Known bugs and issues

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

"Bugs" redirects here. For insects, see Vermin and Creature.

Dwarf Fortress is a constant work-in-progress, and is thus full of bugs. Some of the best-known bugs are compiled below; an official compilation of all bugs, and their development status, can be found on the Mantis Bug Tracker. The search results in the bug tracker sometimes have an unintuitive sort order, so make sure to scroll to the bottom of the first page of results when searching for bugs. To comment on any bug, you can "Login anonymously" and add a note.

Reporting new bugs

Please do not report new bugs here; to report a new bug, follow the How to Report Bugs in Dwarf Fortress instructions. For any other discussion of new or existing bugs, visit the #bug-discussion channel on the Official Kitfox Discord.

When reporting a bug:

• Make a note of any mods you're using. If you made the mod yourself, include the raws for any relevant objects.
• If the game is crashing or refusing to open, include any error message that appears, along with your computer specifications and operating system.
• If you have a save that reliably reproduces the bug, it may be helpful to upload the save to the DF File Depot - Bugged Saves or another file hosting site.

Severe bugs

These bugs can significantly interfere with play. They may do this by crashing the game, making certain parts of the game unavailable, or giving players a bad time.

• Bug 11014: Crash from corrupted military equipment lists (v0.44)
  • Workaround: refrain from raiding
• Bug 10369: Crash when Dwarves return from mission (v0.44) -- one major cause fixed in v0.44.10
  • Workaround: refrain from raiding
• Bug 9905: Crash when filtering material type condition in work order
  • Workaround: avoid using job manager material selection in large worlds
• Bug 9653: Tavern keeper/performers repeatedly serve alcohol until patrons drink themselves to death
  • Workaround: do not assign tavern keepers or performers, or do not place any alcohol within the tavern zone
• Bug 9593: Caravans/invasions sometimes get "stuck" off-map
  • Workaround: teleport merchants on to map with dfhack
  • Workaround: save prior to arrival, and reload until the caravan successfully appears
• Bug 7161: Morale is screwy -- saves demonstrating morale problems in v0.44.03+ requested
  • Workaround: mod creatures to have natural Discipline skill
  • Workaround: barracks training raises Discipline
  • Workaround: continual exposure to sentient corpses raises Discipline (along with feelings of horror)
• Bug 7185: Scared traders immediately scuttle wagons and leave.
• Bug 9004: Items in containers are "unavailable" while a dwarf is hauling another item to store in the container
  • Workaround: new STORE_DIST_* settings in d_init.txt can tweak the behavior.
  • Workaround: clever stockpile designs can reduce the impact
  • Workaround: avoid using containers (use quantum stockpiles, minecart stockpiles, or no stockpiles instead)
• Bug 7107 Fighting berserk citizens and citizen werebeasts causes defenders to lose loyalty.
• Bug 565: [Freez]es when generating [...] world with "Complete Edge Oceans" set to anything besides 0 or 4

New bugs

These bugs are new in recent versions (v0.42+). (There are many more; these are just a few of the most prominent.)

• Bug 10878: "Civil war" with parent civilization
• Bug 10490: "Spies" arrive as part of migrant group
• Bug 10349: Were-dwarves stuck in weird spot between injured and healed
• Bug 10346: NPCs demanding other characters identify themselves in a loop
• Bug 9588: Animal people with [MEANDERER] tag move too slowly
• Bug 9221: Visiting scholars leave carrying fortress books/scrolls/copies/codices

Lingering bugs

These bugs are not new to v0.42/v0.44, but have been confirmed as still existing. (Year numbers in parenthesis.)

• Bug 1451 (2010): Military equipment interferes with civilian equipment (picks/axes/crossbows/quivers). It is not possible to use a single axe for both wood cutting and combat, or a single pick for both mining and combat. Crossbows in the hands of hunters can also cause problems.
• Bug 94 (2010): Seriously wounded dwarves sometimes don't get taken to bed.
• Bug 2712 (2010): Weapons, especially whips, cut through steel armor like butter.
  • Workaround: appropriate modding to nerf these weapons
• Bug 2780 (2010): Pond/pool populations (e.g. pond turtles) do not replenish, gradually become extinct
  • Supposedly fixed in 0.40.01 but reported to still be happening with ponds
• Bug 535 (2010): Equipping weapons/armor on military is erratic. This is a long-standing bug that has been slowly but surely rolled back.
• Bug 296 (2010): Pools/smears/spatters of blood, dust and other materials multiply themselves, get tracked around too much. Contaminant physics are strange in Dwarf Fortress; instead of washing away, when exposed to running water, they will actually multiply to other tiles.
  • Workaround: routinely run clean in DFHack
• Bug 4550 (2011): Dodging into river/lava/pit etc. Apparently, dwarves are stupid. Related: they tend to get thrown off of waterfalls and die from fall damage because they did not account for the current.
• Bug 425 (2010): Dwarves perform cleaning erratically at best -- improved in v0.44.06
  • Workaround: routinely run clean in DFHack
• Bug 39 (2010): "Guts is bruised," "guts has popped out"
• Bug 5986 (2012): Designating large areas for smoothing slows game to a crawl.
• Bug 797 (2010): Animals repeatedly path through "tightly closed" doors causing lag.
• Bug 4065 (2011): Untradeable creatures (hostiles, wild animals) are released from cages when the cages are ordered taken to the trade depot.
• Bug 1582 (2010): Injured dwarf in bed in stocked hospital ignored by idle doctors. Medical jobs are too low-priority, and will be ignored in favor of pretty much everything else, hauling included, forcing players that need to administer medical care to disable all other labors; and even then, doctors tend to idle a bit in between their jobs.
• Bug 5097 (2012): Names overwriting text with TrueType and Bug 5696 strange gaps in report texts.
  • Workaround: Hitting F12 to toggle TrueType can often get you around this problem.
• Bug 2587 (2010): Saving fails silently when folder is not writeable (due to full disk, permissions, etc)
• Bug 8698 (2015): Dwarf entering a strange mood when isolated (e.g. on a stepladder) causes severe lag
• Bug 7872 (2014): Trees grow through bridges, can make the bridge unusable.
• Bug 7760 (2014): Dwarves construct walls from wrong side, wall themselves out of fortress or into alcove
• Bug 7423 (2014): Embark-purchased fruit must be removed from bags before brewing.
• Bug 9440 (2016): Wounded dwarves die of dehydration if they grab a goblet they can't use
  • Workaround: forbid all goblets so dwarves will drink straight from the barrels
• Bug 7769 (2017): Historical figures who are mortally wounded (destruction of head, neck, torso etc.) are sometimes considered to be still alive in worldgen and may appear in migrant waves, only to quickly die due to suffocation and/or missing vital organs