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40d:Stone

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(For the beginning player, see also The Non-Dwarf's Guide to Rock)



Stone or rock is a naturally occuring solid aggregate of minerals. It sometimes leaves behind material after being mined or collapsing. Other types of minable tiles include soil and sand.

Stone is divided into a few key categories:

Economic stones are types of stone that can be reserved for a special purpose. For ores, this is smelting and for fluxes, this is steel production. Bituminous coal and lignite can be reserved for making coke.

Having created loose stone, many times you'll want to get rid of it or at least move it someplace else. See stone management for advice.

This article is about DF geology and the distribution of stones, and does not contain the specific locations of metal ores or gems.

Main layer types

There are four types of stone layers (all others are soil). The type of layer is the primary indicator of what kind of ore you will find on the map, as well as a sign of volcanic activity. The types are sedimentary layers, igneous intrusive layers, igneous extrusive layers, and metamorphic layers.

The primary types of rock only occur in their own layers. (e.g. you won't find limestone in a marble layer.)

Stones forming entire layers

These types of stone occur as entire layers, containing some veins and pockets of other minerals (see below). If one of the following types of stone is present on your map, it will be listed in one of the biomes on the embark screen.

Sedimentary Igneous intrusive Igneous extrusive Metamorphic


Other Stone

Stones found on this table will occur as pockets and veins inside their respective stone layers (see above). When your miners newly encounter one of them, the game will pause and you will receive an announcement; even for the ones that have no use other than to build constructions of unusual colors. Note that the veins or clusters can spread into other layers, and may cause some layers to contain stones they usually wouldn't. A few of these stones, such as Olivine, have other, more interesting minerals appear inside them.

Non-layer stone occurs in these forms:

  • Large cluster - An oval that occupies nearly half of a 48x48 block, area-wise. Only one appears per block. These average 750 stones each.
  • Vein - A sinuous line of the material crosses the block. These average 100 stones each, but veins with over 200 stones have been found too.
  • Small cluster - A sprinkle of 1 to 9 adjacent tiles. Multiple small clusters of different materials may be in the same block. These average 5 stones each and do not span more than three tiles in each direction.

The following table does not contain ores and gems. The types of stone listed here that do not link to their own article are generic.v0.28.181.40d

Icons Name Found in Found how Can contain
^ Alabaster Gypsum Small clusters ??
` Alunite All Igneous extrusive, Kaolinite Large clusters ??
v Anhydrite Gypsum, Satinspar, Alabaster, Selenite Single ??
+ Bauxite All Sedimentary Large clusters ??
Bituminous coal All Sedimentary Veins Fuel
` Borax Gypsum, Rock salt Small clusters ??
% Brimstone All Igneous extrusive, Gypsum Small clusters ??
" Calcite Limestone, Marble Small clusters ??
= Chromite Olivine Veins Native platinum
£ * Cinnabar All Igneous extrusive, Shale, Quartzite Veins ??
£ * Cobaltite All Igneous All Metamorphic Veins ??
- Cryolite Granite Small clusters ??
o Graphite Gneiss, Quartzite, Marble, Schist Small clusters ??
# Gypsum All Sedimentary Large clusters ??
" Hornblende All Igneous, All Metamorphic Small clusters ??
. Ilmenite Gabbro Small clusters ??
Jet All Sedimentary Large clusters ??
= Kaolinite All Sedimentary Large clusters ??
% Kimberlite Gabbro Veins diamonds
* Lignite All Sedimentary Veins Fuel
% Marcasite Kaolinite Small clusters ??
v Mica All Metamorphic, Granite Large clusters ??
% Microcline All Stone Large clusters none
% Olivine Gabbro Large clusters Native platinum
- Orpiment All Igneous extrusive Small clusters ??
% Orthoclase All Igneous intrusive, All Metamorphic Large clusters none
, Periclase Marble Small clusters ??
% Petrified wood All Sedimentary Small clusters ??
* Pitchblende Granite Small clusters ??
Θ Puddingstone Conglomerate Large clusters ??
% Pyrolusite All Igneous Small clusters ??
% Realgar All Igneous extrusive Small clusters ??
` Rutile All Metamorphic, Granite Small clusters ??
x Saltpeter All Sedimentary Small clusters ??
- Satinspar Gypsum Small clusters ??
; Selenite Gypsum Small clusters ??
Serpentine Olivine Small clusters ??
% Stibnite All Igneous extrusive Small clusters ??
= Sylvite Rock salt Large clusters ??
| Talc Dolomite Large clusters ??

DF Geology and real-world Geology

The geology and stones of Dwarf Fortress are based on real-world geology and mineralogy. To understand the terms used here, you may want to crack open a geology textbook (a high school one should suffice). If you don't happen to have one close by, the Wikipedia articles for geology, mineralogy, or the terms in question might help.