The Dark Mistress (also known as simply the Mistress) is a creature type in Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2 , Dungeon Keeper Online, and Dungeon Keeper Mobile. They have an almost risqué mien, and relish pain, both receiving it and inflicting it.
Dungeon Keeper[]
| "The kinkiest of the creatures, one who enjoys pain and inflicting it on others. She has no special job but goes to watch a torture if one is in progress. Slapping her makes her happier and she rushes off to a battle as soon as one starts. An excellent fighter, if quite worrying." |
| — Dungeon Keeper Manual |
The Dark Mistress' portrait
Dark Mistresses are quick, powerful spellcasters who are attracted to dungeons with satisfactory Torture Chambers. They are jacks of all trades, masters of none; they make passable trainers, craftswomen, researchers, and scavengers after they learn Speed.
Untrained, Mistresses resort to Hand to Hand and are vulnerable while so doing. With training, they become hastened Lightning casters, and are the only class of creature other than their arch-enemies, the Samurai, with this formidable combination. Mistresses are physically sturdier than other magic users, and they can kite around enemy fighters easily while draining life from their opponent. Their shortcoming would be the missing Heal spell.
A Mistress gains Teleport at level 10, and a pack of them can execute instant surprise invasions at any accessible tile on the map with Call to Arms.
Dark Mistresses are unusual in that they are the only creature that likes being slapped. Treat this as an invitation to slap them a lot, but not as a way to keep them happy. If creatures are getting angry from starvation and no pay, the matter needs to be dealt with. Mistresses' wage and training requirements are on the high side, but they earn it. Uniquely, she gets her jollies from torturing herself; it is her default and favourite pastime, though she also enjoys combat if there's a fight going.
A Dark Mistress, a Troll, and a Bile Demon are required sacrifices in order to gain a Horned Reaper.
Early portrait, in which she wields a hammer
Tables[]
- Main article: Query
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Speed: | 64 |
|---|---|---|
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Base Health: | 700 |
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Base Strength: | 60 |
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Defence: | 50 |
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Base Skill: | 70 |
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Base Dexterity: | 70 |
|
Luck: | 20 |
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Primary Job | Fight |
|---|---|---|
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Secondary Job | Train Kinky Torture |
|
Base Research Skill | 2 |
|
Base Manufacturing Skill | 2 |
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Training Skill | 2 |
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Training Cost /64t | 24 |
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Base Scavenging Skill | 3 |
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Scavenging Cost /64t | 25 |
|
Praying Anger | -10 |
|
Sleeping Anger | -1 |
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Sleep Recovery | 9 |
|
Hunger | 3 / 8000t
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|
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Base Wage | 175 |
Notes[]
- There's a little-known quirk regarding the Mistress' research skill: by her raw research skill, she's not a particularly good researcher, but once she has Speed, she becomes equivalent to a Warlock or Dragon of the same level. If you have multiple Mistresses, there's a good chance that at least one of them will be under torture, which boosts the skills of all your Mistresses. At level 10, a combination of Speed and torture boosts her research skill to 22, superior to the level 10 Wizard's normal 20, potentially making the Mistress the best researcher in the game unless a "standard" researcher is boosted by Speed Monster, torture, Must Obey, or slapping, bearing in mind that the normal researchers cannot boost themselves, whereas Mistresses can. This does not affect the original game as much, due to the infamous level 10 spell bug, which is fixed in KeeperFX, so this is more noticeable there.
- Dark Mistresses are irreconcilable with converted Samurai, and the two will fight to the death if sharing the same Lair.
- In the Training Room, both the Mistress and Samurai adopt an "active training" style, and the two will spar among themselves and others. This appears to be a cosmetic difference that does not otherwise affect training.
- Slapping and torturing can raise a Dark Mistress's happiness. They are indifferent worshippers, gaining happiness very slowly in a Temple. They clearly prefer being slapped.
- The "Kinky Torture" job is a high-priority task and may unexpectedly interfere with combat. It may be worthwhile to seal or sell off the Torture Chamber when preparing for battle.
- Before the major revamp in 1996, Mistresses cost 600 gold each to purchase.
- In early 1996, before the major revamp, Dark Mistresses were known as Vengeful Sirens.[2]
Gallery[]
Dungeon Keeper 2[]
Dark Mistress concept art
In Dungeon Keeper 2, Mistresses are even more salaciously dressed, and take no less pleasure in agony.
She will not flee unless the battle is going poorly or she has suffered severe damage. Her deadly scything blades will deal very high damage to the enemy; however, she cannot withstand much damage herself (and her love of pain and battle doesn't help matters) so it would be wise to keep an eye or three on her when she's in battle. Similarly, this means Mistresses are very difficult to train in the Combat Pit and require constant supervision.
The Dark Mistress panel icon
Mistresses detest Fairies and anything that does not involve some form of pain or suffering, unless it increases her ability to inflict same.[3]
Talking of which, when she has nothing else to do she will go to the Torture Chamber and take a spin on a wheel (or continuously strike the enemies that you dropped in there), or slink off to the training room to practice her sharp and deadly combat techniques in preparation for the next battle, which she is undoubtedly looking forward to.
The Mentor's Thoughts[]
| "The Mistress, always eager, serves you well in both pleasure and pain. Ensure her tastes are satisfied and she will prove herself in battle time and again."
"...But one warrior with your ranks excels: the Mistress, she who swings her scything blades most swiftly causing deadly damage fast, but use her wisely, for you'll find she's easily slain." |
| "The Mistress is a fearless fighter, who will strike her foes down with her vicious claws. Battles can be turned quickly to your favour with these vicious ladies on your side." — The Mentor, Pet Dungeon Mode (DK2) |
Elite[]
Elite Dominique left, normal Mistress right.
The Elite Mistress, Dominique, instead of having a full suit, only has long boots, long gloves, the cowl, and on the rest of her body only has the metallic underwear pieces usually seen outside on top of the normal suit, but more shiny, and strapless. Her hair is also purple. Dominique's benefits:
- Almost 50% higher melee damage.
- 12.5% higher health.
- Trains slightly faster.
- Faster walk speed.
- +50% higher pay.
- +50% higher Possession mana cost.
Tips[]
- Attracted by a Torture Chamber. Even as small as 1x3 rooms.
- Significantly strong glass cannons!
- Slapping and torturing can raise a Dark Mistress's happiness.
- Become easier to train: From creature Level 4, Mistresses can gain experience purely at range and never getting hurt if separated from their targets by lava.
- Mistresses like self torture so much that they can live happily without food, pay, or sleep forever, mostly when they automatically do it but sometimes you manually doing it to them also works which makes them potentially the most cost effective non-Skeleton creature!
- Mistresses may like slapping and torture, but once they need a Lair, Food, or Money, slaps and torture won't get rid of their needs.
Bugs[]
- When either put onto a torture appliance manually it should be understandable, but mostly in older versions of the game when she goes to torture herself on her own volition she could suffer mood degradation for missing out on food and wages, which normally shouldn't happen.
Trivia[]
- The Mistress became a promotional poster figure for the game, together with Horny, a member of the Horned Reaper race. The character design is also prominently featured in CGI videos between campaign levels.
- There used to be a piece of trivia saying "In the Training Room, she will often train with other units instead of with the training posts." however, there is no clear evidence of this, yet.
- She is as likely to torture herself as to go training.
- Uniquely, the Mistress is the only creature that can be converted in a Torture Chamber without getting damaged by the appliances.
- If you possess 10 or more Mistresses on a map, the Mentor states: "You have an excess of mistresses. There is a word for Keepers like you." However, this is a message that only seems to play once per level when reaching the amount. (But when going under 10 and reaching it again?)
- By holding the screen over a Mistress/es torturing themselves for too long, without moving the mouse, you can achieve unlocking this mentor audio quote: "You'll go blind, you know.".
- Apparently the Dark Gods like looking at Mistresses because when you sacrifice two in the Temple to get a Skeleton the mentor quote plays: "Are you mad? The Dark Gods will punish you for such blasphemy!".
- The Mistress is one of the few undoubtedly female creatures the game has together with the following: Dark Elf, 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.)
- The Elite Mistress amazingly manages to wear even less clothes. Also, her hair is of a different color, purple instead of red.
- Earlier pre-release development in-game screenshots show Mistresses having pretty blonde hair, no hair tie just standing rigid like a Knight's plume, way less makeup displaying a more subtle non-femme-fatale face, and on her suit more exposed facial side-cheeks under the sides of the headpiece/cowl. (A future remaster and/or mod with extras could revive this extra visual concept in a remastered way as a third type of Mistress...)
- Together with the pre-release blonde appearance and the Elite appearance, the Mistress, together with the Black Knight, Knight, Firefly, Fairy, and the Salamander are in a group of creatures who also have significantly different pre-release variants for the same creature.
- When creatures start dancing, the Mistress does the Macarena.
Gallery[]
Dungeon Keeper Online[]
In Dungeon Keeper Online, the Dark Mistress was the only female creature. As with other Dungeon Keeper installments, she loved abuse, both inflicting it and receiving it. She was best placed at the back of groups, for her ranged attacks were more effective then her mêlée ones. Putting her in a Torture Chamber along with a captive ensured their co-operation.[1][4]
Dark Mistress as seen in a promotional image
Dungeon Keeper Mobile[]
Overview[]
progression
The Mistress was pretty weak, but excelled motivating others.
Stats[]
| Seeks | Closest Room |
|---|---|
| Abilities |
Delivers an Additional Attack Every 4s |
| Creature Targets | Flying and Ground |
| Attack speed | 0.5s |
| Move Speed | 130 |
| Housing Space | 15 |
| Summoning Time | 45 minutes |
Notes[]
- Increasing Allies effectiveness will dramatically increase allies movement and attack speed. It also prevents Ice Traps slow effect.
- Mistresses are vulnerable to Spring Traps and Chicken Bombs
- The stun effect is good vs immortals
- Mistresses are commonly used as guild withdrawn minions, they are very effective when used from here especially in emergencies
Training Upgrades[]
| Level | Damage | Health | 
|
|
Torture Chamber Required | Summon Cost (Gold) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 | 345 | - | - | Level 1 | 5,000 |
| 2 | 56 | 480 | ? | 650k | Level 3 | 10k |
| 3 | 72 | 620 | 16h | 1.4M | Level 5 | 16k |
| 4 | 88 | 755 | 1d | 2.3M | Level 7 | 25k |
| 5 | 104 | 895 | 2d | 5.9M | Level 10 | 31k |
| 6 | 120 | 1,020 | 3d | 13M | Level 11 | 40k |
| 7 | 138 | 1,155 | 4d | 22M | Level 13 | 50k |
| 8 | 156 | 1,300 | 6d | 30M | Level 15 | 65k |
| 9 | 176 | 1,440 | 8d | 44M | ? | 80k |
| 10 | 196 | 1,585 | 10d | 52M | Level 20 | 100k |
| 11 | 224 | 1,820 | 12d | 62M | ? | 120k |
| 12 | 252 | 2,055 | 14d | 66M | ? | 140k |
| 13 | 280 | 2,290 | 16d | 68M | ? | ? |
| 14 | 308 | 2,525 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 15 | 392 | 3,030 | ? | ? | Level 34 | 180k |
| 16 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 17 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 18 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Max level was level 18
Note: Training times adjusted for May, 2018 update
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 黑暗女王 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.
- ↑ Steve Klett. (February 1996). "Guided Tour: Dungeon Keeper". PC Entertainment. IDG Communications. February 1996. pp. 41-43.
- ↑ Dungeon Keeper 2 Game Manual.
- ↑ 地下城守护者OL (Chinese). Baidu Baike. Retrieved on 26 March 2023.
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