Dungeon Keeper 3 - Playing as Heroes

In some scenarios (such as skirmish battles), you may wish to play as the goodly Heroes. They play very differently from a Keeper. For starters, they cannot slap their citizens, and cannot pick them up either.

Heroes share all of the following rooms with Keepers:

• Hatchery, Library, Training Room, Wooden Bridge, Treasury, Stone Bridge, Workshop, Guard Room, Casino, Laboratory

They also share these rooms, but do not use them in the same way:

• Lair – Heroes will not be dragged back to their lairs like creatures are
• Prison – will not create skeletons for Heroes
• Torture Chamber – cannot be used by Heroes
• Combat Pit – cannot be used by Heroes, allows humans to train until level 6
• Graveyard – does not attract vampires for Heroes, grants mana for corpses instead
• Temple – not used except by Darkwort; cannot use sacrifices, does not pray there

In addition, there are several unique Human buildings and rooms:

• Hero Gate, Dwarf Gate, Giant Gate – are pre-placed like portals, Keepers capture them by capturing all adjacent tiles, while Heroes need only capture them like regular territory, to attract in citizens
• Church – heroes pray here, 5x5 or larger holds an artifact to use miracles (miracles are the heroic equivalent of spells)
• Hero Gateway – heroes gather here to teleport to hero gates; 3x3

There are also some traps unique to heroes:

• Gargoyle trap – only emerges at night time, becomes a demon and actively fights back against nearby enemies (can only be built outdoors)
• Sunstone – emits daylight to the immediate area around it; useful for warding off many creatures

Heroes are also controlled differently than dungeon creatures. Heroes have a special 'caste' menu instead of spells, which they can use to assign castes to citizens (or elves of at least level 3) who are at least level 1. In addition, in place of 'slaps', they place an Orders Banner, which rallies nearby units to it. Right clicking on a Hero Gate will summon units from the Hero Gateway.

Conscription and Heroic Mechanics:

Heroes make armies out of their citizens. Once a citizen has reached level one, they may train in a combat discipline of their choosing. Not all heroes use this system, but the bulk of heroic forces are trained in this manner. A human of a particular caste gets promoted at level 6, at which time they get stronger, more so than a regular level. Note that in order to get promoted, they must have the requirements for their second tier class.

Because Heroes do not use Portals, they get their new citizens from Hero Gates. Every Hero Gate attracts up to 10 citizens. Hero Gates may also be used offensively, allowing you to warp your forces from the Hero Gateway to a Hero Gate of your choice.

Hero Gates are built like 4x4 fixed size rooms, although the gates themselves are only 2x2. In order for them to be captured by a Keeper, the Keeper must capture all of its surrounding spaces. Once captured, the room is destroyed, as Keepers may not use Hero Gates.

Elves, Dwarves, and Giants each have their own set of requirements. Elves require the more expensive Elves Lair to be attracted in, while Dwarves require the Dwarven Gate, and Giants require Giant Gates.

Dwarven Gates work much like a Hero Gate except that it attracts in up to 4 Dwarves, only requires a 3x3 space (it is a 1x1 gate), and multiple Gates can be used to teleport Dwarves between them. On an unrelated note, Dwarves are the only Heroes that can capture territory.

Giant Gates bring in Giants the same way Hero Gates bring in Humans and Elves. Each will draw in up to two Giants. Giant Gates cannot be used to warp forces from a Hero Gateway or to teleport forces like a Dwarven Gate. They are the same size as Hero Gates, but have a distinctive appearance so as not to be confused with them.

Miracles

Humans have an equivalent of spells known as Miracles. A 5x5 church allows them to hold a single artifact. Every artifact performs a certain miracle.

• Seraphim Feather – summons a seraphim. Maximum 1 per feather.
• Manifest Stone – drains all mana from the realm

Non-campaign artifacts

• Phoenix Tears – restores health to all of your conscious citizens
• Philosopher's Stone – grants gold based on the emptiness of your treasury
• Sword of Truth – lets you cast Divine Wrath anywhere you can see