v0.31:Exploit

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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

An exploit is a quirk of a game that allows players to gain what other players may consider an unfair advantage, usually by making use of a feature that is not working properly or which defies logic. 'Exploiting the game' is distinct from 'cheating' because exploits occur within the game as written and do not need any external utilities or modding. Whether a player chooses to make use of an exploit or not depends on their personal taste; given that Dwarf Fortress is a single-player game, the user alone can decide what liberties to take and what options to shun. Among DF players there is much discussion what actually should be considered an exploit, going from making sweetpod syrup instead of sugar, growing crops in winter, or even underground, as the one extreme, to justifying 'water wheel batteries' as the other. This page takes a rather relaxed approach in that you considering it an exploit is basically enough to add it, if you don't get too much opposition.

Atom Smasher

A Template:L, when rapidly triggered on and off, can be used to obliterate some creatures or items beneath it. The drawbridge will be destroyed if it is used to crush a creature of too large a size.

Bookkeeper Exercise Program

Changing your Template:L's settings to maximum accuracy causes him to work furiously in his office, training quickly up to Template:L. Even if this is a bug it is not really an exploit, since a) you actually want highest precision anyway b) he attains highest precision rather fast (depending, for example, on how many stones you have mined) and thus one can not train an unlimited number of, if even several, dwarves that way.

Some would argue this is not as much of an exploit as it was in 40d, since the legendary bookkeeping skill does not lead to new attributes, and therefore really gets you very little.

Manager Exercise Program

As a Template:L, skill is gained as tasks are approved, not completed. Simply by queuing lots of jobs (j m q) (and providing a meager office), the manager will quickly level to Template:L as an Template:L. The tasks can then be removed once approved.

Merchant Swindles

There are a variety of ways to steal cargo from Template:Ls without seizing it; all amount to naked theft. Tearing down the Template:L while the merchants are there is the easiest way.

Also, marking items for Template:Ling, using view creature mode (v), the stocks menu (z), items in room mode (t), or mass dump mode (d)-(b)-(d) then marking the entire depot, lets you relieve merchants of their goods. Just reclaim the items from your garbage dump Template:L later. You can even take clothing and equipment off merchant and guards this way.

You can make a wall around the merchants (and even the poor animals) and let them starve to death, letting you take what ever you want. Wait quite a while for them to starve. They will become very angry if you do, so never open the door once they are on the brink of death.

However, the merchants will consider any lost goods to be stolen goods regardless of the method used to take possession of them, or used to destroy them.^[Verify] See the 40d page and This forum post. So unless you specifically want to take the clothing off the backs of the merchants or steal from your own civ, you might as well just seize the goods anyway.

Quantum stockpiles

By designating a garbage pit zone instead of a Template:L, you may store an infinite number of objects in a single tile by dumping them, then reclaiming them when you want to use them.

A similar effect may be achieved by building a wall two tiles in front of a catapult and digging a channel between the wall and catapult. By firing the catapult at the wall, the stone falls into the trench. The stone will pile up in the channel, putting it out of sight and out of mind. Not only does this train Template:Ls, but it clears the stone that your legendary Template:Ls leave.

Another way to quantum stockpile is to not have appropriate stockpiles to move items back you moved to the trading depot. The depot can hold an infinite number of items, and those items will not be removed if there is nowhere else to place them. This is also useful for anything you want to trade anyway.

The Undump

If your stockpiles keep filling up (usually furniture), this forum post introduced an automatic quantum stockpile design, that does to stockpile space management what danger rooms do to military training. Takes the problem and rips it's heart out.

Setup:

        H Hatch cover
 =====  ^ pressure plate, citizens trigger, linked to hatch
 ^sHs=  = Wall
 =====  s Stockpile (same type)

The idea is that haulers try to place some item on the right stockpile, step on the pressure plate and make the hatch cover retract. This makes them cancel the hauling job because they can't reach the right stockpile. They then drop the item on the left stockpile, on top of as big of a pile as you want.

Building destroyer door

Forbid something a dwarf is carrying as he goes through a door, and he'll drop it. The door won't close and won't stop any normal creature from going through, but building destroyers seem to stop in their tracks, waiting for it to close before moving on. Note: your civilians can pass the creature safely, but attacking it cancels your protection. ^[Verify]

Hell's back door

There's a convoluted way to dig down through Template:L and evade the head-on encounter with Template:L. ^[Verify]

Forgotten beast zoo

Wall off all the passageways into your lowest level at the outermost square of the map - except one, which leads to a little vestibule surrounded by fortifications. Wave hello to the various ungainly "Template:Ls" which accumulate inside.

Perpetual Motion

A Template:L requires 10 power to move water; a Template:L supplies 100 power if it's got water moving it. Arrange the former to feed the latter, while the latter powers the former, and you can get perpetual motion going - with a surplus of power available. See Template:L for more details.

Urist McAdventurer the Shield-wall

Adventurers are not limited in the number of items they can hold in their hands, allowing them to equip a virtually unlimited number of shields or bucklers with little effect to the adventurer's performance. This offers multiple chances to block attacks (vastly reducing the number that cause damage) and quickly trains up the shield user skill, further increasing the effectiveness of those shields. There is an indirect limit on how many shields you can equip based on how the total weight of your adventurer's items affects your speed, but the tradeoff between wearing a dozen (or more) shields is well worth the minor reduction in speed.

And we'll throw the barrel/bag in for free

On Template:L buying things which are stored in Template:Ls gets the barrel for free, with at most 10 items per barrel, so, for example, the 15 units of randomly chosen Template:L which come with the default supplies will get you two free barrels, one completely filled with 10 units of meat and one half filled with 5 units of meat; you get another two free barrels from the 15 units of randomly chosen Template:L. You can get rid of all of that food, then for the same cost select one unit each of meat from 30 different kinds of animals, giving you 30 free barrels instead of only 4, since each different kind of animal meat is put in its own barrel. Note that different types of meat from the same kind of animal goes into a single barrel, so choosing 1 yak brain + 1 yak eye + 1 yak spleen will get you only one free barrel instead of three.

The same thing goes for things stored in Template:Ls. Each unit of Template:L comes in its own bag, and since each unit of sand costs only 1 embark point while bags cost a minimum of 10 embark points each, you can get bags for ten times cheaper by buying sand, then Template:L out the sand after embark.