Almost all duties and responsibilities within the hospital belong to the doctors in Dwarf Fortress. When a dwarf is injured, simply appoint a doctor to treat them. However, it is also very important that someone is responsible for all other services of the hospital in the background. For example, it’s the Dwarf Fortress orderlies’ job to clean wounds or place necessary medical equipment in chests.
Orderlies often undertake wound dressing and suturing, although the tasks can be very different. In fact, doctors can do this, but you cannot entrust such a simple task to a doctor. For this, there are some adjustments you need to make in the game. You can easily access all these details and everything you need to learn from our guide.
What Are Dwarf Fortress Orderlies?
Dwarf Fortress orderlies are often a detail in the game that most players do not pay attention to. In particular, some professions have tasks that are simpler to do. For example, you can’t have a doctor do errands after a major surgery in a hospital.
In such cases, orderlies come into play and meet the needs of patients such as cleaning. You can access orderlies and all other missions with the “Y” key. However, the point you need to pay attention to here is that dwarfs you appoint as orderlies have enough equipment.
Although that dwarf will do errands, they must have certain skills. Otherwise, you may not be able to get full efficiency from the work to be done. If you want, let’s take a closer look at how to make Dwarf Fortress orderlies appointments.
How to Appoint Orderlies?
Now that we understand exactly what the Dwarf Fortress orderlies do, we can move on to the labor creation phase.
- First of all, you need an actively working hospital and doctors. If you have not created a hospital and appointed a doctor, you can take a look at our previous guides.
- If you have a successful and working hospital, you can now assign orderlies by pressing the “Y” key. However, do not forget that the skills of the dwarves you appoint as orderlies must be in direct proportion to the hospital. If you have such a dwarf, you can make your dwarf selections by clicking the “Only Selected do this” button after pressing the “Y” key.
- When choosing a dwarf, you should choose those who are medically equipped. If you don’t know about this, you can take a look at your dwarves’ abilities one by one. To do this, press the “U” key and click on each dwarf’s “lens” icon to quickly browse through the list of all dwarves.
- After the dwarves’ page is opened, click on “Skills” and browse their skills in the “Labor” section.
If some of the skills here are Wound Dressing and Suturing, you’re in luck. If they dont have such skills, you can make a simple peasant appointment, because it’s the same thing. They will only work in jobs such as water, food, and transportation.
Why Are Orderlies So Important?
Many players starting out playing Dwarf Fortress may be wondering what exactly orderlies will do when there are doctors. To be honest, even if you don’t feel the lack of it at first, you will realize how important it is as the number of people in your colony increases. Of course, before you go through this process, we will shortly talk about why it is important to appoint orderlies.
- After your colony is threatened by an outside civilization and there is a war, many wounded may come to your hospital. Some injured people may even become disabled because their limbs will be severed. While the doctors take care of all these injured dwarves, the orderlies will be responsible for their care. If you don’t appoint orderlies, your dwarfs will die within a few days of neglect and thirst after surgery.
- In addition, there is important medical equipment that must be in chests for some operations. If you do not appoint orderlies, doctors will not be able to complete the operation due to lack of supplies. Since the operation is not performed, the dwarves will lose either their life or a limb forever.
- Another part where orderlies are important is cleaning and fighting infection. Filth spreads very quickly in hospitals. This naturally causes the dwarves to get infections from their wounds. Therefore, if skilled, orderlies will constantly disinfect the dwarf’s wounds and the hospital, preventing infection.
As you can see, Dwarf Fortress orderlies are critical to colony health and strange moods in dwarves. Experienced orderlies are hard to find at the start of the game, but equipped dwarves can be found in later stages. In this way, you will protect your dwarves from bloody wars and diseases.
