THE CAVERNS - Basic Guide Tutorial DWARF FORTRESS

My Patreon: / icongaming
Here is my PayPal-Account Donations are very welcome:
www.paypal.com...
Or Buy me a Coffee, if that's more your cup of tea: www.buymeacoff...
Link To My Tutorials Playlist for Dwarf Fortress: • DWARF FORTRESS - Tutor...
My Twitch (streams happening regularly, follow me for notifications!): / justanic0n
Join my Discord, chat and miss no new episodes: / discord
Twitter (All Streams get posted here when they air): / gamingic0n
And last but not least, check out my Facebook!: / justanicon
This is a Guide for Dwarf Fortress about The Caverns, Tips, showing some Let's Play Playthrough Tutorial. This is the unmodded (Vanilla) Steam Release Version.

[@UnknownSquid]

I had a fun time with the monster slayers, as a new player. When I first broke into the caverns earlier than expected and saw some nasty things I didn't like the look of, I immediately walled it off again and just left it like that for a good while. I did still start getting monster slayers requesting residence though. A lot of them. I kept accepting all of them, and as a year or two passed, I started having food problems, and realised that almost half my entire fort's population was just bored monster slayers hanging around the tavern doing nothing. They were also all really moody due to unmet needs regarding practising a martial skill or seeing some action, etc. So I decided that regardless of my overly convoluted plans for a trap hall being ready or not, is was time to bust down that wall and let them finally go do their thing. And so I unleashed around 40ish bored monster hunters into the caverns simultaneously. Was a total bloodbath of them curb stomping every crundle in sight, tearing apart giant olms, and getting their heads bitten off by cave ogres or giant cave spiders. It worked out pretty well overall. The monster hunter population declined and took some strain off my food and drink, and the more veteran survivors continued to roam around, tending to serve as an early warning mechanism so that I could assemble my military against anything more scary.

[@MajinStrach]

TL;DR Collect monster hunters like pokemon and when you have a small village send em in like battle royale(the film)

[@titanicpat1275]

I am new to Dwarf Fortress. and I have been "New to Dwarf Fortress" on and off for about 15 years. This is really helpful!

[@GoblinDad-Nightmode]

This is a great topic for me - I'm at the stage where I know a lot of the technical detail but less clear of how to make overall progress with my fort. What I'd really like is an overall 'roadmap' for fortress development, so something like this for breaching the magma sea, moving magma, dealing with guilds, temples, optimising the workforce when you have 100s of dorfs, and then something on the Circus and FUN.

[@nutwick7619]

dwarffortresswiki.org/images/e/e6/FlowchartDF.png

[@Tetarkall]

There is no roadmap. The game is definitively non-linear in any way. You pretty much have to set your goals for yourself! I love it personally!

[@I3orrovv]

@@Tetarkall I disagree. There is a clear logical progression to DF centered around what resources you acquire in the early game and how you decide to spend them.

[@Tetarkall]

@@I3orrovv To be fair, I am still figuring the game out. Im brand new to it. When i first started I would have massacres happen, flood my fortress on accident, run out of resources. Now, i find myself retiring mostly successful, well defended forts so that i can try a new layout. Again, love the game so much!

[@I3orrovv]

@@Tetarkall I am still fairly new myself! I find that when I pick my goals early and move towards them by allocating early resources, I am much more successful.

[@Oroberus]

Mosnter Slayers are also a great source for mining Slayerite, just as Goblins are great for mining Goblinite!

[@CreamAle]

Counter point.. DO, breach into the caverna as soon as possible. BUT also wall up the entrance to said cave at all z levels as soon as possible. Getting fungus growth going early is big for your animal farms and going away from the surface. Once you have your armies and visitors, then go for it, rebreach the walls built and let them have fun in the caves.

[@omikrondraconis5708]

There is another method for cavern exploration: a pasture with a cat. Get it down there, close off the way back into the fort, remove the pasture to get even the most compliant cat to wander and watch the discovery announcements come in 😸

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yeah, when I recorded this I wasn't aware of the powerful dwarven cat cavern geologists. It's a modern and effective dwarven science indeed :D

[@TinyAnnieLeonhart]

You can get invaded by underground people when breaching any cavern layer. My advice is to make one REALLY long corridor with cage traps and catch them. Don't disarm them just yet. Put a handful of them into a single cage linked to a lever into a room at the end of your trap corridor. And put a puppy on a chain in front of the cage. When some big, trap-avoiding critter wanders into your tunnel to go after the puppy, you pull the lever and let out your little invader friends. They are usually well armed and skilled enough to kill the big nasties. When the way into your fortress is blocked, the survivors will attempt to go back into the cavers and will promptly get caught in your cage traps again. Rinse and repeat.

[@gunkshotpoison]

I am thankful to be reaping the benefits of this New Age of Dwarf Fortress. When I got into sim games, I kept hearing about the "progenitor" game. "It's amazing but it's so hard to learn." That sounded like a challenge, and for a couple of weeks I did bash my head against the wall and tried to have Fun. Learning about stockpiles and squads and Z levels is hard when you're also learning how to even see the game. I could so clearly see the grand potential of this game, but I didn't have the time and interest to keep pushing through. Now I get to come back to this game with so many updates and quality of life and visuals and optimization and I am reaping the benefits of this New Age of Dwarf Fortress. I also know the basic basics and don't have to take DF 101 (how to mine, how to make zones, how to correctly set up stock piles) and I get to have fun with DF 102 (channeling water, pump stacks, trap rooms, dwarf quality of life). Now with so many KZbin tutorials coming out every day, I get new ideas and inspiration about what new project my Dwarves will explore. Cheers Man.

[@greenteadisease]

Exactly what I was looking for! Just started to explore cavern layer. Thanks

[@xLisranda]

While almost true about building destroyers not being able to destroy hatches/grates/etc from the level below, there's a fine detail missed. They CAN destroy from the tile below IF they can path-find to it on the other level. They DONT have to walk all the way on that path and get to the other side, they can just straight up destroy it from below as long as the pathfinder can generate a path to the other side. So if they can take a 20 minute convoluted de-tour and generate path in your base through an open hatch on another cavern level they will just hulk-smash their way straight in.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Thanks, I had no clue!

[@Jonas_Fox]

I'd love to see a video on how to plan and manage a monster hunter's tavern, something that would let the guests do their thing without leaving the wider fort exposed all the time. 🤔

[@crisptos251]

Very glad I watched this video. I just encountered the caverns for the first time yesterday and at the moment there’s wide open access to my base and two monster slayers going ham down there killing everything they see. Definitely gonna fix the wide open access part

[@0hiMark12]

Thinking about the caverns made me realize that I'm surprised light levels aren't a factor in this game. Maybe it stems from the original DF where that kind of thing could be awkward to implement visually xD

[@Ic0nGaming]

I like to vibe with the idea that dwarves have extraordinary darkvision. Still doesn't explain the monster hunters being able to perfectly see in pitch black darkness, but maybe we will get light sources in the future? I'd really love it for sure!

[@o2CleaR2c]

7:57 LOL "who does that? that is, that's so amazingly dumb!"

[@dalehruszecky9085]

I love your voice and explaination, it's like Christoph Waltz explaining dwarf fortress to me 😁👌❤

[@kirbyone]

Another thing I noticed in a recent game is that in addition to cave moss starting to spawn everywhere I also started getting underground vermin spawn everywhere too. Breaching the bottom layer of caverns o started getting creepy crawlies spawning all over all my food stockpiles so I made a vermin catcher and made them useful 😉

[@astrid2432]

best solution for a "door" to your cavern: the good old bridge can't be destroyed, can only work via lever, so you have full control about when it's open or closed and it completly seals off the place aswell bonus fact, as it can work as an dwarfen atom smasher aswell

[@s.anonyme6855]

A drawbridge is the way to go to isolate your fortress from caverns. Easy building and can be connected to a lever. Cannot be destroyed by any creature if it's raised.

[@meltybagle]

Draw bridges also indestructible when they raise up, it work as a wall of one tile height no matter how long it is, if you link it with the lever or pressure plates you can control it being raise or down, just be aware that anything(items/creatures) on the same tiles of the bridge will literally 'reduce to atom' when it moved, so maybe build a door and lock it when you want to control the bridge, this plus the indestructible part is a bit less immersive, but it's like dwarf physic I think

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yeah, Bridges seem to be the most effective way to wall something off. At least I haven't found anything more durable yet. Except regular walls, but these are just "as indestructible" as a raised bridge, so actually worse off.

[@ThatOliveMrT]

Unless you get a dragon that can melt it!! Artifact doors are immune though

[@trevorserpas781]

Just a heads up, cavern 1 is a lot easier than the rest, 2 military dwarfs with basic skills and gear training in the entrance is enough to secure it

[@johnbodycombe267]

Thanks for all the great tutorials!

[@Ytinasniiable]

Fun fact: if you play with enemies turned off, the kobolds and goblins seem to leave you alone, but monsters and such from caves can and will still wreak havoc, so you still want a squad And I was wondering why my dwarves were automatically exploring the caves

[@__OS__]

Ah yes, tbh I liked to learn on-site that monsters can fly above some walls, if there is no ceiling

[@imissedagain1518]

So if I am understanding the video, the first two cavern layers are around elevation 5-10? I didn't find caverns until around -60. Would that be the more dangerous third layer? Learning a lot from your videos. Please keep it up!

[@Ic0nGaming]

There are wild variances depending on your biome. -60 sounds more like you skipped the first layer somewhere (which isn't totally unusual). The easiest way to discern the layers are the trees. If there's only Tower-Cap and Fungiwood trees around, you are on Layer 1 (these are the only trees to be found on L1). If there's Nether Cap and/or Blood Thorn around you've hit Layer 3 already. All the other trees to be found are not helpful cause they appear on L2 and L3 respectively. Hope this helps! I'm gonna do an advanced guide in the future where I'll explain those details more, didn't wanna bloat the first video with too much information.

[@moonwarden6473]

I built my volcano base at around z 30, my first cavern layers is at z -30 ( ° - °) At least the demons take a really long time to reach me

[@Ic0nGaming]

@@ionwolfhelm Yeah I noticed the Wikipedia I quoted there is a bit inaccurate, although many of my embarks had their first layer around that height. Any sentence beginning with "not wanting to" is by the way proposing the exact opposite. Mistakes happen, I take criticism without problems, but "wildly inaccurate" is a harsh overexaggeration. Making Tutorials is a hard job and sometimes you mess up with informations. Happens to the best of us. No need to be a d*ck about it when somebody messes up though - just my opinion.

[@imissedagain1518]

Just wanted to let you know you were 100% correct. I went back and started mining on lvl 7 and the first block opened up the caverns. I some how stair drilled in the prefect spot to miss the caverns. So now I have hatches securing the lowest section of caves and another lever controlling another hatch for the upper caves. I understand there might be some misinfo. The wiki for DF isn't very detailed for a game that has been out for so long and has such a big following. *shrugs* Guess everyone was busy playing DF to fill in the Wiki.

[@keithgreen1263]

i have not looked around in them yet, i walled them off soon as i found the caverns, will wait till im rady to go in before i take the walls down.

[@BusinessMinded-c8s]

Thank you so much for explaining :).

[@DeadlyYellow]

Reanimator biomes make caverns super Fun, especially when not immediately breached.

[@rodotz9737]

I tried to get to the caves, but no matter where I want to go down, there is always water...

[@Ic0nGaming]

Should be Aquifer what's holding you back. Light Aquifers (the ones which don't immediately fill up with water) are usually easy to breach: You need to smooth all walls around the staircase (you can ignore diagonal tiles, they don't count) or replace them with constructed walls if you cannot smooth the material. This method keeps the water away and you can keep digging.

[@foodomanthemagnificent2650]

I like to use floodgates for my major entrances. Is that better than a door?

[@Ic0nGaming]

I don't know if a floodgate is more resilient than a door. If anything, it'll increase the time the building destroyer will need to tear it down, but it won't stop them. Only raised drawbridges provide full on safety (they behave like walls and are mostly indestructible)

[@ThatOliveMrT]

So there's a forgotten beast that breathe fire in my second layer. Normally I'd get the marksdwarfs on it but it's killed over 200 pests so for now it's a spider bro...

[@topkek996]

With a nice 2x1surface hut with fortification walls followed with bridges to block vision, you have a flamethrower turret! 2x1 so you can lure it with a door (destroyable) and lock it in after it rushes in the turret-hut. Bridges so it can be activated when needed only

[@Big_Trouble]

What can you do with a cavern that is only mud? I have a decent, for me anyway, fortress running and the 1st cavern I breached has nothing but mud and cave spiders. It is fairly large but seems a bit useless other than the spider silk.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Usually these "mud only" caverns tend to have small islands of moss where trees grow. Sometimes they have water instead and are just devoid of anything besides spiders. In this case you got yourself a massive farmland. Just make sure to wall off your farm from ancient beasts randomly wandering through the caverns.

[@Big_Trouble]

@Ic0nGaming Ok, a new food production zone to send the immigrant peasants to then!

[@do0myk]

Turn off cavern invasions if you want to have more than 10 fps. The game will spawn creatures there indefinitely and they wont leave like the normal ones

[@agentblue4310]

But I did enjoy your tip about pasturing animals inside with the floor fungus.

[@walli6388]

I got a really weird map currently where I haven't got a cavern yet (lvl.w5) but got fungus from the beginning.

[@joshwells5772]

do dwarfs know how to access hatch covers and or things controlled with levers when they have to do a task that requires them to get past either of those

[@snickle1980]

From my experience, locked hatches held shut by a lever are innacessable to dwarves unless the le er is pulled. Seem to fun tion as locked doors, basically. But with hatches, if its not locked, the dorfs seem to treat it like any other unlocked door. They walk right through (or down/up rather)

[@dunwitch]

Good summary!

[@corycolley]

Thanks for another great video. Question: I've only ever found the caverns way, way down on elevations -85 through -95. Am I just unlucky and always finding the lowest cavern layer on my maps? Should I be digging horizontally on levels +5 through +10 to try and find the upper-most layers first?

[@vodan07]

On the top layer select a place for big farm plot but before you accept it scroll down underground. This will show you where and in which level are caverns.

[@redhairdavid]

I'm having trouble getting my dwarfs to wear armour. There is plenty, and some wear it, some don't. Its set to always equip. Any idea what my issue is?

[@vodan07]

Military dwarfs don't want to carry the armour? You need to set up what they need to wear and click "update" they will take what it's matching the set up

[@redhairdavid]

@@vodan07 I made enough steel pieces for 50 full sets, I had them set to ware steel bits by name, and set to always wear in the off duty part. Won't wear it. I set them up a clothes list of "whatever" with just the armour slot picked, but no material, so any chest piece, and leg piece, any weapon, and the ones that won't get dressed, still won't, some do.

[@vodan07]

@@redhairdavid have you clicked "update armour" after the change ?

[@redhairdavid]

@@vodan07 yes, many times. I can send you screen shots if you want, I'm at work, but in a few hours. Let me know what you wana see. I named the armour "steel" and "whatever" for steel and whatever bits. I tried both. The ones that will dress in steel, will also dress in whatever, but those who won't, refuse to get dressed. Just weapon and shield if I'm lucky. Same set up for both, I don't know what the difference is

[@vodan07]

@@redhairdavid so you have dwarfs pacifists or nudists 🤭 . Have you tried to remove squad and create it again?

Is mudded/irrigated floor in dug halls just as fertile as the actual cavern floor? Or does breaching the caverns and the spores improve fertility of build farm plots?

[@Ic0nGaming]

Muddy floor is the most fertile floor in DF, no matter where it occurs. The breaching of the cavern Layer only activates the growth of floor fungus, which is basically underground grass. It only grows where you can do farming already, it won't "irrigate" any cavern floor. It's mostly used as underground pasture grass for grazing animals afaik.

[@WhatWouldVillainsDo]

I think it's funny most the world outside the US has a accent very similar to Queens English,British accent, yours is more similar to a accent found in the north east, north central US. I think in some places of the US some would think you were a native English speaker, it's almost dead on.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Well, I just copy what I hear. I guess I got quite good at it :D Cheers and thanks for your kind words =)

[@WhatWouldVillainsDo]

@@Ic0nGaming most people I know that who are EASL tend take a lot of pride in the ability and something they work very hard for. I don't know if I could do it, took Spanish for a half a year and I can't roll my Rs for shit. Recently been play DF and gotta say it's a fun game but has a serious lack of QOL and mods are a must have like the decorate specific item mod, yeah you put a jewel encrusted coffin in your guild hall and get the same effect but it just seems to ruin something for me. Still playing cdda, but flesh raptors are being a super big bother, I taken to using bows but they are not fast enough to kill them and I'm trying to save all my ammo for much later game. Also been going thru massive labs and found not 1 mutagen. Think I'm gonna give DF a rest and try to clean out this city. Any suggestions on the flesh raptors, and do you know what melee weapon lvl you consistently get hits on em? I'm at like 4-5 ATM with a combat knife.

[@HereticHub]

Great video.

[@KrazyKaiser]

In the current version of the game, I have not seen ANY creatures capable of breaking down doors, so they are currently an extremely good defense against monsters, though I hope that's a bug because it's really overpowered.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Trolls and such should be able to break down doors. Should - I haven't seen them doing so in my fortresses either tbh.

[@theldraspneumonoultramicro405]

my first cavern layer is completely flooded, out of the entire thing i have only found one single spot of 3x3 of dry land.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yeah, sometimes it's just all flooded. This can be useful as a water source when you go below that cavern layer though. With some engineering you can even produce energy down below via waterwheels.

[@agentblue4310]

You're video makes it sound like forgotten beast will only come if you breach the caverns. It should be noted that they can still wander in from the top of the map.

[@Ic0nGaming]

There are two different types of enemies. One from above (Titans and such) and Forgotten Beasts from below. They are different Spawnpools so to say. I obviously didn't point that one out enough in the vid, you're right about that ^^

[@Pok-qq9lt]

@@Ic0nGaming but if there is an entrance for the overworld... theoreticly a forgotten beast could wander arround? it just only happens not so often

[@DeathBean89]

@@Pok-qq9lt I think that what he's saying is that there are different types of monsters that can spawn in different biomes. Forgotten Beasts spawn in underground biomes. So, technically, you COULD get a Forgotten Beast wandering into your base from the surface, BUT it would require the beast to spawn underground and have a path to the surface that happens to not run through your base. That seems very unlikely, lol.

[@rhialto39]

One thing I find very confusing is that it's hard to tell whether the walled off space is safe from above. I do scroll up but I'm not entirely sure how to tell what's safe or what I'm actually looking for.

[@giantmanice]

There needs to be either walls going every z layer to the ceiling, or you need to build a ceiling yourself the layer directly above the walls

[@rhialto39]

@@giantmanice When you say build a ceiling, that's basically build a floor starting at the top of a wall and moving in, is that right?

[@CarloTheCurious]

@@rhialto39 Yep

[@chriswalsh5077]

@@rhialto39 yes... But you might want to use a bridge instead of flooring. It will save you a ton of material. And use blocks, not stones or logs, for even further efficiency.

[@michaeldoucet-morokael]

Any suggestions on how to allow mercenaries to get to the "dangerous" areas of the caverns without endangering your dwarves?

[@Feanor1397]

There is no safe ways, but in the days of 0.4x I used building destroyer safe doors. This probably still works. You need 2 z levels to make this. On upper layer: ### d ### On bottom layer it is like this: ______ "d" - door, "#" - wall, "_" - floor and " " - empty space without floor So it is a door surrounded by ramps on both sides. Idea here is that building destroyers can't destroy door on floor above if they are below ,and don't have alternative route to any tile near door on same z level. With this design there will not be any floor tiles near doors, so they are can't be destroyed. Throw a bunch of cage traps in hallway from cave side, build barracks on the fortress side and you are somewhat safe. In case of big danger forbid the door(doors are passable for everything if not forbidden). I'm not sure how this design works with flying FBs, and you should have backup plan for sealing caverns with bridge.

[@topkek996]

I just use a separate entrance from surface, closeable with a bridge. Monster hunter unga bungas go in, bridge goes up, lower bridge every now and then to let them come back to the fort to eat etc. before the next murderous rush

[@chellybub]

Sorry if I'm being a bit dumb, but you're saying that even if you have killed all the hostile creatures they will still wander into the caverns? Is that only if the caverns touch the map edge? Or is it no matter what the layout is?

[@vodan07]

The evil forces are coming from the edges of the map.

[@snickle1980]

Things you mention on a family road trip.

[@TypausZuendorf]

One the biggest things I dislike about DF is that there are no real siges, aka monsters and enemies can either not destroy doors or they do so instantly. So there will never be a situation in which you have to contend with an enemy force that is slowy forcing its way through your defensive layers unless you literally build a goddamn labyrinth. And you can Enemy attack effectively pointless.

[@Pok-qq9lt]

i can feel that. it would be nice if a few creatures would do that or gains skills in leaning how or what a "door" is and how to break it. maybe also consider the material of the Doors here... i can understand that for walls because dwarves of cource would build up a wall that camuflages with the Mountain to 100% and therefore the enemy is not aware what is behind... =D with worlds progression more wisdom would spread about doors and how to open it... for the enemys side. another thing is -> A siege is there to cut you down from overworld ressources... and that CAN be a problem if u dont dig deeper or want to avoid Caverns at all. DF has a few dislikes - but the likes are for me just "more" ^^ maybe some aspects will come in the future. it would be awesome

[@Latronibus]

It's a bit more general than just "no real sieges": *in general* DF demands suboptimal play in order to preserve challenge or even interest. It has no built in goal that exposes you to danger like Rimworld (pretty much the only exception is wood for beds, and even that's a highly finite problem especially if you stay small). And all its other challenges can be trivialized if you choose to do so. You can embark with copper armor to dodge the clothes deterioration mechanic, wall off in a small space near the surface, build a still, a farm, and a kitchen. and just exist. The only threat even in theory in this situation is stress (even strange moods will never trigger with this strategy). And even stress won't actually happen as long as you provide all the types of dwarven alcohol.

[@SleepyGaryBASS]

👍👍

[@no_mnom]

Monster slayers have not been useful for me, they don't go into the caverns they just chill around, eat and pray. I will not be accepting them in the future

[@Ic0nGaming]

They will after a while. Mine took almost 6 months before deciding to go downstairs, but eventually they did.

[@merephet3377]

Do you have way for your dwarves step in the caverns , the moment i breach the ceiling of the caverns i start getting Monster Slayers but they only explore the caverns after i dug a stair to the floor of the cavern.

[@vodan07]

They are good source of 👻 for your fortress 🤭

[@no_mnom]

@@Ic0nGaming they've been in my fort for years. I saw one saying "Monster slaying" once then he went to eat and pray again

[@no_mnom]

@@merephet3377 yeah I have ways to get into the caverns that's how FUN gets in my fortress and how I collect silk because I haven't captured a GCS yet

[@joshuaheathcote2116]

There is no such thing as a basic guide in dwarf fortress... Nothing makes sense