Wood

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Logs

/ ▬
Construction
Materials		Workshops		Labors
Wood		Tree		Wood cutter
Used for
Building Wood industry Wood burning
Base value			Size
3☼			50,000 cm³
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"Timber" redirects here. For the month, see Calendar.

Wood is a hard material found in nearly all trees. It currently does not form the actual material of tree tiles, which are composed of generic structural plant material, however, when trees are cut down, it drops as logs / ▬, the raw and usable item form of wood. Logs are stored in a "Wood" stockpile.

For the most part, different kinds of wood are identical except for differences in density and color. Wood is generally weaker and more lightweight than other heavy-duty materials, such as stone or metal. Almost* all wood is flammable, with an ignition point of 10508 °U . The harvesting and use of wood to make products is known as the wood industry.

(* The sole semi-exception is nether-cap wood, which exhibits unique responses to magma and fire due to its fixed temperature. This gives some objects made from nether cap a magma-safe quality, although it can be turned to ash or charcoal at a wood furnace. See article for details.)

"Timber" is the name of the ninth month of the dwarven calendar, covering late Autumn, the only month of the dwarven calendar to not be named after a stone.

Occurrence and production

Chopping down trees

Workshops made of every single type of wood.^[1]

Wood is obtained by l designating trees to be chopped down. Any dwarf with the wood cutting labor enabled and access to a battle axe will cut down a tree, producing a variable number of 'logs' dependent upon the tree's size and composition. In general, bigger trees yield more logs than smaller ones, though relevant plant tokens can have a significant impact on the total.

Trees start their lives as saplings. Saplings cannot be cut down until they mature into full-grown trees, which can take several years. Creatures frequently moving on a tile with a sapling will eventually kill the sapling, leaving you with a dead sapling occupying the square for a time before it disappears and another plant starts growing.

Saplings will randomly appear in above-ground soil, only if the tiles underneath them are unmined and have at least another z-level of open space above them. If the soil does not have an immediate support for the roots, no saplings will appear. If there is no open space above, saplings will not grow. Underground saplings will begin to randomly appear in soil and muddy underground rock only once one of the caverns is exposed. Unlike above-ground saplings, underground saplings don't require the level below them to be unmined. However, they also require open space on the z-levels directly above them, otherwise the saplings will never grow.

It is recommended to clear trees out of active corridors - tree trunks act as walls and may, for example, block the path of wagons to the trade depot. Building roads and smoothing floors prevents new saplings from growing on the tiles.

Civilizations

Entities with [OUTDOOR_WOOD] and [INDOOR_WOOD] use wood from above-ground and underground trees respectively from their local environment for their products. Additionally, [USE_GOOD_WOOD] and [USE_EVIL_WOOD] allow entities to use wood from good or evil-aligned trees: feather trees and glumprongs. Except for kobolds, all civilizations use some type of wood.

[USE_MISC_PROCESSED_WOOD_PRODUCTS] permits the availability of certain wood-derived products: lye, charcoal, and potash. Dwarves, humans, and goblins possess this. Entities with [WOOD_WEAPONS] and [WOOD_ARMOR] will use wooden weapons and armor - elves and subterranean animal people possess these tokens.

Logs and wooden products are available from trading by any friendly civilizations. Wood can also be brought before embarking. Logs are quite inexpensive, costing only three points per log, and bringing a large number can help jump-start the wood industry immediately.

Other sources

"Wagon wood" can be obtained from wagons. The initial wagon after embark (an entirely different wagon) can be dismantled for three free logs of any type.

Types

Comparison of density, weight, color and sprites.

Wood	Density (kg/m³)	Weight (Γ) per log	Color (ASCII)	Graphic
Feather	100	5	Cream
Papaya	130	6.5	Taupe pale
Candlenut	140	7	Ochre
Kapok	260	13	Tan
Custard-apple	360	18	Tan
Willow	390	19.5	Tan
Alder	410	20.5	Tan
Cherry	425	21.25	Gold
Cacao	430	21.5	Chocolate
Chestnut	430	21.5	Dark chestnut
Saguaro	430	21.5	Ecru
Cashew	450	22.5	Dark chestnut
Ginkgo	450	22.5	Peach
Rubber	490	24.5	Flax
Default wood	500	25	Brown
Highwood	500	25	Brown
Tunnel tube	500	25	Violet
Wagon	500	25	Brown
Pine	510	25.5	Beige
Durian	520	26	Taupe pale
Mango	520	26	Burnt sienna
Avocado	540	27	Chestnut
Maple	540	27	Rust
Carambola	550	27.5	Flax
Nether-cap	550	27.5	Dark indigo
Tea	550	27.5	Taupe pale
Walnut	562	28.1	Dark tan
Cedar	570	28.5	Olive
Hazel	580	29	Taupe pale
Bitter orange	590	29.5	Taupe pale
Desert lime	590	29.5	Tan
Finger lime	590	29.5	Tan
Kumquat	590	29.5	Taupe pale
Larch	590	29.5	Light brown
Lime	590	29.5	Tan
Orange	590	29.5	Burnt sienna
Pomelo	590	29.5	Ash gray
Round lime	590	29.5	Tan
Acacia	600	30	Peach
Ash	600	30	Pale brown
Fungiwood	600	30	Lemon
Goblin-cap	600	30	Red
Mahogany	600	30	Mahogany
Pear	600	30	Buff
Spore	600	30	Teal
Tower-cap	600	30	White
Guava	610	30.5	Tan
Coffee	620	31	Taupe pale
Rambutan	620	31	Bronze
Birch	650	32.5	Burnt umber
Black-cap	650	32.5	Black
Coconut palm	680	34	Dark taupe
Sand pear	690	34.5	Buff
Bayberry	700	35	Pale brown
Citron	700	35	Ash gray
Oak	700	35	Auburn
Macadamia	705	35.25	Pale brown
Pecan	735	36.75	Peach
Apple	745	37.25	Chocolate
Apricot	745	37.25	Light brown
Pomegranate	770	38.5	Peach
Almond	795	39.75	Copper
Peach	795	39.75	Dark tan
Plum	795	39.75	Pale brown
Date palm	820	41	Burnt sienna
Paradise nut	820	41	Light brown
Mangrove	830	41.5	Dark taupe
Persimmon	835	41.75	Tan
Lychee	880	44	Taupe sandy
Olive	990	49.5	Pale brown
Glumprong	1200	60	Purple
Blood thorn	1250	62.5	Crimson

There are 71 types of wood, excluding the default one. Of the 72 trees, abaca and banana do not produce wood. Eight types of trees are only found underground, while the remaining 61 grow above-ground in various biomes, except mountains, glaciers, tundras, and oceans. The final type of wood, wagon wood, is only produced by the death of a wagon. All wood possesses the same material properties except its density (which affects the weight of an item) and color. It is brown by default, and very few types exhibit a color besides it.

The density of the material is the most important factor when choosing different types of wood. Wooden products made with heavier wood slow down hauling, which negatively impacts the work speed of a fortress in the long-term. The type of wood used in weapons and armor also becomes important in regards to its force, durability, and weight.

Weight of logs

Each log has a volume of 5,000 or 50 litres. The weight can be derived by dividing the density (kg/m³) of the material by 20. An oak log will thus weigh 35Γ, a feather wood log 5Γ and a blood thorn log 62.5Γ. Weight is displayed in integers in-game, so a blood thorn log's weight will be displayed as just 62Γ. Wood has a default [SOLID_DENSITY] of 500 kg/m³, about five times lighter than most stone and fifteen times lighter than iron. Feather wood is the lightest at 100, and blood thorn wood is the heaviest at 1,250. Papaya (130) and glumprong (1,200) wood are also notable.

Grown wood

All wooden items made by elves are referred to as "grown". It is assumed that elves use an unknown (and unimplemented) magic to grow their products from trees without chopping them down. Elven caravans only accept wooden products made from grown wood. Graphically, grown wood weapons will appear as standard wooden items, but with small branches and leaves stemming out of them.

Applications

Ash

Burning wood in a wood furnace is the only major way to produce ash. It is otherwise rare and difficult to obtain naturally. Ash is essential in the production of lye, potash, and pearlash. Lye is used for making soap, and potash is used as a fertilizer for farm plots to yield larger harvests. Pearlash is used for making clear glass and crystal glass in glassmaking. Ash can also be used as a glaze for ceramic products. In total, ash has major applications in the soap, farming, glass, and ceramic industries, all of which derives from wood.

Charcoal

Charcoal is a type of fuel produced by burning wood in a wood furnace. Smelters, forges, glass furnaces, and kilns need fuel to operate. Coke is produced from bituminous coal or lignite, neither of which is guaranteed to be present on a map, thus charcoal is typically the first reliable fuel for an early fortress. If coke sources are present though, it is recommended to use coke over charcoal so that wood can be used for other purposes.

Once magma is acquired, charcoal becomes obsolete as a fuel source for workshops. Despite this, charcoal is still significant in the production of steel, where refined coal is required as a source of carbon.

Beds

Beds can only be made from wood, with the exception of artifact beds created from strange moods. Without beds, citizens get unhappy thoughts from sleeping on the ground (if not smoothed, per se).

Machine components

The following machine components can only be made from wood: water wheels, windmills, and axles. Axles are necessary in the transfer of power over distances. Water wheels and windmills are the only power sources to not require a dwarf to generate power.

Lightweight storage

Wooden items used for storage are lighter to carry than items made of most stone or metals. Barrels, bins, buckets, jugs, large pots, wheelbarrows, minecarts, and cages are items that can be made of wood and are frequently used in hauling stuff between stockpiles and workshops. Using a lighter material for storage decreases encumbrance and increases movement speed.

The type of wood is very important in storage items. Among the trees with the lightest wood are: feather tree, papaya, candlenut, kapok, custard-apple, willow, alder, cherry, cacao, chestnut, and saguaro. Making storage items from the wood of these trees provide the best results. Trees to avoid include blood thorn, glumprong, olive, persimmon, mangrove, paradise nut, date palm, and lychee.

In addition, it only takes one log to produce a bin, cage, wheelbarrow or minecart. Forging them with metal will take two or three bars instead.

Weapons and armor

See also: Weapon § Material

Wood is an extremely terrible material for combat; this cannot be over emphasized. It has the worst impact and shear properties out of the standard weapons-grade materials (even against bone), making it ineffective in dealing substantial damage, both blunt or cutting. Denser wood* has a small improvement on its force power, but it remains weak compared to metal. A creature's natural weapons can be more lethal than a wooden weapon. Wooden armor provides little to no protection. Wood durability is low, and it breaks very quickly from repeated hits against harder materials.

(* The densest woods are blood thorn (1250 ) followed by glumprong (1200), both more than twice as dense as "average" wood. However, these are a poor comparison to the "lightest" of the weapons-grade metals, Iron, at 7850.)

Dwarves can only create wooden melee weapons in the form of training weapons, and then only training axes, swords and spears, which can be* used in the military for training not only that weapon but also other combat skills. They are useful for live training and danger rooms, but are not necessary. Training weapons can also be bought from caravans at a cheap price.

(* Dwarves will not hurt each each other when training with "real" weapons, making training weapons even less useful. Worse, it's possible that a dwarf will become "attached" to a wooden weapon, rendering them almost useless as a soldier (except as as a damage sponge), so wooden weapons are not recommended.)

However, this weakness serves as an advantage in situations where damage is desired to be kept to a minimum. In justice, inflicting punishment with wooden weapons deals very little damage to the accused, which reduces the chance of accidental deaths. Wooden weapons can also be used in weapon traps, as "better than nothing" since they can hold up to 10 weapons. And every trap attack requires the target to dodge, which can be useful for creative players.

Large trap weapons can be made early in a fortress before a metal industry is up and running, and can be perfectly adequate against unarmored targets such as animals and child snatchers. However these too are notably inferior across the board, and will tend to disappoint against anything armored. The large spiked ball may be the best bet here, but, again, wood's light weight works against them in this capacity. Even glass would be noticeably better, with a density of 2600 and better combat material properties.

Shields and bucklers can be made from wood. As a lighter material, attacks (bashing) with wooden shields in melee combat are weaker than those delivered by metal shields. The material does not affect a shield's ability to block, and even dragonfire can be blocked without getting burned at all. Taking in their lower weight, wooden shields are less cumbersome than metal ones for early military that has not developed the armor user skill. There is still the drawback of wood wearing out and breaking faster than metal.

Short swords made of obsidian require one log in production. They are more or less a novelty, as metal weapons are superior.

Crossbows can be made from wood by a bowyer. Wooden crossbows are the equal to metal (or bone) bows when used at range, but suffer reduced damage in comparison to metal crossbows if they are used to bash enemies in melee combat. However, since even metal crossbows are spectacularly bad melee weapons, this may be a fairly unimportant consideration. If you are concerned about encumbrance, lighter wooden crossbows can be prioritized over metal ones for less weight. Bone has a density of 500, as as "average" wood, so bone crossbows should replace wood whenever the density of the wood available is over 500.

A stack of 25 bolts is made from a single log. In comparison, 5 bolts are made from a single bone. Wooden bolts are sufficient for training and hunting, although significantly less effective against armored opponents than metal bolts. This can be useful if training against live targets that have been trapped in a cage and then tossed into an arena, as experience comes with each shot, not the damage done.

Siege engines

Siege engine parts can only be made from wood. Although siege engines require lots of effort to manage, they can be very effective defenses when traps and soldiers fail. Both wooden and metal ballista arrows also need a log to be made; the "metal" ones simply add a metal head to an existing wooden ballista arrow. Wooden ballista arrows made from denser wood deal more damage than lighter ones, but purely wooden ballista arrows are inferior to the metal upgrade.

Since the siege operator skill can be trained equally with catapults, and catapults use stones, which are free and (typically) plentiful, it's not recommended to make ballista arrows for the purpose of training.

Trading

All logs are valued at 3☼. Wooden products are a poor choice for trading, because wood has a material multiplier of ×1 (no bonus). Elves do not accept any items or decorations made from wood, except the "grown" wood items that only elves produce. They get extremely upset when offered regular wood and will leave with no further possible trading for the season.

Other uses

Wood can be used to make most finished goods, furniture, and tools. Items can be decorated with wood through strange moods. Colorful wood from underground, good, and evil trees are useful for aesthetic creations; they include black, blue, cyan, red, magenta, yellow, and white.

Wooden constructions can safely hold magma, but wooden buildings will burn so using other materials is recommended where fire is a potential risk. Floors constructed using lightweight wood will reduce the damage from falls. The lighter the wood, the softer the impact.

Building destroyers prioritize destroying wooden doors and floor hatches.^[Verify] Wooden buildings can be used in trap designs as cheap, affordable bait to lure them toward traps.

See also

• Driftwood

"Wood" in other Languages Dwarven: lolum Elven: ave Goblin: dôr Human: pado

Raws

[MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:WOOD_TEMPLATE] [STATE_COLOR:ALL_SOLID:BROWN] [STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:wood] [STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:wooden] [STATE_COLOR:LIQUID:BROWN] [STATE_NAME:LIQUID:n/a] [STATE_ADJ:LIQUID:n/a] [STATE_COLOR:GAS:BROWN] [STATE_NAME:GAS:n/a] [STATE_ADJ:GAS:n/a] [DISPLAY_COLOR:6:0:0] [MATERIAL_VALUE:1] [SPEC_HEAT:420] [IGNITE_POINT:10508] [MELTING_POINT:NONE] [BOILING_POINT:NONE] [HEATDAM_POINT:10250] [COLDDAM_POINT:9900] [MAT_FIXED_TEMP:NONE] [SOLID_DENSITY:500] [LIQUID_DENSITY:NONE] [MOLAR_MASS:NONE] [IMPACT_YIELD:10000] [IMPACT_FRACTURE:10000] [IMPACT_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [COMPRESSIVE_YIELD:10000] [COMPRESSIVE_FRACTURE:10000] [COMPRESSIVE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [TENSILE_YIELD:10000] [TENSILE_FRACTURE:10000] [TENSILE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [TORSION_YIELD:10000] [TORSION_FRACTURE:10000] [TORSION_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [SHEAR_YIELD:40000] used pine [SHEAR_FRACTURE:40000] [SHEAR_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [BENDING_YIELD:10000] [BENDING_FRACTURE:10000] [BENDING_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [MAX_EDGE:1000] [ABSORPTION:0] [ITEMS_HARD] [ITEMS_WEAPON] [ITEMS_WEAPON_RANGED] [ITEMS_AMMO] [ITEMS_ARMOR] [ITEMS_SIEGE_ENGINE] This general material classifier determines various in-game behaviors. There are several others below. [WOOD]

V · T · E Materials
More: Gems • Metals • Stones
Creature	Blood • Bone • Cartilage • Cheese • Chitin • Egg • Fat • Feather • Hair (Wool • Yarn) • Hoof • Horn • Ichor • Leather • Milk • Meat • Nail • Nervous tissue • Organs • Parchment • Pearl • Scale • Shell • Silk • Skin • Spit • Sweat • Tallow • Tears • Tooth • Wax
Plant	Fiber (Paper • Slurry) • Flower • Fruit • Leaf • Oil • Plant powders (Dye • Flour • Sugar) • Seed (Press cake) • Wood
Creature/Plant	Alcohol • Cloth/Thread • Extract (Golden salve • Gnomeblight • Honey • Royal jelly • Syrup • Venom) • Glob • Liquids • Soap
Inorganic	Metal • Milk of lime • Soil (Clay • Sand) • Stone (Ash glaze • Earthenware • Gem • Gypsum plaster • Porcelain • Quicklime • Stoneware • Tin glaze)
Hardcoded	Amber • Ash • Coral • Filth • Fuel • Glass • Grime • Ice • Lye • Magma • Mud • Pearlash • Potash • Salt • Unknown substance • Vomit • Water
See also: Material science

Wood FAQ
Do I really need wood?
Where can I get wood?
Where can I get even more wood?
Is it possible to grow trees underground?
How long do tower-caps take to grow?
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How much protection does wood armor provide?
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