Cage traps in Dwarf Fortress are essential for every fort. We may not know it now but at some point, we are going to get invaded by evil forces. Could be a rival dwarf clan, a roving pack of feral dogs, or even worse forgotten beasts. If your fort has cages to catch any potential danger you will be in a very comfortable situation. Getting to the point of being able to build cages is a bit difficult though.
What’s Needed To Make a Cage
First off you will need to have a dwarf mechanic and a dwarf metalsmith. To unlock the ability to smelt via the furnace you will have built a smelter or a magma smelter. Getting to this point in your fortress can be a bit difficult depending on what resources you have nearby or have located inside your mines. Creating your first mechanism will allow you to finally make a Metalsmith’s Forge which will then allow you to consistently pump out higher-quality items. Once you have a consistent way of making fuel for a smelter, coal, or magma, you can finally start to smelt steel, iron, bronze, and many other types of ores. The only reason I am mentioning these types of ore is due to the materials for cages are rather important for durability.
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Now you should be able to make as many traps as you want with the metals you have smelted with your nifty new Metalsmith Forge.
What to Do With a Cage
Make as many cages as you possibly can with steel or any other metals that you have on hand. If focused on hunting game we highly recommend placing traps all over the map and waiting for something to get caught which ties in with the training skill. Having an animal trapped in a cage is an easy way to tame them since it can’t go anywhere, if there’s a skilled trainer in the fort they will keep the animal alive as long as needed. For more violent affairs you want to have a tunnel of some sort leading into your base and have rows of these blocking all of your entrances. What this does is catch all of the enemies but also allows you to kill them and train your armies on the trapped dwarves, elves, or whatever else is in there.
Once you have your mind wrapped around the simplistic beauty of a cage it’s onto the next one, until a dwarf goes mad and starts beating everyone to death with his mug.
Dwarf Fortress, with updated graphics and content, is available on Windows. If you enjoy our Dwarf Fortress content, be sure to check out How elevation works in Dwarf Fortress and How to Grow Plants in Dwarf Fortress.
