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v0.34:Adventurer mode
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
- 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, or elf) who starts out somewhere in one of your generated worlds. You can receive quests, venture into the wilderness to find caves, shrines, lairs, abandoned towers, and other towns and settlements. You can even visit your abandoned fortresses and find whatever riches were left to be guarded by the creatures that sealed their fate.
Unlike Fortress Mode, Adventurer Mode is a sort of advanced open world version of rogue or nethack taking place in the same procedurally generated worlds used for Fortress Mode, but you control a single character in a turn-based manner rather than manage a group of creatures acting in real time.
World Selection
You can play Adventurer mode in any world that has a civilization with the ADVENTURE_TIER token (which are elf, dwarf, and human in unmodded raws) but as of the current version only human civilizations have towns, NPC fortresses, or shops v0.34.07. Elves simply live in the forest with nothing but a few named trees to mark their homes, while Mountainhomes that dwarves live in tend to just be a few dwarves in open space. As a result you need at least one human civilization if you want quests or anything but basic wilderness survival. Alternately, you can alter the other races to also use human towns -- see the talk page under "Dwarven Fortresses."
If you have previously built a fort in the world that you select, your adventurer will be able to go visit it. However, the fort must be abandoned because you will not be able to start an adventure mode game in the same world with an active fortress mode game. Note, though, that you can always save your fortress mode game, duplicate the save folder (copy regionX to regionX-copy or something), abandon the fortress in the copy of the world, then start adventure mode in the new clone world.
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 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 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 armour found in shops. Goblin amour will fit them so its usually easy enough to find some armour since you'll run into a lot of hostile goblins during quests They can start with almost all of the same weapon skills as civilized humans. Most human-sized weapons (such as long swords) 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 also have the AT_PEACE_WITH_NATURE tag. This makes all wildlife passive towards them. Like dwarves they wear small sized clothing so will have the same problem finding suitable armour in shops.
- 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 armour than the other races and armour will be impossible to find for them, unless you are absurdly lucky and run into armoured kobolds.
If no civilization for the 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: Reduces the risk of disease. Useful for fighting enemies who use poisoned weapons.
Soul
Some of these are useful for adventure-mode-applicable skills, but some are totally useless except as dump stats.
- Analytical Ability: Useful only for Knapping. Might as well reduce it to very low.
- 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 concious. For non bone injuries however willpower can keep you going long enough to kill enemies, or at least get away from them.
- Creativity: Completely useless.
- Intuition: Only helps with Observer, which aids in spotting concealed enemies and ambushes.
- Patience:Currently useless.
- Memory: Memory aids greatly in mapping out areas as the higher your memory the longer you'll remember an area. As you explore you'll forget previously explored areas, causing them to appear blank, as if you had never been there. If you have low enough memory you'll forget areas of large locations like underground catacombs while you're still in them, making finding your way very confusing, as things like the exit wont be visible anymore until you find it again. Best to have at least average memory.
- Linguistic Ability: Currently useless.
- Spatial Sense: Important. Affects combat skills, Ambusher, Crutch Walker, Swimmer, Observer, Knapping.
- Musicality: Completely useless. Use this as a dump stat.
- Kinaesthetic Sense: Affects most combat skills, walking with crutches and swimming.
- Empathy: Might increase chance of persuading people to join you.[Verify]
- 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 bit part in whenever you can recruit followers or not.
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. Reader is an exception to this.
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.
Not all races/civilizations can start with all of these skills. (For example, Dwarves can't start with Bowman or Lasher).
Note that different races have different names for their weapon skills. Axegoblin, Axedwarf etc.
Crossbowman is a 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 refered to as Lords.
- Axeman: allows characters to use axes, great axes, and halberds more effectively.
- Bowman: skill allows characters to use bows more effectively.
- Crossbowman: allows characters to use crossbows more effectively.
- Hammerman: allows characters to use crossbows in melee, mauls, and war hammers more effectively.
- Knife User - allows characters to use large daggers and knives more effectively.
- Lasher - allows characters to use whips and scourges more effectively.
- Maceman - allows characters to use flails, maces, and morningstars more effectively.
- Pikeman - allows characters to use pikes more effectively.
- Spearman - allows characters to use spears more effectively.
- Swordsman - allows characters to use blowguns and bows in melee, long swords, scimitars, short swords, and two-handed swords more effectively.
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 castles). See the FAQ section on powerleveling 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 brainier unless you're creating a two handed weapon user.
- Armor User: A higher level of this skill reduces the encumbrance penalties of armour, allowing you to move faster when wearing it. It also affects how well armour protects you and this makes a huge difference. Unskilled armour users gain little protection. This is noticeable as you'll begin seeing far more combat reports about hits either striking you though armour, (you managed to use your armour to lessen the force of the blow) or being deflected by your armour (you used your amour to avoid the hit entirety) as your skill rises and you learn to actually use your armour to deflect hits. It is highly advised to train your armour 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 unarmoured 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 tend to cause a lot more damage than punches and cave in heads often.
- 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.
- Thrower - Throwing any miscellaneous object including rocks, knives, axes, swords, heads, etc. Skill affects accuracy and damage caused.
- Misc. 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
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. 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. At lower skill levels, speed is greatly reduced, but the penalty gradually reduces until negated at Legendary skill and it's possible to sneak at full movement rate. Chance of detection is also reduced at higher skill levels; a more skilled ambusher can remain in close combat for longer without being detected. It is worth noting that ambusher only is checked once the adventurer is 3 tiles or closer to the enemy - at 4 tiles and up, you will remain hidden from the enemy even if you have no skill in Ambusher, as long as you are sneaking.
Crafting
These allow your character to create things. There is only one skill currently available in an unmodified game.
- 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.
Other
- Reader - Allows you to read books, signs, and writing in Adventurer mode. Novice level is required in order to become a Necromancer. There is no way to increase this skill. 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. You cannot allocate points here during character creation, but that's OK since skill doesn't really affect anything anyway.
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 
b
T 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.
| 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
| 8 2 4 6 7 9 1 3 | Move |
| ↑ ↓ ← → | Move |
| Alt and a direction key | Move carefully / Deliberately enter dangerous terrain |
| < or Shift+5 (num lock off) | Ascend |
| > or Ctrl+5 (num lock off) | Descend |
| . | Wait for a step |
| s | Stand or lie down |
| S | Sneak |
Unless your character is an outsider, you will start out in a human town or hamlet; in the standard tileset the @ sign is your character. In the lower left-hand corner of the screen is a mini-map, with the @ sign showing your relative location to other things in the town/hamlet. The ▐ symbols are small collections of buildings.
The directional keys allow movement. Diagonal movement is particularly important especially when chasing or running away from things.
Use Alt+direction to enter water, jump off of cliffs, or otherwise attempt to enter anything that you can't enter using normal movement commands. Note that when entering water it's best to enter the actual water and not the open space over the water as, in the later case, you will fall in causing you to become stunned which may lead to drowning.
Hitting . allows you to stay in one place and wait for other things to move.
Use s to sit/lie down. Moving while laying down (crawling) will let you move past NPCs which are standing in your way. Also note that you will frequently get knocked to the ground in combat, and if you don't hit s to stand back up then you will crawl slowly along the ground, giving your opponent a lot of opportunity to attack you.
Sneak will allow you to move around invisibly, limited by your Ambusher skill and the Observer skill of nearby creatures. The closer you get to a creature, the more likely you are to be detected. Your movement rate will also be very slow at low Ambusher skill levels while sneaking. If you are within observation range of anything then you will be unable to go into stealth mode. Hiding somewhere you can't be seen (such as the inside edge of a murky pool, if you can swim) will allow you to go into stealth mode when creatures are around. Stealth mode will also allow you to move onto/through townsfolk.
Fast Travel
| T | Fast Travel |
| > | Exit fast travel mode |
Entering Fast Travel mode will allow you to move large distances in a single keypress. Of course, the same amount of time will go by and you can also be interrupted (ambushed) while moving in fast travel mode.
See the Map legend for information on what the map symbols mean. Settlements are indicated by ■ tiles and you can find houses by exiting fast travel while standing on one of these tiles. Yellow tiles of the same shape ■ indicate the presence of shops rather than houses.
Pressing m will put a fully zoomed-out map on the right side of the screen, with your current location marked by a blinking "X". When seeking out a quest, move in the direction of the quest site until the blinking "X" is on top of the symbols indicated in the Adventure Log (you can press Q at any time to look at it again).
Along the top of the map is a line showing the sky, and the position of the sun and/or moon from west to east. This primarily helps you determine how long you have before it gets dark at which point you won't be able to see very far and will be more vulnerable to attack.
While in the fast travel screen you can:
- c - Display/hide clouds/weather
- m - Display/hide the regional map on the right
- Q - Display the Quest log
- Z - Display the sleep menu
Other commands are not available until you exit fast travel with >.
Status and Information
| l | Look around |
| Space | Advance/Clear Messages |
| a | View Announcements |
| z | Status |
Looking Around
If you're not sure what a tile is, the look command will tell you. In addition to being useful for identifying tiles and creatures, you can also view creatures' equipment and what items are sitting on the ground in a given tile. If in doubt, try the look command.
Move the cursor to the tile you want to look at using direction keys and Shift+direction. It's possible to look up and down z-levels (assuming you have line of sight) using the < and > keys. This, for example, allows you to find out if any flying creatures are above you. Hit Esc to exit look mode and go back to movement mode.
Messages
The game makes frequent use of messages on the screen to tell you what is going on. If there are a lot of these you may need to use Space to display the rest of the messages that won't fit on the screen. You can always go back and view old messages by pressing a.
Status Screen
This screen shows your skills, attributes, wounded body parts, health (along with more detailed descriptions of your wounds), lets you view your description, and change your nickname if you want.
Saving the Game
Hit the Esc key at any time and select Save Game to save your game. You can then come back to it later by using the Continue Playing option in the main menu.
Searching and Manipulating
| u | Interact with building, furniture, or mechanism |
| L | Search the nearby area very carefully |
The u key can be used to do stuff like pull levers in your abandoned forts. It is also used to lower and raise the bucket when standing right next to a well so you can get water to refill your waterskin with.
L will perform a thorough search of the area that you're standing in, possibly revealing some small creatures.
Managing Equipment
| i | Show Inventory |
| d | Drop an item |
| g | Get (pickup) an item off the ground |
| p | Put an item into a container |
| r | Remove an item you are wearing or from a container |
| w | Wear an item |
| I | Interact with an object in an advanced way. (unstick a weapon, refill waterskin etc) |
Inventory
Press i to display a list of what you are currently carrying. Press - + to scroll the list. This list will show you if items are being worn, held in hands, stuck on your body, or are inside a container. Detailed information about an object can be viewed by pressing the key associated with the item.
Getting/Dropping Things
You can drop items in your inventory, as well as get items on the ground on the same tile that you are standing on. If there is more than one item a menu will be listed. Press - + to scroll the list if the list is too long to fit on the screen.
g will also allow you to ignite foliage/any flammable objects adjacent to you. Fires aren't as devastating as one might imagine, but they will cause (most)enemies to path around them, making your crowd control slightly more effective when taking on multiple enemies. As an added bonus, it will also surely piss off the elves.
Containers
Items can be placed into containers with p and removed with r.
Wearing
Items can be worn using w and removed using r (the same command used for removing from containers). If an item you want to wear does not show up as an option, then it means you are already wearing too many items in the location used by that item. Try removing items in that location and then wear them again in order of priority. You also must put on equipment in an order that makes sense,. for example a shirt first then the armor, not the other way around. Armour must also be put on in a sensible manner with flexible layers such as chainmail first then rigid plate armour second. After all who in real life would wear chainmail over a hard plate?
Note that "large" or "small" clothing items are too big / small for your race (e.g. a large giant cave spider silk sock). If you have that problem, try getting clothing from a different source.
After acquiring armor from one source or another, you'll most likely want to equip it. To do this, first make sure it is in your possession--not on the ground. You can then wear it, granted you don't already have too much on that equipment slot already. You can remove or drop inferior equipment as necessary.
See Armor for more information on wearing things. One thing to note in particular, DF allows you to wear more than one item in the same location in many situations, for example a copper mail shirt and a copper breastplate. The thin, flexible chain can be worn under the breastplate, but not the other way around.
Wielding
There is no command for wielding items such as weapons in specific hands. Instead, they are automatically equipped when you either get them from the ground or remove them from your backpack - provided the hand that would wield them is free. So in order to change weapons or shields you should drop items or place them into containers (such as your backpack) until your hands are free, then get items from the floor or remove them from containers which will place them in your hands. For example, put all items into backpack, remove sword from backpack, remove shield from backpack. The items will end up in the right and left hand. Simply remember the remove command and the put into container command.
While normally one would only be able to equip one item in each hand, removing items from your inventory results in them being wielded regardless of whether one's hands are full. This is especially useful with shields, as every shield will contribute a block chance to each incoming attack.
It should be noted that the world of DF seems to have a lot of left handers, so do not be surprised if your character holds the weapon with the left hand and the shield with the right hand.
Advanced Interaction
The I key allows "complex interaction" with objects in your inventory.
This is used for removing arrows and weapons stuck in wounds which will appear in your inventory when they become stuck in you. Removing stuck arrows can cause bleeding so it is not always a good idea mid combat, but stuck objects will slow you down as you are encumbered by their weight. It s best to remove them as soon as possible when it is safe and you are not in danger of bleeding to death.
Advanced interaction can also be used to steal enemy equipment. Use wrestling to grab hold of a piece of enemy equipment, such as their weapon, or a helmet protecting their squishy brain and it will appear in the advanced interaction menu. Simply select it and choose "gain possession". if successful you'll take it from them. This can be very useful in battle.
This command is particularly useful for getting water. When standing next to a well you press the u key to lower, then raise the bucket, yielding 10 units of water in the bucket. Then you can press the I key to fill your waterskin from the full bucket (alternatively you can press the e key to drink directly from the bucket).
Advanced interactions can be used next to a campfire to heat things, such as any frozen liquids you have in your inventory(or snow lying on the ground) and need to drink. You can refill waterskins. from a nearby liquid source as well
Time and Weather
| D | Date/Time |
| P | Temperature |
| W | Weather |
The game has a day/night cycle with time passing as various actions take place.
When using quick travel mode, the top line of the screen will indicate the position of the sun in the sky with a yellow "☼"; further to the right of the screen is earlier in the day and further to the left is later in the day.
In local travel mode you'll have to use the W command.
At night you won't be able to see nearly as well and you will be more vulnerable to ambush.
The game also has weather and temperature. The most common weather you'll experience is rain. Rain is shown as blue moving dots on the local travel screen and will unsurprisingly cause everything outside to become wet. Wet vegetation cannot be set on fire and you cannot light campfires in rain. Temperature is important because if it happens to drop below freezing while you're swimming through water, you'll instantly die from being encased in the ice.
Therefore you might want to keep an eye on the temperature while swimming, especially if it's getting cold.
Also, unlike fortress mode, rivers/other bodies of water can be liquid during the day, and freeze at night. The cycles of freezing can also be erratic from day to day.
Freezing weather can also freeze liquids in your inventory solid, making them undrinkable. If your water freezes and you are thirsty, try hunting down nearby enemies and slicing them up so you can drink their warm, unfrozen blood instead.
Sleep
| Z | Sleep |
Eventually your character will become Drowsy and this will get worse until you get sufficient sleep.
Sleep does not necessarily have to coincide with night, but if you're traveling alone when night comes you'll be in danger of being attacked by Bogeymen. To avoid this while traveling solo you need to make it to shelter before nightfall and sleep the night away inside a building or abandoned lair. Enter a building, use k to talk to a human, and ask for permission to stay the night. Next press Z to sleep, d to sleep until dawn, then Enter to confirm. (NOTE: If you stay the night in a castle, you have to sleep in the keep which houses the lord/lady of the castle. Sleeping inside the castle but outside the keep still leaves you vulnerable to attack.) Sleeping on an ocean beach also prevents bogeymen from attacking. (NOTE: You can disable bogeymen by generating a world using advanced world generation and setting "Number of Night creatures" to 0)
Though sleeping inside can be safe, it's also limiting: any quest site you want to go to has to be within a daytime's round-trip time of a safe habitation, and you have to make your way to there by hopping from one habitation to the next, sleeping at each along the way. A way to avoid this is to travel with companions. If you have any companions with you then Bogeymen won't attack you. You'll still have to sleep at night, though, both to avoid sleep deprivation and because there's no visibility at night. You can still be ambushed at night by wildlife, but that's much less likely than being ambushed by Bogeymen when traveling alone. If you find yourself alone at night with nowhere safe to sleep, the safest bet is to keep traveling until dawn, even if that means running around in circles. You will eventually feel unwell from sleep deprivation, but this can take a considerable amount of time. You can make up for lost sleep once you've found your way to safety.
Note that sleeping in lairs, shrines, and labyrinths makes you safe from ambush, assuming that you or someone else has killed whatever was living there. If you have sufficient shrines/lairs/etc between you and your goal and they are either uninhabited or inhabited by things you are capable of killing then you can travel from lair to lair using each lair as a safe lodging. This is much safer than sleeping out in the open, day or night, even with companions.
If no other options are available, completely surrounding yourself with campfires will keep night marauders at bay as they cannot pass through the fires; the fires will go out after several hours and enable you to move on. The bogeymen or other enemies may be outside your line of sight, which will prevent you from firing arrows or throwing things at them. In this case, you will have to stand up and lie down s repeatedly until the enemies wander into your range, the fires go out and the enemies can path to you, or dawn breaks.
Food and Drink
| e | Eat or drink something |
The easiest way to stay hydrated and full when starting out is by finding and fighting something weak (say, a vulture, or a raccoon, or a fox). You will almost certainly end up covered in blood. You can drink any liquid covering you using 'e' and then simply selecting the fluid - perhaps a little salty in real life, but in Dwarf Fortress it works. The corpse can then be butchered x for edible parts, to cure your hunger - the first two problems are solved.
Note that drinking vampire blood will turn you into a vampire instantly.
Make sure to eat or drink regularly even if you're not hungry or thirsty, as you can only eat or drink three times in a row: after that you'll need to rest,or wait until you can consume another meal. If you find yourself in need of both food and hydration, make sure to take care of the most urgent problem first, as if you are moderately hungry but severely dehydrated and eat three times, you might be already dead by the time you can drink again.
Combat
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