v0.31:Challenges

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23

This article is about an older version of DF.

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

Pre-Embark Build Ideas

Before you embark, you can optimize or sabotage your fortress from the very start, depending on how you distribute your points. After a few years, a well-developing fortress may or may not stabilize (depending on your idea of Template:L), leaving you to other challenges.

Diplomacy

Six dwarves with only social Template:Ls
One skilled dwarf

Six courtiers of the king's court made some ill-advised remarks within earshot of the king, and as a result have been ordered to go found an outpost. They've hired you to make sure they survive. The six nobles only have social skills and refuse to do any work that is beneath them.

Minimalist/Survivalist build

1 anvil
2 copper ore

Nothing else. From that alone, forge your pick and axe. (Figure it out yourself, or see the Template:L article for a step-by-step "how to".)

Peasantry

Spend 0 Points on embark

This challenge is moderately to very difficult, depending on the wildlife and outdoor food sources. Note that the three logs from the wagon are just enough to build a trade depot.

Stranded Scout Squad

Military skills
Weapons, ammunition, armor, war dogs
Picks are not weapons

Your civilian 'friends' promised a caravan in the fall as they left, laughing. Hopefully, you can survive until then with your forward scouts.

Races

Pretend to be another race! You can mod the game or just pretend that Elves have hair. It doesn't matter what you look like, just what you build, with what materials, and what's for lunch after we build it.

Elves - The Ultimate Hippy Challenge

Peace, man.

Don't gather plants except those you plant yourself.
Don't gather wood nor trade for it with humans or dwarves.
Trade for plants and wood only with the elves; they understand your environmental code.
Don't burn any Template:L. Do you know what that does to the environment, man?
- Magma-smelting is an option, but steel can't be had.
Don't cause any creature's death, except in self-defense.
- No military, induced submerging, or lethal implementation of corkscrews.
Only use cage traps, and either tame the creatures you catch, or release them back into the wild.
Template:L prefer sunlight and wooded areas, with minimal use of rock (digging and building).

For an extra challenge try this in an area with a cave.

Humans - Living Large and Standing Tall

Pretend you're a filthy above-ground dwelling Template:L.

Build a town wall.
- Only hovels and farms outside the town walls.
House your dwarves in small town homes
- 5-10 dwarves per house (they had pretty big families back in the day)
- Upstairs bedrooms, small dining room, maybe a single level basement.
House your workshops according to profession, not convenience.
Build warehouses for stockpiles, and set guards outside them.
Create a keep, with its own wall, barracks, treasury, etc.
- House your nobles within the keep.
Create a market square.
Create a main street from the town wall to the market square and/or keep. Well-paved blocks, statues and decorative shubbery are a must.
No underground connections between different areas.
For obtaining stone, metal, etc. a mine may be built, but must have separate entrance from other buildings. It can be outside the fortress, but must not connect to the interior, or vice versa.
- If you create a side hill mine, only carve large (at least 2 tiles) tunnels, and create shaft to the surface to allow air circulation.
- Or better than that, create an open pit mine / quarry, with ramps to access lower floors.
BONUS: Miniproject: Build a large, multiple-z-level fountain complete with decorations.
BONUS: Miniproject: Human Inn, containing your only booze stockpile and should be party-oriented.
BONUS: Miniproject: Farm simulation, complete with crops and free-range livestock, etc.
BONUS: Easy Play: Embark on top of a Human Town.
BONUS: Advanced Play: Modify the raws and actually use humans to make the fort.
MEGABONUS: Build your entire fortress as Template:L.
MEGADWARFBONUS: Build your City in a giant, artificial cave.

Luddite

Shun technology and contraptions. Who can really trust them, with those Template:L around. This may be challenging, as it forbids easy isolation/defense from attacks, all traps and wells. Irrigation is reduced to solid elbow grease and maybe a bucket or two. This challenge may be even harder combined with another challenge.

No mechanics or Template:Ls
No Template:Ls

Earthworms

Live constantly tunneling. Churn up the soil as you go and visit the surface only rarely to collect the stuff you need..

Create one long tunnel. Dig forward at one end whilst sealing off (collapsing, building walls across) the other end.
Workshops should be built directly behind the row of miners. When they reach the point where they would be destroyed, take them apart and rebuild back by the miners again.
To make it easier, you can come up to the surface now and then.
Try to keep the tunnel as short as possible.
Like this: ||||||||==========> (| is walled off end section, = is tunnel and > is the miners.
BONUS: Leave those pesky nobles walled in as you tunnel away from them!
BONUS: Leave stockpiles of armour and weapons for any future diggers to find!
MEGABONUS: Surprise a goblin siege by tunneling up underneath them!

Utter Dwarfiness

Need new ways to behave or new techniques to dip your toes into? Give any or all of your starting 7 some quirks to live up to. Want to try making your Boss a hell-bent, paranoid despot? Or establish a routine mass murder of small animals to provide your fort with raw meat by a vaguely intimidating, estranged butcher?

Bandit Camp

Three or more Marksdwarves (perhaps with Template:L)
Embark site featuring places to hide

Attack and loot every enemy sentient creature you can find, such as goblins & kobolds. Develop sneaky and even horrific methods of trapping and 'processing' friendly sentients (merchants, diplomats, and even migrants). Take no prisoners and leave no evidence of foul play.

City-States

All dwarves embark as peasants
7 or multiple of 7 of everything you bring (especially picks and axes)

At the start your dwarves split everything equally and move to 7 different locales that are not interconnected. They have to mine their own rooms, plant their own crops, use their own craft piles. This will probably require a bit of cross-fertilization until you get Template:Ls and can lock everyone in, but after that it is every dwarf for him/herself!

Burrows are very useful for this.

Dwarftopia

Embark only with dwarves that have max skills, with no more than one miner; but bring extra copper picks.
Separate the fortress into 2 parts: a vibrant city above, and a depressed slum below.
- BONUS: Reverse the order; elite dwarves get to live underground, while the poor have to scratch a living off the surface.
Throw all low-skill immigrants into the pits, where they will spend the rest of their lives (unless called up for the draft).
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES let said immigrants socialize whatsoever with the Elite; so nobody (who matters) will be upset when they die.
- BONUS: Make it impossible for anybody to escape by using trapdoors to drop them in and bridge-a-paults for sending goods out (preferably with a carp-based sterilization system).
  - MEGADWARFBONUS: Set it all up so that none of the 'elite' have to do any work; all their needs are met by the laborers. Watch what happens and laugh as the laborers die out and high society breaks down.

Equaland

No embark requirements
Construct a successful fortress
All dwarves are given equal attention regarding quarters, dining, armament and burial
One dwarf elected to be "The Leader" commands a lever system capable of killing a single dwarf of your choice in their room, however you wish
Allow the Leader (your id) free reign on his power, enforcing impossible and unannounced criteria on your other dwarves with death being the only punishment

Hermit

Spend points ONLY on ONE Template:L

A well known and popular challenge. Kill off 6 starting dwarves and any Template:L as they arrive, and try to make a living for the last dwarf. Turn away merchants. If they don't leave, kill them.

Variants To moderate difficulty, feel free to allow these exceptions:

Keep one male and one female dwarf as the Dwarven Adam and Eve.
Keep your starting seven, but no immigrants.
Selectively admit dwarves based on name, profession, etc.
Embark with an anvil as well.

Hunting Party

One Marksman+Ambusher
One Cook+Farmer
One Brewer+Farmer
Four exclusively social dwarves
Embark with no anvil, many hunting dogs, into a challenging biome (terrifying areas may have no supply of wood)

Immigration and customs enforcement

One miner/mason/architect
One woodcutter/carpenter/architect
Five military dwarves
Embark into a canyon or on a road
Don't embark with an anvil

Spend the first year building fortifications to interdict traffic. Immigrants can build a town around you, but your original seven dwarves remain dedicated to their mission (purely military in purpose).

"Let Loose the Dogs of War"

No military Dwarves are permitted, including Fortress Guard.
No weapons or armor may be forged, and any obtained from looting must be melted down.
War dogs must be your only form of attack and defense.
- Bonus : No traps or defense mechanisms of any kind may be utilized, only dogs.

28 Days Later

Embark at a terrifying biome(Scary Biome), make sure there are zombie somethings. Set up a five thick wall around your camp. Never leave the perimeters. All migrants would be wandering survivors, let them in or don't, as they might be infected.
Bonus: If you have "reason" to believe the migrants are infected, sacrifice them to the Blood God. Remember, he loves Magma!
Bonus: Only Marksdwarves for defense, You shouldn't get near the zombies, they tend to bite.If they are wounded, they must be quarantined, and shall therefore die.
AdvancedPlay: Add zombie to the creatures list and set them as [EVIL].
- Bonus: Send one heroic guy to save the migrants from the zombies, like in 28 days later.
- Elf skin clothing anyone?
Keep a diary from one of the characters perspectives, to be read when the world is repopulated.

Master Of One

Pre-Embark:

All starting dwarves must have only one skill

Post-Embark:

No changes are allowed on any dwarf's labor screen, except to disable hauling labors (enabling hauling is forbidden)
All immigrants must stay with the profession(s) they arrive with
All peasants must be activated into the military

Variant:

Only allow one dwarf for each skill to remain in your fort (1 mason, 1 miner, 1 farmer, etc.). Slaughter or draft all other dwarves.

Monarch with a grudge

Forbid any and all use of stone and metal
No exposed tile may be labeled "Underground"
Artifacts containing stone and metal are to be destroyed utterly (magma or the Template:L)

"Nay, no ponderous stone doors or shining silver arcades, not while I live!" The new king has decided rocks and metals can no longer be used in construction. He'll be overthrown shortly, but in the meantime construct your fortress without them.

Variants

Embark with no construction materials, into an area devoid of trees.
Construct a fortress made entirely out of glass. Try not using magma or limit yourself only to clear and crystal glass.
Build with soap bars. Show those elven traders just how much you despise their philosophies by building with stuff derived from dead trees and dead animals. Cats are an excellent source of tallow.
Choose one type of rock, one type of metal, one type of gem, one type of wood, and optionally one type of glass. All constructions can only use those types in their construction. An easy way to enforce this with stone is to mark all but your choice "Economical".
Bonus points: Stone is forbidden along with digging

Noblesse requiro

Construct a fortress only to please nobles (who, for the sake of this challenge, are all criminally psychotic)
Criminals who deserve justice should be incarcerated, tortured, and executed for any offense. Use your imagination for every step of the process. Remember, there is no right to a fair and speedy trial in Armok's eyes.
All Nobles must be treated to the highest quality living conditions
All others must be treated to the bare minimum needed to physically keep them alive
Elected nobles are to be treated as regular dwarves, but mandates hold equal sway regarding justice

Santa Urist

Embark in a glacier biome
Take at least 3 craftsdwarves to serve as Santa's Elves.
Export as many toys as possible. These are your only permitted trade good.
Bonus: Use this Christmas-themed tileset: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:Sphr/gfx_set#Christmas_Special_2007

Sitting on trees

Construct a wooden "tree" or several, spanning many (a dozen or so) z-levels
Establish a successful fortress not inside, but around, these constructed trees

The Mad Butcher

One dedicated Butcher+Tanner
Minimal supplies and skills, so you can bring...
As many puppies and kittens you can afford
All food-gathering skills (except your Butcher+Tanner and Brewing) are forbidden

Caging your animals will increase performance to prepare a suitable butchery. Construct a wide, deep shaft to be zoned as an animal pit. At the bottom, outfit an isolation chamber complete with food and alcohol stockpiles, a bed, a butchery and a tanner's workshop. An active well will prevent mishaps. You should include during the construction either an airlock chamber (to enable the butcher to pass on food) or a second pit where the butcher dumps his created food. After construction, seal your butcher+tanner inside and live only off of his work.

The World is Flat

No pre-embark requirements
You'll probably want a region with lots of hills/mountains.
You may only work/build/live on the original Z level where your wagon was
No moats allowed, as this requires a channel, which goes below your z-level

===Hunter and Gatherer=== http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php?title=DF2010:Challenges&action=edit&section=18 Pre-Embark (World-Gen)

Try creating a world in year 1 (optional)

Post-Embark

Everything allowed except Farming and Cattle Breeding.

Bonus

Bonus: Embark in a desert, so only hunting and (aquifier) fishing.
- Extra Points: Dont fish in the aquifier. How could the turtles get there anyway?
- Create a huge pyramid and sacrifice living beings or valuables to Armok for rain by dropping it in the hollow inaccessible pyramid from the top.
  - Extended version: Fill the pyramid with magma!
- Create lines like the Nazca to honour Armok, so he will send some rain (maybe).
Bonus: No Mechanics and only limited (i.e. only copper) or no metalworking.

Cave Men

Pre-Embark An Overworld acessable cave

Post-embark Go into the cave with all your dwarves, and try to survive the harsh enviorments of the new cave systems. You cant use items from ground zero, all wood must be harvested in the caves, along with food.

Bonus* no trading, who wants to enter that creepy cave anyways?
MEGA BONUS* No dogs and no warrior dwarves.

Fort wars!

The initial 7 create 2 forts on opposite sides of a map.

After the initial 7, 1/2 of all immigrants get assigned to a burrow that encompasses one of the forts. New children get assigned to their parents fort. Each fort is self sustaining and produces their own goods. Then it turns into a competition to see which fort can produce the most wealth.
Nobles are given free reign and will be quartered in the winning fort.
Make a giant wall separating the forts above ground. On one side of the wall is an artificial lake made of water and on the other, one made of magma. Call forts Reliable.Excavation.Demolition and Builders.League.United.

Deep dwarfs

Following the embark, lock yourself up under the ground. Don't let any of your dwarfs go outside. Let invaders into your underground maze of doom!

BONUS: Dig deeper and deeper, abandoning the upper levels and rebuilding your fortress as you get more

deep.

MEGA BONUS: create a caste of deep dwarfs (nobles?), who will only live on the bottommost levels.

Earth Mover

Do what you need to get a huge guild of miners
Dig every square in the map.
- Hint: you might want to turn cave-in on
- Another hint: Do you really want to put your castle up there, when your dwarfs are digging down there?

Oh, The Humanity!

Live like humans do.
Make about half of your buildings out of wood- structures that serve no defensive purpose, such as workshops, meeting halls, dining halls, the homes of the serfs and peasants etc should be wooden. You can also divide a large building up as sensible- you might make the main structure of a castle or wall out of stone for strength, then make the interior detailing, shacks, and other "addon" buildings out of wood. The important thing to keep in mind is that for humans, drafty, damp stone buildings are sometimes a functional necessity, not something they prefer.
Build an aboveground outer wall of wood to start- you can replace it with stone once you reach fifty individuals.
Underground areas are ONLY for mining shafts, root cellars, plumbing/mechanics, and perhaps a secret passage for your nobles to take in emergencies. No workshops, living spaces, or large-scale storage allowed.
Most of your mining for ore and minerals should be done quarry-style, as humans are not well-suited to long-term underground life. A quarry should be a big, wide-open pit, shaped like an inverted pyramid, with a ramp leading out, so you don't feel boxed in and claustrophobic. Don't worry about the ecological impact of your surface strip mining.
An exception to the mining rule is excavation for purposes of putting up outdoor buildings- so you can carve away a cliff wall to make room for a building, but you can't actually build *into* the wall like a dwarf would, so channel that natural dirt/stone roof out!
All farming must be done with surface plants. No underground plants.
Humans need several pubs so they can go bar hopping in their free time- they get bored with just one. Make sure you have a separate pub for every 15 individuals.
Unlike dwarves, few humans have enough beard to hide their naughty bits when they run around naked. Make sure your humans have enough clothing to wear at all times.
Finally, you need an aboveground castle. Early on, a small building will suffice but by the time royalty arrives, you'll need to have at least begun constructing a castle worthy of their station.

BONUS: Humans enjoy bathing. If there is no pond inside your walls, build a channel to carry fresh water to an artificial pond so your people have a place to cleanse themselves. Build a 1-level waterfall in it so they can shower, and stock soap nearby.
BONUS: Humans, as opposed to the elves reverence for nature and the dwarves utter disregard for it, actually believe it is their duty to pollute and destroy nature.
- Designate large refuse stockpiles and garbage dumps in the wilderness, and fill them.
- Chop down enough trees to piss off the elves every once in a while.
- Fill the map with paved roads. Pavement rules!

MEGABONUS: The ultimate in human engineering. Build a 5-level above-ground mega-mall displaying all your salable wares. Build various stores for your goods, back room storage, a wishing pool for the main atrium, a food court with several "restaurants" specializing in specific foods and meals, a hair salon, a bank, and a security office staffed with rent-a-cops. Come up with more if you feel like it.
- UBER-ULTRA-BONUS: Give all the mall's stores security doors that can be controlled from the security office, for instant lockdown in case of a shoplifter. Can't have too much security!

Dwarfen Prison

Faced with raising criminal rates the king has decided to go for a zero-tolerance policy. He sent out seven dwarfs to build and manage a prison to hold the worst of the worst criminals of dwarfenkind.

Only your initial 7 dwarfs may do any work
All immigrants are treated as inmates sentenced to life-long prison sentences. Yes, even the children. Don't ask, you are just doing your job and who are you to criticize the dwarfen justice system?
Every inmate is locked up in solitary confinement within his/her own ~~bedroom~~ cell with only a bed and a forbidden metal door. Metal bars instead of walls are optional.
Inmates have to be kept alive in their cells, but don't pamper them: Make them live on a diet of water and raw plump helmets. Feed them by dumping the plump helmets through holes in the cell ceilings or using an airlock system. Water can be provided through a water hole in the floor leading to a sewer system.
Should an inmate start to rebel the ~~sheriff~~ chief warden should restore discipline with an iron hand.
It won't take long until a few inmates start to go insane from sensory deprivation. Too bad for them.

Cavernous Dwarves

A version of ‘Deep Dwarves’ and ‘Cave Men’, this challenge takes advantage of the large, underground caverns you find when you dig deep enough.

Dig out a few rooms near the surface to hold all your starting goods and move them all underground as quickly as possible. (Don’t forget to disassemble your wagon.)
Designate a meeting area underground so that none of your dwarves will be on the surface and then remove the stairs/ramps leading up.
Start digging. Dig until you find the underground caverns (around lvl 10 - 15 depending on your map).
Treating the caverns as ‘outside’, build your rooms and halls with windows looking into the caverns/underground lakes.
Try as much as possible to not disturb the natural formations of the caverns. Building around a pillar is fine, carving out a pillar and building inside of it is fine, but avoid removing pillars. Use the cavern floor as your main hallway.
Starting with at least one combat-ready dwarf is advisable (you may want more than one) as there creatures lurking around every corner.
BONUS POINTS: Construct a castle in a large cavern to house your nobles and make sure that all their rooms/offices overlook the working peasants.
Extra Room Challenge: If you are looking to expand the caverns, you may drain lakes into magma seas. (WARNING: This is a frame-rate killer!!! If you try this, make sure to disable the auto-pause/re-centering for collapsing cavern messages, and expect it to take a long time to complete.) Once you have one or more lake drained, you will likely have doubled the size of available caverns to build in.

Roman Empire

This challenge tries to emulate Europe during the Roman Era.

All new male non-noble dwarves must be conscripted into the military for a period of no less than a year. Your initial seven are exempt, as they may be thought of as having fulfilled their military duty earlier in life.
Steel, Aluminum, and Pig Iron are banned.
All full-time military dwarves must have a matching set of iron platemail (lorica segemata [1]) and iron short swords.
- All conscripted dwarves must have a full set of leather armor (material doesn't matter) and wooden crossbow.
  - BONUS: All conscripted dwarves must have bows and arrows instead of crossbows and bolts. Trade with the filthy Gauls for them.
BONUS Peloponnesian War: All full-time military units may only wear bronze armor and use spears.
BONUS Aztec Empire: All military may only use leather armor and obsidian short swords.
- MEGA BONUS Pre-Historical: All metal production is banned.