Gait

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A gait is a mode of movement which a creature can use. In real life, the word only applies to movement on land; but in Dwarf Fortress, the term describes any mode of movement by a creature, including swimming, flying, and climbing.

Gait Types

There are 5 different types of gaits: walking, crawling, climbing, swimming, and flying.

• Walking gaits are land-based gaits which require the creature to be standing up, and have more than half of their [STANCE] body parts, e.g. legs, intact and working. They can be used to move across flat ground, and go up and down ramps and stairs.

• Crawling gaits are like walking gaits, except that they require neither standing up nor [STANCE] body parts. They are much slower than walking gaits. Please note that an uninjured, slithering snake is considered to be using a walking gait, not a crawling gait: its body is its [STANCE] body part. If a snake is injured in the body, it will revert to a crawling gait.

• Climbing gaits are used for moving up and down vertical surfaces, such as trees or walls, as well as for moving horizontally while supporting oneself against a vertical surface. In order to climb, a creature needs intact body parts to climb with: [GRASP] body parts by default, or [STANCE] body parts if the creature has the [STANCE_CLIMBER] token. Stance climbers include cats and giant cave spiders.

• Swimming gaits are used for moving in the water. In order to swim, a creature needs either the [SWIMS_INNATE] tag, or [SWIMS_LEARNED], [CAN_LEARN] and skill in swimming.

• Flying gaits are used for moving in the air. In order to fly, a creature needs the [FLIER] tag, and for enough of its body parts tagged [FLIER] (e.g. wings) to be intact, if applicable. Flying does not require a minimum speed to stay airborne, and turning while flying is no more difficult than turning while walking.

Speed

Gait speeds are expressed in ticks/100 tiles. This means that "larger" speeds are slower than "smaller" speeds. Currently, the maximum allowed speed is 100 ticks/100 tiles, or 1 tick per tile.

The speeds of each gait are only a baseline for how fast a creature of that species will move. In practice, speed can also be affected by factors such as what a creature is wearing or carrying, as well as its skills, attributes, and even its personality^[Verify].

Here are some speeds for reference.

Gait Speed	kph	mph	Example
8775	1	0.6	average giant earthworm's top speed
6561	1.3	0.8	normal human/goblin climbing speed
5951	1.5	0.9	normal dwarven climbing speed
3512	2.5	1.5	normal kobold climbing speed
2206	4	2.5	normal elven climbing speed
1422	6.2	3.9	normal ogre walking speed
900	9.6	6	normal walking speed
488	18	11	average ogre's top speed
439	20	12	average troll's top speed
351	25	16	average dragon's top speed
293	30	19	average dwarf's top speed
293	30	19	average giant cave spider's top running and climbing speed
251	35	22	average kobold's top speed
225	39	24	average human's/goblin's top speed
219	40	25	average bronze colossus's top speed
214	41	25	average elf's top speed
195	45	28	average beak dog's top speed
183	48	30	average cat's top speed
176	50	31	average roc's top speed
157	56	35	average gibbon's top climbing speed
149	59	37	average dog's top speed
125	70	43	average horse's top speed
109	80	50	average gazelle's top speed
100	87	54	maximum allowed gait speed, average peregrine falcon's top speed

Standard Gaits

The vast majority of standard DF creatures use predefined gait patterns. While their gaits vary in speed from type to type and from creature to creature, the gaits' relations to each other are mostly uniform.

Relative Gait	Gait Names	Gait Types	Build-up	Turning	Speed Affected by Physique	Slowed by Stealth	Energy Drain
Fastest	Sprint Gallop Fastest Walk Scramble Maximum Swim Speed Scramble Maximum Flight Speed Scramble	WALK (biped) WALK (quadruped) WALK (general) CLIMB SWIM CRAWL FLY WALK (no legs)	10, from a start speed of Fast	No	Yes	50	50
Faster	Run Canter Faster Walk Faster Climb Faster Swim Faster Crawl Faster Flight Faster Crawl	WALK (biped) WALK (quadruped) WALK (general) CLIMB SWIM CRAWL FLY WALK (no legs)	5, from a start speed of Fast	No	Yes	20	10
Fast	Jog Trot Fast Walk Fast Climb Fast Swim Fast Crawl Fast Flight Fast Crawl	WALK (biped) WALK (quadruped) WALK (general) CLIMB SWIM CRAWL FLY WALK (no legs)	No	Yes	Yes	10	5
Normal	Walk Walk Walk Climb Swim Crawl Fly Crawl	WALK (biped) WALK (quadruped) WALK (general) CLIMB SWIM CRAWL FLY WALK (no legs)	No	Yes	No	No	0
Slow	Stroll Stroll Slow Walk Slow Climb Slow Swim Slow Crawl Slow Fly Slow Crawl	WALK (biped) WALK (quadruped) WALK (general) CLIMB SWIM CRAWL FLY WALK (no legs)	No	Yes	No	No	0
Slowest	Creep Creep Slowest Walk Creep Creeping Swim Creep Hover Creep	WALK (biped) WALK (quadruped) WALK (general) CLIMB SWIM CRAWL FLY WALK (no legs)	No	Yes	No	No	0

Gaits and Modding

In the vanilla game, gait templates are specified as creature variations in the c_variation_default.txt raw file. These standard templates, each pertaining to a specific gait type, contain 6 individual gaits which detail the different movement speeds available for that gait type.

To specify one of these predefined gaits, the token [APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION] should be used. Within this token, specify the desired gait template, and include maximum speed values (which will be inserted into the template in place of its !ARG1, !ARG2, etc tokens, where the first value specified replaces !ARG1) in this order:
normal:fast:faster:fastest:slow:slower

Example, taken from the dwarf: [APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:STANDARD_BIPED_GAITS:900:711:521:293:1900:2900] where the speeds are: "walk:jog:run:sprint:stroll:creep". Sprint and run start at jog's max speed and gradually build up to their own, whereas the rest start off at max immediately.

Of course, it's entirely possible to write your own custom gait templates. Note that it isn't necessary to strictly mimic the predefined gaits; your templates can contain any number and mixture of individual gaits (including those of different gait types), and you can place argument tags (!ARG1, !ARG2, etc) wherever you want to. It's also possible to do away with templates altogether and build up gaits from scratch within an individual creature's raw definition, if you're so inclined. See [GAIT] for more information.