DFHack supports all operating systems and platforms that Dwarf Fortress itself
supports, which at the moment is the 64-bit versions of Windows and Linux.
The Windows build of DFHack also works well under wine for platforms that
can't run a native version. When running via wine, use the following commandline:
wine64 explorer Dwarf\ Fortress.exe
DFHack releases generally only support the version of Dwarf Fortress that they are named after. For example, DFHack 50.05 only supported DF 50.05. DFHack releases never support newer versions of DF -- DFHack requires data about DF that is only possible to obtain after DF has been released. Occasionally, DFHack releases will be able to maintain support for older versions of DF - for example, DFHack 0.34.11-r5 supported both DF 0.34.11 and 0.34.10. For maximum stability, you should use the latest versions of both DF and DFHack.
Stable builds of DFHack are available on Steam or from our GitHub. Either location will give you exactly the same package.
On Steam, note that DFHack is a separate app, not a DF Steam Workshop mod. You can run DF with DFHack by launching either the DFHack app or the original Dwarf Fortress app.
Even if you have a non-Steam version of DF (i.e. Itch or Classic), you can
still install DFHack from Steam to get the benefits of automatic updates and
Steam cloud backups. In this case, install DFHack from Steam and then move your
DF installation into the Steam-created Dwarf Fortress directory. You have
to run DF via the DFHack app in the Steam client in order to benefit from the
Steam cloud backup features.
If you download from GitHub, downloads are available at the bottom of the release notes for each release, under a section named "Assets" (which you may have to expand). The name of the file indicates which DF version, platform, and architecture the build supports - the platform and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) must match your build of DF. The DF version should also match your DF version - see above <installing-df-version> for details. For example:
dfhack-50.07-r1-Windows-64bit.zipsupports 64-bit DF on Windows
Warning
Do not download the source code from GitHub, either from the releases page or by clicking "Download ZIP" on the repo homepage. This will give you an incomplete copy of the DFHack source code, which will not work as-is. (If you want to compile DFHack instead of using a pre-built release, please see building-dfhack-index for instructions.)
In between stable releases, we may create beta releases to test new features.
These are available via the beta release channel on Steam or from our
regular Github page as a pre-release tagged with a "beta" or "rc" ("release
candidate") suffix.
If you are actively working with the DFHack team on testing a feature, you may
want to download and install a development build. They are available via the
testing release channel on Steam or can be downloaded from the build
artifact list on GitHub for specific repository commits.
To download a development build from GitHub:
- Ensure you are logged into your GitHub account
- Go to https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack/actions/workflows/build.yml?query=branch%3Adevelop+event%3Apush+is%3Asuccess
- Click on the first entry (it should have a green checkmark next to it)
- Click the number under "Artifacts" (or scroll down)
- Click on the
dfhack-*-build-*artifact for your platform to download
The artifacts are "double-zipped". That is, you will have to extract the initial zip file to get to the package archive. You can extract this second package the same as if you are doing a manual install (see the next section).
If you are downloading DFHack for very old versions of DF, the binaries for 0.40.15-r1 to 0.34.11-r4 are on DFFD. Even older versions are available here.
If you are installing from Steam, this is handled for you automatically. The instructions here are for manual installs.
When you download DFHack <downloading>, you will end up with a release archive
(a .zip file on Windows, or a .tar.bz2 file on other platforms). Your
operating system should have built-in utilities capable of extracting files from
these archives.
Note
If you are on Windows, please remember to right click on the file after downloading, open the file properties, and select the "Unblock" checkbox. This will prevent issues with Windows antivirus programs.
The release archives contain a hack folder where DFHack binary and system
data is stored, a stonesense folder that contains data specific to the
stonesense 3d renderer, and various libraries and executable files. To
install DFHack, copy all of the files from the DFHack archive into the root DF
folder, which should already include a data folder and a save folder,
among other things. Some redistributions of Dwarf Fortress may place DF in
another folder, so ensure that the hack folder ends up next to the data
folder, and you'll be fine.
Until DF (and DFHack) is natively available for Mac, you'll have to run the Windows version under emulation. Here are the instructions for adding DFHack to a wineskin that has DF installed in it:
- Find the location of your existing Dwarf Fortress app (default is
/user/applications/Wineskin/). Control + click and select "Show package contents" from the menu. - Find the location of the
Dwarf Fortressfolder inside the package contents (default is/drive_c/Program Files/) - Copy the contents of the unzipped DFHack folder (Windows version) into the
Dwarf Fortressfolder inside the package.
These instructions were last tested on Mac Sonoma 14.1.2.
Just renaming or removing the dfhooks library files is enough to disable
DFHack. If you would like to remove all DFHack files, consult the DFHack install
archive to see the list of files and remove the corresponding files in the Dwarf
Fortress folder. Any DFHack files left behind will not negatively affect DF.
On Steam, uninstalling DFHack will cleanly remove everything that was installed with DFHack, so there is nothing else for you to do.
Note that Steam will leave behind the dfhack-config folder, which contains
all your personal DFHack-related settings and data. If you keep this folder,
all your settings will be restored when you reinstall DFHack later.
Again, if you have installed from Steam, your copy of DFHack will automatically be kept up to date. This section is for manual installers.
First, remove the hack and stonesense folders in their entirety. This
ensures that files that don't exist in the latest version are properly removed
and don't affect your new installation.
Then, follow the instructions in the Installing DFHack section above, making sure to choose to overwrite any remaining top-level files when extracting.