Learn how to manage Mana and Gold in Dungeon Keeper 2. Discover how Mana Vaults, Temples, mining, and creature paydays affect your resources.
Mana is your source of power for all magical things. In the top left corner of the screen is your current Mana levels (number in blue). Each square of land you claim will generate 1 Mana point per turn. If you claim a Mana Vault (looks like green smoking tiles), these will add 100 Mana each turn. If you have built a Temple, you can get your creatures to pray there to add more mana.
Casting spells and maintaining Imps drain mana. Some powerful spells can take off 50,000 mana, and as you can only store 200,000 maximum its pays not to get too trigger-happy with spells. If you decided you don't need as many imps anymore, drop any superfluous ones into the Dungeon Heart. You'll save mana by not having to keep them alive and also get a mana boost of half the Imps mana cost.
Gold can be acquired through mining the finite seams of yellow or the permanent Gem seams. You can hold as much gold as you have treasury space to keep it in. If you run out of space the gold will be left lying there, you can collect it later when you have space though, it won't disappear.
As you get creatures into your dungeon, they will need paying. The payday timer is located at the top of the screen and the gold moving round its rim is the countdown to the next payment date. The amount that you will lose will flash briefly in blue, make sure it doesn't take you into the red, or your creatures will get angry. It also costs money to train creatures in the Training Room, but you really can't get around that.
Casinos can be used to recycle your gold through. If you "rig" the casino, you will make money back off your creatures, but they won't be as happy. If a creature wins the casino Jackpot but is unable to collect, they will also get mad. If money is running low, collect up all your Imps and drop them in a treasury, they may have gold they haven't deposited yet. As an emergency measure you can sacrifice Mana to make gold with the handy "Create Gold" spell, or sell off rooms using the $ option in the bottom left of the screen near the aerial map (minimap (the small circular map in the bottom-left corner of your screen)).
If you become bankrupted, your creatures will leave your dungeon rather quickly; so effective cash management is vital, not every level has an infinite Gem seam to mine in it.
- Claim Mana Vaults to significantly boost your Mana generation per turn.
- Use the Temple to have creatures pray for additional Mana.
- Sacrifice excess Imps to the Dungeon Heart for a Mana boost and to save on upkeep.
- Be mindful of the 200,000 Mana storage limit to avoid wasting potential gains.
- Mine both finite yellow seams and permanent Gem seams for Gold.
- Ensure you have adequate Treasury space to store all collected Gold.
- Monitor the payday timer to avoid creatures becoming angry due to insufficient funds.
- Consider rigging Casinos for profit, but be aware it may decrease creature happiness.
- As a last resort, use the "Create Gold" spell or sell rooms to generate emergency funds.
- Collect Imps and drop them into a Treasury if you suspect they are holding undeclared Gold.
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