where do you put all those rooms? did you just skip on walls for them and build right next to the river? also if I tell you I usually only let one oculus spawn and then shut off their spawns in favor of skargs I am guessing you would think that is a bad idea since you had 8.

So after a quick test:
I had the underminer at 5:00.

By the time I was attacked, I had:
9 cultists, 1 skarg, 8 oculi, 3 beastmasters, 1 chunder, and 1 gnarling. This army was able to easily defeat the attackers.

The only thing I can suggest is working on getting an army quicker. I unlocked the beast den straight away. This room is not optional, it should almost always be picked first.

Like I said before, I am probably just doing something wrong but I was wondering if you had some tips. I did notice the ping for the gateways for sure.

I shall give it a go myself today. When I, and others, playtested, no problems were reported but it is possible that the latest patch caused issues. Nine units at the 14 minute mark is not bad....but your first unlock should have definitely been a beast den since beast dens effectively double your army size. If I remember correctly, the gateway locations are shown via a minimap ping...so as soon as the attackers are killed (lightning is better than healing), you should be able to counter-attack.

Now I see they just spawn at 12:30min no matter what and the brimstone to the northeast breaks even if I don't get underminers. Yikes. If I specifically plan for that and try and get some Gnarlings straight away I might be able to survive but I still don't see where I am supposed to build my rooms. It's like I can build one 3x7 and one 3x5 and two 3x3 which usually means barracks archive slaughterpen and tavern, then I am attacked.

By 14 minutes I have 7 cultists, 2 Gnarlings and my dungeon core is being attacked by the empire from the northeast while all my units die trying to stop them

I must be missing something. Even after blowing the brimstone to the north on both sides all the huge amount of impenetrable stone is still there and without any replacement earth, only portcullis to close gaps in walls there is barely any space and expanding any further means getting attacked by the first little empire base around the center right when I have 1 Gnarling and 6 Cultist spawns meanwhile empire units also come out of the northeast. Huge change from the last 7 levels for sure.

Well, the general idea was that you would research the underminer quickly once you realised that you were surrounded by brimstone. There should be plenty of room for multiple archive props (after I quick look, you should be able to fit in eight fairly easily). Once you are out of the small area, there should be no trouble with space. Granted, the start is somewhat cramped, especially compared with my other levels...but the start is still the same: many cultists speed up the research considerably. Consider going straight for the underminer (beast den -> conduit -> underminer....I cannot remember the veins of evil but I think that works given the missing prophecy).

I am having trouble figuring out where to build my dungeon on this one. On level 7 I spent 40min scouting before restarting after deciding where stuff would fit, on this level I can't even think where I am supposed to put rooms. I know this is pretty old, I am playing the 2.0 campaign version figured specific level comments/questions would go better here though.

Hm, I have seen a few try the map recently and succeed. It is difficult to discuss things over here so I shall send a friend request. As a last thought though, it may pertain to unlock order. I usually get the beast den first and build up my beast den constantly. Barracks is usually second. You should aim to have a big skarg/gnarling army. More archive props = more cultists too.

I tried this map a few times and on my most recent attempt I did try to send the bulk of my units (the beasts primarily) to help Rhaskos. But the empire siege on Rhaskos happens so quickly that its really just a bunch of level 1s vs the whole Empire army which is mostly level 5+. The only other minions I had at the time were Cultists who I kept behind to try and bring my tech up so I could get more things.

This is a level I changed a few times based on it being too easy/too hard. From memory, it usually goes something like this:
* Rhaskos attacks and gains an advantage.
* Empire attacks Rhaskos and requires the player's help to save him from defeat. To save Rhaskos, you should send Everything you have, which should be a fairly substantial army, and lightning the Empire units.
* Empire continues to attack Rhaskos and you may need to help Rhaskos again. It should be possible to just finish the Empire off at this stage.

Keep getting smashed on this one.The empire units just overrun my ally then me far before I have a chance to build anything meaningful.