Desert World

**Desert World**, also called "The Land of Dry Winds", is a rocky and sandy planet better known for its reckless tornados, and enchanting pyramids.

## Composition

 Lava

The desert does not have a first layer of soft earth, common on the other worlds surfaces.
Its first dirt layer is made of rocky light earth, that is firm enough not to be eroded by the winds.
When it's not covered with sand, this type of dirt, allows for the growth of vegetation with deeper roots: typically the palms.

Dwarfs are not able to replicate this kind of surface.
If they place blocks of dirt in the desert surface, those blocks will be constantly threaten by the tornados, and eventually removed.
With that in mind, in order to preserve the renewable sources of wood (and coconuts), it's recommended to keep the original layers of earth that are in contact with the sunlight untouched.

Usually deserts don't have huge montains of stone (also common on other worlds)
but its surface is rich on this raw material, and can provide it at least for the most basic initial needs.

The desert is always warm, meaning it will never snow there.
However it can have a good amount of precipitations (depending on the weather conditions),
and even quite a few natural water ponds on its surface.

## Campaign

Level 3: The Land of Dry Winds
 Topography
 Difficulty

The desert world is the third level of campaign mode, accessed after assembling the parts of the big portal in the Snow World.

It has large size, warm temperature, dry humidity and plain topography.
(In custom mode it can be small, medium, or large.)

Using the big portal on the desert will unlock the Underground World.

## Tornado

Sand storms will happen randomly in the Desert World. This dangerous meteorological phenomenon may grab some resources/items (unresistant blocks like sand, unresistant construction like ladder, wood/resin/etc by shaking trees, ...) or any living creature (dwarfs included) and carry them away. The fall will cause damage to living creatures.
Dwarfs will also be completely scared by sand storm.

Tornados cannot remove:

* any earth or sand block that has a bush, cactus or palm rooted on it
* any block made of stone (including the natural stone, stone walls, and stone bridges)
* any block or object that has stone on its background tile, and a foreground layer of stone above it
* any item that can be directly placed by player into the world, like scaffoldings and beware signs.

## Pyramids

In the desert world, among the five guardians (usually found in the underground crypts), at least one or two of them will surely be found inside a pyramid.
The number of pyramids depend on the size of the world.
Small and medium worlds have one, while large worlds have two pyramids.
They can appear on either sides of the world.
But if there is a pair of pyramids, they will always be together on the same side of the map.
Each pyramid always has one (and only one) guardian.

Pyramids are made of a type of stone that is absurdly hard to break.
Even very skilled miners, equiped with mithril pickaxes would take a considerable amount of time to break one of these blocks.

However the building is "easily" accessible from a tunnel (or shaft), found on one of its superior surfaces.
The tunnel is deep, dark, and clogged up with sand.
Removing the sand can accidentaly open passages and bifurcations that dwarfs could not foresee.
They can fall inside the new shaft and be trapped inside it.

There's a huge variety of internal layouts, which are randomly generated as of the creation of the world.
The pyramid tunnels however are certainly designed not to allow full exploration by only one dwarf.
And sometimes, even a group of three or four are required:
the first ones triggering the new underpasses, and the later ones rescuing them.

Pyramid's energy blocks spells, this includes manually controlling dwarves and placing scaffolds, so be careful while exploring it.

The guardian will always be found on the central chamber, on the very bottom of the building.
Pyramids have some extremely solid walls.

Monsters that may be found inside a pyramid:

* within the trap tunnels:
 Mummy (trapped between sand blocks, can be seen from a certain distance)
 Scorpion (living inside sand blocks, only seen once the block has been dug)
* inside the central chamber:
 Mummy
 King Mummy
 Skeleton
 Giant Skeleton
 Guardian

## Flora

Usual trees cannot be found in this world, instead some new kind are available.

The only trees which can grow upon earth blocks are palms (wood x2 and coconut x1).
The natural earth blocks on which palms can grow, are denser than the earth blocks placed by dwarfs.

Other plants will grow upon sand blocks:

* cactus, which drops needles and generate water; and
* bush, which drops wood and resin, or berries and leaves, according to its type.

## Creatures

This world introduces new creatures:

 Blue Bird

 Llama

 Bull

 Scorpion

 Mummy

 King Mummy

## Clothing

New dwarfs will randomly appear with some of the following clothes:

 Turban (can be removed and dismantled)

 Desert Boots (cannot be removed nor dismantled)

## History

 1.4.014 | 15 Feb 2018
 1.4.001 | 22 Mar 2017
 0.9.024 | 24 Apr 2014
 0.9.019 | 7 Mar 2014
 0.9.016 | 24 Feb 2014