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The Dungeon Heart is a room in Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2, and Dungeon Keeper Online.

The Dungeon Heart is a prebuilt room and the first room you start your dungeon from. The Dungeon Heart represents the Keeper's, and therefore the player's, life. If the player's Dungeon Heart is destroyed, then the player will automatically lose whichever level they are playing. Rival Dungeon Keepers also possess Dungeon Hearts, and destroying them will kill the Keeper and cause their territory to revert to an unclaimed state.

Appearance[]

Dungeon Keeper[]

Dungeon Keeper Dungeon Heart full health

A Dungeon Heart as seen in Dungeon Keeper, at full health

In Dungeon Keeper, the Dungeon Heart is a white gem held up by a squad of golden trolls, with a smaller purple gem attached to the top of the frame. The gem's size is determined by the Heart's health; the more damaged it is, the smaller it gets (and the faster the Heart beats). The structure periodically glows in time to the beating of the Heart. In each corner is a flame of its Keeper's colour. Hero Hearts do not have flames at the corners.

Gallery[]


Dungeon Keeper 2[]

Dungeon Keeper 2 Dungeon Heart

Aerial view of a Dungeon Heart

In Dungeon Keeper 2, the heart takes on a completely different appearance. The heart itself is a large pool containing a fiery beating substance that spits large turquoise sparks into the air. A large stone arched structure covers it, and there are sets of stairs over the pool. The Dungeon Heart beats like a normal heart. As it gets damaged, it darkens in colour, turning purple, then grey, then black/dark brown. It beats faster than normal if moderately damaged, and slower than normal if severely damaged.

Gallery[]


Dungeon Keeper Online[]

Dungeon Heart with gold Dungeon Keeper Online

The Dungeon Heart, surrounded with Gold

In Dungeon Keeper Online, the Dungeon Heart looks like the Dungeon Keeper 2 version, but without the arches and stairs.

Functionality[]

Dungeon Keeper[]

The Dungeon Heart is a Keeper's residence and the means of control. In the beginning of the level, you enter it and exit once you've lost. Every creature that enters through a Portal first attempts to check in at the Dungeon Heart before creating a Lair.

The Dungeon Heart occupies a 3x3 area, and usually occupies a 5x5 room.

Occasionally a hero fortress will contain a good Dungeon Heart, which usually must be destroyed in addition to the Lord of the Land.

When a Keeper or hero fortress loses its Dungeon Heart, their Claimed Path reverts to Dirt Path (which in turn may result in some of their Fortified Walls reverting to Earth. Fortified Walls adjacent to their rooms will remain), and their installed Traps and Doors will be destroyed. Rooms will remain and can be captured. If the Heart belonged to a Keeper, all of his creatures will stop fighting and head for their nearest Portal (if they don't have access to a Portal, they instead die straight away). Heroes will remain dangerous. Beware, destroying a hero Dungeon Heart quickly without clearing out a hero dungeon can be catastrophic, as all doors will be destroyed, meaning any heroes locked behind them will attack, and destroying a hero Heart will not always be enough to win the level.

A Dungeon Heart starts out with 30,000 health points. The official guide book claims that it heals at a rate of just over a thousand health points per minute,[1] but in fact the rate is only 150 points per minute.[Note 1] Trolls, Vampires, Mistresses, and Skeletons recognise the importance of an enemy Dungeon Heart and may prioritise its destruction if they encounter one, but other creatures are more likely to get distracted.[1][2] In KeeperFX, the quantity of health a Dungeon Heart starts out with is configurable; however, due to technical limitations, the absolute maximum is 32768.

KeeperFX 0.5 will support players having two Dungeon Hearts. If the primary one is destroyed, the secondary one takes over. The destruction of both effects the destruction of the dungeon and the player's loss as normal.

Dungeon Keeper 2[]

The Dungeon Heart is the most important room in the dungeon; if this room is destroyed, all your minions will leave the dungeon by the nearest Portal, all your Imps will die, and your mana reserves will disappear. In short, if your Heart is destroyed, you lose.

The Dungeon Heart occupies a 5x5 area with the outer 16 tiles used as a treasury capable of storing 1000 coins per tile. Mana is generated at the Dungeon Heart at the rate of 1 point of mana per tile controlled up to 500 points per cycle; the Heart itself generates 30 mana per cycle, and if you ever have fewer than four Imps, it will spontaneously create one every five seconds until you have at least four. Imps can be dropped into the Dungeon Heart in exchange for Mana.[3]

In single-player games, a destroyed Dungeon Heart's Mana goes to the Keeper who defeated him.[4] In multiplayer games, if a Keeper's Dungeon Heart is destroyed, what remains can be claimed by other Keepers as another source of Mana.

A Dungeon Heart begins with 10,000 health points, and heals at a rate of 2.5 health points per second. The Heart has built-in defence mechanisms; it senses enemy creatures within seven tiles of it and sends Imps, Rogues, and Fireflies to rally troops to fend off the threat. Imps automatically rush to the defence of a Dungeon Heart under attack; all other tasks and priorities are overridden until the threat has passed.[3]

In Skirmish mode, you can specify what happens if an enemy Dungeon Heart is destroyed.

Dungeon Keeper Online[]

Like its Dungeon Keeper 2 counterpart, the Dungeon Heart in Dungeon Keeper Online stores gold at its sides. It produces magic, and determines which creatures the dungeon can hold.[5] Creatures can be sacrificed into the heart for mana, like Imps can in Dungeon Keeper 2.[6] The heart also has a level, which determines the dungeon's maximum size and how many creatures it can house. Upgrading it requires certain conditions, such as having enough gold, to be met.[6]

Trivia[]

  • There is inconsistency as to the implications of what happens to Keepers whose Dungeon Heart has been destroyed: in Dungeon Keeper, the general implication is that they die; in the Dungeon Keeper 2 level Warcry, the Mentor's introduction implies that they survive, and are merely banished from the realm forever; in Aftermath, however, King Reginald implies that they can return; Nemesis' statements in Brotherhood imply that they are killed, like the first game.

Dungeon Keeper Mobile[]

Dungeon Heart

Dungeon Heart

Overview[]

The Dungeon Heart is a Keeper's hub of summoning operations. When minions are summoned, it is into this room that they will first appear.

The level of a Dungeon Heart affects the maximum levels of other rooms in your dungeon (gold mines, stone quarries, treasuries, stone storage depots, etc.), which will govern the amount of gold and stone that is produced and stored in your dungeon (both of which are needed to build/upgrade other rooms, etc.). This affects your ability to build some of the more expensive rooms, based on their build costs. Therefore, upgrading a Dungeon Heart allows for upgrading/building other rooms. Another benefit of upgrading your Dungeon heart is that doing so also provides for additional summoning portals, allowing for more minions to be produced at the same time. Unfortunately upgrading your Dungeon Heart will also increase the maximum amount of gold and stone that other keepers are able to pillage from your dungeon.

Dungeon Hearts have more health than all other rooms - a feature that savvy Keepers might choose to exploit by occupying the attention of attacking minions while cleverly-placed traps do their work. Just be careful... destroying a Dungeon Heart counts as an immediate win for an opponent. By themselves, Dungeon Hearts have no inherent defenses, until level 10, where it acquires its own defensive measures.

Some might say that Keepers can be heartless. On the contrary, you do have one... and you'd better defend it, at all costs!

Notes[]

  • Unlocks access to new rooms and room upgrades, each warehouse and treasury is unlocked for building once keeper claims a mine or a quarry
  • Allows summoning of minions via portals
  • With increasing level allows more resources to be pillaged from your dungeon in PvP raids
  • After level 30, the amount of resources that can be pillaged increase dramatically by 50% (This is to assist lower level players at growing)
  • At level 30, it allows much more resources to be plundered from your dungeon
  • Unlocks access to skeleton training levels
  • Stores 1,500 of gold and stone at any level
  • 5x5 building - Same size as the Graveyard
  • Can't be moved
  • Effective against Trolls once it reaches level 10
  • Weak vs Vampires & Magmaw
  • Minions from buildings placed next to it are likely to defend it

Stats[]

Combat Points = Combat Points
Gold = Gold
Minions = Summoning Portals Unlocked
Resources = Max amount of Gold & Stone that can be pillaged from your dungeon
Rooms = Rooms Unlocked
Skeleton = Skeleton Training Level Unlocked


Upgrade
LVL DMG HP Time Cost Minions Rooms Resources Gold
Skip
Raid
Cost
Requires Skeleton
1 N/A 700 N/A N/A 1 Workshop

Warehouse

Treasury

1.25k 10 - 1
2 1,150 5m 4 Combat Points Hatchery
x2
2k 15 - 2
3 1,700 10m 20 Combat Points 2 Training Room

Guard Post

5k 30 - 3
4 2,700 1h 90 Combat Points Dark Library 17.5k 50 - 4
5 3,950 6h 250 Combat Points 3 Guild Lair 35k 100 - 5
6 5,850 12h 1,000 Combat Points Graveyard 75k 150 - 6
7 8,100 1d 3,000 Combat Points 4 Unholy Temple 100k 220 - 7
8 11,150 2d 8,000 Combat Points Torture Chamber 150k 300 - 8
9 13,400 4d 15k Combat Points 225k 400 - 9
10 77 15,800 ? 30k Combat Points 700k 500 - 10
11 86 18,200 ? 6M Gold 1M 600 - 11
12 93 20,600 ? 8M Gold 1.3M 700 - 12
13 101 23,000 ? 10M Gold 1.7M 800 - 13
14 108 25,400 ? 13M Gold 2M 900 - 14
15 116 27,800 ? 17M Gold ? 1,000 - 15
16 121 30,200 ? 21M Gold ? 1,200 - 16
17 128 32,600 ? 25.6M Gold ? 1,400 All
Gold Mine
LVL 15
17
18 134 35,000 7d 29M Gold ? 1,600 ? 18
19 140 37,400 8d 34M Gold ? 1,800 ? 19
20 148 39,800 ? 38.8M Gold ? 2,000 All
Gold Mine
LVL 17
20
21 ? 40,000 ? 40M Gold ? ? - 21
22 163 44,600 ? 42.5M Gold ? 2,500 - 22
23 169 47,000 ? 45M Gold ? 2,800 - 23
24 176 49,400 ? 47.5 Gold 3M ? ? 24
25 184 52,800 13d 50M Gold 4M ? ? 25
26 191 53,200 13d 55M Gold 5M 4,000 ? 26
27 198 56,600 14d 60M Gold 6M 5,000 ? 27
28 205 59,000 16d 65M Gold 6.5M 6,500 ? 28
29 212 61,400 18d 70M Gold 6.7M 8,000 All
Treasury
LVL 17
29
30 219 63,800 20d 75M Gold 7M 10,000 30
31 226 66,200 22d 78M Gold 7.3M 12,000 ? 31
32 233 68,600 24d 81M Gold 7.6M 14,000 ? 32
33 240 71,000 26d 84M Gold 7.9M 16,000 33
34 247 73,400 28d 87M Gold 18,000 34
35 254 75,800 30d 90M Gold 20,000 All
Gold Mine
LVL 35
35

Note - Max level is 35

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Prima's Official Guide To Dungeon Keeper Gold Edition. p. 110. Prima Publishing. (1998). ISBN 978-0-7615-1581-4.
  2. Dungeon Keeper Gold Manual. p. 30.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Dungeon Keeper 2 : Prima's Official Strategy Guide. p. 81. Rocklin, CA: Prima Games. (1999). ISBN 978-0-7615-1805-1.
  4. Dungeon Keeper 2 Manual. p. 35.
  5. 建筑简介 地下城守护者地下城建筑与机关之建筑概述 (Chinese). dk.178.com (31 March 2012). Retrieved on 18 April 2020.
  6. 6.0 6.1 地下城-地下城之心 (Chinese). Retrieved on 16 September 2021.

Notes[]

  1. At 20 frames per second.
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