Misconceptions

This is a list of misconceptions about the Dungeon Keeper games. A misconception is a belief that is (or likely to be) widely accepted as true, but is in fact incorrect. Entries are worded as corrections to the misconceptions; the misconceptions themselves are implied, not explicitly stated. This is because a correction is more concise than a mere statement, and should make it clear what the misconception is without needing to outright state it.

Some misconceptions are the result of erroneous information in official sources (or of how text within them can be interpreted), whereas others are mistaken assumptions or beliefs that have become widespread (for example, via the Mandela Effect).

Dungeon Keeper

Gameplay

• Tentacles can be attracted on any level, not just those containing water, so long as they are in the Creature Pool and made available to the player. There is no game mechanic that enables the presence or absence of a terrain to affect creature availability. It may be true that, in the original campaign, only levels with water have Tentacles in the Creature Pool, but there is no reason that a level without water cannot allow Tentacles to be attracted through the Portal.
• You cannot be eaten while possessing a Chicken; this only happens in Dungeon Keeper 2.
• A creature praying in the Temple does not immunise two others of its kind against scavenging; rather, two enemy scavengers are blocked from scavenging.
• Ghosts, Skeletons, Vampires, and Horned Reapers can be attracted through the Portal, so long as they are available, and their attraction requirements are met.
• The Avatar is not the only creature who can survive being hit by a Boulder Trap; a boulder does not automatically instakill everyone it hits: rather, it inflicts a very great deal of damage, which is usually enough to kill instantly, but this is not always the case.
• Luck does not grant double defence, only double damage.
• Creatures do not attack enemy doors on sight; they only attack an enemy door if it blocks their way, or if they are instructed to.
• Magic Doors are not almost impregnable to Hand to Hand; non-magical attacks deal much less damage (only 12 per cent of their normal damage, to be precise), but it is still possible for creatures with an exceptionally strong mêlée strength (such as Giants and Horned Reapers) to break down a Magic Door fairly quickly, especially if they are in numbers.
• Hand to Hand and Arrow are not the only non-magical attacks; Missile, Navigating Missile, Hailstorm, and Grenade are also non-magical, despite being conjured by magic. These spells therefore only deal 12 per cent of their normal damage to Magic Doors. 'Magical' refers to magical damage, not being conjured with magic.
• Flame Breath is magical, and thus deals its maximum possible damage to Magic Doors.

General

• The underworld narrator was voiced by Dene Carter, not Richard Ridings. That Ridings is well-known for voicing the Dungeon Keeper 2 Mentor is likely what led to this misconception. However, Ridings did voice the overworld narrator (in the original campaign), which is the first one heard, but this, coupled with the fact that most players are unaware that the overworld and underworld narrators are discrete entities (unlike Dungeon Keeper 2, in which there is only one narrator: the Mentor), further perpetuates the myth, as these players will likely assume they are the same person. The fact that in some languages, the two are voiced by the same person confuses matters yet further.
• The early underworld narrator was also voiced by Dene Carter, not Richard Ridings.
• The early overworld narrator was not voiced by Dene Carter; it is unknown whom he was voiced by.
• The narrators are not officially called Mentors. There is no official source calling either the level guide or the game advisor a Mentor; the name was applied by fans retroactively, after Dungeon Keeper 2 called its narrator the Mentor. They technically have no name.
• The QUICK_OBJECTIVE and QUICK_INFORMATION level script commands do support letters with diacritical marks. The reason they do not work when written with a modern editor, such as Notepad (or even Unearth), is that they use modern code pages, such as UTF-8 or Windows-1252, whereas the game uses DOS code page 850 (albeit with certain characters replaced with Cyrillic letters) for western European languages and interprets all text as such. Letters with diacritical marks will display correctly in the game if the script is saved in code page 850.
• The Samurai is indeed a samurai, not a ninja, despite the fact that some sources (including the official level editor) call it a Ninja.
• Chickens are objects, not creatures. They are only creatures in the sense that they can be possessed.
• The water dripping effect works on all floor or ground-level terrain, not just water. This misconception likely stems from the fact that the effect is often seen over water, and editors, including the official editor and Unearth, automatically place it over water, as well as the fact that the lava effect only works on lava; it would therefore seem to follow logically that the water effect only works on water, but this is in fact not the case.
• Dungeon Keeper Premium is not the Japanese version of Dungeon Keeper Gold; while it is the Japanese analogue of Dungeon Keeper Gold, it is a discrete edition, peculiar to Japan. There are several differences between them, and Dungeon Keeper Premium predates Dungeon Keeper Gold by around three months. There is no Japanese version of Dungeon Keeper Gold.

Dungeon Keeper 2

• Salamanders can be attracted on any level, not just those with lava, so long as they are available to the player.
• The Chicken Keeper spell can be obtained in the main campaign, by beating all four secret levels (Golf, Duckshoot, Maze, and Bowling).
• The rare fifth, arguably less important bonus level, Imp Invasion, (when not accessing it via command line prompts) only needs to be accessed once during a New Moon if you save the level. You can revisit your save later any time.
• Creatures affected by the Chicken Spell do not get eaten by your creatures, either inside a Hatchery or not.
• The Inferno Spell does not cause damage to Reinforced Walls, Traps, Doors, Barricades. Originally might have had the production idea to also damage wall reinforcements, traps, doors, barricades, as evidenced by some erroneous guide tips.
• It is possible to unlock other versions of multiple-choice levels (such as Carnage) in the campaign map after it has been beaten, although the only way to do this is by a registry hack.
• The Treasury does not attract Rogues, with or without the Casino. Its presence or absence has no effect on whether they are attracted.
• Magic Doors can be attacked and damaged by any attack, not just presumed 'magic' attacks.
• Flying creatures, Fireflies and Fairies, do get stunned when dropped, or being affected by electricity-based effects (Thunderbolt Spell, Lightning Spell, Lightning Trap), or Whirlwind (Firefly, Fairy), or a Boulder Trap. However, when they do, and are still alive, they cannot touch and be damaged by lava (or water) when a bridge is burnt away or sold from under them.
• Flying creatures cannot fly over a Barricade; rumours circling that claim the opposite are wrong.
• The Alarm Trap only alerts the player, not nearby creatures. Conversely, the Guard Post only alerts creatures in a Guard Room.
• According to code research,^{[clarification needed]} being drunk gives neither any buffs nor bravery against fear, nor does it give strength.
• Contrary to some erroneous tips, Dwarves do starve in a Prison.
• Some sources erroneously claim that at level 9 and 10 stun times are supposedly longer when creatures are dropped.
• Horny does not have an attack, called Armageddon or otherwise, that does massive damage to every creature standing nearby, even his own minions. This may be cut, utterly false, or even an idea that stemmed from the previous game (if so, it would likely have been from the Word of Power spell).
• The Maiden was not made for the 1.7 patch; it was in development all along, but cut. It was only reintroduced in the 1.7 patch.
• Contrary to September 1999 EA published tips claiming if Chickens wander over from the Hatchery to the Lair it will make it easy to eat before bed is false. Creatures can only eat Chickens on their own at Hatcheries, not outside of it. Outside a Hatchery you need to feed them to creatures for them to be able to eat them.
• Lightning does not inflict double damage on those that have natural Lightning abilities - Mistress and Fairy.