Best Starting Skills for Dwarf Fortress

I won’t claim to know what it takes to build a society from nothing, but I’m willing to guess it takes a handful of folks with very particular skills. An expert pianist, for instance, probably won’t do much for a burgeoning culture. If you’re starting out in Dwarf Fortress, then these are the best starting skills to keep in mind.

Best Starting Skills for Dwarf Fortress

In Dwarf Fortress, each of your dwarves’ skills is tracked and increased based on how they spend their time. As those skills increase in proficiency, your dwarves will be able to accomplish tasks related to them more quickly and will begin to adopt official professions to denote themselves as skilled laborers. Ergo, if you want to work your way up to a proper society in an expedient manner, there are certain tasks, and by extension skills, you should prioritize.

Related: How to Make Steel in Dwarf Fortress

When constructing a society, the first few priorities should be shelter and sustenance. As such, your first tasks and skills should revolve around building and planting stuff. To be specific, you want dwarves skilled in Mining, Woodworking, and Farming.

Mining Skills

The Miner profession is the only one that has no subsets. It’s all about diggy-digging holes, and exhuming useful stuff out of them. Mining will go a long way toward both getting you extra resources to work with and broadening your territory through a cave network.

Woodworking Skills

The Woodworking profession is all about, well, working with wood. Until you can source sturdier materials, wood will be your first and foremost means of fortifying your home. To be specific, you want dwarves skilled in Woodcutting and Carpentry. The former ensures speedy, efficient retrieval of wood resources, while the latter will help you set up your first homes with walls and furniture, not to mention basic weaponry.

Farming Skills

A construction crew runs on its stomach, as they say. In order to keep your people happy and fed, you need farmers to produce not just food, but other important consumables. To start, you should prioritize dwarves skilled in Growing, Cooking, and Herbalism. Growers are necessary to sew and tend to seeds, from which your first crops will sprout. Cooks will take the crops produced by the Growers and whip them up into tasty, nutritious meals. This is especially important, as some crops can’t be eaten raw. An Herbalist may be the most important of all, as they can forage for wild fruits and vegetables in the time between crop yields.

Generally speaking, Dwarf Fortress isn’t a game where you need to worry too much about specialization. As they go about their tasks, your dwarves will gradually settle into careers and habits on their own. That said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with giving them a gentle nudge in the right direction.

For more info on vital skills and resources in Dwarf Fortress, check out our guides on obtaining seeds and drinkable water. You know where else you might learn something cool? Our Facebook page!