Dwarf Fortress Beginner’s Guide: Learn to Strike the Earth Better

Colony Builder, Story Generator, Fantasy Simulator, and Much More

It has been said that Dwarf Fortress (DF) is what would happen if computer graphics were never invented, and all complexity went into the gameplay. 

That was true for the free version of the game but, with the new Steam edition, DF has gotten a full graphical overhaul and a modernized user interface. This is not to say that the community wasn’t doing that all along, slowly and diligently polishing their favorite game over the years with countless mods which helped grow the community and brought it to a wider audience. And the creators of the game themselves, Tarn and Zack Adams, always supported their community and worked with it, forging an honest relationship that has paid off in the end, for both them and their fans.

This is a beginner’s guide and it should help a new player get a grip on the game and extract the most fun out of it. I strongly advise anyone to play the in-game tutorial which only lasts a few minutes to learn the controls and a few basics. Make frequent use of the in-game help when not sure as to how something is done and, of course, online wikis and documentation exist for even more detailed explanations of specific topics.

Game Modes

The game’s classic mode, ingrained in its very name, is the Fortress mode. Just like Snow White, the player is accompanied by seven dwarfs to a new land in the wilderness to build a colony. The second (and not yet released for the Steam edition at the time of this writing) is Adventurer mode. It allows the player to take the role of one creature, be it a dwarf or even an axolotl man, and explore the world as a top-down RPG game, alone or together with a party. 

The third is Legends mode. This is a written history of the world allowing the player to discover the main events of every intelligent creature in the world as well as the civilizations they lived in, the artifacts they created, and the wars they fought.

World Creation

Before you can start your first game, you have to create a world in which to play it. If you want to jump right into the action, just leave all the settings on default and jump down to the chapter “Strike the Earth!”. 

Worlds are global save files where everything happens: all the characters and creatures are saved in them and it’s where the game will be played. You can create as many worlds as you want and even copy them and share them with friends. But there are a few things to keep in mind when designing worlds, of which the most important might be how much your PC can handle.

DF is a CPU-intensive game, so much so that designing worlds should also take into account the processing power you have available. Remember the game tracks what is happening in your game world at all times, both inside the fortress and in the entire world outside it. That can have a detrimental effect on the game speed, potentially slowing it down to a snail’s pace in the late game. In short, a small underpopulated world will help the game run much faster, but it will dramatically reduce the complexity of the world. Thus, a middle ground is advised from the get-go, which is the default setting.

World Map Size 

The bigger the world, the more places to colonize and the more places for creatures to live in it. This setting will influence the speed of the game the most, so stick to a smaller world on slower machines. A medium size will provide enough variety and opportunities for a good play-through both in Fortress and Legends mode. But if you’re looking for a richer history to read in Legends mode, a bigger world will make no difference to performance except in the time it takes for it to be created. Otherwise, if you want a simpler one with one main villain and only a few civilizations, choose a Small or Pocket world. These kinds of worlds run faster and give a clear goal: defeat the ultimate evil and liberate the world. 

History Length

The more time has passed, the more things would have happened and the length of the world’s history changes the game significantly. A younger world will have less civilization and more monsters, while an older world will have more cities and ruins to explore. Interestingly, dragons begin as infants at the dawn of the world and take a few centuries to grow, so if you want to see a full-grown dragon you might want to let a few hundred years pass.

Number of Civilizations

This setting applies to dwarfs, humans, kobolds, elves, and goblins. It all depends on how you want to play the game. Do you want one dwarf civilization or five warring ones? Do you want there to be a dozen governments and kingdoms around the world, or only two? Because a civilization can easily be destroyed in early history, having many is a good way to make sure that at least one of each race survives, allowing for a more varied world.

Number of Sites 

Cities, villages, monasteries, caves, and other named locations count as a site. If you want a new land with almost no civilization, keep this option to low. If you want a sprawl covering the entire world, keep it on high. But be careful! An overdeveloped world will quickly kill off all the supernatural beasts making for a more mundane experience filled with villages and cities, rather than dragons and giants. Of course, the huge number of creatures that would inhabit such a world would be a huge drain on your CPU, so take that into account as well.

Number of Beasts

Beasts are created at the beginning of the world, they are the giants, fiends, dragons, and many other supernatural creatures. They have a strong impact on how the world develops, sometimes single-handedly killing off whole civilizations during the first few decades. They will also make for formidable foes when playing the game, so increase their numbers if you want a more desolate world filled with danger.

Natural Savagery 

Savagery describes the animals and other creatures that inhabit the wilderness. The higher the number the harder it will be to play the game. There will be more dangerous areas to settle on the map and there will be more predators, especially giant varieties. If you want a world inhabited by giant wolves and boars like something out of Princess Mononoke, set a higher number. The danger also slows down the development of civilizations during the world’s creation making, yet again, a wilder and more desolate world.

Mineral Occurrence

This setting determines how often you find gold, iron, or any other metal in the world. Other than making the game much easier, a high setting also makes it much simpler for the various  civilizations to arm themselves with high-quality weapons and armor. The type of world you want depends on you, so if you want a relaxed introductory experience keep this setting at the default. If you want a level of development as in the Iron Age where copper and bronze are still useful and steel is rare, set minerals to low.

Detailed Options

Once you’re more comfortable with the game, you might want to experiment with the detailed settings and make a world more to your liking: there is no right or wrong. A notable option is found at the top left corner, where you can choose between Island or Region. The default world creation is always Island, creating islands and continents which look more like a map of Earth. But if you wanted a map more akin to Middle Earth, choose Region.

Strike the Earth!

You have created your first world and now want to start playing the tutorial. The game will automatically locate a good starting location and teach you the basics, but the rest of the time you’re going to have to choose a starting location yourself. If you’ve already chosen a location, jump down to the chapter “Embark!”.

Starting Locations

You’re going to have to decide what kind of game you want beforehand, a calm colony builder, a desperate fight for survival against overwhelming odds, or anything in between.

The world created as an example is very small, it has only humans and dwarfs. The only real enemy to worry about can be seen under the neighbors: the Tower, or in other words necromancers and undead. Much harder to defend against than your average goblin horde, they’re a considerable foe.

The first location: The Steppe of Bowels provides the most balanced game, a temperate climate with enough plants, and Calm (not dangerous) surroundings. There is a clay layer and little soil where you can farm near the surface, and it has iron and platinum as metals. Platinum is valuable for the creation of wealth and iron is needed for the production of steel, for which we also need flux stone, which is also present. Together with trees as fuel, steel can be produced quite fast and provides the best equipment for most of your warriors throughout the game without having to dig very deep. In less than a year, you can have a handful of warriors with steel equipment, ready to fight off any enemy that might appear. You will have set up the basis for a good fortress and further development, exploring the caves and trading with other civilizations on the surface in security.

The second location: The Suicidal Morass is a very dangerous place and will make for a hard game. While not the worst place to settle, the Haunted (very dangerous) surroundings will make life difficult for your hardy dwarfs, and weird and creepy things will happen. The presence of a light aquifer will also make getting to the layer of stone difficult, but luckily there are trees (Woodland) which allows for some creative solutions to that problem. There are no minerals either, so metals, weapons, and armor will have to be imported, which means that it might take years before you have a functioning defensive force to fight off the local threats as well as the ever-looming Tower which is only half a day’s travel to the north.

The third location: The Wispy Tundra is found far to the south of the main continent, with freezing temperatures and little vegetation. With no trees to cut down and an aquifer complicating the task, getting to any stone or fuel will be difficult (you can bring some in the embark wagon). But the deep soil will allow for lots of farming and the Serene (peaceful and safe) surroundings will give you some time to develop before the threat from the Tower appears on the horizon. When the aquifer is eventually penetrated, gold and silver will help with wealth generation, and copper and tin will allow the production of bronze. In a short time, a bronze-clad squad of spear-wielding hoplites can be trained for the defense of the colony.

The fourth location: The Entangled Saffron Forests is found on an island to the west, the Free Island. Not having a land connection to the mainland, it is beyond the reach of the Tower or any enemies as the island is not inhabited, except by beasts and monsters. Caravans from your civilization should still appear, but trading with the rest of the world won’t happen. This means that it will be a rather peaceful existence without metals. However much wealth can still be created. This could be a perfect option for people wanting a peaceful colony in the deep jungle, slowly building up and keeping only a few warriors to deal with the occasional enemy that wanders in.

Embark!

As the tutorial has probably taught you, digging should be the first thing to do. A few trees should be cut down because wood logs are needed for beds which are important to your dwarfs. While a colony can be developed on the surface around the caravan, the old dwarven proverb should be observed: “If there’s sky over your head, you’re as good as dead.” There are a few things to keep in mind when starting your fortress and things to do right away:

Dig a few stairs to get a feel for the terrain, where the stone is, where the aquifer is (if there is one), build a few galleries to store your resources in and build a few workshops like a Carpenter, and a Stoneworker. Many first-time players will also miss the extra options in the dig menu, like auto-mine and priority, so it is worth familiarizing yourself with them early. Don’t forget that a dwarf needs a mining pick to dig with, be it stone or soil – a shovel will not do.

Fresh water is of utmost importance. Once a few rooms have been dug, and some furniture and beds have been placed, it’s a good idea to find fresh water (dwarfs will not drink stagnant water) or plan to always have drinks available. On the surface search for lakes and rivers, if there is an aquifer then dig a well, and if there is, ice melt it. Eventually, a cave with fresh water will be found and it can provide all the water for the fortress safely. It’s also very important for medicine: together with soap it’s needed for cleaning wounds and stopping infections, so providing it must form the foundation of all your efforts after combat. 

Drinks should be taken very seriously because death from thirst can occur quickly. In the absence of fresh water, drinks will serve not only to satisfy the dwarfs’ thirst but also help with their mood, as all of them are either drunk or having a hangover at all times. Between the two, they function better drunk, will work more, and start fewer fights when mildly inebriated. But don’t forget that drinks need barrels or pots for their production and storage.

Food is very easy to find. Hunting and gathering can often provide most of what is needed for an early colony, and farming only requires a few active farmers: usually less than a tenth of the population will produce all the food required. Remember that farmers need seeds, hunters need crossbows and bolts, and grazing animals need grass or fungus, so don’t let your dwarfs starve because the people and animals producing their food don’t have what they need. On another note, gathering takes a long time and can easily eat up all of your dwarfs’ work time, so in the beginning either specialize a few gatherers and turn off the labor (in the labor menu) for the rest or keep the gathering limited to a smaller area.

Defense is important and thinking about it early can often mean the difference between survival and disaster. As said before, the underground will almost always be safer, so digging fast and having a sure way to close off the outside during a crisis is advised. A tunnel with traps can stop most invaders and using burrows to get your dwarfs to safety will save many lives. Finally, a well-trained militia will be needed for anything that happens to penetrate the defenses. But more about that later.

Specialization of labor will provide the opportunity for dwarfs to excel in crafts and set up a strong industry. Having a stable chain of production will allow for both food and drink needs to be satisfied, military equipment produced, and wealth acquired. Often, dwarfs will waste their time doing other communal work, like hauling, cleaning, and gathering: in effect forgetting their main duties and stalling your plans. Specializing is the solution.

Wealth pervades almost every sphere of a dwarf’s existence. Need, as well as greed, determine many affairs in DF: every construction and object has a numerical value called wealth which is only visible to the player if counted by an appointed bookkeeper. Firstly, the status of the hold, whether it is a forgotten outpost or declared a barony depends on wealth and favor. Advancing through the game and developing a fortress worthy to be the seat of the king or queen will require the acquisition of large quantities of wealth. Yet, the same wealth will motivate thieves, and eventually the goblins, to attack.

Sieges will occur often, their strength based on wealth and population. Neighbors that are at war with your civilization (usually goblins) will turn their eyes on your fortress and send thieves and raiding parties. Although fighting and trapping are preferred, closing off the surface and waiting out the siege is also an option, so always have food and drink in reserve behind walls if everything else fails. 

The Menus

There are eight icons at the bottom left of the screen and each one holds a menu important for the functioning of the fortress. As the game progresses there will be a need to interact with them all, yet in the beginning, familiarizing yourself with the citizen information, work orders, nobles, and labor menus will help you the most.

Citizen information menu

The citizen information menu, in other words the creatures menu holds information about and, more importantly, the precise location of every visible creature, friend or foe. Other than helping with keeping track of what everyone is doing at a glance, it can be used to quickly find a creature instead of manually looking around for it.

Nobles and administrators menu

Nobles are your most important citizens, and the first three to be appointed should be the manager, broker, and bookkeeper because they will make it easier to run the fortress as described below: 

The broker is needed for trading and will allow for the value of objects to be seen during trading in the trade depot (if he has “appraisal” as a skill) as well as allow for better deals and prices. The bookkeeper is important for following the progression of your fortress and having a good idea of how much resources and wealth you have. The manager will make the player’s life easier, allowing the use of work orders. Both the bookkeeper and manager need an office with a chair to do their job, so make sure to provide them with one.

Work orders menu

Work orders can be found in the fifth menu, or by opening the particular shop where the work is to be performed. Early on, many crafting orders will  be given one by one but, as the size of the colony expands, the need for massive production numbers and recurring orders grows as well. By learning how to use this menu properly, the player can simply tell his Manager what he wants to be produced and the manager will go on to not only give the orders, but make sure that they are done, notifying the player about possible problems. Truly, middle management has its merits.

Labor menu

The labor menu is represented by a hammer, and it will allow for some tight control over “who does what.” Dwarfs can be instructed to either perform only assigned tasks or everything that needs doing around the fortress (there is a dedicated icon for that option in every dwarf’s labor menu). They will often choose to do what they excel in when given the choice: a miner will mine and a fisherdwarf will fish. Later, when digging down to the caves, it is worth turning off the collection of spider webs until you’ve secured the area unless you want your dwarfs to meet an untimely death in the jaws of the web-weaving cave dwellers. 

Dwarven industry and trade

Most items in the game can be used in one way or another to produce more valuable items. The production chains are sometimes long and unintuitive or require technical knowledge that an average player isn’t expected to have: like how soap is made, and how to glaze a clay pot. But learning them is crucial, and this is where some wiki reading can go a long way.

Workshops and Stockpiles

Stockpiles are where all items are kept, and workshops are where they are created. Stockpiles can use wheelbarrows, bins, barrels, pots, and other containers to store goods. Wheelbarrows can be especially useful for transporting heavy items that would otherwise take a dwarf a long time to move. Later, specializing stockpiles by material and quality will allow for more precise production orders with “take” and “give” orders. Having stockpiles near the appropriate workshops will motivate dwarfs to use the items stored there because they usually use the resource which is closest to them. Also, having stockpiles of food and drink near taverns and deep underground mines will save your dwarfs a lot of walking and allow them to work for longer. How much time a dwarf spends working depends on his needs and whether they’ve been met, so addressing them is important. A final tip on workshops: if a dwarf is standing around and doing nothing afflicted by a strange mood, your fortress might not have the workshop he requires. In order to save dwarfs from madness, try to have one of each type.

Zones and Locations

Zones are areas that have been assigned by the player through the zones’ menu represented by a small icon of a dwarf’s head at the bottom of the screen. The first to set up should be the offices for your bookkeeper and manager, bedrooms (or a dormitory for convenience’s sake), pastures for the animals, and perhaps a dining hall. Once you have some surplus food and drink, a tavern and hospital should be set up. 

Taverns, guild halls, temples, hospitals, and libraries are locations. They are institutions and can comprise any number of zones that have been assigned to them. By selecting a zone and clicking on the icon of a cross on a shield, a new location can be created. The icon of a magnifying glass opens the location’s details where the item requirements and workers can be found. Ideally, a tavern should at least have a meeting hall with tables, chairs, and chests. Bedrooms can be added later on for renting out to visitors. But, both visitors and citizens will need drinks and food, so adding a stockpile for drinks and prepared food near the tavern will help.

Plump helmets!

The staple of dwarven food and drink, the plump helmet is a species of underground mushroom that is easy and fast to grow. Many a dwarf swears that wine brewed from plump helmets carry the aromas of the underground cavern the mushroom was grown in, the still where it was brewed, and the barrels that were used for its storage. But the idea of terroir might not have caught on in the dwarven world yet, so wines usually cannot be sold for much. The price of prepared food on the other hand can reach astronomical heights, so a good cook and a kitchen can be a great way to make some easy money early on. The player should keep in mind that once cooked, the plump helmet’s seeds are lost, so keeping some for brewing or raw consumption is very important if seeds are to be kept for the next season. 

Trade and the Caravans

Every item can be traded! Early every autumn, a trade caravan from your dwarven civilization will arrive (the only caravan that is guaranteed to visit your fortress) offering valuable resources that will often be needed and allowing you to sell the valuable items your dwarfs have created. During the year other neighboring civilizations will also send their caravans, each one trading different types of items based on their economies and culture, assuming they are not at war with the player. Caravans will always arrive on the surface, but they will avoid the fortress if there is a siege in progress, a good reason to defeat enemies quickly.

Combat and Traps

If there is a siege, the player will have to find a way to deal with the attackers. There are really only two ways to do this: either through elaborate (or simple) traps or by having a well-trained fighting force. In the direst situations, it is better to conscript every dwarf into squads rather than to let them flee and die one by one.

Traps

Traps are constructions that are built on the map and can destroy whole armies if properly planned. In a broader sense of the word, anything can be a trap as long as you can drop, maim, burn, or drown the enemy with it. A bridge over a pit with pointed spear traps can be quite deadly, and when placed over a pool of water, can drown most goblins, although this plan will not work on the undead. Another possibility is a tunnel filled with traps that can be flooded. It is up to the player to decide and get creative, but when building weapon traps, it is important to take into consideration the material of the weapons used.

Weapons and armor

Weapons and armor are only worn by dwarfs when assigned to a squad. In a broader sense, the material every item is made of has an armor value and impact on the weapon’s effectiveness. A copper breastplate might be useful against an unarmed opponent, but almost useless against someone with an iron or steel weapon. Weapons, either wielded or used in traps, will be more lethal if made of stronger materials. One dwarf with a steel axe might cut down an entire squad of copper-armored goblins like a hot knife through butter. It’s worth noting that a goblin invasion can provide all the weapons and armor your dwarfs need, an opportunity in disguise. On the other hand, anything labeled as large (dropped by humans) and small (dropped by kobolds) cannot be worn by dwarfs, but it can be melted into metal bars and refashioned into armor of the proper dwarven size.

Squads

Squads are composed of up to ten dwarfs that can be trained and equipped with armor (either made of leather or metal), weapons,  shields, backpacks for carrying food, and waterskins for drinking water. They have schedules that can be edited, and it is very important to have them train often and equip them with quality items. Having trained war animals will also help the squad in critical moments, dogs being the easiest to get from the start.

On the individual level, combat is actually very detailed and complex. Every creature has strengths, weaknesses, and natural aptitudes. Some dwarves will be naturally stronger, faster and have fighting skills before being assigned to a squad. Others might take much longer to train, and even get scared and run away from a fight. How a dwarf deals with the loss of his best friend who was just struck down next to him by a goblin can cost him his own life, or send him into a vengeful trance that will mean doom for his enemies. 

Expeditions

Expeditions can be organized on the World Screen where squads can be sent on missions. While it might be too early to think about doing that before you’ve set up a good defense for your fort, keep in mind that sending expeditions will become more important later in the game, especially if you want to take care of the goblins once and for all.

You’re Ready!

“The earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle.”

 – Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky 

We’ve only scratched the surface of what is possible but I hope that, with the information provided here, a new player will be able to start a fortress and bring it to a satisfactory conclusion . The starting location is the real difficulty setting of the game and choosing the right one is important not only for your game style but also for having fun. Finally, every dwarf has a wealth of information with many stories to discover so don’t forget to look through the history, feelings, and needs of every citizen.

My honest advice to any new player would be to concentrate on the task at hand, ignore what you can leave for later, and not be afraid to mess up. The most interesting things in Dwarf Fortress happen when the game becomes difficult and when you just want to quit and start again, but don’t! – because you would be missing out on so much. Never give up, never surrender! 

Ultimately, Dwarf Fortress is a game of organization that is inherently disorganized and where entropy always wins – hard to get into, but even harder to put down.

Filip Rizov

Filip is interested in games and how they are created. He’s particularly interested in the art, story, and how they’re integrated with the game systems. He considers that a great game is one where all the elements fit together seamlessly. When he’s not discovering new games and writing about them, he works as a freelance illustrator and likes to read and write fiction.