OK. I'll admit that in the last walkthrough I gave you the impression that the levels of this expansion were going to become harder soon, and they will. But this is not the level where that happens, no sir. This level is only one thing: SERIOUSLY ANNOYING! In all reality, there is nothing required in this realm that you have not done a thousand times already, particularly during the course of beating the last two levels. It is a pointless rehash of avoiding caches of overpowered heroes while slowly building up and fighting money shortages so that you can attempt to take on a keeper who somehow manages to outnumber you 2.667:1 and yet still gets totally trashed by your small, well-disciplined mob.

Honestly, I was embarrassed for the game after playing this level, but since you are here, you clearly wish to know how to proceed. I will not begrudge you the guidance you seek no matter how much this level made me consider taking up self-mutilation!

So basically, your starting situation is the same as in the last realm, except you are up in the northeastern corner, and instead of being surrounded by water, you have small pockets of heroes scattered about the fringes of the territory that can be considered yours. The gems are once again under hero control, so there will be a similar period of belt tightening. Keep your Training Room 3x3, and since you'll have no Prison, keep the Torture Room of similar proportions no matter how much your Mistresses complain.

If you are worried about enemy invasions, you should tunnel down to the south on the western side of the map, being careful not to break into any caves, and fortify across the final gap here before a cave that you cannot pass (beware of the rocky alcove just to the right; it contains unaligned Boulder traps to smash your Imps - you'll be sick and tired of that gag by the end of this realm, I promise you that). However, it may be just as well not to bother. The enemy keeper is so walled-in here that he doesn't even know how to dig out.

The gems are in a small hero fortress which is to your immediate west and connects to your portal via a threatening but locked - and therefore totally harmless - door. See, this realm constantly threatens you. Its bark is quite a sound to hear. But its bite is tame, like a gooey gumming by rabid old men who long ago lost their teeth. Simply keep a level head and always use the tunneling trick that I taught you in the previous realm (or Sight of Evil, once you have it). To claim the gems, you'll need a minion of level 5 or higher to take out the two Archers that roam the hallways. You can get this easily by exploring the small alcoves in the impenetrable rock east of your dungeon heart, where you'll find an Increase Level special and the first of two level 10 Skeletons sealed away in this realm.

At the end of the hall you will find the only Workshop that you can get. Do not sell it or attempt to enlarge it! Claiming it did not give you the ability to build more Workshops unfortunately, and this grievance is compounded by the fact that while you are supposed to be able to build Magic Doors on this realm, the designers sort of forgot to make your Workshop large enough. So you can forget about those. At least the Workshop comes with its very own level 10 Troll, who will serve you tirelessly.

There are powerful heroes in the two locked rooms off the side of this corridor, but once again, these are only a threat. Defeating any of the heroes in this realm is purely optional, and therefore it is in your best interest to do so in an impersonal manner. Once you manufacture some doors and boulder traps, you will know what to do about all the heroes you find in this realm. Build yourself some long, reaching hallways full of door-trap-door-trap-door sequences and you've pretty much defeated this realm already.

To the west is a series of three highly-defended hero areas. The one in the middle is, for now at least, a worthless endeavour unless you need the gold within. I recommend attacking the southern cave first, as within it you can find not only a Graveyard and a free level 8 Vampire, but also the Lightning spell. Just beware of two things. First, the powerful heroes lurking in the caverns (including five level 10 Knights!). Second, behind the door to the Graveyard is a boulder trap that will try to smash your new Vampire friend. Don't let that happen; grab him fast! Dig out the north side of the Graveyard to find the Lightning spell.

If you want, you can now start making Vampires. Let me advise you against creating too many, however, because this is a mistake I made. A level 10 Vampire takes somewhere between 2500 and 3000 pay. You have only one face of a gem tile and very little gold. Your Workshop cannot produce Magic Doors. You, my friend, have found a recipe for trouble. Create no more than two or three Vampires, because while you think you're going to need a legion of them to overpower the keeper to the south, you won't. It's a shame, really.

You may now take on the northern-most cave of heroes if you want (remember that it's strictly optional). This area pulls more trap gags than the whole of the original campaign. Boulder traps behind doors. Lightning traps everywhere. I mean really, what are these except annoying? Do they pose any real threat when you have come to expect them to be everywhere? Whatever. One thing to note is that on your approach to the keep, some Samurai will come bursting out of a door to an unaligned treasure cache like maniacs. Don't get caught off-guard by this; it was the one moment in this realm that truly captured the magic of this game in my humble opinion.

Let the heroes saunter out of their keep a few at a time by building and selling a bridge across the lava here, replacing doors and allowing your Imps to reset any boulder traps that were expended each time. Inside the small keep you'll find some precious gold and a Steal Hero special. You can also dig out the western wall toward the south to release the second of the level 10 Skeletons who will join you.

After this, there's really only one more major area to conquer. To the south and slightly to the east of your Dungeon Heart is a small cave of Dwarves which you may have already stumbled across. Beyond them is a huge cave full of powerful heroes and more traps than you can possibly count. Boulder these heroes like all the rest, and use a possessed Dragon's Grenade skill to fight the Wizards on the islands. Knocking them off into the lava will cause major damage and will largely negate their Heal spell. Once the Wizards are dead, use the Dragon (still possessed) to take out all of the traps. This will take forever, but it's the only way. After that is done, you can loot the spoils in this large chamber - to the north in a small room is a level 10 Horned Reaper, and to the south is another well-trapped Increase Level special.

Breaking further south will take you up against the enemy keeper. There's nothing I can tell you about fighting him that you don't already know, except that I received the least resistance I have ever seen in taking over his dungeon. His Imps are so occupied with mining that they will never oppose your progress or attempt to take over your own territory. The enemy keeper may try to raise a Call to Arms on your own dungeon once you've connected to him. To stop this, simply bring some lava traps in early on and fill that initial cave with them. His creatures won't be able to figure out how to get to your dungeon, and in the unlikely event one or two get through, your Boulders will make short work of them.

Be sure to tunnel along the far southeastern corner of the yellow keeper's domain. There is a Disease spell hidden there which he virtually always fails to find. With 40 minions, it would work fantastically against him. If you have the money to cast it, that is.

Once the enemy has been defeated (and in record time I am sure), you will find the Destroy Walls spell in his library. This was actually a spell book that you could find sitting around, but you have absolutely no way of reaching it before the enemy. This is odd, since you need Destroy Walls to get to the secret area in the middle of the three caves I earlier advised you to avoid.

Once the yellow keeper is vanquished, you've conquered the realm and can quit if you wish. But if you want to honor the true Keeper spirit and wipe out all remaining resistance on the map, you should go to that middle cave, being careful of the dozen or so traps inside it, and use a Dragon once again to fight the Wizards on the island and the Archers across from it and to take out all the traps. After they're all dead, you can mine away the gold if you wish. By using Destroy Walls on the single hero wall blocking the path into the rock here, you can find a super-secret area (filled with traps and Samurai, of course) that contains a Reveal Map special. I guess they didn't want you to have this before you fought the yellow keeper, which makes sense I suppose. He was easy enough without that, right?

Getting the Reveal Map special will allow you to find any heroes you may have missed and any hidden goodies you've not yet found. Retrieve them and then be glad that this pointless ordeal is over.