v0.31:Adamantine

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

This article or section contains minor spoilers. You may want to avoid reading it.

You have struck raw adamantine! Praise the miners!

Adamantine is the best metal ore in the game without question. Upon finding a tubular vein of Template:L, your screen will pause and be re-centered on the vein and a special announcement (seen above) will pop up. It is processed from raw adamantine into strands which can then be made into various items; these items are impossibly lightweight, strong, and valuable. It is generally found in the very deepest layers of the map, in the form of tubes leading down through the great Template:L.

For more information on its whereabouts and other Fun information see Template:L.

Processing

Adamantine strands are extracted from Template:L at a Template:L. The Template:L labor must be enabled for a dwarf to perform the extraction. The process is extremely slow for an unskilled laborer.

The strands must then be either woven into cloth at a Template:L (for metal clothing and other related objects) or smelted into Template:Ls at a Template:L (for adamantine armor, crafts, weapons and so on). Fortunately, these tasks are performed just as quickly as any other weaving or smelting jobs.

Important Note

One of the many beneficial qualities of adamantine is that it is nigh weightless. Unfortunately, with the new version, this has considerable drawbacks. Hitting someone with a hammer that weighs nothing is not very effective.

This article contains massive spoilers. If you do not wish to have your game experience spoiled, do not scroll down!

Unfortunately, breaching any of the tubular veins leads to the Template:L or a Template:L, for lots of Template:L. Reports have been made of there being surface deposits, but this is incredibly rare and should not be trusted as anything other than a bug for the moment.

Origins of Adamantine and Slade

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Back in the mists of time, the Gods decided to create the world. To do so they had to find a way to heat it in the cold voids of space. Demon kind had already forged their own world out of the vile substance Template:L, a stone anathema to all creation and only able to be worked through the vile rituals they had created. For slade was truly "dead" stone, with no life in it at all.

Deciding to both imprison their greatest enemies and create a home for their creations, they poured into the skies of the demon's world "living" rock (known to mortals as Template:L - rock fresh with the life of creation, burning hot. The gods knew that if it were not constantly heated, this living rock would cool, and thus the demons, fools that they were, constantly attack the living rock, not realizing that their attacks simply heat the rock again and again, keeping it alive. Unfortunately, as the gods began to pour more and more of the rock onto their creation, they found it quickly lost its life when removed too far from the Demons. It would only remelt once it touched the living rock, creating vast seas of magma that heated the tunnels above. Worse, the living rock itself had been disturbed by this process, creating gaping holes for the demons to escape from, killing and maiming the first creations of the gods, warping those they could find into the terrible Forgotten Beasts, leaving the Template:L safe on the surface.

Knowing this state of affairs could not last if their weaker creations, the first mortals, were to survive, the Gods created a new substance, imbued with their power: Adamantine. The beautiful aqua colored ore totally repelled the demons, sealing the entrances that the living rock could no longer seal, preventing the demons from escaping.

Unfortunately, as time passed and the first mortals began to carve their civilization from both the surface and the underworld, they discovered the vast shafts of this amazing substance and began to mine it, instantly realizing its divine potency. In doing so, they removed the great barriers the gods had placed in order to keep the demons sealed. The demons rose up, slaughtering thousands and escaping into the above world, often rising to the top of civilizations, such as the Goblins. Upon these sites they raised towers carved from the vile Slade that only they could work. Brave adventurers and champions of the Gods forged special swords made from the divine Adamantine and ventured into these dark places to seal the demons within hell once more. Leaving their swords buried in these places, those who survived swore to defend them for all eternity, binding themselves with oaths of such might that they surpassed death itself. They remain, even today, as zombies and skeletons, driven by their undying thought "none must take the sword!" and nothing more. These undead are totally obsessed with their duty to defend the ancient demonic structures from all interlopers and have been the death of many an unwary explorer.

All this could have probably been avoided if the gods had bothered to make their all-powerful metal capable of withstanding the swing of a copper pick.