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Dwarf Fortress artwork
Image via Bay 12 Games

How to Use Caverns in Dwarf Fortress

We share details on how to enter and use Caverns in Dwarf Fortress.

Caverns are biomes with massive underground tunnel systems filled with many monsters, vermins, Vegetation, minerals, and other things you can use to enhance your playthrough. But many players are not fully aware of how to use Caverns in Dwarf Fortress or how to enter them. Well! This is where our guide comes in handy.

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How to Use Caverns in Dwarf Fortress

You can use the Caverns in Dwarf Fortress as an endless source of resources in the form of minerals, items, monster parts, Vegetation, and much more. 

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Caverns offer a diverse range of resources that players can obtain and use using the proper means. 

Here are all the creatures that you will find in Caverns:

  • Amethyst man
  • Amphibian man
  • Antman
  • Bat man
  • Blind cave bear
  • Blind cave ogre
  • Blood man
  • Bugbat
  • Cave blob
  • Cave crocodile
  • Cave dragon
  • Cave fish man
  • Cave floater
  • Cave swallow man
  • Creeping eye
  • Crundle
  • Draltha
  • Drunian
  • Elk bird
  • Fire imp
  • Fire man
  • Flesh ball
  • Floating guts
  • Gabbro man
  • Giant bat
  • Giant cave spider
  • Giant cave swallow
  • Giant cave toad
  • Giant earthworm
  • Giant mole
  • Giant olm
  • Giant rat
  • Gorlak
  • Green devourer
  • Gremlin
  • Helmet snake
  • Hungry head
  • Iron man
  • Jabberer
  • Large rat
  • Magma crab
  • Magma man
  • Manera
  • Molemarian
  • Mud man
  • Naked mole dog
  • Olm man
  • Plump helmet man
  • Pond grabber
  • Reacher
  • Reptile man
  • Rodent man
  • Rutherer
  • Serpent man
  • Troglodyte
  • Troll
  • Voracious cave crawler

Here is the complete list of Vermins that you will find in Caverns:

  • Bat
  • Cap hopper
  • Cave fish
  • Cave lobster
  • Cave spider
  • Cave swallow
  • Creepy crawler
  • Fire snake
  • Olm
  • Purring maggot

Caverns also offer a ton of Vegetation that you can spawn after removing the mud by reclaiming the respective Fort. These are:

  • Cave wheat
  • Dimple cup
  • Pig tail
  • Plump helmet
  • Quarry bush
  • Sweet pod
  • Tower-cap
  • Fungiwood
  • Goblin-cap
  • Spore tree
  • Black-cap
  • Tunnel tube
  • Nether-cap
  • Blood thorn
  • Cave moss
  • Floor fungus

That sums up everything you will find in a Cavern found in Dwarf Fortress. So if you need any of the above things, you can use the Cavern to obtain them. 

How to Enter a Cavern in Dwarf Fortress

You can enter a Cavern in Dwarf Fortress using caves, deep pits, and downward passages connected to cavern layers, mountain halls, Goblin dark pits, tunnels, Dwarf Fortresses, and other such things that lead to the lower levels. 

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You can also order a Military Squad to explore the caverns, Suicide Squads that report everything in the Cavern before dying, Monster Slayers, and other such things. 

Moreover, you can also dig separate tunnels that connect to Caverns to enter them whenever you want. 

That is it. That concludes our guide on how to use Caverns in Dwarf Fortress. For a more detailed version, you can check out the Dwarf Fortress Caverns wiki page

For more on Dwarf Fortress, check out our dedicated guides section

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

Author
Image of Hritwik Raj
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.