Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

v0.34:Armor

2012-12-10T20:14:54Z

777: Wordsmithing

{{quality|Masterwork|13:30, 26 July 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Armor is the protective equipment used to reduce/deflect damage during [[combat]]. It comes in several pieces, each one protecting a certain area. The purpose of each piece is pretty much self-explanatory. Note that breastplates only protect upper/lower torso areas, while mail shirts also cover the upper arms. Ears, nose, lips and teeth are exposed, even in full armor, whilst robes and capes tend to cover the throat.

'''The actual effectiveness of a given piece of armor depends on the weapon(s) being used against it.'''

Keeping in mind the armored enemies you are likely to meet, it is advisable to equip your military dwarves with at least iron armor. Testing in the arena shows that armored dwarves have a huge advantage over the unarmored ones, usually taking no casualties while making short work of their enemies. (But you shouldn't need this wiki to figure that out.) With more recent versions, armour slows down dwarves considerably more than it did in the past, making the Armour User skill much more important. This may change when movement and attack speeds are separated, but for the moment a recruit in full steel armour is slow to both move and react in combat.

== Basics ==
=== Purpose ===
Armor's purpose is simple: to allow your dwarves to better withstand damage in combat. Where an unarmored dwarf hit by a weapon would invariably suffer damage, well-armored dwarves have a good chance of blunting the damage or bouncing it off altogether, reducing major strikes to mere bruises and grave wounds to serious ones. [[Clothes]], though not specifically recognized by the game as armor, nonetheless also functions in that sense, often blocking weak attacks (and rendering a clothed dwarf a better fighter than a naked one).

A clothed dwarf takes little more than a few seconds to die to a [[goblin]] [[ambush]]. One clad in a full set of exceptional steel armor, meanwhile, can expunge a goblin squad of most of its ammo and a half a minute of its time before finally dying. Dwarves armed only with weapons might be a sufficient response to thieves and local wildlife, but a serious [[military|army]] requires equally serious armor.

=== Types of armor ===
In terms of classifications, armor can be classed into three different types. The first is [[clothing]], made of [[leather]] or [[cloth]]. Clothing can only deflect very weak attacks - say, a [[raven]] bite - but nonetheless can dampen damage. Most dwarves will be wearing clothing; those that aren't will usually be very [[tantrum|unhappy]], [[children|babies]], or [[insane]]. The second type is [[leather]] and [[bone]] armor, which is specialized for the purpose from clothing; it is very weak, but still better than nothing. The last type is true [[metal]] armor, made at a [[metalsmith's forge]]; it is this armor that is made by an [[armorsmith]], and should be used by a serious military.

Though all clothes can protect from damage, a "true" suit of armor consists of the following pieces, one cell from each column.

{|border="1" cellpadding="5" style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;text-align:left"
|-
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Torso
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Head
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Hands + wrists
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Upper + Middle legs
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | Feet/Lower legs
! scope="col" style="background:#efefef;" | [[Shield|Shields]] (block attacks)
|-
|Mail Shirt (upper body + upper arms)
'''and/or''' Breastplate (upper body)
|Helms
|Gauntlets
|Greaves, made of plate
|High boots (feet + lower legs)
|Shield
|-
|Leather armor (upper body)
|
|
|Leggings, made of chain
|Low boots (feet)
|Buckler
|}

The first row is the more effective choice, while the second row is an alternative offering less protection.

=== Armor skill ===
Armor use trains the [[armor user]] [[skill]]. Where armor quality affects hit block chance, armor user skill affects how quickly the dwarf can move in his armor. In arena tests, a grand master armor user could move at twice the speed of a dabbling user when in heavy armor. Faster speed translates into faster movement, both when walking around and when crossing blades with an opponent; well-trained dwarves will have more opportunities to strike, block, and dodge in combat.

Every time a dwarf reflects an attack with their armor ([[reports|report]]ed as "the attack was deflected by his/her <armor>"), they will receive 30 [[experience]]. The skill can be trained with a [[danger room]], by attacking local wildlife, or through [[live training]] schemes.

=== Shield skill ===
Likewise, shield use trains the [[shield user]] [[skill]]. Shields are a special piece of armor that can be worn on one arm (and cannot be worn with two-handed weapons) and can be used to block attacks better than equivalent armor can (a difference amounting to deflection instead of broken bones), greatly increasing dwarven survivability. The skill modifies how often the dwarf will be able to block an attack with the shield, and is likewise trained every time the shield is used to block an attack, at 30 experience apiece. It can be trained in the same ways.

=== Material ===
:''See also: [[Metal#Weapon and armor quality]]''

{|border="1" cellpadding="5" style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;text-align:left"
! Material !! Workshop !! Labor !! Notes
|-
| [[Metal]] || [[Metalsmith's forge]] || [[Armorsmith|Armoring]] || Best choice; see notes below
|-
| [[Bone]] || [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]] || [[Bone carver|Bone carving]] || Leggings, greaves, gauntlets and helms only
|-
| [[Leather]] || [[Leather works]] || [[Leatherworking]] || Light and unencumbering but weak protection.
|-
| [[Cloth]] || [[Clothier's shop]] || [[Clothier|Clothesmaking]] || Limited protection, nearly useless against metal.
|-
| [[Wood]] || [[Carpenter's workshop]] || [[Carpentry]] || Shield/buckler only (except [[Elf|Elves]])
|}

Most armor must be made out of a weapons-grade material (steel, iron, etc.). The only exception to this is when a dwarf is in a [[strange mood]], in which case a piece of armor may be created out of any metal lying around. The material used in armor is extremely important to combat; fully [[iron]]-armored dwarves with iron short swords stand no chance against those clad in [[steel]]. In general, slashing weapons will have difficulty piecing armor made of the same weapons-grade material as the weapon, piercing weapons will be increasingly blunted, and blunt weapons will break bones through armor almost regardless of its material. Rigid armor provides limited blunt protection, and the chain mail shirts and leggings provide next to none. Even adamantine armor only prevents an estimated 13% of blows, demonstrating the utility of the slow but sure war hammer.

Certain weapons are surprisingly good at penetrating armor. Copper whips will shatter skulls through steel helmets, and copper bolts will tear through steel breastplates as if they weren't there. Metal plate mail provides no protection against metal bolts, although it can deflect wood and bone. Chain mail provides modest protection.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=116151.30 science!]

{|border="1" cellpadding="5" style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;text-align:center"
! colspan=5|Metal armor comparison
|-
! Poor !! Good !! Excellent !! Best
|-
| Copper || Iron/Bronze<nowiki>*</nowiki> || Steel || Adamantine
|}

* [[Copper]] armor is the lowest-grade type of metal armor, but also the easiest to get, requiring one of [[native copper]], [[malachite]], or [[tetrahedrite]] (next-to-guaranteed on any embark containing more than one metal).
* [[Bronze]] is an [[alloy]] of copper and [[tin]], requiring [[cassiterite]]. It is much improved over copper armor, and has slightly better material properties than iron, but also weighs more.
* [[Bismuth bronze]] is just bronze alloyed with [[bismuth]], fancier colored but more expensive to produce and with the same material definitions. If you have access to bismuth and want to put it to use, you can save some tin this way.
* [[Iron]] can be smelted from [[hematite]], [[limonite]], or [[magnetite]], and is easiest to find in [[sedimentary]] layers (though [[igneous extrusive]] layers may contain hematite). It is comparable to bronze, but has a less complicated smelting process.
* [[Steel]] is the best non-adamantine armor material, and requires [[fuel]], [[flux]], [[iron]], and [[pig iron]] in its manufacturing. Note that steel is worth its weight in [[gold]]; making lots of armor is a sure way to attract attention, but at least it's going into shiny armor, right?
* [[Adamantine]] is only found beneath the third [[cavern]] layer, plumbing the depths of the [[magma sea]]; it can be used to create unparallelled armor, but is very time-consuming to produce, in addition to being hazardous to mine. It is immensely valuable to boot.

A detailed breakdown can be found [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=53571.0 here]. Note that a full suit of ''any'' non-adamantine metal armour will considerably slow down a raw recruit of average strength, as show briefly [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111414.0 here].

=== Quality and strange moods ===
Quality is an important modifier on armor. Armor gets a deflection bonus based on quality level, but its effect is only known for regular (1x), masterwork (2x), and artifact (3x) armor; presumably, the quality ranks in between are progressive.

{{DF2012:Item quality/Table}}

This means that, effectively, masterworks produced by legendary [[armorsmith]]s cut damage done by as much as half. This, combined with the need to produce a lot of armor, makes armorers far and away the most desired dwarves for [[strange mood]]s, and various schemes exist for influencing such an event.

Dwarves in strange moods can produce legendary artifacts, which benefit from a 3x multiplier, three times as good as a more mundane piece of armor. However, artifacts can be made of totally inappropriate materials, and the spectacularly low defensive values of a [[rainbow trout]] [[bone]] mail shirt vastly outweigh any bonuses it gets. This can be problematic when your [[militia commander]] drops everything to retrieve himself his new piece of candy. Nonetheless, artifact-quality weapons-grade armor are very strong defensively.

Strange moods are an exception to the number of bars rule; only one bar is required for the item itself, although additional materials may be gathered for decoration.

=== Attachment ===
Dwarves that have used a particular piece of armor for an extended period of time may grow attached to it, becoming unhappy if it is taken away. This is fine if it is a pair of ☼Steel Greaves☼, but a major problem if they are using what is meant to be interim armor. This happens less often with armor than it does for weapons. These events generate announcements.

=== Mechanics ===
There is no hard difference between clothing and armor, something accentuated by regular clothing's ability to block attacks. Armor can be thought of as metal clothing, thicker and made of materials that have a much better chance of blocking attacks. Armor is, however, different in that it is not subject to [[wear]], and the fact that only non-clothing garments increase the armor user skill.

The availability of specific articles of clothing varies by [[civilization]], and each has its own set of clothing that it can produce. In Fortress mode, sandals and shoes are in the same clothing class, but only the latter can be produced by dwarves, where the former must be stripped off of dead enemies. It is important to understand that dwarves are gender-insensitive; a male dwarf may well put on a dress.

Non-armor clothing can provide some defense, most importantly to areas that are not covered by regular armor. The ears, nose, lips, and teeth are always exposed, even in full armor. Robes and capes will cover the throat and provide a bulwark of low-level protection, making them useful for military dwarves, especially those you plan to send through the [[danger room]].

== Layers ==

The layers are, in order from inner to outer:
*Under
*Over
*Armor
*Cover

==Types of Protection==
The number of regular metal bars needed to make a piece of metal armor is equal to the material size divided by 3, rounded down with a minimum of one. The number of adamantine wafers or stacks of cloth required to create armor is equal to the material size.

===Headgear===
{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Clothing Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor Level*
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Material Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Materials
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Size]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Layer
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coverage %
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Bars
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cap[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|+
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1

|-
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Helm[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1+
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,B,S,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|-
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Hood
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cover
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Mask†[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Turban†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Head Veil†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Face Veil†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Headscarf†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|}

===Upper Body===
{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Clothing Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor Level*
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Material Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Materials
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Size]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Layer
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coverage %
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Coverage|UBSTEP]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Coverage|LBSTEP]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Bars
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Dress
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|5
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Shirt
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Tunic
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Toga
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|5
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Vest
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Robe
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|6
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coat
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|5
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Leather Armor[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|6
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Mail Shirt
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|6
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Breastplate[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|9
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|5
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cover
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cape†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|5
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|300
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cover
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|}
[[Quiver]] and [[Backpack]] are also worn on upper body, counting towards layer permit size.

===Hands===
{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Clothing Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor Level*
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Material Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Materials
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Size]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Layer
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coverage %
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Coverage|UPSTEP]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Bars
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Gloves
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Gauntlets[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|B,S,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Mittens
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cover
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|}

Each crafting job produces a pair of gloves, gauntlets or mittens -- one right-handed and one left-handed. The items from a single job may have different quality levels.

===Lower Body===
{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Clothing Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor Level*
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Material Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Materials
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Size]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Layer
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coverage %
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Coverage|LBSTEP]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Bars
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Trousers
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|4
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Leggings[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1+
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|5
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,B,S,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Greaves[S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|6
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|B,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Loincloths†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Thongs†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|25%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Skirts (Short)†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Skirts†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Skirts (Long)†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Braies†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|30
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|}

===Footwear===
{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Clothing Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor Level*
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Material Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Materials
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Size]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Layer
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coverage %
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Coverage|UPSTEP]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Bars
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Socks
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Sandals†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|25
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Shoes
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|C,L
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Over
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|N/A
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Low Boots
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|25
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|High Boots
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1+
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|25
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1 each
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Chausses (sockmail)†
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|3
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,M
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|10
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Under
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|100%
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|MAX
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|}

Each crafting job produces one pair of footwear. Unlike gloves, footwear items are interchangeable (they are not right- or left-footed). The two items from a single crafting job may have different quality levels.

===Shield===
{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Clothing Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Armor Level*
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Material Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Materials
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Size]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|Permit]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Layer
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Coverage %
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|[[Armor#Coverage|UPSTEP]]
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Bars
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Buckler
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,M,W
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|NA
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|NA
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|NA
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Shield
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|4
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|L,M,W
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|NA
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|NA
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|NA
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|2
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|1
|}

* * {{=}} Items without an armor rating are considered clothing. Armor levels 1-3 were referred to as 'leather', 'chain' or 'plate' in earlier versions.
* + {{=}} The armor level of an item with a "+" can be increased by one if made from metal.
* † {{=}} This article cannot be crafted by dwarves (except for [[artifact]]s), but may be purchased in trade.
* [S] {{=}} shaped item, max one [S] per body slot (e.g. plate mail cannot be worn with leather armor, but can be worn with chain mail, and greaves and leggings cannot be combined).
* Materials can be Cloth, Leather, Bone, Shell, Metal, or Wood.

==Equipping Clothing==

Items in Dwarf Fortress must be equipped in a specific order. A dwarf must equip a layer type of Under before he equips a layer of type Over, for example. The complete order goes: Under, Armor, Over, Cover. It is common among civilians to see a dwarf equip pants with no undergarments due to this restriction, even when an undergarment is available. This is typically not an issue with soldiers, however.

There is no restriction on wearing multiple items of the same type ''(Unless the item is shaped [S])''. You can, for example, wear 3 cloaks without penalty.

===Process for equipping a new piece of clothing===

The following variables will be used in the logic below:
:'''Current Item''' refers to the specific item being equipped.
:'''Total Size''' refers to the [[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|size]] of all items equipped on that body part, excluding the item to be equipped (while including those on a different [[Armor#Size, Permit, and layering armor|layer]]).
:'''Permit''' refers to the maximum allowable size of items equipped on the same or lower level as the item to be equipped.

In order to equip a new item, the dwarf (or other creature) ...
:*will determine if he is eligible to wear the item in question (Perhaps the body part is missing/severed).
:*must start with the lowest layer first, continuing to the next layer when no other items of that layer need to be equipped
:*checks if the item is shaped [S], and will only equip the item if no other shaped items are equipped '''on that body part'''.
:*will equip items with lowest permit level first. If two items share the same permit value, the highest size item will be equipped first{{verify}}.
:*then checks if his total size (excluding the current item) is less than the current item's permit.
:*If all above logic is true, the dwarf will equip the item.

===Equipment process example===

Each item is listed in order of being equipped, the primary focus of this example is that the total size must be equal to, or less than the permit size of the item being equipped. Like above, the total size ''excludes the size of the item being equipped''.

{| style="margin:1em 1em 1em 0;background:#F9F9F9;border:1px #AAA solid;border-collapse:collapse;" class="wikitable sortable"
|- style="background:#F2F2F2;text-align:center;"

!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Item Type
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Size
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Permit
!style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Total Size*
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Breastplate [S]
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|0
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Mail Shirt
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|20
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Mail Shirt
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|35
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Mail Shirt
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|50
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|Mail Shirt
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|50
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|65
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|65
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|80
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|95
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|110
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|125
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|140
|-

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|Cloak
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|15
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|150
|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;color:#F00;"|155
|}

* * = Total Size include the size of all equipped items, but does not include the item being equipped
*Red Text = This item cannot be equipped, because the total size is larger than the item's permitted size.

==Size, Permit, and layering armor==

The '''Size''' and '''Permit''' values govern how much clothing or armor can be worn.

Under the old system the lowest "permit" value for any given body part is used: for instance, if a dwarf is wearing a dress (permit value: 50) and a total of 50 or more ''size'' worth of clothing on the upper body, it cannot put any more clothing on the upper body. (This explains why the old [[40d:dungeon master|dungeon master]]s tend to wear several cloaks: they arrive at the fortress wearing only a cloak on the upper body (permit 150), and can put on a total of 10 of them, at 15 size each.)

Unfortunately, [LAYER:COVER] items are the only items playing by the old rules. This much is certain from testing in arena mode.

:*If the item to be add is a [LAYER:COVER] item, add the total item size on the body part, if this sum is '''less than or equal to''' the item's permit value then evaluate as true.
:*If a [LAYER:ARMOR] item is present or to be added and if the sum of the non [LAYER:COVER] items would be '''less than''' the sum of the [LAYER:ARMOR] size+permit values then evaluate as true.
:*If one or more items of the same non-[LAYER:COVER] layer as the one being added are present and if the sum of their size values is '''less than''' the smallest permit value then evaluate as true.
:*If the sum of the size values for all items on the body part are '''less than or equal to''' the permit value of the item about to be added then evaluate as true.

The item is allowed if all rules either evaluate to true or are not applicable. This is in addition to the rule allowing only one shaped item on a given body part at a time.

Example: A helm (30 size,20 permit) means you can put on a mask (20,10) or two head veils (10,100). Either of these configurations can fit 6 additional hoods if desired.

Example: Wearing a cap (10,15) allows only one face veil (10,100), because they are both [LAYER:UNDER], but an additional combined total of up to 9 head veils and hoods is possible.

Note that the armor value of socks and other clothing is unknown under the new system - however, wearing them under "armor" such as boots is recommended for an adventurer.

'''[[Adventurer mode]]''' follows the arena rules so it is possible to have three chain mail shirts (15,50), a breastplate (20,50), and 25 capes (10,300) on ones upper body plus a helm and six hoods on ones head. Confirmation is needed to see if [[fortress mode]] follows the old rules or the new arena rules. (I tested this and found that Urist McNopants follows a totally different set of rules than either of these. His rules tell him to forget both caps all of the hoods both socks and his trousers, and each sucessive time he gets dressed he feels the need to do it differently.)

===Some more workaround about Size, Permit and Layering===

* You can only have one shaped armor piece (marked with '''[S]''') per body part.
* The total size of non-cover items must be ''lower'' than any armour piece's permit + size total.
* The total size of all items of any layer on any body part must be lower than the lowest permit value (excluding that item).
* The total size of all items on any body part must be lower than the size + permit value of any cover item.
* All items are put on in order of their layer.

As an example, lets say you want to kit out your soldiers upper body. Try walking through this in arena mode to get a feel for it.

You start off with a [[steel]] breastplate. This has a size of '''20''' and a permit of '''50'''. It is also '''shaped''', so you can't add any other shaped items; no more breastplates and no [[leather]] armor.

Now you want to add mail shirts. Each one has a permit of '''50''' and a size of '''15'''. You can add three of these if you want. It checks the size against each of the armour pieces permit + size (or rather, the permit value ignoring that items size in the calculation), like so;
* Against each of the mail shirts, you have '''2 x 15 = 30''' total size in mail shirts, '''+ 20''' from the breastplate, matching the '''50''' permit.
* Against the breastplate you have '''3 x 15 = 45 < 50''', fine.
Now if you add a fourth mail shirt these test will fail. However, because of the layering order (mail shirts being armour layer 2, the breastplate armour layer 3) the breastplate is added after the shirts. This results in the breastplate being dropped.

Because this reaches the '''50''' permit limit for the mail shirts, you can't add more non-cover items without substituting them for existing items. If you want a robe (size '''20'''), for example, you need to remove two of the mail shirts to clear a total size of '''30''', which then lets you add an extra size '''10''' shirt, vest or whatever.

However, you can add cover layer items. In this case, cloaks. Each cloak has a size of '''15''' and a permit of '''150'''. Taking into account the '''50''' size already on the upper body, we can add '''100''' size worth of cloaks. This lets us add '''6''' ('''x 15 = 90''') cloaks over the existing armour.

Going through like this for the rest of the body (most of it is simpler) gives you a final setup of;

'''Armor''' 
1 x breastplate 
3 x mail shirts 
6 x cloaks

'''Armor (cheap)''' 
6 x dress 
3 x robe 
3 x cloak 

'''Legs''' 
3 x long skirts 
1 x greaves

'''Legs (no foreign items)''' 
2 x trousers 
1 x greaves

'''Legs (cheap)''' 
2 x trousers 
1 x leggings

'''Helm''' 
1 x helm 
6 x hood

'''Gloves''' 
1 x pairs of gauntlets 
1 x pairs of mittens

'''Gloves (cheap)''' 
2 x pairs of gloves 
1 x pairs of mittens

'''Boots''' 
1 x pairs of chausses 
1 x pairs of high boots

'''Boots (no foreign items)''' 
1 x pairs of socks 
1 x pairs of high boots

'''Boots (cheap)''' 
1 x pairs of socks 
1 x pairs of shoes

Of course, so long as the bugs are still around, we are likely to see dwarves wearing more than this or refusing to put parts on because they found their boots before their socks.

''Note: "Cheap" implies the set can be made from secondary materials such as bone and cloth with item types not overlapping with the other, more combat oriented set which use metal, leather and cloth (for socks). As a rule of thumb, combat sets provide better protection but cheap sets are lighter and easier to mass produce.''

==Coverage==

The value of coverage of an armor piece is the percentage probability that an attack made against a body part covered by said armor piece actually hits the armor. Example: Helms and caps both cover only the head (facial features excluded). 100% of attacks against the head of a helm-wearing dwarf are affected by the helm's protective capabilities, because helms have 100% coverage. In the case of a cap-wearing dwarf, only 50% of attacks made against the head are affected by the cap - the remaining 50% bypass it and land directly on the head, because caps have only 50% coverage. The value of coverage has an additional role in determining how well the armor protects against contaminants and temperature effects.

By default, armor pieces cover only a single body part, at which they are 'anchored' (hands, feet, lower body, upper body or head){{verify}} . Their coverage is extended to other body parts using the following three tags:

:'''[UBSTEP]'''
This token, when applied to torso armor, controls how far 'up' the body an item of armor reaches. Basically you can think of it as going out in stages along the body. It doesn't cover legs. It doesn't cover body parts with certain tags (notably [HEAD], [GRASP] and [STANCE], or the head). It can cover the children of such body parts (such as parts of the face) if it extends beyond them. The upper body and lower body are counted as 0 steps away, and so both always covered.

Breastplates have a default of 0, meaning they only cover the torso. 
Mail shirts have [UBSTEP:1], so cover the upper arms and throat.

A number of clothing items have [UBSTEP:MAX]. What exactly this covers depends on a certain bug, but unless you are making adamantine robes you probably won't get that much extra protection this way anyway. This would mean, for example, they would cover the upper arm, lower arm, skip the hand, then cover the fingers. The same goes for facial features (and, oddly, the throat) after skipping the head and the toes after skipping the entire legs and feet. 
The clothes with these properties seem to be robes, cloaks, coats, shirts and dresses. However, of these only robes and dresses also have [LBSTEP:MAX] (see below) and so I'm not sure if anything else would actually cover toes or not. Needs additional testing.

Testing in arena: in three 15x15 dwarves battles where both sides was equiped with iron battle axes and iron full armor and one of the teams was enforced with leather robes, team with robes was a victorious (2-3 survivors).

:'''[LBSTEP]'''
This token, when applied to torso armor or pants, controls how much of the legs an item covers. Legs in this case are defined as [LIMB] body parts that end in a [STANCE] body part (eg, foot). Arms are [LIMB]s, but end in a [GRASP] hand instead. Because the upper and lower body are effectively zero steps from each other, torso armor can extend this way easily.

Both greaves and leggings have [LBSTEP:MAX] and so cover the entire leg to the best of their ability. 
Mail shirts have [LBSTEP:1] and so can protect the upper legs. A range of other clothes (including cloaks) and leather armor also have this.
As mentioned above, robes and dresses have [LBSTEP:MAX] and so cover the entire legs. These also have [UBSTEP:MAX] and so cover the entire body. Although not the strongest armor, a leather (or maybe adamantine?) robe or dress gives you maximum coverage.

:'''[UPSTEP]'''
This token, when applied to gloves or shoes, determines how far up the limb the armor protects. As with [LBSTEP], this doesn't cover anything but the [LIMB] tag body parts, but it does cover arms as well as legs.

Low boots literally only cover the foot. 
High boots have [UPSTEP:1], so cover the lower leg. If you consider the upper legs can covered by [LBSTEP] from above, you can effectively have an entire layer of chain armor on the legs from high boots and a mail shirt even before adding leg armor. This is why I go with greaves for a plate layer.
Gauntlets have [UPSTEP:1], so cover the lower arms. Because there is no other protection for arms as there is for legs, you need gauntlets and mail shirts to protect your arms fully.
Chausses are a very rare sock substitute, but they are the only items to have [UPSTEP:MAX] and so offer full leg coverage while being exactly the same size as regular socks. The perfect undergarment.

The whole method is pretty nifty with just two problems. 
* Faces can't be covered by head armor.
* Throats cannot be protected by metal armor (except adamantine cloth).

Toes and fingers are protected by the relevant armor type (e.g. gauntlets cover fingers and boots cover toes).

== Other Restrictions ==

In fortress mode, "under" layers cannot be put on over "over" layers, so, for instance, a dwarf cannot put on socks unless it first removes its shoes. They can wear over layers without putting an under layer on first, which explains their fondness for "going commando" (trousers without loincloth). Dwarves will only put on the specific armor they are told to put on -- unless they are not told what to wear.

Also, if you do not tell dwarves to replace clothing with a uniform, they will wear it alongside the uniform and possibly come into conflict with layering and sizes/permits, making them unable to wear assigned items.

In adventurer mode, you have direct control over what armor you put on, and are only limited by permit and "one only" (shaped) restrictions. This means you can wear three suits of chain mail (total size 45) plus another suit of chain or plate on top of them. On top of this, you can add six cloaks.

== Bugs ==

In adventurer mode, putting a pair of socks (or any under-layer foot wear) on before putting on a pair of boots (or any over-layer foot wear) will keep you from putting on the last boot. So the order sock, sock, boot, boot doesn't work, but changing the order to sock, boot, sock, boot does. This is a very minor bug.

{{Industry}}

User:777

2012-10-21T17:11:32Z

777:

I am 777, DF enthusiast & wiki participant.... obviously.

v0.34 Talk:Personality facet

2012-10-21T17:09:31Z

777: Adding sig

I suspect that the "modesty" personality trait affects the thoughts dwarves get from lack of clothing in the most recent versions. I've got 2 dwarves in my fort who are/were flashing "unhappy". Both of these dwarves had the "no shoes recently" thought, and both also had the "finds immodesty distateful" trait. Presumably other dwarves were also missing shoes (I've got > 180 dwarves), but only these two were unhappy enough to flash the orange bang. Needs more science. --[[User:Greycat|Greycat]] 20:21, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm fairly certain that the "imagination" trait results in more vivid descriptions of decorations such as statues and engravings, however I haven't tested this in any kind of organized way; just noticed far fewer engravings of 'a dwarf' when I make those with higher tokens stone detailers, and instead see historical events and scenes. That may simply be coincidence, however. -- Anonymous 05:46, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Also, I'm pretty sure it means higher rate of masterwork item creation. On my most recent embark, my now-Great carpenter already has a disproportional number of masterworks to his name. I think it's related, but I am using a lot of wood, so take it with a grain of salt.--[[Special:Contributions/141.219.230.93|141.219.230.93]] 20:35, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

== "Trait bins as found examining 16000 dwarves" ==

What is the purpose of this section? It appears to be notes on a private study, and seems it would be rather illegible to the casual DFwiki reader. Heck, I like to think of myself as more than casual, and I really have no idea what is going on there.

It needs to be updated with an introduction explaining the significance of the work being presented, or it should be moved here to the discussion page until it is ready for proper, complete presentation on the live page. --[[User:777|777]] 17:09, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

v0.34 Talk:Personality facet

2012-10-21T17:07:19Z

777: /* "Trait bins as found examining 16000 dwarves" */ new section

v0.34:Calcite

2012-05-27T10:28:41Z

777: /* In Real Life */ Wording

{{quality|Exceptional|22:26, 10 November 2010 (UTC)}}{{stonelookup/0}}{{av}}

'''Calcite''' is a [[flux]] stone; however, it is not particularly special as it is found solely within [[limestone]] and [[marble]], both of which are ''also'' flux. Its only distinguishing characteristic is that it is a [[magma-safe]] rock (which you should already have in abundance).

==In Real Life==

Calcite is a crystalline form of Calcium-Carbonate (CaCO3). Calcite is extremely common, forming multiple types of rocks, such as [[limestone]], [[marble]], and [[chalk]], it is also known to form as a concrete in some [[sandstone]]s and [[siltstone]]s. Calcite, along with other crystalline forms of Calcium Carbonate such as Aragonite (which is not present in Dwarf Fortress) is readily edible (although not easily chewed, and not very palatable), and can be used as a supplementary source of calcium in an otherwise calcium-poor diet.

{{gamedata}}
{{stones}}
{{Category|Economic Stone}}

v0.34 Talk:Iron man

2012-04-01T06:46:25Z

777: Mystery youtube video

Just to reiterate a comment on the .31 talk page: too bad the linked YouTube video is private, and so unviewable by most (all?) visitors! Any chance the owner can correct that? [[User:777|-777]] 06:46, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

v0.34:Cook

2012-04-01T06:30:54Z

777: Clarification

{{quality|Masterwork|22:32, 23 October 2010 (UTC)}}
{{Skill
| color = 6:0
| skill = Cook
| profession = [[Farmer]]
| job name = [[Cooking]]
| workshop = [[Kitchen]]
| tasks =
* Prepare Easy Meal
* Prepare Fine Meal
* Prepare Lavish Meal
* Render Fat
| attributes =
* Agility
* Analytical Ability
* Creativity
* Kinesthetic Sense
}}
{{av}}

A '''Cook''' is a dwarf whose highest skill is in cooking. Cooks will prepare meals at the [[kitchen]] workshop using ingredients available in your fortress. They will also render [[fat]] into [[tallow]] at the kitchen. Both of these fall under the Cooking labor.

There are three kinds of meals- easy, fine, and lavish. An easy meal uses two components; a fine meal three components, and a lavish meal four components. The result is a [[stack]] of prepared food with the same size as the sum of the stack sizes of its components; if the stack size is greater than 11 it will be too big to fit in a [[barrel]] or [[pot]] and must be stored on the ground. Prepared meals can [[wear|rot]], but do so much more slowly than raw food, especially [[meat]].

Preparing easy, fine, and lavish meals all give the same [[experience]] gain to the cooking skill, so making easy meals maximizes experience gain; if you don't care about experience gain, preparing lavish meals saves stockpile space. The number of servings produced has no effect on experience gain.

Although some kinds of [[food]] can be eaten raw, other food resources are ingredients which are only edible when cooked into a meal. Cooking thus increases the number of food sources available to your fortress. Conversely, cooking plants does not yield plant [[seed]]s, so cooking edible plants decreases your potential [[crop]]s. Eating high [[item quality|quality]] prepared food gives your dwarves happy [[thought]]s if the meal contains one of their [[preference|favorite]] foods {{Bug|4661}}. It is not precisely known how a cook's skill and the quality of ingredients affect the happiness generated by a meal, but as a general rule there's no such thing as "too good".

== Recipes ==
See also [[Crop|List of Crops]] for plant ingredients.

Meals are prepared with a primary ingredient and 1~3 other ingredients. The primary ingredient determines what the meal will be called, and the remaining ingredients appear to be a random assortment of whatever is on hand. The result will be a stack of meals. The stack size is equal to the sum of the stack sizes of the ingredients.

Easy meals require two ingredients, and will be named "{last ingredient} biscuit". 
Fine meals require three ingredients, and will be named "{last ingredient} stew". 
Lavish meals require four ingredients, and will be named "{last ingredient} roast".

This table begins to show the interaction between preparation quality, and ingredient quality. The 'Value' column in the table is the total value of the stack divided by the number of portions in the stack, so that it is per portion.
{| class="wikitable" cellspacing="0" border="1" cellpadding="5"
|-
! Preparation
! Recipe
! Type
! Ingredients
! Value
|-
|(normal)
|Plump Helmet
|Biscuits
|2x minced Plump Helmet
|18
|-
|Well-Prepared
|Plump Helmet
|Biscuits
|2x minced Plump Helmet
|28
|-
|Well-Prepared
|Plump Helmet
|Biscuits
|1x minced Plump Helmet, 1x well-minced Plump Helmet
|32
|-
|Well-Prepared
|Plump Helmet
|Biscuits
|2x well-minced Plump Helmet
|36
|-
|Well-Prepared
|Plump Helmet
|Biscuits
|1x well-minced Plump Helmet, 1x finely minced Plump Helmet
|40
|-
|Finely-Prepared
|Plump Helmet
|Biscuits
|2x minced Plump Helmet
|38
|}

Plump Helmet [1] have 4 value, and four Well-Prepared food in this table have　4☼ gaps each other. From this value table, food value per portion is total of base value, 10☼ multiplied prepare quality and each material value multiplied mince quality. This formula applies to all (easy~lavish) meals.

== Boozecooking==
There used to be an [[exploit]] called "boozecooking", which allowed for meals to be cooked entirely out of booze, which let you feed five times as many dwarves with the same amount of farming. This is because [[still|brewing]] one unit of food produces five units of booze.

== Bugs ==
* Cooks will only use liquid bases (like [[dwarven syrup]]) as a last resort, instead preferring to cook solid foods with solid foods. {{Bug|2393}}
* Cooking with eggs creates extreme kitchen [[clutter]]. {{Bug|3994}}
* Frozen milk gets cooked into prepared meals as a solid, causing the meal to melt later. {{Bug|2787}}
* High [[quality]] cooked meals only give a happy [[thought]] if at least one of the ingredients is [[preference|preferred]] by the dwarf eating it. {{Bug|4661}}

v0.31:Embark

2012-04-01T01:45:11Z

777: linked rope & thread

{{av}}
{{Quality|Exceptional}}

'''Embark''' is the moment at the very beginning of the game, before actual game play begins (but after [[World generation|generating a world]]), when you and your initial 7 dwarves:
# Choose a site.
# Assign starting [[skill|skills]] to each dwarf.
# Select an initial load of [[supplies|supplies and equipment]].
# 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 [[Fun|extremely fun]]. Your home civilization will need more than one dwarven place on the map.

[[File:Embark.jpg]] 

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 {{K|u}}, {{K|m}}, {{K|k}}, and {{K|h}} move the embark location around within the Local view. {{K|Shift}}-{{K|u}}, {{K|m}}, {{K|k}}, and {{K|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 {{Key|F#}}-keys; for example, an area with 3 biomes present can be cycled using {{Key|F1}}, {{Key|F2}} and {{Key|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 ==
Main article: [[Biome|biome]]

A '''biome''' is a biotic area with homogeneous features, characterized by distinctive [[plant|plants]], [[creatures|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 ===
Main article: [[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, and being devoid of trees, and lacking a river. Very hot climates may see all its 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 ===
Main article: [[Tree|trees]] and [[Shrub|shrubs]]

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, [[still|brewable materials]], and [[seeds]] for some very helpful above-ground [[Crops|crops]] which are generally only available through trading with Elves.

=== Surroundings ===
Main article: [[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 [[pixie]]s, [[fluffy wambler]]s, or [[unicorn]]s, 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 ===
Main articles: [[Layer]], [[Ore|ore]] and [[Stone|stone]]

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 [[Metal#Weapon_.26_Armor_Quality|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 ===
Main article: [[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 [[aquifer|main page]].

== Changing Views ==
Pressing {{K|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. {{K|*}} and {{K|-}} 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 [[Main:Cacame Awemedinade|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 {{k|e}}mbark by looking at what items you can choose to embark with. If you don't like the options, simply {{k|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 ==
:''Main article: [[Reclaim fortress mode]]''
If you [[Reclaim fortress mode|reclaim the site]] of an abandoned fortress you may see goods, materials, and corpses left from the previous effort. These items will initially be [[forbid|forbidden]] and you will have to [[Reclaim|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 {{k|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 {{k|+}} or {{k|-}} to choose more or less of the highlighted item or skill. When viewing items, hit {{k|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 {{k|Enter}}, then increase the number desired as above ({{k|+}} or {{k|-}}) 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 ===
Main article: [[Skills|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 neighbor 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 [[pick]]s
:* 2 Copper battle [[axe]]s
:* 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 [[seed]]s
:* 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 {{k|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 [[personality|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 {{k|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 ==
Main article: [[Starting build]]

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 <s>problematic</s> [[Main:Fun|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 [[miner]]s and an axe for [[wood cutter]]s. 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''' - <s>never</s> <s>don't</s> NEVER leave without alcohol unless you have a [[brewer]] and a way to gather plants early (untrained [[herbalist]]s designated after embarking are enough) or safe water source (preferably flowing).

= See Also =
*New players may find the [[Quickstart guide]] useful.
*The [[Starting build|Starting Build]] article has more detailed embark strategies.

v0.31:Technical tricks

2012-03-25T05:16:15Z

777: /* More Game Options */ Corrected description of [COFFIN_NO_PETS_DEFAULT] option

{{quality|Exceptional|01:58, 26 August 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}

== Overview ==
In order to configure Dwarf Fortress to your liking there are two files you can edit, init.txt and d_init.txt. The first file, init.txt, contains mostly the settings pertaining to the window, rendering and sound of Dwarf Fortress. The second file, d_init.txt, contains settings that affect game features such as saving and population controls.

== Locating your configuration file ==
The configuration files are in the data\init folder of the directory that you installed Dwarf Fortress to.

== Editing the configuration file ==
You can edit the configuration files with any word processing software or program that can open .txt files. A good program to edit these files in Windows is Editplus or TextPad.
All data in these files is contained in what are called tokens. Each token is defined by the text between an opening square bracket, '[', and the first closing square bracket, ']'. Arguments to the various tokens are separated from a token identifier by a colon, ':'.

== Settings - init.txt ==

=== Sound ===
*[SOUND:ON]
Change the argument from "ON" to "OFF" to completely remove sound and music from the game. If this is "OFF", it will not be possible to change the volume from the in game options menu.

*[VOLUME:255]
Changes the default volume of sound in Dwarf Fortress. The argument can be any value from 0 to 255, with 255 representing 100% volume.

=== Intro Movie ===
*[INTRO:YES]
Change the argument from "YES" to "NO" to turn off the intro movie.

=== Window ===
*[WINDOWED:PROMPT]
Changes the window mode that Dwarf Fortress runs in. If this is "PROMPT" the game will ask you if you want to run in windowed or fullscreen mode. If this is "NO" the game will be fullscreen with no prompt, and if this is "YES" the game will be in windowed mode with no prompt.

*[WINDOWEDX:80]
If this is below 256, this specifies the width of the grid used by Dwarf Fortress with a minimum of 80. As such, the width of the window used will be the product of this value and the width of the font used. If this value is 256 or above, it specifies the width of the window used directly.

*[WINDOWEDY:25]
If this is below 256, this specifies the height of the grid used by Dwarf Fortress with a minimum of 25. As such, the height of the window used will be the product of this value and the height of the font use. If this value is 256 or above, it specifies the height of the window used directly.

[WINDOWEDX:98][WINDOWEDY:98] will make window big enough to display whole 2x2 [[embark]] [[site]] with 8x8 [[tileset]].

*[FONT:curses_640x300.png]
The font file that Dwarf Fortress uses. This value can be any .bmp or .png image in the data/art folder.

*[RESIZABLE:YES]
Can be "YES" or "NO". If this is "YES" you can resize the window while Dwarf Fortress is running.

*[TOPMOST:NO]
If this is set to "YES", the window is kept above all other windows.

=== Fullscreen ===
These settings are used if the [WINDOWED:PROMPT/YES/NO] token is either "NO", or "PROMPT" and the fullscreen option is chosen.

*[FULLSCREENX:0]
The width of the screen in fullscreen mode. If the value are 0, Dwarf Fortress chooses the best resolution for you.

*[FULLSCREENY:0]
The height of the screen in fullscreen mode. If the value is 0, Dwarf Fortress chooses the best resolution for you.

*[FULLFONT:curses_800x600.png]
The font file that Dwarf Fortress uses. This value can be any .bmp or .png image in the data/art folder.

*[BLACK_SPACE:YES]
If this is "NO", tiles will be stretched to fit to the screen if there is a resolution mismatch. If this is "YES", the extra space around the grid is filled with black space and the tiles are left unstretched.

=== Graphics ===
*[GRAPHICS:NO]
Can be "YES" or "NO". If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will use the raw/graphics folder for certain tile graphics. Currently this is limited to [[Graphics set repository|creature graphics]].

*[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDX:0]
The window width used when Dwarf Fortress is in windowed mode.

*[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDY:0]
The window height used when Dwarf Fortress is in windowed mode.

*[GRAPHICS_FONT:curses_square_16x16.png]
The [[Main:Tileset repository|font]] used by Dwarf Fortress when in windowed mode and [GRAPHICS:YES/NO] is "YES".

*[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENX:0]
The width of the screen used by Dwarf Fortress if in fullscreen mode.

*[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENY:0]
The height of the screen used by Dwarf Fortress if in fullscreen mode.

*[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:curses_square_16x16.png]
The font used by Dwarf Fortress when in fullscreen mode and [GRAPHICS:YES/NO] is "YES".

*[GRAPHICS_BLACK_SPACE:YES]
If this is "NO", tiles are stretched to fit window in the case of a resolution mismatch. If this is "YES", the extra space is filled with black space and the tiles are left unstretched.

=== Video Card Options ===

*[PRINT_MODE:2D]
This value changes how Dwarf Fortress draws to the screen. As such, changing this value can significantly change the performance of Dwarf Fortress on your computer. Possible values for this are "2D", "2DSW", "2DASYNC", "STANDARD", "TEXT", "ACCUM_BUFFER", "FRAME_BUFFER", "VBO" and "PARTIAL". A technical description of what these do can be found [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=63667.msg1478550#msg1478550 in this post].
"PARTIAL" print mode takes an additional argument similar to how the PARTIAL_PRINT value worked in previous versions, with the number representing the number of frames a changed tile is rendered before it is skipped.
"TEXT" is only available on Macintosh and Linux.

*[SINGLE_BUFFER:NO]
If this is "NO" Dwarf Fortress will use double buffering, which may reduce flickering of the screen at the expense of a possible (small) drop in frame rate. If this is "YES", double buffering is turned off.

*[ARB_SYNC:NO]
On video cards that support the OpenGL ARB_sync extension, turning this on can greatly improve performance in GPU overload conditions. However, this can cause Dwarf Fortress to crash on some video cards.

*[VSYNC:NO]
If this is set to "YES", when Dwarf Fortress redraws the screen it will wait for the monitor to finish it's vertical retrace. This can negatively impact your FPS if G_FPS is set high, as the game is forced to suspend calculating game frames to wait for the monitor to finish. The main reason to change this to "YES" is if tearing of the game image occurs regularly for you.

*[TEXTURE_PARAM:LINEAR]
Can be either "LINEAR" or "NEAREST". If it is "NEAREST", the texture values use the nearest pixel value without averaging. If it is "LINEAR", the texture values use the average of the adjacent pixels. In terms of what the two options do to the graphics, the "LINEAR" option will appear to blur adjacent pixels and can result in a fuzzy appearance. The "NEAREST" option will produce a sharp, pixelated look but may result in images looking clipped at some different screen resolutions.

=== FPS ===
*[FPS:NO]
If this is "YES" a FPS counter is displayed on the top left corner.

*[FPS_CAP:100]
The game frames per second the game limits itself to. This changes the number of turns calculated per second, not the graphical frames displayed. If this value is 0 the FPS is uncapped.

*[G_FPS_CAP:50]
The graphical frames per second the game attempts to draw. This changes the number of times Dwarf Fortress draws itself to the screen per second. Lower numbers will cause Dwarf Fortress to run faster but skip displaying more game frames between each redraw.
To find the number of game frames that are calculated per redraw done by Dwarf Fortress, divide the value for FPS_CAP by the value of G_FPS_CAP. In the default case, this is 100/50=2, so every second frame calculated dwarf fortress will redraw to the screen.

=== Priority ===
*[PRIORITY:NORMAL]
Change this to affect the process priority of Dwarf Fortress. Higher priorities mean that Dwarf Fortress will run faster and other programs will run slower. Possible values are "REALTIME", "HIGH", "ABOVE_NORMAL", "NORMAL", "BELOW_NORMAL" and "IDLE".

=== Game Options ===
*[ZOOM_SPEED:10]
How fast the game zooms. A value of 10 corresponds to increasing grid size by 10 units each time you zoom.

[RECENTER_INTERFACE_SHUTDOWN_MS:0]
This controls the number of milliseconds that must pass before input works again after the view recenters on an event in dwarf mode.

[COMPRESSED_SAVES:YES]
Change this to "NO" if you want to leave save uncompressed. If "YES", saves are compressed in the .zip format to save space.

=== Mouse ===
*[MOUSE:YES]
Determines if the game accepts mouse input.

*[MOUSE_PICTURE:NO]
If the game should display a picture in place of the system mouse icon. The picture lags if Dwarf Fortress is lagging.

=== Keyboard ===
*[KEY_HOLD_MS:250]
The number of milliseconds before holding a key causes it to be repeated.

*[KEY_REPEAT_MS:150]
The number of milliseconds between consecutive repetitions of a held key.

*[KEY_REPEAT_ACCEL_LIMIT:8]
*[KEY_REPEAT_ACCEL_START:10]
If you set KEY_REPEAT_ACCEL_LIMIT above one, then after KEY_REPEAT_ACCEL_START repetitions the repetition delay will smoothly decrease until repetition is this number of times faster than at the start.

*[MACRO_MS:150]
The number of milliseconds between macro instructions.

== Settings - d_init.txt ==

=== Save Behavior ===
*[AUTOSAVE:NONE]
When Dwarf Fortress should automatically save your game. If this is "NONE", Dwarf Fortress never saves your game for you. Possible values are "NONE", "SEASONAL" and "YEARLY".

*[AUTOBACKUP:NO]
If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will back up your save file each time it autosaves your game.

*[AUTOSAVE_PAUSE:NO]
If Dwarf Fortress should pause the game each time it autosaves for you.

*[INITIAL_SAVE:NO]
If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will save the game immediately after you embark.

=== More Game Options ===
*[IDLERS:TOP]
Where to display the number of idlers. The value can be either "TOP", "BOTTOM", or "OFF".

*[PAUSE_ON_LOAD:YES]
If "YES", Dwarf Fortress starts Fortress mode paused.

*[TEMPERATURE:YES]
Turns on or off temperature. If temperature is off, being adjacent to lava will not cause objects (or creatures) to burn, nor will dwarves have any problems running around on top of glaciers naked if they so desire. Direct contact with lava or firebreath will still cause lots of Fun though.

*[WEATHER:YES]
Turns on or off weather. If weather is off it will never rain or snow.

*[ECONOMY:YES]
Turns on or off the fortress mode dwarven economy. This has no effect, since the economy does not function in v0.31.

*[INVADERS:YES]
Turns on or off fortress mode sieges. Turning this off for your first couple of games may make the game easier to start with.

*[CAVEINS:YES]
If this is "YES" it is possible for cave-ins to occur.

*[ARTIFACTS:YES]
Turns on or off strange moods and the resulting artifacts.

*[ZERO_RENT:NO]
If this is "YES", when the dwarven economy kicks in all rooms will cost nothing, allowing even the poorest of haulers to have a room fit for a king. This has no effect, since the economy does not function in v0.31.

*[TESTING_ARENA:YES]
Turns on or off the testing arena.

*[WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_DWF:NO]
Turns on or off the spread of blood spatter and other contaminants between creatures and ground tiles in [[Fortress mode]]. As contaminants are [[Blood|buggy]] and can have a major negative impact on [[FPS]] in [[Fortress mode]], it is recommended to leave this set at "NO" for now.

*[WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_ADV:YES]
Turns on or off the spread of blood spatter and other contaminants between creatures and ground tiles in [[v0.31:Adventure_mode|Adventure Mode]].

*[PATH_COST:1:2:5:25]
The path finding costs associated with different traffic values.

*[COFFIN_NO_PETS_DEFAULT:NO]
When building a burial receptacle, the option to allow pets to be buried in it will default to NO if this is set to "YES".

*[STORE_DIST_ITEM_DECREASE:20]
*[STORE_DIST_SEED_COMBINE:1000]
*[STORE_DIST_BUCKET_COMBINE:1000]
*[STORE_DIST_BARREL_COMBINE:1000]
*[STORE_DIST_BIN_COMBINE:1000]

*[SHOW_IMP_QUALITY:YES]
If "YES" Dwarf Fortress will display the quality of items in the name. If you get annoyed by seeing items like *<*sword*>* you can
get rid of the outside ** by setting this to NO.

*[SHOW_ALL_HISTORY_IN_DWARF_MODE:YES]
If "YES", inspecting engravings and artifacts in Fortress Mode will have an extended history displayed.

*[LOG_MAP_REJECTS:NO]
If this is "YES", Dwarf Fortress will log the reason why maps were rejected during world gen in the log.txt file.

=== Adventure Mode ===
*[MORE:YES]
*[DISPLAY_LENGTH:23]
*[ADVENTURER_TRAPS:NO]
If you set this to "YES" your adventurer will trigger the traps of your old fortresses
*[ADVENTURER_ALWAYS_CENTER:YES]
*[ADVENTURER_Z_VIEWS:UNHIDDEN:9]

=== Nicknames ===
*[NICKNAME_DWARF:REPLACE_FIRST]
*[NICKNAME_ADVENTURE:REPLACE_FIRST]
*[NICKNAME_LEGENDS:REPLACE_FIRST]

=== Embark Options ===
*[EMBARK_WARNING_ALWAYS:NO]
If this value is YES, then it will always pop up a warning screen when you embark (Like you get when you have [[v0.31:Water#Salt Water|Salt Water]] or an [[v0.31:Aquifer|Aquifer]] on-site)
*[SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:FINDER]
*[EMBARK_RECTANGLE:4:4]
The size of the default embark site.

=== Wounds ===
*[WOUND_COLOR_NONE:7:0:1]
The color of body parts when there are no recorded active wounds on the part.
Default = white

*[WOUND_COLOR_MINOR:6:0:0]
The color of body parts when there is any damage that doesn't have functional/structural consequences (might be heavy bleeding though).
Default = brown

*[WOUND_COLOR_INHIBITED:6:0:1]
The color of body parts when there is any muscular, structural or functional damage without total loss.
Default = yellow

*[WOUND_COLOR_FUNCTION_LOSS:3:0:1]
The color of body parts when an important function of the part is completely lost, but the part is structurally sound (or at least partially intact).
Default = bright cyan

*[WOUND_COLOR_BROKEN:4:0:1]
The color of body parts when the part has lost all structural integrity or muscular ability.
Default = bright red

*[WOUND_COLOR_MISSING:0:0:1]
The color of body parts when the part is completely gone.
Default = dark gray

=== Tiles ===

*[SKY:178:3:0:0]
The tile and color of areas that are far below the currently displayed z level.
The format is SKY:<character>:<foreground color>:<background color>:<brightness>. <character> can be either an ASCII number or a character in single quotes, like '#'.

*[CHASM:250:0:0:1]
The tile and color of areas that are far below the currently displayed z level while indoors.
The format is the same as for SKY above.

*[PILLAR_TILE:'O']
The tile displayed for pillars. Pillars are created at the ends of strings of wall tiles.

*[VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES]
If this is "YES" the ground will be varied randomly using the tiles ,.`'.
If this is "NO", only the period will be used for ground tiles.

*[ENGRAVINGS_START_OBSCURED:NO]
If this is "YES", all engravings are displayed initially looking the same. Otherwise all engravings have a random tile given to them initially.

*[SHOW_FLOW_AMOUNTS:NO]
If "YES" Dwarf Fortress displays water as numbers from 1-7 indicating depth.

Dwarf Fortress Wiki:Improvement Drive

2012-03-25T04:53:42Z

777: Emphasizing critical need to fix dead-end DF2012 redirect pages

[[Category:Wikiprojects]]
*New Player Experience
**Perhaps the tutorials should be reworked a bit, and made more prominent on the main page. Agree / Disagree?
** I'm working on the QuickStart guide for 31.16, all feedback appreciated. Maybe someone could try following my instructions, see where it gets them and what I've forgotten? [[User:GhostDwemer|GhostDwemer]] 00:01, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
**Should we include a link to Mayday's graphical compilation on the main page? The default tileset can be more than intimidating for some.

*Overall Site Improvements
**What should we improve?
**There may be odd kinks to work out still on the website, as I do not program / have experience in PHP (Ruby on Rails is what I do my web programming in).
**With new versions its becomes difficult to to find the topic pages for older versions. A lot of the v0.34.04 pages are empty while there is plenty of information on the v0.31.25 pages or older. Searching on a topic often gives a redirect to an empty 2012 page with no link or other easy way to get to the older version. The bot that is making the redirect pages need to include a link to the older wiki's when a page is empty or simply redirect directly to newest version that actually have content. --[[User:Hostergaard|Hostergaard]] 12:40, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
***This is a pretty serious impediment to basic usage of the site. There are many many common search topics that lead to these DF2012 dead end pages. A first time user of the wiki will be lost and frustrated, and even more experienced users will become grumpy. I think the best option is to have the redirect pages go to the newest version that has content, or to have all non-existant v0.34.* pages created as copies of the existing v0.31.25 page. --[[User:777|-777]] 04:53, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

*Verify Time!
** [[:Category:Verify]] has a lot of stuff we need to verify.

==Recent Stuffs==
*Favicon replaced. 23:16, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
*Caching enabled. 09:11, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
*Compression enabled. 09:11, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
*Captcha plugin 'upgraded' to reCaptcha, which is a stronger captcha than what we were using. 01:46, 27 September 2009 (UTC)
*Anonymous user edits enabled - we'll see how this goes. 01:46, 27 September 2009 (UTC)
*We have block templates, woohoo! 10:28, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
*SVG images are now enabled. Caveat: the on the fly svg -> png converter is stupid when it comes to transparent backgrounds.10:34, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
*Ported to postreSQL, installed a parser extension. 12:51, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
*I don't update this nearly as often as I should. Integration with wikimedia's commons has been enabled, as of a while ago. Also, we have namespaces for Modifications and Utilities now! 09:12, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
*This page is not updated often enough. We've updated the {{tl|av}} template to be a bit more user friendly. 00:53, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
*Starting work on a <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:Factual|Factual]]<nowiki>}}</nowiki> template for things that pertain to real life, but not necessarily DF. Feel free to contribute! 11:55, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

*Just noticed "MEGABEAST_CAP" in my world_gen.txt file, and wanted to know if reducing it would allow me to gen a world with global population counts above 1000. But I can't find anything about it on the wiki. In fact, there's a lot of stuff in that file that I can't find info on in either "Advanced world generation" or "World tags" pages, but those are both marked "exceptional quality"... should they be?

v0.31:Aqueduct

2012-02-26T09:35:18Z

777: Readability

{{av}}
{{Quality|Fine|08:38, 9 June 2010 (UTC)}}

An '''aqueduct''' is any set of elements that carries [[water]] or [[magma]] from one location to another. An aqueduct is formed by a combination of [[channel]]s, [[dig|tunnels]], and natural or constructed [[floor]]s and [[wall]]s creating the path for the fluid to follow. Aqueducts can tap into the side of a natural source or use [[pump]]s and gravity to get the fluid to flow to its destination.

Care needs to be taken in the creation of any aqueduct - namely, certain measures like roofing over channels and installing safety valves - are sometimes necessary in order to handle [[pressure|pressurized]] fluids. Since in-game pressure sometimes behaves in counterintuitive ways, it is generally a good idea to familiarize oneself with its mechanics before undertaking any large project, lest [[flood|something unintended occurs]].

Below is an example of the most primitive type of aqueduct, the open surface channel.

'''Simple aqueduct'''
top view
≈≈≈......{{char|186}}++ ≈ = [[River]]/[[lake]]
≈≈≈......{{char|186}}++ ≈ = [[Channel]] filled with water
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈{{char|186}}≈{{char|9}} +. = [[Floor]] (indoor/outdoor)
≈≈≈≈.....{{char|186}}++ {{char|186}} = [[Wall]]
≈≈≈≈.....{{char|186}}++ {{char|9}} = [[Well]]

== See also ==
:* [[Water]]
:* [[Magma]]
:* [[Screw pump]]
:* [[Pressure]]

{{Category|Constructions}}

v0.31:Bridge

2012-02-26T08:30:22Z

777: /* Notes */ Readability

{{quality|Exceptional|22:21, 10 November 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Bridges''' are extremely useful buildings for crossing dangerous terrain and also for fortress defense. Using them to control [[flow|fluids]] can save a ton of mechanisms and time, especially when the fluid in question is free-flowing and not pressurized (by [[pump]], [[river]] or hydrostatic anything) and needs a wide tunnel.

==Building Bridges==

Bridges can be built ({{k|b}} -> {{k|g}}) of [[metal]], [[stone]] or [[wood]]. They are first designed by an [[architect]], then require a specialist worker for the material used (e.g. a [[mason]] for a stone bridge). The size of the bridge can be altered with {{k|u}}{{k|m}}{{k|k}}{{k|h}} while placing it, up to a maximum size of 10 squares in each direction. The bridge must be anchored to a solid surface on at least one edge. Before placing the bridge ensure that the bridge raises in the direction you want it to using {{k|w}}{{k|a}}{{k|d}}{{k|x}} or retracts using {{k|s}}.

'''Materials''':
When choosing materials, the order that they are presented on the list determines how the bridge will be labeled, NOT WHAT ORDER YOU PICK THE MATERIALS! The highest one up on the list is the core construction material. This will define the color of the bridge (and possibly how fire resistant it is, although this hasn't been tested extensively). Materials are placed on the list in order of distance, so simply make sure the primary material is the closest or at least closer than any secondary materials you wish to use. You will need the number of tiles divided by four plus one ( Tiles/4+1 ) of material to build the bridge.

Material does not appear to influence dragonfire which will destroy bridges. Some magma-safe materials including iron have proven non-resistant (Needs further testing).

Big bridges can take weeks or even months to complete. You can shorten construction time by moving the materials to the site before starting construction, and by using blocks instead of rocks. While the material-gathering time is the same for rocks vs blocks, the actual construction is three times faster for blocks.

==Raising and Retracting Bridges==

All bridges in DF can be raised or retracted by linking it to a [[lever]]. This requires a [[mechanic's workshop]] and a dwarf with the [[mechanics]] labor activated.

If a bridge is set to retract when the lever is pulled, the bridge essentially disappears dropping anything (friend, foe, or object) on the bridge onto whatever is underneath. Clearly this can be used to drop your enemies to rocky/watery/fiery deaths (or anything more imaginative you can think up!).

If a bridge is set to raise when the lever is pulled, the bridge becomes a [[wall]] along the edge selected with the {{k|w}}{{k|a}}{{k|d}}{{k|x}} keys when placing the bridge. The resulting wall is always one z-level tall, regardless of the length of the bridge. The wall acts as if it was [[construction|constructed]], rendering it invulnerable to [[building destroyer]]s. {{Verify}} The bridge also "moves" to this position very fast, firing anything on the bridge into the air. The key advantage to raising bridges is the creation of a wall when the bridge is raised. This can be used to block fortress entrances/corridors. Using 2 bridges at opposite ends of a corridor creates a very large and simple trap by walling in enemies. Or... Smashing them to tiny bits if placed to raise facing each other, with no space in between. For added effect, place [[pressure plate]]s on both ends to raise the bridge when stepped on, to fling them, if there is a [[floor]] directly above, they will be stunned, (If there is a floor beneath the bridge) and if nobody is on the pressure plate, they have to be lucky to not be smashed on the floor when the bridges come down. (If there is no floor beneath the bridge) they will fall, sometimes into something [[water|very,]] [[magma|very]] [[megabeast|bad.]]

Walls cannot be built along map edges. Because bridges can be built along map edges and then raised to act as walls, they can be used to control where enemies spawn on the map.

The lowering of a drawbridge can also be used as a [[dwarven atom smasher|waste disposal]] for unwanted stones, [[refuse]], [[goblin]]s (dead or alive), legendary [[cheese]] makers and [[nobles]], to name a few. Even fluids get destroyed (this is especially useful considering lack of chasms in the new version). However, lowering a drawbridge onto a sufficiently large creature (such as a [[forgotten beast]]) simply destroys the bridge.

==Notes==

Bridges will not operate if any one creature of [[List of creatures by adult size|size 1,200,000]] is on them. This weight limit is not cumulative - a bridge will still retract if a hundred goblins are standing on it, but a single rutherer accompanying those goblins will prevent the bridge from operating. Attempting to lower a drawbridge onto such a creature (in order to [[Dwarven atom smasher|atom-smash]] it) will cause the bridge itself to deconstruct.

It is impossible to channel out stone that is directly under a raiseable bridge when its in the raised position. Likewise digging a ramp under a raised bridge will not remove the floor tile.

Non-[[magma-safe]] bridges will heat up and eventually melt if the center tiles get covered in magma or exposed to [[dragon]] fire, whether the bridge is raised, lowered, or even retracted.

While bridges do not provide structural [[support]], the game will still allow you to place unsupported [[construction]]s adjacent to them which will result in an immediate [[cave-in]] once completed, often tossing the unlucky mason off the edge to a horrible death.

Destroying bridges can be hazardous, as dwarves are not as compunctuous as with constructions and diggings to make sure no one is standing on them before destroying them.

A raised bridge cannot be linked to a lever from the inside - the mechanic must be able to stand in the center of the bridge.

==Strategies==

SELF CLEANING BRIDGE 

Ever have a horde of goblins sitting on your bridge and preventing you from admiring the elegant beauty of your entrance? I have a simple solution for you!! 

I know what you may be thinking, "Could my bridge, with a dozen goblins standing on it, be raised?" The answer is yes! A normal bridge can't!. But, with a little careful design and some dwarven ingenuity, you too can make a bridge that will stop almost any foe! 

Step 1: Build a pit! 

Don't just build any pit; it needs a special shape for the bridge to function properly. 

EXAMPLE: x = channeled out section o = solid ground 

...EXIT.... 
.xoxxxxox.. 
.xoxxxxox.. 
.xoxxxxox.. 
.xoxxxxox.. 
.xoxxxxox.. 
.xoxxxxox.. 
.xxxxxxxx.. 
.xxxxxxxx.. 
.xxxxxxxx.. 
.ENTRANCE.. 

If this is your only entrance, be careful to leave ramps at the corners so your dwarves can travel through until the bridge is finished. 

Step 2: Bridges. Plural. 

We will be making many small bridges. Each number designates an individual bridge (FIRE PROOF MATERIALS ARE STRONGLY RECOMMENDED). 

< > = bridge lifting direction (01) = bridge "1" 
....EXIT..... 
.x<01)(02>x.. 
.x<03)(04>x.. 
.x<05)(06>x.. 
.x<07)(08>x.. 
.x<09)(10>x.. 
.x(==11==)x.. 
.x(==11==)x.. 
.x(==11==)x.. 
..ENTRANCE... 

Notice that "11" has no opening direction, because it needs to retract so you can use catapults or ballista to hit pests around the entrance or anything trapped in the middle. In this design the exit bridges are all 3 x 1 in size.
This can be any length or width (up to 20 spaces wide). Only the basic shape is important. 

Step 3: Arming the trap! 

This is the most simple step, but also probably the longest one. 

Link all of individual bridges to ONE lever. Yeah, it takes a bit, but it's worth it. 

Step FINAL: Destruction. 

Wait for some unsuspecting victims to begin crossing your bridge, and then flip the lever. Getting proper timing down will likely take practice. Sometimes using the repeat order on the "pull lever" command can be very useful too. 

Anything small will be tossed up into the air and then fall into your pit. Anything too large for the bridges to lift (titans) will still be trapped and waiting for your archers / siege weapons / other nefarious plans. 

there are many useful variations of this design but the key to its overall success is a series of interlocking bridges that are all linked to one lever. the version that was used to SLAY A SPIDER TITAN WITHOUT LOSING ANY DWARVES!(the spider titan was trapped on one of the middle bridges and killed by an untrained crossbowman) is drawn below. (the actual bridge used was 6 times longer than this but this demonstrates the basic principle.) there was also a fortification wall running along one side of the bridge that the crossbowman fired through.

bridges 01 and 07 at the ends are retracting while the rest of the bridges alternate which direction they open. the channeled out area is drawn on the right.

....EXIT...........EXIT..... 
.x(==01==)x....xxxxxxxx.. 
.x(==01==)x....xxxxxxxx.. 
.x(==01==)x....xxxxxxxx.. 
.x<==02==)x...xoxxxxxx.. 
.x(==03==>x...xxxxxxox.. 
.x<==04==)x...xoxxxxxx.. 
.x(==05==>x...xxxxxxox.. 
.x<==06==)x...xoxxxxxx.. 
.x(==07==)x....xxxxxxxx.. 
.x(==07==)x....xxxxxxxx.. 
.x(==07==)x....xxxxxxxx.. 
..ENTRANCE......ENTRANCE.. 

DISCLAIMER: we are not responsible for inept or lazy dwarves that fail to operate the bridge. Standing on the bridge when the lever is pulled may result in injury or death. Many goblins were harmed during the design of this bridge... and some dwarves.

SINGLE LEVER AIRLOCK 

Normally, bridges in open states permit movement, while bridges in closed states restrict it. This can be irritating in the design of an airlock system, as such systems usually either require cumbersome logic systems or multiple levers to function correctly. Using floodgates or hatches for these systems may be dangerous, as they are vulnerable to building destroyers. Instead, consider the following design:

XXXXXXR____ 
D_____/

The retracting bridge on the higher z-level is used not to permit access across a channel, but instead to block access to a ramp. Thus, a single lever can be attached to both the drawbridge and the retracting bridge, preventing airlock vulnerabilities due to lever timing. With a suitably long distance between the two bridges, the lever can be placed between the two, permitting easy movement of individual dwarves between isolated zones, via lever profiles.

== More useful uses for a retractable bridge ==
* '''Remote controlled entrances to your keep.''' Built at the top of a ramp coming out to the surface, or at the bottom of a [[hidden fun stuff|very deep hole]], these lever-controlled bridges block flying building destroyers and anything else the world throws at you ([[magma safe]] material may be advisable for special situations).
* '''Ocean drains.''' Dig out ramps leading up to the first level ''below'' an ocean. Build a bridge on that level, directly over the ramps (be sure to leave them in place!) and link it to a trigger. Carefully seal off the chamber to make it water tight. Now with the bridge in place, designate ramps up to the ocean adjacent to the bridge. Diggers with access to the level ''below'' the bridge can dig those ramps up from the level of the bridge, allowing the ocean to fill the chamber; even with the ramp squares underwater they can still dig them out. And not a drop of water will touch them... provided they clear out before you pull the lever.
* '''Caravan exits.''' A bridge to nowhere, built well above ground level at the edge of the map, can sometimes serve as a handy exit for caravans and diplomats when goblins harass. But sometimes it stops working, and I'm not sure why.
* '''[[Cave-in]]s.''' Since bridges don't support adjoining rock, it is possible to set up a cave-in so that dust can't come up, dwarves can't fall down, and flying creatures can't come up from beneath the cave-in before you set it off.
* '''Stops on the elevator.''' Designate a dumpsite or set up a floodgate at the top of a shaft; use multiple remote-controlled bridges to decide on which level the stuff, water, magma etc. gets off. (bonus: use water falling at one end of the bridge to flush stuff off that was dropped onto the other end without the manual labor)
{{buildings}}

v0.31:Exploit

2012-02-19T08:35:01Z

777: Grammar correction

{{quality|Exceptional|15:49, 24 August 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}

An '''exploit''' is a quirk of a game that allows players to gain what other players may consider an unfair advantage, usually by making use of a feature that is not working properly or which defies logic. 'Exploiting the game' is distinct from '[[Main:cheating|cheating]]' because exploits occur within the game as written and do not need any external [[Main:utilities|utilities]] or [[Main:modding|modding]]. Whether a player chooses to make use of an exploit or not depends on their personal taste; given that [[Main:Dwarf Fortress|Dwarf Fortress]] is a single-player game, the user alone can decide what liberties to take and what options to shun. Among DF players there is much discussion about what actually should be considered an exploit, going from making sweetpod syrup instead of sugar, growing crops in winter, or even underground, as the one extreme, to justifying 'water wheel batteries' as the other. This page takes a rather relaxed approach in that you considering it an exploit is basically enough to add it, if you don't get too much opposition.

== Atom Smasher ==
{{main|Dwarven atom smasher}}

A [[drawbridge]], when rapidly triggered on and off, can be used to obliterate some creatures or items beneath it. The drawbridge will be destroyed if it is used to crush a creature of too large a size.

==Manager Exercise Program==

As a [[Manager]], skill is gained as tasks are approved, not completed. Simply by queuing lots of jobs ({{key|j}} {{key|m}} {{key|q}}) (and providing a meager office), the manager will quickly level to [[legendary]] as an [[Organizer]]. The tasks can then be removed once approved.

==Merchant Swindles==

There are a variety of ways to steal cargo from [[merchant]]s without seizing it; all amount to naked theft. Tearing down the [[trade depot]] while the merchants are there is the easiest way.

Also, marking items for [[dump]]ing, using view creature mode ({{key|v}}), the stocks menu ({{key|z}}), items in room mode ({{key|t}}), or mass dump mode ({{key|d}})-({{key|b}})-({{key|d}}) then marking the entire depot, lets you relieve merchants of their goods. Just reclaim the items from your garbage dump [[zone]] later. You can even take clothing and equipment off merchant and guards this way.

You can make a wall around the merchants (and even the poor animals) and let them starve to death, letting you take what ever you want. Wait quite a while for them to starve. They will become [[Insanity|very angry]] if you do, so never open the door once they are on the brink of death.

However, the merchants will consider any lost goods to be stolen goods regardless of the method used to take possession of them, or used to destroy them.{{Verify}} See [[40d:Trading#Note_that_the_civ|the 40d page]] and [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=43771.msg829692#msg829692 This forum post]. So unless you specifically want to take the clothing off the backs of the merchants or steal from your own civ, you might as well just seize the goods anyway.

== Quantum stockpiles ==

By designating a garbage pit zone instead of a [[stockpile]], you may store an infinite number of objects in a single tile by dumping them, then reclaiming them when you want to use them.

A similar effect may be achieved by building a wall two tiles in front of a catapult and digging a channel between the wall and catapult. By firing the catapult at the wall, the stone falls into the trench. The stone will pile up in the channel, putting it out of sight and out of mind. Not only does this train [[siege operator]]s, but it clears the stone that your legendary [[miner]]s leave.

Another way to quantum stockpile is to not have appropriate stockpiles to move items back you moved to the trading depot. The depot can hold an infinite number of items, and those items will not be removed if there is nowhere else to place them. This is also useful for anything you want to trade anyway.

=== The Undump ===

If your stockpiles keep filling up (usually furniture, ammo, refuse and food), [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=f125b2383d9b29a408343464221912a1&topic=92208.msg2577018#msg2577018 this] forum post introduced an automatic quantum stockpile design, that promises to do to stockpile space management what danger rooms do to military training.

Setup:
H Hatch cover
===== ^ pressure plate, citizens trigger, linked to hatch
^sHs= = Wall
===== s Stockpile (same type)

The idea is that haulers try to place some item on the right stockpile, step on the pressure plate and make the hatch cover retract. This makes them cancel the hauling job because they can't reach the right stockpile. They then drop the item on the left stockpile, on top of as big of a pile as you want.
Issues with this design:
#It's slow, because the one target stockpile generates only one job at a time. If you have more than one target stockpile they create lag because of pathing issues. You probably want to keep your normal stockpiles and use the undump to clean them up slowly. At which point you could consider just using the normal quantum stockpile dumping. Or you build more undumps.
#Job cancellation spam. You can turn that off.
#Oftentimes, dwarves drop the item on top of the pressure plate instead of on the stockpile. A feeder stockpile just outside the undump helps here.
#You obviously need some materials to build it.
#You need to create an open space tile where the hatch cover is (channelling only leaves a ramp), which means digging in the level below.
#You want to set the pressure plate to the lowest minimum weight (10000, which gets a zero cut off and displays as 1000). This can get tedious, so getting a macro is advised.
#If your stockpile management is exceptional already, the undump won't be of much use to you.
However, there is a multitude of potential applications that get discussed in [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92241.0 this] thread.

== Building destroyer door ==

Forbid something a dwarf is carrying as he goes through a door, and he'll drop it. The door won't close and won't stop any normal creature from going through, but building destroyers seem to stop in their tracks, waiting for it to close before moving on. Note: your civilians can pass the creature safely, but attacking it cancels your protection. {{Verify}}

== HFS's back door ==

There's a convoluted way to dig down through [[semi-molten rock]] and evade the head-on encounter with [[hidden fun stuff]]. See the page for [[semi-molten rock]] for details.

== Forgotten beast zoo ==

Wall off all the passageways into your lowest level at the outermost square of the map - except one, which leads to a little vestibule surrounded by fortifications. Wave hello to the various ungainly "[[forgotten beast]]s" which accumulate inside.

== Perpetual Motion ==

A [[screw pump]] requires 10 power to move water; a [[water wheel]] supplies 100 power if it's got water moving it. Arrange the former to feed the latter, while the latter powers the former, and you can get perpetual motion going - with a surplus of power available. See [[Water wheel#Perpetual motion]] for more details.

== Urist McAdventurer the Shield-wall ==

Adventurers are not limited in the number of items they can hold in their hands, allowing them to equip a virtually unlimited number of shields or bucklers with little effect to the adventurer's performance. This offers multiple chances to block attacks (vastly reducing the number that cause damage) and quickly trains up the shield user skill, further increasing the effectiveness of those shields. There is an indirect limit on how many shields you can equip based on how the total weight of your adventurer's items affects your speed, but the tradeoff between wearing a dozen (or more) shields is well worth the minor reduction in speed.

== And we'll throw the barrel/bag in for free ==

On [[embark]] buying things which are stored in [[barrel]]s gets the barrel for free, with at most 10 items per barrel, so, for example, the 15 units of randomly chosen [[meat]] which come with the default supplies will get you two free barrels, one completely filled with 10 units of meat and one half filled with 5 units of meat; you get another two free barrels from the 15 units of randomly chosen [[fish]]. You can get rid of all of that food, then for the same cost select one unit each of meat from 30 different kinds of animals, giving you 30 free barrels instead of only 4, since each different kind of animal meat is put in its own barrel. Note that different types of meat from the same kind of animal goes into a single barrel, so choosing 1 yak brain + 1 yak eye + 1 yak spleen will get you only one free barrel instead of three.

The same thing goes for things stored in [[bag]]s. Each unit of [[sand]] comes in its own bag, and since each unit of sand costs only 1 embark point while bags cost a minimum of 10 embark points each, you can get bags for ten times cheaper by buying sand, then [[dumping]] out the sand after embark.

== Infinite Adamantine / Metals ==

Because one bar of metal produces 25 bolts and a single bolt can be melted to 0.1 bars of metal, you can create unlimited adamantine wafers in your fortress using a clever setup with marksdwarves to seperate the stacks of adamantine bolts into single bolts. See http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=51423.0

== Quick trade goods ==

Since [[trap component#spiked ball|spiked balls]] have an extremely high base [[item value]] of ''126'', they can be produced en masse from cheap [[wood]] or other materials and sold off to unsuspecting merchants. This makes for quick cash in any fortress that has a skilled carpenter and an excess of wood on hand.

User:777

2012-02-04T06:51:03Z

777: Created page with "I am 777, DF enthusiast & wiki participant."

I am 777, DF enthusiast & wiki participant.

v0.31:Guppy

2011-12-02T06:46:48Z

777: proofing

{{Quality|Exceptional|23:56, 9 June 2010 (UTC)}}
{{verminlookup/0}}
{{av}}
{{creaturedesc}}

[[File:Vermin-Guppy.JPG|thumb|left|Admired for its coloration.]]

'''Guppies''' are a type of {{L|vermin}} {{L|fish}}. They are found in {{L|tropical}} {{L|river|rivers}} and {{L|lake|lakes}} year-round, and are a ready source of {{L|food}} when {{L|fish cleaning|cleaned}} at a {{L|fishery}}.

{{gamedata}}
{{Vermin}}

v0.31:Combat skill

2011-11-27T06:21:31Z

777: /* Weapon skills */

{{quality|Exceptional|20:17, 26 December 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}

''Until more is known about each individual skill, and on the suspicion that much will be parallel and/or related, and so that all information/discussion can be collected in one place (for now, at least), all "combat skills" will redirect here, at least until it becomes more clear if/how we should break them up.''

== General combat skills ==

'''General Combat skills''' are a category of skills that are collectively unrelated to whether a dwarf is using weapons or armor but are useful for combat.

:* Archer
:* Biter
:* Dodger
:* Fighter
:* Kicker
:* Striker
:* Wrestler

'''Archer''' skill increases with the use of any ranged attack, including throwing. Its exact function is unknown, but when tested in {{L|arena}} mode with two dwarves, one no skill and one grand master on isolated pillars with bows, the grand master shot the no skill dwarf with far greater accuracy.

'''Biter''' skill increases whenever a character chooses to bite an opponent. This is probably the most effective attack for a creature whose biting causes a {{L|syndrome}}, but some {{L|immigrant}}s will arrive with this skill as well, and unarmed combatants will occasionally learn a bit when they chose to bite during a combat.

'''Dodger''' aids creatures in avoidance, causing enemies to miss more often. Scanning of combat reports suggest that dodging is very common and effective - assuming that messages referring to dodging are in essence caused by the dodger skill. Dodging can, unfortunately, cause dwarves to fall through z levels into chasms, pits, or water; they do not attempt to avoid dodging into perilous locales. In version{{v|0.31.17}} dodging became even more commonplace because unlike previous versions even creatures lying on the ground can dodge now ("scramble" and "roll").

The '''Fighter''' skill increases with each melee attack (from or to a target), no matter what kind of weapon is used, and can increase rather quickly. Its use or significance is currently not known. However, when tested in arena mode with two dwarves, one unskilled and one grand master fighter, the one with fighter skill won consistently while armed with any of the default weapons. Unarmed dwarves showed no preference.

'''Kicker''' skill is increased by kicking in unarmed combat. Stance strikes from kicking tend to have a blunt {{L|attack type}}.

'''Striker''' skill is increased by throwing punches and scratching with claws or nails in unarmed combat.

{{L|Wrestling|'''Wrestler'''}} skill pertains to incapacitating enemies by holding limbs. Wrestlers are generally unable to kill much, but they may make killing easier for their armed comrades. Their punches do kill fellow dwarves when tantruming. Wrestlers can strangle enemies unconscious, break joints, and even take away weapons and armor, but the AI is rather unlikely to do so (making {{L|adventurer mode|adventurer}} wrestlers much more effective).

== Equipment skills ==

'''Equipment skills''' are associated with the use of non-weapon equipment, and as a class increase dwarf survivability.

:* Armor User
:* Shield User

'''Armor User''' skill is related to how well a dwarf moves in {{L|armor}}, and increases whenever a dwarf wearing armor is attacked. Higher levels of this skill reduces the encumbrance penalties of armor, allowing dwarves wearing full steel plate to move at normal speed. Arena testing also indicates that armor users become tired less easily than non armor wearers (300 vs 100 announcements vs bronze colossus) Because even leather {{L|clothes}} count as armor, this skill often appears at dabbling level on civilians who briefly struggle with a {{L|kobold}} {{L|thief}} or predatory animals.

'''Shield User''' increases whenever a dwarf uses a {{L|shield}} or {{L|buckler}} to block an attack, which is often. Shields increase survivability of dwarves a great deal, and can block anything from a {{L|goblin}} axe to {{L|dragon|dragonfire}}.

== Weapon skills ==

'''Weapon skills''' are associated with the use of a particular {{L|weapon}} type, even if that weapon type is "thrown {{L|vomit}}" in adventure mode. The name of many of these skills is dependent on species: a dwarven spear user will be known as a 'Speardwarf'.
:* Axeman
:* Blowgunner
:* Bowman
:* Crossbowman or Marksdwarf
:* Hammerdwarf
:* Knife User
:* Lasher
:* Maceman
:* Misc. Object User
:* Pikeman
:* Spearman
:* Swordsman
:* Thrower

'''Axeman''' skill allows characters to use axes, great axes, and halberds more effectively.

'''Blowgunner''' allows characters to use blowguns more effectively.

'''Bowman''' skill allows characters to use bows more effectively.

'''Crossbowman''' skill allows characters to use crossbows more effectively. The dwarven version is called '''Marksdwarf'''.

'''Hammerdwarf''' skill allows characters to use crossbows in melee, mauls, and war hammers more effectively.

'''Knife User''' skill allows characters to use large daggers and knives more effectively.

'''Lasher''' skill allows characters to use whips and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scourge scourges] more effectively.

'''Maceman''' skill allows characters to use flails, maces, and morningstars more effectively.

'''Misc. Object User''' allows characters to use objects like tables and chairs more effectively as weapons. In fortress mode, this skill tends to increase when dwarves tantrum and break some heads with a +Granite Throne+. It also is used with shields, making it useful if a military dwarf is disarmed (either literally or not).

'''Pikeman''' skill allows characters to use pikes more effectively.

'''Spearman''' skill allows characters to use spears more effectively.

'''Swordsman''' skill allows characters to use blowguns and bows in melee, long swords, scimitars, short swords, and two-handed swords more effectively.

'''Thrower''' skill allows characters to throw miscellaneous objects more effectively.

==See also==
* [[User:Shinziril#Skills|Outstanding research]] on several combat skills by Shinziril

{{skills}}