About

About Deep Ledger

A short note on what this guide is, what it is not, and how to get the most out of it.

Deep Ledger is an independent fan guide. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Bay 12 Games, Kitfox Games or the official Dwarf Fortress Wiki. For complete, current detail, see the official wiki at dwarffortresswiki.org.

What this guide is

Deep Ledger is a set of explainers about Dwarf Fortress, written for players who want to understand how the game works and why things happen the way they do. Each page takes one area of the game, such as water, magma, moods, trade or the military, and explains the concepts behind it in plain language, with the reasoning behind common strategies and the mistakes most players make at least once.

The guide is organised into six sections, from the first hours of play through building, the dwarves themselves, the wider world and the game's background. Every page links to related pages, so you can follow a thread from water to digging to mechanisms, or from happiness to moods to the many ways a fortress falls.

What it is not

This is not a complete reference. The game is enormous and changes between releases: menus move, values are adjusted, systems are added and reworked. Deep Ledger deliberately avoids version-specific numbers, key presses and exact recipes, because those go out of date and a wrong detail is worse than none.

For exact, current information, the official community wiki is the right place. It is maintained by players, tracks the current release, and holds the detail this guide leaves out. Throughout these pages, you will find pointers to it wherever precise information matters. The makers of the game also keep their own pages: Bay 12 Games' page for the game carries downloads of the classic version and a running record of development.

How it is written

Every page is written from scratch as an explanation of concepts, in a friendly and practical voice, with a little of the dark humour the game is known for. Where a page cites an outside source, it names that source in the text and links to it directly, and it describes only what that source says. There are no advertisements, no sponsored links, no affiliate links and nothing for sale. The guide sells nothing and asks for nothing.

The pictures on this site are illustrations of the kinds of places the game describes: halls, mines, forges, farms and rivers. They are not screenshots and do not show the game itself.

Where to start

If you are new to the game, begin with your first fortress, then read the common questions and losing is fun. If you have played before, pick whatever you are struggling with: water, happiness or defence are the usual suspects. If you are curious about the game's history, see about the game.

A note on the game's name

Dwarf Fortress is the subject of this guide, not its brand. The game belongs to its makers, and its name is a trademark of its owners. Deep Ledger is simply one player-written companion among many, offered in the same spirit as the tools, stories and guides the community has shared for years.