I cannot dig down without hitting aquafiers!!!

[JakeandCake]

I swear to god I have made at least 5 settlements and every single one had an entire underwater lake under where ever I try to dig! And the worst part is, no matter how far I make it, I WILL ALWAYS FIND WATER!

[Fel]

Aquifer is nearly everywhere, the embark screen tells you about its presence as well.
If it's light aquifer then you can just dig your staircase through it and dig a layer from the walls then replace it with proper built walls (you can turn logs or stone into 4 blocks to make it much cheaper).
Only exposed natural walls produce water in the 4 cardinal directions and on the layer directly below.
If the aquifer is in the stone layers instead of the soil layers, you can also opt to smooth the rough walls to stop them from producing water.

The water that was produced while you were building the walls can evaporate on its own as long as it is at a depth of 1/7, so once you pierced through all of the aquifer, it can be a good idea to dig some corridors or a room at the bottom of the stairs.

Once you understand how to handle it, light aquifer really isn't much of an issue and it can even be a benefit since it can produce endless water in a completely safe place, meaning that you can get clean water for your injured dwarves pretty easily for example.

EDIT: If it's too much for you to handle, there are mods that disable aquifer.

[AlP]

Before you embark, the embark screen will tell you if the place has an aquifer, which will be light or heavy. The entire biome where that ground layer is will have that aquifer.

If it's a light aquifer, you can easily deal with it:

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Aquifer

[LFA]

Aquifer can be useful, and they can be very annoying.
You could choose a location that doesn't have them, you could use a DFhack function to remove them, or you can deal with them.
For the most part it's not super difficult, but it can be extremely annoying.
Smooth the stone or build some walls to prevent the water from bleeding through.

If you are planning to settle around, make sure to always skip at least one floor after you can still see some aquiferous walls, because water it will pour from the ceiling from the upper aquiferous rock as well.
To be honest it can be quite a pain.

You can work it to make it amenable if you have lots of dwarves, but if you have only a couple dozen or less it's probably best to leave these levels. Remember to always go another level down if you want to dig a floor beneath aquifers to settle

[Verdano]

You can custom select you embark location and select there "no aquifers"

[AlP]

Fun fact: digging and moving under aquifer ceilings gives dwarfs a happy thought about being near to a waterfall, when water drops on them.

[LFA]

Originally posted by AlP:

Fun fact: digging and moving under aquifer ceilings gives dwarfs a happy thought about being near to a waterfall, when water drops on them.

Yeah but that's so OP it's basically cheating bro

[Sumo]

"V" is the shortcut to smooth stone surfaces. Providing it's only a light aquifer, get your dwarfs to quickly smooth the surfaces shown with water droplets before it gets too out of hand.

Miners will be put off by rocks with the water droplet icon, and will automatically cancel an order to mine. Just be persistent, and give the order to dig straight away. Then, after having mined the selected area, get your dwarfs to smooth it.

Aquifers are great because it's good way of getting fresh water quickly.

[Fantastic Fwoosh]

Light aquifers are easy work, its mostly down to technique and it gives you a infinite supply of water if you can control the drainage. Things to try:

- Using blocks to isolate aquifer walls from your downward stair shafts
- Making manageable reservoirs using minecart drains (dumping facing a wall, taking care to ensure the water flows only 1 way to not get pushed) useful for wells.
- alternative forms of drainage to offmap that captures a set amount of water for irrigation without overflowing.

The mood-boost from waterfalls and opportunity to have your water supply be closed inside the fortress defences make them invaluable.

[Winter Rabbit]

Yes, they are really annoying, aquifers are all over the map, 6 aquifers deep in a row (!), the miners are stupid and cancel the order to dig every time - oh my God, how annoying this is! - And no benefit except fresh water. Here some amazing people admire the fact that they have water flowing. No one, including themselves, knows why they need this water. For the wounded, one well is enough; it is not needed for anything else.

There are, of course, dreams that in another 10 years of development they will figure out to turn on the “ban aquifers” button, or at least the “do not cancel orders to miners” button, but we won’t live to see it.

Only a DF mod developer in ancient times could do this, an art of programming that is too complex for today's game developers.

[vortex_13]

Originally posted by Winter Rabbit:

Yes, they are really annoying, aquifers are all over the map, 6 aquifers deep in a row (!), the miners are stupid and cancel the order to dig every time - oh my God, how annoying this is! - And no benefit except fresh water. Here some amazing people admire the fact that they have water flowing. No one, including themselves, knows why they need this water. For the wounded, one well is enough; it is not needed for anything else.

There are, of course, dreams that in another 10 years of development they will figure out to turn on the “ban aquifers” button, or at least the “do not cancel orders to miners” button, but we won’t live to see it.

Only a DF mod developer in ancient times could do this, an art of programming that is too complex for today's game developers.

You can literally embark in an area with no aquifer. There's no need to turn it off. Plus, you need water for farming and the aquifer is the easiest way to get water.

[Teirdalin]

Pump out the water and smooth the sides, or keep digging down and dig tunnels faster than the water fills, then while those flood, smooth the sides.
You also make a passive drain if you're fast enough if you dig to the edge, then smooth and fortify the edge block.

[Fel]

You don't even need to dig to the edges, just a big enough room at the bottom of the stairs after the aquifer is enough (water evaporates at 1/7 depth).