Dwarves

Strange moods and legendary artifacts

Every so often, a dwarf is seized by a vision. They drop everything, take over a workshop, and demand strange materials. If you can give them what they need, they will make a masterpiece.

Strange moods are among the most memorable events in the game. Without warning, a dwarf is struck by an idea for a legendary artifact and stops doing anything else until it is made. The result can be a priceless object, a newly legendary craftsdwarf, or, if things go wrong, a tragedy. Knowing what is happening, and how to help, makes the difference.

What a strange mood is

The official wiki's strange mood page describes it clearly: from time to time a single dwarf is seized by the idea of a legendary artifact, drops everything and works on nothing else, not even stopping to eat, drink or sleep. The same page explains that a dwarf in a mood will seek out a suitable workshop, claim it for the duration, gather the materials for the artifact and then make it, and that both the workshop and the kind of artifact depend on the dwarf's highest eligible skill.

That last point is useful. A skilled carpenter will usually want a carpenter's workshop; a skilled mason, a mason's. If you have a dwarf you know is gifted at something, you can guess what they will need when the mood strikes.

Supplying the demand

Once a dwarf has claimed a workshop, they start gathering materials. Some they find in your stockpiles and fetch themselves. Others they cannot find, and they wait, showing that they need something the fortress does not have or cannot reach. This is your cue.

• Check the workshop. The moody dwarf's needs can be seen there, usually as a general category of material rather than a specific item.
• Look for what is missing. Common demands include particular kinds of stone, metal bars, gems, wood, cloth, leather, bone or shell.
• Make it reachable. A material that exists but is locked away, forbidden or on the far side of a raised bridge is as good as absent.
• Trade or dig for it. If you truly lack something, a caravan may carry it, or a vein may be waiting behind the next wall.

Keeping a broad range of materials in stock, including a few cut gems, some metal bars, bones and leather, means most moods resolve themselves without you noticing until the announcement of a finished artifact. The stone, ore and metal page covers building up those supplies.

When a mood fails

If a dwarf cannot begin the artifact, time is against them. The official page warns that a dwarf who cannot get started within a few months loses their mind, and does not survive for long after that. Some become violent; others wander off or simply waste away. A failed mood is one of the saddest events in the game and can upset friends and family too, feeding into the unhappiness described on the needs and happiness page.

Different kinds of mood behave differently. Some are cheerful and inspired. Some are dark, and the materials such dwarves demand can be grim, with outcomes that are worse still. If you play long enough you will meet them all. The official wiki describes each kind in detail.

Artifacts

An artifact is a unique, named object of exceptional quality. It might be a piece of furniture, a weapon, a suit of armour, a toy, an instrument or a crafted ornament, decorated in ways that reflect the dwarf's preferences and the materials used. Artifacts are extremely valuable and cannot be sold to traders in the ordinary way. They add greatly to the fortress's wealth and to its standing, and the dwarf who made one usually becomes legendary in the relevant skill.

Artifacts also become part of the world's history. The game records who made them, and if one is later stolen, lost or carried off, it may turn up elsewhere. The world and legends page explains how the game remembers such things, and the adventure mode page covers going in search of them.

Quality levels, in general

Ordinary items in the game come in quality grades, from rough work through fine, superior and exceptional up to masterwork, and each grade is marked with its own symbols in the item's name. Higher quality means higher value and, for weapons and armour, better performance. Artifacts sit above all of these. Dwarves improve by practising, as the skills and labours page explains, so the quality of a fortress's goods rises steadily over time, with the occasional artifact as a spectacular peak.

A calm response

When the mood announcement appears, do not panic. Look at the workshop, see what is needed and make sure it is available. Most moods finish without trouble. Then enjoy the artifact, because it is one of the few things in the game that is entirely unique to your fortress, and one of the best stories it will produce.