If you’ve ever played Dwarf Fortress, you’ve realized it’s pretty complex in terms of features and mechanics and it doesn’t stop at clay collection either, offering you a wide variety of clays to collect. But farming clay in Dwarf Fortress isn’t all that easy as many users can’t quite farm it as effortlessly as they hope to.
Yes, you can farm clay in Dwarf Fortress. Create a kiln. Enable Stone Hauling Labor and find a clay deposit. Designate a clay collection zone and start gathering clay. It’ll be stored in your stockpile!
Clay is pretty important when it comes down to upgrading and overhauling your Fortress and even creating some ceramics. So, let’s take a look at how you can farm clay in Dwarf Fortress and all the problems associated with clay farming.
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Types of Clay in Dwarf Fortress
So, you might have set up loads of clay collection zones in Dwarf Fortress. Ordered your dwarves to collect clay in the kiln but you’re bound to run into a message stating “Need valid, clay collection zone.” Most players are stumped at this point but fortunately, we’re here to help.
Some users end up trying to farm clay in Silty Clay Loam. It’s pretty easy to assume Silty Clay Loam would be clay, but the game states that it’s actually dirt. These are the different types of clay collection zones you need to look out for in Dwarf Fortress.
- Clay
- Clay Loam
- Silty Clay
- Fire Clay
- Sandy Clay
How To Farm Clay in Dwarf Fortress
- First of all, you’ll need to create a kiln where you’ll start farming and processing clay, which can later be housed in your stockpile.
- Before your dwarves get to work, ensure that they have stone-hauling labor enabled. Why though? Well, clay is considered stone in the game. Otherwise, your dwarves will sit around doing nothing even after designating a clay collection zone.
- So, how do you designate a clay collection zone in the first place? First of all, find a suitable clay collection zone and then press I. Fiddle around with your cursor and select the area.
- Afterward, press C to designate the area as a clay collection zone and your dwarves should start getting to work. If you need to collect loads of clay, press R to Gather Clay. Remember to turn it off as it’ll clog the stockpile with more clay than you need, or if it’s just what you’re looking for. Be our guest.
- And at the end of it all, your inventory should look something like this!
Before designating a clay collection zone, you’ll have to go through the rounds of figuring out the number of tiles of clay that can be farmed from that particular vicinity. If the number is zero, then the amount of farmable clay is well, zilch.
But there’s a silver lining if you come across a clay deposit. You can farm it as much as you want without ever worrying about the collection zone depleting. But you’ll come across problems such as grass growing over the area, which in this case, you’ll have to trim down before you can begin farming clay once again.
Bear in mind, when you send off your little dwarves to collect clay, they’ll be covered in that stuff and you’ll find it getting everywhere. Entire surfaces might end up getting covered in fire clay or clay loam. So, make sure your dwarves get cleaned up from time to time.
Conclusion
Collecting clay, like any other resource is pretty iffy to figure out in Dwarf Fortress. But when you’re done with it, you can pretty much use clay to either reinforce and upgrade your Fortress or even create ceramics.