40d:Trading

Trading in Dwarf Fortress first occurs in the first autumn of building your fort, with the arrival of the Dwarven caravan. Trading is a good way to acquire resources that are not available or are rare in the local area. It also improves your freedom of choice on what item to embark with because you can always trade for them later, e.g. dropping the expensive anvil to bring 500 extra units of booze. New players can look here for advice on trading with your first caravan.

Trade Depot

Building a trade depot will allow you the opportunity to trade with caravans that arrive at your fortress. Trade depots require three stones or logs to build, and the architecture skill along with either masonry or carpentry. While it may be convenient to build a Trade Depot outside first, it is usually a good idea to move it inside as soon as possible to protect caravans and your goods from thieves and goblins.

Using Trade Depot

Hit q to bring up the building interaction menu, and then move your cursor over the trade depot to gain access to the following options.

Move Goods to/from Depot

When a caravan arrives, it is time to move local goods ready for trade. Selecting items in the categorized view will mark them [PENDING] and they will be moved to the depot. (Note: any dwarf can move goods to depot, even if his hauling labors are disabled) When ready for trade, an item is marked [TRADE]. The depot can be emptied in the same manner.

Trader requested at depot/No trader needed at depot

Hit r to toggle between these two options. If a trader is requested then someone will come to the depot on behalf of your dwarves to trade with the the merchants. Who exactly comes is dependent on the option you have selected for who is allowed to trade (see below).

Only broker may trade/Anyone may trade

A broker is not required but is preferable for getting better deals. To toggle whether anyone can trade or just the broker is done with b. requesting a trader at the trade depot will queue a job on the traders list. A higher level of brokerage will give you greater returns, so if you're dependent on trade it's recommended to keep one dwarf as broker and level up his appraisal skill as high as possible. It is advised to deactivate all labors from the broker during trading (including "all dwarves harvest" in the options menu). However, eating drinking and sleeping are always at a higher priority than trading.

Trading

When merchants have arrived and unloaded their goods, it's time to trade. Access trading view by selecting building options for the Trade Depot with q and then pressing t. (trade will be disabled until a trader from your fortress arrives.) In the trading view, merchants' goods are displayed on the left and player's on the right. Items from each side are selected for trade with enter and then traded with t. Don't make the mistake of pressing o. This gives the trader your goods for free as offer to their leader.

There are two factors to consider in making a balanced trade: weight and item value. Caravans have weight limits and the allowed additional weight is shown in the bottom right corner. The merchants must also profit from the deal. The amount of profit depends on the broker skill of the trader. It is strongly advised to use an allocated broker to do the transaction with the merchants. Having one person being a broker means that only he gains experience in social skills from successful trades, thus being able to negotiate more favorable deals in the future.

Caravans

Each of the three friendly races will send a caravan once per year, however they will not arrive unless your region is marked as accessible by them. Dwarves will always arrive regardless of location, however. Since trading caravans arrive from the direction of their civilization, it is currently preferable to build the depot as close to the middle of the map as possible if the civilizations are in different directions. This reduces the chance of the caravan traveling across the whole map then turning around because it is time to leave.

Dwarves and humans also send a liaison with whom the local broker has a meeting. Import and export requests are made, adjusting the prices for the next year. Desired items become more valuable.

Dwarves

Dwarves arrive every year in the fall, typically bringing food, booze, leather and miscellaneous supplies. They are the only caravan that can bring steel in any form, either as equipment, crafts or unworked metal bars. The caravan will have wagons 3 tiles wide that require an adequate path.

Unlike other races, the dwarven civilization will never attack you even if their traders don't make it home.

Elves

Elves send small caravans of only muskoxen or mules, no wagons, in spring, loaded with cloth, rope, various plants, and wooden items. The may also bring some tame animals. They are very picky about what they will accept in return.

Elven traders do not like to be offered any dead animal or tree byproducts. Forbidden items include^{v0.23.130.23a}:

• Bone, shell, leather, or chitin items
• Wooden items, and items derived from wood, such as charcoal and pearlash
• Clear and crystal glass (because pearlash is used in their creation)
• Items decorated with any of the above materials
• Obsidian shortswords (since they have wooden handles)
• Soap
• Cheese
• Any item they normally would accept that has blood on it, for instance from a slain enemy.

Metal items are acceptable, even when charcoal is used in their production. Items made from silk are acceptable, as are all non-wooden plant-derived products. You can also transport your goods to the trade depot in a wooden bin, as long as you do not try to sell the bin. Living animals are acceptable, as long as the cage or trap is not made of wood.

Although tower-caps are giant mushrooms, they are considered trees by the elves.

Humans

The first human caravan will arrive in the summer of your second year, provided a human civilization has access to your site. The caravan will have wagons 3 tiles wide like the dwarven one, but which some players believe to be especially slow or having trouble finding a route, although there is no evidence of this in the current version(38a).

There must be a path at least three tiles wide from the edge of the map where humans enter. You do not need to have an actual road, but you will usually need to designate smoothing of some boulders (outside) and tree-cutting to clear the path. Use D to verify that there is a wagon accessible path to the depot. If there is not a wide enough path then the humans will only send pack mules greatly reducing the amount of stuff you can trade for.

If the caravan must take a very long path to reach the depot, this is reduced from the time to trade. If the time is up while they are still moving, they will turn back and leave. To prevent this make it so that the depot is only accessible from one spot on the map which is close to the depot.

Humans may also send a Representative, and having more skilled trading nobles will upgrade him to a Merchant Baron or Merchant Prince, who have larger caravans. The Representative will set up Trade agreements with your trading noble, which lets you order the goods you want the next caravan to bring. Humans value weapons, and will usually negotiate to pay more for them in their trade agreements.

Pack Creatures

Races that trade will use pack creatures to carry their goods. Mules are the most common ones chosen but there are a number of other options. The best creatures are wagons which are only used by the humans and dwarves. Wagons can carry much more than the smaller mules, but they are larger and can not navigate tight and twisty paths. Wagons need a path that is at least three tiles wide, and that is unobstructed by trees, boulders, doors, ect...

You can see what tiles are wagon accessible by hitting the D key once you have built a depot.

Trader Mood

If your trader has Novice or better Judge of Intent skill, there will be a line added below the traders' dialogue describing the traders' attitude. Their attitude rises with successful trades (especially if they get lots of profit) and falls when you propose deals they don't like.

• (trader) seems ecstatic with the trading
• (trader) seems very happy about the trading
• (trader) seems pleased with the trading
• (trader) seems willing to trade (Default, at least for humans)
• (trader) seems to be rapidly losing patience
• (trader) is not going to take much more of this
• (trader) is unwilling to trade

Happy merchants seem more likely to take your deals, although the exact mechanics of trader happiness and negotiation are unknown. If the traders reach the lowest level (unwilling to trade) as a result of repeated failed deals, they will immediately pack up and no further trade will be possible. Since traders who are annoyed with you are more likely to reject deals, you should tread cautiously in initial negotiations; the more times you fail to make a deal, the less happy they'll be and the less inclined they'll be to accept further deals. Skilled negotiators seem to be more likely to get traders to accept offers that include little or no profit for them, and less likely to offend traders with unsuccessful deals.

Seizing Goods

When trading with Elves and Humans, it is possible to seize goods from the caravan. This will cause them to respond with the message "Take what you want. I can't stop you." and they will leave immediately, leaving you with the seized goods.

• You cannot seize goods from the Dwarven caravan.
• Other caravans will not buy stolen goods from you (marked red) unless you trick them into picking stolen goods in a counteroffer or "naturalize" them, for example by encrusting them.