Adventurer mode

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

v50.12 · v0.47.05

This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.

This is a detailed reference guide for Adventurer Mode. For a beginner tutorial, see the Adventure mode quick start.

See Adventure mode quick reference to quickly look up key commands.

In Adventurer mode (also called "Adventure mode" or simply "Adventure") you create a single adventurer, be they dwarf, human, elf, goblin, or one of the varieties of animal people, who start out somewhere in one of your generated worlds. You can learn about what ails the world, and go on quests to end those troubles (or get brutally murdered trying), and you can venture into the wilderness to find caves, shrines, lairs, abandoned towers, and other towns and settlements. You can even visit your previously abandoned/retired fortresses and take all the precious items you yourself once created. Unlike fortress mode, Adventurer mode is a sort of advanced open world RPG version of Rogue or Nethack taking place in the same procedurally-generated worlds used for fortress mode. Whereas in fortress mode, you are in charge of a large group of people in real-time, restricted to a small parcel of land, in adventurer mode you control a single character (or the party leader in 47.01) in a turn-based manner, roaming the entire world freely.

World selection

You can play adventure mode in any world that has a civilization with the ADVENTURE_TIER token (which are elves, dwarves, humans, and goblins, as well as animal people^v0.42.01). Humans inhabit cities, towns, and the occasional above-ground fortress. Elves inhabit forest retreats. Dwarves are spread between "deep sites" which sometimes do not contain a direct connection to the surface, fortresses which are built into the surface and almost always connect to the underground, and "hill dwarves" which inhabit a loose collection of mounds built into hillsides. Goblins typically live in dark fortresses. Lastly, animal people can live with any civilization, in virtually any location. Human cities and towns, and dwarven fortresses are currently the only sites with shops and other places to officially buy goods, not including taverns (which can also exist in elven sites, but only sell rooms and drinks). If you have previously built a fort in the world that you select, your adventurer will be able to go visit it. If you have selected to "retire" the fortress rather than abandon it, you will likely be able to encounter all the inhabitants from fortress mode - however, they will likely not have the same level of activity as they would in a bustling fortress-mode fort.

Character creation

Gameplay

Sites

More information on each type of site can be found in the site's specific article.

Civilization

Civilizations are organized groups of creatures (generally of the same race) which build sites such as towns.

Human sites

Towns + * # ☼

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road. Human towns are highly modular, and are usually near some source of water, either the coast or a river. Towns appear on the fast travel map (when outside a site) as ■ or ■ symbols, which are small collections of buildings. When you are near a human site, large yellow blocks indicate where various houses and shops are found (though not all houses and shops can be found in these blocks; sometimes you'll find a house or two out in a site's fields). You usually have to follow the roads in a yellow block on the fast travel map. Towns usually have lots of interesting structures which are described fully in the town article.

Hamlets æ Æ = ≡

Most of the time, the majority of a human civilization's population will live in small hamlets, which tend to be sprawled out along coastlines and through river valleys. Like other sites, they can be invaded, and you'll sometimes find them captured by other civilizations, necromancers, or criminal syndicates. Human adventurers usually spawn in hamlets. Note that hamlets are similar in structure to towns, only they have mead halls instead of keeps, and don't have any defensive walls.

Dwarven sites

Dwarf fortresses Ω

These are the randomly generated equivalent of the sites you build in fortress mode. Fortresses are described in detail in their own article. Their main function for adventurers is that they have a central, spiraling ramp that connects the underground and above-ground worlds, particularly in that they connect the subterranean tunnel networks to the rest of the dwarf civilization. They are located at the edges of mountain ranges. Player-made fortresses are considered dwarf fortresses by the game, in addition to the randomly-generated ones.

Mountain halls Ω

Mountain halls are the sites of the "deep dwarves," located far beneath the mountains. They can be accessed via down-stairs found in underground tunnels, and are comprised of a couple of levels that contain bedrooms and large halls filled with smelters or forges.

Hillocks Ω

Hillocks are the dwarf equivalent to human hamlets. They consist of a few circular mounds, filled with dwarf citizens. There doesn't seem to be any settlement pattern for them; they are equally likely to be found in any land biome.

Elven sites

Forest retreats î ¶

Elves live in forest retreats located, unsurprisingly, in forest biomes. They are essentially clusters of huge trees with elves standing in and around them.

Goblin sites

Dark fortresses π π

These are the main goblin sites. Dark fortresses contain a certain spoiler.

Dark pits º

These are the goblin equivalent of hamlets and hillocks. Dark pits are essentially canyons lined with wooden guard towers. They tend to be built in huge clusters around the dark fortresses, such that large chunks of the map may be covered with them.

Kobold sites

Caves •

Caves are sometimes home to kobold groups. They are mounds filled with narrow tunnels leading to the caverns and usually contain piles of random loot resulting from kobold thieving incursions. Kobold caves often feature venom-coated traps or fun pets such as giant cave spiders, so beware. Some caves are inhabited by bandits or megabeasts instead.

Beast and night creature sites

Necromancers' towers I

Necromancers' Towers are built by necromancers who have at least 50 followers; younger necromancers may take over towns or camps instead. Usually you can find books written by the necromancer, some of which contain the secret to life and death. Towers require abundant human populations (low savagery, large tracts of neutral land) and a high number of secrets to be generated in world generation. Necromancers will rarely be elves or goblins, because elves and goblins are immortal (they lack a [MAXAGE] token) and therefore can't be obsessed with their own mortality. However, they may still acquire the secrets of life and death by reading them (e.g. in a necromancy book from your library) and gain the ability to raise corpses.

Lairs •

Lairs are the homes of predatory animals, megabeasts, or night trolls. Lairs are mounds or holes in the ground. Night troll lairs have doors or hatch covers. Most lairs are inhabited by a single creature, but sometimes you'll encounter entire families of them.

Minotaurs' labyrinths #

A labyrinth is an intricate network of tunnels, often filled with the bodies of previous adventurers slain in worldgen by its resident minotaur. Each labyrinth contains a hidden chamber filled with treasures. As you explore the labyrinth, you will hear the minotaur taunting you.

Shrines Å

Shrines are huge stone structures surrounded by pillars that are the homes of bronze colossuses and titans. Several of them can be found on a single site, making its exploration particularly hazardous. Clowns have also been reported to inhabit them.

FAQ

How do I cut down a tree?

To cut down a tree in adventure mode you must be outside of a previously existent site (adventure mode sites not included). Then walk up to the tree and press "g", select the "fell tree" option. ^v0.43.01

How do I find an entrance to the underworld?

Method 1: Most caves lead directly into the first cavern layer. Although it may be possible to learn of some trouble which originates from a cave^[Verify], your best bet is to ask people about the surroundings, and hope that they mention a cave at some point. If they don't, travel to another site a fair bit away from where you are and ask someone else.

Method 2: Dwarf fortresses are connected to the tunnel system, which usually connects to the caverns.

Method 3: You can start a fortress mode game, dig to the first cavern layer, retire or abandon the fortress, and then return with your adventurer.

The three cavern layers are connected to each other in various places, although they are rather spread out and extremely difficult to find with an adventurer. Additionally, a certain spoiler can be found which leads to another spoiler, deep underground.

I keep getting maimed! How can I fight without getting seriously hurt?

The best defense is a good offense. If you let your enemies attack you, you're (unsurprisingly) likely to get hurt eventually.

Try to avoid fighting difficult enemies until you get some armor. Don't fight enemies at all unless you're sure you can beat them. If you're unsure, you're probably going to get hurt.
Increase your speed! The most immediate way to do this is to raise your walking pace to Jog. Until your endurance is high enough, this may be exhausting, but active dodging and blocking will recover energy.
If you have good speed, try to fight enemies one-by-one – keep dodging away and only attack when you're within range of just one enemy. Maneuvering around charging opponents can cause them to collide with each other and become prone and/or stunned. Above all, don't let yourself get flanked by an enemy, much less surrounded.
If you have a slashing weapon, try to chop body parts off of your enemy – it makes them stop fighting for a turn, allowing you to keep attacking them without being attacked in exchange. Chopping off limbs will also weaken your enemies – taking their arms can prevent them from using weapons, taking their legs can make them slow and knock them down. Chopping off their heads will instantly kill them, but it may take a few (or, with larger enemies such as trolls, it may take more than fifteen) slashes before the head is severed.
Remember that it's better to let your enemy come to you than to go to your enemy. You have to either move or attack. If you move, you can't attack, so if you move within range to attack your enemy, you allow them to have the first strike (unless you're much faster than them). On the other hand, if you let them move within range of you, then you get to have the first strike. If your enemy is out of striking range, consider throwing a knife, rock, or other object to do some damage before they can retaliate. However, keep in mind that throwing takes time, and if the enemy is too close you may give them the first and possibly even second strike before you can retaliate. If you're fast enough, then you can simply step back after getting in that first hit, and they'll have to spend their turn approaching you again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Follow the advice under Combat Preferences.

How can I obtain armor as quickly as possible?

The best way would be to rummage through mead halls, keeps, and fortresses, or whatever other strongholds your race makes use of. Not all places will be stocked with equipment, but usually they have something.
- There are also underground locations, such as the dungeons underneath keeps, or the catacombs under temples, that contain plenty of equipment. These underground places are liable to be populated with unfriendly creatures, so beware.
You can also take along companions and have them killed, or just plainly murder people and take their stuff.
You can earn some money by exchanging some loot with the local populace for coins, and then buy equipment off of soldiers you might meet in towns. Use the exchange personal item option, as only shopkeepers accept the straight trade option. Remember that coins only have nominal value in the civilization they've been minted in, but gems are equally valuable anywhere. You can also trade your own crafts or clothing in exchange for the armor the soldiers are wearing.
Warehouses in human towns tend to have items in them, including weaponry, food, Items of high value, and alongside those is armor. Though a cheeky way to get equipment, it works if you want to have a fast adventure.
If you don't mind taking extra time, you can also start a "temporary" fortress, make as much armor as you could and then abandon/retire to return there as an adventurer later.
- Although this may take a while, with this method your adventurer may obtain quite precious, powerful and nearly unobtainable otherwise items like a full set of ☼Adamantium armor☼.
- You can also make some other items quite important to an adventurer, such as ☼weapons☼ or a huge amount of lightweight trade goods, like platinum rings encrusted with diamonds. This may provide an even better alternative to coins than just simple cut gems, depending on the skills of your character.
- If you choose to abandon the "fortress" instead of retiring, remember to put your precious preserved goods in some heavy bin or an inaccessible place, as items tend to scatter all over the "fortress" if they have a walkable path from an edge of the map (see Abandon).

How do I increase my skills and attributes?

Here are some techniques for raising your skills – very rapidly in some cases. Most of these skill-raising techniques involve repeatedly entering the same keystrokes. To assist with this you can use a macro to make entering the same sequence of keystrokes over and over again much easier. Increasing skills increases associated attributes, which may in turn benefit other skills. For example, sharpening rocks using x will increase Knapping, which will increase a number of attributes that help with combat skills. See Skills and Associated Attributes for a mostly complete list.

Fighting and Wrestling — A good way to raise your Fighting and Wrestling skills and related attributes is to go find a small, relatively harmless animal and wrestle with it repeatedly. You can wrestle hitting b for the wrestling option after selecting the creature to fight. Continually grabbing and releasing a creature is sufficient to raise your skill, and you can do it indefinitely with the same animal as it won't be injured (unless you auto-wrestle it). Wrestling will increase Kinesthetic Sense, Spatial Sense, and to a lesser extent, Endurance. You may also somewhat increase Dodging and Shield User this way as the creature takes swipes at you.
It's possible to change your Combat preferences for attacking and dodging to Close Combat and Stand Ground, respectively, allowing you to simply walk into the helpless critter to wrestle it. (Standing your ground prevents you from moving to dodge attacks, so your wrestling can continue almost uninterrupted.) You will, however, perform occasional throws and take-downs as long as the creature remains standing, which may result in their eventual bleeding to death. Strangulation is also a repeated concern, as it will render the victim unconscious, thus making you have to wait until it regains consciousness before you can continue auto-wrestling it (though you may still raise your Wrestler and Fighter skills by 10 points for every time you release a limb - though this must be done manually and must be repeatedly confirmed, once the creature is rendered unconscious). Another concern with auto-wrestling some animals is that you will perform joint locks, and break hips, knees, and ankles in the process, which can cause the creature to bleed to death. If you can wrangle a creature incapable of blood-loss and strangulation in a high-FPS area (such as a crab on a frozen beach), you can easily raise all associated skills and attributes to Legendary and Superhuman in the course of a few minutes.
Shield User, Armor User, and Dodging - In addition to wrestling the creature, you can also sit back and let it attack you to raise your defensive skills. If you have metal armor, then a small animal like a gopher can't do any real damage to you when it hits. Also, to place emphasis more heavily on shield blocking, you can change your attack Combat preference to Stand Ground. Stay occupied (tell the enemy a story about one of your fortresses or mumble a "poem" written with Dabbling skills) for a nice time skip. The wrestling-a-crab-on-a-frozen-beach method also works fantastically for this.
Weapon Skills and Fighting — Once your defensive skills are getting up there and your agility is high enough, you might want to try fighting bogeymen to increase your weapon skill. Just make sure to fight them one at a time while running away. If you don't know what a bogeyman is yet then you are probably not ready to try this. Also, doing difficult targeted shots will gain more experience and keep the training dummy alive longer.
Throwing and Archery — Throwing rocks with t will raise your Throwing and Archery skills. Throwing objects at creatures, while not terribly effective, can still be a quite handy skill. Although throwing is a way to raise Archery without wasting ammunition, there is a non-wasteful method that additionally increases bow/crossbow skills.
The most efficient way to level via throwing is to forgo using a macro and separate training into two phases: getting and throwing. First, find a tile with an indefinite amount of throwable objects (e.g., snow, rocks, mud, etc.). Then, sequentially mash g and whatever key the rocks are assigned to until both your forearms explode. Rest. Then, sequentially mash t, followed by some consistent key assigned to your rocks, then Enter, until you've emptied your inventory. Rest. Rinse and repeat. (You may wish to empty your inventory beforehand such that the rocks are assigned to a key close to t, allowing you to keep one hand on Enter and another on t.)
Marksman, Bowman, and Archery — Raising the bow and crossbow weapon-specific skills is best done by shooting at a wall or cliff with no floor directly beneath it. If bolts or arrows hit a wall that has floor/ground on the same z-level, then the ammunition will be destroyed. However, ammunition that falls at least one z-level after hitting a wall will remain intact. So, simply find something like a hill inside a castle, stand on it, then shoot at a wall which is on the same z-level you are. The arrows will hit the wall and fall one z-level to the ground, remaining intact. You can then get the arrows and fire them at the wall again from the hill, ad infinitum. You can also stand next to a wall that's two or more z-levels high, aiming at the wall one z-level up by hitting < after hitting f. Whatever method you employ, the key is that the arrow needs to fall at least one z-level after hitting a wall to remain intact. Using a macro will speed this up greatly.
An alternative and much easier way to train any ranged attack is to simply shoot one or more z-levels straight above into the air, by using f than < , any ammunition used seems incapable of causing harm to the one launching it and lands undamaged under their feet for easy retrieval, however this may be considered a bug and/or exploit.
Ambushing and Swimming — An efficient way to raise Ambushing is to sneak over large stretches of land. Ideally, this would be done in a biome containing sparse vegetation and few threatening creatures to blunder into and reduce FPS (e.g., a frozen beach). Sneaking on fast travel will not raise Ambushing.
Although less efficient for raising only Ambushing, it's also possible to sneak and swim at the same time, thus combining their training. Just make sure you start with at least Novice in swimming, or you'll find swimming practically impossible to train. Swimming can very quickly improve your Strength, Agility, and Endurance. Additionally, if you can safely drown and then recover (e.g., by moving under a bridge and then back before suffocating), this will raise both Toughness and Endurance at a ridiculous pace— a single step spent drowning will raise both attributes by a fifth of a point apiece.
Observer — You can't really power-level this skill as it is slow and difficult to train, which is why you're advised to sink some points into it during character creation. However, one way to train it appears to be sleeping or walking around in the wilderness, allowing yourself to be repeatedly ambushed. This is, however, inherently dangerous. Running away from these encounters would probably be faster than slaying your assailants, if not generally safer for your character (but not for your companions, hoh boy).
Successfully detecting traps found in tombs and catacombs (performed automatically) will also raise Observer. However, without decent skill to begin with, you'll be torn to pieces by the many traps you'll fail to see. Otherwise, once you've found one or more traps, it's possible to grind experience by sleeping/waiting an hour, thus resetting the traps. Rinse and repeat.
As of version 0.40.23, one seems to acquire skill in Observer from regular combat, as it's used to tell what weapon an enemy is using to attack you.
Spatial and Kinesthetic Sense - While sharpening rocks with x will improve your Knapping skill, it more importantly increases your Spatial Sense and Kinesthetic Sense attributes, which affect a number of other skills. Knapping can be combined with throwing via a macro to keep your inventory from filling up.
Other Stats - Other useful stats like Strength, Agility, and Toughness will increase significantly as the fighting and defense skills increase, so you don't need to do anything other than what you'd normally be doing to increase these.

I managed to escape, but my limbs are chopped off. Now what?

'Tis but a scratch! Unfortunately, there is only one way to get them back, and that is by becoming a werebeast and surviving until the next full moon. But as long as you have at least one leg and one arm left you can actually do pretty well. First, get a crutch from somewhere, such as a general store, and make sure it's in one of your hands. Once you do that you should be able to stand back up again. (However, if spinal nervous tissue damage is what has disabled your ability to stand, crutches will not help you in that regard.) You will notice that your speed is now much slower than before. Now, go find someplace reasonably safe, and walk back and forth until your Crutch Walking skill gets up to Legendary. You will notice your speed increasing as your skill levels up until your speed is completely back to normal. As a bonus you'll probably see some stat increases as well. You can continue to dodge with a crutch just as well as before. You can wield a sword, shield, and crutch all in one hand, so, even if you are missing an arm, then you're all set. If you are missing both arms but still have both legs then unfortunately you'll be limited to biting, dodging, and wrestling with legs. If you're missing both arms and one leg then your movement will be limited and you'll be limited to biting and wrestling with your one remaining leg. And if all limbs are missing, then you'll be limited to rolling around on the ground biting things, though you might actually be able to do surprisingly well as a Legendary Biter, especially if you powerlevel your strength to the point where you can shake things around by the teeth ripping limbs off, but if you lose both legs, then your character is going to be severely limited due to the poor movement rate, so at that point it's probably best to opt for retirement or a glorious death in battle.

What creatures of night can I become?

You basically have four different choices. Firstly, you can become a necromancer:

That gives you some traits of an undead. Namely, you don't need to eat, sleep or drink, don't tire or age, zombies and mummies don't attack you and your physical stats are permanently fixed. The last one means it's wise to train them beforehand.
You also can raise dead from the x menu. Depending on the flavor of your spell, zombies can be slow, very slow or not slow at all. They will be listed as companions.
Undead minions are extremely useful, but will cause problems if you intend to interact with civilization ever again. They are, however, an easy way to gain manpower for construction.
To become a necromancer, find a necromancer tower and obtain a book or slab containing secrets of life and death from there, then read it. Note that most of the books are useless. In younger worlds necromancers may not have built their towers yet, in which case they'll be hanging at a zombie bandit camp, slab under the arm.

Secondly, you can become a vampire:

That gives you most traits of an undead. In addition to the listed above, you don't feel pain, don't breathe and are immune to most syndromes. Your strength, agility and toughness are doubled. They're still fixed forever, so, again, be prepared.
You gain blood vision, in which all creatures with blood not in your field of view will be represented with ☼.
Despite not needing to drink water, you have a hunger for warm blood. To satisfy it, beat someone or something unconscious and eat their blood.
Anyone that witnesses you feeding on blood will turn hostile, unlike in older versions, where companions would only care if you drained someone they cared about.
To become a vampire, defeat one in combat and drink his blood.
In version 0.42.01, it is now possible to be "cursed" by a god into becoming a vampire by desecrating statues/totems/altars dedicated to them. This can be done by pressing u while adjacent to interact with them, and toppling them. ^v0.42.01

Thirdly, you can become a werebeast:

This gives you the (uncontrolled) ability to transform into a powerful half-man, half-beast on a full moon.
There's a fixed list of animals on which the wereform is based, including goat, llama, lizard, horse, monitor, buffalo, moose, tortoise, camel, kangaroo, ape, gecko, bear, hyena, warthog, iguana, skink, shrew, elk, skunk, pig, raccoon, panda, mole, badger, armadillo, mammoth and more.
Most importantly, upon transformation (both ways) all your wounds, including missing limbs, are instantly healed.
You don't show any abnormality outside of beast form. You are still mortal.
When in beast form, everything is hostile to you, you don't need to drink, eat, sleep or breathe, don't feel pain, don't tire and are immune to some syndromes.
One randomly chosen metal is ten times as deadly to you than usual. All other materials deal you half damage.
A werebeast's size is several times their base animal size, but no less than 80000. This means all armor will be too small for you while in beast form. But you can still use a shield. Some werebeasts are truly gigantic — the weremammoth has a size of 9000000, on par with demons.
To become a werebeast, make one bite you – it has to be in its beast form.
In version 0.42.01, it is now possible to be "cursed" by a god into becoming a werebeast by desecrating statues, totems or altars dedicated to them. This can be done by pressing u while adjacent to interact with them, and toppling them.^v0.42.01
You cannot be a werebeast and a vampire at the same time.

And finally, you can become a mist zombie:

This makes you undead. In addition to vampire traits, you can see without eyes and can't die via blood loss or beheading. Note that you don't have the health point limit that raised zombies have.
You become permanently hostile to everyone except other undead.
Your strength and toughness are tripled and fixed. Train beforehand.
Depending on the flavor of zombie virus, your speed may or may not drop to 20% or 60% of its normal value.
To become a mist zombie, find a mist/fog cloud that zombifies creatures and run into it.
You cannot become a vampire or a werebeast if you are already a zombie. The other way, however, is fine.

What does it mean to be cursed?

After suffering a mummy's curse, you will critically fail 20% of all skill checks, so you miss attacks, fail when reciting poetry etc.

Can zombie companions build for me?

Yes, they can build just like any other companion.

I don't like the location I am currently at. How can I fast travel away?^v0.42.01

Retire your hero or party. Be sure not to pick the "starve" option.
Create another hero (pay attention to the list of locations!), and pick the location you want to teleport to as his/her hometown.
Add all people from your previous party to your current adventure mode party, via "Specific person" at the bottom of the race selection menu.
Start playing at your new location.
Dispose of your new hero, or add him to your party.

This can actually be exploited to add more characters to your party if some of them were killed, making this method a good way to replenish the numbers of your meatshields.

A glimpse into the Future

This article or section has been rated D for Dwarf. It may include witty humour, not-so-witty humour, bad humour, in-jokes, pop culture references, and references to the Bay12 forums. Don't believe everything you read, and if you miss some of the references, don't worry. It was inevitable.

Passage from "Shooting ~~for~~ the sky", the giant toad bone bound book by Nefil Blackbone the human necromancer :

... While seemingly absurd, the practice of one's abilities with a ranged weapon can be furthered by directing said weapon towards the sky. After all, during day time the sky has one giant target that might even seem so large that it's impossible to miss, and the night sky has many smaller ones. It has been well documented that hitting the target may not be necessary to achieve improvement in ones skill with said arms, thus it is reasonable to expect every subsequent shot after the first will hit a tad closer to it's intended target, this has further lead me to believe in the possibility of sky exploration, for with this logic at some point the projectile will actually hit it's target and could subsequently be replaced with a test dummy to further resolve survival issues and empty ones guest accommodations in one go. Finally with said preparations accomplished it would be possible to explore whatever is beyond that great blue/black border above. However some skeptical dwarven scholars suggest this to be impossible and rather place their bets on the tried and tested dwarven launch system, while notable human scholars propose using bigger armaments to accomplish the goal.

This is how the great space race between the Elves, Dwarves and Humans began, which would later on lead to massive intergalactic conflicts, space goblin invasions, immortal human emperors, elven space gates, interplanetary clown-storms all under the name of the humble dwarven hammer of war ...

Getting Started

About - Installation - Tutorials - FAQ

Fortress Mode Quickstart Guide - Adventure Mode Quickstart Guide

Fortress Mode Reference - Adventurer Mode Reference ^{(Quick Reference)}

How do I get more help?