Defenders,

This update is available on Steam! Consoles are in the process of going through certification and will be released once finished. This update contains King’s Game, a recreation of the DD1 map, Player Titles and an overhaul to how special enemies spawn in the wave.

While this update is a on the smaller side, our goal is to continue to break up large chunk updates into more bitesize updates that constantly improve player experience instead of having long periods between updates.

New Map - King's Game

This was a very popular DD1 map and has been highly requested to return to DDA. We’ve brought back the Dice pet as a map's pet reward. This pet will offer a lot of similar features to the original but with some slight changes to fit DDA’s design.

We've seen feedback from players about bringing back some of the weapons from Kings Game and this is something we will continue to investigate, as well as potentially look into some new runes to populate the map rewards a bit more. 

Player Titles

Player Titles were a reward offered during our Kickstarter, BackerKit and Xsolla pre-order days. Adding this will allow players to display a title below their nameplate for other players to see when playing in multiplayer. We will be looking into distributing the special player titles in the near future, and will let players know once those have started going out.

There are also a handful of player titles that are tied to achievements. That way if you didn’t get any of those rewards you will still be able to have access to titles. 

New Schedule System

A new schedule system to help evenly spread-out the special enemies throughout the wave, without the many flaws of the current system causing enemies to come out too quickly or delay the wave waiting to spawn. This should help with the issue players were seeing with having to wait for ogres or sirens at the end of the wave to spawn.

Balance & Changes

• Guardian
  • Owl Perch
    • Disabled attack rate overflow which was causing damage values to go higher than intended as the Owl Perch doesn't have a traditional attack rate and more of a reset time.
• Fixed issue with Texture Streaming setting not enabling properly, this should hopefully help with some of the textures not loading properly.
  • This will be a monitored changed for any issues that may arise.
• Fixed issue with Holy Cannon rune killing Rift Portals.
• Giraffe now gives 20% Cast Rate.
• Mista Mine now gives 30% Cast Rate.

Tavern Storage (Postponed)

While Tavern Storage was one of the features we had hoped to include in the update, during the PTR there were a couple of reported issues that needed more time to be investigated and as such we’ll be giving this feature a little more time to cook as we look into those. That said we are hopeful it shouldn’t be too far behind and our goal is to get it in the game when possible.

What’s Next?

We’ll be working on investigating the remaining issues with Tavern Storage and look at releasing that once ready. After that we’ll be continuing to make progress on our road map features. The goal being to release another smaller update hopefully by the end of June.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Defenders,

This update is open for PTR testing! The update is centered around bringing some long requested features and quality of life to the game. The addition of Tavern Storage for players to more effectively store items, and Player Titles for various Kickstarter tier rewards and Gameplay wise we are also bringing back King's game from DD1 and testing a new enemy schedule system for Survival and Mixed mode.

How to Join

We want you to join the PTR! If you own Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on PC/Steam, check out our forum post that shows you exactly how to join!

PTR Reward

Given this is a smaller PTR test and the different nature of it we won’t be offering a new reward, but you are able to earn any of the previous PTR rewards if you are missing any.

We’ll be offering a smaller choice of rewards in the survey as we'll be rotating the different rewards in the PTR as offering tons of different rewards complicates sending out the rewards.

This includes the following rewards:

• Egyptian Eagle Wings
• Crystalline Corgi
• RGB Pumpkin Mask
• A Giveaway entry for a Pizza Wings Transmog (3x Winners)

New Map - King's Game

This was a very popular DD1 map and has been highly requested to return to DDA. We'll be bringing this map back as closely as possible to the original including the Dice Pet that was an iconic reward from the map. The PTR Survey specifically will ask about what you would like to see the Dice Pet do as well as ask if you would like to see the special tiles return.

Tavern Storage

Tavern Storage gives players a way to store items outside of their inventory. This increases quality of life by allowing you to have cleaner inventories when going into gameplay maps and additionally greatly reduces load times for multiplayer. Players will start with a set amount of storage space of 999, and will be able to unlock more by acquiring rare consumables throughout the game. Though those consumables are not part of the PTR.

With this change, we will be reducing the size of the normal inventory as we want players to be utilizing the extra tavern storage available while benefiting from increased load times for multiplayer.

Player Titles

Player Titles were a reward offered during our Kickstarter, BackerKit and Xsolla pre-order days. Adding this will allow players to display a title below their nameplate for other players to see when playing in multiplayer.

There are also a handful of player titles that are tied to achievements. That way if you didn’t get any of those rewards you will still be able to have access to titles. That said, in the PTR you won’t have access to Kickstarter, BackerKit and Xsolla titles.

New Special Enemy Schedule System

Currently only available in Survival and Mixed Mode, but this is a new schedule system to help evenly spread-out the special enemies throughout the wave, ideally without the many flaws of the current system causing enemies to come out too quickly or delay the wave waiting to spawn. This should help with the issue players were seeing with having to wait for ogres or sirens at the end of the wave to spawn.

What’s Next?

Due to the update being a relatively small update, the PTR will run through Tuesday as we collect data and make any adjustments needed before doing a full release. The goal is to release this prior to the DDA anniversary release on May 28th.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

The winners of DD2's Fanart Contest and the corresponding rewards are as follows:

First Place - ghostlybunni

Socials - InstaGram: ghostlybunni Twitter: ghostlybunnix 

Rewards - Implementation of your design in-game on Dungeon Defenders 2, 12,500 Gems for Dungeon Defenders 2, Free copy of the design when implemented (ARV: $120)

Second Place - ArchfiendGato

Rewards - 12,500 Gems for Dungeon Defenders 2, Free copy of the winning design when implemented (ARV: $120) 

Third Place - Palo Z'fogs

Rewards - 12,500 Gems for Dungeon Defenders 2 (ARV: $100.00) 

Judges’ Choice Awards - Azkni & tona swag 

Azkni Socials - Twitter - @JoJix_AR20

Rewards - 12,500 Gems for Dungeon Defenders 2 (ARV: $100.00 each) 

Thank you to all artists who participated! This was an awesome turnout and we are super glad to see all the talent within our community!

Cheers,

CG Paimon

DEFENDERS,

A couple weeks ago we started a DDA Community Survey to gather feedback from the community about various topics. We received over 1,200 responses and so this post will go over various elements from that survey and talk about the results and what our thoughts are.

Quality of Life Section

Question: Do you think accessing the inventory during combat phase should be allowed without the ability to swap gear?

• Results: 66% Yes | 21% In-Different | 13% No
• Thoughts: With a large amount of people voting yes I think this is enough to implement into the game. That said, looking through the feedback in this section, it’s clear that the major concern is that host’s don’t want their players to be managing inventory in combat if their build needs support. With that in mind we’ll be implementing a gameplay option that allows the host to disable inventory management during combat for the session.

Question: Do you think swapping heroes should be allowed during combat phase?

• Results: 36% Yes | 17% In-Different | 47% No
• Thoughts: With the mixed results and the majority saying no, I think this is something we will avoid adding.

Question: Would you be in favor of being able to swap ONE time during the wave?

• Results: 63% Yes | 17% In-Different | 20% No
• Thoughts: With the majority saying Yes, This is something we’ll be looking into adding. That said, reading through the feedback it was commonly suggested that instead of allowing one swap, we allow players to swap freely within X Seconds of the combat wave starting. I think this is a better solution as it prevents accidental swapping to the wrong hero and then being locked to that hero.

Question: Do you think upgrade costs should be refunded on towers built in the same build phase.

• Results: 79% Yes | 15% In-Different | 6% No
• Thoughts: With an overwhelming majority saying Yes, this is something we’ll be adding to the game.

Question: What are your opinions on the Hybrid System?

• Results:
  

• Thoughts: In general this is definitely still a divided topic even among the different sections of players, and there are many good pros and cons for both sides of the argument. Overall this question was mainly just to gauge where the player base stands, with the results there’s probably not going to be any major changes at this time, but something to keep in mind for long term goals.

Arcanist Armor Set

Of all the ideas, the Power Crystal idea was the clear winner out of the group. With 75% saying Yes, 19% saying In-Different and then 6% saying no.

That said there was a lot of good feedback provided by you guys. One of the main concerns would be inventory space and management. While Tavern Storage would help with this, we’ll be keeping in mind this when we go to implement the system. Hopefully doing some kind of dedicated storage UI for power crystals that can be utilized when applying them to equipment and also making sorting and management easier.

Now that we know the direction of Arcanist we’ll begin the process into implementing, that said we don’t have any kind of estimate on when this will be finished but we’ll update as things progress. 

Features and Improvements

This section had a ton of feedback to go through, too much to really summarize in this post. A lot of the responses to this section were things already on the roadmap or generally things like more difficult content, more variety. 

A couple notable suggestions that stuck out to us were:

• Adding a way to see what killed the core and from where instead of it only having to guess.
• This has been requested before but having items that get dropped off the map be teleported somewhere on the map instead of being sold.

Maps and Heroes

For this section we won’t be showing the results as we want to keep some mystery when it comes to future heroes and maps, but that said we’ll mention the top ones for each section displayed in the order they showed in the survey.

• Heroes: The top 4 heroes by very close margins were Barbarian, Jester, Lavamancer and Gunwitch. 
• Maps: The top 3 maps were Aquanos, King’s Game and Tavern Defense.

With that said, We don’t have any idea if or when specific heroes or maps will be added but it’s good to know which ones players would most look forward to seeing return. That said, we’ll be revealing one of those maps today (5/12/2023) so tune in for a sneak peek.

Monetization 

This topic was really good information to have, as monetization is an important topic for both players and developers. The results were as follows:

With the following results in mind, we’ll look into how we can expand into the various cosmetic categories. We've been working on a new cosmetic emporium shop UI similar to DD2 as this gives the ability to add more cosmetics without bloating the amount of DLC’s. Additionally it allows us to make cosmetics purchasable on console platforms easier and quicker.

As for Heroes, Maps and Quality of Life Enhancements, we’ll remain cautious on if and how we expand into those categories, but ultimately at the end of the day depends on other factors as more revenue for DDA directly correlates to how long we can continue to develop and improve the game.

What’s Next?

We’ve been hard at finishing up the next update that we hope to have out by the end of the month. We’ll likely be starting a small PTR test for some of these features & content as soon as potentially next Friday. This test would include Tavern Storage, In-Game Titles, A New Schedule System, A new returning map which will be revealed on stream today (5/12/2023).

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

DDA Community Feedback Survey 

With the Episode 2 Part 2 update live we wanted to take some time to gather feedback as we plan and prepare for future DDA updates this year. As such we’ve created a Survey for players to fill out to steer the direction of things and ask some questions about various game related topics.

Survey Link: https://forms.gle/zenPttoDaA8LdHA86

If you fill out the survey and you can enter in for a chance to win one of the following rewards:

• Golden Corgi Pet Transmog (All Platforms)
• Pizza Wings Transmog   (All Platforms)
• Rifted Corgi Cover Transmog   (All Platforms)
• Golden Fish Sword Transmog   (PC, Xbox and PlayStation)
• DDA DLC Item of your choice (Has to be available on your platform)

The Survey will run for 2 weeks, after which the survey will be closed and we'll pick a winner for each of the prizes above! Winners will be reached out on the platform selected in the survey.

Updated Roadmap

Additionally we’ve taken some time to update the road map with some of the upcoming features we are working on. A lot of these have been features that are long overdue or have been highly requested.

Can check out the full site at: https://app.loopedin.io/dungeon-defenders-awakened

The goal moving forward is to try to release smaller more focused updates containing individual groups of features or maps instead of doing large bundled episode updates. As for a team our size trying to make, test and release multiple maps, a hero, new features, bosses, etc can often lead to some things being forgotten about and we want to limit that as much as possible.

That said, let's talk about some of the items listed.

Tavern Storage

As the title says, Tavern storage will be an additional inventory space that players can transfer items from their inventory into the Tavern Storage, This feature will be a nice QoL for many players, as it solves a handful of problems and frustrations. Such as the following:

• Having cleaner inventory by moving long term items into the stash, and making new items easier to identify and keep track of.
• It will mean reduced load times when joining games in multiplayer as there’s less profile data needed to be transferred to other players.
• Generally just means players can store more items too.

Crystal Core Transmog

This feature doesn’t need much introduction. As in DD1 players will be able to swap the Crystal Core model to one of their liking and show it off to other players when hosting a game. These will be earned through gameplay as well as we’ll likely have some specific ones available through Supporter Bundles like how we do with Hero Costumes.

In-Game Titles

While this isn't a very exciting feature, it’s one that is long overdue. For those that supported us through Kickstarter, Backer-Kit or Xsolla will receive their In-Game Titles according to their reward tiers. Outside of that we plan to also add additional titles that can be earned through gameplay or other means.

Cross-Saves

This is something that we are still actively wanting to include into the game to allow players to transfer saves from PC to consoles or vice versa. There’s a lot of work that has already been done here but there are still things we need to figure out without it working per platform. Once we know more we will post info but this is high on the priority list now.

Player Shops, Tavern Keep Shop and Marketplace Map

These features all tie into one another but with the addition of trading, a lot of players have been requesting the ability to run player shops similar to how they were handled in DD1. We agree and want to further that idea by creating a dedicated marketplace map where players can join and find multiple players shops at the same time, Hopefully with increased player count to further make the experience more enjoyable.

The Tavern Keep shop is also just another no-brainer addition to the game and will help early game players, but we also want to take a look at how we can innovate the concept to allow end-game players to take advantage of the system too. More information will be provided as the features are developed.

New Maps & Heroes

As we stated previously we don’t plan on doing huge episodes like updates, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any new content in the form of Maps & Heroes. We got 2 maps in the works that we will be releasing as individual bonus maps hopefully in the near future. As for heroes we’ve got something in the works but that will be longer term and will be added the roadmap once things are moving along.

More Quality of Life

Quality of life is one of the main strengths that DDA has to offer and we want to continue improving that as much as we can. As such we are exploring some ideas such as the following:

• Public / Private Multiplayer Match Toggle
• Rune Level Selection
• Inventory Management Mid Combat Phase (Vote in the survey above)

Split-Screen

Our goal here is to finish up the other remaining Kickstarter tasks like Cross-Saves and Player Titles before doing more investigation on the remaining work here. Unfortunately this is a large task and there will be a mountain of work to do here so we want to tackle the easier tasks first to improve the overall experience for players.

What’s Next?

Well really this whole post is what’s next. That said our goal is to try and release smaller updates or in-game events about one a month starting in late May. Though there may be skip months here and there depending on how development goes or if we want to group things together.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The Episode 2 Part 2 update is live on PC, Xbox and PlayStation! This update brings a brand new hero to the Dungeon Defenders Universe, The Guardian! As well as 2 new maps, one of which will be the Boss Map, and lastly more Runes. This will wrap up the Episode 2 update as a whole as we prepare to look at what’s next for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened!

Rifted Guardian Costume Login Reward!

Starting today if you login between now and May 2nd at 1 PM EST you'll unlock the Rifted Guardian Costume.

This can be accessed in the Transmog UI by talking with the blacksmith.

Egyptian Costume Bundle!

We are excited to announce the release of our newest DLC cosmetic bundle! Players have been asking for costumes that actually change the look of their heroes and so we’ve done just that!

This egyptian bundle is for Huntress, Warden, EV and Summoner. These bundles go a long way to help fund us to continue making updates for the game and not have to charge for gameplay related features. With that said, Let's move onto the actual content of the update!

New Hero, The Guardian!

The Guardian is a protector of many ancient tombs around the world of Etheria. With the Old One’s army rising up across Etheria, the Guardian has decided to join the heroes in their battle!

General Features

The Guardian is a melee hero that will use a Sword and Shield in combat. She will offer both defensive and support capabilities with her kit. With that said let's get into the abilities.

Abilities

Primary - Basic Attack

• Her primary attack is a melee attack with her sword similar to that of the Squire.

Secondary - Shield Slam

• This attack can be charged up by holding the input and released at any point. The longer the ability is held the more damage that will be dealt up to a limit. Once released the ability will release a cone of damage in front of the guardian hitting all enemies within range.

Active Ability - Divine Judgement

• Divine Judgement is a powerful ability that will summon energy from above and come crashing down onto enemies dealing massive damage.

Buff Ability - Divine Protection

• While active nearby heroes will receive additional armor. Additionally increasing her movement speed as well as a portion of any damage the Guardian will be used to heal all nearby heroes inside the radius.

Defenses

Defense 1 - Holy Bulwark (2 DU): 

• Description: The Holy Bulwark is a unique blockade that protects nearby defenses by taking any damage they receive instead of the tower being hit taking damage. The Holy Bulwark cannot protect other Holy Bulwark’s.
• Fused: Gaines 30% Rift Armor.

Defense 2 - Empowering Shrine (3 DU): 

• Description: This special shrine will offer nearby heroes additional damage and increased mana regeneration.
• Fused: Decreases affected hero ability cooldown by 25%.

Defense 3 - Owl Perch (3 DU): 

• Description: The owl perch is the most trustworthy ally to the guardian, and will fly around the battlefield going from target to target dealing damage to all in its path. The Owl will not stay on one target and will not hit the same target until it returns to the perch.
• Fused: Becomes fusion element.

Defense 4 - Holy Cannon (4 DU): 

• Description: The Holy cannon will shoot flaming cannonballs at targets dealing damage to a small AoE around the target but most importantly applying a stacking damage over time effect. 
• Fused: Becomes fusion element.

Defense 5 - The Obelisk (4 DU): 

• Description: The Obelisk is the support defense of the Guardian’s kit, when an enemy is within range it will apply a AoE Debuff around the target slowing targets within range, additionally the primary target will take damage over time.
• Fused: Becomes fusion element.

New Act 5 Maps!

The Forsaken Temple

This long abandoned underground city was once a great shrine to the Night Owl. The Heroes should be wary of what secrets and evil lies ahead.

This will be the new Act 5 Boss map, but be warned rumors say The Dune Eater lurks below the liquid gold. This map will also drop a new pet named Zephyr which will shoot tornados at enemies that stop when they hit an enemy and linger for a couple seconds.

Castle Armory

The Old One's forces have breached the Castle Armory, the Heroes must defend this area in order to keep the weapons from falling into the wrong hands!

This is a recreation of the original Dungeon Defenders map and will serve as the encore map for Act 5. This map will drop the Mini-Ogre which is a minified version of the normal ogre. The Mini-Ogre will melee and throw snotballs at enemies with large AoE.

More Golden Pet Unlocks!

There are also now Wave 100 Golden Pets for Bazaar, Forsaken Temple and Castle Armory. Lost Metropolis will get one once the pet has been finalized and added.

Level 110 & New Loot Tier Supreme!

This update allows players to go up to level 110! Alongside that with a new Boss comes better loot, and as such we've added a new loot tier called Supreme! Any item above 4550 quality (Shown in the top right of the tooltip) will become Supreme and require level 110. These items will also drop with 3 item effects, allowing you to further tune your builds.

Additionally we've changed how item tier is determined. Tier is now based off the quality of an item instead of IPWR. This will provide a even playing field for all items as IPWR was not a equal across different types of items. This means that some of your items may shift up or down in item tiers, but should remain the exact same power level as they were before.

12 More Runes!

We've added a handful of new runes for players to collect. Here’s the new ones and where to find them.

Guardian Runes:
Paralyzing Smite - Guardian Divine Judgement (Drops on Forsaken Temple): This rune will make enemies hit by Divine Judgement stunned for X Seconds.

Retribution Aura - Guardian Divine Protection (Drops on The Outpost): This rune will make enemies reflect X% of the damage dealt to the Guardian back to themselves.

Divine Absorption - Guardian Holy Bulwark (Drops on Foundries and Forges): This rune will make the Holy Bulwark heal X% of the damage it receives from protecting other defenses. It will not heal itself from direct damage.

Empowering Friendship - Guardian Empowering Shrine (Drops on Royal Gardens): This rune will increase the hero damage the defense gives by X% for each player inside.

Flaming Owl - Guardian Owl Perch (Drops on Tornado Valley): This rune will give the Owl a fire DoT to apply to enemies dealing X% Tower Damage every second for Y Seconds.

Radiant Outbreak - Guardian Holy Cannon (Drops on Glitterhelm Caverns): The Holy Cannon has a X% chance to transfer its DoT Stacks to another enemy upon the enemies death.

Deadly Gaze - Guardian Obelisk (Drops on Castle Armory): This rune will make The Obelisk apply a DoT to all enemies within the obelisk's debuff range dealing a % of tower damage per second.

Other New Runes:
Reflective Screech - Siren Rune (Drops on The Forsaken Temple): This rune increases the range of the siren’s armor buff range per rank, additionally it adds a protective shield that will reflect projectiles from ranged enemies similar to reflect field.

Immobilizing Ray - EV Proton Beam (Drops on Castle Armory): This rune will apply a slow to enemies hit by the proton beam, each hit applies a new stack onto the enemy.

Empowering Ring - Warden Mushroom Circle (Drops on Castle Armory): This rune give heroes that walk into the mushroom circle a lingering damage and movement speed buff.

Raging Shrooms - Warden Shroomy Geyser (Drops on Lost Metropolis): This rune will give the shroomy projectile a chance to enrage enemies upon being hit.

Exploding Aura - Monk Strength Drain (Drops on Forsaken Temple): This rune will make The Strength Drain aura cause enemies killed within the aura to explode doing X% of their max HP as damage.

Bugfixes / Changes

• Fixed issue with Sirens being able to attack cores on Endless Spires from the staircases.
• Fixed issue with Ancient Dragon being able to be slowed and CC'd.
• Fixed Entangling Roots Rune from stacking the debuff multiple times with itself.
• Spider & Shroomy projectiles should be more accurate and not hit ceilings as much. 
• Adjusted Shroomy Pit Targeting location to be a bit higher so it can see over ledges easier.
• Fixed issue with Flash heal not working on clients and gamepad.
• "Add to Trade" option no longer shows unless you are trading.
• Fixed issue with returning players who skipped Summit Campaign on Easy, Medium or Hard having to replay the map to resume progression.
• 105 Item Level gear has been reduced to level 100 instead.

What’s Next?

With Episode 2 wrapped up, it’s time to start looking at what’s next for DDA. We’ve already got a few things in the works, one of which being Tavern Storage which we’ve teased in the discord. We are excited to reveal the other features in due time. That said we will be taking a step back from releasing large updates and releasing more bite sized updates as things become ready.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Instagram

• TikTok

• YouTube

• Twitch

• Forums

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Foolish Defenders,

Today marks the largest update we’ve done to Dungeon Defenders in history. We’ve got massive changes coming to the franchise! Just in time for the Etherian Humor Festival. This is gonna be a long post so let's get into it!

DDA Login Reward

To start things off, the Jester has prepared something special for the heroes of Etheria. Login to Dungeon Defenders Awakened between April 1 - April 8 for a giant surprise. 

There’s 4 weapons for you to transmog, A Sword, Staff, Bow and Polearm. Make sure to login to unlock these transmogs before it’s too late!

Changes to Dungeon Defender Games

We’ve got so many changes to the Dungeon Defenders Franchise that we actually lost track of which changes go to which game, so best of luck.

Squire

• The Squire's Blockade has been replaced with a banana peel. Enemies who step on it will slip and fall, taking damage in the process.

• The Squire's Cannonball towers have been replaced with giant whoopee cushions. When enemies step on them, they'll be momentarily stunned by the sound of a loud fart.

• The Squire's Sword attacks have been given a new combo ability: "Disco Inferno." When players perform a specific sequence of attacks, they will unleash a disco ball that appears above them and temporarily stuns enemies with its groovy light show.

• The Squire's Boost aura has been replaced with a "Snack Break" aura. While in the aura, players will receive periodic snacks like cookies or chips that temporarily increase their stats. The snacks are randomly generated and may have unusual effects like turning players into chickens or making them randomly shout out phrases like "I love pickles!"

• The Squire's ultimate ability has been replaced with "Summon the Squid." When activated, a giant squid will appear and flail around on the battlefield, causing chaos and confusion among enemies. It doesn't do any damage, but it's definitely entertaining to watch.

Apprentice

• The Apprentice's Magic Missile towers have been replaced with "Rubber Chickens of Doom." These giant chickens can bounce around the battlefield and cause damage to enemies upon impact. Their clucking can also distract enemies and make them easier to hit.

• The Apprentice's Fireball towers have been replaced with "Ice Cream Cannons." These towers shootout streams of delicious ice cream that slow down enemies and cover them in sprinkles. The ice cream is sticky, so it also makes enemies easier to hit.

• The Apprentice's Lightning towers have been replaced with "Karaoke Machines." These towers play loud music that temporarily stuns enemies with their terrible singing. The Apprentice can choose from a variety of songs to play, including classics like "I Will Survive" and "Bohemian Rhapsody."

• The Apprentice's Arcane Barrier ability has been replaced with "Bubble Wrap Barrier." When activated, the Apprentice will be surrounded by a barrier made of bubble wrap. This barrier can absorb damage, but it will pop after a certain amount of hits. Enemies will also be distracted by the popping sounds and may stop attacking to join in the fun.

• The Apprentice's ultimate ability has been replaced with "Summon the Unicorn." When activated, a majestic unicorn will appear on the battlefield and prance around, distracting enemies with its beauty. The unicorn is invincible and doesn't do any damage, but it's definitely a sight to behold.

Huntress

• The Huntress's Explosive Traps have been replaced with "Pie Traps." These devious traps will blast enemies with a face full of whipped cream and pie filling. The pies are surprisingly effective at slowing down enemies and making them easier to hit.

• The Huntress's Geyser Traps have been replaced with "Soda Pop Fountains." These fountains shoot out streams of fizzy soda pop that drench enemies and make them sticky. The soda also makes enemies burp loudly, revealing their location and making them vulnerable to attacks.

• The Huntress's Gas Traps have been replaced with "Stink Bombs." These foul-smelling bombs emit a cloud of stinky gas that repels enemies and makes them dizzy. The stench is so bad that it can also make players gag, temporarily lowering their accuracy.

• The Huntress's Piercing Shot ability has been replaced with "Love Arrows." These arrows have been enchanted with a love spell that causes enemies to become enamored with each other. They'll start dancing and singing together, completely ignoring players until the spell wears off.

• The Huntress's ultimate ability has been replaced with "Summon the Dragon." When activated, a giant dragon will swoop down and scorch enemies with its fiery breath. The dragon is also surprisingly agile and can perform aerial acrobatics that distract enemies.

Monk

• The Monk's Lightning Auras have been replaced with "Disco Balls." These funky balls will emit groovy music and bright, flashing lights that temporarily stun enemies with their disco fever.

• The Monk's Boost Auras have been replaced with "Pizza Party Auras." While in the aura, players will receive periodic slices of pizza that temporarily increase their stats. The pizza toppings are randomly generated and may have unusual effects like turning players into zombies or making them randomly shout out phrases like "I love broccoli!"

• The Monk's Sky Guard Towers have been replaced with "Flying Monkeys." These winged primates can fly around and attack enemies with their banana bombs. They can also steal weapons from enemies and use them against their former owners.

• The Monk's Hero Boost ability has been replaced with "Super Saiyan Boost." When activated, the Monk will temporarily transform into a Super Saiyan, increasing their speed, power, and hair volume. Enemies will be too stunned by the transformation to attack.

• The Monk's ultimate ability has been replaced with "Summon the Unicorn Ninja." When activated, a mystical unicorn ninja will appear on the battlefield and strike enemies with its deadly horn. It can also vanish into thin air and reappear elsewhere, making it difficult for enemies to track.

EV

• The series EV's proton beam has been replaced with a laser pointer. It doesn't do any damage, but it's great for playing with cats.

Jester

• Removed from the game

Summoner

• Now has the ability to equip unlimited pets, but the pets don’t do anything.

Maps

• Aquanos and Kings Game have been removed from the game to make the other maps feel better.

Miscellaneous Changes

• All enemies have been given party hats. It doesn't make them any less dangerous, but it does make them look a little silly.

• We have heard your cries for more cosmetics! Considering the fan favoritism towards the pizza wings we have replaced every texture in the game with the pizza texture in hopes to make the game more aesthetically pleasing.

• The final boss of the game has been replaced with a giant, inflatable chicken. Defeating it will be a little anticlimactic, but it's definitely more amusing.

• Removed Kart Racing Gamemode.

Welcome our newest team member!

We’d like to welcome our newest team member to the studio, Chat Gpt! In fact they are the ones that help make this update possible and wrote the patch notes! 

We hope you enjoy these legitimate and well thought out changes to Dungeon Defenders! Just remember, these are 100% REAL permanent additions to the game in hopes of achieving “true balance” so all complaints will be filed in the Corgi Paper Shredding Department. Happy defending!

Social Defenders

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The Episode 2 Part 2 update is ready for PTR testing! This update brings a brand new hero to the Dungeon Defenders Universe, The Guardian! As well as 2 new maps, one of which will be the Boss Map, and lastly more Runes. This will wrap up the Episode 2 update as a whole as we prepare to look at what’s next for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened!

How to Join

We want you to join the PTR! If you own Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on PC/Steam, check out our forum post that shows you exactly how to join!

PTR Reward

You’ll be given the choice of reward in the survey including a new set of wings!. This includes the following rewards:

• [New!] Egyptian Eagle Wings
• Forest Ally’s Wings
• Eagle’s Wings
• Crystalline Corgi
• RGB Pumpkin Mask
• A Giveaway entry for a Golden Corgi Pet Transmog

New Hero, The Guardian!

The Guardian is a protector of many ancient tombs and temples around the world of Etheria. With the Old One’s army rising up across Etheria, the Guardian has decided to join the heroes in their battle!

General Features

The Guardian is a melee hero that will use a Sword and Shield in combat. She will offer both defensive and support capabilities with her kit. With that said let's get into the abilities.

Abilities

Primary - Basic Attack

• Her primary attack is a melee attack with her sword similar to that of the Squire.

Secondary - Shield Slam

• This attack can be charged up by holding the input and released at any point. The longer the ability is held the more damage that will be dealt up to a limit. Once released the ability will release a cone of damage in front the guardian hitting all enemies within range.

Active Ability - Divine Judgement

• Divine Judgement is a powerful ability that will summon energy from above and come crashing down onto enemies dealing massive damage.

Buff Ability - Divine Protection

• While active nearby heroes will receive additional armor. Additionally increases the guardian's movement speed and a portion of any damage the Guardian deals to enemies will be used to heal all nearby heroes inside the radius.

Defenses

• Defense 1 - Holy Bulwark (2 DU): The Holy Bulwark is still a WIP, as such in the PTR will be just a simple blockade for now. That said, our goal here is to allow the Holy Bulwark to protect nearby defenses by taking any damage they receive instead of the tower being hit taking damage.
• Defense 2 - Empowering Shrine (3 DU): This special shrine will offer nearby heroes additional damage and increased mana regeneration.
• Defense 3 - Owl Perch (3 DU): The owl perch is the most trustworthy ally to the guardian, and will fly around the battlefield going from target to target dealing damage to all in its path. The Owl will not stay on one target and will not hit the same target until it returns to the perch.
• Defense 4 - Holy Cannon (4 DU): The Holy cannon will shoot flaming cannonballs at targets dealing damage to a small AoE around the target but most importantly applying a stacking damage over time effect. 
• Defense 5 - The Obelisk (4 DU): The Obelisk is the support defense of the Guardian’s kit, when an enemy is within range it will apply a AoE Debuff around the target slowing targets within range, additionally the primary target will take damage over time.

New Act 5 Maps!

The Forsaken Temple

This long abandoned underground city was once a great shrine to the Night Owl.The Heroes should be wary of what secrets and evil lies ahead.

This will be the new Act 5 Boss map, during the PTR there will not be a boss at the end of the map. We want to leave something for surprise for the full release.

Castle Armory

The Old One's forces have breached the Castle Armory, the Heroes must defend this area in order to keep the weapons from falling into the wrong hands!

This is a recreation of the original Dungeon Defenders map and will serve as the encore map for Act 5.

More Runes!

We are still in the process of making some of the new guardian runes but there are some additional runes that have been added for other defenses. Here’s the new ones and where to find them.

Reflective Screech - Siren Rune (Drops on The Forsaken Temple): This rune increases the range of the siren’s armor buff range per rank, additionally it adds a protective shield that will reflect projectiles from ranged enemies similar to reflect field.

Static Shock - EV Energy Cannon (Drops on Castle Armory): This rune will apply a slow to enemies hit by the Energy Cannon, each hit applies a new stack onto the enemy.

Empowering Ring - Warden Mushroom Circle (Drops on Castle Armory): This rune give heroes that walk into the mushroom circle a lingering damage and movement speed buff.

Raging Shrooms - Warden Shroomy Geyser (Drops on Lost Metropolis): This rune will give the shroomy projectile a chance to enrage enemies upon being hit.

Paralyzing Smite - Guardian Divine Judgement (Drops on Forsaken Temple): This rune will make enemies hit by Divine Judgement stunned for a limited duration.

Deadly Gaze - Guardian Obelisk (Drops on Castle Armory): This rune will make The Obelisk apply a DoT to all enemies within the obelisk's debuff range dealing a % of tower damage per second.

Known Issues / Missing Features:

Hopefully our goal is to add most of these into the PTR as we release various patches during the playtest.

• The Guardian’s Balance is very much work in progress
• Defense Tooltips
• Lots of placeholder images for Guardian, Items, etc
• More Guardian Runes
• New map pets
• Boss Weapons drop but don’t do anything special currently
• The Holy Bulwark currently doesn’t have a special ability and is just a blockade currently

Hotfix Note Location:

EPISODE 2 PART 2 PTR HOTFIXES

What’s Next?

The PTR will run for about a week or two as we collect data and make any adjustments needed before doing a full release. After this update is live we will likely be handling future updates differently, moving towards a smaller consistent update releasing features and content as ready.

Social Defenders

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

Today we have an exciting new update which includes some huge changes we have been working hard on! There are two main features to highlight: Loadouts to customize heroes with new abilities and Map Choice which gives players the choice of which map and mode to go to next. In addition to these we have also made changes to game flow, balance, health, runes, weapons, and UI polish. Read on for the details or jump in the game and check them out right away!

Loadouts
Each hero now has at least 4 new abilities that are unlocked through a variety of quests and challenges. These new abilities are not intended to be complete replacements for the default ones but to enhance and give additional options to each hero. In addition to Abilities there are also two other types of Loadouts: Runes and Offhands.

Abilities
These are alternate abilities for the Skill (Right-Click), Ability One (F), Ability Two (C), and Movement (Shift). Each hero has at least four new abilities but some have more.

Equipment
These are two slots which allow players to choose some of their starting equipment and are also unlocked through quests like Abilities.

Starting Rune
Before this update each hero would unlock and automatically equip a new Rune with each Hero Level. This was called Hero Mastery but it didn’t provide the kind of customization that we were hoping for. Now each Hero Level will unlock a new rune and players can choose one to start with.

Starting Offhand
Offhands will no longer drop from chests in-game but instead are something players unlock and choose to begin the game. They can still be upgraded at the Void Shop’s Blacksmith or purchased at the Void Shop’s Shopkeeper.

Each now also has a unique base effect which gives it a specific purpose and allows for more control over the role of the hero.

Unlocking
All of the new loadouts need to be unlocked. Some are simple quests like “Complete 5 Runs on the Squire”. Others are more of a challenge like in the above screenshot of “Defeating any boss on Hard by only using Defenses”.

Map Choice
One of the major goals for this update is to give players a choice of which map to go to next and if they want something that’s more challenging but also more rewarding or to just pick their favorite map. 

Portals
With this players now must choose a portal to go through after each map victory. In Multiplayer the portal is chosen by the Game Host after all players are ready.

New Game Modes
Moving Core
A twist on the old challenge from DD1 and DDA. In DDGR it is different in that the Core will move between different stopping points where it is blocked by some inconveniently placed barrels. Luckily those barrels can be destroyed once the Core gets there. Unluckily the enemy is very attached to those barrels and will start attacking in order to defend them. Once all of the barrels have been cleared the core will continue on until it reaches the next stopping point or the end goal.

Warping Core
At the start of each wave and in between waves on Hard difficulty the Core will teleport to a new location. Chase it around and get there before the enemies do!

Arena
This is a brand new game mode to test out gameplay that isn’t centered on the Core. Navigate your way through three new maps avoiding traps, enemies, and then defeating a Mini-Boss at the end. These maps will only be found as a choice before the Boss map in each Act.

Rewards
Each of these new game modes provides an increase in challenge and with it an additional reward!

General
While the Loadouts and Map Choice were the biggest focus in this update there are also a lot of other changes we have made to help bring the game closer to what we originally envisioned for it. These include changes to the basic game mechanics but also tweaks to balance and items.

Gameflow
One of the biggest changes previous players will notice is that there are no longer downtimes in between waves. The map will start after a countdown and then waves of enemies will come until it’s over with a final chest rewarded at the end.

With this we have also added a Pause function when the Escape Menu is open in single player.

In addition to the changes to waves there has also been a large amount of polish to everything from boss introductions to death cameras. We hope it provides a more polished and rewarding experience overall!

Health
Another big change that players will notice is that Health will no longer regenerate after each map but persists between map transitions. There have also been various tweaks to Runes, Item Effects, Talents, and Health Drop rates in order to hopefully accomplish our goal of making Health feel more like a resource that must be managed.

Runes and Weapons
There are way too many various changes to list here but there have been changes to the balance of Runes and Weapons. Updates to the base effects on Weapons to make them all feel more unique and powerful.

We have also added some new Runes into the drop pool so look out for those!

One of the biggest changes that should be noticeable is that there will be more Runes and Weapons in the drop pool by default. Previously these would be unlocked through Hero and Account Levels but we didn’t feel like the default experience provided enough choices in Runes and Weapons. So with the addition of Loadouts into the Progression system we have made it so that most Runes and Weapons can drop.

UI Updates
We have also done an overhaul throughout the game on many different aspects of the UI in order for it to be more user friendly and generally polished. We hope that this provides a better overall experience but know there is still room for improvement so please let us know what else you’d like to see there!

Social Defenders
To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

Today we have a small game update and a handful of other events to talk about! This update contains the Early Game changes to make things harder. As well as Twitch Integration which will allow streamers to connect their twitch account to the game and let viewers vote on events to take place in game!

Free Steam Weekend

Have you been curious to try the game before buying? Got a friend you want to convince to play? Well now is their chance! We’ll be running a free weekend for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on Steam! There will also be a sale for the game so if you decide to buy the game after giving it a try you can continue right where you left off in progression.

The Free Weekend will start March 9th at 10AM Pacific / 1PM EST and will run until March 13th at 10AM Pacific / 1PM EST.

Twitch Drops

What better time to offer some free cosmetic rewards than during a free weekend. We’ll be running our first ever Twitch drop campaign. All you have to do is connect your twitch account on our website - https://drops.dungeondefenders.com/ then watch any twitch channel streaming Dungeon Defenders: Awakened with drops enabled.

The following rewards will become available at specific times:

• Starting Mar 9th - Mar 30 Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Squire Guardian Pet
• Mar 10th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Huntress Guardian Pet
• Mar 11th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Monk Guardian Pet
• Mar 12th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Apprentice Guardian Pet
• Mar 13th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Crystalline Pizza Wings

Note: You will have to redeem the rewards in order and watch the required hours per reward.

Galaxy Costume Bundle

Store Link: Steam Galaxy Bundle

The Galaxy Costume Bundle will be releasing alongside the free weekend on March 9th at 10AM PST / 1PM EST! Explore the world of Etheria with these new cosmic themed hero costumes cosmetics. This DLC Bundle unlocks the above costumes through the Transmog UI accessible in the tavern through the Blacksmith or Escape Menu.

The Galaxy Costume Bundle applies to the following heroes:

• Squire
• Apprentice
• Huntress
• Monk
• EV
• Warden
• Rogue
• The Outcast Summoner
• Guardian (once released in-game)

The bundle will cost $6.99 with a 15% launch discount bringing it down to $5.95 for the first week!

Game Update Patchnotes - Released 3/8/2023

Available on Steam, Xbox and PlayStation (Expect for Twitch Integration on consoles)

Twitch Integration

As many games have added, Twitch integration will allow streamers to link their Twitch account and have their chat vote on randomly chosen events to happen in-game. Events can be both negative and positive for the streamer and only happen in the combat phase.

Streamers will also be able to configure the amount of voting time, time between events, number of events per wave and whether they want to disable positive events entirely.

To use this feature, go to the Twitch tab on the options UI and link your Twitch account.

Early Game Changes

We've heard a lot of player feedback about the early game and so one of the main goals for these changes is to increase the difficulty of the early game to help better match the power level of players and entertain players who want a harder experience. At the same time our goal is also not to make the early game too difficult as some players do want an easier experience.

That said here are the following changes:

• Hard is now unlocked from the beginning.
  • We’ve shifted all the difficulties down from Easy to Insane, What this means is the following:
    • Easy - The difficulty of what Medium used to be.
    • Medium - The difficulty of what Hard used to be.
    • Hard - The Difficulty of what Insane used to be and slightly harder.
    • Insane - Is what Insane used to be but with higher scaling to be a new middle ground between Hard and Nightmare.
  • We’ve changed how progression unlocks work, the way it works now is the following:
    • If a map is unlocked on any difficulty, you can play that map on a higher difficulty without having to play it on lower difficulties first.
      • Example: If you’ve beaten The Throne Room on medium, you can play Endless Spires on any difficulty you have unlocked (Insane, Nightmare or Massacre) assuming you meet the requirements.
• Removed gear level requirements until nightmare to allow players to equip the gear they are getting as they progress.
• Insane is now unlocked after beating Easy, Medium or Hard on Campaign Summit.
• Decreased Nightmare Level requirement to 60 from 70
• Decreased Massacre Level requirement to 80 from 83.
• Added some new difficulty explanation popup for when you open the map select for the first time.
• Maps are now hidden on the map select if you don’t have the difficulty unlocked and it explains why the difficulty is locked.
• Increased IPWR on Swords and Polearms to help bring them in more in line with Staffs and Crossbows.
• Greatly Reduced the amount of stats that item effects provide in the early game 
• Ex: Armor giving +50 Fortify on a piece that only gives +10 Fortify.

What’s Next?

This is just the tip of what’s to come for the Dungeon Defenders franchise as a whole! We got updates for all the games around the corner. In regards to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened we have Episode 2 Part 2 coming which will feature the Guardian a new hero, 2 new maps, one of which is a boss map. Our goal is to get this into PTR playtesting the week of March 20th.

Social Defenders

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

This is going to be a bit of a different PTR, Instead of testing new features this PTR is aimed at testing out early game changes. What that means is that going into the PTR you will be given a new profile and not a copy of your live game. Obviously this PTR is not going to be for everyone and this is really aimed at people who enjoy providing feedback to try and help improve the game.

How to Join

We want you to join the PTR! If you own Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on PC/Steam, check out our forum post that shows you exactly how to join!

PTR Reward

Given this is a smaller PTR test and the different nature of it we won’t be offering a new reward, but you are able to earn any of the previous PTR rewards if you are missing any. To get a reward you must play the PTR and fill out the survey located on the pause menu.

You’ll be given the choice of reward in the survey. This includes the following rewards:

• Forest Ally’s Wings
• Eagle’s Wings
• Crystalline Corgi
• RGB Pumpkin Mask
• A Giveaway entry for a Golden Corgi Pet Transmog

Early Game Changes

We've heard a lot of player feedback about the early game and so one of the main goals for these changes is to increase the difficulty of the early game to help better match the power level of players and entertain players who want a harder experience. At the same time our goal is also not to make the early game too difficult as some players do want a easier experience.

That said here are the following changes

• Hard is now unlocked from the beginning.
• We’ve shifted all the difficulties down from Easy to Insane, What this means is the following:
  • Easy - The difficulty of what Medium used to be.
  • Medium - The difficulty of what Hard used to be.
  • Hard - The difficulty of what Insane used to be and slightly harder.
  • Insane - Is what Insane used to be but with higher enemy scaling to be a new middle ground between Hard and Nightmare.
• Insane is now unlocked after beating Easy, Medium or Hard on Campaign Summit.
• We’ve changed how progression unlocks work, the way it works now is the following:
  • If a map is unlocked on any difficulty, you can play that map on a higher difficulty without having to play it on lower difficulties first.  This should allow more freedom to play maps at the difficulty you want to without having to go back.
    • Example: If you’ve beaten The Throne Room on medium, you can play Endless Spires on any difficulty you have unlocked (Insane, Nightmare or Massacre) assuming you meet the requirements.
• Removed gear level requirements until nightmare to allow players to equip the gear they are getting as they progress.
• Decreased Nightmare Level requirement to 60 from 70
• Decreased Massacre Level requirement to 80 from 83.
• Added some new difficulty explanation popup for when you open the map select for the first time.
• Maps are now hidden on the map select if you don’t have the difficulty unlocked and it explains why the difficulty is locked.
• Increased IPWR on Swords and Polearms to help bring them in more in line with Staffs and Crossbows.
• Greatly Reduced the amount of stats that item effects provide in the early game 
  • Ex: Armor was giving +50 Fortify on a piece that only gave +10 Fortify.

Known Issues:

• Rift Bosses haven't received health or increased difficulty changes.

What’s Next?
The PTR will run for over the weekend as this is a short playtest and doesn’t need long playtimes to test. After this we’ll look at the survey data and make any adjustments needed.

Social Defenders
To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The holiday season is upon us and as such it’s time for some holiday fun! This update brings a brand new map to the Dungeon Defenders universe as well as some QoL features that have been requested. This update is live on Steam, Xbox and Playstation.

Santa Hat Login Reward
Starting between now and January 5th, 2023 if you login in on any platform you’ll be rewarded a Santa Hat transmog to help you celebrate the season! Go talk with the blacksmith to get your festive spirit going!

Yuletide Village
It wouldn’t be the holidays without a festive new map to play. As such we’ve gone through and made a brand new never seen before map called Yuletide Village. This winter map should feel right at home for the holidays. 

It can be played in Campaign, Survival and Mixed mode with Rifted & Bonus Difficulties if you want an additional challenge. It also features a festive pet reward when played on Survival or Mixed, and does have a fusion variant to go along with it. The map will be unlocked if you have completed Throne Room on campaign.

Hero Selection Filtering
Are you someone who likes to have lots of different heroes? Do you have issues finding the right hero in the hero list? Well now you have the ability to filter to a specific hero type. This should help players more quickly find the hero they want and should serve as a nice little QoL.

Tower Targeting Priority Presets

One big feature request we’ve gotten over the years is being able to select what kind of targeting priorities your towers have. That said we’ve added the ability for users to switch what kind of targeting towers have. This is done in the spellbook by selecting the defense that you wish to change. 

Currently we only offer the user the ability to switch between Fodder, Special, Air and Strong. Fodder and Special should work how they currently do in the game. Air works how the Plasma Defense System works and targets Air enemies first then follows a special priority. Strong works by targeting enemies that have larger health pools first, Such as Ogres, Sirens, Lycans, Djinn, etc.

Our end goal is to expand this system to allow users to eventually make their own presets so they can really fine tune things to their liking, but this will come at a later date as it requires more UI and backend work.
 

Miscellaneous

• Fusion gear and the Arcanist helmet no longer have guaranteed stats.
• Electric, Ensnare, Healing, and Strength Drain can all be overlapped with each other but provide no benefit for doing so. This should be a small QoL for smaller maps with high defense stats.
• Summoner Minions now unlock at proper levels (1, 2, 7, 11, and 15)

Bugfixes

• Fixed issue with Bonus Difficulty display not showing on clients on the pause menu.
• Fixed issue with EV Rune damage applying to the hero and not just the decoy.
• Fixed issue with movement speed item effects not stacking properly.

What’s Next?
Well with this update out, this wraps up all the updates we’ll be doing in 2022. It’s now time to look towards the new year in which we have some great stuff planned. We are continuing to work on Episode 2 Part 2 which will have the Boss Map & Boss, a bonus encore map and a new hero. Besides that update we plan to continue to be more frequent in our updating providing smaller content updates along the way to keep things fresh.

Lastly I’ll leave you with the first look at the new hero The Guardian, coming to the game next year!

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Greetings Defenders!

Today is a small update adding controller support and fixing high priority bugs such as enemies not spawning in multiplayer. There is much more to come and we are very excited about the future of the game next year but instead of releasing things too early we have decided to hold the large update until Q1 2023. We very much appreciate all of your feedback, bug reports, and patience!

Controller Support
The game is now fully playable with your favorite controller! There are a few minor exceptions such as the profile conflict pop-up and not being able to invite other players in the lobby but otherwise you can now play from Main Menu to Victory (or Defeat). If you run into any bugs or have feedback for us on the inputs please let us know in our Discord.

Shared Settings
Going Rogue no longer shares game settings with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. This was an issue where players that swapped between games would find themselves having to reset settings and controls each time. This is now fixed.

Please note that if you are an Offline only player you may need to move your save files to the new config location.
Step 1: Locate old save file (Named: DDGR_Player_1234567_SECURE.esv): C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Local\DDS\Saved\SaveGames.
Step 2: Move save file to the new location: C:\Steam\steamapps\common\DDGR\DDS\DDGR\Saved\SaveGames.

Bug Fixes

• Going Rogue no longer shares game settings with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened.
  • New Location: \Steam\steamapps\common\DDGR\DDS\DDGR\Saved
• Enemies would often stop spawning, especially in multiplayer.
• Ogre’s ground slam attack was doing much more damage than intended.
• Players were crashing on map change due to invalid stats.
• Monk’s Hero Boost was instantly ending for clients in multiplayer.
• Attempted to fix an issue where players are crashing in multiplayer on map change.
• Tower Nameplates will now also work on clients.

Other Changes

• Defeat Conditions: The game will now end when all players are dead or a core has been destroyed instead of only after a core is destroyed.
• Added controller vibrations to various abilities and events.
• Added option to turn off controller vibrations.
• Volume will now start at 50% instead of 100%.
• The movement ability Dash can now be used while standing still.
• Tooltips for items now show the input required to pick them up.
• First pass at UI changes to fix readability and the new user experience.

Social Defenders
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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The long awaited Episode 2 Part 1 update has finally arrived! This update features a ton of new features and content such as The Summoner, Runes, Trading, New Defense Changes, 2 New Maps and more! Get ready as this is gonna be a long post! This update is currently out on PC Steam, Xbox and PlayStation! Unfortunately Switch will lag behind quite a bit until a later date.

The Outcast Summoner

The Outcast Summoner, One of the most iconic heroes joins the battle for etheria! You’ll be able to create and try out the new hero along with all their abilities and minions for free.

General Features

Before we cover Hero Abilities, let's talk about some of the general features that the hero has first. The hero doesn’t have weapon slots and as such doesn’t have an actual attack. Instead the hero will be allowed to equip 2 pets at once. Additionally the Summoner will be able to equip Tomes and will be able to complete a weapon set using a single tome.

Regarding Minions we also have opted to not have Minion Units but instead use DU for the defenses. This solves 2 issues, the first being that players felt that they were missing out if they didn’t take advantage of having double the “DU” and additionally it would require we balance every map both past and present around having this feature. As such we’ve made sure that the DU of the minions is very light so that you can have more of them and fit them better into existing builds.

Finally the Summoner has the ability to hover by pressing and holding the jump key at any point while the hero is falling. They will still be able to take advantage of the double jump as any hero can.

Abilities

Primary - Minion Select

• Since the hero doesn’t attack, his primary will be used to select his minions. You are able to do single selection by pressing once or you can do a multi select by holding the input and dragging around the ground reticle to select multiple minions. Additionally if you click and hold when telling them to move you can tell them to evenly space out on a line between 2 points.

Secondary - Overlord Mode

• A big feature of the Summoner was his ability to go into overlord mode and have a more top down RTS style camera. This ability will allow the Outcast Summoner to pan around the map and place minions remotely as well as move them as necessary.

Active Ability - Flash Heal

• Flash heal offers the ability to heal nearby heroes, Minions and defenses by a percentage of their max health, scaling off the hero's Ability stat.

Buff Ability - Pet Boost

• While active the hero's pets will be buffed increasing attack damage and attack speed, scaling off the hero's Ability stat. This was a redux addition that we felt added a lot of potential to the hero being used as a DPS and playing off the ability for the hero to equip 2 pets.

Minions

Minion 1 - Archer (2 DU): Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Archer. Shoots non-piercing arrows at enemies. 

Minion 2 - Spider (3 DU): Summons a Crystalline Spider to the battlefield. Flings webs at nearby enemies, slowing them down and doubling all damage they receive.

Minion 3 - Siren (4 DU): Summons a Crystalline Siren to the battlefield. She casts protective shields around defenses reducing incoming damage and also attacks offensively with her ranged attack.

Minion 4 - Dark Elf Mage (4 DU): Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Mage to the battlefield. Casts fireballs and periodically heals themselves and other nearby minions, as well as heroes.  

Minion 5 - Ogre (5 DU): Summons a Crystalline Ogre to the battlefield. Crushes enemies within melee range and occasionally fires poison snot balls from a distance.

Runes

Runes are a new feature that allow players to augment their defenses in new ways! These can range from simple additions to completely different abilities. Runes can drop from normal enemies at all levels of play as well as from victory chests. Each act has its own pool of which runes drop from enemies, and each map has a smaller subset of that act pool that drop in the form of a guaranteed drop from the victory chest. You can view where a rune drops on the rune UI itself, displayed as “Favored Map”

Since the Episode 2 Part 1 post we have since changed our minds about having generic runes in the game. This is mainly because we want players to feel like they can use the special runes designed for each tower without feeling punished for not using a generic rune that just gives them more power. We just think this provides a more fun opportunity to players and lets us continue to create more unique runes rather than balance the battle between unique and generic runes.

Currently there are about 53 runes in the game to playtest, some heroes and defenses are missing runes and we will be working on getting those in over time in smaller updates.

Trading

The long awaited feature is here. As described in the Episode preview post, players are able to send trade requests with one another using the party bar in the top right of the pause menu. Once a player accepts a trade request, the two players may offer up items and gold between each other and then confirm the trade once they feel like they are happy with the trade.

Act 5 - 2 New Maps

With the first part of Episode 2 comes 2 new maps to kick off Act 5. After defeating the Lycan King, the heroes traverse a great desert uncovering forgotten locations along the way. The first 2 maps are available and can be played. However they drop the same quality of items that would be seen on the keep, as the increased item quality of act 5 will come with Act 5 boss map. 

The Bazaar (100 DU)

You’ll have to fight your way through the Bazaar in order to progress deeper into the secrets this desert holds! As a reward for completing this map on Survival, you’ll be able to obtain a pet version of Hammel!

The Lost Metropolis (130 DU)

Defend your core from threats old and new in the shadow of structures from a forgotten civilization. This map doesn’t yet have a pet reward but will be added in the near future so stay tuned!

Wave Progression Updates

We’ve seen a lot of feedback about how waves feel like they sorta just trickle out and don’t feel very lively. As such we’ve done some investigating and made changes to the way waves come out of their spawners. Players should see more enemies coming out of the spawners at a faster pace. Additionally because of this we’ve increased the total mob counts for the maps to ensure a balance with wave times.

Defense Changes

Squire - Sniper Tower

The Sniper tower offers the squire a new single target defense that will be very strong at defeating tanky enemies. It will use a special enemy targeting priority. This tower will replace the Bouncer Blockade as we felt the blockade was often overshadowed by the other blockades in the game.

Huntress - Poison Dart Tower

The Poison Dart Tower is the first addition of a defense to the Huntress’s kit. The PDT will shoot 3 individual projectiles. These projectiles are fanned out so that they spread out and hit multiple enemies down the path. It will use a fodder targeting priority. This tower will replace the Darkness Trap, as it was the most unused defense in the game, the alternative was the Thunder Spike Trap which we felt could have more use cases.

EV - Heat Cannon

The Heat Cannon provides a unique defense to the game. It’s a short ranged flamethrower defense that hits all enemies within its range arc. While this defense is limited in range it will more than make up in defense power. This defense will have a fodder targeting priority. It will replace the new empty slot where Reflect Field was.

EV - Plasma Defense System

The Plasma Defense System or PDS is an omni-directional sentry that can target and attack up to 3 separate targets at once. The defense does have one major flaw in the form of a deadzone. The dead zone prevents the tower from attacking enemies that are too close to the tower. This defense will have a modified version of the special enemy targeting but instead prioritizes Djinns, Copters, and Wyverns before targeting other special enemies. This defense will replace the Shock beam, as we felt that the crowd control it provided was just outclassed by other crowd control oriented defenses regardless of balance.

Auto Loot 2.0

Make sure to take a look at your Auto Loot filters as they will have been reset. You’ll want to take some time to play around with the new system and make auto loot profiles for the different kinds of items you want to be picked up. As long as an item matches 1 of the filters in the list it will be picked up. Do note you can only have 8 filters currently.

Auto Loot Filters also determine what Items get shown on your tactical map. We’ve even added a special icon for Runes, and a purple glow for any Fusion items. So make sure to be on the lookout for those.

Pet Balance

• Pets
  • Monkey King
    • Damage stat scalar increased from 100 to 150.
    • Damage base increased from 25 to 50.
  • Mista Mine
    • Slow reduced from 50% to 40%

Hero Balance

• General
  • Hero Abilities
    • Due to implementations for Runes and how those interact with abilities most abilities will have updated scaling which should be equivalent or a slight buff in power.
  • Stat Scalar Changes
    • Squire, Huntress, Monk, EV and Rogue all have a increased tower attack Rate stat scalar match Apprentice and Warden, The following towers should be buffed because of this change, some more than others:
      • Harpoon, Bowling Ball and Slice N’ Dice, Explosive Trap, Thunder Spike Trap, Electric Aura, Healing Aura, Proton Beam, Overclock beam.
• Squire
  • Slice N’ Dice
    • Can now attack Sirens.
• Apprentice
  • Flameburst
    • Starting damage increased from 192 to 250.
    • DU Reduced from 5 to 4.
• Warden
  • Sludge Launcher
    • Base Damage reduced from 450 to 425
    • Tower Damage Stat Scalar reduced from 1.6 to 1.45
    • No longer slows by default, which can be reintroduced as a rune.

Map Balance

• All Maps
  • All maps now have the same enemy caps as The Keep of 55, which is determined mainly by performance. This should decrease wave times on earlier maps that were being limited
• The Keep
  • Added tower prevention volumes to the top of the walls as these were often used as safe spots and provided line of sight that was unbalanced for the intended map design
• Alchemical Labs
  • Reduced amount of fodder enemies and spiders
• Ramparts
  • Reduced amount of spiders on Ramparts 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with Halloween Copter Ogres spawning.
• Fixed issue with Upgrade / Repair item effects weren’t stacking duration properly.
• Fixed potential crash with damaging emitters.
• Fixed issue with aiming past dead enemies would cause projectiles to shoot up into the sky.
• Fixed issue with Loot not showing on the tactical map.
• Fixed issue with Decoy not showing nameplates.
• Fixed issue with Rift portals having 0 HP in mixed mode.

Misc.

• Training Dummies have more health.
• Training Dummies now can display DPS values above 2B without going negative.
• Siren drops were dropping at much higher than expected levels.
• Skeletons now take 1 second to respawn instead of 3.
• Tavern difficulty scaling should line up with gameplay maps more closely now.

What’s Next?

Well now that Episode 2 Part 1 is out, the next focus is on getting the remaining Part 2 additions done. Currently looking at releasing that sometime early next year as with all the holidays coming up it will limit work capacity. Besides the remaining Episode 2 work, we may look at doing a smaller Winter Holiday update / event but let you know as that progresses.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The long awaited Episode 2 Part 1 PTR is here! Players who own a copy on steam can access the steam beta branch and play the PTR to help us gather feedback and find bugs before release.

How to Join

We want you to join the PTR! If you own Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on PC/Steam, check out our forum post that shows you exactly how to join!

PTR Reward

Given the Halloween nature, the PTR reward will be a RGB Pumpkin Mask Transmog, as what’s more spooky than a bit of RGB.

If RGB is not your flavor, We’ll be allowing people to collect any of the previous PTR rewards in the past. You’ll be given the choice of reward in the survey. This includes the following rewards:

• Forest Ally’s Wings
• Eagle’s Wings
• Crystalline Corgi

Episode 2 Part 1

So we already did a long winded reveal of the vast majority of the features coming in this update, so this post won’t be going into details but will serve as a quick overview of the contents with any changes.

Click here to read the full post to get a better understanding.

The Outcast Summoner

The Outcast Summoner, One of the most iconic heroes joins the battle! In this PTR you’ll be able to create and try out the new hero along with all their abilities and minions. We are looking for feedback on the functionality and balance, as we are in the process of still getting Art, Animations, SFX and VFX all hooked up still.

Runes

Runes are a new feature that allow players to augment their defenses in new ways! These can range from simple additions to completely different abilities. Runes can drop from normal enemies at all levels of play as well as from victory chests. Each act has its own pool of which runes drop from enemies, and each map has a smaller subset of that act pool that drop in the form of a guaranteed drop from the victory chest. You can view where a rune drops on the rune UI itself, displayed as “Favored Map”

Since the Episode 2 Part 1 post we have since changed our minds about having generic runes in the game. This is mainly because we want players to feel like they can use the special runes designed for each tower without feeling punished for not using a generic rune that just gives them more power. We just think this provides a more fun opportunity to players and lets us continue to create more unique runes rather than balance the battle between unique and generic runes.

Currently there are about 54 runes in the game to playtest, some heroes and defenses are missing runes and we will be working on getting those in as time permits or before release of the update.

Trading

The long awaited feature is here. As described in the Episode preview post, players are able to send trade requests with one another using the party bar in the top right of the pause menu. Once a player accepts a trade request, the two players may offer up items and gold between each other and then confirm the trade once they feel like they are happy with the trade. 

Act 5 - 2 New Maps

With the first part of Episode 2 comes 2 new maps to kick off Act 5. After defeating the Lycan King, the heroes traverse a great desert uncovering forgotten locations along the way. The first 2 maps will be in the PTR and can be played. However they drop the same quality of items that would be seen on the keep, as we are still deciding if a quality increase before the boss / bonus difficulty is worth it currently.

The Bazaar

You’ll have to fight your way through the Bazaar in order to progress deeper into the secrets this desert holds!

The Lost Metropolis

Defend your core from threats old and new in the shadow of structures from a forgotten civilization.

Defense Changes

As outlined in the original post, there are 5 defense changes. The only difference between the post and the PTR is that we decided after reading feedback and playtesting that the combined Reflect field was causing more issues being the default EV defense, and as such we’ve made the original reflect field the default EV slot 2 defense. There is a rune to convert the reflect field into a blockade should you want to have that functionality back.

Auto Loot 2.0

In the PTR your Auto Loot filters will have been reset. You’ll want to take some time to play around with the new system and make auto loot profiles for the different kinds of items you want to be picked up. As long as an item matches 1 of the filters in the list it will be picked up. Do note you can only have 8 filters currently.

Auto Loot Filters also determine what Items get shown on your tactical map. We’ve even added a special icon for Runes, and a purple glow for any Fusion items. So make sure to be on the lookout for those.

Balance

This update is gonna bring a lot of balance changes to the game in the form of runes and other forms of balance tweaks. Due to the sake of time writing this post, There won’t be specific numbers, but will have those for the final post. Once the survey is out, there will also be questions for how you feel about those.

That said most defenses and abilities for Squire, Huntress, Monk, EV and Rogue got some kind of buff. So play around with those heroes and their defenses.

What’s Next?

The PTR will run for about 2 weeks, during this time we’ll see how the playtest goes, make adjustments, fix bugs and continue to polish up the features. After the PTR is over we expect to take about a week or so to finalize any remaining changes and then look at releasing the update.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Defenders,

This post will provide an update on development in general, the next update for Dungeon Defenders 2, and the upcoming in-game Halloween event.  The event will start this Friday, October 14th, and the event will go until November 4th.

Halloween Event

The spooktacular theme is now back to DragonFall with all the spookiness you know and love.

Ol Peeper's Daily Gift

Ol Peepers is now selling a spooktacular crate along with a green defender pack every day during the spooktacular event.

The spooktacular crate contains :

• New Chaos 10 Shard

• Festive Carnival Fireworks

•  Dragonfall Popcorn Machine

• Trust me Disguise

• Lucky Bunny Mask

• Rainbow ‘fro

• Snow Liger

• Imperial Grin

• Hastening Salve

• Strongman Salve

• Enduring Salve

• Spellcasting Salve

• Tower of Power Salve

• Enduring Salve

• Impactful Tower Salve

• Impactful Hero Salve 

• Lucky Tower Salve

• Lucky Hero Salve 

Spooky Pumpkin Head - One-time reward cosmetic Flair.

Black Market Dealer

The Black Market Vendor now has another limited-time Flair: The Golden Spooky Pumpkin Head!

Emporium

The mask factory was over stocked with old masks from a previous spooktacular event so we decided to bring them back for everyone to enjoy.

Development Update

I wanted to give a general update on all things DD2 development. It has been a pretty hectic few weeks with leadership changes, random back-end issues, internal build issues, and more recently the Xbox login issues that affected some of the development of the new patch. These hurdles also have impacted some of the transparency the game needs and hopefully, it can now change for the better. As all these hurdles have now been pretty much gotten over, the development effort for the next patch will start ramping up again to get it out as soon as feasibly possible.

What’s Next?

So as the title suggests, what is exactly next for dragonfall? It exactly hasn’t been a secret that Chaos 10 is coming toward the next update so how about we show / say some stuff that has been a secret. The next update is named “Mines of Etheria.”

Chaos 10

Chaos 10 is going to take a different direction this time compared to the other chaos tiers. While Assassins will be absent this time around, there will be three new enemies to take on instead of just one. We won’t be going into much detail about chaos 10 for now as it will be explained further at a later date. 

Hidden Caverns Region

Along with C10 this next update will be introducing a new region to the game with 2 new maps.

New Map : Crystal Mines

Inside the mountains of Dragonfall, there is a long-abandoned mine full of precious crystals and gemstones waiting to be excavated.

New Map : Lava Caverns

Deep below the ground lies a treacherous ancient lava cavern with mysterious crystals and signs of ancient magic.

???

A strange new individual has come out of hiding to aid in the heroes’ defense against the enemies of Dragonfall.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

For the first time ever in DDA’s history we are doing an in-game Halloween event. This event will feature some new cosmetics for both login rewards and in-game rewards from the new Halloween version of Ramparts. In addition to this every enemy across the game will receive a special Halloween theme for the duration of the event. This Halloween Update is live now on PC, Xbox and PlayStation and will go until November 4th, 2022.

Login Event

If you login between the dates listed above, you’ll unlock the following transmogs:

• Hallow's Evil Grin Mask
• Fish in a Jar Mask

Halloween Spooktacular Map

With the introduction of the in-game Halloween event we have remade Halloween Spooktacular from the original game. This map will feature the new Halloween variants of the enemies permanently even after the Halloween event is over. It also has new lanes and an additional core to defend.

Map Rewards

Completing the map will give you a Brain in a Jar Mask Accessory as a guaranteed drop, but for those out there that prefer a bit of gold to their look there will be a very low drop chance version that allows you to unlock the golden transmog variant of the Fish in a Jar, Brain in a Jar and the Hallow's Evil Grin Mask. The golden variants will only drop on Massacre though, be warned it can be very challenging for those just breaking into to Massacre.

Halloween Enemy Skins

This Halloween event brings spooky variants of each of the enemies in the realm of Etheria. All across the game these enemies will spawn for the duration of the Halloween Event. Afterwards the enemy skins will only be present on the Halloween Map which will stay once the event ends.

What’s Next?

Well with the Halloween Event now released, our next stop is the Episode 2 Part 1 PTR which will begin on October 28th. This will feature the Outcast Summoner Hero, 2 new maps, Runes, trading and more! Check out the full post talking about these features. Additionally if you are looking for DD2 news, check out the DD2 Halloween Event and Development Update Post coming out later today.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord

• Twitter

• Facebook

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For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

This post will provide an update on Episode 2 Part 1 work as well as announce the details about the upcoming In-game Halloween Event and Episode 2 Part 1 PTR. With that said let's get into it as this will be a long post!

Halloween Event

For the first time ever in DDA’s history we are doing an in-game Halloween event. This event will feature some new cosmetics for both login rewards and in-game rewards. In addition to this every enemy across the game will receive a special Halloween theme for the duration of the event. This Halloween Update will be released on October 14th, 2022 and the event will go until November 4th, 2022.

Login Event

If you login between the dates listed above, you’ll unlock the following transmogs:

• Hallow's Evil Grin Mask
• Fish in a Jar Mask

Halloween Spooktacular Map

With the introduction of the in-game Halloween event we have remade Halloween Spooktacular from the original game. This map will feature the new Halloween variants of the enemies permanently even after the Halloween event is over. It also has new lanes and an additional core to defend.

Completing the map will give you a Brain in a Jar Mask Accessory as a guaranteed drop, but for those out there that prefer a bit of gold or Neon to their look there will be a very low drop chance version that allows you to unlock the golden transmog variant.

Episode 2 Part 1 Progress Update

The Outcast Summoner

As many of you know, the summoner from the original Dungeon Defenders game will be returning to DDA as The Outcast Summoner. This iconic hero has been one of the most requested heroes to return to DDA and as such we wanted to try our best to stay true to the original as best as we could, while also making adjustments to better fit DDA.

With that in mind, one of the things we felt strongly about was that the original model shown previously didn’t reflect what users expected for a remake of the Summoner. As such we’ve gone through reconcepted and made a new model that fits the theme better.

Here is a first look at the new model!

Next up let’s talk about how the hero itself will work. After going through all the data from the Summoner Survey we have come to the following abilities, defenses and changes to the summoner.

General Features

Before we cover Hero Abilities, let's talk about some of the general features that the hero has first. The hero doesn’t have weapon slots and as such doesn’t have an actual attack. Instead, the hero will be allowed to equip 2 pets at once. Additionally, the Summoner will be able to equip Tomes and will be able to complete a weapon set using a single tome.

Regarding Minions we also have opted to not have Minion Units but instead use DU for the defenses. This solves 2 issues, the first being that players felt that they were missing out if they didn’t take advantage of having double the “DU” and additionally it would require we balance every map both past and present around having this feature.

Finally, the Summoner has the ability to hover by pressing and holding the jump key at any point while the hero is falling. They will still be able to take advantage of the double jump as any hero can.

Abilities

Primary - Minion Select

• Since the hero doesn’t attack, his primary will be used to select his minions. Currently we only allow single unit selection but will continue to iterate on this as feedback is received.

Secondary - Overlord Mode

• A big feature of the Summoner was his ability to go into overlord mode and have a more top down RTS style camera. This ability will allow the Outcast Summoner to pan around the map and place minions remotely as well as move them as necessary.

Active Ability - Flash Heal

• Flash heal offers the ability to heal nearby heroes, Minions and defenses by a percentage of their max health, scaling off the hero's Ability stat.

Buff Ability - Pet Boost

• While active the hero's pets will be buffed increasing attack damage and attack speed, scaling off the hero's Ability stat. This was a redux addition that we felt added a lot of potential to the hero being used as a DPS and playing off the ability for the hero to equip 2 pets.

Minions

Before we get started all the minions are still going through active balancing so these values might not represent what goes live for the PTR as well as adjusting balance as we receive PTR feedback.

Minion 1 - Archer (2 DU):

• Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Archer. Shoots non-piercing arrows at enemies. 

Minion 2 - Spider (3 DU):

• Summons a Crystalline Spider to the battlefield. Flings webs at nearby enemies, slowing them down and doubling all damage they receive.

Minion 3 - Siren (4 DU):

• Summons a Crystalline Siren to the battlefield. She casts protective shields around defenses reducing incoming damage and also attacks offensively with her ranged attack.

Minion 4 - Dark Elf Mage (4 DU):

• Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Mage to the battlefield. Casts fireballs and periodically heals themselves and other nearby minions, as well as heroes.  

Minion 5 - Ogre (5 DU):

• Summons a Crystalline Ogre to the battlefield. Crushes enemies within melee range and occasionally fires poison snot balls from a distance.

Runes

This will mostly be a recap of the full runes introduction post as a lot of it remains unchanged from the original design but figured it was important to give a recap and fill in any blanks as needed.

Runes are broken down into two different categories they work in the following ways:

• Hero Runes - Runes that affect your hero’s stats, attacks, and abilities.
• Tower Runes - Runes that affect your tower stats and activation (whether that’s damage or utility).

Additionally, there are 2 types of Runes, General Runes and Class Runes and can be used in different situations.

• General Runes - Runes that can be applied to any hero. These are typically flat stat increasing runes, with some slight variations.
• Class Runes - Runes that are applied to a specific hero, or specific list of heroes.

Unlocking runes is a 2-step process. First you must obtain a rune which can be found by playing various gamemodes, maps and difficulties. Some runes will have specific drop locations while others will have random drop locations. Secondly you will need to pay a gold cost to consume the rune and permanently unlock the rank of rune.

Once you’ve unlocked a rune you can choose to use that rune in any of your available slots. Each hero has 2 Hero runes and 4 Defense Runes slots. Those rune slots can be set on each individual hero. Allowing you to add more customization to the way that hero builds.

With all that recapped, let's talk about some examples of runes we can expect to see in DDA.

Squire

• Explosive Shield - Shield Throw explodes on hit, dealing 100% of its normal damage to all nearby enemies and increases number of Bounces by X.
• Spear Trap - Every X Seconds when the Spike Blockade is attacked it shoots out 8 piercing projectiles damaging enemies for X% Tower Health.

Apprentice

• Arcane Blast - Arcane Surge becomes a ranged piercing projectile which deals X% of secondary attack damage.
• Bouncing Magic - Magic Missile Projectiles deal X% damage and bounces up to Y additional targets.

Huntress

• Chance Grenade - Grenade Toss has a X% chance to spawn another grenade upon killing an enemy.
• Shell Shocked - Enemies hit are slowed by X% and deal Y% reduced damage for Z seconds.

Monk

• Mystical Repair - Tower Boost slowly repairs defenses for X% of tower health over Y Seconds.
• Lightning Strikes - Every X Seconds, the Lightning Aura deals Y% tower damage to a single enemy within range.

EV

• Decoy-GR - Decoy now shoots along with the hero at the same direction dealing X% of hero damage.
• Electric Shock - Proton Beam has a X% chance to shock and stun enemies for Y seconds.

Warden

• Yum Yum Seed - Sprout Seeds on-pickup restore X% HP and gives a Healing over time for Y% Max HP over Z seconds.
• Focus Blossom - Beaming Blossom does additional X% damage for each attack made against the same enemy, stacking up to Y times.

Rogue

• Multiple Marks - Increases max number of Marked targets by X.
• Spin-To-Win - Carnage consumes -50% mana and does Y% of the original damage.

Outcast Summoner

• Flash Buff - Defenses within Flash Heal gain Attack rate and Power for X Seconds.
• Healing Master - The Dark Elf Mage Minion can also heal nearby defenses for X% of the normal minion healing.

Trading

Now with all this talk about runes, there is another way to acquire them that wasn’t mentioned above which would be through trading. Trading will allow 2 players to exchange items and gold between one another.

Players can request to open a trade and then add items and offer gold. Not every item is tradable, specifically any kind of entitlement reward like from the Kickstarter. Outside of that you are free to trade Armor, Weapons, Pets, Offhands, Accessories, and now Runes.

Additionally, we also added a new gameplay setting to auto reject trade requests for the popular few that don’t wish to be overwhelmed with trade requests. You can still send trade requests while this setting is enabled but any attempts for others to trade with you will be rejected without notification.

Finally, since we know players will want better ways to find other traders, we’ve added a way to host a public tavern with custom session names. While this isn’t a perfect solution, we hope we can improve this in the future and potentially look at new ways to host trading lobbies.

Act 5 - 2 New Maps

With the first part of Episode 2 comes 2 new maps to kick off Act 5. After defeating the Lycan King, the heroes traverse a great desert uncovering forgotten locations along the way.

The Bazaar

You’ll have to fight your way through the Bazaar in order to progress deeper into the secrets this desert holds!

The Lost Metropolis

Defend your core from threats old and new in the shadow of structures from a forgotten civilization.

Defense Changes

As we hinted at in one of our live streams there will be 5 changes to the defense roster. These changes are based on metrics, survey data and general community discussions. That said if the feedback from these changes is not well received we will look at making changes as needed.

Squire - Sniper Tower

The Sniper tower offers the squire a new single target defense that will be very strong at defeating tanky enemies. It will use a special enemy targeting priority. This tower will replace the Bouncer Blockade as we felt the blockade was often overshadowed by the other blockades in the game.

Defense Rune - Piercing Upgrade:

• Pierces an additional enemy and scales damage of the attack by X%.

Huntress - Poison Dart Tower

The Poison Dart Tower is the first addition of a defense to the Huntress’s kit. The PDT will shoot 3 individual projectiles. These projectiles are fanned out so that they spread out and hit multiple enemies down the path. It will use a fodder targeting priority. This tower will replace the Darkness Trap, as it was the most unused defense in the game, the alternative was the Thunder Spike Trap which we felt could have more use cases.

Defense Rune - Blinding Darts:

• Enemies hit by the Poison Dart Tower have a X% to become blinded for Y seconds.

EV - Combined Blocking + Reflect Field

In order to make room for the upcoming defense changes, we’ve decided to merge the Blocking Field and Reflect field. This means the defense will be able to serve as a wall or a reflect field and will have the same DU scaling of the original reflect field so that they continue to be used as they have in the past.

Defense Rune - Electric Fence:

• Blocking Field deals X% of Tower Health back to all attackers as electric damage.

EV - Heat Cannon

The Heat Cannon provides a unique defense to the game. It’s a short ranged flamethrower defense that hits all enemies within its range arc. While this defense is limited in range it will more than make up in defense power. This defense will have a fodder targeting priority. It will replace the new empty slot where Reflect Field was.

Defense Rune - Immolation:

• Heat Cannon applies a fire DoT onto enemies dealing X% of tower damage over Y seconds.

EV - Plasma Defense System

The Plasma Defense System or PDS is an omni-directional sentry that can target and attack up to 3 separate targets at once. The defense does have one major flaw in the form of a dead zone. The dead zone prevents the tower from attacking enemies that are too close to the tower. This defense will have a modified version of the special enemy targeting but instead prioritizes Djinns, Copters, and Wyverns before targeting other special enemies. This defense will replace the Shock beam, as we felt that the crowd control it provided was just outclassed by other crowd control oriented defenses regardless of balance.

Defense Rune - Full Coverage:

• Increases the Plasma Defense System’s defense range by X% but also increases the dead zone by Y%.

Auto Loot 2.0

This has been a highly requested quality of life for endgame players. Auto Loot 2.0 will allow players to have multiple loot filters using the existing setup. This allows players to have filters tied to specific types of items, for example having a Auto Loot Filter specifically for picking up Accessories or a filter to pick up only swords. As long as an item matches 1 of the filters in your list it will get picked up when Auto Loot happens.

This UI will allow you to create and manage the multiple filter profiles. Each one can have a name and Icon associated to help associate them. You will be limited to 8 filters at any point.

Public Test Realm (PTR)

So now that we’ve talked about all the amazing things coming in episode 2, I know you all are dying to know when the PTR will go live. On that note I can say we are aiming for the PTR to go live on October 28th, 2022 pending any major setbacks. While we had initially planned for it to start early October we felt the extra time was needed, and with the Halloween event it would be odd to have those launch at nearly the same time.

What’s Next?

After the Halloween event is over and the PTR is finished we’ll look at releasing the update live after we’ve made any necessary changes based on player feedback. Once that is live we’ll begin work on the remaining Episode Part 2 work and keep you all updated as that is developed. Though it is too early to say what the timeline will be like at this moment.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Instagram

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• YouTube

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• Forums

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,
It has been a while since the last Dungeon Defenders 1 update from the Community Development Team, which after years of high-quality content and features being developed for the game unfortunately came to an end. However, enthusiasm within Chromatic Games surrounding DD1 extends to this day, and we are super excited to announce that the game will be receiving a new light. A handful of developers have decided to return to working on a new update for the live version of the game with the help of the community again. This includes some members of the CDT returning as well as some new faces.

What you can expect from this update is similar to what you have seen previously from the Community Development Team. This will include new maps, items, bosses, and features. We are planning to add some of the content and features present or previously worked on for Redux.

We will be monitoring community feedback on the changes we make, as well as looking for new features that you all want to see added to the game.


REDUX -
In the past, Redux was meant to be this new light, but it didn’t pan out the way we wanted due to the major split in communities and other issues. Redux is not going away with this new development, but the development will be paused for the time being.


WHAT THIS WON'T BE -
As mentioned earlier this project is not a full company effort and is just a tiny subset of the company that is working on this purely on our time with help from some community members. This effort at first will also be on an our time basis approach to order to not effect development in other areas if possible.


WHEN? -
So if all of this sounds enticing, you might want to know “when?!”. We don’t typically announce dates for things like this, but in full transparency, the plan is to have an update out by sometime in October with select items and features from Redux as well as some new stuff.


WHAT'S NEXT?-
If this update goes well with the community we will look at expanding the scope of our future updates with new content.. We would like to keep Dungeon Defenders 1 updates happening for as long as possible, but it depends on how the community feels about these new developments.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Forums

DEFENDERS,

The Pre-Episode 2 Patch 2 is now live on PC, Xbox and PlayStation, including some major enhancements to the endgame in the form of Endless Survival, Rifted Mixed and Pure Strategy, and lots of balance changes. Switch will catch up to this update at a later date. Let's dive into the changes!

Endless Survival

Ever felt like 25 waves just wasn’t enough? Ever wish you could keep your build and keep playing forever? Well now’s your chance! Endless survival does just that by allowing the player to keep playing after wave 25 to no end. Each wave will get increasingly difficult, carrying on potentially forever. 

Item quality will stay the same as wave 25, as this helps to avoid too much power creep. Every 5 waves we will reward players with a Map Victory chest, which will contain the same item rolls and potential as that of Wave 25. Bosses will spawn every 5th wave and gain 20% health each time.

Endless Survival can be started by the host pressing continue on the summary screen. Players will still be able to start on higher waves but must start on a wave after a Victory Chest. (Ex: Every 5th wave such as 26, 31, 36)

Since loot quality doesn’t scale we have added special rewards for endless survival in the form of Golden Pet Transmogs! Every map has a golden pet transmog to unlock by beating wave 100 on Massacre Survival on the respective map. With the exception of the Golden Giraffe On a Treadmill which is unlocked by beating wave 100 Massacre Survival on every map (Act 1, 2, 3 & 4).

Cutting Attack Rate Caps

We’ve received lots of feedback overtime asking for changes to the attack rate caps and as such In this update we are cutting attack rate caps for defenses in half for PC, Xbox and PlayStation. This means towers will attack much faster than they have in the past. We’ve also removed the higher attack rate caps on specific towers like Deadly Striker and Sludge Launcher. Unfortunately this is the only change in this list that Switch users will not receive.

Bonus Waves are now Bonus Difficulties

Bonus Waves are now a feature of the past, and Bonus Difficulties will be replacing it. Bonus Difficulties work almost identically to how bonus waves work with one exception.

• Instead of getting a bonus wave after completing the map, Bonus Difficulty will scale up the entire map’s difficulty and loot quality.

This means you no longer have to casually play through wave 23, 24 and 25 to get to the single hard wave that challenges you and provides the loot quality you are looking for. Bonus Difficulties unlock the same way as bonus waves and are usable in the same locations.

HUD Party Bar

Tired of not knowing who is not readied up? Wish you could see who joined your game without having to go to the escape screen? Want to know what level your friends are?

Well now you can do all that and more! The HUD party is a way to see a quick all of that and more at a quick glance. You’ll be able to see Names, Hero Type, Hero Level, Hero Health and Ready up status.

4 New Fusion Pets

We have added another set of 4 new Fusion pets for you to collect!

• Act 1: Griffin
• Act 2: Etherian
• Act 3: Lil Bomber
• Act 4: Lycan King Mini

Fusion Pet Drop locations have been adjusted. Here is the complete list of where to get Fusion Pets:

• Griffin: The Deeper Well & Ancient Mines
• Steam Robot: Lava Mines & Alchemical Labs
• Paddle Ball: Magus Quarters
• Little Wizard: Tornado Valley & Tornado Highlands
• Etherian: The Ramparts & The Throne Room
• Monkey King: Endless Spires
• Lil’ Bomber: Arcane Library & Royal Gardens
• Dragon: The Promenade & The Summit
• Mega Chicken: Glitterhelm Caverns
• Angry Cloud: The Mill & The Outpost
• Mini Lycan Prince: The Keep
• Demon Lord: Foundries and Forges

Rift Mixed & Pure Strategy

In order to fill out the game more and work towards our goal of eventually having more gamemodes open to the player at the endgame, we’ve added the ability to play those gamemodes with rifted enabled.

This will be something we continue to expand on in the future but wanted to offer the player the ability to play these modes with rifted enabled.

Pure Strategy will not be getting a rework in this update, We decided it was best to hold off on that rework till we can offer special rewards to go along with it. As currently other gamemodes are just offer inherently better rewards and so this is something we want to address at the same time.

Mixed Bosses and Bonus Difficulty

With Rift added to mixed mode we wanted to offer players more reason to play mixed as well. As such we’ve added Bosses and allowed Bonus Difficulties to be used on mixed. This means the waves will be harder but the loot will scale to that of the bonus difficulty selected.

Balance

The goal with these changes is to provide players with more options for Pets, Weapons and Defenses. As with anything in this patch we will be monitoring this to see if any further adjustments are needed. 

This is gonna be a long list so get ready!

Defenses

• Squire
  • Spike Blockade
    • Health increased by 100%
  • Harpoon
    • Damage increased by 10%
  • Bouncer Blockade
    • Health increased by 100%
  • Slice N’ Dice
    • Health increased by 100%
• Monk
  • Lightning Aura
    • Damage increased by 10%
  • Strength Drain Aura
    • DU decreased from 5 to 4
• Apprentice
  • Magic Blockade
    • Health increased by 100%
  • Magic Missile
    • Damage increased by 10%
  • Flameburst
    • Damage increased by 10%
• EV
  • Proton Beam
    • Starting Attack rate increased from 0.3s to 0.5s
    • Damage scalar increased by 10%
    • Overall this is a nerf to early game and a buff to endgame
  • Physical Beam
    • Health increased by 100%
• Warden
  • Roots of Purity
    • Health increased by 100%
  • Wisp Den
    • Damage decreased by 10%

Pets

• Angry Cloud
  • Increased damage by ~600% at the endgame
• Demon Lord
  • Increased damage by ~185% at the endgame
• Dragon
  • Increased damage by ~300% at the endgame
• Etherian
  • Increased damage by ~20% at the endgame
• Hippogriff
  • Increased damage by ~275% at the endgame
• Lil’ Bomber
  • Increased damage by ~360% at the endgame
• Lycan Prince
  • Fusion version gives Rift Armor
• Mega Chicken
  • Increased damage by ~150% at the endgame
• Monkey King
  • Decreased the damage increase per stack from 10% to 5%
  • Increased the damage stack limit from 10 to 30
• Paddle Ball
  • Increased damage by ~55% at the endgame
• Steam Robot
  • Increased damage by ~65% at the endgame
• General
  • Increased movement speed of all pets by 200%

Weapons

• Boss Weapons
  • We increased the damage scalars of all Demon Lord, Goblin Mech and Ancient Dragon Boss weapons to try to be within 5-10% of the potential power of a Lycan King Boss Weapon when dropped at similar quality.
    • The goal here is to allow players more choice to choose which of the boss weapons fit their playstyle the best. So playing Bonus Difficulties on Boss Maps should provide weapons with the potential to be as good as Lycan King Boss Weapons.

Bug Fixes & Misc.

• Bonus Difficulty is now displayed on the pause menu in the bottom left corner.
• Opening launch cinematic has been replaced by a simplified loading screen.
• Fixed issue with a couple Mixed & Pure Strategy maps having wrong item quality drops.
• Fixed issues with Fusion pets dropping a really low quality in higher difficulties.
• Fixed issue where clients couldn’t cancel carnage.
• Fixed issue with Foundries and Forges having the wrong experience in Survival.
• Fixed Issue with auto sell loot total display showing negative numbers.
• Fixed issue with woodland weapons not dropping.

What’s Next?

The next step for DDA is Episode 2 Part 1 PTR which includes Runes, Trading, The Outcast Summoner Hero, 2 Maps, The Bazaar and The Lost Metropolis. That’s not all though there will be additions coming in October that players will be excited for. Outside of DDA, we are still hard at work making a new update for DD2. 

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

Today we have a new update which includes a new hero, new enemy, new talent category, and ping system. We are also at PAX West (Booth 764) this weekend showing it off and doing some giveaways so if you are in the area please stop by!

Demo
With this update also comes a free demo! This is a shortened version of the game where you can play one map then fight the Demon Lord with the Squire and Apprentice. If you’ve been waiting to try the game out then now is your chance!

New Hero: Series EV-GR
The Series EV-GR is a ranged hero that defends Etheria by summoning decoys, channeling powerful lasers, and harnessing the new Pulsator tower technology!

Weapon and Attack

• Staffs - Fire magical bolts of energy at your foes!

Skill

• Fire The Laser - Unleash a powerful laser blast to devastate a single foe! Can also be charged up to increase its damage.

Abilities

• Decoy: EV-ATK - Creates a holographic copy of the hero which taunts enemies into attacking it. This Decoy also fires wherever the hero is aiming and firing. Once the Decoy is destroyed or after a duration it will explode dealing damage to nearby enemies.
• Energy Cannon - Channels an energy beam which pierces through enemies dealing rapid damage to anything it touches.

Towers

• Proton Pulsator - Fires pulses of protean energy which damage any enemies in its path.
• Shock Pulsator - Releases pulses of electric energy which damage and stun enemies.
• Blocking Field - Projects a field which blocks enemies from passing and reflects projectiles directly back at attackers.
• Heat Cannon - Unleashes a cone of flame at a nearby enemy.
• Plasma Defense System - Fires super fast balls of plasma which phase through solid objects. However, beware it’s deadzone as it has trouble targeting enemies that get too close!

Mastery Runes

• Vitality - Max HP +20%
• Strongarm - Attack +10%
• Overclock - Attack Speed and Movement Speed increased with each Attack. Stacks 10 times.
• Shielded - Shield +20%
• Ultra Heated - Fire The Laser applies a Burn effect dealing damage over time and reducing enemy armor.

Unlock Condition
Defeat the Goblin Mech on any hero.
Please note the Mech will need to be defeated after the patch releases to unlock.

Runes
These are just a few of her Runes. Gain EV Hero Mastery levels and beat the game with her to unlock more.

• Slowing Pulses - Proton Pulsators slow enemies.
• Full Coverage - Plasma Defense Systems gain Range and no longer have a deadzone.
• Distracted - Decoy reduces nearby enemy armor.

Talents
New Category: Gear
These talents are all about the items! This category adds 10 new Talents that provide all sorts of buffs to the way items drop and the gold system in general. Reduced prices from the Shopkeeper, discounts from the Blacksmith to upgrade your weapons, starting with extra gold, or even getting an additional rune choice!

Resets
In addition to a new category of talents we also have added a simple button to reset all of your talents. This will refund all points and allow more exploration of all the different builds available. This has been a highly requested feature and we wanted to make sure to get it in with this update!

New Enemy: The Siren
This powerful ranged enemy buffs nearby allies, throws magical bolts of energy, and launches powerful ground based attacks. Beware the Siren as she is on a similar power level of enemies like the Ogre!

Abilities

• Magical Bolt - This standard attack is a simple projectile but don’t ignore it as even the most simple of spells can be deadly in the right hands.
• Armor Shield - After a brief cast she gives all nearby enemies extra armor. This buff only lasts for a short duration before she must recharge and re-buff so make sure to time your attacks for when it's down!
• Ground Blast - The Siren will periodically target a player’s current location and then explode the ground there after a short casting time. This deals massive damage so it’s important to pay close attention and keep moving!

General
Enemy Schedules
Prior to this patch all enemy schedules were extremely randomized. This led to many of the groups of enemies just always feeling the same and didn’t allow us to design specific groups. Now, there is still a chance for these groups to be random but you will also notice that there will be more specialized pairings of enemies to provide new challenges.

Pings
We want players to be able to quickly and efficiently point out important elements to each other. To do this we have taken inspiration from other games and have added a smart ping system. It detects what has been pinged and then prints a message about it. 

Pings can be used by aiming and pressing the middle mouse button.

What's Next?
There is more exciting stuff to come for DDGR including major features! However, as a team the vast majority of our focus is now on DDA and DD2. This is where we feel our time is best spent and while we are by no means abandoning DDGR it will mean that updates will come more slowly. With the upcoming release of DDA Episode 2 Part 1 we are very excited to see what the future brings as we continue building the world of Etheria!

Social Defenders
To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Forums

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The Pre-Episode 2 Patch 2 PTR is now live, and like last time we need help from our Defenders to test out all these upcoming changes! This PTR focuses on more endgame as well as balancing Pets and Weapons. We aim to run this PTR for a few weeks and tweak things as needed before releasing it to the live game including consoles.

How to Join

We want you to join the PTR! If you own Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on PC/Steam, check out our forum post that shows you exactly how to join!

PTR Reward

For those that complete the PTR survey, the PTR reward will be slightly different this time around, We’ll be allowing people to catch up on any missed PTR rewards in the past. You’ll be given the choice of reward in the survey. This includes the following rewards:

• Eagle’s Wings

• Forest Ally’s Wings

• Crystalline Corgi

For those that have all the PTR rewards or want something else, You can choose to enter in to win a set of Pizza Wings instead. 

Endless Survival

Ever felt like 25 waves just wasn’t enough? Ever wish you could keep your build and keep playing forever? Well now’s your chance! Endless survival does just that by allowing the player to keep playing after wave 25 to no end. Each wave will get increasingly difficult, carrying on potentially forever. 

Item quality will stay the same as wave 25, as this helps to avoid too much power creep. Every 5 waves we will reward players with a Map Victory chest, which will contain the same item rolls and potential as that of Wave 25. Bosses will spawn every 5th wave and gain 20% each time.

Endless Survival can be started by the host pressing continue on the summary screen. Players will still be able to start on higher waves but must start on a wave after a Victory Chest. (Ex: Every 5th wave such as 26, 31, 36)

Since this is a PTR and there will be a lot of tweaking to the scaling, there won’t be any special rewards and something that will be added once we have a better idea of how far players will get.

Bonus Waves are now Bonus Difficulties

Bonus Waves are now a feature of the past, and Bonus Difficulties will be replacing it. Bonus Difficulties work almost identically to how bonus waves work with one exception.

• Instead of getting a bonus wave after completing the map, Bonus Difficulty will scale up the entire map’s difficulty and loot quality.

This means you no longer have to casually play through wave 23, 24 and 25 to get to the single hard wave that challenges you and provides the loot quality you are looking for. Bonus Difficulties unlock the same way as bonus waves and are usable in the same locations.

HUD Party Bar

Tired of not knowing who is not readied up? Wish you could see who joined your game without having to go to the escape screen? Want to know what level your friends are?

Well now you can do all that and more! The HUD party is a way to see a quick all of that and more at a quick glance. You’ll be able to see Names, Hero Type, Hero Level, Hero Health and Ready up status.

4 New Fusion Pets

We have added another set of 4 new Fusion pets for you to collect!

• Act 1: Hippogryph

• Act 2: Etherian

• Act 3: Lil Bomber

• Act 4: Lycan King Mini

Fusion Pet Drop locations will be adjusted as well in this PTR. Here is the complete list of where to get Fusion Pets:

• Hippogryph: The Deeper Well & Ancient Mines

• Steam Robot: Lava Mines & Alchemical Labs

• Paddle Ball: Magus Quarters

• Little Wizard: Tornado Valley & Tornado Highlands

• Etherian: The Ramparts & The Throne Room

• Monkey King: Endless Spires

• Lil’ Bomber: Arcane Libary & Royal Gardens

• Dragon: The Promenade & The Summit

• Mega Chicken: Glitterhelm Caverns

• Angry Cloud: The Mill & The Outpost

• Mini Lycan Prince: The Keep

• Demon Lord: Foundries and Forges

Cutting Attack Rate Caps

We’ve received lots of feedback overtime asking for changes to the attack rate caps and as such In this PTR we are cutting attack rate caps for defenses in half for PC, Xbox and PlayStation. This means towers will attack much faster than they have in the past. We’ve also removed the higher attack rate caps on specific towers like Deadly Striker and Sludge Launcher. We’ll monitor these changes over the PTR and see if any adjustments are needed. Unfortunately this is the 1 change in this list that Switch users will not receive, unless major performance breakthroughs are made.

Rift Mixed & Pure Strategy

In order to fill out the game more and work towards our goal of eventually having more gamemodes open to the player at the endgame, we’ve added the ability to play those gamemodes with rifted enabled.

This will be something we continue to expand on in the future but wanted to offer the player the ability to play these modes with rifted enabled.

Pure Strategy will not be getting a rework in this update, We decided it was best to hold off on that rework till we can offer special rewards to go along with it. As currently other gamemodes are just offer inherently better rewards and so this is something we want to address at the same time.

Balance

The goal with these changes is to provide players with more options for Pets, Weapons and Defenses. As with anything in this patch we will be monitoring this to see if any further adjustments are needed. 

This is gonna be a long list so get ready!

Defenses

• Squire

  • Spike Blockade

    • Health increased by 100%

  • Harpoon

    • Damage increased by 10%

  • Bouncer Blockade

    • Health increased by 100%

  • Slice N’ Dice

    • Health increased by 100%

• Monk

  • Lightning Aura

    • Damage increased by 10%

  • Strength Drain Aura

    • DU decreased from 5 to 4

• Apprentice

  • Magic Blockade

    • Health increased by 100%

  • Magic Missile

    • Damage increased by 10%

  • Flameburst

    • Damage increased by 10%

• EV

  • Proton Beam

    • Starting Attack rate increased from 0.3s to 0.5s

    • Damage scalar increased by 10%

    • Overall this is a nerf to early game and a buff to endgame

  • Physical Beam

    • Health increased by 100%

• Warden

  • Roots of Purity

    • Health increased by 100%

  • Wisp Den

    • Damage decreased by 10%

Pets

• Angry Cloud

  • Increased damage by ~600% at the endgame

• Demon Lord

  • Increased damage by ~185% at the endgame

• Dragon

  • Increased damage by ~300% at the endgame

• Etherian

  • Increased damage by ~20% at the endgame

• Hippogriff

  • Increased damage by ~275% at the endgame

• Lil’ Bomber

  • Increased damage by ~360% at the endgame

• Lycan Prince

  • Fusion version gives Rift Armor

• Mega Chicken

  • Increased damage by ~150% at the endgame

• Monkey King

  • Decreased the damage increase per stack from 10% to 5%

  • Increased the damage stack limit from 10 to 30

• Paddle Ball

  • Increased damage by ~55% at the endgame

• Steam Robot

  • Increased damage by ~65% at the endgame

• General

  • Increased movement speed of all pets by 200%

Weapons

• Boss Weapons

  • We increased the damage scalars of all Demon Lord, Goblin Mech and Ancient Dragon Boss weapons to try to be within 5-10% of the potential power of a Lycan King Boss Weapon when dropped at similar quality.

    • The goal here is to allow players more choice to choose which of the boss weapons fit their playstyle the best. So playing Bonus Difficulties on Boss Maps should provide weapons with the potential to be as good as Lycan King Boss Weapons.

What’s Next?

Collecting feedback and testing, testing, testing! Make sure to fill out your survey in the PTR client and let us know what you think about the changes. Tell us what you like. Tell us what you don’t like. We expect the PTR to go for a few weeks, where you can definitely expect changes and we continue to get more information. Thanks again to our Defenders for taking the time to participate and give us feedback!

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Forums

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The Pre-Episode 2 Patch 1 is now live on PC, Xbox and PlayStation! Switch will get this update at a future date once it’s gone through certification. This patch adds many highly requested features and changes from the community.

Let’s get into all the great changes in this patch!

Siren Rework 

The Siren has been a point of frustration for many of our players and has received a rework. The reworked version will be targetable by towers and have two abilities and a normal ranged attack:
 

• Ability 1 - Mitigate damage to nearby enemies. 

• Ability 2 - Target players/defenses with a casted explosion that will cause damage if the player does not move away before the cast completes. 

Make sure to keep an eye on defenses and cores as The Siren will now attack anything in her path without needing to be provoked.

Note: Currently there is no difference between normal and rifted and is still considered a Rifted Enemy in both modes.

Pet Transmog

Do you want your Corgi to shoot fireballs? Well now they can! Pet Transmog can be accessed through the blacksmith and you can now transmog your currently equipped pet with any pet that you’ve unlocked.

New Fusion Pets

What better way to welcome the addition of Pet Transmog than to add more pets to collect!

In this patch we’ve added 4 new Fusion pets for you to collect!

• Act 1: Steam Robot

• Act 2: Little Wizard

• Act 3: Dragon

• Act 4: Angry Cloud

Players can obtain them by playing Rifted Survival on any act map except for the encore maps. Bonus Waves will roll between the map's pet and the Fusion pet (50/50 currently). We expect to add more in future patches.

Defense Range Decal

For those that have played DDGR, we changed the defense range decal to a clearer and nicer looking blue range indicator that more concisely communicates your range without overriding the environment. We’ve brought this over to replace the green glow that is currently presented. Overall we think this should provide players with a less obstructive view of their defense range.

Changing enemy Elemental Resistance from 100% to 75%

Enemy Elemental Resistance has been lowered from 100% to 75%. This will not change how towers work. Elemental Towers will not target, Auras will not damage, and Traps will not trigger or damage elemental enemies.

Item Culling Changes

This change makes it so that instead of drops always replacing the lowest IPWR item on the ground once the max drop limit has been reached, it will now instead keep 20 Armor, 10 Weapons and 10 Offhand drops on the ground and replace an item of the same category. Pets and Accessories are no longer culled and will stay on the ground.

Rifted Enemies now drop Fusion Gear

Enemies now have a small chance to drop Fusion Gear when playing rifted. This isn’t meant to be a major source of Fusion Gear but will help players breaking into rifted to make sets easier.

Centered Perspective Camera Option

This was an addition that was done in DDGR to allow players to have a centered camera view and has been a popular request in the community. This can be enabled in the gameplay settings for users that prefer that camera angle.

Smart Upgrade and Repair

This new system will allow you to upgrade and repair defenses like never before! When enabled in the gameplay setting (Enabled by default). Each setting can be toggled on or off independently of each other.

Smart Repair will attempt to repair nearby defense to the reticle starting with the lowest health percentage. 

Smart Upgrade will upgrade nearby towers to the reticle in the order of their priority fully before going down to a lower priority tower. Two towers of the same priority will alternate between the lower upgrade level. The priority list is now:

• Overclock Beam

• DPS Towers / Traps / Auras

• Blockades

• Everything else

• Reflect Field

Example 1: If you have a Harpoon Tower and a Spike Blockade, the Harpoon Turret will get upgraded fully before the Spike Blockade receives any upgrades.

Example 2: if you have 2 Harpoon towers and a Spike blockade, it will alternate upgrading the 2 Harpoon Towers to full before targeting the Spike Blockade

Balance

• General

  • Item Effects

    • Irradiate can no longer activate on target dummies to allow users to more easily compare actual DPS values as irradiate.

• Squire

  • Spiked Blockade

    • Health Increased from 1160 to 1392

  • Slice N Dice Blockade

    • Health Increased from 1225 to 1470

    • Damage Increased from 7 to 7.7

  • Harpoon Turret

    • Damage Increased from 60 to 73

    • Projectile is no longer destroyed by map geometry

  • Bouncer Blockade

    • Health Increased from 1087 to 1304

    • DU reduced from 2 to 1

  • Bowling Ball Turret

    • Damage Increased from 70 to 84

• Apprentice

  • Elemental Barrier

    • Health Increased from 1160 to 1392

  • Magic Missile Tower

    • Damage Scaling Increased from 1.6 to 1.75

  • Lightning Tower 

    • Damage Increased from 20 to 22

• Huntress

  • Explosive Trap

    • Damage increased from 375 to 412

    • Range Increased from 200 to 220

    • Rate Increased from 10 to  8

  • Inferno Trap

    • Damage Increased from 65 to 78

    • Effect Rate Increased from 0.65 to 0.5

  • Thunder Spike Trap

    • Damage Increased from 1500 to 1800

    • Rate Increased from 8.5 to 6.8

    • Can be overlapped with other Thunder Spike Traps outside of a small radius

• EV

  • Blocking Field

    • Health Increased from 882 to 1058

• Warden

  • Roots of Purity

    • Health Increased from 825 to 990

  • Shroomy Pit is now Shroomy Geyser

    • Use the new and improved Shroomy Geyser to yeet Shroomies to your heart's content!

Quality of Life

• Warden's Sprout ground target changed to a projectile.

• Updated Defense Range indicators to be more user-friendly.

• The ‘Sell All’ hotkey returns as Left Ctrl + S (Hold) for keyboard and Left Thumbstick (Hold) for gamepad while in the inventory.

• Added ‘Force Ready Up’ on the Escape UI for consoles.

• Transmog items that can no longer be obtained will now be hidden on the transmog UI.

• Updated item effect descriptions to say "Increases {stat name}" instead of giving the actual description of the stat.

• Updated Stability's item effect description to say "Reduces Knockback from enemy attacks."

Miscellaneous

• Entitlements no longer give items, but will now just unlock the transmog. Entitlements that were given as items are now sellable, but will not be tradable. Additionally those items will also be locked when logging in to prevent accidental selling.

  • Note: Any entitlement items sold at this point will be gone forever.

• Added Social Button Bar to Main Menu.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a few issues to help with multiplayer disconnects.

• Fixed an issue where the spawn door had some weird textures.

• Fixed an issue where hackers can see non hacked games.

• Fixed an issue where defeated enemies on the Tactical Map would still display despite being defeated.

• Fixed issues with item effects spawning projectiles at the wrong location.

• Fixed an issue where leaving a game that was lower difficulty than what your Tavern was previously set to would cause you to have difficulty scaling issues until hero swapping.

• Fixed an issue where deleting your last transmog could result in a crash.

• Fixed an issue where the client would occasionally crash when culling an item.

• Fixed an issue where the session browser displays 9999 games found instead of 0 when no games found on initial open.

• Fixed an issue where refreshing the Session Browser when there are no sessions will hide the X Games Found text instead of saying 0.

• Fixed an issue where the Siren icon on the Tactical Map was too small.

• Fixed some additional backend issues with Session Browser with games not showing up in specific cases.

• Fixed issue where Ping was not shown in the controls UI.

DEFENDERS,

Hey all! I’m not really one for long, drawn-out, goodbyes so I’ll do my best to keep this short. I have recently accepted a position at another gaming company, and today is my last day at Chromatic Games. Thank you so much for welcoming me into your community with open arms almost a year ago. I have truly enjoyed my time here getting to know everyone, and doing my best to help in any way that I could make sure your voices were heard. I understand the timing here isn't great, especially with the new community-centric approach to DDA development just now kicking off. However, I still have faith this process will still be as seamless as possible.

Thank you again for everything, and I’ll see you around!

Andrew “SNK” Bernard

DEFENDERS,

Let’s talk DDA. It has been a year since we have released a significant update. We’re sorry and we will do better. However, apologies don’t mean anything without action, so we want to lay out a path forward that keeps our community engaged and us accountable. With that, we bring you the DDA Community Task Force.

DDA Community Task Force 

Internally, we have recently reorganized some of our structures to incorporate a small dedicated team to more readily and quickly respond to issues specifically on DDA. This team is headed up by Phil (of Funday Friday and Corgi fame) and he will be leading a handful of us to better cater to the needs of players. 

What does this mean? This means DDA will be receiving MUCH more frequent updates with significant changes to the game. These changes could include: Large meta-shifting rebalances, game mode revamps, attack speed cap partial or full reverts (yes, seriously), or other community requested features. We definitely expect to miss the mark on some of these changes, but with our increased ability to adapt we will be able to take risks that we have previously been afraid of taking. 

So now what does the future of DDA look like?

August

Two of the most apparent issues with DDA are (1) that players generally don’t have enough incentive to play game modes other than Survival, and (2) there is not enough variety in high-level, endgame play. This is something we want to address, while also adding features that the community wants to see. This first group of changes will attempt to address the following: 

• Endless Survival

  • Giving players more challenges to push their gear to the limits and optimizing their builds to see how far they can progress.

• Pure Strategy Rework

  • Adding engaging goals to make playing it feel special and give better rewards.

• HUD Party Bar

  • QoL feature to see who is in your party at all times, with relevant information like Health, Level, and Ready Up Status.

• Weapon & Pet Balance Iteration

  • Taking a closer look at itemization to find areas we can make more engaging and allow players to have more options.

• Cutting Attack Rate Caps in half 

  • This will start with PC, with performance investigations for Xbox and PS.

• QoL Changes to Bonus Waves

  • Scaling up the difficulty of the entire map as opposed to just 1 additional hard wave.

Note: We will start making the first round of these changes this month. We expect these adjustments to be significant, so there will be another PTR available for testing as well. 

Episode 2

We have some content in Episode 2 that is ready, and some that is not. In order to bring you some of the finished content sooner, we will be splitting it in two. The first half of Episode 2 will include:

• Runes

• Trading

• The Outcast (Summoner Reimagining)

• The Bazaar

• The Lost Metropolis

This first part of Episode 2 will drop in around late September or early October with the second half of Episode 2 coming in November. If this proves to be successful, we may also decide to spread Episode 3 out over several smaller updates as well to make sure that we continue to give our players continuous, fresh content.

Updated Timelines

In order for this DDA Community Task Force to be effective, we will need to update the game much more frequently. Right now we anticipate this to include 1 or 2 updates per month, as well as a much more utilized PTR. We will make sure to communicate any changes through our social channels so that you always know what is going on and can give us feedback at every step. And speaking of feedback...

Community Surveys

We are very happy with the DDA surveys that we have been running over the past few months, and these will continue going forward. Because of your input we have made several changes, including everything from this past PTR, which will now be heading to live servers. You have given us so much thoughtful feedback, great ideas, and even some light-hearted trolling and we want to keep this up as we iterate on DDA. With this post we have launched our newest survey, regarding some of these upcoming changes.

Survey here!

What’s Next?

This update, we wanted to make sure that we kept the focus exclusively on DDA and our upcoming plans. However, fans of DD2 and DDGR fret not! We are still working diligently on all of our titles and have new and exciting updates in the works. Thanks for your understanding, and make sure to follow our channels below to stay in the know for all of our upcoming updates.

Social Defenders

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Twitch
• Forums

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games