Dwarf Fortress : Heavy Aquifers

A guide on Aquifers, crossing and their uses.

Heavy / Varied Aquifer

If you are a newer player, I advise to embark on light aquifer and have a simple dig down with walling, if you are an experienced player, you know what to do already but, if you are very new and embark on a good site with heavy aquifer, this page will help you. At the least get the idea of what is to be done. See not all tiles just pump out rivers, but in case a tile does pump out water fast, we have a pump that takes this water and throws it elsewhere while our dwarfs wall that tile off. That's the whole idea of pump and blocks being kept ready. Also a very good tip is, do make a few beds while you are at it and place them in safe spot. Don't want dwarfs sleeping in aquifer. Yeah, the image will tell the rest.



Edit 1 :
Please zoom in a web-browser or download the image if you feel the text is way smaller or something.

1. aquifer absorbs water as well as pump it. This are the exact words from the wiki : " Although annoying, heavy aquifers can absorb an infinite amount of water, meaning they can function as a drain for anything above them ".
2. Safe-side, before direct down dig, cross check if there is an aquifer during the entire process on-going around the digging and walling. Praise the lord if there isn't an aquifer. If there is, you have to keep on pumping with a 6x3 pattern or 6x2 at least. 6x3 is luxury if there isn't a heavy aquifer block. but either way you gotta dig the 6x2 / 6x3 with walls surrounding em. Then repeat the entire process with a secondary pump. After z + 2 is done, dismantle pump on z + 1 and then yeah, next layer on-wards we go... I will accept the fact that making a direct wall is a ♥♥♥♥-up indeed but I would say, before the z+3 dig I'd rather wall to be safe than get submerged suddenly if there is that flooding block. So the self 3x3 wall block. Also, if you must there are mods to completely disable aquifers, there are better methods than this as well, just that, I am sharing only this one here.

Aquifer Uses Section

A representation of a muddied room along with a cavern opened and blocked.



A representation of a room being muddied using the setup in the last section of the guide written page.



Added new concept for utilizing water flow to produce energy.

[Sniper(+)]

Thank you most kindly !

[Jarlaxle Baenre]

Dude as someone playing for now literally decades... *slow golf clap* well done suh. Well done.

[Sniper(+)]

Guide updated with new concept. I hope it helps.

[Sniper(+)]

Yes

[NimrodX]

Is it ok if I link to this one?

[Sniper(+)]

Oh not near heavy aquifers, light is totally fine

[Renjie_K]

I love the notes and drawings both a solid explanation of why a nooblet like me shouldnt be near water of any kind or depth and a good read. XD

[Aneyh]

Excellent work lad! May we strike the earth a little more carefully...

[Sniper(+)]

thankyou

[t6jesse]

I like the mad scribblings