I recently got DK1 from GoG and I've noticed something a bit off (from my original CD copy of DK1.) On the later levels, (I really noticed this on level 16) is that the portals spawn less and less monsters. I have a fully functional dungeon layout with big enough rooms and I attract no creatures from my portal. On level 15, I got nothing BUT wizards. An entire army of 30 wizards. On level 16, I have nothing at all. No matter how big I make my rooms, not a single creature will show up.

not getting any creatures is a relatively rare bug, so either rush the enemy with a transferred creature, or just restart the level

i'm getting the same thing. only it's the earlier level when you first get wooden bridges, and they introduce skeletons.

the portal produces zero units. i gritted my way through a bit by possessing imps to control breaches, and trying to convert prisoners to skeletons, but then it limits it to 4 skeletons, and the rest of the prisoners die. ultimately not enough to take over the good guy army. is there a patch or a fix of some sort?

That skeleton level you're referring to, you're not meant to have any creatures because the point of the level is to use the skellys, after you first create one then you'll get your regular bunch. This should'nt happen on any other level mind you.

Level 14 "Sleepiborough" is an annoying one because of poor design.

Technically the creature pool consists of Trolls, Warlocks, Hellhounds, Dark Mistresses, Bile Demons and Dragons.

BUT,

the level script is set up so that the following problems occur:

(1) Only the two enemy Keepers can attract Bile Demons and Dragons. To acquire these, you will have to capture them from enemies - or, at least, capture one (or transfer from a previous realm), and scavenge more from a Scavenger Room.

(2) The player cannot actually RESEARCH a Workshop, and therefore cannot attract Trolls... at first. However, there is a hidden Workshop in the bottom right corner of the map. Find this, claim it (and its inmates - including a level 10 Troll) and you will be able to build more Workshops and attract more Trolls. Beware of boulder traps on the way. If you don't get the Workshop early enough, the enemy will get all the Trolls too.

(3) This leaves you with only Warlocks, Hellhounds and Mistresses as possible recruits. And, of course, you have to research the Torture Chamber before you can get Mistresses, and the Scavenger Room before you can get Hellhounds... and by that time, you've probably already filled up your creature pool with Warlocks. In any case, you definitely don't want hellhounds - but you DO want several Mistresses. Throw back at least half your Warlocks as soon as you research the Torture Chamber, and build a big one, get yourself loads of Mistresses, train them up. Once they're high level, they're hard as nails, and can even haste themselves so they can do both your remaining research and your manufacturing, so you don't need too many Trolls either.

(4) Fortunately, you can just wait your enemies out... you can get access to gems, they can't, so just go for the gems and wall yourself in , don't be tempted by the huge gold seam to the north. Let the enemies exhaust it... and then watch their minions desert for lack of pay. Then waltz in and destroy the remains.

Level15 "Woodly Rhyme" is a trouble - you can get Dragons (but you must build a LARGE Treasury and Lair) and Warlocks, but there are no Bile Demons in the realm except one wild one, free to the first Keeper that finds him. So, make sure to research up to Barracks and Torture Chamber, and get Orcs and Mistresses. Beware the high level heroes in the lake - or hope that the one of the enemies digs into the lake first and gets killed by them.

Level 16 "Tulipscent" is a real bugger because the enemy Keeper keeps attacking you, AND there are wandering parties of high level heroes. You will have to wall them out of your dungeon and hope they break into the *enemy* dungeon - or, if you are fast enough, wall them into their Portal so they can't escape, but that leaves nothing to stop the enemy keeper attacking you with his two free level 8 Orcs (although if you're lucky one of them will die to your free Boulder trap). Meanwhile, you start with 1 Warlock and 2 Reapers, and if you build a big enough Hatchery and Lair you can get the only two Bile Demons in the pool, but until then you'll get nothing until you can build a Barracks and Workshop for Trolls and Orcs. (hint: Orcs are key, if you can get enough and train them to level 5+ so they can haste themselves.) Meanwhile, do whatever it takes to keep your Reapers training: once they hit level 5 and can haste themselves, they will turn the battle on their own. This realm I found the hardest of all the realms: but it's poor design, not bug.

Levels 17, 18, 19 and 20 have their own problems which I'm not spoiling here...

Also: Widowmaker is referring to a level, not in DK1, but in DK2, where skeletons and wooden bridges are both introduced on the same level (and where there are two types of bridge, hence the need to specify that bridges be Wooden or Stone.)

Evidently Widowmaker *does* have a few creatures - to knock down the first few enemies to produce the first few skeletons. In DK2, in levels where there are no gems, you have to expand more quickly, and invade the enemy territory earlier: your gold is infinite, and the enemies will keep coming until you have taken over their gates, which means bridging to the territory, then getting skeletons to destroy the Fear Traps so that your Imps can claim the land beyond. The skeletons are not so much for fighting the enemy: they're for destroying the traps so you can knock out the hero gates.

Also, you can build a bigger Prison, the number of skeletons you can support is determined by prison space (unlike in DK1, where you could make infinite numbers of skeletons from one prison, but they all needed Lair space: in DK2, Skeletons do not create a Lair, so they can never heal over time unless you cast Heal on them.)

I have the issue at level 4. Full fledged workshop, huge lair - no trolls!! I've been just letting it run in the background to see if it was timed and nothing.

I FOUND HOWEVER that is was because each level has a monster limit. I had spawned too many imps. I tossed my beetles out and got the trolls. You may be maxing out you monster limits at the higher level.

I also had a portal which didn't spawn any creatures. Or so, I thought I had a portal. I only tunneled to it, without claiming it. By widening the surrounding area I somehow got an imp to start claiming the portal and it started to work!

So try to clear more space around the portal and wait for an imp to start claiming the room.

Hi guys!

PLease help, I recently downloaded GOG's Dungeon Keeper Gold (playing DK 1) and all has been perfect.

I'm now on the last level (Skybird Trill)... and I have no creatures. Is this a bug? I only have 8 imps!

I built all the basic rooms I could and waited and waited, but nothing came. I've read online this might be a defect - can someone clarify? What do I do??!

I'm playing on Mac OS X 10.8.5 (mountain lion). Any help would be much appreciated! Cheers!

Same problem here, level 20, no creatures from a portal. Is there a way around it?

Ok EDIT: My bad, no bug.
You can only get bile demons and dragons at the beginning, so you really have to make sure that you have at least 5x5 hatchery, 5x5 treasury and 5x5 lair. I did not have that big lair.

I am playing DK Gold level 20 and I cannot spawn any monsters at all. I also followed your advice and made the rooms at least 5x5, even more... still no monsters at all.. any other ideas?

thanks.

You can fix the spawning problem with Dungeon Keeper 2 with this fix. You do not need a patch to fix it. I have attached a web link on an image file because it wont let me post one on here.

well, thanks for the detailed explanation to do it manually (not sure what is the advantage over a patch).

http://www.findoutfree.co.uk/dungeon-keeper-2-tips-and-help.php