Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Reygar]

I'm new to the game, I've looked at a guide and I've played a bit, so i can play the game. But I am looking for tips that will help me build a thriving Fortress for my Dwarfs, good economy, good things to do, and generally things that will help and I can find fun thanks!

[metime00]

Traps are really useful. Much more reliable than a military. A good drowning trap will never fail.

[Gnauga]

Creating chokepoints on your map, most easily done by channeling out a dry moat and destroying the up-ramps, can multiply the effectiveness of said traps many-fold. Megabeasts can be very valuable if captured alive, so I would advise making your first line of traps cage traps, if not all your lines.

Note that making all your lines cage traps can take much of the fun out of the game, since they are a single instant incapacitation on any non-trap-avoid critter that enters your map.

[MrWiggles]

Well, if you're looking for Fun, once you generate a world, and select an embark, just select 'Play Now' and ignore, the 'Prepare Carefully' option.

That'll give you Fun.
Don't use the word Fun here. Fun has a special meaning to us.

As for actual tips.

The Wiki is yer friend.

Remember to bring picks and axes.

Beds have to be made out of wood.

Booze is life.

[Mantonio]

Stockpile all captured wildlife. Wait for a Dungeon Master.

Because you might as well tame those elephants / alligators / giant scorpions

[Nameless Archon]

War Animals are food, defense, armor, weapons and ammunition. Consider taking a breeding pair of dogs, or several females and a male. Train them on site, don't take trained animals. Animal based industry is broad, and covers many categories of tool you will need to keep a starter fortress moving, but it can be slow to start, so consider setting up some farms at the same time. You'll need the booze, and a variety of ingredients makes for better quality prepared meals in your kitchens!

Butcher -> Tanner -> Leatherworker
Butcher -> Bone Crafter & Bowyer
Butcher -> Cook
Farmer -> Cook
Farmer - > Brewer
Farmer -> Textile Industry

Farms and animal products can produce enough food to drown a fortress. So can irrigating them badly. Learn how to handle pressure with baffles.

Booze is life. Bring plenty. Then bring more. Then make more!

[Gnauga]

Well, the distinction is sometimes made between fun and Fun. Fun capitalized, of course, being losing. Uncapitalized, fun means your typical definition of fun, like seeing a goblin turned into many smaller pieces of goblin. At any rate, you're better off saying "enjoyable" to avoid ambiguity, if it cannot be derived from context.

[Vehudur]

Alright, lets try this actually in the right thread:

Whips are as strong as miniguns in this game, just because of how the game handles them.

If you see someone with a whip, kill it with ranged.  Do NOT send melee in - they will die, even in full adamantine, in seconds.

Also...  a few more tips...

Siege weapons are insanely useful when set up properly.  Give them a long, straight, fairly narrow path to fire down.

Marksdwarves like to run up and hit things.  Seal them in their fortification room so they can't.

If you embark in a hostile area, the first thing you should do is dig a trench around your wagon. 

Lava burns.  With that common knowledge in mind, do not flood your fortress with it.  If you DO start to flood your fortress with magma / lava, shut off the magma/lava source.  If that is not possible, counter-flood it with water if possible.  It's far easier to pump out water than magma, and water destroys (slightly) less.  Either way, it's going to be Fun.

For the previously mentioned reason, magma-proof doors are a good investment.

Be careful mining adamantine, as there is a certain spoiler if you do it wrong.  In fact, if you find adamant early, it's not a bad idea to just leave it sit until at least mid-game (usually 5 or 6 years in) when you have a strong military.  If you do mine it, you should mine out around it, smooth the stone, then carve fortifications into it.  If it is safe, mine those tiles that you carved.  If it isn't, you have a nice set of fortifications between yourself and the spoiler.

Flowing water is bad for frame rates.  So is flowing magma, but slightly less so.

Water + lava = fun.  And obsidian.  Mine this obsidian, because it's a great building material.

Use stockpiles liberally.  If you don't, you'll find your craftdwarves spending more time gathering the needed materials than actually crafting.

Traps are good.  Automatic traps (pressure plates) are even better, but be warned:  Anything unconscious, including your own Dwarves, falling on a plate will trigger it.

Build towers near your entrance, even if your fortress is otherwise underground, to protect against flying mobs.

Flying building destroyers suck.  Kill it quick.  Preferably from behind fortifications.  Usually, fire will not work, as they tend to be dragons.

All undead, to my knowledge, are building destroyers - but can only destroy wooden buildings.

Mega-beasts with toxic blood or "beware its (poisonous/toxic) [anything]" Should be killed by cave-ins, with your Dwarves nowhere near it.  If it flies, you're screwed.  Be creative, just don't get your Dwarves near them - it might not kill them right away (usually it will), but it may kill them after a few months.

It is a very bad sign when your Dwarves are giving off miasma while alive.

[Urist McTaverish]

Don't breach the circus.

[gtmattz]

When setting up your food stockpile use multiple stockpiles and only allow barrels on one for your booze stockpile, then have the other with barrels disabled for everything else.  This keeps all of your barrels free for booze storage, which is very important.


Never designate any room as a meeting area, otherwise your dwarves will spend all their time partying.  Instead use the zone designation (i) to create a zone and set it as a meeting area.  Using single tile meeting zones will also give you the double edged sword of extremely ecstatic dwarves who are best buddies with every other dwarf in the fort.

[TherosPherae]

There is no need to capitalize "game", unless you're trying to make people lose the Ga....

Dammit.

On-topic: Chop down trees, then use the logs for beds. Save making bins and barrels until you have useless metals. Also, I recommend making training spears for use in a danger room before you start making any beds.

[Vehudur]

There is no need to capitalize "game", unless you're trying to make people lose the Ga....

Dammit.

On-topic: Chop down trees, then use the logs for beds. Save making bins and barrels until you have useless metals. Also, I recommend making training spears for use in a danger room before you start making any beds.

Adamantine barrels.

[TherosPherae]

There is no need to capitalize "game", unless you're trying to make people lose the Ga....

Dammit.

On-topic: Chop down trees, then use the logs for beds. Save making bins and barrels until you have useless metals. Also, I recommend making training spears for use in a danger room before you start making any beds.

Adamantine barrels.

I said USELESS metals. Like nickel.

Although, I'm pretty sure the dwarves would be ecstatic if they were drinking out of one o' dem barrels....

[Mantonio]

When setting up your food stockpile use multiple stockpiles and only allow barrels on one for your booze stockpile, then have the other with barrels disabled for everything else.  This keeps all of your barrels free for booze storage, which is very important.


Never designate any room as a meeting area, otherwise your dwarves will spend all their time partying.  Instead use the zone designation (i) to create a zone and set it as a meeting area.  Using single tile meeting zones will also give you the double edged sword of extremely ecstatic dwarves who are best buddies with every other dwarf in the fort.

But won't that mean all your food will rot? Plus your food stockpiles will be far less efficient?

[Xenos]

Alright, a few things to remember,
There is no such thing as too much booze.  ever.
you need to irrigate for underground crops.  always.
fields need to be assigned what to grow for each season.  (so assign the crop 4 times, it will keep that until you change it.)
dimple cups are useless for food purposes, only grow them if you want a blue dye for a clothing industry.  Add blade weed and hide root to that list as well.
redundancy is your friend.  You already have some farms set up growing things every season?  Add a few small above ground crops for variety.  You have a full time brewer producing booze?  Build another still and assign a second.  You have three ways to break the pseudo pressurized magma being pumped into your magma forge area?  Add another seven (magma floods are very Fun...)  You get my point.  Overdoing it is your best bet.
Traps.  Lots and lots of traps.
Serrated discs=money trees.  where the fruit explodes into more money.  Seriously, glass ones start at 256 Dorfbucks.  steel starts at 1280 (?)ish.  If you get masterwork discs, they go up into the tens of thousands.  Do.  Not.  Underestimate. 
Booze.  NEVER RUN OUT OF IT.  EVER.  See redundancy.

Just keep in mind have fun, and losing is Fun!    (there is a difference in fun and Fun...)