Hypnotise

Hypnotise
Appears In	Dungeon Keeper 2
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Learnt By	Vampire

Hypnotise is a special ability available to Vampires in your possession in Dungeon Keeper 2. As its name implies, it enables you to hypnotise enemy creatures; however, Imps, Maidens, King Reginald, and Horny cannot be hypnotised.

Hypnotism needs to target a foe like a ranged attack, then it causes the targets, who are hostile, to behave as the hypnotiser's bodyguards - the same as the grouping ability every creature has on friendlies in this regard; they will follow him, walking when close-by, running when far away, and once reaching the short proximity of the grouper/hypnotiser, attack whatever attacks him or what he attacks. The targets stay hypnotised until you drop out of possession, stop the ability by performing it again, or the hypnotiser dies.

Tips

• The ability works from really far away. Keep an eye on your grouping list if you are unsure what you've caught.
• The Bread and Butter of a Collector: This is hands down by far the best method to either precisely capture heroes, or snatch specific creatures from an enemy Keeper, either A.I. or player-controlled (if you ever get the luxury of peace and chance). Regardless of their experience level. Simply put a target under your spell, lure them to a location full of your Lightning & Freeze traps, maybe on top of Spike Traps, Mistresses, Fairies, or very close proximity strong melee attack creatures, and simply turn the ability off by performing it again. The target will be flash annihilated effectively, perfectly preparing it for Imp/ Dwarf transportation to a Prison. Best used over bodies of water for any creature (especially Dark Angels for their sheer awesomeness), or in the case of lava any Firefly, Salamander, Fairy, or Giant you may desire.
  • Best used on levels which have Keeper enemies, specifically on their creatures.
• In multiplayer you will need to work relatively fast, because an enemy Keeper may pick his creature up as soon as hypnotism stops to apply damage to the target when coincidentally the surrounding fog of war may also dispel around it.
• One small fact why you may want to avoid using this ability too often is that hypnotised enemies actually gain combat experience when in battle. You may end up with a stronger foe you have bargained for.

Bugs

• Or in some cases, unintended side effects: You can Hypnotise hostile targets who are in a Combat Pit, a Prison cell yard, or held on a Torture appliance.
  • Nothing happens to the pit fighter, except maybe temporarily comically fixing the bug where a hostile creature could shoot out of the pit.
  • The prisoner fails to be seen as a prisoner by the game and, while stranded in the cell yard, gains the ability to shoot out of there forever and doesn't receive starving damage effectively forcing you to sell parts of the room to access it or its body. He also gets targeted by your own creatures' ranged attacks, by those who are capable of doing such.
  • The torture victim, that switches to your side, unexplainably gets freed. But when hypnotisation inevitably ends upon the cancellation of possession you basically have a potentially full health enemy on the loose, close to at least one of your creatures.
• In some versions, on some levels, with some creatures, when hypnotising a target, instead of it behaving in the normal "grouping" way, they may simply become a new citizen of the hypnotising Vampire's dungeon, slowly head for a Lair to make a bed in the new dungeon, but if used at long distance they cannot defend themselves by fighting back due to possibly not being close enough to the hypnotiser and may be swiftly killed. Though when close enough, they will indeed defend themselves. Although they may be constantly killed, and dragged to an empty Lair by the enemy Imps/Dwarves (which is for the best in this case). In such cases they need to be escorted all the way, which means going to their position, getting in danger so they can fight, and potentially not being able to fight back when needing to cross water in bat form. (This may or may not be fixed by using or not using Secret Doors.)

Trivia

• In case of Keeper vs Keeper games: The side effect of the original Keeper owner of the hypnotised creature is that it loses its Lair bed and, if it survives the ordeal, it needs to remake said bed in any Lair available back in its original Keeper's facilities.
• Unforseen complexity oversight: If the targeted creature decides upon Leaving Dungeon, reaches a Portal, and the exit arrow appears in their health flower, and THEN gets hypnotised, upon losing enough health he may not get the luxury of falling unconscious, but instead rot away immediately becoming a proper corpse only useful in Graveyards.
• During production it was either planned that hypnotized creatures were supposed to be able to Group with creatures who are hostile to the player, or someone falsely recalled the memory of what this ability was supposed to do. Further investigation required.