New Player Here, what am I actually meant to do?

[Man Skinn]

I know this sounds weird but I don't really know actually what to do. I start my fort, build some stockpiles, a tavern and bedrooms, and get a farm going. Ok, now what? I don't really understand the progression or in what way the game wants me to progress.

[AlP]

Dig down, find metals, make weapons and armor, equip your dwarves.

Farm pig tails (or their surface equivalents), start a clothing industry.

Somewhere along the way you'll find things to do.

[=M$= Oroberus]

Yip, setting up and supplying your military is pretty crucial too, therefor you'll need:
Metals to be found, dug up, smelted and forged into weapons and armor

Also a viable next step is getting a hospital going, therefor you'll need:
A safe (in terms of environment) and clean (not muddy/stale) source of water, cloth, thread, soap and beds

Something else that's not going to harm early on and crucial mid game and later are additional decompression spaces for your dorfs:
- Statue garden (just any arbitrary room in which you put down statues)
- Tempel(s), at first, one general purpose temple is sufficient but you want to provide at least 1 temple per worshipped god in your fortress later on
- Guild halls, as soon as you have 10 of your drunk lil buggers work the same profession, they'll demand a guild hall for this profession
- Burial rites, it's not uncommon to have your first death occure even before the end ofyour first year, there's literally more ways to die for a dwarf then to survive, therefor get a few slabs ready early on, 5 should be sufficient and plan ahead for some tomb area in your fortress and coffins
- Also nice to have: Animal industry for war animals, pet animals, leather harvesting, milk harvesting, egg harvesting
- Taking care of stockpiling trade goods also is a good practice, as they're not only for trading but also fullfill dwarfen needs (toys for kids, rings/earrings/bracelets/clothing will make dwarfs happier if they have them)


When everything's on a "Okay that works for now"-level, just start over, not with a new fortress but check on what of the mentioned things is mostly falling behind and/or easiest to upgrade.

It's pretty much the base cycle:
Take care of baseline needs -> Get mor dorfs -> take care of advanced needs -> improve on baseline needs -> Get more dorfs -> improve on advanced needs

While doing so, you're most likely already encountering:
- Goblin child snatchers you can kill/catch
- Elven caravans you can sack (death to all elves! Did you know you can make bolts from elven bone to use to shoot more elves to get mor elven bone to make more bolts to shoot more elves? =D), or trade with them although I don't know why anybody would actually do this (except to get exotic/giant animals that can then be trained as war animals and used against the next elven caravan)
- Your first Goblin or Undead Siege
- Your first Forgotten Beast

Things you want to 100% go for as soon as your fortress is at least half stable and economically gaining ground:
- Discover the cavern layer(s)
- Create artificial water sources inside your fortress (imho should even be done earlier)
- If you have access to lava, change your forge/smelter based economy to lava
- If you don't have access to lava, go find some

Most of the things above can be perfectly combined with digging deeper and deeper as, in the end, we all need to dig deep and do so most greedily

[CyberCobra]

along with what has been said above the "natural" progression idea is that you get a basic fort going, and then something goes wrong, you then learn to combat this problem real quick, or the fort dies. at this point you start a new fort and attempt to ensure that the problem does not occur again. then as your fort does better and better and becomes bigger and bigger without dying to some horrific calamity you get more demands from your dwarves as loose goals of progression and you just keep going like that untill you die or are satisfied with this fort.

overall the goals in the end are just.. making projects, things like "i want to try and make a fort in a haunted biome, or a volcano, or near a necromancer tower" or things like "i want to turn a desert into a lake, i want to make a tower that i can launch elves from, i want to make a big monster arena, i want to make a army of giant dingo's" and as you attempt those things complications occur and you are right back into the core loop.

thats the idea at any rate.

[Diarmuhnd]

Originally posted by Man Skinn:

I know this sounds weird but I don't really know actually what to do ....

Basically build/create your fortress and become the Mountain Home for all the Dwarfs for your culture.

And you can do it any way you want to, above or below ground, deep or shallow and everything in bnetween. Using water to generate power or magma to make deadly traps and smith weapons and armor to beggar the gods.

But then again you could be a real DWARF and dig deep.

Dig down past the 3 cavern layers, exploring them and surviving them, or just blocking them off and ignoring them. (note, during world creation you can turn of cavern invasions if you want an easier time or fear your rig can't handle the work load of potentially hundreds of invaders sometimes)

SPOILERS

Then dig a little deeper and find the most rare metal of all and discover that it hides a deadly secret that could destroy the world after it destroys your fortress if your not prepared.

Armok is pleased no matter how you decide to play.
Diggy diggy hole cheers, have fun

[Skizmo]

Dwarf Fort is such an open ended game with no 'win' state that finding purpose and challenges is one of the key aspects in playing the game. If it's your first fort, just try to get your feet wet and try out all the different mechanics and systems (Don't be afraid to use the wiki!). And don't be too distraught if something terrible happens. That's just dwarf life.

Whenever I play a fort I try to have an individual goal for the fort whether that be to slay as many forgotten beasts as I can, to build a huge library and write as many books, or to bring two of every milkable animal and try to make a giant castle out of cheese. (Think I'm going to do this one next) 🧀🏰

[unboundlopez]

Enjoy the game. Learn about your dwarfs. Build extraordinary structures. Make your dwarfs into necromancers. You can do so much, however if you're looking for a end game then set your goals and become the king of EVERYTHING until you the player feels like you have won.

Most importantly play and experience the game how you want.

[=M$= Oroberus]

Oh I totally forgot this one but as stated above, don't be shy and use the Wiki. DF has some mechanical complexity and depth that it pretty much is a 'wiki-game'

Even players that have played it for years will find things there they didnt know of. Especially if one of your industries doesn't seem to work, it's more likely that you've set it up incorrectly of inefficiently or just oversaw/forgot some interactions with oder inddustries that are not actually connected to the industry that#s falling short.

And if you want to test out some especially fun stuff, go check "Stupid Dwarf Trick" on the wiki :)

[Snickle1980]

I name my dwarves and follow their adventures. I'm basically god.
Down here, we mint coins and dwell upon the coming goblin invasion.
We train for that dark day.

We also make arts and crafts on tuesdays!

[Blitz4]

Originally posted by Man Skinn:

I know this sounds weird but I don't really know actually what to do. I start my fort, build some stockpiles, a tavern and bedrooms, and get a farm going. Ok, now what? I don't really understand the progression or in what way the game wants me to progress.

You. You're meant to lose. To die.

To be killed by your own severed arm that's come to life from the evil nearby.
http://www.dfst.org/en/stories/328

To get stepped on by a giant again and again. until you eat the heart of a dragon and win.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Losing

[Blitz4]

You should play on max difficulty and watch everyone die. You need to know what to protect yourself from in order to. You have to lose.

Ignore all safe advice. You want fun. You want to restart to do it better.

Embark in a Savage area. Try all three. Joyous Wilds, Untamed Wilds, and Terrifying.
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Surroundings

When starting the game it has the difficulty at Normal. No, put that on Hard.


You can pause anytime. And if you have any questions for your game. Don't ask in this forum, use the Discord which will reply faster.
https://discord.com/invite/kitfoxgames