Treasure Room
Cost Per Tile: 50
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Demon Spawn | 25 | Training Room |
| Dragon | 25 | Lair |
The Treasure Room is one of the most important rooms, where you store any
riches that you may find during the course of your conquest. Your Imps will
run here when their pockets are full and will empty them out onto the piles of
gold. You can also drop any money you find yourself into it with the Hand of
Evil. Each pile can only hold a certain amount, which depends on the size and
efficiency of the Treasure room. Creatures will immediately head here on pay day,
and they will become enraged if they either cannot make it because of an
obstacle, or if you have no money when they get there.
Note that money is always subtracted from the latest Treasure Room you have
constructed first, but that there must be at least one pile of gold in a
Treasure Room or your minions will refuse to use it. They will instead head
for a Treasure Room that appears to contain gold.
Placement of treasure rooms is very important. Your first should be near the
Dungeon Heart and Lair so that creatures only have a short jaunt on pay day.
As you fan out to mine distant gold or gems, you should build secondary Treasure
Rooms near by so that your imps can mine faster. This room can function
surprisingly well even with low efficiency, so shape is less important than
usual. This allows you to construct Treasure Rooms in some very odd places.
Remember that gold is useful for winning back angry minions' loyalties. If you
grab some treasure from the Treasure Room and sprinkle it on them, it may calm
their rage. You can also trick minions into skipping their pay day by giving
them a bit of gold while they are on their way to the Treasure Room.
Hero plunderers will often head straight for this room, so keep an eye out for
thieves whenever your dungeon is breached.
Cost Per Tile: 100
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Beetle | 1 | None |
| Spider | 9 | Hatchery |
| Dragon | 15 | Treasure Room |
| Bile Demon | 25 | Hatchery |
| Vampire | 9 | Graveyard |
| Tentacle | 9 | Temple |
The Lair is where your creatures go to sleep and heal their wounds, and for many
species, this is where they will idle when they have not been given a job. Lairs
should be very large and efficient, with a good Hatchery nearby.
If minions cannot make a lair when they first enter your Dungeon, or if their
lair is subsequently destroyed, they will be become restless and angry.
Upon entering your dungeon, minions will make their home in the first Lair
they find with enough space. You don't have to settle for this, however. If
you don't like where they've taken up residence, placing them down in another
Lair with the Hand of Evil will convince them to live there instead. This is
extremely important when dealing with rival species, because it is the Lair that
is always the source of interspecies conflicts. Be extra careful that paths
between Lairs, Hatcheries, and Treasure Rooms do not cross other Lairs, since
rivals will begin fighting even if they enter only to eat or take their pay.
For completeness, a list of lair rivals is as follows:
The Horned Reaper will not immediately fight any particular species in the
Lair, but being around other creatures while idle makes him angry even faster,
Then again, you should never leave Horny idle...
Most creatures use only one tile of Lair, but there are three exceptions. The
Bile Demon's bulk takes up 2 tiles, each Dragon needs 4 whole tiles, and any
Giants you may convert will need 2 tiles.
Some creatures will slowly gain experience if they make their lairs near certain
dungeon terrain. Greedy Warlocks will gain experience if they sleep near gold,
Tentacles like water, and Dragons will be enhanced if they stay near lava. This
gain is very small, but since you stand to save both time and money, making
these arrangements is worth it whenever possible.
Note that Imps do not need lairs, but converted Tunneller Dwarves do.
Cost Per Tile: 125
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Spider | 9 | Lair |
| Bile Demon | 25 | Lair |
The Hatchery is where your minions can go to satiate their hunger by feasting
on cute, defenseless little chickens, which occasionally hatch from its fertile,
magic soil. Be sure to build Hatcheries at least 25 tiles large. If your Hatcheries
become low on chickens, creatures will begin to starve to death and will become angry.
Note that you can pick up chickens and drop them onto creatures in order to improve
their health, or to put them into other Hatcheries that have become sparse. This
may be useful in Prisons and Torture Rooms if you are low on cash. For kicks,
you can also try possessing a chicken in the Hatchery.
Some Keepers maintain that throwing chickens into the midst of battle can confuse
your enemies.
Cost Per Tile: 150
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Demon Spawn | 1 | Treasure Room |
| Orc | 9 | Barracks |
| Skeleton | 9 | Prison |
The Training Room is where your creatures will probably gain most of their
experience. Some creatures will train at their own volition, and others must
be placed into the room before they will see its value. Training is a very
expensive activity however, so when you are low on cash you will need to
keep your Training Rooms small and place doors in front of them to lock
creatures out when necessary.
Be sure to rotate creatures like Warlocks and Bile Demons, who prefer to do
other jobs, between those jobs and the Training Room. If you wait until your
Library and Workshops are full, you'll have an irritatingly long training phase.
You can speed up creatures' training time with the Speed Creature spell. This
is always recommended as long as you can afford it.
When you have decided to tunnel out of your dungeon, the Training Room is a
good place to start your corridors, as invaders who enter will surely stumble
upon a room full of high-level minions ready to kill them.
Cost Per Tile: 200
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Warlock | 9 | None |
The Library contains ancient tomes and scrolls of knowledge that have been
passed down through the ages by Keepers of all walks. Those minions of yours
that can read are able to extract runes and incantations, as well as knowledge
of dungeon engineering, from these works. In order to use advanced rooms or
spells, you will need to build a Library.
Once spells have been researched, their formulations are placed in books by
your Warlocks, and these books will remain in the Library. Be careful! Even
though you may be tempted to sell the Library once you are done with research,
doing so will cause you to lose any spellbooks that sit on the tiles you sell!
Always leave your library in place. In addition, claiming an enemy Library
will automatically give you any spells contained within it, even if you were
unable to research them yourself.
When you locate Dungeon Specials, your Imps will bring them to the nearest
Library for safe storage. You can use them at any time.
Beware of placing the Library on a path between other rooms. If creatures begin
entering and exiting the library frequently, your researchers may become
annoyed and will start firing on them. Always keep your Libraries off the
sides of halls, in quiet, isolated places.
Also, if your Warlocks or Wizards are at high level, they will become annoyed
if creatures with less research skill, such as Dark Mistresses, are assigned to
the Library. Beware, as this will start a one-sided fight.
Cost Per Tile: 30
The Bridge allows you to provide better passage for your minions across water
and lava, and allows you to extend your presence to their far shores.
Always watch carefully for enemy bridge construction - quickly claim and sell
any bridges which contact your territory.
Cost Per Tile: 50
Guard posts are useful lookout points. Put them in high-risk areas that need
constant defense, such as near your Imps while they mine. Also, you should
always surround areas that touch water and lava with Guard Posts. As long as
no bridge is built up to them, walking enemy creatures will not be able to
enter your dungeon.
Note that Orcs, when left idle, will voluntarily assign themselves to Guard
Post duty. They make fine watchmen. Vampires and Horned Reapers can also be
kept busy with Guard Post duty to avoid having them remain idle.
Cost Per Tile: 200
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Troll | 1 | None |
The Workshop is where you can produce traps and doors to defend and fortify
your dungeon, or to sell on the dungeon black market for money. Several species
of creatures manufacture by default, and almost all species will manufacture if
you place them into the room (including Dragons, Dark Mistresses, and virtually
all Heroes).
As with the Library, be especially sure to rotate manufacturing creatures to
the Training Room occasionally. Bile Demons will spend all their time in the
Workshop if you allow them, but you need their brute strength in combat.
Trolls are solely manufacturers, and this makes them relatively useless if you
have Bile Demons. Watch the Portal carefully and if you get too many Trolls,
throw some back out using the Hand of Evil.
Whenever your Workshop fills up with doors and trap crates, you'll hear a message
saying that your Workshop is not big enough. This doesn't always mean you
really need to make it larger though; you'll always get this message whenever
it is full. Either close off the Workshop for the time being, or place
and/or sell some of the items your creatures have made to free up space.
Cost Per Tile: 250
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Skeleton | 1 | Training |
The Prison can be used to punish unruly minions and put an end to revolts, and
also to keep creatures that you have captured in combat. In order to capture
creatures rather than kill them, you must enable the "Imprison" icon on the
Information Panel, and then be careful to use creatures that are skilled at
imprisoning, such as Dark Mistresses and Orcs. Bile Demons and Dragons are
poor choices because of their gas and flame attacks, which can still kill
creatures by accident. Once your enemies are subdued, drop Imps nearby and
they will drag your convicts to the Prison.
Prisons must be highly efficient in order to keep creatures within their
confines. Always make them square, fortify all the walls around them, and seal
them off with the strongest type of door you can manufacture. If your prisoners
escape, your mentor will tell you, and you will have to battle them again. If any
free enemy enters your Prison, all prisoners of the same allegiance will be set
free at once.
Excepting Skeletons and Imps, creatures in Prison will slowly starve to death,
and if they do not have the Heal spell, they will eventually die. If a humanoid
creature dies in prison, it may rise as a Skeleton warrior ready to do your
bidding. Skeletons are not very strong, but they train quickly and possess the
fearful Lightning spell. They make very good expendable minions.
A better option for some creatures is to keep them healed until you have
time to torture them in the Torture Room, which is covered below. You can
either cast the Heal spell on them, or drop chickens into the Prison. Your
prisoners will compete for their meal - survival of the fittest!
When Spiders have time off, they will go to your prisons and freeze any
prisoners inside. This does not damage them, but rather prolongs their lives
while you are tending to more urgent matters.
Cost Per Tile: 350
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Dark Mistress | 9 | None |
| Ghost | 1 | None |
Torture is another form of punishment more severe than simple imprisonment.
Creatures placed within will involuntarily proceed to a torture table, where
they will be subjected to unspeakable, automated forms of pain and gibbitude.
Torturing your own minions is not very useful most of the time, but torturing
any prisoners you've captured is always a good idea.
Three things may happen when you torture creatures. First, enemies whose owners
have dungeon hearts may begin to reveal information to you. Your mentor will
mention this aurally, and if you examine the map, you will be able to see
expanding areas of your enemy's territory. Very useful!
If you leave creatures on the torture table for too long, they will eventually
die and return as an angry, sulking Ghost. Ghosts are almost totally useless
however, so this option is not recommended.
More advantageous is the final possibility of conversion. If you heal a creature
for long enough, its loyalty will finally break and it will join your ranks. This
method can be used to obtain many creatures not normally available to you,
including most heroes. This is one of the best ways to increase your ranks when
you are outnumbered.
Note that Dark Mistresses are not damaged by torture and that it actually
improves their happiness rating. Mistresses who are maximum level or who cannot
currently train will come to the Torture Room and either voluntarily torture
themselves, or watch other creatures be tortured. This has the disadvantage of
filling up your torture room though, so you may need to build an extra one for
torturing your prisoners.
Two reasons to torture your minions include putting an end to revolts as well
as getting your creatures to take less pay. If you torture a creature just
before and during a pay day, all others of the same type will reduce their
salaries by half in fear of your wrath. After pay day, remove the creature
and sprinkle a small pile of gold on it to make it forget the pain. It is
best to do this with a low-level creature, since higher level creatures are
more difficult to calm.
Cost Per Tile: 125
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Orc | 1 | Training Room |
The Barracks can be used to group minions into platoons. Place a number of
them within its confines and then watch carefully to determine who has taken
the lead. Possess the leader and you will be able to walk about with a party
of your minions following you. This can sometimes be strategically useful, but
most of the time you will find it unnecessary. Just build a Barracks of 1 to 9
tiles so that you can attract Orcs, and most of the time this will be all that
you need to think of it.
Cost Per Tile: 350
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Tentacle | 9 | Lair |
| Horned Reaper | 9 | None |
The Temple is where you and your minions may pay homage to the Dark Gods.
High-level creatures who are idle may come here at random to pray.
Placing creatures around the perimeter of the temple can have a number
of effects:
Just be sure to distinguish between the perimeter of the Temple and its
pool, because the Temple can also be used as a means to sacrifice creatures to the
Dark Gods. Depending upon the number and combination of minions thrown into the pool,
you may either please or annoy the Dark Gods. The rules of sacrifice are as follows:
Sacrifice
Result
Money
"This is no wishing well, keeper!"
Imp
Price of Create Imp lowered by $300
Fly + Spider
The dark gods send you a Warlock
Fly x2
Current research project will be completed
Beetle x2
Current manufacturing project will be completed
Beetle + Spider
The dark gods send you a Dark Mistress
Spider x3
The dark gods send you a Bile Demon
Dark Mistress + Bile Demon + Troll
The dark gods send you a Horned Reaper!
Horned Reaper
All your minions become angry
Bile Demon x2
Chicken is cast on all your minions
Chicken
All chickens in your hatchery are killed
Ghost
All chickens in your hatchery are killed
Vampire
Disease is cast on all your minions
Cost Per Tile: 300
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Vampire | 30 | Lair |
The Graveyard serves as a place for the bodies of fallen minions and foes to
decompose. This can be important if battles are waged on your own turf, since
if your minions stand or work near the corpses of their friends, their morale
may be lowered signficantly. Plus, for every 10 corpses that decay within the
dank confines of your Graveyard, a blood-thirsty Vampire will rise, ready to
do his dark deeds at your whims. This is another means to increase your army,
and Vampires just happen to be one of the most fearsome creatures that you
can command.
Hellhounds have a peculiar habit of urinating on corpses that are brought to
the graveyard. While this is a wee bit disrespectful, it's also useful in that
it speeds up decomposition, allowing more bodies to be put in the Graveyard,
and for more Vampires to come out!
Cost Per Tile: 750
| Attracts | Tiles Required | Other Rooms Required |
| Hellhound | 9 | None |
The Scavenger Room is expensive and rather grotesque in appearance, with its
waving eye stalks, but it can be a very useful room to possess. Dropping in
creatures of any given species will allow you to syphon off more creatures of
that type both from other Keepers' armies and from the portal pool. Watch your
minion count rise when you use this room. The more of any one species you put
in, the greater the scavenging value, but the greater the cost to you as well.
Having a Vampire in the Scavenger Room will DOUBLE the scavenging value of all
other creatures inside it!
Be extremely wary of enemy keepers who have this room. They can steal away
your best minions in a blink of an eye. Place minions under its effect in the
Temple to try to protect them (this will not work for Vampires, unfortunately).
Each minion in the Temple will extend scavenging protection to one additional
minion of the same type.
Note that you can even scavenge Heroes and unaligned creatures. You will never
scavenge a Knight or an Avatar, however. They are immune to this room's influence.
Portals can neither be created nor destroyed except through some unknown magic
of the ancients, and they serve as gateways from another plane of reality into
the caves that we Keepers call home. Once dungeons of suitable stature have
been erected and a Portal is claimed, creatures from these outer worlds will
take note and will enter the Portal with intent to join you.
The types and number of creatures you can obtain from the Portal differ in every
realm, often with drastic consequences to the strategies you will employ in wreaking
havoc on the land. Note that the Portal limit in no way effects your ability to gain
creatures through imprisonment, torture, or scavenging. If you lose minions in
battle, more will enter through the Portal until either your maximum has again been
reached, or no more creatures are available to enter in the current realm.
Portals are strategically important in multiplayer games, and you should move
to wall off, but not claim, yours early on. Other keepers may head straight
for your portals, and if they cut them off from you, they've destroyed your only
life line.
The Dungeon Heart is the life force of your dungeon, and it is where the
epicenter of your extended presence dwells. As long as the Dungeon Heart still
beats, there may still be hope for your dungeon. Thus you should always make
every effort to have your Heart Room be the last place that enemies can reach,
using doors, traps, and the placement of other rooms to achieve that end.
The Dungeon Heart serves as the epicenter of two spells. Hold Audience transports
all of your minions to the Heart Room in case of trouble, and Armageddon causes
all creatures in the entire realm to be teleported there for one final battle.
Always note the location of enemy Dungeon Hearts when the level begins by listening
to the world map. When possible, always strike for the Dungeon Heart directly. Enemy
Keepers sometimes foolishly dig out around their hearts, leaving them susceptible to
attack. Note that when a Keeper or a Hero force's Heart is destroyed, all of their
claimed territory will dissolve into dirt path, and all their fortified walls not
adjacent to room tiles will become earth again. This allows you to quickly take over
and plunder the remains. To the victor belong the spoils!
It is rare, but if you should spawn in a realm and possess more than one
Dungeon Heart, any one of them being destroyed is enough to cause your end. If
this situation should ever arise, you will have twice or more the defense to
build up.
