Editing 40d:Biome

A '''biome''' is a biotic area with homogeneous features, characterized by distinctive [[plant]]s, [[creatures|animal species]] and [[climate]]. A biome will also contain only one set of stone layers, though these usually expand beyond a single biome. Your [[dwarves]] will find different resources depending on which biomes they select when starting a fort.

Biomes are important when choosing a fortress location in order to understand your [[surroundings]]. Individual biomes, which form at least one map-tile of your embark location, can be cycled with the {{Key|F#}}-keys; for example, an area with 3 biomes present can be cycled using {{Key|F1}}, {{Key|F2}} and {{Key|F3}}. The selected biome will be highlighted with flashing Xs on the Local Map, and the biome's information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. ''(See the [[Indecisive%27s_illustrated_fortress_mode_tutorial|illustrated guide]] for more detail).''

Selecting different Biomes gives you some ability to influence the difficulty of your game. Each biome has a different set of resources; the availability of [[tree]]s, [[sand]], certain [[plant]]s or [[animal]]s, and sometimes [[water]] is specific to a particular biome, and different biomes may have different stone layers containing [[flux]], [[coal]], useful [[ore]]s, or a high chance of [[magma]]. [[Mountain]]s have a lot of [[ore]] and some exclusive [[underground river|features]], but no [[soil]].

Generally it is advantageous to plot your embark [[location]] at the convergence of multiple different biomes, the more the better (within reason) - which is made easier if you enlarge your starting embarkation area. However, it is not usually too hard to find three or four biomes using the default size.

* ''Note: Making the starting plot larger will slow your game down considerably; likewise, a small embark area can dramatically increase framerate.''

By making use of several biomes you can provide more resources for your fort. Making sure one of your biomes contains either a broadleaf or conifer [[forest]] will provide you with an ample supply of [[tree]]s, even if the rest of your plot extends into badlands and [[desert]].  You might get wood from a forest, ore from a mountain, and flux from [[hills]] that just happen to have a flux layer; many other permutations are possible.

Any biome can have any set of [[surroundings]]; for example a [[glacier]] could be [[haunted]], [[wilderness]] or [[mirthful]].  However, a named region (which is a contiguous area of one category of biomes, such as forests or wetlands) will be either good, neutral, or evil.  It is not uncommon to see a large mountain range with one alignment and a few mountains, disconnected from the main mountain range by a single region tile, with a different alignment. Therefore, the more biomes you have, the more likely it is to have several alignments, if so desired.

=== Freezing ===

*[[Glacier]]

=== Wetlands ===

*[[Temperate]] Freshwater [[Swamp]]

*Temperate Saltwater Swamp

*Temperate Freshwater [[Marsh]]

*Temperate Saltwater Marsh

*[[Tropical]] Freshwater Swamp

 

*[[Taiga]]

*[[Temperate]] [[Coniferous forest|Coniferous Forest]]

*Temperate [[Broadleaf forest|Broadleaf Forest]]

*[[Tropical]] Coniferous Forest

 

*[[Temperate]] [[Grassland]]

{|border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; "<!-- copied from Prettytable template, but those colspans required centering. -->

| rowspan=2 colspan=2 |

!0-9 ||10-19 ||20-32 ||33-65 ||66-100

| rowspan=2 |Savanna ||Marsh ||Swamp

|Rock Desert ||Shrubland

{{World|Biomes}}

{{Category|Biomes|*}}