Dwarf Fortress - Your First Fortress Tutorial Lets Play | 01 (Aquifer and Farming)

[@BlindiRL]

Save file download link dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16388

[@JamesT17z]

sorry ,but how do i use it , i extract it on save folder but nothing ingame

[@BlindiRL]

@@JamesT17z Extract it into the save folder and restart the game.

[@JamesT17z]

@@BlindiRL thx for helping , actually my bad didnt have the same version lmao

[@bojenkins4545]

You don't happen to have an earlier save to share so that we can build alongside you this episode do you? Or is there a seed or anything like that in DF? Thanks for the help, this will really help me get started!

[@StelznerGaming]

How does one get the seed from this?

[@zachspringer314]

I decided I wanted a well near my hospital, so I rerouted a surface river down 10z. I underestimated water. I flooded down half of my fortress, but two brave heroes, Edem and Catten were able to dig out a drain. Unfortunately, in order to complete the drain they had to mine into the flooded area and were overcome by the torrent. I lost several more in recovering their bodies. They all now share an honored memorial tomb so no one forgets their brave sacrifice.

[@mattkomlofske8912]

A truly dwarfy tale!!

[@crowhaveninc.2103]

Even if you think you are prepared, the first time you're playing with water will always go wrong. I learned that the hard way as well :P

[@RaineAndrews1]

@@crowhaveninc.2103 Agreed. TIL light aquifers don't absorb water... After I channeled a river through my tavern and down into said aquifer. I had a floodgate in place for maintenance and the like. By the time I realized my fort was flooding... It was too late. On the plus side, they were sooo happy before they drowned!

[@crowhaveninc.2103]

@@RaineAndrews1 Very Dorfy indeed xd

[@Devin1364]

Damn maybe my river idea wasn’t a good one, I did the same thing expect I flooded my area so quickly

[@thecrabmaestro564]

"Beds are only made of wood" tell that to the dwarvern child that had a strange mood in my fortress and made a platinum and armadillo bone bed worth around 10k

[@chumon1992]

Kids got expensive tastes.

[@303Thatoneguy]

Only rimworld lets you build beds outta other materials and it actually has a meta use when you make rock beds.

[@Zirkalaritz]

7:40 I laughed for a good while when you gave this explanation about treefelling as it reminded me of my first ever contact with the Steam version of DF. I am a veteran player, had a *big* DF phase that eventually mellowed out for a few years. Seeing the game again pop up in Steam fueled my desire to play again. And so I did. Being a bit rusty and having a brand new UI I figured I might aswell just play the tutorial and see how it was made. Generate a small world, and I get the "play now?" tutorial prompt. "huh, no carefully prepared embark... I guess the tutorial will choose a sensible starting location and wagon. Let's see how it goes". So i clicked it. The game set me up for a tutorial partly on an evil biome right off the bat. Instant _fun_ as they say. So there I was, trying to relearn the game before anything worse came to happen. First thing first, chop some wood from the untainted part of the map aaaand... a dwarf has died crushed under a tree. Not a minute into the tutorial. And before I had finished laughing it reanimated and killed the rest of the crew. I can only imagine if this happened to a new player, what a legendary first contact it would be with the good old mantra that *losing is fun*

[@robobuilder1335]

The exact same thing happened to me! The tutorial plopped me in a spot where half of the landscape was covered in clusters of eyes

[@Muck006]

@@robobuilder1335 It sounds like the tutorial does exactly what it needs: TEACH ABOUT LOSING / DEAD DWARVES!

[@DangustheChunk]

This happened to me however my dwarves died to yaks they were trying to hunt. It was my very first fortress and I laughed extremely hard seeing that they came back and killed everyone else

[@popovski4385]

for FUN'S sake that sounds like FUN

[@w花b]

Project zomboid, dwarf fortress... It's all about loving to lose or in other words: masochists.

[@leroyp2212]

You are the reason that I'm actually able to understand and enjoy this absolute gem of a game! Thank you so much for all your work and helping newbies like me

[@wakeNskate19]

Totally, really appreciate the hard work Blind!

[@KatoNamus]

Same here

[@chashagin1]

Absolutely - same here. Your videos have been essential to learning DF.

[@mattkomlofske8912]

@@chashagin1 The new interface helps a lot, and this is coming from a guy who's been playing on and off for about 10 years.

[@renatopereira2315]

For sure! Awesome stuff Blind has going on here. I could watch several hour long episodes everyday in this new format!

[@Peronioz]

After literal years of reading the wild stories about the game but never having the mental fortitude to play it, I picked up this version and it's amazing beyond every description I've heard. My first death: a cat climbed up a tree, couldn't get down so it started making so much noise the carpenter tried to kill it. It failed to kill it with a crossbow so it tried to climb up with a ladder. Once up there it also got stuck because a monkey stole the ladder. They started to starve, so they decided to eat the cat, raw. It became bloodthirsty, jumped down the tree, broke both legs then and attacked a child, which killed it with a pinecone, and grew up to become the mayor.

[@canadianbutt275]

Dont really get the game. I think I'm playing it like Oxygen Not Included, which is wrong. idk

[@userfaulty]

At about 36:00 you may want to ensure that you have a 3 tile wide path to the trade depot so that your visiting traders can bring wagons. Otherwise they will only appear with what they can carry because the wagon can't make it to the depot.

[@head0fmob]

his next video showing the trade, the coming trader seemed to be able to unload his item in his trade depot despite it is not on the surface (must be entered from stair), I thought this will fail the trade???

[@edwardwester5429]

@@head0fmob that's because the early traders bring smaller wagons.

[@jokiu4]

A friend of mine really got into this game and wanted me and other friends to also get into because he plans on making a Succesion game like Boatmurdered with us. It's the first time I'm playing a game with such complexity and it's hard to get into as a newcomer. I can honestly see how I can really enjoy this game, but it would take a lot for me to be able to actually enjoy it without feeling stressed. This video series will really help me ease into it and enjoy the game as a whole. Thank you for this.

[@fum716]

My favorite thing was my first attempt on steam edition, my wood cutter lived a total of 3 mins before he cut down a tree that was next to a small pond. He decided that instead of being on the safe side of it (where the land is) he would try to wade into the water to get a good angle (I was trying to chop it not even for the wood, it was just in the way of my irrigation system and I wanted it to look nice) He cuts the tree, the ground gives out, causing him to sink in and drown. I only noticed when it said he’d been missing for weeks. I completely ignored the surface collapse because it had been happening all over way to the north of me so I figured it was just the area next to the river.

[@dzanderallison]

Following your tutorials, I have run into a hilarious problem: the starting fortress is so nice that I am flooded with guests, migrants, etc. to the point that nobody does anything because fortress government can't keep up with everyone and they all just hang out in the tavern, brawling and leaving the corpses to stink up the dancefloor. Nobody seems to care enough to move them or stop socializing; they just get into worse and worse moods.

[@GhGh-gq8oo]

Reminds me of something…

[@WalknTalknStevnHawkn]

we live in a dwarfciety

[@dwane4796]

Huh, I’ve never encountered being too good in this game. I got to 80 with no unhappy people, but I haven’t seen them kill each other.

[@magnus0017]

As someone who voted for you to continue the old fort . . . . after you had decided to make the new one technically, but, wanted to say, this is a fantastic tutorial and a great start for a new series. Always looking forward to more, whatever you do; finally being able to play this game has been a treat, everything you've done has only made it better.

[@JChrister]

just minding my own business trying to learn the game by following this tutorial, when a necromancer just appears out of no where.

[@robertlewis1439]

This is so helpful. Giving context for why you are doing something in a play through is so clarifying. Only been playing this since the Steam version so a total noob, but you've really helped me get started! Keep up the good work!

[@Hazuls]

29:01 can you imagine getting a job where your 'office' is just a lone chair in the middle of a hallway?

[@combatcorncob6334]

This series is a lifesaver. Your ability to clearly and simply explain how to navigate this game has helped me get my footing more than anything else I've found so far. Thanks!

[@Runsofourlives]

Thank you for restarting, the extra explanations and context are very helpful.

[@trevorflynn3880]

Started playing DF a couple weeks ago and have been very slowly learning. I already learned SO many things from just this first video in the series. I can't wait to watch the rest and get rolling. Loving all of this. Thanks so much for all the time and effort!

[@BlindiRL]

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! Hope you find the rest of it helpful as well.

[@Lithane97]

You should really use the button next to the minimap with an arrow pointing at an x to set the f key hotkeys to zip your view around the fort to preset locations, allows you to set a location and press the corresponding f key to instantly move there, instead of just f1 to take you to the wagon. You can quickly move up or down floors without needing to scroll up and down.

[@rikbasting6952]

Thank you. I never heard of Dwarf Fortress before the Steam launch, nor did I ever hear about a KZbinr/Twitch named Blind. I love your easy to follow guides and you really make this game more manageable to play. Thank you for providing me (up until now) with 20h of fun Dwarfen gameplay and the hours of content about them.

[@rightwing707]

A solid foundation for newcomers and that's coming from one! I did manage to figure out a good chunk of this on my own, but didn't think to dabble in the nobles menu let alone build a throne. I'm particularly happy I figured out farms, managers, brokers and bookkeepers since they're clearly core features. Maybe now I'll survive more than two years and get a start on my military! Seriously, cheers for this my man.

[@wonkiemonkie3189]

Hello just started playing dwarf fortress, and out all I guide videos I saw this one of the most comprehensive beginner guide. I actually feel confident playing the game thank you!

[@beeRock115]

Your way of teaching is engaging, you have a great sense of knowledge and are engaging. One of the best playthroughs i've seen. Thank you!

[@Wanderlust2430]

Excellent work as usual. My first experience was back around 2011 for a week or so before life kept me from continuing to play. So these have helped dust off a lot of memories and skills

[@sgt.doughnut5918]

What you might want to do, for those of us who want to play along exactly, you might want to provide your seed so we can get the same map as you. Just a thought, loving these tutorials man.

[@KJBO1611]

Thanks!

[@BlindiRL]

[@dallashill23]

I love this series so far because I used to play DF years ago and I got quite good but stopped playing for a while, so this is a good refresher

[@badgermost]

Thank you for the effort. Restarting was a very good move indeed.

[@kevingereau1550]

I love this series! Thank you for putting your time into this. I know Im not the only one when I say that I appreciate your efforts into this. 🙂

[@gregathol]

This is easily one of the best introductory videos on Dwarf Fortress. Big fan of these and the streams.

[@thebestever7788]

I've been watching a lot of DF lets plays and tutorial and this is far and away the best one

[@BlindiRL]

[@totesmcpreesh7617]

I've made like 6 different worlds striking Earth and getting lost and messing things up. Enjoying your work. Thank you. 20 years of development. I'm stoked.

[@interruptured]

You channel and videos are fantastically detailed and informative, as well as very impressively thought out. Thank you for all the effort you put into this.

[@shezyam460]

watched lots of tutorial vids and have to say yours is the most comprehensive and detailed

[@freaktopianexile2083]

Splendid tutorial! I've lost 2 dwarves while chopping trees, b/c somehow *within* the trunk there was a hidden floor of soil... depending on agility I think, sometimes the dwarves get away when it collapses - then I get a message telling me they're fighting a dust cloud... sometimes they drop unconcious and recover, and then there were those I lost... I haven't been able to figure out how to spot the danger beforehand, though. Looking very forward to learning more about aquifers!

[@user-ih8jc8mk7z]

I wanna say I love your videos. Thank you so much for these tutorials. I've wanted to get into dwarf fortress for so long, but i just hadnt had the mental energy to properly understand the asci version. Youve helped me and my dwarves more than i can express Thank you

[@unst3rblich399]

I'm extremely glad to have found your videos, and grateful to you for making them. As a newcominger to DF since Steam release, I'm fascinated with it. That fascination is frequently coupled with frustration as I doom one fledging outpost after another under my clumsy and misguided (while well-meaning) attempts to starting a good fortress. This first video has already been of tremendous insight.

[@BlindiRL]

Welcome aboard! Glad people are still finding use in these videos a year later.

[@AynenMakino]

I much enjoy these videos, but they could really benefit from having selectable chapters on the specific topics you address. So you can get to them quickly. With the amount of information in Dwarf Fortress, you'll want to re-watch a lot of specific things a few times before you've fully absorbed them. To do that, you have to know what information is in which video, and where exactly.

[@sectix]

He added them!

[@dadtier564]

Ohhhhh YES! I hadn’t started your other series yet, so this is PERFECT timing!

[@Envengerx]

I love these kind of tutorials and explained videos with jump cuts in them. As some one who never played the game I want to get a feel for it, how the early mid and late game is like. Hope you continue this series

[@alexh8809]

My lady bought me this game for christmas, and i immediately searched up tutorials for how to play. Your videos were the first i saw, so i hopped in a bath and put it on. Fantastic and informative content. I will most likely be watching all of this series. One question i do have, because it for whatever reason super irks me - How do you remove those piles of stone and gems all over the place? Its making my ocd go nuts lol

[@leespiderpod]

Thanks, Definitely one of the best videos so far, looking forward to this series

[@kingblinn]

Liking this new series a lot! Somehow I find these types of videos still very entertaining even though I've played DF on and off for 10+ years

[@DerKaese]

Thanks for the video! Didn't know about the ability to specify the amount of mugs in the meeting room. Well, that, and the 7000+ other things in DF I still have no idea about.

[@TheNickman007]

This is an excellent start, thank you so much! I only just started this game yesterday and to say the depth of it is overwhelming would be a complete understatement!

[@tyleramacker7223]

Wow that was fast since the poll, awesome. I haven't played in a while, so I'm looking to this for a refresher. Good stuff

[@turn2frog214]

this video is really saving me. keep up the amazing work and videos, and thank you'

[@thonkk-o6u]

The first tutorial series started out amazing, I was able to understand the game thanks to you! Episode 3 and 4 felt a little rushed, but I'm very glad to see this new series! Thanks for doing it for the community! Happy to see your channel growth, you derserve it!

[@o0Moodi0o]

Conscise and well explained. You've put all the necessary tips for a good start in under an hour. I've also noticed the effort you put in a script and progress you've made with editing and manner of speaking - keep it up!

[@furiousbeast5484]

Liked and Subbed, your tutorials are a GODSEND to new players like me. They are incredibly helpful and i would like to thank you!

[@Joe_14_14]

I have tried to play DF over the last week, and watching this video has inspired me. I have so much to learn, but I honestly want to get to your level of expertise. Looks incredibly fun.

[@codyscottmac]

This is so helpful seriously thank you so much. I've been wanting to get into DF so badly but it's very overwhelming at times, so having you walkthrough everything makes learning the game a lot less frustrating.

[@solmateusbraga]

Love building with Jet and Chalk for that black & white look ;). Also, had a whole layer once with rock salt and microcline (pastel pink and cyan) my fort was sooo beautiful!

[@MangoCrack55]

Thanks for putting this video out. Just a few weeks into my journey with DF and the learning curve is steep

[@BlindiRL]

Enjoy it! If you need extra help my discord is great and I'll be streaming today as well.

[@JoshuaClarked]

God, thank you. I just grabbed this off steam and I don't think I've ever had so many tabs open in chrome. Things were NOT going well at all. Happy to restart following this fantastic tutorial.

[@GameStormerGX]

I'm excited to watch through this new tutorial. Understandably, the first time around some things were left out such as getting all productions ready in preparations for Strange Moods. But all of your content has been extremely useful for me to get started with this game. Can't wait to see where this fort goes. When it does inevitably go to shit, I would love to see that as well!

[@xyneto5947]

Really really helpful, fast and to the point. Super series!

[@bison_42]

thank you fort his tutorial fortress

[@luisquecedo7385]

You could use the feature to find embark locations to show it to people and show how can anyone look easilly for a spot that have the attributes you seek, like Aquifers.

[@pavelperina7629]

I don't know how they are useful. I found some, but they are sort of limited source of water. Some are even drained or they are able to fill 10 floors of stairs, but when i want to use diagonal digging trick to make a well, it sometimes contains 1/7 of water.

[@Lithane97]

@@pavelperina7629 From what I understand, the aquifer will slowly generate water, so even though it's only showing you a 1/7 water, if you get several aquifer tiles feeding into a reservoir, you will be able to accumulate infinite water, it's just fairly slow unless you were to have a lot of aquifer tiles feeding it. If water is only 1/7 it will evaporate though, so it may be evaporating faster than it can accumulate, so you have to reach the tipping point to start gathering water.

[@lautarotrefilio4773]

@@pavelperina7629 what you can do is dig into the aquifer, leave it open and make a pond zone, make them fill it up and the aquifer will keep it full

[@shizzlewhizzle3861]

This is an awesome idea! It has really helped my play through majorly. Thank you so much for doing this!

[@jameskennedy9232]

I’m now about 50 hours in and still picked up a few good tidbits here. Putting the trading post underground never even crossed my mind, for instance. Or turning off visitors at that first tavern to quash them. Also I’m still building too much like a human, straight lines everywhere (other than temples and tombs), I really need to think more like a dwarf, it’s so much more aesthetically pleasing. Finally, I’ve had garbage luck with maps. It’d be terrific to get a waterfall. This map is great. Good video, good process, good format.

[@SteveFisher0571]

Embark where 2 or more rivers meet on the map to get a waterfall

[@bluefyr22]

I'm so excited to get back into this game following these

[@StAjoraGames]

Just an FYI, I found that dwarves will smooth floors under beds, just not some other stuff like pedestals and statues. I only bring this up because in the other video you specified beds couldn't be smoothed under. Thanks for the videos man. o7

[@YawningTiger]

YOU ARE incredible! Thanks for the tutorial! Can't wait to get cracking with my own DF!

[@Impyre]

I've transitioned away from using wood for barrels and primarily use jet if it's available. For reference, stone pots weight one-third as much as a barrel would if it were made of stone. Being the lightest non-economic stone at 1320kg/m3, cut by two-thirds it becomes 440kg/m3. Considering that *most* woods weigh in around 600kg/m3, on average jet pots are considerably lighter. In fact, jet pots are even lighter than ceramic pots; and there are only 5 barrel types that are lighter than the jet pot... feather tree, papaya, candlenut, kapok, and willow. Even assuming you had an abundance of those materials, it makes more sense to me to save those for bins, which cannot be made from stone at all. Also, if you're curious, you can look at a raw lump of stone or log to check its weight and get an idea how they compare. I just made a test pot, then compared its empty weight against the weight of most of my empty barrels.

[@lamborn3D]

Settled in a place with no aquifer because it had a flux stone layer and lots of metals. Thanks to this video, I was able to turn the little brook in the opposite corner of the map from my base into a nearby water source!

[@DedicatedAngler]

My brother recommended I check you out as I was finding the difficulty / complexity overwhelming.

[@maxmustermann-hx3fx]

This should be worth 6 ECTS. No but seriously this is so complex it feels like studying. But it is really fun!

[@Dweesil]

This episode was great! Really looking forward for the rest of them :D

[@Norantio]

You have really outdone yourself with these videos, thank you so much.

[@sorlacehT]

Thinking about giving this game a try, videos like this make me want consider buying this game! Thanks

[@RedEyeLordofFire]

You can use work orders even if your manager doesn't have an office. So long as you have a small number of dwarves in your fort.

[@ughuggy3848]

Awesome. Really enjoying your tutorial. Not as basic as other ones, so it remains interesting without making me feel stupid. haha. Keep them coming.

[@PumpkinDog33]

haha playing your series like a DF... sometimes better to just start over and do it better. love it!

[@BlindiRL]

That's the plan!

[@TheLukeSchnabel]

Loving this! Dude Grats to you in capitalizing on this games steam release, your effort is gonna make you a bag! Imagine playing dwarf fortress with near endless possibilities and actually being paid for it! When you get bored with farming, time to start a dwarves crusade! Bored with combat? Time to build a master crafting fortress! Done with crafting? Time to start digging the largest fortress you have ever seen filled to the brim with traps and resources to allow you to keep digging forever!

[@TalkingSoup]

i just started and i have absolutely no idea what i'm doing so i'm here watching every single beginner's guide i can find

[@Sirkrow96]

Cheers mate - video was useful. Was a bit overwhelmed upon starting this game as the tutorial only really covers the usage of stonecutter and carpenter workshops.

[@orlondok]

Wow ... a VERY cool embark area in this one ... I Love it when you get starting areas like that ... lots of places to dig ... heh.

[@alexistoran2181]

There's actually a long-standing bug that makes dwarf Karens talk to the expedition leader instead.

[@bungus87]

I appreciate all the work you're putting into your tutorials :)

[@coolfish420]

Just wanted to thank you for these bite sized tutorials. They really help!

[@axiomaticanarchy7517]

About the mugs in coffers thing near the end of the video. It seems mugs inside of coffers are held for staff to serve drinks in. A secondary stockpile nearby of just finished goods mugs of the material you want stored there can fix this and have dwarves serving themselves.

[@metestrongman6270]

I wish I met with this game earlier but hey I find your channel and thanks a lot for the video I'll watch all of the guides and advice you to all my friends LONG LIVE THE DWARFS

[@boomshanka4667]

Thanks for all your work, helpful and enjoyable

[@danielbell1820]

Thank you for these tutorials, total life savers!

[@GuiFerreira674]

Okay, you got me! I'll subscribe

[@BlindiRL]

Got em

[@redshoehart]

Thanks a lot for making these tutorial series!

[@toobin8r]

Recently got into the game, been using the mussel shells my fisherdwarf has been collecting to flood the market with 10-30 value jewelry (think I still have about 500-something shells not being used in spite of that), so I’ve got a massive amount of cheap items to sell when it’s trading season, and I’m saving the gems for when I start regularly getting masterwork-grade stuff

[@itworkss]

You’ve got great videos man. You’re a good teacher, too.

[@futureisnow236]

Super helpful to start a game for a newcomer. Thanks a lot

[@not_thomas8249]

Setting plump helmuts to only brew will save my next fortress

[@quentinbonafede4237]

You are why I can play this game, thank you!

[@nytrouz_original]

thanks I was soo confused

[@BlindiRL]

Happy to halp!

[@TheRetroGamers]

Making a large world is fairly quick and easy. Finding a place to settle down in a large world, hard.

[@TheErusPrime]

I'm gonna be honest I figured Aavak would have had a video out first day. But he didn't so now I'm watching your playlist and I'm diggin it. This is gonna be a great series.

[@reivercaptain510]

I've always wanted to play a game like this, but woo, it's a tough one. Thanks for the insight, Blind.

[@commiecat5879]

Importantly gems are super lightweight for their value, It's hard to sell anything made out of stone to the first caravan while a couple of bins will be able to buy as much as half their stock

[@sadket6746]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. Now i have the begining of a fortress running. Waiting for your next video '-'

[@StimmR]

Good on you for updating old work 👍

[@sonjaquan5775]

That is a beautiful valley to embark to.

[@saber5694]

I've found that you don't need an office to make work orders as long as you have a manager. They are however not happy about not having an office