Biome

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A biome is a biotic area with homogeneous features, characterized by distinctive plants, animal species and climate. A biome will also contain only one set of stone layers, though these usually expand beyond a single biome. Your dwarves will find different resources depending on which biomes they select when starting a fort.

Contents

Selecting a biome

Biomes are important when choosing a fortress location in order to understand your surroundings. Individual biomes, which form at least one map-tile of your embark location, can be cycled with the F#-keys; for example, an area with 3 biomes present can be cycled using F1, F2 and F3. The selected biome will be highlighted with flashing Xs on the Local Map, and the biome's information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. (See the illustrated guide for more detail).

Understanding Biomes

we should have more details on what these "resources" actually are, or more examples?

Selecting different Biomes gives you some abiltiy to influence the difficulty of your game. A wide variety of biomes may give you access to several unique resources provided by each, like the ability to gather and plant certain crops and make the game easier and more interesting. Generally it is advantageous to plot your embark location at the convergence of multiple different biomes, the more the better (within reason) - which is made easier if you enlarge your starting embarkation area).

  • Note: Making the starting plot larger will slow your game down considerably; likewise, a small embark area can dramatically increase framerate.v0.28.181.40d

By making use of several biomes you can provide more resources for your fort. Making sure one of your biomes contains either a broadleaf or conifer forest will provide you with an ample supply of trees, even if the rest of your plot extends into badlands and desert.

Surroundings are not directly linked to biomes (i.e. a glacier could be haunted, wilderness or mirthful), but the more biomes you have, the more likely it is to have several alignments, if so desired.

If your plot contains only ocean, lake or mountain biomes you will not be able to embark. The dwarves would have difficulty parking their wagon on water, while mountains are too barren and remote to reach.

The exact process is unknown, but no relation has been found between biomes and the stone layers that lie deep beneath them in the same area block. They do seem to be influenced by the first, top layer - a top layer of sand seems to cause drier biomes, where swamps rarely (if ever?) appear on sand, and (obviously) plants and trees do not grow on a top layer of stone. (More research is needed.)

Available Biomes

Arctic

Temperate

Tropical

Biomes at World Generation

Biomes are created at world generation based on the elevation, rainfall, and drainage of the tile as follows:

Biome Elevation Rainfall Drainage
Water 0-99 Any Any
Sand Desert 100-299 0-9 0-32
Rock Desert 100-299 0-9 33-49
Desert Badlands A 100-299 0-9 50-65
Desert Badlands B 100-299 0-9 66-100
Grassland 100-299 10-19 0-49
Savanna 100-299 20-32 0-49
Marsh 100-299 33-65 0-32
Shrubland 100-299 33-65 33-49
Hills 100-299 10-65 50-100
Swamp 100-299 66-100 0-32
Forest 100-299 66-100 33-100
Low Mountain 300-332 Any Any
Mountain 333-365 Any Any
High Mountain 366-400 Any Any

See Also

  • Regions for the possible values for Trees, Vegetation and Surroundings.
  • Volcanoes which are not a biome in Dwarf Fortress, but may provide important resources
  • Climate

Overworld
World generation - Regions - Biomes - Civilizations - Map legend - Sites - Armies
Aquifer - Brook - Cave - Chasm - Forest - Island - Lake - Mountain - Ocean - Pit - River - Tunnel - Volcano - Waterfall
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