Editing Quickstart guide

{{Quality|Masterwork}}

Basic game-related tasks (saving, quitting, settings, etc.) are available on the options menu, which can be reached with {{Menu icon|Esc}} from the main screen. {{K|Esc}} again or {{K|right click}} will close the menu. This menu also shows the current or previous music track.

For more information see [[Saved_game_folder#Saving|Saving]], [[Reclaim fortress mode]], and [[Settings]].

First, [[World generation|create a new world]]. ''Dwarf Fortress'' worlds are always procedurally randomly generated - there is no "default" or "standard" world. Luckily, the basic version of this process is simple, and with these suggested settings won't take too long. Wait until the game shows that the world has been generated, since stopping history too soon can limit material availability for embark and trade.

* {{DFtext|World map size}} at {{DFtext|Medium|3:1}}

* {{DFtext|History length}} at {{DFtext|100 years|3:1}}

* {{DFtext|Number of Civilizations}} at {{DFtext|Medium|3:1}}

* {{DFtext|Number of Sites}} at {{DFtext|Medium|3:1}}

* {{DFtext|Number of Beasts}} at {{DFtext|Low|3:1}}

* {{DFtext|Natural Savagery}} at {{DFtext|Very Low|3:1}}

* {{DFtext|Mineral Occurrence}} at {{DFtext|Everywhere|3:1}}

If you choose {{DFtext|Skip tutorial|7:4:1}}, you'll get some good advice not to ignore any warnings about the site. You can then look around by pointing at locations to see details, zoom in with {{k|left click}}, and zoom out with {{k|right click}} (if any menu is open right click closes it instead.) However, the quickest way to find your own site is by clicking {{DFtext|Find embark location}} (available when the map is zoomed out).

Choosing a decent embark site is crucial for beginners. Highly skilled players can run a fortress on an evil glacier, but for now, stick to friendly environments. Look for features in an embark site that will make your first fort easier to manage.

|text=The world tooltip will only show features from the moused-over tile, but since the embark area covers multiple tiles it can contain '''multiple biomes'''. It is '''very important''' to inspect all tiles in a potential site. Each may have significantly different features such as an aquifer or evil biome '''not initially shown''' in the info due to not being under the cursor.

{{TipBox2|titlebg=#00a|Starting Site|

The following are also good to have, but focus on getting a decent site, not a perfect one.

*'''Clay, Sand, or Soil''' makes farming easier when starting out, also can enable pottery or glass

*'''Flux stone layer''' For a steel industry

*Avoid sites containing '''towers''', '''goblins''', or other groups at war with you.

*The site should be on the same land mass as an active dwarven civilization.

[[File:Quickstart-finder-v50.png|thumb|upright|right|Initial suggested finder criteria]]

While finding a site is not as simple as world generation, the {{DFtext|Find embark location}} button at the bottom of the screen can help. (Different buttons are shown with the map zoomed out or in; left-click will zoom in on the map, right-click will close an open menu or zoom out.)

 

Once the find tool has finished searching with matches found, press {{K|Esc}} to look at the results. Any region with a match will be indicated by a green rectangle or {{DFtext|X|2:1}}s on the map, or close partial matches by a yellow rectangle or red {{DFtext|X|5:1}}s. Clicking on one of those will zoom in to show the actual sites in much the same way (partial matches are instead yellow {{DFtext|X|7:1}}s in ASCII mode). On the zoomed in map, existing sites will be shown as red rectangles or {{DFtext|░|5:1}}s; or white rectangles or magenta {{DFtext|░|6:0}}s for sites of the currently selected dwarven civilization if that list is open.

 

Additionally, when placing the embark area you can resize it using the buttons on-screen. A 4×4 embark (the default) is usually reasonable, but you may want to change the size to avoid an undesirable biome or match your finder criteria.

* "Calm" surroundings can be rare, you can try "Wilderness" instead.

* "≤ Deep" doesn't include "very deep" soil, you can try "N/A" but make sure at least part of the site has some (it should since clay and sand count).

* "No" Aquifer (either type) means in the entire embark area; but even if some tiles have one, others might not. If you do embark at such a site, remember which tiles don't so you can dig down there.

You don't need a perfect site, but if you are unable to find a site that you are willing to embark on, you could always create a new world. Otherwise, move on to the next step.

* '''[[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]]''' can make labor management considerably easier, especially when you're dealing with twenty times the number of dwarves you have now. It can group and sort dwarves by multiple attributes and display their preferences, mood, and more.

* '''[[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]]''' includes "Dwarf Manipulator", a UI for managing labors. It has fewer features than Dwarf Therapist, but displays much of the same information and is adequate for normal use. In addition, it is accessible from within DF via {{k-|u|l}}, eliminating the need to constantly switch between applications.

'''Labors''' are how you control what types of tasks a dwarf is allowed to do. When dwarves are idle, it could be because you haven't given them anything to do, or it could be because none of the idle dwarves have been told that they're allowed to do the types of tasks you've designated. For example, if you designate an area to mine, but none of the dwarves have the mining labor enabled, they will all just sit around ignoring your mining designation, thinking that it isn't their job.

[[File:DFwikiDigChannelDifference.png|225px|thumb|right|Demonstrating the difference between mining and channeling. Mining creates empty space on the same level where it is designated. Channeling creates empty space in the level below, clearing the floor. The levels are connected by up/down ramps. ]]

This diagram shows the cross-section (side view) of 1×1 pits channeled 1 z-level deep, 2 z-levels deep and the correct way to do a 2 z-level deep ramp. The appearance of "downward ramps" can be confusing as there is no such thing - the down arrow indicates a ramp on the level below. Dwarves in the first pit can walk up the ramp to ground level and escape, while dwarves in the second pit cannot use the ramp at all. The third pit lets dwarves walk back to the surface again since the two ramps are offset to produce a continued slope. In short, channels (particularly channels multiple z-levels deep) can be dangerous. Digging an entryway from the surface level is one of the few times you'll ever need to channel.

If your wagon is near a [[cliff]] or hill (generally speaking, any difference in levels, usually shown by the existence of natural ramps), you can just designate a tunnel to mine ({{K|m}}) into the cliff to create an entryway. If the wagon is surrounded by flat terrain, [[channel]] out a 3×3 rectangle on the surface with {{K|m}}-{{K|u}} to create a sort of pit with ramps on the edges, then go down one z-level with {{K|c}} (or use the mouse scroll wheel) and tunnel into one wall of the pit (with {{K|m}}) to create your entry.

Near the middle of the entry tunnel, build a 5×5 room, and link it to the entrance tunnel with a 3-tile-wide passageway. Expand the main entry tunnel to ''three'' tiles wide from the entrance of the new room to the outside entry. At the end of the entry tunnel, dig a small room, which will later become your main stairwell. Two tiles past that, dig a larger room, which will later become your general stockpile, and connect it to the stairwell with a narrow passageway.

[[File:DFwikiExampleLayout.png|thumb|right|An example layout, as described in this section. Note the 3-tile wide passage - this allows merchants to access your depot room. Note that the turn also needs to be 3 tiles wide; otherwise, wagons won't be able to access the room.]]

Apart from wagon access (3 tiles wide), the trade depot (5×5), and other workshops (3×3), there are no fixed dimensions you need to worry about. The lower limiting factor is the traffic your tunnels receive (dwarves may have to start climbing over each other), and the space your rooms need (stockpiles, tables/chairs, livestock). The practical maximum size is limited by how long it takes your miners to dig the rooms out, especially if they're digging in stone instead of soil (digging through soil is much faster). Most sites have at least one level soil layer below ground level, which is where you're digging right now, but as you dig deeper you'll hit stone (if you haven't already), and digging will become slower. In most fortresses, even the main hallways never need to be wider than 3 tiles, and needing more than 3 tiles of stairs per floor is very rare. A 3×3 per floor staircase (9 stairs!) is absolute overkill for anything but 20-year-old 300-resident capitals. For most tunnels in your fortress, 2 tiles wide will be sufficient, and many will be fine at just 1 tile wide. 11×11 is a reasonable size for stockpile rooms. However, something smaller is perfectly fine for rarer stockpiles, offices, and small dining rooms. Commoners’ bedrooms need not be larger than the amount of furniture you want inside.

Dig a [[Stairs|stairway]] in the room you dug out for the stairwell (''not'' the 5×5 room that you dug out earlier): press {{K-|m|t}}, click on the floor of the room to start the staircase, scroll down one level, and click again to finish designating the staircase. This will create down-stairs on the top level, and up-stairs on the level below. To continue digging downwards later, you can designate another staircase ({{K-|m|t}}) starting on the lowest exposed level and continuing downwards. For now just dig down one level.

On the second z-level below ground (the one below the stockpile level, which you just reached with the staircase), dig a short, 3-tile wide passageway (this only needs to be 1-2 tiles long). Past that, dig out a room between 5×5 and 7×7, leaving room to enlarge it in at least one direction in the future. Using the {{Menu icon|z|sep=-}} key, create a meeting area in the room you just created, filling the entire room (be careful not to make this too small lest your [[overcrowding|overcrowded]] animals start fighting). This works much like creating a stockpile except that you define what the area is for before you draw the rectangle. Select "Meeting area", draw the rectangle, filling the entire room, and click "Accept". Your idle dwarves will hang around in this area, hopefully keeping them inside the fort and out of trouble.  

Outside your fort entrance, use {{Menu icon|p|sep=-}} and click the "plus stockpile" icon to create a stock{{K|p}}ile for [[Stockpile#Refuse|refuse]] (trash can icon) ''at least'' 5×5 in size. This should be outside in the open or you will have problems with [[Miasma]]. If you do not disable [[vermin]] (Item Types -> remains), you will probably have to expand it later as it will fill up with vermin remains rather quickly. If you are seeing refuse appear in your general-purpose stockpile instead of the refuse pile, click on the general stockpile and check its custom settings to make sure refuse has been disabled.

For a reliable, long-term food and alcohol supply, you'll need to set up a farm. Dig out a medium-sized room in a [[soil]] layer (including sand, clay, loam, silt, peat, and ooze) accessible from inside your existing fortress. 5×5 is a good size to start with, but you'll want to leave room to expand in at least one direction. You must pick an ''underground'' area with mud or soil*. Placing this near the stockpiles is more efficient, since farmers won't need to travel as far.

|caption=A 5×5 room with a 3×3 farm plot

Use {{Menu icon|b|o|f|p|sep=-}} to build a 3×3 [[Farming|farm plot]] in the room you just created. Position the farm plot ideally near the wall to leave space for more plots later on.

Initially, [[wood]] is probably a good choice for building material, as it's lightweight and can be easily obtained. You will need plenty of building materials as your fortress grows, but wood will suffice for now. If you are unable to locate enough wood (or if you run out of trees, which is unlikely at this point), extend your staircase down to a stone level ({{k|m}}-{{k|t}}) and mine out a small area (at least 5×5) to obtain stone.

Assuming your site has [[tree]]s above ground, now is a good time to start obtaining wood. Create a stock{{K|p}}ile for wood outside your entrance (preferably near to it). As it will only be temporary, don't make it too big (maybe 5×3, or 15 tiles total). Later, you will move this closer to your carpenter's workshop (once you build one with {{Menu icon|b|o|p|sep=-}}), so don't worry about placement too much. Also near the entry, designate a couple of trees to be chopped down with {{Menu icon|l|sep=-}}. One tree will produce many logs, so only designate three to five at this point. If you designate too many trees, your woodcutters will spend all of their time chopping them down and hauling the resulting logs, instead of doing other work. As soon as one tree is cut down and its wood stored in a stockpile, you can proceed to the next step (your woodcutter will continue cutting down any remaining designated trees).

You need a brewer to brew drinks. Fortunately, the brewing labor is enabled on all dwarves by default. If you want to change this later, use the [[Labor|labor menu]] ({{Menu icon|y|}}).

# Dig out a 3×3 area connected to the farm plot.

# Use {{Menu icon|b|o|f|l|sep=-}} to build a still. Position it in the 3×3 area you just created.

If you have any grazing animals with you, such as the draft animals used to pull your wagon, they will die if they are kept away from grass for too long. Use {{Menu icon|z|sep=-}} to create a Pen/[[Pasture]] zone over a grassy area outside and assign your grazing animals to it with the "plus bunny" icon in the top right of the zone menu. This area needs to be about 10×10 or so to ensure they have enough grass and don't trample it all. The amount of grass required varies greatly, depending on the type(s) of animals being pastured.  If you intend to keep grazing animals permanently, you may need vastly larger pastures later.  As an alternative, you might wish to [[Butcher's shop|slaughter]] your largest animals for food and materials.

Most labors of your dwarves need a place where they can process raw materials — [[workshop]]s. Almost all of them occupy a 3×3 square, and most of them require just 1 unit of any building material (wood, stone, metal). Dig your stairwell down one level (with {{K-|m|t}}), if you haven't already. It's fine if this layer is soil — in fact, soil is better, since it's easier to dig through (if you only have one soil layer, you can put these workshops somewhere on your first level). Dig space for your workshops off of the stairwell. It will hold your [[Mechanic's_workshop|mechanic's]], [[Stoneworker's_workshop|stoneworker's]], [[Carpenter's_workshop|carpenter's]], and [[Jeweler's_workshop|jeweler's]] [[workshop]]s. Something to consider is stockpile proximity: the farther away the material is the dwarves use, the more time they waste with walking. So for now, dig out some more space for stockpiles close to where your new workshops will be (wood for your carpenter, stone for your stoneworker and mechanic, and gems for your jeweler).

* You can View {{Menu icon|P|sep=-}} (Places) and click the "Workshops" tab to see a Building List, and also Zoom to the building/item, or view the building's tasks.

Press {{K|z}}, click on "Garbage Dump", and create a 1×1 activity zone somewhere near your stoneworker's and mechanic's workshops. Unlike stockpile areas where you are limited to storing one object per tile, any number of items may be piled in a garbage area. That means you will only need one tile to hold as much "garbage" as you like.  Although many of the room sizes in this guide are suggestions, think of the 1×1 garbage dump size as mandatory.  At some point you will probably want to retrieve an important item from your garbage dump, and the more tiles your dump contains, the harder it will be to find anything in it. Press {{k-|i|p}} to select the mass dump/forbid tool. Select a rectangle over the loose stones cluttering up your living area (if there are any – this often isn't a problem yet if you've built your fort in a soil layer). This will designate this stone to be transported to a garbage dump zone. Be sure not to designate the stone in your stockpiles by mistake, since that will only cause your dwarves to perform unnecessary hauling. Once the stone from your living area has been moved there, it will be set as [[Forbid|forbidden]]. Before it can be used you will need to unforbid it using {{K-|i|F}} (or just {{K|i}}). Note that dwarves hauling stone (or any large, heavy objects) move slowly, and can take a lot of time to reach their destination. This can be a major waste of time if you designate 50 boulders to be dumped at once. Unless the stone is in the way of something, you don't ''need'' to dump it every time you dig out a new area. Stones lying on the ground don't slow dwarves down at all. If there is a particular dwarf you don't want hauling "garbage", use the labor menu ({{K|y}}) and select the "Haulers" work detail. From there you can select certain dwarves that you want to haul items. By default, Haulers is set to "Everybody does this". You might want to exclude Miners from hauling, since they are far more useful when digging than when moving the stone they just dug out.

Build a [[trade depot]] using {{Menu icon|b|T|sep=-}} in the 5×5 room you created near your entrance. This is where [[caravan]]s will park their stuff and where [[trading]] will take place when one arrives. (as stated earlier, the wagons are 3×3 so the entrance tunnel needs to be at least 3×3 for the wagons to go by). You need at least 3 logs or boulders to build the depot. [[File:DFwikiTradeDepotExample.png|thumb|right|An example Trade Depot.]]

* Is the path to the depot only accessible via stairs or did you build traps in the way? Wagons cannot pass traps or stairs, even if they're 3×3 wide.

* Extending your fortress down several z-levels will also work (9 levels from the surface is a safe choice), although extending a 3×3 staircase takes more work than extending a single hallway.

===Manager & Broker ===

In the default {{DFtext|Play Now!}} party, your [[expedition leader]] is a good choice for manager and broker when starting out. Don't worry that it's just one dwarf doing all this; the manager job doesn't take very long, and this dwarf will be available to talk to the traders when a trade delegation arrives.

In the default {{DFtext|Play Now!}} party, your planter is a good choice for bookkeeper when starting out.

:''See [[Stocks]] for a detailed explanation of the stoc{{K|k}}s screen.''

Don't worry about the [[chief medical dwarf]] yet. They will be needed when you set up your [[Healthcare|hospital]] which won't be covered in this guide. Feel free to go check out the [[Healthcare]] guide once you're done.

# Dig out a room near your sleeping quarters or stockpiles (at least 1×3, no more than 5×5).   

Right off the main stairwell (any unused area by the staircase will work), create three rooms. One will be for general food storage, one a [[dining room|dining hall]], and one a [[kitchen]]. The kitchen will allow you to make [[Cook#Recipes|prepared food]]. Make the room for the kitchen 5×5. The storage area and dining hall should be larger. Ideally, leave empty space on at least one side of your dining hall so that it can be expanded later if necessary.

Use {{Menu icon|b|o|f|k|sep=-}} to build the kitchen in the middle of the 5×5 room. Use {{Menu icon|p|sep=-}} to create food stockpiles in the remaining space around it, as well as the entire food storage room. Go back to your general-purpose stockpile on the top level and change the settings to disable food (click "Food" then click "None" in the center column). This will cause any food in your general purpose stockpile to get moved to your new food-only stockpiles. Hit {{K|y}} and select ''[[Kitchen]]'' from the top of the screen, then disable all cooking for plants, and enable brewing for them so that they will only be used for brewing. Also disable alcoholic beverages for cooking, otherwise your cooks will waste perfectly good hooch in their cooking. The only time you might want to use alcohol in cooking is when you have lots of booze but are running out of food. If you plan to do any fishing, dig out another area and create a [[Fishery]] on this level so the uncleaned fish your fisherdwarf just caught can be cleaned (gutted) for consumption or cooking. If you plan to do any hunting or [[Status#Animal_Status_Screen|slaughter]] any animals, create a [[Butcher's shop]] on this level so animal corpses can be butchered. The fishery/butcher's shop can be placed behind the kitchen or the general food stockpile, for example. A door is recommended for the butcher's shop in order to contain [[Miasma]] should something rot, and to otherwise avoid offending squeamish dwarves. Eventually, go check out the subpage on [[/Stockpiles/]] for more information on fine-tuning these stockpiles for maximum efficiency. For now you can safely procrastinate on this and move on to the next section.

Once your furnishings are complete, you need to place them in rooms using the build furniture ({{Menu icon|b|f|sep=-}}) command. Put the new chai{{K|r}}s and {{k|t}}ables in the dining room. If you like, you can add doors for aesthetics (they can be useful in case something starts rotting in your food stockpiles). If you created chests and cabinets, you can add them to each room if you want, but it is not urgent now.

Add a Meeting Area {{Menu icon|z|sep=-}} (zone) in the dining room. This will cause idle dwarves to hang around in the dining hall. You want idlers in a central location, close to where you will be placing your emergency drawbridge levers. You should probably remove the temporary meeting area (and any other meeting areas that you created earlier).

Speaking of booze, in order to keep the booze flowing, you will need to create some [[barrel]]s, or some stone [[pot]]s. Your dwarves should have emptied a few barrels by now to get you started, but you will definitely need more. A ''lot'' more.  If you have an abundance of trees, then you can designate some more for cutting, and have your carpenter make a bunch of wooden barrels, but it may be more prudent to make a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]], make sure someone has the [[Stonecrafting]] labor enabled, and build a bunch of rock pots. (Rock pots are essentially barrels made of rock.) And don't worry that you've made too many; you almost can't get enough of them. Keep checking your food and drink stock levels on the status bar at the top of the screen periodically. While cooked food (properly stockpiled) and alcohol don't spoil, there is really no need to stock 2,000 units of dwarven wine at this point. Ten times the number of drinks and meals as you have dwarves is more than enough. If you start running out of food or drinks, designate some wild plants for harvesting, [[Status#Animal_Status_Screen|slaughter]] some of your animals, start hunting or fishing, or start more farms. (Actually, now would be a fine time to make another 3×3 farm. Set it to produce [[sweet pod]]s in the spring and summer, [[cave wheat]] or [[pig tail]]s (your choice) in the fall (autumn), and [[plump helmet]]s in the winter. Having multiple types of plants will give your dwarves more variety in their food and drink, keeping them from [[Thought|grumbling]].)

Start producing '''[[mechanism]]s''' at your [[mechanic's workshop]]. Queue up ten. After they are built, use them to create [[Trap#Stone-fall_Trap|stone fall traps]] using {{Menu icon|b|t|t|sep=-}}. Be sure not to block access to your depot! Queue up some [[cage]]s, and more mechanisms, and use these to create some [[Trap#Cage_Trap|cage traps]] right after your stone traps. Cage traps are incredibly effective at stopping ambushers, but traps in general will not protect you from [[thief|thieves and kidnappers]] who will almost always bypass them. (To deal with these ambushers, see the next section on [[#Guard Animals|guard animals]]). Continue to fill up your entry hall with alternating rows of stone and cage traps as the parts become available. Ideally you want to have enough cage traps to take out most of the [[goblin]]s so your military will only have to mop up.

Create one 1×1 [[pasture]] near the beginning of your entryway, in the middle tile, using {{Menu icon|z|sep=-}}. Assign a [[dog]] or other non-grazing animal to it. This animal will spot thieves and raiders before they gain entrance to your fortress. Try to pick a disposable animal, as it ''will'' be slaughtered by the first ambush raiders. Ideally, don't assign female animals; you want them safe for [[Meat industry#Breeding|breeding]] (you should make sure to keep at least one male around for breeding as well).

In case of an [[ambush]] or [[siege]], you will want to close up your fort, keeping the goblins out until your [[squad]]s have formed up and are in position. Therefore, you can build a [[Bridge|drawbridge]] ({{Menu icon|b|n|b|sep=-}}) to seal off your entryway. Make sure to set the draw direction, which then forms a barrier to block enemy ranged units. If you don't get the orientation of the bridge correct, it will just retract (disappear) instead of raising up, allowing enemy ranged units to fire across.  

 

If you used the second design above for your [[#Traps|trap hallway]] then you may want to try adding a second drawbridge in the cutouts for wagon access that can close it off and force invaders through the traps. Be sure to keep the bridge's orientation in mind.

Now, below your first workshop level, dig out four more 5×5 rooms around the stairwell. Three of these will be [[smelter]]s ({{Menu icon|b|o|u|l|sep=-}}), and one a [[metalsmith's forge]] ({{Menu icon|b|o|i|sep=-}}). Designate stockpiles for bars around the smelters and forge. The bar stockpiles will hold [[Fuel|coke and charcoal]] and metal [[bar]]s. You will probably need larger bar stockpiles, but you can dig out more space and expand them later. Also dig out some space and create a stockpile for [[ore]] somewhere nearby. To make an ore stockpile, designate a stone stockpile, then change the settings on it to forbid all types of stone other than ore. Finally, go to your general-purpose stockpile on the top level and disable Bars. Stone should already be disabled on this stockpile, and if so, then ore is already disabled for it.

Somewhere near your carpenter's shop, near your wood stockpile, dig out an area and build a [[wood furnace]] ({{Menu icon|b|o|u|f|sep=-}}).  This is where you will create charcoal (see below) and ash (for making soap). Dwarf Fortress has two forms of carbon which are useful as [[fuel]] in the metal industry: ''charcoal'' (which is charred wood), and ''coke'' (refined coal).  They are completely interchangeable.  If your map has a lot of '''lignite''' or '''bituminous coal''', you can process that into coke, using charcoal to jump-start the process. If you don't find coal on your map, you'll need to either dig down to [[magma]] or make charcoal out of wood to run your forges and smelters, but don't worry about this yet. You need to do some digging around.