New player, just on my 2nd run

[Pomponazzi]

Hi everyone, I am at my 2nd run on this Game and I love it, but is insanely deep and hard to understand.

Since I would like to play a bit better, here some questions:

1 - Do you guy have any advices for a new player?

2 - Did you learn how to play this game on your own? Just playing the game run after run?

3 - How should I approach to the game?

4 - Is there any detailed guide for a new player?

Thanks... Things happen and I don't understand But I love it!!

[Terminal]

Hello. Dwarf Fortress vet here, I have been playing since 2007. I learned to play almost entirely on my own with just wiki guides. There are MANY guides for new players common available that I am certain you are about to be bombarded with, so here are ten VERY general tips that I like to stand by:

1. Resist the urge to dig out your entire fortress inside the first couple of layers - the dirt and sand layers - just because it is easier to dig out. Dig down deep, and build your hold in the firm, unyielding stone. Dwarves are meant to dwell in rock and stone, not in dirt - and their thoughts will reflect this.

2. All of your dwarves have their own thoughts, memories, and emotions. If they are not doing what you want them to do, there is an underlying reason for that. The best way to keep your dwarves productive and on-task is by ensuring all of their needs are met. Do not neglect your dwarves. They are not disposable pawns that exist only to labor for you. Treat them as such and they will eventually punish you for it.

3. You are going to lose. A lot. It will be frustrating, but it will also be entertaining in a morbid fascination sort of way. You will learn from each failure, and be able to look back and laugh at what happened.

4. Take a few risks. Play a little bit recklessly. Dwarf fortress has a reputation for being difficult (see #3), but when you play conservatively and carefully the game is actually quite easy. If you want the game to be interesting, allow for a little bit of chaos to flourish.

5. There are no objectives, there is no goal, you cannot win. Keep this in mind. When you embark to a new fortress site, you are not playing to win, you are playing for the experience. Make your own stories, chronicle your own legends, create your own fun.

6. Name and keep track of your first seven starting dwarves. You do not need to pamper them or give them special treatment - just monitor and keep track of them. See what they get up to and what happens to them. This will help with #5.

7. You may only play in and experience your Dwarven Fortress, but it is just a speck in the larger world generated for each game. The world does not stand still while you build your fortress - events are taking place all around you. You do not exist in a vacuum. Keep that in mind (you will note ways to influence and reach into that larger world as you play).

8. Following off of #7 - When you are done playing with a particular fortress, or if it falls to ruin, do not abandon that save. Start a new fortress in the same world. You may just see some familiar faces, or perhaps items - or perhaps a new story will take place, picking up where another story from your old fortress left off.

9. Do not dig too deep, too fast.

10. You should absolutely mine out those suspicious gem-studded obsidian rock formations.

[AlP]

Originally posted by Diciassette:

1 - Do you guy have any advices for a new player?

Your dwarfs will die a lot. Accept that fact, it's their job.

Several youtubers have a beginner-level playthrough for this version of DF, check them out. It will help you a lot in understanding what to do and expect.

[Sneep Snorp]

My main piece of advice is learning as you play, theres plenty of great guides the wiki quickstart guide will show you all the basics to actually play the game but my personal belief is take LOSING IS FUN! as a philosophy, not saying you should be trying to fail or anything but instead expect it and play for the stories, building a super min maxed fortress isnt hard but playing that way is insanely boring, come up with ideas you want to do or just try and enjoy the world the games created.

[PurpleMango]

All of these points really boil down to a personal preference really, depends on how and what you want to learn. And also how much guides do you personally find spoiler to the game and how much do you want to discover on your own. But I could give a little rundown of my own journey and how I first approached the game.

1: I had tons of other colony sim game experience before I delved in to DF, so that made me get the grasp of the game quite quickly. It took around 4 different forts to get the general hang of the mechanics and felt a little bit overwhelming at the start. But for me when ever I reached a point where things out a little out of control, I just started a new fort.

Over all the repetition of making certain production lines really made things click for me. Bottom line go out there and try new things and do a lot of experiments!

2: I feel like learning the game without any help would be quite troublesome and confusing, so I'd recommend to look up either DF wiki topics on things you want to learn or quick YouTube tutorials, there are tons of good ones out there.

Personally if I found something confusing or unclear I looked a quick video to give me a rough idea how a certain aspect of the game worked and after tried to apply the knowledge in game.

3: Now this again come to the same point which I started my response with, what is it that YOU personally want from this game? Do you just want to enjoy the game with it's stories and events or do you want to learn specific aspect of the game?

One way to go about it is to set a certain goal as you start your fort. Let's say you want to try to set a certain product line or want to grow as big of a fortress as you possibly can or do you want to settle on a certain biom? There are tons of options and different things to see and experience and that is what I find DF absolutely facinating!

4: Yes, there is a detailed beginner guide on the offical DF wiki and again tons of good YouTube tutorials readily accessible.

I really hope your time and journey with DF is as good as mine has been!
Happy digging!

[Trip]

Hers a few early game tips

Don't over produce lavish meals early on. In a temperate biome with thick vegetation you can amass huge piles of food that a skilled cook will then turn into huge piles of expensive prepared meals.

This can lead to large immigration waves that can be good or bad depending on if you are ready for them and how many dwarf children you are saddled with in said immigration wave.

Embark with a few bituminous coal and a charcoal. Bit coal costs just 3 points and including the charcoal for 10 lets you skip the ashery for the time being to get straight to smelting ores and forging what you need.

Also consider bringing a few cassiterite if bars are needed right away. Smelting bronze from ore has good yield of bars per fuel spent, I think 8. Copper ore is very common, but cassiterite can be rare. This can get you a fighter in decent metal equipment pretty quickly in more dangerous areas.

Plenty of other tips but those are my 3 for ya.

[Diarmuhnd]

Originally posted by Diciassette:

Hi everyone...
Since I would like to play a bit better, here some questions:

Q1 - Do you guy have any advices for a new player?

A: Yarp, play and have fun. Then once you've banged your head against stone for a bit start reading some guides, and watching some youTube fanmade guides. Lots of answers, ideas and stuff. Holler if you want specific fan channels recoomendations.
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Q2 - Did you learn how to play this game on your own? Just playing the game run after run?

A: I tried to learn and play on my own for a few years back during pre steam classic, but always gave up. This time I learned a bunch on my own for the first 20'ish hours, then I watched and read a bunch of player made guides.
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Q3 - How should I approach to the game?

A: Approach the game like a drunken dwarf with a pick axe, or an axe if chopping down trees is your thing. I like making my Expedition Leader my 1st tree chopper since he walks around with an axe 24/7
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Q4 - Is there any detailed guide for a new player?

A: Yes, lots of them. Right here on Steam you will find a very comprehensive guide along with many others. Here's the link.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2899235556
You will also find lots of video guides on youTube by Blind, Das Tactic, Kruggsmash and many, many others.
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Here's my tip:

Don't be scared by light aquifers. They are an excellent source of easy water to create an underground fishing pond, deep water wells for washing and hospitalized dwarfs, water wheels for power and mist generation. Just by letting a little water trickle down a ramp or stairs will generate mist. That mood buff from mist is stronk. Just don't let running water get to depth 3, that interupts hauling orders. The arcane dwarven rune 'magic' of Smoothing down stone and then Fortifying it will let your excess water drain off the map so you don't flood your fortress.

[Baron]

1 - The Wiki
2 - Nah, The Wiki
3- The Wiki
4 - there is a sort of 'tutorial fort' step by step, I used it. The Wiki

I have been playing DF for more than a decade and I still usually have a tab open to the wiki to check stuff.

otherwise, go nuts. Do what you want to do and discover the challenges of any path you like. Set up an above ground trading post or a fort that produces dyed clothing. Try to make a fort in the caverns. Build a waterfall and cistern system.

If I was to suggest anything its dont go spoiling yourself on advanced features until you need them - let the dwarven desire to find the deepest and best loot drive ye forward.

Last fort I had was a glass library that was cool. Shame I called it 'The Library of Steel'

I forgot to suggest having !FUN! and by that I mean tapping a volcano wrong and watching three dorfs die in instant pressurised magma death and realising that the staircase goes DOWN into more fort which is a direction magma enjoys....uh, for example, of course, this didnt happen to me just the other day or nuthin.

P.S for the true noob, search for this in the embark filter: Yes rivers, yes iron, yes flux stone, no aquifers (although light ones are fine, just a bit tricky) and no evil. Can pick low savagery if you want. Gives you the easiest and most comfy starts

[Teemo]

Here's a quick tutorial, and if you want a bunch more, it's part of a tutorial playlist:
https://youtu.be/sjM9uls03Nk