The Rooms you provide for your creatures will determine what types of creatures you attract through your portals. How you place your rooms is very important, as if it’s not working at 100% efficiency, it’s a waste of money.

When placing rooms, if you put them close together your minions will not have far to walk and so will spend more time working. But the closer your rooms are together the easier it will be for the enemy to capture them, and the less places to place traps and doors there will be. It’s also important that you don’t lose work places on walls by having lots of tunnels leading from them. What I mean by this is that if you have a 4x4 library it can have up to 4 bookcases on the walls, but by having tunnels in the middle of two walls there will only two bookcases on the walls. If, however, the tunnels are to one side, leaving 3 re-enforced walls untouched so there can be a bookshelf there. This is very important, especially with the expensive Torture Chamber.

The order that I build rooms usually goes like this

Treasury, Lair, Hatchery, Training Room, Library, Workshop, Combat Pit, Torture Chamber, Prison. The rest follow if and when the need/funds arrive.

Cost/tile: -

Attracts: -

I build it: -

Portals are where creatures enter your domain. If you have one portal you can attract 15 creatures through it. You can have 5 more creatures per portal after that.

Cost/tile: -

Attracts: -

I build it: -

Your Dungeon Heart is what you must protect at all costs. If that’s destroyed then that’s it, game over. Hide it with Secret Doors and place lightning traps around it if you can.

Cost/tile: 300

Attracts: Goblin, Firefly, Bile Demon (with hatchery and workshop)

I build it: 6x4

It’s a good idea to build a large lair at the start while you’ve got the space and the gold. There’s not a lot worse than when you’re planning your last assault when that git with the deep voice says "Your lair is too small." If you built it big at the start then you won’t have to build another one. If you’ve converted lots of heroes and everyone is becoming unhappy then it’s a good idea to build another lair and hatchery to keep the heroes separate.

Cost/tile: 300

Attracts: Bile Demon (5x5, with lair and workshop)

I build it: 4x4

Hatcheries are vital. Have it near your lair so creatures won’t spend long wandering between them. Later on, have hatcheries on the outskirts on you dungeon because creatures returning from combat will be hungry and it’s best not to keep them waiting. Its best to have too many hatcheries and have a chicken invasion then having you creatures waste time looking for food.

Cost/tile: 200

Attracts: Rouge (with Casino)

I build it: Varies

The first thing that you should do is drop an imp  on each corner of your heart and check the map. The area with the most gold is where you should build your treasury. If there is no gold, then don’t bother. Treasuries need to be near Gold seems (Which get increasingly far away), but also need to be close enough to your creatures so they can collect wages and also it needs some protection too. There are hard things to fit in when thinking about placing a room. What I tend to do is have two treasuries, one near the center of my dungeon and one on the outskirts somewhere near a guardroom. Then I occasionally transport the gold from the outskirts to the other more central one. This way my imps don’t have far to carry gold and the bulk of it does have the protection it needs. You never need very big treasuries, 4x4 is the biggest I usually have.

Cost/tile: 500

Attracts: Salamander

I build it: 4x4

One of the first rooms I build, the training room is vital to success. When built 4x4, with one entrance, there are enough training spaces for a dungeon with one portal. The training room uses up gold when used but most creatures will use it of their own accord and it is not as dangerous as the Combat Pit. Creatures can only train up to level 4 in the training room, but don’t sell it after all your minions reach this level as new creatures like Skeletons and Vampires will need it. Place the training room as close to your lair as you can.

Cost/tile: 750

Attracts: Dark Knight

I build it: 4x4

The Combat pit not only trains creatures (for free) but also provides entertainment for your other creatures. It does not cost much and 4x4 should be adequate to you needs. Missile troops are best trained in the combat pit, as their attacks do little damage. You ca n put a group of level 1 warlocks in, and they will reach level 3 before they need healing. As soon as I get enough warlocks I put them in the combat pit, even if I do not have the Heal spell yet. I then leave them for as long as possible before pulling them out and putting then in the lair. In the latter stages of the game you can trust your imps to pull unconscious creatures back to their lairs because they will not have many other jobs to do. At first however they’ll have lots to do and may forget, even when you drop them nearby they may think it more important to mine gold than to collect KOed creatures, so I always pull creatures out before they are injured if I cannot heal them. Melee creatures will hack each other to bits faster then support creatures, so keep healing them to keep them training. This will sap your mana.

Cost/tile: 3000

Attracts: Dark Angel, Maiden (with Library)

I build it: 5x5

I figure that if your going to have a temple, go the whole hog and have a 5x5 one that will attract in Dark Angels. Temples are useful for getting rid of unwanted creatures (see the cheats section for Temple Combinations) and for generating mana when it’s in short supply (like when you’ve just cast Summon Reaper). Remember that thinkers, like Warlocks and Wizards, generate the most mana when praying. You may want to put a door to protect your temple, but it can also be used to lock creatures in to make them pray. Your temple should be placed anywhere where your opponent can’t get their grubby hands on it.

Cost/tile: 600

Attracts: Troll, Bile Demon (with lair and hatchery)

I build it: 3x5

Is it just me or are there few manufacturing creatures compared to researchers? A 3x5 workshop gives 5 working spaces, which is usually more than enough. The first thing your workshop will make is a door to lock trolls in it with. You’d be surprised how this increases the work rate. If you have the message "Your workshop is too small" then be pleased! It means that your items will get done faster since there will be an extra worker or two to fill in for those who get tried. Keep your workshop buy your lair and hatchery and your workers will not be gone long before they are back doing your bidding.

Cost/tile: 750

Attracts: Rouge (with Treasury)

I build it: Varies

The casino is the last room I’ll build, and it will go wherever I can fit it. I have it as a generous casino, mostly because if I’ve got one I'll have a Temple and a Graveyard too, so I must be getting lots of gold from somewhere. Also, if you have one too early it will distract your creatures from training.

Cost/tile: 2000

Attracts: Vampire

I build it: 5x5

One of the last rooms I’ll go for will be the graveyard. I build it 5x5 which is enough for 8 graves. By this stage in the game there are many combats going on so having a use with all those dead creatures (none of which are my own you understand). Don’t place your graveyard where you have to cross water to get to your dungeon, as those newly raised Vampires will keep disappearing. Other than that there’s not a lot to say, other than it’s an expensive room so don’t let it fall into the wrong hands.

Cost/tile: 1500

Attracts: Mistress

I build it: 3x5

With 5 spaces with which to torture enemies, 3x5 is about as big as you’ll need, though 4x4 is better I don’t think it looks as good. You need to place doors on any entrance and lock them to stop your mistresses from being distracted from their training (see the creatures section). Also, try to put it near your prison so you can easily take imprisoned creatures and put them in the torture room. To convert creatures, take them from your prison and drop them onto one of the free torture devices. Then use the heal spell on them, and keep healing them until they join your forces. The creatures I tend to try to convert are mostly heroes. Wizards make good researchers and are easy to convert. Dwarves are useful. Knights and Guards make good fighters. I only tend to convert other keepers’ creatures if I really need one, such as trolls to work in the workshop. When converting creatures make sure they don’t die by healing them often. You can use the torture chamber to interrogate creatures too. In this case don’t heal them. They will die (more bodies for the graveyard) and will tell you he location of an enemy room, previously hidden with the fog of war. This will show up on the map.

Cost/tile: 750

Attracts: Skeleton

I build it: 4x5

Where do all your skeletons come from? The remains of your enemies? Mine come from a different source, as well as that one. If I feel that a creature looks out of place, or has filled its usefulness, then I don’t throw them in the portal, they go in the prison, if I don’t have a Temple at the time. A few slaps to get their health down and pretty soon you’ll have a new skeleton. The same goes for unhappy and angry creatures. If they won’t be pleased with the bountiful resources I’ve provided then I’ll throw them in the prison before they have a chance to leave. This also acts as a good lesson for your other creatures. Remember that you have a maximum number of skeletons, and if you reach this number then creatures that die in the prison die totally, which is not a bad thing if you have a graveyard. If you keep prisoners alive, then you will always have some future skeletons incase some die. To get enemy creatures into your prison, they must be KO'ed (on one life petal) and on your land. Drop an imp nearby, and it should grab it and drag it back to your prison. When a creature is in your prison, you can leave them to turn into a skeleton or you can drop it into your torture chamber (see above).

Cost/tile: 600

Attracts: Warlock, Maiden (with Temple)

I build it: 4x5

I find it best to build a big library at the start of the game to attract lots of warlocks and to ensure you will have enough storage space to research all spells without having to expand it. I tend not to lock creatures in the library. It is probably a good thing but I don’t think it fits in with the overall image of the library. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it though.

Cost/tile: 600

Attracts: Dark Elves

I build it: 3x4

I tend to add a Guardroom after those creatures that will be guarding in to have finished training, so I can re-locate them a special lair with hatchery close to the Guardroom. By doing this, there will almost always be someone in the guardroom, and they will be of a high level. To allocate guards to a guardroom, simply drop them into it. You should have a good mix of fighting styles that compliment each other well. Like Dark Elves and Black Knights.