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Difference between revisions of "40d:Your first fortress"

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This is a guide to help new players get started on their first fortress and teach them the basics of keeping their dwarves alive. Above all else, always remember the Dwarf Fortress motto: "Losing is fun!"
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{{quality|Exceptional|01:19, 18 August 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}
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This is a guide to help new players get started on their first [[fortress]] and teach them the basics of keeping their [[dwarf|dwarves]] alive. If you have unanswered questions or find given details confusing, please tell us so on the [[Talk:Your_first_fortress|discussion page]]! Above all else, always remember the [[Main:Dwarf Fortress|Dwarf Fortress]] motto: "Losing is [[fun]]!"
  
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We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying skills and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. It is also deliberately terse. For more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.
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We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying [[skill]]s and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. For more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.
  
 
== Generating a world ==
 
== Generating a world ==
  
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The first thing you'll want to do when starting Dwarf Fortress, is [[World generation |create a world]]. You have two options: You may create a fractally-generated random world or you may re-create one of the [[pregenerated worlds]] using a specific seed.  
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It all starts here. The first thing to do when starting Dwarf Fortress is to [[World generation |create a world]]. Later on, you may wish to tweak the parameters to suit your play style, but for now, the ''Create New World Now!'' option is an easy way to get into your first game.
  
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However, for new players it is recommended that you create a random world using the '''STANDARD''' template, so just hit {{k|Enter}} at this screen. Once you've gotten down the basics, you can return to the world generation screen and experiment with all of the options and create a world using one of the other techniques mentioned above.
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The engine will start to create the world -- watch it unfold! You might notice that worlds are rejected, sometimes even after the generator begins running rivers and lakes. This is normal, as the generator seeks a world which meets the criteria for optimum Dwarven [[Fun]].
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 +
Generating a standard random world can take several minutes. You can speed things up by selecting ''Design New World with Parameters'' instead of ''Create New World Now!'' and setting a smaller world size. These worlds tend to be less interesting and less replayable, but work well if you want to try new things.
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Once you've generated a world you will return to the main screen and there will be a new option, <tt>Start Playing</tt>. Upon selecting that you can choose the game mode - [[Dwarf fortress mode|Dwarf Fortress]], [[Adventure mode|Adventurer]], or [[Legends]]. This article is written with respect to Fortress mode.
  
 
See the article on [[world generation]] for a complete guide to the world generation screen.
 
See the article on [[world generation]] for a complete guide to the world generation screen.
  
 
== Choosing a location ==
 
== Choosing a location ==
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 +
=== Useful location traits ===
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[[Forest]]:  Many parts of the game are dependent on creating wood items, so if you choose a location without any trees, the game will be more [[fun]] (aka more complex).
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 +
[[Water]]: [[Wound]]ed dwarves require water to drink, so having a water source near your first fortress so your injured don't die of thirst will be helpful.
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 +
[[Animals]]: Some [[biome]]s will have fewer animals to hunt for meat to feed your dwarves, so tropical and temperate biomes might be simpler. However, bear in mind that not all animals are friendly, so it might be wise to do some research on an area that you're thinking about starting in to get a good handle on what type of creatures might populate it.
  
 
=== The interface ===
 
=== The interface ===
  
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If you have at least one world without an active fortress, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Chose "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll see a four-section window looking something like:
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So long as you have at least one world without an active game, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Select "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll find a four-section window:
  
 
[[Image:FortressLocation_fd2f10.png | caption | This picture is shown with the default tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available]]
 
[[Image:FortressLocation_fd2f10.png | caption | This picture is shown with the default tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available]]
  
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Going from left to right, these windows represent:
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*The local map. The black box represents the area that your fortress will occupy if you decide to embark. The blue line is a stream, the green icons represent forests and swamps, and the gray triangles are mountain slopes.
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*The regional map. This is like zooming out from the local map. The entire local map is represented by that yellow X. Most of the region is forest, with a mountain range in the bottom right. The two light blue lines are minor rivers.
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*The world map. This is zooming out all the way. The yellow X represents the approximate position of the region.
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*Information about the area that the black box is occupying. More on this below.
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 +
You can move around the region map with {{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}, or at 10x speed with {{k|Shift}}+{{k|←}}{{k|↑}}{{k|→}}{{k|↓}}. Note that using {{k|Shift}} can cause the key to get "stuck" - press it again to cancel.
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 +
You can move around the local map with these keys:
 +
  {{k|u}}
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{{k|h}}  {{k|k}}
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  {{k|m}}
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You cannot directly move around the world map. Movement across the world map is shown relative to your movement on the region map. In world generated with the default settings, each square of the world map contains several squares of the region map.
  
 
Your next goal will be choosing the starting location for your fortress.
 
Your next goal will be choosing the starting location for your fortress.
  
 
=== Your surroundings ===
 
=== Your surroundings ===
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You can discern alot of information by scrolling through the various modes .  The interface has six modes which you cycle through by pressing {{k|TAB}}.  In turn, they display:
 
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* Temperature, amount of trees, amount of plants, and a hint at the sort of wildlife at the center of the selection rectangle.  Look at the example picture again.  Notice that you are told that you'll see no trees or plants here (mountains being too high for either to grow), but that's true only for the exact center of the local area:  You'll notice that the local area includes some of both on the edges, which is often all you need. You can view the different types of [[biomes]] in the selected area by hitting the {{k|F1}} {{k|F2}} {{k|F3}} and {{k|F4}} keys
 
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* Civilizations capable of interacting with you. You need to be in contact with dwarves to get immigrants. You'll want to trade with the dwarves and preferably also humans and elves. Goblins mean trouble, but it's hard to avoid them without hiding on an island.
 
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* Your dwarven civilization. Your choice of civilization may have an effect on trade and immigration.{{verify}} For instance, one civilization might have access to groundhog meat, whereas another might not.
 
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* Relative elevation and slope steepness. This lets you guess at the shape of the land. Try to avoid cliffs of 4 or more. A good elevation map contains lots low elevation changes ranging from 1 to 4.
 
  
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Look for the following:
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You can discern a lot of information by scrolling through the various modes. The interface has five modes which you cycle through by pressing {{k|TAB}}. In turn, they display the ''biomes'', ''civilizations'', and ''geology'' of the local area.
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* Coolness factor. You want to play on the beach, raise towers to the sky, colonize a volcanic island, build a massive igloo, or brave haunted wilds? You can do all this!
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* Running, unfrozen water. Many maps will have no underground water, so you'll be well-advised to seek out Temperate or warmer climes and include a river in the local area, at least for your first fortress. You can also get by for water on an [[aquifer]] but a new player will want to avoid them.
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====Biomes screen====
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* Plants and trees. Plants ensure you won't starve, provide abundant alcohol once brewed, and guarantee that you can grow crops outdoors. Trees mean wood, building materials, fuel, and charcoal. Even a relatively small forest makes all the difference. Neither plants nor trees will grow in the mountains, so place your mountain fortresses at the edge of the cliffs (the game actually requires that you do this). If you choose a site without plants or trees, buy lots of extra food and logs.
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This display gives you an idea for the environment you'll be parachuting into.  Click any of the blue links for more information on the subject. [[Biome]]s are determined by the type of life in the area.  On the Biome screen, you'll see:
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While useful, the following are not necessary.
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* '''[[Temperature]]''': How hot or cold it gets in the area. Can be ''Freezing'', ''Cold'', ''Temperate'', ''Warm'', ''Hot'', and ''Scorching''.  In a nutshell, temperature extremes make it harder to get and keep a reliable source of [[water]] going.  In Freezing and Scorching climates, you may have to do without water at all.  Temperate and Warm are both good places to start your first fort.<br><br>
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* Sand is essential for glass-making.
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* '''Amount of [[tree]]s, and [[plant|other vegetation]]''': A general indication of the density of plant life in the area.  For trees, this can be ''none'', ''scarce'', ''sparse'', ''woodland'', or ''heavily forested''.  For other plants, you can see ''none'', ''scarce'', ''moderate'', and ''thick''.  Trees are chopped down for [[wood]], which is a critical, if small, part of your fortress.  You can import lots of it from [[trading|caravan]]s, so don't worry too much about it.  However, more trees never hurt anyone, and totally treeless maps are quite a bit more difficult in the early going, so aim for ''sparse'' or greater trees.  Other plants basically means shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation that you can harvest food from with the [[plant gathering]] skill.  Generally speaking, you will use this trick in the first year of your fortress, then never again.  [[Plant]] density is not very important.<br><br>
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* A magma vent (dark red double wavy line on the local map, hard to find) means larger-scale metalbashing and glassworking, but also greater danger and slower game speed. Avoid them for your first fort.
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* '''[[Surroundings]]''': This gives you a basic image of the local fauna and flora.  The outskirts of a jungle might be fairly calm and safe, while the heart of that same jungle could be thick with vicious predators. In game terms, this will clue you in to the specific types of [[tree]]s and [[plant]]s you will find, in addition to indicating the [[animal]] types you'll run into.  This also clues you in to the ''alignment'' of the surrounding area.  So, the two things this word tells you is how ''good'' or ''evil'' an area is, and how ''calm'' or ''savage'' an area is. The meaning of each of the descriptions is as follows:
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* Many other considerations will come into play once you get some experience; they are beyond the scope of this guide.
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<br>
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Avoid the following:
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<center>
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* Shores - the fish are deadly in the current version ... no joke!
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{| style="color:black; cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="1"
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* Haunted (purple) areas - filled with highly dangerous undead monsters.
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| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|
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* Magma - also too dangerous
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| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Calm'''
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* [[Aquifer]]s - take some skill and experience to handle. Aquifers are indicated by one or more wavy blue lines to the right of the minerals listing. If you attempt to start with one, you will get a warning and an option to cancel.
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| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"| ...
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* Cold or Freezing areas, especially if you've turned off temperature. Water near the surface stays frozen seasonally or even year-round here; this usually means your dwarves cannot find a place to drink (or, at best, requires that you work harder to get them one). Healthy dwarves will drink liquor if available but bedridden ones require water.
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| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Savage'''
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|-
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| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Good'''
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|Serene
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|Mirthful
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|Joyous Wilds
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|-
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| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Neutral'''
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|Calm
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|Wilderness
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|Untamed Wilds
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|-
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| style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Evil'''
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|Sinister
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|Haunted
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|Terrifying
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|}
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</center>
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<br>
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''Good'' zones tend to have benign mythological creatures, like the [[unicorn]] (which can be incredibly dangerous, but only if provoked), while ''evil'' areas have a multitude of [[undead]] and some of the most vicious [[creature]]s in the game, which need no provocation to tear your dwarves limb from limb.  For your first fortress, stick to a ''neutral'' or ''good'' alignment.<br><br>
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* '''Major land forms''': A last field, which will not always be full, will mention things you should know about, like [[river]]s.  Rivers provide an unlimited source of [[water]], but can be home to dangerous fish like the [[longnose gar]] and [[carp]].  Still, though, the benefits generally far outweigh the risks.  [[Volcano]]es are also noted here, one of the only guaranteed ways to get [[magma]].  Magma makes a few things a lot easier, but it is dangerous to work with and must be handled very carefully because of the [[fire imp|horrible]] [[magma man|creature]]s that come out of it.  Not critical, especially not for your first time out.<br>
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Sometimes, you'll be looking at a place with more than one [[biome]] in the same selected square.  You can press {{k|F1}} {{k|F2}} {{k|F3}} or {{k|F4}} to view the different types of biomes.  In the picture above, we are looking at the mountain in the center, which is cold and has no trees or plants because it's too high up for those things to grow.
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 +
====Civilization screen====
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These are nearby [[civilization]]s that are capable of interacting with you. Other settlements are shown with various symbols on the regional map.  The possible entries here are ''dwarves'', ''humans'', ''elves'', ''goblins'', and ''kobolds''.
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* '''[[dwarf|Dwarves]]''': You will want to be in contact with dwarves to get [[immigrant]]s and a dwarven trading caravan. However, dwarves are, sometimes seemingly magically, everywhere. It is impossible to settle anywhere ''without'' dwarves, assuming there is at least one surviving dwarven civilization.  Depending on how remote the area is, though, you may not get some of the features of the game you would otherwise: being cut off from the world will prevent most [[noble]]s from coming to your fort, which will stop the [[dwarven economy]] from ever being activated.  You may also not get a [[liaison]] with your dwarven caravan from which to request goods.
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* '''[[Human]]s''': Humans are almost always friendly, and love [[trade]]. They send [[liaison]]s to let you request goods and are generally a huge boon to any fortress.
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* '''[[Elf|Elves]]''': Elves are usually friendly and make fair trading partners, but have a [[Trade#Elves|particular ethos]] about trading.  They do not send a trade [[liaison]] and their goods are luxuries at best.  They can be very annoying, but are generally not dangerous unless you provoke them.
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* '''[[Goblin]]s''':  Goblins are your main enemies in Dwarf Fortress, and will produce most of the aggression against your fort.  They periodically launch ambushes, consisting of five to ten goblin warriors, and will send [[siege]]s after your fort reaches 80 dwarves.  [[Trap]]ped entrances, [[Dog#War_Dogs|war dog]]s, and eventually a [[military]] will be needed to repel them.  Just be sure not to start in the middle of a goblin citadel.
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* '''[[Kobold]]''': Kobolds are petty thieves that are little more than irritations in most situations.  If you are careless and let their thieves get away with a lot of stuff, though, they may upgrade to raiding parties of archers.
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====Elevation screen====
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Relative [[Z-axis|elevation]]. This is a normal topographic map that you're used to from real-life maps.  It just gives you an idea of the lay of the land.
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====Slope screen====
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[[Ramp|Slope]] steepness. This shows you where large cliffs are. Be advised that [[cliff]]s of elevation 4 or more mean taller maps, which take significantly more computer power to run. On the other hand, many find completely flat embark sites to be dull -- a good elevation map contains lots of low elevation changes ranging from 1 to 4. However, choosing areas partly or entirely above the tree line gives you much more stone, ore, and gems to work with, and the hills even provide decent protection against invaders, especially if you start removing natural ramps. It's your choice in the long run, particularly if you don't really care about performance.
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 +
====Embark alerts====
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When you're satisfied with your area and hit {{k|e}} to embark, you may get some alerts about being in a very difficult area, or about an [[aquifer]].  Aquifers can make it frustrating to get started, so if you are alerted about an aquifer, seriously consider moving somewhere else for your first fortress.  After you have the basics down, tackling an aquifer is much easier.
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====Location recap====
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For your first fortress, it's not entirely important. However, there are some general guidelines that can help you decide:<br>
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 +
* Try to get a temperate or warm climate, since extreme temperatures are more difficult.
 +
* Trees and vegetation are good for producing lumber and food for your fortress, but you don't need tons of them.
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* ''Neutral''-aligned [[surroundings]] are best for your first fortress, but ''good''-aligned surroundings are also OK. Avoid ''evil''-aligned surroundings, however.
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* Running water ([[river]]s, streams, and [[brook]]s) are a permanent source of [[water]]. [[Murky pool]]s and [[underground pool]]s have a finite amount of water and may dry out.  Not having enough water can be a big obstacle, so try to get some running water your first time out.
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* [[Human]]s and [[Elf|elves]] are friendly, so an area they have access to is nice.
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* [[Magma]] is cool (hah!), but not critical.
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* Areas with [[aquifer]]s require some engineering to get to rock. You'll be warned if you chose an area with an aquifer. When in doubt, don't try it.
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** If you insist on starting in an area with an aquifer, read up on the dangers of aquifers, and, if at all possible, choose an embark site that includes an aquifer-less [[biome]].
 +
* Who cares? If you like what you see, go for it. You can always start over. And remember the DF motto: Losing is fun!<br>
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 +
For more information on specific game mechanics such as [[sand]], [[flux]], and how to find [[iron]], check [[Stone layers|this page]].
 +
 
 +
==== Fortress size ====
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 +
Once you've decided on location, you need to decide the size of your fortress area. This is the size of the game field you're playing on.  Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of [[Stone|rock]]s and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include slower game performance (larger areas require more CPU power), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your [[trade depot]] before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. (Note that you can [[Mining|mine]] many levels deep into the ground, and even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.)
  
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Once you've found a promising spot, you need to decide how much of it you want to have access to. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of rocks and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include vastly greater CPU load (which can ruin a game completely - be careful), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your depot before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. Note that, because you can mine many levels, even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.
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You can adjust the size of your fort's area by using {{k|SHIFT}} + the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|k}} or {{k|h}} keys.<br>
  
 
=== Embark ===
 
=== Embark ===
  
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When done, hit {{k|e}}mbark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site.  
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When done, hit {{k|e}} to embark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site, or one with an [[aquifer]].
  
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== Buying skills and items ==
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==Buying skills and items==
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<!-- I've written this build carefully. Give a reason for changing it. --~~~ -->
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After you embark, you're given the option to either start immediately or prepare for the journey carefully. You should pretty much always prepare carefully if you enjoy staying alive.
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You'll now have the choice of playing with the default setup or of preparing for the journey carefully. We're going to do the latter, because we'd like to stay alive.
 
  
 
Here, presumably, you are the dwarf determining who will go and what they will take. You have a total of 2060☼ to spend in two categories: Skilled dwarves and items. Some items have already been selected for you, but you probably won't want most of these.
 
Here, presumably, you are the dwarf determining who will go and what they will take. You have a total of 2060☼ to spend in two categories: Skilled dwarves and items. Some items have already been selected for you, but you probably won't want most of these.
  
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There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[starting builds]] page offers several possibilities, if you don't like the one here.
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There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[starting builds]] page offers several examples for you to choose from.  Here, we are only going to discuss some basics that help you understand enough to make your own decisions.  The embark screen opens up on the ''skills'' screen, and can be changed to the ''items'' screen by pressing {{k|TAB}}.
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 +
===Skills===
 +
In Dwarf Fortress, it's not what you have, it's who you have.  Skilled dwarves are the cornerstone of everything, from domestics to security, so it's extremely important to embark with good people.
 +
 
 +
As you will see in this screen, you have 7 dwarves, all with 10 points to put toward starting skills.  We will want to use all 10 of the points on all 7 of the dwarves.  By default, you won't have enough ☼ to do this, so hit {{k|TAB}} to go to the items screen and hit {{k|-}} over the ''Steel battle axe'' line to give subtract one.  This should give you enough ☼ to assign all your skills.  You can only spend 5 of the 10 points in any one skill, making the maximum skill level upon embark ''proficient''.  This makes a total of 14 ''proficient'' skills, or a larger number of lower skill levels.
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 +
In a fledgling fortress, the 4 indispensable jobs are [[mason]], [[miner]], [[grower]], and [[Carpenter|carpenter]].  A good beginning strategy is to embark with at least 1 dwarf being ''proficient'' in these 4 skills.  Many people choose to double up on proficient miners and growers, since mining and farming are both pretty big jobs.
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 +
Other useful skills to consider:
 +
* '''[[Cook]]:''' Cooks make prepared meals in the [[kitchen]], which helps you manage your food stock space.  Well-prepared meals are also valuable [[trade]] goods, and make dwarves happy when eaten.  Highly skilled cooks make better meals, and prepare meals faster.
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 +
* '''[[Brewer]]:''' Brewers make [[Alcohol|booze]] in the [[still]].  Dwarves being dwarves, they need alcohol to operate at peak efficiency, and highly skilled brewers make better tasting booze and finish brewing faster.  Dwarves get happier when they drink good booze.
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 +
* '''[[Herbalist]]:''' Herbalists gather food and seeds from [[shrub]]s in the local area.  Skilled herbalists pick faster and come away with far more food.  Where an unskilled herbalist will come away with one [[wild strawberry]] or none at all, a proficient herbalist will often pick 3 or 4, and sometimes 5.
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 +
* '''[[Woodcutter]]:''' Woodcutters fell [[tree]]s for use by [[Carpenter|carpenter]]s.  Highly skilled woodcutters fell trees much faster.  However, since you don't need that much wood, you can get away with a normal (no tag) woodcutter just fine.
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 +
* '''[[Mechanic]]:''' Mechanics build and use [[mechanism]]s, which have myriad uses in [[trap]]s, [[lever]]s and some [[Machine component|machine]]s.  Highly skilled mechanics finish installing mechanisms much faster, and the mechanisms they build are of higher quality.  However, the quality of the mechanism primarily matters to beginning players for its [[trade]] value, and in early fortresses the need for mechanisms is usually so small that any dwarf can pick it up and handle it well enough.  Still, a solid choice, especially if you like [[trap]]s.
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 +
* '''[[Armorsmith]], [[Weaponsmith]]:''' These become very important quickly if you want even decent weapons and armor and are annoying to train up from scratch.
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 +
* '''[[Siege engineer]]''' is not useful at all in an early fortress, and far from ever being essential, but training an unskilled dwarf in it requires a lot of material and time.
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 +
* '''Military skills ([[Wrestler]], [[Axedwarf]], [[Hammerdwarf]], etc.):''' Early on, it's unlikely that you'll need these, since there's generally very few things that will bother a band of dwarves who aren't hurting anyone, but certain places, such as those with a [[chasm]], will have hostile creatures around.  In these areas, you may consider giving your woodcutter the Axedwarf skill so he can use his chopping axe as a weapon. A miner can "pinch-hit", since the [[Mining]] skill also covers wielding a pick in combat, but the dwarves don't understand this yet, so a drafted miner will get unhappy [[thought]]s.
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 +
* '''Social skills ([[Appraiser]], [[Judge of Intent]], [[Consoler]], etc.):''' Putting these on one dwarf will make them a shoo-in for the Expedition Leader slot, and ranks in Appraiser and Judge of Intent will make interacting with the first caravan much easier.  However, even if you don't train this at all, some persistence in trading with the first caravan will level your leader up enough to trade with the second caravan like a champion.
 +
 
 +
Once again, examples can be found in the [[starting builds]] page.  What you bring is incredibly dependent on your play style, though.  Some people think bringing Mechanics along is a total waste of time, others consider them indispensable.  Some people like having skills that aren't even on this list, like [[Leatherworker]].  Read the starting builds, ask questions, and explore!  Who cares if your first idea doesn't work out after playing an hour?  Restarting is easy and ''losing is fun''.
 +
 
 +
===Items===
 +
Now that we're done with assigning skills, hit {{k|TAB}} to go over to the item screen.  Item worth is another extremely situational thing, and you'll find as many opinions as there are Dwarf Fortress players as to what is good to bring.  Once more, it depends VERY heavily on your play style.  Again, [[starting builds]] can provide some good example reading.  This section will only cover the basics and give you enough information to make your own decisions.
 +
 
 +
====Tools====
 +
You'll need a couple of finished tools to get yourself started.
 +
<ul>
 +
<li>'''[[Battle axe]]s''':  Every [[Wood cutter|Woodcutter]] needs an axe. Steel battle axes are the only type you can purchase on this screen, and they're expensive. You might want to bring just one, unless you expect to need a lot of lumber and/or axedwarf muscle.</li>
 +
<li>'''[[Pick]]s''': Likewise, [[Miner]]s need picks.  All picks work equally well, their material only determines the damage they do in combat.  Thus, copper picks are the budgeting dwarf's choice, at a paltry 20☼ each.</li>
 +
<li><p>'''[[Anvil]]''': One of the big questions to ask yourself is whether to bring an anvil on embark.  It's extremely expensive at 1000☼, but to start a [[metal]] industry, you will either have to start with one or request and purchase (or steal!) one from a [[caravan|caravan]] somewhere down the line.</p>
 +
<p>Generally, if you are going to a very mountainous area where you're likely to see lots of ore and you want to be able to make use of it right from the get-go, bring an anvil.  If you're going to spend a few years getting your fortress established before worrying about metal production, drop it and bring more raw commodities.</p>
 +
<p>One occasional problem is that axes and picks are absent entirely.  If this is the case (or you just don't want to spend all that money), you can bring the materials to [[make your own weapons]].</p>
 +
* If you want to save points and smelt the ore yourself, take copper nuggets instead of copper bars, and use the smelter to convert the ore into copper bars.
 +
* A good alternative ore to bring along, and not much more expensive, is [[tetrahedrite]] - when [[Smelter|smelt]]ed, it yields one copper bar with a 20% chance of an additional [[silver]] bar each.  Silver is a good metal for [[metal crafter]]s, or you can have an unskilled worker forge a practice weapon out of silver for training - silver is tied with wood for the safest material for practice weapons, and you have to trade with elves for wooden ones.
 +
* Other mixes of ores, to create bronze or bismuth bronze, etc., are possible - as you learn about the game you'll decide what works best for you, and in what starting situations.
 +
*Fuel and metal in hand, deconstruct the smelter (if needed; {{k|q}} to highlight, then {{k|x}} to deconstruct), and construct a [[metalsmith's forge]].  Make sure someone has [[weaponsmithing|weaponsmithing]] on.  After the forge is up, order it to make the axes and picks you need.  Deconstruct the forge when you're done and enjoy your new tools, hopefully with [[quality]] modifiers!</li>
 +
</ul>
 +
 
 +
====Raw materials====
 +
As it was briefly covered above, sometimes it makes more sense to bring a lot of raw materials than some finished goods.  Raw materials are a lot cheaper than finished goods, and so long as you invest heavily in your dwarves' skills (which you should!), you can probably make better quality stuff, anyway.
 +
*'''[[Stone]]''': Only bring this if you're trying to build some of your tools on the spot, as noted above.  Otherwise, you will get stone coming out of your ears once you start mining.
 +
*'''[[Metal]]''': Generally not recommended.  However, if you're expecting trouble and you're bringing an anvil, bringing many bars of [[iron]] and [[charcoal]] in lieu of a [[Dwarven weapon#Battle_axe|battle axe]] can be a big boon.  If your dwarves can get to a spot that gives them a breather, a proficient [[weaponsmith]] or [[armorsmith]] could stamp out high-quality goods to give your dwarves a better fighting chance.  This is a pretty advanced trick to pull off, though, so don't try to pull it if you're not confident.
 +
*'''[[Wood]]''': Wood is a bargain at only 3☼ per log, and the 100 logs you can bring in exchange for a steel battle axe will last you a long time.  This is a great technique for making [[Wood cutter|Woodcutter]] unneeded in the early game, but you need to budget your wood use for the first year very carefully.  When you're out, you're out!
 +
*'''[[Leather]]''':  Leather is cheap at 5☼ per for the cheapest.  Bring a few to make extra bags for gathering plants - don't worry if you don't have a [[leatherworker|leather worker]], you don't much care about a quality multiplier for bottom-value items like leather bags.  If you are going to make your own leather armor (early or later), consider bringing someone with leather working skill.
 +
 
 +
====Consumables====
 +
Easily the most important part of your preparation is what you're going to eat, drink, and plant once you get on site.  Without food and booze, you're not going much of anywhere.
 +
*'''[[Food]]''': Most food comes at a mere 2☼ per unit, and 8 units will feed 1 dwarf for a year.  Bringing a year of food will give you a good cushion to getting your farms working, so aim for about 60 food if you can.  If you must cut back, though, 40 will be fine if you make your farms an early priority.  The best food staple to bring along is [[turtle]].  Turtle produces [[shell]] and [[bone]]s when eaten, which can be used as raw materials for other things you need, including armor, crossbows, and crossbow bolts.  Further, shell is a common request for [[strange mood]]s and is a pain to produce, so getting some early could save yourself a failed mood and a dead dwarf.
 +
*'''[[Alcohol|Booze]]''': Dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, and they always want to down some alcohol if at all possible.  They also like different kinds of alcohol.  Bring twice as much booze as you bring food, and divide it evenly among the 4 types of alcohol you can take (dwarven wine, dwarven beer, dwarven ale, dwarven rum). Even more nifty, check the booze preferences of your 7 dwarves on embark and allocate the 4 kinds accordingly. Plump helmets (wine) and pig tails (ale) are fast growing, so you might take less of those, particularly if no dwarf has a preference for them. Too much booze is a real barrel hogger but this problem is far off. More booze is better 99% of the time.
 +
*'''[[Seed]]s''': Your farms have got to start somewhere.  Definitely bring along [[plump helmet|plump helmet spawn]] (for food and booze) and [[pig tail]]s (for cloth ropes and booze variety).  How many you bring is dependent on how big you want your initial farms to be.  5 of each is plenty to feed your initial dwarves, and you will get more seeds any time the plants are consumed in any way ''except cooking''.  You may want to use the [[kitchen]] menu to disallow cooking of plump helmets until you have a healthy supply of seeds.  Or, alternatively, just don't make any prepared meals until you've got a healthy supply of seeds.  The other seed types require a lot more labor to use properly, and should probably wait until you have more dwarves in the fortress.  You can buy seeds from the dwarven caravan for almost nothing, but if you want a greater variety along, go for [[Quarry bush|rock nuts]].  The [[quarry bush]] that sprouts from it produces the greatest space to yield ratio in the game.  Eventually, though, you should be planting all 6 of the underground [[crop]]s at least.
 +
 
 +
Food and booze are stored in [[barrel]]s, with each type in its own barrel.  Since barrels have a 10-unit capacity, you can get a lot of free barrels by starting with many, many kinds of food in quantities which end in 1.  Barrels are important, and usually need wood to make, so it's worth it to use this quirk while you can by starting with at least one unit of every type of food.
 +
 
 +
Seeds are stored in [[Container|Container]]s in multiples of 100, also by type. Bags are cheap and easy to make, and not as important as barrels, since making cloth bags is a good way to train up your [[clothier]], so it's not recommended to spend the extra to get 1 free bag.
 +
 
 +
====[[Domestic animal|Domestic Animal]]s====
 +
Not only dwarves live in your fortress, after all.
 +
*'''[[Dog]]s''':  Dogs are dwarf's best friend.  They can be trained into [[Dog#Hunting_Dogs|hunting dog]]s or [[Dog#War_Dogs|war dog]]s, require no food or maintenance, and make good pets for your dwarves.  Always bring at least 2.  Genders alternate when picking them up, so 2 will give you a breeding pair that will have more puppies freely.  They make fantastic security early and fantastic dwarfsaving distractions later on.  Dogs will happily lay down their lives to protect their master, which is huge when it means one of your best legendary dwarves is running away from an angry [[goblin]].
 +
*'''[[Cat]]s''': Cats provide a wonderful function in controlling [[vermin]] in the fort.  Vermin can make your dwarves extremely unhappy, so some cats are more or less a requirement.  The largest problem with cats, however, is that their population is very difficult to control.  Cats will choose their own owners (without the dwarf in question's consent), and after they've done so, you cannot order them butchered to control their numbers.  The resulting [[catsplosion|population explosion]] can clutter hallways and murder your framerate.  The best thing to do is to put all stray cats and kittens in a [[cage]] (one will hold them all).  You can then butcher them without running the risk of the cats adopting dwarves before the butcher gets around to them, and if vermin start to get out of hand, you can always release one or two to help.  If you want vermin control from the start, bring just ONE cat so it cannot breed and cause a population problem early.  However, immigrants will very commonly bring their pet cats to the fortress, so if you can live with vermin early, you'll likely get a cat for free within a year.  Or, be prepared to cage and slaughter them aggressively for meat and hides - that can work too.
 +
*'''Beasts of burden (horses, muskoxen, cows, donkeys, & mules)''': You get two of these for free when you start the game - each one random as to sex and the five possible species (and mules don't breed).  Unlike cats, dwarves must choose to adopt beasts of burden, which they won't do unless you let them to do so (in z->animals menu).  That's fairly rare, so the vast majority of the beasts of burden in your fortress will stay strays. Many immigrants may bring useless animals with them though - as they are adopted already you can't butcher or cage them, but they can still help start a breeding program for meat, hides and bones.  You can also trade later for whatever the caravans bring. All newborns belong to the fortress, so you can do what you want with them.<br>
 +
 
 +
Once again, check the [[starting builds]] page for more ideas, read the pages linked above, and experiment.  The learning process is half the fun in Dwarf Fortress; enjoy it!
 +
 
 +
==Game on!==
 +
We've chosen an area, selected our supplies, and we're ready to play.  The game opens with your dwarves huddled around the wagon they used to get here.
 +
==Gameplay overview==
 +
This section will deal with the tasks you'll need to tackle in your first year of gameplay.  These tasks are ''selecting a dig site'', ''building workshops'' (and ''marking stockpiles''), ''building lodging'', ''starting farms'', and ''trading''.
 +
===Selecting a dig site===
 +
You'll have to decide where you're going to dig in and start your fortress.  You should consider the natural formations of the surrounding area when deciding where you want your main entrance.  Ideally, there should be one way in and one way out.  This one way should be fairly sizable, to pander to [[Trading|caravans]] and [[traffic]].  Proximity to a good [[water]] source so you can build a [[well]] more easily is also desirable.  You can fix either of these things with extra digging and building later on, though, so don't sweat the decision too much.
 +
 
 +
The most direct way to start is to find the side of a nearby mountain and dig into it, but if you're in a very flat area, you might have to dig downward instead.  To start digging, hit {{k|d}}esignations, then {{k|d}}ig.  Move your cursor using the arrow keys to where you want to dig, and hit {{k|ENTER}}, then move your cursor over to the place you want the digging to end.  Mining designations are rectangular, so you can go both left and right and up and down as you're designating area.  This tells your dwarves to cut into a wall and hollow it out, often leaving behind a [[stone]] if it is a rock wall.  [[Soil]] walls become hollowed out, but never drop anything.  These hollowed out areas are where you'll build the vast majority of everything you need.
 +
 
 +
If you need to dig down instead of in, you need to use either a '''[[stairs|stairwell]]''' or a '''[[ramp]]'''.  For a stairwell, use {{k|d}}esignations, and downward stairway ({{k|j}}).  Note that this is only half of a stairwell.  To build the other half, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate an {{k|u}}pward stairway to connect to it.  You are then underground and can use {{k|m}}ining normally.  For a ramp, you must go down a z-level ({{k|>}}) and {{k|d}}esignate a {{k|r}}amp on the area you want cut away.  You do not need to build anything above it; your miners will figure it out.  If you are building downward and want [[Trading|caravans]] to come down into your fortress, you will need to use [[ramp]]s, at least 3 right next to each other.  Keep this in mind when deciding where you want to dig down.
 +
 
 +
When designing your main entrance, be mindful that as many as 200 dwarves could be coming and going eventually, and that [[goblin]]s are going to want in at some point or another.  A 3-wide entrance corridor is ideal.  It is wide enough to accept a good amount of traffic and caravans, but narrow enough to use diabolical traps and designs to kill lots of goblins.  Your main doors will have to be only 2-wide, though, as [[door]]s require a wall adjacent to them to build properly.
 +
 
 +
Once you've decided where you want your main entrance, it's time to move your supplies over there.  We will have to set them outside for now, but we'll want to move them indoors as soon as we can.  Press stock{{k|p}}iles, and designate areas for {{k|f}}ood, {{k|w}}ood, and {{k|r}}efuse.  You can designate all sorts of stockpiles from this screen, so hit {{k|t}} and poke around in the custom stockpile settings for a little bit, figuring out what you can do.  Do '''NOT''' designate a stone stockpile for now.  It will eat up a lot of time unnecessarily.  While we're organizing our supplies, deconstruct your wagon by pressing {{k|q}}uery, putting the cursor over your wagon, and pressing deconstruct ({{k|x}}).  A dwarf with the [[carpenter]] labor enabled will come by and pull the wagon apart, turning it into 3 [[Wood|log]]s.  The wagon is useless to you, so there's no reason to not do this. Some people prefer to wait until the wagon has been emptied before deconstructing it. In order to see the contents of a building, use the {{k|t}} command and scroll over the wagon.
 +
 
 +
Plan for your finished, 200-dwarf fortress right from the get-go.  It's very easy to dig out new area.  It's very HARD to go back and redo something the way it should have been from the start.  3-wide hallways is typically plenty for high-traffic areas.
 +
 
 +
===Building workshops===
 +
Time to get some work done!  Taking in raw materials and spitting out stuff that's useful: that's the name of the game for workshops.  You should start putting down workshops as soon as you have raw materials.  You'll need to get basic living provisions like [[bed]]s, [[table]]s, [[Throne|chair]]s, [[Container|chest]]s, and the like down for not only your first 7 dwarves, but the [[Immigration|immigrant]]s that could come at any time as soon as possible, so you can't waste any time.<br>
 +
 
 +
[[Stone]] will show up from your miners digging.  Once you have an area with a decent amount of stone, you should get a [[mason's workshop]] built in the area.  Check the [[workshop]] page for full details if you have problems building one. The keyboard command is:
 +
* {{k|b}}uild order
 +
* the {{k|w}}orkshops sub-menu
 +
* {{k|m}}ason's workshop. 
 +
 
 +
Once the workshop has been built by a dwarf with the [[Mason|masonry]] [[labor]], you can {{k|q}}uery the workshop to find out what it's current orders are, {{k|a}}dd or {{k|c}}ancel orders, set an existing order to {{k|r}}epeat,  order the workshop dismantled, and other tasks.
 +
 
 +
Add orders for a {{k|d}}oor, a {{k|t}}able, and a {{k|c}}hair. Stone chairs will show up as ''thrones'' in the orders.  They are exactly the same.  Then set each order to repeat.  This workshop will now make [[door]]s, [[table]]s, and [[throne|chair]]s until you tell it to stop.  You'll need a lot of these, so that's OK.
 +
 
 +
Also build a [[carpenter's workshop]] near the wood stockpile you designated earlier, and tell it to make {{k|b}}eds.  Put this on {{k|r}}epeat, also.  The wood you brought along, even after disassembling your wagon, won't last long. If you brought along a [[Wood cutter|woodcutter]], now would be a good time to get him to chop down some trees.  Hit {{k|d}}esignations, and then hit chop down {{k|t}}rees.  Chopping designations work exactly like mining designations, but it will only highlight trees in the rectangle you give it.  Don't worry about chopping a ton of wood right now; trees don't go anywhere fast, so you can always come back for more.
 +
 
 +
While making workshops anywhere the material happens to be works fine right now, you will want a more organized way of doing it later.  Check out the [[Design_strategies#Workshop_Logistics|workshop logistics]] page for ideas on how to set it up.  After you do get things set up, be sure to move your stockpiles underground; above-ground stockpiles are vulnerable to thieves and are usually a long way away.  Don't be afraid to tear down workshops; they are built quickly and easily, and tearing them down does absolutely nothing harmful, even returning the materials used in their construction.  Be aware that workshops create [[noise]] when they are in use, which can disturb your dwarves' sleep, so don't build them close to any [[bed]]s.
 +
 
 +
===Building lodging===
 +
With commodities coming out, it's time to set up places where they can be used.<br>
 +
 
 +
Tell your miners to dig out a large (5x5 minimum) room to become your [[barracks]].  The barracks is essentially a communal sleeping room where dwarves without their own apartment can come to crash.  It is also the place where your [[military]] will come to [[sparring|spar]] once you start recruiting soldiers.  Since your military hangs out in the barracks a lot, it's a good idea to put it near the main entrance of the fortress.  If [[Thief|thieves]] stumble in, they are likely to meet a very grisly end as they bump into a pair of dwarves in the middle of combat training, and later, in case of a more major attack, they are more likely to be closer to where you need them.  Note, however, that sparring dwarves can very seriously [[wound|hurt]] or kill each other if their sparring area is too crowded, so keep beds stacked along one wall and the rest of the room clear and uncluttered.  You do not need too many beds in the barracks right now.  Beds in the barracks are public, and dwarves have their own schedules, so the entire fortress will not sleep at once.
 +
 
 +
After the barracks is dug, tell your dwarves to {{k|b}}uild a {{k|b}}ed.  Your cursor will come up, turning red on an unacceptable location and green on an acceptable location.  Unacceptable locations will give you a short reason as to why they're unacceptable.  Again, just stack beds against one wall of the barracks; 5 beds will be fine to start out with.  After indicating the placement of the beds, your dwarves will haul them over and install them.  Once they are installed, {{k|q}}uery a bed, then make a {{k|r}}oom.  Use the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to size the room that will be considered the barracks.  All beds within the flashing square will be considered public, so there's no need to do this more than once.  Fill up the whole 5x5 area ({{k|b}}uild {{k|d}}oors if you need to cordon off the area to make it a nice square) and hit {{k|ENTER}}.  You've created your first [[room]]!  A room status screen shows up.  Be sure to hit {{k|b}} to confirm that it is a barracks.  If you don't, the first dwarf that sleeps in this room will claim it as his or her apartment, which isn't what we want.<br>
 +
 
 +
The barracks will keep your dwarves from sleeping on the floor, which would make them [[thought|unhappy]].  As the game goes on, though, it is a very good idea to move dwarves into their own apartments.  They get much [[thought|happier]] for it, it keeps traffic down, and provides you with some more diabolical options such as locking a troublemaker in his room by {{k|q}}uerying the door and {{k|l}}ocking (forbidding) it.  See the [[bedroom design]] page for ideas on how to set up your apartments.<br><br>
 +
 
 +
With bedding handled, we need to set up a [[dining room]], which will double as our [[Activity zone#Meeting_Area|meeting area]].  Dwarves will eat in their apartment sometimes if you install a table and chair in it, but mostly, dwarves prefer to eat in a public [[dining room|dining hall]] with a table all to themselves.  As the meeting area, dwarves will also show up there whenever they have nothing better to do (have 'No Job') to socialize and kill time.  It is a pretty high-traffic area, so be sure to use double-doors as the entrance and exit. It should again be fairly large (25 tiles minimum; this could be 5x5, 4x6, whatever suits your fancy).  Once it's dug out, {{k|b}}uild {{k|t}}ables along the walls, and then {{k|b}}uild {{k|c}}hairs next to the tables, one per table.  Once a table is laid out, {{k|q}}uery the table and make a {{k|r}}oom out of it.  Fill up the dining hall area, and hit {{k|ENTER}}.  Be sure to hit {{k|h}} to set it as a meeting area, and you're done here.
 +
 
 +
As with most kinds of furniture, dwarves can walk through tiles containing tables, chairs and beds. The most notable exception to this are [[statue]]s.
 +
 
 +
===Starting farms===
 +
The basics of life are in place!  Now it's just a matter of getting the farms in place to make sure life goes on.<br>
 +
 
 +
[[Farming]] is the most reliable source of food in the game, and the only way to be sure you're going to feed a large population.  The catch is, we can only farm on [[mud]] or [[soil]].  Mud is only created through [[irrigation]], which is complicated and more trouble than it's worth if you have access to any serious quantity of soil.  Avoid using irrigation if you can.  The logistics of controlling enough water to make arable land on stone are extremely annoying.
 +
 
 +
On [[soil]], however, farming couldn't be easier.  Simply mine out an area of soil (underground, since the seeds you can embark with will NOT grow aboveground), then {{k|b}}uild a farm {{k|p}}lot.  Use {{k|u}}, {{k|m}}, {{k|k}}, and {{k|j}} to resize your plot to the size you want; 3x3 should be plenty to start out, and you will max out at roughly 30 to 40 total squares being used for food and booze production to support a full fortress.  This changes some depending on the skill of your [[grower]]s, but it's a fair guideline.  After placing the farmland, a dwarf with the Farming (Fields) labor enabled will come by and prepare it for use.  After it's done, {{k|q}}uery the new field and decide on your crops for each season.  The crop display will show every crop that can possibly be planted there - it does not necessarily mean you have seeds to plant.  [[Plump helmet]]s are best for your first field, since they can be brewed to [[Alcohol|booze]], eaten raw, and cooked.  If you find some seasons have red letters, that is because the season has already passed and you cannot edit it again this year.  You will have to pick it up in the spring of the following year.  Be aware that Dwarf Fortress will '''NOT''' give you an error if you attempt to plant something you have no seeds of.  It will give you an error if you '''run out''' of seeds after starting planting, but not if you simply have none to begin with.  If you can't remember what kind of seeds you have, check around your wagon and your designated food stockpile using {{k|k}} for a seeds bag.  Hit {{k|Enter}} when you find it to inspect the bag and see what kind of seeds it carries.  Later on, you will be able to find it more easily using the {{k|z}} key and the "Stocks" menu, but right now your stocks will lack the precision to use the "zoom" key.  See the [[bookkeeper]] article for more information on stockpile precision.
  
−
=== Skills ===
+
Eventually, you will want to be planting many, many different kinds of crops.  [[Dimple cup]]s are great later on, because they produce [[dye|dimple dye]], which can be used to increase the value of the clothing your fortress produces.  [[Cave wheat]] can be used to provide fodder for luxury prepared meals, and to make more brewing fodder.  As your fortress grows and you need more and more luxuries to keep everyone happy, diversifying can only help you. 
  
−
The iron anvil costs 1000☼ to take. While you need an anvil for metalsmithing, you shouldn't take it here, since the dwarven caravan will bring one in autumn of the first year, and you'll easily be able to make 1000☼ in trade goods before then. If you don't buy it then, you can get it later.
+
On a note about [[irrigation]] before wrapping this section up, mud behaves almost identically to soil. All below-ground crops can be grown equally well on either, and you build and place the plots exactly the same.  There are a few differences, though.  Mud can be [[Farming#Increasing_yield|fertilized]] with [[potash]], while dry soil cannot.  Some above-ground crops can only be grown in mud, while others can only be planted in dry soil.  Check the [[crop]]s page for more details.  Irrigation is a very advanced technique that provides only marginal benefits.  Some "unlivable" areas can be turned around with skillful irrigation and fertilizer, but by and large they're not necessary. Just use soil whenever you can.
  
−
First, remove all the items in the items screen, so you'll have enough money to spend on skilled dwarves.
+
=== Trading ===
 +
Now that you've given your dwarves a place to sleep and avoided the possibility of starvation, you can start thinking about the finer things in life.
  
−
We suggest taking dwarves with these skills, but you can change these around however you like. Many players would prefer a [[weaponsmith]]/[[armorsmith]] to the fisherdwarf, for example.
+
First, we'll take care of a few organizational considerations, to make trading easier.  Our carpenter will take care of this, since he's done making beds. Order up 2 or 3 [[bucket]]s.  Buckets are used to carry water to injured, bedridden dwarves from water source [[Activity zone|zone]]s and are one of the requirements to building a [[well]].  Then, get to work stamping out some [[bin]]s.  Bins are used to store a lot of non-perishable items in the same square; they work much the same as [[barrel]]s, but barrels are used on perishables like food and booze.  You'll need a LOT of bins, but for the moment 5 or so will do. You will also need to make a lot of barrels, but since you brought a number of them with you, you can hold off a bit. Both of these can be made from [[metal]] as well, but producing them from wood is far more economical.
−
* [[Miner]]/Novice [[Appraiser]]/Novice [[Judge of intent]]/Novice [[Organizer]]/Novice [[Record keeper]]. This dwarf will be the leader, trader, manager, bookkeeper, as well as a miner sometimes.
 
−
* [[Miner]]/[[Mason]]
 
−
* [[Woodcutter]]/[[Carpenter]]
 
−
* [[Grower]]/[[Herbalist]]
 
−
* [[Mechanic]]/[[Building designer]]
 
−
* [[Fisherdwarf]]/[[Fish cleaner]]
 
−
The total cost of the skills is 475☼, but it is worth the cost: Once you start the game, skills will be much more difficult to get than money. Rather, valuble goods; there is no ''currency'', just goods worth specific amounts.
 
  
−
=== Items ===
+
Since you have all this stone lying around, let's put it to use. Build a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]], assign one of your dwarves to [[Stone crafter|stonecrafting]]. Order this [[workshop]] to build rock {{k|c}}rafts of all sorts {{k|r}}epeatedly. Stone mugs are a good trade good - you get three mugs from one stone, adding up to 30☼ at the start. Since your stonecrafter will level up relatively quickly (and if you have several dwarves working on stonecrafts) this can quickly add up to several thousand coins worth of goods.
  
−
Now, you have 1585☼ to spend on items to take along.
+
Now that you've got some goods to [[trade]], we'll need to {{k|b}}uild a trade {{k|D}}epot. Build this somewhere easily accessible from all edges of the map, but close to (or inside) your entrance. [[Trade depot]]s require [[Building designer|architecture]] and a [[mason]], assuming you make it out of your copious quantities of stone.  Many times you will not have an [[building designer]] on embark, so you will have to assign one to get the architecture phase of the depot done.
  
−
* You'll need two copper [[pickaxe]]s, which cost 20☼ each (40☼ total), for your miners. The material doesn't affect mining speed.
+
In the long term, you'll want your trade depot to be in a defensible spot. As it is 5x5 squares, and requires a 3-square wide path for the caravans to get in and out of it, you'll eventually want to spend some time thinking about its [[Defense guide|defense]]. Once the depot has been completed, you can check for depot access using the {{k|shift}}-{{k|D}} key.
−
* Also, a [[battle axe]] will be needed for woodcutting. Since the only possibly metal for it is steel, it costs 300☼.
 
−
* You'll need food. We recommend the following:
 
−
* 100 pieces of any variety of [[meat]] worth 2☼ apiece. Take at least one meat from each type of 2☼ meat, as you will get more barrels that way. (200☼ total)
 
−
* 100 drinks of [[alcohol]], which will be stored in 20 [[barrel]]s free of charge. (200☼ total)
 
−
* You'll probably want seeds, which are all 1☼ each.
 
−
* 25 [[plump helmet spawn]]
 
−
* 10 [[pig tail]] seeds
 
−
* 10 [[rock nut]]s, which are the most difficult crop to use but the one that gives the most food, bar cheating
 
−
* You may wish to bring animals.
 
−
* Two [[dog]]s, at 16☼ each (32☼ total). Gender alternates, so you will get one male and one female if you bring two. Dogs are excellent early defense systems and can be easily trained into war dogs, which do not run from danger and do twice as much damage.{{ver|0.23}}
 
−
* [[Cat]]s kill [[vermin]], preventing unhappy [[thought]]s, and will take owners which will make the owners happy, but also leave dead rats and other vermin corpses around your fortress which can produce clouds of [[miasma]]; bringing cats is a matter of preference, but not recommended for novices. They also will choose their owners, so you may end up with a swarm of cats that cannot be killed without sending the whole fortress into [[tantrum]]s. They cost 11☼ each.
 
−
* If you have followed the above exactly, you'll have 832☼ left. Spend this on whatever you like. If the area where you are has little wood, like a desert or mountains, you may wish to bring a few hundred [[logs]], which cost 3☼ each. You could also bring more [[food]]. You may wish to not take the expensive axe and take an anvil instead, which would leave you with 132☼. You can request an axe from the caravan or forge it yourself.
 
  
−
=== Naming ===
+
The first caravan will come in your first autumn: the dwarven caravan from the mountainhomes.  When it comes, the game will pause, you'll be notified, and the screen will center on the [[trading|caravan]].  If you do not have a depot, or they can't get to it, they will wait on the edge of the map for you to build a depot they can get to, or to clear the obstructions.  The two most common obstructions are [[tree]]s and [[boulder]]s.  Trees can be chopped down, and boulders can be eliminated by {{k|d}}esignating them to be {{k|s}}moothed.  This uses the [[stone detailing]] labor, so turn it on if you need.
  
−
You can also name your fortress and starting group. This doesn't affect the game any, except in that if you don't, you could end up with a really ugly name, like Anusbride.
+
After the caravan is on its way, you'll need to fill the depot with things to trade, and get a trader there to broker the negotiations.  Hit {{k|q}}uery over the depot and press {{k|g}} to start moving supplies. Use the arrow keys to navigate the trade goods window.  If you've been making stone crafts, you'll want the ''crafts'' heading to make the game filter out the bins you've been filling.  Otherwise, you'll have to sift through every stone you've created while digging the fortress, which is a huge pain.  Press {{k|ENTER}} on the bins to mark them for trading, and some dwarves will come along to haul the bins to the depot.  Once that's taken care of, {{k|q}}uery the depot and {{k|r}}equest a trader there.  By default, only the broker will trade at the depot.  This is generally what you want, since brokers with better [[Appraiser|appraisal]] skills can see the worth of all the commodities and tend to get away with giving the caravan boss a lower profit margin on the trade.  Trading at the depot is a low-priority job, though, so you may have to turn off your broker's other labors temporarily to get him to respond to the request in a timely manner.  Once your broker is at the depot, {{k|q}}uery the depot and start {{k|t}}rading.
  
−
== Beginning the fortress ==
+
On the screen that comes up, the left side shows the trader's goods, while the right side shows your own.  Use the arrow keys to navigate and {{k|ENTER}} to mark something for trading.  If your trader does not have at least Novice Appraiser in his skill set, you will not be able to see the values of everything, so you'll have to guess.  The caravan boss will refuse to sell at a loss, and if you're close to making a deal, he'll give you a counteroffer that he'd accept.  Being able to see the values of things is really helpful, but don't worry if you can't.  It usually only takes one or two successful trades before your broker will hit Novice Appraiser and all will become known to you.  One fun note is that raw materials cost the same from merchants as they do at the embark screen; so you already know that [[plump helmet]]s are 4☼, most meat is 2☼, wooden logs are 3☼, and so on.  It's difficult to know the value of your crafts, and some things must be bought as a package deal (you cannot buy seeds alone, you must also buy the bag they come in), though, so it can still be hard to trade without Appraiser.
  
−
When you reach the site of your new fortress, the first things you want to do are:
+
On your first year, you're probably pretty light on things to trade with, so start small.  [[Wood|Wood log]]s are very useful and cheap.  Extra food can be useful if your farms are lagging behind.  Maybe a barrel or two.  Sell what goods you have and don't fret about it any longer.
  
−
* Dig secure lodgings.
+
Next year, after you get some immigrants you can think about exploring other kinds of industry as well, like the [[Furniture Industry|furniture industry]], [[meat industry]], or [[clothing industry]], but this is a great place to start.
−
* Set up basic [[workshop]]s.
 
−
* Set up a [[dining room]] and a [[bedroom]].
 
−
* Set up a [[Farming|farm]].
 
−
* Set up [[stockpile]]s.
 
  
−
Sounds simple, right? It doesn't? Learning the basics of the game can take some time, but soon enough you'll be customizing stockpiles like a pro!
+
The last element to trading is the [[liaison]].  The dwarven liaison will want to meet with your [[expedition leader]] to work out your requests for next year, and let you know what their requests are.  By making a request of the caravan, you are essentially promising to pay more (up to double the normal price) for various things, which entices the traders to bring more of those things. Wood logs are always a great thing to request.  Even at double the normal price, they're still very cheap, and merchants bring a lot of them.  It's not unusual to get 50 logs from a single caravan.  It saves you a massive amount of time and effort.  [[Barrel]]s and [[Container|Container]]s are also good to request, as are [[dog]]s.  You can also request [[seed]]s to get your more diverse crops started.  Look around, explore, and experiment.  That's half the fun of the game.
  
−
* First off, pause the game by pressing {{k|space}}. You can do this at any time to figure out what's going on at your leisure.
+
The liaison will also tell you what they want from you, with the same deal: they'll pay more for it if you provide it.  Unfortunately, they usually want stupid things that don't trade well (such as stone [[block]]s) or things you'd rather keep to yourself (such as [[Alcohol|booze]]). Many players simply ignore their liaison's requests and build the same things they always build.  Diplomatic relations will not suffer at all.
  
−
* To move the view around, use the arrow keys. To move the view around at a faster pace, hold down the {{k|shift}} key, but if using the numpad keys make sure {{k|numlock}} is off. To view different elevations, or "Z-levels," use the {{k|<}} and {{k|>}} keys ({{k|shift}} + {{k|,}} or {{k|.}}).
+
Your expedition leader must actually pick up the job ''conduct meeting'' to get this process done, and it ends up being a very low-priority job, so again, you may consider turning off your leader's other labors to make sure he gets to it. If you really want to force the liaison to take the meeting, move him to the meeting spot by enlisting him in the [[Military]] and [[Military#Controlling your squads|stationing]] him at the meeting spot. Then [[Door#Door settings|forbid the door]] behind him and the liaison, locking them in until the meeting is completed (when the Liaison says "Goodbye" in a message).
  
−
* To examine the contents of a square, press {{k|k}} and move the cursor over the square you want to examine. If you get lost and can't find your way back to your dwarves, press {{k|F1}} to center the camera back on the starting position. Check out more information on [[hotkeys]] to find out how to change that location.
+
===Basic Defenses===
 +
{{main|40d:Defense}}
 +
While not a major concern at first, it is always a good idea to think about how you are going protect your dwarves. From picking your location to establishing your fortress, always think about how you will defend your new home. Failure to incorporate this into your fortress can cause serious issues down the road. The good news is that it is relatively easy to setup basic defenses with only a few dwarves.
  
−
* You need to know how to change what jobs your dwarves will do. Press {{k|v}} and then move the cursor over a dwarf. It will display information about him/her. Go to the dwarf's {{k|p}}references, then the {{k|l}}abor submenu, and scroll the list with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} ({{k|*}} and {{k|/}} will scroll through the list at a faster pace). The highlighted jobs are the ones this dwarf is allowed to do. Your starting dwarves should have the jobs that you gave them skills in enabled, but any dwarf can do any job, even if they have no skill in it yet. This is important to know so you can make the dwarves do the jobs you need done instead of just whatever their default jobs are. You should probably turn off all types of hauling for one of the miners.
+
When designing your defenses here are a few things to keep in mind.
 +
* Limiting Access - The more ways there are into your fortress, the harder it is to defend. Most fortresses should have only one way to get in/out. This is usually an entrance hallway or some form of gate. The further your enemies have to travel to get to your dwarves, the more traps and military personnel you can put in their way to stop them from killing your dwarves. When designing an entrance system, make sure to keep in mind that your own dwarves will most likely pass by these defenses on their way to gather wood, plants and the spoils of the battlefield.
  
−
* To start [[digging]] out your fortress, press {{k|d}} to open the designation menu. Here you can select the tiles for your miners to dig, or tell them to create [[stair]]s and [[ramp]]s and various other things. Press {{k|d}} again to make sure you're creating digging designations, then press enter to start marking where to dig.
+
* Controlled isolation - Sometimes, you will need to cut yourself off from the world. This normally happens when you suddenly find yourself under siege without an adequate military to defend yourself. Since all creatures move the same way, simply putting a bridge or a line of floodgates at your entrance is a good way to cut off a siege while you build up your military. The key here is that you can control when to isolate your fortress. Do keep in mind that you will not be able to get migrants or caravans while isolated.
  
−
* Start digging out a room as the start of your fortress. If you don't like the area the wagon starts in, choose a different place on the map. Try to keep a 1 tile wide chokepoint or hallway leading into it which you can block with a door. If you are in an area covered with sand, loam, or clay, you won't have rocks cluttering the room, so it may be easier to make your rooms there. Oddly, sand walls are just as hard as granite ones.
+
* Ranged Defense - While rare in the early part of the game, attacking parties will bring along a few archers. The thing to keep in mind that archers can shoot over moats and onto roofs. The easiest way to defend against archers is to use walls. Do your best to avoid long straight corridors since enemies can kill your dwarves as they either run away or run towards the archer. Adding a few corners go a long way in making enemy archers less dangerous. Also note that archers can shoot up and down z-levels. So if you have a multilevel structure outside, make sure to put a wall around the perimeter to prevent archers from being able to shoot your dwarves on the roof.
  
−
* You will need rock for construction, through, so if you don't mine your rooms out of stone, you'll need to create a mining area elsewhere to get stone.
+
* Stopping the invasion - You've planned your entrance, and setup a way to isolate your fortress, now it is time to stop the invading force. This is usually done with either traps or military. The easiest way to defend your fortress is with traps. Since they don't move, you need to build a bottleneck or choke point to herd invaders over the traps. If you followed the directions above, you should already have a bottleneck in place. Your fortress entrance is a place that everyone must cross. Put a bunch of stone fall or cage traps here and you are ready to go. As a rule of thumb, any space that is 2-5 squares wide should be considered as a place to setup a bottleneck.
  
−
* To dig down with stairs, designate a "downwards stairway" on the surface, then move the view down one level ({{k|>}}) and designate an "upwards stairway" on the tile directly beneath the downwards stairs. An "up/down stairway" works like both types of stairways in one tile. Stairs can go as deep as you want in a stack if you keep making up/down stairs on top of each other. You can continue stairs from both the top and the bottom of up/down stairs, but only from the bottom of downwards stairs, and only from the top of upwards stairs.
+
=== The future ===
  
−
* Outdoors by the fortress entrance, create a [[refuse stockpile]], a [[wood stockpile]], a [[furniture stockpile]], and a [[food stockpile]] to get your supplies out of the wagon and keep the food from rotting. You may wish to create a [[stone stockpile]], but this may cause your dwarves to get bogged down with hauling if you make it too large. To make a stockpile, press {{k|p}}, press the letter corresponding to the type of stockpile you want, then press enter and drag the selection box over the area you want, and press enter again to create it.
+
After this point, you'll be able to start exploring the other intricacies of the game. Here is a list of some other gameplay commands which have not been covered:
  
−
* Disassemble the wagon for [[wood]] by pressing {{k|q}}, moving the cursor over the wagon and pressing {{k|x}}. Your carpenter should then disassemble it into three logs.
+
* [[labor]]
−
<!-- This is where I stopped working on the article. --Savok -->
+
* [[noble]]s
−
* Create a [[Mason's Workshop]], a [[Carpenter's Workshop]], and a [[Mechanic's Workshop]] with the stones your miners should be producing as they dig tunnels through the rock. To build things, press {{k|b}}, then for workshops, press {{k|w}}. Scroll to the type you want with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} and press enter. You should next see a screen with the list of all the available materials you can use to build the workshop. Select any type of stone and the dwarves will get started. '''NOTE:''' If the stone available to you has some [[economic stone|economic value]], such as [[limestone]] or [[marble]], you must press {{k|z}} to open the general status screen, go to the Stones submenu, then find the stone type in the list and press {{k|enter}} to allow your dwarves to use it for mundane tasks like constructing buildings and furniture.
+
* [[military]]
−
* Your [[fisherdwarf]] has likely run off to a body of water to start fishing. Raw fish is inedible, and rots if left alone too long, so you need to build a [[fishery]] to process it. You build the fishery in the same way you built the other workshops. After it's built, select it with {{k|q}}, press {{k|a}}, select "Process Raw Fish" and press enter. Then press {{k|r}} to make that order repeat until it runs out of fish to process.
 
−
* At the [[Mason's Workshop]], order a [[door]] by selecting the workshop with {{k|q}}, pressing {{k|a}}, then scrolling to "door" on the list with the + and - keys and pressing enter. Stone is more common than wood, so you want to make everything you possibly can out of stone rather than wood. The only important items you can't make out of stone that you can make out of wood are [[bed]]s, [[bucket]]s, [[bin]]s, [[barrel]]s, and [[charcoal]] for fueling your [[forge]]s.
 
−
* Once the door is finished, place the door in the entrance of your fort by pressing {{k|b}}uild, then {{k|d}}oor, then selecting the space you want it to go in and pressing {{k|enter}}. If trouble shows up, you can lock the door by pressing {{k|q}}, highlighting it and pressing {{k|l}} once. Pressing it again unlocks it.
 
−
* At the [[Carpenter's Workshop]], first order a [[bed]] and a [[bucket]] to be made out of some of your wagon wood.
 
−
* Once the bed is complete, {{k|b}}uild it in the same manner you built the door, and place it in your entrance hall. Once it's placed, you should make it into a communal sleeping hall by selecting the bed with {{k|q}}, pressing {{k|r}} and using the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to cover the area of the hall, pressing enter, then pressing {{k|b}} to make it a [[barracks]]. Making it a barracks means that it is a public sleeping area, and dwarves without their own rooms will sleep there, even if there aren't enough beds.
 
−
* You should designate some trees to be cut down for more logs. Press {{k|d}}, then {{k|t}}. Find an area with trees, then press enter and highlight some trees by dragging the selection area over them and pressing enter again.
 
−
* To build some [[trap]]s to defend your front door, order some [[mechanism]]s to be built at the [[Mechanic's Workshop]]. After they are made, go to the {{k|b}}uild menu, and select the "Traps/Levers" category using {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}. Select the [[Trap#Stone-fall trap|stone-fall trap]], select the materials to use, then place it in a choke point leading into your fortress, like in front of or behind the front door.
 
−
* Mine a new room that will be used as a dining hall, and build four or five stone [[table]]s and stone [[throne]]s for it. Build some more doors to section off new rooms properly, as dwarves dislike rooms that aren't enclosed on all sides by walls or doors. Place the tables and thrones like you did the doors, and put one throne adjacent to each table. Once a table is placed in the room, select it with {{k|q}} and use it to define the area as a dining room, like you did with the bed for the sleeping hall. You only need to use one table to define the room, and the rest of the tables in it are automatically considered part of the dining room.
 
−
* Mine a few more rooms to be used as storage areas, remove the furniture and food stockpiles outside, and make new ones in these new storage rooms.
 
−
* You can also move your workshops indoors. They should not be built in the vicinity of the sleeping hall, as the noise will bother people. You can remove the workshops aboveground the same way you dismantled the wagon, press {{k|q}}, highlight the workshop, then press {{k|x}}.
 
−
* Next you'll set up [[farming]]. You first need to dig a farm room underground. Dwarven crops won't grow on the surface. If there are enough layers of [[soil]] covering the rock, you can carve out a farm room inside the soil and start farming without having to [[irrigate]] the ground. However, if you want to make a farm room with a rock floor, you will need to get the floor wet first. When water covers a rock cavern floor, it becomes muddy, which allows you to build farm plots on it. For more information about how to do that, read up on [[irrigation]].
 
−
* Once you have suitable ground for planting, go to the {{k|b}}uild menu, find "Farm Plot" or press {{k|p}}, then use the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|h}} {{k|k}} keys to resize it, and press enter to place it. A 5x5 field should be plenty to last you through winter. After it's placed, your growers will come clear the site and prepare it for planting.
 
−
* Now that the field is ready, select it with {{k|q}}, and set the crop you want to be grown on it. You have to set this manually for each season. Press {{k|a}} for spring, {{k|b}} for summer, {{k|c}} for fall, and {{k|d}} for winter. Not every crop can be grown in every season, although [[plump helmet]]s can be grown all year. You probably want to grow plump helmets exclusively at first, as they are the easiest crop to grow and use. Dwarves can eat them raw, cooked, or brew them into alcohol.
 
  
−
== What next? ==
+
==Sample games==
 +
These are sample games that others have played and recorded to provide good learning examples.  They are not routinely updated, so some information may be out of date, but they still provide good hands-on tutorials of how to prepare for your fortress and play the game.
  
−
At this point your little fort should be mostly self-sufficient, barring animal attacks, mining accidents, psychotic outbreaks, or invasion. You can now invest some time in luxuries, such as making private rooms for each dwarf, crafting valuable trade goods, crazy engineering projects, and brewing more beer.
+
* [[Indecisive's illustrated fortress mode tutorial]]
 +
* [[Tutorial:40d:Savok's first fortress playthrough|Savok's first fortress playthrough]]
 +
* [http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/ The Complete and Utter Newbie Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress]
  
−
Here's some ideas for what to do next:
+
You can also look at the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] to see multi-layered snapshots of fortresses that others have built.
−
* Make an underground water supply that won't freeze over in winter, by draining a surface pool or diverting a river.
 
−
* Build a [[craftdwarf's workshop]] and start making some trade goods.
 
−
* Build a [[trade depot]] so that merchants can come and trade with you.
 
−
* Set up a [[still]] to brew more drinks for your thirsty dwarves. They'll drink water if they have to, but they are much happier and work faster if they are full of beer.
 
−
* Make individual rooms for each dwarf, with a bed and maybe a rock coffer and rock cabinet in each one.
 
−
* Use [[zone]]s to set up a meeting hall, and designate which water sources you want your dwarves to use for fishing and drinking.
 
−
* Expand your farm, dining room, and living quarters in anticipation of the massive wave of 10-30 immigrants that will likely show up sometime in the next year.
 
−
* Start making [[bin]]s and [[barrel]]s to consolidate items and food taking up space in your stockpiles so things are more organized, and so you have more barrels to brew drinks with.
 
−
* Set up an indoor [[refuse stockpile]] so your dwarves don't have to carry their trash as far, and so you can start building up a useful supply of bones and shells.
 
  
 
[[Category:Guides]]
 
[[Category:Guides]]
 +
 +
{{Starting FAQ}}
 +
[[ru:Your first fortress]]

Latest revision as of 21:12, 5 January 2023

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼
v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31 · v0.28.181.40d · v0.23
This article is about an older version of DF.

This is a guide to help new players get started on their first fortress and teach them the basics of keeping their dwarves alive. If you have unanswered questions or find given details confusing, please tell us so on the discussion page! Above all else, always remember the Dwarf Fortress motto: "Losing is fun!"

We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying skills and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in technical tricks. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. For more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.

Generating a world[edit]

It all starts here. The first thing to do when starting Dwarf Fortress is to create a world. Later on, you may wish to tweak the parameters to suit your play style, but for now, the Create New World Now! option is an easy way to get into your first game.

The engine will start to create the world -- watch it unfold! You might notice that worlds are rejected, sometimes even after the generator begins running rivers and lakes. This is normal, as the generator seeks a world which meets the criteria for optimum Dwarven Fun.

Generating a standard random world can take several minutes. You can speed things up by selecting Design New World with Parameters instead of Create New World Now! and setting a smaller world size. These worlds tend to be less interesting and less replayable, but work well if you want to try new things.

Once you've generated a world you will return to the main screen and there will be a new option, Start Playing. Upon selecting that you can choose the game mode - Dwarf Fortress, Adventurer, or Legends. This article is written with respect to Fortress mode.

See the article on world generation for a complete guide to the world generation screen.

Choosing a location[edit]

Useful location traits[edit]

Forest: Many parts of the game are dependent on creating wood items, so if you choose a location without any trees, the game will be more fun (aka more complex).

Water: Wounded dwarves require water to drink, so having a water source near your first fortress so your injured don't die of thirst will be helpful.

Animals: Some biomes will have fewer animals to hunt for meat to feed your dwarves, so tropical and temperate biomes might be simpler. However, bear in mind that not all animals are friendly, so it might be wise to do some research on an area that you're thinking about starting in to get a good handle on what type of creatures might populate it.

The interface[edit]

So long as you have at least one world without an active game, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Select "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll find a four-section window:

This picture is shown with the default tileset. Other tilesets are available

Going from left to right, these windows represent:

  • The local map. The black box represents the area that your fortress will occupy if you decide to embark. The blue line is a stream, the green icons represent forests and swamps, and the gray triangles are mountain slopes.
  • The regional map. This is like zooming out from the local map. The entire local map is represented by that yellow X. Most of the region is forest, with a mountain range in the bottom right. The two light blue lines are minor rivers.
  • The world map. This is zooming out all the way. The yellow X represents the approximate position of the region.
  • Information about the area that the black box is occupying. More on this below.

You can move around the region map with ←↑→↓, or at 10x speed with Shift+←↑→↓. Note that using Shift can cause the key to get "stuck" - press it again to cancel.

You can move around the local map with these keys: 

  u
h  k
  m

You cannot directly move around the world map. Movement across the world map is shown relative to your movement on the region map. In world generated with the default settings, each square of the world map contains several squares of the region map.

Your next goal will be choosing the starting location for your fortress.

Your surroundings[edit]

You can discern a lot of information by scrolling through the various modes. The interface has five modes which you cycle through by pressing TAB. In turn, they display the biomes, civilizations, and geology of the local area.

Biomes screen[edit]

This display gives you an idea for the environment you'll be parachuting into. Click any of the blue links for more information on the subject. Biomes are determined by the type of life in the area. On the Biome screen, you'll see:

  • Temperature: How hot or cold it gets in the area. Can be Freezing, Cold, Temperate, Warm, Hot, and Scorching. In a nutshell, temperature extremes make it harder to get and keep a reliable source of water going. In Freezing and Scorching climates, you may have to do without water at all. Temperate and Warm are both good places to start your first fort.

  • Amount of trees, and other vegetation: A general indication of the density of plant life in the area. For trees, this can be none, scarce, sparse, woodland, or heavily forested. For other plants, you can see none, scarce, moderate, and thick. Trees are chopped down for wood, which is a critical, if small, part of your fortress. You can import lots of it from caravans, so don't worry too much about it. However, more trees never hurt anyone, and totally treeless maps are quite a bit more difficult in the early going, so aim for sparse or greater trees. Other plants basically means shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation that you can harvest food from with the plant gathering skill. Generally speaking, you will use this trick in the first year of your fortress, then never again. Plant density is not very important.

  • Surroundings: This gives you a basic image of the local fauna and flora. The outskirts of a jungle might be fairly calm and safe, while the heart of that same jungle could be thick with vicious predators. In game terms, this will clue you in to the specific types of trees and plants you will find, in addition to indicating the animal types you'll run into. This also clues you in to the alignment of the surrounding area. So, the two things this word tells you is how good or evil an area is, and how calm or savage an area is. The meaning of each of the descriptions is as follows:


Calm ... Savage
Good Serene Mirthful Joyous Wilds
Neutral Calm Wilderness Untamed Wilds
Evil Sinister Haunted Terrifying


Good zones tend to have benign mythological creatures, like the unicorn (which can be incredibly dangerous, but only if provoked), while evil areas have a multitude of undead and some of the most vicious creatures in the game, which need no provocation to tear your dwarves limb from limb. For your first fortress, stick to a neutral or good alignment.

  • Major land forms: A last field, which will not always be full, will mention things you should know about, like rivers. Rivers provide an unlimited source of water, but can be home to dangerous fish like the longnose gar and carp. Still, though, the benefits generally far outweigh the risks. Volcanoes are also noted here, one of the only guaranteed ways to get magma. Magma makes a few things a lot easier, but it is dangerous to work with and must be handled very carefully because of the horrible creatures that come out of it. Not critical, especially not for your first time out.

Sometimes, you'll be looking at a place with more than one biome in the same selected square. You can press F1 F2 F3 or F4 to view the different types of biomes. In the picture above, we are looking at the mountain in the center, which is cold and has no trees or plants because it's too high up for those things to grow.

Civilization screen[edit]

These are nearby civilizations that are capable of interacting with you. Other settlements are shown with various symbols on the regional map. The possible entries here are dwarves, humans, elves, goblins, and kobolds.

  • Dwarves: You will want to be in contact with dwarves to get immigrants and a dwarven trading caravan. However, dwarves are, sometimes seemingly magically, everywhere. It is impossible to settle anywhere without dwarves, assuming there is at least one surviving dwarven civilization. Depending on how remote the area is, though, you may not get some of the features of the game you would otherwise: being cut off from the world will prevent most nobles from coming to your fort, which will stop the dwarven economy from ever being activated. You may also not get a liaison with your dwarven caravan from which to request goods.
  • Humans: Humans are almost always friendly, and love trade. They send liaisons to let you request goods and are generally a huge boon to any fortress.
  • Elves: Elves are usually friendly and make fair trading partners, but have a particular ethos about trading. They do not send a trade liaison and their goods are luxuries at best. They can be very annoying, but are generally not dangerous unless you provoke them.
  • Goblins: Goblins are your main enemies in Dwarf Fortress, and will produce most of the aggression against your fort. They periodically launch ambushes, consisting of five to ten goblin warriors, and will send sieges after your fort reaches 80 dwarves. Trapped entrances, war dogs, and eventually a military will be needed to repel them. Just be sure not to start in the middle of a goblin citadel.
  • Kobold: Kobolds are petty thieves that are little more than irritations in most situations. If you are careless and let their thieves get away with a lot of stuff, though, they may upgrade to raiding parties of archers.

Elevation screen[edit]

Relative elevation. This is a normal topographic map that you're used to from real-life maps. It just gives you an idea of the lay of the land.

Slope screen[edit]

Slope steepness. This shows you where large cliffs are. Be advised that cliffs of elevation 4 or more mean taller maps, which take significantly more computer power to run. On the other hand, many find completely flat embark sites to be dull -- a good elevation map contains lots of low elevation changes ranging from 1 to 4. However, choosing areas partly or entirely above the tree line gives you much more stone, ore, and gems to work with, and the hills even provide decent protection against invaders, especially if you start removing natural ramps. It's your choice in the long run, particularly if you don't really care about performance.

Embark alerts[edit]

When you're satisfied with your area and hit e to embark, you may get some alerts about being in a very difficult area, or about an aquifer. Aquifers can make it frustrating to get started, so if you are alerted about an aquifer, seriously consider moving somewhere else for your first fortress. After you have the basics down, tackling an aquifer is much easier.

Location recap[edit]

For your first fortress, it's not entirely important. However, there are some general guidelines that can help you decide:

  • Try to get a temperate or warm climate, since extreme temperatures are more difficult.
  • Trees and vegetation are good for producing lumber and food for your fortress, but you don't need tons of them.
  • Neutral-aligned surroundings are best for your first fortress, but good-aligned surroundings are also OK. Avoid evil-aligned surroundings, however.
  • Running water (rivers, streams, and brooks) are a permanent source of water. Murky pools and underground pools have a finite amount of water and may dry out. Not having enough water can be a big obstacle, so try to get some running water your first time out.
  • Humans and elves are friendly, so an area they have access to is nice.
  • Magma is cool (hah!), but not critical.
  • Areas with aquifers require some engineering to get to rock. You'll be warned if you chose an area with an aquifer. When in doubt, don't try it.
    • If you insist on starting in an area with an aquifer, read up on the dangers of aquifers, and, if at all possible, choose an embark site that includes an aquifer-less biome.
  • Who cares? If you like what you see, go for it. You can always start over. And remember the DF motto: Losing is fun!

For more information on specific game mechanics such as sand, flux, and how to find iron, check this page.

Fortress size[edit]

Once you've decided on location, you need to decide the size of your fortress area. This is the size of the game field you're playing on. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of rocks and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include slower game performance (larger areas require more CPU power), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your trade depot before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. (Note that you can mine many levels deep into the ground, and even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.)

You can adjust the size of your fort's area by using SHIFT + the u m k or h keys.

Embark[edit]

When done, hit e to embark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site, or one with an aquifer.

Buying skills and items[edit]

After you embark, you're given the option to either start immediately or prepare for the journey carefully. You should pretty much always prepare carefully if you enjoy staying alive.

Here, presumably, you are the dwarf determining who will go and what they will take. You have a total of 2060☼ to spend in two categories: Skilled dwarves and items. Some items have already been selected for you, but you probably won't want most of these.

There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The starting builds page offers several examples for you to choose from. Here, we are only going to discuss some basics that help you understand enough to make your own decisions. The embark screen opens up on the skills screen, and can be changed to the items screen by pressing TAB.

Skills[edit]

In Dwarf Fortress, it's not what you have, it's who you have. Skilled dwarves are the cornerstone of everything, from domestics to security, so it's extremely important to embark with good people.

As you will see in this screen, you have 7 dwarves, all with 10 points to put toward starting skills. We will want to use all 10 of the points on all 7 of the dwarves. By default, you won't have enough ☼ to do this, so hit TAB to go to the items screen and hit - over the Steel battle axe line to give subtract one. This should give you enough ☼ to assign all your skills. You can only spend 5 of the 10 points in any one skill, making the maximum skill level upon embark proficient. This makes a total of 14 proficient skills, or a larger number of lower skill levels.

In a fledgling fortress, the 4 indispensable jobs are mason, miner, grower, and carpenter. A good beginning strategy is to embark with at least 1 dwarf being proficient in these 4 skills. Many people choose to double up on proficient miners and growers, since mining and farming are both pretty big jobs.

Other useful skills to consider:

  • Cook: Cooks make prepared meals in the kitchen, which helps you manage your food stock space. Well-prepared meals are also valuable trade goods, and make dwarves happy when eaten. Highly skilled cooks make better meals, and prepare meals faster.
  • Brewer: Brewers make booze in the still. Dwarves being dwarves, they need alcohol to operate at peak efficiency, and highly skilled brewers make better tasting booze and finish brewing faster. Dwarves get happier when they drink good booze.
  • Herbalist: Herbalists gather food and seeds from shrubs in the local area. Skilled herbalists pick faster and come away with far more food. Where an unskilled herbalist will come away with one wild strawberry or none at all, a proficient herbalist will often pick 3 or 4, and sometimes 5.
  • Woodcutter: Woodcutters fell trees for use by carpenters. Highly skilled woodcutters fell trees much faster. However, since you don't need that much wood, you can get away with a normal (no tag) woodcutter just fine.
  • Mechanic: Mechanics build and use mechanisms, which have myriad uses in traps, levers and some machines. Highly skilled mechanics finish installing mechanisms much faster, and the mechanisms they build are of higher quality. However, the quality of the mechanism primarily matters to beginning players for its trade value, and in early fortresses the need for mechanisms is usually so small that any dwarf can pick it up and handle it well enough. Still, a solid choice, especially if you like traps.
  • Armorsmith, Weaponsmith: These become very important quickly if you want even decent weapons and armor and are annoying to train up from scratch.
  • Siege engineer is not useful at all in an early fortress, and far from ever being essential, but training an unskilled dwarf in it requires a lot of material and time.
  • Military skills (Wrestler, Axedwarf, Hammerdwarf, etc.): Early on, it's unlikely that you'll need these, since there's generally very few things that will bother a band of dwarves who aren't hurting anyone, but certain places, such as those with a chasm, will have hostile creatures around. In these areas, you may consider giving your woodcutter the Axedwarf skill so he can use his chopping axe as a weapon. A miner can "pinch-hit", since the Mining skill also covers wielding a pick in combat, but the dwarves don't understand this yet, so a drafted miner will get unhappy thoughts.
  • Social skills (Appraiser, Judge of Intent, Consoler, etc.): Putting these on one dwarf will make them a shoo-in for the Expedition Leader slot, and ranks in Appraiser and Judge of Intent will make interacting with the first caravan much easier. However, even if you don't train this at all, some persistence in trading with the first caravan will level your leader up enough to trade with the second caravan like a champion.

Once again, examples can be found in the starting builds page. What you bring is incredibly dependent on your play style, though. Some people think bringing Mechanics along is a total waste of time, others consider them indispensable. Some people like having skills that aren't even on this list, like Leatherworker. Read the starting builds, ask questions, and explore! Who cares if your first idea doesn't work out after playing an hour? Restarting is easy and losing is fun.

Items[edit]

Now that we're done with assigning skills, hit TAB to go over to the item screen. Item worth is another extremely situational thing, and you'll find as many opinions as there are Dwarf Fortress players as to what is good to bring. Once more, it depends VERY heavily on your play style. Again, starting builds can provide some good example reading. This section will only cover the basics and give you enough information to make your own decisions.

Tools[edit]

You'll need a couple of finished tools to get yourself started.

  • Battle axes: Every Woodcutter needs an axe. Steel battle axes are the only type you can purchase on this screen, and they're expensive. You might want to bring just one, unless you expect to need a lot of lumber and/or axedwarf muscle.
  • Picks: Likewise, Miners need picks. All picks work equally well, their material only determines the damage they do in combat. Thus, copper picks are the budgeting dwarf's choice, at a paltry 20☼ each.

  • Anvil: One of the big questions to ask yourself is whether to bring an anvil on embark. It's extremely expensive at 1000☼, but to start a metal industry, you will either have to start with one or request and purchase (or steal!) one from a caravan somewhere down the line.

    Generally, if you are going to a very mountainous area where you're likely to see lots of ore and you want to be able to make use of it right from the get-go, bring an anvil. If you're going to spend a few years getting your fortress established before worrying about metal production, drop it and bring more raw commodities.

    One occasional problem is that axes and picks are absent entirely. If this is the case (or you just don't want to spend all that money), you can bring the materials to make your own weapons.

    • If you want to save points and smelt the ore yourself, take copper nuggets instead of copper bars, and use the smelter to convert the ore into copper bars.
    • A good alternative ore to bring along, and not much more expensive, is tetrahedrite - when smelted, it yields one copper bar with a 20% chance of an additional silver bar each. Silver is a good metal for metal crafters, or you can have an unskilled worker forge a practice weapon out of silver for training - silver is tied with wood for the safest material for practice weapons, and you have to trade with elves for wooden ones.
    • Other mixes of ores, to create bronze or bismuth bronze, etc., are possible - as you learn about the game you'll decide what works best for you, and in what starting situations.
    • Fuel and metal in hand, deconstruct the smelter (if needed; q to highlight, then x to deconstruct), and construct a metalsmith's forge. Make sure someone has weaponsmithing on. After the forge is up, order it to make the axes and picks you need. Deconstruct the forge when you're done and enjoy your new tools, hopefully with quality modifiers!

Raw materials[edit]

As it was briefly covered above, sometimes it makes more sense to bring a lot of raw materials than some finished goods. Raw materials are a lot cheaper than finished goods, and so long as you invest heavily in your dwarves' skills (which you should!), you can probably make better quality stuff, anyway.

  • Stone: Only bring this if you're trying to build some of your tools on the spot, as noted above. Otherwise, you will get stone coming out of your ears once you start mining.
  • Metal: Generally not recommended. However, if you're expecting trouble and you're bringing an anvil, bringing many bars of iron and charcoal in lieu of a battle axe can be a big boon. If your dwarves can get to a spot that gives them a breather, a proficient weaponsmith or armorsmith could stamp out high-quality goods to give your dwarves a better fighting chance. This is a pretty advanced trick to pull off, though, so don't try to pull it if you're not confident.
  • Wood: Wood is a bargain at only 3☼ per log, and the 100 logs you can bring in exchange for a steel battle axe will last you a long time. This is a great technique for making Woodcutter unneeded in the early game, but you need to budget your wood use for the first year very carefully. When you're out, you're out!
  • Leather: Leather is cheap at 5☼ per for the cheapest. Bring a few to make extra bags for gathering plants - don't worry if you don't have a leather worker, you don't much care about a quality multiplier for bottom-value items like leather bags. If you are going to make your own leather armor (early or later), consider bringing someone with leather working skill.

Consumables[edit]

Easily the most important part of your preparation is what you're going to eat, drink, and plant once you get on site. Without food and booze, you're not going much of anywhere.

  • Food: Most food comes at a mere 2☼ per unit, and 8 units will feed 1 dwarf for a year. Bringing a year of food will give you a good cushion to getting your farms working, so aim for about 60 food if you can. If you must cut back, though, 40 will be fine if you make your farms an early priority. The best food staple to bring along is turtle. Turtle produces shell and bones when eaten, which can be used as raw materials for other things you need, including armor, crossbows, and crossbow bolts. Further, shell is a common request for strange moods and is a pain to produce, so getting some early could save yourself a failed mood and a dead dwarf.
  • Booze: Dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, and they always want to down some alcohol if at all possible. They also like different kinds of alcohol. Bring twice as much booze as you bring food, and divide it evenly among the 4 types of alcohol you can take (dwarven wine, dwarven beer, dwarven ale, dwarven rum). Even more nifty, check the booze preferences of your 7 dwarves on embark and allocate the 4 kinds accordingly. Plump helmets (wine) and pig tails (ale) are fast growing, so you might take less of those, particularly if no dwarf has a preference for them. Too much booze is a real barrel hogger but this problem is far off. More booze is better 99% of the time.
  • Seeds: Your farms have got to start somewhere. Definitely bring along plump helmet spawn (for food and booze) and pig tails (for cloth ropes and booze variety). How many you bring is dependent on how big you want your initial farms to be. 5 of each is plenty to feed your initial dwarves, and you will get more seeds any time the plants are consumed in any way except cooking. You may want to use the kitchen menu to disallow cooking of plump helmets until you have a healthy supply of seeds. Or, alternatively, just don't make any prepared meals until you've got a healthy supply of seeds. The other seed types require a lot more labor to use properly, and should probably wait until you have more dwarves in the fortress. You can buy seeds from the dwarven caravan for almost nothing, but if you want a greater variety along, go for rock nuts. The quarry bush that sprouts from it produces the greatest space to yield ratio in the game. Eventually, though, you should be planting all 6 of the underground crops at least.

Food and booze are stored in barrels, with each type in its own barrel. Since barrels have a 10-unit capacity, you can get a lot of free barrels by starting with many, many kinds of food in quantities which end in 1. Barrels are important, and usually need wood to make, so it's worth it to use this quirk while you can by starting with at least one unit of every type of food.

Seeds are stored in Containers in multiples of 100, also by type. Bags are cheap and easy to make, and not as important as barrels, since making cloth bags is a good way to train up your clothier, so it's not recommended to spend the extra to get 1 free bag.

Domestic Animals[edit]

Not only dwarves live in your fortress, after all.

  • Dogs: Dogs are dwarf's best friend. They can be trained into hunting dogs or war dogs, require no food or maintenance, and make good pets for your dwarves. Always bring at least 2. Genders alternate when picking them up, so 2 will give you a breeding pair that will have more puppies freely. They make fantastic security early and fantastic dwarfsaving distractions later on. Dogs will happily lay down their lives to protect their master, which is huge when it means one of your best legendary dwarves is running away from an angry goblin.
  • Cats: Cats provide a wonderful function in controlling vermin in the fort. Vermin can make your dwarves extremely unhappy, so some cats are more or less a requirement. The largest problem with cats, however, is that their population is very difficult to control. Cats will choose their own owners (without the dwarf in question's consent), and after they've done so, you cannot order them butchered to control their numbers. The resulting population explosion can clutter hallways and murder your framerate. The best thing to do is to put all stray cats and kittens in a cage (one will hold them all). You can then butcher them without running the risk of the cats adopting dwarves before the butcher gets around to them, and if vermin start to get out of hand, you can always release one or two to help. If you want vermin control from the start, bring just ONE cat so it cannot breed and cause a population problem early. However, immigrants will very commonly bring their pet cats to the fortress, so if you can live with vermin early, you'll likely get a cat for free within a year. Or, be prepared to cage and slaughter them aggressively for meat and hides - that can work too.
  • Beasts of burden (horses, muskoxen, cows, donkeys, & mules): You get two of these for free when you start the game - each one random as to sex and the five possible species (and mules don't breed). Unlike cats, dwarves must choose to adopt beasts of burden, which they won't do unless you let them to do so (in z->animals menu). That's fairly rare, so the vast majority of the beasts of burden in your fortress will stay strays. Many immigrants may bring useless animals with them though - as they are adopted already you can't butcher or cage them, but they can still help start a breeding program for meat, hides and bones. You can also trade later for whatever the caravans bring. All newborns belong to the fortress, so you can do what you want with them.

Once again, check the starting builds page for more ideas, read the pages linked above, and experiment. The learning process is half the fun in Dwarf Fortress; enjoy it!

Game on![edit]

We've chosen an area, selected our supplies, and we're ready to play. The game opens with your dwarves huddled around the wagon they used to get here.

Gameplay overview[edit]

This section will deal with the tasks you'll need to tackle in your first year of gameplay. These tasks are selecting a dig site, building workshops (and marking stockpiles), building lodging, starting farms, and trading.

Selecting a dig site[edit]

You'll have to decide where you're going to dig in and start your fortress. You should consider the natural formations of the surrounding area when deciding where you want your main entrance. Ideally, there should be one way in and one way out. This one way should be fairly sizable, to pander to caravans and traffic. Proximity to a good water source so you can build a well more easily is also desirable. You can fix either of these things with extra digging and building later on, though, so don't sweat the decision too much.

The most direct way to start is to find the side of a nearby mountain and dig into it, but if you're in a very flat area, you might have to dig downward instead. To start digging, hit designations, then dig. Move your cursor using the arrow keys to where you want to dig, and hit ENTER, then move your cursor over to the place you want the digging to end. Mining designations are rectangular, so you can go both left and right and up and down as you're designating area. This tells your dwarves to cut into a wall and hollow it out, often leaving behind a stone if it is a rock wall. Soil walls become hollowed out, but never drop anything. These hollowed out areas are where you'll build the vast majority of everything you need.

If you need to dig down instead of in, you need to use either a stairwell or a ramp. For a stairwell, use designations, and downward stairway (j). Note that this is only half of a stairwell. To build the other half, you must go down a z-level (>) and designate an upward stairway to connect to it. You are then underground and can use mining normally. For a ramp, you must go down a z-level (>) and designate a ramp on the area you want cut away. You do not need to build anything above it; your miners will figure it out. If you are building downward and want caravans to come down into your fortress, you will need to use ramps, at least 3 right next to each other. Keep this in mind when deciding where you want to dig down.

When designing your main entrance, be mindful that as many as 200 dwarves could be coming and going eventually, and that goblins are going to want in at some point or another. A 3-wide entrance corridor is ideal. It is wide enough to accept a good amount of traffic and caravans, but narrow enough to use diabolical traps and designs to kill lots of goblins. Your main doors will have to be only 2-wide, though, as doors require a wall adjacent to them to build properly.

Once you've decided where you want your main entrance, it's time to move your supplies over there. We will have to set them outside for now, but we'll want to move them indoors as soon as we can. Press stockpiles, and designate areas for food, wood, and refuse. You can designate all sorts of stockpiles from this screen, so hit t and poke around in the custom stockpile settings for a little bit, figuring out what you can do. Do NOT designate a stone stockpile for now. It will eat up a lot of time unnecessarily. While we're organizing our supplies, deconstruct your wagon by pressing query, putting the cursor over your wagon, and pressing deconstruct (x). A dwarf with the carpenter labor enabled will come by and pull the wagon apart, turning it into 3 logs. The wagon is useless to you, so there's no reason to not do this. Some people prefer to wait until the wagon has been emptied before deconstructing it. In order to see the contents of a building, use the t command and scroll over the wagon.

Plan for your finished, 200-dwarf fortress right from the get-go. It's very easy to dig out new area. It's very HARD to go back and redo something the way it should have been from the start. 3-wide hallways is typically plenty for high-traffic areas.

Building workshops[edit]

Time to get some work done! Taking in raw materials and spitting out stuff that's useful: that's the name of the game for workshops. You should start putting down workshops as soon as you have raw materials. You'll need to get basic living provisions like beds, tables, chairs, chests, and the like down for not only your first 7 dwarves, but the immigrants that could come at any time as soon as possible, so you can't waste any time.

Stone will show up from your miners digging. Once you have an area with a decent amount of stone, you should get a mason's workshop built in the area. Check the workshop page for full details if you have problems building one. The keyboard command is:

  • build order
  • the workshops sub-menu
  • mason's workshop.

Once the workshop has been built by a dwarf with the masonry labor, you can query the workshop to find out what it's current orders are, add or cancel orders, set an existing order to repeat, order the workshop dismantled, and other tasks.

Add orders for a door, a table, and a chair. Stone chairs will show up as thrones in the orders. They are exactly the same. Then set each order to repeat. This workshop will now make doors, tables, and chairs until you tell it to stop. You'll need a lot of these, so that's OK.

Also build a carpenter's workshop near the wood stockpile you designated earlier, and tell it to make beds. Put this on repeat, also. The wood you brought along, even after disassembling your wagon, won't last long. If you brought along a woodcutter, now would be a good time to get him to chop down some trees. Hit designations, and then hit chop down trees. Chopping designations work exactly like mining designations, but it will only highlight trees in the rectangle you give it. Don't worry about chopping a ton of wood right now; trees don't go anywhere fast, so you can always come back for more.

While making workshops anywhere the material happens to be works fine right now, you will want a more organized way of doing it later. Check out the workshop logistics page for ideas on how to set it up. After you do get things set up, be sure to move your stockpiles underground; above-ground stockpiles are vulnerable to thieves and are usually a long way away. Don't be afraid to tear down workshops; they are built quickly and easily, and tearing them down does absolutely nothing harmful, even returning the materials used in their construction. Be aware that workshops create noise when they are in use, which can disturb your dwarves' sleep, so don't build them close to any beds.

Building lodging[edit]

With commodities coming out, it's time to set up places where they can be used.

Tell your miners to dig out a large (5x5 minimum) room to become your barracks. The barracks is essentially a communal sleeping room where dwarves without their own apartment can come to crash. It is also the place where your military will come to spar once you start recruiting soldiers. Since your military hangs out in the barracks a lot, it's a good idea to put it near the main entrance of the fortress. If thieves stumble in, they are likely to meet a very grisly end as they bump into a pair of dwarves in the middle of combat training, and later, in case of a more major attack, they are more likely to be closer to where you need them. Note, however, that sparring dwarves can very seriously hurt or kill each other if their sparring area is too crowded, so keep beds stacked along one wall and the rest of the room clear and uncluttered. You do not need too many beds in the barracks right now. Beds in the barracks are public, and dwarves have their own schedules, so the entire fortress will not sleep at once.

After the barracks is dug, tell your dwarves to build a bed. Your cursor will come up, turning red on an unacceptable location and green on an acceptable location. Unacceptable locations will give you a short reason as to why they're unacceptable. Again, just stack beds against one wall of the barracks; 5 beds will be fine to start out with. After indicating the placement of the beds, your dwarves will haul them over and install them. Once they are installed, query a bed, then make a room. Use the + and - keys to size the room that will be considered the barracks. All beds within the flashing square will be considered public, so there's no need to do this more than once. Fill up the whole 5x5 area (build doors if you need to cordon off the area to make it a nice square) and hit ENTER. You've created your first room! A room status screen shows up. Be sure to hit b to confirm that it is a barracks. If you don't, the first dwarf that sleeps in this room will claim it as his or her apartment, which isn't what we want.

The barracks will keep your dwarves from sleeping on the floor, which would make them unhappy. As the game goes on, though, it is a very good idea to move dwarves into their own apartments. They get much happier for it, it keeps traffic down, and provides you with some more diabolical options such as locking a troublemaker in his room by querying the door and locking (forbidding) it. See the bedroom design page for ideas on how to set up your apartments.

With bedding handled, we need to set up a dining room, which will double as our meeting area. Dwarves will eat in their apartment sometimes if you install a table and chair in it, but mostly, dwarves prefer to eat in a public dining hall with a table all to themselves. As the meeting area, dwarves will also show up there whenever they have nothing better to do (have 'No Job') to socialize and kill time. It is a pretty high-traffic area, so be sure to use double-doors as the entrance and exit. It should again be fairly large (25 tiles minimum; this could be 5x5, 4x6, whatever suits your fancy). Once it's dug out, build tables along the walls, and then build chairs next to the tables, one per table. Once a table is laid out, query the table and make a room out of it. Fill up the dining hall area, and hit ENTER. Be sure to hit h to set it as a meeting area, and you're done here.

As with most kinds of furniture, dwarves can walk through tiles containing tables, chairs and beds. The most notable exception to this are statues.

Starting farms[edit]

The basics of life are in place! Now it's just a matter of getting the farms in place to make sure life goes on.

Farming is the most reliable source of food in the game, and the only way to be sure you're going to feed a large population. The catch is, we can only farm on mud or soil. Mud is only created through irrigation, which is complicated and more trouble than it's worth if you have access to any serious quantity of soil. Avoid using irrigation if you can. The logistics of controlling enough water to make arable land on stone are extremely annoying.

On soil, however, farming couldn't be easier. Simply mine out an area of soil (underground, since the seeds you can embark with will NOT grow aboveground), then build a farm plot. Use u, m, k, and j to resize your plot to the size you want; 3x3 should be plenty to start out, and you will max out at roughly 30 to 40 total squares being used for food and booze production to support a full fortress. This changes some depending on the skill of your growers, but it's a fair guideline. After placing the farmland, a dwarf with the Farming (Fields) labor enabled will come by and prepare it for use. After it's done, query the new field and decide on your crops for each season. The crop display will show every crop that can possibly be planted there - it does not necessarily mean you have seeds to plant. Plump helmets are best for your first field, since they can be brewed to booze, eaten raw, and cooked. If you find some seasons have red letters, that is because the season has already passed and you cannot edit it again this year. You will have to pick it up in the spring of the following year. Be aware that Dwarf Fortress will NOT give you an error if you attempt to plant something you have no seeds of. It will give you an error if you run out of seeds after starting planting, but not if you simply have none to begin with. If you can't remember what kind of seeds you have, check around your wagon and your designated food stockpile using k for a seeds bag. Hit Enter when you find it to inspect the bag and see what kind of seeds it carries. Later on, you will be able to find it more easily using the z key and the "Stocks" menu, but right now your stocks will lack the precision to use the "zoom" key. See the bookkeeper article for more information on stockpile precision.

Eventually, you will want to be planting many, many different kinds of crops. Dimple cups are great later on, because they produce dimple dye, which can be used to increase the value of the clothing your fortress produces. Cave wheat can be used to provide fodder for luxury prepared meals, and to make more brewing fodder. As your fortress grows and you need more and more luxuries to keep everyone happy, diversifying can only help you.

On a note about irrigation before wrapping this section up, mud behaves almost identically to soil. All below-ground crops can be grown equally well on either, and you build and place the plots exactly the same. There are a few differences, though. Mud can be fertilized with potash, while dry soil cannot. Some above-ground crops can only be grown in mud, while others can only be planted in dry soil. Check the crops page for more details. Irrigation is a very advanced technique that provides only marginal benefits. Some "unlivable" areas can be turned around with skillful irrigation and fertilizer, but by and large they're not necessary. Just use soil whenever you can.

Trading[edit]

Now that you've given your dwarves a place to sleep and avoided the possibility of starvation, you can start thinking about the finer things in life.

First, we'll take care of a few organizational considerations, to make trading easier. Our carpenter will take care of this, since he's done making beds. Order up 2 or 3 buckets. Buckets are used to carry water to injured, bedridden dwarves from water source zones and are one of the requirements to building a well. Then, get to work stamping out some bins. Bins are used to store a lot of non-perishable items in the same square; they work much the same as barrels, but barrels are used on perishables like food and booze. You'll need a LOT of bins, but for the moment 5 or so will do. You will also need to make a lot of barrels, but since you brought a number of them with you, you can hold off a bit. Both of these can be made from metal as well, but producing them from wood is far more economical.

Since you have all this stone lying around, let's put it to use. Build a Craftsdwarf's workshop, assign one of your dwarves to stonecrafting. Order this workshop to build rock crafts of all sorts repeatedly. Stone mugs are a good trade good - you get three mugs from one stone, adding up to 30☼ at the start. Since your stonecrafter will level up relatively quickly (and if you have several dwarves working on stonecrafts) this can quickly add up to several thousand coins worth of goods.

Now that you've got some goods to trade, we'll need to build a trade Depot. Build this somewhere easily accessible from all edges of the map, but close to (or inside) your entrance. Trade depots require architecture and a mason, assuming you make it out of your copious quantities of stone. Many times you will not have an building designer on embark, so you will have to assign one to get the architecture phase of the depot done.

In the long term, you'll want your trade depot to be in a defensible spot. As it is 5x5 squares, and requires a 3-square wide path for the caravans to get in and out of it, you'll eventually want to spend some time thinking about its defense. Once the depot has been completed, you can check for depot access using the shift-D key.

The first caravan will come in your first autumn: the dwarven caravan from the mountainhomes. When it comes, the game will pause, you'll be notified, and the screen will center on the caravan. If you do not have a depot, or they can't get to it, they will wait on the edge of the map for you to build a depot they can get to, or to clear the obstructions. The two most common obstructions are trees and boulders. Trees can be chopped down, and boulders can be eliminated by designating them to be smoothed. This uses the stone detailing labor, so turn it on if you need.

After the caravan is on its way, you'll need to fill the depot with things to trade, and get a trader there to broker the negotiations. Hit query over the depot and press g to start moving supplies. Use the arrow keys to navigate the trade goods window. If you've been making stone crafts, you'll want the crafts heading to make the game filter out the bins you've been filling. Otherwise, you'll have to sift through every stone you've created while digging the fortress, which is a huge pain. Press ENTER on the bins to mark them for trading, and some dwarves will come along to haul the bins to the depot. Once that's taken care of, query the depot and request a trader there. By default, only the broker will trade at the depot. This is generally what you want, since brokers with better appraisal skills can see the worth of all the commodities and tend to get away with giving the caravan boss a lower profit margin on the trade. Trading at the depot is a low-priority job, though, so you may have to turn off your broker's other labors temporarily to get him to respond to the request in a timely manner. Once your broker is at the depot, query the depot and start trading.

On the screen that comes up, the left side shows the trader's goods, while the right side shows your own. Use the arrow keys to navigate and ENTER to mark something for trading. If your trader does not have at least Novice Appraiser in his skill set, you will not be able to see the values of everything, so you'll have to guess. The caravan boss will refuse to sell at a loss, and if you're close to making a deal, he'll give you a counteroffer that he'd accept. Being able to see the values of things is really helpful, but don't worry if you can't. It usually only takes one or two successful trades before your broker will hit Novice Appraiser and all will become known to you. One fun note is that raw materials cost the same from merchants as they do at the embark screen; so you already know that plump helmets are 4☼, most meat is 2☼, wooden logs are 3☼, and so on. It's difficult to know the value of your crafts, and some things must be bought as a package deal (you cannot buy seeds alone, you must also buy the bag they come in), though, so it can still be hard to trade without Appraiser.

On your first year, you're probably pretty light on things to trade with, so start small. Wood logs are very useful and cheap. Extra food can be useful if your farms are lagging behind. Maybe a barrel or two. Sell what goods you have and don't fret about it any longer.

Next year, after you get some immigrants you can think about exploring other kinds of industry as well, like the furniture industry, meat industry, or clothing industry, but this is a great place to start.

The last element to trading is the liaison. The dwarven liaison will want to meet with your expedition leader to work out your requests for next year, and let you know what their requests are. By making a request of the caravan, you are essentially promising to pay more (up to double the normal price) for various things, which entices the traders to bring more of those things. Wood logs are always a great thing to request. Even at double the normal price, they're still very cheap, and merchants bring a lot of them. It's not unusual to get 50 logs from a single caravan. It saves you a massive amount of time and effort. Barrels and Containers are also good to request, as are dogs. You can also request seeds to get your more diverse crops started. Look around, explore, and experiment. That's half the fun of the game.

The liaison will also tell you what they want from you, with the same deal: they'll pay more for it if you provide it. Unfortunately, they usually want stupid things that don't trade well (such as stone blocks) or things you'd rather keep to yourself (such as booze). Many players simply ignore their liaison's requests and build the same things they always build. Diplomatic relations will not suffer at all.

Your expedition leader must actually pick up the job conduct meeting to get this process done, and it ends up being a very low-priority job, so again, you may consider turning off your leader's other labors to make sure he gets to it. If you really want to force the liaison to take the meeting, move him to the meeting spot by enlisting him in the Military and stationing him at the meeting spot. Then forbid the door behind him and the liaison, locking them in until the meeting is completed (when the Liaison says "Goodbye" in a message).

Basic Defenses[edit]

Main article: 40d:Defense

While not a major concern at first, it is always a good idea to think about how you are going protect your dwarves. From picking your location to establishing your fortress, always think about how you will defend your new home. Failure to incorporate this into your fortress can cause serious issues down the road. The good news is that it is relatively easy to setup basic defenses with only a few dwarves.

When designing your defenses here are a few things to keep in mind.

  • Limiting Access - The more ways there are into your fortress, the harder it is to defend. Most fortresses should have only one way to get in/out. This is usually an entrance hallway or some form of gate. The further your enemies have to travel to get to your dwarves, the more traps and military personnel you can put in their way to stop them from killing your dwarves. When designing an entrance system, make sure to keep in mind that your own dwarves will most likely pass by these defenses on their way to gather wood, plants and the spoils of the battlefield.
  • Controlled isolation - Sometimes, you will need to cut yourself off from the world. This normally happens when you suddenly find yourself under siege without an adequate military to defend yourself. Since all creatures move the same way, simply putting a bridge or a line of floodgates at your entrance is a good way to cut off a siege while you build up your military. The key here is that you can control when to isolate your fortress. Do keep in mind that you will not be able to get migrants or caravans while isolated.
  • Ranged Defense - While rare in the early part of the game, attacking parties will bring along a few archers. The thing to keep in mind that archers can shoot over moats and onto roofs. The easiest way to defend against archers is to use walls. Do your best to avoid long straight corridors since enemies can kill your dwarves as they either run away or run towards the archer. Adding a few corners go a long way in making enemy archers less dangerous. Also note that archers can shoot up and down z-levels. So if you have a multilevel structure outside, make sure to put a wall around the perimeter to prevent archers from being able to shoot your dwarves on the roof.
  • Stopping the invasion - You've planned your entrance, and setup a way to isolate your fortress, now it is time to stop the invading force. This is usually done with either traps or military. The easiest way to defend your fortress is with traps. Since they don't move, you need to build a bottleneck or choke point to herd invaders over the traps. If you followed the directions above, you should already have a bottleneck in place. Your fortress entrance is a place that everyone must cross. Put a bunch of stone fall or cage traps here and you are ready to go. As a rule of thumb, any space that is 2-5 squares wide should be considered as a place to setup a bottleneck.

The future[edit]

After this point, you'll be able to start exploring the other intricacies of the game. Here is a list of some other gameplay commands which have not been covered:

Sample games[edit]

These are sample games that others have played and recorded to provide good learning examples. They are not routinely updated, so some information may be out of date, but they still provide good hands-on tutorials of how to prepare for your fortress and play the game.

You can also look at the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive to see multi-layered snapshots of fortresses that others have built.


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