DF2014:Legendary artifact

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This article is about the current version of DF.


Dwarves drop artifacts in the workshop as soon as they are made. They can be traded, just like any item of their type. Artifacts can also be stolen, sold or warred over, and may transfer between civilizations in those ways. A list of all artifacts in the fortress can be seen by pressing L (l in version 0.40).


Small list of artifacts.



Artifact doors and hatches provide indestructible, instantly-lockable gates.






Finished Goods[edit]

Finished goods are not particularly useful, only adding to your wealth (and all of the things that entails). This bin is clutter for the fortress, valuable only for trading, but any and every thief's dream score, an object of worship for three different kobold civilizations.

An artifact gem is called a perfect gem and functions the same as a large gem, having all the same uses, i.e., none, other than boosting fortress value and trading. Display cases and pedestals can also be used to show off otherwise useless artifact crafts.



Non-player artifacts[edit]

Artifacts can be created in world generation and afterwards:

  • Non-player dwarves can also be taken by strange moods and create artifacts of their own.
  • All original books, regardless of form or content, are considered artifacts. Copies are not, however.
  • Some heroic events in world generation will trigger the naming of an object. For instance, a warrior may name a piece of equipment that they were carrying when they slew a megabeast. This can be any kind of gear, from the weapon they used to kill it to a low boot they were wearing (that presumably proved critical in combat). Once named, these heroic objects are also considered artifacts, though their quality and properties remain unchanged. Assuming the person who named it didn't die, they will still be in possession of it.
  • Some artifacts qualify as holy relics. They are generated from a body part or clothing item that belonged to a religion's dead high priest. These are usually stored in a temple, separately from the remainder of the corpse.

Once created, artifacts are subject to various claims that depend on the circumstances surrounding their creation: if it's a single person (as opposed to an entity), the creator can keep it for himself, gift it to their parent entity, or claim it as a family heirloom. This can be shown in Fortress mode, where the artifact creation announcement will also include the nature of the claim: "He/She offers it to <entity>", "He/she claims it as a family heirloom"/"He/she claims it as a family heirloom in the name of the family ancestor <figure>" or "He/she claims it as a personal treasure". On the other hand, if an entity was responsible for the creation, the entity will keep its claim on it (e.g. a religion and its priests over a holy relic, or a library and its scholars over a book).

Example of a dwarf claiming an artifact as an heirloom.

Regardless of their nature or classification, artifacts will then be subjected to the turmoil of the world:

  • Their bearer can be killed in combat. Often, the slayer will claim the artifact for themselves and keep it, or claim it as a family heirloom themselves.
  • Artifacts claimed as family heirlooms are passed down to descendants if the bearer dies of old age. The descendant is chosen according to "importance", or otherwise at random.
  • If stored at a site, the artifact can be stolen by creatures prone to thieving, like kobolds. If the site becomes invaded, the artifact can likewise be robbed by an invader.
  • If a family or entity becomes deprived of an artifact they had laid a claim on, they may send representatives to claim it back: these come in the form of questers or agents roaming the world to gather information in more or less covert ways. Depending on the nature of the entities involved, they may approach the matter in different ways: a civilization may go to war if they find out the artifact resides in another civilization's site, or they may send mercenaries to kill a beast that stole it.
  • Sometimes, artifacts can be "lost in the wilds". The circumstances surrounding such events are unclear, but this means they're effectively lost, for all intents and purposes: foreign questers will wander the world fruitlessly in search of it (unless they happen to stumble upon the artifact's exact spot in the entire world, which is extraordinarily unlikely), and squads you send to retrieve it will never return due to a bug.

As a player, you may interact with these artifacts in (currently two) different ways:

Fortress mode[edit]

You may send squads of dwarves on a mission to "retrieve" an artifact from a site. (If the artifact wasn't created by your fortress, it's not so much "retrieval" as "theft".) This includes sites residing outside civilizations, such as necromancer towers containing books of interest. If the artifact's location is not known, you may send your squads off to gather information on its whereabouts.

Note that the site's entity will keep its claim on the artifact you've stolen:

  • If you're caught, expect a retaliatory invasion. If you've raided a site from a civilization you were at peace with, what you made was a declaration of war.
  • If you're not caught, you may still receive visits from agents and questers inquiring about the artifact's location. Once they know it's in your fortress, they may demand you bring it back, or sneak back with the intent to come back with an army to make their demands more convincing.

Adventure mode[edit]

As an adventurer, you may receive quests to retrieve artifacts. The nature of the quest will be as diverse as the nature of artifacts and claimants thereof. Therefore, the difficulty can range from 'piece of cake' to 'nigh-impossible' (if the artifact was claimed, say, by a demon lord of a goblin civilization). Once you're in possession of an artifact, you may encounter other parties who have laid a claim on it. It is up to you (and the circumstances, e.g. if a third party happens to be well-armed and greater in numbers than yours) to decide which party to satisfy. Alternatively, if the artifact happens to be very useful, such as a strange mood-generated steel sword, you may simply decide to keep it for yourself and leave all troubles behind. Note that completing quests for artifacts will increase your reputation, and flaunting your artifacts visibly in front of onlookers will trigger rumors.

Legends mode[edit]

Where artifacts are stored, and the history of their creation, is recorded during world generation, and can be discovered in legends mode.

Other notes[edit]







Artifacts disappear from the artifact list upon abandoning a fortress.



Artifacts can be disabled in d_init.txt



  • In adventure mode, named items and artifacts disappear from inventory after leaving site. Bug:1179
Dwarven: gomath zan
Elvish: liceva ethóca
Goblin: olzul anust
Human: en ricdil