Selecting an Embark Location: Finding Your Fortress's Home
Choosing the right embark location is arguably the most critical decision in Dwarf Fortress, sificantly impacting your fortress's early survival and long-term prosperity. A well-chosen site provides essential resources and a defensible position.
When you begin a new game, you'll enter the embark screen. Here, you can choose to 'Play Now!' for a default start or 'Prepare for the journey carefully' for custom loadouts. The most important step is selecting your embark site. You can use the 'Find embark location' button or manually search the generated world map.
For beginners, prioritize sites with the following characteristics:
- No Aquifers: Avoid sites with heavy or varied aquifers, as they can cause catastrophic flooding. Light aquifers can be managed with experience.
- Trees: Woodland or heavily forested areas provide crucial early resources for construction and crafting.
- Serene Surroundings: Initially, avoid evil or savage biomes, which harbor dangerous creatures.
- A River: Access to a river is invaluable for water supply, industry, and sometimes defense.
The game's interface uses ASCII characters and colored indicators to highlight potential sites. Green rectangles or 'X's sify perfect matches for your search criteria, while yellow rectangles or red 'X's indicate partial matches. Clicking on these will zoom in to show the specific site. In ASCII mode, partial matches appear as yellow 'X's.
Remember that your embark area can span multiple tiles, and each tile may have different features. It is imperative to inspect all tiles within your chosen embark zone to avoid hidden dangers like aquifers or hostile biomes that might not be immediately apparent.
A 4x4 embark area is the default, but you can resize it using on-screen buttons to better suit your needs and avoid undesirable terrain.