v0.31:Adventurer mode

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

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

In adventurer mode, you pick a race (Template:L, Template:L, or Template:L) and start out in either a Template:L of your race or in a previous Template:L you played on. You can receive Template:Ls, venture into the wilderness to find Template:L, abandoned towers and other Template:L. You can even visit your old Template:L and find whatever riches were left to be guarded by the Template:L that sealed the fate of your Template:L.

The user interface differs somewhat from Template:L; you may want to refer to the Template:L guide, or examine the detailed Template:L page. Template:L may also prove useful.

To jump right into things, see the quick start guide.

Changes

Changes from 40d

Fast-travel, shift+t to enter, and shift+. (Pretend you are making the '>' downstairs symbol) to exit, no longer heals all of your wounds instantly, nor can fast-travel be used when bleeding out. Some wounds do heal over time.

Cave systems are accessible to adventurers but you are virtually guaranteed to get lost exploring them. - But if you can return to the general area where you entered the cave, you can fast Travel, even if you can't find the exit. You can navigate. Tested 15 levels below the cave entrance - Need to be confirmed if it works regardless of how many z-levels under the entrance you are.

Material changes are extremely noticeable in adventure mode. Elves with wood are noticeably weaker, and throwing/ranged weapons somewhat reduced in effectiveness.

As of the current release, adventurers start out more powerful than they had in 40d, with certain builds(use all skill points) granting super-----ly tough/strong/agile at start.

"Stuck-in" weapons no longer are endlessly twisted in the wound until the creature bleeds to death, or the weapon is yanked out. There is now a roll to see who controls the stuck-in weapon on the turn following the "stuck-in" attack.

Human towns have only bronze weapons and armor, and large clothing.

Swimming, sneaking, fighting, etc. seem to improve the associated skills only. Attributes (strength, etc.) remain the same even after a long and active period of adventuring.

Combat is much more forgiving than in 40d. Bolts and arrows are less deadly, because they can be blocked with a shield. Armor protects you much better versus bolts and arrows -- when wearing plate, it's rare for one to get through. Don't assume you're arrow proof, but you can take a bit more punishment now. ^[Verify] Also, no metal armor can protect one's throat. ^[Verify]

Based on what civilizations are allied with humans you may be able to play Kobolds or Goblins, but only random names can be used.

Changes in 0.31.17

When generating an adventurer you now have points to assign to Template:L as well as to skills. You can reduce unwanted attributes down to 1 to get more points for other attributes.

The travel-mode map is now more zoomed-in than before. To see a fully zoomed-out map during travel mode, press m, and one will appear at the right.

The bar at the top of the travel-mode screen shows the position of the sun, giving you an easy indication of how much daylight is left.

You become sleepy during travel mode. You can choose to sleep or wait for a specific time using (by default) shift+Z. If you sleep outside during the night you can be ambushed by bogeymen or a myriad of other night monsters. Sleeping inside a building (including the temples and lairs of vanquished monsters) will protect you from this.

There are now hamlets (Æ and æ) and castles (○) in addition to towns (+) (NOTE: those symbols are how they appear in the world map (fully zoomed-out)). When in a town or hamlet clusters of buildings will be marked as ▐ in the mini-map in the lower-left hand corner. Only towns have shops, which appear as yellow ▐ in both the travel map and the mini-map.

You can get quests from any person in a town/hamlet, and from any soldier in a castle after you've gained enough reputation from completing a few quests. Quests to kill titans, dragons and hydras you can only get from leaders found in castles, and only after you've gained a lot of reputation.

The ability to recruit soldiers now depends on reputation from completing quests, rather than how skilled you are compared to them. At hero or demigod level, you start off with a maximum of two companions, with the max increasing by one for each quest you complete, topping off at 19 companions.

Your first adventure

Picking a race

When it comes to picking a race, there is difference in Template:L. Template:L cannot wear Template:L sized Template:L, and are somewhat limited in the Template:L they can wield due to their size. Template:L have a slightly different set of Template:L and start with wooden weapons. Template:L are generally fairly well-balanced, and are the easiest to acquire quests from. Additionally, human towns are the only places which have shops, which gives another means for upgrading equipment and getting food. Each race fares differently in combat; you may wish to look at the races' pages for the finer details.

Choosing skills

Basically, if you want to start with a Template:L, you need to avoid having the most points spent in unarmored/Template:L. If you, for example, choose to start out with most points in Template:L, you will start out with a Template:L. When you have chosen your preferred set of Template:L, you can press Enter to embark. The weapon skill you choose will also determine what armor you start out with - swordsmen, macemen, axemen, hammermen, spearmen, and lashers start with chain armor and a shield, pikemen start with chain armor but no shield, bowmen and crossbowmen start with leather armor and no shield, and wrestlers start with no armor at all.

All the Template:L you see CAN be improved through use in game, so don’t worry about spreading them out completely evenly. In general, pick the Template:L you think you’re going to use. The Template:L are pretty self explanatory but its recommended that you put at least a few points into Template:L and into a type of weapon. Be warned that Template:L Template:L generally take a while to level up, so placing a good deal of points into a single weapon may be to your advantage. Also keep in mind that your skills determine what kind of equipment you have in the beginning, ie high sword skill means you’ll start with a sword. For information on the weapons and the other aspects of combat, please check the combat section. It is also a good idea to use a point or two for Template:L, otherwise you might end up drowning in a puddle.

Setting out

Getting Quests

If you chose human, you will start out in a human town or hamlet; the @ sign is your character. In the lower left-hand corner of the screen is a mini-map, with the @ sign showing your relative location to other things in the town/hamlet. The ▐ symbols are small collections of buildings. The buildings can be spaced rather far apart, so even when you get your @ on top of a ▐ it might take some wandering about to find a building. Once you find a building, step through the door. It should have multiple Ü's, each of which is a human. Press k to talk to one, then select "Service" to get a quest. You can do this multiple times to get several quests.

Now that you have some quests, press Q to look at them (this screen is called the Adventure Log). The world map is on the left, with your current location highlighted by a blinking "O", while on the right is the list of your quests. You can select a quest and press z to find the location of the quest site: the blinking "O" will move to the quest site, with a green line drawing the path you need to take. Pressing m will tell you the species of the monster you're supposed to kill. You can also use the arrow keys to move the "O" around to examine the surrounding terrain and sites.

Note that once you complete a quest that you can report your success to any human. Once you tell one human, everyone in the same civilization will know about it. The Adventure Log will tell you to report back to a particular hamlet/town/castle, but you can safely ignore that.

Traveling

Getting to the quest sites and back would be extremely tedious if you had to move as you're moving now. Fortunately, there's a "quick travel" mode which can be activated by pressing T. This will put you in a somewhat zoomed-out map, with the hamlet/town you're in represented by a cluster of ▐s, with your current location marked by a "@". Pressing m will put a fully zoomed-out map on the right side of the screen, with your current location marked by a blinking "X". Move in the direction of the quest site until the blinking "X" is on top of the symbols indicated in the Adventure Log (you can press Q at any time to look at it again).

At this point the quest site might not be visible, or its symbol might be the same color as the surrounding terrain and thus hard to see. If this is the case, then exit quick travel mode by pressing >. In the upper left-hand corner of the screen will be a box with symbols running down the left-hand side. At the top of the box will be the symbol of your quest site, with the compass direction to the site at to its right, and "TSK" to the right of the direction indicating an unfinished quest at that site. Press T again to re-enter quick travel mode, and repeat the process until you get to the quest site.

Once you get to the quest site, you'll be unable to enter it when using quick travel mode. Attempting to do so will give the message "You cannot travel through the [site]". You must exit quick travel mode by pressing > and move the rest of the way using the normal movement mode. The box in the upper left-hand corner will tell you the direction to go. When you complete the quest the "TSK" will be gone from the site's line in the box, and looking at the Adventure Log (Q) will show "Report Death of ..." instead of "Kill ...". You then have to move off the site using the slow travel method before entering quick travel mode again with T (trying to do so on the site will tell you "You cannot travel until you leave this site".)

Nighttime: survival and sleeping

When using quick travel mode the top line of the screen will indicate the position of the sun in the sky with a yellow "☼"; further to the right of the screen is earlier in the day and further to the left is later in the day. If you're traveling alone when night comes you'll be in danger of being attacked by bogeymen. To avoid this while traveling solo you need to make it to a human habitation before nightfall and sleep the night away inside a building. Enter a building, use k to talk to a human, and ask for permission to stay the night. Next press Z to sleep, d to sleep until dawn, then Enter to confirm. (NOTE: If you stay the night in a castle, you have to sleep in the keep which houses the lord/lady of the castle. Sleeping inside the castle but outside the keep still leaves you vulnerable to attack.)

Though sleeping inside can be safe, it's also limiting: any quest site you want to go to has to be within a daytime's round-trip time of a human habitation, and you have to make your way to there by hopping from one habitation to the next, sleeping at each along the way. A way to avoid this is to travel with companions. If you have any companions with you then bogeymen won't attack you. You'll still have to sleep at night, though, both to avoid sleep deprivation and because there's no visibility at night. You can still be ambushed at night by wildlife, but that's much less likely than being ambushed by bogeymen when traveling alone. If you find yourself alone at night with nowhere safe to sleep, the safest best is to keep travelling until dawn, even if that means running around in circles. You will eventually feel unwell from sleep deprivation, but this can take a considerable time. You can make up for lost sleep once you've found your way to safety.

Food and Drink

The easiest way to stay hydrated and full when starting out is by finding and fighting something weak (a vulture, say, or a racoon, or a fox). You will almost certainly end up covered in blood. You can drink any liquid covering you using 'e' and then simply selecting the fluid - perhaps a little salty in real life, but in Dwarf Fortress it works. The corpse can then be butchered for edible parts, to cure your hunger - the first two problems are solved.

As of 31.17, the need to eat and drink has been removed pending further changes.

Civilization?

Elves live out in the forest, literally. Although defined to specific regions on the map, they have no structural wealth whatsoever. Some trees are named.

Humans live in towns comprised of buildings and often a paved road. Human villages are highly modular. The small 5x5 buildings are citizen houses and are marked with an "H" on the town auto-map. Medium buildings are stores, marked with a symbol that indicates what they sell - weapons, armor, food, clothing, trinkets. As of the current version, you start in the mead hall which is marked with an "M" on the automap. There are one or two apartment buildings which are two stories, with six rooms a story; they are also marked with an "H." There are two really large buildings - the "T"emple and the a fort-like building that is marked with "K." Temples tend to have two or three levels, and a pool of water, while the "K" buildings are three or four floors high and are almost entirely empty (they will occationally contain random smatterings of clothing though, if you're looking for things to sell.)

Dwarves live underground. Their entrances are large square pits with stairs around the perimeter, and a row of leading down into the fortress halls at the bottom. The main halls are wide and have pillars near the walls, long and occasionally turn corners. Different levels in the fortress are marked by a row of ramps with two pillars on the side (walk towards the side of the ramp that has the pillars) and, although the number of floors in a fortress can vary, they are usually little and only become deep if the lay of the land above is variable. There are two-tile-wide hallways, empty 5x5 rooms, and scant Dwarves in these pre-fab fortresses. It's obvious the computer is playing a completely different game than you are in Template:L!

Goblins live in Template:L towers, usually found built in twos, though they both don't necessarily have to be built up. One could be a "tower," one could be an over-glorified "basement." There is probably a temple nearby, completely similar to human temples. Goblin towers have tight 1-wide hallways, spacious and empty rooms, and strange hall extensions that end in remote cross-like dead-ends. Like dwarf fortresses, there is rarely anything in a Goblin tower asides from Goblins, and they have a strange tendency not to attack non-Goblin visitors. They seem to have lots of children.

You may come across what the map defines as a "Goblin" city that is actually populated by Humans or Dwarves living in or around the towers.

Shops

Trading (barter)

In human towns (not hamlets or castles), you can find Template:L. Once you're inside of a shop and right next to any of the NPCs, you can use k to talk to him/her, then select trade. Use Enter to select which items to trade, left/right arrow keys to switch between the list of shop items and your items, and up/down arrow keys to scroll through the lists. Once done, press t to trade. The shopkeeper won't get angry if you're not offering enough in trade, so you can start offering just a few items, keep trying again with a little more until the trade is accepted. Once the trade is accepted all of the items you offered will be on the floor underneath you.

After buying an item, you must pick it up manually from somewhere in the shop. look around for an item without $ signs around it. If NPCs are standing directly over the items you just bought, go prone with the s key so you can move onto the same space as them and pick them up.

Due to some limitations, there are only "human town" Template:Ls in a pre-fab Adventure mode civilization.

Theft

You may also pick up the item before buying it, but you should never walk out of a shop carrying an unbought item, as that is theft. It is punishable by death if you are caught, and excommunication if you are not. On any occasion when you have stolen goods from a store, ie goods bounded by the $$ signs, the game requires you to exit the site and move a considerable distance before allowing you to quick travel. This may make a getaway more difficult if your adventurer is not already faster than anyone else. This only applies to goods in stores; killing townsfolk and taking their personal things, including those of the shopkeep still only requires exiting the site. The moment you are out of sight, you will be able to warp out as usual. Theft and murder remain within entities; even depopulating one country and stealing all its things will not generate ill response in another country.

Note that if you steal anything, then nobody in that civilization will talk to you anymore, making it impossible for you to get new quests, use the shops, or get new companions.

Selling and buying with money

In addition to bartering, you can sell items to a shop for coins, then use the coins to buy stuff at another shop. Just select the items you want to sell or buy, and then set a price using the following format^[Verify]:

• a asking for 9000☼
• s +100☼
• d +10☼
• f +1☼
• g reset to 0☼
• h -1☼ (offering)
• j -10☼
• k -100☼
• l offer 9000☼

The use of these keys may seem non-intuitive, and this is further complicated by the limit on your available offers by your current financial health.

Shopkeepers are used to adventurers with inflated ideas about the value of their goods, so it may be simplest to ask for 9000☼ for your goods, or offer 1☼ for theirs and suggest a trade. The shopkeeper will counteroffer with the actual value of the goods, and will be quite delighted to accept a trade at the price they've just quoted to you. You can then purchase things with your store credit. One turn after the trade session ends, the balance of your coins will appear on a small table next to a chest.

Managing coins

Coins can and will encumber your adventurer, eventually reducing your speed. To reduce that effect you can try to exchange your copper and silver coins for gold ones. To do that you can purchase goods from a merchant to the sum of your copper coins, then sell them back. Check the merchant's chest to see how much gold and silver coins they have. You can delay the problem by selling your loot to many merchants, as they will try to pay you in higher denomination currency first.

A few goods are strictly superior to all forms of coinage as a store of value, most commonly giant cave spider silk items. A suitably sneaky (or powerful) adventurer can murder a few dwarves or goblins for such items for trade and sale for human goods. Giant cave spider silk is a non-renewable resource in a given world - please harvest responsibly.

Where to get items to sell

The best place to get items to sell is at bandit camps, after you've slaughtered all the bandits. You can loot the clothes and equipment off of the corpses of the bandits (and off your fallen companions, too), plus at the very center of camp there'll be a few scattered weapons and a few bags/chests containing various goods.

The next best way to get items to sell is to kill non-talking monsters, butcher their corpses (see below for how), and pick up the edible bits.

At the bottom of the list comes Looking Carefully and selling any small creatures you might find.

Equipping your adventurer

After acquiring Template:L from one source or another, you'll most likely want to equip it. To do this, first make sure it is in your possession--not on the ground. You can then wear it, granted you don't already have too much on that equipment slot already. You can remove or drop inferior equipment as necessary.

Template:L and Template:L are handled differently. There is no explicit equipment command. Instead, they are automatically equipped when you either get them from the ground or remove them from your Template:L - provided the hand that would wield them is free. So in order to change Template:L or Template:L you would need to put your equipped weapon into your Template:L and then removing your new desired weapon. You do not need to drop weapons and equip new ones etc. Simply remember the remove command and the put into container command.

It should be noted that the world of DF seems to have a lot of left handers, so do not be surprised if your character holds the weapon with the left hand and the Template:L with the right hand. (actually, it's common for right-handers to hold shields in their right hand as shields tend to be rather heavy and also need to absorb a lot of force when struck)^[Verify]

Adventure Mode Skills

Physical attributes are influenced by the skills selected in character generation, in the beginning and in maximum potential. Starting with fewer skill points spent will leave you a significantly weaker charater; choosing the "Play Now" option generates a character with no skills and the poorest attributes, for the most challenging playthrough.

Adventurers can now perform buildingless reactions. To access the reaction menu, press x. Worlds generated before Template:L cannot perform knapping in Adventure Mode, and new worlds must be generated if custom adventurer reactions are added.

Knapping allows an adventurer to sharpen a rock. Knapping does not work with stones in containers, only ones on the ground or in your hand.
Stones can only be dropped if the stone type does not naturally exist in the biome you are in, so to use ground stones it is worthwhile to Travel far from the area you got the stones. Otherwise, you can place both stones into your hands. This can be achieved by dropping whatever is held in your left and right hands, then getting small stones from the ground. Next, press x to open the action menu, and press create and then → to select "Make sharp stone". You will be prompted to choose a rock to sharpen ("tool stone"), and then the hammerstone. The tool stone will be replaced in your hand by a sharp version.

Butchering acts similarly to Fortress Mode's Template:L by converting a corpse into edible products, bones, and skin. A corpse must be dropped onto the ground to be butchered, or held in one hand. With a sharp object (such as a dagger or knapped stone) in your hand or on the same tile of the corpse, press x, b, and → to select the corpse, and then the sharp tool. The corpse will be replaced by its butchering returns.

Combat

Any creature can be attacked by standing next to it and pressing shift+A. Attacking a friendly creature (which includes wild animals for elves) will further require a confirmation, given using alt+y. Attacking a creature using this method, will allow you to make an aimed attack. You must first select the body part that you want to attack. Look at the difficulty rating for various possible attacks. Impossible attacks will be... impossible to land and Easier attacks will be very easy to land. Don't be afraid to try Trickier attacks, especially against easier enemies. Attacks will also land more or less squarely. Square and very square attacks will deal more damage ^[Verify]. Attacks which "can't land squarely" are generally still effective.

Hostile creatures can also be attacked using a non-aimed attack. To make a non-aimed attacked, simply advance towards your enemy using the arrow keys. Doing a non-aimed attack will also free up any stuck weapon.

To attack with a ranged weapon press the f key and select the square where you want to attack.

Attacks aimed at the head are the most effective, a single attack to the cranium with a weapon will usually put an end to the fight. Depending on the situation, it may be worth trying to take even a "Difficult" shot at the head.

The Weapons

Weapons are basically divided into axe, sword, spear, pike, mace, whip, bow and hammer, with various versions of these taking up the gray area.

Non-weapon

Besides your weapons you have two other major forms of attack: Wrestling and throwing.

Wrestling: Wrestling can be performed by standing next to an enemy and pressing shift+A and then enter to switch to wrestling. You can wrestle any enemy.

Throwing: Throwing is the skill of... well, basically throwing stuff. And vomit. And bugs and spears and rocks so on. Just about anything can be thrown, sometimes with devastating results.

Wounds

If you get wounded during combat, there's not much that you can do. Your wounds will heal over time, so just travel around or sleep in a safe place. Some wounds however may never heal, leaving you permanently crippled.

If you have some bolts or arrow stuck in your body, they can be removed by using the complex interaction menu I. Select the stuck bolt or arrow from the list and then pull it out with a

Tips/FAQ

Q1: How do I get past NPCs which are in my way?

A: Press s to sit, then move to crawl between their legs. Once you're done press s to stand again.

Q2: How do I find an entrance to the underworld?

A: As of v0.31.17 quest monsters no longer live in caves, so you can't find caves by asking for quests. Instead, repeatedly ask NPCs about the surroundings, and they might tell you about the the location of a cave. If this doesn't show any caves, travel to a hamlet/town/castle some distance away and try again.

See also

• Adventure Mode quick reference
• quick start guide