Ale & Potions

Ale is the dwarven potion economy: strategic, on-demand consumable buffs you brew in a Brewery and serve from the Tavern. There are five ales, each tuned for a different moment — a mining push, a back-to-back expedition turnaround, a dangerous delve, or a hospital ward full of wounded. Ale buffs are some of the strongest short-term boosts in the game, and unlike research or building levels they cost only raw inputs and a click.

For where ale is stored and how morale ties in, see Accommodations & Training. For the Fatigue and Health systems ale affects, see Status & Needs.

Brewing Ale #

All ale is produced at the Brewery from Water plus a grain or food input. Each recipe outputs 1 unit per cycle at the listed base rate (which scales with Brewery level):

Brewed ale is held in storage and distributed through the Tavern, whose level sets how many units of each type it can stock (20 per type at Lv1 up to 200 at Lv6). See the Tavern for storage and the buff duration multiplier.

The Five Ales #

The effects below are the authoritative, live-simulation values (what the game actually applies and what the Buffs panel displays).

Stout — the workhorse #

The classic dwarven brew. Apply before a mining shift or production push for a flat +15% Mining / +10% Production for 10 minutes. Can be served to one dwarf or the whole colony, and stacks well with Foreman global bonuses.

Firebrew — the second wind #

Burns through Fatigue: instantly clears 40 Fatigue and prevents the Fatigue block for 5 minutes. This is the tool for sending a tired crew straight back out on a fresh expedition instead of waiting hours for a Tavern to clear them.

Courage Ale — expedition armour #

The standard expedition-prep brew. Reduces expedition risk by 20% and Health damage per hazard stage by 15%, for the full expedition. It feeds the aleBuffModifier(active) term in the expedition outcome-roll formula. Apply it (and Deep Delver’s) before launch.

Deep Delver’s Ale — risk for riches #

Adds +25% loot value on the deep Stages 3–5 — the richest and most dangerous part of a run. It trades safety for reward, so pair it with Courage Ale or a Guardian dwarf for a balanced deep delve.

Healing Mead — the medic’s friend #

Restores +20 Health instantly and boosts Hospital injury recovery by +30% until the injury clears. Useful both in the ward and mid-run to keep a Downed-risk dwarf in the field a little longer.

Serving Ale (Applying a Buff) #

You serve ale from the Buffs panel (hotkey V), which shows every brew, your current stock, and a Serve button per ale. Serving applies the buff and deducts stock:

• Colony-wide — the Serve button applies the ale to every dwarf and deducts 1 unit per dwarf from your ale stock. You need at least one unit per dwarf in stock, or the serve is refused with a warning.
• Single dwarf — applies to one dwarf and deducts 1 unit.

Expedition-scoped ales (Courage, Deep Delver’s) attach to the squad and last the whole run; timed ales (Stout) count down live in the Buffs panel; “until healed” buffs (Healing Mead) and instant effects (Firebrew) resolve immediately.

The “Brew Served” Confirmation #

When you serve an ale, the game pops a brief confirmation of the brew — a transient 🍺 <Ale Name> served toast naming the buff and the stats it changed (e.g. “+15% Mining, +10% Production”), shown for a couple of seconds. This is your at-a-glance confirmation that the buff applied and which dwarves/stats it hit, so you are never left guessing whether a serve went through.

The Buffs panel itself is a read-only live view: it lists active Colony Buffs (with net production/recovery modifiers) and per-dwarf Dwarf Buffs, each with a live mm:ss countdown and a depleting progress bar. The underlying buff data is owned by the consumption system, not the panel.

Buff Stacking and Offline Behaviour #

• Colony Stout buffs are tracked at the colony level; individual and squad buffs are tracked per dwarf.
• Buffs expire on their timer. The consumption system checks expiry every tick and also reconciles buffs on load, so any ale that would have run out while you were away is correctly expired during offline progression.
• The Thrifty trait reduces a dwarf’s personal consumable use rate (−15%), stretching your ale stock further. See Overview.

Choosing the Right Ale #

Unconfirmed Numbers #

The five ales appear in three sources that do not fully agree. This page uses the live simulation (consumption.js) and resources.json — the values the game actually applies and shows in the Buffs panel. Where the Tavern/accommodation data tables differ, note the following:

• Stout — resources.json (used here): +15% Mining, +10% Production, 10 min. The simulation code applies +15% to both Mining and Production; the Tavern data table lists +20% Mining / +15% Production over 30 min. Treat the +15% / +10% / 10-min figures as the player-facing values.
• Firebrew — clears a flat 40 Fatigue (live); the Tavern data table says “clears 50% Fatigue.”
• Courage Ale — −20% risk / −15% stage damage (live); the Tavern data table says −30% risk over 60 min.
• Deep Delver’s Ale — +25% loot, Stages 3–5 (live); the Tavern data table says +40% over 45 min.
• Healing Mead — +30% Hospital recovery (live resources.json / consumption.js); the Tavern and Hospital data tables (and older docs) say +50%.
• The Firebrew input is listed as food in the recipe but described as “Fungus” in flavour text — these refer to the same Fungus-Farm output.
• All ale values carry first-pass / balance-tbd flags in the data.