Skill

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

v50.15 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

See also: Combat skill

Skills are used by dwarves to accomplish almost every task in the game. A higher level of a skill allows a dwarf to accomplish the respective task more quickly and/or more effectively. Whenever a skill is used, experience is gained for that skill, allowing the dwarf to progress to higher skill levels.

If a dwarf does not use a skill for a prolonged period of time, the skill will be labeled "rusty." If the rusty skill continues to remain unused, it will eventually be labeled "very rusty," or "V rusty" in game. Skills remaining at very rusty for prolonged periods of time will gradually suffer permanent experience loss. It is not possible in-game to know whether a given skill has suffered level loss, but any utility capable of reading exact XP levels will show a skill with a lost level as being at 100% of the XP required to take it to the next skill level. See Rust below for more details.

To determine what skills a dwarf has, press v and highlight the dwarf, then press g to ensure you are on the general information page. The skills will be grouped into three toggleable types: combat, labor and miscellaneous skills. Included on the list are the levels of each skill, and, if applicable, "rusty" or "V rusty" notifications.

Skill level names

The names of skill levels are as follows, in order of the experience required to achieve them:

Rank	Skill Name	Notes
0	Not	(No skill)
0	Dabbling	(This level isn't displayed on the "prepare for journey carefully" screen.)
1	Novice
2	Adequate
3	Competent
4	Skilled
5	Proficient	(Max skill level you can embark with while "preparing for journey carefully".)
6	Talented
7	Adept
8	Expert
9	Professional
10	Accomplished
11	Great
12	Master
13	High Master
14	Grand Master
15+	Legendary

Skills in use

Skills are never referred to in-game by "level number", but for all practical purposes, that is how they are treated by the game. "Dabbling" is not functionally a level, with "Novice" being level 1, and "Legendary" being any level 15 and up.

All skills take (400 + 100 * the new level) experience points to gain a level, meaning Novice takes 500 experience points, and reaching Legendary from Grand Master takes 1900 experience points, or 18000 total experience.

Many skills can gain practical levels beyond level 15, or "Legendary". Crafting skills with quality have a functional maximum of level 20, or "Legendary +5" as it is often called. This is used in determining item quality, where skill level is tested with a series of "dice rolls" against successively higher targets. A Legendary +5 dwarf has a skill level of 20, which means they are guaranteed exceptional quality (quality level 4) unless they "critically fail" one of the quality rolls, and they additionally have a fairly decent percentage roll to succeed at making a masterwork. Attributes and traits now play a role in crafting, however, so there are subtle layers of complexity in that.

Labors with or without quality often have a time period associated with them, and skill levels reduce this significantly. Legendary +5 can eliminate all time required to do a job down to a single action, exponentially increasing productivity.

Combat skills can scale upwards to a functionally impossible-to-reach degree, meaning that simply reaching Legendary in a combat skill only means they've just started climbing the ranks of the legendary warriors of Dwarf Fortress. A Legendary +100 warrior will more regularly hit and deal more damage than a "mere" Legendary +10, although it takes nearly three-quarters of a million more experience points to get there.

Skill penalties

Dwarves that are hungry, tired, or thirsty will work slower and produce lower quality goods. The latter is unimportant for some tasks such as wood cutting or furnace operating but you may want to halt construction of platinum statues or steel breastplates if that smith is famished or hollow-eyed from lack of sleep.

Skills

Miner   Miner Woodworker   Bowyer Carpenter Wood cutter Stoneworker   Engraver Mason Ranger   Ambusher Animal caretaker Animal dissector Animal trainer Trapper Doctor   Bone doctor Crutch-walker Diagnostician Surgeon Suturer Wound dresser

Farmer   Beekeeper Brewer Butcher Cheese maker Cook Dyer Gelder Grower Herbalist Lye maker Milker Miller Potash maker Presser Shearer Soaper Spinner Tanner Thresher Wood burner Fishery worker   Fish cleaner Fish dissector Fisherdwarf Metalsmith   Armorsmith Furnace operator Metal crafter Metalsmith Weaponsmith

Jeweler   Gem cutter Gem setter Craftsdwarf   Bookbinder Bone carver Clothier Glassmaker Glazer Leatherworker Papermaker Potter Stone crafter Strand extractor Wax worker Weaver Wood crafter Engineer   Mechanic Pump operator Siege engineer Siege operator Other Jobs   Alchemist Knapper Administrator   Appraiser Building designer Organizer Record keeper

Military   Archer Armor user Axeman Biter Blowgunner Bowman Crossbowman Dodger Discipline Fighter Hammerman Kicker Knife user Lasher Maceman Misc. object user Pikeman Shield user Spearman Striker Swordsman Thrower Wrestler Broker   Comedian Conversationalist Flatterer Intimidator Judge of intent Liar Negotiator Persuader

Miscellaneous   Climber Concentration Consoler Leader Observer Pacifier Reader Student Swimmer Teacher Tracker Performance   Dancer Singer Musician Poet Speaker Keyboardist Stringed instrumentalist Wind instrumentalist Percussionist Scholar   Critical thinker Logician Mathematician Astronomer Chemist Geographer Optics engineer Fluid engineer Wordsmith Writer Unused   Balance Coordination Druid Military tactics

Skills, attributes and traits

• Skills:
  • are trained by being used in some activity.
  • train attributes.
  • the same attribute can be trained by various skills.
  • it's assumed that the skills also use some of the attributes that they train.
  • certain skills are required or important for certain noble, military and civilian professions.
  • certain professions require several skills.
  • the same skill can be used by various professions.
  • are increased by Preferences, but capped, so the dwarf will make items beyond its skill level but won't affect the chances of making more high value items at the highest skill level.^[Verify]

• Traits:
  • cannot be modified in-game.^[Verify]
  • affect which social skills gain experience (if the dwarf has X trait it will not gain experience in X skill) at all.
  • have other in-game effects that can be useful for certain professions.
  • give thoughts when performing certain activities.

To summarize it goes like this:

Trait --> Skill <--> Attribute
  |         ^
  v         |
affect      |
  |         v
  '-->  Profession

Since the same skills can be used by various professions, and the same attributes are trained by various skills, this allows for cross-training.

Being traits the unmodifiable^[Verify], limiting factor on which skills can be learned or having useful effects, and certain professions requiring various skills, the need arises to:

• avoid appointing a dwarf that will never learn a certain skill to a profession that uses it:
  • appointing a straightforward dwarf as a broker will result in a consoler, non-flatterer, non-liar broker.
• appoint a dwarf with a useful effect given by a trait to a profession that benefits from it:
  • appointing an undisciplined dwarf to an important job will result in fun.
  • appointing an angry dwarf to soldier will result in more enraged bonuses.

Skill rust

Every skill has the following set of improvement and decay counters, which are caste specific:

[SKILL_RATE] (Default is [SKILL_RATE:100:8:16:16])

* % of improvement points you get (Default 100)
* unused counter rate (Default 8)
* rust counter rate (Default 16)
* demotion counter rate (Default 16)

The unused counter starts incrementing while a dwarf isn't using a skill. Once it reaches the cap, it will reset to zero, and the rust counter rate will increment by 1. This continues until the rust counter's cap is reached, and then the demotion counter is incremented by 1, and the rust counter is reset to zero. When the demotion counter finally reaches its cap, a 'layer' of rust is added to the skill, and the demotion counter is reset to zero.

The Rusty and V.Rusty descriptions which are appended to a skill within Dwarf Fortress are determined by the following conditions:

• Rusty: A skill level greater than 0 and less than 4, and the skill level * 0.5 <= the number of rust layers.
• Very Rusty: A skill level greater than or equal to 4, and the skill level * 0.75 <= the number of rust layers.

For example, a level 3 skill with 4 layers of rust: 3 * 0.5 = 1.5 which is less than the 4 layers of rust, so it's a Rusty skill. A level 8 with 6 layers of rust: 8 * 0.75 = 6 which is equal to the layers of rust, so it's a Very Rusty skill.

In testing it appears that the layers of rust are limited to a maximum of 6. If the counters reach the maximum and it attempts to increase to a 7th layer of rust, all counters are stopped, and the 'Rusty' and 'V. Rusty' descriptions are erroneously removed from the skill descriptions within Dwarf Fortress.

Performances

Randomly generated musical instruments and musical compositions are also considered skills and gain experience from use, though it is not clear how greater skill levels affect anything or if these performance-related skills rust.