Light aquifers are sources of underground water in Dwarf Fortress, and while some players may choose to avoid them altogether, they can actually be dealt with quite easily. In fact, fans can turn light aquifers into important parts of their forts by using them to support wells. This guide is here to provide details on exactly how that is done, and it will help players harness the power of light aquifers in Dwarf Fortress.
Dwarf Fortress: How to Deal with Light Aquifers
Locate the Aquifer
Dwarf Fortress players can encounter a light aquifer when they are performing digging orders, such as digging out a hallway or a stairwell, and there are a couple of ways to know that this has occurred. The first is that the dwarves will stop their digging, and there well be a notification indicating that they have located damp stone. The second is that the aquifer tiles with which the dwarves came into contact will be marked with blue water drops when the digging orders icon is selected.
Get Above the Aquifer
Upon locating a light aquifer, players should work to get above it. This is a very easy thing to do if the aquifer was encountered while digging a stairwell, as simulation video game fans must simply return to the last level where the dwarves were willing to construct stairs. If the player ran into the aquifer while digging horizontally, then they should move up one layer and dig a hallway to the aquifer's position, repeating this process until they no longer encounter damp stone.
Dig Through the Aquifer
Once a player is directly on top of a light aquifer, they should dig a stairwell into its top layer. Fans should then dig out the tiles that are adjacent to the stairwell, click the place structures icon, select constructions, and put walls into the freshly-dug tiles. These walls in Dwarf Fortress will prevent the aquifer's water from leaking into the stairwell, and players can repeat this process, one layer at a time, to get underneath the aquifer.
Build the Well
Players can now return to the position from which they dug into the top layer of the aquifer and dig a few tiles in any direction. Fans should then dig a channel into the freshly-dug tile that is furthest from the stairwell and place a well upon it. For full clarity, wells are placed from the machines/fluids section of the place structures menu, and they are created from blocks and a bucket, which can be made in a Carpenter's Workshop, and mechanisms that are made in a Mecahnic's Workshop.
With the well in position, fans of city building video games must simply wait for the tile below it to fill with water, and the well will become functional when that water reaches a depth of three. Players can confirm the status of their wells by clicking on them, and their dwarves should be happy to use them once it is indicated that they are operational.
Dwarf Fortress is available on PC.