The Mercenary Portal is a structure that summons in friendly heroes called Mercenaries.
Description[]
The Mercenary Portal is the means of summoning heroes for your cause in Dungeon Keeper 2. It was added to the game with the 1.2 Patch, but only appears in some Skirmish and Multiplayer maps and makes no appearance in Campaign mode. It serves as the entry point for all recruitable heroes except the Lord of the Land, The Princes, King Reginald, Dwarves and Stone Knights. Like ordinary Portals, it allows 15 creatures through the first one claimed, with an additional five creatures for each portal claimed afterwards.
The Mercenary Portal is a 3x3 room. It looks noticeably different from the other rooms in Dungeon Keeper 2, and appears to be made out of light coloured stones. Unlike ordinary Portals, the Mercenary Portal does not contain a hole for creatures to appear from, instead it looks as if it teleports the heroes instead, possibly from the Overworld.
Appearances[]
- Frosty's Castle - Has water, but no normal Portal, and no Gems.
- Frosty's Realm - Has water, and normal Portal, but no Gems.
- Frosty's Lair - Has water, normal Portal, and Gems.
With claiming and owning a Mercenary Portal, you can attract Mercenary Heroes. They are not mechanically different from their normal counterparts.
Prerequisites[]
- Library - Wizard
- Training Room - Guard
- Torture Chamber & 5x5 Training Room - Royal Guard
- Workshop - Giant
- Guard Room - Elven Archer
- Casino - Thief
- Graveyard - Monk
- Combat Pit - Knight
- Temple - Fairy [amount testing needed]
Tips[]
- Seem to work slower.
- Mercenary heroes still get unhappy in the company of opposite alignment creatures in the same specific rooms. Just like normal converted hero creatures.
- Mercenaries, just like normal converted heroes and evil creatures alike, can be sacked in either a Mercenary Portal or a normal Portal.
- Mercenaries can be used in Temple sacrifice recipes.
- Regardless if you claim a normal Portal first and a Mercenary Portal second, or vice versa, they will mutually correspond to the normal Portal count creature amounts and the second one will only attract 5 more creatures. Whichever said second one is.
Bugs[]
- There is a reliability issue with getting both Wizards and Monks. One of them may just randomly decide not to come.
- Elite Creatures can come from Mercenary Portals too if the player owns a normal Portal.
- If and when an Elite comes through the Mercenary Portal, it may bring with it a Mercenary too at the same time in the same tile, even if it is above the normal 15 creature limit!
Trivia[]
- There are no Elite Mercenary heroes. Although, like the Elite creatures, Mercenary heroes are visually distinguished from their normal counterparts, they are otherwise the same as normal heroes.
- Without a Mercenary Portal, there is currently no other way to get Mercenaries.
- When obtaining one, the Mentor simply says "You have claimed a room. ".
- P hotkey doesn't work.
- Creatures still enter from below. But this might be a design simplification.
- Same entry effect for all creatures.
- You gain "Mercenary" red palette-swapped creatures.
- Creatures still cannot walk in the middle. Where a Portal would have its chasm.
- When sacking creatures, when they get dropped, they first need to stand up.
- Lair and Hatchery get you nothing by themselves.
- Prisons still create Skeletons. Graveyards still create Vampires.
- If the player only has access to a Mercenary Portal, that locks out his chances of performing most Temple sacrifices. This severely impacts its overall versatility negatively.
- Normal hero creatures, either belonging to the hero faction or converted to an evil side, and palette-swapped Mercenary creatures can both exist on the same level. Observable without fan levels on Frosty's Castle. This allows for a fine variety of population.
- Fairy pillars adorn the site. This may hint on construction by them of some sort. May imply a more devious nature to them. Especially when considering the voice clip audible when attacking Lord Volstag on the unrelated campaign level.
Gallery[]
