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[CG] Brittani

DEFENDERS,

With all the news on gear upgrades from last week, it may feel like we can’t possibly give away any more Episode 1 news, but you’d be wrong. Here we come with even more reveals with a brand-new game mode and some spicy additions to current play.

Developer Note: All of these things are subject to change by the release of Episode 1.

“Tests” Boss Challenges Game Mode

We’ve got a NEW GAME MODE! We’re calling this the “Tests” mode because it’s one defender being tested against one big baddy. The “big baddy” can be any of DDA’s infamous bosses, and you fight one-on-one to defeat them on their own map. One more small detail—you fight the bosses with zero defenses. Wait, there’s one more small-ish detail to add to that. You can’t use your heroes. You must choose to fight with one of two predetermined heroes. Don’t worry, they come with their own gear, too.

Guess it's time to hone those combat skills!

Now for the details of the fights. Each fight has a 3-minute timer, so you need to be skilled and quick. These fights should be difficult, but not impossible to beat. To help with this, you have one extra life during the fight. That means you can die once and everything is peachy. If you die twice, though… That’s the end of the fight.

Along with the extra life, each boss has three difficulty levels for you to choose from: Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III. Each boss is also equipped with a “deadly” mechanic that deals some serious damage. This should go without saying, but you definitely need to avoid being hit by the deadly mechanic at all costs. We warned you.

We’re sure there are lots of questions running through your head right now. What heroes can you use in these fights? What is this “deadly” mechanic you should avoid? What else did we leave out because we love keeping secrets? Well, here’s the breakout for each “Tests” battle.

Test of the Demon

  • Available Heroes:
    • Huntress Series
    • EV-A, with staves
  • Demon Lord specials:
    • Demon Lord is immune to damage unless stunned by the Generators
    • When Demon Lord is stunned, goblins and/or orcs rain from the sky
    • Deadly mechanic: Fireball

Test of the Mech

  • Available Heroes:
    • Apprentice
    • Series EV-A, with bows
  • Goblin Mech specials:
    • Mech has increased movement speed
    • Mech takes reduced damage from hits that don’t hit the weak point
    • Dark Elf Warriors periodically spawn
    • Deadly mechanic: Melee attacks

Test of the Ancient

  • Available Heroes:
    • Monk
    • Squire
  • Ancient Dragon specials:
    • When flying around the map, the Dragon can only be damaged by the Ballista
    • Wyverns spawn after Dragon is shot by the Ballista
    • Deadly mechanic: Fireballs

You’re probably asking yourself what the rewards are like for this new game mode. That’s a great question! Since we want to keep some of this a surprise, the answer to this is kept simple for now. For defeating each of the bosses at each of the tiers, you can earn unique rewards that are only available through Tests. With three different bosses at three different tiers in this game mode, there are 9 unique rewards up for grabs.

This type of game mode that gives Defenders a way to just fight bosses with only a hero is something we’ve seen people asking for. This is also something that’s easy for us to add and test out. It is a bit of an experiment for DDA, and if you all enjoy it, we’ll be sure to include it in all of our future episodes.

Speaking of other fun experiments… Our next section goes over the fun we’re adding in for fans of Rifted.

Rifted Portals

Another fun addition to DDA in Episode 1 is Rifted Portals. What the heck are portals?!

Rifted Portals are alternate spawn points for enemies that appear at set locations and times on Rifted Episode 1 maps. Enemies are removed from their original lane and ported to the alternate location. What defenses they miss along the way, nobody knows.

How do you deal with these pesky portals?? Lucky for Defenders, these can be destroyed by your hero. There’s a catch, of course. Portals cannot be destroyed by your hero’s defenses. So, choose your hero wisely!

An added benefit to destroying a portal is the loot that drops once it’s gone. There’s always that incentive to take it down. If you don’t destroy it before the wave is over, it will quietly disappear and a fresh portal will reappear on the next wave, but you won’t receive any loot. Gotta work for the goods.

Bonus Waves

Finally, let’s talk about Bonus Waves. These are one of those spicy additions we’re adding for late-game defenders who are itching for that extra challenge. With an extra challenge comes extra rewards in the form of a chance to get max quality gear from EVERY MAP. What’s the point of a Bonus Wave? To earn extra awesome gear, of course! And you should believe us when we say these rewards are extra awesome.

What Are Bonus Waves?
The basic explanation for these are extra waves that can be unlocked once defenders complete Wave 25 on any Boss map in Survival and Mixed modes at Nightmare and Massacre difficulties. All maps have their own Bonus Wave that unlocks once you defeat the boss within its respective Act. As you can imagine, enemies in this extra wave are faster, stronger, and tougher, but as we said, you’re rewarded for your hard work.

These Bonus Waves are purely opt-in, meaning you can choose to complete them on each map if you want — you don’t have to complete them to finish the map, though. Oh! Here’s a fun fact: Bonus Waves for Boss maps also feature the boss! Sorry, not sorry for that goodness. To note, Bonus Waves for Boss maps only appear after defeating the next boss. For example, you unlock a Bonus Wave for Alchemical Labs once you’ve defeated the Throne Room Nightmare/Massacre Survival Wave 25. We’ll spend the rest of this section going over how to actually access the dang maps and what goodies come from completing them.

Unlocking Bonus Waves
The tricky thing here is that defenders can only unlock Bonus Waves in each Act after completing Survival Wave 25 on the Boss maps on Nightmare and Massacre difficulties. We want to make sure Defenders are rewarded for attempting (and completing) more difficult maps, too. So, once you complete a Boss map, that boss’ named Bonus Wave is unlocked for all prior maps. For example, defeating the Goblin Mech at the end of Act 2 will unlock the Goblin Mech Bonus Wave for all Act 1 and Act 2 maps (minus the Throne Room and Endless Spires).

This gives Defenders freedom to choose the battle that’s appropriate for your style of play. If you want to skip over the Demon Lord and Goblin Mech maps, heading straight to Ancient Dragon to open the Bonus Waves for all three Acts, you’re able to do that. Here’s a handy example explaining how Bonus Wave unlocks work:

You, a glorious defender, complete the Alchemical Laboratory on Massacre Survival. With this great takedown of the Demon Lord, you unlock access to the Demon Lord Bonus Wave on all prior Act 1 maps.

If you, our GLORIOUS Defender, go on to complete Tornado Valley, you don’t yet have a Bonus Wave for that map. Quickly realizing this, you defeat the Throne Room on Massacre Survival, and this unlocks access to all prior Act 2 Goblin Mech Bonus Waves at Massacre difficulty, plus Goblin Mech Bonus Waves for all maps in Act 1.

There’s more we want to add that may make it into Episode 1, if not a future update. We want you to have multiple Bonus Waves to choose from (e.g. Demon Lord and Goblin Mech), where you’re only able to choose one of those waves to complete. So, in the case of the example above, when opting-in to the Bonus Wave on Deeper Well, you must choose to complete the Demon Lord Bonus Wave or the Goblin Mech Bonus Wave. Not both, or at least not in the same session.

You may be asking, “Why bother with these extra waves if they’re just tougher challenges?” Well, we left out some important pieces of information…

Loot Drops
We hope you’re ready for some AWESOME rewards because that’s what defenders are getting from these Bonus Waves. Many of you already know this, but it’s worth explaining again just in case some of us need a refresher. The quality of the loot drop from a map’s chests are dependent on a number of factors, including the game mode, selected difficulty, whether or not you’re playing on Hardcore and/or Rifted, and, of course, RNG.

These Bonus Waves are no different, but there are some small-ish differences to ensure the reward is equal to the work. We do this by increasing the loot quality of every Bonus Wave according to the level of the boss associated with the wave. Basically, Act 1 Bonus Wave loot drops will increase in quality after you defeat Demon Lord, and Act 1 and 2 Bonus Wave loot drops will increase (again) after you defeat Goblin Mech. Activating Hardcore and/or Rifted further adds to the quality of Bonus Wave loot drops on all maps.

That’s Bonus Waves, Defenders!

Summary

Like we revealed on our Friday Funday stream, Episode 1 ramps up DDA’s difficulty with a new Tests game mode, Rifted Portals, and Bonus Waves that reward you for your hard work. Once we have this content in place, we’ll be able to expand on it in future episodic content. This is just the beginning!! We can’t wait for you to try it all out and pick up some awesome gear at the same time.

We haven’t announced the release date for Episode 1 yet that includes all of these additions, along with the new heroes, new maps, and an overhaul of gear, but be on the lookout on our social pages. We love sharing that kind of exciting news on those pages first!

Console Update

We want to reassure you all that DDA ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 AND PlayStation 5 are still very much under way. We’re still working hard on getting Nintendo Switch through the Lot Check process, fixing bugs, and prepping it to be live for you all while also knocking out Episode 1. The Switch version will be completed and released before PlayStation, but we are aiming to have DDA on all consoles by the end of the year.

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

[CG] Brittani

DEFENDERS,

On the May 14th stream we continued our string of reveals. Previously we’ve shown off the new Maps (The Mill, The Outpost, The Keep, and Foundries and Forges), the new heroes (The Warden and The Rogue), some new weapons (The Woodland Set), and even the new enemy (The Lycan). Those are just some of the things being added to the game, but now it’s time to get into some of the new features coming to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Let’s start with a big one — GEAR!

GEAR UPGRADE

Gear is getting a major face lift in Episode 1, and for a lot of reasons. We’ve been taking a heavy look at what players are doing with gear, how well they understand it, and what that means for metas. Currently, the meta is boost-only to succeed. Boost builds are fun, but they shouldn’t be the only way to experience the game. We’re going to keep boosting viable, but we’re also going to add options to help give our ever-expanding roster of heroes and content more ways to be enjoyed and conquered (respectively).

Stat Changes

There’s a lot to unpack here, so first let’s get into the changes that are coming. We’ll focus first on what’s being removed, what’s being added, and last the additional systems that are added that are built off this new foundation.

Stat Removal

On our May 7th stream we talked about removing Ammo and Reload from the game as a concept so that heroes using Crossbow weapons weren’t hindered when choosing to play with a crossbow wielder. Here’s a total list of what we’re removing from items, and what’s going to happen with them:

Ammo and Reload Speed
As previously mentioned, they just weren’t fun mechanics. They punished early players and scaled so high they didn’t matter to late game players.

  • New: The Huntress gains the ability to shoot an arcing explosive that deals damage to enemies hit. If the Huntress is in the explosion radius, she gets launched based on her orientation to the explosion. Rocket jump!

Agility
This stat capped out at 100, meaning that a lot of players with 1000’s of agility because of gear rolling all the stats were getting punished for every decent agility roll on gear.

  • New: Agility cannot be upgraded, but instead scales from levels 1 - 50, with 50 giving the player the equivalent movement speed increase of 100 agility from before Episode 1.

Block
Not all heroes who use swords block.

  • New: Block is an ability that statically scales based on the source of the attack, with smaller enemies taking less block resource and stronger enemies taking more.

Casting
Another stat that caps out pretty quickly and ultimately takes power away from gear.

  • New: Casting now scales based on your hero level up to a cap. The higher your level, the faster you build, repair, and upgrade defenses.

Charge Rate
Another stat that was a little too complicated to understand.

  • New: Now is baked into abilities that charge (i.e. Apprentice Secondary Attack)

Knockback
More stats that people weren’t upgrading or cared to receive.

  • New: Now scales off specific weapons innately.

Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, and Elemental Attack
The difference between these has always been confusing as to which ones to upgrade for players. Veterans might understand what to do here, but it's not really clear. As a result:

  • New “Damage”: We’ve decided to just merge these into one type “Damage”. That means if an elemental weapon drops, there’s one source to upgrade that guarantees you’ll be doing more damage. This new approach will keep damage scaling the same as before.

Projectile Count (Polearms)
We removed this stat as it pretty much locked polearms to only the Monk, unless any hero we made in the future used ranged fire as their secondary stat.

  • New: Projectile Count for the Monk now scales with their level. Early in the game you have a single projectile, and then after a continued progression it’s permanently set to 7 projectiles.

Projectile Speed
Upgrading this actually made some weapons unusable because their projectiles moved so quickly that they would not hit enemies.

  • New: Now this stat is set on a per weapon basis, meaning some weapons shoot faster or slower than other types.

Skill and Boost
These two have been pretty hard to describe what they do for a lot of players, and they also lock us into this idea of new heroes always having both, or having to disjointedly say “ability two is for boost” or “Carnage on the Rogue scales from boost”. There’s a lot more we could get into here, but the TL;DR is that they weren’t intuitive.

  • New “Ability” stat: Ability is just Skill and Boost combined and are incorporated into the scaling of any ability a hero uses. Previously playing a boost Apprentice? Well now you can go drop mana bombs that pack a punch while keeping your boost build going.

That’s a lot of changes that were made as the result of us heavily investigating gear, looking at player profiles, watching streams, watching video guides, and surveying players. We really dug into what players want and the best way to provide that. We’re not stopping there. We’re going further. Let’s talk about some new stats that are coming.

New “Crit” and “Crit Scaling” Stats - Melee Only
This stat is not a new concept to players, but the way it's implemented might be. We wanted to give melee heroes a chance to compete with ranged heroes. Ranged heroes have projectile count that deals multiplicative damage that’s not split amongst projectiles, and get to send a barrage of attacks to enemies while not having to worry too much about taking an axe to the face. Melee heroes however have to focus on avoiding too much damage, getting in and out, and not having as high uptime on dealing damage.

Critical strikes help bring balance to this difference. Melee heroes do have the advantages of cleaving, but in the late game projectile counts more than make up for that bonus. Critical strikes are a chance for us to make playing a melee hero a lot more fun. Critical strikes only apply to primary attacks and not abilities. As this is a new stat coming in with a lot of changes, we want to make sure it's powerful enough to balance the scales. Wow, okay, that was a lot to write about stats, but these are huge changes coming to items that we really need to explain as a foundation. But wait, there’s even more — let’s get into some item changes!

Item Changes

Now that we have stats laid out, the presentation of these stats is going to change. As previously mentioned, a lot of players felt forced to only play with their defenses. We think that’s a great way to take on challenges in DDA, but it shouldn’t be the only way to play. Instead of forcing players to choose between a defense-focused hero only and a damage-focused hero only, we’re going to let you do both.

Stat Locations

Where stats show up changes within this update and we wanted to provide a breakdown of their new homes:

Hero Stats

  • Damage: Weapons, Pets
  • Attack: Weapons, Pets, and Offhands
  • Ability: Weapons, Pets, and Offhands
  • Vitality: Weapons, Pets, and Offhands
  • Armor: Helmets, Gloves, Chest, and Boots
  • Firing Solution: Crossbows, Staves, and Pets
  • Projectile Count: Crossbows and Staves
  • Critical Chance: Polearms and Swords
  • Critical Severity: Polearms and Swords

Tower Stats

  • Fortitude: Helmet, Gloves, Chest, Boots, Masks, Bracers, and Brooches
  • Power: Helmet, Gloves, Chest, Boots, Masks, Bracers, and Brooches
  • Def. Rate: Helmet, Gloves, Chest, Boots, Masks, Bracers, and Brooches
  • Range: Helmet, Gloves, Chest, Boots, Masks, Bracers, and Brooches

One thing we noticed was people were managing a lot of heroes to do multiple things, sometimes the same hero to build and another version of that hero to damage. There was so much that required you to have to set up and maintain, keeping you from taking down enemies for that sweet, sweet loot. This now gives you two options to play with at the same time instead of one. The note we made earlier with Ability letting you drop a Mana Bomb while also tower boosting? This lets that happen more.

The end goal of all of this results in us balancing these items so you have the same tower or hero strength that you had before Episode 1, but now having the both. Your individual character’s strength doubles as a result of this, which is why you may have noticed “offhands” as a term describing where certain stats would appear.

Offhands
This is a new item slot type that’s also kind of... not new. In order to really pack a lot of power into heroes and not bloat the strength of weapons, we decided to use a slot we have and make it more impactful. The Squire has a unique slot that has made it a little harder to balance him, and so looking at him we decided to unify this slot across all heroes. Now all heroes that do not dual wield weapons (Series EV-A and The Rogue) have an Offhand slot. These are as follows:

  • Ammo Pouch: Crossbow heroes
  • Shield: Sword heroes
  • Tome: Staff heroes
  • Whetstone: Polearm heroes

This is a lot of changes and balancing to improve player experiences and to open things up a bit when it comes to playing your hero in multiple ways. A lot of this is built upon a goal of ours: make gear more interesting. You may be wondering how removing stats, combining stats, and making stats native to heroes makes them more interesting. That part makes it simpler to understand what gear does and more ways to play for sure, but doesn’t really mean things are interesting. That’s where Item Effects come into play.

Item Effects

This is a new system that is coming to all gear in DDA. Item effects are unupgradable additional stats and effects that are applied on all your gear. For Episode 1, our goal is to lay it out as a foundational system that we are going to continue to build upon. The first iteration will be a bit simpler, with more complexity coming in future episodes.

What are Item Effects?
They’re additional effects that roll on your gear. There are a ton of these (with more added each episode) that should help boost your strength. Some only roll on specific item types, but this is something that’s easier to explain with examples than get into the weeds of it, so let’s look at a few types:

  • Stat types: These roll additional stats on pieces of gear that those stats could appear on.
    • Example 1 - “Increases your Power by X” rolls on armor and accessories.
    • Example 2 - “Increases your Attack by X” rolls on weapons and offhands.
  • Elemental Increases: These roll additional elemental damage increases.
    • Example 1 - “Increases your hero’s Fire damage by X%” rolls on weapons and offhands.
    • Example 2 - “Increases your defenses’ Fire damage by X%” rolls on armor and accessories.
  • On Attack: When using your Primary Attacks, these have a chance to activate.
    • Example 1 - “Your Primary Attacks have X% chance to Enrage enemies for Y seconds”.
    • Example 2 - “Your Primary Attacks have X% chance to explode, damaging all enemies in range. Y seconds cooldown”.

This is just a brief look into what item effects are, but this doesn’t even come close to encompassing all of them. Item Effects allow us to now drop gear that lets players continue to progress playing through with less random base stats, but then have the ability to fully customize heroes by hunting down the right effects that bring a lot more unique power.

How does this affect my current character?
Going into Episode 1, we will be updating everyone’s gear to fit within this new system. Your current hero strength and setup should be maintained very similarly to how you currently perform, with the added bonus of your damage heroes being able to build and your builder heroes able to deal damage. We’re also working on having some specific item effects be included on this new gear as well, setting you up for a ton of success when Episode 1 launches.

To make sure everything scales correctly, upgrades are going to be changing since stats are being altered. As a result we’re going to be refunding you a plethora of gold based on your upgraded gear and removing the upgrades from this gear. This will let you then choose where to spend your upgrades within this new system. While it might take some time, we’re doing what we can to make sure it’s as easy and doesn’t make you feel that your previous decisions lock you out from taking part in all these changes.

Oh, you think this post is long? That’s too bad, because there’s even MORE. Let’s talk Set Bonuses. We’ve got them, you want them.

Set Bonuses

This shouldn’t come as a surprise entirely, as we’ve talked about adding more set bonuses in the future, and that’s what we’re doing here. Set Bonuses are additional stats and functionality that you get out of wearing pieces of a specific set at the same time. Previously in DDA, the only set bonuses gave item stat increases or turned specific defenses into Fusion towers. They still do, but now there’s more!

New Set Bonuses
The ones you’ve collected so far are still included, but we wanted to add some additional opportunities for you to build sets and customize your characters. We’ve got these broken into two different types that either increase your hero power or your tower power. Here’s two examples:

  • Erupting Defense: Increase your defenses’ Fire damage by X%.
    • Armor Set, 4 Pieces
    • Like Fusion gear, your item stats are still increased, but by a lesser percentage.
    • This increase will make your Fire defenses your strongest defenses for this hero.
  • Thundering Assault: Increases your hero’s Lightning Damage by X%.
    • Weapons, 2 Pieces (Weapon and Offhand)
    • New to weapons, but plays off elemental weapons you acquire.

There are more set bonuses that are thematic to what we’ve laid out here, and even a few that aren’t. However, since set bonuses have been focused on towers primarily for a while, we’ve decided to add a bit more fun and flair with Hero Weapon Sets.

Hero Weapon Sets
We wanted to offer new sets that allowed players to take advantage of how active they can be if they choose to. These new weapon sets only work on a specific hero, and aren’t specifically aimed at changing their gameplay, but instead provide some more utility to their abilities. For now, we’ll give you a taste of one:

  • Protean Cannon MK II: Protean Surge deals X% increased damage and ensnares enemies by Y% for Z seconds.
    • Weapon Set, 2 Pieces (Crossbows and/or Staves)

This is something experimental that we wanted to put out there. They’re a ton of fun to use and let players come up with even more unique builds and choices on how they play DDA. We’ll be looking to expand this system as we release additional episodes.

How you see and interact with all of these new additions is incredibly important. So without further ado, let’s start talking Inventory improvements.

Inventory Update

DDA has a lot of stats and things going on when it comes to items, stats, set bonuses, characters, etc. It’s a lot to take in and isn’t currently explained in the best way. That’s where Episode 1 comes in.

New Layout
We’ve optimized our layout so that everything is together, making it easier to understand what you’re doing within your inventory.

image2.png

Just from this image alone there’s a lot to see. One of the first things we’ll note is that items and equipped gear are now next to one another making it easier to equip pieces both with mouse and keyboard, as well as gamepad.

Next you’ll notice at the top there are a plethora of bags. We’re adding additional iconography that allows you to change the visuals for your bags, making it easier to know what each contains based on your personal preferences. That means that you need to have specific filters for specific bags. We’ve got you covered:

image5.png

Now it’s easy to customize your bag, setting the name of the bag, the image, the quality of gear, elements tied to gear, weapons, armor, accessories, and more!

image3.png

Oh did you want better sort options that are easier to navigate? YOU GOT’EM

image10.png

The fun doesn’t stop there. We’ve just begun to pull back the curtains that are the wonders of the new Inventory. Want the ability to select multiple items and choose to lock, unlock, or sell them? BEHOLD, MULTI-SELECT:

image1.png

Want better ways to inspect pieces of gear? LOOK A FEW PIXELS DOWN:
Developer Note: Crit and Crit Bonus are only applicable on Swords and Polearms. Grenade Launcher listed here is incorrect and will not be able to roll those stats.

image7.png

“Irradiate and Detonate? That’s not straight forward, what the heck do those even do?” PAGE OVER TO ACQUIRE THE KNOWLEDGE YOU SEEK!

image8.png

“All these new items are great, but I wish I knew what I was upgrading and what it did.” WISH NO LONGER, FOR IT IS A REALITY WITH THE INSPECT BUTTON:

image4.png

image6.png

Wow that’s so much for the Inventory! But wait, maybe you’re asking “Weren’t there other tabs?” and you’d be right. The way character stats are displayed and upgraded are all in one convenient location on the Stats Tab:

image11.png

And last, but certainly not least, is the Abilities tab. This explains what your abilities and towers do for your selected hero. We’ll continue to expand on this feature in the future, but for now it should be made more clear what your heroes can do:

image13.png

image9.png

Alright we’re exhausted, there’s no way there’s more. Oh wait. There’s so much to take in here, a lot of things changing, and a lot of things being added. Previously we were asked about having limited choices in the Hero Deck that make all the new things we’ve shown before this post somewhat harder to desire. Then the next topic shall be HERO DECK CHANGES!

Hero Deck Changes

We anticipate the need for the amount of heroes needed to go down compared to what players use now (with a lot of these item changes), but we also want to make things a bit more open and diverse. As we talked about it, and with the plan to add more heroes, we knew we needed to make some changes. First, let’s talk size.

Hero Deck Size
Now four heroes is great and all, but based on survey results, 95% of our players use 6 heroes at most. As we said, we expect the amount of heroes to go down (by at least 1), so when choosing a max, we wanted to accommodate adding new heroes alongside what players use. This made the decision pretty easy for us. So, in Episode 1, the new Hero Deck size is going to be SIX HEROES!

Hero Deck Incentives
Currently there are three hero deck incentives that affect players:

  • XP Shared across all heroes in the Hero Deck (this is on the UI)
  • Active Hero towers’ gain 33% increased damage (mentioned in the tutorial)
  • Fusion Set bonuses activate (not mentioned in game).

We surveyed players asking if they’d like to have more incentives to use the Hero Deck, and so here’s what is changing in Episode 1:

image12.png

Experience points being shared among all heroes in the Hero Deck is nothing new, except you have 50% more heroes now that will benefit from it.

Active Set Bonuses and Item Effects accomplish two things. The first is that we wanted to provide a space for players to make unique builds with specific customization. We’re adding a lot and by having this in place we make sure players don’t feel pressured to have every hero with every combination incorporated into a single build. The second is that we are going to be working on additional systems that take the item effects system and turn it from 10 to 11. If we did not place this restriction, we would be locked in with only the item effects in this first iteration.

Lastly, for Episode 1, we’re removing the restriction of “Active Hero” gaining increased Tower Damage. This means that all of your Hero Deck towers will be gaining a boost to damage. We’re currently working through the balance of what that percentage is, but the goal is to give you more power, try more diverse builds, and give you more ways to win.

Summary

There was a lot covered here and a lot of this stuff is subject to change until we have it out the door. We’re excited to get all of this tested and out to you, OUR GLORIOUS DEFENDERS. This is the standard of what you can expect with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened development and our episodic releases. A lot of this work is going to be expanded upon with future Episodes that we’re excited to work on and share with you!

What’s Next?

Believe it or not, this isn’t everything. Next week we’ll have even more reveals for the stuff coming into Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Episode 1. There’s even a new update for Dungeon Defenders II being worked on. We’ve got so much going on at Chromatic Games and we are making sure this stuff is ready to go before we ship it out, but we promise it’s on its way!

Console Update

We want to reassure you all that DDA ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 AND PlayStation 5 are still very much under way. We’re still working hard on getting Nintendo Switch through the Lot Check process, fixing bugs, and prepping it to be live for you all while also knocking out Episode 1. The Switch version will be completed and released before PlayStation, but we are aiming to have DDA on all consoles by the end of the year.

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

[CG] Brittani

DEFENDERS,

During our dev stream last Friday, we mentioned this week would bring the biggest news yet. We weren’t joking! We’ve finally made it to the reveal of the brand new, never-before-seen hero coming to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened in Episode One. A couple of weeks ago, we revealed the Warden, who happens to be the spiritual successor of the Dryad. Who will be joining her in Etheria? The second hero goes by… The Rogue!

Now that you have a name (which some of you correctly guessed on our Twitter and Instagram posts), guess we need to tell you more about this new hero. Have we built up the excitement enough? We sure hope so. Let’s get to the learnin’!

New Hero: The Rogue

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As some of you super sleuths guessed (was it the ears??), the Rogue is a highly trained elven soldier. The catch—he’s the last remaining elite warrior from an ancient elven army, meaning he comes ready to battle enemies head on as a melee and ranged dual-wielding hero. As a combat-only defender, the Rogue is agile, dashing in and leaping out of battle as he sees fit.

A lack of defensive towers does not mean the Rogue is without protection. Going Stealth activates invisibility and his arsenal of devices combine to disable, enfeeble, and slow your enemies’ advances. Let’s dive into the details of these attacks, abilities, and devices.

Attacks and Primary Abilities

Developer Note: All of these things are subject to change in regards to balance, functionality, and visuals.

Weapons of Choice: Dual-wielding: Melee (Right hand) and Crossbow (Left hand)

Primary Attack - Melee Attack: The Rogue swings his equipped sword, dealing damage based on the weapon’s stats.

Secondary Attack - Ranged Attack: The Rogue fires his equipped crossbow, dealing damage based on the weapon’s stats.

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Primary Ability 1 - Swift Assault: Dashes forward and deals AoE damage once reaching his destination.

  • From Stealth: Hero throws a single deadly knife at an enemy, dealing massive single-target damage.

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Primary Ability 2 - Disengage: Throws a spread of daggers forward dealing AoE damage and applying Rogue’s Mark to all enemies hit during attack. The Rogue leaps backwards out of the danger, providing a gap between him and his foes.

  • From Stealth: Daggers deal more damage and pin enemies to the ground, immobilizing them for a short period.

Devices and Utility Abilities

The Rogue has been specially trained for direct combat—a “fighter” some may say—and brings a preference for battling enemies with some very powerful tools. With this battle style, the Rogue does not build defenses, but instead this lone warrior comes equipped with devices that act as mobile traps that deal elemental damage and apply debilitating status effects to all Marked enemies during combat, regardless of the distance between defender and enemy. The Rogue’s Stealth also comes in handy for those moments when defenders want to surprise their foes, escape danger, or mark enemies from afar.

Developer Note: We wanted the Rogue to play like no other pure damage characters that we’ve made in other Dungeon Defenders games. We wanted him to feel like there was strategy in his abilities, similar to placing towers. He’s designed to fill the role of a special enemy killer, focusing down the strongest foes with both consistent and burst damage when you focus a specific enemy (with nearby enemies taking some hits being an added bonus). For our first non-building hero, he’ll have a lot of big moments and strategies similar to when a tower is beating down enemies, except you’ll BE that tower!

Passive - Rogue’s Mark: Marks are applied to a maximum of 8 enemies while using Swift Assault, Disengage, or attacks from stealth. The Rogue can then activate debilitating Devices on Marked enemies.

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Device 1 - Arcing: Snares Marked enemies with nets of lightning, disabling their attacks and abilities, while causing attacks against them to deal additional lightning damage.

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Device 2 - Napalm: Incinerates Marked enemies, dealing a large amount of fire damage over a short time. Enemies also take increased damage from other attacks and abilities from The Rogue while Napalm is active.

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Device 3 - Noxious: Injects Marked enemies with a highly potent toxin that slows movement and deals poison damage while Noxious is active.

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Utility Ability 1 - Stealth: The Rogue becomes invisible for a short duration. While invisible, the agile hero can Mark enemies with primary attacks, secondary attacks, and empower non-Device abilities. He cannot be targeted by enemies, but he can still take damage from their attacks if he gets within damaging range.

  • Riposte Buff: Using a non-Device ability breaks invisibility and applies a buff to the Rogue. This buff reduces incoming damage from all sources and deals his melee weapon damage back to attacking enemies for a short period.

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Utility Ability 2 - Carnage: The Rogue throws a flurry of deadly piercing daggers, dealing AoE damage every half a second throughout its duration. Defenders can move while this ability is activated and it can be channeled until you’re completely out of mana.

  • From Stealth: AoE damage radius is increased and it breaks invisibility.

New Map: The Keep

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Throughout the month of April, we’ve revealed one new map each week that’s being added to DDA in Episode 1 on our Friday Funday dev streams on Twitch. You’re definitely missing out on some of the best beans if you haven’t made it to a stream yet, but we can’t keep all the secrets to ourselves. So, LOOK AT THIS BRAND NEW MAP. It’s called The Keep and it’s as spooky in game as the picture suggests.

With the other three maps we’ve revealed as remakes of fan-favorites from other Dungeon Defenders games—The Mill, The Outpost, and Foundries and Forges—we wanted to save the best for last. These cursed grounds form a gigantic map. We mean that. It is HUGE. Don’t believe us? Watch the live playthrough from last Friday.

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The Keep’s sheer size is a challenge in itself. Do you focus on pushing enemies into tight lanes to maximize AoE damage? Do you find the perfect hiding spot for your DSTs? Guess we’ll have to wait and see what The Keep has in store for defenders.

New Enemy: Lycan

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Another big bean we revealed last week is the new enemy, the Lycan. As you can see from the picture, they’re certainly looking to bring more destruction to Etheria. Using the werewolf’s signature ability, “Howl,” the Lycan empowers himself and nearby enemies, while reducing the effects of incoming attacks.

Lycan enemies show up on each of the new maps, but they show up in earlier waves as you progress through Act 4. Are you up for the challenge? We sure hope so because Etheria needs you!

What’s Next?

We still have lots of exciting changes and updates coming to DDA that we’ll share with you all during our Friday Funday dev streams, including showing off the Rogue this week! We’ll post a reminder on social media, but make sure to head over to Chromatic Games’ official Twitch page this Friday at 3PM EST to hear all the juicy B E A N S we can’t wait to spill.

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

[CG] Brittani

#MayThe4thBeWithYou, Defenders!

We know the power of the dark side is a constant temptation. To help you continue choosing the light, we’re giving defenders a FREE downloadable far-far-away themed wallpaper! Our heroes want to send a galaxy-sized “Thank You” for all your support in keeping Etheria safe through the years.

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We’re feeling extra generous, so for a short time, all galactic-themed DD2 costumes (including the Very Far Away Bundle) are 50% OFF in the Emporium! The sale starts today and runs until May 5th at 8:00PM EST. The Emporium is the way… to great deals.

On top of these marvelous deals, one defender will win a code for DD2’s Very Far Away Bundle through our retweet giveaway! This galactic bundle features four costumes for our four original heroes: Dark Disciple Squire; Arcanatrooper Apprentice; Galactic Assassin Huntress; and Dark Shawl Monk. Make sure to head over to our Twitter post to “like” and retweet to be entered in to the giveaway.

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

[CG] Brittani

DEFENDERS,

The Dungeon Defenders II update you’ve been patiently waiting for is here for Steam and Xbox (with PS4 releasing after we pass certification)! In our update preview post, we let you, our glorious defenders, in on some of our juicy secrets, but of course we had more up our sleeves. It’s time to throw away those parkas because winter is gone—don’t worry, though. Ol’ Peepers will be there to spread the gift-giving spirit YEAR ROUND. We also fixed a ton of bugs, nipped a bunch of exploits in the bud, and introduced lots of new bundles for heroes and items. Now, let’s get into all the deets!!

Winter is Over

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The great thaw has begun and we will finally see an end to the polar vortex that ran amok on the Town Hub of our beloved Defenders. The Winterfest Tree and Father Winter have gone into hiding, the snow has finally melted away, and there appears to be a new character who has taken up residence here.

New Daily Login Rewards and Ol’ Peepers

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Ol’ Peepers is a long-time friend of the Etherians and is finally ready to venture into the urban lifestyle this update. He’ll be delivering daily gifts and consumables for the low low price of 1000g to the good Defenders visiting the Town Hub ALL YEAR LONG. Along with the gifts you all normally expect to see when you log in daily, Ol’ Peepers will also have a chance to drop Carnival consumables. What kinds of Carnival consumables, you may ask? Check them out:

  • Trust me Disguise
    • Gives the player the ability to deal 1.25x more damage for a limited time.
  • Lucky Bunny Mask
    • Gives the player the ability to jump 1.5x higher for a limited time.
  • Rainbow 'Fro
    • Gives the player the ability to spawn cat projectiles for a limited time.
  • Snow Liger
    • Gives the player the ability to go 1.25x faster for a limited time.
  • Imperial Grin
    • Gives the player 25% extra damage resistance for a limited time.

Introducing Two New Shards and a New Pet

Keep an eye out for the Lava Warrior Shard and the Boosted Beam Shard, newly added to the game. The Lava Warrior shard generates additional lava charges on successful melee attacks, bolstering the abilities of our Lavamancer. While the Boosted Beam Shard will increase the damage boost given by the Buff Beam, an exciting addition to EV-2’s arsenal.

Also, hidden among the loot of the Wyvern Den Prime Incursion is a Crystalline Betsy!

New Bundles

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Let’s get pumped for some ridiculously awesome hero bundles! We felt our current offerings didn’t meet all defenders’ needs, so we went back to the drawing board and came up with a more player-focused approach to bundling that will get you more bang for your gems. Have you ever wished for the Dryad to magically pop into your hero inventory, or had your younger sibling spend all your gems behind your back without adding the must-have Gunwitch? Well, you’re in luck because our All Heroes Bundle will get you both the Dryad AND the Gunwitch AND so much more.

If you’re adding new heroes to your plate, you’ll definitely need some skins to customize your vibe. There are several new hero skin bundles to choose from now, including “Heating Up” with Molten skins and “Out of This World” with Galaxy skins. Here is the full list of new bundles:

All Heroes Bundle

  • Contains the Abyss Lord, EV2, Gunwitch, Lavamancer, Mystic, Dryad, Initiate, Adept, Barbarian.
  • Available for 3,200 gems for a limited time.

Hero Skin Bundles

  • Legendary Guardian Supporter
    • Contains Guardian of Fire Huntress, Guardian of the Molten Citadel Squire, Guardian of the Dead Apprentice, Guardian of the Storm Monk.
  • Technological Upgrade
    • Contains EV2 Mark 3, Techwitch Gunwitch, and Cybermancer Lavamancer costumes.
  • Heating Up
    • Contains the Molten Master Abyss Lord, Molten Juggernaut Lavamancer, and Doomfire Regalia Adept costumes.
  • Out of This World
    • Contains Galaxy Apprentice, Galaxy Squire, Galaxy Huntress, Galaxy Monk costumes.
  • Very Far Away
    • Contains Dark Disciple Squire, Arcanatrooper Apprentice, Galactic Assassin Huntress, and Dark Shawl Monk costumes.

New Tower Skins

You asked for more tower skins, and we’re delivering with this Hypno Tower Skin bundle! We teased these on our social page yesterday and they’re now ready for defending. Look how perrrrrty they are (pic below) - how could you NOT grab these, like, right now? The bundle will include skins for all towers and defenses, so no excuses allowed.

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We know defenders are yearning for more tower skins. Rest assured, we’re experimenting with other fun looks and hope to keep the good vibes going with more new tower skins in the future.

New Shards

The addition of the Shard Shop was such a huge success that we wanted to bring even more player-requested bundles to this space. Introducing brand-spanking-new bundles for the most in-demand shards in Etheria! Which bundle are you most excited to grab first?! That’s a serious question—we can’t decide which one to grab first for ourselves.

  • Starter Defense Shard Bundle
    • 5 Destruction, 5 Fortification, and 5 Defensive Critical Damage Shards
  • Advanced Defense Shard Bundle
    • 5 Deadly Strikes, 5 Defense Rate, and 5 Defensive Critical Strike Shards
  • Starter Hero Shard Bundle
    • 4 Speed Boost, 4 Construction, 4 Worm Scarf, and 4 Bulwark Shards
  • Advanced Hero Shard Bundle
    • 4 Critical Strike, 4 Inspiration, 4 Channel, and 4 Jackpot Shards
  • Golden Destruction Bundle
    • 11 Destruction Shards + 300,000g
  • Golden Fortified Bundle
    • 11 Fortification Shards + 300,000g
  • Golden Damage Bundle
    • 11 Defensive Critical Damage Shards + 300,000g
  • Golden Speed Bundle
    • 11 Defense Rate Shards + 300,000g

Persistent Tower Option

The excitement is real with this new quality of life update. With the Persistent Tower option, you can summon, upgrade, and sell towers by only activating each button once! We tested this out in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened and it’s been a huge success with the community. It was kind of a no-brainer for us to add it to DD2, as well. Can’t wait to hear how much you all love it!

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This option will be on by default, but for those players who want to maintain the original tower placement/upgrade/sell experience, there is a menu option in Options under Gameplay called “Persistent Tower Interaction” that you can uncheck.

Balance Changes

We love hearing from the community about the good AND the not-so-good because it helps us make Etheria as enjoyable as possible for as many defenders as possible. With this, we’ve been listening to your feedback and fixed a bunch of bugs and issues reported by our dedicated defenders, and added in some fun elemental combinations to keep the game new and exciting for defenders of all levels. We also toned a few things down that were a bit too strong from overwhelming player feedback.

General

  • Maps
    • Onslaught
      • The Draken Lord no longer appears in Onslaught.
  • Mods
    • “Anti-” Mods
      • Damage has been reduced by 23%.
    • Controller Servo
      • Damage reduced by 16%.
    • Shocking Revelations
      • Is now “Stunning Revelations”
        • Now deals Magical Damage instead of Storm Damage.
        • Damage has been increased by 200%.
        • Now stuns for 2 seconds.
      • You can now include servos while using this mod.
  • Shards
    • Draining Strikes
      • Damage reduced by 75%.
      • Is now Multiplicative instead of Additive.

    Pets

    • Pet damage now scales off Gear Score.
    • Rebalanced ALL pets!
      • Upgrades have been buffed.
    • NEW Crystalline Betsy Pet!
      • Can be found in The Wyvern Den Prime Incursion

    Elemental Combos

    • Fire and Oil Elemental Combo
      • Now melts enemy armor, increasing the damage they take from all sources by 25%
    • Ice and Earth Elemental Combos
      • No longer require crushing damage.
      • Hitting a frozen enemy with earth damage increases the earth damage dealt and also stuns them for 2.5 seconds

    Heroes

    Abyss Lord

    • Fiery Brimstone
      • Damage increased by 200%.

    Adept

    • Defenses
      • Hailstorm Tower
        • Reduced the animation to have higher damage uptime.

    Barbarian

    • Abilities
      • Siphon Stance
        • Base healing value reduced by 50%.

    Dryad

    • Defenses
      • Harpy Tower
        • Reduced the animation to have higher damage uptime.
      • Hornet’s Nest
        • Increased the number of hornets on a single enemy to 6 from 3.

    Huntress

    • Abilities
      • Piercing Shot Cast animation time reduced by 35%.
    • Defenses
      • Explosive Trap
        • Reduced damage dropoff by 35%.
      • Geyser Trap
        • Radius increased to 800 from 400.
    • Shards
      • Explosive Surprise
        • Damage radius updated to reflect Geyser Trap buff.

    Lavamancer

    • Shards
      • NEW Lava Warrior Shard
        • Lava Warrior Shard generates lava charges on successful melee attacks.

    Series EV-2

    • Defenses
      • Buff Beam
        • Increased the collision radius by 100%.
      • Reflect Beam
        • Damage done reduced by 80%.
        • DU cost per node is now 10.
    • Shards
      • NEW Boosted Beam Shard!
        • Increases the damage boost by the Buff Beam.

    Squire

    • Shards
      • Unholy Fire
        • Damage increased by 81% and now scales off of armor.

    Bug Fixes

    Exploits

    • We have fixed several game-breaking exploits to make the DD2 world a better place. Like a lot of them. Like building way more than you should, getting too many hyper shards, upgrading exploits, and more.
    • Fixed an issue where Grave Infection and Frostfire Remnants were stacking.
    • Fixed an issue where players could kill other players in Hubs.
    • Fixed an issue where locked mods could be moved to other weapons.

    General

    • Removed Gilding for Hyper Shards.
    • Fixed an issue where Grave Infection was dealing too much damage and dealing a second set of 1 damage ticks.
    • Fixed an issue where the Shackled mod did not work on normal Assassins.
    • Fixed a bug where the Geyser trap’s VFX was not scaling properly.
    • Fixed an issue where Ancient Power no longer resets Hyper Shard progression.
    • Fixed an issue where defenders could not play Floor 480.
    • Fixed an issue where Harpy Tower would continue to fire after being stunned.
    • Fixed a collision issue with Material Conversion Vendor.
    • Fixed Ascension Monk’s Boost percentage.
    • Fixed an issue where Oil Geysers were slowing Friendly players.
    • Fixed an issue with the shard shop persisting tooltips when the page changes.
    • Fixed a performance issue when using items with passives.

    Social Defenders

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

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Brittani

    DEFENDERS,

    Things are getting exciting here at Chromatic Games! With the official launch of Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, we’re celebrating with even more good news—a Day 1 Update with LOTS of exciting changes to both Xbox and PC (this will appear as 1.2.1 on Xbox, but it’s actually Update 1.3). Last week we teased some of the additions, revisions, and fixes included in this latest update in our Update 1.3 Preview post. Now that it’s here, let’s break down what you can expect to see in Etheria after you’re all updated.

    Content

    Tutorial

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    We’ve updated the tutorial! With the addition of new tasks and tooltips, any player can enter the Deeper Well to brush up on their defending skills. Even the most experienced defenders can reap the benefits of a new tutorial, too. Everyone who makes it to the end of the new tutorial is rewarded with the exclusive Summoner’s Hood mask to show off their mastery of the basics!

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    You’ll also notice there’s a new objective tracker part of the tutorial. Expect to see this throughout the entire game in future updates!

    Massacre Additions
    After completing the tutorial, defenders can now test their skills in the new Massacre levels within Pure Strategy and Mix Mode. These new difficulties introduce immunity-granting Siren enemies to the game modes, and defenders are handily rewarded for their successes. Here are the new loot details:

    • Quality of item drops was adjusted in Pure Strategy to be equal to Survival mode.
    • Quality of item drops was increased in Mix Mode at Massacre difficulty.

    Performance

    Enemy Counts
    To improve performance for all defenders across all platforms, we felt reducing the number of enemies on all maps in Survival, Mix Mode, and Pure Strategy would do the job. We specifically focused on lowering the amount of our weakest enemies first—goblins, archers, and wyverns—because they were jamming up the lanes and unnecessarily dragging out the time it took to complete waves. After we were happy with the improved performance from those changes, we moved on to lowering the enemy counts in Survival Mode. With fewer enemies, we also adjusted wave schedules, which should result in dramatically faster wave times. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to see in the improved Etheria:

    • 70% reduction in enemy counts for Wyverns, Archers, and Goblins on all maps.
    • 50% reduction in enemy counts for Orcs, Mages, Warriors, Kobolds, and Spiders on all maps.
    • Adjusted wave schedules to decrease wave lengths.

    Did you think you were going to get away with fewer enemies without any catches?? Of course you didn’t. We wanted to make sure the difficulty levels remained relatively the same even with the reduction in enemy counts, so active enemies are now beefier, meaning each enemy’s HP has been increased to compensate for the smaller crowds. With such a big change, we’re going to monitor the community feedback to make sure players are happy with the new balance.

    Nameplates
    Nameplates are looking nifty now. We added missing nameplates above some enemies, heroes, and crystals, as well as cleaned up the general display of nameplates in game. Players should see a significant difference in the quality of the displays with this change and have a much easier time keeping track of enemy HP, a necessary feature to accompany the increased HP of enemies. Cleaning these had some nice performance gains for all platforms, so on top of looking great, they are also helping make the game run better!

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    Damage Numbers
    Get ready for some new and improved damage numbers during combat! Last week we showed you what changes were to come in this area, and now they’re finally here. Players should notice clearer and more consistent displays of damage numbers when attacking, and fusion hits on Rifted enemies will stand out with larger number displays. Like nameplates, we hit some optimizations here as well, so your performance is better while it’s also easier to read damage numbers than before.

    Limited Login Event - St. Patrick’s Day Reward!

    While today is already a super special day for us at Chromatic with the official launch of DDA on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, we haven’t forgotten it’s also St. Patrick’s Day. To celebrate, we’re giving out a special green-themed goody to players who download Update 1.3 and log in to DDA by Monday, March 22. This special gift will be available for PC players today through Monday, while Xbox players will receive the patch with this cosmetic in a few days. We’ll make sure to let the Xbox defenders know when they should expect their gift!

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    Steam Trading Cards

    You read that right - we’ve got Steam trading cards for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened now. Because we’re feeling generous today, here’s a sneak peak of a couple of the cards you’ll be able to collect:

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    Bug Fixes

    Along with all of the exciting changes mentioned already, we also fixed a whole bunch of bugs that were bothering players (or helping them a little too much…). Here’s are the fixes defenders can see in the game.

    General

    • Adjusted mask positions to better fit heroes.
    • Fixed an issue where Steam Family Share accounts could play Online.
    • Fixed an issue where “WASD” keys still functioned as movement inputs even when replaced.
    • Fixed an issue where multiple players simultaneously swapping in heroes with Gem boosts allowed them to stack.
    • Fixed an issue where accessories didn’t fade out when cameras switched to first person while players were backed up against a wall.

    Enemies

    • Fixed an issue where enemies were stuck in Magus Quarters.
    • Fixed an issue where enemies were stuck in Endless Spires.
    • Fixed an issue where enemies were getting stuck in the Throne Room.
    • Fixed an issue where Sirens would not attack heroes.
    • Fixed an issue where Skeletons would not show they had full health when resurrected by themselves.

    Gameplay

    • Fixed an issue where defenses were able to be placed above the spawn door in Glitterhelm Caverns.
    • Fixed an issue where defenses were able to be placed near the bottom of Lava Mines.
    • Fixed an issue where some tooltips would not appear after cancelling the placement of multiple defenses.
    • Fixed an issue where the inferno trap was not affecting enemies.
    • Fixed an issue where leaving and rejoining a match to let players place multiple Fusion defenses wasn’t working properly.
    • Fixed an issue where the Gem pet boost flickered on and off periodically.
    • Fixed an issue where traps with Use Scale after swapping would have a very small scale.

    Known Issues

    • Some players are crashing on Xbox, we're currently investigating the issue.
    • Some clients on Xbox are having issues healing. We're currently investigating this issue.
    • Using gamepad, players are having issues selecting the pet and bracer slot.
    • On gamepad, when pressing R3 (right joystick), your character's attribute allocation can get reset.

    What’s Next?

    While we’ll be monitoring this release and update, addressing any issues that may arise, we’re currently hard at work on getting our other ports for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation out the door to many eager Defenders. That’s not all, as we’re also getting a ton of work done on brand new content, including heroes, maps, enemies, and so much more! We’ll be getting word out soon to give all Defenders insight into what’s coming for DDA, and maybe a tease or two along the way.

    Social Defenders

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

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Brittani

    DEFENDERS,

    In less than ONE WEEK Dungeon Defenders: Awakened will be released on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One!! We are so pumped for that release and we wanted to add to that excitement by sharing other big news from the studio — we’re also rolling out the release of Update 1.3 soon! We’re currently getting this update certified for Xbox, with our goal being to release the update for both PC and Xbox players on March 17, DDA’s Xbox launch date. Check out what’s to come...

    What’s New

    Tutorial

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    One addition to the game we’re really proud to introduce is the new tutorial! We felt the old tutorial had room for improvement, so we’re adding more explanations on essential game-play features (like the hero deck) and giving new DDA players a chance to experiment with different heroes and defenses. This is just the first of many tutorial revisions and additions we’ll be adding to the game to help our newest defenders learn all they need to know to defend Etheria!

    PLUS, everyone who completes the new tutorial will receive a sweet reward in their inventory. We’ll share more about that at the time of the patch release ;)

    Massacre Mixed Mode and Pure Strategy

    At long last, we’re adding the Massacre difficulty to Pure Strategy and Mixed Mode game modes! Pure Strategy tests players’ defense-building strategies by removing hero combat from battle. With the addition of Massacre difficulty to this game mode, players will have to account for the Siren, an immunity-granting enemy. This will force players to figure out how to handle the Siren using only defenses before she’s able to boost the rest of the enemy field. In Mixed Mode, players will also see the Siren added to the enemy list, and will be rewarded appropriately with better loot drops than even Survival mode. Prepare those defenses, Defenders!

    Nameplate and Damage Numbers

    Like we mentioned during the dev stream last Friday, we’re making some big changes to the displays for nameplates and enemy damage numbers. These changes will add in some missing player and enemy nameplates, as well as increase the quality of the displays, including making the text and numbers clearer while dealing damage. Critical hits will feel more rewarding, with larger numbers to let you know when you’re doing that extra bit of damage. These numbers will be even bigger when you manage to snipe a weak point, so it's time to show off those skills!

    Check out how those in-game differences will look after the update:

    Before

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    After

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    Enemy Amount Changes

    Game performance is an area we’ve been tinkering with for a while. To help boost performance, we decided that decreasing the amount of enemies on screen at once would be a great way to do that without impacting game-play too drastically. Most of the enemy reductions will come from weaker enemies, so you’ll see significantly fewer goblins and wyverns, for example. To compensate for the lower number of enemies on maps, all enemy strengths will be increased. Players will have a slightly different challenge with fewer targets, but this should hold the difficulty level.

    This enemy count update will impact game play on all maps and difficulties in Campaign, Survival, Mixed Mode, and Pure Strategy, meaning every player can go back and re-experience a brand new DDA!

    Optimizations and Performance

    With the decreased enemy counts and changes to displays while in battle, players should experience a cleaner battle, and especially so on the larger maps (e.g. Summit). Wave lengths will be reduced, and these changes will stem from adjustments to enemy release schedules and the reduced total enemy counts. Basically, we want to make sure every player feels they are being challenged, while also making sure the game runs smoothly and looks great all at the same time.

    Still To Come

    There are still many highly-anticipated features we’re working on and will add in future updates, including trading, cross-saves, and more. Once DDA Xbox release goes off, we’ll be able to spend more time prioritizing these features, while also working on our Nintendo Switch and PlayStation ports. We’ve shared some of the updates on these during our Friday Funday streams, but we want to get this down in writing for you all, too.

    We are just as excited as you to add trading to DDA, but we needed to step away from this project for a bit to focus on passing Xbox certification. After the Xbox launch, we’ll get back to work on making sure any trade system we add to the game is fair and safe for all players. Ensuring fair trades between players is a big task, but one we want to make sure is part of players’ experiences. Once we feel the system can’t be easily exploited, we’ll work toward adding support to setup sessions specifically for trading, buying, and selling items between players.

    We’re nearing the completion of the cross-save feature. It does require another separate Microsoft certification process, though, so the timing on that will depend on those outside factors. For the much sought-after split-screen feature, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to make the UI and UX work well for all players during a split-screen session. When we add additional screens, the game has to work a lot harder to give each player their own unique area of play and we haven’t been satisfied with the way it’s all working together (or not working together…). When we’re happy with the way multiplayer functions AND looks, you’ll know!!

    Bug Fixes

    This patch will include a whole bunch of bug fixes too! We all know players’ favorite space to place DSTs is on top of the Glitterhelm doors, but you’ll have to come up with a new strategy now. We are fixing this bug and other similar placement-related issues on other maps. Lots of previously-stuck enemies will be given new legs, so they’ll make their way down the purple path once again. Along with these fixes, we’re addressing some exploits and inaccurate damage number displays.

    This is just a small preview of all of the revisions, additions, and bug fixes we’re planning in this next update, so stay tuned!

    Social Defenders

    To make sure you’re in the loop on all things Dungeon Defenders and to know as soon this new update drops, follow us on all of our social channels:

    Smooches,
    Chrome Game

    [CG] Brittani

    DEFENDERS

    Have you ever wished you could show off your dungeon-defending side a bit more? Have you tried to tell your non-DDA friends about Etheria, but they just can’t “imagine” it? Well, we may have just the solution for all of you defenders. As a token of our appreciation — and in celebration of our upcoming Xbox release — below are downloadable mobile wallpapers of our four original Etherian heroes. Feel free to download your favorites or all of them, it’s our gift to you. Just be sure to let us know which hero you choose to feature on your phone first!

    Apprentice Wallpaper

    Apprentice_Stained_Glass_D_16x9.jpg

    Squire Wallpaper

    Squire_Stained_Glass_D_16x9.jpg

    Monk Wallpaper

    Monk_Stained_Glass_D_16x9.jpg

    Huntress Wallpaper

    Huntress_Stained_Glass_D_16x9.jpg

     

    **Bonus question for all of you die-hard DDA defenders - do you know in which map you can find these stained-glass beauties?

    Social Defenders

    If you liked these wallpapers, there’s more where those came from! Be on the lookout for more giveaways and FREE goodies over the next two weeks and make sure to follow us on our social platforms to learn about them first.

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Brittani

     

    DEFENDERS,

    Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Preorder for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One has started!! You can head over to the Microsoft Store to order it now: http://bit.ly/XboxPreorder

    If you’re not yet following us on Twitter or Facebook, today may be a perfect time to click that “Follow” button. Twitter and Facebook users have a chance to win a FREE copy of Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on Xbox by simply retweeting or sharing our preorder posts. Luckily for you, we have the links to those right here:

    While you’re here, watch our new gameplay trailer that was released today!!

     

     

    Social Defenders

    While March 17 can’t come soon enough, you can stay up-to-date on all things Dungeon Defenders in the meantime by following us on ALL of our social platforms:

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Brittani

    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:

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

    For Etheria!

    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Brittani

    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:

    Giraffe Treadmill.png

     

    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!

    [CG] Brittani

    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:

    Siern_Fanart_Erica.png

     

    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. :classic_love::classic_love::classic_love: 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)

    [CG] Brittani

    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 :Emoji_Huntress:

    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.)

    EV Fan Art Final.jpg

    [CG] Brittani

    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? :classic_love::classic_love:
    • 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?

    [CG] Brittani

    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
     

    [CG] HiggsBosonic
    Defenders,


    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!
     

    What is Redux?

    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.
     

    Back Story from IHDC

    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.
     

    Instructions:

    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
    2dab3dc79c1a6a78e41e674c71dfcab0e69a268e
     

    Save Handling:
    Ranked:

    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.

     

    Local:

    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.
     

    Future Updates:

    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.
     

    FAQ:

     

    • 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.


     

    Credits:

    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

    6cf405fb3e7def8581d372ff93976a78650e1aa4

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

    Changelog
    Towers

     

    Tower Upgrading Changes:

    Health/Damage Multiplier

    Before        After
    1: 1.1        1: 1.2
    2: 1.2        2: 1.4
    3: 1.3        3: 1.6
    4: 1.4        4: 1.8
    5: 1.5        5: 2.0
    *LT, DST and Buff Beams not included

     
    Apprentice
    • 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.

     

    Squire
    • 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.

     

    Huntress
    • 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.

     

    Series Ev
    • 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.

     

    Barbarian
    • 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.

     

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



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    Heroes
    Apprentice
    • 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)

     

    Squire/Countess
    • 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)

     

    Huntress/Ranger
    • 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)

     

    Monk/Initiate
    • 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

     

    Series Ev
    • 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)

     

    Barbarian
    • 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

     

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

     

    Summoner
    • 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


     

    Skins
    • 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



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    New Maps & Rewards
    • 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.


     

    Updated Maps & Rewards
    • 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


     

    Ascension

     

    Difficulty
    • 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

     

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

     

    Loot
    • 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

     

    Survival
    • 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

     

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


     

    New Qualities
    • 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.


     

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



     

    Tavern
    • 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



     

    Integrated Emulator
    Controls
    • - 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.


     

    Pure Strategy
    • 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


     

    New Mobs
    • 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


     

    QOL
    • 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%.

     

    Social Defenders

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



    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] HiggsBosonic

    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!
     

    Update 1.2 - Enter the Rift

    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!
     

    Rifted Maps

    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.
     

    Rifted Enemies

    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!
     

    Rifted Rewards
    Fusion Gear

    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.
     

    Fusion Weapons

    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!
     

    Fusion Armor

    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!
     

    Apprentice
    Magic Missile Tower
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Magic Blockade
    • Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
    Fireball Tower
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Lightning Tower
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Deadly Striker Tower
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

     

    Huntress
    Explosive Trap
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Gas Trap
    • Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
    • This effect stacks with other similar effects.
    Inferno Trap
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Darkness Trap
    • Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
    • This effect stacks with other similar effects.
    Spike Trap
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.

     

    Monk
    Ensnare Aura
    • Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
    • This effect stacks with other similar effects.
    Lightning Aura
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Healing Aura
    • Increases heroes armor against Rifted enemies by 50%.
    Strength Drain Aura
    • Causes Fusion to do 10% more damage to affected Rifted enemies.
    • This effect stacks with other similar effects.
    Enrage Aura
    • Increases chance to enrage by 5% against Rifted enemies.

     

    Series EV-A
    Proton Beam
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Blocked Field
    • Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
    Reflect Field
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Shock Beam
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    • Increased stun effect by 50% against Rifted enemies.
    Overclock Beam
    • Gives towers that are buffed 50% armor against Rifted enemies.

     

    Squire
    Spiked Blockade
    • Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Ballista
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Bouncer Blockade
    • Armor increased by 30% against Rifted enemies.
    • Damage increased 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Bowling Ball Tower
    • Damage increased by 100% against Rifted enemies.
    Slice and Dice Tower
    • 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:

    Fusion Ancient Set
    Helmet
    • Tornado Highlands Wave 25
    • Ramparts Wave 25
    • Throne Room Wave 25
    • Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5
    Chest
    • Arcane Library Wave 15
    • Arcane Library Wave 25
    • Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Gloves
    • Deeper Well Wave 15
    • Deeper Well Wave 25
    • Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5
    Boots
    • Tornado Valley Wave 15
    • Tornado Valley Wave 25
    • Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

     

    Fusion Guard Set
    Helmet
    • Promenade Wave 25
    • The Summit Wave 25
    • Glitterhelm Wave 25
    • Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Chest
    • Royal Gardens Wave 15
    • Royal Gardens Wave 25
    • Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Gloves
    • Ancient Mines Wave 15
    • Ancient Mines Wave 25
    • Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5
    Boots
    • Tornado Highlands Wave 15
    • Tornado Highlands Wave 25
    • Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

     

    Fusion Militia Set
    Helmet
    • Alchemical Labs Wave 25
    • Magus Quarters Wave 25
    • Tornado Valley Wave 25
    • Any Act I or Act II Campaign Map Wave 5
    Chest
    • Promenade Wave 15
    • Promenade Wave 25
    • Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Gloves
    • Lava Mines Wave 15
    • Lava Mines Wave 25
    • Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5
    Boots
    • Ramparts Wave 15
    • Ramparts Wave 25
    • Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

     

    Fusion Miner Set
    Helmet
    • Endless Spires Wave 25
    • Arcane Library Wave 25
    • Royal Gardens Wave 25
    • Any Act II or Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Chest
    • The Summit Wave 15
    • The Summit Wave 25
    • Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Gloves
    • Alchemical Labs Wave 15
    • Alchemical Labs Wave 25
    • Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5
    Boots
    • Throne Room Wave 15
    • Throne Room Wave 25
    • Any Act II Campaign Map Wave 5

     

    Fusion Primitive Set
    Helmet
    • Deeper Well Wave 25
    • Ancient Mines Wave 25
    • Lava Mines Wave 25
    • Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5
    Chest
    • Glitterhelm Wave 15
    • Glitterhelm Wave 25
    • Any Act III Campaign Map Wave 5
    Gloves
    • Magus Quarters Wave 15
    • Magus Quarters Wave 25
    • Any Act I Campaign Map Wave 5
    Boots
    • 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…

    Increased Drop Quality

    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!
     

    Rifted Exclusive Accessories

    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!

    7c468decf89ae59de297efaccdd1bf875e6eaaa6
     

    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 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!

    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.

    47a26be905db610cd96a88583fd5d803d7ec1180
    (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!

    Tavern Changes

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

    Difficulty Button

    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.

    9f83fab68b79466b9f478925aa2b1dd7cdc75bbe
     

    Rifted Target Dummy

    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!

    eb4cab65ac17368eeb9ffa59d05c66359696c726

    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?
     

    Limited Login Event Rewards!

    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.

    3a7950e4d06c69d48a416c690df2ab1db2e4ba1b
    ef5ded989ae525c96a40deacd9c677e35d0642d1
    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!
     

    CPU and Networking Performance Optimization!

    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
     

    Offline Mode

    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!

    General Changes
    Miscellaneous
    Ready Up
    • Hosts are now able to force ready up by holding Ctrl + G.

     

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

     

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


    5c4dd590b42d5dcdf3e4ec114af9bb01fb477d25
    b2bc982f76837453ede732ff4d6b01d276b614a5
    Yes, the filter UI will get an art pass soon :)
     

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

     

    Heroes
    Auras
    • 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.

     

    Apprentice
    Towers

    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.

     

    Huntress
    Towers

    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.

     

    Series EV-A
    Towers

    Reflect Field

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

     

    Squire
    Abilities

    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.

     

    Towers

    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.

     

    Enemies

    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%.

     

    Bug Fixes & Change Log

    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.

    What’s Next?

    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

     

    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:

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

    [CG] HiggsBosonic

    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:

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

    [CG] HiggsBosonic

    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:

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

    [CG] HiggsBosonic
    Content Update 1.1
    Defenders,
    The 1.1 Update is upon us! We are excited to ship our first large update for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Going to keep this short and sweet so you can learn what's new then get straight into the action. This update is free and added to the base game.
    1.1 Update Weekend Launch Event
    Log in now until Sunday 8/23 and unlock a Rifted Costume for our new hero Series EV-A!

    b123df49b5a4f5b51b8750d7663adb3ad6663729
     
    Major New Content and Features
    • Massacre Survival Game Mode - The next stop on our way to late game DD:A gameplay. A whole new challenge to explore which includes a new tier of loot as well as bosses. With randomized boss loot, you can now attain loot at a whole new power level.
    • Hero Series EV-A - A new hero joins your roster to help with the challenges that await you in Massacre Survival mode. A franchise favorite makes her way into DD:A with a familiar and powerful kit of defenses and skills.
    • Tornado Valley Challenge - Invade airships, defeat the ship captain, and dodge deadly mortar barrage.
    • Promenade Challenge - Play capture the flag against Copters of both the goblin and Ogre variety, meanwhile there are missiles set to stun kill.
     
    Minor New Content and Features
    • New inventory filter system
    • Additional auto-loot options
    • Full gamepad support
    • Bosses in survival mode
    • Updated language translations
    • Unstuck command
    • New achievements
    • New pets from challenge maps
    • Increased knockback scaling
     
    Kickstarter and Backer Rewards
    • Unique item names for Kickstarter rewards
    • Exclusive Kickstarter & Pre-Order costumes
      *Codes will be sent out within a week of patch, either to BackerKit or via Email*
     
    Game Optimizations
    • Massive memory cleanup in all sections of the game.
    • Massive CPU performance optimizations related to everything gameplay.
    • Profile conflict system
     
    Bug Fixes
    • BUGFIX: In challenge modes with limited lives, hero swapping in build phase while dead and out of lives respawns the player
    • BUGFIX: Copters are invulnerable.
    • BUGFIX: Direct Join from game closed causes infinite loading
    • BUGFIX: Input binding displays that had a none input action became visible
    • BUGFIX: Campaign completion pet on Easy-Nightmare had 0 min quality.
    • BUGFIX: Shadow Monk skin confirm button isn't disabled even though the skin isn't owned
    • BUGFIX: Spectator can hot swap heroes and spawn in the world
    • BUGFIX: Attack power now scales pet damage
    • BUGFIX: Unable to see the last option in the gameplay options list
    • BUGFIX: Apprentice offense stats were missing
    • BUGFIX: Channeling ability sometimes can't be deactivated by a client.
    • BUGFIX: Input Binding Display - fixed issue that was hiding hold radial bar.
    • BUGFIX: Bosses can be stunned by the Lightning Tower.
    • BUGFIX: Suggested Levels are very wrong
    • BUGFIX: Harpoon turret shooting Ogre targets too high up on the body causing it to miss other targets.
    • BUGFIX: Inferno Trap tick rate not scaling properly in Massacre
    • BUGFIX: Healing Aura not scaling properly in higher difficulties
    • BUGFIX: Pet attack rates cannot be properly upgraded
    • BUGFIX: Enemies never appear with the Massacre colorization (Black/Gold) in massacre difficulty.
    • BUGFIX: Skeletons don't properly die to lifespan or getting stuck, they just "Fake Die" once and resurrect.
    • BUGFIX: If a skeleton is dead when the dark elf mage that summoned it is killed it isn't removed from the map.
    • BUGFIX: Djinn tries to destroy crystal generators on Alch Labs
    • BUGFIX: Boss events don't occur if you join in survival past wave 20.
    • BUGFIX: Kobolds may not be targeted by any defense.
    • BUGFIX: Traps may not trigger as intended.
    • BUGFIX: Goblin Mech doesn't move if you're far away when he spawns.
    • BUGFIX: The Goblin Mech can break down and not work as intended.
    • BUGFIX: Fix ranged enemy targeting and navigation.
    • BUGFIX: Clients were unable to load and save inventory filters when in an multiplayer game.
    • BUGFIX: Fixed an issue with Tactician and Untouchable not granting awards
    • BUGFIX: Fixed an issue with Strength In Numbers description
    • BUGFIX: Dragon pet could get 3 extra projectiles when it should only get 2 extra.
    • BUGFIX: Score doesn't reset correctly after winning chicken soccer.
    • BUGFIX: Wave 25 Deeper Well massacre survival enemies are much much easier than wave 24 enemies.
    • BUGFIX: Traps now have a collision representing their effect range only interacts with tower collision via overlap
    • BUGFIX: Copters clipping through walls in Ancient Mines
    • BUGFIX: After joining a hardcore map that is in combat phase the client is stuck on the loading screen until that combat phase finishes
    • BUGFIX: Ancient Dragon boss weapons had an incorrect projectile description
    • BUGFIX: Mana gems don't drop from enemies on Royal Gardens Wave 24 - Survival (Massacre)
    • BUGFIX: Mage heal affects bosses.
    • BUGFIX: Couldn't spin Hero model in inventory
    • BUGFIX: Towers may not target Bosses or Copter Flares
    • BUGFIX: MultiBuff pets will buff undesirable targets
    • BUGFIX: Ogre Slam can damage defenses it should be able to
    • BUGFIX: Ancient Dragon gets stuck in strafe mode when more than 1 player is on the map
    • BUGFIX: Trophies with longer titles text are cut off on both ends
    • BUGFIX: Fix for pylons being moved by Sharken.
    • BUGFIX: Skeletons in Mixed Mode only ever spawn as tier 1
    • BUGFIX: Tower Speed (Def. Rate) was showing as less was better for tooltips
    • BUGFIX: Hold event progress isn't displaying correctly during activation on keyboard
    • BUGFIX: Pets activate their abilities and attacks in pure strategy mode
    • BUGFIX: Healing aura heals defenses
    • BUGFIX: Enemies occasionally moonwalk because why not
    • BUGFIX: Names that appear when you hover over the player icons on the escape screen
    • BUGFIX: The create hero UI always shows gamepad icons
    • BUGFIX: Session Browser had locked entries if you beat a map on survival but you did not beat the specific wave they were on.
    • BUGFIX: Djinn have trouble acquiring new targets and have an incorrect tower destroy distance in massacre
    • BUGFIX: Game crashes if you go into placement for a defense while inspecting one that is already placed
    • BUGFIX: Input errors when going from gamepad to keyboard
    • BUGFIX: Client crashes during the combat phase of Survival
    • BUGFIX: The create hero UI always shows gamepad icons
    • BUGFIX: Healing aura doesn't affect the new hero if you swap inside of it
    • BUGFIX: Sirens ping icon is gigantic
    • BUGFIX: When a client leaves game from the tavern they are sent to the menu level instead of their own tavern
    • BUGFIX: Defense tooltip closes when in build mode after you get done focusing an already built defense.
    • BUGFIX: Fixed defense tooltips not showing up for placement of node types
    • BUGFIX: Sharkens can target defenses across the map if they are ever facing it after spawning
    • BUGFIX: Demon Lord Doesn't Do Anything If You Die
    • BUGFIX: Moving Core challenge says Monsterfest in the map selection UI and on the end game summary screen
    • BUGFIX: Heal isn't disabled when webbed by a spider
    • BUGFIX: Copter's can drop their Ogres in locations where the Ogre gets stuck on Promenade
    • BUGFIX: Build Suggestions button text being cut off
    • BUGFIX: Sliders don't stay in the correct location after modifying colors of costumes
    • BUGFIX: No Mana drops from enemies on wave 5 of Magus Quarters Massacre Campaign and build timers on Throne Room Survival.
    • BUGFIX: Spectator camera freezes in hardcore after a short period
    • BUGFIX: Squire can use healing ability while blocking.
    • BUGFIX: Camera Toggle gets stuck on screen after building a defense
    • BUGFIX: All confirmation popups have to be clicked twice for either button to work
    • BUGFIX: Djinn don't turn to face their target when using an ability
    • BUGFIX: Leaving the game on a client after transitioning as a group from the tavern crashes the client
    • BUGFIX: Sell All Did not have a confirmation before doing
    • BUGFIX: Fix for Sirens taking damage from auras
    • BUGFIX: Enemies can attempt to attack the player when they can't reach them
    • BUGFIX: Could not stand on Flameball towers
    • BUGFIX: Flamethrower weapon visuals don't turn off when reloading
    • BUGFIX: Sirens walking into Cores
    • BUGFIX: Can interact with towers while in build mode
    • BUGFIX: New Trophies in the tavern are never focusable
    • BUGFIX: Nameplate health values don't update when fortify stat changes unless that nameplate is currently on screen
    • BUGFIX: Fix passive damage from interrupting enemy attacks, it doesn't stun them but prevents them from effectively doing anything.
    • BUGFIX: Fixed range value on tooltips to match what is shown in placement
    • BUGFIX: On the hero creation UI you are able to spam the hero spawn sounds by clicking their portraits repeatedly
    • BUGFIX: When the swap button was hidden it was still showing up in the wrong location
    • BUGFIX: Goblin Copter targeting issues
    • BUGFIX: Fixed Slice and Dice tower scaling and fixed damage scaling as well
    • BUGFIX: On tooltips, primary damage and elemental damage were always getting colored
    • BUGFIX: On gamepad able to open 2 sell all confirmation prompts by holding Right-Shoulder twice.
    • BUGFIX: Fixed DU from not displaying on built tower tooltips
    • BUGFIX: Gamepad navigation on filters UI was not working as intended
    • BUGFIX: Repair now works in the tavern
    • BUGFIX: For the host, the Gold earned tracker on the end game summary screen displays clients total gold instead of gold earned on that map
    • BUGFIX: Demon Lord in-world sword could spawn in and cause players to get stuck if they were standing where it spawned and/or building there

    Please help us find and squash bugs over at our Discord where we have a new reporting system for bugs and feedback.

    Social Defenders
    To get reliable updates on the future of DDA make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms: Keep an eye out for more info!
    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games
    [CG] HiggsBosonic

    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!
    massacre.png

     

    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.

    skyward-challenge.png

     

    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!


    Series EV.png

    EVCharacterConcept.png

     

    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:
    inventory_bags.png

     

    New additional filters:

    filters.png

     

    Fancy new tooltips:

    tooltips.png

     

    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:

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

    [CG] Mary

    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)

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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

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    Hero Deck Selection

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    Hero Customization

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    Map Select

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    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:

    Keep an eye out for more info!

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Mary

    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

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    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

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    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

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    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:

    Keep an eye out for more info!

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Mary

     

    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:

    Keep an eye out for more info!

    For Etheria!
    Chromatic Games

    [CG] Mary

    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.

     

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    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. 

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    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!

     

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    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:

    For Etheria!

    Chromatic Games



     

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