A newbie plays Dwarf Fortress: Ep. 2

News
By published

df-teaser-ep2

In episode two of our Dwarf Fortress Let's Play , Wes and Will talk through the early steps of building a fortress: setting animals out for grazing, chopping down trees, and digging underground. A fortress is born!

In early July 2014, Dwarf Fortress received its first major update in two years. We wrote about why now is the time to get into the game with our guide Into the deep . Now we're learning how to play.

Check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new episodes of A Newbie plays Dwarf Fortress .

Latest Videos From PC GamerPC Gamer
Wes Fenlon
Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

Latest in Sim
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.
Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Bannerlord naval expansion reveal
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is heading to the ocean with a Viking-themed naval expansion this summer
Truckin' in the rain.
American Truck Simulator’s latest teaser is just a sound effect and no one seems to agree on what exactly it means
PowerWash Simulator 2 screenshots
'More evolution than revolution': PowerWash Simulator 2 is coming late 2025, and it's bringing online multiplayer and split-screen co-op with it
A child stands on top of a dinosaur exhibit, hugging the nose of a dinosaur skull.
As a real life museum employee, I'm a bit confused by the amount of pirate ghosts in Two Point Museum—but it's not going to stop me trying to make the most realistic exhibits I can
A citizen of a city
A lot is going on for Cities: Skylines' 10th anniversary—from freebies to new creator packs—but there's still a big ol' elephant in the room
Latest in News
An image of a MSI power supply unit against a circular gradient blue background
MSI has gone so heavy with 12V-2x6 power sockets in its latest high-end PSUs that many AMD and Intel graphics cards have no way of being powered
A dried ghast, a ghastling, and a friendly ghast all smiling
The latest Minecraft Live uncovered the tragic truth of the Nether's most bothersome mob, which has unlocked new levels of guilt
An image of Hornet from Silksong engulfed with rage.
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets SteamDB updates, and at this point I can't tell if the end is nigh or if I'm just hope-poisoned
A man with purple hair and face tattoos poses for a mugshot in the GTA 6 trailer.
Playable GTA 6 map nuked without warning by Take-Two lawyers: 'My guess is that the map was probably a little too accurate'
Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan OC graphics card from various angles
The RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are rumoured to be mere weeks away, with board partners reportedly required to ensure at least one MSRP model at launch
Noctua's Thermosiphon cooler concept at its Computex booth in Taiwan.
Noctua's pumpless 'thermosiphon' liquid cooling unit is expected to be released in 2026 and has already given me a free lesson in basic thermodynamics
More about sim
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.

Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Bannerlord naval expansion reveal

Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is heading to the ocean with a Viking-themed naval expansion this summer
An image of a MSI power supply unit against a circular gradient blue background

MSI has gone so heavy with 12V-2x6 power sockets in its latest high-end PSUs that many AMD and Intel graphics cards have no way of being powered
See more latest
Most Popular
An image of a MSI power supply unit against a circular gradient blue background
MSI has gone so heavy with 12V-2x6 power sockets in its latest high-end PSUs that many AMD and Intel graphics cards have no way of being powered
A dried ghast, a ghastling, and a friendly ghast all smiling
The latest Minecraft Live uncovered the tragic truth of the Nether's most bothersome mob, which has unlocked new levels of guilt
Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan OC graphics card from various angles
The RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are rumoured to be mere weeks away, with board partners reportedly required to ensure at least one MSRP model at launch
A man with purple hair and face tattoos poses for a mugshot in the GTA 6 trailer.
Playable GTA 6 map nuked without warning by Take-Two lawyers: 'My guess is that the map was probably a little too accurate'
Noctua's Thermosiphon cooler concept at its Computex booth in Taiwan.
Noctua's pumpless 'thermosiphon' liquid cooling unit is expected to be released in 2026 and has already given me a free lesson in basic thermodynamics
An image of Hornet from Silksong engulfed with rage.
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets SteamDB updates, and at this point I can't tell if the end is nigh or if I'm just hope-poisoned
HP inkjet printer
HP settles the class action lawsuit which claimed its printer updates 'act as malware', avoiding either a big payout or admitting wrongdoing
'For too long, Apple has operated a walled garden around its products': The EU forces Apple to open its closed system to third parties
Abstract image with a wireframe humanoid face on a digital art background
The 2012 source code for AlexNet, the precursor to modern AI, is now on Github thanks to Google and the Computer History Museum
Wordle answers
Today's Wordle answer for Monday, March 24