v0.34:Food

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v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Dwarves may be alcoholics, but just as much they need food. Hungry dwarves are indicated by a flashing brown arrow; unfed hungry dwarves will progress to starvation and, ultimately, death.

Mechanics of Eating and Hunger

Dwarves require about 2 units of food each season. Dwarves that go without food will do the obvious: become increasingly hungry, working more slowly, becoming more and more unhappy, and eventually die of starvation. Hungry dwarves that cannot get at fortress resources will steal food from any caravans that arrive; the merchants do not particularly care, but it is added to their expenses when the caravan leaves the map. Additionally, when starving, dwarves will catch and consume vermin to survive, resulting in an unhappy thought.

Dwarves will forgo food, drink, and sleep for a while to complete tasks they are currently performing; how long they will go on depends on their personality. Dwarves without a current job will perform these activities if they are even a little thirsty, hungry, or drowsy, and will only snap to "No job" once they have done so. Dwarves will preferentially eat before starting a task^[Verify], but will finish their active task once actually started. The only tasks that can actually lead to death is a mother trying to find her infant.

Dwarves who eat large amounts of food and don't get enough exercise will quickly become fat, a change that can only be seen by examining their thoughts and preferences screen. Not surprisingly, fat dwarves are slower at moving around, but the extra fat provides additional insulation from extreme temperatures, a small amount of additional protection against attacks, and longer "burn time" when exposed to fire. Additionally, fat can provide emergency nourishment to a dwarf who is otherwise about to die of starvation; also not surprisingly, going without food for a while will shrink the dwarf right back down to skinny. Fat dwarves can be made fit by giving them more physical and less intellectual things to do; a hauling regimen works wonders, for instance, and leaves the player wondering why it's so hard for people to shed weight in real life, when all they have to do is move stone from place to place.

Thoughts

There are a number of good and bad thoughts associated with food. Food cooked from or consisting of ingredients the dwarf likes will generate a happy thought. High quality food will improve this happy thought, making a good cook a valuable addition to the fort. Dwarves will gain new favorites if you present them with new food (e.g. human and elven products like/from above ground crops). If you want a colorful game or need any food you can get, fire away. If however you want to optimize happiness from food but still keep stock menues small and tidy, be cautious about what you trade with caravans or gain from plant gathering. For example, presumably, expensive meat makes your dwarves happier than cheap mule meat^[Verify], but any plants the elves bring are not more valuable than your own.

Dining in a high-quality setting will also bring a happy thought, making a legendary dining room an easy way to bring up happiness.

On the other hand, eating the same food over and over again will make the dwarf tire of it, and they will crave new dining. Having a particularly limited dining selection will cause this thought to manifest, especially early in a fortress's life. For this reason, it is important to get as many food industries as you can running, to provide more of a selection to the hungry dwarves; at least two food groups are recommended. At the worst, additional food of all categories can be purchased from a caravan.

Food groups

Food can be divided into several food groups; the state of the fortress's food reserves can be seen on the status screen, with the 2 important groups being 'drink' and 'other'(includes prepared meals). Any sort of accurate count will require a bookkeeper. The same goes for the z-stocks screen that gives a fully detailed overview.

• Plants can be farmed or gathered, and are also the only food group besides honey that can be processed into drink. Farms are reliable and (usually) easily extendable sources of food, and generally form the backbone of most fortresses' food production.
• Meat can be sourced from livestock, hunted, caught live and then killed for military training, or stripped from siege mounts. Meat is more difficult to procure, but comes with important secondary resources (leather, fat, bones) and provides more variety than plants at a significantly easier rate.
• Fish can be caught, either via fishing or fishing chambers. This is the most dependent of the industries, requiring a body of water (be it an ocean, a lake, or a river). Larger fish caught via fish traps are slaughtered, and their parts counted as part of the meat industry.
• Eggs can be sourced from a hatchery. Any tame egg-laying female animal will do so occasionally when allowed access to an unclaimed nest box, including very exotic animals like alligators and rocs. These eggs can then be cooked.
• Milk can be milked from certain tame female animals, including more exotic ones like kangaroos and tapirs. Milk can be cooked or processed into higher-value cheese.
• Honey and royal jelly can be produced via beekeeping, and can be eaten, cooked, or processed into mead.

Note that most food is subject to rotting if not stored propperly. Template:V0.34 industry