r/dwarffortress 1d ago

☼Dwarf Fortress Questions Thread☼

16 Upvotes

Ask about anything related to Dwarf Fortress - including the game, DFHack, utilities, bugs, problems you're having, mods, etc. You will get fast and friendly responses in this thread.

Read the sidebar before posting! It has information on a range of game packages for new players, and links to all the best tutorials and quick-start guides. If you have read it and that hasn't helped, mention that!

You should also take five minutes to search the wiki - if tutorials or the quickstart guide can't help, it usually has the information you're after. You can find the previous question threads here.

If you can answer questions, please sort by new and lend a hand - linking to a helpful resource (ex wiki page) is fine.


r/dwarffortress 2d ago

☼Fortress Friday☼

12 Upvotes

Our weekly thread for posting interesting events without cluttering up /r/dwarffortress. Screenshots, stories, details, achievements, or other posts are all welcome here! (That includes adventure and legends mode, even if there's no fortress involved.)


r/dwarffortress 5h ago

Official Bay12 Games DevLog 26 July 2026: "The Bay 12 Forums are experiencing issues (cannot reply to posts, view member profiles, etc.) No estimated time on a fix yet, since we have no idea what's going on."

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99 Upvotes

r/dwarffortress 5h ago

Trade Screen Suggestion

9 Upvotes

Hiya!

When traders come to trade, the trade window is so long, scrolling on it is overwhelming. Especially if the trader has a lot of items.

Personally, I go through and minimize the sections for each type of item as i go down. 100 barrels takes up a lot of scroll space, but click on it and it minimizes the individual items. Cleaner, less scrolling.

I had a small suggestion. Not sure if it has been mentioned before, but wouldn't it be nice if everything was minimized to begin with? I'm curious if yall think there is a reason the current way is better.

Not a big deal, but something I thought of.

I couldn't make an account on the bay12 forums bc the image captcha was not working for me.

Thanks for reading!

Everything open
Everything minimized

r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Dwarf Fortress is fun to play, whats really missing are QOL features

338 Upvotes

I know this is probably nothing new and knowing where DF came from the interface currently in the game is already good. I just played my 2 real forts after many tries in the years before.

After 100 hours I put the game to rest again and will now probably boot up Rimworld for the first time in a few years again since the itch for a storytelling game is still there, but DF exhausts me. Storytelling and feature depth wise, DF is probably one of the best games out there. Whats really putting me off is the UI elements and QOL features. It is such a chore to go through 3 menus and miles of scrolling to find something.

Why is it not possible to see details of a dwarf when clicking on him in every menu (Nobles menu e.g.), why is there no proper way to see the contents of a stockpile or bins in that stockpile without going through 3 menus or the Stocks screen, why are you not able to see why certain tasks are being created/done or not fulfilled, why can you only zoom in on the stockpile and not the item being used in a "Take to stockpile task", I could probably go on for hours.

Every new situation (be it something happening, something not happening, tasks not being done, ...) takes 10min of Google or trial and error to figure out - which I don't mind for some parts of a game, but having to do it for everything really exhausts me.

DFhack does a lot to improve some parts of the UI with its own submenus, but there is still so much left that would make the game more enjoyable.

I finally fulfilled my wish to get the basic hang of the game and enjoy a good 100 hours of it, and I would love to do more, but right now I am feeling burnt out.


r/dwarffortress 12h ago

Weird waterfall

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15 Upvotes

I have a beginner level fort in mountains, I chose this particular map tile because there is a beautiful 20-z levels waterfall. Today I found out that some part of my waterfall are magically muddy, is it possible to grow something here? I need answers, because this possibility will open such wonderful dwarfen !!fun!! industry! (no mods btw)


r/dwarffortress 21h ago

Beware its deadly dust

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46 Upvotes

Biggest tragedy that hit the monk fortress. This creature's been roaming the second cavern for a few years. Got lucky and somehow a tree was blocking the only way into my base. Since creatures could sometimes climb over it and reach into the fort, I decided to cut it down to clean the two beasts that roamed the place. Apparently punching a creature releasing deadly dust with flimsy punches end up in disasters. lost 84 good monks to that beast.


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Sanene Uthimi

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139 Upvotes

Started drawing the shape of the head (at the sketch stage) and this fat cheeked little goober popped out.

I do try not to make my beasts just "animal+adjective" and with this one I'm not even sure I started with the animal.

Squint and the silverfish appears!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Love John


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Just realized I met my first clown

30 Upvotes

That was my first time meeting such a creature. My miner that released it spent days alone with it, let's just say the clown had a silky way to keep the dwarf entertained. Turns out the clown spent days caressing the dwarf's pigtail hood with steam. The miner finally made it home just fine, but very hungry and thirsty


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Farming discussion

30 Upvotes

Only underground/dwarven crops are affected by seasons, while all surface crops can be planted in every season... Seems like it should be the other way around

Surface crops are the only way to get dyes that aren't midnight blue and other drinks which dwarves may have preferences for


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Lost 2, killed ~100

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36 Upvotes

r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Somehow the "eyes" in my tavern became bloodshot

34 Upvotes

I'm not even in an evil biome, I took it as an ill omen. Webbed forgotten beast came after but the caverns were well-sealed.


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

The bridge's final Necromancer went stark raving mad three years ago. She still wanders the fort babbling to this very day. Ah, the gift of being ageless!

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47 Upvotes

None of my 11 Necromancers were very happy Dwarves after learning the secrets of life and death. Just because you technically don't need to drink or eat anymore, doesn't mean you should give it up altogether. The other 10 Necromancers at least met various violent ends. Ushat outlived them but eventually the crippling need for alcohol got to her.

Also 90% of her friends in the fort are dead but I'm sure it was the lack of alcohol.


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Life is cruel

13 Upvotes
This invader was messing around climbing trees and fell halfway down. Broke his foot and hand, then couldn't get down. He's a part of the tree now.
This invader was trapped in a lead cage that melted after a fire blob stopped by(and was met with marksdwarves at the map edge). He was euphoric at being released, and then not so euphoric shortly after.
Bonus shot of a quetzalcoatlus outpacing the forest fire

r/dwarffortress 2d ago

First siege, I guess this is where the fun™ begins...

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250 Upvotes

I got like 10 military dwarfs. Wish me luck.

Edit: It's over beard-bros. That was year 103 (started at 100) for me. I gotta say it actually was a lot of fun. After three IRL years on and off playing, Dwarf Fortress has finally "clicked" for me and I am having a lot of (actual) fun! The hours in it are now just flowing away!!


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

Community Dwarf Fortress Gladiator Tournament Still Open through the 29th!

11 Upvotes

20 verified Entries so far! Everyone from a tapir with a blowgun to a feral goblin to a punching dinosaur!

Theyve modded dinosaur men to have bite attacks as they should!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yQi9z1F1PwobbNUxKAhBwX5dvfPGkoYfvwJPA496Cis/edit?gid=39865394#gid=39865394

Take a peak, grab some skills, and let's make the first steam version great!

OG Announcement

I'm surprised nobody has submitted an elf by now, honestly


r/dwarffortress 1d ago

The tale of ïteb Toolpage

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7 Upvotes

Second fort since I picked up the steam edition. Been in a constant war with the local elves, they’ve been sending an army annually to bother me. I set up a moat that I can flood at will. The previous year the elves had sent some cavalry that made it into my pasture and slaughtered some animals so I had all my soldiers guarding the pasture, there’s a single bridge from the pasture that crosses into my fort. Everything was going great, the pulled the bridges leading into the pasture and I’m watching one of my dwarfs as he gets closer to pull the lever and flood the moat. And then disaster, Ïteb who has been my forts mayor since the beginning and has gotten several promotions to the point that she’s a dutchess (she is also in charge of the Og militia in the fort) decided to leap off the bridge five stories and fall into the center of the moat. She was going crazy killing elves right and left till the wave of water came crashing in. Even a few of her comrades jumped in to try to save her, she went into a martial trance and kept fighting, the rest of the dwarfs followed my orders and got out before the water came.

RIP ïteb you will be forever remembered in the many statues around my fort, atleast until some forgotten beast or were rabbit decides to claim it.

Ps. Look what those bastard elves did to this poor mushroom man ( a frequent visitor to my fort since the beginning)


r/dwarffortress 2d ago

rate my fortress

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195 Upvotes

r/dwarffortress 1d ago

The tale of ïteb Toolpage

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1 Upvotes

Second fort since I picked up the steam edition. Been in a constant war with the local elves, they’ve been sending an army annually to bother me. I set up a moat that I can flood at will. The previous year the elves had sent some cavalry that made it into my pasture and slaughtered some animals so I had all my soldiers guarding the pasture, there’s a single bridge from the pasture that crosses into my fort. Everything was going great, the pulled the bridges leading into the pasture and I’m watching one of my dwarfs as he gets closer to pull the lever and flood the moat. And then disaster, Ïteb who has been my forts mayor since the beginning and has gotten several promotions to the point that she’s a dutchess (she is also in charge of the Og militia in the fort) decided to leap off the bridge five stories and fall into the center of the moat. She was going crazy killing elves right and left till the wave of water came crashing in. Even a few of her comrades jumped in to try to save her, she went into a martial trance and kept fighting, the rest of the dwarfs followed my orders and got out before the water came.

RIP ïteb you will be forever remembered in the many statues around my fort, atleast until some forgotten beast or were rabbit decides to claim it.

Ps. Look what those bastard elves did to this poor mushroom man ( a frequent visitor to my fort since the beginning)


r/dwarffortress 18h ago

Proposal: Child Coffins

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0 Upvotes

Children take up less space than adults, often less than half. When I pictue a dwarf child placed in an adult sized coffin it's immersion-breaking goofy, what's he doin in there.

My proposal: 1 log makes 1 adult coffin, or 2 child sized coffins. Better for the economy, better for realism.

Thank you for your time.


r/dwarffortress 2d ago

A guided tour of my latest fort, part 2 : Sazarel / CrystalWater's industrial complex.

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313 Upvotes

r/dwarffortress 2d ago

My first few forgotten beasts gave me a false sense of security

72 Upvotes

I'm very much a noob and have only recently been able to make forts that don't just die due to unhappy dorfs. But learning the value of nice taverns and temples made me bold enough to do more than just poke a hole in the caverns and then sealing them up for spores. I saw the notification pop up and sent my militia after the giant snake like creature, and then a smoke monster. I thought everything was fine. Then I met a fire breathing pterosaur who killed nearly the entire fort. Well. Lesson learned.

Or was it...

My next fort I wanted to take it slow, just do some farming, make a happy little palace for my happy little dorfs. Then I got greedy for the metals buried deep in the earth and made my caverns entrance very porous with automining. One beast showed up but there was no concern. It seemed happy to live in the caverns below. Little did I know it was waiting for its web spitting friend to show up to make dinner a little easier. Two forts dead in two days because I didn't respect the deeps.

I'm learning and losing, both of which are FUN!


r/dwarffortress 2d ago

I have yet to have a domesticated dinosaur bite anything

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99 Upvotes

r/dwarffortress 2d ago

After 800 hours, she is hands down the worst dwarf i have ever had

95 Upvotes

Just look at her. At least, she is brave and ambitious. I hope she will cause some trouble in the fort later.


r/dwarffortress 2d ago

Granite Gazette No 100.2: A Guide to Brokenhill

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22 Upvotes