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Deeper Dungeons Realm 02: Korros Tor
Difficulty: Medium to hard.
Goal: To defeat two enemy Keepers while dealing with the
usual assortment of Heroes..
Starting Gold Amount: 25000
Starting number of imps: 5
Your Portal Max:
20
Enemy Portal Max:
30 (green), 30 (blue).
Objective: The might of two rival Dungeon Keepers challenges your claim to this realm. Decimate them both to achieve total domination, but beware of bands of heroes hidden in the caverns.
This is the second of the Deeper Dungeons levels. You start out in the centre of the map, on a large peninsula which is effectively an island since the land joining you to the northern dungeon is entirely impenetrable permanent rock. There is a green keeper to the north and a blue keeper to the south, and various caves in the permanent rock on either side: two small hero fortresses with high-level heroes in to the east and northeast, and one large area to the west which has gems and several small caves (enclosed by diggable earth) each with a few high-level heroes in.
Your first priority is to get yourself a secure dungeon on the central island, without digging into the water. So your first priority is a library - at least 30 tiles - plus at least 25 tiles of lair and treasure room to attract dragons. You will also, of course, want a hatchery to attract your bile demons... As soon as you have researched the workshop, barracks and torture chamber, build these (at least 6x5 workshop, 4x4 barracks and 4x5 torture chamber.) The fact that there are no prisons available means the torture chamber is not as useful as it could be, as you cannot convert creatures: still, you do want to attract mistresses. Use Sight of Evil to avoid tunnelling into the lake for now: but leave space for one or two long trap-filled corridors leading out of your realm, and dig these all except the last tile. There are a pair of level 10 imps in the middle of the gold deposit, and there is an Increase Level to the south of the portal: do not use this at once, but save it until your creatures are higher in level.
You do not want flies, beetles or trolls on this level: the ability to manufacture fast, as trolls do, is not as important as the ability to at least fight decently, so throw trolls back into the portal and let orcs and bile demons do your manufacturing for you - they can manufacture nearly as fast as trolls, and they can fight. Beetles are useless (you knew that already), and spiders too, unless you plan to make extensive use of their freeze powers - which, as they are so quickly and easily killed, is unlikely to get much use in pitched battles: and the exploration done by flies is not really necessary this level, so you can throw flies back as well. When you get a temple, you can sacrifice the stuff you don't want instead - flies, spiders and beetles to produce bile demons, warlocks and mistresses. Do NOT make the sacrifice to get a Reaper, you can find one in this level elsewhere, and more than one is just asking for trouble.
Your central island has no gems, so use the gold wisely. You should research up to the torture chamber (to attract mistresses) as soon as possible), preferably up to the temple (so you can sacrifice rather than throwing back your insect-types.) Ideally, you want a couple of orcs, and several each of bile demons, warlocks, mistresses and dragons. As you don't want to run out of gold too fast, build a comparatively small training room, and put your dragons in training while your warlocks research - then, as the dragons reach level 3, put them in the library and set your warlocks training. In this way you should have your rooms researched quickly, so you can build them.
As soon as bile demons reach level 4 and orcs level 5, put them in the workshop: the same with dragons and mistresses as you run short of money, and put your warlocks back in the library as soon as they reach level 4.
You will probably run out of money before you consider yourself ready to break out of your island, and your best way of making money is by building and selling magic doors: you can force magic doors to be built, by keeping two of everything else in reserve - not placed as yet - and no magic doors. Then, as they are built, place and sell them immediately if you do not have enough gold to manage a Pay Day. Also, you could well learn the usefulness of paying by hand - especially if you can drop 100 gold on a dragon to stop him grabbing 500 on pay day.
Build at least one long corridor filled with traps (including at least two boulders) with an entrance to the east, and one to the west. One to the south as well, if you think you will need it.
When you think you can take on a hatful of level 3 dwarves and archers - the earlier you reach this point, the better - use the Increase Level special, and then break into the central lake. It is best if you can do this before the other keepers even think of breaking into the lake. Immediately build a large expanse of bridge, drop your fighting creatures, and lock the door behind the creatures you drop on your bridge to fight the heroes: you don't want your boulder-trapped corridors wasted on heroes you should be able to fight, so you don't want your creatures running through the corridors, seeing the heroes set off the boulder traps, and getting crushed by your own boulders.
Kill all the dwarves and archers, and head for the one (to the north) and three (to the south) entrances to the other Keepers' domains to seal them off - build a bridge next to the wall in question, and fortify it. Do not yet venture into the hero-filled areas to west and east, but spy them out with Sight of Evil. If any creatures of yours die in the fighting, you can (a) be glad you're not having to pay them any more, and (b) be glad that they are currently replaceable as you have not yet gone over 20 creatures. Unfortunately, you cannot bury them - or your enemies - decently and create vampires from the remains, nor can you capture the heroes as you have no prison or graveyard (the blue keeper to the south is allowed a graveyard and bridges, the green keeper gets neither so he cannot invade your domain ever, and you only get the bridge to invade your enemies with.)
If all this works, you should have managed to seal at least the green keeper in his domain (it only needs the fortification of one tile!), preferably the blue keeper as well. If the blue keeper has not yet dug out to the far southwest of his domain, you may well be able to get there yourself and still fortify the tunnel to stop him getting in. This will provide an excellent area from which to start an invasion later, and also release a level 8 Horned Reaper who will join the side that releases him. It is best of all if you can dig around the area and fortify to wall the blue keeper into his domain without releasing Horny, if your current creature numbers are below 20 - you'd rather go over your max by getting up to 21 creatures than have him count against your max of 20.
Now that you have sealed the other two keepers in, you are safe in your own domain. The trouble is, you're completely out of gold, and your only source of income is building magic doors and selling them. You need to get to the gems in the western cave, but your own creatures haven't a hope of fighting level 10 samurai, knights and barbarians. So how do you kill these heroes so you can reach the gems? The key is, once again, good Imp and finance management. The amount of manufacturing you are doing should allow you to completely fill your corridors out of your central island with traps and doors and keep a couple of doors and traps in reserve, and still have enough gold left over for Pay Day. (*IMPORTANT* Leave the last available spot where you could put a door free for later use... you will soon find out why.) Whenever you have the spare gold (be very careful by comparing the amount of gold you have with the amount needed for a payday, and the time left before said payday), create and sacrifice an imp. Eventually, the cost of imps will come down to 150 despite having a large number of imps - ideally, you want to be able to run about 25 imps at a replacement cost of 150 each. You won't want all 25 at once right now, but it's handy for later.
Now, lock all the doors to keep your imps in your dungeon (you don't want to waste your valuable *fast* imps, once they have reached level 3 and can speed themselves), and pick up your two level 10 imps (so they don't teleport into trouble), and create a single, cheap, level 1 imp to do the digging into the western area. Let out one group of heroes (use Sight of Evil to make sure you only let one group out) and lead them towards one of your corridors - if some of the heroes do not follow, drop your cheap expendable imp near them to encourage them.
Eventually you should have four or five heroes bashing at one of your doors, and this should be two or three spaces down the corridor. Now, drop a door (iron for preference) *behind* them, to prevent their escape, and then sell the door (probably magic) they are bashing on - releasing the boulder. All the heroes will be crushed: the iron door serves two purposes here - to stop the heroes escaping (otherwise the archers may outrun the boulder down the corridor, then dodge it), and to destroy the boulder rather than let it out towards your bridge to endanger your imps. Selling the door rather than letting them bash it down will allow you to get some cash back for it. Now sell the door you just placed (leaving the corridor free again), replace the boulder trap that has just been set off, and the magic door you just sold, and repeat the same trick for all four of the bands of heroes until none are left.
You can now remove all the earth from the western area, and start digging out the gems - at last. Make the entire area (apart from the line next to the water, which should be filled with lava traps to stop enemy imps getting in if you should inadvertently breach your dungeon) into a treasure room: and get - but don't use yet - the Steal Hero special. Now that you have infinite cash flow, you can train your creatures and your imps (up to level 9 - NOT level 10, as their teleport will be more trouble than it's worth) and build up some cash: and now would also be a good time to release Horny if you haven't done it already. If he gets angry, put him in the temple until he cheers up, then get him training. You can also take out the heroes in the east and north-east fortresses with Sight of Evil and Lightning if you want to, or you can set your dragons, mistresses and warlocks on them. In any case, you should kill all their archers with Lightning: that way, at least you will get either a giant, barbarian or samurai from your Steal Hero, all of which are far more useful than an Archer.
It doesn't particularly matter which order you then go after the hero fortresses in: the one to the east has two specials (Increase Level and Make Safe), a large quantity of gold, and there are a couple of open areas beyond it containing a Reveal Map and two level 7 Imps, while the one to the north guards a Steal Hero and a locked area containing a level-8 Spider and Beetle who will join you. It is possible to get to the Steal Hero without killing *all* the heroes inside, by using Destroy Walls to go around the area and north: in this way, you may be able to use it on a Samurai while he is still alive. The Spider and Beetle may be useful as they are, or may be more useful to throw into the temple and get another mistress for them - it depends what kind of use you make of their Freeze power, or the mistress's Lightning. You should still not have lost a creature yet, unless you lost some when breaking into the lake, and those have been replaced: so you should have 20 creatures plus Horny, two stolen Heroes, and either a spider and beetle or an extra mistress, for a grand total of 25 or 24.
Once all your non-imp creatures are level 10, it's time to go after the other Keepers. The green keeper is the one to go after first: his gems are near his opening, which means that a collection of imps with Conceal Creature can gain control of the area around them if you get rid of his imps (a Lightning strike or two should do that.) Furthermore, he can tend to have fewer creatures than the player: restricted lair space means that he won't necessarily get his full maximum of 30, in fact you may even outnumber him.
Immediately build a guard post as far forward as you can, and put a couple of level 10 Mistresses on guard duty, to zap his imps when he comes for the gems. And then try to seal off the area as much and as fast as you can - fortifying walls and placing lava traps, or magic doors if he leaves a corridor that is only one square wide. Once you have his gems, and he cannot get in to get them back, he is as good as dead. Invisible imps can claim more of his corridors, but beware of boulder traps (of which he has lots). If you're lucky, some of his boulders will take out some of his own creatures. Sell any rooms you get - especially his hatchery if you can find it, to leave his creatures with no money and no food. (Or nowhere to sleep if you can claim his Lairs.) Eventually his creatures should start deserting. If he attacks too early, pull all your creatures out rather than fight, but keep zapping his imps yourself with Lightning, so he can't claim his gems back. Fight this one as a war of attrition, and try to save as many creatures as you can. Eventually he will go bankrupt and you will be able to storm his Heart with little resistance. Lightning to death as many level-10 creatures as you can in their lairs: even if he gets replacements from his portal, they will only be level 1.
The blue keeper is harder to deal with: his gems are better defended and not so close to his entrance, and his portal is harder to get to than his Heart. He has more creatures than you (30 as opposed to your maximum of 20 plus the 5 others it is possible to get), and can create vampires (though not scavenge with them), and is harder to seal off in the first place. You can still get a lot of mileage out of casting Lightning now the map has been revealed to you: and you have the advantage that he, unlike you, hasn't thrown back his flies, beetles and spiders - which can be good creatures but all have few hit points and are thus very vulnerable to Lightning, and do not last long in fights either. If you can nail his warlocks and mistresses instead (or even his bile demons) and leave the weaker creatures alive, you're in even better shape for a fight. It takes a lot of gold, casting all that lightning, but that's what you've got six gem sides and over 25 9th-level imps for - to keep the cash really racing in. Eventually, once you have killed several of his 10th-level creatures, get ready to invade. He will protect his entrances with lava and boulder traps, so use expendable cheap 1st-level imps to set them off. Then invade in full force - keep plenty of spare gold around to Speed, Protect, Heal and Conceal your creatures (you can do this in your barracks beforehand), and Lightning the enemy in the middle of battle. Meanwhile, make some invisible imps claim more land, selling off rooms as you get them (and zapping his imps so they don't start fights with your imps, so he doesn't notice your imps and shift his Call to Arms away from your invasion point) and move your own Call to Arms ever deeper into his domain once you have set off all boulder traps in an area. (Keeping some iron doors in reserve, to drop in front of boulders coming down corridors to destroy them, is a good idea.) You could stage a diversionary assault from the west on his gems, then sneak in from the north towards his heart, or you could just go in in one place. Eventually you will reach the enemy heart and kill it, at which point you have conquered the realm.
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Level Guide Copyright (c) 1999 by Phil Estelle. All
rights reserved.
Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2, and the game design concepts are Copyright (c) 1997-1999
by Electronics Arts and Bullfrog Productions. No intent to infringe on these
copyrights are made.
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