Tutorial:Powerplay Guide

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.

Work In Progress!.

This guide focuses on powerplay, that is, building the most powerful combat-oriented character. Yet, fun is prioritised so glitch/bug abuse to get an advantage will not be used. For the most part, it is tailored towards players with some adventure mode experience, as there will be no explanation of hotkeys and basic gameplay elements, such as Fast [T]ravelling, [R]emoving an item, [W]earing an armour or [S]tanding up. Also, it is assumed that readers are familiar with the Fortress mode to the point of being able to make at least Steel weapons/armor, as there will be no explanation on this part either.

However, this does not mean, that less experienced players will not benefit from this guide. All the combat mechanics, decisions and picks will be explained most thoroughly without missing any of the steps. As long as one is familiar with hotkeys, he/she is all set for reading this. And don't forget about spoilers!

Generating the world

Example of the well-balanced world for an adventure game

Use the following settings:

• World Size: Smaller
• History: Short
• Number of Civilizations: High
• Max. Number of Sites: High
• Number of Beasts: Medium (Default)
• Natural Savagery: Medium (Default)

While, technically, every world is suitable for adventure mode, any player looking for a decent game should start in a world, that has at least the following features:

• A tower
• 2 or 3 Dark fortresses
• A vault

Optional features:

• A desert
• An island no more than 2 blocks away from mainland
• A maze

You can check whether your world has a certain feature by starting the said world in Legends mode.

• "Smaller" world size drastically reduces updating times, shortens the distance you will have to travel on foot and makes it more likely to explore more of the world. Don't get confused - even at this degree the generated world is much bigger than you would think, and is more than enough for a lengthy game while still preserving the features from bigger worlds.
  
• "Short" history setting will make the world 125 years old. This is done to ensure, that goblin settlements (a.k.a Dark Pits) are not too abundant. It also prevents a lot of takeover wars, so it is less likely to end up with dead civilization(s) or human towns populated by elves (or what's more likely, goblins).
  
• "High" number of civilizations provides increased chances of Towers and Dark Fortresses appearing. Same applies to the "High" Number of Sites, only that it also influences the amount of creature lairs and encampments in the wild.

Number of beasts determines how many megabeasts will roam the world. It is affected by the world size (e.g. Smaller), so it is left at default value. Same applies to Natural Savagery and Mineral occurence.

IMPORTANT: After creating the desirable world, start a Dwarf Fortress mode game and play until you create the following masterwork or artifact weapons: Axe(steel/adam), Spear(steel,adam), War Hammer (silver/platinum). Optionally, capture a Forgotten Beast and have the weapons coated with its flesh-eating seizure-inducing paralyzing dust. Armour is optional, and not compulsory.

Character Creation

The character creation follows the same order as it appears in game: Race/Civ/Status ->Starting Attributes/Skills->Background->Appearance -> Mental attributes.

Race and Civilization

Human or Dwarf - there is a little difference besides the armour and clothing size, pick whatever you want. Some may argue, that dwarves have an advantage due to being able to wear better armour, made in player fortress. However, as I have realized (and you will realize too): later on masterwork armour is just as useful as standard quality. More on this will be explained in "Armour" section. As for the dwarven "Battle Trance" - this guide emphasizes on NOT finding yourself alone and surrounded most of the time, so it is negligible. Human will be used for this guide.

Status

• Peasant: 15 attribute, 35 skill
• Hero: 35 attribute, 95 skill
• Demigod: 105 attribute, 161 skill

Peasant, Hero and Demigod look completely different, with demigod seemingly holding the most advantage. However, all three are mortal, and all three are capable of becoming unstoppable. The key difference is in starting stats/skills (with demigod beginning with most, Peasant with least) and stats cap (maximum attainable value).

Simply put, the higher the starting stat (e.g Strength), the higher it can be increased over the course of the game. Hence, demigods can have the highest stats in the end by simply having more to start with. Yet, even Peasant adventurer is capable of killing a Demon or Dragon in the endgame, so at the end of the day, all the status does is determine how easy and how fast your starting game will be.

"Hero" is suitable for most players. Pick Demigod for easier early game. For the purposes of this guide, "Peasant" will be used to demonstrate, that these instructions are applicable to every single status.

Starting Attributes and Skills

Body Attributes

All these stats distributions will leave no points wasted.

Peasant:

• High Strength (20)
• High Agility (20)
• Very Low Recuperation (1)
• Very Low Disease Resistance (1)
• Very Low Creativity (1)
• Very Low Musicality (1)
• Very Low Empathy (1)
• Everything else: Average (5)

Hero:

• High Strength (20)
• Superior Agility (--)
• Very Low Recuperation (1)
• Very Low Disease Resistance (1)
• Very Low Creativity (1)
• Very Low Musicality (1)
• Very Low Empathy (1)
• Everything else: Average (5)

Demigod:

• Superior Strength (20)
• Superior Agility (--)
• Superior Memory (--)
• High Intuition (--)
• Very Low Recuperation (1)
• Very Low Disease Resistance (1)
• Very Low Creativity (1)
• Very Low Musicality (1)
• Very Low Empathy (1)
• Everything else: Average (5)

Since your character is combat-based, attributes such as Creativity, Empathy and Musicality are absolutely useless, and must be kept low. As for recuperation and disease resistance, they only kick in when you're hurt, and if there is something that I stress in this guide it is "DON'T get hit". This renders those stats useless. Agility and Strength are the MOST important as they affect move speed of the character, and that really matters. Memory is convenient addition, as it lets you memorize the areas you've been to and keep those areas free from fog of war. However, leave it at average unless playing as a demigod.

In current version a lot of enemies (in fact most of) that you'll encounter are capable of knocking you out in one hit, armor or not. No matter how tough or conditioned your character is, a broken toe is enough to give in to pain. That's why it is not worth putting anything towards Willpower and Toughness. Endurance can be increased easily by sprinting or swimming. And while it matters at first, later on your character will have unlimited stamina, so don't put anything above average here. With average Social Awareness you can recruit two companions, increasing your fighting skills and kill list will let you recruit more later. Seeing as it is very tedious to manage 3 and above companions (you have to give out orders one by one), this attribute is better left at average (more on Social Awareness will be explained in "Companions" section).

Finally, Intuition lets you see more detailed information on which part of your body the enemy is targeting. It is quickly leveled through any means of close combat, and hence, should be kept on average unless you play as demigod.

Starting skills

All the distributions below have 1 to 4 leftover points. This is nothing to worry about, as skills can be easily improved and have no cap.

Peasant:

• Adequate Swimmer (7)
• Competent dodger (8)
• Novice reader (6)

Hero:

• Competent Swimmer (7)
• Expert dodger (8)
• Novice reader (6)

Demigod:

• Skilled Swimmer (7)
• Master dodger (8)
• Novice reader (6)

Dodge skill is a must take at character creation, as it is one of the skills that cannot be leveled without putting yourself in a harm's way. Same goes for Swimming. Any weapon skills are trainable in absolute safety, as will be described in section "Improving your skills". Reading, on the other hand, cannot be improved during regular play, and is only available for learning at starting skill selection screen, and must be taken in order to read books, containing the secrets of Life and Death. Novice level reading skill allows you to read anything, there is no point in increasing it further.

Background and Gender

It is advised to start as a hearth-person, since it starts the character inside of the human fortress, close to weapons and armor stockpiles. Gender and deity worshiped are insignificant beyond aesthetics and roleplay. Of course, when building a killing machine of a character you'd most likely want him to worship a deity of war (or similar).

Appearance

Visual facial features (e.g long hair, lobed ears, etc.) bear little significance, and are there just for show. The constitution is what really matters - your character might be described as "tall", "having a broad body" or "corpulent/fat/having great sacks of lard" (common when starting as a peasant). Fat does not slow down, and will be burnt away as your character does anything that involves sweating (sprinting or fighting to name a few). Broad body allows wielding of 2-handed weapons in one hand.

However, avoid "tall" or "having a broad body" traits. In my experience, adventurers with these tend to get hit more often than ones with an average build. Press "r" or "f" to re-roll your character's appearance until it becomes to your liking.

Values and Personality

In DF2016, adventure mode now have implemented a complex personality system akin to that of fortress mode. All those perks and traits that you've seen in Fortress mode (e.g. "He is prone to anger") are now present. This means your character will now have desires that need satisfying besides eating or sleeping. Just as fortress mode units do, adventurers will now want think abstractly, need to socialize, desire to pray to deity, e.t.c , all according to their (fully customizable) values and emotions (represented in green and teal respectively at character creation screen).

Values

Emotions

Though it is not necessary no satisfy the aforementioned needs, meeting most of them applies the "Focused" status. According to my tests, focused character will hit the target more often and dodge with increased effectiveness, so it is definitely worth the effort.

Moreover, your character will have his own dream listed, based on the values you have specified. It is unknown at the moment what benefit fulfilling the dream will provide. Dreams can be easily changed (rerolled) by simply pressing full customization "f" key, then immediately pressing it again.

Your warlike adventurer naturally values (+++) power, martial prowess, skill, cunning, truth, independence, stoicism, self-control, craftsmanship, competition, perseverance and knowledge. At the same time, he despises (---) nature, romance and peace while being indifferent (N/A) to everything else. He dreams of ruling the world (or becoming a legendary warrior).

On the emotional plane, he never falls in love or lust, hates easily though not prone to anger, never gives in to feeling of sadness or anxiety, impervious to stress, has calm demeanor, strives for perfection, likes fighting, cruel, relentless, private to the point of paranoia and fears nothing.

The above values and emotions will provide your character with the following mindset:

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. If you don't select any offensive skills, you will also start with a spear, just as an outsider would.

Not all races/civilizations can start with all of these skills. Dwarves can't start with Bowman, Pikeman, or Lasher. Elves can only use Swordsman, Bowman, and Spearman. Of the playable races, only humans have access to Pikeman and Lasher. Strangely, only outsiders can start with Knife User.

Note that different races have different names for their weapon skills. Axegoblin, Axedwarf etc.

Crossbowman is an 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 referred to as Lords.

• Axeman: allows characters to use axes, great axes, and halberds more effectively. Useful for cleaving off limbs.
• Bowman: skill allows characters to use bows more effectively. Useful for taking down enemies at a distance.
• Crossbowman: allows characters to use crossbows more effectively. Useful for taking down enemies at a distance.
• Hammerman: allows characters to use crossbows in melee, mauls, and war hammers more effectively. Useful for breaking limbs.
• Knife User - allows characters to use large daggers and knives more effectively. Useful for stabbing things.
• Lasher - allows characters to use whips and scourges more effectively. Very deadly weapons.
• Maceman - allows characters to use flails, maces, and morningstars more effectively. Similar to hammers.
• Pikeman - allows characters to use pikes more effectively. Like spears, but much bigger.
• Spearman - allows characters to use spears more effectively. Useful for stabbing things.
• Swordsman - allows characters to use blowguns and bows in melee, long swords, scimitars, short swords, and two-handed swords more effectively. Useful for cutting, stabbing, and whacking, but less effective than more dedicated weapons.

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 keeps and fortresses). See the FAQ section on increasing your skills and attributes 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-brainer unless you're creating a two handed weapon user, and lack a broadness or height modifier on your character - necessary for one-handing any two-handed weapon, without penalty.
• 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 armour 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 are slower but more deadly than punches; heavy kicks are particularly good at crushing and exploding heads.
• 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, although with sapient races this tends to lean more towards fingers or toes, perhaps the occasional hand or foot.
• 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. Items actually intended to be weapons, like swords or axes, are unaffected by this skill.

A well written article on martial arts "Kisat Dur" can be found on the forums here.

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. Higher levels give more information regarding opponents. 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. Enemies will have "sight ranges" from where they can detect a sneaking adventurer. The red zone of sight is where they will see you immediately and begin chasing you; the yellow is where they might see you. Staying out of sight will allow you to silently assassinate your foes, as they rarely seem to notice a knife in their back in time.
• Climber - The skill of climbing up walls, into trees, and around the edges of gorges. Higher levels reduce the chance of falling and increase the speed of a climbing character.
• Tracker - The skill of tracking your quarry, whether it be animals or goblins. Higher levels will let you spot more tracks and help you distinguish different tracks.
• Crutch-walker - The skill of standing and walking with a crutch for support. This skill only becomes available when attempting to move with a crutch in inventory, and can be developed with or without legs. At Legendary levels, a crutch walker walks with no speed reduction, and simply keeping it in hand will continue to increase attributes.

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. Butchering also makes corpses and body parts less useful to enemy necromancers. You cannot allocate points here during character creation, but that's OK since skill doesn't really affect anything anyway. Except the taste, of course.

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 bT 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.

Menu navigation and selection

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

An image of normal travel mode. A list of the closest (but not necessarily close) sites is in the top-left corner. On the right side are minimaps of the next two levels down, relative to the player. Along the bottom is information about the player.

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 10 instants
,	Wait for 1 instant
s	Stand or lie down
S	Open Movement Speed/Sneak Menu

Unless your character is an outsider, you will start out in a race-appropriate town or hamlet; in the standard tileset the @ sign is your character.

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.

If you hit j, you can jump. This is mostly useful for crossing gorges and crevices, where you have to get to the other side. Occasionally, you can manage to jump onto an opponent and tackle them, which typically causes them to go flying a short distance.

Hitting . allows you to stay in one place and wait for other things to move. , does the same but with a tenth of the time it takes for ..

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. Enemies will have sight cones indicating where they can detect a sneaking adventurer. The central zone of sight (red, violet, or cyan) is where they will see you immediately and begin chasing you; their peripheral vision (yellow) is where they might see you. Violet and cyan central zones indicate the enemy is on a different level than yours, while red means they are on the same level. Staying out of sight will allow you to silently assassinate your foes, as they rarely seem to notice a knife in their back in time. Note that sneak is also affected by a variety of other factors detailed on the Sneak screen, such as light level and weather.

If you hold onto a wall or tree, you can climb the wall or tree by using the movement keys. In towns and tamer parts of the countryside, this isn't particularly useful. However, in a combat situation, climbing a tree or wall can give you a height advantage, possibly allowing you to dive-tackle your opponents. Sometimes, mountains will be too steep to walk up the edge, or you will find a deep drop into a ravine. In these cases, you will have to climb up to reach the top, or perhaps jump or climb down one face, then climb up the other.

Fast Travel

Fast Travel screen. The player is in a hamlet, between the houses to the right and the mead hall in the top-left area of the map. The asterisk represents a group of creatures (in this case unfriendly goblins). The world map (in sepia) is on the far right.

T	Fast Travel
d	Exit fast travel mode
K	Display detected tracks and odors
c	Toggle display of clouds on region map
s	Walk around in sneak mode. Exiting fast travel starts you in sneak mode.
m	Cycle through maps and significant structures
Q	View Quest Log
Z	Bring up sleep menu
h	Hide parts of the bottom bar
> and <	Enter/exit tunnel

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.

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, will risk getting attacked by bogeymen, and will be more vulnerable to attack in general.

If you are not near any sites, the m key will toggle a world map, colored in sepia tone (matching the map you see in the quest log). If you are near a site, then m cycles between a list of significant structures where your player is, a regional map (matching what you travel on when away from any site), and the aforementioned world map.

The c key will only show clouds on the region map (the one you travel on outside of sites). Some clouds will be visible regardless of the state of this option.

The h key will cycle through various amounts of the bottom bar of content hidden. The effects of each press are:

• 1 press: hide key reference. Allows you to see status effects on your character if obscured by the key list.
• 2 presses: hide most local name, reducing the bar to one line of text.
• 3 presses: hide less local name, eliminating the bar entirely.
• 4 presses: shows all information

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.)
q	Sheath your weapons and shield. (Frees your hands for tasks such as climbing or grabbing)

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. Note that getting something makes your adventurer pick something up with his or her hands. This often means that you have to use q to sheathe whatever you have in your hands before you pick something up. If you do not (and you do not have a backpack or some other way of storing the object, your adventurer will not pick the item up.

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