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Few races inTotal War: Warhammer 3operate as effectively in the shadows as the dreaded Skaven. Masters of stealth, these humanoid ratmen even construct vast underground cities directly beneath surface settlements. Cunningly hidden, they can be a pain to deal with and if left unchecked they will allow the malicious rats to profit from your misfortunes.
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This guide will explain more about the Skaven Under-City’s mechanics, including how they can benefit you when playing as the Skaven and how to destroy them when they are your enemy.
What Are Skaven Under-Cities?
Skaven Under-Cities are an extra settlement type that can be constructedunderneath an already existing settlementwhen playing as theSkaven. They are hidden from both the AI and other players until discovered, which becomes more likely as theDiscoverabilityof the Under-City increases.
Most buildings will increase Discoverability, so it is up to you (or the Skaven player) to balance the output and Discoverability of your city. This is important as, if found, it risks being destroyed, along with all your buildings.
Under-Cities can be constructed via theWarlock Engineer hero action, which will incur aten-turn cooldownbefore any city can be created again. These heroes can also reduce the Discoverability of any Under-City if they possess theConceal Under-Citypassive ability; having some around to protect your investments can be a good idea.
All buildings inside an Under-City will increase theSkaven Corruptionin adjacent provinces.
Available buildings that can be constructed in a Skaven Under-City are:
Increased
Clan SkyreandClan Pestilensalso have access to the uniqueDoomsphereandGrand Plague Cauldronbuildings, respectively.
How Can You Destroy A Skaven Under-City?
Skaven Under-Cities can be destroyed in a couple of ways. The easiest is toabandon, retake and raze the settlement. This will destroy any trace of the Under-City but may be costly as it willremove any buildingsyou used to own in that settlement. This method is good for cheap settlements, especially those you no longer wish to keep hold of.
If the Discoverability of an Under-City reaches100, it will become visible. You and the AI then have the option tospend gold to automatically destroy the Under-City.
The downside of using this method is that you have to discover the city in the first place, as even if you see a Warlock Engineer create an Under-City in your settlement, thered destroy button will not appear unless you can discover it. With the buildings that decrease Discoverability, a crafty Skaven player can reliably keep it undetected.
Thankfully, there are ways you’re able to manually increase your chances of discovering an Under-City in your territories.Buildings that come from the Protection lineand varioushero unitswill help increase the odds of you ferreting out those pesky rats, alongside reducing the chances of Plague spreading - always handy when fighting off the vermintide.
