For the Dungeon Keeper Mobile terrain, see Gem Vein.
Gem seams are a type of impassable terrain that can be mined for gold in Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper 2. It mines more slowly than a gold seam (25 gold/per dig in Dungeon Keeper 2), but never runs out of gold and never changes to another type of terrain. Room walls cannot be placed on gem seams.
A Gem Seam is neutral. It can be neither claimed nor fortified. So be careful if you mine a gem seam close to an enemy dungeon.
Dungeon Keeper[]
Dungeon Keeper 2[]
Finding Gem seams may range from easy to difficult, from instant to needing exploration, from being deserted to being surrounded by enemies. Since in Dungeon Keeper 2 the introduction of previously cut mana takes care of keeper spell casting funds and in turn that too further made easy by the occasional claiming of Mana Vaults, gold is entirely relegated to building rooms, doors & traps, Training Room experience, Casino payout, Jackpot winning, and paying creature wages. And since mana relatively has a second fiddle effect compared to gold, Gem seams may enable the player to play without the stress of monetary expenses, sit back and take care of creatures to the best of his or her knowledge, optimize and fine-tune the dungeon layout and defenses, experiment with solutions, document the game as needed, take in the decorative atmosphere made more possible by the upgraded graphics of the sequel, enjoy the rich world of the game, and even pretend to live among creatures in Possession mode thereby almost turning the game into a virtual alternate life simulator. Therefore it is a valuable list of information where exactly Gem seams are present in the game.
Levels[]
Here is a list of Gem seams appearing in campaign levels that play out in the retail campaign's particular angle of the land, called Harmonia:
- Level 1 - Warcry - Smilesville - NONE
- Level 2 - Enchantments - Sing Song - NONE
- Level 3 - Greed - Ramshackle - NONE
- Level 4 - Snipers - Shadygrove - NONE
- Level 5 - Fear - Elmshadow - NONE
- Level 6 - Besieged / Rout - Sweetwater - NONE
- Level 7 - Caverns - Emberglow - NONE
- Level 8 - Aftermath - Snapdragon - NONE
- Level 9 - Ambush - Silverstream - Right across the river, but the level is timed, although it can be continued if objectives are met.
- Level 10 - Smash - Woodsong - Two 1x3 slot blocks with their West-East access avenues starting from 6 tiles north of the Heart far apart from each other on the two sides of the player's starting ground, but heroes need to be dealt with first before the player can sit back and relax which can be an extremely hard endeavor.
- Level 11 - Carnage - Sparklydell - Eastern middle corner of the map in all 3 versions. The most peaceful gameplay experience can be met by choosing the most difficult start or version of the level.
- Level 12 - Scavenge - Goldenglade - Only the enemy keeper has one and there is no way to access it without very drastic combat thereby most likely beating the level (unless surgically killing his forces with meticulous attention undoubtedly resulting in creature deaths on both sides and trapping the enemy heart in Barricades while keeping his Imps from even trying to attack them with Fear Traps).
- Level 13 - Conversion - Cherish - Lots everywhere, outright wasteful, but closest is north-east center edge of map and rather easy to get to. Others become unnecessary.
- Level 14 - Reap - Peachtree - NONE
- Level 15a - Crusade - Fluttershine - East before the keep front door and north-west corner of the map requiring the claiming of two Mana Vaults a corridor will open that has 4x3 Imp slots, but consult the level guide because it is advised having 11 Imps for 42000 mana to drag unconscious heroes to make maximum use of the situation...
- Level 15b - Storm - Fluttershine - In a line starting from your heart going towards the center, merely a few average room sizes away from your starting spot which you can mine in total peace from creatures, only a few traps may disturb your Imps.
- (Gem seams mentioned in both Level 15 a & b appear in both level variations, albeit needlessly.)
- Level 16 - Creep - Stonekeep - Northwest corner of the map in the center of a Treasury after you have conquered through a line of potential 3 Libraries, 1 Mana Vault, 1 Combat Pit, and 2 Hero Gates. Although you might be neglecting some Neutral Creatures in Neutral Prisons which might be affected by the rooms and die even if they shouldn't due to a bug.
- Level 17 - Angelic - Moonshrine - Two gems for the player only, between the center of the western edge of the map and the southwestern corner.
- Level 18 - Brotherhood - Cherry Blossom - A triple seam with 4 accessible sides giving space to 4 times 3 digging Imps is absolutely accessible to your east with complete and absolute peace and safety. All your other rivals have a few Gem walls too.
- Level 19 - Interception - Butterscotch - NONE
- Level 20 - Regicide - Heartland - 1x3 Imp-slot located in a sealed hero tile chamber guarded by 8 medium strength Giants reached by crossing over a lava moat towards the far far north-east solid rock corner of the map. You'll just have a lot of work to do before you can divert your attention there.
A list of My Pet Dungeon level Gem seams:
- MPD 01 - Liberty - Dragos - 4 corners of the map, 4 blocks of 4x3 Imp slots. Over abundance.
- MPD 02 - Discovery - Vexus - SEVEN Gem Seams.
- MPD 03 - Bottleneck - Djocasta - NONE
- MPD 04 - Recruits - Nasreem - 4 Gem Seams.
- MPD 05 - Furnace - Frimley - 2 Gem Seams.
- MPD 06 - Masterpiece - Sanddar - A large block of gem seams easy to find.
- MPD 07 - Torment - Omelas - 3 Gem Seams.
A list of Skirmish & Multiplayer level Gem seams:
- Alcatraz - Yes.
- Caverns - Yes.
- Frosty's Lair - Yes.
- Furnace - Yes.
- Gonzalez - Yes, but it won't be peaceful.
- Hero Cove - Yes, after a little conquest.
- Hopping - Yes.
- No Man's Land - Yes, but requires a lot of work.
- Patrol - Yes.
- Pressure - Yes, but very limited and can either only be used by the closest fastest Keeper to get there, or additionally his ally. And still may need a smaller expedition, and security along the route.
- Siege - Technically yes, but only for Blue Keeper. And until a fan patch can either give a Gem for Red, or better yet, switch places, this is going to be a struggle.
- The Deep End - Yes, even if the level is a little compact.
- The Pass - Yes.
- Trap Time - Yes, but requires some conquest.
- (Islands and Platform need to be checked....)
Some widespread fan-made custom levels:
- Coming Soon...
Coping[]
On levels where there is no Gem seam, certain tactical approaches can help make alleviate the strain caused by the pretty much over-relied missing piece of resource.
- To decrease miner transit times: Pick up and place non-teleporting Imps and/or Drwarves when taking gold to the treasury in a Treasury or the Heart, or when running to a mining spot place them at their destination.
- Call To Arms, available from Level 7 Caverns - Emberglow, which makes your creatures forgo the need for food, pay during payday, or non-healing sleep.
- Create Gold, available from Level 16 Creep - Stonekeep. Can also be upgraded for better effect. And keep an eye on the mana bar and always diligently casting the spell each and every time reaching 200.000 mana. Don't worry about a full Treasury, you can keep casting the spell anywhere anytime on your land. Praying creatures in Temples may fuel the mana for large bursts of casting this spell.
- Skeletons used as a mass collected creature type which requires no pay nor food nor even sleep, although training still costs money unless merely healed in real combat, and the more you'd want to create the more expensive the larger Prison will get. The creation of Skeletons more often than not makes creatures drop the money they have upon death, part of their transformation process. Unless you keep sacrificing Mistresses or use a Vampire as a Skeleton creator.
- Dwarves (first appearance on Level 1 - Warcry - Smilesville) when defeated can be converted instead of deciding upon a different fate of theirs, also require no pay nor food and don't take up a permanent Lair space either, but they cannot be trained in a Training Room or Combat Pit.
- Mistresses & Torture Chambers, available from Level 6 - Besieged/Rout - Sweetwater, can synergize well making the latter forgo food, pay, and sleep in the former, but read more in the Mistress article...
- Possibly decide not to build a Temple, or at least not one larger than 9 tiles square. (Available to build by your own hand from Level 18 - Brotherhood - Cherry Blossom.)
- Only keeping cheap creatures like Firefly and Monk. Available from Level 3 - Greed - Ramshackle and Level 13 - Conversion - Cherish respectively.
- Possibly decide to completely avoid owning Knights & Black Knights, Dark Angels, Royal Guards, Vampires, Maidens, Thieves, and Wizards. Especially Thieves since they may steal your gold if they get a mood hit.
- Operating a rigged Casino available from Level 8 - Aftermath - Snapdragon.
- Slapping a Jackpot Winner. Preferably without witnesses as that may generate a mood decrease in onlookers.
- Finding and using Increase Gold Magical Items.
- Selling claimed rooms. (Not all can be sold. Not all can be claimed.)
- Making expensive non-lava-traverse creatures rebel and keeping them stranded on inescapable locations before they enact said rebellion - until needed later among the player's creature roster. You will need a Stone Bridge for this, available from level 8 - Aftermath - Snapdragon. But this may also trigger your owned Portals to notice this and send a new replacement creature if this one came from there without ever rebelling or being converted and re-converted. This trick cannot be performed on Fireflies, Fairies, Giants, or Salamanders because they can traverse lava tiles.
- Entirely exchanging the role of the Training Room with the Combat Pit, available from level 15 - Crusade/Storm - Fluttershine, right from creature training level 1. The latter works for free, even if it is more expensive to build and costs mana for a Keeper to either Heal or Possessing a 'Creature Heal' capable minion and doing the healing that way (if one can manage wonky targeting amidst possibly large crowds).
- Heavily rely on Horny, the Horned Reaper, as being part of your main fighting force by using the Summon Horny spell. If your mana can support him. Fully available from Level 14 - Reap - Peachtree but also on 4 different occasions before reaching up to that quest.
- One can avoid building most traps and doors. For doors, all personal goals can be met by simply using Wooden Doors and Secret Doors, maybe with the occasional Barricade. For traps, Fireburst and Jack-In-The-Box Traps may prove most unnecessary.
- Rogue & Thief Cloaking special ability? (Does this add to the creatures' funds or the Keepers'?)
- Speculation: Chicken Spell?
Tips[]
- When not having access to the Gem initially in the game, you might want to postpone spending money on Elite Creature room combinations. You may build them later once you get it. Elites do not count into Portal creature count anyway.
Trivia[]
- Even if you mine a Gem seam, your Imps bring back gold, in the form of coins no less.
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