Easiest way to maintain food and water?

[Itchy_Scrotbag]

Cheers

[Testikles]

Farming Plump Helmets inside. But you don't want water, Dwarfs don't like it. You need to set up a still for brewing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R59fLo2phig&ab_channel=Blind

[Bean]

Water is infinite if you have a brook a river or a light aquifer, if you don't you'll want to dig deep. For drink you want about four farms, maybe some extra on the surface

For food you want to use every trick you can. Gather plants on the surface if you have any, set up above ground farms as well. Get some hunters out there, a good kill can feed a lot of dwarves, also you can get some farming at the cavern layer to get extra

Then take your crafts and always always trade for food. You can never have too much food

[Vivisectus]

1: build a farmplot
2: set it to plump helmets
3: in the labors tab, assign a few dorfs who are good at planting to the job
4: Make sure you do not use plump helmets for cooking as you lose the seeds
5 optional: make potash and fertilize seasonally

With a 4x4 plot this will give you all the raw plump helmet your Dorfs can eat.

For drink: make a work order for Brew drink from plants. Set it to activate whenever there is less than 100 booze in your fort. Brewing plump helmets generates seeds, so it doesn't reduce your farming.

Then for variety, either trade for cheese and meat and process your purchases into lavish meals each trading season through a quick work order.

[Sinclair]

There is no one true way. For food, you have five sources:
- Farming: build one or more farm plots, at least 5x5 in size, set them to farm plump helmets year-round. Make sure to go to the kitchen menu and distable cooking with seeds and plants.
- Fishing: If you have a river, set one or more of your dwarves as fishers. Build the fishery workshop so the fish can be processed.
- Hunting: you need a crossbow and bolts. Bolts can be made out of wood in the craftsdwarf workshop, crossbows are made in the bowyer shop. Set a dwarf for hunting, give him some dogs. Build a butcher shop so that the meat can be processed. This is usually the least efficient way.
- Animal husbandry: buy or start with a bunch of mating pairs. Let them have kids, after a few years slaughter the excess animals, then let them repopulate. You need a butcher's workshop for processing the products.
- Import: make a craftsdwarf workshop and set a Create Rock Crafts job on repeat. Make a jeweler shop and cut the gems you find. Build the trade depot. Once a caravan comes, move your newly created goods to the depot for trading. Get a dwarf to be your broker. Buy the caravan's food and booze.

For booze, set up an automated order at the manager to make a batch of alcohol every time you run low. I have it set to that the brewer makes 100 booze when booze goes below 50. Adjust as you gain population. Remember to disable cooking with seeds and plants.

[The Former]

Skip the water and worry about maintaining alcohol. Sounds like a joke, but that’s legitimately what dwarves subsist on. They’ll live with water, but they’ll be unhappy and unproductive.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Rindenberg:

But you don't want water, Dwarfs don't like it. You need to set up a still for brewing.

Yes, he needs a still because healthy dwarves need alcohol. But they also need water. For hospitals, and for washing themselves, and afaik they also need a bit for drinking in the newer versions so that they don't get alcohol poisoning from only drinking booze.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Ni Sam Bith:

Skip the water and worry about maintaining alcohol. Sounds like a joke, it that’s legitimately what dwarves subsist on. They’ll live with water, but they’ll be unhappy and unproductive.

Sick or injured dwarves don't drink alcohol, only water.

[The Former]

Originally posted by Robert:

Originally posted by Rindenberg:

But you don't want water, Dwarfs don't like it. You need to set up a still for brewing.

Yes, he needs a still because healthy dwarves need alcohol. But they also need water. For hospitals, and for washing themselves, and afaik they also need a bit for drinking in the newer versions so that they don't get alcohol poisoning from only drinking booze.

Oh ♥♥♥♥ do they? I didn’t even think of that. Maybe it’s time I actually build a well…