How To Make And Use Barracks in Dwarf Fortress

This guide shares details on how you can make and use Barracks in Dwarf Fortress.

Hritwik Raj

Published: Dec 8, 2022 11:11 pm

Barracks are one of the many rooms you can make in Dwarf Fortress, a roguelike construction and management game from developers Bay 12 Games. You can use it to train your squads, house them, and for other purposes. And to make sure you are able to make and use the Barracks, we are here with a handy guide on how to make and use Barracks in Dwarf Fortress.

How To Make Barracks in Dwarf Fortress

To make Barracks in Dwarf Fortress, dig an area and place any or all of the following furniture:

Bed
Cabinet
Container
Weapon Rack
Armor Stand

Once that is done, press q to highlight one of the pieces of furniture and then press r to make it into a Barracks. And that is it; that is how you make Barracks in Dwarf Fortress.

A 7×7 would be enough space to make Barracks in Dwarf Fortress, though the choice is yours. You can always re-size and move your Barracks to a different location, so no worries.

How To Re-Size Barracks In Dwarf Fortress

If you want to re-size your newly made Barracks in Dwarf Fortress, press the r key right after you designate a room as Barracks. Then use the +/- keys to re-size the Barracks size and finalize.

How To Use Barracks in Dwarf Fortress

To use Barracks in Dwarf Fortress, press the q key and select the Barracks. After that, use the +/- keys to highlight the different squads you see in the Information Pane and press t.

Also, in the squad menu, ensure the highlighted Squad you want to train in your Barracks is set to active/train.

You can press the z key to assign squads to house in the Barracks. But for this, make sure you have placed enough beds.

Lastly, you can use the i key to auto-assign individual cabinets and furniture to each Dwarf or use the q key to assign furniture to the entire Squad.

That is it. That concludes our guide on how to make and use Barracks in Dwarf Fortress.

For more on Dwarf Fortress, check out our dedicated guides section. Or go through the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.

Dwarf Fortress is a roguelike construction and management game currently available on PC and macOS platforms.

Author

Hritwik Raj

Hritwik is a guides writer who has been writing about video games for almost a decade. He is a Computer Science graduate who has always been into gaming. Most of the time, you will find him covering News and Guides for various publications. And when he is not working, you will find him fighting with his friends about how good of a gamer he is. His favorite games include Fallout 76, Borderlands 2, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, Souls series, Genshin Impact, and The Last of Us.