Vampires are undead creatures, who do not require nourishment. They rise from corpses in a Graveyard, and are notoriously difficult to kill; when their health runs out, they are resurrected at full health, albeit at one experience level lower. They are also good researchers, but parsimonious Keepers should steer clear of Vampire creation, as they demand a hefty wage.
"An undead creature that is a natural at research and scavenging but refuses to get its hands dirty and manufacture for you. If it is scavenging in the Scavenger Room and there are no other Vampires on the map, it raises your Portal attraction by half, thus increasing the creatures who enter your Dungeon. If a Vampire’s experience level is higher than three, it becomes immortal. Then, it resurrects itself in its Lair when it dies although its experience level drops by one. Vampires can be created in a Graveyard from decomposing bodies."
— Dungeon Keeper Manual
The Vampire's Portrait
Vampires rise from a Graveyard for every 10 corpses that decay there. In a rare few maps, Vampires are added to the Creature Pool and enabled for Keepers to attract through the Portal with a 30+ tile Graveyard.
Vampires are among the strongest melee attackers before they learn Drain, whereupon they favor ranged combat and kite against pursuers.
When he reaches level 3, the Vampire becomes Immortal. The quantity of experience needed to level-up is sharply increased after 3, but if the Vampire is slain, he turns into vapor and resurrects in his Lair, minus one level. Coupled with their Teleport ability when ordered to flee, Vampires can prove almost impossible for enemies to permanently remove.
Ingame animation of the Vampire
Vampires do have some deficiencies: they cannot engage in any sort of manufacturing, are fairly easily annoyed, and do not tolerate being picked up for long (though they're not nearly as intolerant of being held in the hand as Horned Reapers). In addition, placing them in a Temple annoys them rather than appeases them. They are very expensive to maintain, and collect some of the highest wages during payday (750 gold at level 1!). This can be remedied somewhat by showering them with a small quantity of gold, but this is much harder to do for higher level Vampires, who can teleport. While their resilience in battle is incredible, they lack high-grade magical attack spells.
Tables[]
Combat Statistics
Speed:
56
Base Health:
800
Base Strength:
70
Defence:
30
Base Skill:
80
Base Dexterity:
80
Luck:
25
Tasks & Management
Primary Job
Scavenge
Secondary Job
Research
Base Research Skill
3
Base Manufacturing Skill
none
Training Skill
4
Training Cost /64t
50
Base Scavenging Skill
8
Scavenging Cost /64t
25
Praying Anger
20
Sleeping Anger
-7
Sleep Recovery
9
Hunger
2 / 6000t
Base Wage
750
Trivia[]
Hellhounds urinate on the corpses in the Graveyard, aiding in their decomposition and, by extension, the acquisition of more Vampires.
A simple way to get a Vampire is to summon Imps and slap them to death, until enough are brought to the Graveyard to summon a Vampire. In this manner, a powerful fighting creature can be raised in a dungeon without even capturing a Portal. This is disabled by default in KeeperFX, starting from version 0.4.9.
From experience level 2 onwards, they can fly, allowing them to traverse lava with ease, and they can detect invisible creatures.
When Vampires revive after death, they retain the spells learnt at their previous level(s). This is fixed in newer versions of KeeperFX, but remains available as a classic bug.
Like the other undead creatures, the Skeleton and Ghost, Vampires are immune to the effect of gas. They fight withWarlocks if they share the same Lair.
Up until level 3, Vampires train very quickly in Training Rooms. However, past this point, they require considerably more experience (and therefore time and money) to obtain higher levels than other creatures do:
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Vampires are excellent scavengers and will head to any Scavenger Rooms (if any are available) when left to their own devices. If a Vampire is in a Scavenger Room, then the rate at which creatures join the player's dungeon increases, albeit negligibly (even though the manualsays it's the limit that's increased, not the rate[2]).
Vampires are good researchers, although not quite as good as Warlocks or Wizards.
Dungeon Keeper 2[]
The Vampire panel icon
Lords of the Undead, Vampires are created from the decaying souls of slain creatures and humans. Amongst their skills in combat, Vampires have the ability to hypnotize enemy creatures into temporarily switching sides.
DK2 Concept Art (Dungeon Keeper 2 Manual)
Although not completely immortal, Vampires can only be eternally ‘laid to rest’ by Monks (hence their unbridled hatred of the shaven-pated holy ones). Each time a Vampire is slain, it loses an experience level before re-incarnating in the Graveyard. If you are not in control of a Graveyard when a Vampire is slain, or if the Vampire is level 1, then it is lost for good.
The Vampire is your best undead fighter. They have a wide range of spells, and can inflict devastating losses to the enemy. Not to mention, they also have the resurrect ability. On their own, they will choose to research or pray and will never train in the Training Room and must be dropped in there to do so.
Elite and Counterpart[]
Normal Vampire, Elite Kessler van Doom, Mercenary Monk, normal Monk.
The Elite Vampire, Kessler van Doom, is distinguished from the normal Vampire by his purple-red-black elaborate robe, and greying black hair. Kessler van Doom's benefits:
Twice as much health!
Trains slightly faster.
5 times higher research points per second!
Approx +50% higher pay.
+50% higher Possession mana cost.
The Vampire has an indirect creature counterpart in the form of the Monk, which in turn has a Mercenary variant. (The effects a Monk has on gameplay directly affects the usage of Vampires, and Mercenary Monks are attracted though a Mercenary Portal by the same room that generates Vampires, a Graveyard.)
Tips[]
When five or more corpses rot in your Graveyard a Vampire appears.
The Hypnotise special ability is fantastic for stealing creatures.
At level 10 they gain the ability "raise the dead" they will use it on any corpse they see, changing it into a Skeleton. These will stay forever, and can give you an infinite supply of Skeletons if you continuously have corpses far beyond your Prison space capacities. But this behavior of theirs might make your job as a Keeper harder to create more Vampires.
Do not put Vampires in Guard Rooms that are supposed to send patrols to a Guard Post through a body of water, for eventually they may get damaged, resurrect, and even die. Or preferably don't use Vampires as guards at all.
Bugs[]
They may fall in and get stranded in the Temple pool. You will need to take them out manually.
They also like sacrificing themselves in the Temple. Even Kessler van Doom.
The Elite Vampire, Kessler van Doom, also having a Change into Bat special ability, might be bugged because the bat is so pale white it is more probable that it is just missing textures instead of being a really drastic albino. (Even if it could be a good idea...)
Trivia[]
The Bat a Vampire can turn into is the same Bat animal model that randomly appears in Graveyards in larger numbers to roam around.
A decayed Dark Angel attracts a Vampire instantly.
They have the Hypnotise ability. Lets you command the enemy like the group function in Possession to follow you and fight for you.
A Vampire takes damage when walking through water.
When they die, they can be resurrected 1 level lower in your Graveyard. Cannot be resurrected if killed by a Monk or if at level 1 when slain.
When possessed, is level 2 or higher, and dies to something other than a Monk, it does not transfer itself to the Graveyard, simply stays in place and continues to live off further hit points as he is, merely getting his normal ability numbers decreased over time, thereby making it the possession creature with technically the most hit points. (However this might just be a quirk of the current buggy versions of the game.)
They are relatively hard to train to level 10 without micromanagement, as they will die in the Combat Pit (which only takes to level 8) and not get knocked out; resurrecting in the Graveyard 1 level lower. It is often much more effective to let corpses die in your Prison than in the Graveyard, especially if you have not maxed your Skeleton count. A Vampire is really hard to train past level 4, and has quite a high upkeep cost. They will not get raise dead and life drain until very high levels. Unless you make him get experience by simulating real combat under controlled artificial conditions by making him shoot a stranded foe on a lava bridge where both him and his foe would be stranded on separate non-touching tiles. He is extremely easy to get from level 4 to level 8 because his ranged attack doesn't even deal damage at that time.
While in the first game the Vampire slightly looked like he was wearing Gary Oldman's clothes in Brahm Stoker's Dracula, a 1992 film, in Dungeon Keeper 2, the Vampire's overall visage resembles the Nosferatu bootleg appearance more from Nosferatu 1922 played by Max Schreck, Nosferatu 1979 played by Klaus Kinski, Shadow of the Vampire 2000 played by Willem Dafoe, and two movies released in 2024 under the Nosferatu name played by Doug Jones and Bill Skarsgård.
Dungeon Keeper Online[]
Like in previous instalments, Vampires in Dungeon Keeper Online were good researchers, and extremely tough.[1]
Dungeon Keeper Mobile[]
Overview[]
progression
Vampires fed off the living, giving them back life. They also converted minions upon their death.
Stats[]
Seeks
Dungeon Heart
Ability
Heals for 10% damage dealt against the Living1 (percentage increases with level)
Passive
Converts 1 Living Minion upon their death2 (Increases with level)
The amount of minions that are converted by a vampire is equal to the vampires level up until level 8 which is the max, 8 being the max amount of minions from a level 8 to 13 vampire. So a level 2 vampire can convert 2 minions, a level 4 vampire can convert 4 minions and a level 13 vampire can convert 8.
When a vampire does damage to a living minion (Trolls, Bile Demons, etc), it heal a percentage of the damage done. For example, if 10% and does 200 damage, it would heal 20
Vampires can convert a living minion (Trolls, Bile Demons, etc) it attacks, even after the vampires death. The higher the level vampire, the more minions will be converted.
Trolls, Warlocks, Bile Demons, Mistresses, and Dragon Whelps can be converted.
Skeletons, Necromancers, Ghosts, Vampires and Immortals are immune to conversion. Vampires are also weaker against these targets as they cannot drain their health
Vampires at Graveyards and Guild Halls will often travel to the next room if it is only 1 space over, this can make vampires good for defending other rooms such as Dungeon Hearts
Vampires are often clucked off as they can be quite the threat even for high level players, if a level 35 troll dies, it will respawn as a level 35 troll on the vampires side
High level vampires are extremely effective at defense, at max level they can take almost 2 entire Cluck Off spells to kill them
Vampires are often withdrawn from the Guild Lair as they make great defense, especially at high levels
Once Vampires reach level 10, they require more than one max level cluck off spell to kill them
High level Vampires are extremely effective against high level players attacking your dungeon
Vampires at level 13 will do 4560 damage per second to a Dungeon Heart, 228 damage per 0.25 seconds at 5x damage.
/ 6000t
