v0.34:Labor

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v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

A dwarf's labor preferences define the tasks/jobs that he or she is allowed to do, whether it is food hauling, mining, hunting, or any of dozens of other tasks. For instance, only a dwarf with the wood cutting labor enabled will cut down trees whenever trees are designated to be cut.

Note that a labor is not a "job", nor a "skill". A job is the actual task of doing something, and a skill is the experience that determines how fast a job gets done, and/or the quality of any finished product (specifics vary with skill/job), while a labor preference simply designates whether a dwarf is allowed do that sort of job or not. You can view a list of all current, queued, and suspended jobs on the jobs menu. A list of what job each dwarf is currently performing is visible on the units menu.

Once designated as a labor preference, a single skill can possibly be applied to many different jobs. For instance, a dwarf with the bone carving labor designated might carve a totem out of a skull, craft bone practice bolts for a crossbow, create bone armor, or carve bone crafts to trade. Each of these is a different possible job allowed by designating the associated labor, which in each of these cases is governed by the "bone carving" skill.

Note that many labor preferences, especially hauling, have no associated skill, do not generate experience, and do not improve with practice.

The mining, wood cutting, and hunting labors require the dwarf to either pick up and wield a pick, battle axe, or crossbow. For this reason, a dwarf cannot be assigned to any combination of mining, wood cutting, or hunting at the same time. Additionally, the assignment of these tools overrides any uniform assigned to a dwarf's squad, so military dwarves should never be assigned any of the aforementioned labors.

Jobs that are not labors: eating, drinking, sleeping, going on break, partying, cleaning themselves, pulling levers, and resting. A few things are listed as "No Job" but can be considered labors in a different sense: running scared, not having a path to anyplace useful, and being insane.

Viewing labors

To change a dwarf's labor preferences, access the labor screen by viewing the dwarf, then select preferences and labor. Use + and - to move the cursor up and down to highlight different categories or skills to enable or disable.

Using u can help you locate dwarves. Select a dwarf, hit c for "zoom to creature" and you'll automatically be placed in view mode on that dwarf. Use p-l to get to the labor configuration menu.

Labors are divided into skill trees - for instance, accessing metalsmithing allows you to enable various jobs that are related to working with metal, such as weaponsmithing and armorsmithing.

A category is dark gray if there are no labors under it enabled, light gray if there are some jobs enabled, and white if all jobs are enabled. (These distinctions can sometimes be very hard to tell apart in the default color scheme.)

The Woodcutting, Mining and Hunting labors are mutually exclusive, since they each require the dwarf to equip a different tool.

Dwarf Therapist: You may have noticed that the UI for managing dwarves is a bit difficult to use. If you are using a supported operating system, the utility Dwarf Therapist can make this a million times easier.

Category	Labors
Mining	Mining
Woodworker	Carpentry Crossbow-making Wood cutting
Stoneworking	Masonry Stone detailing
Hunting/Related	Animal training Animal care Hunting Trapping Small animal dissection
Healthcare	Diagnosis Surgery Setting bones Suturing Dressing wounds Feed patients/prisoners Recovering wounded
Farming/Related	Butchery Tanning Farming (fields) Dyeing Soap making Wood burning Potash making Lye making Milling Brewing Plant gathering Plant processing Cheese making Milking Shearing Spinning Cooking Pressing Beekeeping
Fishing/Related	Fishing Fish cleaning Fish dissection
Metalsmithing	Furnace operating Weaponsmithing Armoring Blacksmithing Metalcrafting
Jewelry	Gem cutting Gem setting
Crafts	Leatherworking Woodcrafting Stonecrafting Bone carving Glassmaking Weaving Clothesmaking Strand extraction Pottery Glazing Wax working
Engineering	Siege engineering Siege operating Mechanics Pump operating
Hauling	Stone hauling Wood hauling Item hauling Burial Food hauling Refuse hauling Furniture hauling Animal hauling Push /Haul Vehicle
Other Jobs	Architecture Alchemy Cleaning

Labors and product quality

The experience a dwarf has with a certain labour will determine how well he goes about performing this labour. A higher experience will get the job done faster in all labours (with the exception of nursing and hauling labours^[Verify] ). However, only certain (typically crafting oriented) labours will produce products that have a quality tag. The table below lists in which labours the dwarfs experience will impact the quality of produced items and in which labours a higher experience will only be beneficial for the speed of production.

Category	Labors	Quality-effects?	Details
Mining	Mining	yes	only has effect on carved structures (e.g. stairs)
Woodworker	Carpentry Crossbow-making Wood cutting	yes yes no	item-, furniture quality weapon quality speed only
Stoneworking	Masonry Stone detailing	yes yes	furniture quality, impact on structures (like walls) allegedly minimal affects engraving quality, speed only for smoothing
Hunting/Related	Animal training Animal care Hunting Trapping Small animal dissection	no[Verify] (yes) no no[Verify] yes	affecting speed to reach higher training levels currently not implemented success-rate and potential bolt loss might want to be considered affecting success rate[Verify] extract quality
Healthcare (Doctoral)	Diagnosis Surgery Setting bones Suturing Dressing wounds	yes	success chance, accuracy (and speed) of treatment
Healthcare (Nursing)	Feed patients/prisoners Recovering wounded	no	-
Farming/Related	Butchery Tanning Farming (fields) Dyeing Soap making Wood burning Potash making Lye making Milling Brewing Plant gathering Plant processing Cheese making Milking Shearing Spinning Cooking Pressing Beekeeping	no no (no) yes no no no no no yes (no) no no no no no yes no unknown[Verify]	speed only speed only affects yield per seed/farm-patch dye quality speed only speed only speed only speed only speed only drink quality affects yield per shrub/plant gathered speed only speed only speed only speed only speed only meal quality speed only unknown[Verify]
Fishing/Related	Fishing Fish cleaning Fish dissection	no no yes	speed only speed only extract quality
Metalsmithing	Furnace operating Weaponsmithing Armoring Blacksmithing Metalcrafting	no yes yes yes yes	speed only weapon quality armor quality item-, furniture quality craft-, item-, construction quality
Jewelry	Gem cutting Gem setting	yes yes	cut gem quality embellishment quality
Crafts	Leatherworking Woodcrafting Stonecrafting Bone carving Glassmaking Weaving Clothesmaking Strand extraction Pottery Glazing Wax working	yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes unknown[Verify] yes	craft quality craft quality craft quality craft quality craft-, item-, furniture quality cloth quality clothing quality speed only craft-, item-, furniture quality unknown[Verify] craft quality
Engineering	Siege engineering Siege operating Mechanics Pump operating	no[Verify] yes yes no	only the quality of parts used for the construction is vital here[Verify] affects accuracy (and reload speed) mechanism quality (only impacts functioning of weapon traps directly[Verify] endurance and amount of water pumped?[Verify]
Hauling	Stone hauling Wood hauling Item hauling Burial Food hauling Refuse hauling Furniture hauling Animal hauling Push /Haul Vehicle	no	"high quality" or faster hauling cannot be achieved via labour-level since there is no experience gain
Other Jobs	Architecture Alchemy Cleaning	yes (yes) no	quality of constructions (allegedly has little impact on happiness) not implemented -