Psyclone's New Player Dungeon Guide

[Beginner's Guide] Basic Starting Dungeon Layout and Concepts
One of the things that is yet to be included in the tutorial for this game are some basic concepts to designing your dungeons. This beginner's guide will cover some basic information and concepts to designing your starter dungeon.

Since expansion dungeons are a lot more complex due to multiple entrances and random resource node locations, I hope to make a separate thread for those in the future. However, you will find that a lot of the same concepts will apply to designing both dungeons.

I will try to update and edit this thread throughout following weeks, but for now, I wanted to get at least a basic example up with some key concepts.

NOTE: There are many good dungeon layouts. The following is just one of the most common and basic designs that many experienced players use when starting out. The sizes and exact placements of the rooms are optional and will vary based on the number of tiles you have, your needs and personal preference. The purpose here is to illustrate some basic concepts and not necessarily a template of how to design your dungeon, although it is a solid layout.





DUNGEON TILES


ROOMS
There are currently 20 different rooms available in Dungeon Overlord, not including hallway tiles. Some room types may be locked and require prerequisites to be met before they can be built, such as researching a technology or having an existing room of a different type in the dungeon already. For example, in order to build a Storage Room, your dungeon must have a L3 Vault.

In this guide, I will primarily be covering the more basic rooms (and their benefits) that you will have access to early in the game.

Since tile space is going to be at a premium early in the game, be careful not to upgrade rooms just because you can. If you do, you'll probably find yourself downgrading some of them because you need to upgrade an important room and ran out of tiles.

Room Levels (Upgrading)
All rooms start out at Level 1 (L1) and can be upgraded to Level 5 (L5). L1 rooms can be built anywhere as long as they're connected to the rest of the dungeon. Upgrading rooms will have a resource cost and require more space, ie - L2 = 2x2, L3 = 3x3, L4 = 4x4, L5 = 5x5. As you upgrade each room, a different graphic (prop) will appear in the center of the room.
Upgrade Benefits
As you upgrade your rooms, you will gain stacking benefits for each level you upgrade a room. At certain room levels, you will see that some rooms will provide a variable benefit based on the number of room tiles of that same type.

You can see the benefits of upgrading a room to the next level by hovering your mouse over the "Upgrade Room" button in a room's detail screen.

Also, many pieces of furniture will have a minimum room level requirement before you will be able place the furniture in that room. Higher tiered furniture will require higher level rooms.
Moving Rooms
If you'd like to move a room without upgrading or downgrading it, simply click on the prop and choose "Move Room" from the popup menu. NOTE: In order to move the room, you must have the tiles at it's destination already placed.

ROOM PREREQUISITES
Here's a chart showing all the room prerequisites. NOTE: Many rooms also require a technology to be researched as well in order to unlock the ability to build a room.


UNIQUE ROOMS
There are two rooms that have unique properties: the Vault and Hallways. Actually, the Hallway isn't technically a room at all.
Hallways
Hallways are basically empty (blank) tiles/rooms that provide no benefits. They do serve a purpose however. Traps may only be placed on Hallway tiles. Also, Hallways can be strategically placed in order to connect your rooms to the entrances and/or other rooms. Hallways are most commonly used to direct/channel your opponent into traps or an ambush.

Since Hallways provide no benefits, they cannot be upgraded as it would serve no purpose.

Each dungeon begins with some Hallway tiles already placed that can be picked up (sold) and will be added to your available tiles to be used elsewhere in your dungeon.

Since Hallways provide no benefits other than containing traps, many players choose to place down low cost room tiles that provide benefits rather than a plain hallway. Most commonly, you will see players replace hallways with Farm, Mine and Library tiles. However, there is some risk in doing this when being attacked/raided. Raiders will only need to get to one room tile to raid (steal resources from) the entire room. For example, if you place a Mine tile by a dungeon entrance, any raider who is targeting your Mine will only need to get to any one Mine tile in order to loot the entire Mine. Raiders will always raid the first tile of the room type they are targeting and then attempt to flee. So be careful which room tiles you place close to your entrances.

TIP: You can replace your Hallways with other room tiles as mentioned above and then switch them back to Hallways just before an incoming attack lands and then switch them back afterwards or when you log off.
Vault
The Vault is a unique room. It's size is fixed at 3x3 and every dungeon has one in the same standard location (center of the dungeon). The Vault cannot be sold or moved, although it can be upgraded.

Gold that is mined within your dungeon is carried from the Gold mining nodes by goblins and dropped on the vault floor. Once you pick up this gold, it is added to your Gold total at the top of the screen and can never be stolen. However, it can be stolen by raiders while it is sitting on your Vault floor.

The Vault also serves as the universal drop-off point for all resources brought in from raiding, trading and transfers between your dungeons or from other players. Resources dropped off in this fashion are automatically added to storage though and not literally dropped on the floor.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +5 experience (per hour)

L3: +13 experience (per hour)
L3: +1 additional Goblin
Taskmaster Bonus
+10% Increase Stack Size (per Taskmaster Level)
You will definitely want to upgrade your Vault to L3 for the +1 Additional Goblin bonus. Additional goblin bonuses are one of the best bonuses in the game, if not the best. The costs for a L4 vault require higher level resources that won't be attainable for beginning players for quite some time.

NOTE: The Vault's taskmaster bonus is applied to all rooms within the dungeon that stack resources, ie - Vault, Mine, Library and Farm.

BASIC ROOMS
Basic Rooms is just a generic term I'm using to group the common rooms that you will most likely place in most of your dungeons. The only room that is actually required to be in every dungeon is, of course, the Vault, which is automatically placed in the center of your dungeon by default and cannot be increased in size or moved.

Library
The Library is where your Warlocks (and Liches later in the game) will perform their research to learn new technologies. You can have any number of Warlocks in your dungeon, but the Library has a cap on the number of researchers that can study in the Library. Any researchers over the amount the Library can support will provide no additional research.

NOTE: If there are more researchers than the Library can support, it will always count the lowest level researchers. For this reason, it is not a good idea to have more Warlocks in your dungeon than the Library can support.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: 1 Maximum Researcher Supported

L2: +2 experience (per hour)
L2: +1 Maximum Researcher Supported

L3: +4 experience (per hour)
L3: +1 Maximum Researcher Supported

L4: +16 experience (per hour)
L4: +2 Maximum Researchers Supported
Tile Bonuses (per Library tile)
L1: +0.5% Research Rate
Leveling up the Library and Warlocks should be one of your primary goals.

A common strategy is to use Library tiles in lieu of hallways (corridors) to take advantage of the Library's tile bonus since Hallways don't provide any benefits. Be careful when doing this though because in combat your Warlocks can spawn on ANY Library tile and you don't want them to spawn in front of your other creatures or by the entrance(s).
Den
The Den is the living quarters (bedroom) for Orcs, Ogres and Warlocks. You will be able to craft furniture for this room to increase their maximum training levels, happiness and healing rates, as well as the beds that spawn each of these creatures.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +1 experience (per hour)

L3: +3 experience (per hour)

L4: +6 experience (per hour)
L4: +25% Accuracy and Defense for all Den-Dwelling creatures
L4: +2 additional Goblins
Tile Bonuses (per Den tile)
L3: +1% Maximum Happiness for all Den-Dwelling creatures

L4: +1% Accuracy and Defense for all Den-Dwelling creatures
Once again, Additional Goblin bonuses are one of the best bonuses in the game, so you'll want to upgrade your Den to L4 as early as you can. Also, a great strategy that many players use is to stack +Max Happiness furniture in the Den in order to shock Warlocks as much as possible to increase their efficiency (research rate). For more information on this strategy, read the wiki articles on "happiness and efficiency" and "shocking strategies".
Farm (aka Slug Farm)
Farms are your main source of food, which is primarily required to feed and level your creatures. Early in the game, when you have a small army, you'll find that you don't really need a large Farm to feed your creatures. As you level up and your army grows, so will their appetites. You should upgrade the Farm to meet your army's needs, but anything significantly more than that is probably a waste of tiles.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +1 experience (per hour)
L2: +100% food production

L3: +5 experience (per hour)
L3: +100% food production

L4: +12 experience (per hour)
L4: +400% food production
Tile Bonuses (per Farm tile)
L1: +100% food production
In lieu of Hallways, many players like to use Farm tiles as corridors interchangeably with Library and Mine tiles depending on their current needs.
Tavern
The Tavern is where your food is stored after it is gathered from the Farm and where your creatures eat their meals. It is also the living quarters (bedroom) for Thieves.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +1 experience (per hour)
L2: +250 Maximum Storage
L2: +25 Safe Storage (safe from looting)

L3: +5 experience (per hour)
L3: +750 Maximum Storage
L3: +75 Safe Storage (safe from looting)
Tile Bonuses (per Tavern tile)
L1: +20 Maximum Storage
L1: +5% Storage Bonus
L1: +10 Safe Storage
You'll need a L3 Tavern in order to attract Thieves and as a prerequisite for building a Guard Post. You shouldn't need a L4 Tavern until later in the game, if at all.
Proving Ground
The Proving Ground is where your creatures hone their combat skills and advance in levels.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +2 experience (per hour)
L2: +10% Training Speed

L3: +4 experience (per hour)
L3: +10% Training Speed
L3: +1 Training Queue Size
In order to train creatures, you only need one Proving Ground tile in your dungeon, even if you're training more than one creature at a time. It is not very important to increase the speed at which creatures train; so, a very common strategy is to leave the Proving Ground at L1, using only one tile, in order to conserve tiles.
Guard Post
The Guard Post helps to defend your dungeon against incoming attacks and is the living quarters (bedroom) for Dark Elves. The Guard Post and its furniture will boost every creatures Awareness Range and Damage while defending your dungeon.

NOTE: Guard Post bonuses do not apply to outgoing attacks/raids.

The Guard Post is the most likely spawn room for Orcs, Ogres and Dark Elves when they are defending your dungeon from attackers. Therefore, placement of this room within your dungeon may vary based on your army composition...
If you have Dark Elves in your army, you probably shouldn't put the Guard Post too close to the entrance in order to avoid your Dark Elves being jumped by enemy melee attackers as soon as they enter your dungeon.

If you don’t have Dark Elves in your army, then it may be beneficial to put the Guard Post near the entrance so your Orcs and Ogres, which have a slow movement speeds, will have a good chance to spawn close to the action.
Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +5 experience (per hour)
L2: +5% Damage (all creatures)
L2: +10% Awareness Range (all creatures)

L3: +7 experience (per hour)
L3: +5% Damage (all creatures)
L3: +10% Awareness Range (all creatures)
Tile Bonuses (per Guard Post tile)
L1: +1% Damage (all creatures)
Early in the game, you probably won't need to upgrade this room above L2 unless you have a lot of Dark Elves in your army or are under constant attack and feel that you really need the extra damage and awareness bonuses.
Temple
The Dark Elves commune with their Goddess in the Temple, which is the living quarters (bedroom) of the Dark Elf Priestess. The Temple is also the dwelling place for all Dark Elves.

Upgrade Benefits (Cumulative)
L2: +6 experience (per hour)

L3: +10 experience (per hour)
L3: +5% Level Increase to Revival

L4: +14 experience (per hour)
L4: +5% Level Increase to Revival
Tile Bonuses (per Temple tile)
L2: +1% Temple Dweller Maximum Happiness
L2: +5% Increase in Revival Speed

L4: +1% Temple Dweller Defense
L4: +1% Temple Dweller Accuracy
Early in the game when your creatures are low levels and still have short revive times, the Temple bonuses aren't going to provide much benefit. Therefore, you probably shouldn't bother building a Temple at all until you are ready to attract a Dark Elf Priestess, which requires a L3 Temple. Later in the game, when your creatures are much higher levels (L50+), the Temple bonuses will become more and more valuable.

STORAGE ROOMS

CRAFTING ROOMS

COMBAT
Battles
When your dungeon is attacked, all combat is instant. When the attack lands, the combat will automatically be resolved instantly and a video playback will become available to view under "Info → Battle Reports".
Creature Spawning
At the beginning of combat, your creatures will randomly spawn (appear) in certain rooms. The probability of spawning in a specific room varies from creature to creature. For example, Warlocks have a high probability to spawn in the Library and Den during combat. It is very important to know the most common spawn rooms for each type of creature when designing your dungeon in order to strategically place your rooms. Each creature's spawn locations can be found on their respective creature pages on the wiki.
Hiding
You can choose whether to have your creatures defend incoming attacks or hide. There is a button in the bottom right corner of your dungeon screen where you can toggle your creatures to "Guard" or "Hide". This option is exclusive to each of your dungeons, so you can have one dungeon set to "Guard" and another set to "Hide".

If you choose to "Hide", then all of your creatures will hide, but your traps will still be active. Hiding does not hide or protect your resources. Players can still steal your resources while hidden.


TRAPS


Alarm Trap
Fireball Trap
Freeze Trap
Poison Trap
Spike Trap
TASKMASTERS

space held