For new players, it’s still bound to be confusing for the first dozen hours, but after that Stockholm syndrome kicks in, you’ll never leave. At the end of the day, however long you’ve been playing, the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress comes with a full tile and sprite set that has been designed with oversight from the original developers, and simply blows other new-school GUIs out of the water. Having to go to each and every dwarf individually to check who out of 100 dwarfs should be my new military leader and seeing it at a glance of an eye in Therapist is a hell of a difference to me. This game to me personally is grind and boring without things like DFHack and Dwarf Therapist. Perhaps it’s blasphemous for those that have been playing Dwarf Fortress since the ASCII days to presume that some form of remaster or GUI enhancement is a better version than tinkering with modded tilesets and other enhancements. I do not enjoy playing DF without starter pack. Dwarf Fortress (Steam) Screenshot by Gamepur The images fit seamlessly into the world, the data offered by each sprite is robust, and the entirety of the installation process isn’t as bad as it could be.

Hand-drawn sprites and tiles invoke a world of weathered myth and mystery, with everything being both unique and easily integrated into the realm of Dwarf Fortress.

Considered by many as the OG of more recent tilesets, Vettlingr’s Tileset is a beautifully crafted graphical rework that stood untested until recently.