Part 3: Traps and Bolts

Episode 3: Traps and Bolts



You're making great progress, Underlord… You'll be back to your old self in no time. Our next target is the citadel of the intransigent dotard Lord O'Theland. He's a dimwitted sort, and he seems to like marching his troops into an early grave… I'd say it's time to learn about traps.

I'd say whoever came up with that name is a dimwitted dotard. But nevermind that, it's time for traps!



Welcome to The Breach, Underlord.

This stronghold was built into this chasm to safekeep one of the Empire's inhibitors. With its trained garrison it's virtually impervious to attack…

Fortunately for you, their commander, Lord O'Theland, is a vacuous sort who will throw his troops at your dungeon without strategy or order.

I can think of no better time to learn how to build defences for your dungeon, but to do this you'll first need a Foundry.



Before that, first things first: getting our monster gateway. This is the first mission where the gateway isn't immediately visible, so I just order the workers to dig in every direction in order to find it.



It turns out to be right next to the dungeon core. I guess they just wanted to worry you for the five seconds it takes to stumble across the gateway.

I unlock our new room, the Foundry. But before I can even show it off, we immediately get a new kind of monster.



A Chunder has entered your dungeon. Attracted by the Foundry, this gassy creature will joyfully launch the fetid contents of its stomach to attack, your other minions would do well to stay a few steps back.



Mendechaus, that's just gross.

Unfortunately, we need these guys for our foundry. The foundry is used to build traps, and traps are absolutely wonderful.



As if on cue (because it is), the game tells us that we can unlock our first trap. The Blade Lotus.

The Blade Lotus is a spinning flower of destruction that tears nearby enemies into shredded flesh as it pushes them away.



Because the game thinks very little of me, it tells me exactly where I should place the trap - in the middle of the eastern tunnel towards the hero fortress.



We also unlock a cannon and a wooden door. Again the game tells you where to place them.

Now that the game has finished telling me the wrong way to make traps, here's the real way to build traps for your dungeon:



More dakka.

A big block of cannons should allow you to defend against any attack. There are some neat traps and obstacles later on that we'll be using, but at this stage in the game and with the traps available to us, the big block o' cannons can't be beat.

Unfortunately, you can't always just drop a block of cannons in your base. Traps are limited by two factors:

1) Gold cost. Traps are kind of expensive. Each cannon costs 1,500 gold to build, which is quite a lot. On the other hand, monsters that you attract into your dungeon are free. Theoretically you'll have to pay your monsters too, but you can get around that.

2) Mana lock. The game has a mana system that's used for a number of useful spells that you can cast to help your monsters. The mana regenerates automatically, but the maximum amount of mana that you can store is slightly reduced for each trap that you build. This isn't a big deal, but it means you can't just cover the entire map in cannons. Sadly.

So how can I afford the gold cost for all these cannons?



My workers have discovered a gold shrine!

A gold shrine allows your workers to mine an infinite amount of gold from it. I'm not exactly sure how the physics of gold shrines work, but they're delightful. Mining gold from gold shrines is somewhat slower than mining it from regular gold ore, but not enough that it matters. We'll never be hurting for gold in any map where we can find a gold shrine.

Now that we've built up our traps, we're ready to sit back and let Lord O'Theland send all his troops into the meatgrinder. Once he runs out of troops, we can just waltz into the fortress and smash the inhibitor. Easy, right?



So let's not do that.

O'Theland: This evil presence shall not stand up to my might! Rally straight forth to assault them, men!

How terribly kind of the nitwit to announce his attack… prepare to defend the centre line, Underlord!

The game gets a little confused if you just charge right at the fortress.



O'Theland: What do you mean they're all dead?! This threat is more serious than I thought!

The mission is very easy if you hang back and wait like you're supposed to. If you attack straight away, it becomes kind of tough, as Lord O'Theland will spawn wave after wave of heroes to attack your traps, which you'll have to defeat with your invasion force. My strategy here was to build two very large barracks, 5x5 each, which gave me a ton of gnarlings who are very good in combat. Additionally, I placed a good amount of traps back in the base in order to take care of any heroes who got past the invasion force.

O'Theland: Give me a minute, I shall prepare a new plan of attack to thwart this devil!



Scatter their bones for the rats to clean.



O'Theland: Kira's sceptre! They've all been bested? Okay hold on, hold on. I'm thinking.



Our monsters have fought their way through the fortress, and are now just outside the room housing the inhibitor. Lord O'Theland waits inside. To help them out, I possess one of the gnarlings.



Destroy the Inhibitor swiftly! It lies open and undefended, but for that odious blaggard.

Aw, I don't want to kill this guy. He looks so happy.



O'Theland summons another wave of soldiers, and I drop out of the gnarling to cast some support spells. The fight is getting very messy.



O'Theland: By the light… have none of you had any training at all?

By the end of the battle, all of O'Theland's soldiers as well as most of our monsters have been wiped out. Now it's just O'Theland, a cultist and a couple of gnarlings. But at least that's the end of his reinforcements.



O'Theland: Swiftly troops, attack all three sides and we'll surely overwhelm them with our might!

Welp. With his dying breath, O'Theland summons a giant wave of soldiers! I try to rush our monsters at the inhibitor to smash it before the soldiers appear, but we don't quite make it, and they wipe out the rest of the invasion force.



We have no monsters left to defend ourselves, and all the heroes charge through the fortress, heading straight for our dungeon core.



Of course, by the time they reach our dungeon, the chunders have managed to construct most of the defence cannons I ordered. And monsters are completely disposable. More have already arrived through the gateway.



The heroes go down, and I rally all of our new monsters for one final push towards the inhibitor!



Our first attack had nearly managed to destroy the inhibitor, it had about a third of its health left. Our new monsters give it a light tap.

What a marvelous meatgrinder you've constructed Underlord!



Superbly executed. Before we move on, I must warn you the next Inhibitor comes with an unpleasant surprise.



Fine work, Underlord! Now that O'Theland and his ronies are a dehydrated paste, let's move on with our assault and destroy the final Inhibitor!