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DF2010:Biome
From Dwarf Fortress Wiki
| This article is about the current version of DF. |
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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Characteristics of biomes
Selecting different biomes gives you some ability to influence the difficulty of your game. Each biome has a different set of resources; the availability of trees, sand, certain plants or animals, and sometimes water is specific to a particular biome, and different biomes may have different stone layers containing flux, coal, useful ores, or a high chance of magma. Mountains have a lot of ore, but no soil.
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. However, it is not usually too hard to find three or four biomes using the default size.
Note: Making the starting plot larger will slow your game down considerably; likewise, a small embark area can dramatically increase framerate.
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.
Any biome can have any set of surroundings; for example a glacier could be haunted or mirthful. However, a named region (which is a contiguous area of one category of biomes, such as forests or wetlands) will be either good, neutral, or evil. It is not uncommon to see a large mountain range with one alignment and a few mountains, disconnected from the main mountain range by a single region tile, with a different alignment. Therefore, 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.
[edit] Available Biomes
The climate, where the biomes can occur are marked with the following colors:
| freezing | cold | temperate | warm | hot | scorching |
| Biome | Climate | Moisture | Token | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Every biome | f | c | t | w | h | s | wet | dry | ALL_MAIN |
| Any land biome | ANY_LAND | ||||||||
| Any not freezing biome | NOT_FREEZING | ||||||||
| Any temperate biome | ANY_TEMPERATE | ||||||||
| Any tropical biome | ANY_TROPICAL | ||||||||
| Glacier | GLACIER | ||||||||
| Any Desert | ANY_DESERT | ||||||||
| Badland | DESERT_BADLAND | ||||||||
| Rocky wasteland | DESERT_ROCK | ||||||||
| Sand desert | DESERT_SAND | ||||||||
| Any Grassland | ANY_GRASSLAND | ||||||||
| Tundra | TUNDRA | ||||||||
| Temperate grassland | GRASSLAND_TEMPERATE | ||||||||
| Tropical grassland | GRASSLAND_TROPICAL | ||||||||
| Any Shrubland | ANY_SHRUBLAND | ||||||||
| Temperate shrubland | SHRUBLAND_TEMPERATE | ||||||||
| Tropical shrubland | SHRUBLAND_TROPICAL | ||||||||
| Any Savanna | ANY_SAVANNA | ||||||||
| Temperate savanna | SAVANNA_TEMPERATE | ||||||||
| Tropical savanna | SAVANNA_TROPICAL | ||||||||
| Any Forest | ANY_FOREST | ||||||||
| Taiga | FOREST_TAIGA | ||||||||
| Any temperate forest | ANY_TEMPERATE_FOREST | ||||||||
| Any temperate broadleaf forest | ANY_TEMPERATE_BROADLEAF | ||||||||
| Temperate broadleaf forest | FOREST_TEMPERATE_BROADLEAF | ||||||||
| Temperate coniferous forest | FOREST_TEMPERATE_CONIFER | ||||||||
| Any tropical forest | ANY_TROPICAL_FOREST | ||||||||
| Any tropical broadleaf forest | ANY_TROPICAL_BROADLEAF | ||||||||
| Tropical dry broadleaf forest | FOREST_TROPICAL_DRY_BROADLEAF | ||||||||
| Tropical moist broadleaf forest | FOREST_TROPICAL_MOIST_BROADLEAF | ||||||||
| Tropical coniferous forest | FOREST_TROPICAL_CONIFER | ||||||||
| Any Wetland | ANY_WETLAND | ||||||||
| Mangrove swamp | SWAMP_MANGROVE | ||||||||
| Temperate freshwater swamp | SWAMP_TEMPERATE_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate saltwater swamp | SWAMP_TEMPERATE_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical freshwater swamp | SWAMP_TROPICAL_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical saltwater swamp | SWAMP_TROPICAL_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate freshwater marsh | MARSH_TEMPERATE_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate saltwater marsh | MARSH_TEMPERATE_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical freshwater marsh | MARSH_TROPICAL_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical saltwater marsh | MARSH_TROPICAL_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Any Pool | ANY_POOL | ||||||||
| Temperate brackish pool | POOL_TEMPERATE_BRACKISHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate freshwater pool | POOL_TEMPERATE_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate saltwater pool | POOL_TEMPERATE_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical brackish pool | POOL_TROPICAL_BRACKISHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical freshwater pool | POOL_TROPICAL_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical saltwater pool | POOL_TROPICAL_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Any Lake | ANY_LAKE | ||||||||
| Temperate brackish lake | LAKE_TEMPERATE_BRACKISHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate freshwater lake | LAKE_TEMPERATE_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate saltwater lake | LAKE_TEMPERATE_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical brackish lake | LAKE_TROPICAL_BRACKISHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical freshwater lake | LAKE_TROPICAL_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical saltwater lake | LAKE_TROPICAL_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Any Ocean | ANY_OCEAN | ||||||||
| Arctic ocean | OCEAN_ARCTIC | ||||||||
| Temperate ocean | OCEAN_TEMPERATE | ||||||||
| Tropical ocean | OCEAN_TROPICAL | ||||||||
| Any River | ANY_RIVER | ||||||||
| Temperate brackish river | RIVER_TEMPERATE_BRACKISHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate freshwater river | RIVER_TEMPERATE_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Temperate saltwater river | RIVER_TEMPERATE_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical brackish river | RIVER_TROPICAL_BRACKISHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical freshwater river | RIVER_TROPICAL_FRESHWATER | ||||||||
| Tropical saltwater river | RIVER_TROPICAL_SALTWATER | ||||||||
| Underground Chasms | SUBTERRANEAN_CHASM | ||||||||
| Lava | SUBTERRANEAN_LAVA | ||||||||
| Underground Pools | SUBTERRANEAN_WATER | ||||||||
| Mountain | MOUNTAIN | ||||||||
Note: Biomes with "Any" in their names are general biomes - they do not exist in the game, but are provided for more easily allowing given creatures and plants to occur in multiple biomes.
| Overworld | |
|---|---|
| World generation - Regions - Biomes - Civilizations - Map legend - Sites - Armies | |
| Aquifer - Brook - Cave - Forest - Island - Lake - Mountain - Ocean - Pit - River - Tunnel - Volcano - Waterfall | |
