Difficulty

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v51.11 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Difficulty is the level of challenge presented by the game in Fortress Mode, largely customizable by the player. These settings will affect whether your fortress can be attacked by outside forces, how frequent said attacks are, how big invading armies are, noble neediness, etc. You can modify these settings before and at any time after embarking, the tab will only appear in the settings screen when a fortress is loaded. Since they are specific to each save, they are stored as part of the save and are not editable outside the game.

Default settings

They are divided into two groups: enemies and economy; enemies can be disabled, both groups have normal and hard presets, and all of the individual settings can be adjusted in Custom settings. The values used in each preset can be seen by selecting the preset and then viewing them in Custom settings.

Enemies has 3 options:

• Off will disable ambushes, sieges, uninvited guests, werebeasts, and agitated wildlife attacks, but not intrigue, HFS, or misbehaving dwarves, so it is still recommended to train a military.
• Normal is the standard Dwarf Fortress experience.
• Hard ensures a never-ending stream of Fun, causing invaders to show up earlier, more often, and with more bodies to throw at the gates.

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Economy has 2 options:

• Normal is the standard Dwarf Fortress economy.
• Hard requires you to produce more wealth in order to receive higher-ranking nobles, requires temples and guildhalls to be more valuable before satisfying petitions, and causes nobles to make more mandates and demands.

Enemy settings

If you wish, you can also fine-tune individual settings - maybe you only want megabeasts to assault your fortress, and would prefer the elves to leave well enough alone. The following options are available for enemy settings:

Individual enemy toggles

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Civilizations can attack	Yes/No	Controls whether ambushes and sieges can occur.	No, Yes, Yes
Megabeasts can attack	Yes/No	Controls whether megabeasts and forgotten beasts can attack.	No, Yes, Yes
Werebeasts can attack	Yes/No	Controls whether werebeasts can attack.	No, Yes, Yes
Curious wilderness creatures can come to cause trouble	Yes/No	Controls whether agitated animals can assault your fortress, and whether animals will spawn with the intent to steal items.	No, Yes, Yes

Enemy civilization triggers

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Enemy population triggers	1 to 300	Likely affects when invasions occur, and how difficult they are. Met when you have this many citizens.[Verify]	0/0/0/0/0, 20/50/80/110/140, 15/30/40/55/70
Enemy production triggers	0 to 100,000,000	Likely affects when invasions occur, and how difficult they are. Met when you've created this much wealth.[Verify]	0/0/0/0/0, 5000/25000/100000/200000/300000, 2500/12500/50000/100000/150000
Enemy trade triggers	0 to 100,000,000	Likely affects when invasions occur, and how difficult they are. Met when you've exported this much wealth.[Verify]	0/0/0/0/0, 500/2500/10000/20000/30000, 250/1250/5000/10000/15000

Megabeasts

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Megabeast attack period (seasons)	0 to 100	How many seasons must pass before a megabeast may attack your fortress.[Verify]	10, 10, 8

Forgotten beasts

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Forgotten beast sensitivity	1 to 100,000	Performing nature-disrupting actions within the caverns will agitate forgotten beasts and may cause them to attack. Noise will also increase agitation. A smaller value will require less actions before the maximum attack chance is reached.	10000, 10000, 10000
Forgotten beast irritation minimum	1 to 100,000	If the hidden agitation counter is at this value or below, no forgotten beasts will attack.	5000, 5000, 2000
Forgotten beast wealth divisor	1 to 100,000	Your current fortress wealth is divided by this number - the result is added to effective irritation to determine forgotten beast attacks. A smaller number will cause forgotten beasts to attack sooner.	40, 40, 40

Wilderness irritation

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Wilderness sensitivity	1 to 100,000	Performing nature-disrupting actions such as cutting down trees will agitate wildlife and may cause them to attack. A smaller value will require less actions before the maximum attack chance is reached.	10000, 10000, 10000
Wilderness irritation minimum	1 to 100,000	If the hidden agitation counter is at this value or below, no agitated wildlife will spawn.	2000, 2000, 0
Wilderness irritation decay	0 to 100,000	Causes wildlife to be less irritated after every year. A higher value will make them less irritated faster. Normal default values are 500 on Normal and 100 on Hard.	2000, 2000, 0

Werebeasts

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Werebeast attack period (seasons)	0 to 100	How many seasons must pass before a werebeast may attack your fortress.[Verify]	10, 10, 8

Vampires

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Vampire migrant fraction	1 to 1,000	Affects what percentage of new migrants will be vampires. A value of 0 will disable vampiric migrants. (Only on Off difficulty)	0, 100, 75

Invasion caps

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Invasion caps (regulars)	0 to 500	The maximum amount of humanoid enemies that can be thrown at you when a civilization sieges you.[Verify]	0/0/0, 10/40/120, 20/60/120
Invasion caps (monsters)	0 to 500	The maximum amount of mounts and other tamed creatures that can be thrown at you when a civilization sieges you.[Verify]	0/0/0, 0/5/40, 1/10/40

Raids

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Minimum raids before first siege (per civ)	0 to 500	Affects how many ambushes must be performed before a civilization can try a proper siege for the first time.	0, 2, 2
Minimum raids between sieges (per civ)	0 to 500	Affects how many ambushes must be performed before a civilization can try a proper siege from the second time onwards.	0, 3, 1
Siege frequency (percentage, otherwise raid)	0 to 100	Percentage chance to receive a siege instead of an ambush.	0, 25, 50

Cavern dwellers

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Cavern dweller scale (increase per attack)	0 to 100	Every time cavern-dwellers attack your fortress, the maximum number of attackers increases by this number.	0, 10, 20
Cavern dweller maximum attackers	0 to 500	The maximum amount of enemies that can be thrown at you when cavern dwellers attack.	0, 50, 75

Tree quota

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Off, Normal, Hard)
Diplomacy tree-fell count	1 to 1000	Affects the default amount of trees elven diplomats will request you limit your felling to. Your negotiator will still try and increase the tree limit.	25, 25, 10
Diplomacy tree-fell count (untamed wilds)	1 to 1000	Affects the default amount of trees elven diplomats will request you limit your felling to if you've settled in a savage area instead. Your negotiator will still try and increase the tree limit.	5, 5, 1

Economy settings

The following options are available for economy settings:

Fortress rank

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Normal, Hard)
Economy population triggers	1 to 300	Affects how many citizens you need to increase the rank of your fortress. Must meet population and one of production or trade. Triggers 1 through 5 correspond to Hamlet, Village, Town, City, and Metropolis.	20/50/80/110/140, 20/50/80/110/140
Economy production triggers	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how much created wealth you need to increase the rank of your fortress. Must meet population and one of production or trade. Triggers 1 through 5 correspond to Hamlet, Village, Town, City, and Metropolis. Setting this trigger to 0 causes it to be met immediately.	5000/25000/100000/200000/300000, 25000/125000/500000/1000000/1500000
Economy trade triggers	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how much exported wealth you need to increase the rank of your fortress. Must meet population and one of production or trade. Triggers 1 through 5 correspond to Hamlet, Village, Town, City, and Metropolis. Setting a trigger to 0 causes it to be met immediately.	500/2500/10000/20000/30000, 2500/12500/50000/100000/150000

Land holder

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Normal, Hard)
Land holder population triggers	1 to 300	Affects how barons and upwards are achieved. See noble triggers. Values 4 through 10 are not used in the base game.	20/20/20, 20/20/20
Land holder production triggers	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how barons and upwards are achieved. Values 4 through 10 are not used in the base game.	10000/200000/300000, 500000/1000000/1500000
Land holder trade triggers	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how barons and upwards are achieved. Values 4 through 10 are not used in the base game.	10000/20000/30000, 50000/100000/150000

Temples

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Normal, Hard)
Value of temple	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how valuable a designated temple zone must be before it satisfies a petition to create it.	2000, 6000
Value of temple complex	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how valuable a designated temple zone must be before it satisfies a petition to upgrade it.	10000, 30000
Priesthood unit count	1 to 300	Affects how many members of a religion must be citizens in your fortress before a petition for a temple is made.	10, 10
High priesthood unit count	1 to 300	Affects how many members of a religion must be citizens in your fortress before a petition to upgrade an existing temple is made.	25, 25

Guilds

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Normal, Hard)
Value of guildhall	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how valuable a designated guildhall zone must be before it satisfies a petition to create it.	2000, 6000
Value of grand guildhall	1 to 100,000,000	Affects how valuable a designated guildhall zone must be before it satisfies a petition to upgrade it.	10000, 30000
Guild unit count	1 to 300	Affects how many members of a profession must be citizens in your fortress before a petition for a guildhall is made.	10, 10
Grand guild unit count	1 to 300	Affects how many members of a profession must be citizens in your fortress before a petition to upgrade an existing guildhall is made.	25, 25

Mandates and demands

Setting	Possible values	Description	Default values (Normal, Hard)
Mandate period (more = fewer)	1 to 10,000	Affects how long nobles must wait before making new mandates. A higher value forces them to wait longer before mandating something.	1000, 500
Demand period (more = fewer)	1 to 10,000	Affects how long nobles must wait before making new demands. A higher value forces them to wait longer before making a demand.	500, 250