v0.31:Bentgirder

Bentgirder is a Dwarf Fortress package for beginners. With it, you can skip the dull, time-consuming tasks of generating a world, finding an embark point, and preparing an expedition. Just unzip the save, and play along with this tutorial.

You can get it here: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2645

Unzip the Bentgirder package to the same directory as Dwarf Fortress.

Lesson One: The Basics

Starting the game

At the main menu, choose to continue a game. It will ask you to pick a game region, but there should only be one choice: region0, the location of future outpost Matthob, aka Bentgirder.

[screen shot of continue game screen?]

Setting up the screen: tab, resize, zoom

The default screen setup is a little crowded. The actual game view is on the left hand side. You can use the tab key to hide the mini-map and the command menu. Just keep tapping tab to cycle through different configurations. You might want to keep the command menu visible for easy reference.

In the most recent versions of Dwarf Fortress, you can re-size the window with the mouse, and zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. Also, you can toggle the full-screen mode with F11, but that will make it harder to read this as you play.

You can use the arrow keys to scroll around the map. To move faster, use shift-arrow. If you get lost, press F1 to center the screen on the wagon.

Game Options: Escape

Esc brings up the game options menu, which includes things like volume control, and the quit & save option. Note there is no save & continue option. Dwarf Fortress is hardcore. If your fortress goes south, you don't go back to your last save, you have to suck it up or start over. Remember, Losing is Fun!

When in doubt, pause: space bar

The game starts paused. Use the space bar pause and unpause your game. It might be best to leave it paused for now. Your dwarves will only mill around and eat without any orders from you.

Looking around: K

First, lets make sense of this jumble of characters that is the main screen. Press k to activate the look mode. The pauses the game, and puts a yellow X in the middle of the screen. That X is your cursor. Use the arrow keys or number pad to move it around. The right side of the screen will show a list of what is in the selected tile. It also shows that the ground below is made of.

The screen will be centered on a 3x3 brown square. That's the wagon full of supplies to get you through the year. Nearby, you will see your seven dwarves, a few animals, and lots of trees and shrubs. To the right, there's a brook. The dark blue patches that show up as "empty space" are ponds.

Opposite the brook is a hillside. You'll see that the green up-arrows are upward slopes, so your dwarves can walk up this hill easily. Beyond that is a silt loam wall. That's just a kind of dirt. It's called a wall because the whole tile is full of dirt.

Press Escape to end look mode.

[screen shot]

Z-levels: <, >

Dwarf Fortress is a three dimensional game. Anywhere you can use the arrow keys to move a cursor or the map, you can use < and > to move vertically. Each step is called a z-level. You can only see one z-level at a time, so hills are blacked out walls, and valleys show as empty space. In the bottom right of the screen, there's a display of the current z-level. The wagon is parked on level 146.

If you move the display up one step, (to 147) most of the map will appear as empty space, but the hill to the left now looks normal. Conversely, if you go down to 145, all you can see is the bottoms of the ponds and the brook. If you follow the brook south, there's a valley at the bottom edge of the map. From level 146 it appears as empty space, but on 145, it is normal terrain.

View creatures: V

K is good for looking at the map itself, but to get more information on creatures (including your dwarves) use v. This works a lot like k mode, but the right side menu now shows detailed info on the creature closest to the cursor. If you're between creatures, or if there's more than one in a tile, press v again to cycle between creatures.

There are four sub-sections here: general, inventory, preferences, and wounds. For your dwarves, general shows what skills that dwarf has. Inventory shows what the dwarf is carrying and wearing. Preferences shows what work the dwarf will do. (This will be important later.) Wounds shows the creature's injuries as color codes. Healthy body parts are shown as bright white.

Secondary selection keys: +, -

In many modes, you can scroll though the information in the right-hand menu with the secondary select keys, + and -. For example, scrolling through lists of skills when viewing a dwarf.

Unit List: U

Press u to bring up unit list. This shows every living thing on the map. That's your seven dwarves, two dogs, two cats, a donkey, and some wild deer. ("Stray" animals are tame, but not attached to any individual dwarf.)

There are several useful functions here. Use v to get more info on the highlighted creature. For the animals, this jumps straight to a description. For dwarves, there is an intermediate screen showing the dwarf's owned objects.

Use c to go back to the map, centered on the highlighted creature. For example, we could find out where those wild deer are hiding. This puts you into the view creature mode, just like the v command, above.

Fortress information: Z

Instead of scanning around the map, you can press z to get an overview of the whole fortress from the status screen. This shows the current date, your dwarven population, your wealth total (including imported and exported wealth), as well as food and drink supplies.

Wait a minute, what's this?

[SS: need appraisal]

Assign Nobles: N

Press escape to exit the overview screen. Press n to bring up the nobles and administrators screen. We need to assign a broker, so use the arrow keys to move the highlight to broker, and press enter. This brings up a list of dwarves. Fortunately, we have a dwarf with the Appraiser skill: Mörul Kibdakon. He is already our expedition leader, but that's OK.

Mörul also has medical skills, so you could set him up as chief medical dwarf.

Lesson Two: Meet Vabôk the Miner

[SS: vabok] She may not look tough, but Vabok is your only miner and that makes her very important.

Designation Menu: D

Enough looking around, let's get digging! Press d to bring up the designations menu. This gives us the cursor, and a list of options, each with a letter.

Let's go straight down, right next to the wagon. For that we need downward staircase. According to the window, that's j. Press j and downward staircase becomes highlighted.

The designation mode assumes that you want to mark a rectangular area. To make a designation, press enter to mark one corner, move the cursor to the opposite corner, and press enter again. You can also use the mouse, which is easier for small designations, like the one we're about to make.

Since we only need a small staircase, just click one square. The square is now marked with a > sign. As soon as we unpause, Vabok will walk to the tile, and carve a staircase into the dirt.

One problem, though. A designation doesn't cross z-levels. If you look at the level below, you'll see that the square below is exposed, but does not contain a staircase. We need to designate an upward staircase (u) in that square before we can dig any further.

Once that's taken care of, we can the regular mine designation to dig horizontally. We need some space for shelter and storage, so make a tunnel north or west, and then expand it into a big underground room.

Note that in designation mode, any tile that's next to water will blink blue. This is warn you against mining into water and flooding your fortress. If you dig north of the wagon, you might get a damp stone warning for no obvious reason. There are a few tiny ponds on this hill above, which triggers the damp stone warning, but isn't really a risk if you dig into it. Just don't try to dig upwards from there!

Removing designations

If you make a designation by accident, you can remove it from the designation mode. Choose remove designation, (x) and mark the tiles you want to un-designate. If Vabok has already mined it out, You'll need to construct a wall to fill it back in. More on that once we get to Meng the mason.

You have struck gypsum!

Soil just disappears as it is mined out, but stone is left behind in big chunks. There is an outcropping of stone nearby, north and west of the wagon. Gypsum is a type of stone that can be made into plaster powder. There is also some useful lignite nearby, and clusters of agates, a type of low-value gem.

You might want to avoid digging the ore and gems until Vabok is more experienced, or at least until you can take advantage of those resources.

Announcement list: A

Most of these discoveries will be announced by a message at the bottom of the screen

Press a to see previous announcements. As you fortress grows, these come up more and more often, so it's easy to miss them. Also note that you can zoom to the location of an announcement from here.

Other Designations: cutting trees, gathering plants

While we're waiting for Vabok to finish our new digs, (pardon the pun) we can put our other dwarves to work with other designations.

Choose the "chop down trees" designation, and mark a big swath around the wagon. Then do it again with "gather plants." Your dwarves will quickly go to work on these tasks.

[SS: working dwarves]

That's three out of seven dwarves hard at work. Not bad for just knowing one command! Try to keep Vabok busy expanding and exploring as you continue this lesson.

Lesson Three: Meet Stâkud the Carpenter

[SS: Stakud]

Building: B

To get any carpentry done, we need the appropriate workshop. Press b for the build menu. There are three pages of things that can be built here, and some of these entries lead to sub-menus. You can use the secondary select keys here, and each entry has a shortcut key as well. We are looking for workshops. Press w for the shortcut. The carpenter's workshop is on the first page here, with the shortcut c.

Now it's time to place the workshop where we want it. Since there's not much room underground, lets build it on the surface for now. It's trivial to break down a workshop and build a new one, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

The last step is choosing the materials to build it out of. Like most workshops, it can be built out of wood, metal, or stone, and it only takes one unit of materials. Our woodcutter has been hard at work, so there is some wood lying around, and there are a few tower-cap logs on the wagon, just in case. If Vabok has hit usable stone, that will appear here as well. Materials are sorted by distance, and they are all equally good, so just take the first one.

Stâkud will haul the selected building materials to the chosen location and start building his workshop.

Workshop Control: Q

Press q for the view room mode. This works a lot like view creature mode. Move the cursor near a room, and you'll get some options listed in the right panel. The only rooms so far are new carpenter's workshop and the wagon. The wagon's only option is to tear it down, but the workshop has the all important "add new task" option.

This brings up a list of things that can be built at this workshop. For now, lets build some beds. Our dwarves are going to get tired eventually, and beds can only be made from wood. Note that you can't specify what material to build the beds out of. Stâkud just grabs some nearby wood and starts working.

Stockpiles: P

Kubuk has been leaving cut-down trees all over the place. Why don't we move them all closer to the carpenter's workshop so Stakud doesn't have to drag them so far?

Press p for the stockpiles mode. Making a stockpile works just like a designation, but with no mouse control. We want a wood stockpile, so press w to highlight wood. Then mark the opposite corners of a small rectangular area near Stakud's workshop. The area is filled in with = signs. As soon as the game resumes, all your dwarves will run to fill the stockpile with logs.

Why stop there? The beds that Stakud is building are just cluttering up the workshop. Lets make a furniture stockpile on the opposite side. Note that there is some furniture on the wagon: an anvil, a bucket, and a few empty bags. (Empty bags and buckets are stored in the furniture stockpile.)

Vabok should be about done clearing space underground, and all these rats are making me nervous. Create a big food stockpile in the cleared space.

You can use k to look at the contents of your stockpiles. Take a look at your new beds, the enormous quantity of booze, and the barrels of revolting organ meats.

Eventually, you will want to move all your workshops and stockpiles underground. There are creatures that will steal your things. Moving everything underground is safer. Building them on the surface is just to get started quickly.

Quality symbols

Notice that your new creations have symbols around their names, like -pine bed- or +cedar bed+. These are quality indicators. Items with no symbols are minimum quality crap. As a general rule, more lines mean more quality, which means the item is worth more money.

-double-

+triple+

*quadruple*

≡five times≡

¤twelve times¤

Placing Furniture (beds)

Dwarves can't sleep on a bed while it's in the stockpile. To set up a bed properly, use the build mode again. Bed is the second option, shortcut b. This is just like how we built the workshop, but instead of a log, the only component is a bed. If there isn't an unused bed in a stockpile (or the workshop itself) you get the cryptic message, "Need bed". Beds and other furniture needs to be created at a workshop before it can be "built" on the map.

Notice that a lot of the things you can build are pieces of furniture that can be built from your carpenter's workshop. Tables, chairs, doors, hatch covers, and so on.

Meet Ïteb the Farmer

Ïteb has already been working on the surface, gathering useful plants, but his main function is to plant a farm.

Irrigation

All the seeds you have are for dwarven crops that grow underground. They don't grow in dirt, they only grow in mud. To get some mud in your new home, you need to dump some water. Doing so is a little counter-intuitive.

Channel a hole

Zones: I

Creating a farm plot

Meet Meng the Mason

A mason's workshop is very much like the carpenter's workshop, only it makes things out of stone. Since you will soon be neck deep in stone, it's a very attractive choice for building material. A mason can build a lot of the things that a carpenter can, plus a few that can only be made from stone.

Make an office

All the question marks in the overview screen are annoying. Let's make Kubuk our bookkeeper, and set up an office for her so she can keep track of everything.

Build a trade depot Making a dining hall Construction Make a tomb

Meet Sazir the Mechanic

Traps Cages and the Animal stockpile Trade Goods: Bentgirder Memorial Collectable Mugs

Meet Mörul the Doctor/Trader/Brewer

Brewing Trading Make a hospital

Meet Kûbuk the Axedwarf

We've seen Kûbuk atthe very beginning, chopping down trees, but she is also your fortress's first line of defense. As a trained axedwarf, she can put her ax to work against goblins and kobolds as easily as the trees.

Military screen: M

Open the military screen with m. First create create a new squad. When you create a squad, the game will prompt you to choose a uniform for the new squad. Choose anything other than archer. You can specify equipment later on, once you have some armor for her to wear.

The squad will be given a random name, and you can now add Kûbuk to it. This will make her the militia commander, as the first military dwarf of the fortress.

Exit the military screen. By default, squads are set as inactive, so Kûbuk will continue with her civilian woodcutting duties. If you have a barracks set up, she'll do some basic training in her free time.

Squad Command: S

You can give specific commands to your military through the squads command. Press s to enter squad control mode. Be aware that the game does not pause in this mode! You can pause and unpause with space, as normal.

Press a to select the first (and only) squad in the list. To post Kûbuk in a specific place, press m for the move command, and select the location with the arrow keys and enter. To send Kûbuk after a specific creature, press k for the attack/kill command. This lets you chose your victim with the cursor, or select one from a list.

Combat Reports: R

To get the details of what's happening in combat, press r for combat reports. This starts out blank, but once the first thief stumbles into your fortress, things can get pretty gory.

Meet the Migrants

Changing labor assignments Smoothing & Engraving Animal Trainer Appointing a Bookkeeper and Manager Boyer Bone Carving and Wood Crafting Food Industry: Cook, Miller, Thresher, Milker, Cheese maker Fishing Butcher Hunter Cloth Industry Metal Industry Gem Industry Glass Industry Leather Industry Soap Herbalist Useless skills: Trapper, Dissector, Animal Caretaker, Pump Operator

Future of the Fortress

Dealing with Nobles Individual Bedrooms Better Military Build a Castle Farming Above Ground Dig a Well Build a Prison Build a Statue Garden or Zoo The Dwarven Economy

Other Commands

Hot keys: H Points and Routes: shift-N Burrows: W Job Manager: J Items in Room: T Artifact List: L Options: O Trade Depot Access: shift-D Local Civilizations: C Artifact List: L Room List: R The (Questionable) Manual: ?

FAQ

What's with all the vomit? If your dwarves spend too much time underground without sunlight, they develop cave adaptation. This essentially means that sunlight makes them sick, and they'll get negative thoughts from this. The vomiting is caused by prolonged cave adaptation.

What's with the dead rats? Cats are vermin hunters - they kill vermin (rats and ther small animals/insects) and leave the corpses wherever they want. If you have a refuse stockpile, they'll go there instead.

What is this purple blob? That's miasma. It appears when something rots indoors. Anything that can rot is refuse. Building an outdoors refuse stockpile should prevent any more miasma.

A dwarf just withdrew from society, got possessed, or was taken by a fey mood. This is GOOD. Your dwarf has taken a strange mood, and will eventually make an artifact - a very valuable item that cannot be traded. See the pages on strange moods and artifacts for more details. Also, there are two other moods that only happen when your dwarves are unhappy - fell and macabre moods. Just make sure you have all the materials they need for the artifact, or...

What is berserk / stark, raving mad / melancholy? ...that'll happen. If a dwarf fails a mood or suffers too much, they'll go insane. An insane dwarf is useless, as they will not do jobs or anything productive. Berserk dwarves, though, will attack anything and everything they can reach. Mad dwarves are harmless, and will simply run around naked. Melancholy dwarves will seek any possible passive means to end their miserable existence, usually by jumping off high platforms.

A dwarf just threw a tantrum This is a sign of extreme unhappiness. Invest some time in giving your dwarves good thoughts. If a dwarf stays unhappy long enough, he might go insane.

An animal stole my stuff! Yes, that happens. There are thieving raccoons in this area. Try to keep your stuff underground, and out of their reach.

A thief or snatcher appeared! Read the section on Kubuk the Axedwarf, if you haven't already. If a thief gets away with something valuable, your fort will attract more and more thieves in the future.

A squad of goblins appeared! That's an ambush. Hopefully, by the time your fort is wealthy enough to attract ambushes, you will have some defenses set up. Ambushes often appear with a caravan, so hopefully you will have caravan guards helping you against the ambushers.

What's a vile force of darkness? Uh oh. That's a goblin siege. A siege only appears when you have a certain population or wealth.

A dragon/colossus/hydra/titan/forgotten beast appears!

You are about to have a lot of fun. A megabeast is a threat to even the most well-established fortresses. Good luck.