Water

**Water** is a resource used in crafting many items.
It mainly comes from weather events (rain or snow), but it can also be found on natural water ponds.

## Gathering

For the details on:

* How to gather water, see:  Bucket - Gathering process
* How to do it in the Snow World by melting  snow or  ice, see Snow - Producing water

## Placing

Dwarfs can be ordered to place water on the world, just as they place any other object.
To do so, they do not need to use buckets: they take a water bag from the stock and pour the water at the specified place.

## Puddle of water

The water will then fall until it finds a "stable" surface, where it will spread horizontally to form a puddle of water.
A "stable" surface can be understood as any top surface of a solid foreground block that is sided by two other solid foreground blocks.
Some solid blocks however, like bridges and ladders, cannot retain water.

One bag of water can form a 1-block-wide puddle of water; two bags spreading through 2 blocks, and so on.
If the water is placed (or falls) over a solid block that isn't sided by other blocks, it will keep falling towards (one of) the empty side(s).
This mechanic can be used, for example, to divert water from the rain towards a desired direction—to form an artificial water pond, or simply to avoid it falling over the entrance of an underground shelter.

If the entire surface is already filled with a puddle, and the puddle itself is sided by solid blocks, any water falling over it will start filling that space vertically, to then form blocks of water.

Puddles of water (on any type of surface) tend to evaporate and completely disappear after a while.

## Water block

A **water block** contains up to 5 water bags.

To fill a one-block space with water, the left and right sides of this block should be sealed to avoid water leaking, either by a solid surface or by water itself.

If water is being placed in a block space with several empty blocks beside it, the water will leak to fill all the adjacent blocks evenly.

Thereby, a N-blocks space will require (N x 5) water bags to be completely filled with water.

Water blocks (fully or partially filled) on any type surface, except stone, tend to infiltrate and completely disappear over time.
Infiltration only happens through the blocks on the bottom, and never through the sides.
Regular stone seems to be the only material that's 100% impermeable.

## Water pond

If the enclosed space has 4 or more water blocks, except in one line, it becomes a **water pond**, which has the following characteristics:

* It will spawn  fish(es) regularly, 1 fish each 4 blocks.
* If the foreground blocks of the base have been built with regular stones, the water inside the pond will never evaporate or infiltrate.

### Natural water ponds

Natural ponds of fresh water usually appear on the worlds' surface but also underground, with 5 to 10 blocks wide and 2 to 4 blocks deep.
The amount of water these ponds provide can be extremely useful in the early game in all worlds, and at any time in the Snow World, whose surface is absolutely deprived from liquid water.
Natural underground ponds can be massive—usually larger than those on the surface—but they're rare (if not inexistent) before (above) the third earth layer.

### Artificial water ponds

Surface or underground fishes both produce the same fish meat. Natural water ponds may be easier to find, but harder to exploit, as many enemies spawn over the worlds surface. To overcome this problem, dwarfs can build artificial water ponds underground, near or even inside their shelter.

One pond only allows one dwarf fishing on it at a time, even if it is a huge pond with numerous fishes. Constructed ponds with a dividing wall allow more dwarfs to fish at a time.

Bridges will not interfere with fishing.

## Underwater

All creatures move slower underwater. Dwarfs lose half of their speed when moving underwater.

Many creatures lose health while under water. Dwarfs can hold their breath for 3 minutes before drowning.

Dwarfs with the swimmer skill can stay underwater longer before drowning and suffer less slowness.

A  Diving Helmet grants the ability to stay underwater infinitely.

## Use

Water can be used in the following recipes:

 Anti-Lycanthropy Medicine

 Apple Pie

 Aquarium

 Arable Land

 Bandage

 Beer

 Bread

 Bricks

 Clay

 Dyes

 Elixir of Ice Arrow

 Elixir of Obliteration

 Elixir of Transfiguration

 Fabric

 Fish Stew

 Flowerbed

 Forge

 Fountain

 Health Elixir

 Ink

 Lab

 Magic Forest

 Mana Elixir

 Mushroom Pies

 Mushroom Soup

 Paper

 Potion of Resurrection

 Potted Flowers

 Potted Palm

 Rain or Snow

 Shingled Roof

 Stew

 Stone Wall

 Tea

 Venetian Stucco

 Wine Barrel

## See also

* Bucket
* Fish (creature)
* Fish, the raw food ingredient
* Fishing Rod
* Fisher skill / Swimmer skill
* Diving Helmet