How to Survive Your First Winter
Essential food, drink, and shelter strategies to keep your dwarves alive through the cold months.
12 min read
Clear, practical, spoiler-lite guides for modern Dwarf Fortress. Unofficial fan site.
Learn the basics in 20 minutes
Templates and blueprints
Efficient early game setup
Safe, useful, up-to-date
Essential food, drink, and shelter strategies to keep your dwarves alive through the cold months.
Set up your first military squad, assign equipment, and start training to defend your fortress.
From raw ore to finished weapons: understand the complete metal production chain.
Added compatibility notes and updated script recommendations for the latest Steam release.
Three new embark profiles and production layer blueprints added to the Fortress Planner.
Updated interface screenshots and clarified embark settings for new Steam players.
Yes! All our guides are specifically written for the modern Steam and Itch.io versions of Dwarf Fortress. We focus on the current UI and controls, not the classic ASCII version.
We keep spoilers to a minimum. Our guides focus on mechanics and practical advice rather than revealing specific creatures, locations, or story elements. We want you to discover the fun yourself!
Absolutely. Our DFHack guide covers safe, quality-of-life improvements that enhance the experience without breaking the game's core challenge.
Currently we focus on fortress mode, but we're considering adventure mode guides based on community interest. Let us know if you'd like to see adventure mode content!
Unofficial fan site. Not affiliated with Bay 12 Games. See official resources below.