Dark Dwarf Units

Back to Dark Dwarves

Dark Dwarf Units

Racial Tag
Just about every unit in the Dark Dwarf race is classified as "Mechanical". All units with this very handy classification have the following traits:


 * Immunity to all Psychological effects.
 * Immunity to all Illnesses.
 * Immunity to transformation spells. (Transform and Mutate)
 * In 1.03.23 they take reduced damage from critical hits and deathblows (50% reduction on the bonus damage).

Engineer - Dark Dwarf Builder
The Dark Dwarf builder is the only visible Dark Dwarf unit alongside the Hero. The Engineer boasts a great building skill, counts as two miners when sent into a mine and can be upgraded to repair structures using the Earthpower spell. Engineers also have good armor and resistance for a builder, as well as slashing resistance though he is vulnerable to piercing.

Stone Golem - Basic Dark Dwarf Infantry
The basic Dark Dwarven infantry unit, it has good armor and resistance, causes a very large amount of crushing damage and has a large amount of hit points by comparison to any other basic infantry unit. Its resistance to piercing attacks make it excellent for dealing with archers and arrow towers, but is very slow to move, slow to attack and unfortunately can't be put into towers. All Golems share the Electrical weakness.

Iron Golem - Advanced Dark Dwarf Infantry
The Iron Golem is a very powerful unit, capable of causing havoc with its multi-hit ability. This golem can summon Fiebombs, withstand slashing damage, has better armor than the Stone Golem but less resistance. Its attack causes damage to every enemy engaged in close combat with or around the golem. The Iron Golem, like the others, share the weakness to electrical damage, have a slow attack and move speed as well as the inability to garrison.

Ballista - Siege Weapon
The Ballista is an anti-infantry siege weapon, capable of skewing both ground and air units with its bolts and their ability to pass through multiple units. Fragile and long ranged, the Ballista is ideal to be at the back of your lines or hiding behind walls / towers. Although it deals a decent amount of damage, its projectile and attack type are both resisted by towers, making it utterly hopeless to damage buildings. Because of this, as well as Dark Dwarves having access to Hellbores - another siege weapon that can hit both ground and air targets as well as being able to deal large damage to infantry and buildings alike, Ballistae are best left at home when base razing, where they can offer great offensive power against hordes of units wishing to assail your own base.

Battering Ram - Siege Weapon
Battering Rams are the most durable of all siege weapons, but not necessarily the most useful. Their speed couldn't be lower and their combat can off set their building razing capabilities due to the combat mismatch against the building, causing them to score a lot of misses. Also, not all towers will hit the Battering Ram against its higher armor rating or / and its special resistance, whereas the likes of the Catapult is equally as effective against all towers. Further more, Dark Dwarves have access to some amazing ranged siege weapons, dealing consistent high damage and from a safe distance. All this pretty much makes the Battering Ram obsolete for Dark Dwarves. However, they can be obtained as early as tier 2 whereas the ones that overshadow it arrive in tier 4.

Firebat - Basic Flier
Firebats are one of the very few basic fliers that can actually be used in some form of offensive strategy, and is the best one for tackling buildings. Although Dark Dwarves have plenty of answers for buildings, Firebats further their already broad options to include aerial assaults. However, due to their natural frailty, they're best used as opportunists and hit your opponent's buildings when they're least defended. Typically you would want to keep them back and swoop in to the enemy's base from the opposite side to target highly valuable buildings (Keeps Eyries / Nests  / Broods) once you've lured the enemy units out with your siege weapons banging at their front door.

Firebomb - Dark Dwarf Suicide Bomb
The Firebomb is a suicide bomb unit which is cheap and resembles a spider. When facing large non-missile armies the Firebomb can quickly lay waste to many enemies due to their splash damage. Their fire typed attack also allows them to do massive damage to buildings, especially due to the way that their splash damage is allocated towards buildings. They can be summoned by Iron Golems and be put inside towers to provide speed and combat bonuses, but when the tower is destroyed they also explode around the tower, damaging many enemies which were engaged in close combat with the tower.

Catapult - Siege Weapon
Catapults have always been a great unit for many reasons, but the main one being able to safely demolish enemy towers far beyond their range. Dark Dwarves take that one step further by increasing their range to ensure no tower in the game could possibly hit them back! That itself would make you think that they would form the core of this siege heavy race - but no, Dark Dwarves are always trying to out do themselves and indeed succeeded in creating a more terrifying siege weapon for the same job - the Flame Cannon. Although it doesn't possess the amazing range as the Catapult - range 14 (after upgrades) is more than enough for it to out-range typical towers and remove them from the face of Etheria.

This does mean that the Catapult is now greatly overshadowed in this role and must be used differently for it to be worth producing. Thankfully the Catapult's attacks do splash damage, which can be used to cause serious harm to tightly packed swarms of enemy infantry. But unlike the Ballista, the Catapult retains the ability to cause large damage to buildings, making it still useful when there are no enemy units present. However, to hit an enemy unit with the Catapult is no easy task. But with a wall of Golems up front, drawing in enemy units, the Catapults can take advantage of the Golems' natural durability to endure most things the enemy can throw at them, giving your Catapults a stationary target and the time to wind up and crush the enemy units hard!

Wraith - Basic Undead Floating Infantry
The Wraith is a floating Undead unit with a very special ability to leech the EXP out of any unit it kills (this includes Lair Bosses and Heroes). Wraiths have a resistance to elemental attacks but are vulnerable to all physical. Like all Undead, the Wraith gets a natural combat bonus at night. Wraiths can be summoned instantly by the Ancestral Hall building, but at a greatly increased cost. They can also be upgraded by the aforementioned building.

Shadow - Advanced Undead Floating Infantry
The upgrade from the wraith, these are stronger in almost every way. They retain the ability to leech the experience from slain enemies, the vulnerability to all physical and resistance to all elemental. Unlike the Wraith, the Shadow gets a bonus +5 combat on top of the Undead's natural combat bonus at night, making the Shadow an even more powerful unit in night conditions. Shadows can be summoned instantly by the Ancestral Hall building, but at a greatly increased cost. They can also be upgraded by the aforementioned building.

Shadows are also the Dark Dwarves' best unit to stuff their towers with in regards to improving the tower's stats, as they're the only advanced unit Dark Dwarves get access to that can garrison.

Flame Cannon - Dark Dwarf Siege Weapon
The Flame Cannon is the epitome of ranged firepower. There is no other non-titan unit in the game that is close to matching the firepower of this siege weapon. With upgrades, the Flame Cannon can out-range un-garrisoned towers and then proceed to wipe them off the face of the earth with a mind boggling 90 Fire damage. The Flame Cannon may be a little bit slow, but it is extremely cheap, powerful and fast in just about every way compared to almost all other other siege weapons. It is resistant to piercing damage like most siege weapons but ironically, it's vulnerable to Fire damage.

Hellbore - Dark Dwarf Siege Weapon
A unique siege weapon for the Dark Dwarves, the Hellbore is a powerful ranged unit, capable of slaying both ground and air units quite effectively with 50 Electrical damage. Whilst it may not be quite as powerful as some other siege weapons, its ability to target air is extremely useful. In this regard, it is capable of doing what almost all other siege weapons cannot, slay Dragons. Do not ever underestimate the Hellbore, as it can be upgraded in the same way as the Flame Cannon, which gives it decent speed and the ability to out-range un-garrisoned towers. An odd twist to this siege weapon is its resistance to Electrical and vulnerability to Crushing.

Wyvern - Advanced Flier
Wyverns are great units and arguable the best advanced flier in the game. (Pterodactyls have better stats but can't inflict fear and can't attack ground targets - probably why they went extinct.) Dark Dwarves were truly gifted when they were given Wyverns as their advanced flier as these great creatures can help them out with what Dark Dwarves really need - speed. A 15 speed stat is pretty good as it is, but that can be upgraded with the Golden Wyvern skill, pushing it to 18! With such speed and infantry killing power, Wyverns can quickly cut ahead of the enemy and act as a painful deter between them and your vulnerable siege weapons. The added trait of causing fear can worsen the enemy's luck, dropping their attack power and making your units seem that much more durable.

Unfortunately even Wyverns have their downside. Firstly, their attack type leaves them unable to break buildings, although this isn't much of a problem for Dark Dwarves as pretty much everything else in their arsenal, including their basic flier, can demolish buildings with ease. But it does mean that they can't simply be let loose on the enemy base and rain terror. Secondly, one of their two resource costs is shared with a siege weapon. The cost of producing Wyverns along side the top-end siege weapons can be quite demanding, although it doesn't clash in any way with the two common Golems - Stone and Iron. So, really, even their weaknesses aren't all that bad.

Bronze Golem - Dark Dwarf General
The Bronze Golem is the toughest of the Golems, and serves as the general for the Dark Dwarves. Like other Golems, it is resistant to piercing but vulnerable to electrical attacks. Unlike the other Golems however, the Bronze Golem can attack at a normal speed. Once upgraded, the Bronze Golem can convert buildings faster and becomes among the strongest of generals in the game, especially so considering its relatively low cost and very high 75 Crushing damage. The Bronze Golem has the ability to scavenge resources from destroyed buildings, making it a good retinue unit due to the need for resources in the early game whilst grabbing that extra bit of resources later on. Although it is cheap for its usefulness, it is slow to create as well as to move.

Frost Dragon - Elite Flier
Pretty much everything in the Dark Dwarven army is slow or / and has a slow attack speed. However, the Frost Dragon's trait of freezing the enemy can bring the combat down to a more even pace, where your Dark Dwarven units no longer seem so slow. This can massively help your siege weapons fire off their attacks against the enemy before they can react or destroy them in time. The Frost Dragon is no slouch when it comes to raw power, either, as frost type attacks are rarely resisted and a large 40 damage of it is sure to dent anything not immediately killed outright by the attack. Although, with the sheer power of the Dark Dwarven siege weapons and the Frost Dragon's lower than average HP (for a Dragon), it's best to limit the Frost Dragon to a support role and take out or hinder anything that threatens your vulnerable constructs.

Fire Dragon - Elite Flier
Fire Dragons follow the Dark Dwarven theme of specializing at tearing down buildings. The problem here is that Dark Dwarves have so many options at their disposal to do the job, that Fire Dragons aren't particularly needed. With Fire Bombs, Flame Cannons, Catapults, Battering Rams, Hellbores and even the Golems, there really is no need to spend such high resources on the Fire Dragon and you are better off going for the Frost Dragon in most cases. However, there is one thing the Fire Dragon can do that the many weapons-of-doom cannot - fly! This allows the Fire Dragon to attack an enemy from all directions and cause havoc when they least expect it, such as being used to sandwich an enemy base after once your siege weapons roll up and draw your enemy's attention, only for your Fire Dragon to strike from the complete opposite direction.

Grond - Dark Dwarf Titan
As you would expect from a giant Golem, Grond is very tough physically that can be further improved through the Armorer and Mithril upgrades, making him nigh impossible to take down with non-elemental attacks. Offensively, Grond's power is devastating to behold. With the Mithril skill researched he deals 175 crushing damage and hits surprisingly fast for a Golem. His attack type can lead to the downfall of anyone who is bold enough to stand there before him, as a random critical hit from him will stun the poor morsel which then usually results in a following deathblow from Grond's mighty iron fist. However, Grond's speed is appalling - being out-sped by nearly all infantry. This does mean that the enemy can easily "kite" him making him somewhat ineffective against infantry, despite dealing splash damage. Of course, buildings can't run away and with his natural bulk and power, he will often be used to spearhead a Dark Dwarven siege.