The number of sites controls how many settlements each of those civilizations have. You still want someone else out there to trade with, but too many other civilizations will take up valuable real estate.

Set the number of civilizations and maximum number of sites to medium or lower.

This also reduces how long the world takes to generate.

Limit the history 100 years long or less to keep other civilizations from spreading too far and claiming the best spots.

Until you get comfortable, keep it medium or small. Larger worlds require more resources from your computer, but give you more options for building sites.

Don’t worry much about the size of the world you create.

Image: Bay 12 Games/Kitfox Games via Polygonįor a relatively easy world to start with, use these settings: Creating a new world with friendly (well, friendlier) settings. Your choices here can dictate how hard your game is to survive. When you create a new world from Dwarf Fortress’ menu, you’ll see a few parameters for the world you create. Every step below isn’t strictly necessary, but they will all help you stave off the inevitable “losing is fun” moment and teach you (the basics of) many of the game’s esoteric mechanics. A quick note before we get started: There’s no right way to play Dwarf Fortress, so everything below is based on our (many, many) hours with the game. Our guide to creating your first fortress will walk you through every step of building your first fortress.

All of the moving parts of Dwarf Fortress are what create the game’s legendary “learning cliff.”

To keep things running smoothly, you’ll need to manage everything from Zones to Stockpiles to Administrators to Farm Plots. Creating a functioning fortress in Dwarf Fortress isn’t as simple as just digging a hole and moving in.

Dwarf fortress starter pack working