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[Mimodo]

So, time to figure out how to get past that aquifer... Without a cheap way around it

What should I bring with me on embark? Skills and equipment. I have a hunter that I'm going to bring along (joyous wilds... Unicorn meat!!!)... What do I need?

[thiosk]

Well, both time's I've embarked on an aquifer, I found a hole in the damned thing.  There was a hill and I started digging my starter fortress, then built a spot to cave in, started channeling around it, and poof!

No more water.  Went down a couple levels, and I'd snuck right through.

That would certainly be the least-resource intensive approach-- blind luck.

[Oaktree]

Probably some stone and logs to get some necessary equipment.  If you are using pumps to breach the aquifer then you need enough stone, metal, and/or ore  to get the proper workshops, pump parts, and mechanisms made, along with tools, etc.  Assuming you can use timber initially for a lot of things you probably want a trained carpenter as well.

And if you want assurance you can get around a aquifer scout your embark area biomes and pick an intersection of multiple biomes where at least one does not have an aquifer.

And since getting past the aquifer might have you residing on/near the surface for an extended time you will need to take defense into consideration for a more extended time depending on the local wildlife.  A ditch might be enough, but for evil biomes with mist/rain, or even something severely annoying like giant keas you will want to get things secure underground ASAP.  Or be prepared to be fighting them off constantly.

[Sus]

If you are using pumps to breach the aquifer then you need enough stone, metal, and/or ore  to get the proper workshops, pump parts, and mechanisms made, along with tools, etc. 

Can't you just use wood blocks, wood corkscrews and wood pipes for the pumps?

[_DivideByZero_]

You can get through an aquifer with only wood.

[Patchy]

So, time to figure out how to get past that aquifer... Without a cheap way around it

What should I bring with me on embark? Skills and equipment. I have a hunter that I'm going to bring along (joyous wilds... Unicorn meat!!!)... What do I need?

Depends a lot on your embark and how you plan to punch through it. If you got woodland, you can cut your lumber on site, if not you'll have to bring it. A handful of stones (6 to 10) doesn't hurt either for mechanisms, most everything else can be made from wood. Stone is still not neccessary to get through an aquifer, but it does make certain breach methods easier. Also does the embark freeze in winter, if so thats one of the easiest aquifers to breach. Main thing is to have plenty of wood available for your breaching. I personally prefer to use cave-ins on most breaches, but certain embarks have really deep aquifers and the cave-in method loses efficiency quickly when trying to go through multiple z-lvls.

If you look around your embark when you first land, and look at the various pebbles on the ground, you can tell a bit about your aquifer situation without even digging. If the pebbles are sandstone or conglomerate, you probably have a large multi-z aquifer. If the pebbles are anything else, you only have a soil aquifer which is at most 2 z-lvls. So if the aquifer is soil only I'll use the cave in approach, if it is conglomerate or sandstone, I'll be setting up to pump through it using the double slit method.

[Mimodo]

Hot biome, scarce trees, joyous wilds (I just wanted unicorn bones)... There is only shallow metal and deep metal (singular), and it could potentially be something useless like gold, so I'm spending as much as I can on tetrahedrite... I'm thinking get a butchering and bolt making up ASAP to keep me sustained and protected, and let's hope for the best with a shallow aquifer, cause I know without a doubt that no freezing will happen. I'll keep updated and ask questions here if anything goes horribly wrong

[LumberingOaf]

Can't you just use wood blocks, wood corkscrews and wood pipes for the pumps?

Certainly, but some of us prefer not to use dwarf power due to staffing issues. That means mechanisms.

[Ubiq]

Can't you just use wood blocks, wood corkscrews and wood pipes for the pumps?

Stone blocks are a much better option than wooden since most stone costs the same as a log on the embark screen and can produce four times as many blocks.

Mechanisms are unnecessary though since it's pretty easy to set up a perpetual motion machine using just wooden items.

[Triaxx2]

Windmiils don't need an interspacing gear.

[krenshala]

I have successfully punched through a three level aquifer with a single pump, so three logs was all I needed.  it took a while to micro manage the wall construction (stone blocks) to block off the water, but it only required a carpenter to make the pump and two miners that were also pump operators (only one would dig at a time).