v50 Steam/Premium information for editors
  • v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
  • Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
This notice may be cached—the current version can be found here.

40d:Biome

From Dwarf Fortress Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

A biome is a biotic area with homogeneous features, characterized by distinctive plants, animal species and climate. Your dwarves will find different resources depending on which biomes they select when starting a fort.

Selecting a biome

Biomes are important when choosing a fortress location in order to understand your surroundings. Individual biomes, which form at least one tile of your plot, can be cycled with the F#-keys; for example, an area with 3 biomes present can be cycled using F1, F2 and F3. The selected biome will be highlighted with flashing Xs on the Local Map, and the biome's information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. (See the illustrated guide for more detail).

Understanding Biomes

Biomes allow you to set the difficulty of your game. To make it easy, and to provide a variety of resources to your fort, you can select a plot that covers a wide area. A wide variety of biomes will give you access to several unique resources provided by each. Generally it is advantageous to plot your embarkation at the convergence of 3 seperate biomes (4 or more if possible - which is made easier if you enlarge your starting plot).

  • Note: Making the starting plot wider than necessary will slow your game down considerably v0.27.169.33a

By making use of several biomes you can provide more resources for your fort. Making sure one of your plots cover a either a broadleaf or conifer forest will provide you with an ample supply of trees, even if the rest of your plot extends into badlands and desert.

Surroundings are not directly linked to biomes (i.e. Glaciers could be one of haunted, wilderness or serene).

If your plot contains only ocean, lake or mountain biomes you will not be able to embark. The dwarves would have difficulty parking their wagon on water, while mountains are too barren and remote to reach.

Available Biomes

Arid

Temperate

Tropical

See Also

  • Regions for the possible values for Trees, Vegetation and Surroundings.
  • Volcanoes which are not a biome in Dwarf Fortress, but may provide important resources
  • Climate
Worlds