How to Deal with Agitated Animals in Dwarf Fortress

In Dwarf Fortress, agitated animals have been a huge pain in the backside of many players. Unpredictable, hordes of agitated and savage crows, or hamsters, or tortoises may roll in from nowhere, intent on destroying everything you hold dear. Very lethal to your dwarfs and detrimental to your progress, you’ll need to know how to defend yourself against these beasts. Here is how to deal with agitated animals in Dwarf Fortress.

What are agitated animals in Dwarf Fortress?

Agitated animals are animals that are upset to a point of aggressive frustration, where they will become violent towards your dwarves. Your own animals may become agitated due to poor environment, but your own animals are easy to appease, so your main run-ins with agitated animals will be from wild ones.

Dwarf Fortress is a storytelling game, so sometimes things may happen that you will simply have to deal with. If an agitated group of albatrosses come rampaging over, all you can do is prepare for battle. Agitated animals are incredibly dangerous since they can strike at any time in any number, so many players have their forts destroyed by the wild creatures.

How to deal with agitated animals in Dwarf Fortress

There are really only two ways to deal with your agitated animals crisis: set up your fortress somewhere else, or go full defend mode. In Dwarf Fortress, your environment of choice is incredibly important. Some are much more dangerous than others and may have a higher concentration of mad animals. Try to choose a ‘calm’ environment next time and watch as all of your agitated animal worries mostly disappear.

ALternatively, you can set up traps and train an army. Agitated animals are mostly a problem to young fortresses. So if you haven’t already, attempt these defensive strategems:

• Set up animal traps around entrance points of points of high agitated animal traffic
• Relocate fully underground and defend the entrance thoroughly
• Use a drawbridge to outright deny access to your buildings
• Train a squad or archers and fighters and make them patrol outside where they strike most often
• All of the above

With such strategies in play, they should have a harder time annoying you.

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