Dark Elf

The Dark Elf is a creature in Dungeon Keeper 2 and Dungeon Keeper Online.

Description[]

"Evolved from a race of Elves who shunned the overland world in favour of the dank dungeons, Dark Elves are intelligent and sophisticated warriors. Their long history of dwelling beneath ground has tuned their senses to impressive levels and higher level specimens are particularly adept with a crossbow at long range.

Since the Dark Elves rejected the Overworld, there has been a longstanding rivalry between Dark Elves and Elven Archers. Dark Elves also harbour an irrational resentment towards Dwarves and positively detest doing research or manufacturing."

— Dungeon Keeper 2 Manual

The Dark Elf is the first "guard" creature available to the Keeper. They are intelligent and utterly evil. Once centuries ago they shunned the Overland and chose the Underworld instead, to which their eyes adopted expertly.

They will patrol in Guard Rooms by default once their basic needs are taken care of. They should not be left unchecked, however, especially if a battle is indicated - they are unlikely to be able to handle an invasion without support.

In battle, the Dark Elf will snipe opponents with her crossbow, preferably from behind her more durable allies, lending them their role as support creatures. While Possessed, she can enter "Sniper Mode" which causes the viewpoint to zoom in, allowing for more precise sniping. High level Dark Elves also gain a number of ranged attack spells.

They do not get along with their functionally-identical counterpart, the Elven Archer, and it should be avoided that the two creatures share a Lair or Guard Room.

The Mentor's Thoughts[]

"Behold the Dark Elf. Her sniping skills as sharp as bolted arrows which she shoots. She serves you well in line behind your fighters, and excels in duty as a guard."
— The Mentor, Campaign Mode

"A Dark Elf has entered your dungeon. She is a crackshot with her crossbow, and while weak on her own, a group of them will quickly whittle enemy numbers down."
— The Mentor, Pet Dungeon Mode

Elite and Counterpart[]

'Your Library is too small!' - The Mentor (DK1)

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

Variant comparisons. — Normal Dark Elf, Elite Zenobia, Mercenary Elven Archer, normal Elven Archer.

The Elite Dark Elf, Zenobia, is distinguished from normal Dark Elves by her black grey cropped chest armor and blonde hair. Zenobia's benefits:

Higher melee damage. (Only useful in Possession.)
Trains slightly faster.
+50% more pay.
+50% higher Possession mana cost per second.

The Dark Elf's counterpart is the Elven Archer, which also has a Mercenary variant.

Tips[]

Attracted even by 1 tile of a Guard Room through a Portal, of course you can build more or even enlarge it. The larger you build, the more you ensure all your guard creatures can fit in there. The only other inherently evil creature to guard naturally is the Black Knight.
- The Guard Room is a place where opposite alignment creatures may suffer mood degradation if encountering the same faction but opposite alignment creatures. Thus, Dark Elves (and Black Knights) may become at first Unhappy if needing to share guard duties in the same Guard Room with Knights, Elven Archers, Guards, and Royal Guards, or vice versa, and later even possibly Angry if also needing food, pay, or Lair access.
- You can also get them as neutral creatures, and from game version 1.5 even as Temple sacrifices.
Significantly studious guard. They still need to sleep, eat, and collect wages.
Since they cannot traverse lava, they may reliably shoot over it with their crossbow from possible safe distance.
Has the unique active possession special ability, Sniper Mode.
May depend on taste, but better guards might be Skeletons and Salamanders. Though, they need to be manually placed there.
Tends to go guarding immediately instead of training to experience level 4 first. You need to make sure they are trained as much as you'd like and can offer.
After Imps, she is tied with 6 other creatures in having the lowest health. Only one of them is her counterpart.
In most highly competitive levels or online matches, it might not be worth owning them, or just training them to high levels without inter-alignment animosity then doing the meta action and using them in a Temple sacrifice recipe to get Elven Archers just for the simple fact that sacrifice results are not bound to Portal limits. Otherwise, their raw combative power, especially in small amounts, is so low of this unit it is literally less important than a Troll, only better than a Goblin. But you get 1, maybe 2 together with the Elite, because her devoted attention if feeling a need for variety. So, in essence, instead of using them, they are better thought of as a resource.
Their wages are a tiny bit on the high side compared to their meager martial might.
Even if both are reliable but weak additions to your dungeon in small numbers and a waste in large ones, compared to his Hero counterpart the Elven Archer, the Dark Elf gets her stronger ranged attacks later but all her ranged attacks can benefit from aiming at highlighted targets, even in Sniper Mode, making her theoretically the better longer range sniper IF shots do hit at high levels! Especially if possessed.

Bugs[]

Not that it would bother much, but they are one of the creatures that may have a purple glowing weapon if occasionally stuck performing melee attacks at the Training Room. Being stuck there because of unliked company is more of a bother.

Trivia[]

Fitting his attentive lifestyle, his Portal arrival is also quite fast.
The Dark Elf is one of the few undoubtedly female creatures the game has together with the following: Mistress, Fairy, and the Maiden of the Nest (even if not fully humanoid). Although each individual Firefly and Salamander, either normal or Elite, can be anyone's guess, even if the Mentor in the Campaign does refer to both as male. (Skeletons seem to have a male personality, especially if their FMV representations are taken into account.)
- Despite being noticeably female, Dark Elves sound relatively masculine.
  - There are even one or two instances during the campaign where The Mentor will erroneously refer to the Dark Elves as a him.

A previous piece of trivia mentioned "They similarly dislike Dwarves." but that might just be verbal worldbuilding flavor because in the game there is no way to dislike a Dwarf for a creature.
The Elite Dark Elf, Zenobia, has enough sense to wear proper battle armor attire, at least partially.
Their exact genetic connection with Elven Archers has not been revealed yet by the series. It is also unknown why the Dark Elves are mostly bald with the exception of the Elite. Furthermore it is not detailed how much better Dark Elves see on the dark subterranean battlefields. Would their eyes be hindering them in the sunlit kingdom of The Overworld?
In an original 1998 pre-release build of the game, Dark Elves seemed to have a different Lair, one more resembling their hero counterparts' but perhaps not fully. A clear picture has not been recovered yet.
Elves were originally pretty magical beings of Germanic folklore and Norse mythology, later made more famous by 19th century Romanticism and American Christmas Elves, and 20th Century J.R.R. Tolkien novels The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings. Further spotlight arrived with Dungeons & Dragons, and after Dungeon Keeper and its sequel, came Warcraft III.

Gallery[]

References[]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 暗精灵射手地下城守护者地下城生物之魔族生物大全 (Chinese). dk.178.com (31 March 2012). Retrieved on 19 April 2020.

[DK178Elf-1] 1.0 ^1.1 暗精灵射手地下城守护者地下城生物之魔族生物大全 (Chinese). dk.178.com (31 March 2012). Retrieved on 19 April 2020.

[1]