Sparklydell

Sparklydell. Here in this land you finally face a challenge worthy of your dark skills. Keeper Morgana defeated Lord Brutus and was in turn challenged by the most fiendish enemy you have yet to face: the She-Devil Keeper known as Raksha. The land has since been invaded by more Keepers. This land is in chaos, with every Keeper fighting for himself. You must eradicate them all to claim your next Portal Gem. Choose your path, Keeper…

A fine choice Keeper, you begin in a well defended location, but your resources are limited. Swiftly assemble your minions and attack before the others grow too strong.

A most interesting decision you have made Keeper. You have access to a large amount of solid ground in which to expand. Use it well as I feel your enemies are greedily eyeing your great tracts of land.

You have chosen the most difficult path Keeper. There is no Portal available. To compensate, you have arrived with some of your strongest minions. It would be a terrible shame if another Keeper were to lose his Portal to your fell clutches. Attack quickly; surprise and slaughter are the means to obtaining this land’s Portal Gem.

Sparklydell has been invaded by a host of Keepers, and thus you have four evil rivals for the Portal Gem. They are fighting amongst themselves and some will fall to others, but you will have to destroy at least two of them yourself. Prepare to battle on islands surrounded by a sea of lava. The Gem is on an island which is inaccessible until only one Keeper survives. This map indicates your location when you have chosen Model A (by selecting the South Arrow when you are in your Campaign Map Room). You arrive in possession of the Heart to the west. If you select the Middle Arrow, you follow Model B, and arrive in possession of the Heart marked with a White 5 (on the map above). Your initial minions are the four Imps marked by the White 5. If you select the North Arrow, you follow Model C, and arrive in possession of the Dungeon Heart marked with a White 7 (above). You don’t get all six Salamanders in this case, but you do get two Mistresses (2,3) and three Salamanders (1,2,3), along with your four Imps. In your absence, the five Keepers have these holdings: Kronos holds the Heart where Plan A begins, Belial holds the Heart where Plan B begins, Drako holds the Heart where Plan C begins, Morgana holds the Heart just northeast of Drako, and Raksha holds the Heart at the northeast of the realm.

The secret of success is to build up a strong force of well trained fighters as quickly as possible, then eliminate your rivals one by one.

Business Model A

The first and most obvious step is to claim the Portal near your Dungeon Heart followed immediately by building your rooms as quickly as possible. Get your creatures training at once and make sure to recruit a good range of fighters — you do this by building different types of rooms of the right size. After you’ve got that underway, claim the second Portal to the northeast, but otherwise remain within your walls of stone until your creatures are well trained. Of course, those interlopers are going to be trying to make inroads on your own territory, so make sure to defend your dungeon against invasion by placing a judicious mix of traps and doors around it. Sentry Traps are an old favorite, but since they drain mana it makes sense to place each one carefully — places most likely to be attacked or that you want to defend — and use Spike and Gas Traps widely, especially along corridors. Your newly researched Boulder and Trigger Traps allow you to plan your defenses well, but remember that Boulder Traps will damage your own creatures as well as the enemy. They are best used as offensive traps, since you can build them at the edge of enemy territory, then slap them to set them off when a good number of enemy creatures are in sight. Trigger Traps can be coupled with Sentry Traps to take out even high-level foes. Keep an eye on the mini-map: you can tell by the color of the Portals which Keeper they belong to. Drako (green) will eventually defeat one of his neighbors and take the Portal — most likely it will be Morgana (yellow) to fall to his forces, though it may be your near neighbor Belial (blue). In the latter case, watch out for an attack by Drako. Once you’ve got 20 creatures and most of them have reached Level 4, it’s time to make your move.

One route would be to launch an attack on Raksha’s exposed Portal in the top center of the map. The benefit is that as you take this, you’ll capture a good number of Raksha’s creatures, and get a good foothold in her territory. Get to work converting the captives and then start bridging towards her Dungeon Heart. However, be aware that Raksha has mined her territory with traps: if you lose too many creatures to them you could be in real trouble. If you don’t happen to have a high-level Salamander, you could always dig a path along the south side of Raksha’s territory until you can tunnel into her southern cavern … that’s where a Level 10 Neutral Salamander has his home. It’s a good way in, and if you convert the neutral Salamander, you’ve more than made up for the hassle. Watch out that you don’t get into a scrap with Drako on the way though — you’re not ready for him until you’ve taken over at least one other territory — so if you encounter his territory it’s best to bridge around it. Once you’ve defeated Raksha and taken her rooms and Portals, you can strike south from her Dungeon Heart. Take Drako’s Portal and then work down to his Dungeon Heart. Finally, you may or may not have to deal with Belial (depending on whether Drako has killed him) — but you should be able to manage him without any real problems by now.

Business Model B

Again, get your creatures training as fast as possible and make sure that your force comprises a well-balanced mix of fighters — build different types of rooms of the right size. Protect the entrances to your dungeon with traps and be on the watch for threats or invasions. Mine the gold in the southwest corner of your land and build a Bridge so that you can claim the Neutral Mistress. Once your creatures are well trained and you are ready for some action, Kronos is a good choice. He has only one Portal and no really high-level creatures. Order your miners to dig out the gold in the northwest corner of your caverns, and make a strike for Kronos’ Dungeon Heart. With three Portals (you will, of course, claim the neutral one to your northeast Portal), you will soon be ready to assault Drako. Don’t underestimate him, he a tough one. Use Stone Bridge to get your creatures to his Dungeon Heart quickly, and make sure to neutralize his traps before they can do too much damage. Drako has several high-level creatures that will make excellent converts if you can only capture them. When you’re against Drako, be fairly free with Healing your creatures. Once you’ve taken Drako’s land you will also be able to claim the land that Drako has taken from the feeble Morgana. This will give you an excellent platform to strike directly at Raksha’s Dungeon Heart, bypassing all Morgana’s traps. Don’t forget to explore a bit … there’s a Level 10 Salamander that would be prudent to add to your forces. Finish your conquest the old-fashioned way — with brute force and no quarter.

Business Model C

Your first priority is to attack, and attack wisely. That means ignoring Belial (blue) although he may look like a tempting target, and instead focusing attention on the feeble Morgana (yellow). Bridge to her Dungeon Heart and set your fighters to attacking it. While your warriors are hammering on that, send some Imps and a fighter over to her Portal and take that from her. Granted, you’ll have to withdraw one of your fighters from the attack on the Dungeon Heart in order to secure the Portal, but this is well worthwhile, as it will allow you to start recruiting all the sooner. Morgana’s measly forces should not prove too much of a hassle. It willtake some time. However, while your fighters are hammering on her Dungeon Heart, you can start building up your own dungeon. Place a Lair in the empty space to the west of your Dungeon Heart, and get your Imps digging out some more rooms so you can start recruiting a better class of creature. Time is of the essence … you will not have long before you yourself are attacked by a greedy neighbor. Once Morgana is taking a dirt nap, you can start building up in earnest. Get your creatures trained and recruit a strong and balanced force. Set your Imps to work on the Gem block and your money problems will be over. Tunnel north from there to recruit the Neutral Level 10 Salamander, who will be a most valuable minion. Get some traps up just in case, especially on the north side of your dungeon, since that’s where Raksha (purple) will attack from. By the time Raksha attacks you should be reasonably well prepared with a good strong force. Hold her off and make sure to capture her best creatures, and then begin a drive towards her Dungeon Heart. Stone Bridges will allow you to bypass most of her traps and break straight through to her Heart. Keep Healing your creatures and you should be able to destroy her. After this epic battle, you should be able to move in on Belial and finally across to Kronos (green) without too much trouble. Thus ends anyone who dares stand against you.