Keep hatcheries and treasuries clustered together. While most players do this for their Biles, this is generally good practice for all creatures. This especially applies if you have a large dungeon.
For some reason this seems to be the most effective in Skirmish mode, but you can use fear-traps to create a lot of chokepoints. You can make Gonzalez a complete and utter joke with these things. Get to the middle of the map, surround the portal with fear traps and you've basically won.
You will lose so, so many imps to the lightning traps in Torment. The children yearn for the 25,000 volts.
Literally dump all your fireflies. They're next to worthless unless you're trying to nab that one on Regicide. Then you're spending a considerable chunk of the level stopping the little bastard from committing seppuku via sentry trap. Goblins are similarly worthless unless you're genuinely desperate for an infantry force.
Mistresses, no matter how well-treated, love languishing in self-inflicted problems. My main problem is this: First they go and spend ages in the torture chamber. Then they do this for so long that they'll forget to go eat, take wages and I'd say "go to the toilet" if that was an in-game feature but knowing them they'd keep that one in the chamber. Point is, they're the polar opposite of my Trolls and Bile Demons; I don't have to lock them in, I have to keep them out. If I don't, they all suddenly remember they need all those things. Lastly, they'll get mad at me, somehow continue forgetting to eat/sleep/get paid and when they're finally sick of stomping about making angry noises, they all leave my dungeon en-masse.
Possess a salamander, camp in some lava and spit fireballs at your enemies until they keel over and die. I find this especially effective on Sparklydell/Carnage. You can also bait giants this way, as naturally your path won't be blocked up by anything else.
The time-limit on Cherish isn't as tight as you think it is, though I haven't figured out how much real-life time it takes yet. I'd describe it as quite generous. Besides this, he'll send forth his VTM LARP if you get onto his land. The Monks of Saint Cuthbert (the twice-martyr'd) are still good to have but the danger is vastly overstated when you combine them with enough freeze-traps.
Take out the diagonally-digging dwarves in Regicide as soon as possible. Trust me.
Embed your projectile traps in a 1x1 space against your walls to protect their sides. This does come at the cost of line-of-sight, but it's good for defence.
Guards have stupidly long ranges and will hit you no matter how far away you are. This normally wouldn't be a tip but I keep forgetting this one until I run face-first into a spear.
Bile Demons make for good training dummies in the combat pit. They do a lot of damage in higher levels though, so watch that they don't smash up your aspiring skeleton army.
The joys of forced labour don't have to be enjoyed by just your trolls and biles. You can impart these experiences onto your warlocks, wizards and vampires as well.
I've tried, and I'm here to tell you with absolute sadness that mazes don't work on enemy units. They physically cannot comprehend the idea of getting lost.
With enough torturing, you can convert those pesky heroes to your side. This is a very useful trick, as some hero units are stronger than their creature counterparts. Unfortunately, there is a caveat. Even the most damned, broken souls don't want their roommates to be literal hell-spawns. If you try to house heroes and creatures together, they'll get quite upset about it. The quickest way to get them complaining is to try and make them share a lair. Luckily, the solution is a simple one. Build hero-exclusive rooms, get some doors, move some creatures and you're sorted.
A well-known method for pumping out traps and doors is to lock your Trolls and Bile Demons in the Workshop. Because they won't be able to escape, they'll be forced to carry on working. But, if they get too unhappy they'll smash the doors down and see themselves out. You can prevent this by building a lair and a hatchery in said workshop. Then it's only an issue of making sure they're paid...or not!
Possession is so strong that speedrunners have made a "No Possession" category for the game. Possession, as its name implies, lets you nab one of your creatures and go into a first-person mode. This lasts until you run out of mana or you relinquish control of your victim. Possession's cheapness, quick cooldown-timer and ease of movement make it very easy to abuse. Most possession spell footage you'll see is just people circle-strafing things to death. It's by far the most effective on traps, as they tend to have short ranges and sluggish cooldown timers. While a fast-moving creature will give you the best results, you should be able to outwit the enemy AI just fine. The only problems you'll have is falling prey to your own hubris. No, you should not try to solo that group of giants.
By right-clicking, you can use the hand of evil to slap your creatures. Slap Imps to make them work faster, and slap Mistresses to make them happy. Besides this, slapping puts your creatures in a less-than-stellar mood. If you're feeling especially cruel, you can slap them to death. This can also be done to enemies in your prisons and torture chambers.
The penultimate level is a tricky one, as the Princes will bolt at the faintest sign of a threat. The easiest solution is to lure a Prince onto a Stone Bridge using an Imp, as none of the three feel threatened by Imps. Once the Prince is on the bridge, sell the tiles he isn't standing on to create an "island". Repeat for the other Princes. There is, however, another way: you can corral them with Secret Doors. As special as they are, they can't see through these doors. Better yet, because they don't register imps as threats, the doors can be set up without causing alarm.
If you're laying siege and it's coming up to payday, use Call-to-Arms to do a little wage theft. All creatures, regardless of what they are, have to obey the spell. Even if they're absolutely miserable, they have to do it.
Creatures are not the only things you can possess. Unlike other instances of possession, you can't do anything with your chicken. All you can do is watch as it mindlessly bobs around until something eats it. Once you're "eaten", you're taken out of Possession and left to watch the remains of your feathery friend. At least she was delicious.
In the final level, a Dark Angel can be released from the bedrock north of your dungeon. To do this, a firefly, a warlock and a black knight must be sacrificed in succession. The problem with this is the fact you get one piddly little firefly. Yes, one firefly in the entire level. No refunds. Said fly has a penchant for flying north of your dungeon and out of your sight. There, it'll get itself blown up by all of Reginald's sentry traps. You can prevent this tragedy by nabbing the fly and shutting it in a tiny room. While it'll grumble about having no work to do, it won't cause any mischief while you grab the other creatures.
Placing fireflies into your torture chamber's electric chairs will kill them instantly. Very useful if you have a surplus of flies and you need a quick way to dispose of them.
One known method to level your imps is to cast the Tremour spell on your own walls. The imps will repair the damaged walls and gain experience from it.
As stated on page 115 of the Prima Official Strategy Guide, the Lightning trap will do double damage if its victim is in water.
In Regicide, you can find a gem seam in the top right confines of the map. Before you can get it, you'll have to deal with a handful of mid-level giants. Defeat these brutes and you'll give Reginald an even worse time than before.
Like most games, Dungeon Keeper 2 has its share of cheats:
do not fear the reaper = Wins the current level.
feel the power = All your creatures are instantly levelled up to level 10.
fit the best = All traps and doors become available.
ha ha thisaway ha ha thataway = Gives you 100,000 Mana.
i believe its magic = All spells become available.
this is my church = All rooms become available.
now the rain has gone = Permanently reveals the entire map.
show me the money = Gives you gold.
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