Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

40d:Kitchen

2010-04-02T06:36:26Z

Safe-Keeper: Elaborated on miasma bit

{{av}}
{{workshop|name=Kitchen|key=z|job=[[Cooking]]
|construction=
1 of
* [[Block]]
* [[Stone]]
* [[Wood]]
|construction_job=
* [[Cooking]]
|use=
* [[Alcohol]]
* [[Meat]]
* [[Fish]]
* [[Flour]]
* [[Food]]
* [[Seeds]]
* [[Dwarven sugar]]
* [[Dwarven syrup]]
* [[Tallow]]
* [[Fat]]
* [[Plants]]
|production=
* Prepared meal
* [[Tallow]]
}}

A '''Kitchen''' is a [[workshop]] used by a [[cook]]. The cook uses this [[workshop]] primarily to combine base ingredients ([[meat]], [[plump helmet]]s, etc.) into prepared [[food]]. It is also used to render [[fat]] into [[tallow]]. Kitchens can sometimes be a source of [[miasma]] from rotting food, and it might prove worth it to take precautions against this, such as digging a vertical ventilation shaft from the surface and covering its opening with a grate.

== Prepared meals ==

On the Kitchen sub-menu of the ({{key|z}})-[[Status#Kitchen Status Screen|Overall Status/Kitchen]] screen, you can specify which foods kitchens are allowed to cook. (This is a universal control, and cannot be refined to one or more specific kitchen workshops or [[cook]]s.)

There are three grades of meals you can prepare at a kitchen:

* '''Easy''' (biscuit) requires two cookable items.
* '''Fine''' (stew) requires three cookable items.
* '''Lavish''' (roast) requires four cookable items.

The items to be cooked do not have to be different kinds of food: for instance, a cook might combine two plump helmet spawn into a single stack of two "plump helmet spawn biscuits", or four separate spawn into a single stack of four "plump helmet spawn roasts". The amount of food produced always equals the total number of food items used.

If large stacks of food are used as the ingredients, a large stack of meals will be produced. For example, 22 "cave fish roasts" could be created from "minced cave fish [5], minced [[turtle]], minced [[dwarven wine]] [14], and minced turtle [2]".

Cooking foods destroys any byproducts such as [[seed]]s, [[shell]]s, or [[bone]]s - none are left, not after cooking, not after eating. This makes them ideal for placement in dining rooms located far away from your main population because food and refuse haulers will not have to trek long distances to retrieve the seeds or bones left after a meal, and a single enormous meal stack can feed several dwarves for a year or more

===Stockpiles===
A [[food]] [[stockpile]] can be customized to accept prepared meals, or only prepared meals, by using the {{k|u}} key within that stockpile. A stockpile that accepts prepared meals does not filter based on what ingredients were used - a prepared meal is simply a prepared meal, end of discussion. This can be toggled either on an existing stockpile by {{k|q}}uerying it and then using the {{k|s}} option to change it, or when creating a custom stockpile using {{k|p}} and then {{k|t}}. If all foods are {{k|b}}locked and prepared foods are allowed, ''only'' prepared foods will be placed in that stockpile.

[[Barrel]]s can only hold a max of 10 items - stacks of prepared food that are larger than 10 will not fit in barrels, and will be placed individually on stockpile tiles. This may leave them more vulnerable to [[vermin]], but can actually create denser stockpiles in terms of meals/tile. Meals that are not in barrels do not seem to rot any faster.

Many players put their prepared foods stockpiles near [[dining room]]s, to reduce the travel time for dwarfs that are [[Labor#Get back to work|eating]].

===Rotting===

A big problem with prepared meals is that if they are not stored in a stockpile (with or without a barrel) they will rot much faster than other [[food|foodstuffs]]. This will occur right there in the kitchen, effectively rendering their preparation a waste of time and resources and creating a large cloud of [[miasma]].

Currently, prepared food stacks of 10 or less can be stored in a barrel, ensuring their long-lasting preservation. Prepared meals will not rot in a food stockpile, even outside of a barrel.

Ensuring that you have enough food [[haul]]ers and open stockpiles that accept prepared food is the only way to prevent this.

===Value of a prepared meal===

Regardless of the type of meal you produce, a stack of prepared meals has a base value of 10 for each meal in the stack, multiplied by the quality rating of the preparation quality. However, the final value of a stack of meals is highly variable because it is so strongly influenced by the quality of the ingredients and the size of the ingredient stacks. The value added by the preparation can be a small fraction of the total value of the meal when expensive or exceptionally-prepared ingredients go into the meal. [[Meat]] from animals with high [[animal material multiplier|MODVALUE]], processed plants that generate large stacks, or luxury food items like [[cheese]] are all ingredients that can cause a stack of prepared meals to have a surprisingly high value.

====Some examples:====

'''≡Dwarven wheat flour roast [33]≡'''

:This is a stack of 33 finely-prepared dwarven wheat flour roast. The ingredients are exceptionally minced plump helmet, well-minced deer meat, superiorly minced quarry bush leaves and minced dwarven wheat flour.

:Total value: 3102☼

:10 (prepared meal) * 3 (fine) == 30 
:2 (plant) * 2 ([[plump helmet]]) * 5 (exceptional) == 20 
:2 (meat) * 1 ([[deer]]) * 2 (well-made) == 4 
:5 ([[quarry bush leaves]]) * 4 (superior) == 20 
:20 ([[dwarven wheat flour]]) * 1 (no label) == 20 
:Subtotal (value of one serving): 94☼

:94 (value) * 33 (quantity) == 3102☼

'''*Dragon meat stew [41]*'''

:This is a stack of 41 well-prepared dragon meat stew. The ingredients are finely-minced dwarven syrup, minced quarry bush leaves and well-minced dragon meat.

:Total value: 11685☼

:10 (prepared meal) * 2 (well) == 20 
:20 ([[dwarven syrup]]) * 3 (fine) == 60 
:5 ([[quarry bush leaves]]) * 1 (no label) == 5 
:2 (meat) * 50 ([[dragon]]) * 2 (well) == 200 
:Subtotal (value of one serving): 285☼

:285 (value) * 41 (quantity) == 11685☼

----

'''See also:'''
:*:[[Food]]
:*:[[Meat industry]]
:*:[[Cook]]
:*:[[Overall Status|z-Status Menu]]

{{Workshops}}

40d:Defense guide

2010-03-31T15:59:09Z

Safe-Keeper: /* Siege engines */

{{av}}


In Dwarf Fortress, you will often find yourself beset by hostile creatures looking to murder your dwarves or take their treasures. Protecting your fortress from intruders is a challenging task and a broad, complex topic. A wide variety of [[creature]]s can threaten your dwarves, and there is no one approach or philosophy that perfectly addresses every possibility. Fortress layout, military organization and training, traps and more, all contribute to the overall "defense" and survivability of your fortress and the dwarves that live and work both within there and in the world around it, and likewise no one article can include every last detail. This guide will pull from many other articles, but will prefer to refer to those rather than re-post information that is already found (and better placed) there.

There are three important things to consider when planning the defenses for your fortress. First, you must protect the fortress itself - the buildings, the hallways, the dwarves within it. But second, protecting the dwarves outside and topside as they go about their work is also important. These two goals can often be rather divergent, as your dwarves may need to wander the open countryside to collect herbs, cut trees, hunt, fish, and while outside the bounds of your fortress they can find themselves quite vulnerable. 
Lastly, there is game style - you want the game to be "fun" for you, and with some strategies it's quite possible to defend yourself into complete boredom, or just go down a road that is not attractive style-wise. While this article cannot tell you how to have fun, it will comment on this when appropriate, and you should keep it in mind as well.

For specific discussion, suggestions, descriptions and blueprints for...

* '''fortress layout''', see [[Defense design]].
* '''soldiers & military''', see [[Military design]].
* '''traps''', see [[Trap design]].

'''Note''' - There is not room in this article to expand adequately on every sub-topic - ''please'' see specific articles for a ''complete'' discussion as desired.

==General guidelines==

While admitting that "Rules are made to be broken", there are some general recommendations that have a proven value in defending a fortress:

* '''Minimize fortress entrances:''' Have a strong and clear distinction between inside and outside. This usually corresponds to underground and surface, but not always - you can have a complete medieval-style castle complex on the surface. But each point of entry should be hardened against attack. Don't make more entrances than really necessary. If there is a useless or redundant opening, seal it off, one way or another. (Some creatures can destroy doors and drawbridges if they can reach them.)

* '''Concentric circles:''' Think redundancy - one wall may not be enough. With the existence of door-destroying and bow-wielding attackers, double or multiple hard barriers between the inside and the outside is essential to fend off the worst assaults, and if they get inside one barrier it's nice to have another behind that. Sometimes captives will escape their [[cage]]s ''inside'' your fortress. The choke points between the circles are where you build traps and lockable doors, and station troops.

* '''Assume the worst:''' Build up your defenses ''before'' the enemy shows up - like right now! Plan on being [[siege]]d by scores of [[goblin]] archers, door-breaking [[troll]]s, invisible [[kobold]] master thieves, dive-bombing [[giant eagle]]s, flame-breathing [[fire imp]]s, angry [[elephants]], and a [[bronze colossus]] - ''all at once''. Hopefully, you will never have to face that kind of threat, but being ready for anything is the best bet, and, more realistically, when things go wrong (and with dwarfs, they will, just believe it) you will have a buffer of defense to fall back on.

==Threats==
Danger comes in a variety of forms in Dwarf Fortress. Understanding the diverse threats is the first step to keeping your dwarves alive.

:*'''Wild animals'''
::Creatures vary in threat and habits. Some [[animal]]s are quite dangerous, but most are easily excluded by the humble [[door]] or [[hatch]], even if it's not [[forbidden]]. Some few are able to destroy doors and hatches, statues and other [[building]]s, and some are thieves (see below), or will eat your food (such as [[Grizzly_bear|bear]]s). A lone animal, even a clear predator, will usually flee from a stronger force, but some [[undead]] and evil creatures can be blindly aggressive. Combat is random, and any animal can kill any dwarf - and vice versa.

::Wild animals can appear from the topside, but also from an [[underground river]] or [[underground pool|pool]] that you find by mining into it. In evil or savage [[surroundings]], the creatures can be both much tougher and more aggressive.

:*'''Thieves & child snatchers'''
::Many creatures are "thieves" in the general sense, and offer their own potential headaches - a [[raccoon]] or small tribe of [[rhesus macaque]] or [[mandrill]] monkeys can enter an unsecured area unannounced, grabbing items of value and running, and it doesn't matter how many you kill if one or three make off with some prized possessions. But a creature with a listed ( {{k|u}} ) [[profession]] of [[Thief]] has a few additional nasty surprises, namely being invisible until spotted by your dwarves or [[domestic animal]]s, being able to bypass locked or forbidden doors, being armed with a real weapon, and some imperfect ability to avoid triggering traps (though some seem better at it than others). [[Kobold]]s and [[goblin]]s are individually more dangerous than animals, but when spotted there's a special [[alert]] message, either "'''Protect the hoard!'''" or "'''Protect the children!'''", as appropriate.

:*'''Ambushes'''
::An [[ambush]] is a small number of enemies (less than ten) that are invisible until spotted, but are easier to spot than thieves. The alert message is "'''An ambush! Curse them!'''" They skulk around the outside of your fortress, unseen until they strike, looking for wandering dwarves or caravans entering or leaving. They will often flee off the map if challenged.

:*'''Siege'''
::A [[siege]] is a large number of armed and organized attackers that are announced as soon as they appear on the map. The alert message is "A vile force of darkness has arrived!" While siegers are on the map, the word "SIEGE" appears in the top corners of the screen. Siegers are organized into a number of squads, each squad having a different weapon choice. Some sieges bring dangerous creatures to aid the armed attackers. If you are at [[war]] with a civilization, expect annual sieges at least.

:*'''Enemy archers'''
::Attackers with [[bow]]s or [[crossbow]]s are worth separate mention as they are much, ''much'' more threatening than those with melee weapons. Out-shooting them with your marksdwarves is risky, and charging them with melee fighters is even worse. Special techniques are needed to shield your dwarves from the deadly rain of arrows.

:*'''Building destroyers'''
::Some creatures have the [[BUILDINGDESTROYER]] [[creature tokens|tag]] in their [[Raw file]]. This gives them the fearful capacity of tearing apart your doors and bridges and anything else, only excluding constructions built with the {{k|b}} + {{k|C}} keys.

:*'''Flying animals'''
::Currently, without modding, the only flying creatures are wild animals, like the [[giant eagle]]. Being aware of their presence is often all you can do until they choose to come to you.

:*'''Megabeasts'''
::A [[megabeast]] is a particularly powerful and dangerous creature, such as a [[dragon]] or [[titan]]. Megabeasts appear alone, with an alert message that mentions the beast by name. They often have unique characteristics which present unusual challenges, but are universally dangerous.

:*'''War'''
::Before hitting that {{k|e}} and embarking, {{k|tab}} to civilizations on the pre-embark screen, and see if you are at [[war]] with anyone. If so, things can get hot fast, with more and larger ambushes and sieges, and sooner. This is unusual, but a nasty surprise if you didn't check.

==Elements of a defense==

Dwarf Fortress is very open-ended, and any number of defensive, engineering, fortification and military principles will work in DF that have worked in reality. Combine different elements into the defense you want.

A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moat moat] with a drawbridge is perhaps the simplest defense known to Dwarvenkind, and not a bad start. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications Fortifications article on Wikipedia] is also a good source of inspiration. But simply shutting the outside world out and allowing invaders to mill about outside your moat is not always a desirable solution. Enemies will still prevent [[caravan]]s and [[migrant]]s from arriving, will kill [[liaison]]s, and prevent any desired outdoor activities. In addition, Dwarf Fortress players often find it enjoyable to perpetrate mass slaughter of invaders rather than helplessly glare at them from inside their caves.

For this, you will need a more complicated defense than a passive ditch and walls. One common method of defense is to build a walled structure above the entrance to your fortress, stationing Marksdwarves on the second floor overlooking the drawbridge-entrance. Another is to engineer a very long but narrow entrance, at the end of which are [[Ballista | ballista]]e waiting to unload at unfortunate monsters in the field of fire. The variations are infinite.

===Physical layout===
These are the [[wall]]s, [[floor]], [[fortification]]s and so on that create the towers and perimeters of your fortress, acting as physical barriers for your dwarves and against threats. However, they always work in conjunction with the other elements. Creative use of layouts can achieve some quite satisfying results.

For reference, arrow fire is usually about 20 tiles, though stray shots can travel further, and firing from higher elevations actually reduces the range about 1:1.

=====Terrain=====
:The lay of the land can be your friend, but the way of the dwarf is to shape the land as needed. Removing slopes can create safe, private terraces and valley walls that prevent all access. Chasms and rivers (not brooks!) create hard barriers, but an open chasm or magma vent can be a source of dangerous creatures. Small hills can serve as vantage points for archers (yours or theirs!), but if carved with stairs leading up from within, they can be quick strategic strongpoints. Narrow valleys can become chokepoints for entrances, where your marksdwarfs can overlook any who come and go. Augmented by constructions below, the terrain becomes your first option for defense.

:Some players take quite a while before initially unpausing the game to look around and think about the terrain, planning their fortress entrance and envisioning basic defenses.

=====Walls=====
:Constructing walls around your entrance is the simplest start, and an essential part of fortress defense, but a wall alone is not a complete defense. Currently, no creature can knock down a wall. Not only does it keep enemies out, your archers can stand on top of the wall and fire down. Keep in mind that this makes them vulnerable to enemy fire. To help protect against that, build [[fortification]]s.

=====Fortifications=====
:[[Fortification]]s are the marksdwarf's friend. They do not allow passage, but allow hand-held missile weapons to pass through, and are often placed on top of walls for tactical advantage. Projectiles have a chance of being blocked, based on the firer's skill and distance to the fortification. There's no chance of the missile being blocked if the firer is adjacent to the fortification, with increasing chances as any distance increases. Keep your marksdwarves close and keep enemies away - if an enemy archer can walk up to your fortifications, now they're adjacent too, and the fortifications will have zero effect. Build fortified firing platforms above ground level and put a nice wide moat between the wall and the enemy. Fortifications have no effect on [[siege engine]]s.

:Like Fortifications, Vertical [[Bars]] and Wall [[Grate | Grates]] will also allow projectiles to fire through them while impeding units' movement, but these constructions provide no defense - the missile fire works both ways equally. Unlike Fortifications, Bars and Grates may be connected to a [[Lever]], and opened or closed remotely - thus, they are good for forming a portcullis.

=====Doors (& Hatches)=====
:[[Door]]s are the simplest way to keep an enemy out. (A [[floor hatch]] in this sense is just a vertical door, and in all ways works the same.) Most creatures will be stopped by any door or hatch, though some others can smash them. With a little tinkering, doors can be made [[Door#Free-standing_doors|3-tile wide]] or more, but this remains mostly for aesthetics without much practical use, as [[caravan|wagons]] will still not be able to pass them. You can [[forbid]] doors to keep (most) hostile [[humanoid]]s and creatures out, and your dwarves in.

:Additionally doors can specifically be closed only against animals, to keep beloved [[pet]]s from wandering into enemy fire (they may pile up at the door and use the chance to slip out with a dwarf).

:Forbidding all doors and entrances breaks the pathfinding of enemies, making them lurk at the map border where they entered, which can be quite inconvenient in the case of an invisible ambush that then rushes at your fort in just the moment your civilian dwarves move out to, say, cut trees.

=====Floodgates=====
:[[Floodgate|Floodgates]], alone or in a line, may be used as removable walls, since they need no support and disappear when "opened" remotely, although using a wide drawbridge will be much more economical in terms of [[Mechanism]]s. (Be aware that [[Megabeast]]s can batter down both raised floodgates and drawbridges, and ''any object'' can prevent a floodgate from closing again, even a single, stray crossbow bolt or confused animal.)

:A floodgate can be used just like a door, with two differences: A floodgate can be placed next to another floodgate, unlike a door, which needs to be adjacent to a wall. A floodgate is closed by default, and can only be opened with a lever. Be careful not to trap your dwarves.

=====Moats=====
:Channeling a ditch is a fast and effective defense. The moat doesn't have to be filled with water or magma. Arguably, a dry moat is a better defense. If you want to build an access/escape route for your moat, consider where it leads - the enemy might use that too.

:A moat cuts off access for your dwarves as well, so a retractable- or drawbridge is usually included in the design. But a moat with a non-retractable bridge is still potentially useful: It keeps enemy archers away from your fortifications, and it channels enemies into a narrow and predictable path. A drawbridge without a moat can be a big remote control door, sealing an entrance when it's "up". (This doesn't work with retracting bridges.)

=====Bridges=====
:Bridges come in 3 forms - a permanent construction ''(a [[floor]] or top of a [[wall]] built out over a void)'', a retractable bridge, and a drawbridge. The movable type have a maximum size of 10x10 (including one solid "anchor" line of tiles at the base), and require a lever and two mechanisms to link them to be raised. Permanent bridges can be designed or later modified to include the latter.

:A retractable/raise-able [[bridge]] over a deep trench is a simple and almost air-tight defense - only flying creatures can pass it (''once the bridge is raised''). The moat keeps building-destroyers away from the bridge, and the raised bridge blocks arrow fire for anything behind it. [[Channel]]s may be dug to form ditches, or moats - be aware of what might exist or be planned for the next [[z-level]] down. For defensive purposes they do not need to be filled with anything - as in the middle ages, a dry ditch is more than enough to prevent ground units from approaching (though of course, projectiles may be launched over it with impunity). With a retracting [[Bridge]] over the moat, any units or items on top of the bridge will be dropped into the moat (and, if the moat is filled with water, drown unless they can swim out; if it is filled with magma, they burn to death.) With a drawbridge, they will be flung some tiles in a random direction, possibly being injured when they land.

:Drawbridges can throw creatures a distance (in a random direction) when the bridge is raised, possibly injuring them on landing. Creatures on top of drawbridges will be utterly destroyed if they are flush against wall and have a floor tile above them, as will anything, friend, foe or object, on a floor that is covered when the drawbridge is lowered. This offensive use of drawbridges is known as the [[Dwarven Atom Smasher]].

:A drawbridge works as a door when "raised", sealing the passage it raises against. Consider this, as well as security from [[building destroyer]]s, when choosing the direction a drawbridge is to raise.

:There are three important things to remember: 1) Always build the bridge to raise towards the ''inside'' (so it cannot be destroyed when raised), 2) the [[lever]] has to be pulled by a civilian, not a soldier, and 3) water can freeze solid in cold weather. Also, some rare creatures can cross fluids, even magma. Nothing but flying creatures can get out of a channel.

====Remote control====
:*'''Barriers'''
::If you link a [[lever]] to a door, hatch cover or floodgate, it becomes impossible for your dwarves to open and close it normally. Pulling the lever is the only way to open it. This keeps your dwarves locked in as well as keeping enemies out. (It's unknown if [[thieves]] can bypass a closed door once it's linked to a lever or pressure plate.) There is often a frustrating delay between ordering a lever pulled and when a dwarf pulls it, and another shorter one between between pulling the lever and the barrier responding.

::Any item or creature in an open barrier at the moment it tries to close will not only prevent that barrier from closing, but that "close" signal will be lost. Any lever will have to be pulled twice more - to reset to "open", and then to (try to) close again. This is not the case with drawbridges, which crush anything and everything below them when they close.

:*'''Automated barriers & traps'''
::You can automate a barrier or trap by using a [[pressure plate]] instead of a lever, but there are complications there. Only "enemies" or wild creatures will trigger a pressure plate - your dwarves and tame animals can walk on it all day long. Also, no device, trap or barrier, can be constructed in a tile where a pressure plate is - that is the only constructed object that can be there. But with creativity, this can still be a powerful addition to your fortress defense.

===Traps===
{{main|Trap design}}
The most reliable way to stop intruders is lots of [[trap]]s, which, large or small, can become an essential part of your fortification design. A line of traps can wipe out an entire ambush, and inflict significant damage on a siege. A thief's trap avoidance is subject to chance, so the more the better. However, be aware that vast numbers of traps have the potential to take some of the [[fun]] and challenge out of the game - use accordingly.

There are several types of [[trap]]s that a [[mechanic]] can place in a single tile and that target a single creature, but there are larger, more complex traps that only you can design, using [[lever]]s or [[pressure plate]]s. (See [[Trap design]].)

Note that a few creatures and enemies have the "trap avoid" token, potentially negating this defense against them.

===Military===
{{main|Military}}
A [[sparring|trained]], [[weapon|armed]], and [[armor]]ed [[military]] is the only way to bring the fight to the enemy. Building defenses to keep them safe is easy - keeping military ready and in position is the tricky part.

A sufficiently large military can be used as a reactive force to rescue ambushed dwarves and safeguard the passage of caravans through unknown dangers, or even to sally out and meet a sieging force ''mano a mano''. The disadvantages are many - soldiers must physically move to the conflict zone which may be many screens away from the nearest entrance to your fortress, by which point dwarven lives may have already been lost. And while squad organization may make ordering a large army easier, a squad commander who is sleeping, eating, or drinking prevents his entire squad from responding. At best, an army should be considered supplemental for defending dwarves outside your fortress.See [[military design]] for different options.

===Animals===
Any animal (or dwarf) can act as a sentry - if a hidden enemy comes adjacent to them, that enemy is revealed and an [[announcement]] is generated and the game paused (even by wild animals!). Most animals aren't strong enough to take more than one armoured goblin warrior, and enemies with bows are even worse. The real purpose of guard animals is to spot thieves. Anything will do here, even a kitten will do the job, and some players prefer not to risk a useful animal. ''

Guard animals are a good second line of defense in open entrances after your traps. A wardog can usually tear a thief apart, and will (briefly) delay goblin warriors while you respond. Also, the death of any animal will be [[announcement|announced]] (but the game will not pause), alerting you to the threat if you were not already aware of it. (Note - Some [[tame]]d animals will not fight goblins!)''

Most enemies will go after your animals just as blindly as they attack your dwarves. An expendable chained animal can bait enemies into dangerous passages, even into places unconnected to your fortress. Such an animal chained out on the far side of the map can alert you to ambushes that start there before they threaten your local dwarves.

[[Restrain]] animals in narrow corridors (width 1 or 2), or in matched pairs against the walls of 3-wide corridors, preferably in places where enemy archers can't easily fire at them.

===Siege engines===
{{main|Siege engine}}
Siege engines take some planning to use effectively, and have a range of about 100 tiles compared to a crossbow's 20 or so. Both catapults and ballistae can be very deadly, but both have their drawbacks -- they take time to reload and can only hit targets at the same z-level, and they are woefully inaccurate in the hands of unskilled operators or when loaded with low-quality bolts. Furthermore, they're manned by civilians, who will abandon their posts should the enemy get too close. See [[siege weapon]] for more on the ballistas and catapult.

==Considerations==
Now you know what you might face, and what cards you have in your hand. To that we add complications, things that make defense so much [[fun]]...

===Surface jobs===
There are many times when dwarfs want to work on the surface. [[Wood cutting]], [[gathering plants]], [[hunting]], [[fishing]], [[mining]] exposed [[vein]]s or gems, building defenses or other structures, [[grower|growing]] above-ground [[crop]]s, [[Health care|helping wounded comrades]] or recovering dropped items are only the most likely. Often they are alone and vulnerable to [[creature|wild beasts]] or [[ambush]]es.

You can try to wall in huge areas of the map, possibly with drawbridge gates that can open for Caravans, but the larger the area the vaster the project, the further your dwarves will be from existing defenses, and another example of dwarves working above ground.

Making smaller enclosures in key areas with underground tunnels leading to them can be easier as a first step. Likewise, tunneling to the inside of an exposed vein of ore keeps your miners sealed from the outside until you are prepared to mine the last tiles, possibly after placing doors or walls just inside that tunnel.

Having military stationed or patrolling nearby is another option.

===Water sources===
Access to [[water]] can be vital. Wounded dwarves need water, so if there's not an underground water source you'll lose valuable soldiers to thirst. Try to have a [[well]] or cistern your dwarves can use safely. Remember to keep an extra [[bucket]] or two available.

Some water sources are good locations for [[fishing]], providing food during longer sieges.

===Civilians stay underground===
This setting, in the [[Standing_orders|orders and options]] menu is the easiest way to keep your non-military dwarves out of sight of the enemy. It is far from perfect, as dwarves will do the "entrance dance" - they will attempt to leave the fortress, and only cancel jobs once they reach the surface, as defined by the first "above ground" tiles they hit. Having entries with a "skylight" a distance before the actual exit can solve this - and building walls around the skylight prevents archers from shooting down into it. Doesn't protect against flying creatures, though.

Similarly, keep in mind that the military access to defensive chokepoints should be outside. If you try to set up your defense at the edge of your underground area, ordering your civilian dwarves to "stay inside" has the result that your carefully designed "kill zone" will be chock full of your own dwarves at the critical moment.

It takes a truly airtight fortress to turn this setting off while there are still enemies outside. It's only safe to turn this setting off once the drawbridges and such have sealed off your fortress entirely. If there's even one exit, your dwarves will use it. Try testing this while it's safe: Raise the bridges, just like you would in a siege, and designate some trees for cutting. If there's a way out, your woodcutters will find it.

* '''Screen the entrance.''' Build a simple wall around your entryway. This will keep your dwarves safe from enemy fire while doing the entrance dance.

* '''Seal the entrance.''' Prevents the entry dance, but also blocks your soldiers, which can trap them underground.

* '''Forbid dropped equipment and corpses.''' Mark every item on the battlefield as [[forbidden]]. This includes any items dropped by dead merchants or scuttled wagons. You can have this done automatically for dwarf and enemy corpses and inventories in the '''orders''' {{key|o}} menu at the '''forbid options''' {{key|F}}.

* '''Delete stockpiles and turn off tombs.''' As a preemptive measure, you can easily delete your Graveyard [[stockpile]]s. Dwarves don't haul things if there's no stockpile to place them in. Turning off or removing [[coffin]]s stops burials as well.

* '''Keep them busy.''' Make a bunch of busy-work for your dwarves, just to keep them underground. It's not perfect but it helps. Time to re-organize your stockpiles.

===Civilians trapped outdoors===
Anything that blocks intruders will also block your dwarves. This can cause the problem of dwarves being trapped outside with the enemy, and the enemy ''will'' find them. Having more than one entrance can be useful here, but each requires adequate defenses - the weakest link and all that. If you make these entrances accessible by drawbridge only, with a (short) moat outside that, and keep the drawbridge up most of the time, having lots of entrances shouldn't be too much of a problem.

===Trade depot & caravans===
Factoring in a 3-tile wide access to the [[trade depot]] adds a layer of complexity. Letting merchants in while keeping enemies out requires a careful balance. The merchants can reveal ambushes and thieves like any other creature, and they can arrive in the middle of a [[siege]]. If they do, they can be slaughtered before reaching your doors, and that hurts you, (as well as possibly causing your civilian dwarfs to want to go running out and collect their dropped items.) Consider sending heavily armoured escorts when expecting a caravan.

Only [[wagon]]s need a three tile wide path to the depot, so the [[elves]] and some of the dwarven and human merchants can still get through if it's only 1-tile wide. You will possibly want to build the depot underground, so civilian dwarves can access the depot and goods. Wagons can't use stairs, so you need a three-tile [[ramp]], unless you can dig into the face of a cliff.

===Branching corridors===
Enemies will take the most direct path to your fortress, (even if it's not very direct at all). You can use this to your advantage. Have two paths to the fortress: a long, twisting, three-wide road, and a shorter, one tile wide, trap-filled passage. Attackers will usually prefer the short and deadly path. This makes a good line of fire for a ballista, too.

Alternately, you can have a primary, convenient, direct 3-wide path to your fortress open most of the time, with a convoluted detour that is forced (by drawbridges) only during sieges, lined with traps and overseen by marksdwarves. The possibilities are infinite.

===Levers===
Be careful where you place the [[lever]]s controlling your various entrances, traps and other defenses. Or any lever at all, for that matter. Make sure they are either central or close to locations of idle dwarfs, or both - near a [[meeting area]] or bedrooms of [[nobles]] is often a good plan. Make sure that the entire path to each lever is [[underground]] or your dwarves might be unable to reach them if told to "stay underground" (test this during peacetime!) Try putting all your defense-related levers in a single room, perhaps down a staircase from your meeting area, and put a door (or hatch) on the entrance(s). Then you can lock your lever-puller inside to ensure rapid response time.

Another solution to the problem of rapid response time is to make your lever room double as a [[Screw pump|pump]] room. Pumping is a good way to build up your dwarves' [[Attribute|attributes]] regardless of whether the pump is doing work or not. If you want a dedicated lever operator or three, turn off all their labors except pumping, and set the pumps up so that they can be operated exclusively by your dedicated lever operators. Rotate these positions every so often so the attribute gain will be distributed among multiple dwarves.

For the truly ambitious, the lever room could be spread over multiple levels, and the pumps could work together to power one or more artificial [[Waterfall|waterfalls]]. (Waterfalls work well in this case because their operation is not fortress-critical, and your dwarves like the mist they produce.)

Use [[Notes]] to label each lever and attached device and trap clearly - if you come back to a game after a week and can't remember your levers, they are useless (or, worse, dangerous!) Color code your levers with different color [[stone]] if that works for you.

==General Suggestions==

===First concerns===

====pre-embark decisions====
Defense starts before the game does, at embark when you're choosing your location, your dwarves' starting skill mixes, and your starting equipment and supplies. If you expect trouble (an evil biome, perhaps), then it can be crucial to bring at least one axe. Picks make decent weapons, and a dwarf with the proper mix of [[ambusher]] skill starts with a [[Ambusher#Free equipment|free equipment]] - a suit of [[leather armor]], a [[crossbow]] and several dozen steel [[bolt]]s. A supply of wood means you don't have to chop trees for a while, and similarly a few simple stone (a few [[bauxite]]?) allows you to make immediate workshops even before your miner has swung her pick. While an untrained dwarf can usually wrestle most small and medium beasts, one unarmored (semi-)military dwarf with an axe or crossbow can be a big edge against most early threats.

For most starts, unless your embark location is very close to a [[chasm]] mouth or open [[magma vent]], or you are starting in an [[evil]] biome ''(and that is only recommended for experienced players, so why are you reading this?)'', there should be no serious immediate threats. Unless you are at [[war]] with a civilization (visible on the pre-embark screen), sieges and ambushes don't start until you've created some wealth, the first winter at the earliest. So wild animals are your only concern, predators that might prey on lone dwarfs and thieving animals that will target your valuables.

====Striking the earth====
First, look around. At the terrain, at the animals present. Scan the {{k|u}} menu before un-pausing the game at the start, and regularly. More animals will enter the map, constantly and without warning, so keep an eye on visitors.

One of your first priorities is to get things underground or otherwise secure, to prevent rot but also to prevent theft. Carving out a channel/moat, or removing the slopes to a hill, or building a wall, or a combination of those will work fine, but better if you don't have an unwanted entrance to wall up later. Soil is very fast to dig out, and just as strong against enemies, but may not be desirable for a later, mature fortress. Balance convenience against your long-range plans and visible threats.

Consider and plan the entrance to your fortress - perhaps a ramp leading down, or a tunnel into the side of a hill or cliff. A long, narrow entrance (a valley and/or tunnel) allows you to control it, with archers, with traps, with a siege engine at the end. It gives you time to prepare your military. However, it also means that your dwarfs will have to walk that entire distance every time they enter and leave your fortress, and be that much further from help should they need it. Entrances vary from a few tiles to a many dozen. Start with something smaller for now, but plan on how to develop the entrance you want later.

An L-bend, or several, or drops in z-level may provide better security, or a firing platform for siege engines and/or archers. Many complex traps involve several levels beneath the entrance (for drainage of liquids or other diabolical purposes.) Using some of the principles above, it might look something like this...

#####################
(a) ? (-trap .....#
? area-) . .# (A's/SE)
################....#
# #
#D D#
# #
<Inner Fortress>
(Not to Scale)

(a) = bait animal, on [[restrain]]t
# = tunnel walls, above-ground walls, valley walls with slopes removed, and/or channels
? = ramp up, drawbridge, moat, defensive structures, or combination of all
traps = mechanic's traps and/or complex death traps, as you wish.
....
. . = area open to sky, to prevent "dwarves staying inside" from archers outside entrance
....
D = wardog on [[restrain]]t
(A's/SE)= future site for archers and/or [[siege engine]]s (planning ahead)

The above might be longer or shorter, partially or entirely above or below ground, or have more turns. The "inner fortress" might only be a Trade Depot, with another similar entryway behind that. Instead of the turn, it might drop a level and dive below the sight of the Siege Engines. Since the first caravan won't arrive for at least 6 months, you can dig a 1-tile wide tunnel for now, or a staircase, and then dig out to another location for a more formal entrance. This is only a very rough, very simple example of combining possibilities.

====It's mine!====
Consider how you will secure your valuables, your entrance, and any land you want to claim as "dwarf only" - by channeling, removing the slopes from nearby hills, maybe walls? At first, consider including at least enough above-ground terrain for any [[farm plot]]s and [[meeting area]]s. This could perhaps be as small as a 5x5 walled enclosure, or be multiple compounds, but some players aim at claiming (most of) the entire map. Any barrier limits your dwarfs, but keeps enemies out until you have your fortress up and running at a basic level and are prepared to respond properly. Due to thieves' ability to get past locked doors, and a caravan needing a path that's 3-wide, you won't be able to create a hard "gate" that you can open and shut until you have a [[mechanic's workshop]] and some [[mechanism]]s for levers, to link to a [[drawbridge]].

====Inside vs. outside====
Not "above ground" vs "subterranean", but the border where the inside of your fortress starts, what you claim as "yours" vs "out there". Some fortresses just have one main gate, some try to own the entire map. Some have an "airlock", a middle ground (remembering multiple, layered defenses!) where a Trade Depot is kept, that visitors can access and is protected, but then a deeper, even more secure inner fortress - think of a castle courtyard - inside the walls but not yet inside the castle itself. A safe zone for friends, still unfriendly for enemies but taking extra precautions against full intrusion.

This can be above ground or deep underground, a direct line or a maze of z-levels - that's all up to you, how much work you think "security" is worth. Hey, it's not like ''you'' have to do the heavy lifting.

That line of defense - any line - can be passive (walls and barriers and traps only) or active, with military, either on permanent duty or with stations to report to when activated. Remote controlled bridges create movable walls and closed gates or open hidden moats to reroute visitors, enemies and/or your dwarves depending on the situation, so there is no one "configuration", but several different options all side by side.

====Mechanic's traps====
Traps are a good friend for the starting player. We're talking the simple traps that a mechanic places - complex death traps are up to you. Stone traps are a good start - they're easy, effective against all but the biggest creatures, and ammo is plentiful if you're mining in stone. When goblins show, they can number less than a dozen to start, but grow over time. Start with a row in an early chokepoint, maybe your entry hall or outside it, make that one row into a few, and go from there. But lead your target - count on the next attack being larger than the last.

If you want to breed monkeys for skin, bone and meat, or amuse yourself with live goblins, a row or five of cage traps at the very entrance of your fort would be a good start. Leave room for this when you place your stone traps - killing the monkeys first won't allow live monkeys to be caged. (You still get the meat & etc from those corpses, just not breeding stock.)

As your dwarfs creates weapons, as you trade for them, or (later) as you gather those of your fallen enemies, [[weapon trap]]s will become attractive. There is no hard rule or formula for all this - be creative.

====Complex traps====
Between levers, pressure plates, water and magma, much fun can be had. But this article won't deal with any specifics. (See [[Trap design]] for those.) We will say - plan ahead. Think about what you might want to do, and leave ample room for it, in all 3 dimensions.

====Military====
To start, you will probably have few if any full-time military standing guard over your dwarfs - there is just too much to do at first, and serious threats are (hopefully) several seasons away. If you are going to make weapons and armor, have stockpiles near where your draftees work and rest, perhaps near an entrance/exit, but not so close that it might get over-run before your dwarfs can equip. Eventually you might have perhaps a quarter (or more or less) of your dwarfs as full-time military, and they'll need a barracks where they will sleep and practice, archery ranges if that's their weapon of choice, and quick, safe routes to their battle stations or patrol areas. When to begin a full-time military presence is personal choice and influenced by your game situation, but plan on eventually having them live and practice near where they will be fighting as much as possible. See [[Military design]] for a more complete discussion on planning and deploying military and militia.

==Different philosophies==
There are many, ''many'' ways to play DF. Some players play hard and tight, and some fast and loose. Some take no risks and protect every last dwarf and cat, and others happily leave a highway of dwarf and animal bodies for the next immigration wave to follow. Some live for the slaughter of ascii goblins, and others for the mega-project. No one "defense" will serve everyone's tastes.

===Losing is fun===
There is no final "win" in Dwarf Fortress, no end point or Easter egg that says "Congratulations!" - it just keeps going, until, inevitably and unavoidably, you will lose. That's part of the game. So it's all about how you play until then, and finding your type of fun in that process.

==="Fun" vs. security===
It's not hard to create an acre of traps that, realistically, simply no threats can survive. If you want to pursue a megaproject (that is not a defensive trap) in peace and security, this may be a good plan. However, if you look forward to the military end of things, then you want to allow, or at least be able to invite combat at your choosing. New players are recommended to use the hall-of-traps entryway, at least to start. Many experienced players challenge themselves by limiting their use of simple traps, or other voluntary handicaps. It's all about what you think is [[fun]].

----
'''See also:
:*[[Siege engine]]
:*[[Siege]]

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Fortress defense| ]]
[[Category:World]]
[[Category:Design]]

40d:Your first fortress

2010-03-31T11:44:41Z

Safe-Keeper: /* Biomes screen */ Added colour to table

{{av}}
This is a guide to help new players get started on their first [[fortress]] and teach them the basics of keeping their [[dwarf|dwarves]] alive. If you have unanswered questions or find given details confusing, please tell us so on the [[Talk:Your_first_fortress|discussion page]]! Above all else, always remember the [[Dwarf Fortress]] motto: "Losing is [[fun]]!"

We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying [[skill]]s and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. For more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.

== Generating a world ==

It all starts here. The first thing to do when starting Dwarf Fortress is to [[World generation |create a world]]. Later on, you may wish to tweak the parameters to suit your play style, but for now, the ''Create New World Now!'' option is an easy way to get into your first game.

The engine will start to create the world--watch it unfold! You might notice that worlds are rejected, sometimes even after the generator begins running rivers and lakes. This is normal, as the generator seeks a world which meets the criteria for optimum Dwarven [[Fun]].

Generating a standard random world can take several minutes. You can speed things up by selecting ''Design New World with Parameters'' instead of ''Create New World Now!'' and setting a smaller world size. These worlds tend to be less interesting and less replayable, but work well if you want to try new things.

Once you've generated a world you will return to the main screen and there will be a new option, <tt>Start Playing</tt>. Upon selecting that you can choose the game mode - [[Dwarf Fortress]], [[Adventurer]], or [[Legends]]. This article is written with respect to Fortress mode.

See the article on [[world generation]] for a complete guide to the world generation screen.

== Choosing a location ==

=== Useful location traits ===

[[Forest]]: Many parts of the game are dependent on creating wood items, so if you choose a location without any trees, the game will be more [[fun]] (aka more complex).

[[Water]]: [[Wound]]ed dwarves require water to drink, so having a water source near your first fortress so your injured don't die of thirst will be helpful.

[[Animals]]: Some [[biome]]s will have fewer animals to hunt for meat to feed your dwarves, so tropical and temperate biomes might be simpler.

=== The interface ===

So long as you have at least one world without an active game, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Select "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll find a four-section window:

[[Image:FortressLocation_fd2f10.png | caption | This picture is shown with the default tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available]]

Going from left to right, these windows represent:
*The local map. The black box represents the area that your fortress will occupy if you decide to embark. The blue line is a stream, the green icons represent forests and swamps, and the gray triangles are mountain slopes.
*The regional map. This is like zooming out from the local map. The entire local map is represented by that yellow X. Most of the region is forest, with a mountain range in the bottom right. The two light blue lines are minor rivers.
*The world map. This is zooming out all the way. The yellow X represents the approximate position of the region.
*Information about the area that the black box is occupying. More on this below.

You can move around the region map with {{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}, or at 10x speed with {{k|Shift}}+{{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}. Note that using {{k|Shift}} can cause the key to get "stuck" - press it again to cancel.

You can move around the local map with these keys:
{{k|u}}
{{k|h}} {{k|k}}
{{k|m}}

You cannot directly move around the world map. Movement across the world map is shown relative to your movement on the region map. In world generated with the default settings, each square of the world map contains several squares of the region map.

Your next goal will be choosing the starting location for your fortress.

=== Your surroundings ===

You can discern a lot of information by scrolling through the various modes. The interface has five modes which you cycle through by pressing {{k|TAB}}. In turn, they display the ''biomes'', ''civilizations'', and ''geology'' of the local area.

====Biomes screen====
This display gives you an idea for the environment you'll be parachuting into. Click any of the blue links for more information on the subject. [[Biome]]s are determined by the type of life in the area. On the Biome screen, you'll see:
* '''[[Temperature]]''': How hot or cold it gets in the area. Can be ''Freezing'', ''Cold'', ''Temperate'', ''Warm'', ''Hot'', and ''Scorching''. In a nutshell, temperature extremes make it harder to get and keep a reliable source of [[water]] going. In Freezing and Scorching climates, you may have to do without water at all. Temperate and Warm are both good places to start your first fort. 
* '''Amount of [[tree]]s, and [[plant|other vegetation]]''': A general indication of the density of plant life in the area. For trees, this can be ''none'', ''scarce'', ''sparse'', ''woodland'', or ''heavily forested''. For other plants, you can see ''none'', ''scarce'', ''moderate'', and ''thick''. Trees are chopped down for [[wood]], which is a critical, if small, part of your fortress. You can import lots of it from [[caravan]]s, so don't worry too much about it. However, more trees never hurt anyone, and totally treeless maps are quite a bit more difficult in the early going, so aim for ''sparse'' or greater trees. Other plants basically means shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation that you can harvest food from with the [[plant gathering]] skill. Generally speaking, you will use this trick in the first year of your fortress, then never again. [[Plant]] density is not very important. 
* '''[[Surroundings]]''': This gives you a basic image of the local fauna and flora. The outskirts of a jungle might be fairly calm and safe, while the heart of that same jungle could be thick with vicious predators. In game terms, this will clue you in to the specific types of [[tree]]s and [[plant]]s you will find, in addition to indicating the [[animal]] types you'll run into. This also clues you in to the ''alignment'' of the surrounding area. So, the two things this word tells you is how ''good'' or ''evil'' an area is, and how ''calm'' or ''savage'' an area is. The meaning of each of the descriptions is as follows:
 
<center>
{| style="color:black; cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="1"
| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Calm'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"| ...
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Savage'''
|-
| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Good'''
|Serene
|Mirthful
|Joyous Wilds
|-
| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Neutral'''
|Calm
|Wilderness
|Untamed Wilds
|-
| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Evil'''
|Sinister
|Haunted
|Terrifying
|}
</center>
 
''Good'' zones tend to have benign mythological creatures, like the [[unicorn]] (which can be incredibly dangerous, but only if provoked), while ''evil'' areas have a multitude of [[undead]] and some of the most vicious [[creature]]s in the game, which need no provocation to tear your dwarves limb from limb. For your first fortress, stick to a ''neutral'' or ''good'' alignment. 

* '''Major land forms''': A last field, which will not always be full, will mention things you should know about, like [[river]]s. Rivers provide an unlimited source of [[water]], but can be home to dangerous fish like the [[longnose gar]] and [[carp]]. Still, though, the benefits generally far outweigh the risks. [[Volcano]]es are also noted here, one of the only guaranteed ways to get [[magma]]. Magma makes a few things a lot easier, but it is dangerous to work with and must be handled very carefully because of the [[fire imp|horrible]] [[magma man|creature]]s that come out of it. Not critical, especially not for your first time out. 

Sometimes, you'll be looking at a place with more than one [[biome]] in the same selected square. You can press {{k|F1}} {{k|F2}} {{k|F3}} or {{k|F4}} to view the different types of biomes. In the picture above, we are looking at the mountain in the center, which is cold and has no trees or plants because it's too high up for those things to grow.

====Civilization screen====
These are nearby [[civilization]]s that are capable of interacting with you. Other settlements are shown with various symbols on the regional map. The possible entries here are ''dwarves'', ''humans'', ''elves'', ''goblins'', and ''kobolds''.
* '''[[dwarf|Dwarves]]''': You will want to be in contact with dwarves to get [[immigrant]]s and a dwarven trading caravan. However, dwarves are, sometimes seemingly magically, everywhere. It is impossible to settle anywhere ''without'' dwarves, assuming there is at least one surviving dwarven civilization. Depending on how remote the area is, though, you may not get some of the features of the game you would otherwise: being cut off from the world will prevent most [[noble]]s from coming to your fort, which will stop the [[dwarven economy]] from ever being activated. You may also not get a [[liaison]] with your dwarven caravan from which to request goods.
* '''[[Humans]]''': Humans are almost always friendly, and love [[trade]]. They send [[liaison]]s to let you request goods and are generally a huge boon to any fortress.
* '''[[Elves]]''': Elves are usually friendly and make fair trading partners, but have a [[Trade#Elves|particular ethos]] about trading. They do not send a trade [[liaison]] and their goods are luxuries at best. They can be very annoying, but are generally not dangerous unless you provoke them.
* '''[[Goblin]]s''': Goblins are your main enemies in Dwarf Fortress, and will produce most of the aggression against your fort. They periodically launch ambushes, consisting of five to ten goblin warriors, and will send [[siege]]s after your fort reaches 80 dwarves. [[Trap]]ped entrances, [[war dog]]s, and eventually a [[military]] will be needed to repel them. Just be sure not to start in the middle of a goblin citadel.
* '''[[Kobold]]''': Kobolds are petty thieves that are little more than irritations in most situations. If you are careless and let their thieves get away with a lot of stuff, though, they may upgrade to raiding parties of archers.

====Elevation screen====
Relative [[Z-axis|elevation]]. This is a normal topographic map that you're used to from real-life maps. It just gives you an idea of the lay of the land.

====Slope screen====
[[Slope]] steepness. This shows you where large cliffs are. Be advised that [[cliff]]s of elevation 4 or more mean taller maps, which take significantly more computer power to run. On the other hand, many find completely flat embark sites to be dull -- a good elevation map contains lots of low elevation changes ranging from 1 to 4. However, choosing areas partly or entirely above the tree line gives you much more stone, ore, and gems to work with, and the hills even provide decent protection against invaders, especially if you start removing natural ramps. It's your choice in the long run, particularly if you don't really care about performance.

====Embark alerts====
When you're satisfied with your area and hit {{k|e}} to embark, you may get some alerts about being in a very difficult area, or about an [[aquifer]]. Aquifers can make it frustrating to get started, so if you are alerted about an aquifer, seriously consider moving somewhere else for your first fortress. After you have the basics down, tackling an aquifer is much easier.
====Location recap====

For your first fortress, it's not entirely important. However, there are some general guidelines that can help you decide: 

* Try to get a temperate or warm climate, since extreme temperatures are more difficult.
* Trees and vegetation are good for producing lumber and food for your fortress, but you don't need tons of them.
* ''Neutral''-aligned [[surroundings]] are best for your first fortress, but ''good''-aligned surroundings are also OK. Avoid ''evil''-aligned surroundings, however.
* Running water ([[river]]s, streams, and [[brook]]s) are a permanent source of [[water]]. [[Murky pool]]s and [[underground pool]]s have a finite amount of water and may dry out. Not having enough water can be a big obstacle, so try to get some running water your first time out.
* [[Humans]] and [[elves]] are friendly, so an area they have access to is nice.
* [[Magma]] is cool (hah!), but not critical.
* Areas with [[aquifer]]s require some engineering to get to rock. You'll be warned if you chose an area with an aquifer. When in doubt, don't try it.
** If you insist on starting in an area with an aquifer, read up on the dangers of aquifers, and, if at all possible, choose an embark site that includes an aquifer-less [[biome]].
* Who cares? If you like what you see, go for it. You can always start over. And remember the DF motto: Losing is fun! 

For more information on specific game mechanics such as [[sand]], [[flux]], and how to find [[iron]], check [[Stone layers|this page]].

==== Fortress size ====

Once you've decided on location, you need to decide the size of your fortress area. This is the size of the game field you're playing on. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of [[rock]]s and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include slower game performance (larger areas require more CPU power), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your [[trade depot]] before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. (Note that you can [[mine]] many levels deep into the ground, and even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.)

You can adjust the size of your fort's area by using {{k|SHIFT}} + the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|k}} or {{k|h}} keys. 

=== Embark ===

When done, hit {{k|e}} to embark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site, or one with an [[aquifer]].

==Buying skills and items==
After you embark, you're given the option to either start immediately or prepare for the journey carefully. You should pretty much always prepare carefully if you enjoy staying alive.

Here, presumably, you are the dwarf determining who will go and what they will take. You have a total of 2060☼ to spend in two categories: Skilled dwarves and items. Some items have already been selected for you, but you probably won't want most of these.

There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[starting builds]] page offers several examples for you to choose from. Here, we are only going to discuss some basics that help you understand enough to make your own decisions. The embark screen opens up on the ''skills'' screen, and can be changed to the ''items'' screen by pressing {{k|TAB}}.

===Skills===
In Dwarf Fortress, it's not what you have, it's who you have. Skilled dwarves are the cornerstone of everything, from domestics to security, so it's extremely important to embark with good people.

As you will see in this screen, you have 7 dwarves, all with 10 points to put toward starting skills. We will want to use all 10 of the points on all 7 of the dwarves. By default, you won't have enough ☼ to do this, so hit {{k|TAB}} to go to the items screen and hit {{k|-}} over the ''Steel battle axe'' line to give subtract one. This should give you enough ☼ to assign all your skills. You can only spend 5 of the 10 points in any one skill, making the maximum skill level upon embark ''proficient''. This makes a total of 14 ''proficient'' skills, or a larger number of lower skill levels.

In a fledgling fortress, the 4 indispensable jobs are [[mason]], [[miner]], [[grower]], and [[carpenter]]. A good beginning strategy is to embark with at least 1 dwarf being ''proficient'' in these 4 skills. Many people choose to double up on proficient miners and growers, since mining and farming are both pretty big jobs.

Other useful skills to consider:
* '''[[Cook]]:''' Cooks make [[prepared meal]]s in the [[kitchen]], which helps you manage your food stock space. Well-prepared meals are also valuable [[trade]] goods, and make dwarves happy when eaten. Highly skilled cooks make better meals, and prepare meals faster.

* '''[[Brewer]]:''' Brewers make [[booze]] in the [[still]]. Dwarves being dwarves, they need alcohol to operate at peak efficiency, and highly-skilled brewers make better tasting booze and finish brewing faster. Dwarves get happier when they drink good booze.

* '''[[Herbalist]]:''' Herbalists gather food and seeds from [[shrub]]s in the local area. Skilled herbalists pick faster and come away with far more food. Where an unskilled herbalist will come away with one [[wild strawberry]] or none at all, a proficient herbalist will often pick 3 or 4, and sometimes 5.

* '''[[Woodcutter]]:''' Woodcutters fell [[tree]]s for use by [[carpenter]]s. Highly skilled woodcutters fell trees much faster. However, since you don't need that much wood, you can get away with a normal (no tag) woodcutter just fine.

* '''[[Mechanic]]:''' Mechanics build and use [[mechanism]]s, which have myriad uses in [[trap]]s, [[lever]]s and some [[machine]]s. Highly skilled mechanics finish installing mechanisms much faster, and the mechanisms they build are of higher quality. However, the quality of the mechanism primarily matters to beginning players for its [[trade]] value, and in early fortresses the need for mechanisms is usually so small that any dwarf can pick it up and handle it well enough. Still, a solid choice, especially if you like [[trap]]s.

* '''[[Armorsmith]], [[Weaponsmith]]:''' These become very important quickly if you want even decent weapons and armor and are annoying to train up from scratch.

* '''[[Siege engineer]]''' is not useful at all in an early fortress, and far from ever being essential, but training an unskilled dwarf in it requires a lot of material and time.

* '''Military skills ([[Wrestler]], [[Axedwarf]], [[Hammerdwarf]], etc):''' Early on, it's unlikely that you'll need these, since there's generally very few things that will bother a band of dwarves who aren't hurting anyone, but certain places, such as those with a [[chasm]], will have hostile creatures around. In these areas, you may consider giving your woodcutter the Axedwarf skill so he can use his chopping axe as a weapon. A miner can "pinch-hit", since the [[Mining]] skill also covers wielding a pick in combat, but the dwarves don't understand this yet, so a drafted miner will get unhappy [[thought]]s.

* '''Social skills ([[Appraiser]], [[Judge of Intent]], [[Consoler]], etc):''' Putting these on one dwarf will make them a shoo-in for the Expedition Leader slot, and ranks in Appraiser and Judge of Intent will make interacting with the first caravan much easier. However, even if you don't train this at all, some persistence in trading with the first caravan will level your leader up enough to trade with the second caravan like a champion.

Once again, examples can be found in the [[starting builds]] page. What you bring is incredibly dependent on your play style, though. Some people think bringing Mechanics along is a total waste of time, others consider them indispensable. Some people like having skills that aren't even on this list, like [[Leatherworker]]. Read the starting builds, ask questions, and explore! Who cares if your first idea doesn't work out after playing an hour? Restarting is easy and ''losing is fun''.

===Items===
Now that we're done with assigning skills, hit {{k|TAB}} to go over to the item screen. Item worth is another extremely situational thing, and you'll find as many opinions as there are Dwarf Fortress players as to what is good to bring. Once more, it depends VERY heavily on your play style. Again, [[starting builds]] can provide some good example reading. This section will only cover the basics and give you enough information to make your own decisions.

====Tools====
You'll need a couple of finished tools to get yourself started.
<ul>
<li>'''[[Battle axe]]s''': Every [[Woodcutter]] needs an axe. Steel battle axes are the only type you can purchase on this screen, and they're expensive. You might want to bring just one, unless you expect to need a lot of lumber and/or axedwarf muscle.</li>
<li>'''[[Pick]]s''': Likewise, [[Miner]]s need picks. All picks work equally well, their material only determines the damage they do in combat. Thus, copper picks are the budgeting dwarf's choice, at a paltry 20☼ each.</li>
<li>'''[[Anvil]]''': One of the big questions to ask yourself is whether to bring an anvil on embark. It's extremely expensive at 1000☼, but to start a [[metal]] industry, you will either have to start with one or request and purchase (or steal!) one from a [[caravan]] somewhere down the line.
Generally, if you are going to a very mountainous area where you're likely to see lots of ore and you want to be able to make use of it right from the get-go, bring an anvil. If you're going to spend a few years getting your fortress established before worrying about metal production, drop it and bring more raw commodities.
One occasional problem is that axes and picks are absent entirely. If this is the case (or you just don't want to spend all that money), you can bring the materials to [[make your own weapons]].
* If you want to save points and smelt the ore yourself, take copper nuggets instead of copper bars, and use the smelter to convert the ore into copper bars.
* A good alternative ore to bring along, and not much more expensive, is [[tetrahedrite]] - when [[smelt]]ed, it yields one copper bar with a 20% chance of an additional [[silver]] bar each. Silver is a good metal for [[metal crafter]]s, or you can have an unskilled worker forge a practice weapon out of silver for training - silver is tied with wood for the safest material for practice weapons, and you have to trade with elves for wooden ones.
* Other mixes of ores, to create bronze or bismuth bronze, etc, are possible - as you learn about the game you'll decide what works best for you, and in what starting situations.
*Fuel and metal in hand, deconstruct the smelter (if needed; {{k|q}} to highlight, then {{k|x}} to deconstruct), and construct a [[metalsmith's forge]]. Make sure someone has [[weaponsmith]]ing on. After the forge is up, order it to make the axes and picks you need. Deconstruct the forge when you're done and enjoy your new tools, hopefully with [[quality]] modifiers!</li>
</ul>

====Raw materials====
As it was briefly covered above, sometimes it makes more sense to bring a lot of raw materials than some finished goods. Raw materials are a lot cheaper than finished goods, and so long as you invest heavily in your dwarves' skills (which you should!), you can probably make better quality stuff, anyway.
*'''[[Stone]]''': Only bring this if you're trying to build some of your tools on the spot, as noted above. Otherwise, you will get stone coming out of your ears once you start mining.
*'''[[Metal]]''': Generally not recommended. However, if you're expecting trouble and you're bringing an anvil, bringing many bars of [[iron]] and [[charcoal]] in lieu of a [[battle axe]] can be a big boon. If your dwarves can get to a spot that gives them a breather, a proficient [[weaponsmith]] or [[armorsmith]] could stamp out high-quality goods to give your dwarves a better fighting chance. This is a pretty advanced trick to pull off, though, so don't try to pull it if you're not confident.
*'''[[Wood]]''': Wood is a bargain at only 3☼ per log, and the 100 logs you can bring in exchange for a steel battle axe will last you a long time. This is a great technique for making [[Woodcutter]] unneeded in the early game, but you need to budget your wood use for the first year very carefully. When you're out, you're out!
*'''[[Leather]]''': Leather is cheap at 5☼ per for the cheapest. Bring a few to make extra bags for gathering plants - don't worry if you don't have a [[leather worker]], you don't much care about a quality multiplier for bottom-value items like leather bags. If you are going to make your own leather armor (early or later), consider bringing someone with leather working skill.

====Consumables====
Easily the most important part of your preparation is what you're going to eat, drink, and plant once you get on site. Without food and booze, you're not going much of anywhere.
*'''[[Food]]''': Most food comes at a mere 2☼ per unit, and 8 units will feed 1 dwarf for a year. Bringing a year of food will give you a good cushion to getting your farms working, so aim for about 60 food if you can. If you must cut back, though, 40 will be fine if you make your farms an early priority. The best food staple to bring along is [[turtle]]. Turtle produces [[shell]] and [[bones]] when eaten, which can be used as raw materials for other things you need, including armor, crossbows, and crossbow bolts. Further, shell is a common request for [[strange mood]]s and is a pain to produce, so getting some early could save yourself a failed mood and a dead dwarf.
*'''[[Booze]]''': Dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, and they always want to down some alcohol if at all possible. They also like different kinds of alcohol. Bring twice as much booze as you bring food, and divide it evenly among the 4 types of alcohol you can take ([[dwarven wine]], [[dwarven beer]], [[dwarven ale]], [[dwarven rum]]). Even more nifty, check the booze preferences of your 7 dwarves on embark and allocate the 4 kinds accordingly. Plump helmets (wine) and pig tails (ale) are fast growing, so you might take less of those, particularly if no dwarf has a preference for them. Too much booze is a real barrel hogger but this problem is far off. More booze is better 99% of the time.
*'''[[Seeds]]''': Your farms have got to start somewhere. Definitely bring along [[plump helmet spawn]] (for food and booze) and [[pig tails]] (for cloth ropes and booze variety). How many you bring is dependent on how big you want your initial farms to be. 5 of each is plenty to feed your initial dwarves, and you will get more seeds any time the plants are consumed in any way ''except cooking''. You may want to use the [[kitchen]] menu to disallow cooking of plump helmets until you have a healthy supply of seeds. Or, alternatively, just don't make any prepared meals until you've got a healthy supply of seeds. The other seed types require a lot more labor to use properly, and should probably wait until you have more dwarves in the fortress. You can buy seeds from the dwarven caravan for almost nothing, but if you want a greater variety along, go for [[rock nuts]]. The [[quarry bush]] that sprouts from it produces the greatest space to yield ratio in the game. Eventually, though, you should be planting all 6 of the underground [[crop]]s at least.

Food and booze are stored in [[barrel]]s, with each type in its own barrel. Since barrels have a 10-unit capacity, you can get a lot of free barrels by starting with many, many kinds of food in quantities which end in 1. Barrels are important, and usually need wood to make, so it's worth it to use this quirk while you can by starting with at least one unit of every type of food.

Seeds are stored in [[bag]]s in multiples of 100, also by type. Bags are cheap and easy to make, and not as important as barrels, since making cloth bags is a good way to train up your [[clothier]], so it's not recommended to spend the extra to get 1 free bag.

====[[domestic animal|Domestic Animals]]====
Not only dwarves live in your fortress, after all.
*'''[[Dog]]s''': Dogs are dwarf's best friend. They can be trained into [[hunting dog]]s or [[war dog]]s, require no food or maintenance, and make good pets for your dwarves. Always bring at least 2. Genders alternate when picking them up, so 2 will give you a breeding pair that will have more puppies freely. They make fantastic security early and fantastic dwarfsaving distractions later on. Dogs will happily lay down their lives to protect their master, which is huge when it means one of your best legendary dwarves is running away from an angry [[goblin]].
*'''[[Cat]]s''': Cats provide a wonderful function in controlling [[vermin]] in the fort. Vermin can make your dwarves extremely unhappy, so some cats are more or less a requirement. The largest problem with cats, however, is that their population is very difficult to control. Cats will choose their own owners (without the dwarf in question's consent), and after they've done so, you cannot order them butchered to control their numbers. The resulting [[catsplosion|population explosion]] can clutter hallways and murder your framerate. The best thing to do is to put all stray cats and kittens in a [[cage]] (one will hold them all). You can then butcher them without running the risk of the cats adopting dwarves before the butcher gets around to them, and if vermin start to get out of hand, you can always release one or two to help. If you want vermin control from the start, bring just ONE cat so it cannot breed and cause a population problem early. However, immigrants will very commonly bring their pet cats to the fortress, so if you can live with vermin early, you'll likely get a cat for free within a year. Or, be prepared to cage and slaughter them aggressively for meat and hides - that can work too.
*'''Beasts of burden (horses, muskoxen, cows, donkeys, & mules)''': You get two of these for free when you start the game - each one random as to sex and the five possible species (and mules don't breed). Unlike cats, dwarves must choose to adopt beasts of burden, which they won't do unless you let them to do so (in z->animals menu). That's fairly rare, so the vast majority of the beasts of burden in your fortress will stay strays. Many immigrants may bring useless animals with them though - as they are adopted already you can't butcher or cage them, but they can still help start a breeding program for meat, hides and bones. You can also trade later for whatever the caravans bring. All newborns belong to the fortress, so you can do what you want with them. 

Once again, check the [[starting builds]] page for more ideas, read the pages linked above, and experiment. The learning process is half the fun in Dwarf Fortress; enjoy it!

==Game on!==
We've chosen an area, selected our supplies, and we're ready to play. The game opens with your dwarves huddled around the wagon they used to get here.
==Gameplay overview==
This section will deal with the tasks you'll need to tackle in your first year of gameplay. These tasks are ''selecting a dig site'', ''building workshops'' (and ''marking stockpiles''), ''building lodging'', ''starting farms'', and ''trading''.
===Selecting a dig site===
You'll have to decide where you're going to dig in and start your fortress. You should consider the natural formations of the surrounding area when deciding where you want your main entrance. Ideally, there should be one way in and one way out. This one way should be fairly sizable, to pander to [[caravans]] and [[traffic]]. Proximity to a good [[water]] source so you can build a [[well]] more easily is also desirable. You can fix either of these things with extra digging and building later on, though, so don't sweat the decision too much.

The most direct way to start is to find the side of a nearby mountain and dig into it, but if you're in a very flat area, you might have to dig downward instead. To start digging, hit {{k|d}}esignations, then {{k|d}}ig. Move your cursor using the arrow keys to where you want to dig, and hit {{k|ENTER}}, then move your cursor over to the place you want the digging to end. Mining designations are rectangular, so you can go both left and right and up and down as you're designating area. This tells your dwarves to cut into a wall and hollow it out, often leaving behind a [[stone]] if it is a rock wall. [[Soil]] walls become hollowed out, but never drop anything. These hollowed out areas are where you'll build the vast majority of everything you need.

If you need to dig down instead of in, you need to use either a '''[[stairs|stairwell]]''' or a '''[[ramp]]'''. For a stairwell, use {{k|d}}esignations, and downward stairway ({{k|j}}). Note that this is only half of a stairwell. To build the other half, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate an {{k|u}}pward stairway to connect to it. You are then underground and can use {{k|m}}ining normally. For a ramp, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate a {{k|r}}amp on the area you want cut away. You do not need to build anything above it; your miners will figure it out. If you are building downward and want [[caravans]] to come down into your fortress, you will need to use [[ramp]]s, at least 3 right next to each other. Keep this in mind when deciding where you want to dig down.

When designing your main entrance, be mindful that as many as 200 dwarves could be coming and going eventually, and that [[goblin]]s are going to want in at some point or another. A 3-wide entrance corridor is ideal. It is wide enough to accept a good amount of traffic and caravans, but narrow enough to use diabolical traps and designs to kill lots of goblins. Your main doors will have to be only 2-wide, though, as [[door]]s require a wall adjacent to them to build properly.

Once you've decided where you want your main entrance, it's time to move your supplies over there. We will have to set them outside for now, but we'll want to move them indoors as soon as we can. Press stock{{k|p}}iles, and designate areas for {{k|f}}ood, {{k|w}}ood, and {{k|r}}efuse. You can designate all sorts of stockpiles from this screen, so hit {{k|t}} and poke around in the custom stockpile settings for a little bit, figuring out what you can do. Do '''NOT''' designate a stone stockpile for now. It will eat up a lot of time unnecessarily. While we're organizing our supplies, deconstruct your wagon by pressing {{k|q}}uery, putting the cursor over your wagon, and pressing deconstruct ({{k|x}}). A dwarf with the [[carpentry]] labor enabled will come by and pull the wagon apart, turning it into 3 [[log]]s. The wagon is useless to you, so there's no reason to not do this. Some people prefer to wait until the wagon has been emptied before deconstructing it. In order to see the contents of a building, use the {{k|t}} command and scroll over the wagon.

Plan for your finished, 200-dwarf fortress right from the get-go. It's very easy to dig out new area. It's very HARD to go back and redo something the way it should've been from the start. 3-wide hallways is typically plenty for high-traffic areas.

===Building workshops===
Time to get some work done! Taking in raw materials and spitting out stuff that's useful: that's the name of the game for workshops. You should start putting down workshops as soon as you have raw materials. You'll need to get basic living provisions like [[bed]]s, [[table]]s, [[chair]]s, [[chest]]s, and the like down for not only your first 7 dwarves, but the [[immigrant]]s that could come at any time as soon as possible, so you can't waste any time. 

[[Stone]] will show up from your miners digging. Once you have an area with a decent amount of stone, you should get a [[mason's workshop]] built in the area. Check the [[workshop]] page for full details if you have problems building one. The keyboard command is:
* {{k|b}}uild order
* the {{k|w}}orkshops sub-menu
* {{k|m}}ason's workshop.

Once the workshop has been built by a dwarf with the [[masonry]] [[labor]], you can {{k|q}}uery the workshop to find out what it's current orders are, {{k|a}}dd or {{k|c}}ancel orders, set an existing order to {{k|r}}epeat, order the workshop dismantled, and other tasks.

Add orders for a {{k|d}}oor, a {{k|t}}able, and a {{k|c}}hair. Stone chairs will show up as ''thrones'' in the orders. They are exactly the same. Then set each order to repeat. This workshop will now make [[door]]s, [[table]]s, and [[chair]]s until you tell it to stop. You'll need a lot of these, so that's OK.

Also build a [[carpenter's workshop]] near the wood stockpile you designated earlier, and tell it to make {{k|b}}eds. Put this on {{k|r}}epeat, also. The wood you brought along, even after disassembling your wagon, won't last long. If you brought along a [[woodcutter]], now would be a good time to get him to chop down some trees. Hit {{k|d}}esignations, and then hit chop down {{k|t}}rees. Chopping designations work exactly like mining designations, but it will only highlight trees in the rectangle you give it. Don't worry about chopping a ton of wood right now; trees don't go anywhere fast, so you can always come back for more.

While making workshops anywhere the material happens to be works fine right now, you will want a more organized way of doing it later. Check out the [[Design_strategies#Workshop_Logistics|workshop logistics]] page for ideas on how to set it up. After you do get things set up, be sure to move your stockpiles underground; aboveground stockpiles are vulnerable to thieves and are usually a long way away. Don't be afraid to tear down workshops; they are built quickly and easily, and tearing them down does absolutely nothing harmful, even returning the materials used in their construction. Be aware that workshops create [[noise]] when they are in use, which can disturb your dwarves' sleep, so don't build them close to any [[bed]]s.

===Building lodging===
With commodities coming out, it's time to set up places where they can be used. 

Tell your miners to dig out a large (5x5 minimum) room to become your [[barracks]]. The barracks is essentially a communal sleeping room where dwarves without their own apartment can come to crash. It is also the place where your [[military]] will come to [[sparring|spar]] once you start recruiting soldiers. Since your military hangs out in the barracks a lot, it's a good idea to put it near the main entrance of the fortress. If [[Thief|thieves]] stumble in, they are likely to meet a very grisly end as they bump into a pair of dwarves in the middle of combat training, and later, in case of a more major attack, they are more likely to be closer to where you need them. Note, however, that sparring dwarves can very seriously [[wound|hurt]] or kill eachother if their sparring area is too crowded, so keep beds stacked along one wall and the rest of the room clear and uncluttered. You do not need too many beds in the barracks right now. Beds in the barracks are public, and dwarves have their own schedules, so the entire fortress will not sleep at once.

After the barracks is dug, tell your dwarves to {{k|b}}uild a {{k|b}}ed. Your cursor will come up, turning red on an unacceptable location and green on an acceptable location. Unacceptable locations will give you a short reason as to why they're unacceptable. Again, just stack beds against one wall of the barracks; 5 beds will be fine to start out with. After indicating the placement of the beds, your dwarves will haul them over and install them. Once they are installed, {{k|q}}uery a bed, then make a {{k|r}}oom. Use the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to size the room that will be considered the barracks. All beds within the flashing square will be considered public, so there's no need to do this more than once. Fill up the whole 5x5 area ({{k|b}}uild {{k|d}}oors if you need to cordon off the area to make it a nice square) and hit {{k|ENTER}}. You've created your first [[room]]! A room status screen shows up. Be sure to hit {{k|b}} to confirm that it is a barracks. If you don't, the first dwarf that sleeps in this room will claim it as his or her apartment, which isn't what we want. 

The barracks will keep your dwarves from sleeping on the floor, which would make them [[thought|unhappy]]. As the game goes on, though, it is a very good idea to move dwarves into their own apartments. They get much [[thought|happier]] for it, it keeps traffic down, and provides you with some more diabolical options such as locking a troublemaker in his room by {{k|q}}uerying the door and {{k|l}}ocking (forbidding) it. See the [[bedroom design]] page for ideas on how to set up your apartments. 

With bedding handled, we need to set up a [[dining room]], which will double as our [[meeting area]]. Dwarves will eat in their apartment sometimes if you install a table and chair in it, but mostly, dwarves prefer to eat in a public [[dining room|dining hall]] with a table all to themselves. As the [[meeting area]], dwarves will also show up there whenever they have nothing better to do (have 'No Job') to socialize and kill time. It is a pretty high-traffic area, so be sure to use double-doors as the entrance and exit. It should again be fairly large (25 tiles minimum; this could be 5x5, 4x6, whatever suits your fancy). Once it's dug out, {{k|b}}uild {{k|t}}ables along the walls, and then {{k|b}}uild {{k|c}}hairs next to the tables, one per table. Once a table is laid out, {{k|q}}uery the table and make a {{k|r}}oom out of it. Fill up the dining hall area, and hit {{k|ENTER}}. Be sure to hit {{k|h}} to set it as a meeting area, and you're done here.

As with most kinds of furniture, dwarves can walk through tiles containing tables, chairs and beds. The most notable exception to this are [[statue]]s.

===Starting farms===
The basics of life are in place! Now it's just a matter of getting the farms in place to make sure life goes on. 

[[Farming]] is the most reliable source of food in the game, and the only way to be sure you're going to feed a large population. The catch is, we can only farm on [[mud]] or [[soil]]. Mud is only created through [[irrigation]], which is complicated and more trouble than it's worth if you have access to any serious quantity of soil. Avoid using irrigation if you can. The logistics of controlling enough water to make arable land on stone are extremely annoying.

On [[soil]], however, farming couldn't be easier. Simply mine out an area of soil (underground, since the seeds you can embark with will NOT grow aboveground), then {{k|b}}uild a farm {{k|p}}lot. Use {{k|u}}, {{k|m}}, {{k|k}}, and {{k|j}} to resize your plot to the size you want; 3x3 should be plenty to start out, and you will max out at roughly 30 to 40 total squares being used for food and booze production to support a full fortress. This changes some depending on the skill of your [[grower]]s, but it's a fair guideline. After placing the farmland, a dwarf with the Farming (Fields) labor enabled will come by and prepare it for use. After it's done, {{k|q}}uery the new field and decide on your crops for each season. The crop display will show every crop that can possibly be planted there - it does not necessarily mean you have seeds to plant. [[Plump helmet]]s are best for your first field, since they can be brewed to [[booze]], eaten raw, and cooked. If you find some seasons have red letters, that is because the season has already passed and you cannot edit it again this year. You will have to pick it up in the spring of the following year. Be aware that Dwarf Fortress will '''NOT''' give you an error if you attempt to plant something you have no seeds of. It will give you an error if you '''run out''' of seeds after starting planting, but not if you simply have none to begin with. If you can't remember what kind of seeds you have, check around your wagon and your designated food stockpile using {{k|k}} for a seeds bag. Hit {{k|Enter}} when you find it to inspect the bag and see what kind of seeds it carries. Later on, you will be able to find it more easily using the {{k|z}} key and the "Stocks" menu, but right now your stocks will lack the precision to use the "zoom" key. See the [[bookkeeper]] article for more information on stockpile precision.

Eventually, you will want to be planting many, many different kinds of crops. [[Dimple cups]] are great later on, because they produce [[dimple dye]], which can be used to increase the value of the clothing your fortress produces. [[Cave wheat]] can be used to provide fodder for luxury prepared meals, and to make more brewing fodder. As your fortress grows and you need more and more luxuries to keep everyone happy, diversifying can only help you.

On a note about [[irrigation]] before wrapping this section up, mud behaves almost identically to soil. All below-ground crops can be grown equally well on either, and you build and place the plots exactly the same. There are a few differences, though. Mud can be [[Farming#Increasing_yield|fertilized]] with [[potash]], while dry soil cannot. Some above-ground crops can only be grown in mud, while others can only be planted in dry soil. Check the [[crops]] page for more details. Irrigation is a very advanced technique that provides only marginal benefits. Some "unlivable" areas can be turned around with skillful irrigation and fertilizer, but by and large they're not necessary. Just use soil whenever you can.

=== Trading ===
Now that you've given your dwarves a place to sleep and avoided the possibility of starvation, you can start thinking about the finer things in life.

First, we'll take care of a few organizational considerations, to make trading easier. Our carpenter will take care of this, since he's done making beds. Order up 2 or 3 [[bucket]]s. Buckets are used to carry water to injured, bedridden dwarves from water source [[zone]]s and are one of the requirements to building a [[well]]. Then, get to work stamping out some [[bin]]s. Bins are used to store a lot of non-perishable items in the same square; they work much the same as [[barrel]]s, but barrels are used on perishables like food and booze. You'll need a LOT of bins, but for the moment 5 or so will do. You will also need to make a lot of barrels, but since you brought a number of them with you, you can hold off a bit. Both of these can be made from [[metal]] as well, but producing them from wood is far more economical.

Since you have all this stone lying around, let's put it to use. Build a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]], assign one of your dwarves to [[stonecrafting]]. Order this [[workshop]] to build rock {{k|c}}rafts of all sorts {{k|r}}epeatedly. Stone mugs are a good trade good - you get three mugs from one stone, adding up to 30☼ at the start. Since your stonecrafter will level up relatively quickly (and if you have several dwarves working on stonecrafts) this can quickly add up to several thousand monies worth of goods.

Now that you've got some goods to [[trade]], we'll need to {{k|b}}uild a trade {{k|D}}epot. Build this somewhere easily accessible from all edges of the map, but close to (or inside) your entrance. [[Trade depot]]s require [[architecture]] and a [[mason]], assuming you make it out of your copious quantities of stone. Many times you will not have an [[building designer]] on embark, so you will have to assign one to get the [[architecture]] phase of the depot done.

In the long term, you'll want your trade depot to be in a defensible spot. As it is 5x5 squares, and requires a 3-square wide path for the caravans to get in and out of it, you'll eventually want to spend some time thinking about its [[defense]]. Once the depot has been completed, you can check for depot access using the {{k|shift}}-{{k|D}} key.

The first caravan will come in your first autumn: the dwarven caravan from the mountainhome. When it comes, the game will pause, you'll be alerted, and the screen will center on the [[caravan]]. If you do not have a depot, or they can't get to it, they will wait on the edge of the map for you to build a depot they can get to, or to clear the obstructions. The two most common obstructions are [[tree]]s and [[boulder]]s. Trees can be chopped down, and boulders can be eliminated by {{k|d}}esignating them to be {{k|s}}moothed. This uses the [[stone detailing]] labor, so turn it on if you need.

After the caravan is on its way, you'll need to fill the depot with things to trade, and get a trader there to broker the negotiations. Hit {{k|q}}uery over the depot and press {{k|g}} to start moving supplies. Use the arrow keys to navigate the trade goods window. If you've been making stone crafts, you'll want the ''crafts'' heading to make the game filter out the bins you've been filling. Otherwise, you'll have to sift through every stone you've created while digging the fortress, which is a huge pain. Press {{k|ENTER}} on the bins to mark them for trading, and some dwarves will come along to haul the bins to the depot. Once that's taken care of, {{k|q}}uery the depot and {{k|r}}equest a trader there. By default, only the broker will trade at the depot. This is generally what you want, since brokers with better [[appraisal]] skills can see the worth of all the commodities and tend to get away with giving the caravan boss a lower profit margin on the trade. Trading at the depot is a low-priority job, though, so you may have to turn off your broker's other labors temporarily to get him to respond to the request in a timely manner. Once your broker is at the depot, {{k|q}}uery the depot and start {{k|t}}rading.

On the screen that comes up, the left side shows the trader's goods, while the right side shows your own. Use the arrow keys to navigate and {{k|ENTER}} to mark something for trading. If your trader does not have at least Novice Appraiser in his skill set, you will not be able to see the values of everything, so you'll have to guess. The caravan boss will refuse to sell at a loss, and if you're close to making a deal, he'll give you a counteroffer that he'd accept. Being able to see the values of things is really helpful, but don't worry if you can't. It usually only takes one or two successful trades before your broker will hit Novice Appraiser and all will become known to you. One fun note is that raw materials cost the same from merchants as they do at the embark screen; so you already know that [[plump helmets]] are 4☼, most meat is 2☼, wooden logs are 3☼, and so on. It's difficult to know the value of your crafts, and some things must be bought as a package deal (you cannot buy seeds alone, you must also buy the bag they come in), though, so it can still be hard to trade without Appraiser.

On your first year, you're probably pretty light on things to trade with, so start small. Wood [[log]]s are very useful and cheap. Extra food can be useful if your farms are lagging behind. Maybe a barrel or two. Sell what goods you have and don't fret about it any longer.

Next year, after you get some immigrants you can think about exploring other kinds of industry as well, like the [[furniture industry]], [[meat industry]], or [[clothing industry]], but this is a great place to start.

The last element to trading is the [[liaison]]. The dwarven liaison will want to meet with your [[expedition leader]] to work out your requests for next year, and let you know what their requests are. By making a request of the caravan, you are essentially promising to pay more (up to double the normal price) for various things, which entices the traders to bring more of those things. Wood logs are always a great thing to request. Even at double the normal price, they're still very cheap, and merchants bring a lot of them. It's not unusual to get 50 logs from a single caravan. It saves you a massive amount of time and effort. [[Barrel]]s and [[bag]]s are also good to request, as are [[dog]]s. You can also request [[seed]]s to get your more diverse crops started. Look around, explore, and experiment. That's half the fun of the game.

The liaison will also tell you what they want from you, with the same deal: they'll pay more for it if you build it. Unfortunately, they usually want stupid things that don't trade well (such as stone [[block]]s) or things you'd rather keep to yourself (such as [[booze]]). Many players simply ignore their liaison's requests and build the same things they always build. Diplomatic relations will not suffer at all.

Your expedition leader must actually pick up the job ''conduct meeting'' to get this process done, and it ends up being a very low-priority job, so again, you may consider turning off your leader's other labors to make sure he gets to it. If you really want to force the liaison to take the meeting, move him to the meeting spot by enlisting him in the [[Military]] and [[Military#Controlling your squads|stationing]] him at the meeting spot. Then [[Door#Door settings|forbid the door]] behind him and the liaison, locking them in until the meeting is completed (when the Liaison says "Goodbye" in a message).

===Basic Defenses===
{{main|Defense}}
While not a major concern at first, it is always a good idea to think about how you are going protect your dwarves. From picking your location to establishing your fortress, always think about how you will defend your new home. Failure to incorporate this into your fortress can cause serious issues down the road. The good news is that it is relatively easy to setup basic defenses with only a few dwarfs.

When designing your defenses here are a few things to keep in mind.
* Limiting Access - The more ways into your fortress, the harder it is to defend. Most fortresses should have only one way to get in/out. This is usually a entrance hallway or some form of gate. The further your enemies have to travel to get to your dwarves, the more traps and military personnel you can put in their way to stop them killing your dwarves. When designing an entrance system, make sure to keep in mind that your own dwarves will most likely pass by these defenses on their way to gather wood/plants.

* Controlled isolation - Sometimes, you will need to cut yourself off from the world. This normally happens when you suddenly find yourself under siege without adequate military to defend yourself. Since all creatures move the same way, simply putting a bridge or a line of floodgates at our entrance is a good way to stop a siege while you build up your military. The key here is that you can control when to isolate your fortress. Though do keep in mind that you will not be able to get migrants or caravans while isolated.

* Arrow Defense - While rare in the early part of the game, attacking parties will bring along a few archers. The thing to keep in mind that archers can shoot over moats and onto roofs. The easiest way to defend against archers is to use walls. Do your best to avoid long straight corridors since enemies can kill your dwarfs as they either run away or run towards the archer. Adding a few corners go a long way in making enemy archers less dangerous. Also note that archers can shoot up and down z-levels. So if you have a multilevel structure outside, make sure to put a wall around the perimeter to prevent archers from being able to shoot your dwarfs on the roof.

* Stopping the invasion - You've planned your entrance, and setup a way to isolate your fortress, now it is time to stop the invading force. This is usually done with either traps or military. The easiest way to defend your fortress is with traps. Since they don't move, you need to build a bottleneck or choke point to herd invaders over the traps. If you followed the above directions, you should already have a bottleneck in place. Your fortress entrance is a place that everyone must cross. Put a bunch of stone fall or cage traps here and you are ready to go. As a rule of thumb, any space that is 2-5 squares or wide should be considered as a place to setup a bottleneck.

=== The future ===

After this point, you'll be able to start exploring the other intricacies of the game. Here is a list of some other gameplay commands which have not been covered:

* [[labor]]
* [[noble]]s
* [[military]]

==Sample games==
These are sample games that others have played and recorded to provide good learning examples. They are not routinely updated, so some information may be out of date, but they still provide good hands-on tutorials of how to prepare for your fortress and play the game.

* [[Indecisive's illustrated fortress mode tutorial]]
* [[Savok's first fortress playthrough]]
* [[ThunderClaw's 0.28.181.40d graphical tileset playthrough]]
* [http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/ The Complete and Utter Newbie Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress]

You can also look at the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] to see multi-layered snapshots of fortresses that others have built.

[[Category:Guides]]

{{Starting FAQ}}

40d:Your first fortress

2010-03-30T08:41:03Z

Safe-Keeper: /* Biomes screen */ Added table, slight rewrite of text

{{av}}
This is a guide to help new players get started on their first [[fortress]] and teach them the basics of keeping their [[dwarf|dwarves]] alive. If you have unanswered questions or find given details confusing, please tell us so on the [[Talk:Your_first_fortress|discussion page]]! Above all else, always remember the [[Dwarf Fortress]] motto: "Losing is [[fun]]!"

We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying [[skill]]s and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. For more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.

== Generating a world ==

It all starts here. The first thing to do when starting Dwarf Fortress is to [[World generation |create a world]]. Later on, you may wish to tweak the parameters to suit your play style, but for now, the ''Create New World Now!'' option is an easy way to get into your first game.

The engine will start to create the world--watch it unfold! You might notice that worlds are rejected, sometimes even after the generator begins running rivers and lakes. This is normal, as the generator seeks a world which meets the criteria for optimum Dwarven [[Fun]].

Generating a standard random world can take several minutes. You can speed things up by selecting ''Design New World with Parameters'' instead of ''Create New World Now!'' and setting a smaller world size. These worlds tend to be less interesting and less replayable, but work well if you want to try new things.

Once you've generated a world you will return to the main screen and there will be a new option, <tt>Start Playing</tt>. Upon selecting that you can choose the game mode - [[Dwarf Fortress]], [[Adventurer]], or [[Legends]]. This article is written with respect to Fortress mode.

See the article on [[world generation]] for a complete guide to the world generation screen.

== Choosing a location ==

=== Useful location traits ===

[[Forest]]: Many parts of the game are dependent on creating wood items, so if you choose a location without any trees, the game will be more [[fun]] (aka more complex).

[[Water]]: [[Wound]]ed dwarves require water to drink, so having a water source near your first fortress so your injured don't die of thirst will be helpful.

[[Animals]]: Some [[biome]]s will have fewer animals to hunt for meat to feed your dwarves, so tropical and temperate biomes might be simpler.

=== The interface ===

So long as you have at least one world without an active game, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Select "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll find a four-section window:

[[Image:FortressLocation_fd2f10.png | caption | This picture is shown with the default tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available]]

Going from left to right, these windows represent:
*The local map. The black box represents the area that your fortress will occupy if you decide to embark. The blue line is a stream, the green icons represent forests and swamps, and the gray triangles are mountain slopes.
*The regional map. This is like zooming out from the local map. The entire local map is represented by that yellow X. Most of the region is forest, with a mountain range in the bottom right. The two light blue lines are minor rivers.
*The world map. This is zooming out all the way. The yellow X represents the approximate position of the region.
*Information about the area that the black box is occupying. More on this below.

You can move around the region map with {{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}, or at 10x speed with {{k|Shift}}+{{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}. Note that using {{k|Shift}} can cause the key to get "stuck" - press it again to cancel.

You can move around the local map with these keys:
{{k|u}}
{{k|h}} {{k|k}}
{{k|m}}

You cannot directly move around the world map. Movement across the world map is shown relative to your movement on the region map. In world generated with the default settings, each square of the world map contains several squares of the region map.

Your next goal will be choosing the starting location for your fortress.

=== Your surroundings ===

You can discern a lot of information by scrolling through the various modes. The interface has five modes which you cycle through by pressing {{k|TAB}}. In turn, they display the ''biomes'', ''civilizations'', and ''geology'' of the local area.

====Biomes screen====
This display gives you an idea for the environment you'll be parachuting into. Click any of the blue links for more information on the subject. [[Biome]]s are determined by the type of life in the area. On the Biome screen, you'll see:
* '''[[Temperature]]''': How hot or cold it gets in the area. Can be ''Freezing'', ''Cold'', ''Temperate'', ''Warm'', ''Hot'', and ''Scorching''. In a nutshell, temperature extremes make it harder to get and keep a reliable source of [[water]] going. In Freezing and Scorching climates, you may have to do without water at all. Temperate and Warm are both good places to start your first fort. 
* '''Amount of [[tree]]s, and [[plant|other vegetation]]''': A general indication of the density of plant life in the area. For trees, this can be ''none'', ''scarce'', ''sparse'', ''woodland'', or ''heavily forested''. For other plants, you can see ''none'', ''scarce'', ''moderate'', and ''thick''. Trees are chopped down for [[wood]], which is a critical, if small, part of your fortress. You can import lots of it from [[caravan]]s, so don't worry too much about it. However, more trees never hurt anyone, and totally treeless maps are quite a bit more difficult in the early going, so aim for ''sparse'' or greater trees. Other plants basically means shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation that you can harvest food from with the [[plant gathering]] skill. Generally speaking, you will use this trick in the first year of your fortress, then never again. [[Plant]] density is not very important. 
* '''[[Surroundings]]''': This gives you a basic image of the local fauna and flora. The outskirts of a jungle might be fairly calm and safe, while the heart of that same jungle could be thick with vicious predators. In game terms, this will clue you in to the specific types of [[tree]]s and [[plant]]s you will find, in addition to indicating the [[animal]] types you'll run into. This also clues you in to the ''alignment'' of the surrounding area. So, the two things this word tells you is how ''good'' or ''evil'' an area is, and how ''calm'' or ''savage'' an area is. The meaning of each of the descriptions is as follows:
 
<center>
{| style="color:black; cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="1"
|
|'''Calm'''
|align="center" | ...
|'''Savage'''
|-
|'''Good'''
|Serene
|Mirthful
|Joyous Wilds
|-
|'''Neutral'''
|Calm
|Wilderness
|Untamed Wilds
|-
|'''Evil'''
|Sinister
|Haunted
|Terrifying
|}
</center>
 
''Good'' zones tend to have benign mythological creatures, like the [[unicorn]] (which can be incredibly dangerous, but only if provoked), while ''evil'' areas have a multitude of [[undead]] and some of the most vicious [[creature]]s in the game, which need no provocation to tear your dwarves limb from limb. For your first fortress, stick to a ''neutral'' or ''good'' alignment. 

* '''Major land forms''': A last field, which will not always be full, will mention things you should know about, like [[river]]s. Rivers provide an unlimited source of [[water]], but can be home to dangerous fish like the [[longnose gar]] and [[carp]]. Still, though, the benefits generally far outweigh the risks. [[Volcano]]es are also noted here, one of the only guaranteed ways to get [[magma]]. Magma makes a few things a lot easier, but it is dangerous to work with and must be handled very carefully because of the [[fire imp|horrible]] [[magma man|creature]]s that come out of it. Not critical, especially not for your first time out. 

Sometimes, you'll be looking at a place with more than one [[biome]] in the same selected square. You can press {{k|F1}} {{k|F2}} {{k|F3}} or {{k|F4}} to view the different types of biomes. In the picture above, we are looking at the mountain in the center, which is cold and has no trees or plants because it's too high up for those things to grow.

====Civilization screen====
These are nearby [[civilization]]s that are capable of interacting with you. Other settlements are shown with various symbols on the regional map. The possible entries here are ''dwarves'', ''humans'', ''elves'', ''goblins'', and ''kobolds''.
* '''[[dwarf|Dwarves]]''': You will want to be in contact with dwarves to get [[immigrant]]s and a dwarven trading caravan. However, dwarves are, sometimes seemingly magically, everywhere. It is impossible to settle anywhere ''without'' dwarves, assuming there is at least one surviving dwarven civilization. Depending on how remote the area is, though, you may not get some of the features of the game you would otherwise: being cut off from the world will prevent most [[noble]]s from coming to your fort, which will stop the [[dwarven economy]] from ever being activated. You may also not get a [[liaison]] with your dwarven caravan from which to request goods.
* '''[[Humans]]''': Humans are almost always friendly, and love [[trade]]. They send [[liaison]]s to let you request goods and are generally a huge boon to any fortress.
* '''[[Elves]]''': Elves are usually friendly and make fair trading partners, but have a [[Trade#Elves|particular ethos]] about trading. They do not send a trade [[liaison]] and their goods are luxuries at best. They can be very annoying, but are generally not dangerous unless you provoke them.
* '''[[Goblin]]s''': Goblins are your main enemies in Dwarf Fortress, and will produce most of the aggression against your fort. They periodically launch ambushes, consisting of five to ten goblin warriors, and will send [[siege]]s after your fort reaches 80 dwarves. [[Trap]]ped entrances, [[war dog]]s, and eventually a [[military]] will be needed to repel them. Just be sure not to start in the middle of a goblin citadel.
* '''[[Kobold]]''': Kobolds are petty thieves that are little more than irritations in most situations. If you are careless and let their thieves get away with a lot of stuff, though, they may upgrade to raiding parties of archers.

====Elevation screen====
Relative [[Z-axis|elevation]]. This is a normal topographic map that you're used to from real-life maps. It just gives you an idea of the lay of the land.

====Slope screen====
[[Slope]] steepness. This shows you where large cliffs are. Be advised that [[cliff]]s of elevation 4 or more mean taller maps, which take significantly more computer power to run. On the other hand, many find completely flat embark sites to be dull -- a good elevation map contains lots of low elevation changes ranging from 1 to 4. However, choosing areas partly or entirely above the tree line gives you much more stone, ore, and gems to work with, and the hills even provide decent protection against invaders, especially if you start removing natural ramps. It's your choice in the long run, particularly if you don't really care about performance.

====Embark alerts====
When you're satisfied with your area and hit {{k|e}} to embark, you may get some alerts about being in a very difficult area, or about an [[aquifer]]. Aquifers can make it frustrating to get started, so if you are alerted about an aquifer, seriously consider moving somewhere else for your first fortress. After you have the basics down, tackling an aquifer is much easier.
====Location recap====

For your first fortress, it's not entirely important. However, there are some general guidelines that can help you decide: 

* Try to get a temperate or warm climate, since extreme temperatures are more difficult.
* Trees and vegetation are good for producing lumber and food for your fortress, but you don't need tons of them.
* ''Neutral''-aligned [[surroundings]] are best for your first fortress, but ''good''-aligned surroundings are also OK. Avoid ''evil''-aligned surroundings, however.
* Running water ([[river]]s, streams, and [[brook]]s) are a permanent source of [[water]]. [[Murky pool]]s and [[underground pool]]s have a finite amount of water and may dry out. Not having enough water can be a big obstacle, so try to get some running water your first time out.
* [[Humans]] and [[elves]] are friendly, so an area they have access to is nice.
* [[Magma]] is cool (hah!), but not critical.
* Areas with [[aquifer]]s require some engineering to get to rock. You'll be warned if you chose an area with an aquifer. When in doubt, don't try it.
** If you insist on starting in an area with an aquifer, read up on the dangers of aquifers, and, if at all possible, choose an embark site that includes an aquifer-less [[biome]].
* Who cares? If you like what you see, go for it. You can always start over. And remember the DF motto: Losing is fun! 

For more information on specific game mechanics such as [[sand]], [[flux]], and how to find [[iron]], check [[Stone layers|this page]].

==== Fortress size ====

Once you've decided on location, you need to decide the size of your fortress area. This is the size of the game field you're playing on. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of [[rock]]s and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include slower game performance (larger areas require more CPU power), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your [[trade depot]] before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. (Note that you can [[mine]] many levels deep into the ground, and even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.)

You can adjust the size of your fort's area by using {{k|SHIFT}} + the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|k}} or {{k|h}} keys. 

=== Embark ===

When done, hit {{k|e}} to embark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site, or one with an [[aquifer]].

==Buying skills and items==
After you embark, you're given the option to either start immediately or prepare for the journey carefully. You should pretty much always prepare carefully if you enjoy staying alive.

Here, presumably, you are the dwarf determining who will go and what they will take. You have a total of 2060☼ to spend in two categories: Skilled dwarves and items. Some items have already been selected for you, but you probably won't want most of these.

There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[starting builds]] page offers several examples for you to choose from. Here, we are only going to discuss some basics that help you understand enough to make your own decisions. The embark screen opens up on the ''skills'' screen, and can be changed to the ''items'' screen by pressing {{k|TAB}}.

===Skills===
In Dwarf Fortress, it's not what you have, it's who you have. Skilled dwarves are the cornerstone of everything, from domestics to security, so it's extremely important to embark with good people.

As you will see in this screen, you have 7 dwarves, all with 10 points to put toward starting skills. We will want to use all 10 of the points on all 7 of the dwarves. By default, you won't have enough ☼ to do this, so hit {{k|TAB}} to go to the items screen and hit {{k|-}} over the ''Steel battle axe'' line to give subtract one. This should give you enough ☼ to assign all your skills. You can only spend 5 of the 10 points in any one skill, making the maximum skill level upon embark ''proficient''. This makes a total of 14 ''proficient'' skills, or a larger number of lower skill levels.

In a fledgling fortress, the 4 indispensable jobs are [[mason]], [[miner]], [[grower]], and [[carpenter]]. A good beginning strategy is to embark with at least 1 dwarf being ''proficient'' in these 4 skills. Many people choose to double up on proficient miners and growers, since mining and farming are both pretty big jobs.

Other useful skills to consider:
* '''[[Cook]]:''' Cooks make [[prepared meal]]s in the [[kitchen]], which helps you manage your food stock space. Well-prepared meals are also valuable [[trade]] goods, and make dwarves happy when eaten. Highly skilled cooks make better meals, and prepare meals faster.

* '''[[Brewer]]:''' Brewers make [[booze]] in the [[still]]. Dwarves being dwarves, they need alcohol to operate at peak efficiency, and highly-skilled brewers make better tasting booze and finish brewing faster. Dwarves get happier when they drink good booze.

* '''[[Herbalist]]:''' Herbalists gather food and seeds from [[shrub]]s in the local area. Skilled herbalists pick faster and come away with far more food. Where an unskilled herbalist will come away with one [[wild strawberry]] or none at all, a proficient herbalist will often pick 3 or 4, and sometimes 5.

* '''[[Woodcutter]]:''' Woodcutters fell [[tree]]s for use by [[carpenter]]s. Highly skilled woodcutters fell trees much faster. However, since you don't need that much wood, you can get away with a normal (no tag) woodcutter just fine.

* '''[[Mechanic]]:''' Mechanics build and use [[mechanism]]s, which have myriad uses in [[trap]]s, [[lever]]s and some [[machine]]s. Highly skilled mechanics finish installing mechanisms much faster, and the mechanisms they build are of higher quality. However, the quality of the mechanism primarily matters to beginning players for its [[trade]] value, and in early fortresses the need for mechanisms is usually so small that any dwarf can pick it up and handle it well enough. Still, a solid choice, especially if you like [[trap]]s.

* '''[[Armorsmith]], [[Weaponsmith]]:''' These become very important quickly if you want even decent weapons and armor and are annoying to train up from scratch.

* '''[[Siege engineer]]''' is not useful at all in an early fortress, and far from ever being essential, but training an unskilled dwarf in it requires a lot of material and time.

* '''Military skills ([[Wrestler]], [[Axedwarf]], [[Hammerdwarf]], etc):''' Early on, it's unlikely that you'll need these, since there's generally very few things that will bother a band of dwarves who aren't hurting anyone, but certain places, such as those with a [[chasm]], will have hostile creatures around. In these areas, you may consider giving your woodcutter the Axedwarf skill so he can use his chopping axe as a weapon. A miner can "pinch-hit", since the [[Mining]] skill also covers wielding a pick in combat, but the dwarves don't understand this yet, so a drafted miner will get unhappy [[thought]]s.

* '''Social skills ([[Appraiser]], [[Judge of Intent]], [[Consoler]], etc):''' Putting these on one dwarf will make them a shoo-in for the Expedition Leader slot, and ranks in Appraiser and Judge of Intent will make interacting with the first caravan much easier. However, even if you don't train this at all, some persistence in trading with the first caravan will level your leader up enough to trade with the second caravan like a champion.

Once again, examples can be found in the [[starting builds]] page. What you bring is incredibly dependent on your play style, though. Some people think bringing Mechanics along is a total waste of time, others consider them indispensable. Some people like having skills that aren't even on this list, like [[Leatherworker]]. Read the starting builds, ask questions, and explore! Who cares if your first idea doesn't work out after playing an hour? Restarting is easy and ''losing is fun''.

===Items===
Now that we're done with assigning skills, hit {{k|TAB}} to go over to the item screen. Item worth is another extremely situational thing, and you'll find as many opinions as there are Dwarf Fortress players as to what is good to bring. Once more, it depends VERY heavily on your play style. Again, [[starting builds]] can provide some good example reading. This section will only cover the basics and give you enough information to make your own decisions.

====Tools====
You'll need a couple of finished tools to get yourself started.
<ul>
<li>'''[[Battle axe]]s''': Every [[Woodcutter]] needs an axe. Steel battle axes are the only type you can purchase on this screen, and they're expensive. You might want to bring just one, unless you expect to need a lot of lumber and/or axedwarf muscle.</li>
<li>'''[[Pick]]s''': Likewise, [[Miner]]s need picks. All picks work equally well, their material only determines the damage they do in combat. Thus, copper picks are the budgeting dwarf's choice, at a paltry 20☼ each.</li>
<li>'''[[Anvil]]''': One of the big questions to ask yourself is whether to bring an anvil on embark. It's extremely expensive at 1000☼, but to start a [[metal]] industry, you will either have to start with one or request and purchase (or steal!) one from a [[caravan]] somewhere down the line.
Generally, if you are going to a very mountainous area where you're likely to see lots of ore and you want to be able to make use of it right from the get-go, bring an anvil. If you're going to spend a few years getting your fortress established before worrying about metal production, drop it and bring more raw commodities.
One occasional problem is that axes and picks are absent entirely. If this is the case (or you just don't want to spend all that money), you can bring the materials to [[make your own weapons]].
* If you want to save points and smelt the ore yourself, take copper nuggets instead of copper bars, and use the smelter to convert the ore into copper bars.
* A good alternative ore to bring along, and not much more expensive, is [[tetrahedrite]] - when [[smelt]]ed, it yields one copper bar with a 20% chance of an additional [[silver]] bar each. Silver is a good metal for [[metal crafter]]s, or you can have an unskilled worker forge a practice weapon out of silver for training - silver is tied with wood for the safest material for practice weapons, and you have to trade with elves for wooden ones.
* Other mixes of ores, to create bronze or bismuth bronze, etc, are possible - as you learn about the game you'll decide what works best for you, and in what starting situations.
*Fuel and metal in hand, deconstruct the smelter (if needed; {{k|q}} to highlight, then {{k|x}} to deconstruct), and construct a [[metalsmith's forge]]. Make sure someone has [[weaponsmith]]ing on. After the forge is up, order it to make the axes and picks you need. Deconstruct the forge when you're done and enjoy your new tools, hopefully with [[quality]] modifiers!</li>
</ul>

====Raw materials====
As it was briefly covered above, sometimes it makes more sense to bring a lot of raw materials than some finished goods. Raw materials are a lot cheaper than finished goods, and so long as you invest heavily in your dwarves' skills (which you should!), you can probably make better quality stuff, anyway.
*'''[[Stone]]''': Only bring this if you're trying to build some of your tools on the spot, as noted above. Otherwise, you will get stone coming out of your ears once you start mining.
*'''[[Metal]]''': Generally not recommended. However, if you're expecting trouble and you're bringing an anvil, bringing many bars of [[iron]] and [[charcoal]] in lieu of a [[battle axe]] can be a big boon. If your dwarves can get to a spot that gives them a breather, a proficient [[weaponsmith]] or [[armorsmith]] could stamp out high-quality goods to give your dwarves a better fighting chance. This is a pretty advanced trick to pull off, though, so don't try to pull it if you're not confident.
*'''[[Wood]]''': Wood is a bargain at only 3☼ per log, and the 100 logs you can bring in exchange for a steel battle axe will last you a long time. This is a great technique for making [[Woodcutter]] unneeded in the early game, but you need to budget your wood use for the first year very carefully. When you're out, you're out!
*'''[[Leather]]''': Leather is cheap at 5☼ per for the cheapest. Bring a few to make extra bags for gathering plants - don't worry if you don't have a [[leather worker]], you don't much care about a quality multiplier for bottom-value items like leather bags. If you are going to make your own leather armor (early or later), consider bringing someone with leather working skill.

====Consumables====
Easily the most important part of your preparation is what you're going to eat, drink, and plant once you get on site. Without food and booze, you're not going much of anywhere.
*'''[[Food]]''': Most food comes at a mere 2☼ per unit, and 8 units will feed 1 dwarf for a year. Bringing a year of food will give you a good cushion to getting your farms working, so aim for about 60 food if you can. If you must cut back, though, 40 will be fine if you make your farms an early priority. The best food staple to bring along is [[turtle]]. Turtle produces [[shell]] and [[bones]] when eaten, which can be used as raw materials for other things you need, including armor, crossbows, and crossbow bolts. Further, shell is a common request for [[strange mood]]s and is a pain to produce, so getting some early could save yourself a failed mood and a dead dwarf.
*'''[[Booze]]''': Dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, and they always want to down some alcohol if at all possible. They also like different kinds of alcohol. Bring twice as much booze as you bring food, and divide it evenly among the 4 types of alcohol you can take ([[dwarven wine]], [[dwarven beer]], [[dwarven ale]], [[dwarven rum]]). Even more nifty, check the booze preferences of your 7 dwarves on embark and allocate the 4 kinds accordingly. Plump helmets (wine) and pig tails (ale) are fast growing, so you might take less of those, particularly if no dwarf has a preference for them. Too much booze is a real barrel hogger but this problem is far off. More booze is better 99% of the time.
*'''[[Seeds]]''': Your farms have got to start somewhere. Definitely bring along [[plump helmet spawn]] (for food and booze) and [[pig tails]] (for cloth ropes and booze variety). How many you bring is dependent on how big you want your initial farms to be. 5 of each is plenty to feed your initial dwarves, and you will get more seeds any time the plants are consumed in any way ''except cooking''. You may want to use the [[kitchen]] menu to disallow cooking of plump helmets until you have a healthy supply of seeds. Or, alternatively, just don't make any prepared meals until you've got a healthy supply of seeds. The other seed types require a lot more labor to use properly, and should probably wait until you have more dwarves in the fortress. You can buy seeds from the dwarven caravan for almost nothing, but if you want a greater variety along, go for [[rock nuts]]. The [[quarry bush]] that sprouts from it produces the greatest space to yield ratio in the game. Eventually, though, you should be planting all 6 of the underground [[crop]]s at least.

Food and booze are stored in [[barrel]]s, with each type in its own barrel. Since barrels have a 10-unit capacity, you can get a lot of free barrels by starting with many, many kinds of food in quantities which end in 1. Barrels are important, and usually need wood to make, so it's worth it to use this quirk while you can by starting with at least one unit of every type of food.

Seeds are stored in [[bag]]s in multiples of 100, also by type. Bags are cheap and easy to make, and not as important as barrels, since making cloth bags is a good way to train up your [[clothier]], so it's not recommended to spend the extra to get 1 free bag.

====[[domestic animal|Domestic Animals]]====
Not only dwarves live in your fortress, after all.
*'''[[Dog]]s''': Dogs are dwarf's best friend. They can be trained into [[hunting dog]]s or [[war dog]]s, require no food or maintenance, and make good pets for your dwarves. Always bring at least 2. Genders alternate when picking them up, so 2 will give you a breeding pair that will have more puppies freely. They make fantastic security early and fantastic dwarfsaving distractions later on. Dogs will happily lay down their lives to protect their master, which is huge when it means one of your best legendary dwarves is running away from an angry [[goblin]].
*'''[[Cat]]s''': Cats provide a wonderful function in controlling [[vermin]] in the fort. Vermin can make your dwarves extremely unhappy, so some cats are more or less a requirement. The largest problem with cats, however, is that their population is very difficult to control. Cats will choose their own owners (without the dwarf in question's consent), and after they've done so, you cannot order them butchered to control their numbers. The resulting [[catsplosion|population explosion]] can clutter hallways and murder your framerate. The best thing to do is to put all stray cats and kittens in a [[cage]] (one will hold them all). You can then butcher them without running the risk of the cats adopting dwarves before the butcher gets around to them, and if vermin start to get out of hand, you can always release one or two to help. If you want vermin control from the start, bring just ONE cat so it cannot breed and cause a population problem early. However, immigrants will very commonly bring their pet cats to the fortress, so if you can live with vermin early, you'll likely get a cat for free within a year. Or, be prepared to cage and slaughter them aggressively for meat and hides - that can work too.
*'''Beasts of burden (horses, muskoxen, cows, donkeys, & mules)''': You get two of these for free when you start the game - each one random as to sex and the five possible species (and mules don't breed). Unlike cats, dwarves must choose to adopt beasts of burden, which they won't do unless you let them to do so (in z->animals menu). That's fairly rare, so the vast majority of the beasts of burden in your fortress will stay strays. Many immigrants may bring useless animals with them though - as they are adopted already you can't butcher or cage them, but they can still help start a breeding program for meat, hides and bones. You can also trade later for whatever the caravans bring. All newborns belong to the fortress, so you can do what you want with them. 

Once again, check the [[starting builds]] page for more ideas, read the pages linked above, and experiment. The learning process is half the fun in Dwarf Fortress; enjoy it!

==Game on!==
We've chosen an area, selected our supplies, and we're ready to play. The game opens with your dwarves huddled around the wagon they used to get here.
==Gameplay overview==
This section will deal with the tasks you'll need to tackle in your first year of gameplay. These tasks are ''selecting a dig site'', ''building workshops'' (and ''marking stockpiles''), ''building lodging'', ''starting farms'', and ''trading''.
===Selecting a dig site===
You'll have to decide where you're going to dig in and start your fortress. You should consider the natural formations of the surrounding area when deciding where you want your main entrance. Ideally, there should be one way in and one way out. This one way should be fairly sizable, to pander to [[caravans]] and [[traffic]]. Proximity to a good [[water]] source so you can build a [[well]] more easily is also desirable. You can fix either of these things with extra digging and building later on, though, so don't sweat the decision too much.

The most direct way to start is to find the side of a nearby mountain and dig into it, but if you're in a very flat area, you might have to dig downward instead. To start digging, hit {{k|d}}esignations, then {{k|d}}ig. Move your cursor using the arrow keys to where you want to dig, and hit {{k|ENTER}}, then move your cursor over to the place you want the digging to end. Mining designations are rectangular, so you can go both left and right and up and down as you're designating area. This tells your dwarves to cut into a wall and hollow it out, often leaving behind a [[stone]] if it is a rock wall. [[Soil]] walls become hollowed out, but never drop anything. These hollowed out areas are where you'll build the vast majority of everything you need.

If you need to dig down instead of in, you need to use either a '''[[stairs|stairwell]]''' or a '''[[ramp]]'''. For a stairwell, use {{k|d}}esignations, and downward stairway ({{k|j}}). Note that this is only half of a stairwell. To build the other half, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate an {{k|u}}pward stairway to connect to it. You are then underground and can use {{k|m}}ining normally. For a ramp, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate a {{k|r}}amp on the area you want cut away. You do not need to build anything above it; your miners will figure it out. If you are building downward and want [[caravans]] to come down into your fortress, you will need to use [[ramp]]s, at least 3 right next to each other. Keep this in mind when deciding where you want to dig down.

When designing your main entrance, be mindful that as many as 200 dwarves could be coming and going eventually, and that [[goblin]]s are going to want in at some point or another. A 3-wide entrance corridor is ideal. It is wide enough to accept a good amount of traffic and caravans, but narrow enough to use diabolical traps and designs to kill lots of goblins. Your main doors will have to be only 2-wide, though, as [[door]]s require a wall adjacent to them to build properly.

Once you've decided where you want your main entrance, it's time to move your supplies over there. We will have to set them outside for now, but we'll want to move them indoors as soon as we can. Press stock{{k|p}}iles, and designate areas for {{k|f}}ood, {{k|w}}ood, and {{k|r}}efuse. You can designate all sorts of stockpiles from this screen, so hit {{k|t}} and poke around in the custom stockpile settings for a little bit, figuring out what you can do. Do '''NOT''' designate a stone stockpile for now. It will eat up a lot of time unnecessarily. While we're organizing our supplies, deconstruct your wagon by pressing {{k|q}}uery, putting the cursor over your wagon, and pressing deconstruct ({{k|x}}). A dwarf with the [[carpentry]] labor enabled will come by and pull the wagon apart, turning it into 3 [[log]]s. The wagon is useless to you, so there's no reason to not do this. Some people prefer to wait until the wagon has been emptied before deconstructing it. In order to see the contents of a building, use the {{k|t}} command and scroll over the wagon.

Plan for your finished, 200-dwarf fortress right from the get-go. It's very easy to dig out new area. It's very HARD to go back and redo something the way it should've been from the start. 3-wide hallways is typically plenty for high-traffic areas.

===Building workshops===
Time to get some work done! Taking in raw materials and spitting out stuff that's useful: that's the name of the game for workshops. You should start putting down workshops as soon as you have raw materials. You'll need to get basic living provisions like [[bed]]s, [[table]]s, [[chair]]s, [[chest]]s, and the like down for not only your first 7 dwarves, but the [[immigrant]]s that could come at any time as soon as possible, so you can't waste any time. 

[[Stone]] will show up from your miners digging. Once you have an area with a decent amount of stone, you should get a [[mason's workshop]] built in the area. Check the [[workshop]] page for full details if you have problems building one. The keyboard command is:
* {{k|b}}uild order
* the {{k|w}}orkshops sub-menu
* {{k|m}}ason's workshop.

Once the workshop has been built by a dwarf with the [[masonry]] [[labor]], you can {{k|q}}uery the workshop to find out what it's current orders are, {{k|a}}dd or {{k|c}}ancel orders, set an existing order to {{k|r}}epeat, order the workshop dismantled, and other tasks.

Add orders for a {{k|d}}oor, a {{k|t}}able, and a {{k|c}}hair. Stone chairs will show up as ''thrones'' in the orders. They are exactly the same. Then set each order to repeat. This workshop will now make [[door]]s, [[table]]s, and [[chair]]s until you tell it to stop. You'll need a lot of these, so that's OK.

Also build a [[carpenter's workshop]] near the wood stockpile you designated earlier, and tell it to make {{k|b}}eds. Put this on {{k|r}}epeat, also. The wood you brought along, even after disassembling your wagon, won't last long. If you brought along a [[woodcutter]], now would be a good time to get him to chop down some trees. Hit {{k|d}}esignations, and then hit chop down {{k|t}}rees. Chopping designations work exactly like mining designations, but it will only highlight trees in the rectangle you give it. Don't worry about chopping a ton of wood right now; trees don't go anywhere fast, so you can always come back for more.

While making workshops anywhere the material happens to be works fine right now, you will want a more organized way of doing it later. Check out the [[Design_strategies#Workshop_Logistics|workshop logistics]] page for ideas on how to set it up. After you do get things set up, be sure to move your stockpiles underground; aboveground stockpiles are vulnerable to thieves and are usually a long way away. Don't be afraid to tear down workshops; they are built quickly and easily, and tearing them down does absolutely nothing harmful, even returning the materials used in their construction. Be aware that workshops create [[noise]] when they are in use, which can disturb your dwarves' sleep, so don't build them close to any [[bed]]s.

===Building lodging===
With commodities coming out, it's time to set up places where they can be used. 

Tell your miners to dig out a large (5x5 minimum) room to become your [[barracks]]. The barracks is essentially a communal sleeping room where dwarves without their own apartment can come to crash. It is also the place where your [[military]] will come to [[sparring|spar]] once you start recruiting soldiers. Since your military hangs out in the barracks a lot, it's a good idea to put it near the main entrance of the fortress. If [[Thief|thieves]] stumble in, they are likely to meet a very grisly end as they bump into a pair of dwarves in the middle of combat training, and later, in case of a more major attack, they are more likely to be closer to where you need them. Note, however, that sparring dwarves can very seriously [[wound|hurt]] or kill eachother if their sparring area is too crowded, so keep beds stacked along one wall and the rest of the room clear and uncluttered. You do not need too many beds in the barracks right now. Beds in the barracks are public, and dwarves have their own schedules, so the entire fortress will not sleep at once.

After the barracks is dug, tell your dwarves to {{k|b}}uild a {{k|b}}ed. Your cursor will come up, turning red on an unacceptable location and green on an acceptable location. Unacceptable locations will give you a short reason as to why they're unacceptable. Again, just stack beds against one wall of the barracks; 5 beds will be fine to start out with. After indicating the placement of the beds, your dwarves will haul them over and install them. Once they are installed, {{k|q}}uery a bed, then make a {{k|r}}oom. Use the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to size the room that will be considered the barracks. All beds within the flashing square will be considered public, so there's no need to do this more than once. Fill up the whole 5x5 area ({{k|b}}uild {{k|d}}oors if you need to cordon off the area to make it a nice square) and hit {{k|ENTER}}. You've created your first [[room]]! A room status screen shows up. Be sure to hit {{k|b}} to confirm that it is a barracks. If you don't, the first dwarf that sleeps in this room will claim it as his or her apartment, which isn't what we want. 

The barracks will keep your dwarves from sleeping on the floor, which would make them [[thought|unhappy]]. As the game goes on, though, it is a very good idea to move dwarves into their own apartments. They get much [[thought|happier]] for it, it keeps traffic down, and provides you with some more diabolical options such as locking a troublemaker in his room by {{k|q}}uerying the door and {{k|l}}ocking (forbidding) it. See the [[bedroom design]] page for ideas on how to set up your apartments. 

With bedding handled, we need to set up a [[dining room]], which will double as our [[meeting area]]. Dwarves will eat in their apartment sometimes if you install a table and chair in it, but mostly, dwarves prefer to eat in a public [[dining room|dining hall]] with a table all to themselves. As the [[meeting area]], dwarves will also show up there whenever they have nothing better to do (have 'No Job') to socialize and kill time. It is a pretty high-traffic area, so be sure to use double-doors as the entrance and exit. It should again be fairly large (25 tiles minimum; this could be 5x5, 4x6, whatever suits your fancy). Once it's dug out, {{k|b}}uild {{k|t}}ables along the walls, and then {{k|b}}uild {{k|c}}hairs next to the tables, one per table. Once a table is laid out, {{k|q}}uery the table and make a {{k|r}}oom out of it. Fill up the dining hall area, and hit {{k|ENTER}}. Be sure to hit {{k|h}} to set it as a meeting area, and you're done here.

As with most kinds of furniture, dwarves can walk through tiles containing tables, chairs and beds. The most notable exception to this are [[statue]]s.

===Starting farms===
The basics of life are in place! Now it's just a matter of getting the farms in place to make sure life goes on. 

[[Farming]] is the most reliable source of food in the game, and the only way to be sure you're going to feed a large population. The catch is, we can only farm on [[mud]] or [[soil]]. Mud is only created through [[irrigation]], which is complicated and more trouble than it's worth if you have access to any serious quantity of soil. Avoid using irrigation if you can. The logistics of controlling enough water to make arable land on stone are extremely annoying.

On [[soil]], however, farming couldn't be easier. Simply mine out an area of soil (underground, since the seeds you can embark with will NOT grow aboveground), then {{k|b}}uild a farm {{k|p}}lot. Use {{k|u}}, {{k|m}}, {{k|k}}, and {{k|j}} to resize your plot to the size you want; 3x3 should be plenty to start out, and you will max out at roughly 30 to 40 total squares being used for food and booze production to support a full fortress. This changes some depending on the skill of your [[grower]]s, but it's a fair guideline. After placing the farmland, a dwarf with the Farming (Fields) labor enabled will come by and prepare it for use. After it's done, {{k|q}}uery the new field and decide on your crops for each season. The crop display will show every crop that can possibly be planted there - it does not necessarily mean you have seeds to plant. [[Plump helmet]]s are best for your first field, since they can be brewed to [[booze]], eaten raw, and cooked. If you find some seasons have red letters, that is because the season has already passed and you cannot edit it again this year. You will have to pick it up in the spring of the following year. Be aware that Dwarf Fortress will '''NOT''' give you an error if you attempt to plant something you have no seeds of. It will give you an error if you '''run out''' of seeds after starting planting, but not if you simply have none to begin with. If you can't remember what kind of seeds you have, check around your wagon and your designated food stockpile using {{k|k}} for a seeds bag. Hit {{k|Enter}} when you find it to inspect the bag and see what kind of seeds it carries. Later on, you will be able to find it more easily using the {{k|z}} key and the "Stocks" menu, but right now your stocks will lack the precision to use the "zoom" key. See the [[bookkeeper]] article for more information on stockpile precision.

Eventually, you will want to be planting many, many different kinds of crops. [[Dimple cups]] are great later on, because they produce [[dimple dye]], which can be used to increase the value of the clothing your fortress produces. [[Cave wheat]] can be used to provide fodder for luxury prepared meals, and to make more brewing fodder. As your fortress grows and you need more and more luxuries to keep everyone happy, diversifying can only help you.

On a note about [[irrigation]] before wrapping this section up, mud behaves almost identically to soil. All below-ground crops can be grown equally well on either, and you build and place the plots exactly the same. There are a few differences, though. Mud can be [[Farming#Increasing_yield|fertilized]] with [[potash]], while dry soil cannot. Some above-ground crops can only be grown in mud, while others can only be planted in dry soil. Check the [[crops]] page for more details. Irrigation is a very advanced technique that provides only marginal benefits. Some "unlivable" areas can be turned around with skillful irrigation and fertilizer, but by and large they're not necessary. Just use soil whenever you can.

=== Trading ===
Now that you've given your dwarves a place to sleep and avoided the possibility of starvation, you can start thinking about the finer things in life.

First, we'll take care of a few organizational considerations, to make trading easier. Our carpenter will take care of this, since he's done making beds. Order up 2 or 3 [[bucket]]s. Buckets are used to carry water to injured, bedridden dwarves from water source [[zone]]s and are one of the requirements to building a [[well]]. Then, get to work stamping out some [[bin]]s. Bins are used to store a lot of non-perishable items in the same square; they work much the same as [[barrel]]s, but barrels are used on perishables like food and booze. You'll need a LOT of bins, but for the moment 5 or so will do. You will also need to make a lot of barrels, but since you brought a number of them with you, you can hold off a bit. Both of these can be made from [[metal]] as well, but producing them from wood is far more economical.

Since you have all this stone lying around, let's put it to use. Build a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]], assign one of your dwarves to [[stonecrafting]]. Order this [[workshop]] to build rock {{k|c}}rafts of all sorts {{k|r}}epeatedly. Stone mugs are a good trade good - you get three mugs from one stone, adding up to 30☼ at the start. Since your stonecrafter will level up relatively quickly (and if you have several dwarves working on stonecrafts) this can quickly add up to several thousand monies worth of goods.

Now that you've got some goods to [[trade]], we'll need to {{k|b}}uild a trade {{k|D}}epot. Build this somewhere easily accessible from all edges of the map, but close to (or inside) your entrance. [[Trade depot]]s require [[architecture]] and a [[mason]], assuming you make it out of your copious quantities of stone. Many times you will not have an [[building designer]] on embark, so you will have to assign one to get the [[architecture]] phase of the depot done.

In the long term, you'll want your trade depot to be in a defensible spot. As it is 5x5 squares, and requires a 3-square wide path for the caravans to get in and out of it, you'll eventually want to spend some time thinking about its [[defense]]. Once the depot has been completed, you can check for depot access using the {{k|shift}}-{{k|D}} key.

The first caravan will come in your first autumn: the dwarven caravan from the mountainhome. When it comes, the game will pause, you'll be alerted, and the screen will center on the [[caravan]]. If you do not have a depot, or they can't get to it, they will wait on the edge of the map for you to build a depot they can get to, or to clear the obstructions. The two most common obstructions are [[tree]]s and [[boulder]]s. Trees can be chopped down, and boulders can be eliminated by {{k|d}}esignating them to be {{k|s}}moothed. This uses the [[stone detailing]] labor, so turn it on if you need.

After the caravan is on its way, you'll need to fill the depot with things to trade, and get a trader there to broker the negotiations. Hit {{k|q}}uery over the depot and press {{k|g}} to start moving supplies. Use the arrow keys to navigate the trade goods window. If you've been making stone crafts, you'll want the ''crafts'' heading to make the game filter out the bins you've been filling. Otherwise, you'll have to sift through every stone you've created while digging the fortress, which is a huge pain. Press {{k|ENTER}} on the bins to mark them for trading, and some dwarves will come along to haul the bins to the depot. Once that's taken care of, {{k|q}}uery the depot and {{k|r}}equest a trader there. By default, only the broker will trade at the depot. This is generally what you want, since brokers with better [[appraisal]] skills can see the worth of all the commodities and tend to get away with giving the caravan boss a lower profit margin on the trade. Trading at the depot is a low-priority job, though, so you may have to turn off your broker's other labors temporarily to get him to respond to the request in a timely manner. Once your broker is at the depot, {{k|q}}uery the depot and start {{k|t}}rading.

On the screen that comes up, the left side shows the trader's goods, while the right side shows your own. Use the arrow keys to navigate and {{k|ENTER}} to mark something for trading. If your trader does not have at least Novice Appraiser in his skill set, you will not be able to see the values of everything, so you'll have to guess. The caravan boss will refuse to sell at a loss, and if you're close to making a deal, he'll give you a counteroffer that he'd accept. Being able to see the values of things is really helpful, but don't worry if you can't. It usually only takes one or two successful trades before your broker will hit Novice Appraiser and all will become known to you. One fun note is that raw materials cost the same from merchants as they do at the embark screen; so you already know that [[plump helmets]] are 4☼, most meat is 2☼, wooden logs are 3☼, and so on. It's difficult to know the value of your crafts, and some things must be bought as a package deal (you cannot buy seeds alone, you must also buy the bag they come in), though, so it can still be hard to trade without Appraiser.

On your first year, you're probably pretty light on things to trade with, so start small. Wood [[log]]s are very useful and cheap. Extra food can be useful if your farms are lagging behind. Maybe a barrel or two. Sell what goods you have and don't fret about it any longer.

Next year, after you get some immigrants you can think about exploring other kinds of industry as well, like the [[furniture industry]], [[meat industry]], or [[clothing industry]], but this is a great place to start.

The last element to trading is the [[liaison]]. The dwarven liaison will want to meet with your [[expedition leader]] to work out your requests for next year, and let you know what their requests are. By making a request of the caravan, you are essentially promising to pay more (up to double the normal price) for various things, which entices the traders to bring more of those things. Wood logs are always a great thing to request. Even at double the normal price, they're still very cheap, and merchants bring a lot of them. It's not unusual to get 50 logs from a single caravan. It saves you a massive amount of time and effort. [[Barrel]]s and [[bag]]s are also good to request, as are [[dog]]s. You can also request [[seed]]s to get your more diverse crops started. Look around, explore, and experiment. That's half the fun of the game.

The liaison will also tell you what they want from you, with the same deal: they'll pay more for it if you build it. Unfortunately, they usually want stupid things that don't trade well (such as stone [[block]]s) or things you'd rather keep to yourself (such as [[booze]]). Many players simply ignore their liaison's requests and build the same things they always build. Diplomatic relations will not suffer at all.

Your expedition leader must actually pick up the job ''conduct meeting'' to get this process done, and it ends up being a very low-priority job, so again, you may consider turning off your leader's other labors to make sure he gets to it. If you really want to force the liaison to take the meeting, move him to the meeting spot by enlisting him in the [[Military]] and [[Military#Controlling your squads|stationing]] him at the meeting spot. Then [[Door#Door settings|forbid the door]] behind him and the liaison, locking them in until the meeting is completed (when the Liaison says "Goodbye" in a message).

===Basic Defenses===
{{main|Defense}}
While not a major concern at first, it is always a good idea to think about how you are going protect your dwarves. From picking your location to establishing your fortress, always think about how you will defend your new home. Failure to incorporate this into your fortress can cause serious issues down the road. The good news is that it is relatively easy to setup basic defenses with only a few dwarfs.

When designing your defenses here are a few things to keep in mind.
* Limiting Access - The more ways into your fortress, the harder it is to defend. Most fortresses should have only one way to get in/out. This is usually a entrance hallway or some form of gate. The further your enemies have to travel to get to your dwarves, the more traps and military personnel you can put in their way to stop them killing your dwarves. When designing an entrance system, make sure to keep in mind that your own dwarves will most likely pass by these defenses on their way to gather wood/plants.

* Controlled isolation - Sometimes, you will need to cut yourself off from the world. This normally happens when you suddenly find yourself under siege without adequate military to defend yourself. Since all creatures move the same way, simply putting a bridge or a line of floodgates at our entrance is a good way to stop a siege while you build up your military. The key here is that you can control when to isolate your fortress. Though do keep in mind that you will not be able to get migrants or caravans while isolated.

* Arrow Defense - While rare in the early part of the game, attacking parties will bring along a few archers. The thing to keep in mind that archers can shoot over moats and onto roofs. The easiest way to defend against archers is to use walls. Do your best to avoid long straight corridors since enemies can kill your dwarfs as they either run away or run towards the archer. Adding a few corners go a long way in making enemy archers less dangerous. Also note that archers can shoot up and down z-levels. So if you have a multilevel structure outside, make sure to put a wall around the perimeter to prevent archers from being able to shoot your dwarfs on the roof.

* Stopping the invasion - You've planned your entrance, and setup a way to isolate your fortress, now it is time to stop the invading force. This is usually done with either traps or military. The easiest way to defend your fortress is with traps. Since they don't move, you need to build a bottleneck or choke point to herd invaders over the traps. If you followed the above directions, you should already have a bottleneck in place. Your fortress entrance is a place that everyone must cross. Put a bunch of stone fall or cage traps here and you are ready to go. As a rule of thumb, any space that is 2-5 squares or wide should be considered as a place to setup a bottleneck.

=== The future ===

After this point, you'll be able to start exploring the other intricacies of the game. Here is a list of some other gameplay commands which have not been covered:

* [[labor]]
* [[noble]]s
* [[military]]

==Sample games==
These are sample games that others have played and recorded to provide good learning examples. They are not routinely updated, so some information may be out of date, but they still provide good hands-on tutorials of how to prepare for your fortress and play the game.

* [[Indecisive's illustrated fortress mode tutorial]]
* [[Savok's first fortress playthrough]]
* [[ThunderClaw's 0.28.181.40d graphical tileset playthrough]]
* [http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/ The Complete and Utter Newbie Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress]

You can also look at the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] to see multi-layered snapshots of fortresses that others have built.

[[Category:Guides]]

{{Starting FAQ}}

40d:Your first fortress

2010-03-30T08:21:08Z

Safe-Keeper: /* Slope screen */ Cleaned up paragraph a little, elaborated on some points

{{av}}
This is a guide to help new players get started on their first [[fortress]] and teach them the basics of keeping their [[dwarf|dwarves]] alive. If you have unanswered questions or find given details confusing, please tell us so on the [[Talk:Your_first_fortress|discussion page]]! Above all else, always remember the [[Dwarf Fortress]] motto: "Losing is [[fun]]!"

We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying [[skill]]s and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. For more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.

== Generating a world ==

It all starts here. The first thing to do when starting Dwarf Fortress is to [[World generation |create a world]]. Later on, you may wish to tweak the parameters to suit your play style, but for now, the ''Create New World Now!'' option is an easy way to get into your first game.

The engine will start to create the world--watch it unfold! You might notice that worlds are rejected, sometimes even after the generator begins running rivers and lakes. This is normal, as the generator seeks a world which meets the criteria for optimum Dwarven [[Fun]].

Generating a standard random world can take several minutes. You can speed things up by selecting ''Design New World with Parameters'' instead of ''Create New World Now!'' and setting a smaller world size. These worlds tend to be less interesting and less replayable, but work well if you want to try new things.

Once you've generated a world you will return to the main screen and there will be a new option, <tt>Start Playing</tt>. Upon selecting that you can choose the game mode - [[Dwarf Fortress]], [[Adventurer]], or [[Legends]]. This article is written with respect to Fortress mode.

See the article on [[world generation]] for a complete guide to the world generation screen.

== Choosing a location ==

=== Useful location traits ===

[[Forest]]: Many parts of the game are dependent on creating wood items, so if you choose a location without any trees, the game will be more [[fun]] (aka more complex).

[[Water]]: [[Wound]]ed dwarves require water to drink, so having a water source near your first fortress so your injured don't die of thirst will be helpful.

[[Animals]]: Some [[biome]]s will have fewer animals to hunt for meat to feed your dwarves, so tropical and temperate biomes might be simpler.

=== The interface ===

So long as you have at least one world without an active game, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Select "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll find a four-section window:

[[Image:FortressLocation_fd2f10.png | caption | This picture is shown with the default tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available]]

Going from left to right, these windows represent:
*The local map. The black box represents the area that your fortress will occupy if you decide to embark. The blue line is a stream, the green icons represent forests and swamps, and the gray triangles are mountain slopes.
*The regional map. This is like zooming out from the local map. The entire local map is represented by that yellow X. Most of the region is forest, with a mountain range in the bottom right. The two light blue lines are minor rivers.
*The world map. This is zooming out all the way. The yellow X represents the approximate position of the region.
*Information about the area that the black box is occupying. More on this below.

You can move around the region map with {{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}, or at 10x speed with {{k|Shift}}+{{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}. Note that using {{k|Shift}} can cause the key to get "stuck" - press it again to cancel.

You can move around the local map with these keys:
{{k|u}}
{{k|h}} {{k|k}}
{{k|m}}

You cannot directly move around the world map. Movement across the world map is shown relative to your movement on the region map. In world generated with the default settings, each square of the world map contains several squares of the region map.

Your next goal will be choosing the starting location for your fortress.

=== Your surroundings ===

You can discern a lot of information by scrolling through the various modes. The interface has five modes which you cycle through by pressing {{k|TAB}}. In turn, they display the ''biomes'', ''civilizations'', and ''geology'' of the local area.

====Biomes screen====
This display gives you an idea for the environment you'll be parachuting into. Click any of the blue links for more information on the subject. [[Biome]]s are determined by the type of life in the area. On the Biome screen, you'll see:
* '''[[Temperature]]''': How hot or cold it gets in the area. Can be ''Freezing'', ''Cold'', ''Temperate'', ''Warm'', ''Hot'', and ''Scorching''. In a nutshell, temperature extremes make it harder to get and keep a reliable source of [[water]] going. In Freezing and Scorching climates, you may have to do without water at all. Temperate and Warm are both good places to start your first fort. 
* '''Amount of [[tree]]s, and [[plant|other vegetation]]''': A general indication of the density of plant life in the area. For trees, this can be ''none'', ''scarce'', ''sparse'', ''woodland'', or ''heavily forested''. For other plants, you can see ''none'', ''scarce'', ''moderate'', and ''thick''. Trees are chopped down for [[wood]], which is a critical, if small, part of your fortress. You can import lots of it from [[caravan]]s, so don't worry too much about it. However, more trees never hurt anyone, and totally treeless maps are quite a bit more difficult in the early going, so aim for ''sparse'' or greater trees. Other plants basically means shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation that you can harvest food from with the [[plant gathering]] skill. Generally speaking, you will use this trick in the first year of your fortress, then never again. [[Plant]] density is not very important. 
* '''[[Surroundings]]''': This is a hint at how wild the wilderness is. The outskirts of a jungle might be fairly calm and safe, while the heart of that same jungle could be thick with vicious predators. In game terms, this will clue you in to the specific types of [[tree]]s and [[plant]]s you will find, in addition to indicating the [[animal]] types you'll run into. This also clues you in to the ''alignment'' of the surrounding area. So, the two things this word tells you is how ''good'' or ''evil'' an area is, and how ''calm'' or ''savage'' an area is. ''Good''-aligned areas, from calm to savage, are ''serene'', ''mirthful'', or ''joyous wilds''. ''Neutral''-aligned areas are, from calm to savage, ''calm'', ''wilderness'', or ''untamed wilds''. ''Evil''-aligned areas are, from calm to savage, ''sinister'', ''haunted'', or ''terrifying''. ''Good'' zones tend to have benign mythological creatures, like the [[unicorn]] (which can be incredibly dangerous, but only if provoked), while ''evil'' areas have a multitude of [[undead]] and some of the most vicious [[creature]]s in the game, which need no provocation to tear your dwarves limb from limb. For your first fortress, stick to a ''neutral'' or ''good'' alignment. 
* '''Major land forms''': A last field, which will not always be full, will mention things you should know about, like [[river]]s. Rivers provide an unlimited source of [[water]], but can be home to dangerous fish like the [[longnose gar]] and [[carp]]. Still, though, the benefits generally far outweigh the risks. [[Volcano]]es are also noted here, one of the only guaranteed ways to get [[magma]]. Magma makes a few things a lot easier, but it is dangerous to work with and must be handled very carefully because of the [[fire imp|horrible]] [[magma man|creature]]s that come out of it. Not critical, especially not for your first time out. 

Sometimes, you'll be looking at a place with more than one [[biome]] in the same selected square. You can press {{k|F1}} {{k|F2}} {{k|F3}} or {{k|F4}} to view the different types of biomes. In the picture above, we are looking at the mountain in the center, which is cold and has no trees or plants because it's too high up for those things to grow.

====Civilization screen====
These are nearby [[civilization]]s that are capable of interacting with you. Other settlements are shown with various symbols on the regional map. The possible entries here are ''dwarves'', ''humans'', ''elves'', ''goblins'', and ''kobolds''.
* '''[[dwarf|Dwarves]]''': You will want to be in contact with dwarves to get [[immigrant]]s and a dwarven trading caravan. However, dwarves are, sometimes seemingly magically, everywhere. It is impossible to settle anywhere ''without'' dwarves, assuming there is at least one surviving dwarven civilization. Depending on how remote the area is, though, you may not get some of the features of the game you would otherwise: being cut off from the world will prevent most [[noble]]s from coming to your fort, which will stop the [[dwarven economy]] from ever being activated. You may also not get a [[liaison]] with your dwarven caravan from which to request goods.
* '''[[Humans]]''': Humans are almost always friendly, and love [[trade]]. They send [[liaison]]s to let you request goods and are generally a huge boon to any fortress.
* '''[[Elves]]''': Elves are usually friendly and make fair trading partners, but have a [[Trade#Elves|particular ethos]] about trading. They do not send a trade [[liaison]] and their goods are luxuries at best. They can be very annoying, but are generally not dangerous unless you provoke them.
* '''[[Goblin]]s''': Goblins are your main enemies in Dwarf Fortress, and will produce most of the aggression against your fort. They periodically launch ambushes, consisting of five to ten goblin warriors, and will send [[siege]]s after your fort reaches 80 dwarves. [[Trap]]ped entrances, [[war dog]]s, and eventually a [[military]] will be needed to repel them. Just be sure not to start in the middle of a goblin citadel.
* '''[[Kobold]]''': Kobolds are petty thieves that are little more than irritations in most situations. If you are careless and let their thieves get away with a lot of stuff, though, they may upgrade to raiding parties of archers.

====Elevation screen====
Relative [[Z-axis|elevation]]. This is a normal topographic map that you're used to from real-life maps. It just gives you an idea of the lay of the land.

====Slope screen====
[[Slope]] steepness. This shows you where large cliffs are. Be advised that [[cliff]]s of elevation 4 or more mean taller maps, which take significantly more computer power to run. On the other hand, many find completely flat embark sites to be dull -- a good elevation map contains lots of low elevation changes ranging from 1 to 4. However, choosing areas partly or entirely above the tree line gives you much more stone, ore, and gems to work with, and the hills even provide decent protection against invaders, especially if you start removing natural ramps. It's your choice in the long run, particularly if you don't really care about performance.

====Embark alerts====
When you're satisfied with your area and hit {{k|e}} to embark, you may get some alerts about being in a very difficult area, or about an [[aquifer]]. Aquifers can make it frustrating to get started, so if you are alerted about an aquifer, seriously consider moving somewhere else for your first fortress. After you have the basics down, tackling an aquifer is much easier.
====Location recap====

For your first fortress, it's not entirely important. However, there are some general guidelines that can help you decide: 

* Try to get a temperate or warm climate, since extreme temperatures are more difficult.
* Trees and vegetation are good for producing lumber and food for your fortress, but you don't need tons of them.
* ''Neutral''-aligned [[surroundings]] are best for your first fortress, but ''good''-aligned surroundings are also OK. Avoid ''evil''-aligned surroundings, however.
* Running water ([[river]]s, streams, and [[brook]]s) are a permanent source of [[water]]. [[Murky pool]]s and [[underground pool]]s have a finite amount of water and may dry out. Not having enough water can be a big obstacle, so try to get some running water your first time out.
* [[Humans]] and [[elves]] are friendly, so an area they have access to is nice.
* [[Magma]] is cool (hah!), but not critical.
* Areas with [[aquifer]]s require some engineering to get to rock. You'll be warned if you chose an area with an aquifer. When in doubt, don't try it.
** If you insist on starting in an area with an aquifer, read up on the dangers of aquifers, and, if at all possible, choose an embark site that includes an aquifer-less [[biome]].
* Who cares? If you like what you see, go for it. You can always start over. And remember the DF motto: Losing is fun! 

For more information on specific game mechanics such as [[sand]], [[flux]], and how to find [[iron]], check [[Stone layers|this page]].

==== Fortress size ====

Once you've decided on location, you need to decide the size of your fortress area. This is the size of the game field you're playing on. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of [[rock]]s and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include slower game performance (larger areas require more CPU power), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your [[trade depot]] before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. (Note that you can [[mine]] many levels deep into the ground, and even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.)

You can adjust the size of your fort's area by using {{k|SHIFT}} + the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|k}} or {{k|h}} keys. 

=== Embark ===

When done, hit {{k|e}} to embark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site, or one with an [[aquifer]].

==Buying skills and items==
After you embark, you're given the option to either start immediately or prepare for the journey carefully. You should pretty much always prepare carefully if you enjoy staying alive.

Here, presumably, you are the dwarf determining who will go and what they will take. You have a total of 2060☼ to spend in two categories: Skilled dwarves and items. Some items have already been selected for you, but you probably won't want most of these.

There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[starting builds]] page offers several examples for you to choose from. Here, we are only going to discuss some basics that help you understand enough to make your own decisions. The embark screen opens up on the ''skills'' screen, and can be changed to the ''items'' screen by pressing {{k|TAB}}.

===Skills===
In Dwarf Fortress, it's not what you have, it's who you have. Skilled dwarves are the cornerstone of everything, from domestics to security, so it's extremely important to embark with good people.

As you will see in this screen, you have 7 dwarves, all with 10 points to put toward starting skills. We will want to use all 10 of the points on all 7 of the dwarves. By default, you won't have enough ☼ to do this, so hit {{k|TAB}} to go to the items screen and hit {{k|-}} over the ''Steel battle axe'' line to give subtract one. This should give you enough ☼ to assign all your skills. You can only spend 5 of the 10 points in any one skill, making the maximum skill level upon embark ''proficient''. This makes a total of 14 ''proficient'' skills, or a larger number of lower skill levels.

In a fledgling fortress, the 4 indispensable jobs are [[mason]], [[miner]], [[grower]], and [[carpenter]]. A good beginning strategy is to embark with at least 1 dwarf being ''proficient'' in these 4 skills. Many people choose to double up on proficient miners and growers, since mining and farming are both pretty big jobs.

Other useful skills to consider:
* '''[[Cook]]:''' Cooks make [[prepared meal]]s in the [[kitchen]], which helps you manage your food stock space. Well-prepared meals are also valuable [[trade]] goods, and make dwarves happy when eaten. Highly skilled cooks make better meals, and prepare meals faster.

* '''[[Brewer]]:''' Brewers make [[booze]] in the [[still]]. Dwarves being dwarves, they need alcohol to operate at peak efficiency, and highly-skilled brewers make better tasting booze and finish brewing faster. Dwarves get happier when they drink good booze.

* '''[[Herbalist]]:''' Herbalists gather food and seeds from [[shrub]]s in the local area. Skilled herbalists pick faster and come away with far more food. Where an unskilled herbalist will come away with one [[wild strawberry]] or none at all, a proficient herbalist will often pick 3 or 4, and sometimes 5.

* '''[[Woodcutter]]:''' Woodcutters fell [[tree]]s for use by [[carpenter]]s. Highly skilled woodcutters fell trees much faster. However, since you don't need that much wood, you can get away with a normal (no tag) woodcutter just fine.

* '''[[Mechanic]]:''' Mechanics build and use [[mechanism]]s, which have myriad uses in [[trap]]s, [[lever]]s and some [[machine]]s. Highly skilled mechanics finish installing mechanisms much faster, and the mechanisms they build are of higher quality. However, the quality of the mechanism primarily matters to beginning players for its [[trade]] value, and in early fortresses the need for mechanisms is usually so small that any dwarf can pick it up and handle it well enough. Still, a solid choice, especially if you like [[trap]]s.

* '''[[Armorsmith]], [[Weaponsmith]]:''' These become very important quickly if you want even decent weapons and armor and are annoying to train up from scratch.

* '''[[Siege engineer]]''' is not useful at all in an early fortress, and far from ever being essential, but training an unskilled dwarf in it requires a lot of material and time.

* '''Military skills ([[Wrestler]], [[Axedwarf]], [[Hammerdwarf]], etc):''' Early on, it's unlikely that you'll need these, since there's generally very few things that will bother a band of dwarves who aren't hurting anyone, but certain places, such as those with a [[chasm]], will have hostile creatures around. In these areas, you may consider giving your woodcutter the Axedwarf skill so he can use his chopping axe as a weapon. A miner can "pinch-hit", since the [[Mining]] skill also covers wielding a pick in combat, but the dwarves don't understand this yet, so a drafted miner will get unhappy [[thought]]s.

* '''Social skills ([[Appraiser]], [[Judge of Intent]], [[Consoler]], etc):''' Putting these on one dwarf will make them a shoo-in for the Expedition Leader slot, and ranks in Appraiser and Judge of Intent will make interacting with the first caravan much easier. However, even if you don't train this at all, some persistence in trading with the first caravan will level your leader up enough to trade with the second caravan like a champion.

Once again, examples can be found in the [[starting builds]] page. What you bring is incredibly dependent on your play style, though. Some people think bringing Mechanics along is a total waste of time, others consider them indispensable. Some people like having skills that aren't even on this list, like [[Leatherworker]]. Read the starting builds, ask questions, and explore! Who cares if your first idea doesn't work out after playing an hour? Restarting is easy and ''losing is fun''.

===Items===
Now that we're done with assigning skills, hit {{k|TAB}} to go over to the item screen. Item worth is another extremely situational thing, and you'll find as many opinions as there are Dwarf Fortress players as to what is good to bring. Once more, it depends VERY heavily on your play style. Again, [[starting builds]] can provide some good example reading. This section will only cover the basics and give you enough information to make your own decisions.

====Tools====
You'll need a couple of finished tools to get yourself started.
<ul>
<li>'''[[Battle axe]]s''': Every [[Woodcutter]] needs an axe. Steel battle axes are the only type you can purchase on this screen, and they're expensive. You might want to bring just one, unless you expect to need a lot of lumber and/or axedwarf muscle.</li>
<li>'''[[Pick]]s''': Likewise, [[Miner]]s need picks. All picks work equally well, their material only determines the damage they do in combat. Thus, copper picks are the budgeting dwarf's choice, at a paltry 20☼ each.</li>
<li>'''[[Anvil]]''': One of the big questions to ask yourself is whether to bring an anvil on embark. It's extremely expensive at 1000☼, but to start a [[metal]] industry, you will either have to start with one or request and purchase (or steal!) one from a [[caravan]] somewhere down the line.
Generally, if you are going to a very mountainous area where you're likely to see lots of ore and you want to be able to make use of it right from the get-go, bring an anvil. If you're going to spend a few years getting your fortress established before worrying about metal production, drop it and bring more raw commodities.
One occasional problem is that axes and picks are absent entirely. If this is the case (or you just don't want to spend all that money), you can bring the materials to [[make your own weapons]].
* If you want to save points and smelt the ore yourself, take copper nuggets instead of copper bars, and use the smelter to convert the ore into copper bars.
* A good alternative ore to bring along, and not much more expensive, is [[tetrahedrite]] - when [[smelt]]ed, it yields one copper bar with a 20% chance of an additional [[silver]] bar each. Silver is a good metal for [[metal crafter]]s, or you can have an unskilled worker forge a practice weapon out of silver for training - silver is tied with wood for the safest material for practice weapons, and you have to trade with elves for wooden ones.
* Other mixes of ores, to create bronze or bismuth bronze, etc, are possible - as you learn about the game you'll decide what works best for you, and in what starting situations.
*Fuel and metal in hand, deconstruct the smelter (if needed; {{k|q}} to highlight, then {{k|x}} to deconstruct), and construct a [[metalsmith's forge]]. Make sure someone has [[weaponsmith]]ing on. After the forge is up, order it to make the axes and picks you need. Deconstruct the forge when you're done and enjoy your new tools, hopefully with [[quality]] modifiers!</li>
</ul>

====Raw materials====
As it was briefly covered above, sometimes it makes more sense to bring a lot of raw materials than some finished goods. Raw materials are a lot cheaper than finished goods, and so long as you invest heavily in your dwarves' skills (which you should!), you can probably make better quality stuff, anyway.
*'''[[Stone]]''': Only bring this if you're trying to build some of your tools on the spot, as noted above. Otherwise, you will get stone coming out of your ears once you start mining.
*'''[[Metal]]''': Generally not recommended. However, if you're expecting trouble and you're bringing an anvil, bringing many bars of [[iron]] and [[charcoal]] in lieu of a [[battle axe]] can be a big boon. If your dwarves can get to a spot that gives them a breather, a proficient [[weaponsmith]] or [[armorsmith]] could stamp out high-quality goods to give your dwarves a better fighting chance. This is a pretty advanced trick to pull off, though, so don't try to pull it if you're not confident.
*'''[[Wood]]''': Wood is a bargain at only 3☼ per log, and the 100 logs you can bring in exchange for a steel battle axe will last you a long time. This is a great technique for making [[Woodcutter]] unneeded in the early game, but you need to budget your wood use for the first year very carefully. When you're out, you're out!
*'''[[Leather]]''': Leather is cheap at 5☼ per for the cheapest. Bring a few to make extra bags for gathering plants - don't worry if you don't have a [[leather worker]], you don't much care about a quality multiplier for bottom-value items like leather bags. If you are going to make your own leather armor (early or later), consider bringing someone with leather working skill.

====Consumables====
Easily the most important part of your preparation is what you're going to eat, drink, and plant once you get on site. Without food and booze, you're not going much of anywhere.
*'''[[Food]]''': Most food comes at a mere 2☼ per unit, and 8 units will feed 1 dwarf for a year. Bringing a year of food will give you a good cushion to getting your farms working, so aim for about 60 food if you can. If you must cut back, though, 40 will be fine if you make your farms an early priority. The best food staple to bring along is [[turtle]]. Turtle produces [[shell]] and [[bones]] when eaten, which can be used as raw materials for other things you need, including armor, crossbows, and crossbow bolts. Further, shell is a common request for [[strange mood]]s and is a pain to produce, so getting some early could save yourself a failed mood and a dead dwarf.
*'''[[Booze]]''': Dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, and they always want to down some alcohol if at all possible. They also like different kinds of alcohol. Bring twice as much booze as you bring food, and divide it evenly among the 4 types of alcohol you can take ([[dwarven wine]], [[dwarven beer]], [[dwarven ale]], [[dwarven rum]]). Even more nifty, check the booze preferences of your 7 dwarves on embark and allocate the 4 kinds accordingly. Plump helmets (wine) and pig tails (ale) are fast growing, so you might take less of those, particularly if no dwarf has a preference for them. Too much booze is a real barrel hogger but this problem is far off. More booze is better 99% of the time.
*'''[[Seeds]]''': Your farms have got to start somewhere. Definitely bring along [[plump helmet spawn]] (for food and booze) and [[pig tails]] (for cloth ropes and booze variety). How many you bring is dependent on how big you want your initial farms to be. 5 of each is plenty to feed your initial dwarves, and you will get more seeds any time the plants are consumed in any way ''except cooking''. You may want to use the [[kitchen]] menu to disallow cooking of plump helmets until you have a healthy supply of seeds. Or, alternatively, just don't make any prepared meals until you've got a healthy supply of seeds. The other seed types require a lot more labor to use properly, and should probably wait until you have more dwarves in the fortress. You can buy seeds from the dwarven caravan for almost nothing, but if you want a greater variety along, go for [[rock nuts]]. The [[quarry bush]] that sprouts from it produces the greatest space to yield ratio in the game. Eventually, though, you should be planting all 6 of the underground [[crop]]s at least.

Food and booze are stored in [[barrel]]s, with each type in its own barrel. Since barrels have a 10-unit capacity, you can get a lot of free barrels by starting with many, many kinds of food in quantities which end in 1. Barrels are important, and usually need wood to make, so it's worth it to use this quirk while you can by starting with at least one unit of every type of food.

Seeds are stored in [[bag]]s in multiples of 100, also by type. Bags are cheap and easy to make, and not as important as barrels, since making cloth bags is a good way to train up your [[clothier]], so it's not recommended to spend the extra to get 1 free bag.

====[[domestic animal|Domestic Animals]]====
Not only dwarves live in your fortress, after all.
*'''[[Dog]]s''': Dogs are dwarf's best friend. They can be trained into [[hunting dog]]s or [[war dog]]s, require no food or maintenance, and make good pets for your dwarves. Always bring at least 2. Genders alternate when picking them up, so 2 will give you a breeding pair that will have more puppies freely. They make fantastic security early and fantastic dwarfsaving distractions later on. Dogs will happily lay down their lives to protect their master, which is huge when it means one of your best legendary dwarves is running away from an angry [[goblin]].
*'''[[Cat]]s''': Cats provide a wonderful function in controlling [[vermin]] in the fort. Vermin can make your dwarves extremely unhappy, so some cats are more or less a requirement. The largest problem with cats, however, is that their population is very difficult to control. Cats will choose their own owners (without the dwarf in question's consent), and after they've done so, you cannot order them butchered to control their numbers. The resulting [[catsplosion|population explosion]] can clutter hallways and murder your framerate. The best thing to do is to put all stray cats and kittens in a [[cage]] (one will hold them all). You can then butcher them without running the risk of the cats adopting dwarves before the butcher gets around to them, and if vermin start to get out of hand, you can always release one or two to help. If you want vermin control from the start, bring just ONE cat so it cannot breed and cause a population problem early. However, immigrants will very commonly bring their pet cats to the fortress, so if you can live with vermin early, you'll likely get a cat for free within a year. Or, be prepared to cage and slaughter them aggressively for meat and hides - that can work too.
*'''Beasts of burden (horses, muskoxen, cows, donkeys, & mules)''': You get two of these for free when you start the game - each one random as to sex and the five possible species (and mules don't breed). Unlike cats, dwarves must choose to adopt beasts of burden, which they won't do unless you let them to do so (in z->animals menu). That's fairly rare, so the vast majority of the beasts of burden in your fortress will stay strays. Many immigrants may bring useless animals with them though - as they are adopted already you can't butcher or cage them, but they can still help start a breeding program for meat, hides and bones. You can also trade later for whatever the caravans bring. All newborns belong to the fortress, so you can do what you want with them. 

Once again, check the [[starting builds]] page for more ideas, read the pages linked above, and experiment. The learning process is half the fun in Dwarf Fortress; enjoy it!

==Game on!==
We've chosen an area, selected our supplies, and we're ready to play. The game opens with your dwarves huddled around the wagon they used to get here.
==Gameplay overview==
This section will deal with the tasks you'll need to tackle in your first year of gameplay. These tasks are ''selecting a dig site'', ''building workshops'' (and ''marking stockpiles''), ''building lodging'', ''starting farms'', and ''trading''.
===Selecting a dig site===
You'll have to decide where you're going to dig in and start your fortress. You should consider the natural formations of the surrounding area when deciding where you want your main entrance. Ideally, there should be one way in and one way out. This one way should be fairly sizable, to pander to [[caravans]] and [[traffic]]. Proximity to a good [[water]] source so you can build a [[well]] more easily is also desirable. You can fix either of these things with extra digging and building later on, though, so don't sweat the decision too much.

The most direct way to start is to find the side of a nearby mountain and dig into it, but if you're in a very flat area, you might have to dig downward instead. To start digging, hit {{k|d}}esignations, then {{k|d}}ig. Move your cursor using the arrow keys to where you want to dig, and hit {{k|ENTER}}, then move your cursor over to the place you want the digging to end. Mining designations are rectangular, so you can go both left and right and up and down as you're designating area. This tells your dwarves to cut into a wall and hollow it out, often leaving behind a [[stone]] if it is a rock wall. [[Soil]] walls become hollowed out, but never drop anything. These hollowed out areas are where you'll build the vast majority of everything you need.

If you need to dig down instead of in, you need to use either a '''[[stairs|stairwell]]''' or a '''[[ramp]]'''. For a stairwell, use {{k|d}}esignations, and downward stairway ({{k|j}}). Note that this is only half of a stairwell. To build the other half, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate an {{k|u}}pward stairway to connect to it. You are then underground and can use {{k|m}}ining normally. For a ramp, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate a {{k|r}}amp on the area you want cut away. You do not need to build anything above it; your miners will figure it out. If you are building downward and want [[caravans]] to come down into your fortress, you will need to use [[ramp]]s, at least 3 right next to each other. Keep this in mind when deciding where you want to dig down.

When designing your main entrance, be mindful that as many as 200 dwarves could be coming and going eventually, and that [[goblin]]s are going to want in at some point or another. A 3-wide entrance corridor is ideal. It is wide enough to accept a good amount of traffic and caravans, but narrow enough to use diabolical traps and designs to kill lots of goblins. Your main doors will have to be only 2-wide, though, as [[door]]s require a wall adjacent to them to build properly.

Once you've decided where you want your main entrance, it's time to move your supplies over there. We will have to set them outside for now, but we'll want to move them indoors as soon as we can. Press stock{{k|p}}iles, and designate areas for {{k|f}}ood, {{k|w}}ood, and {{k|r}}efuse. You can designate all sorts of stockpiles from this screen, so hit {{k|t}} and poke around in the custom stockpile settings for a little bit, figuring out what you can do. Do '''NOT''' designate a stone stockpile for now. It will eat up a lot of time unnecessarily. While we're organizing our supplies, deconstruct your wagon by pressing {{k|q}}uery, putting the cursor over your wagon, and pressing deconstruct ({{k|x}}). A dwarf with the [[carpentry]] labor enabled will come by and pull the wagon apart, turning it into 3 [[log]]s. The wagon is useless to you, so there's no reason to not do this. Some people prefer to wait until the wagon has been emptied before deconstructing it. In order to see the contents of a building, use the {{k|t}} command and scroll over the wagon.

Plan for your finished, 200-dwarf fortress right from the get-go. It's very easy to dig out new area. It's very HARD to go back and redo something the way it should've been from the start. 3-wide hallways is typically plenty for high-traffic areas.

===Building workshops===
Time to get some work done! Taking in raw materials and spitting out stuff that's useful: that's the name of the game for workshops. You should start putting down workshops as soon as you have raw materials. You'll need to get basic living provisions like [[bed]]s, [[table]]s, [[chair]]s, [[chest]]s, and the like down for not only your first 7 dwarves, but the [[immigrant]]s that could come at any time as soon as possible, so you can't waste any time. 

[[Stone]] will show up from your miners digging. Once you have an area with a decent amount of stone, you should get a [[mason's workshop]] built in the area. Check the [[workshop]] page for full details if you have problems building one. The keyboard command is:
* {{k|b}}uild order
* the {{k|w}}orkshops sub-menu
* {{k|m}}ason's workshop.

Once the workshop has been built by a dwarf with the [[masonry]] [[labor]], you can {{k|q}}uery the workshop to find out what it's current orders are, {{k|a}}dd or {{k|c}}ancel orders, set an existing order to {{k|r}}epeat, order the workshop dismantled, and other tasks.

Add orders for a {{k|d}}oor, a {{k|t}}able, and a {{k|c}}hair. Stone chairs will show up as ''thrones'' in the orders. They are exactly the same. Then set each order to repeat. This workshop will now make [[door]]s, [[table]]s, and [[chair]]s until you tell it to stop. You'll need a lot of these, so that's OK.

Also build a [[carpenter's workshop]] near the wood stockpile you designated earlier, and tell it to make {{k|b}}eds. Put this on {{k|r}}epeat, also. The wood you brought along, even after disassembling your wagon, won't last long. If you brought along a [[woodcutter]], now would be a good time to get him to chop down some trees. Hit {{k|d}}esignations, and then hit chop down {{k|t}}rees. Chopping designations work exactly like mining designations, but it will only highlight trees in the rectangle you give it. Don't worry about chopping a ton of wood right now; trees don't go anywhere fast, so you can always come back for more.

While making workshops anywhere the material happens to be works fine right now, you will want a more organized way of doing it later. Check out the [[Design_strategies#Workshop_Logistics|workshop logistics]] page for ideas on how to set it up. After you do get things set up, be sure to move your stockpiles underground; aboveground stockpiles are vulnerable to thieves and are usually a long way away. Don't be afraid to tear down workshops; they are built quickly and easily, and tearing them down does absolutely nothing harmful, even returning the materials used in their construction. Be aware that workshops create [[noise]] when they are in use, which can disturb your dwarves' sleep, so don't build them close to any [[bed]]s.

===Building lodging===
With commodities coming out, it's time to set up places where they can be used. 

Tell your miners to dig out a large (5x5 minimum) room to become your [[barracks]]. The barracks is essentially a communal sleeping room where dwarves without their own apartment can come to crash. It is also the place where your [[military]] will come to [[sparring|spar]] once you start recruiting soldiers. Since your military hangs out in the barracks a lot, it's a good idea to put it near the main entrance of the fortress. If [[Thief|thieves]] stumble in, they are likely to meet a very grisly end as they bump into a pair of dwarves in the middle of combat training, and later, in case of a more major attack, they are more likely to be closer to where you need them. Note, however, that sparring dwarves can very seriously [[wound|hurt]] or kill eachother if their sparring area is too crowded, so keep beds stacked along one wall and the rest of the room clear and uncluttered. You do not need too many beds in the barracks right now. Beds in the barracks are public, and dwarves have their own schedules, so the entire fortress will not sleep at once.

After the barracks is dug, tell your dwarves to {{k|b}}uild a {{k|b}}ed. Your cursor will come up, turning red on an unacceptable location and green on an acceptable location. Unacceptable locations will give you a short reason as to why they're unacceptable. Again, just stack beds against one wall of the barracks; 5 beds will be fine to start out with. After indicating the placement of the beds, your dwarves will haul them over and install them. Once they are installed, {{k|q}}uery a bed, then make a {{k|r}}oom. Use the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to size the room that will be considered the barracks. All beds within the flashing square will be considered public, so there's no need to do this more than once. Fill up the whole 5x5 area ({{k|b}}uild {{k|d}}oors if you need to cordon off the area to make it a nice square) and hit {{k|ENTER}}. You've created your first [[room]]! A room status screen shows up. Be sure to hit {{k|b}} to confirm that it is a barracks. If you don't, the first dwarf that sleeps in this room will claim it as his or her apartment, which isn't what we want. 

The barracks will keep your dwarves from sleeping on the floor, which would make them [[thought|unhappy]]. As the game goes on, though, it is a very good idea to move dwarves into their own apartments. They get much [[thought|happier]] for it, it keeps traffic down, and provides you with some more diabolical options such as locking a troublemaker in his room by {{k|q}}uerying the door and {{k|l}}ocking (forbidding) it. See the [[bedroom design]] page for ideas on how to set up your apartments. 

With bedding handled, we need to set up a [[dining room]], which will double as our [[meeting area]]. Dwarves will eat in their apartment sometimes if you install a table and chair in it, but mostly, dwarves prefer to eat in a public [[dining room|dining hall]] with a table all to themselves. As the [[meeting area]], dwarves will also show up there whenever they have nothing better to do (have 'No Job') to socialize and kill time. It is a pretty high-traffic area, so be sure to use double-doors as the entrance and exit. It should again be fairly large (25 tiles minimum; this could be 5x5, 4x6, whatever suits your fancy). Once it's dug out, {{k|b}}uild {{k|t}}ables along the walls, and then {{k|b}}uild {{k|c}}hairs next to the tables, one per table. Once a table is laid out, {{k|q}}uery the table and make a {{k|r}}oom out of it. Fill up the dining hall area, and hit {{k|ENTER}}. Be sure to hit {{k|h}} to set it as a meeting area, and you're done here.

As with most kinds of furniture, dwarves can walk through tiles containing tables, chairs and beds. The most notable exception to this are [[statue]]s.

===Starting farms===
The basics of life are in place! Now it's just a matter of getting the farms in place to make sure life goes on. 

[[Farming]] is the most reliable source of food in the game, and the only way to be sure you're going to feed a large population. The catch is, we can only farm on [[mud]] or [[soil]]. Mud is only created through [[irrigation]], which is complicated and more trouble than it's worth if you have access to any serious quantity of soil. Avoid using irrigation if you can. The logistics of controlling enough water to make arable land on stone are extremely annoying.

On [[soil]], however, farming couldn't be easier. Simply mine out an area of soil (underground, since the seeds you can embark with will NOT grow aboveground), then {{k|b}}uild a farm {{k|p}}lot. Use {{k|u}}, {{k|m}}, {{k|k}}, and {{k|j}} to resize your plot to the size you want; 3x3 should be plenty to start out, and you will max out at roughly 30 to 40 total squares being used for food and booze production to support a full fortress. This changes some depending on the skill of your [[grower]]s, but it's a fair guideline. After placing the farmland, a dwarf with the Farming (Fields) labor enabled will come by and prepare it for use. After it's done, {{k|q}}uery the new field and decide on your crops for each season. The crop display will show every crop that can possibly be planted there - it does not necessarily mean you have seeds to plant. [[Plump helmet]]s are best for your first field, since they can be brewed to [[booze]], eaten raw, and cooked. If you find some seasons have red letters, that is because the season has already passed and you cannot edit it again this year. You will have to pick it up in the spring of the following year. Be aware that Dwarf Fortress will '''NOT''' give you an error if you attempt to plant something you have no seeds of. It will give you an error if you '''run out''' of seeds after starting planting, but not if you simply have none to begin with. If you can't remember what kind of seeds you have, check around your wagon and your designated food stockpile using {{k|k}} for a seeds bag. Hit {{k|Enter}} when you find it to inspect the bag and see what kind of seeds it carries. Later on, you will be able to find it more easily using the {{k|z}} key and the "Stocks" menu, but right now your stocks will lack the precision to use the "zoom" key. See the [[bookkeeper]] article for more information on stockpile precision.

Eventually, you will want to be planting many, many different kinds of crops. [[Dimple cups]] are great later on, because they produce [[dimple dye]], which can be used to increase the value of the clothing your fortress produces. [[Cave wheat]] can be used to provide fodder for luxury prepared meals, and to make more brewing fodder. As your fortress grows and you need more and more luxuries to keep everyone happy, diversifying can only help you.

On a note about [[irrigation]] before wrapping this section up, mud behaves almost identically to soil. All below-ground crops can be grown equally well on either, and you build and place the plots exactly the same. There are a few differences, though. Mud can be [[Farming#Increasing_yield|fertilized]] with [[potash]], while dry soil cannot. Some above-ground crops can only be grown in mud, while others can only be planted in dry soil. Check the [[crops]] page for more details. Irrigation is a very advanced technique that provides only marginal benefits. Some "unlivable" areas can be turned around with skillful irrigation and fertilizer, but by and large they're not necessary. Just use soil whenever you can.

=== Trading ===
Now that you've given your dwarves a place to sleep and avoided the possibility of starvation, you can start thinking about the finer things in life.

First, we'll take care of a few organizational considerations, to make trading easier. Our carpenter will take care of this, since he's done making beds. Order up 2 or 3 [[bucket]]s. Buckets are used to carry water to injured, bedridden dwarves from water source [[zone]]s and are one of the requirements to building a [[well]]. Then, get to work stamping out some [[bin]]s. Bins are used to store a lot of non-perishable items in the same square; they work much the same as [[barrel]]s, but barrels are used on perishables like food and booze. You'll need a LOT of bins, but for the moment 5 or so will do. You will also need to make a lot of barrels, but since you brought a number of them with you, you can hold off a bit. Both of these can be made from [[metal]] as well, but producing them from wood is far more economical.

Since you have all this stone lying around, let's put it to use. Build a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]], assign one of your dwarves to [[stonecrafting]]. Order this [[workshop]] to build rock {{k|c}}rafts of all sorts {{k|r}}epeatedly. Stone mugs are a good trade good - you get three mugs from one stone, adding up to 30☼ at the start. Since your stonecrafter will level up relatively quickly (and if you have several dwarves working on stonecrafts) this can quickly add up to several thousand monies worth of goods.

Now that you've got some goods to [[trade]], we'll need to {{k|b}}uild a trade {{k|D}}epot. Build this somewhere easily accessible from all edges of the map, but close to (or inside) your entrance. [[Trade depot]]s require [[architecture]] and a [[mason]], assuming you make it out of your copious quantities of stone. Many times you will not have an [[building designer]] on embark, so you will have to assign one to get the [[architecture]] phase of the depot done.

In the long term, you'll want your trade depot to be in a defensible spot. As it is 5x5 squares, and requires a 3-square wide path for the caravans to get in and out of it, you'll eventually want to spend some time thinking about its [[defense]]. Once the depot has been completed, you can check for depot access using the {{k|shift}}-{{k|D}} key.

The first caravan will come in your first autumn: the dwarven caravan from the mountainhome. When it comes, the game will pause, you'll be alerted, and the screen will center on the [[caravan]]. If you do not have a depot, or they can't get to it, they will wait on the edge of the map for you to build a depot they can get to, or to clear the obstructions. The two most common obstructions are [[tree]]s and [[boulder]]s. Trees can be chopped down, and boulders can be eliminated by {{k|d}}esignating them to be {{k|s}}moothed. This uses the [[stone detailing]] labor, so turn it on if you need.

After the caravan is on its way, you'll need to fill the depot with things to trade, and get a trader there to broker the negotiations. Hit {{k|q}}uery over the depot and press {{k|g}} to start moving supplies. Use the arrow keys to navigate the trade goods window. If you've been making stone crafts, you'll want the ''crafts'' heading to make the game filter out the bins you've been filling. Otherwise, you'll have to sift through every stone you've created while digging the fortress, which is a huge pain. Press {{k|ENTER}} on the bins to mark them for trading, and some dwarves will come along to haul the bins to the depot. Once that's taken care of, {{k|q}}uery the depot and {{k|r}}equest a trader there. By default, only the broker will trade at the depot. This is generally what you want, since brokers with better [[appraisal]] skills can see the worth of all the commodities and tend to get away with giving the caravan boss a lower profit margin on the trade. Trading at the depot is a low-priority job, though, so you may have to turn off your broker's other labors temporarily to get him to respond to the request in a timely manner. Once your broker is at the depot, {{k|q}}uery the depot and start {{k|t}}rading.

On the screen that comes up, the left side shows the trader's goods, while the right side shows your own. Use the arrow keys to navigate and {{k|ENTER}} to mark something for trading. If your trader does not have at least Novice Appraiser in his skill set, you will not be able to see the values of everything, so you'll have to guess. The caravan boss will refuse to sell at a loss, and if you're close to making a deal, he'll give you a counteroffer that he'd accept. Being able to see the values of things is really helpful, but don't worry if you can't. It usually only takes one or two successful trades before your broker will hit Novice Appraiser and all will become known to you. One fun note is that raw materials cost the same from merchants as they do at the embark screen; so you already know that [[plump helmets]] are 4☼, most meat is 2☼, wooden logs are 3☼, and so on. It's difficult to know the value of your crafts, and some things must be bought as a package deal (you cannot buy seeds alone, you must also buy the bag they come in), though, so it can still be hard to trade without Appraiser.

On your first year, you're probably pretty light on things to trade with, so start small. Wood [[log]]s are very useful and cheap. Extra food can be useful if your farms are lagging behind. Maybe a barrel or two. Sell what goods you have and don't fret about it any longer.

Next year, after you get some immigrants you can think about exploring other kinds of industry as well, like the [[furniture industry]], [[meat industry]], or [[clothing industry]], but this is a great place to start.

The last element to trading is the [[liaison]]. The dwarven liaison will want to meet with your [[expedition leader]] to work out your requests for next year, and let you know what their requests are. By making a request of the caravan, you are essentially promising to pay more (up to double the normal price) for various things, which entices the traders to bring more of those things. Wood logs are always a great thing to request. Even at double the normal price, they're still very cheap, and merchants bring a lot of them. It's not unusual to get 50 logs from a single caravan. It saves you a massive amount of time and effort. [[Barrel]]s and [[bag]]s are also good to request, as are [[dog]]s. You can also request [[seed]]s to get your more diverse crops started. Look around, explore, and experiment. That's half the fun of the game.

The liaison will also tell you what they want from you, with the same deal: they'll pay more for it if you build it. Unfortunately, they usually want stupid things that don't trade well (such as stone [[block]]s) or things you'd rather keep to yourself (such as [[booze]]). Many players simply ignore their liaison's requests and build the same things they always build. Diplomatic relations will not suffer at all.

Your expedition leader must actually pick up the job ''conduct meeting'' to get this process done, and it ends up being a very low-priority job, so again, you may consider turning off your leader's other labors to make sure he gets to it. If you really want to force the liaison to take the meeting, move him to the meeting spot by enlisting him in the [[Military]] and [[Military#Controlling your squads|stationing]] him at the meeting spot. Then [[Door#Door settings|forbid the door]] behind him and the liaison, locking them in until the meeting is completed (when the Liaison says "Goodbye" in a message).

===Basic Defenses===
{{main|Defense}}
While not a major concern at first, it is always a good idea to think about how you are going protect your dwarves. From picking your location to establishing your fortress, always think about how you will defend your new home. Failure to incorporate this into your fortress can cause serious issues down the road. The good news is that it is relatively easy to setup basic defenses with only a few dwarfs.

When designing your defenses here are a few things to keep in mind.
* Limiting Access - The more ways into your fortress, the harder it is to defend. Most fortresses should have only one way to get in/out. This is usually a entrance hallway or some form of gate. The further your enemies have to travel to get to your dwarves, the more traps and military personnel you can put in their way to stop them killing your dwarves. When designing an entrance system, make sure to keep in mind that your own dwarves will most likely pass by these defenses on their way to gather wood/plants.

* Controlled isolation - Sometimes, you will need to cut yourself off from the world. This normally happens when you suddenly find yourself under siege without adequate military to defend yourself. Since all creatures move the same way, simply putting a bridge or a line of floodgates at our entrance is a good way to stop a siege while you build up your military. The key here is that you can control when to isolate your fortress. Though do keep in mind that you will not be able to get migrants or caravans while isolated.

* Arrow Defense - While rare in the early part of the game, attacking parties will bring along a few archers. The thing to keep in mind that archers can shoot over moats and onto roofs. The easiest way to defend against archers is to use walls. Do your best to avoid long straight corridors since enemies can kill your dwarfs as they either run away or run towards the archer. Adding a few corners go a long way in making enemy archers less dangerous. Also note that archers can shoot up and down z-levels. So if you have a multilevel structure outside, make sure to put a wall around the perimeter to prevent archers from being able to shoot your dwarfs on the roof.

* Stopping the invasion - You've planned your entrance, and setup a way to isolate your fortress, now it is time to stop the invading force. This is usually done with either traps or military. The easiest way to defend your fortress is with traps. Since they don't move, you need to build a bottleneck or choke point to herd invaders over the traps. If you followed the above directions, you should already have a bottleneck in place. Your fortress entrance is a place that everyone must cross. Put a bunch of stone fall or cage traps here and you are ready to go. As a rule of thumb, any space that is 2-5 squares or wide should be considered as a place to setup a bottleneck.

=== The future ===

After this point, you'll be able to start exploring the other intricacies of the game. Here is a list of some other gameplay commands which have not been covered:

* [[labor]]
* [[noble]]s
* [[military]]

==Sample games==
These are sample games that others have played and recorded to provide good learning examples. They are not routinely updated, so some information may be out of date, but they still provide good hands-on tutorials of how to prepare for your fortress and play the game.

* [[Indecisive's illustrated fortress mode tutorial]]
* [[Savok's first fortress playthrough]]
* [[ThunderClaw's 0.28.181.40d graphical tileset playthrough]]
* [http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/ The Complete and Utter Newbie Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress]

You can also look at the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] to see multi-layered snapshots of fortresses that others have built.

[[Category:Guides]]

{{Starting FAQ}}