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

v50.14 · v0.47.05

This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.

This is a detailed reference guide for Adventurer Mode. For a tutorial see the Adventure Mode Quickstart Guide.

See Adventure Mode quick reference to quickly look up key commands.

In Adventurer Mode (also called "adventure mode") you create a single adventurer (dwarf, human, elf, goblin, or one of the varieties of animal people) who starts out somewhere in one of your generated worlds. You can learn about what ails the world and go on quests to end those troubles (or get brutally murdered trying), and you can venture into the wilderness to find caves, shrines, lairs, abandoned towers, and other towns and settlements. You can even visit your previously abandoned and retired fortresses and take all the precious items you yourself once created.

Unlike Fortress mode, Adventurer Mode is a sort of advanced open world RPG version of rogue or nethack taking place in the same procedurally generated worlds used for Fortress Mode. Whereas in fortress mode you are in charge of a large group of people in real-time restricted to a small parcel, in adventurer mode you control a single character in a turn-based manner, roaming the entire world freely.

World Selection

You can play Adventurer mode in any world that has a civilization with the ADVENTURE_TIER token (which are elf, dwarf, humans, goblins, as well as animal people^v0.42.01). Humans inhabit cities, towns, and the occasional above-ground fortress. Elves inhabit forest retreats. Dwarves are spread between "deep sites" which sometimes do not contain a direct connection to the surface, Fortresses which are built into the surface and almost always connect to the underground and "hill dwarves" which inhabit a loose collection of mounds built into hillsides. Goblins typically live in Dark Fortresses. Lastly, Animal People can live with any civilization, in virtually any location. Human cities and towns and Dwarven Fortresses are currently the only sites with shops and other places to officially buy goods. Not including taverns (Which can also exist in Elven sites but only sell rooms and drinks).

If you have previously built a fort in the world that you select, your adventurer will be able to go visit it. If you have selected to "retire" the fortress rather than abandon it, you will likely be able to encounter all the inhabitants from fortress mode. However, they will likely not have the same level of activity as they would in a bustling fortress-mode fort.

The World is Alive

The world is now alive as you play this used to not be the case, before playing it may be helpful for adventure mode players to take a look at this article on World Activation^v0.42.01

May also be useful to look at the article on Rumors as this is the chief way for an adventurer to get famous in game.

Character Creation

Race and Civilization

Any race with the ADVENTURE_TIER token is playable in adventure mode. In an unmodded game, this means dwarves, elves, and humans. All three races can complete the same quests.

Humans always originate from one of the villages in the world, begin with bronze, copper, or iron weapons, and can use any of the items sold by shopkeepers (who, for the time being, are only found in human towns and only sell human-sized clothing/armor). They also start with the widest variety of weapon skills.

Human Outsiders are humans that aren't from that world or any of its villages. They simply appear in the wilderness, a stranger to all. You may always play as an outsider, even if the world is otherwise completely uninhabited. Outsiders can only start with Spear User and Knife User as weapon skills, and they cannot start with Armor User or Shield User. They also start out literally naked with no clothing, but can wear any human-sized armor that they trade for, steal, or loot. "Outsiders" of other races can be played if you add the INDIV_CONTROLLABLE token to the race's entity definition.

Dwarves have the advantage of being able to go into a martial trance when fighting multiple foes at once. This gives them many combat bonuses, which aids their survival greatly. They are the only race which can start with steel weapons, but they wear "small" sized clothing (like goblins and elves) which means that they're unable to wear human clothing and armor found in human shops. Goblin armor fits them, making Dark Fortresses (if your computer can handle them) and bandits a viable source of armor; if you're up for it, you could also just rob some dwarves or a dwarven fortress. They can start with almost the same weapon skills as civilized humans. Many larger weapons must be wielded two-handed by dwarves, due to their size.

Elves start with very weak wooden weapons and have a more limited list of weapon skills during character creation. They have the advantage that they have higher natural speed. Elves have the [AT_PEACE_WITH_NATURE] tag, which makes all wildlife passive towards them. They also have a notably better sense of smell compared to the other races with a SMELL_TRIGGER of 10, instead of 90, which means they can sense smells over much larger distances. Like dwarves they wear small sized clothing and will have the same problem finding suitable armor and weapons.

Intelligent Wilderness Creatures^v0.42.01 can be played not only in varying conditions as above, but also as part of another parent civilization such as elves, humans, and dwarves. They come in various sizes, shapes and abilities, and as such a short description cannot be given; however, they will not start with armor or be able to wear armor sized for the more common races, making Dodger and Shield User more important as defensive skills.

Goblins can be played only if goblin populations have been absorbed into dwarven, human or elven civilizatons during world generation. They possess the same body proportions of dwarves and elves, and can wear whatever weapons and armor the civilization which adopted/conquered them allows.

Kobolds can be played only if there are no other civilizations and there are kobolds. They are very small and weak in combat and a huge challenge compared to the other races. They wear even smaller armor than the other races and armor will be impossible to find for them, unless you are absurdly lucky and run into armored kobolds.

If no civilization for a given race exists in a world you can only play as an outsider.

Status

Determines the number of starting skill and attribute points, which does not change based on race:

Peasant: 15 attribute, 35 skill
Hero: 35 attribute, 95 skill
Demigod: 105 attribute, 161 skill

The number of skill points is less significant than the number of attribute points because the time it takes to go from Peasant to Demigod in skill terms is much less than what it would take to go from Peasant to Demigod in attribute terms.

Starting Attributes

Attributes are divided into Body and Soul attributes. This section provides some guidance for allocating attributes as it relates to adventurer mode.

Body

Strength: Alters the damage you inflict in melee regardless of weapon used. Increases muscle size. This increased muscular layer helps prevent damage, although this is a pretty minor effect. Increasing strength, at least in adventurers, increases movement speed (albeit not as much as agility) due to better carrying capacity.
Agility: This attribute is directly related to a character's Speed and is also used in combat skills. Agility is really, really important as being faster than the enemies allows you to get more hits in before they can fight back and lets you run away more easily.
Toughness: Reduces physical damage inflicted on you. Also relates to defensive combat skills.
Endurance: Reduces the rate at which the adventurer becomes exhausted. Becoming exhausted causes you to collapse, helpless and immobile and can cause you to pass out.
Recuperation: Increases the rate of wound healing. Not as important as Toughness. Recuperation isn't that useful in adventurer mode since you usually have as much time to rest as you need assuming you can escape a situation alive.
Disease Resistance: Seems to have some effect on vampirism infectivity; may have to do with infected wounds.

Soul

Some of these are useful for adventure-mode-applicable skills, but some are totally useless except as dump stats.

Analytical Ability: Useful for Tracker, Knapping and Student. Analytical Ability seems to have an influence on the quality of written creations, such as Poems, as well as ability to speak about ideals.^v0.42.01

Focus: Affects Archer, Ambusher, Observer.

Willpower: Affects Fighter, Crutch Walker and Swimmer. Willpower is really important as it governs how easily you'll pass out from extreme pain. Low willpower is a death sentence if you are seriously wounded, as you'll pass out and have your head caved in. Broken bones currently cause enough pain that even very high willpower usually won't keep you conscious. For non bone injuries however willpower can keep you going long enough to kill enemies, or at least get away from them.

Creativity: This influences quality of poems, songs, and dances and crafts. It may also influence "make believe", now able to be performed by children.^v0.42.01

Intuition: Helps with Observer, which aids in spotting concealed enemies, ambushes, and identifying attacks from opponents.

Patience: May have some effect on dealings with others as a result of the new conversation system.^[Verify]

Memory: Memory is applied to the Student and Reading skills. Higher Student improves the ability to learn from demonstrations in fortress mode, but it isn't certain whether it has any application in adventurer mode. It's also unknown what benefits come from of higher Reading capability.

Linguistic Ability: Affects any speaking and writing ability, improves the ability to communication both thoughts and feelings to listeners. Likely also required for 'eloquent speech'.^[Verify]

Spatial Sense: Important. Affects combat skills, Ambusher, Crutch Walker, Swimmer, Observer, Knapping. Also, prevents/reduces the chance of stumbling during a dance.^v0.42.01

Musicality: Influences the Adventurers ability to perform music and song well. This, so far works for all instruments, one can play a flute, guitar, any other instrument equally well, given that the adventurer has equal skills in all instrument fields.^v0.42.01

Kinesthetic Sense: Affects most combat skills, walking with crutches, swimming and dancing

Empathy: Affects social skills such as Persuader, Flatterer, Judge of Intent, and other Social skills that may not be applied in adventurer mode.

Social Awareness: Increases the number of followers you can have at a given "fame" level. Normally you start with a limit of two. Increasing this stat by one level raises that to three. Your fame still plays a big part in whenever you can recruit followers or not. This attribute also helps with Persuader and Judge of Intent.

Attribute Advancement Cap

Adventure mode attributes are capped at double the starting value or the starting value plus the racial average, whichever is greater. Humans, for example, have a racial average strength of 1,000. If a human adventurer starts with an above average strength of 1,100, then his strength will ultimately be capped at 2,200. Had this human started with a below average strength of 900, then his strength would be capped at 1,900 instead. For the purpose of maximizing final attributes, this makes it important to start with as many attributes in the superior range as possible (more attributes per point allocated), while avoiding taking any penalties to even remotely important attributes (big attribute deductions per point recovered). As a consequence of the attribute cap, demigod adventurers will always have a much higher potential for advancement than mere peasants and heroes.

Starting Skills

Not all races have the same sets of skills available at character creation time, but keep in mind that all starting skills, as well as ones not available at character creation, can be improved through use in game.

This section will specifically address starting skills as they relate to adventure mode. For a full description of combat skills see Combat skill. Other skills that you can't start with, but which can be increased in game (such as Butchery) are described elsewhere.

Weapon

The weapon you start out with will be based on which of these, plus the unarmed combat skills, is the highest. In other words, even if Swordsman is your highest weapon skill, you won't start with a sword if your Wrestler or Striker skills are better. Usually the best choice anyway is to specialize in just one melee weapon skill. Regardless of weapon skills, a large copper dagger will always be included in the starting equipment, which is handy for throwing at enemies that are just a step away or finishing off a foe pinned down by a stuck weapon. If you don't select any offensive skills, you will also start with a spear, just as an outsider would.

Not all races/civilizations can start with all of these skills. Dwarves can't start with Bowman, Pikeman, or Lasher. Elves can only use Swordsman, Bowman, and Spearman. Of the playable races, only humans have access to Pikeman and Lasher. Strangely, only outsiders can start with Knife User.

Note that different races have different names for their weapon skills. Axegoblin, Axedwarf etc.

Crossbowman is an exception. Dwarves call this skill Marksdwarf, although bow skill is referred to as Bow Dwarf as you'd expect. Elite Axe and Hammer dwarves are referred to as Lords.

Axeman: allows characters to use axes, great axes, and halberds more effectively. Useful for cleaving off limbs.
Bowman: skill allows characters to use bows more effectively. Useful for taking down enemies at a distance.
Crossbowman: allows characters to use crossbows more effectively. Useful for taking down enemies at a distance.
Hammerman: allows characters to use crossbows in melee, mauls, and war hammers more effectively. Useful for breaking limbs.
Knife user: allows characters to use large daggers and knives more effectively. Useful for stabbing things.
Lasher: allows characters to use whips and scourges more effectively. Very deadly weapons.
Maceman: allows characters to use flails, maces, and morningstars more effectively. Similar to hammers.
Pikeman: allows characters to use pikes more effectively. Like spears, but much bigger.
Spearman: allows characters to use spears more effectively. Useful for stabbing things.
Swordsman: allows characters to use blowguns and bows in melee, long swords, scimitars, short swords, and two-handed swords more effectively. Useful for cutting, stabbing, and whacking, but less effective than more dedicated weapons.

General Combat

These two skills can be raised rather quickly in game and so you probably want to skip spending any points on them at the start.

Fighter: This increases with, and contributes to, melee combat whether armed or unarmed. It appears that the purpose of it is to allow melee experience to contribute to melee combat in general regardless of weapon. Repeatedly wrestling (grabbing and releasing) even a small creature will raise this skill.
Archer: This increases with, and contributes to, ranged combat including throwing. It works similarly to Fighter except for ranged attacks. It can be easily raised by repeatedly throwing rocks, making it advisable for archers to practice their marksmanship with rock throwing before using up the more finite and expensive forms of ammunition. Shooting at a wall with adjacent upward ramp one level below and picking back projectiles is also a good idea (such places often happen to be in keeps and fortresses). See the FAQ section on increasing your skills and attributes for information on raising bowman/marksman skills.

Defensive

These skills are critical for survival. Starting out with good ability in one (especially Shield User or Armor User) if not all is strongly advised.

Shield user: Ability to block attacks with shields. Starting with even novice skill in this means that the adventurer will start with a shield. This is a no-brainer unless you're creating a two handed weapon user, and lack a broadness or height modifier on your character - necessary for one-handing any two-handed weapon, without penalty.
Armor user: A higher level of this skill reduces the encumbrance penalties of armor, allowing you to move faster when wearing it. It also affects how well armor protects you and this makes a huge difference. Unskilled armor users gain little protection. This is noticeable as you'll begin seeing far more combat reports about hits either striking you though armor, (you managed to use your armor to lessen the force of the blow) or being deflected by your armor (you used your armor to avoid the hit entirety) as your skill rises and you learn to actually use your armor to deflect hits. It is highly advised to train your armor skill before entering battle with it as the speed penalties of lower levels can be a serious handicap.
Dodger: Ability to dodge out of the way of attacks. Dodger is incredibly important and will allow you to avoid many, many hits that would have otherwise injured you. Especially important when you are fighting unarmored and can't afford a battle axe in the chest. Boost this to talented or at least close to it.

Unarmed Combat and Improvised Weapons

While some of them come in handy at times, they can generally be raised fairly easily in game, especially Wrestler and Thrower.

Wrestler: Ability to grapple, restrain, take-down, throw opponents, etc. Higher skill means all of these moves succeed more often. See #Wrestling and Unarmed Attacks for details. Can be raised very easily in game.
Striker: Punching ability. Turns handy when weapons get stuck and there is no time to wrest them back.
Kicker: Kicking ability. Same as Striker. Kicks are slower but more deadly than punches; heavy kicks are particularly good at crushing and exploding heads.
Biter: Biting ability. Biting is surprisingly effective even with non animal races as after biting you can shake opponents around by your teeth, causing great damage and possibly ripping off body parts, although with sapient races this tends to lean more towards fingers or toes, perhaps the occasional hand or foot.
Thrower: Throwing any miscellaneous object including rocks, knives, axes, swords, heads, etc. Skill affects accuracy and damage caused.
Miscellaneous object user: Ability to beat things to death with anything that comes at hand, from bags to coins to their own severed body parts. Also somewhat more commonly used for shield bashing. This skill affects combat with any object, from a rock to a beehive. There are no separate skills for different items. Items actually intended to be weapons, like swords or axes, are unaffected by this skill.

A well written article on martial arts "Kisat Dur" can be found on the forums here.

Movement and Awareness

Observer: Helps one to notice things like ambushes, enemies who are "sneaking" (stealth movement), and traps. Detection range increases with skill, but up to a maximum of 3 tiles away. Higher levels give more information regarding opponents. Hard to train. Adding some points here is advisable.
Swimmer: Allows movement through water without drowning. A Novice swimmer can swim but will revert to being unable to swim if stunned, which happens when falling even 1 z-level into the water, or possibly after an unfriendly encounter with a creature in the water. An Adequate swimmer can swim normally (not drown) while stunned. For this reason, starting out as an Adequate swimmer is advisable. If you don't, at least start as Novice and go get some swimming practice right away.
Ambusher: The skill of Sneaking around unobserved. This can be raised fairly easily by sneaking around while traveling from place to place when speed is not important. Enemies will have "sight ranges" from where they can detect a sneaking adventurer. The red zone of sight is where they will see you immediately and begin chasing you; the yellow is where they might see you. Staying out of sight will allow you to silently assassinate your foes, as they rarely seem to notice a knife in their back in time.
Climber: The skill of climbing up walls, into trees, and around the edges of gorges. Higher levels reduce the chance of falling and increase the speed of a climbing character.
Tracker: The skill of tracking your quarry, whether it be animals or goblins. Higher levels will let you spot more tracks and help you distinguish different tracks.
Crutch-walker: The skill of standing and walking with a crutch for support. This skill only becomes available when attempting to move with a crutch in inventory, and can be developed with or without legs. At Legendary levels, a crutch walker walks with no speed reduction, and simply keeping it in hand will continue to increase attributes.

Crafting

These allow your character to create things.

Knapper: The fine art of sharpening rocks by banging them together in a clever manner. The resulting rocks become sharp rocks which do more damage when thrown and can be used for things requiring a sharp edge like butchering. Easy to raise in game and doing so helps with Kinesthetic and Spatial Sense.

Bone carver: The art of making knick knacks and other items by carving bones. A skilled bone carver adventurer can make items of the same qualities of dwarves in fortress mode, including "*Masterpiece*". Bone carving adventurers can also make bone figurines, and customize the appearance of them.

Writer: Your adventurers ability to craft/write upon books and scrolls, you can choose the topic as well. It is hard to acquire the materials however. Checking in libraries and old dwarven fortresses has proven profitable.

Carpenter: Your adventurers ability to craft wooden objects and create wooden buildings and displays.

Social

Almost all of these are only used in arguments.

Persuader: Increases your ability to convince people of your view.
Judge of intent: Allows you to tell how the opponent is arguing, unknown if higher levels change anything.
Flatterer: Increases your ability to flatter your way out of the argument.

General Performance Skills

These are your general performance skills, similar to fighter in that they enhance rolls for many different skills and can be leveled easily.

Musician: Increases quality of all instrument based performances this is your all around instrument skill, very similar to speaker and fighter, except with instruments.
Speaker: Your all-around speaking skill increases quality of all performances that involve speaking out loud, includes reading poetry, singing etc. Very similar to "Fighter" skill except its with performance rolls not fighting rolls. May also effect arguments^[Verify].

Performance Skills

Skills that affect your characters ability to pull off performances. These skills can be used to play as a bard.

Poet: Increases the quality of poems you create and read out loud.
Singer: Increases quality of all songs your character sings.
Dancer: Increases quality of dances you choreograph and perform.
Stringed Instrumentalist: Increases quality of all performances using stringed instruments.
Wind Instrumentalist: Increases quality of all performances using wind-based instruments
Percussionist: Increases quality of all performances using percussion instruments
Keyboardist: Increases quality of all performances using keyboard instruments (Note, shows up far less often in character generation then any of the others)

Note, if your civilization does not have access to a type of instrument you will not be able to choose that skill at character generation time.

There are also procedural skills for every different kind of instrument, dance and poetic form, these will vary from world to world and by civilization and cannot be chosen at character generation, but can be leveled in play.

Other

Reader: Allows you to read books, signs, and writing in Adventurer mode. Novice level is required in order to become a Necromancer. Can be trained slowly by reading books (if you can read). Adding more points is a waste, as novice allows you to read anything.
Butcher: The art of turning corpses into piles of delicious prepared brains and meat for food. Butchering also makes corpses and body parts less useful to enemy necromancers. You can allocate points here during character creation, but doing so is a waste because the skill doesn't really affect anything anyway. Except the taste, of course.
Wordsmith: It is unknown exactly what this skill affects, but likely it affects the quality of books and poems and other written materials.

Gameplay

Common UI Concepts

About key symbols

This wiki uses symbols that look like t or t to indicate what keys or interface buttons are used for an operation. Note that keys are case sensitive and to save space, Shift+t is shown as T. So t means "press the 't' key without the shift key" and T means "hold down shift and press the 't' key". Lowercase and uppercase keys will often perform different functions, so it is important to use the correct key. Sequences of keys will be in separate boxes, so abC means "press 'a', then press 'b', then hold shift and press 'c'"; while bT means "press 'b', then hold shift and press 'T'. A plus sign '+' between the boxes means to press them all together, so Shift+Enter means to hold shift and press 'Enter'. Other separators, such as ',' or '-', might be used but mean the same as no separator: to press the keys in sequence.

Keybindings can be seen and changed on the Keybindings tab in the Settings menu.

Menu navigation and selection

Esc or right mouse	Go back to the previous screen/menu
Mouse wheel	Scroll menu one line
Shift+mouse wheel	Scroll menu one page
Left mouse	Select menu option

Esc or right mouse will almost always return to the previous screen until you get to the top level of the UI, at which point Esc will display the options menu.

Moving Around

Local Movement

An image of normal travel mode. A list of the closest (but not necessarily close) sites is in the top-left corner. On the right side are minimaps of the next two levels down, relative to the player. Along the bottom is information about the player.

8 2 4 6 7 9 1 3	Move
↑ ↓ ← →	Move
Alt and a direction key	Move carefully / Deliberately enter dangerous terrain
Shift+< or Shift+5 (num lock off)	Ascend
Shift+> or Ctrl+5 (num lock off)	Descend