If you’re new to Dwarf Fortress and want to build a settlement, start in Fortress Mode and follow the Steam edition’s built-in tutorial. It preselects a site, dwarves and supplies, then guides you through setting up a first fort and keeping your dwarves happy. If you’d rather choose your own location, use the community wiki’s Fortress Mode Quickstart as a companion—but check controls and menu labels in your game, since the guide notes that some details may need updating.
Start with Fortress Mode and the in-game tutorial
Dwarf Fortress is a generated-world simulation with different ways to play. Fortress Mode is the natural choice if your goal is to establish and manage a settlement; Adventure Mode is a character-led exploration experience. The Steam store describes the game as a construction and management simulation, with systems involving dwarf needs, food, beer, thoughts, threats, crafts and culture. Its beginner tutorials are designed to introduce building a first fort and keeping dwarves happy: Dwarf Fortress on Steam.
For a first run, choose Fortress Mode and follow the in-game tutorial rather than trying to learn every subsystem at once. The community wiki’s Fortress Mode Quickstart Guide says the tutorial automatically chooses an embark site, dwarves and supplies, then introduces the interface and initial setup. It also notes that tutorial segments can be replayed through the help control beside the minimap.
This guided start is useful because the game combines settlement building with interconnected needs and threats. Focus first on understanding the tutorial’s basic workflow and how your dwarves are doing. Military and advanced engineering can wait until you have a grasp of the essentials; the quickstart is intended to get a first fortress underway, not to cover every system.
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Choosing an embark site yourself
If you skip the tutorial and select a site manually, inspect the entire proposed embark area before committing. A selected area can contain multiple biomes and hazards, and looking at only the tile under the cursor may not reveal everything within the site. The quickstart recommends a friendly, manageable location for beginners rather than an extreme environment.
In the community wiki’s current-labeled Fortress Mode Quickstart, the version label is v53.16, but the page cautions that some content may still need updating. Treat it as broad guidance, not a guarantee that every displayed label or instruction matches your installation.
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Use version-aware guides for controls
The wiki’s tutorial index separates resources by version, including v50, v0.47, v0.40 and older materials. It lists the Fortress Mode Quickstart in the current v50 section. Older guides can still help explain concepts, but their instructions may not match the current game interface.
Be especially careful with key bindings: the surfaced controls guide warns that it migrated from an older version and may be inaccurate for v53.16. When an instruction conflicts with what you see, trust the running game for exact controls and menu labels, and use the current-labeled quickstart mainly for the broad sequence of early tasks.
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What to know about Adventure Mode
Adventure Mode is a separate way to experience the same generated-world game, not the settlement-building route described above. In a developer announcement dated January 23, 2025, Adventure Mode was announced as available for the Steam version; the instructions at that time were to create or load a world and select Adventure Mode. The announcement also distinguished Chosen Mode, which requires a new world for mythic dungeons. These are dated release instructions, not confirmation of the latest patch’s menu wording: Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode announcement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where the older printed guide fits
Peter Tyson’s Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress is a beginner book focused on Fortress Mode, but the publisher-hosted preview says it is current only through July 2014. It may offer historical background, but that cutoff makes it unsuitable as a dependable manual for today’s Steam interface: publisher preview.
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