DEFENDERS,

The time has come… We passed Microsoft’s Xbox Certification for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened!! With that, DD:A will officially be released and available to download on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles on March 17, 2021.

Pre-order for DD:A will be available on the Microsoft Store beginning March 3.

Qualifying Kickstarter and Xsolla Backers who chose “Xbox” as the platform for their Game Key reward will receive their digital game key in their emails prior to the launch date.

Players will receive a day one update available at download that will bring the Xbox version up to date with the current PC game. These launch-day features include 15 Campaign maps that can be played on 7 different difficulty levels, along with the addition of Rift and Hardcore Modes that will challenge even the toughest Etherian defenders. Xbox defenders can play alongside friends with up to 4-player online co-op. Also, we have a patch coming shortly after release that has even more quality of life and performance improvements that weren’t able to make it in our initial release!

Check out the official Dungeon Defenders: Awakened trailer for Xbox:

There are a few features that are still being worked on that will not be available at launch, but will be available in future updates:

• Cross-Platform Saves ⁠— We know this one is disappointing to not see at launch. While we’re working to have this available to all players as soon as possible, this feature requires an extra certification from Microsoft. This would have pushed our launch date back even further and we really didn’t want to do that.
• Various In-Game Backer Rewards — In-game rewards such as Item Names and Enemy Names will be ready and viewable after the first post-launch patch mentioned above!
• Split-Screen Co-op — This is another popular feature that players are anxiously awaiting and it will be available as soon as it runs smoothly! Adding split-screen is a difficult feature to incorporate because the UI needs to run cleanly and efficiently on multiple views. Right now we’re not satisfied with the way our split-screen UI functionality is performing, so we’ll continue to improve this feature until we’re confident it will work the way it’s supposed to for all players. Don’t fret, it’s on the way!

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on all things DDA, make sure to follow us on all our social platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
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• Twitch
• Forums

We can’t wait to introduce Dungeon Defenders: Awakened to our console defenders!

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

After two weeks of awesome recreations of Dungeon Defender heroes, enemies, and all the things in between from our super talented community, we’ve made it to our final week of Fan Art February!

Before we let you loose for Week 3, we want to recognize one of our ADORABLE community submissions from MissHelenGD:

I didn’t know I needed a heart-filled Giraffe on a Treadmill pet, but now I don't want to defend without it!! 

Now onto our FINAL week of Fan Art February. Our last theme is Transmog Showcase Week! Show us your favorite Etherian-defending outfits and your baddest “walk-the-throne-room” look. As with last week, vote for your favorite submissions throughout the week and they may be featured on our own DD social pages.

Just a friendly reminder - please keep submissions safely in the “E” rating zone (or G-rated if you’re more into movie ratings style). Artwork should be safe for eyes of all ages, and you will still need to follow normal forum rules :)

Show us what’s been hiding in those hero decks!

It's Week 2 of Fan Art February! 

Here is a non-Internet submission from last week that we HAD to share with you all:

This awesome Siren drawing is from Defender Erica. (Peep the signature in the bottom right.) Thank you for sharing your talents with this community!! 

Now, onto Week 2! 

With Valentine’s Day still on our love-stricken minds, the second week’s theme is Love is in the Air. Let’s see those Cupid-struck heroes, bosses, and giraffes.  As with last week, submit your works in the comments below and vote for your favorite submissions throughout the week and they (or you) may be featured on our own DD social pages. 

Just a friendly reminder - please keep submissions safely in the “E” rating zone (or G-rated if you’re more into movie ratings style). Artwork should be safe for eyes of all ages, and you will still need to follow normal forum rules :)

Give us those hearts!! (And likes)

Hello Defenders!

Today is the official first day of Fan Art February! Last week we introduced the campaign in this post. The time has come to show off your DD-related artwork.

The theme for this week is: Spring Cleaning.

We know there are plenty of budding and professional artists in our community and this is your chance to unload all of the DD-inspired art you’ve been keeping to yourself! For the next week, you can submit your artwork below and the community will vote on their favorites by liking the comments featuring community-created artworks. The submissions with the most votes by end-of-day Sunday will be featured on Chromatic’s social media pages next week.

**To make sure everyone can safely enjoy and participate in the campaign, please keep submissions safely in the “E” rating zone (or G-rated if you’re more into movie ratings style). Artwork should be safe for eyes of all ages, and you will still need to follow normal forum rules

Now, show us your stuff!! (Featured is Britt’s one-of-a-kind piece of “art” created specifically for you all. Names for this fabulous artwork are also welcome in the comments.)

Hello Defenders! It’s [CG] Britt here to get you excited about a brand new campaign I’m running for the community throughout the month of February. I’m calling it…

FAN ART FEBRUARY

For the entire month of February, CG pages will be soliciting different forms of Dungeon Defenders art from you - our wonderful and dedicated community. To be frank, I’m not what you’d call the “artistic” type - I really enjoy appreciating and sharing others’ great works, though. So, show us your skills! We want this all to be about you, our GLORIOUS community!

How will the campaign work?
On Monday of each week we’ll post a different art-related prompt on here and on Twitter and Instagram. Community members will be able to share their art for that prompt under the forum post for the entire week. At the same time, you’ll all vote on your favorites. The works with the most forum votes by Sunday evening will be featured on our Twitter and Instagram pages. We’ll include your social handles if you want that recognition, as well.

That’s it :)

Now, for the art schedule:

• Week 1 (February 8-14) - Spring Cleaning. Here in Etheria there are no seasons, so every day can be Spring if we say so. Clean out your cloud and show us those DD pieces you’ve been keeping to yourself for too long.
• Week 2 (February 15-21) - Love is in the Air. Valentine’s Day usually only comes once a year in Etheria. Why not make 2021 special with a WEEK full of heart- and love-themed art?
• Week 3 (February 22-28) - Transmog Showcase Week! Let’s see your best “walk-the-throne-room” look. (We all deserve to feel great while defeating Mech.)

What’s your first masterpiece going to feature?

Hi Everyone! My name is Brittani Sahm - the brand new Community Manager for Chromatic Games, and your personal insider to all the things going on in the studio. 

Who am I? Before finding my way to CG, I was (and still am) a professor of public relations. My favorite part of teaching has always been learning about and talking with students, and I’m looking forward to reaching even more people through the many DD communities I’ll be in contact with as your Community Manager!

I am a hit-the-ground-running kind of person, so the first thing I want to do in this role is learn as much as possible about all of YOU. The more I get to know each one of you, the better I can be in this role. There is a survey linked at the bottom of this post that brings up some of these questions: What are your favorite aspects of DDA? What are your favorite platforms for communicating with the devs? How many bad jokes can I reasonably make you listen to during my streams? (That is serious - Studies have shown that my jokes land 60% of the time, all the time.)

I am a people person, and I will take my role as a representative for CG and the community seriously because I care about, well, people!

I’ll share a bit more about my personal life, too. This may be obvious, but I am a gamer myself. If you look through my Steam or Switch libraries, you’ll find plenty of casual RPGs and simulation types of games (exactly what you’re thinking - Animal Crossing is in there), and my first gaming experiences involved playing anything Mario-related on Super Nintendo with my family. I love the nostalgic feeling I get when revisiting SNES Yoshi’s Island on my Switch now. All of this started with my parents’ love for video games that was passed down to me and my siblings - we grew up with my mom bragging about her sick Ms. Pac-Man skills from her arcade-playing days (she still likes to brag when she has a chance), and my dad making sure we had access to all the new consoles (we still have an Atari locked up somewhere).

Because I’m a gamer, I understand the importance of knowing what’s going on with my favorite games and studios and feeling like I’m heard if I have a question or issue. I like talking to people, so this is something I’m quite passionate about. That is my strength as a professor, and that will be my strength as CG’s Community Manager.

I could talk about myself for longer than you are probably willing to read, so I’ll stop for now and open the conversation up to you. What do you want to know about me?

I’m looking forward to learning more about and engaging with this great community! 
(On that note - If you have a few minutes to spare, please fill out the survey below. It would be a huge help for me to get to know more about the awesome Dungeon Defenders community.)

Dungeon Defenders Player Survey
 

We have some exciting news for DD1 fans! Ice has worked with the team behind DD1 Redux and found a way for CG to provide official branch support here on steam for the overhauled version of DD1. What’s DD1 Redux? Check out the summary, the story and the massive change log below. Shoutout to all of the fans who worked on this project, we are proud to support their work and provide a new opportunity for veterans of DD1 and newcomers alike!
 

Redux is a re-imagining of what is possible using the base form of Dungeon Defenders with no limits. The CDT updates were limited in balance changes, map changes, and types of additions. However without these limitations Redux could be designed differently. This time design is heavily influenced by player feedback from all aspects, resulting in an experience that may feel better for the player overall.

New features are far more extravagant than anything could ever have been done before, still maintaining the soul of how people enjoy the game most. Redux is filled with new content in the form of new maps, game modes, difficulties, quality of life changes, and other systemic overhauls.
 

This project began before my CDT endeavor and the original idea was to make a different version of DD1 that I wanted to play. Ever since the official updates for the game (content-wise) have ceased I decided to pick up this project again. Picked it up again I did and every week Redux continually got more and more ambitious as more & more changes were added. I did all of this out of love for the community because I was afraid to see the game die. Lastly, I want to give my full thanks to CG, the Redux community, and especially Ice for giving us this once in a lifetime opportunity.
 

Right-click Dungeon Defenders - Properties
Click the BETAS tab
Click the drop-down and select DD1 Redux Official
If you do not see DD1 Redux Official listing please restart Steam

 

When you first connect to Ranked on Redux you will get a 1 time only automatic copy from Ranked to Redux Ranked.

• There is no method of Ranked to trigger this copy a second time.
• There is no method to transfer anything save related from Redux Ranked to the original Ranked save.

Your save will automatically copy from DunDefHeroes.dun to DunDefHeroes.dun.rdx and be your new save location. Attempting to copy from redux back to normal will likely cause data loss, missing items, broken stats and isn’t recommended.
 

Currently there is no specific date on a future update for Redux but there are plans to have them in the future as the Redux team needs and wants to add additions.
 

• Q: Will redux ever replace the current live version of DD1.
• A: No. Due to the drastic changes and the original state of what DD1 is today the game is considered complete and in a stable state.

• Q: How can I have both versions side by side?
• A: After downloading Redux you can navigate to the installation location on Steam (C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonDungeon Defenders) and copy this entire folder to a new location. Then switch back the beta branch to NONE - Opt out of all beta programs. Create a shortcut to the bigger exe file DunDefGame.exe in both folders and name them accordingly to which version you wish to launch.

IHDC – Creator
Mischief – Content creator & Master Mind
Gigazelle - Art & Game direction
Moose (Your friendly antler horse) - Q/A & Game direction
Kamil "Escev" - Q/A, Balance , Maths , & Game direction
Lolzcoolcat - Q/A , Balance , & Game direction
The Wild Emu - Art
Redux Testers - Q/A , & Balance



Now, onto the massive changelog and details of the work that went into this DD1 overhaul.
 

Health/Damage Multiplier

• Magic Missile: Increase Projectile Speed
• Magic Blockade: Increased Health Scaling
• Fireball Tower: Increase Projectile Speed
• New Tower! SnowBall Tower: Throws an AOE Snowball that damages and slows enemies.

• Spike Blockade: Increased Health Scaling, Aggro Generation, and Damage Scaling
• Bouncer Blockade: Increased Health Scaling and Damage Scaling
• Harpoon Turret: Increase Projectile Speed
• Bowling Ball: Increase Projectile Speed
• Slice N Dice: Increased Health Scaling, Damage Scaling and added Suction Mechanic
• New Tower! Mortar Tower: Shoots a bomb that deals AOE damage.

• Proximity Mine: Increased Damage Scaling
• Inferno Trap: Increased Damage Scaling
• Ethereal Spike Trap: Increase Damage Scaling and Rate Scaling
• New Tower! Oil Trap: Damages enemies and applies a debuff for a limited amount of time-based on the tower health stat that makes them take increased fire damage.

• Proton Beam: Increased Damage Scaling
• Physical Beam: Increased Health Scaling
• Shock Beam: Increased Damage Scaling
• New Tower! SAM Unit: Fires a heat-seeking fire damage missile that explodes on impact.

• New Tower! Damage Totem: Increases damage of nearby heroes (Scales off hero damage, radius scales off lightning stance)
• New Tower! Speed Totem: Added New Tower That Increases Speed of all heroes on the map. Multiplier scales with Tornado Stance.

• New Tower! Spider Queen: New Minion unit that can fire a range web attack and melee mobs also takes 10% reduced damage.

• Overcharge: Increases damage and hero speed in addition to castrate, costs more mana
• Mana Bomb: Cooldown lowered to match Purity bomb cooldown
• Hero Damage Scaling: Matched Jester Hero damage scaling
• Fire Bomb: A fireball projectile that slowly travels to the aimed direction and explodes (Scales off Hero damage)

• Bloodrage/Call to Arms: Reduced mana cost
• Joust: Added higher weapon damage scaling. Added fire trail (Scales off Hero damage)
• Blade Vortex Ability: Drops a set of Spinning blades that lasts for 10 seconds (Scales off Hero damage)

• Invisibility: Now also grants movement speed increase
• Dark Shot: New Ability that makes enemies (and bosses) take up to 40% more damage (Scales off Hero damage)

• Fire Aura: an AOE effect around the monk that deals fire damage to any mob inside it (Scales off Hero damage)
• Remote defense boost: no longer requires the creator hero

• Holographic Decoy: Increased damage, aggro radius now can be dropped while flying
• Electric Bomb: A grenade-like projectile that bounces around before exploding (Scales off Hero damage)

• Lightning Stance: Now adds additional lightning damage to each attack based on your lightning stance stat up to 50% of the attack’s damage for melee and 35% for hawk stance. It also shoots a ranged lightning bolt in the direction you aim.
• Siphon Stance: Reduced resistance debuff
• Turtle Stance: Reduced mana cost
• Battle Leap: Added improved weapon damage scaling
• Battle Pound: Added improved weapon damage scaling

• Confetti Cannon: New short-ranged burst shotgun ability (Scales off Hero damage)
• Wheel Of Fortuna: Change Damage all to only affect enemies once

• Summon kobold: New Ability that spawns a kobold suicide bomber dealing damage on explosion (Scales off Hero damage)
• Pet Boost: For the ability duration it increases self pet damage by 25% - 450% and caps at around 6.6k hero damage. It also increases the pet attack rate by 25% - 250% and caps at around 7.1k hero damage

• Added 4 new skins for the original 4 heroes on the Ascension Crystalline Dimension completion. They have the same bonuses and drawbacks as the Super Legendary skins
• New Crystalline Ninja Monk skin: ???
• Pirate Barbarian from Halloween Spooktacular 3. They have the same bonuses and drawbacks as the Tavern Keeper Barbarian

• Halloween Spooktacular 3:
  New boss fight. Rewards: Pumpkin hat accessory. Vampiric Bone Sword, Vampiric Bone Spiker, Vampiric Grim Reaper, Pumpkinator 2000. All of these weapons apply lifesteal based on the weapon’s base damage stat. Eye of Devastation from Wave 30.
• Winter Wonderland 2:
  New boss fight, a new nutcracker mob that ignores gas traps. Rewards: Candy Cane, Winter’s Flame, Foam Sword. Nutcracker hat accessory. Ice Cube from Wave 30.
• Spooky Invasion Challenge:
  Pirate Invasion, but spooky. Rewards: Pumpkin hat accessory. Vampiric Bone Sword, Vampiric Bone Spiker, Vampiric Grim Reaper, Pumpkinator 2000. All of these weapons apply lifesteal based on the weapon’s base damage stat.
• Returnia Assault Pack:
  Assault missions on Mistymire, Moraggo, Aquanos, and Sky City. Completing all four in a row on Ascension yields bonus rewards.
• Return To Crystalline Dimension:
  Assault mission on the first four sections of Crystalline Dimension New rewards: 4 void shards and the Crystalline Dimension Set of weapons
• Town In The Cliffs:
  New Boss Fight. Rewards: Upgrader Djinnlet from Wave 35. Magic Sword(monk) and Spartan’s Sword from the campaign. Spartan’s Sword has a special effect called Spartan’s Rage which gives it a 5% chance per swing to deal 25% increased damage for the next 5 seconds. Magic Sword shoots a homing sword at the enemy you aim at.
• Crystal Cave:
  A crystalline cave. 1 core. 4 Crystalline heroes to fight as bosses. Rewards: Eternian Sword, Spear, Staff, Energy Cannon and Divine Shards Crystalline Griffon on wave 25 Crystal Pet Rock wave 35
• No Towers Allowed: Crystal Cave:
  DPS only for the waves with a Kraken boss
• Great Turkey Defense Challenge:
  Defend the Turkeys! Rewards: Pet Turkey. Turkey accessories + new turkey bracers.
• Wandering Heart:
  New Crystal Escort Map Rewards: Spear, Sword, Bow, and Staff of Hearts. The Spear and Sword’s melee attacks have a 50% chance to charm enemies to fight for you for 10 seconds. Charmed enemies take 2x damage but deal 25x damage. The Staff’s right-click heals all nearby players for 100% of the damage that attack would deal.
• Halloween Assault Pack:
  Assault missions
• Halloween Ramparts:
  Rewards: Buffed Halloween Spooktacular weapons.
• Halloween Endless Spires:
  Rewards: Halloween accessories
• Halloween Shipwreck Ruins:
  Rewards: Vampiric Bone Sword, Vampiric Bone Spiker, Vampiric Grim Reaper, Pumpkinator 2000. All of these weapons apply lifesteal based on the weapon’s base damage stat. Completing all three in a row on Ascension yields a bonus reward.

• Palantir:
  New boss fight on Ascension, new rewards: Ice Pick, Ice Rifle, and Staff of Ice
• Emerald City:
  New green accessory set based on the Crystalline Dimension set. Set bonus of orbiting emerald shards.
• Tavern Defense:
  New accessory set with the Party Hat and Party Horn (new). Party Hat rolls buffed on Nightmare.
• Alchemical Laboratory:
  New Pet Mini Demon Lord found on Wave 35 (Ascension Only)
• The Throne Room:
  New Pet Mini Goblin Mech found on Wave 35 (Ascension Only)
• The Summit:
  New Pet Mini Ancient Dragon found on Wave 35 (Ascension Only)
• Aquanos:
  New rewards: Shield of Atlantis and Sea Snail found on Wave 30 ( Nightmare ) Wave 35 ( Ascension )
• Sky City:
  New rewards: Pressurized Cog Shield and AirPlane found on Wave 30 ( Nightmare ) Wave 35 ( Ascension )
• Great Turkey Hunt:
  New Pet Turkey. Buffed existing turkey accessories and added new turkey bracers.
• Greater Turkey Hunt:
  New Pet Turkey found on map completion
• Lab Assault:
  EVs now show on the map. Ascension Only: EVs will now teleport back up if they fall off the map. Pets and abilities can now be used. Can now drop every accessory in the game.
• Temple of Polybius:
  New rewards: These pets buff towers the same as a guardian would, but up to 6 targets instead. They are called Speedy Polybius (rate buff), Destruction Polybius (damage buff), Expansive Polybius (range buff), and Defensive Polybius (resistance buff). Ascension Guarantees 2 Divine Shards on non Hardcore and 4 for Hardcore
•  
• Sky o’ Love and Temple o’ Love:
  New rewards: Spear, Sword, Bow, and Staff of Hearts. The Spear and Sword’s melee attacks have a 50% chance to charm enemies to fight for you for 10 seconds. Charmed enemies take 2x damage but deal 25x damage. The Staff’s right-click heals all nearby players for 100% of the damage that attack would deal.
• Temple Of Water:
  New rewards: Trident found on map completion
• Crystalline Resurgence 1-4:
  New rewards: 1 Void Shard on nightmare 2 on Ascension
• Crystalline Demsnsion:
  New Rewards: 4 Void Shards on Ascension 8 Void Shards on Ascension Hardcore

• Original Campaign was balanced towards current nightmare endgame
• Shards Maps have been balanced to match the difficulty of Lost Quests maps on Ascension
• All mobs and bosses have had massive heath damage and speed buffs on Ascension

• Shoots a ball of poison at a target that spawns an AOE poison damage cloud that deals damage over time

• All pre-Lost Quests map rewards have received huge buffs to make them more viable in end game content
• All Lost Quests map rewards had their go-negative stat reduced by 50%. This should result in massively increased ult rates

• All original campaign have infested loot quality
• All other maps have a new higher loot quality *moonbase is set to Kings game quality
• All survival pets now roll higher on ascension

• Shop items will roll comparable to nightmare random rewards at their highest quality.
• Divine Shards can be purchased in the shop

• Divine:
  Divine armor gives you a 2.5% passive healing bonus and a 0.25% passive tower healing bonus every 5 seconds / 2.5% health bonus to traps and auras. This bonus is set to 15% instead of a full set of Divine armor. They spawn with higher stats, upgrades, and a set bonus of 1.5x instead of the 1.4x of Ultimate-Ult++.
• Divine Shards:
  New coal-like currency drops from the end of map rewards and tavern shop
• Void:
  Void armor gives you a 2.5% hero damage bonus and a 2.5% tower range bonus. This bonus is set to 15% instead of a full set of Void armor. They spawn with higher stats, upgrades, and a set bonus of 1.5x instead of the 1.4x of Ultimate-Ult++. Only armor and the items from the Void Forge can be Void quality.
• Void Shards:
  A new coal-like currency that is rewarded on Crystalline Resurgence maps, Crystal Cave (50/50 for Divine or Void Shards), and Crystalline Dimension.

• Massively Reduced mob count
• Increased Enemy Difficulty
• Decreased Enemy movement speed
• Lower mob spawn rate
• Increased Loot multiplier 10% points higher then hardcore

• Void Forge:
  The Void Forge takes Void Shards to craft them into a Void Spear, Void Bow, Void Sword, or Void Staff. The “Feeling Lucky?” button allows you to get one of these 4 at random with higher quality. What could “???” be!?
• Divine Forge:
  The Divine Forge takes one Divine Shard and crafts it into 10 armor pieces of high quality. On average at least one of these will be Ultimate or higher quality.
• Tavern Changer:
  You can now change your tavern themes to any of the previous 13 Taverns! Check it out in the Options menu in-game to see them for yourself.
• Diamond Forge Update:
  Added the ability to exchange Coal for mana 1 coal for 10 Billion Mana Small Coal for 2 Billion Mana
• True Boss Rush Menu:
  Added new UI. Allows you to choose checkpoints and trade XP orbs for mana. 1 XP orb for 100 Billion Mana

• - F2 = Player 1
• - F3 = Player 2
• - F4 = Player 3
• - F5 = Player 4
• - F6 = Quick add Alts
• - F7 = Remove all Alts
• - F8 = Toggle Active Split Screens This hides the screens of your split-screen characters without removing them.

• Players are now capable of all normal actions in Pure Strategy, including attacking and being attacked by enemies
• Enemies no longer ignore/pass through players in Pure Strategy
• Hardcore and Iron Man may now be selected while playing Pure Strategy
• Enemy amounts and strength in Pure Strategy should now mirror Survival mode on all maps
• All chests in Pure strategy now give 2020 man on the first wave, regardless of starting wave number
• Upon starting the first Combat Phase in Pure Strategy, Defense Units and Minion Units will be reduced to 0 and remain there for the entire map
• Pure Strategy Rewards now match Mix Mode loot + bonus

• Cyclops:
  A new Mini-Boss mob on all Ascension maps that Shoots a ball of poison at a target that spawns an AOE poison damage cloud that deals damage over time
• Nut Cracker:
  New Mob only found on Winter Wonderland 2 this mob ignores gas traps and explodes on death
• Loot Goblin:
  Found on Mix Mode only. Drops a high number of items. Can drop Ascension version blade of the North, Snowball Launcher, North Pole, and Spear of Light

• Re-Roll System:
  Added a new feature that allows an Ultimate++/Divine/Void Armor reroll for the price of a Void Shard, beware, every reroll has 40% to curse the item instead.
• Inventory Sorting:
  Added a new feature to the item box that sorts the items based on their quality
• Armor visual update:
  Updated Visuals of every armor model in the game
• Graphic settings:
  Added 1440p option to the resolution list, added the ability to change graphics quality in-game, added the ability to remove the outline effect, extended the FOV range and added the ability to uncap fps.
• Item Effect Screen:
  Added a window that displays additional, previously hidden, item properties ( like movement speed, etc.)
• Boss Timer Skip:
  Added a new keybind ( n ) to skip incoming boss timers
• Item Recovery:
  Added item recovery to most maps that did not have it
• Auto Censor:
  Changes last digit of an Ultimate++/Divine/Void item stats to “x” when viewing an item.
• Ascended Defender:
  New Achievement Complete all maps + challenges Deeper Well - Glitterhelm Caverns unlocks 1000 inventory slots
• Damage Number Size Slider:
  You can change it from anywhere between 100% to 300%, the default in the live game is 200%.

To get reliable updates on the Dungeon Defenders Universe make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We’ve been hard at work on great things here at Chromatic Games, and it’s time to let one of those things spread its wings and fly. Update 1.2 is now live and ready for you to hop right into! An insane amount of bug fixes, Rifted maps, Rifted enemies, new weapons, new gear, new accessories, transmog, and more are coming your way. Let’s cut the intro and get into it, there’s A LOT!
 

We’re going to be splitting this update into two parts to make sure everything we add is in the best state possible. The first part of this update includes additional gameplay, features, rewards, and bug fixes; the second part includes additional features and Kickstarter rewards. The goal with Update 1.2 is to put a bow on what we consider the baseline DD:A experience before we move onto major content updates, with 1.2 serving as the foundation for us to build something wonderful!
 

Throughout Campaign and Survival you are now able to activate the Rifted toggle before joining a map, similar to Hardcore. This tears open the portal and provides access to Rifted enemies. Rifted Maps serve to evolve the challenge and experience of DD:A, providing players something new to take on, regardless of their experience with Dungeon Defenders.
 

The total number of enemies is reduced by 50%, but a portion of the remaining enemies become distorted from the Rift, granting them increased strength and mechanics. For starters, all Rifted enemies have increased health and deal increased damage. Oh, and also they have additional mechanics. You know, not a big deal, probably not anything worth mentioning. OH WAIT, VERY BIG DEAL! Here’s what they do:
 

• Goblins are larger, potentially absorbing hits for other enemies.
• Dark Elf Archers shoot homing arrows that chase down their targets.
• Dark Elf Mages have an increased healing radius, and summon skeletons that EXPLODE on death.
• Dark Elf Warriors are invisible to non-Fusion towers and drain mana on hit.
• Kobolds have an increased explosion radius.
• Orcs are tankier and take reduced damage.
• Ogres, oh no, Rifted ogres snot ball ensnares. Also the first snot ball isn’t a snot ball, but is a Rifted kobold. Also they deal increased damage to towers. Why did we make them so strong?!
• Spiders can no longer shoot webs, but they jump all over the place now. They also apply a web on melee hit that acts like normal webs with an added damage over time effect.
• Sharkens enrage when their charge is interrupted, increasing their damage and movement speed while becoming IMMUNE to crowd control effects.
• Djinn’s apply an Onyx buff to enemies, a much stronger gold buff. They also take less time to destroy towers, with an increased range, and decreased cooldown to do so.
• Goblin Copters are truly a terror from above, dropping Rifted ogres, have an increased missile and crashing explosion radius.
• The Siren is already a Rifted enemy. Surprise!

There’s a ton of new mechanics to master, but what fun is a new challenge without new rewards? Onwards we go!
 

Fusion gear is a new type of item that is only available on Rifted maps. There are two types of Fusion gear, weapons and armor.
 

These are special weapons that have a chance to drop on all Rifted maps. Rifted weapons are like normal weapons, except that they deal greatly increased damage to Rifted enemies! While they have a chance to drop on all maps, Rifted map bosses also drop Fusion versions of their weapons, providing the ability to target farm powerful weapons!
 

This new type of armor provides a ton of power to defend against the Rifted ruffians that are running your way! Not only does Fusion armor give you 5% Rifted Armor, causing you to take less damage from Rifted enemies, but if you combine an entire set you gain a Fusion set bonus. Depending on the set, the Fusion bonus converts a specific tower into a Fusion tower! This causes your tower to deal greatly increased damage to Rifted enemies, take reduced damage from them, and also negate their Rifted abilities (i.e. they now see Dark Elf Warriors)!

There are five Fusion sets total for you to search out to take on the Rifted foes that approach you!
 

• Ancient Set: Apply Fusion affinity to your Hero’s first tower.
• Guard Set: Apply Fusion affinity to your Hero’s second tower.
• Militia Set: Apply Fusion affinity to your Hero’s third tower.
• Miner Set: Apply Fusion affinity to your Hero’s fourth tower.
• Primitive Set: Apply Fusion affinity to your Hero’s fifth tower.

What does each of the sets do to each of the towers? They retain their base mechanics, affect and target Rifted enemies that they may have not been able to previously affect or target, as well as gain increased strength and functionality. That’d be a lot to type. Sorry, that’s going to be a lot to type. Here you go!
 

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
• This effect stacks with other similar effects.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
• This effect stacks with other similar effects.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
• This effect stacks with other similar effects.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Increases heroes armor against Rifted enemies by 50%.

• Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
• This effect stacks with other similar effects.

• Increases chance to enrage by 5% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
• Increased stun effect by 50% against Rifted enemies.

• Gives towers that are buffed 50% armor against Rifted enemies.

• Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
• Damage increased 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

• Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
• Damage increased 100% against Rifted enemies.

Oh my goodness! That’s a lot of power! Fusion gear locations! Where!? Where do they drop!? We’ll never tell, except for in the list down below, but outside of that good luck:

• Tornado Highlands Wave 25
• Ramparts Wave 25
• Throne Room Wave 25
• Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

• Arcane Library Wave 15
• Arcane Library Wave 25
• Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• Deeper Well Wave 15
• Deeper Well Wave 25
• Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5

• Tornado Valley Wave 15
• Tornado Valley Wave 25
• Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

• Promenade Wave 25
• The Summit Wave 25
• Glitterhelm Wave 25
• Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• Royal Gardens Wave 15
• Royal Gardens Wave 25
• Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• Ancient Mines Wave 15
• Ancient Mines Wave 25
• Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5

• Tornado Highlands Wave 15
• Tornado Highlands Wave 25
• Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

• Alchemical Labs Wave 25
• Magus Quarters Wave 25
• Tornado Valley Wave 25
• Any Act I or Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

• Promenade Wave 15
• Promenade Wave 25
• Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• Lava Mines Wave 15
• Lava Mines Wave 25
• Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5

• Ramparts Wave 15
• Ramparts Wave 25
• Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

• Endless Spires Wave 25
• Arcane Library Wave 25
• Royal Gardens Wave 25
• Any Act II or Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• The Summit Wave 15
• The Summit Wave 25
• Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• Alchemical Labs Wave 15
• Alchemical Labs Wave 25
• Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5

• Throne Room Wave 15
• Throne Room Wave 25
• Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

• Deeper Well Wave 25
• Ancient Mines Wave 25
• Lava Mines Wave 25
• Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5

• Glitterhelm Wave 15
• Glitterhelm Wave 25
• Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5

• Magus Quarters Wave 15
• Magus Quarters Wave 25
• Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5

• Endless Spires Wave 15
• Endless Spires Wave 25
• Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

We also wanted to provide something for players to target farm alongside Fusion Weapons. Specific Fusion armor pieces drop from Wave 5 campaign and Waves 15 & 25 in Survival, allowing you to focus farm which sets you want to use!

Fusion armor set bonuses are channeled only to heroes that are actively equipped to your hero deck, providing you the ability to use up to four Fusion towers at any given time. This means currently in multiplayer you can have up to SIXTEEN Fusion towers to absolutely decimate your foes. Don’t fret though, the mode is not balanced around that extreme. Maybe there are ways to overcome this in the future…

One of the points of feedback that we’ve received from players is a faster track to earn the best gear in the game across all difficulties. Rifted has an increased floor of loot quality, meaning your chances of getting better gear is increased on Rifted maps. Higher risk, higher reward!
 

By completing Rifted maps, you have the chance to obtain new masks and accessories! They drop with difficulty equivalent stats and are a cool way to show off your prowess and luck to other Defenders! There’s over 20 new pieces to hunt down, best of luck!


 

In Dungeon Defenders Awakened we’ve got multiple types of players. There are Defenders who enjoy the traditional Dungeon Defenders experience, want to spend tons of time farming for that perfect drop, and like to set up an intricate grid of defenses that they can set and forget. Then there are Defenders who want an additional challenge, want better loot faster, and want somewhat shorter play sessions. With every one of our updates, the first group will get what they want, but for the second group, Rift Mode is our chance to provide an increased challenge that evolves as we develop the game.

This isn’t a one-and-done feature either. It’s a Rift, and as we progress further and further into DDA with our major updates, the Rift continues to tear open more and more, introducing new mechanics and challenges for players to overcome. Every new enemy added to the game will have a Rift version as well, diversifying the gameplay and introducing a new obstacle to overcome.

Really it’s just a mode to provide a reward that decimates the Siren. Everything else is just extra. And to introduce sweet new accessories. Why does that matter? One word — Transmog!

Defenders want ways to customize their characters in fun and unique ways. You get a lot of cool looking gear during your journeys, but sometimes the gear with the best stats isn’t visually your cup of tea. But what’s a Defender to do, look like an epic noodle but hit like a wet one, or look like a peasant but decimate their foes with the power of legends? With Transmog, you can look how you want while wearing your best gear. Go for that insane over the top neon colored Goblin with the pulsing Rift weapons, or go for a more understated look to catch your enemies offguard with your insane strength.


(Yes, you can change the Squire’s boxer colors now, something science said was impossible!)

Here’s all the stuff you can do with Transmog by visiting the Blacksmith in the Tavern:

• Replace your weapon with the visual of any equivalent weapon type that you’ve collected after Update 1.2.
• Replace your Mask, Bracers, Brooches, and Shields with the visual of any equivalent accessory type that you’ve collected after Update 1.2.
• Change the hue, saturation, and brightness of the above, as well as your heroes. Oh, and we added even more colorization options to the heroes default costumes.
• Save specific cosmetic loadouts that you can change on the fly. It’s all about options!

In order to have a piece show up, you must have an accessory already equipped to your hero. Meaning if you want a giant corgi head to show up, you must have a mask equipped to your hero for it to visually appear.

This is a new system, so we’re expecting a lot of kinks to work out. We appreciate any feedback on the system, and have tons of continued work to polish, but if you run into problems or bugs, please let us know!

As we add more gear to the game, it’s usage is instantly multiplied with this system, making the items you acquire provide even more usage!

With our game constantly growing, we’re adding some additional functionality to every Defenders home-sweet-home!
 

We’ve added a couple things to the Tavern with this update. First is the Tavern Difficulty Adjuster Button (PUSH AT YOUR OWN RISK). This changes the Tavern from a normal map, to Nightmare version, or Massacre version that applies different scaling to your defenses that you would find in maps of whatever difficulty you have selected.


 

Somehow this thing got Rifted. While it doesn’t drop any loot, it does take increased damage from Fusion damage. Test your DPS to your heart’s content!



Now you may be asking yourself, all of this sounds good and wonderful, but where in the heck do you get that giant corgi helmet?
 

Download Update 1.2 and play Dungeon Defenders from now until December 14th at 7 pm EST to receive the Corgi Cover cosmetic mask AND the Shadow EV skin FOR FREE! These are available for a limited time, so make sure to get them now while you can.



With that out of the way, let’s get into the months and months and months of general changes to the game, as well as a ton of the bug fixes included in Update 1.2!
 

With all the hard work we have put into getting consoles out to y’all we have picked up some nice PC performance gains along the way. With this patch we have brought in our CPU and Network optimizations from the console work. We nativized a lot of blueprint’s in UE4, this is a process of transferring a blueprint into native C++ code. Nativization can be tricky at times, but for the consoles it was necessary to go back and revisit some of our older work in order to increase performance. Depending on your system, number of players in your game, and what mode you’re playing your frame rate may now even be double what it was beforehand! CPU goes vroooom, Network goes yeeeee
 

We have added support for offline mode, you can find this on the main menu after launching the game. In offline mode you will only be able to use a local save, that will never upload to the cloud until you play online mode again. Offline mode will use a local save that you have when you enter for the first time. This means you can take your online profile offline, progress the game and when you enter online mode again you can choose to take your offline save to upload progress to online mode. When entering online mode again, be sure to select the proper save! Take DD:A on the road!

• Hosts are now able to force ready up by holding Ctrl + G.

• Removed various environment objects from inventory and character creation to better display transmog customization colors, and reduce background noise.

• Added a number of options to Damage Numbers to have greater control over what is displayed

Yes, the filter UI will get an art pass soon :)
 

• Added 15-20 seconds to build timers for all maps and difficulties.

• If an aura overlaps, enemies are only affected by the aura they came in contact with first.
• This was to fix a long standing exploit wherein players would unequip gear, build auras next to one another, then re-equip gear to have overlapped death zones.

Magic Missile Tower

• Increased Defense Power scaling by 18% in Massacre.

Flameburst Tower

• Increased Defense Power scaling by 18% in Massacre.

Lightning Tower

• Now scales from bonus attack rate.
• Increased Defense Power scaling by 18% in Massacre.

Explosive Trap

• Decreased Defense Power scaling by 8% in Massacre.

Poison Gas Trap

• Decreased the Effect Duration Scaling by 50%.

Inferno Trap

• Decreased Defense Power scaling by 8% in Massacre.

Thunder Spike Trap

• Decreased Defense Power scaling by 8% in Massacre.

Reflect Field

• Now displays 1:1 total hits it can reflect instead of arbitrary HP values.

Secondary Attack: Block

• Block no longer can be held indefinitely.
• Now the Squire has a Block resource, indicated by a shield above the Squires head.
• Different enemies attacks reduce the resource at different rates.
• Block regenerates when it is not being used.
• If the Block resource is completely used, players are unable to block again for 5 seconds.
  • With enough armor, this caused the Squire to become a blockade, and created an unhealthy meta that had players using a Squire and pet to handle an entire lane. This change prevents future map balance from having to take into account this meta, which if left in tact would ultimately reduce the amount of DU given in future maps.

Harpoon Tower

• Increased Defense Power scaling by 18% in Massacre.

Bowling Ball Tower

• Increased Defense Power scaling by 18% in Massacre.

Slice N’ Dice

• Now scales from bonus attack rate.

Skeletons

• No longer target Crystal Cores.

Dark Elf Warriors

• No longer knock back players.

Djinn

• Updated channel time for Djinn’s destroy tower in Massacre to 8 seconds (down from 9) to match Nightmare.

Copter Ogres

• Now have propeller hats!

Siren

• New functionality: the Siren no longer spawns with her aura. Instead, she reaches her destination and begins casting. If she is not defeated quickly, she creates an aura based on her elemental affinity, and then runs back to her spawner, applying an unremoval version of her affinity to enemies she passes through.
• The Siren takes increased damage from Fusion sources.

Demon Lord

• Decreased Massacre damage by 30%.

Ancient Dragon

• Decreased Massacre damage by 30%.

With ~1800+ commits to our dev branch, we are going to make a separate post covering all of the relevant bug fixes and changes. Head over to the forums and check out the list here.

We’re going to be watching this update very carefully and pushing out hotfixes for any issues that arise as we are able to get them out.

We’re not a very large team, so when it comes to getting things done, we have to be really efficient and smart with what we work on. Our team has been hard at work on getting our console versions ready (work is still going on as of this post), which is a very time consuming and incredible engineering feat to accomplish. As such, there’s a couple features that we want to give a little bit of additional time and focus on to make sure they release fully functional.
 

This is going to be a pretty straightforward feature to many. Trading will allow players to open up a UI with other players to trade items that they have acquired throughout their journeys, for an agreed upon price. We’re wanting to spend additional time on this feature to make sure it not only has transactions working without a hitch, but also to remove any potential exploits that can ruin the experience of other Defenders.
 

Sometimes you get a good drop and invest a ton of points into a piece of gear, only to want to reallocate the Upgrades that you’ve spent after acquiring more gear to really Min/Max your perfect setup. With Item Reforging, you can do just that! Just take a trip to the Blacksmith, and for a fee, he will allow you to reinvest your items’ upgrade points.
 

Part of this update is putting a bow on the base game, and that includes fulfilling our in-game Kickstarter, Backerkit, and Preorder rewards. We’ve got most of the skins out, but will be adding in:

• Custom enemy names
• Custom weapon names
• Custom armor names
• Legends Tablet
• Credits/Special Thanks
• Hero Titles

Console Releases
If you haven’t read our console progress check-in and what we’re doing, please head on over to that post here to find out more!

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!
For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

Defenders,

Lots of things happening this week across the entire Dungeon Defenders franchise so let's just jump into the details.

DD:A Console Update
This year has been a wild ride, as humans and as a studio we have been presented with unforeseen challenges across the board. A ton of progress has been made on our console ports, and we’re nearing the finish line. Our initial focus for consoles was to get the game running on the Nintendo Switch, pouring months of engineering effort into optimizing the Switch and console experience. After incredible improvements, we are not satisfied with the overall experience on the Switch and have decided to change our focus in order to get a console version of DD:A into your hands as quickly as possible.

DD:A on the Xbox
Recently we changed our focus in terms of console work over to the Xbox One. Immediately we saw increased performanced and a better overall experience, which was really exciting. All of the hard work that we poured into the Switch version carries over into the Xbox version, and also later the Playstation version, so none of our work was wasted. 

When?
We are working with Microsoft to target a Q1 2021 launch for the Xbox. As we progress through the certification process we will update the community on a more exact month or date. We need to get through “cert” first, then we can work with Microsoft to set an exact launch date.

What about the other platforms?
Once we are through the certification process for Xbox, we begin that same process with Playstation & Switch. So Xbox will be released first, followed by Playstation & Switch.

What about the new consoles?
We will be releasing DD:A on both Microsoft and Sony’s new consoles as hardware test kits become available. We’re waiting for the opportunity to jump quickly on getting into certification and releasing DD:A on this new hardware.

1.2 Update Check In
We are working on Update 1.2 polish, bug fixes, and entering our final phase of testing. We will have a launch date for this update for the community soon. While we have had quite a few people working on this update over the last few months, our primary focus as a studio has been on the consoles. We do not want to rush this update out, so are taking the necessary time to polish the systems and test it before release.  Rift Mode, Transmog, new accessories, and more are coming your way, as well as Trading, Reforge and the remaining in-game Kickstarter rewards in a follow-up patch!

Franchise Steam Sale
All of our Dungeon Defenders Games on Steam are on sale

Dungeon Defenders 1 
75% off across the board, base game, DLCs, Collection, and 4-Packs
If you have not had a chance to experience this classic, now is a great time to pick it up.

Dungeon Defenders 2
50% off of Steam packs
50% off in-game Gem costs of Heroes, Costumes, Shards & more!
With XP & Gold Event going on for the next 5 days, it is a great time to get back into DD2 and pick up some wares on the cheap!

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened
30% off the base game
With 1.2 Update around the corner, which adds rift mode and new progression, now is the time to pick up DD:A and get to the end game before all the rifty goodness hits.

Dungeon Defenders 2 Events!

From now through the end of the year we have some in-game events lined up. We wanted to provide our loyal DD2 players with some holiday treats. Beyond the 50% off in game sale that will run through the second week of January here is a schedule of events coming this year.

• Nov 25th-30th: 4x Base XP & Gold
• December 5th: Double Defender Medal Saturday
• Dec 11th-13th: 4x Base XP 
• Dec 18th-21st: 4x Base Gold 
• Dec 24th-27th: Holiday Extravaganza: 4x Base XP & Gold, 2x Defender Medals
   

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!
For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS!

It’s been a little while since we last spoke, but what we’ve lacked in words, we’ve been making up for in hard work! There’s a ton of stuff that we’re continuously chugging away on:  Update 1.2, console ports, and even our major content updates. We’re breaking the silence and ready to talk about our work with Update 1.2. Let’s get into it!

Console Development Check-In
We’re currently making a ton of great strides and getting a lot of performance out of our console work. There’s a lot with this type of development, not only in getting the game to run properly and at a decent frame rate but also in meeting the technical requirements of each specific platform before we submit for certification. As we continue to progress, we’ll keep you all posted.

Update 1.2
We’re going to be splitting this update into two parts to make sure everything we add is in the best state possible. The first part of this update includes additional gameplay, features, rewards, and bug fixes; the second part includes additional features and Kickstarter rewards. The goal with Update 1.2 is to put a bow on what we consider the baseline DD:A experience before we move onto major content updates.

Part I:  Enter the Rift
Rift Mode
We’ve been teasing it for a bit, but we’re ready to talk about our newest game mode coming in Update 1.2 — Rift Mode!

What is it?
Rift Mode is an option, similar to Hardcore, that players opt into throughout Campaign and Survival. Rift Mode serves to evolve the challenge and experience of DD:A, providing players something new, regardless of their experience with Dungeon Defenders, to take on. Here are the main takeaways:

• The number of total enemies is halved.
• Some enemies become Rift Enemies, providing additional functionality and difficulty.
  • All enemies can become Rift Enemies.
  • The Siren is already a Rift Enemy.
• A new weapon type called Fusion is dropped to take on Rift Enemies.
  • This will make taking Sirens on considerably easier.
• New armor set bonuses that can be target farmed to take on Rift Enemies.
• Increased loot quality dropped in Massacre.
  • This is not an increase in item caps, but rather dropping better quality loot in general to progress faster.
• Over 20 new accessories added only available in Rift Mode.

Where does it occur?
It is available at ALL difficulties for Campaign and Survival.

What are Rift Enemies?
Rift Enemies are considerably stronger monsters that have greatly increased health, increased damage, and additional mechanics. Here are three of the enemies’ new mechanics:

• Goblins:  They’re 33% larger, making them more of an imposing threat, and potentially blocking higher priority targets from getting hit.
• Archers:  They’re attack range has been increased and now they shoot homing missiles.
• Ogres:  They’ve cleared up their sinuses and instead of throwing snot, they throw Rift Kobolds that have a huge explosion.

This is just a sneak peek into the additional mechanics, as EVERY enemy can become a Rift Enemy.

What are the rewards?
As mentioned above, we’re adding in new weapon variations, new armor sets that help you take on these new enemies, new accessories to spruce up your character, and increased loot drops to progress even faster.

What’s the point?
In Dungeon Defenders Awakened we’ve got multiple types of players. There are Defenders who enjoy the traditional Dungeon Defenders experience, want to spend tons of time farming for that perfect drop, and like to set up an intricate grid of defenses that they can set and forget. Then there are Defenders who want an additional challenge, want better loot faster, and want somewhat shorter play sessions. With every one of our updates, the first group will get what they want, but for the second group, Rift Mode is our chance to provide an option to the second group.

This isn’t a one-and-done mode either. It’s a Rift, and as we progress further and further into DDA with our major updates, the Rift continues to tear more and more open, introducing new mechanics and challenges for players to overcome. Every new enemy added to the game will have a Rift version as well, diversifying the gameplay and introducing a new obstacle to overcome.

Really it’s just a mode to provide a reward that decimates the Siren.

Also, there’s a ton of new accessories to hunt down in this update! Why does that matter? Let’s get into the next big feature of this update — Transmog.

Transmog
This feature looks to provide players the option to make their hero look how they choose. It’s similar to the Flair system that was in Dungeon Defenders II that many players enjoyed, with similar elements to customization systems you may have seen in other games.

What is it?
You might get a fancy mask that drops that looks cool, but really you want to live out your dream of wearing a goblins face without sacrificing the godly-tier stats on your perfectly dropped fancy mask. Now you can! This system is pretty robust and is something we’re going to continue to build upon it over time.

Your Transmogs will exist independently of your actual equipment, so feel free to mix-and-match to your heart’s content! As you change your equipped items, your Transmog appearance will go untouched. No longer must beauty come at a price.

What can I do with it?
There’s multiple changes to the system. First, you can change the model of your equipped items in the following equipment slots:

• Weapons (you can only Transmog weapons that your hero can use)
  • EV, won't be able to Transmog her weapons, as they are not visible
• Masks (can be hidden or transmogrified to look like any other mask)
• Brooches (can be hidden or transmogrified to look like any other brooch)
• Bracers (can be hidden or transmogrified to look like any other bracer)

There’s over 20+ new accessories for you to hunt down, and we know what you’re thinking: yes you will be able to look like a Sharken with some of these new accessories.

However, the customization does not stop there. We’ve opened up additional colorization options on the heroes, giving you even more control of their appearance. It doesn’t even stop THERE! You can also recolor your WEAPONS & ACCESSORIES to look however you want. We’re making it so that all items  drop with their default colors, and the icons now reflect that as well.

All items can have their hue (color), saturation, and brightness adjusted. Black katana? Easy. Red Shield? Done. Neon green mask for that sweet rave in Deeper Well? No problemo!

You can preview how certain colors get converted to HSB with this nifty tool:
https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

Bug Fixes? Bug Fixes!
There are a TON of bug fixes coming with this update. It’s a little complicated, but basically patching while we’ve been working on our console ports has been a very difficult endeavor, requiring a lot of additional work and potentially breaking a lot more, leading to delayed patch releases and console releases. We’re sorry we haven’t got these out sooner, but there are a lot coming and we’ll make sure to have detailed notes of ALL OF THEM.

Part 2: Give Me That!
We’re not a very large team, so when it comes to getting things done, we have to be really efficient and smart with what we work on. Our team has been hard at work on getting our console versions ready (work is still going on as of this post), which is a very time consuming and incredible engineering feat to accomplish. As such, there’s a couple features that we want to give a little bit of additional time and focus on to make sure they release fully functional.

Trading
This is going to be a pretty straightforward feature to many. Trading will allow players to open up a UI with other players to trade items that they have acquired throughout their journeys,for an agreed upon price. We’re wanting to spend additional time on this feature to make sure it not only has transactions working without a hitch, but also to remove any potential exploits that can ruin the experience of other Defenders.

Item Reforging
Sometimes you get a good drop and invest a ton of points into a piece of gear, only to want to reallocate the Upgrades that you’ve spent after acquiring more gear to really Min/Max your perfect setup. With Item Reforging, you can do just that! Just take a trip to the Blacksmith, and for a fee, he will allow you to reinvest your items’ upgrade points..

Kickstarter Rewards
Part of this update is putting a bow on the base game, and that includes fulfilling our in-game Kickstarter, Backerkit, and Preorder rewards. We’ve got most of the skins out, but will be adding in:

• Custom enemy names
• Custom weapon names
• Custom armor names
• Legends Tablet
• Credits/Special Thanks
• Hero Titles

WHEN????
Soon™.
We’re wanting to get a few weeks of testing done to make sure that Part I is good to go. Once we’re happy with where it’s at, we’ll get it out to you ASAP. Do you want to be part of that process? You can apply to join our Cavalry testing group to get a sneak peek as well as provide important feedback or report any pesky bugs that may be hiding from us. Part II will come out shortly after that. Our goal is to make sure it works before setting a release date.

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!
For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

Defenders,

Nat “Higgsbosonic” here, wanted to bring you an update regarding our next patch!

1.1 Patch Update

The Update 1.1 patch is going to be released in August. We’ve seen a few comments regarding the patch arriving in July and that it has been delayed. This post is the first official statement regarding the patch and its timeline. This is a standard content patch and not a paid DLC.

There are only two places for official announcements: the news posts on our website, and the Chromatic Games Dev streams (at twitch.tv/chromatic_games). Anything outside of that should not be considered official information, even if it comes from an official dev.

We know you are eagerly awaiting this patch and we're working at full capacity (without crunch) to bring you high-quality patches and content for DD:A. We care about our team and do everything we can to take care of them as we continue to make DD:A the game greater and greater with each update. We do not want to rush out patches or content. We are ruthlessly testing and incorporating the community during the entire process. Every week our RQA team and Ethereal Calvary which are all community members playtest our latest build and provide feedback. They help us find bugs and the fun! We thank all those who dedicate their time to us now, and in the future.
 

So what’s in it? 
There has already been a lot of information shared with the community about what is going to be in the patch in terms of features. I wanted to gather all of that in one place, confirm its existence and provide a few shiny screenshots. Please note, not everything included in Update 1.1 is listed on this post.
 

Massacre Survival 
Yes, it is on its way, we’ve been spending an immense amount of time to make sure this game mode feels right. Provide a challenge, proper progression curve, and rewarding loot. This is just the beginning of the late game and we hope you enjoy the challenge!

Skyward Challenges

Two new challenges await you! Take towards the sky as you tackle these new adventures in Tornado Valley and Promenade. Invade airships, defeat the ship captain, and dodge deadly mortar barrage; or play capture the flag against Copters of both the goblin and Ogre variety, meanwhile, there are missiles set to stun kill.

EV-A*
An old robot-friend has found her way into DD:A. Series EV is a beloved hero from the franchise, we wanted to bring her to DD:A along with her reflect and buff beams ^^. Something a little extra to help deal with the challenges that await in Massacre Survival and beyond.
*Hero name subject to change ;)

    Abilities:

•         Decoy
•         Proton Charge

    Defenses (All the Beams):

•         Proton beam
•         Physical beam
•         Reflect beam
•         Shock beam
•         Buff beam

Dual Weapon Equip:
Gain stats from both weapons
Only one weapon can be used at a time
Huntress and Apprentice weapons only

Check out some EV-A Gameplay over at JuiceBags Youtube channel!

Inventory
Oh, inventory management, where do I begin… Well, there was once a dev named Philtermancer, he was a wise engineer, privy to the plight of inventory management time sinks that plagued the community. His trusty friends Sir Sean “Shoryu” Ryan the UX wizard and Magister Mario “Luvcraft” Machado UI Art master devised a most wonderful solution. In Update 1.1 you are bestowed the blessed bag filters, making your adventures in Etheria easier, the end. 

Inventory Filter Bags:

New additional filters:

Fancy new tooltips:

There are additional features and changes coming your way in our 1.1 patch as well as hundreds of bug fixes.

Come say hello and chat about the upcoming content in our Discord!

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!
For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS

Finally, Dungeon Defenders: Awakened 1.0 released on Steam today. It’s been a long and crazy journey that has ultimately led us here. Development on this project has had its ups and downs, but together we made it here, our studio and you, our GLORIOUS community. There’s a lot to cover, we’ll save the sappy stuff for later, let’s get into it!

What’s Inside?

There’s a lot to cover the epicness that is Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, with where and what to cover being quite difficult decisions. We’ll go through everything top to bottom, and if something is left out, then you’ll just have to hop in and experience it for yourself!

Heroes

The four classic heroes lead the charge for the Dungeon Defenders: Awakened roster. With more to come, these base four serve as the bastion of Etheria!

The Squire

Melee tank with towers that either block or deal heavy physical damage.

• Abilities
  • Left Click:  Melee slash
  • Circular Slice:  A circular slice that deals a ton of aoe damage.
  • Blood Boil:  Go berserk, increasing damage, knockback, movement speed, and armor.
  • Heal:  Heals you by converting mana into health.
• Defenses
  • Spiked Blockade - A blockade that stops enemies and deals damage to melee attackers.
  • Ballista - Shoots a giant bolts that pierces through enemies.
  • Bouncer Blockade - A blockade that stops enemies and knocks back melee attackers.
  • Bowling Ball Tower - Shoots out bowling balls that bounce and deal damage to enemies.
  • Training Dummy - A blockade that spins and deals more and more damage to enemies around it.

The Huntress

Ranged DPS focused on laying traps and dealing heavy damage from afar.

• Abilities
  • Left Click:  Shoots projectiles
  • Right Click:   Reloads weapon
  • Piercing Shot:  Shoots a phoenix that pierces enemies.
  • Adrena Rush:  Increases attack rate, move speed, and jump height.
  • Heal:   Heals you by converting mana into health.
• Defenses
  • Explosive Trap - Explodes dealing physical damage to nearby enemies.
  • Poison Gas Trap - Stuns weaker enemies.
  • Inferno Trap - Engulfs enemies in fire damage over time.
  • Darkness Trap - Blinds enemies and removes their elemental immunities.
  • Thunder Spike Trap - Deals a giant burst of lightning damage.

The Apprentice

Ranged DPS with well rounded defenses and burst hero damage.

• Abilities
  • Left Click:  Shoots projectiles
  • Right Click:   Hold and release a giant explosion nearby
  • Mana Bomb:  After channeling, releases a giant mana bomb.
  • Overcharge:  Overcharges you, making your right click empower nearby defenses.
  • Heal:   Heals you by converting mana into health.
• Defenses
  • Magic Missile Tower - Shoots missiles that deal physical damage.
  • Elemental Barrier - Blockade that strips enemy elemental immunity.
  • Flameburst Tower - Shoots an exploding fireball.
  • Lightning Tower - Shocks nearby enemies with chain lightning.
  • Deadly Striker Tower - Shoots a single blast of energy dealing a ton of damage.

The Monk

Melee and Ranged hero with auras and abilities that aim at support.

• Abilities
  • Left Click:  Melee slash
  • Right Click:   Shoots projectiles.
  • Tower Boost:  Throws a medallion on the ground, boosting nearby defenses.
  • Hero Boost:  Boosts heroes near the Monk, and the Monk as well.
  • Heal:   Heals you by converting mana into health.
• Defenses
  • Ensnare Aura - Slows enemy movement and attack speed.
  • Electric Aura - Deals lightning damage to enemies.
  • Healing Aura - Heals heroes who walk through it.
  • Strength Drain Aura - Reduces enemy damage and strips elemental immunity.
  •  Enrage Aura - Chance to cause enemies to fight one another.

Difficulties

Dungeon Defenders is about climbing the mountain and taking on harder and harder difficulties across all game modes. Returning to our roots we’re bringing back some classics, some in a slightly new way, and something brand new:

• Easy:  Getting through the story and obliterating everything in your path.
• Medium:  Smooth progression, providing a decent challenge to any new Defender.
• Hard:  The heat starts to increase, this is the most difficult start possible.
• Insane:  Clearing Hard makes way for Insane.
• Nightmare:  Access granted after attaining Level 70 and clearing Insane Campaign. It introduces four enemies - Spiders, Sharkens, Djinns, and Goblincopters.
• Massacre:  The newest difficulty in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened requires you to reach Level 83 to access it. You’re going to need some great gear from Nightmare and prepare to take on the newest enemy - The Siren!

You can choose to take the solo route or play with up to three other Defenders. The difficulty is there, and the choice is yours!

Maps

In this first showing of Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, you have access to 15 epic maps, some classic blasts from the past, and some brand new maps that help show off the world of Etheria.

• Act I
  • Deeper Well
  • Ancient Mines
  • Lava Mines
  • Alchemical Labs (Boss Map)
  • Magus Quarters (Encore Map)
• Act II
  • Tornado Valley
  • Tornado Highlands
  • Ramparts
  • Throne Room (Boss Map)
  • Endless Spires (Encore Map)
• Act III
  • Arcane Library
  • Royal Gardens
  • Promenade
  • The Summit (Boss Map)
  • Glitterhelm (Encore Map)

These maps offer diverse landscapes and unique ways to strategize your defenses against the hordes of enemies that await!

Game Modes

A return to our roots would not be right without bringing back some of the games modes that many know and love. All difficulties are available on every game mode, allowing novices and veterans alike an opportunity to try their hand.

• Survival:  Up to 25 Waves of enemies are coming for you. Reaching Wave 15 and 25 offer unique rewards that vary between every map. 
• Pure Strategy:  Test your defensive prowess in this mode. Your towers are the only thing that can defeat the enemies that await you.
• Mixed Mode:  Add in some Nightmare enemies into the mix, increasing the difficulty and rewards.
• Hardcore:  With greater risk comes greater reward. If you die with this enabled, you do not respawn until the end of combat phase, whether you win or lose.

Enemies

It wouldn’t be fun if it was all just goblins coming your way. The Old Ones army returns in full fashion, while also recruiting a new evil to push your Defender skill further than ever!

• Goblins:  Big ears, goofy, melee focused, and the weakest enemy of the bunch. If you can’t beat them, you’re in for trouble.
• Dark Elf Archer:  A ranged Elf that shoots arrows to destroy you and your towers from afar.
• Dark Elf Mage:  This ranged Elf shoots magical bolts at your towers while also summoning skeletons to fight you.
• Orc:  A big brutish melee enemy that hits pretty hard and has a larger health pool.
• Wyvern:  Drakes that come in from the sky, flying over your defenses to destroy your Crystal Core.
• Kobolds:  They’re packed with dynamite and a bit fuse-happy. They’ll charge any threat and go BOOM!
• Dark Elf Warrior:  These elves thirst for battle against Heroes. They jump maneuver around and over defenses to focus down Heroes before turning their focus to your defenses.
• Ogre:  Think an orc on steroids, except he also throws explosive snot at you. His melee hurts pack quite the punch.
• Spiders:  These bugs come down randomly from the ceiling, usually behind your towers. They can debuff heroes and towers alike.
• Sharken:  Hailing from the seas, they pack a mighty melee punch and also charge your towers, knocking them aside.
• Djinn:  Using otherworldly magic, the Djinn can either poof your Defenses out of existence or greatly enhance one of his allies.
• Goblincopter:  A flying mechanical  tormentor that shoots flares to distract towers, crash lands into players, oh and it carries a freaking OGRE with it into battle.
• *NEW* The Siren:  She enchants enemies around her, making them take permanent unstrippable reduced elemental damage based on her elemental affinity. She also flees, and Defenders who defeat her before she escapes are handsomely rewarded.

As you progress you run into newer enemies, providing a greater challenge as you progress. If you can make it to Massacre, you can find out what horrors all of these enemies pack!

Gear

This is what it’s all about, getting sweet epic loot after a good day of defending. The theme of DD:A is something new and something old, something blue and something bold (is that how the saying goes?). Every weapon, pet, armor, and accessory have been carefully crafted to look as legendary as possible. The pieces you’ll see are:

• Weapons:  Unique to each hero, providing stats and fun ways to shoot and slash enemies!
• Helmets:  Providing stats and protecting that Defender strategy powerhouse brain of yours.
• Chests:  Providing stats and keeping your heart safe.
• Gloves:  Providing stats and helping prevent blisters.
• Boots:  Providing stats and giving a nice cushion for your journey.
• Brooches:  Providing stats and a visual pin in your cap.
• Masks: Providing stats and a visual protector for your Hero’s face.
• Braces: Providing stats and a visual wristguard to fend off carpal tunnel.
• Shields (Squire only):  Providing stats and a sweet shield. Enough said.
• Pets:  Providing stats, sometimes unique mechanics, sometimes unique attacks, sometimes even MORE stats.

You can combine Helmets, Chests, Gloves, and Boots of the same armor type (i.e. The Miner Set) to greatly increase the stats on each piece of gear.

UI

Probably the part of the Dungeon Defenders series that needed the most love has been our UIs. Well Dungeon Defenders: Awakened comes in hot with some fresh off the press UIs that help get you through your inventory and customize your heroes efficiently and effectively so that you can get back to defending those dungeons. Let’s take a look

Inventory

Hero Deck Selection

Hero Customization

Map Select

Play vs. Legacy

These are two ways to play Dungeon Defenders: Awakened that allow us to do some cool stuff in the future, with the first example coming with release. If you choose Play, your characters will not see people who choose Legacy, and vice versa. You are free to create new characters on either version. In order to provide Mod Support down the road, we need to create two modes to accommodate this.

Play

This is the preferred way to experience Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. With this 1.0 Launch, everyone starts off fresh on an even playing ground. If you want to start up fresh with friends, current and yet to be made, go here!

Legacy

This is where older profiles and experiences go. For the Dungeon Defenders: Awakened 1.0, this is where Early Access profiles go. You can continue off where you were in EA with all the gear and levels you previously had. This area is where we will be supporting mods in the future.

Pricepoint

One of the biggest points of feedback that we’ve received from many of you is that our price point was a little high. We scrubbed through Discord, our forums, Twitter posts, Facebook posts, and Steam Reviews. Everything. This was such a huge bit of feedback, and we listened, so on launch Dungeon Defenders: Awakened base price $29.99, and to follow the traditional Steam game release, we’re going to have the game 15% off for the first 7 days.

Additional Options

We know that a lot of people experience Dungeon Defenders in their own way, and have unique preferences. As a result, we added some options for you to utilize to get you the information you want.

Show Split Item Power
Off by default, enabling this option splits your Item Power into two stats, Hero Item Power and Tower Item Power. This can help be a quick filter to see if a piece of loot is more heavily favored towards Hero stats or Tower stats.

In World Tooltips
On by default, this shows an items stat when on the ground. It can be disabled for players who prefer to inspect all their loot in the inventory.

Compare Items In World
On by default, this compares what you’re currently wearing to a piece of gear that is on the ground.

In World Tooltips During Combat
On by default, this lets you inspect gear as your in combat phase. Players can turn this off so as they run by all the sweet loot on the ground that they are not met with a item tooltip as they traverse the terrain to defeat incoming foes.

What’s Next?

We’re going to be working hard to make sure any issues that may arise are taken care of, or finish polishing some features that didn’t make it into this 1.0 launch. These will be coming in small patches, and we’ll make sure that hotfixes are a-flowing so that all Defenders have the smoothest experience possible.

Alongside these smaller patches, we’ll be having a big Post 1.0 Update that’ll include:

• Massacre Survival
• RIFT ENEMIES
• Tornado Valley Challenge Map
• Promenade Challenge Map
• Secret gear hunt
• New Gear Sets
• Legend’s Tablet
• Preorder Costumes
• Credits
• And More!

We plan on keeping Dungeon Defenders: Awakened alive and healthy for a long time to come. There’s so much to look forward to, and we can’t wait to share it with you!

Special Thanks

While we have specifics in our credits, there are a ton of individuals outside of Chromatic Games that helped make this game what it is. To all of our Developers of present and past, Remote QA Team, Cavalry Testers, Early Adopters, Kickstarter Backers, and all Defenders, we thank you for your trust and patience as you ride along with us on this journey. Together, we are Dungeon Defenders! <3

Known Issues

Below are the known issues, and we’ll be updating this over time. If you run into any bugs, please report them through the in-game escape menu link.

• Full localization support should be available in the coming weeks. 
  • Use at your own risk! It’s not super risky, there’s just a few tweaks we need to make. More polish coming.
• Can’t skip the intro cinematic as soon as most would like.
• Several UI’s might still suffer from ‘Art Shock’ - We’re on it!
• Gamepad needs a little more polishing.
• Steam Avatars may not display properly
• There’s an “Always Compare Item In Inventory” option that cannot be scrolled to. We’re increasing the scrollabilities.
• Accessory Tooltip stats are not in the correct order visually.
• Steam Achievements may not unlock properly for some Defenders.
• Will update overtime :)

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS

Today the “Activating the Goblin Mech Update” went live for Steam Early Access! Alongside it is our release announcement trailer, which if you haven’t seen it yet, click here to check it out! Dungeon Defenders: Awakened releases May 28th on Steam, and noted later in this post are details for the other platforms. With the update coming next month, this is the final major update to Early Access, with the Steam launch having all of our 1.0 content. In this update you’ll be fighting the magically powered Goblin Mech, gain access to the Endless Spires map, and get the first look at our first arted up UIs — let’s get into it!

Activating the Goblin Mech Update

You can smell the exhaust coming from the Goblin Mech’s mechanical monstrosity, but where is the smell coming from? The only way to find out is to hop into Throne Room on Campaign and survive to the end!

The Goblin Mech Plows Through

The second boss that you’ll fight is the destructive Goblin Mech! Piloting the pinnacle of goblin engineering, he bursts into Throne Room (Campaign). You’ll need to stop him from plowing through your defenses and destroying the Crystal Cores in the middle. Find his weakness, drain the power of the mech, and stop him in his tracks!

The Goblin Mech is available for all difficulties on The Throne Room (Campaign).

UI Updates

One of the biggest focuses of this entire project has been to get UIs into a functionally better state compared to previous Dungeon Defenders games. As a lot of the UIs are wrapped up and getting their final touches on the functional side, we’re able to finally start arting them up. In this update, the first UIs to get this treatment are our Map Select UIs. There’s more to come across the entire game, but this is our first real showing at giving the UIs that Dungeon Defenders feel!

New Bonus Map — Endless Spires

Locking away some of Etheria’s most heinous criminals, the Endless Spires is going to be coming back as the bonus map for Act II. A fan favorite, Endless Spires is available to play on Campaign as well as Survival. Conquer the spires —  doing so in Survival rewards you an all new pet!

New Pet — The Monkey King

Climbing the Spires and fighting off the hordes of enemies that encroach upon the great prison rewards you with primate royalty, The Monkey King. Using his legendary bo staff, this pet attacks fast, gaining strength with each hit, all from the comfort of his floating cloud.

Delays

One of our goals regarding the development of this project is to be as transparent as possible about this project. We’ve had delays from initial releases and have tried to communicate why, ultimately being that we want Dungeon Defenders: Awakened to be a great game and set the standard when fully released as the first game for Chromatic Games. We sat down, made a road map that was realistic for the work we’re able to provide, and got to work. Everything was going smooth in development land, and then COVID-19 hit. This has been an unprecedented event, and as we’ve previously stated, our first priority was (and still is) making sure everyone of our employees was safe and healthy. This has affected development in multiple ways, and we’re doing our best to be responsive and ensure a quality game. Here’s how it’s affected multiple areas and where we’re at as a studio.

Nintendo Switch

Developing for a Nintendo platform is something new that we were excited to take on. The Nintendo Switch has a lot of awesome tech crammed into their console. Dungeon Defenders: Awakened can be a bit of a resource hog, so it’s important to make sure we do everything we can to make sure it runs smoothly, especially when playing 4 player split screen Wave 25 Survival. What happens on the Switch also sets the precedence for all of the other platforms we release on. There’s a ton of work that goes into making all of this happen.

Working in the studio with our Switch development kits allowed us to be quick with testing. One of the biggest hurdles with a game like ours is making sure that what other players are doing, including host and client connections, provides proper replication to everyone playing. You start local to make sure connections work, and slowly start playing over networks and doing larger network tests. Having to change to an entirely remote setup has caused a bit of trouble doing this. We are currently working through various solutions to emulate the process we planned to follow, but it comes at the cost of time. If we were in the studio, this would be moving along faster and we’d be in a much better position. Unfortunately that’s not where we’re at.

Ultimately this means that we’re going to have to delay our Nintendo Switch release to Q3 of this year. The above is not our only requirement, as there is a certification process that we must go through with Nintendo that takes some time to make sure it will work perfectly across their networks and platform. As a studio we believe you deserve the best experience. If we were to force something through, it would be incredibly rushed, not perform properly, and be a flawed product.

We’re going to keep working as hard as we can and keep you updated on our progress.

Pure Strategy and Challenge Maps

These were originally slated for our Activating the Goblin Mech update, but were pushed off to our release on May 28th. While we’re working on progression throughout the game, we wanted to make sure the additional mode and challenge maps (Act II introduces a brand new challenge map) provided a great experience. A lot of that is related to our Massacre work, so we held onto it for the moment so you don’t receive a lackluster experience that is going to be changed when everything is said and done. With these two changes to our schedule, the goal is consistently to not curb quality in order to meet deadlines.

Balance

• Enemies
  • Spider
    • Increased the Spider’s web projectile speed by 50%.

General Changes

• Maps
  • The Tavern
    • The Blacksmith has been added, but currently ignores you because you haven’t slain a dragon yet. He’s got some high standards that we’re looking to nerf in a later update.
  • Throne Room
    • Updated the carpet in Throne Room to be Blue on one side to help give a sense of which side of the map a player is on.
  • Alchemical Labs
    • Updated the nameplates on the Electric Generators that activate during the Demon Lord fight.
• UI
  • Updated the descriptions for game modes and maps on the Map Select UI.
  • New Map Select UI with new art assets!
  • New Map Cards have been added to Map Select.
  • Fire Rate now shows for melee weapons and staves.
• Matchmaking

• Players are able to join their friends' private/public games after Wave 3.

• Public games do not show on the Session Browser past Wave 3.

• Tower Range Viewer
  • Pressing “SHIFT” will turn on Tower Range Viewer, showing the range of towers.
• Gear
  • Added an accessory drop to every Boss victory chest in Campaign.
  • Added set bonuses to the tooltips.
• Cinematics
  • Added several new storied cinematics in Act II.
• Performance Optimizations
  • AI behavior / content, as well as map content has been greatly optimized and players should see a noticeable improvement in later stage gameplay.
  • More optimizations to come! 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that was causing several crashes.
• Fixed an issue when enabling FPS Limiter not saving properly.
• Fixed an issue where pets were not able to be dropped from the inventory.
• Fixed an issue where hero footsteps were not playing correctly.
• Fixed an issue where the Summary Screen and Tac Map could overlap and not allow you to properly interact with the Summary Screen.
• Fixed an issue where Primary Bindings showed in the Secondary Binding if there was not a Secondary Binding already set.
• Fixed setup issue with several explosion VFX that were causing a noticeable stutter on lower spec machines.
• Fixed an issue where hitting “Escape” was not cancelling inputs.
• Fixed an issue where pets could be upgraded too high.
• Fixed an issue where tower rate stats on older gear was not showing.
• Fixed an issue where free pet upgrades still took gold.
• Fixed an issue where the Huntress’s projectiles would pass through targets when moving too fast.
• Adjusted the chat box so it now scrolls when a new message is sent.
• Fixed an issue with damaged towers not updating properly on the Tac Map when repaired or upgraded.
• Fixed an issue for not being able to upgrade certain stats properly, specifically Fire Rate.
• Fixed an issue when clicking the portrait of your currently selected hero wasn’t confirming the creation for that hero.
• Fixed an issue with upgrade arrows on items in the inventory not updating correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Facemelter was doing 1 damage.
• Fixed an issue where Lightning Aura wasn’t playing it’s VFX when damaging an enemy.
• Fixed an issue where Medium Difficulty completion was unlocking Insane Difficulty.
• Fixed an issue that caused an inconsistency with aura previews and spawn sizes.

Known Issues

• Replaying/Restarting Endless Spires causes Wyverns and Sharkens to have pathing issues.

• Maps being randomly locked and not unlocking properly.

• Gear quality not being reflected properly compared to the item power.

What’s Next

There’s a lot of hard work that has gone into this update, and we’re working with all our might to provide an amazing experience at the end of next month when Dungeon Defenders: Awakened FINALLY Releases! Thank you for all your support, there've been a lot of ups and downs, but through it all we’re going to have a game to you that we’re very proud of. We’re almost there!

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

Today we posted our release announcement trailer for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to check it out! To celebrate the release of this trailer, and to check in with all of you, we’re going to give a preview for our next update as well as talk about new release information and where we are as a studio. Let’s get into it!

Activating the Goblin Mech Update

This update is coming so close, you can smell the exhaust coming from the Goblin Mech’s mechanical monstrosity. This is the update preview, there’s going to be more information provided on the post that goes live with our update.

Goblin Mech Plows Through

The second boss that you’ll fight is the destructive Goblin Mech! Piloting the pinnacle of goblin engineering, he bursts through the doors on Throne Room (Campaign). You’ll need to stop him from plowing through your defenses and destroying the Crystal Cores in the middle. He’s available for all difficulties.

UI Updates

One of the biggest focuses of this entire project has been to get UIs into a functionally better state compared to previous Dungeon Defenders games. As a lot of the UIs are wrapped up and getting their final touches, we’re able to finally start arting up the UIs. In this update, the first UIs to get this treatment are our Map Select UIs. There’s more to come across the entire game!

New Bonus Map — Endless Spires

Locking away from of Etheria’s most heinous criminals, the Endless Spires is going to be coming back as the bonus map for Act II. A fan favorite, Endless Spires is available to play on Campaign as well as Survival. Conquer the spires to receive an all new pet!

New Pet — The Monkey King

Climbing the Spires and fighting off the hordes of enemies that encroach upon the great prison rewards you with primate royalty, The Monkey King. Using his legendary bo staff, this pet attacks fast, gaining strength with each hit, all from the comfort of his floating cloud.

Delays

One of our goals regarding the development of this project is to be as transparent as possible about this project. We’ve had delays from initial releases and have tried to communicate why, ultimately being that we want Dungeon Defenders: Awakened to be a great game and set the standard when fully released as the first game for Chromatic Games. We sat down, made a road map that was realistic for the work we’re able to provide, and got to work. Everything was going smooth in development land, and then COVID-19 hit. This has been an unprecedented event, and as we’ve previously stated, our first priority was (and still is) making sure everyone of our employees was safe and healthy. This has affected development in multiple ways, and we’re doing our best to be responsive and ensure a quality game. Here’s how it’s affected multiple areas and where we’re at as a studio.

Nintendo Switch

Developing for a Nintendo platform is something new that we were excited to take on. The Nintendo Switch has a lot of awesome tech crammed into their console. Dungeon Defenders: Awakened can be a bit of a resource hog, so it’s important to make sure we do everything we can to make sure it runs smoothly, especially when playing 4 player split screen Wave 25 Survival. What happens on the Switch also sets the precedence for all of the other platforms we release on. There’s a ton of work that goes into making all of this happen.

Working in the studio with our Switch development kits allowed us to be quick with testing. One of the biggest hurdles with a game like ours is making sure that what other players are doing, including host and client connections, provides proper replication to everyone playing. You start local to make sure connections work, and slowly start playing over networks and doing larger network tests. Having to change to an entirely remote setup has caused a bit of trouble doing this. We are currently working through various solutions to emulate the process we planned to follow, but it comes at the cost of time. If we were in the studio, this would be moving along faster and we’d be in a much better position. Unfortunately that’s not where we’re at.

Ultimately this means that we’re going to have to delay our Nintendo Switch release to Q3 of this year. The above is not our only requirement, as there is a certification process that we must go through with Nintendo that takes some time to make sure it will work perfectly across their networks and platform. As a studio we believe you deserve the best experience. If we were to force something through, it would be incredibly rushed, not perform properly, and be a flawed product.

We’re going to keep working as hard as we can and keep you updated on our progress.

Pure Strategy and Challenge Maps

These were originally slated for our Activating the Goblin Mech update, but were pushed off to our release on May 28th. While we’re working on progression throughout the game, we wanted to make sure the additional mode and challenge maps (Act II introduces a brand new challenge map) provided a great experience. A lot of that is going related to our Massacre work, so we held on it for the moment so you don’t receive a lackluster experience that is going to be changed when everything is said and done. With these two changes to our schedule, the goal is consistently to not curb quality in order to meet deadlines.

What’s Next

The update is coming out VERY soon. There’s a lot of hard work that has gone into this update, and we’re working with all our might to provide an amazing experience at the end of next month when Dungeon Defenders: Awakened FINALLY Releases! Thank you for all your support, there've been a lot of ups and downs, but through it all we’re going to have a game to you that we’re very proud of. We’re almost there!

Social Defenders

To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Forums

Keep an eye out for more info!

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We’re a few weeks out from Steam Early Access and it’s been amazing so far! There’s a lot more that we’ve got coming up very soon — New Maps, New Pets, THE DEMON LORD, Nightmare Difficulty, Hardcore Mode, and more! We’ve been consistently patching in fixes and improvements, but this March update is going to be the first big milestone in our road map that we’re excited to get to all of you, our GLORIOUS Defenders.

To keep with our transparency and consistent communication, before that comes out, we wanted to use this time to give another look into our studio, showcasing some of the developers that are hard at work. This time, it’s PAX East themed! You’re going to be hearing from some of the courageous souls here at Chromatic who persevered through the cold, cold weather of Boston and were able to not only show off their work, but also engage with a lot of the brave Defenders (both new and old) who were able to make it out. Let’s get into it!

Some of The Team

Mary — Community Manager

We all had an amazing time at PAX East and met so many fans of the Dungeon Defender series! It was great to actually get in-person feedback from so many people. I’ve been stuck at home since PAX East due to the flu and am very much looking forward to being back in the studio. It’s hard to read all of your feedback on my tiny home laptop and I miss my big monitors! My dog is also clearly very bored just sitting at home and would like to be back to bothering the artists and trying to go under everyone’s desks in search of food.

Philip Simpson — Gameplay Engineer

Hey guys! I'm one of the gameplay engineers on the team. In regards to my history here at Chromatic, I joined the team over two years ago, right before the Dungeon Defenders II Onslaught update. I've been a huge fan of the Dungeon Defenders Series since the beginning, totaling around 500+ hours combined in both DD1 and DD2, so it's been an absolute blast to get the opportunity to work on the games. Outside of work, I'm a huge RPG fan and play a ton of them, such as Path Of Exile, Borderlands, D&D (5e Mainly). Other than that, I'm a huge fan of dogs, specifically when it comes to Corgis as people in the discord already know. 

Some of you may know, I was given the opportunity to go to PAX East to help out with the booth we had there. I can't convey enough how amazing it was to be able to interact with both new and old Dungeon Defenders fans and to show off our latest game. The amount of support this game has from its fans is mind blowing and one of the many reasons why I love being a part of this team. I really hope to be able to attend more conventions in the future to be able to meet and talk to all of you! 

My day-to-day usually involves working on various UI's. One of the things I've been working on lately has been improving and polishing our gamepad support as we approach our launch on the Nintendo Switch. On top of that I've been actively listening to community feedback about various issues and features regarding Auto Loot, Sorting and Filters, as well as lots of QoL features and overall just providing user options to customize their game to their liking. I've been very active in the community discord, so feel free to have a chat with me and let me know where we can make improvements or even just things you like!

Geoff Shreiber — Implementer and QA

Hello! My name is Geoff Shreiber ([CG] Seven if you frequent the community Discord) and I do Implementation for Dungeon Defenders Awakened! I was born in Gaithersburg, Maryland, but I now live near our studio in Florida with my lovely girlfriend and our two cats. I like doing card and coin magic, I pronounce gif like "jiff," and my favorite foods include sushi and Taco Bell. That's pretty much everything there is to know about me.

Since "implementation" is somewhat vague, let me briefly describe my day-to-day at Chromatic Games. I will receive a task from a Designer or a Producer to make some feature work in the game, then I collaborate with Artists, Animators, and Engineers to make it happen. This can be as simple as a small change to some character's stats, or a multiple-day-long project comprised of multiple features and systems in the game. Some examples of stuff I am partially or entirely responsible for include the character animation system, the preview of your character in the inventory, the lava geysers on the Lava Mines map, and the tutorial.

I have been playing video games all my life. My first video game was Final Doom on the PC when I was very little, and I have been hooked ever since. I love the thrill of a good intense battle in a fighting game or a shooter, the adventure and planning of a good RPG, and the sense of pride and accomplishment after finally beating that super hard boss that you spent hours and hours preparing for! For as long as I can remember thinking about it, I've thought "I want to make these games so I can give back to this community." If one person finds the same enjoyment and excitement from the games that I work on that I have throughout the years, that's why I do what I do.

Over the years, I have played very many different games from all sorts of genres. I'll often get into a groove and play a whole lot of games from one genre back to back. At the time of typing this, that genre is Action RPGs, the latest one being Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. Some of my favorite games of all time include Pillars of Eternity, Path of Exile, Warcraft 3, Quake 3, In The Groove, and Super Smash Bros. For a few years, I played Super Smash Bros. for WiiU competitively, maining Link, under the tag "7". 

I helped run our booth at PAX East from February 27th through March 1st. Being able to intermingle with the community and hear everyone's first hand accounts of their time with Dungeon Defenders Awakened was an awesome experience. It really helps motivate me to keep putting a lot of hard work and effort into the game, making every part that I work on as best as I can. Hearing everyone's feedback and criticisms of the game also helps not just me, but everyone on the team, get a better idea of what parts of our game work, and what parts don't work so well. That way, we know where we can best spend our time to make a game that the community really enjoys, and we can be proud of. Even if you weren't at PAX and don't get to tell us in person, please continue to give us feedback. We listen to it, and it helps us keep going.

Thank you for taking the time to read a bit about my story, and keep Defending in those Dungeons! Here’s me helping someone at PAX East that you may have seen shared on our Instagram!

What’s Next?

We are currently hard at work on fixing the patch we reverted yesterday, to make sure there aren’t any inventory or equipped item resets included in the updated patch slated for early next week. When this new patch goes live you’re getting the updated Huntress and Monk character models, along with highly requested inventory updates and additions. Our other focus is on getting the March “Summoning the Demon Lord” update ready, as well as our Switch build ready for initial submission! While we’re focusing on providing the best game possible, as a studio we’re closely watching the Covid-19 Virus and will be taking any and all precautions necessary to ensure development continues as smooth as possible.

Social Defenders

To keep up with us and get the latest news on both Dungeon Defenders and us folks here at Chromatic Games, make sure to follow us on our social media:

• Discord

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Twitch

• Forums

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We’re all so excited for the Steam Early Access release of Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on Feb 21st! We wanted to share some of the awesome work the team’s been working so hard on to get ready for the Early Access at the end of this week. This Dev Log will have some sneak peaks from different departments here at Chromatic: Art, Design, and Engineering! Also, if you haven’t and wanted any of the goodies that come with the preorder editions of DD:A, make sure to get them ASAP since they’ll be gone at 11:59PM EST 2/20! 

Some of The Team

Mary — Community Manager

Hi there! I’m Mary, the new Community Manager and I’ve been working for Chromatic for a little over a month now. I worked at Artix Entertainment previously for almost five years before coming over here. It’s been super fun and I had a blast at PAX South talking to everyone there about DD:A. I’ve been really enjoying reading all of your feedback and suggestions regarding DD:A, and making sure that your voices are heard by the team. I’ve also been working on ways to revamp some of our social media platforms like Discord and hopefully you’ll see those changes soon. I’ve also been getting together some little gif teasers together and getting feedback from the Discord community. Here’s some examples:

I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on the Steam Early Access of DD:A! It’s only 2 days away!

Brent Caulfield — Jr Designer

Hello, my name is Brent Caulfield and I am a Jr. Designer at Chromatic Games. I first started game development about 6 years ago when a friend and I started making a FPS game with wizards and magic instead of guns and ammo. That eventually evolved into a commercial project called Grimoire: Manastorm which was released on Steam in late 2017. After that I started a design internship at Chromatic and then accepted a full time design position shortly afterwards!

There have been a lot of interesting tasks, but my favorite would have to be the final implementation of gameplay elements for all the maps. Placing the final parts to make the gameplay work and then being the first person to playtest it was really exciting. Seeing the waves of enemies all come out on the maps full of beautiful art was a great experience and one I’ll remember for a very long time. There were so many talented peoples’ work that went into making it all happen and to be one of the first people to see it all come together into a full gameplay experience was very special and was definitely my favorite thing I’ve worked on!

Reverse engineering and breaking down DD1 code to find out exactly how and why different systems work was definitely the hardest stuff I’ve had to work on. In order to create an authentic DD1 style experience the Engineering and Design teams spent a lot of time going back into the DD1 code to see how it all functions. One of our major goals with the project is to bring back that awesome gameplay experience that so many people love and while we have extremely experienced people on the team that know how it all works there were still some surprises along the way that we never would have figured out without digging into the source code. This was very challenging at times, but extremely rewarding at the same time.

After the initial hazing (Javahawk told me it was possible to beat DD1 Insane Deeper Well on a fresh character) things have been great! Gainesville is my hometown and game development is my dream job so I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to find a place at such a welcoming studio that is working on a game I genuinely enjoy playing! There are so many amazing people on the team and it's a great feeling to wake up every day and be excited to go into work. I am really excited about everything we are working on and think the community is going to love all the awesome content we’ll be putting out in the future!

Jade — Jr 3D Artist

I go by Jadeite in the art world and I have a slight obsession with video games and all things nerdy! So much so that I decided to make some kind of a career out of it through the art side of things. I've been practicing 3D art since my junior year of high school, and it's my favorite medium to date. My life basically revolves around games, whether I'm at work making them, or at home playing them! I'm also a big fan of tabletop games like King of New York, Boss Monster, D&D, and Necromonda just to name a few.

I've had a lot of fun working on the many assets I've been tasked with, but if I had to pin down my favorite it would probably be the pets! I'd say I had the most fun when making these little guys, they're just so cute! I wouldn't really say I'm a character artist, but working on them gave me a chance to essentially be one for a small time and I learned a lot from it. Besides that I also really did like making weapons and shields, super fun especially when I got to make my own spin on old weapons or even just remake them from the ground up. 

I haven't had to make anything that frustrated me to the point of thinking it wasn't fun in the slightest. But for the hardest thing I’ve worked on I guess I would have the pick the new version of Ancient Aegis. From the start I just had no idea where to go with the new concept, and then actually carrying that out in 3D form was a bit of a challenge. I've also had a few issues come up with this particular model, having to add more or fix things in regards to texture, smoothing issues, etc. It was still a very interesting take on a "sword" and I learned quite a bit from it.

My time here has been nothing but enjoyable! I was more than thankful when I first got my internship position here just a few months after graduating, and it's been a blast ever since. One thing my university always said was that you never fully learn this art form until you land your first job, and man were they right! I've been practicing this art form for about 5 years now and I definitely struggled my first week here. I kid you not, I took an entire week making a bench haha. But I've learned a great deal of information, new techniques, and even made some friends along the way! I'd say this is an experience I'll never forget :D

(Also here's some more of my work)

Derek Stroud — Sr Programmer

One of my favorite things that I’ve worked on was setting up our abilities using Epic’s own AbilitySystem, which is a very neat and robust system to work with. Abilities are such a key component to the game as they include everything from placing towers to the Genie pet giving you mana. Setting up our core flow for this and making some of the base abilities was very satisfying and fun as it is one of the very direct means of adding fun interactions to the game. In previous development on the original Dungeon Defenders and Dungeon Defenders II, this was a lot more difficult. Swapping to Unreal Engine 4 is like a dream come true when it comes to setting up abilities and being able to do a lot more in a shorter amount of time.

With any project, there’s always going to be that mountain to climb, and it’s usually the hardest thing you work on. For Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, we needed to mimic the original Dungeon Defenders stats on every piece of gear and balance for gear, enemies, difficulties, you name it! Due to Dungeon Defenders evolving beyond its original scope (especially post release) there were a lot of tacked on additions to various formulas that became very hard to translate into an easy to work with system for DDA designers. Tracking down all the various additions and small stat tweaks that could happen in DD1 and making sure we incorporated them into DDA but also trying to keep the new systems intuitive and manageable was quite an undertaking... not quite sure we hit intuitive but I think we got manageable down. 

My favorite thing that has been added to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened that wasn’t in Dungeon Defenders (2012) is double jump! Anything that makes navigation feel better, also every game should have it cause it is the best. As someone who worked on both games, you should take this as a fact — double jump is best jump.

What’s Next?

Everyone has been working so hard on polishing things up for the Steam Early Access release of Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on February 21st and working on getting it ready for the full launch in Q2! A few of us are also getting ready to head out to PAX East at the end of the month, will we see any of you there? If you go, make sure to stop by and visit us, we love to hang out with some of our brave Defenders whenever we get the chance!

Social Defenders

To keep up with us and get the latest news on both Dungeon Defenders and us folks here at Chromatic Games, make sure to follow us on our social media:

• Discord

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Twitch

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Hi there everyone! 

My name is Mary (or known as [CG] Mary) and I’ve recently joined Chromatic Games as the Community Manager. I’m so excited to meet all of you, answer your questions, listen to your feedback, and be the bridge between you and Chromatic! I spent almost five years working player support and assisting with community management at Artix Entertainment on AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest, EpicDuel, AdventureQuest Worlds, and AdventureQuest 3D. I also have been volunteering for the RTX (RoosterTeeth) convention in Austin, TX for six years! I love being able to help out as much as I can and make sure people are being heard.

(My demodog Rusty and I)

I’ve enjoyed tower defense games since I found Bloons TD in 2007. Ranged/mage characters have always been my favorite, so I really enjoy playing The Apprentice (plus Flameburst is one of the greatest offenses.) The Huntress is my second go to, but I also love using the electric auras with The Monk. Outside of the Dungeon Defenders franchise, my favorite games to play are Fable II, Wolf Among Us, and Fallout: New Vegas. I’m currently playing Pokemon Shield and The Outer Worlds in my free time.

I look forward to talking to all of you! You’ll be seeing me on streams defending Etheria from the hordes, responding to your questions and feedback on our social media platforms (tag me on twitter @CG_Mary_), as well as acting as a bridge between the Chromatic Games team and you, our brave Defenders. If you have any questions you can find me on Discord and Twitter and I will do my best to answer as soon as I can! 

For Etheria!

PS If you understood the Fallout meme in the title we're gonna be best friends

DEFENDERS!

Today we released the PRIME INCURSIONS update on all platforms! We wanted to provide a challenge to our tested Defenders that was separate from Onslaught, and Prime Incursions are just that. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get into it!

PRIME INCURSIONS

What are they?

They are the highest and newest tier of incursions, selectable from the Incursions tab on the War Table. There are six different groups of incursions to play through that are releasing over time. You are able to play them as they are unleashed, the only thing that can hold you back is your own skill!

What are the rewards?

Prime Incursions have three different rewards associated with them.

Chaos VIII Ampoules
Each Prime Incursion has the chance to drop a Chaos VIII Ampoule. As you continuously progress, the Incursions get more and more difficult. As such, we wanted to increase the drop rate of Chaos VIII Ampoules to match that increase in difficulty. These Incursions can get pretty tough, which led us to making the hardest of these challenges have the highest drop chance for Chaos VIII Ampoules.

Chaos VIII Weapons
We’ve added a whole new slew of weapons with new weapon models that are only available through Prime Incursions. There’s over 25 new weapons to collect, sure to scratch that collector’s itch!

That’s not all there is to these weapons. Each weapon is upgraded to Chaos VIII, at the full 5/5 upgrade quality! That means they are perfectly upgraded, letting you focus on using Chaos VIII Amps to upgrade your relics and armor instead. Alongside these upgrades, we’ve curated these weapons to be what you really want. They have some of the most alluring shot and swing types many of you enjoy. ALONGSIDE THAT, included are curated mods specific to these weapons that really ensure these drops feel good and pack a punch!

Hyper Shards
Hyper Shards are something every player wants to boost up their arsenal. Previously, they were only acquired through Mastery completion, requiring a specific amount of Mastery Stars. Now, in Prime Incursions, you earn a Hyper Shard for every group you complete. There are six groups total, so if you complete all six of the groupings, you earn the seventh Hyper Shard as a capstone reward! This means you can now have up to TWO of each Hyper Shard in your ranks, pushing back the Old Ones forces more hyper-er than before.
When Do They Release?

Today we released the first two groups of Prime Incursions, Prime I and Prime II. Each of these groups contains 3 incursions, for a total of 6 to conquer. Every week, on Wednesday @ 9AM ET, we are releasing a new incursion. This is going until early November, giving you content to come back each week to enjoy. Here’s the schedule

Prime I & II:  TODAY!
Prime III Malthius:  September 4th
Prime III Power Surge:  September 11th
Prime IV Dark Awakening:  September 18th
Prime IV Return to Maldonis:  September 25th
Prime IV Bastille Master:  October 2nd
Prime V Altar of the Athame:  October 9th
Prime V Revenge of the Yetis:  October 16th
Prime V Spectral Assault:  October 23rd
Prime VI Dawn of the Blood Moon:  October 30th
Prime VI BETSY:  November 5th

New Costume
The Ascended Initiate is now available for purchase in-game at 800 Gems!

Social Defenders
To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

The team had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Defenders!

I can’t believe we’ve reached $350,000 and that we’re still climbing!  We’re super grateful for all the support we’ve received so far, and we can’t wait to keep building this game.  

This is the last chance for everyone to back the Kickstarter so I just wanted to remind people what the perks are so you can spread the word! 

Being a Kickstarter backer comes with a lot of exclusive perks, but all our Backers get access to additional add-on products after the campaign ends on BackerKit.  That means that if you’re a Backer, you can purchase additional T-Shirts, postcards, copies of the game, and more for the lowest price.

Now I want to talk about the game!

As you may have noticed, we’ve hit several of our FLEX goals and I hope we hit more!  So I wanted to briefly talk about the ones we have hit, and even some that we haven’t yet.

Localization Support

This one is pretty simple, we want to offer the game in more languages, so we’re going to offer it in more languages!  Huzzah!

New Challenge Maps

Challenges are coming back!  In DD1 we called them Challenges, in DD2 they were Incursions, but in DDA they’ll be pure awesome.  We’ll be bringing back some of the classic Challenge Maps, but this stretch goal is even more!  With some of the new content that’s going to be in DDA, these will be accompanying custom Challenge Map versions with their own sets of rewards.  We plan to have sick loot that comes from conquering these, so get your Stashes ready!

For this next one, I’m going to let our Lead Designer, Mark Telfer talk a bit about “Massacre” Difficulty.

Massacre Difficulty

Hey Defenders!

We just blew past another flex goal, and that means even more opportunities for us to create new and exciting content.  Being the masochists that you are, you’ve decided to bring Massacre Difficulty into this world.  Allow me to titillate your masochism with the doom you’ve brought upon yourselves.  Massacre will be an intense challenge that will test the formidability of even the most seasoned defenders.  This isn’t just going to be the same enemy schedules with some stat buffs slapped on.  The enemies you’re going to face present brand new challenges that require some serious strategy and legendary skill.  You thought Nightmare was hard?  Pfft… Good luck!

GLHF,
Mark Telfer
Lead Designer

New Enemy and Map

This is an additional enemy and map threat that will be presented after the end of the campaign and at the end of the current progression.  This will be one of the new hardest maps to beat, and a challenging enemy threat to accompany it.

Customizable Tavern

I want to clear things up that we still plan to have similar levels of tavern customization to DD1 in DDA.  This stretch goal was to have even more control over where your trophies go, adding decorations, and really having additional customization options within your personal tavern.  This stretch goal was for the extra of the EXTRA!  Let’s HIT IT!

Bonus Boss Fights

We have a lot of awesome boss fights that we want to add into DD:A and you’ll be getting some of them with the base product, we just wanted to add more!  This goal was for that!  We still might add more as we continue to develop DLC’s or patches and content, but this was to get more at launch.

I hope that helps give a little more context about the FLEX goals we’re trying to hit, and some more details about the game we’re trying to build.

Let’s close out this Kickstarter with a BANG and get every awesome bit of content and features into Dungeon Defenders: Awakened!

Thanks again for your support, from all of us at Chromatic Games.

Colin “Elandrian” Fisher
Creative Director
 

From: Colin “Elandrian” Fisher, Creative Director

What’s up, Defenders!  Welcome to our first post as Chromatic Games!  If you’re new to the community, an extra helping of “welcome” is in store for you.  If you’re a veteran Defender, then welcome back. Let’s get right to it!

It’s been a wild ride these past couple months, but the cat’s out of the bag now!  There’s been a lot of news about our rebranding, new Kickstarter campaign, and what all of it means for you as a player.  I want to just take a brief moment to provide a little extra context about what’s going on. We’re #indieAF now, so it’s time to get the info straight from the horse’s mouth!  (Or maybe it’s beans time? Company beans? Who knows. Let’s do this.)

So What Happened To Trendy Entertainment?
For the more official take, you can check out the press release here.

For the realest take, keep reading!

In December of this past year, Augi Lye, one of the original founders of Trendy, came back as CEO to help return Trendy to its indie roots.  

The development team and I worked with him to figure out how we can have a good plan to move forward and start creating Dungeon Defenders games in the way they were meant to be made: for our players.  One of the things we wanted to make clear was that Trendy was no longer really Trendy.  There’s brand-new leadership, a new creative direction, and new energy at the studio that was just waiting to be released.  So we decided that we’re not really Trendy anymore.

Chromatic Games is our final form.  We’re over power level 9000 now, and we’re ready to rock.

We’re not answering to external people anymore.  We’re in control of our own destiny. We were able to keep the majority of the development team around, but we had some people move on to newer pastures. We’re so grateful for their years of service.  We love and respect all of our previous Trendy family, but now the Chromatic team is focused on the future — and that future is to keep improving DD2 and crafting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened.

What Does This Mean For Dungeon Defenders II?
Dungeon Defenders II will keep going!  Development is going to slow down, but we still plan on maintaining limited updates and content.  What do I mean by limited updates? We’re going to be focused on smaller quality of life updates, bug fixes, improvements and some occasional new cosmetics.  When I say smaller QoL, I mean in the development time aspect — we still plan on our quality of life features to be super impactful for players.  

We’re going to be releasing an update soon on all platforms that will have a vendor where you can get the Shards you’ve been looking for or looking to gild — a highly requested player feature!

There’s some extra morsels of dopeness in that update as well.  Most of the changes are gameplay related. We’re trying to make the fixes and improvements that everyone has been asking for.

Supporting Dungeon Defenders II will still continue to support the team at Chromatic and support our ability to continue to patch and grow DD2.  Our team is dedicated to figuring out how we can keep evolving the game in the right direction.

We’re going to keep making Dungeon Defenders II better and better, just as we’ve been committed to doing in the past.

So Why Dungeon Defenders: Awakened?
I’m just going to begin by addressing the elephant in the room:

“Elan, Dungeon Defenders: Eternity already happened.  Isn’t this just the same thing?!?”

The short answer is no. The long answer is HELL no.  DD:E was a different product entirely. We have no plans to repeat history when it comes to that.

We came up with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened as our first smaller-scope project as a new team. If we want to remain employee-owned/controlled (which is the dream!), we needed to prove that we’re the capable stewards and re-earn that trust before diving right into Dungeon Defenders III (which we have SO many slick plans for).

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened started as a plan to do a modern remake of the original Dungeon Defenders for the Nintendo Switch, but then it evolved from there.  We didn’t want the game to feel like some sort of weird attempt at Dungeon Defenders: Eternity again. We wanted to make a new game, a new experience, a new story.

As we began looking into what we could build with Unreal Engine 4, we found that we’ll need to rebuild a lot of the systems and code that supported the Dungeon Defenders games.  Fortunately, our engineers are rockstars. We’re taking a lot of the hard lessons we learned about building games over the years from DD1 and DD2 and now have the freedom to make these systems in newer, more optimized and scalable ways for DD:A.

We don’t just want the game to look better in UE4 — we want it to run and feel better.

We want controlling your character to feel “crispy.”  For some context on what that means, you should check out Ben Brode’s PAX Keynote from last year.  We love to draw inspiration from other games and developers, and that is one of my personal favorite talks that describes some of these key aspects of making games have that polished and responsive feel.

Then when it comes to content, we’re exploring ways of using and importing some of our existing content in new ways that we can use as a springboard to accelerate development.  

This is one of the things we show off in the Kickstarter.  Deeper Well is definitely still the same map effectively, but it has a completely new look and will play a little differently.  It will still be a familiar and recognizable location, but there are new things going on in these familiar spots and new gameplay that comes with it.

This is what will allow us to make our aggressive October timeline.  By using the content and assets that we’ve been developing over the years, the content team can go CRAZY and make the game look and run amazingly well while our design team focuses on bringing the gameplay into 2019.

Our goal is to bring Dungeon Defenders: Awakened to as many platforms and players as possible.  We want to make a game that everyone can enjoy, and enjoy together. It just takes additional support to get there, and that’s why we have our Kickstarter campaign.

Why Go To Kickstarter?
We JUST became fully independent again.  We want to build the game in a way that we can fully be in control of.  Obviously going to a publisher is an option that we can explore to get additional funding, but there’s always a bit of “loss” associated with that.  We’re really trying to move forward and make new games. We don’t want to have a publisher — we want to make Dungeon Defenders games that are fun, weird, engaging, meme-tacular, challenging, charming and magical.

By going to Kickstarter, we can maintain FULL control over development and the future of the Dungeon Defenders franchise.  Your support here is VITAL.

The “dream” is to add as much content to this game as possible and to make a game that you can enjoy as a solo player or as a co-op player, strategizing against new challenges, maps, defenses, and gameplay.  We love it when people make interesting builds that even baffle our internal designers. We love when people find cool ways to make defenses and heroes more powerful than we ever could have imagined. We want to give you more of that.

So we need your help.

In Conclusion
We’re here to make a game that communicates our passion for Dungeon Defenders. We want to fulfill the expectations of our followers both new and old.  At this moment, we’ve had about a month of focused pre-production development time so far, and look how much progress we’ve has been made already!

We can’t wait to give people more news and updates about Dungeon Defenders: Awakened as we make more progress. We’re focusing on having a player-first mentality be our driving force at Chromatic.  

We’re here for you, if you’ll be here for us.

Support our Kickstarter, spread the word, help us make the dopest Dungeon Defenders game of all time.

As always, feel free to hit me up on Twitter:  @LordElandrian

Welcome to our community.  Stay a while.

Greetings Defenders,

Welcome to the new forums! There's quite a bit of changes that had to happen in order to facilitate this move so please read everything to hopefully answer any questions you may have.

• Logging In
  • Email/Password Login: Your password did not carry over from the old forums and must be reset by going here: https://forums.dungeondefenders.com/lostpassword/ . Make sure to check your email junk/spam folders in case the reset email goes there.
  • Steam Login: You must login with email first and re-link your Steam account to your forum account.
• Post Counts
  • Since the new forum had to re-index everything during the migration, post count numbers will be to what posts you do have and not include any deleted posts, non-copied over old forum posts, or forum restore numbers.
• Messages
  • Messages between members on the old forums were not moved to the new one. Sorry 😞
• Threads with pages that show "There are no posts to show"
  • Older threads that had deleted/bad spam bot posts in them were cleaned up which may cause the error message above. Once new posts are added or you go to an earlier page instead of last post should work fine. New forum posts started on the new forums will not have this issue.
• Reporting forum issues
  • You can report new forum issues here: Forum Bug Reports.
• Titles/Ranks
  • We're working on bringing back some custom groups and post count promotion fully. Right now after you make a post you should see yourself get the correct rank updated on your account.

Thank you!

A Protean Check-In With Elandrian

Defenders Assemble! Sound the horns of Dragonfall! I come bearing beans!

Well, I have some beans, but I also wanted to talk about the recent launch of Protean Shift. It’s been a busy past two weeks for us here at Trendy and it’s great to finally get the expansion into everyone's hands. We’ve been scouring the forums and our various social platforms for comments and feedback, and it’s tremendously valuable for helping us shape what’s coming soon in upcoming patches. I also want to give you guys a glimpse at the future of the game as well, so read everything for all the juicy details.

In response to feedback (and just our planning in general), we have a bundle of changes, new content, and bug fixes coming soon. I’m not going to give any real time-frames… our goal is to get new changes and content out as quick as possible for everyone, but we’re a tiny team and we’re working as fast as we can! Here’s a quick list of some of our targets:

Short Term

• Bug Fixes (duh.)

• Buyback Functionality

  • This is currently in testing/iteration and we want to get it out soon. We really want to make sure there’s a way to get back items you’ve sold by accident. It will most likely just save some of the items you’ve been selling until you leave the Town or Tavern.

• Better Sorting/Filtering of the Inventory

  • One thing we want to improve is your ability to find your good items in an easier way. This will take a little more work, but we’re going to try to give you better sorting of item types, as well as possible sorting by your strong MOD rolls… or should I say “those big 5/5 Qualibeans.”

  • This also might include some changes to help find Shards and manage them better, but that might require additional time as well.

• Materials Vault Tabs?

  • This is something we’re investigating too.  We saw some players talking about this so we’re looking at making a section of the vault be able to support bigger stacks of materials and connect to all the places you want to spend them. We’re aiming for this to be a “short term” add… but it might end up taking a little longer.

Medium Term

• Onslaught Changes

  • I’m not going to go into TOO many details, as it’s still being discussed among the Design team… but I will say we have some goals for these changes.  

  • We want to make it easier for players to play and progress together.

  • We want to make the floors more significant to progress between.

  • We want to make it easier to make meaningful progression and less punishing.  (Aka. Three map floors might go the way of Skill Spheres.)

• Ancient Power Changes

  • These are going to be some changes to make it fit more in line with the Onslaught changes.

  • We’re also looking at making the resets more forgiving as you gain Ancient Power too. Again, not going to go into specifics as this is still an active discussion… but we ARE reading/discussing all the various opinions from the community and our testing teams.

Longer Term (But maybe shorter than you expect?)

• Better party functionality.

  • We’re trying to add more social functionality here… Things like better party leader knowledge in matchmaking, inviting/kicking from parties, a friends list?  There’s a lot on the schedule to add here, we’re going to get to as much as possible.

• Increased Multiplayer Incentive

  • We want people to be enjoying Dungeon Defenders together, but we know there’s not a lot of reasons to do so at the moment. We’re aiming at changing this, while still keeping solo-play viable.

• Better Matchmaking.

  • This is another laundry list of changes, but we want it to be easier for people to play together and stay together.  We also want to make the flow to get into gameplay much easier and with less interruptions and disconnects.

• Guilds

  • Secrets...

Now all these updates and changes are well and good, but we’ve also seen a certain desire from one or two community members. It’s been spoken of only occasionally… and by so few that we weren’t sure if it was important or not to everyone...

/endsarcasm

Our heroes will be receiving some calls to action to various regions of Etheria very soon. The first region our heroes will be heading to will be a somewhat familiar location. The distress call will come from a certain coastal region...

Just for some extra beanage at the end here:  There will be a new region to go to, new things to get, and possibly some new threats to face…

We appreciate all our players sticking with us as we continue to evolve and release our vision for Year Two of Dungeon Defenders II. We couldn’t have done any of this without all of your help.  

Thank you from all of us here at Trendy Entertainment.

Sincerely,

Colin “Elandrian” Fisher

Hey Fellow Defenders!

It’s about that time again.  Time for another Check-In with ya boi, Elandrian.  We hope everyone has been enjoying the Barbarian and the changes that came out with our last large update. We’ve been hard at work on a ton of new content for Dungeon Defenders II, and I wanted to talk a little bit about what’s coming next week to the game and some stuff that’s coming around summertime.

Next week is going to feature the Sky City Bank, Inventory Stack Splitting, a huge performance improvement with loading times on all platforms, and an assortment of bug fixes.

Sky City Bank

The Sky City Bank will be arriving in Dragonfall next week, and will be bringing some additional storage to everyone.  Every player will get at least one Bank Vault for free when they first log in. In addition to the one free Bank Vault, we’re going to be running a limited time promotion where you can get another free Bank Vault and unique Shutter Shades Flair for your heroes.  This will only last two weeks, so make sure to tell your friends to get the free space and cosmetic!

For people that have purchased the old Inventory Pack or the newer Bag Booster Pack, there will be some slight changes to where your inventory bags are now.  The bags that were activated from those bundles will become Bank Vaults now. We saw that there was some regular confusion usually in the form of: “Why do some players have 10-11 bags and I can only buy 8?”  So we’re standardizing what everyone can get.

Tl;dr If you’ve bought the Inventory Packs, you’ll keep all the space that you’ve purchased, and it will just transition into free Bank space when the update comes out.

So here’s what the new “Max Space” will look like:

Old Version:

8-11 Possible Maximum Inventory Bags

0 Bank Vaults

New Version :
8 Inventory Bags

12 Bank Vaults

We wanted to give everyone enough space so that they can just completely empty out their current Inventories into the Bank immediately once you log into the new update and roll out with an empty Inventory!

Stack Splitting

The Sky City Bank will also release with a couple smaller item management features.  The main one that we’ve introduced is Stack Splitting. I don’t think I need to explain how that works, but I will anyway!  If you have a stack of 99 pet food, you’ll be able to split it into two stacks if you so choose.  So maybe you want to just store a portion of our consumables, you can do that now!

Transfer All

The other management feature is the ability to transfer an entire bag with one press.  There will be a new “Transfer All” button that will move all your unlocked items into the Bank Vault that you have selected.  Locked items can be moved as well, you just have to manually move each one and they won’t be moved by accident with the “Transfer All.”  If you have several stacks of something that is able to be stacked, “Transfer All” will automatically stack those together when used.

Load Time Optimization

Our programmers have made an awesome performance breakthrough with how we load player profiles.  With the introduction of the Sky City Bank, we were aiming to improve all aspects of our item systems in some way, shape, and form.  Our lead programmer looked into how we were loading our save profiles and found several optimizations that we could make when we introduced the Bank for the first time.  

In one of our test cases, we saw a 60 second load time fall to a mere nine seconds.  Results will be varied for all our users, but this will be an improvement across all our platforms on how our save profiles are loaded, and I’m legitimately excited for this change to go live for all of you.

But What Else?

I know it wouldn’t be a good Check-In without some juicy tidbits, so I guess I’ll start sprinkling out some information.

I keep seeing a lot of new things popping up in our development build of the game, and all of it has the name “Proteus” attached to it.  I’m not quite sure what that means, but these new things LOOK amazing. There was even this new “magical property” thing that I found when messing around on my Barbarian that made me gain additional damage buffs each time I switched stances.  When I first looted it, one of our QA members told me I could do this new thing with it. It was this weird word too… I think it’s pronounced “Trah-Deah-Bluh,” but I’m not sure. I could be saying that wrong.

There was also another spaceship parked in the Heroes Marketplace, although I’m not quite sure what that’s about.  Everything seems so different. A bunch of game modes are different now too. Curiouser and curiouser...

I’ll keep investigating and report back to everyone with my next Check-In!

Thanks everyone, can’t wait to see you in Etheria!

Colin “Elandrian” Fisher

There’s a storm coming, Defenders! 

Wizards & Blizzards (Update 1.1) arrives August 23rd on Xbox One, PC & PS4! Our focus for this update is on delivering a new gender swap hero, creating important system updates, fixing numerous bugs, bringing the Revenge of the Yetis Incursion to all platforms, and setting the stage for adding larger modes and variety to the world of Dungeon Defenders II in our next updates.

Read the blog below to learn about the update, and then be sure to tune into our Wizards & Blizzards Devstream this Friday at 3PM EDT. We’re going to showcase the update and giveaway free hero codes!

New Hero:  The Adept!

“A dedicated bookworm and talented mage, the Adept pursued the arcane arts from a young age. Unrivaled in her valley homeland, the Adept has come to Dragonfall to prove herself among the finest arcane masters and take the fight to the Old Ones on the fields of battle.”

The Adept is our next gender-swap hero! She sports two new abilities and one new defense while retaining most of the Apprentice’s kit:

New Ability:  Arcane Bubble

The Adept creates a pulsing shield that reflects all enemy projectiles and periodically stuns all enemies within. It’s particularly useful against certain enemies (*cough* Dark Assassins *cough*).

New Ability:  Arc Lightning

The Adept sends piercing bolts of devastating lightning that damage marked targets and enemies caught in-between.

New Defense:  Hailstorm Tower

The Adept’s new defense is a powerful anti-air tower! The Hailstorm Tower fires a barrage of damaging ice shards at flying enemies, which also weakens them to follow-up attacks. This defense also draws reduced aggro from enemies.

New Shards for the Adept

The Adept has her own unique Shards to discover! (Note:  These details are subject to change between now and release. Check out the patch notes next week for final information!)

• Wither Shield:  Arcane Bubble withers enemies inside it increasing the damage they take by X%.

  • Found in the Campaign Shard Pack

• Sanctuary: Heroes inside the Arcane Bubble shield heal X% of their health per second during the duration of the bubble.

  • Found in the Chaos 2 Shard Pack

• Glacier:  Hailstorm Tower fires a large rock dealing X% Defense Power damage once every 5 volleys.

  • Found in the Chaos 2 Shard Pack

• Thunderwave:  Arc Lightning deals X% Ability Power as damage to all enemies around you.

  • Found in the Chaos 3 Shard Pack

• Arc Shielding: Arc Lightning places a shield on you that lasts 20 seconds that absorbs X% of your Ability Power. Enemies that hit the shield are damaged for a total of Y% of your Ability Power over 3 seconds.

  • Found in the Chaos 4 Shard Pack

• Marking Bubble:  Arcane Bubble adds X marks to enemies inside it.

  • Found in the Chaos 4 Shard Pack

• Thunderbolts and Lightning:  Increases the damage of Arc Lightning by X%.

  • Found in the Chaos 5 Shard Pack

• Explosive Finale:  Upon completion, the Arcane Bubble explodes dealing X% Ability Power damage to all enemies in and around the bubble.

  • Found in the Chaos 6 Shard Pack

• Icefall:  Hailstorm Tower attacks have a X% chance on hit to freeze enemies for 7 seconds.

  • Found in the Chaos 7 Shard Pack

Try the Adept for Free!

Perhaps best of all, when the update comes out, you’ll be able to try the Adept for free by visiting the Portal in the Heroes Marketplace! Once you enter the Portal, you’ll be given access to a normalized version of the Adept decked out in gear. If you like being able to try out a premium hero for free, please let us know!

Revenge of the Yeti’s Incursion on PS4 & PC

This frosty Incursion will be available on PS4 and PC in this update! Prepare to face the mighty Yeti and his abominable new minions on the Hot Springs map. Revenge of the Yetis will be available in Chaos VII, so prepare your heroes now!

Matchmaking System Updates

This update implements some major backend matchmaking updates, which we’ll be able to grow and improve the matchmaking experience upon. With this particular update, we’ve been able to improve the map-to-map flow, which makes it easier for you to stay together with a party of friends or with a group of randoms. We’ve also been able to fix the minimum Ascension Level Requirement filter, which will now stay active when you continue on to the next Trials match, and your custom game names will remain on transition. We’re also able to hide matches after they reach a certain threshold of play, so it’s less likely to join a nearly complete match. (Thanks for the feedback on that!)

There’s plenty more we want to do with this new backend system in the future (like improving the Party System), so stay tuned for more updates!

Gamepad Improvements

Continuing from our work in Patch 1.0.3, we’ve added a whole slew of new gamepad improvements! Among other changes, this includes Inventory UI quality-of-life changes, easier hero swapping, easier tower upgrading/repairing/selling and more! Check out the patch notes next week for a full list of details.

New Cosmetics Manager

This update introduces a brand-new Cosmetics UI to view and equip Cosmetics! Currently, equipping costumes and accessories is a pain. Not only do you have to go to a specific vendor to make your heroes look badass, but the current UI is a pain to navigate -- especially on gamepad.

This new UI is available directly from the “Cosmetics” tab in your Inventory, so now you can change your look on the fly! You’re also able to see all of the currently available Costumes, Accessories and Tower Skins in one location, and best of all, you can view all of them (including Tower Skins) before you make a purchase!

Bug Fixes

And finally, this update includes numerous bug fixes! Keep an eye on the patch notes for the full details.

We’ll see you in Etheria, Defenders!

Love,
The Trendy Team