v0.31:Defense guide

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This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. The defense guide is a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defense. For tips on laying out your architecture to protect your military, see Template:L. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see Template:L. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see Template:L.

In Dwarf Fortress, you will often find yourself beset by hostile creatures looking to murder your dwarves or take their treasures. Protecting your fortress from intruders is a challenging task and a broad, complex topic. A wide variety of Template:Ls can threaten your dwarves, and there is no one approach or philosophy that perfectly addresses every possibility. Fortress layout, military organization and training, traps and more, all contribute to the overall "defense" and survivability of your fortress and the dwarves that live and work both within there and in the world around it, and likewise no one article can include every last detail. This guide will pull from many other articles, but will prefer to refer to those rather than re-post information that is already found (and better placed) there.

There are three important things to consider when planning the defenses for your fortress. First, you must protect the fortress itself - the buildings, the hallways, the dwarves within it. But second, protecting the dwarves outside and topside as they go about their work is also important. These two goals can often be rather divergent, as your dwarves may need to wander the open countryside to collect herbs, cut trees, hunt, fish, and while outside the bounds of your fortress they can find themselves quite vulnerable.
Lastly, there is game style - you want the game to be "fun" for you, and with some strategies it's quite possible to defend yourself into complete boredom, or just go down a road that is not attractive style-wise. While this article cannot tell you how to have fun, it will comment on this when appropriate, and you should keep it in mind as well.

Note - There is not room in this article to expand adequately on every sub-topic - please see specific articles for a complete discussion as desired.

Editors & Contributors - Please see the discussion page before posting.

General guidelines

While admitting that "Rules are made to be broken", there are some general recommendations that have a proven value in defending a fortress:

• Minimize fortress entrances: Have a strong and clear distinction between inside and outside. This usually corresponds to underground and surface, but not always - you can have a complete medieval-style castle complex on the surface. But each point of entry should be hardened against attack. Don't make more entrances than really necessary. If there is a useless or redundant opening, seal it off, one way or another. (Some creatures can destroy doors and drawbridges if they can reach them.)

• Concentric circles: Think redundancy - one wall may not be enough. With the existence of door-destroying and bow-wielding attackers, double or multiple hard barriers between the inside and the outside is essential to fend off the worst assaults, and if they get inside one barrier it's nice to have another behind that. Sometimes captives will escape their Template:Ls inside your fortress. The choke points between the circles are where you build traps and lockable doors, and station troops.

• Assume the worst: Build up your defenses before the enemy shows up - like right now! Plan on being Template:Ld by scores of Template:L archers, door-breaking Template:Ls, invisible Template:L master thieves, dive-bombing Template:Ls, flame-breathing Template:Ls, angry Template:Ls, and a Template:L - all at once. Hopefully, you will never have to face that kind of threat, but being ready for anything is the best bet, and, more realistically, when things go wrong (and with dwarfs, they will, just believe it) you will have a buffer of defense to fall back on.

Threats

Danger comes in a variety of forms in Dwarf Fortress. Understanding the diverse threats is the first step to keeping your dwarves alive.

• Wild animals

Creatures vary in threat and habits. Some Template:Ls are quite dangerous, but most are easily excluded by the humble Template:L or Template:L, even if it's not Template:L. Some few are able to destroy doors and hatches, statues and other Template:Ls, and some are thieves (see below), or will eat your food (such as Template:Ls). A lone animal, even a clear predator, will usually flee from a stronger force, but some Template:L and evil creatures can be blindly aggressive. Combat is random, and any animal can kill any dwarf - and vice versa.

Wild animals can appear from the topside, but also from the Template:Ls that you may accidentally open up while mining (in fact, the worst ones are often from below). In evil or savage Template:L, the creatures can be both much tougher and more aggressive.

• Thieves & child snatchers

Many creatures are "thieves" in the general sense, and offer their own potential headaches - a Template:L or small tribe of Template:L or Template:L monkeys can enter an unsecured area unannounced, grabbing items of value and running, and it doesn't matter how many you kill if one or three make off with some prized possessions. But a creature with a listed ( u ) Template:L of Template:L has a few additional nasty surprises, namely being invisible until spotted by your dwarves or Template:Ls, being able to bypass locked or forbidden doors, being armed with a real weapon, and some imperfect ability to avoid triggering traps (though some seem better at it than others). Template:Ls and Template:Ls are individually more dangerous than animals, but when spotted there's a special message, either "Protect the hoard!" or "Protect the children!", as appropriate.

• Ambushes

An Template:L is a small number of enemies (less than ten) that are invisible until spotted, but are easier to spot than thieves. The alert message is "An ambush! Curse them!" They skulk around the outside of your fortress, unseen until they strike, looking for wandering dwarves or caravans entering or leaving. They will often flee off the map if challenged.

• Siege

A Template:L is a large number of armed and organized attackers that are announced as soon as they appear on the map. The alert message is "A vile force of darkness has arrived!" While siegers are on the map, the word "SIEGE" appears in the top corners of the screen. Siegers are organized into a number of squads, each squad having a different weapon choice. Some sieges bring dangerous creatures to aid the armed attackers. If you are at Template:L with a civilization, expect annual sieges at least.

• Enemy archers

Attackers with Template:Ls or Template:Ls are worth separate mention as they are much, much more threatening than those with melee weapons. Out-shooting them with your marksdwarves is risky, and charging them with melee fighters is even worse. Special techniques are needed to shield your dwarves from the deadly rain of arrows.

• Building destroyers

Some creatures have the Template:L in their Template:L. This gives them the fearful capacity of tearing apart your doors and bridges and anything else, only excluding constructions built with the b + C keys.

• Flying animals

Currently, without modding, the only flying creatures are wild animals, like the Template:L. Being aware of their presence is often all you can do until they choose to come to you.

• Megabeasts

A Template:L is a particularly powerful and dangerous creature, such as a Template:L or Template:L. Megabeasts appear alone, with an alert message that mentions the beast by name. They often have unique characteristics which present unusual challenges, but are universally dangerous.

• Titans and Forgotten Beasts

Template:Ls and Template:L are similar to megabeasts in terms of size and strength, but are procedurally generated from random creature parts and may have procedurally generated special attacks (such as fire breath or web shooting) as well. Titans and forgotten beasts appear alone, with an alert message that mentions the creature by name. The two are very similar; titans attack from outdoors and forgotten beasts attack through underground caverns, but otherwise they present the same challenge. A titan from a benign biome will not attack your fort.

• War

Before hitting that e and embarking, tab to civilizations on the pre-embark screen, and see if you are at Template:L with anyone. If so, things can get hot fast, with more and larger ambushes and sieges, and sooner. This is unusual, but a nasty surprise if you didn't check.

Elements of a defense

Dwarf Fortress is very open-ended, and any number of defensive, engineering, fortification and military principles will work in DF that have worked in reality. Combine different elements into the defense you want.

A moat with a drawbridge is perhaps the simplest defense known to Dwarvenkind, and not a bad start. The Fortifications article on Wikipedia is also a good source of inspiration. But simply shutting the outside world out and allowing invaders to mill about outside your moat is not always a desirable solution. Enemies will still prevent Template:Ls and Template:Ls from arriving, will kill Template:Ls, and prevent any desired outdoor activities. In addition, Dwarf Fortress players often find it enjoyable to perpetrate mass slaughter of invaders rather than helplessly glare at them from inside their caves.

For this, you will need a more complicated defense than a passive ditch and walls. One common method of defense is to build a walled structure above the entrance to your fortress, stationing Marksdwarves on the second floor overlooking the drawbridge-entrance. Another is to engineer a very long but narrow entrance, at the end of which are Template:Le waiting to unload at unfortunate monsters in the field of fire. The variations are infinite.

Physical layout

These are the Template:Ls, Template:L, Template:Ls and so on that create the towers and perimeters of your fortress, acting as physical barriers for your dwarves and against threats. However, they always work in conjunction with the other elements. Creative use of layouts can achieve some quite satisfying results.

For reference, arrow fire is usually about 20 tiles, though stray shots can travel further, and firing from higher elevations actually reduces the range about 1:1.

Terrain

The lay of the land can be your friend, but the way of the dwarf is to shape the land as needed. Removing slopes can create safe, private terraces and valley walls that prevent all access. Chasms and rivers (not brooks!) create hard barriers, but an open chasm or magma vent can be a source of dangerous creatures. Small hills can serve as vantage points for archers (yours or theirs!), but if carved with stairs leading up from within, they can be quick strategic strongpoints. Narrow valleys can become chokepoints for entrances, where your marksdwarfs can overlook any who come and go. Augmented by constructions below, the terrain becomes your first option for defense.

Some players take quite a while before initially unpausing the game to look around and think about the terrain, planning their fortress entrance and envisioning basic defenses.

Walls

Constructing walls around your entrance is the simplest start, and an essential part of fortress defense, but a wall alone is not a complete defense. Currently, no creature can knock down a wall. Not only does it keep enemies out, your archers can stand on top of the wall and fire down. Keep in mind that this makes them vulnerable to enemy fire. To help protect against that, build Template:Ls.

Fortifications

Template:Ls are the marksdwarf's friend. They do not allow passage, but allow hand-held missile weapons to pass through, and are often placed on top of walls for tactical advantage. Projectiles have a chance of being blocked, based on the firer's skill and distance to the fortification. There's no chance of the missile being blocked if the firer is adjacent to the fortification, with increasing chances as any distance increases. Keep your marksdwarves close and keep enemies away - if an enemy archer can walk up to your fortifications, now they're adjacent too, and the fortifications will have zero effect. Build fortified firing platforms above ground level and put a nice wide moat between the wall and the enemy. Fortifications have no effect on Template:Ls.

Like Fortifications, Vertical Template:L and Wall Template:L will also allow projectiles to fire through them while impeding units' movement, but these constructions provide no defense - the missile fire works both ways equally. Unlike Fortifications, Bars and Grates may be connected to a Template:L, and opened or closed remotely - thus, they are good for forming a portcullis.

Doors (& Hatches)

Template:Ls are the simplest way to keep an enemy out. (A Template:L in this sense is just a vertical door, and in all ways works the same.) Most creatures will be stopped by any door or hatch, though some others can smash them. With a little tinkering, doors can be made 3 tiles wide or more, but this remains mostly for aesthetics without much practical use, as Template:L will still not be able to pass them. You can Template:L doors to keep (most) hostile humanoids and creatures out, and your dwarves in.

Additionally doors can specifically be closed only against animals, to keep beloved Template:Ls from wandering into enemy fire (they may pile up at the door and use the chance to slip out with a dwarf).

Forbidding all doors and entrances breaks the pathfinding of enemies, making them lurk at the map border where they entered, which can be quite inconvenient in the case of an invisible ambush that then rushes at your fort in just the moment your civilian dwarves move out to, say, cut trees.

Floodgates

Template:L, alone or in a line, may be used as removable walls, since they need no support and disappear when "opened" remotely, although using a wide drawbridge will be much more economical in terms of Template:Ls. (Be aware that Template:Ls can batter down both raised floodgates and drawbridges, and any object can prevent a floodgate from closing again, even a single, stray crossbow bolt or confused animal.)

A floodgate can be used just like a door, with two differences: A floodgate can be placed next to another floodgate, unlike a door, which needs to be adjacent to a wall. A floodgate is closed by default, and can only be opened with a lever. Be careful not to trap your dwarves.

Moats

Channeling a ditch is a fast and effective defense. However, consider that channeling has been changed from previous versions, and creating an effective moat now requires extra steps, such as designating ramp removal. The moat doesn't have to be filled with water or magma. Arguably, a dry moat is a better defense. If you want to build an access/escape route for your moat, consider where it leads - the enemy might use that too.

A moat cuts off access for your dwarves as well, so a retractable- or drawbridge is usually included in the design. But a moat with a non-retractable bridge is still potentially useful: It keeps enemy archers away from your fortifications, and it channels enemies into a narrow and predictable path. A drawbridge without a moat can be a big remote control door, sealing an entrance when it's "up". (This doesn't work with retracting bridges.)

Bridges

Bridges come in 3 forms - a permanent construction (a Template:L or top of a Template:L built out over a void), a retractable bridge, and a drawbridge. The movable type have a maximum size of 10x10 (including one solid "anchor" line of tiles at the base), and require a lever and two mechanisms to link them to be raised. Permanent bridges can be designed or later modified to include the latter.

A retractable/raise-able Template:L over a deep trench is a simple and almost air-tight defense - only flying creatures can pass it (once the bridge is raised). The moat keeps building-destroyers away from the bridge, and the raised bridge blocks arrow fire for anything behind it. Template:Ls may be dug to form ditches, or moats - be aware of what might exist or be planned for the next Template:L down. For defensive purposes they do not need to be filled with anything - as in the middle ages, a dry ditch is more than enough to prevent ground units from approaching (though of course, projectiles may be launched over it with impunity). With a retracting Template:L over the moat, any units or items on top of the bridge will be dropped into the moat (and, if the moat is filled with water, drown unless they can swim out; if it is filled with magma, they burn to death.)

Bridges can throw creatures a distance (in a random direction) when the bridge is raised/retracted, possibly injuring them on landing. Creatures on top of drawbridges will be utterly destroyed if they are flush against wall and have a floor tile above them, as will anything, friend, foe or object, on a floor that is covered when the drawbridge is lowered. This offensive use of drawbridges is known as the