Creature experience can come from sources such as rooms, real combat, or magical items.
Dungeon Keeper[]
Dungeon Keeper 2[]
Creature experience level is showcased in the middle of a creature health flower. Their progress at reaching new levels is indicated by a clockwise clock ticking behind the level number.
Higher experience levels do not increase hunger or decrease ranged attack recharge times.
Training:[]
Order from easiest to most complex.
1. Increase Level Magical Item[]
You can find these on some levels. Claim the land under them and they become usable. If you have a Library with free shelf space your Imps will drag it into one. Best used if all or most of your creatures are at least level 8-9.
Exact levels to find them:[]
Coming Soon...
2. Training Room[]
PROS:[]
- Trains up to level 4.
- 1x3 tile room may already work, even if such a small sized room of this type should never be secluded from any larger examples of the same room because if creatures may find one lacking in size they will think they have no space at all.
- Reliable, and requires the least amount of attention or micromanagement to operate once built aside from financial planning, most of your creatures automatically go here to train, and all can be manually placed here under level 4.
- May temporarily serve as a sort of free roam pseudo-Guard Room for the level 1-3 creatures if strategically placed between the enemy and your Dungeon Heart (smart layout planning).
- May attract Salamanders. (Lava on level might be needed.)
- Absolutely no danger to the training of Vampires or Skeletons, even if it only takes them to level 4.
- Can make use of some Call to Arms manipulation: When active, if you place creatures in a Training Room, they will train to Level 4 without the need for food, pay, or sleep, and then when done continue to heed the call.
CONS:[]
- Decreased 1/5th XP rate.
- Paid training, needs one or more of these: tons of Gold Seams, a Gem Seam, multiple examples of Increase Gold Magical Items, or a Create Gold Spell with either a huge amount of claimed tiles or some Mana Vaults.
- Only training up to level 4 even if some creatures might try to stay.
- Requiring the most 'complexity x size' room layout planning for maximum potential (unless the player deliberately keeps it at a lower size to regulate pay flow) because some Rock tiles should not be dug out to form 1x3 room edges for appliances.
- One of the rooms that creates inter-faction-origin animosity if all creatures are forced to use the same establishment, therefore it is best to build separate ones for evil and once-goodly creatures.
- Provides no entertainment unlike a Combat Pit.
- Some creatures may experience bugs and stay at the Training Room once reaching level 4 but not gaining more XP and becoming unhappy due to different reasons like company or neglecting needs.
- Level 4 creatures happen to have the lowest mana pray amount at the Temple so if you don't micromanage them attentively to reach higher levels of training then this room slowly decreases your pray mana income to the minimum.
Notes:[]
- Some creatures may showcase a sort of weapon slash trail glow for an unknown reason.
- It is best to build Lairs, Hatcheries, and Treasuries close to this room so creatures of level 1-3 may finish their training to level 4 sooner.
- Some creatures who may be worth manually training are: Firefly, Mistress, Rogue, Thief, Fairy, Dark Elf, Elven Archer. And the Keeper can prioritize manually for Vampire, Maiden, Dark Angel, (Fairy again), Warlock, and Wizard if there is researching to be done.
- Arguably the most inferior method of training all things considered. Even if the most common / easiest one.
3. Combat Pit[]
PROS:[]
- Trains up to level 8.
- Need periodic healing or a rather derailing unconscious time-out in their Lair.
- FREE training once the room is built.
- You can also use hero and different Keeper creatures as combatants (regardless if they are currently friend or foe), they just all need to be below level 8. You can actually pre-train hostile creatures before converting them.
- The room itself, if no heroes attempt to destroy key room tiles, serve as fantastic strategic pathway hindrance, just like a Prison (smart layout planning).
- Provides entertainment. But only if there is a fight going on inside. Which requires at least two creatures lower than level 8.
- For lone pit fighters without foes, or if only level 8+ creatures are placed in, the room itself is an absolutely flawless quarantine for creatures you don't know what to do with yet. (Valuable conversion candidates you don't have the necessary preparation for yet, live prisoners if Skeleton numbers currently max possible amount due to Prison size, unhappy & angry & leaving dungeon creatures, too high wage or currently Keeper being broke, a creature that eats too much and Hatcheries are currently raided empty, pesky exploring Fireflies, Rogues, Thieves, Fairies while lacking a Temple they can occupy themselves with automatically.)
- 3x3 tile room can already function as a quarantine for lone creatures one by one, even for multiple level 1-7 creatures in multiple 3x3 rooms if money isn't a factor.
- A building Keeper does not need to keep 1x3 tile wall appliances in mind because there aren't any.
- May attract Black Knights which are within the top 5 strongest normal creatures in the game a Keeper can get. Make sure to have the campaign level fix!
- If combatant types have large health point amounts, a possessed healer on the sidelines (Warlock, Monk) may attempt to heal the injured fighters.
- You may decide to quarantine level 8-10 creatures too within (if not planning any Call to Arms soon) because it is better for them to stay inside, not eat, not collect wages, and not walk into a dangerous situation.
- You can also manage to quarantine multiple level 1-10 creatures in technically in the "same" Combat Pit room if tiles are missing or obstructed in a way that each creature gets their own 1 tile actual pit corresponding to a 3x3 tile room segment in which the pit itself does not connect to other segments of the pit.
- If for whatever reason you lack manufacturing capability for doors but money is not an issue, you can quarantine a Torture Chamber in the middle of an island surrounded by 1 coherent Combat Pit to keep your Mistresses away and properly training.
- If again no doors but money isn't an issue, if you don't want some Level 8+ creatures to heed a Call to Arms, place them in a big Combat Pit.
CONS:[]
- Training stops at level 8.
- Due to operation method, it requires way more attention than a Training Room, and all training here needs to be manually initiated and overseen.
- On levels with finite creature resources (which is most of them with heroes only before Angelic where a keeper gets the Temple), this room, more than ever, necessitates HIGH attention and planning when managing Vampires, EXTREME attention with Skeletons.
- A way more expensive room to place per tile than a Training Room.
- 3x4 tile room is the minimum to gain full functionality and that is just for 2 combatants only. (Although it is customary to find, build, occasionally take over at least 5x5 examples or 25 tile ones of other layouts.)
- Due to how dangerous it can be to leave unconscious valuable creatures on the ground for extended periods of time it is best to place this room well within Imp roam routes, especially if Imps are not yet level 8+, so they are hopefully not far away when a body drag task presents itself.
- Bug highlights: Imps not collecting bodies, certain creatures may fall in, certain enemy ranged creatures could have the ability to decide to shoot your own creatures outside, etc...
- Cheering or passing-by healers do not automatically heal combatants.
- Providing entertainment for creatures may not have measurable or noticeable positive differences in mood but at least it may seemingly slow hunger and sleep need.
- 1x3 tile room segments at walls have no appliances the creatures could make any use of.
- Due to how rarely a Keeper may want and need to actively use this room, it can barely even provide entertainment to creatures.
- Instead of 1, the method this room offers endangers the health of 2 or more creatures, unlike some other options mentioned further below.
- Contrary to real combat, pit fighting does not have a HUD indicator screen jump hotkey. (Thus may be added in some future version.)
Notes:[]
- Neutral creatures do not fight, and mostly stay neutral while inside the pit. This is a good thing as they won't damage and ultimately kill each other before you can claim them. Sadly not all creatures are neutral inside yet unconquered foreign Combat Pits!
- Creatures that have already reached level 8 may still be kept around inside as occasional random projectile shields that randomly decide to walk into the line of fire to keep the actual combatants alive longer for lessening the attention requirement, though may throw off the Keeper's or healing creatures' Heal Spell / Heal Creature Spell aim.
- Beginner players should be informed that flying creatures cannot fly over, into, and out of the pit itself.
4. Real combat.[]
Real combat not only takes creatures to the maximum level 10, it can also be useful right from level 1 already! It also seems to totally pause hunger, the need for sleep, and wage need. And has a HUD indicator with which you can use to jump to locations of interest!
Real combat may be dangerous, unpredictable, wasteful if not micromanaged thoroughly, and uselessly finite or limited in timeframe. But real combat away from a Keeper's own facilities can be easily artificially simulated in the game world for great effects under the right circumstances:
4.a Simulated real combat for training ranged capable non-lava-traverse creatures.[]
There is a way to simulate one-sided real combat artificially for creatures that have ranged attacks. Just put a sturdy hero / enemy onto a 1 tile Stone Bridge separated by at least 1 tile of lava from solid ground. Heal it up, and use it as target practice with creatures that cannot cross lava!
Best used from Level 1 by Warlocks, Wizards, Dark Elves, Elven Archers; Can also be used from Level 4 by Maidens, Mistresses, Vampires, Dark Angels; And can be used by Level 8 onward Bile Demons.
Notes:[]
- Level 8+ Bile Demons may be bugged and be unable to sustain a combat state with their ranged attack alone. They may need to be delegated to full contact melee training.
- You constantly need to heal the hero by using the Heal Spell with CTRL+LeftClick with some exceptions (level 4-7 Maiden & Vampire), thus you are best off with the strongest targets.
- Vampire and Maiden are extremely easy to train this way because below level 8 their ranged attacks don't even deal damage!
- By far this is the safest method to train a Vampire!
- This only endangers the health of the target and not the creature you level.
- The best targets are, from best: rebel (perform constant slaps on them with healing until they rebel) Bile Demons , Royal Guards, rebel Black Knights, Knights.
- This method is way less expensive than the Temple pool building stranded enemy targeting method, but requires lava.
4.b Simulated real combat for training ranged-capable lava-traverse creatures.[]
The trick here is, again have a stranded target on a Stone Bridge tile surrounded by lava (maybe partially walls), but now trap your creatures on a tile surrounded by walls and boxed in with a Barricade close enough to shoot at target!
Creatures from level 4: Salamander, Fairy,
This only endangers the health of the target and not the creature you level.
4.c Simulated real combat for training melee non-lava-traverse creatures.[]
Best to start after previously reaching level 8 in a Combat Pit.
Creatures: Goblin, Troll, Monk, Rogue, Thief, Level 1-3 Maiden, Level 1-3 Mistress, Level 1-3 Vampire, Level 1-3 Dark Angel, Black Knight, Knight, level 1-7 Bile Demon, Guard, Royal Guard, and Skeleton if you are extremely careful. Also level 8+ Bile Demons if they are bugged.
The way: Put an enemy/hero and your own creature on the same 1 or 2 tile Stone Bridge above lava.
Target selection is tricky since it can become overpowered against your creature with all the accumulated XP and your creature may get locked in a fleeing state. In such a case use multiple creatures of your own for pack bravery.
4.d Simulated real combat for training melee lava-traverse creatures.[]
Any of the following at any level: Firefly, Giant
Utilize the previous idea from 4.b just heavily rely on pack bravery so they do not flee. If they do decide to, you may need to place them again.
Best targets are from 4.a.
Notes:[]
- Watch out with Mistress and Fairy Lightning spells, also Firefly and Fairy Wind spells, they can make targets "skip-off" designated quarantine tiles! Especially if you speed up the game and scroll the camera away from the battle.
- Creatures spending any amount of time in a Combat Pit (even if not fighting) or anything resembling real combat do not need food, pay, or sleep.
- Do not use enemy Keeper creatures in simulated real combat free roam training, because his hand of evil can pick up a non-prisoner creature any time.
- If you simulate real combat, you won't be able to differentiate between simulated and natural occurrences on your HUD combat alert. You will need to keep an eye on the minimap!
Stone Bridge availability:[]
Stone Bridges are available in the campaign from Aftermath - Snapdragon. From then on you can find lava on these (non-bonus) levels:
- the same level,
- Carnage - Sparklydell
- Reap - Peachtree (But no Gem so it is stressful.)
- Storm / Crusade - Fluttershine
- Creep - Stonekeep
- Angelic - Moonshrine (You get quite a lot of the strongest creature here.)
- Brotherhood - Cherry Blossom (From here on you get access to all creatures.)
- Interception - Butterscotch (But no Gem so it is stressful.)
- Regicide - Heartland
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