The first thing you’re greeted with when you start to play Dwarf Fortress is the World Generation menu. With a huge array of options and even advanced options in Detailed Mode, it can be hard to know just what settings to generate a world with. Below we’ve described the Best Dwarf Fortress world generation settings and given you some ways to improve your game!
What do the Important advanced options in Detailed Mode do in Dwarf Fortress?
- Embark Points - Changing this setting will give you more starting resources. This is basically an unofficial difficulty slider. However, the more points you have to embark on, the more initial value your fortress will have. Increasing this too high will mean you’ll quickly attract attention from Mega Beasts and raiders.
- Cull Unimportant Historical Figures - This setting can really upgrade your performance and generation speed.
- Percentage Beasts Dead for Stoppage/Year to Begin Checking for Megabeat Percentage - The percentage of Megabeast that are still alive by the time you start your world. Adjust this if you keep getting your fortress crushed by dragons and other monsters. Make sure the “Year to Begin Checking…” setting is set before the end year of your World Generation.
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Top 5 Dwarf Fortress World Generation settings
High performance
Use these settings if you want a quick world generation or the game to run as quickly as possible.
- World Map Size - Small
- History Length - 50
- Number of Civilizations - Low
- Maximum number of Sites - Low
- Number of Beasts - Medium
- Natural Savagery - Medium
- Mineral Resources - Everywhere
Advanced options: Cull Unimportant Historical Figures = Yes
Expansive
This is a long generation that will take even high-spec computers 15 minutes to half an hour to complete.
- World Map Size - Medium
- History Length - 250
- Number of Civilizations - Medium
- Maximum number of Sites - High
- Number of Beasts - Medium
- Natural Savagery - Medium
- Mineral Resources - Frequent
Easy Mode
This easier embark will allow you to quickly set up a fortress. Most Megabeasts will also be dead, although there’s always a chance that some survive. Other threats will still exist.
- World Map Size - Medium
- History Length - 100
- Number of Civilizations - Medium
- Maximum number of Sites - Medium
- Number of Beasts - Low
- Natural Savagery - Low
- Mineral Resources - Everywhere
Advanced options: Embark Points = 3000, Percentage Beasts Dead for Stoppage = 100, Year to Begin Checking for Megabeat Percentage = 80.
Falling Civilizations
A large world with few civilizations fighting over limited resources with lots of monsters. This is a great kind of apocalyptic world. There’s also a high chance that at least one of the major races (Elves, Humans, Goblins, Dwarves) may be extinct in this world!
- World Map Size - Large
- History Length - 100
- Number of Civilizations - Low
- Maximum number of Sites - Low
- Number of Beasts - High
- Natural Savagery - High
- Mineral Resources - Sparse
Pocket Battle Royal
With just five years of history and little to compete with but themselves, this start will give you almost instant conflicts as the civilizations involved quickly clash and war.
- World Map Size - Pocket
- History Length - Five
- Number of Civilizations - Medium
- Maximum number of Sites - Low
- Number of Beasts - Low
- Natural Savagery - Very low
- Mineral Resources - Everywhere
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Michael lives in the UK, but wishes he lived in Eorzea. A life-long gamer, Four years ago, he ditched a "real" job to write about video games for a living, and hasn't looked back. When not guiding players how to get the latest mounts, crafting recipes, and in-game goodies, he spends his time nurturing an unhealthy addiction to MMOs and gacha games.