Juggle their heads in front of their children.

Goblins: Like weaker dwarves, with less armor and less skill. They have a feeble sense of morals, meaning that they will only sometimes attack you after you hurt one of their friends. You can basically cleave right through them with ease.

== Other Humanoids == These are creatures that in shape resemble something human, but have no society.

Antman: A half man half ant hybrid which lives in chasms. They have higher natural armor then a man, but rarely use tools. As long as you’re armed they should pose no problem.

Batman: Half man, half bat that lives in caves and chasms. They can fly and use weapons, though they rarely do. Attacks with punches and bites; the bites are the most potentially damaging because they cause gore damage. He is the night.

Blizzard man: Frosty’s asshole brother. Blizzard men are creatures of pure ice that strangely still have organs. They can bite and punch, with biting doing the most damage. They will melt in normal temperatures so they are only found in freezing areas.

Dark gnome: Mischievous mountain folk who enjoy hard liquor. They‘re basically dwarfs but smaller and no where near as dangerous. Its rare that you’ll even find them, but if you do they should pose no threat to you. They punch and bite but neither is noticeable.

Fire Imp: Little gremlin like things that are either constantly on fire or made of fire. They’re found only in subterranean lava pits, meaning that you’ll have to go searching for them if you’re ever gonna see one. They only bite (does burn damage rather then gore), but their real danger comes from their ability to set you on fire. Ranged combat is recommended, though darting forward, attacking and then jumping away might be effective if you have no other choice. They can also breathe fire at you though, so its again recommended to stay back.

Firemen: Like the fire imps, but better. They have the bronze colossus syndrome of having no organs, not bleeding, feeling pain or being able to have weapons stuck in them. They too can set you ablaze, but they’re much harder to kill before they do it. Bludgeoning can break and hence sever their limbs. Recommended that you fight from a distance. Luckily these things only live in underground lava, so you’ll never find them without going into very specific places.

Frogman: No not those things Race Banon was always killing, but half man half frogs that live in underground water. They can’t equip weapons and are very small, making them almost completely non-threatening.

Iron man: Millionaire Tony Stark puts on his…oops wrong one. Ironmen are like firemen but less dangerous because they aren’t on fire. They are basically smaller, less dangerous Bronze Colossi. When killed they leave a valuable iron statue. They appear only in chasms.

Leechman: Half man, Half leech, all sexy. They have no bones, but curiously do have arms (but no legs). They can suck blood, but considering they have no bones and every blow will almost always strike a vital organ its a lot more likely that blood will be coming out of it then you.

Lizardman: Half man, half lizard; lives in underground water. Punches and bites along with the ability to use items. Similar to many of the other half breeds, but with one notable exception. He’s a lizard.

Magma man: A man made of pure magma. Everything about this guy is the exact same as the fire man, with the exception that he can’t breathe fire. This makes him less dangerous at a distance. Stay back and throw stuff at him.

Merpersons: Tiny little mermaids and mermen. Not dangerous at all, and relatively rare to boot. They can equip items but you’ll probably never see one anyway.

Mountain Gnome: The same as a Dark Gnome, but less evil. Same things apply here.

Mud man: Like Ironman but made of mud. Can’t equip items and only has a weak punch as a form of attack, making it about as threatening as a mudpie. Lives in underground water.

Orge: The middle ground between giant and human. Their punches and bites do a surprisingly small amount of damage, though they can use weapons. As with any big, organic moron its recommended to try and damage their organs to quickly incapacitate and kill them. Piercing damage is very useful.

Olmman: Half man, half blind cave salamander. Think Golum but even more messed up and without eyes. Their bites are surprisingly strong. Found only in subterranean water and even then only rarely. (personal note: Olms are pretty damn awesome things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olm) they’re even on the money in one country.)

Ratman: Seems to attack with 4 turtle men cronies, who are surprisingly good warriors. But seriously, they’re about as weak as actual rats. They only come from chasms so don’t worry about them too much.

Slugman: Do I even have to say? it’s a dang slug man, do you think its dangerous? Its not. Just stab it in its deformed face.

Snail man: Think slug man, but with a shell that doesn’t actually offer any protection.

Snakemen: The only real threat these guys pose is their ability to inject poison by biting. If it does bite you its your best bet to try and quickly kill the snake man before his poison takes effect, since it can incapacitate you.

Troglodyte: Small, reptilian creatures that live underground. Not dangerous unless they attack in swarms and even then they are easily beaten by even a novice adventurer. Use organic combating techniques to deal with them.

Troll: There’s no real difference between this thing and an orge. Kill them both the same way.

Werewolf: Or wolfman. Attacks alone and only bites with a goring attack. Bite can be dangerous but the fact that there is only one of him makes it a lot easier to fight. Fun to wrestle for experience.

== Wildlife == Here’s the rundown of all the mundane beasties that you’ll run into

Beak dog: Basically what happens when parrot gets combined with Velociraptors. They’re a little smaller then a man but quick and use their beaks and claws effectively. Try not to get caught in the center of a group of them, backpedal and cut them down as they give chase.

Black Bear: These will only ambush you one on one, and given their relative small size and forgettable strength they should pose little threat unless you’re completely unskilled and unarmed. Because there’s only one they can be useful for wrestling practice since you can focus all your attention on them.

Bonobo: I’ve never seen one myself, though I’ve been told they’re ape like things. Considering their squishy organs it would be best to stab them in the groin.

Camel: Its…a camel. You’ll probably never see one.

Carp: BEHOLD, FOR ARMOK BREATHED LIFE INTO THE VERY ROCKS IN THE RIVERS AND COMMANDED THEM TO GO FORTH AND MUTALATE RANDOM PASSERS BY. TO HIS DWARVEN FOLLOWERS HE EXPLAINED IT THUS, “FUCK YOU”-the tome of Armok, chapter 2. In all seriousness though, while they may be freaking fresh water sharks in the fortress mode, carp aren’t too dangerous in adventure mode. Their biggest advantage is their environment, being water which you can not breathe.
Cat: IT’S A KITTY! Anyways, you’ll almost always have too many of these things in fortress and you’ll never see them in adventure. Even if you did, what would you do with them? You wouldn’t hurt them would you? Fucking Nazi.

Cougar: Like a kitty, but bigger. Cougars are good wrestling practice and good shield training as well, what with the fact that Cougars suck so hard. If you get killed by this thing it was either insanely lucky or you have no arms.

Cow: It’s a cow. Kill it for free hamburgers. I’m actually not even sure if you can find the dang things in adventure mode.

Deer: You might see these running away from you in the woods. They’re harmless but good wrestling practice if you feel like strangling a defenseless animal.

Dog: WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF I’ve never seen one of these in adventure mode, but its pretty obvious what they are huh?

Donkey: Pulls wagons and things like that. You might see one but its not really worth attacking them.

Elephants: In prior versions elephants were murderous berserkers, but thankfully they’ve been made a little more realistic. They’re just as big and strong as you’d expect, but won’t bother you unless you walk up and stab’em a few times. Reasonably dangerous, so don’t poke them unless you’re ready.

Elk: Much like deer, though a little bigger and usually solitary

Fox: Another small animal that you’ll most likely never see. If you do however, its proper to light them on fire and scream “YIFF IN HELL”.

Giant bat: Bigger then a minotaur and more dangerous at times. Often encountered in low visibility areas where they can take you by surprise. Its best to avoid caves until you’re confidant in your blocking and combat skills.

Giant Cave Spiders: You’ll only rarely encounter these, because of their limited environment. You’ll know they’re near from the webs which hang around their homes. They are NOT to be meddled with. First and foremost, they do not feel pain and will never stop unless killed. Their high number of legs makes it likely that you’ll pointlessly hack away at the limbs while the mouth bites your head in half. Beyond these aspects the spider uses poison and sticky webs to ensnare you. Your best bet is to throw/ shoot it from a distance. If you can’t do that, use other piercing or goring weapons to damage its organs. Despite its ignorance toward pain, it still bleeds like any other animal, so a pierced heart is very effective.

Giant cave swallow: Pretty much harmless things, just big birds. If they harass you, break their wings and strangle them to death for wrestling points.

Giant Eagle: A major problem in fortress mode is little more then a pesky annoyance in adventure mode. If they are giving you trouble though, attempt to wrestle and break one of their wings. This should ground them and make them a much easier target.

Grizzly Bear: A little bigger then the Black Bear, though basically the same. Good for both wrestle and shield points. If they’re really giving you a hard time try catching both hands and its throat. This should not only make it impossible for it to attack, but also give you wrestle points.

Groundhog: Little rodent thingies. Zombie ground hogs are useful to strangle for wrestling experience. Besides that they’re only really good as golf balls for your putter (read Morningstar)

Hoary Marmot: A tiny forest dwelling creature. As harmless as it is delicious.
Horse: A beast of burden sometimes seen in human towns. They have an odd habit of going rouge and kicking children to death. Not to mention they’re some how smart enough to pull crossbow bolts out of their own legs. May cause random insanity if they attack a influential citizen.

Naked mole dog: Think enormous naked mole rat. Unless you’re both unarmed and unskilled these things are basically very bleedy shrubbery to hack your way through.

Mountain Goat: it’s a goat, that lives in the mountains. Likes to kill goblins and its not uncommon to find a few legends about goblin slaying goats. (On a personal note, I once found a goat named Bonecrusher or something like that, which only had one leg. One leg and 7 kills, including a Swordmaster. Don’t fuck with that goat)

Mule: Like a horse, but more inbred. Chances are you’ll never see them.

Musk Ox: Beasts of burden used by elves. Another thing you won’t see.

Pike: The fish, not the weapon. They’re nothing close to the carp and should be little more then particularly squishy speed bumps to you.

Raccoon: Forest rodents that you’ll never see. Make a nifty hat.

Rhesus Macaque :A nettlesome trickster in fortress mode, they are almost never seen in adventure mode. Even if you see them they’re very skittish and a single blow will send them running. Give’em a good strangle if you can catch one.

Unicorn: The random homicidal tendencies of the horse mixed with a dash of magic and a horn. They’re very aggressive for some reason, though not too hard to bring down. Watch out for that horn and stay away until you’re at least competent.

Whale: Big aquatic beast. Not dangerous unless in skeletal mode.

Wolf: And last but not least, the humble and numerous wolf. This is what is gonna be attacking you from now till forever. They’re dangerous the first few ambushes, but they quickly become nothing but barely noticed time wasters. Great for training up armor and shield, as they attack in packs and hence hit you many times, often with no effect. Early on, just be careful not to get caught in the middle of a pack and you’ll be fine.

== Modifiers ==
Zombie: Zombie animals are just like their normal counterparts, with a few major exceptions. Firstly, they are no longer effected by pain or bleeding and their organs no longer matter. They are also much slower. This combination of increased difficulty in killing and decreased speed about evens out their threat level. Not too dangerous, unless the creature they’re based on is already strong.

Skeletal: All of the advantages of Zombie with none of the bad effects. Skeletal creatures are all immune to pain and do not bleed, but they remain just as quick as their living counterparts. Large skeletal beasts, such as dragons or whales are truly a terror to face.
[size=3]

=== Avoid the impossible ===
Some things are harder than others. Decide for yourself if this is due to unbalancing of the game, realism or simply to add to the variety of challenges.

==== [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelob Shelob]'s in-laws, aka Giant Cave Spiders ====
Unless you are a legendary or better (ok, its not possible to go beyond legendary..) bow-/crossbowman, you should at all costs AVOID giant cave spiders (Unless, of course, you enjoy [[Fun]])!! They shoot a web at you, making you immobilized while they rip your limbs off one by one. Then when you finally break free from the web, and can attack again, you've probably lost your arms while lying on the floor and the spider is about to throw you by your head up into the roof. Cave Spiders bleed to death eventually, but they know no fear nor pain, meaning they will not black out even if you manage to inflict serious damage including severed limbs. They are also capable of surviving red-level wounds to the body and legs and multiple severed limbs for long enough to eviscerate an adventurer. Leave these for the living shields to deal with while you slip out the other way, ideally from the cave entirely, never to return.

Even if you are a legendary projectile weapon user, reconsider attacking a giant cave spider because in the tight quarters of a cave you might be shooting it from stealth when a giant rat or something similarly stupid walks next to you and triggers your loss of cover. The spider would then punish your arrogance immensely.

''Note'': If absolutely required they ARE killable, but you need luck, and lots of it. Adept swordsman + Proficient [[shield]] user + Skilled ambusher manages to sneak up on it and then counterstrike + block does the job. In a suicide swordsman test run I had dethoraxation (decapitation for spiders) = instakill on the first counterstrike, second GCS got a mortal wound before it webbed me and bled to death while trying to chew through me, only broke sword wielding hand and leg. Third spider broke my shield hand and had me mortally wounded in no time after that, although I eventually killed it after unwebbing myself. That makes it ~2.5/3 chances to win, not bad for a rookie. And I was healed after each successful spider kill.

''To conclude'': Basically, as long as your shield wielding hand is intact (and shield skill is high of course) you have pretty good chances of survival in 1 on 1, otherwise you're dead. Any extra armor (in my case exceptional full plate + normal armor skill) also helps in glancing off their bites.

Another interesting thing is that before fighting one of them I threw a spear at it and it lodged in the wound, and it seems that the spider has a priority to break my grip as it repeatedly successfully broke my grip every time(that happened ~5-6 times in a row) I grabbed the lodged spear. That points to a possible distraction for a GCS in case of soloing it.

==== Arrows ====
Don't take on quests where you need to kill elite bow-/crossbowmen! Generally, avoid flying arrows! Why? Because bow/crossbowmen have the tendency to see farther than you can. They are therefore able to fire at you from beyond your sight, making it hard to see where the arrow(s) are coming from. You may therefor end up chasing the shooter in the wrong direction, giving the shooter even MORE time to turn you into a pin-cushion. Of course, this is only the case if you manage to survive the first 3-4 arrows, because arrows are BAD for anyone but the shooter's health. Piercing hits like arrows are much more likely to damage internal organs, and while you might shrug off a moderate blunt hit to the chest a similar piercing hit could directly damage one or both lungs or your heart and instantly kill you.

One extremely useful survival tip is to immediately drop prone (with the s key) as soon as you notice you are being shot at. Prone targets move more slowly, but seem to be much harder to hit with ranged attacks than standing ones. This is also worth noting to avoid wasting ammunition on fallen targets.

Another solid solution is to get behind something as quickly as possible and try sneaking. Even when caught in the open cover as flimsy as a single tree may be sufficient to begin sneaking. Sneaking around trees can also sometimes act as a compass for determining the direction of the shooter. By checking when and where sneaking is possible, the approach vector of any given observer or close cluster of observers can be extrapolated.

Finally, since archers are generally sentient, most (besides mayors) can be killed in their sleep.

If you do accept a quest against an elite bowman or crossbowman and manage to reach melee range, immediately grapple its weapon, ideally by dropping yours and pulling the weapon out of its grasp entirely before throwing it away.

=== Training yourself ===
Gaining stats ([[Attributes|strength, agility, toughness]]) helps a lot when fighting. How to best train yourself?

==== Throwing ====
To find rocks simply hit {{k|l}} and look at any rock coulored tiles some of these will be simply called by the rock name (e.g. [[limestone]]) and cannot be picked up but some will be called pebbles. Rocks are practically free ammo. When you find a tile with [[pebbles]], pick up a lot of them (there are infinite rocks), and start throwing them. You can simply throw them at the tile you are standing at. Every throw will gain you 30 points toward the skill "Throwing", and will after a while increase your stats (Strength, agility, toughness). You will need to throw 600 rocks to reach legendary Thrower (starting with no skill).

For best efficiency, drop all of your gear (including held but not worn items) and empty out your backpack near your throwing location. This is done in order to keep your inventory simple for the rock-throwing portion. Then pick up a ton of rocks by pressing {{k|g}}-{{k|a}} over and over- ideally one would pick up 600 rocks at a single time, but you will probably get bored before then. Then, mash {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} over and over until all of your rocks are thrown back at the floor. If you are not a legendary Thrower after this, repeat. Afterwards, remember to pick up your gear and re-fill your backpack.

''Alternate way'' : It could be difficult to repeat the {{k|t}}-{{k|a}}-{{k|enter}} sequence without making mistake. So you can just alternate {{k|t}}-{{k|enter}} quickly : The first {{k|t}} will open the inventory, the second will chose the rock which is in "t" position, and {{k|enter}} will throw it. In the same fashion, when collecting rock, prefer a tile where the rock is on "b" position : If you quickly alternate {{k|g}} and {{k|a}}, sometime you will open the [a]nnouncement panel, which will slow you down. Another solution to this is to switch the ''pick up'' and ''announcements'' keys, so you can press {{k|a}} to pick up an item and {{k|a}} to pick up rock.

Thrown objects are also a cheap way to injure enemies before they reach you if you are a melee fighter.

You can also throw other stuff you find, like flies, beetles, worms, and even vomit or [[sand]]. If you have a tendency to chop off enemy limbs, you can even throw these limbs. Killing zombies with their companion's severed heads and feet is always good for a laugh. [[iron_man|Iron men]] are fun, because they leave behind a nice [[statue]] for the taking which can be thrown. Arrows and weapons seem to be particularly deadly when thrown because they deal the same damage as they would in melee, including piercing or slashing damage type, but even the most innocuous or silly items can come up with a kill.

Most thrown objects deal blunt type damage, so they will break and bruise limbs, but arrows and weapons can deal their normal damage types. This is particularly useful to consider when trying for a desperate one-shot kill on a [[Giant Cave Spider]] that's about to web you and shred you into little chunks, as piercing attacks like thrown arrows and [[spear]]s damage internal organs (making them more likely to get a one-hit kill, as an enemy can live through having the outside of their head moderately damaged but not from having the same amount of damage done to their brain) and thrown axes or swords can sever body parts and leave deep gashes (leading to massive bleeding or slit throats).

==== Bow/Crossbow-skill ====
This skill trains in the same fashion as throwing. You gain skill per shot, not per hit. This is a more expensive skill to train than throwing because you need to buy (or find) arrows/bolts, but is also a much more deadly skill. Fired projectiles do much more damage than thrown ones, and are also piercing type weapons which can do crippling damage to internal organs. The majority of thrown weapons are blunt and will do much more superficial bruising and bone-breaking damage- at best, a lucky hit will break someone's spine or damage internal organs to a small degree. Shooting arrows at enemies is fun, because it is very efficient and will destroy enemies quite easily.

Sadly, this also goes for enemy bow/crossbowmen. You will often be shot in the leg and crippled by an enemy you can't even see, who will then proceed to shoot you in the face until you die - which won't be very long afterwards unless you manage to find something to hide behind. This is somewhat avoidable - train in sneaking to avoid being seen by enemies that could otherwise perforate your skin, and get a good shield and armor to better keep arrows. (See below for both skills).

Make sure to take extra <s>meat shields</s> companions along with you if you're planning on using ranged weapons, it'll take time before you level the appropriate skill to bash things with your weapon in melee so it's imperative you stay out of the fighting till then. Drunks are particularly useful here, as they love to dive on things and collapse into a massive wrestling pile which you can take pot-shots at. Don't worry, you can't hit your guys. Not that you'd care.

==== Wrestling ====
Since melee weapon skills are hard train because not every hit gives points towards the skill, why not train your [[wrestling]]? When you are alone with a unconscious enemy, why not break some limbs before finishing it off? Monsters often try to break your arms and legs, so having a bit of skill in wrestling will help break those locks a lot, and breaking that legendary swordsmans sword hand at the beginning of the fight will make him laughably weak. Also, training wrestling is a quicker way to better stats (strength, agility, toughness) because gain points per move instead of per "hit". Wrestling also handles dodging skill which is very handy to have.

A good way to train wrestling is to find an undead region on the map- preferably Sinister if you remember the map layout from Fortress Mode. Obtain a pack of zombie herbivores therein, preferably of small size- do not attempt this with zombie [[elephants]]. Slaughter every zombie in the vicinity of this pack of herbivores but the one that you think is the most crippled, making sure to pick one with a throat to leave alive.

Press {{k|c}} and change your combat preferences from Strike to Close Combat. This means that your default attack when you press towards an enemy to making a random wrestling move, or the continuation (joint lock, break) or (strangle) if you have a break/strangle-able area held.

Then, walk over, and grab the zombie's neck (yes, with your weapon or shield- it is quite optional to drop what you're holding) and begin strangulation by holding the direction the zombie is strangling in. You will make several strangles per second and gain approximately 15 XP (tentative measure) per strangulation. Zombies cannot die from this, so you will earn enough XP to become legendary within a few minutes.

When your character becomes tired, break off from strangling and walk it off- you become less tired by ambling about aimlessly. If you become too hungry or thirsty to continue, just run away or destroy the zombie, {{k|T}}ravel, and then repeat after moving a square and back.

This can also be done at ruins, but you run the risk of weapon-carrying enemies and especially weaponmaster quest-zombies. In an undead ruin, there are also far, far more monsters in the area compared to hunting down a pack of undead animals.

Alternatively, wait until nightfall, and wrestle a sleeping enemy. Sleeping enemies are unconscious, and cannot detect you if you sneak. The autocombat will cause your adventurer to break limbs, grab and release bits of clothing, and other nonlethal attacks. Occasionally random chance will cause a chokehold; simply step back a tile and then resume. In this manner, you can train wrestling extremely quickly without the dangers of wandering in an undead zone.

Yet another alternative is presented by fish. No harmful wrestling moves can be performed on them so cornering a carp, tigerfish, or milkfish will raise wrestling quickly, while training swimming. Avoid hippopotamus infested waters.

A final option presents itself when exploring caves, there are many weak enemies to be found here, choose one (say a ratman) and walk up to it, grabbing it perform a takedown. Before it can stand up grab its arm and try to break it, as soon as it gets up perform another takedown, continue to break all the joints in both of your <s>toy's</s> <s>victim's</s> opponent's arms and then move on to legs, finally gouge out its eyes and begin strangling it to death. This gives you plenty of wrestling exp with very little risk as the enemy will only get in one or two strikes before being taken down after which it will prioritize standing back up.

==== Swimming ====
Having no swimming skill in Adventure Mode is not a particularly good thing if you intend to go near water. Anyone with no swimming skill who falls or is pulled/pushed into water will begin to drown immediately if it is over 4/7 deep, and will also be unable to climb out of water this deep - usually resulting in instant death.

To voluntarily jump into a pond or [[river]] you have to {{k|Alt}}-move off the edge of the land. This will present you with a choice of walking out into the open space above the water (immediately and unsurprisingly followed by a one-story fall) or moving directly into the water. To get back out, {{k|Alt}}-move into the riverbank/pond edge.

As long as you have at least some Swimming skill, you will be able to move around in deeper water and will gain Swimming skill for every tile you move. Without Swimming, you will have to find depth 4 water to voluntarily paddle about in with your water wings on for your first skill points. Any deeper and you'll start to drown, any shallower and you can't swim in it. Hit {{k|m}} to set your swimming options.

Another option is to find a body of water with a ramp into it. Walk down the ramp into the water, which will cause you to start "drowning". However, you can simply walk back out after 10 turns or so to stop drowning, and you will have gained some swimming skill. Repeat until you reach novice skill. If you don't have an abandoned fortress set up for this, slopes into water can be found at ocean beaches.

All in all this makes Novice Swimming an excellent starting skill, as you can (eventually) get Legendary skill simply by swimming back and forth in two squares of water and get lots of stat points in the process. However, this is mind-numbingly dull so good luck with that. One should also keep in mind that water in cooler areas may suddenly freeze when the sun starts to go down, and thus instantly kill any creatures within. As such, it's a good idea to do your training laps somewhere warm.

It also seems that you are not able to move out of water of less than (7/7) onto the river bank. In addition, while you are swimming, you can not move to the travel map! You must first leave the water.

You can crosstrain Ambushing while Swimming to save time- if you start with no Ambushing and Novice Swimming, you will be an Accomplished or Expert Ambusher, give or take, by the time you are a Legendary Swimmer. For more on Ambushing, see below. You can also crosstrain melee skills with swimming by picking a river and swimming down it, training Ambush when it's quiet and training melee when it's not. Some rivers have very high densities of fish, giving you lots of targets to hit. They will tend to gather up, bumping into and slowing each other down ahead of you for you to kill and an adventurer will be all but invincible against non-sturgeons after a few statgains. Just remember that Hippos have the right of way.

NOTE: Water does NOT currently cleanse fire, if you are burning, jumping into a pool of water will not save you

==== Ambushing ====
The Ambusher skill is the parent to the {{k|S}}neak ability, which makes you character move more slowly and stealthily to avoid being noticed. Sneak cannot be activated if an enemy can currently see you, but you can use it immediately if you break line of sight somehow. Sneaking around will increase your Ambusher skill even if nobody is around to see you.

Unfortunately, the best way to train Ambushing is to start sneaking and just hold a direction to run, until you've run 18,000 squares (assuming you started with no skill). This takes a long time, so you may wish to train sneaking just by sneaking whenever possible while playing the game normally in order to avoid boredom.

Sneaking is particularly useful for avoiding ranged attacks, as even Novice skill allows you to get within four or five squares of an enemy before they spot you reliably. It is relatively easy at normal levels of skill to stand anywhere but right next to an enemy and not be spotted for a long time, if ever. However, standing next to sombody without them spotting you is difficult even with legendary skill. However, even if they spot you moving next to them they will only get one shot at you which is a lot better than the hundreds they would have had if you'd been blundering around in the dark too far away to even see them when they opened fire.

If you are far faster than the enemy you can sometimes swoop in, attack, and back off to 1-square distance where you are less visible. Sometimes they will spot you, but other times you can literally slice off the opponent's leg and retreat to a safe distance. This may occur because enemies can only make checks to see if you are sneaking during their own turns, and a very fast (2000+ speed) player can run in, stab them, and retreat to a safe distance before their turn comes up.

The skill also has a valuable part to play in the noble art of running away. As long as you can get out of sight of all the enemies after you at once - such as around a corner indoors, or ducking behind a tree outside - you can start sneaking and head off in another direction. If your skill is too low however the enemies might be close enough to see you as soon as you try to sneak off.

The most useful part of sneaking is undoubtedly the 'stealth throw'. While firing a missile weapon or attacking in melee will get you noticed immediately, throwing things at people will not. Stock up on dead enemies' weapons, clothing and severed body parts and you can pretend you're some gruesome comedy version of Sam Fisher. You know you want to.

==== Armor and Shield Use ====

Armor User lets you wear heavy armor without slowing down, and might control the passive block rate of armor - a very useful skill, if true, because it controls how often your shiny full plate suit will actually work.

Shield User helps the block roll you make when you are attacked. A Legendary Shield User is far, far more capable of taking on enemies, especially projectile-based weaponmasters whose bolts and arrows are blockable with a shield to a far greater degree than with one's torso, so it is worthwhile to train these two skills.

Normally, you gain 10 Shield User XP per time you block an attack with a shield, and 2 Armor User XP per time you are attacked while wearing armor. This means that to gain the 18,000 XP necessary for legendary, you must block 1800 strikes, and be attacked at least 9000 times. Naturally, this could take some time- time in which a low-skill adventurer may die from attacks by worthy opponents.

However, a useful shortcut exists- if you find a small zombie herbavore to strangle in the above wrestling training method, you can also (if it is a small and non-dangerous animal such as a zombie [[groundhog]]) {{k|s}}it down next to it (to minimize your own speed and thus get attacked more often) and hold {{k|5}} to sit down next to the animal and block its attacks over and over. This is still slow, but leagues faster than waiting to train while fighting- it also means that you are probably not in any danger assuming you picked a sufficiently pathetic type of animal.

Warnings- Make sure that you have your {{k|c}}ombat preference set to Close Combat, otherwise you may counterstrike and kill the zombie. This way, you will wrestle it during a counterstrike instead of doing something that may actually hurt it such as counterstriking with your weapon.

It is probably also preferable to start with a modicum of skill in Armor and Shield using to make sure you don't accidentally get instakilled or crippled and are good at blocking with your shield to gain XP fast. You'll also want to have non-crappy armor and a good shield or two (dual wielding shields may increase your ability to block) to maximize your ability to block and to make sure you are taking as little as possible damage, if any at all, during training.

=== Exploration ===
== Basic exploration tips ==
When traveling it’s a good idea to avoid evil areas until you’re reasonably powerful, as they tend to contain stronger enemies. Also avoid caves for this same reason, you never know when a dragon is lurking in the shadows. Remember that only human towns have shops, so don’t die of hunger wandering the dwarves mountain homes looking for that allusive Applebees. Water can be had from rivers and stagnant pools, though fast traveling (shift + t) makes thirst and hunger go away. If you are exploring caves, make sure to have some water and food with you, as some can be quite deep.

== Fortress exploration tips. ==
If you’ve abandoned a fortress in the world you’re now adventuring in then you can find that same fortress on the map. Ask townsfolk about the surroundings and eventually they’ll mention the fortress and its direction. From there you need only to follow the directions till the fortress shows up on your map.
The perils of fortress exploration
If your fortress was abandoned or destroyed their’s more then likely a reason why. Be it magma overflows, flooding, goblin sieges or perhaps digging a little too deep there are likely to be remnants of your downfall somewhere in the remains. Wild beasts and sentient invaders alike will more then likely be slugging it out in your once grand halls. Beyond this there is the danger of forgetting what lever does what and accidentally flooding the room with lava or collapsing the entrance.
= The advantages of Fortress exploration =
Depending on how advanced your fortress was it may contain extremely rare, powerful or valuables items. Raiding fortresses is the only way to get adamantine items and wafers, as well as the only way to get artifact weapons. Beyond this, you can read the engravings on the walls in order to fill your legends list.

= Preparation =
Whatever destroyed your fortress is what is going to be squatting in it now. If a goblin siege took you down, then prepare to fight some gobbies. If the horrors of the deep raped your little dwarven ass then prepare to fight those. If they drowned then find some waterwings etc. Make sure you’re fully stocked on arrows (if you use them) as well as water and food. Leaving anything you don’t need back in the tavern in town is a good idea too, as it lets you carry more loot.

= Plumbing the Deep =

While wandering the halls of your old fortress its best to secure each floor one by one, to avoid being ambushed. Explore one entire floor then move on to the next. This isn’t a requirement but it can help in finding the best loot as well as insuring against surprise arrow buttsex. If you start to get overburdened with all the loot climb to a secure floor and dump it in a pile. You can come back for it after you’ve finished exploring. Also note that, while traps no longer work, their components (giants blades, spiked balls etc) remain just as lethal in your hands. Also note that you can pick up and throw ballista bolts.

= What to do with all your newly acquired wealth =

Not much I’m afraid. While masterwork adamantine weapons are very useful and the raw chunks of adamantine are extremely valuable there’s nothing to really buy with them. The adamantine weapons you find are the strongest in the game and shops will never sell anything above iron so once you’ve got the weapons there’s pretty much nothing more you need. This will most likely be fixed in up coming versions (perhaps paying a blacksmith to make you weapons).

=== Summary ===
*Avoid flying arrows
*Throw rocks/statues/socks/bugs/sand/coins/arms/heads/swords/arrows/kitchen sinks at enemies that still haven't reached you
*Train your stats before taking on your first quest-monster

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Adventurer mode]]