Dwarf Fortress is going prehistoric, with 100 new creatures you can befriend, fight, or eat

No matter how many new sandbox and simulation games come along, Dwarf Fortress remains tough to beat for its sheer level of depth and intricacy. Developer brothers Tarn and Zach Adams of Bay 12 Games continue to build out its world with a relentless vigor, and we're about to face a veritable explosion of new creatures. The Dwarf Fortress dino update is pretty self-explanatory, but its sheer scale is impressive, counting 100 "dinos and extinct creatures" across its new roster.

The prospect of creating 100 new creatures to fit neatly into the world of Dwarf Fortress is an intimidating one, but Artist Guido, known as 'Neoriceisgood,' has certainly delivered. In fact, he suggests it would be more accurate to call the upcoming patch "'The extinction update,' because there's a lot of dinosaurs in there, but also stuff like synapsids and stuff from the Cambrian Explosion." If you're a budding enthusiast for the prehistoric, you'll be very well served by the variety on offer.

As Community Director Alexandra Orlando of publisher Kitfox Games puts it, "Why would you ever assume that we're only doing the basics? This is Dwarf Fortress." Neoriceisgood says he "fought to get a very large number in there, which required me to do a lot of art, but I was very fast about it." The number isn't a rough count; Bay 12 says the final total comes to exactly 100 extinct animals on the dot. There's more, however: "every single one" also comes with its own 'dinoman' human-hybrid version.

The list began with Tarn's personal favorite, which might also be mine depending on the day you ask me: the Ankylosaurus, an armored dinosaur famed for its club-like tail. From there, everyone on the team was given their chance to pick an entrant - Neoriceisgood selected the lesser-known Sharovipteryx, which is unique because its gliding membrane is positioned on its rear legs rather than the forelimbs.

The initial total ended up at 70, but Neoriceisgood pushed for it to be brought up to a nice round 100 - and notes that even when it came down to the final ten, there was still space for particularly significant inclusions. One of the last to sneak in was the Tiktaalik, which is considered historically important as evidence of the evolutionary transition from fish to land animals.

In fact, the Spinosaurus mirabilis managed to make the cut despite being discovered and named in 2026, during the development of the dino update. "That was fun to do because it was like, 'Okay, this thing was just discovered, let's throw it in there right away.'" There's obviously no timeline in place here, so the final list ranges from the early Cambrian Explosion through to extinct mammals and birds from the Holocene era.

Another big challenge was the actual sprites, because you can't simply use direct references the way you can for animals that still exist today. Neoriceisgood says you can expect the likes of raptors and archaeopteryx to be "very feathered and quite colorful," in line with modern thinking, while larger dinosaurs will have a more traditional look. He adds, "To all the completely up-to-date dinosaur fans out there: I did my best. I had to do a hundred of them in a couple of months."

It's worth noting that dinosaurs "are totally optional," so it's up to you if and how they're included in any new worlds you create. You can set all of the 'real world extinct creatures' to be extinct, or they can appear only in isolated areas, in untamed wilds, in any wilderness, or as fully domesticated animals. You'll also have options to use them "for war, as a pet, or as food."

The Dwarf Fortress dino update launches on Thursday June 25. If you haven't been keeping up with its progress in 2026, you'll have plenty to look forward to, such as improved diplomacy, along with a wealth of optimizations and UI upgrades.