.. _chapter01:

###############
Getting Started
###############


Dwarf Fortress is an extremely interesting and complex game, but one
which people find exceptionally difficult to get into. Although it
isn’t hard to find tutorials, many assume some basic knowledge of the
interface and what the player is looking at. They also don’t take into
account different tilesets and versions and the difficulty new users
have in finding a good site for that first fortress.

But all that is in the past Dwarf Fortress Walkthrough! It comes with a
pre-made world and save and full game download for you to play along
with. And a ton of screenshots. Yes, many, many screenshots.

So grab a drink, get your thinking cap on and be prepared for some
dwarfy fun! And carp. Never forget the carp…

Set Up
======
:DFFD:`Download the walkthrough pack here. <11171>`

This tutorial uses a pre-configured install of DF, with the same
save and all the extras you need - but no more.  If that's not
going to work for you, see the guide to :ref:`setting-up-df`.

After downloading the pack, you need to unzip the folder onto your hard
drive (but *not* in ``Program Files``). Then create a shortcut on your
desktop leading to the launcher or directly to ``Dwarf Fortress.exe``.

Run the Game
============
Now we’re ready to get going! Click on your new shortcut, hit "Play" if
you're using the launcher, and you should get the screen below.

.. image:: images/01-start-screen.png
   :align: center

So, you’ve got the game running and enjoyed the exciting ASCII intro
movie. Well done! I can tell you’ll go far! Next step is to hit
:kbd:`Enter` on :guilabel:`Continue Playing`, which should be
highlighted. You’ll then be presented with this screen.

.. image:: images/01-save-list.png
   :align: center

This is the save game list, which gets cluttered very quickly as
seasonal saves build up. But for now all you have to do is use the
down-arrow key (not the number pad arrow key) to select
:guilabel:`region1-post-embark`. Hit :kbd:`Enter` and the game will load.

First Look
==========
Once the game loads you will be presented with this screen. Although
it’s confusing on first glance, don’t panic! It will all be made clear
shortly. First thing though, hit :kbd:`Space` to pause the game.
:kbd:`Esc` backs out of any menu you’re currently in.

.. image:: images/01-local-area.png
   :align: center

Lets talk about what you can see. First up, the screen is divided into
three sections: The left shows the local view. The center shows the
action menu, the right shows the area map. To make things a lot neater
hit :kbd:`Tab`, which cycles through various menu arrangements. Stop
when your view matches the one below.

.. image:: images/01-narrow-menu.png
   :align: center

Now we’re really cooking with gas! Soon you’ll be melting foes with
magma-falls, and drowning goblins in artfully engineered traps! But
before then, lets look around. Use the arrow keys to navigate around
the local area. You’ll notice the we’ve got a decent amount of space to
work with.

While you examine your surroundings you should be able to spot tree
trunks and the grassy areas easy enough, same with (frozen) ponds and
the stream and bushes. Other tiles won’t make much sense, these tend to
be the slightly-arcane zones like open air spaces (pale blue tiles, or
tiles with dots) and the earth (brown tiles) and slope or ramp tiles (upward
triangles). The screenshot below should help point those features out.

.. image:: images/01-features-lvl108.png
   :align: center

Key to understanding DF’s local view is getting your head around the
fact that DF is a 3D game displayed on a 2D map. To display a variety
of heights the world is sliced into dozens of Z-levels. Each Z-level is
numbered.

If you look on the bottom right of the window you’ll see we’re
currently at level 108. To move between levels you need to hit :kbd:`<`
to go up, and :kbd:`>` to go down. If you go up a level the map will
look like image below. Try it yourself now.

.. image:: images/01-features-lvl109.png
   :align: center

You’ll see that what was black dirt is now grass and trees. It’s like
we’ve gone up a floor in a lift and we’re no longer looking at a slope,
now we’re looking across a grassy plain. Below us is open space and
tree tops. Make sense? Now, try going back down to 108 and then down to
107, a level below "ground" level.

.. image:: images/01-features-lvl107.png
   :align: center

Your view should look something like this. We’re underground now with
mostly dirt around and earth between the pool, the tree roots, and the
rest of the ground. You may have noticed the pool doesn’t appear to
have changed much, but don’t be confused. The difference is that on
this lower level we’re on the same level as the body of the pool
itself, at the level above, we’re actually above the pool a little
looking at the top of it.

Continue having a look around. When you’re done, return to Z-level 108
and find the wagon with our dwarves. The helpful graphic below explains
what you’re looking at.

.. image:: images/01-unit-detail.png
   :align: center

Lets get digging!
=================
So now what do we do? In Dwarf Fortress we’re usually trying to get a
bustling community of dozens of dwarves up and running, while fending
off goblins, the whims of nobles and assorted other evils. To do this
we need to build ourselves a mighty fortress! Preferably underground.
So lets find a cliff face to dig into and get this show on the road!

If you go west (left) from where our dwarves are (using the arrow keys)
you’ll see a nice cliff face. Lets dig an entrance into this spot and
plan to eventually dig down way underground where it’s safe and cosy.
First up, get the map centered around about where we want to dig (shown
on the screenshot below). Once you’re ready:

* Hit the :kbd:`d` key. You’ll see the menu on the right changes and in
  the local view a yellow :guilabel:`X` has appeared. The menu on the
  right should show the :guilabel:`Mine` option highlighted. If it
  doesn’t, hit :kbd:`d` again, to select it.
* Move the cursor to the edge of the cliff, like this:

.. image:: images/01-dig-cursor.png
   :align: center

* Now hit enter and move your cursor down with the arrow keys. You’ll
  see that you’ve dropped a flashing "anchor". This is going to mark out
  what your dwarves will dig. Move it across 20 and up 3 and hit
  :kbd:`enter`, your screen should look like this:

.. image:: images/01-dig-hallway.png
   :align: center

The browned out area shows where your miners are going to come along
and dig. But they won’t act until you back out of the
:guilabel:`Designations` menu as the game is paused. Hit :kbd:`Esc` and
you should see the game unpause and the menu reset to its master list.
Oh, when you have the :kbd:`d` menu up you can actually click on the
map with your mouse and select areas to mine. Some people prefer to
select areas this way.

With the game unpaused you should notice two dwarves race to the cliff
face and start digging. With our entrance under way we should also
think about laying out some rooms for our dwarves to live in, who wants
to spend time out under that hot yellow disk when lovely rock and earth
beckon!

Right now we’re not worried about making our fortress perfect and
creating the strongest entrance, we’re simply trying to scratch out a
space to live! To that end we’ll need three or four rooms off this main
entrance.

See if you can match the layout below by marking out areas to dig, as
you’ve learnt. If you make a mistake you can hit :kbd:`x` from the
:guilabel:`Designations` (:kbd:`d`) menu and you’ll note that the menu
on the right has :guilabel:`Remove Designation` highlighted. Now when
you hit enter and select an area, any area set for digging will be
cleared of that designation. Anyway, enough detail, on with the room
building!

.. image:: images/01-dig-rooms.png
   :align: center

Look at the little dwarves go! Aren’t they industrious! They’re quickly
digging away and leaving a lot of dirt floor behind them. Good lads!
Lets leave them to their work while we sort out some other important
jobs.

Chopping trees, setting up piles
================================
Dirt and rocks are handy, but so is wood to make nice dwarven beds, and
we’re short on it right now. To get wood, we need to chop down some
trees. And we do that by designating an area of trees to be chopped.
Lets get cracking and clear the trees in front of the entrance.

Designating trees to chop is like designating rocks to be dug, so lets
decimate the local environment!

* Move the map around so you’re looking out front of your fortress.
* Hit :kbd:`d`. Hopefully this time you’ll notice the game has
  automatically got :guilabel:`Chop Down Trees` selected, if it doesn’t,
  hit :kbd:`t` and it will be highlighted.
* Move the cursor to the upper left, hit :guilabel:`Enter`, and move
  the cursor to the bottom right, hit :guilabel:`Enter` again. Any trees
  in that area will now be set to be cut, as indicated by them all being
  marked brown.

Although you’ve done well neither man nor dwarf can live on wood and
dirt alone! Luckily for us there are plenty of bushes out there loaded
with ripe berries. Lets set some of them to be picked:

* Hit :kbd:`d` again and then :kbd:`p`. One the right :guilabel:`Gather
  Plants` is now selected.
* Designate about the same area as we did with the wood cutting.
* All the bushes will be highlighted now, and when you unpause you
  should see a plant harvesting dwarf join the woodcutter.

Your view now should look something like this, note the brown
'highlights' and fallen logs:

.. image:: images/01-plants.png
   :align: center

Now lets sit back and watch the dwarves work for a minute! It won’t
take long before our miners have cleared out our temporary living
quarters and our woodcutter and plant gatherer have begun their work.
Once the interior space is clear we have lots of work to do, so lets
break it down into useful chunks.

Our First Farm
==============
Farming is how you will make most of your food in Dwarf Fortress, and
it’s important to get farming quite quickly. If food runs out your
dwarves will starve and your game will end prematurely, and we don’t
want that, right? dwarves usually farm underground and handily, we have
a space all prepared. So follow along, and lets get some tasty
mushrooms growing for our stumpys to chow down on!

* Find the bottom right room.
* Hit :kbd:`b` for the :guilabel:`Building` menu and then :kbd:`p` for
  :guilabel:`Farm Plot`.
* Move the cursor to your farm area.
* The screen instructions tell you how you can increase the size, we
  need a good 6 by 6 plot, so hit :kbd:`u` and :kbd:`k` a few times until
  you’ve got a big green grid, like the one below.
* Move the grid around with the arrow keys until it’s in about the same
  position as the one in the screenshot. If you get the size wrong,
  :kbd:`h` and :kbd:`m` will reduce the plot.

.. image:: images/01-farm-plot.png
   :align: center

* Hit :kbd:`Enter` and the green area marker will change to a flashing
  brown field marker. When stuff flashes it indicates that dwarves are on
  their way to come build the construction, in this case, a field. And
  lookee-here! A farmer has come to build our field for us!

.. image:: images/01-farm-build.png
   :align: center

He will take a short while to build your field. When you see the dwarf
run off, you know he’s done. Now it’s time to set the field to grow
delicious plump helmets all year round.

* Hit the :kbd:`q` key. This is the key for :guilabel:`Set Building
  Tasks and Preferences`. Again you’ll notice a cursor on the local
  screen and if it’s anywhere near the field, the field will be flashing.
  You can move that cursor around with your arrow keys, this is useful
  later on when you need to select different workshops and buildings.
* You’ll note that on the right the menu now shows you specific task
  details associated with that field, like so:

.. image:: images/01-crop-select.png
   :align: center

* What we want to do is set :guilabel:`Plump helmets` as the food to be
  planted every season. You can see on the top right of the menu we have
  the various plants we could try and grow and in the middle area we have
  the different seasons. Right now :guilabel:`Dimple cups` are selected
  (but not highlighted, note) and the season is set on
  :guilabel:`Spring`, as it’s Spring currently. We need to change these
  settings.
* Now comes an important skill! Menu scrolling! Using :kbd:`=` (*not*
  the down-arrow), scroll down through the list to :guilabel:`Plump
  helmets` and hit enter.  You should now see :guilabel:`Plump helmets`
  highlighted. By the way, :kbd:`-`/:kbd:`=` is the way to scroll in
  menus; DF usually uses - and +, but having to use the shift key gets
  annoying.
* Good work! But right now we’ve only set the spring planting. It’s
  time to set the planting for Summer, Winter and Autumn too. To do this,
  with the field task menu up, hit :kbd:`b` for Summer and then scroll to
  :guilabel:`Plump helmets` and hit enter again. Hit :kbd:`c` for Autumn,
  set :guilabel:`Plump helmets` and then :kbd:`d` for Winter, repeating
  your selection. You may have noticed that what you can plant changes
  with the seasons, but don’t worry about that for now.
* Hit :kbd:`Esc` to back out of the menu and resume the game. Your
  dwarves will quickly begin planting in your new field, well done!

Now we’ve got a field down hopefully none of your dwarves will starve,
go crazy and resort to eating rats, or each other. Pretty soon you’ll
have a few seeds in the ground and your farm will begin to look a bit
like this:

.. image:: images/01-crop-planting.png
   :align: center

Oh, by now you may have noticed the announcements along the bottom of
the screen. This is generally because the game wants to let you know
that something important has happened. You can hit space to let the
game resume, or hit :kbd:`a` to see the alert if you miss it at the
bottom of the screen). Hitting :kbd:`Esc` will take you back out of the
alerts menu and resume the game.

Stockpiles
==========
While you can just leave all of your dwarves’ stuff strewn around the
countryside, it’s much more efficient to have it all inside near where
it’s needed. You may have noticed your farmer dwarves running in and
out of the fortress to grab the seeds that they need (when they flash
between their icon and a little red dot (the seed icon) you know they
are carrying seeds).

This is where stockpiles come in. They make everything more organised.
A stockpile for all our food and seeds right next door to the farm
would probably be pretty handy, right? We don’t want the dwarves
running across the map to get a bite to eat or a seed to plant, so lets
make a food stockpile inside!

* Find the room opposite the farm.
* Hit the :kbd:`p` key (for "piles" of course), a cursor will appear.
* Hit :kbd:`f` to select :guilabel:`Food`, we want to make a food
  stockpile, after all.
* Move the cursor to the bottom right of the room, hit enter, move it
  to the top center and hit enter again. You have now set that space as a
  food stockpile, well done!
* Hit :kbd:`w` to make a :guilabel:`Wood` stockpile, and place it on
  the other side of the room.
* After a few seconds your spare dwarves will start moving food inside,
  you’ll see barrels and bags being hauled and pretty soon the stockpile
  will look something like this:

.. image:: images/01-first-stockpiles.png
   :align: center

You don’t have much room inside the fortress yet, so no more piles for
now. In time you’re going to want to put stockpiles everywhere to help
manage your production and resource gathering. For now, well done,
you’ve got food production up and running, you’ve set up a stockpile,
you’ve set wood to be chopped and plants to be gathered and you know
how to do some basic digging! You’ve come far!

Before reading Chapter 2, how about setting some more plants to be gathered
and more wood to be chopped. Then, head `to the next instalment <chapter02>`
and we’ll learn all about workshops, bedrooms, dinning rooms and stairs! It
will be ever so exciting, I promise!

