40d:Bone

Bone can be obtained from the corpses of dead creatures, or from severed body parts. A corpse close to a butcher's shop will automatically schedule a butchering job, yielding a number of bones proportional to the creature's size. Any bones on a tile defined as "Above Ground" will vanish over time.

Bones are processed at the craftsdwarf's workshop and bowyer's workshop, and can be used to make:

• Bone crafts, which can be sold. Bone crafts have a value dependent on their quality and an inherent number that depends on the creature it came from. Troll and elephant bones are more valuable than goblin or raccoon bones, for example. Dragon bones are extremely valuable.
• Bone armor. Bone armor is not particularly protective, but is very light and easy to make early. High quality armor is more protective, and masterwork bone armor is as protective as basic quality iron armor.
• Bone decorations. Any decoratable item can be decorated with bone, which adds to the items' value. No item can have more than one decoration of a certain kind of bone, but can have multiple decorations if the bones come from different kinds of creatures. A totem counts against the bone types for this, so a deer skull totem can not be decorated with deer bone.
• Bone bolts. These bolts are fired from crossbows. They are not valuable, so marksdwarves will use them for practice, as opposed to metal bolts.
• Bone crossbows. While they do much less damage in melee than crossbows of better materials, they are very easy to make and great for marksdwarf practice. They are one of the few weapons available on maps without much metal.

The quality of all bone items created depends on the bone carving skill of the dwarf who creates them, with the exception of crossbows, which requires crossbow-making.

Bone is not a building material.

See also

• Meat industry