40d:Biome

A biome is a biotic area with homogeneous features, characterized by distinctive plants, animal species and climate. A biome will also contain only one set of stone layers, though these usually expand beyond a single biome. Your dwarves will find different resources depending on which biomes they select when starting a fort.

Selecting a biome

Biomes are important when choosing a fortress location in order to understand your surroundings. Individual biomes, which form at least one map-tile of your embark location, can be cycled with the F#-keys; for example, an area with 3 biomes present can be cycled using F1, F2 and F3. The selected biome will be highlighted with flashing Xs on the Local Map, and the biome's information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. (See the illustrated guide for more detail).

Understanding Biomes

we should have more details on what these "resources" actually are, or more examples?

Selecting different Biomes gives you some abiltiy to influence the difficulty of your game. A wide variety of biomes may give you access to several unique resources provided by each, like the ability to gather and plant certain crops and make the game easier and more interesting. Generally it is advantageous to plot your embark location at the convergence of multiple different biomes, the more the better (within reason) - which is made easier if you enlarge your starting embarkation area).

• Note: Making the starting plot larger will slow your game down considerably; likewise, a small embark area can dramatically increase framerate.^{v0.28.181.40d}

By making use of several biomes you can provide more resources for your fort. Making sure one of your biomes contains either a broadleaf or conifer forest will provide you with an ample supply of trees, even if the rest of your plot extends into badlands and desert.

Surroundings are not directly linked to biomes (i.e. a glacier could be haunted, wilderness or mirthful), but the more biomes you have, the more likely it is to have several alignments, if so desired.

If your plot contains only ocean, lake or mountain biomes you will not be able to embark. The dwarves would have difficulty parking their wagon on water, while mountains are too barren and remote to reach.

The exact process is unknown, but no relation has been found between biomes and the stone layers that lie deep beneath them in the same area block. They do seem to be influenced by the first, top layer - a top layer of sand seems to cause drier biomes, where swamps rarely (if ever?) appear on sand, and (obviously) plants and trees do not grow on a top layer of stone. (More research is needed.)

Available Biomes

Arctic

• Arctic Ocean
• Badlands
• Glacier
• Mountain
• Rocky wasteland
• Sand desert
• Tundra
• Taiga

Temperate

• Temperate Broadleaf forest
• Temperate Conifer forest
• Temperate Grassland
• Temperate Freshwater lake
• Temperate Freshwater marsh
• Temperate Freshwater swamp
• Temperate Ocean
• Temperate Saltwater marsh
• Temperate Saltwater swamp
• Temperate Savanna
• Temperate Shrubland

Tropical

• Tropical Dry Broadleaf forest
• Tropical Wet Broadleaf forest
• Tropical Conifer forest
• Tropical Freshwater marsh
• Tropical Grassland
• Tropical Ocean
• Tropical Savanna
• Tropical Shrubland

Biomes at World Generation

Biomes are created at world generation based on the elevation, rainfall, and drainage of the tile as follows:

Biome	Elevation	Rainfall	Drainage
Water	0-99	Any	Any
Sand Desert	100-299	0-9	0-32
Rock Desert	100-299	0-9	33-49
Desert Badlands A	100-299	0-9	50-65
Desert Badlands B	100-299	0-9	66-100
Grassland	100-299	10-19	0-49
Savanna	100-299	20-32	0-49
Marsh	100-299	33-65	0-32
Shrubland	100-299	33-65	33-49
Hills	100-299	10-65	50-500
Swamp	100-299	66-100	0-32
Forest	100-299	66-100	33-100
Low Mountain	300-332	Any	Any
Mountain	333-365	Any	Any
High Mountain	366-400	Any	Any

See Also

• Regions for the possible values for Trees, Vegetation and Surroundings.
• Volcanoes which are not a biome in Dwarf Fortress, but may provide important resources
• Climate

V · T · E Worlds
World generation (Advanced)
Region · Biome · Climate · Surroundings · Map legend · Calendar
Civilization · Sites (Cave · Town · Fortress · Ruin)
Aquifer · Brook · Chasm/Pit · Island · Tunnel · Volcano · Waterfall
Badlands · Desert · Flatland · Forest · Glacier · Lake · Marsh · Mountain · Murky pool · Ocean · River · Rocky wasteland · Sand desert · Swamp · Tundra