v0.31:Embark

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

Embark is the moment at the very beginning of the game, before actual game play begins (but after generating a world), when you and your initial 7 dwarves:

1. Choose a site.
2. Assign starting skills to each dwarf.
3. Select an initial load of supplies and equipment.
4. Arrive at the site with your wagon full of supplies.

Choosing a Site

The process of choosing a site in v0.31 is much less involved than prior versions due to the ubiquitous presence of magma, gems, and ore, but that said there are still several considerations to keep in mind, namely aquifers, ore types, wood, climate, and neighbors. There is just ONE BIG RULE: when your home civ is too small, you will first recognize after the 2nd winter that you won't get more immigrants, which can be extremely fun. Your home civilization will need more than one dwarven place on the map.

The Choose Fortress Location screen shows four separate sections, with three of them being three views of the land at three different levels of magnification: Local, Region, and World. A section of highlighted tiles in the Local view indicates the current embark location within the region. The local view constitutes a 16x16 grid of embark area tiles (each representing 48x48 tiles when you are playing the game) that is within a single region tile. The world map cannot be directly controlled, and exists only to give you the overall view of where, relative to the rest of the features of the world, the region map is focused on.

The arrow keys control the X cursor in the center "Region" view while u, m, k, and h move the embark location around within the Local view. Shift-u, m, k, and h will resize the embark location.

The size of the embark location directly affects how much data about a map the game will have to store in your computer's memory, the size of your save files, and correspondingly, will dramatically affect the save and load times for your map, potentially make pathfinding more resource-intensive, and may generally slow your game down. As such, smaller maps are recommended, especially for less powerful computers. Remember that each tile on your embark screen is 48x48 tiles large.

On the far right of the screen is a list of local features in the dominant biome. Individual biomes, which form at least one map-tile of your embark location, can be cycled with the F#-keys; for example, an area with 3 biomes present can be cycled using F1, F2 and F3. The selected biome will be highlighted with flashing Xs on the Local Map, and the biome's information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. The list at the bottom of the biome information indicates the dominant soil/stone composition from top to bottom for the first eight layers.

Biomes

A biome is a biotic area with homogeneous features, characterized by distinctive plants, animal species and climate.

In the above image, the biome is "Temperate Savanna", and the region the biome is part of is given a specific name: "The Jade Horn-Land".

Biomes will also contain only one set of stone layers, though these usually expand beyond a single biome. Your dwarves will find different resources depending on which biomes they select when starting a fort.

Biomes are important when choosing a fortress location in order to understand your surroundings.

Climate

Climate determines the maximum temperature range of the region, which in turn impacts the severity of exposure to the outside, whether water will freeze in winter, and how quickly water evaporates.

The climate is displayed as "Temperature: Warm" in the above image.

Very hot and very cold biomes bring their own challenges, which may be further compounded with overlapping features, such as a glacier being frozen for half the year, being devoid of trees, and lacking a river. Very hot climates may see all their surface water quickly evaporate, making finding a water supply more dangerous, as underground caves filled with hostile creatures may be the only supply of water.

Plant Life

Seen in the above image as "Trees: Sparse" and "Other Vegetation: Moderate".

Trees are useful for the wood they provide, and wood is a basic building material, important for being the only material that beds can be made of , and, as metal bins and barrels require three times as much of less common metal resources as wood bins and barrels do, they are preferred materials for that, as well. Wood is also a renewable source for charcoal, the fuel used in forges to make metal products in smelters or forges that are not magma-powered, and is needed to make steel even when you have magma forges. Wood is finally also useful in making potash for soap or fertilizing farms.

In spite of wood's many uses, it is entirely possible to play in this version without any trees in your biomes, as trees can be farmed in muddied underground areas regardless of how barren the surface is. Due to the inexpensive nature of wood, it is possible to simply embark with enough wood to last until you are ready to set up tree farming operations underground. Wood is also a common good that elves, humans, and dwarves alike will sell to you.

Shrubs can provide some quick food through the herbalism skill, brewable materials, and seeds for some very helpful above-ground crops which are generally only available through trading with Elves.

Surroundings

Surroundings affect how powerful and hostile local wildlife will be, and some forms of plants are available only in specific types of surroundings.

The surroundings of the example image are listed as, "Surroundings: Wilderness".

Any biome can have any set of surroundings; for example a glacier could be haunted, wilderness or mirthful. However, a named region (which is a contiguous area of one category of biomes, such as forests or wetlands) will be either good, neutral, or evil.

There are two axes for surroundings: Savagery and alignment. Calm and neutral savagery are functionally identical. Savage lands are like normal lands, except they will frequently have giant or hostile humanoid versions of normal animals, for example you might have a Tigerman instead of "merely" a tiger in a savage jungle.

Good biomes are similar to neutral biomes, except have more fanciful (and generally benign) creatures like pixies, fluffy wamblers, or unicorns, and are generally no more dangerous than neutral biomes. Evil biomes are home to many dangerous creatures, often dead vegetation and even including undead versions of normal creatures, making for a far more hostile environment specifically for players who want to face a greater challenge to stay alive, especially early on. Trees might not grow in an evil area.

It is possible to start a fortress that overlaps multiple alignment types (for example good, evil, savage, and benign). Some players consider this desirable, as it provides diversity in your little corner of the world, but it also has its dangers in the form of more ferocious wildlife.

Layers

At the bottom right of the biome view, some of the main features of the site are reported. In older versions, you used to get a report of the major stone type of each of the top eight layers. Now, however, you get only reports of shallow metal(s) and/or deep metal(s). You will also be told whether the biome has a thin, or thick, layer of soil on top of it, and whether that soil includes clay. Deep soil layers make underground farming extremely quick to set up (no irrigation needed).

Each type of layer stone has certain kinds of ores, gems, and other minerals that will appear within that form of layer. It is very difficult to produce steel without a sedimentary layer. (Steel makes nearly the best weapons and armor, and the materials are fairly easy to acquire if you have sedimentary layers.)

To forge steel, you will need iron ore, flux stone, and fuel. The three ores of iron (hematite, magnetite, and limonite) can only be found in sedimentary layers, with the exception of hematite, which can occasionally be found in igneous extrusive layers. Furthermore, four of the five flux stones (calcite, chalk, dolomite, and limestone) are also only found in sedimentary layers, as well as both coal ores (bituminous coal and lignite) for making coke fuel.

However, since you can no longer tell whether your top layers of stone are sedimentary until you embark, your best bet is to look for shallow metals (note the plural). A biome with shallow metals listed has an extremely high chance of containing iron-bearing ores in a sedimentary layer near the surface. Failing that, you're practically guaranteed to get some copper ore (tetrahedrite).

If you have no sedimentary layers, your only hope to make steel is with:

• hematite in igneous extrusive layers
• marble in metamorphic layers
• wood for making charcoal fuel

Even if you find and exploit magma for your furnaces, you'll still need the fuel in the smelting process, so you'll be cutting down one tree and burning it to make charcoal for every unit of hematite you are lucky enough to find. Without magma it will be 3 trees per hematite.

Aquifer

An aquifer is a layer of soil or stone saturated with water, and a biome may contain up to 3 aquifer layers (theoretically more, but such would be rare to say the least). Embarking on an aquifer brings up a warning before embark as an aquifer can significantly raise the difficulty of starting a fort. For specific tactics on working with an aquifer, see the main page.

Changing Views

Pressing Tab will cycle the presented information through a variety of different views and panels.

• Neighbors - other civilizations that are closest to your current location. Proximity increases the chance of interaction, though at present this largely means "nearby goblins are more likely to attack you." If any race is not represented on this page, it means that the civilization cannot reach you if you are in that location. Embarking on an island, or a location completely surrounded by mountains will make it impossible for any civilization but your own dwarven civilization to reach you, as world map travel across oceans or mountains is impossible. If not even "Dwarves" appears, it means that your home civilization is dead, and there will be no migrants or trade with your home civilization. (If this is the case, it is recommended you change to a still-existent civilization unless you want the challenge of having no support from the mountainhomes.) Races that are hostile to you are represented by a series of red "-" marks. In vanilla DF, goblins are always hostile, but humans or elves may also be at war with particular dwarven civilizations (and if you choose your starting civilization in the "Your Civilization" screen, they may not be at war with you).
• Your Civilization - indicates all Dwarven civilizations in the world. * and - will cycle through the civilizations allowing you to choose which your settlers will be embarking from. Civilization choice will affect who is at war with you, what goods are available for trade and at embark, who your regent will be (considering one might be surprised by who turns out to be one's regent), and if there are any surviving members of your civilization left to migrate to or trade with your fort. Some of this information is only viewable in Legends Mode, but you can view accessible goods and materials after hitting embark by looking at what items you can choose to embark with. If you don't like the options, simply Esc to get the main menu and choose Abort Game. (You will have to find the site again, but it saves you from needing to abandon the fortress).
• Relative Elevation - Shows the land height relative to the lowest point in the region.
• Cliff Indicator - Shows the severity of cliffs. Unless you have turned erosion off, then, with the exception of rivers that cut through mountains, even apparently very steep cliffs will still have ramps that make it perfectly accessible for any creature or even the wagons in caravans.

Reclaiming a fortress

If you reclaim the site of an abandoned fortress you may see goods, materials, and corpses left from the previous effort. These items will initially be forbidden and you will have to reclaim items before your dwarves will acknowledge their existence, for example to haul them to a graveyard or refuse stockpile.

Creating Your Settlers

Play Now!

You can forgo the process of assigning skills and supplies and instead select Play Now! This option will give you a selection of Dwarves with the following profiles:

Updated for 0.31.13:

• Miner: Adequate Miner
• Woodworker: Novice Carpenter, Bowyer
• Woodcutter: Novice Wood Cutter, Brewer, Cook, Grower, Herbalist, Furnace Operator, Wood Burner, Lye Maker, Potash Maker
• Stoneworker: Novice Engraver, Mason, Mechanic, Building Designer
• Jeweler: Novice Gem Cutter, Gem Setter, Wood Crafter, Stone Crafter, and Bone Crafter
• Fisherdwarf: Novice Fisherdwarf
• Fish Cleaner: Novice Fish Cleaner, Butcher, Tanner, Weaver, Clothier, and Leatherworker

One of these will be randomly flagged as Expedition Leader at the start.

From 0.31.12: The default embark value for a custom embark is 1274: 974 in pre-chosen goods and 300 unassigned. The Play Now! embark only uses 1038 points. While a Play Now! embark is no more doomed than any other embark, it is always better to Prepare Carefully once you know what you're doing with the set up of an early fort since Novice Butcher is hardly better than a Dwarf you manually flagged for the job.

Note: In 0.31.13, you no longer embark with any medical skills.

Prepare Carefully

Preparing allows the player to customize their embarking party and supplies by spending a pool of points which is shared between skills and equipment, with each skill rank and equipment item having a set value. The total value of embarking is set at 1,274 points, though all but 300 of these are pre-spent on an array of basic equipment (the same equipment Play Now! uses.) It stands that one should try to maximize the value of their embark by spending all available points.

Using the menu

Use Tab to switch between selecting Skills and Items. Use the 4 directional keys or number pad to navigate to highlight the different choices/columns, and + or - to choose more or less of the highlighted item or skill. When viewing items, hit n to go to a menu for any "new" items, that are not currently listed, including any you removed by reducing the number to 0; select the item, hit Enter, then increase the number desired as above (+ or -) in the main menu.

If you cannot buy additional skill levels, you are out of points and must return some items for additional points. Higher-priced items will automatically be removed from viewable new items if you do not have enough points for those selections, showing only what you can afford with your current points.

Skills

The seven settlers you begin with can be assigned up to ten skill ranks picked from the entire dwarven skill list, including military, though only a maximum of 5 ranks (giving them a rank of "Proficient") can be bought in any one skill. Skill ranks are bought from the shared pool at a cost of 5 for the first rank, 6 for the second, 7 for the third, and so on. Maxing out a skill thus costs a total of 35 points. Although this is already fairly involved, between the long skill list and the floating cost, the value of a rank is subject to further scrutiny given the early-game value, or lack thereof, of certain skills as well as the relative ease or difficulty of training ranks in a given skill. Many skills are performed just as well (or with little functional difference) by a Novice or even a Dabbler as they are by a Legendary. A Novice Furnace Operator won't produce Coke as fast as a Legendary Furnace Operator, but they will produce it fast enough to keep their neighbors smelting hematite until the cows come home.

For a more complex example, there is much overlap between what can be produced out of wood and what can be produced out of metal, but wood is plentiful in the early game (often throughout if a tree farm is established, and caravans will bring in several pages worth of wood if you request it) while metalworking can take much longer to establish, or would take several times longer to produce a given product in early game due to the multiple steps required, especially without a magma smelter. Metalworking also skills up slower than woodworking and metal products have a longer base production time than wood products.

From one point of view, the Woodworking skills would be of more immediate use in producing quick goods of higher value in the early game, especially given the high volume needed; however furniture quality is of little concern in the early game, and the high volume of value-independent goods (such as barrels which you won't be trading away on their own or using to furnish chambers) will cause your carpenter to skill up fairly quickly. Even on a strictly functional level even a Novice carpenter can produce beds, barrels, and bins fast enough to keep up with a fledgling base. Lastly, once metal production is up and running, it can be agonizingly slow if a Farmer or Peasant has to be re-assigned to learn from scratch, thus a proficient Metalsmith stands to pay off much more in time than starting with a proficient Carpenter.

Supplies

The default array of supplies covers a broad range of foodstuffs, seeds, drink, tools, and medical equipment, and is reasonable, though extra food and drink never hurt anyone.

• 2 Copper picks
• 2 Copper battle battle axes
• 1 Iron anvil ( or Steel anvil if your home civilization has no access to iron )
• 60 units alcohol (20 each of 3 random types¹, 12 free barrels)
• 6 bags containing 5x dimple cup, cave wheat, plump helmet, sweet pods, pig tail, and quarry bush seeds
• 15 units of meat (one random type, 10 + 5 units in 2 barrels)
• 15 units of fish (one random type, 10 + 5 units in 2 barrels)
• 15 units of plump helmets (10 + 5 units in 2 barrels)
• 5 pig tail fiber thread
• 5 pig tail fiber cloth
• 5 pig tail fiber bags
• 3 pig tail fiber ropes
• 3 wooden buckets
• 3 wooden splints
• 3 wooden crutches
• 2 dogs (random sex)
• 2 cats (random sex)
• 1 random cow/ox/mule/horse (random sex)

Lower forest embark sites should definitely consider bringing extra logs to cover the early demand for beds & Co.. Also do not overlook the value of bringing animals. Dogs in particular can provide an excellent early warning system, good fighters against kobolds and other thieves, and a healthy supply of meat and bones. You may also want to consider replacing the pig tail fiber items with much cheaper (regular, not giant) cave spider silk items.

Saving a starting mix

Once you have the mix of items and skills that you like, you can hit s and save it to a template with a custom name. In a later game, you can pick that profile when you embark. If your selected civilization does not have some of the desired items in your template, this is announced clearly, and a different civilization can be tried as described above, or you can continue and change your mix.

If you match skills to the preferences and personalities of your dwarves, it may be an idea not to include any skills in such a template, as they will simply be applied in the original order to the current dwarves as they appear on the list.

If you find additional items that you wish to add (perhaps another type of cheap meat, or an ore not previously available), you can edit those in by hitting s, overwriting your old template.

(You can also go into the .txt file, located at data/init/embark_profiles, and edit in the SKILLS or ITEMS as you want - the syntax is fairly straightforward.)

Embark Strategies

The strategies below are suggestions. They are not universal, and many are even contradictory - this is because there is no one true way to play Dwarf Fortress. Some may not work for you because of unstated assumptions about priority, value, fun, or procedure. However, since Losing is Fun, it's always worth it to try something out, even if it doesn't go well.

Picking the Right Location

Need More Dirt (and Its Inverse) - three layers of soil before the stone layers begin provides a very large area that can be used to quickly carve out efficient storage rooms, as well as easy construction of large farms and tree farms without the need to flood/muddy large areas of stone. Remember, the embark screen only lists the first eight layers, and the total number of layers is highly random. More dirt does not necessarily mean less stone.

Flowing Water (and Its Inverse) - flowing water (river or stream) is a must have for the infinite power it supplies for working machinery and because underground water supplies are too dangerous to tap into. There is no guarantee of infinite water underground, you could embark on a map with completely dry caverns. However, rainier climates will always have murky pools, which with careful management can be refilled from the rain. Infinite power for working machinery can be created using a limited amount of water in a perpetual motion machine. Although, being limited in quantity, murky pools simply do not have the capacity to permanently flood your fortress, while a single mistake with an infinite source can easily do so.

Preparation Strategies

Free Barrels - many products are stored in bins, barrels, or bags and do not stack with other items even if they're in the same broad classification. Plump Helmets and Horse Meat come in separate barrels even though they're both food. Purchasing a single item of food (or increasing the number to one above the storage limit of the barrel i.e. 11, 21, 31) will also produce a free barrel for it to be stored in. As barrels have a cost of 10 to buy empty, buying a single unit of cost 2 foodstuffs gets you a value of 5. Anything above cost 2 bought for the express purpose of getting barrels would be better off just buying barrels empty or raw logs. This concept can be extended to many different goods, and for any stored good you were "going to buy anyway" you should avoid buying exactly a containerful. Do not get 20, get 21.

• Note that meat products from the same animal will store in the same barrel, thus 1 unit of Horse Meat and 1 unit of Horse Tripe will only get you one barrel, not two.
• Upon arrival you can build a kitchen and prepare lavish meals out of all those single units of meat. This will "compress" your food, and free up some barrels for brewing. Size of stacks of food from cooking is equal to sum of stack sizes of ingredients, so you lose nothing.

Cheaper food you can bring lots of milk (worth 1 embark point each), build a farmers workshop, and make cheese out of that milk. Combine this with the trick for free barrels, cook lavish meals out of that cheese and meat, and you will get some free barrels, and good quality food for cheap. Making milk into cheese is very fast, and requires no skill ,just enable cheese making on your cook or brewer.

• To save on alcohol (you should probably still bring some of it, though) get plump helmets for 4 embark point each. Remember to disable cooking them in z -> Kitchen menu. Build a still, and brew them all, each will make 5 units of alcohol. You can supplement this with gathering and brewing local plants.
• Cooking lavish meals out of 1 unit of meat, and full barrels of alcohol made on the spot from plump helmets (known as booze cooking) can produce even more food, but only if one knows how to do it.

Cheap Bags - while even the cheapest bags (made from cave spider silk and low-value leather) cost 10 points each, you can instead simply bring several units of sand costing 1 point each, as each unit of sand will be stored in its own bag made from a randomly selected material (including giant cave spider silk and valuable creature leather).

Don't Really Need That - unless you have tailored your embark for metal production quick and early, an anvil is typically unnecessary and the 100 points you get from refunding it can be better spent on skills or additional foodstuffs (can't really have enough foodstuffs). By the time the dwarven caravan arrives in the fall, a 100☼ iron anvil, or even a 300☼ steel anvil, should be little more than an inconvenience. This can sometimes be problematic Fun if you are unlucky and the caravan does not bring an anvil.

REALLY Don't Need That - For players more familiar with the game. Bring no pre-constructed goods (weapons, buckets, etc.), just the materials to make them with. This requires several (3-10, though you're likely to bring way more) logs, some fire-safe stone, some bars of copper, and an anvil. Upon arrival, build a Wood Furnace and a Forge, make charcoal, then picks for the miners and an axe for wood cutters. Medical supplies should be unnecessary to start with, because if you need them you're screwed. You may want to bring some rope (or just thread) along though. You can start your fortress with just 106☼ worth of items (iron anvil - 100☼, 1 copper nuggets for 1 pick - 6☼, logs can be gathered from deconstructing the wagon and made into 1 training axe - 0☼, fire-safe building material = ash - 0☼, everything else can be made with the raw materials you get from wood-cutting and mining.).

Yes, I Do Need That - never don't NEVER leave without alcohol unless you have a brewer and a way to gather plants early (untrained herbalists designated after embarking are enough) or safe water source (preferably flowing).

See Also

• New players may find the Quickstart guide useful.
• The Starting Build article has more detailed embark strategies.