How elevation works in Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is the game that inspired so many games we know and love today, such as Minecraft, RimWorld, and Prison Architect. However, there is an element that from Dwarf Fortress that the other games lack. The actual feature of elevation. Elevation is a strange concept that only this game really focuses on. Here is your guide to understanding elevation in Dwarf Fortress.

Elevation in Dwarf Fortress

What is elevation?

Elevation may seem confusing and throw you off-balance when you play Dwarf Fortress for the first time, especially with the arrows and the changing map. But do not worry, it really isn’t complicated and is simple.

Dwarf Fortress takes a unique approach to generating the world in front of you. Instead of a series of maps, from overground to underground, as you progress, all of the maps are rendered and generated at the same time , but vertically.

Please note: Pay attention to the minimap on the following images to get a better visual indication on elevation.

When you scroll the wheel, you don’t zoom in, you ascend or descend different level of that chunk of the world, as if it has been horizontally cross-sectioned, and you are looking from the above. Scroll the mouse wheel until you see your wagon. This will be the best thing you have to a stable point of reference. Below the map is that layer’s elevation level. Think of it as the Y coordinate for the world. A 2D space but interactionable to an almost 3D level.

If you scroll the mouse wheel up one, you will suddenly see leaves and branches. This is because trees grow upwards, so as you go up, your vision will be impaired by the trees’ leaves and branches. Go up high enough, and ground fades into blueness as you ascend. If you are next to a mountain, then you’ll see that the available ground recedes upwards, as if you were scaling the mountain.

If you scroll down, you will see nothing. This is because you need to tunnel down into the earth to access lower levels of the ground. The deeper you go, the more levels you can explore. Your chunk of the world will be over 100 layers in total, from the very bottom of the ground to the top of the map, and the vast majority of it is underground.

Dwarf Fortress centres around making an underground empire, so having elevation as a reference is useful to navigate the dozens upon dozens of layers you can dig into.

Related: How to grow plants in Dwarf Fortress

What are the arrows?

The arrows merely indicate that the space it is pointing to is above or below your elevation level, so if you increase or decrease the elevation, that are will become the ground floor, and the arrows will have moved to indicate how that elevation contrasts to the other two it is sandwiched between.

If this is annoying, then you can toggle it off by pressing ‘R’.

Keep an eye on Gamer Journalist for more gaming and Dwarf Fortress content, such as how to fish.