How to win at Dungeon Keeper 2, revealed...
Drake Selah
have read many messages on this newsgroup and used the information gained to
my advantage. (Thanks, Keeper Krolak.) Here is a distillation of what I
have read and what I have learned from experience.
To my mind, there are only 3 difficult levels in DK2. The first is
WoodSong, where the objective is to break through Lord Ronin's line and
defeat Keeper Asmodeus. The second is level 19 with the 3 Princes. And the
third is the final level, 20, with the King and the 2 stoned giants.
(Unlike perhaps many Keepers, I did not find the level "Conversion," with
the vampire horde, to be difficult; I never converted one monk but was
able--with the help of the Goodies--to fend off the vampires long enough to
find and slay the objective. Often I found that the goodies helpfully
attack your competition, so why bother converting them?)
*****
Woodsong is by far the most difficult level of the game, due to the time
limit before Armageddon, but it is also the most fun. You must hurry about
your business and not waste time. Quickly build your rooms and train your
creatures well, as always.
To win Woodsong, first of all, quickly strike to the left and right of your
fortress, destroy the Heroes' Gates and seize the useful magical items. Use
the Raise Level only near the end of the game, to gain maximum advantage for
your creatures. These Heroes' Gates must be destroyed to end their
interference, or you will lose significant time responding to their heroes,
not to mention facing attacks from multiple sides when your time limit
expires. Another plus is that you will quickly find limitless gems.
Keep in mind that it is not enough to be able to fend off Ronin's assault on
your fortress after your time limit has expired. In my experience, Ronin
attacks both you and Asmodeus simultaneously, and if you survive Asmodeus
will surely succumb. This is what happens when you think you have fended
off an attack and then you suddenly see the end of the game, and goodies
standing around a broken dungeon Heart. That is Asmodeus' Heart, not yours!
This confused me for some time before I caught on. Asmodeus must not fall
to Ronin!
Ronin is not your objective and should be avoided as much as possible,
unless you want to take him on for fun--but he is very powerful and that can
backfire--only recommended for veteran players who want a greater challenge.
You must probe Lord Ronin's line and find the least defended spot. Build
bridges up to that point and drop monsters near the cannons to destroy them.
You will encounter Lord Ronin's patrols and should destroy them because they
patrol incessantly and are too great a disturbance to your imps. However, I
don't advise attacking the stronghold of Lord Ronin. Anger Ronin too much
and you may get an all-out attack before your time limit has expired. Once
your imps have seized a portion of Lord Ronin's bridge, from there link to
Asmodeus' stronghold. The precise spot where you should break through
should be determined beforehand, through use of your Evil Eye. There is a
glaring weakness in Asmodeus' defenses. When you do break through finally,
literally throw in everything you've got. Don't try Call to Arms because
the hike is too long and creatures may be harassed by Ronin's troops. Keep
in mind, once you attack Asmodeus, Ronin gets anxious and will attack both
you and Asmodeus. You must destroy Asmodeus' heart first, or else Ronin
wins.
**********
The 3 Princes has one trick that frustrated me for a long time. I figured
out on my own how to pick off the Princes' escorts one by one then lure each
Prince onto a stone bridge over lava, and then sell of portions of the
bridge to create an island, effectively imprisoning the Prince prior to his
execution. Once you have done this to each Prince, none can escape when one
cries out the alarm. You may capture them at your leisure. But take care,
once a Prince has fallen, to build another bridge and have your imps drag
the victim back to your prison. From there quickly place them in your
Torture Chamber. Now, the next step eluded me until I read this newsgroup
and heard from Billy Ko and Krolak. You have to HEAL the Princes during
torture! Otherwise, they will die and you lose. Heal them just enough to
see all the petals on their "flower", then forget about it. Go get yourself
a cup of coffee and wait until the level is over. To me it wasn't at all
intuitive that one should heal a torture victim, but once you know that
information it's no problem to convert anything, giants, wizards, Princes,
or guards.
**********
The final Level also eluded me until I read instructions on this newsgroup
on how to destroy Heroes' Gates. You must own every square around the Gate,
and then it is destroyed. A few Gates are invulnerable owing to their
placement by Solid Rock. But many on this level are vulnerable. Use your
Tremor spell and imps to evil effect. Your first objective is to cut off
all the nearby Gates or else you will be overrun. A neat little secret
alluded to here and verified by me is that limitless gems exist somewhere on
this level, if you go a-prospecting for them, as well as a hidden manna
vault and an obvious manna vault. The gems will end your money problems for
good. But in the meantime you can sell the guard rooms and Treasuries you
capture for extra bucks. You may find a Create Gold spell as well that can
convert manna to gold.
With most of the Gates silenced, you can let the game run itself and go fix
yourself a cup of hot chocolate, watch TV or even go out for a movie. I've
left the game running by itself for an hour to have supper, once. I came
back and saw some of my traps destroyed but not much other damage, and I had
accumulated the maximum manna.
Do not build too many elaborate traps on this or any level in DK2.
Elaborate traps, such as electricity and freeze, drain your manna which
would be of better use to summon Horny for offense or cast Thunderbolts or
Heal spells. I avoid Magic Doors for this reason. Steel doors are the best
because they are tough and drain no manna. I do like Freeze and Electricity
traps used in conjunction, but use them sparingly at vulnerable areas,
particularly near your guard rooms. Doors and Traps delay goodies, and
meanwhile your drow elves can fire missiles, adding to the damage the
goodies suffer. Don't allow quick entry into your guard rooms. Drow elves
fight best from a distance; once the enemy closes in, its lights out for the
drow.
Next step is to penetrate the King's fortress. Probe with your Evil Eye for
weaknesses. The problem you come across is that many very high-level
creatures are in the fortress. Nothing in your arsenal really matches them,
though you can throw a horde at them and sometimes defeat them. If you do
defeat a level 10 creature, be sure to convert it rather than waste it as a
skeleton or worse, a corpse. They take a long time to convert but make nice
fighters for you.
Now, once you have penetrated the Fortress and managed to seriously annoy
the goodies, they will begin amassing strength. If you dilly-dally too
long, say for half an hour, they may begin following your imps to your
Dungeon. A horde of twenty or more level 10 creatures is well-nigh
unstoppable, even with Horny. Horny will kill a couple of them, then
vanish, and the level 10 creatures will completely devastate your Dungeon.
The good news is that the King is in the center of the Fortress and can be
quickly found. The King is very tough and more than a match for your
creatures, especially with his escort of level 10 creatures. Send in Horny
to finish him off. After that, simply amass manna again and send in Horny
to finish off the Stoned Giants and put an end to their marijuana parties.
That wins the level. Kick back and enjoy the final movie!
Hope this helps. DK2 was one fun and fine game, and I think Electronic Arts
is nuts not to come out with DK3. Who cares about Playstation? The future
is the PC & the Net, not paltry TV consoles. But that's just one bloke's
opinion. At the moment the TV consoles are judged hot because the games
bring 50 bucks apiece and piracy is rare. But I never have been tempted to
buy one. A PC with a fast, reliable and inexpensive AMD chipset for me any
day of the week.
yours in Evil,
~~ Drake
Krolak
Welcome to the I Slew King Reginald Club.
One of the fun things about DK2 is that there are multiple strategies and
tactics that can accomplish the same goal. You clearly explored and cleared a
great area of level 20. Me I rather enjoyed sneaking in the Kings back door and
getting right to the heart of the matter. Several freeze traps backed by
lighting and sentry traps worked a wonderful chaos and significantly softened up
the Kings level 10 bodyguards. Sending several thus converted guards and rogues
back was also good for a laugh or two.
We can only hope that someday in the future, DK3 will be available to expand the
adventures.
Congratulations on your success.
Keeper Krolak
Drake Selah
am ready for the next step, Skirmish with other players. I don't think that
the computer can match a human being. I put the computer on "Master Keeper"
mode and beat it first try in Hero's Cove. I wonder if it would be possible
to Skirmish with you through the Net? I don't know whether DK2 is
Internet-played or network card-played.
A fellow at Electronic Boutique told me that Baldur's Gate was very fun and
adhered to AD&D rules which I'm very familiar with. I may move on to that
next.
"Krolak" <j_kr...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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