How to make a barracks in Dwarf Fortress
A home for your dwarven military.
Nico Vergara 
Image via Bay12 Games
Dwarf Fortress plays host to a wide list of beings and creatures that you’ll encounter as you continue to explore. Although the game contains plenty of harmless animals that will be indifferent toward you, there are also various hostile beasts that won’t hesitate to attack you. This is why you’ll need to establish a barracks within your base where your military will be able to sleep and train. Here’s how you can make one for your fortress.
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How to designate a barracks zone in Dwarf Fortress
To establish a barracks for your military, you’ll need to dig out a room that will be big enough to house all of the individuals included in your squads. You will then need to press ‘z’ on your keyboard or click the green square icon on the bottom taskbar to open up the zone designation menu.
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Once the menu has popped up on the left-hand side, select the Barracks icon which is signified by the blue flag with the sword symbol. This will allow you to paint the room that you created which will designate it as your base’s barracks.
After it’s been designated, click on the designated barracks area to open up its information window. Then on the upper pane, select the blue flag with the plus sign on it. This enables you to assign specific activities for squads in this particular barracks.
Squads will either be able to train, sleep, or store equipment in these zones so you may have to create more than one to fulfill all of your military’s requirements.
Where you place your barracks is also incredibly important as this will be your first line of defense against potential invasions. We recommend placing it near any of your fortress’s entrances in order to prevent any goblins, titans, or other dangerous beasts from pilfering your resources and killing your dwarves.
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