Editing v0.34:Important advice

{{quality|Masterwork|20:51, 16 July 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Here are a few things to keep in mind when playing Dwarf Fortress.

Above all, one must remember that '''losing is [[fun]]!''' Be prepared to lose a few fortresses before you get the hang of things &ndash; it can be easy to accidentally kill the entire fortress while playing around with the different mechanics.
But remember: losing means that next time, you'll remember how you lost! In a big way, Dwarf Fortress uses the principle of learning from one's mistakes.

If you cannot find your answer on this wiki, check out the forums at [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php Bay12games.com]

== Advice ==
<!-- General suggestions and philosophy -->
* Keep in mind that Dwarf Fortress doesn't have a "win" condition. It just has a long series of "lose" conditions.
** (Well, really just one lose condition {all your Dwarfs die}, but many ways to accomplish it.)
** It's not a guaranteed loss if you only have children and insane adults left. Migrants might come and kids might live long enough to grow up.
** You can also {Abandon Fortress} and put your hard-won experience to use building a new, better fortress elsewhere.

* Learn the [[controls_guide|controls]]. There are lots, and learning them may seem daunting at first, but once you get the basics down (like how to check the status of your dwarves or the hotkeys for building certain structures), you'll find yourself playing much more efficiently.

* If your game is running slowly, learn how to [[Maximizing framerate|maximize your framerate]]. Perhaps try a 3x2 size embark.

* Save often! Although it can be a hassle to have to quit out and get back in, it's a lot better than after crash having to build that long hallway of stone-fall traps, plant the whole bag of plump helmet seeds, and make that shipment of steel battleaxes for the caravan next year, ''all over again''.
** Consider enabling the seasonal auto-save feature by editing your /data/init/d_init.txt file.
** NOTE: you need several hundred MBs per save; if you run out of harddrive space, Dwarf Fortress will ''pretend'' to save correctly, but your save will be unloadable. Opening other saves to verify that they still work, then exiting, will corrupt your previously-working saves as well. Make sure you have sufficient free space before launching Dwarf Fortress!

* Plan ahead a little during construction. When building your first couple dozen rooms, consider that in the future you might want to make certain busy hallways wider so dwarves aren't always climbing over each other. This will be a lot easier if you put rooms back an extra tile so you don't have to rebuild everything.

* Think three-dimensionally. You have a Z-axis. Things will be much closer when they're downstairs one floor than if they're 20 tiles away down the hallway. Also note that, with the default [[tilesets|tileset]], your display of the fortress is not square, so north/south distances will appear longer than east/west distances -- they aren't.

== Tips ==
<!-- Little facts about the game to keep in mind -->
* Dwarves thrive on [[alcohol]]. If a dwarf drinks only water, the rate at which he gets tasks done decreases. If the fortress has no alcohol for years, things will slow down quite a bit.
* Dwarves also need [[food]], obviously - and a good [[cook]] (and a nice dining hall) go a long way towards keeping your fortress happy.
** Don't cook all your alcohol or all your [[seed]]s (or all the things that leave seeds). ({{k|z}} >> Kitchen).
* Dwarves tend to get trapped easily. They like [[Digging#Dig_Priority|building and digging things from certain directions]], so try to make sure there is a way out (and keep an eye on them just in case they try something crazy). Also keep in mind that workshops block certain squares, so if you ever notice that your jeweler dies after constructing a workshop with a door on the east side, that's why.
* Digging, wood cutting, and engraving are [[noise|noisy]]. Keep your sleeping areas away from noise and your dwarves will get a good night's rest.
* [[Trap]]s can help take care of invaders at no risk to your dwarves. Any fortress can build a <!-- tub style mechanical chicken plucker --> bunch of stone-fall traps. Cage traps are also easy (you can make cages out of wood).
* Having a dwarf with the Appraiser skill to be your [[broker]] will help a lot when [[trading]]. Otherwise, you can't see how much an item is worth.
* [[Chain]]ing some [[dog]]s by your front door may deter thieves.
* Remember that dwarves can be assigned new [[labor|jobs]] at any time. If your carpenter has died, your cheesemaker can start making beds. (He won't be good at it, since he doesn't have the skill, but lowest-quality beds are better than sleeping on the ground.)
* Idle carpenters? It's hard to have too many [[barrel]]s (or too many [[bin]]s... [[bed]]s for the next wave of [[immigrant]]s are pretty handy too). Idle masons? You can fit a lot of [[door]]s and [[statue]]s into your fortress, and a ready supply of [[block]]s can speed up later [[construction]]s.
* Too many [[immigrant]]s? Don't know what to do with them? Have you started an [[military|army]] yet?
* When setting a [[water]] source (for designated drinking zones) or a [[fishing]] zone, remember that only walkable tiles are valid - you need only mark the shore.
* When in doubt, wall off the outside world and do soldier training for a year.
* [[Soap]] is important.  If a dwarf is injured, soap will be necessary to clean the wound, otherwise infection will set in. Make sure to set up a [[hospital]] to prevent your dwarves from wasting all your soap.
* Do not take on an armoured opponent with your fists; you will lose.  Wrestling is not very effective and the use of quality metal weapons is strongly encouraged. (Make sure you don't attack with [[training weapon]]s either!)
* Don't dig too greedily or too deep without a proper army - expecting a couple rookies to fend off a [[Giant cave spider]] (or [[Hidden_Fun_Stuff|worse]]) results in much [[fun]].  Make sure to properly train and equip your soldiers before breaching the depths.  Equipment and training are vital to the defense of your fortress.
* [[Wood]] is primarily needed for [[bed]]s and [[bin]]s -- [[large pot]]s work better as [[container]]s for [[food]] and [[drink]] in most situations, and can be created by any [[stonecrafter]] from your most plentiful resource: rock.

== Tricks ==
<!-- Specific little actions the users can take to make their lives better -->
* To find a dead dwarf, go under status ({{k|z}}), then select stock>>corpses. Hit tab, and use {{k|z}} to zoom to the particular dwarf to find a hint on where and how he died.

* Don't like all the stone laying around? Instead of using a stone [[stockpile]] create a 1-square garbage [[zone]] and [[dump]] ({{k|d}}esignate, {{k|b}}ulk, {{k|d}}ump) the stone. Reclaim ({{k|d}}, {{k|b}}, {{k|c}}laim) the stone after it's been dumped. This way, you can store an unlimited amount of stone in just 1 tile! (This is especially useful when the tile in question is next to your mason shop). You can also use the mouse to paint which stones to dump. See [[stone management]] for more information.

* [[miasma|Miasma]] from a garbage zone won't spread diagonally.  Making your garbage dump a 1-tile room dug diagonally into a corner means you won't even need a door.

* Usually the closest available material (to the dwarf!) is used for tasks such as (for example) building a floodgate, but not always. To prevent frustration, you can create a custom stockpile (e.g. for [[bauxite]]) next to your workshop and link it to the desired workshop. This also prevents your [[mason]] from hauling stone across the map from wherever he happened to be when you ordered a new door.
** Create a high-[[quality]] custom [[furniture]] stockpile and link it to your [[jeweler's workshop]] so your [[gem setter]] doesn't waste time (and valuable [[gem]]s) encrusting stupid things like [[bin]]s, [[barrel]]s, and [[ballista arrow|ballista bolts]].

* The Standing Orders ({{k|o}}) screen can be used for a variety of useful settings, like having your dwarves temporarily ignore wood and refuse or making your weavers stop heading into the [[cavern]]s to collect spiderwebs and get slaughtered by wild animals.

* Hitting {{k|x}} when building a building (especially a cage) expands the list of items, so you can pick a specific one by [[quality]] or content (a nice bed for a [[noble]]'s bedroom, or a rare beast for your [[zoo]]).

* If you're scanning the outdoors for your next swath of [[tree]]s, move your view up one level. They will appear as little rectangles on a field of dots and will be easier to spot.
** Speaking of timber, try designating some high-traffic lanes ({{k|d}} {{k|o}} {{k|h}}) outside radiating away from your front door  to the trees. Your dwarves will stick to the paths somewhat, and probably trample fewer saplings. (They also won't mess up the ground and leave a bunch of ugly [[sand]] spots scattered around on a sandy map.)

* Take preventative measures to avoid [[cave adaptation]].  Only one of these is necessary.
** Build a walled [[statue]] garden outside your fortress.
** A protective wall around an outdoor well or other meeting area also works well.
** In any central stairways dig up to the surface. Any dwarfs moving through that central stairway will receive their daily dose of sunlight. You could do the same for a meeting hall or statue garden, but just do it underground.
** You could even rely on the one activity that every dwarf does with regularity - [[alcohol|drinking]].  Store the fortress's booze supplies in a well-defended tower atop your fortress.
** Keep in mind that you still probably want to minimize access points to your fortress. Really, any opening could be used by animals or enemies to get into your fortress. You should be able to close it in again afterwards, and the light will remain anyways, as once a tile becomes light, it doesn't stop being so. (Well, not yet anyways; though putting in a ''glass'' roof might not be a bad idea if you feel like it)

* [[Trade]] for basic items like [[meat]] and [[wood]]. They're cheap, and it's easier than gathering them yourself.  It's amazing how many logs you can get for a couple mugs.  Keep plenty of [[useless crap|valuable supplies]] for trading; a single skilled craftsdwarf with a steady supply of stone can potentially purchase every single item of value from every caravan that stops by.

{{Category|Guides}}