Greetings Defenders,

This be the second Dev Log for the next update in Dungeon Defenders II! As we promised ye scallywags last Dev Log we’ll be talking about even more treasure and booty coming. Ancient Power changes, War Table improvements, and a lot more await ye in Dev Log 101!

Alec “Lawlta” Saare — Community Captain

This Dev Log is still just the tip of the iceberg for what’s coming. You all have been anticipating Ancient Power changes, and we’ve got them! A lot of feedback that we’ve received on this system (just like with Onslaught) was used to help mold it into what’s coming your way. On top of this, the War Table changes (session browser anyone?), and maps are a lot to cover. This update is ARRRRRRRRRbsolutely insane, to quote a certain Jose, “hype levels are through the roof, unsustainable!”

I’ll let others dive into what’s coming. I will say that we are going to have our FIRST Dev Stream for this update next week, September 14th, at 3 PM EDT. We’ll be showing off some stuff from Dev Log 99, 100, and 101! Who knows, we might even be giving away one of our new flairs during our Dev Streams. ;)

Jose “Scaredycat Scarecrow” Villegas — Technical Designer

Hey-o everyone!

What’s promised is owed, so here are some of the new changes to Ancient Power available to you in our next update. We have heard your feedback, and hopefully these changes will make you more excited to engage with this system.

Ancient Powers
Here's a list of the changes regarding Ancient Powers specifically:

1. 1. We have doubled the strength of each Ancient Power. To note, since you can add each AP level together when in a party to make the buffs stronger, now we will only add up to 10 levels per Power. This means you get twice the strength when playing solo, and up to the same amount when playing with others, but this limit is reached much easier now.

   2. We have introduced four new Powers: Defense Crit Damage, Defense Crit Chance, Hero Crit Chance, and Hero Crit Damage.

   3. The amount of power you gain per level has been redistributed so the first levels of each power will award you with a greater gain than the last ones.

Greetings Defenders,

Ahoy there, DefendARRRRs! In this Dev Log, we be talking about some changes to Onslaught and Party Controls that ye’ve been requestin, and we’re here to deliver. These changes are meant to improve the game mode, allowing many of you to set sail on adventure without having to sink a ton of time into each play session if ye’re not able to. Also greater control over who’s in ye’r ranks and leadin’ ye’r crew, alongside making it easier to interact between one another. Let’s dive in!

Alec “Lawlta” Saare — Community Overlord

First off, Dev Log 100, wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut! There’s a lot still to talk about, but being our 100th Dev Log, I thought it would be best that we talk about and confirm changes to a system many of you have requested. Onslaught is getting a round of polish with extra elbow grease to become more accessible for players and also bring some additional difficulty. The party improvements are also something that many of you gave a ton of great feedback on, so these changes should make being in a party not only feel a lot better, but also be easier to get into.

There’s a ton more coming that we cannot wait to share with you! We’ve been hard at work creating new maps for you to defend, new enemies to take on, new weapons to strengthen your arsenal, and so much more. To quote a Jose you may or may not know, it’s “coming sooner than you think”. Unless you think it’s tomorrow and a little bit of time after tomorrow, then that quote doesn’t apply here.

X Marks The Heart,

Lawlta

Mark “Telflon” Telfer — Technical Designer

Ahoy Defenders!

I’m here to talk improvements to the party system and a few things that are to come.  

1. Seamless Invite System - Party invites in the live game are jarring. When you receive one, it stops you dead, it removes all movement control from your character, and the popup covers the majority of your screen. The only way to make the popup go away is to accept or decline the invitation to the party. With the new party system, these gameplay intrusions will be eliminated.  Receiving an invite to a party will no longer stop you dead. Instead, you will receive an unobtrusive notification at the bottom of your screen informing you who invited you to the party with the option to accept or decline the offer. You will fully retain control of movement while this invite is pending, and your view of Etheria will not be occluded.

2. Vicinity Targeting - The way you initiate any social interaction in DD2 is by opening the player list, selecting the name of the person you wish to interact with, and then selecting how you’d like to interact with them. This is a good system if you already know the name of the person you wish to interact with, but it is not the best facilitator of organic interactions with people you serendipitously meet. For instance, let’s say you see someone run by with a sweet sweet costume, and decide that you want to make that person a part of your stylish crew.  You’re standing right next to this player, but you can’t invite them to a party directly; you’ll to figure out their name, open the player list menu, find them, and then send them an invite. To make it easier and more organic to interact with others, we will be introducing vicinity targeting. What does it mean? It means that you can walk right up to someone and interact with them directly. You won’t have to open full-screen menus to invite people a party, kick people from a party, promote them to party leader (more on that), or view their shops.  You will remain fully engrossed in the world of Etheria while you perform these interactions via vicinity targeting; you will retain full degree of movement control.

3. Player List User Experience - If you prefer the classic way of interacting with others then you’re still in luck!  The player list has been refined to give a far smoother experience when interacting with others.

4. A Party Structure That Makes Sense -  As I’m sure you all have noticed, some funkiness can happen with parties in the live game which really upsets expectations.  One of my biggest annoyances with the current system is having the party leader change randomly when you load into a new map.  Frustrating! It's time to bring some order to the party chaos that can happen in the live game, and we plan to do this by implementing the following:

• The person who sends the first invitation to party up becomes the party leader.

• The party leader REMAINS the leader until they either leave the party or they choose to promote someone.

• The party leader will be able to promote other members to their position if they no longer wish to lead.

• All party members can invite someone to join a party, but only the party leader can kick from a party.

• Only the party leader can choose where players matchmake to.

There are more changes coming too.  Stay tuned!

Thinking of you,

Mark

Jose Villegas — Technical Designer

Hey everyone,

We have heard your voice loud and clear, and we are making several improvements to Onslaught. Sit tight and get ready.

1. Floors will have only 1 map each. This was by far the largest concern that you had with the game mode. It took too long to complete a map, and a single failure led to having to play the entire floor again. Worry no longer, in the update a single victory is required to move forward.

2. Moar maps. Currently, the selection of maps in late game Onslaught is quite large, but not complete. With the newest changes we are introducing, all the maps will be available at all points in the Onslaught progression, late and early ;).

3. Faster progression. The difficulty increases were happening only little by little in each floor, which made the process of playing through Onslaught much slower than in Expeditions. Not anymore; now the jumps in difficulty (and rewards) happen much faster, and the number of floors that will take you to Chaos 7 strength have been reduced. This increased in difficulty per floor has also been carried to beyond the Chaos 7 floors, so reaching floor 999 will be an greater challenge than before.

4. More and better Prestigious weapons. Lawlta told me I can’t talk about AP yet, but I will try to spill this small bean here, as it’s related to the Onslaught climb. In addition to receiving a Prestigious Weapon when you trigger Ancient Power, now you will receive one every 10 floors when playing Onslaught (every 20 after floor 100). In addition, all new Prestigious Weapons will come at least at quality 5/10, and will have an increased chance of spawning at higher quality as well. These awards will also reset when you go through Ancient Power, giving you a chance of more weapons.

5. New post C7 difficulty schedules. Starting around the end of the chaos 7 floors, we will now start introducing new schedules of enemies at increased difficulty. To note, these schedules will not contain new enemies, but the same ones you are familiar at an increased difficulty and numbers.

6. Omega Waves. Last stream I promised Omega Waves in Onslaught, and people did not believe my words. Now, I can actually confirm Omega Waves may or may not, in fact, be coming to Onslaught.

You are probably wondering: what’s going to happen with my progression? Well the answer is very simple. When making the transition between the old to the new, we will check what floor you were playing previously, and set you at a floor with the closest difficulty to it under the new system.

For example, if Gobu was playing at Floor 80, now they will be placed around floor 35, since both are comparable in difficulty. This will also be true to the rewards tied to specific floor numbers, like 114, so while the climb to get there will be shortened, the difficulty of those maps will remain consistent.

One final feature that I’m happy to introduce is a new Replay system. Currently, when failing a map you have to start all over again, regardless of game mode or difficulty. Now, if you fail a map the game will allow you to go back to the wave where you failed, and retry from there with the defenses you had already placed in the map.

Having to build the whole map again after failing was something we always wanted to address, and now you can just simply adjust whatever defense cause you to lose and keep moving forward =).

That’s not all! The Replay feature will also be supported by a new Performance Optimization System. When loading the map again after trigger the replay, we will place several indicators on the towers that caused you to lose. All towers destroyed will have a handy Danger Indicator (!) to show that they fell. For towers that didn’t do much in combat, a Warning Indicator (?)will get your attention to reevaluate their placement, or equip better relics on them.

That’s it for now. Next time I will tell you more details about the changes to AP, which there are many. But let me tell you about these new Pirate MODS, they are great, they are awesome, and they are also great. The first one, currently named Set Sail, which turns you into a █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ , and then you can █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ , which allows you to █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ . The second one █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ .

Oof… I'm excited for these new Mods. Be sure to tune in for next Friday’s stream, where I may or may not answer your questions in the most ambiguous fashion possible.

Love you,

Jose

Ice "Ice" Ice, Ice Lead

Hi.

Cordially Yours,

Ice

Dani Moore, Remote QA Lead

We're also looking to expand our tester pool once again. Our testers get the chance to try out our still-in development work, in exchange for some cool stuff as a thanks. They help us with balance, feedback and bugs and their contributions to our releases are very valuable.

We have two teams, RQA - our daily bug hunters (for folks with lots of free time each day), and RPG - our larger team for balance and feedback (for folks with limited free time).

If you are interested, drop me an email at dani.moore trendyent (dot) com and ask. I'm happy to provide more information on both teams to see what best suits. A big thanks to everyone involved in the Update and the heaps of work and sweat that went into it all.

What’s Next?

Nothing, that’s it, no more news. No need to keep reading. Except wait, there’s a ton more coming that we’ll be talking about in our next Dev Log! This update is crazy big, bringing in some salty content for you landlubbers. Here’s what you can expect to see:

• AP improvements

• New Maps

• New Enemies

• New Weapons

• New Mods

• New Incursion

• New Flair

• More New Stuff!

We’re always listening to your feedback, and a lot of you do a great job of making sure it’s constructive and provide plenty of great ideas. Keep it up, we love reading it and it helps us mold Dungeon Defenders II into a better game.

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

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

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

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

The next large update for Dungeon Defenders II is right around the corner. We’ve been hard at work trying to make this update something that everyone will enjoy. One thing players have requested for a while are new maps, new enemies, and new visuals in general. This Dev Log is focused on giving you all a sneak peek into what our team has been working on. Get your sea legs ready, let’s set sail!

Alec “Lawlta” Saare, Community Manager

Our next update has so much to show off, so we’re going to dive into some of the visuals you’ll be seeing. The artists have really outdone themselves on both the models, the maps, and the animations involved in both. We’ve been teasing some of our maps recently, and want to shake it up, showing off one of our new pets, only a couple (there’s so many more) of our enemies, and… well, keep reading, you’ll see. 

There is a lot more coming, both visually and technically. It’s been an ARRRRduous amount of work, with the whole team really grinding away. We can’t wait to share the fruits of our labor, both for your enjoyment, and to prevent scurvy. Pirates.

Colin “Elandrian” Fisher, Associate Producer

August has been quite a month.  Some of my favorite go-to games are releasing titles this month, so it’s been inspiring to see what advancements have been made in the industry.

Speaking of advancements, there’s quite a few changes coming to Dungeon Defenders II soon. We’re processing a lot of feedback from all types of players recently to make changes to many of our end-game systems and flows. There’s a number of changes coming to Onslaught and Ancient Power, and our goal is to make them both feel easier to progress in and more rewarding.

There’s a bit of new map content coming soon too, we’ll probably be talking more about that in the very near future, but for now I’ll just leave you with hints.

Ship just got real.

John Muscarella, Lead Animator

You know that feeling when you have, like, A TON of cool animations to show off, but the marketing department wants to “control the messaging and reveals”...?

No? Just me? Oh ok…

Well we do have a ton of cool stuff that we can’t show you all just yet. The last several weeks have been crazy, and I’m stupid excited for you to see.  That’s right! I’m so excited it’s made me stupid…

In the meantime, here’s a few things to tide you over. Or, at least tide ME over…

We made him into a pet! Now you can blast enemies with the power of the Tinkerer’s greatest technological achievement; a barely competent bumbling mini-bot…

Yaaarrrr! We’ve reskinned a whole bunch of our devious little friends. Blast and pummel them to the tune of a catchy pirate chantey!

Like I said, there is sooo much more to come. Stay tuned, Defenders.

Keith “Keithimator” Walheim, Animator

Hey all, it’s been awhile since we last spoke. I’ve got some awesome animations that I’ve been working on, but we’re not able to show all of them yet. I’ve been able to sneak in some new ones, hopefully Lawlta doesn’t see this (Lawlta spoiler:  I did). Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Professor Proteus’s new assistant is quite a show off. Most of all, he enjoys showing off his (finger) guns and will have a lot of fun following you around to help you out in game. It was a ton of fun putting personality into this little guy, and I hope that he really shines on the battlefields of Etheria.

“One fish, two fish, red fish, gobu fish.”

I got to work on some super floppy fish among many other wonderful things this update that I can’t wait to see these in the live game. This animation in particular is something you’ll use to put your enemies in their place. I really cannot wait for you all to see what’s coming!

Dan Driussi, 3D Character Artist

. . .- - - . . .To get myself into the pirate mindset I went and got myself shipwrecked while under the influence of scurvy. I currently only have the company of a chatty parrot who thinks he is funny and the ever present rum cache. I created a working computer from coconuts, bamboo, and spare life jackets and was able to make some cool stuff for the next patch. One of my favorites is the island war boar, just shove an apple into its mouth and you have mobile kalua pork just walking towards your defenses ready to be eaten! Just remember to use fire to seal in that BBQ war boar flavor! If you receive this message please send help, the parrot only knows dad jokes and puns . . .- - - . . .!

What’s Coming?

There’s so much more coming, and we’ll be having additional Dev Logs in the coming weeks leading to the update itself. Here’s an idea of what you can expect to see:

• Onslaught floors are always one map floors, and how that changes progression.

• Extra rewards as you climb through Onslaught.

• Improvements and changes to Ancient Power.

• Increased party control and functionality.

• NEW ENEMIES, WEAPONS, MAPS, AND MORE!

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

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

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

For Etheria,

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

Protean Shift Patch 3.2 is now live on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One! We’ve been hard at work ever since Professor Proteus made his glorious arrival in Etheria! The feedback from all of you has been tremendous and we greatly appreciate it. We’re addressing requests that players have wanted both for a while now and recently with the Protean Shift expansion. Let’s get into it!

Multiplayer Bonuses

Defenders love playing together, there is strength in numbers after all. Previously, when playing in multiplayer settings, enemies became stronger, but did not offer any additional rewards for the harder challenge. This is a pain point that you as a community have voiced to us for a long time, and with gear in a much better spot, we now have a way to reward the increased difficulty!

Previously, when playing in multiplayer sessions, enemies gained additional health without offering any increased rewards. Now when teaming up with fellow Defenders, you now gain additional Gear from Victory Chests. You may be asking, “how much?”, and the answer is A LOT. Here’s the breakdown you can expect to see when playing with multiple Defenders:

• One Defender:  Remains the same.

• Two Defenders:  +125% additional Gear drops!

• Three Defenders:  +275% additional Gear drops!

• Four Defenders:  +425% additional Gear drops!

When playing solo, the Escape/Options menu shows:

When in a group of two:

This pattern increases the more Defenders in your session. To have our bases covered, Gear is specifically armor, weapons, and relics. These additional pieces of gear offer players multiple opportunities on finding perfect stats and Mods while taking on stronger enemies. This means you have more gear to use or sell, boosting Defender strength and our player economy substantially. As a result, we’ve slightly tweaked sell prices to vendors. With the increased loot drops, you’ll be making on average the same amount of gold when selling to vendors. However, we maintained previous minimum Player Shop sell value of items to offset this. You’re now provided more opportunities to sell more gear between one another to obtain greater mountains of wealth than ever before!

We were able to get these changes out now to provide a feature the community highly requested thanks to the feedback we received via a survey many of you participated in. One concern that several Defenders brought up was in regard to party control and functionality. These will be coming in our next Update among a slew of new features not too far from now. We’ll touch on some additional changes later on in these notes!

Material Vault

In Protean Shift, we introduced a good chunk of crafting materials for Defenders to have more control over their gear. There’s a ton of new materials and one bit of feedback that we’ve received quite often, is about storing these spoils of combat.

Enter the Material Vault! It’s a new vault that will be available to players that want to be able to store extra crafting materials. This special vault allows you to hold 999 of every crafting material and access to materials saved in your Material Vault regardless of where you are. Want to pump up the strength of your gear, or move some Mods around, but you put the materials in your Material Vault? You can now do it on the fly without pulling the materials out! When doing anything that requires crafting materials, Inventory Materials are used first before using crafting materials in your Materials Vault.

What’s Coming?

In our last Check-In post, we outlined some short, medium, and long term goals. In our next update, here’s a sneak peek as to what you can expect to see:

• Onslaught floors are always one map floors.

• Extra rewards as you climb through Onslaught.

• Improvements to Ancient Power

• Increased party control and functionality

• And…. A NEW BOSS, WEAPONS, MAPS, AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

As development continues, we’re going to be providing opportunities to test this content and earn “Tester Only” rewards, such as Betsy White, a true friend and confidant to any Defender.

Bug Fixes

• Improved enemy spawn and pathing logic so enemies getting stuck in spawns will now have a better chance of finding their way out of the spawner.

• Fixed additional cases where Berserker Orcs would get around blockades and walls.

• Fixed an issue in Player Shops that caused a visual duplication while moving items.

• Fixed an issue with Abyss Stone and Abyss Fountain giving an incorrect error message when there’s not enough mana available to use them.

• Updated Shard Dust description to explain how it’s acquired.

• Fixed a bug where the Jackpot shard increases gold reward upon wave completion.

• Fixed an issue with comparison tooltips remaining when closing the Vault UI.

• Fixed the text size of “LIST IT!” on 4k resolutions.

• Fixed an issue with Gilded Colossal Fissure Shards receiving a negative increase.

• Fixed an issue with Campaign Boot tinkering requiring an Iron Hammer.

• Fixed an issue with Chaos V Boot upgrades requiring weapon crafting materials.

• Fixed an issue with buy back items going to the wrong location in the inventory.

• Fixed an issue where items claimed at the Scavenger while the inventory is full would look like it had been claimed but was still in the Scavenger.

Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

We have much more on the way and will be spilling some beans in the coming weeks!

For Etheria,

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

We’ve been hard at work ever since Professor Proteus made his glorious arrival in Etheria! The feedback from all of you has been tremendous and we greatly appreciate it. There’s more coming in our next update, but there’s also more coming next week with Protean Shift Patch 3.2!

There are some nice quality of life features that are coming with next week’s patch, let’s get into it!

Multiplayer Incentives

Defenders love playing together, there is strength in numbers after all. When playing together, enemies get stronger, but there’s not any increased reward for that increased risk. Well not anymore! We have been testing and looking for ways to reward players without trivializing content. With this patch, when grouping with other Defenders, you will receive additional gear from the victory chest. This scales per player added to the session, meaning the more Defenders you play with, the more gear you receive. The more gear you receive, the higher the chance at getting perfect mods!

Material Vault

In Protean Shift, we introduced a good chunk of crafting materials for Defenders to have more control over their gear. There’s a ton of new materials and one bit of feedback that we’ve received quite often, is about storing these spoils of combat.

Enter the Material Vault! The Material Vault is a new vault that will be available to players that want to be able to store extra crafting materials. This special vault allows you to hold 999 of every crafting material, and you will be able to automatically use them when interacting with items. Want to pump up the strength of your gear, but you put the materials in your Material Vault? You can now do it on the fly!

On the Horizon

There’s a giant “wave” of stuff coming to Etheria in our next update that is sure to knock your socks off. Related to multiplayer incentives, we’re going to be providing Defenders greater control over the parties they start, something many of you have asked for is on it’s way. We can’t get into a ton of the stuff coming just yet, but give Elandrian’s Check-In a visit to get an idea for what’s coming!

Bug Fixes and Optimizations

As always, we’re going to be squishing a lot of bugs, increasing performance, and increasing stability. Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

We have much more on the way and will be spilling some beans in the coming weeks!

For Etheria,

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

Patch 3.1 is now live! This is our first Protean Shift patch that brings some nice quality of life changes, balance changes, and a slew of bug fixes. Let’s get into it!

MODS

• Shocking Revelation Mod

  • Stun duration reduced from 5 seconds to 1 second.

    • Stun was lasting way longer than the intended power of this Mod.

Quality of Life

• Buyback has been added! It is shown as the last tab in your inventory and items are removed from buyback if you leave the session you're in.
  

• Added the option to not show a warning when selling a Mythical quality of better item.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Ancient lifesteal was not healing players.

• Fixed an issue where Tenacity was not reducing by the amount listed.

• Fixed an issue where listing an item did not warn the player they will need to pay a tax to remove the item.

• Fixed it so all anti-orc Mods now apply to Berserker Orcs.

• Fixed an issue with the Quake Shard and Shielding Guard Shard showing as Campaign Shards and awarding Campaign Dust.

• Fixed an issue where the Withering Bubble Shard was not dropping in Campaign.

• Fixed an issue so the Initiate can use the Drain Aura Mod now.

• Fixed an issue where Shatterquake was showing fire VFX.

• Fixed a typo on the Lifeburn Armor Mod.

• Fixed an issue where Seismic Flame was lasting longer than intended and updated its description for clarity.

• Updated the Buried bastille description.

• Fixed an issue where the Seismic Launch Chip allowed the Squire to complete the Smack Up Monk challenge.

• Adjusted the Terrablade weapons to have full descriptions.

• Fixed an issue where Hard Mode Campaign items could not transfer Mods to Normal Mode Campaign items.

• Fixed an issue where some pets had way higher Crit Damage than intended.

• Fixed an issue that occasionally when gaining Ancient Power players would not receive an Ancient Power weapon.

• Fixed an issue with item stacking in inventories and not being able to re-stack them.

• Fixed an issue with Chaos V glove Tinkering using a shiny chest material instead of a shiny glove material.

• Fixed an issue with Private Tavern and Town vendors not updating their stock correctly.

• Fixed an issue where the Lash Out Ascension talent was not functioning for the poison damage.

• Fixed an issue with consecutive win bonuses applying to special Play Shop purchases.

• Fixed an issue with Flame Aura hitting players when the owner leaves town.

• Fixed an issue with X-splosion Mods killing players.

• Fixed an issue with Drain Aura damaging players.

• Fixed an issue with Incursion Weapon Mods being replacable via Tinkering.

• Fixed an issue with Lunar Portal and Ghastly Halberds spawning more than intended.

• Fixed an issue with Onslaught and Ancient Power challenges not unlocking correctly.

• Fixed an issue where Autumeow’s tail would change colors incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue with tooltips overlapping in splitscreen shops.

• Updated the attack speed icon on Axes.

• Removed the Death Override icon on the Protean Shield.

• Items with zero Mods are hidden in the Reforging Quick Picker window when selecting an item to pull Mods from.

• Fixed an issue when creating a hero that offered “select hero” instead of the option to “back”.

• Fixed an issue with dropped equipment showing gamepad context that doesn’t work on PC.

• Fixed an issue with the cursor going behind Mods on Wayfarer weapons.

• Changed the description of Vial of Dragon Sweat to not say “Open to Unlock”.

• Fixed an issue with the Abyss Lord’s Skeletal Ramsters and Skeletal Archer towers not showing their base when an elemental Mod was equipped.

• Fixed an issue where oil traps on Ramparts slowed Berserker Orcs.

• Fixed an issue with overlapping UIs when splitscreen players join while a fullscreen window is open.

• Fixed an issue with protective Downgrade Servo not updating its stats when inspecting it after it gets downgraded.

• Fixed an issue where Feed x10 was consuming 10 pieces of food even if 10 was not needed to cap the pet.

• Fixed an issue with Flamethrower tower VFX not getting bigger with Defense Range.

• Fixed an issue with “Create Hero” appearing unlocked if you tried to purchase a hero and did not have enough currency.

• Fixed an issue with tower abilities not stopping when the tower is stunned.

• Fixed an issue with Defender Packs where rerolling would leave the previous contents on the ground.

• Fixed an issue with The Defender of Etheria achievements not unlocking on Xbox.

• Fixed an issue where the inventory would lose navigation input on controllers.

• Fixed an issue with the Quake Shard’s VFX appearing in the middle of players instead of at their feet.

• Fixed an issue with Automation Shard not working on Snaking Sands, Slime Pits, Geyser Traps, and Angry Nimbus towers.

• Fixed an issue with the falling leaf VFX on Forest Biome not triggering correctly.

• Changed two shards to now be named “Betsy’s Zapper” and “Betsy’s Beam” to better fit the UI.

• Implemented a sound for un-equipping gear.

• Implemented a sound for equipping shards via Right Mouse Button.

• Fixed an issue with placing Mods into the third slot of a Legendary/Epic that was advanced, that caused them to not function properly.

• Adjusted Abyss Stones hit SFX location to emit from the correct position.

• Fixed an issue with the Abyss Lord’s book landing correctly when he dies.

• Updated the bag icons with Blue Gem Icons.

• Fixed an issue connecting to an event server that could result in a crash.

• Fixed the VFX for EV2 canisters.

Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

We have much more on the way and will be spilling some beans in the coming weeks!

For Etheria,

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

A Protean Check-In With Elandrian

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

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

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

Short Term

• Bug Fixes (duh.)

• Buyback Functionality

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

• Better Sorting/Filtering of the Inventory

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

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

• Materials Vault Tabs?

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

Medium Term

• Onslaught Changes

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

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

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

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

• Ancient Power Changes

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

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

Longer Term (But maybe shorter than you expect?)

• Better party functionality.

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

• Increased Multiplayer Incentive

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

• Better Matchmaking.

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

• Guilds

  • Secrets...

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

/endsarcasm

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

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

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

Thank you from all of us here at Trendy Entertainment.

Sincerely,

Colin “Elandrian” Fisher



Defenders, it’s finally time.  Protean Shift is launching and we could not have done it without you.

We set out with some lofty goals, but with your help we were able to make some significant changes to Dungeon Defenders II. We wanted to give you greater attachment to your items, but also more options to share those items with your friends. We wanted to give you map choice while progressing through Trials, but also give you more ways to progress your gear while advancing through the tiers. We also wanted to give you some better options with your existing items so we added Shard Dusting and Gilding.  We also hear your concern about Gilding and we’ll keep an eye on it for iteration.

We’re constantly tweaking and improving our game that we share with all of you, and we hope you will enjoy our enhanced direction for year two of this wonderful game.

From everyone here at Trendy Entertainment, thank you for supporting Dungeon Defenders II and helping us continue to move the game forward.  We’re a small team in Gainesville, Florida and we appreciate every bit of excitement and support that you give us.

We hope you enjoy this “Shift” in our game, and we can’t wait to focus on what we’re working on next.

We know you want more maps, Onslaught changes and Ancient Power enhancements.

We’re on it.

Greetings Defenders,

It’s finally here, Dungeon Defenders II:  Protean Shift is live on all platforms! Professor Proteus is now in Dragonfall and started a technomagical evolution throughout all of Etheria. Now the Defenders of Etheria can obtain new ways to fight off enemy forces, choose where they fight, and what equipment they want to use in order to ensure victory!

The Protean Shift brings a slew of new features that Defenders can use to empower their defenses and Heroes, as well as choose the way they want to play. M.O.D.S. allow for custom builds to take on any foe that comes your way, Expeditions give Defenders the choice to play any map they want in any Chaos difficulty, and Player Shops let you buy and sell items with other Defenders. There’s so much more, let’s get into it!

Statistic Changes

This is our most foundational change in the expansion. Now your gear’s stats looks much different than before. The first change is making the damage from critical strikes scale off of the base damage for both your heroes and your towers. Critical Damage is no longer a secondary stat, but is a percentage that starts at +30% damage and increases through Gear, Shards, and Ascension Levels. Because of the change to Critical Damage, the Critical Chance cap of 33% has been removed — the sky’s the limit now!

One of the goals of the Critical Damage change is to make damage more reliable. Critical Damage builds are still fun, but other playstyles should feel just as rewarding. Every hero and tower’s base damage has been increased to account for the changes made, making damage more consistent and allowing for even more unique builds!

Since we changed how Critical Damage is understood, we decided to tackle another confusing area for players:  Defense Speed. The stat is now a percentage instead of being numbers that go into the thousands with no clear meaning. This change allows players to understand exactly how much faster their defenses attack rate will increase.

Gear

Defenders now possess the opportunity to build however they want to fight off their foes. Gear is meant to feel more unique, instead of receiving a legendary that gives every stat. Your gear now provides choice and lets you decide how you play!

Gear now has a primary and secondary stat. Your heroes maintain similar power as they had before the expansion, both offensively and defensively. This balance is a result of increasing base stats and the scaling of those stats. Here’s what you now find on gear:

• Helmets, Gloves, Chest, and Boots

  • Primary Stat:  Armor

  • Secondary:  Health, Ability Power, or Hero Damage

• Weapons

  • Primary Stat:  Hero Damage

  • Secondary Stat:  Armor, Health, or Ability Power

• Medallions, Marks, and Orbs (if you have them still, you pack rat!)

  • Primary Stat:  Defense Power

  • Secondary Stat:  Defense Health

• Totems

  • Primary Stat:  Defense Health

  • Secondary Stat:  Defense Power

These changes allow players to customize their builds even more than before. If you want to maintain a similar amount of balance with damage output and health on your heroes, you can do that easily. However, if you want to make an unstoppable tank that requires an army to take down, or want a glass cannon that can obliterate every enemy on the map, that option is now yours as well!

For relics, we wanted to make sure that defenses were reliable and also strong. These changes now make it so building auras and traps early do not feel punishing because they now have guaranteed Defense Health to keep them up much longer. Having Defense Power as a guaranteed stat also make damage more consistent and less frustrating when you don’t critically strike. This is just the baseline, with M.O.D.S., Shards, and Ascension Levels, you can radically change the type of damage you deal. All these changes are a shift to make Defenders stronger through the power of customization!

M.O.D.S.

Professor Proteus sent a shockwave out across all of Etheria upon his arrival, using his inventive intellect to alter every piece of gear! Magically Offense/Defensive Subroutines (M.O.D.S., or even simpler — Mods) provide the pathway of making gear your own! Mods come in a variety of power! Some are pure stat increases, from the stats you get on gear, to newly changed stats such as Critical Damage, Critical Chance, and Defense Speed. Some add elemental damage to physical damage towers, and have unique VFX depending on the element! Others offer the chance to change how your Defenses overcome specific Chaos enemies. Want to:

• Have towers immune to Hex Thrower curses? You can do that.

• Pierce a Shield Geodes shield? You can do that.

• Make your Traps, Auras, and Nodes, immune to Cyborks?! You can do that!

Mods bring a lot of additional power and customization that many Defenders have wanted for a long time. There are over 100 Mods to discover, with more coming down the road.

Now that you have an idea of what Mods do, it’s time to discuss specifically where you have them. Mods are an extension of your gear, and are a brand new addition to various tiers of your equipment. They are an additional property to gear similar to Shards, and unlock in a similar fashion:

• Uncommon

  • One open Mod slot

• Epic:

  • One rolled Mod slot

  • One open Mod slot (two mod slots total)

• Mythical

  • One rolled Mod slot

  • Two open Mod slots (three mod slots total)

• Legendary:

  • Two rolled Mod slots

  • One open Mod slot (three Mod slots total)

These changes make Legendary items contain two stats, three Mod slots, and three Shard Slots, and increased stats, making them truly legendary. These Mods are just the first of what’s to come. In future updates, we are releasing additional Mods. Have an idea for more, let us know by posting on our forums, we’d love to hear your ideas!

Also, as a side note, Mods make things easier in Mastery, though they are scaled down to the appropriate Chaos tier.

Tinkering

Professor Proteus, in his astounding intellect, wanted to really provide customization and options to not only the power of gear, but also to keeping the gear and/or Mods that you’ve obtained. That’s where Tinkering enters into the mix! Tinkering is the ability to move up to three Mods at a time from one piece of gear to another piece of gear at the same time. In order to take advantage of Tinkering, certain criteria needs to be met:

• Must be the same type of gear.

  • Moving Mods from a weapon, to another weapon.

• Gear that the Mods are being moved to must be the same Chaos tier or higher than where the Mod is coming from.

  • Moving a Mod from a Chaos III weapon has to be moved into a Chaos III or higher weapon.

• Cannot add Mods of the same type, but can override Mods of the same type.

  • A +6% Anti-Goblin Servo on one relic, can override a +5% Anti-Goblin Servo on another tier-equivalent relic.

• Have the materials and currency to complete the transfer of Mods.

  • Materials are now found in Expeditions and Onslaught. They can also be bought and sold in Player Shops.

Tinkering allows you to continuously mix and match your Mods to create the build you enjoy the most. The amount of customization that Tinkering offers truly lets you play how you want. It doesn’t stop there. When combined with our new Upgrading and Evolving features, even more choices await you, even potentially choosing the look of the weapon you want!

Upgrading

Upgrading gear is something that’s been a standard feature of Dungeon Defenders II to get additional power out of the gear you find. But this is Protean Shift, so we’re UPRADING THE UPGRADE! Most gear now has the ability to be upgraded 10 times. The cost for upgrading is greatly reduced from what it previously was, but now requires you to use materials that you find throughout your journeys in Etheria or that you bought from other Defenders through Player Shops. If you have a non-legendary piece of gear, through the genius of Professor Proteus, you can Advance that gear to the next quality!

Advancing

Remember that low quality flower staff we mentioned earlier? If you upgraded it to its highest level, you can now advance it to the next quality. All gear can now be upgraded from one quality to another, taking items from the lowly Worn quality all the way to Legendary status. This isn’t the only form of improving gear, Evolving allows even more power!

Evolving
-

Evolving is icing on the gear permanence cake. Independent of an items quality tier, if it is upgraded to it’s maximum Upgrade level, it can be pushed to the next Chaos tier. This allows you to take even the first items you find in the campaign to be Evolved all the way to Chaos VIII strength! It’s all about choosing the gear that you want to keep with you.

Upgrading, Advancing, and Evolving applies to every piece of gear that drops — weapons, armor, and relics!

Materials

New materials are added to customize your gear. With the introduction of these materials, we lowered the currency cost of upgrading gear. In your inventory, these materials are included under the current “Materials” inventory sorting option. There are some mats that drop on every map, but then there are also map-type specific materials that drop too. Here’s where you can find the materials you need:

• Weapon Materials:  Sewer Maps

• Helmet Materials:  Castle Maps

• Chest Materials:  Forest Maps

• Glove Materials:  Town Maps

• Boot Materials:  Ruins Maps

• Relic Materials:  Dungeon Maps

Materials are shown on both the map listing and under the open sessions for specific maps. Don’t want to farm a specific map-type for a material you need? You can visit our Markets to find Player Shops selling the materials you need!

New Game Modes

We’ve added additional ways for both new and veteran Defenders to fight off the evil forces that encroach on Etheria’s safety! Adventures are new ways for up and coming Defenders to fight their way through the Campaign, while Expeditions are replacing Trials and providing map choice where previously there wasn’t!

Adventures

Adventures are aimed in giving new Defenders the choice of playing different stories after defeating Betsy. You can choose to take on the Bling King, or go knock down the Harbinger down a peg or two! Maybe you feel strong enough after beating Betsy, if you’re up for the challenge, you can go straight into Onslaught or Expeditions.

Expeditions

Map choice, map choice, MAP CHOICE!! Something many of you have wanted is finally here! The Chaos Trials are finished, and Defenders can now go on Expeditions through various Chaos difficulties, choosing to play whatever map you want. The choice is yours!

The Champion Score gating for various Expedition levels is different as well, they are now:

• Chaos II: 580

• Chaos III: 1050

• Chaos IV: 1740

• Chaos V: 2750

• Chaos VI: 3800

• Chaos VII: 5300

Expeditions also provide the ability to acquire different materials needed Upgrading, Advancing, Evolving, and Tinkering. As noted above, different specific materials drop depending on the map-type your playing. These materials are earned both as you play a map and as you achieve victory!

Player Shops and Markets

Gear is no longer magically locked to each Hero Deck. Professor Proteus slightly alleviated the restrictions that existed previously on gear. As a result, Player Shops and Markets are here!

All Defenders are now able to list their items for sale on their own personal Player Shops. Each Defender starts off with two slots to sell gear and can expand the amount of slots they have if they want to. Most items that have not been altered in some way (Upgraded, Advanced, Evolved, or Tinkered) are able to be added to your shop! You are not able to buy gear for a Chaos tier that you are not currently on (i.e. being Chaos III, you are not able to purchase Chaos V gear from other players). To make browsing easier, you can view player shops through the Player List in the Pause Menu, or by walking up to players in the Markets.

Markets are a new area for players to gather in order to browse Player Shops. Head on over to the War Table and browse the list of active Markets! Markets are themed for various types of items that can be sold, but you can freely sell any item of choice regardless of the Market you’re in. If you don’t see a Market of the item type you’re looking for, you can always just Quickmatch and it automatically creates one for you!

Shards Features

Our new Shard systems were primarily focused on giving players more choices with their Shards.  For Shards that you don’t want to keep anymore, you can now Dust them to get a chance at more Shards of that type.  For Shards that you feel have more value, we wanted to provide a system to Gild and upgrade them a little bit further and protect them from Ancient Power resets.

Shard Dusting
Shards are a great way to really increase the power of the Heroes you play! Some players enjoy playing on a few select Heroes, and you can get Shards you aren’t interested in using. Instead of selling Shards for a little gold, you now Dust them instead. This creates one Shard dust of it’s equivalent Chaos Tier. You can take 10 Shard Dust of the same tier, and visit the War Recruiter to purchase an additional Shard container similar to what you receive at the end of winning a map. This process is to offer an additional chance to get the Shards you want, while giving an additional function to the ones you do not.

Gilded Shards
With gear getting pushed past its limits and receiving some nice improvements, it’s only fitting that Shards receive similar treatment! Gilded Shards provide additional upgrade levels to squeeze out more power, but most of all they are immune to being reset when you Ancient Power. In order to gild a Shard, you need to upgrade one Shard to its maximum upgrade level. You then have the option to Gild it by selecting 10 Shards of the same type, regardless of upgrade level, to fuse into your fully upgraded Shard. This is a focus for end-game players to grab additional power in order to take on the challenges in Onslaught, and also protect Shards from being reset when attaining Ancient Power!

New Weapons

Professor Proteus is a man of intellect, sophistication, and style. In Protean Shift every hero is receiving their own special weapons, with their own special appearances! Some of these weapons not only look legendary, but contain legendary power in the form of unique Mods. These Mods are found on the Prestigious weapons gained from attaining Ancient Power!

Protean Weapons

We’re now also selling Proteus weapons that have unique models and affects. When killing an enemy with any of these weapons, they are shrunk into oblivion! These new Death Animation VFX are indicated by a skull and crossbones icon on the weapon tooltip. These items start at Campaign tier and are Legendary quality, allowing you to put three mods into them. They do require Upgrading, Advancing, and Evolving in order to reach higher tiers. These unique weapon models can also be bought and sold on the Player Shops as long as they haven’t been altered (Upgrading, Advancing, Evolving, or Tinkering).

New Areas and Target Dummies

With a lot of customization here, and a gigantic wave of changes to stats, there are some improvements to our Target Dummies. In the Town hub we expanded the size of our Target Dummy area by quite a lot. There are also a new type of Target Dummy:  Aerial Target Dummies! These can be hit by any anti-air towers, so you can test the damage done by towers that you previously weren’t able to.

Aerial Target Dummies are also in your Private Taverns!  You may also notice that there are some new Dummy names in the mix.

Transferring into Protean Shift

There’s a ton going on with the Protean Shift, and you’re going to notice a bunch of changes to your Heroes. We made sure that you are more or less as strong after Protean Shift as you were before it. As we mentioned earlier, base stats were raised and adjusted to compensate the removal of certain secondary stats. Here’s how things will transition as you load in with this expansion.

For the gear you are wearing before Protean Shift, the Primary and Secondary stats follow the conventions mentioned above after the release. Your gear should look like this:

• Weapons

  • Primary Stat: Hero Damage.

  • Secondary Stat: Whatever your highest secondary stat was previously between Ability Power, Armor, and Hero Health.

• Helmets, Chest, Gloves, Boots

  • Primary Stat: Armor

  • Secondary Stat: Whatever your highest secondary stat was previously between Ability Power, Hero Damage, and Hero Health.

Relics are all going to be uniform across the board as outlined above (Defense Power and Defense Health only, the primary and secondary versions dependent on if it’s a totem or not).

Your current gear receives Mods depending on its quality, as an additional compensation for removing secondary stats. You receive one Mod for Epic and Mythical gear, and two Mods for Legendary gear. The Mods that are put onto this gear cannot roll the highest roll possible, but are going to make you stronger regardless of the roll. Transferring also provides some diversity with the Mods provided to your current gear, as the ones you receive pull from 60%+ of the total Mods added in Protean Shift.

Hero Changes

Every tower and Hero were affected by the changes brought in Protean Shift. As a result, base damage, speed, range, etc. were increased to compensate for the lack of additional secondary stats. Scaling was also greatly affected, meaning not only were the base stats increased, but also how much benefit a stat provides was also increased.

Writing the notes for all of these would have resulted in an encyclopedia, and it may have broke the forums. TL;DR things are stronger and you have the potential to be much, much stronger.

Shard Changes

Shards follow the same idea as the Hero changes. While most shards remain the same, the amount of changes that Gilding offers affects every Shard. However, there are few notable Shards that have additional stats or were change to fit our new system (that we teased for a while):

• Earth Toss

  • Added increased Defense Range [100 - 280 (320 Gilded)]

• Corruption’s bargain

  • Added Ability Power [0 - 300 (420 Gilded)]

• Power Transfer

  • Now increases the Defense Critical Chance by [18% - 30% (38% Gilded)] and reduces Defense Power by -10%.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Gorbstock not able to hit walls.

• Fixed an issue where the Abyss Lord's Direct Command was not dealing critical damage.

• Fixed an issue where one Deadly Strikes shard could be equipped to multiple defenses.

• Fixed an issue where mobs with the Frosty mutator were not dropping green mana.

• Fixed a bug where Hero Health was not maintaining the same ratio when changing equipment.

• Fixed an issue with Beacon of Storms proccing when the Squire blocks melee or physical damage.

• Fixed an issue with UI overlaps when splitscreen users joined a session.

• Fixed an issue with additional pop-ups in the Emporium.

• Adjusted the orc miniboss name in Wave 2 of Greystone Plaza of the New User Experience.

• Fixed an issue with a huntress drap being destroyed in Greystone Plaza during New User Experience.

• Updated old consumables to award +20% critical damage and critical chance instead of previous values.

• Fixed an issue where tooltips occasionally stuck together.

• Fixed an issue with new players not being sent into New User Experience maps.

• Fixed an issue when trying to delete a hero that is assigned to your Hero Deck.

• Fixed an issue where Broomnado was slowing enemies that were immune to slows.

• Fixed a bug where EV2’s Cosmetic Manager lighting was darker than intended.

• Added a warning when Defenders are matchmaking into a tutorial level.

• Improved messaging on errors when not able to join a game mode that hasn’t been unlocked.

• Fixed an issue with long enemy spawn times on the first tutorial map.

• Clarified wording on the Serpent God’s Protection Shard.

• Fixed an issue with Lavamancer’s Maw Petrify Duration talent not working.

• Fixed an issue with the Hotsprings map on Floor 3 dropping a lot of sturdy or worn quality loot.

Known Issues

• Weapon Mods of the same type on weapons are currently stacking for the Barbarian. This will be changed down the road, so that only elemental damage mods stack.

Want More Info on Dungeon Defenders II?

Check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

Protean Shift is a giant endeavor that the entire team hope you enjoy. Thank you for defending Etheria with us, there’s only more to come. Stay tuned!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

It is time to finally announce the next expansion coming to Etheria — Dungeon Defenders II:  Protean Shift! We’ve released information regarding this expansion and are ready to give a preview as to almost everything you can expect. The entire team has and still is working very hard to make sure this is a great experience for Defenders new and old. We’re going to cover some information posted in our DevLogs, as well as some new information, and how it all ties together. Let’s get to it!

Statistic Changes

This is our most foundational change in the update. When Protean Shift launches, you’ll notice that your gear’s stats looks much different than before. Our first change is making the damage from critical strikes scale off of the base damage for both your heroes and your towers. Critical Damage is no longer going to be a secondary stat, but is going to be a percentage increase that you can gain through Gear, Shards, and Ascension Levels. Because of the change to Critical Damage, the Critical Chance cap of 33% has been removed — the sky’s the limit now!

One of the goals of the Critical Damage change is to make damage more reliable. Critical Damage builds are still fun, but other playstyles should feel just as rewarding. Every hero and tower’s base damage has been increased to account for the changes made, making damage more consistent and allowing for even more unique builds!

Since we are changing how Critical Damage is understood, we decided to tackle another confusing area for players:  Defense Speed. This stat is now a percentage instead of being numbers that go into the thousands. The change here allows players to understand exactly how much faster their defenses attack rate will increase.

Gear

This expansion really provides the opportunity to build how you want to, and gear is a huge reason. We wanted gear to feel more unique, instead of just giving you every stat whenever you received a legendary tier of gear. Now your gear and choices can reflect the kind of Defender you want to be.

Gear now has a primary stat and a secondary stat. For heroes, the stats vary depending on the piece of gear. On helmets, gloves, chest, and boots, the primary stat is Armor, and the secondary stat pulls from Health, Ability Power, or Hero Damage. On weapons, the primary stat is Hero Damage and the secondary stat can be Armor, Health, or Ability Power. As a reminder, base hero damage for their attacks and abilities was buffed to make sure your heroes feel comparably as powerful after Protean Shift releases compared to how powerful they currently are.

For towers, it varies as well. On totems, Defense Health is the primary stat and Defense Power is the secondary stat. Inversely on Medallions, Marks, and Orbs (if you still have any), Defense Power is the primary stat and Defense Health is the secondary stat. An additional reminder, we increased defenses base stats to try and retain the power your defenses currently possess. This leads us to M.O.D.S.

M.O.D.S.

Professor Proteus applied his inventive intellect to all of the gear in Etheria! Magically Offense/Defensive Subroutines (M.O.D.S. or even simpler — Mods) are what allow you to make your gear your own! Mods can do everything from normal stat increases (Defense Speed, Critical Damage, Critical Chance) to less normal bonuses like stun immunity on Defenses. They even offer new ways to combat your foes! Want to:

• Have towers immune to Hex Thrower curses? You can do that.

• Pierce a Shield Geodes shield? You can do that.

• Make your traps, auras, and nodes, immune to Cyborks?! You can do that!

Mods are an additional property on gear, similar to Shards. Mods compliment Shards and also unlock in a similar fashion, based on the quality of gear, and start appearing on Uncommon quality gear:

• Uncommon:  1 Mod slot

• Epic:                2 Mod slots

• Mythical:        2 Mod slots

• Legendary:    3 Mod slots

This means that a Legendary piece of gear now has two stats, three Mods, and empowers three Shard slots, making them truly Legendary. This is just the tip of the iceberg! Over 120 Mods are here to give you the chance to defend Etheria the way you want to. Some of these Mods are the result of community feedback as a unique and engaging way of tackling challenges set before you, the Defenders of Etheria.

TINKERING

Mods are something Professor Proteus added to gear, and what good would Mods be if you couldn’t modify them? That’s where Tinkering comes into the mix! Tinkering is the ability to move up to three Mods at a time from one piece of gear to another piece of the same type and Chaos tier or higher. This means that Mods on Chaos VII weapons can only be moved to another Chaos VII weapon, from one Chaos III helmet to another Chaos III (or higher) helmet, and so on. Once you transfer Mods from one piece of gear to another, the original piece is destroyed in the process.

Tinkering allows you to continuously mix and match your Mods to create the build you enjoy the most. The amount of customization that Tinkering offers truly lets you play how you want. It doesn’t stop there. When combined with our new Upgrading and Evolving features, even more choices await you, even potentially choosing the look of the weapon you want!

UPGRADING, ADVANCING, AND EVOLVING

Upgrading
Upgrading is a feature that many of you are well acquainted with, it’s the best way to squeeze extra power out of your gear. But this is Protean Shift, so it’s time to UPGRADE THE UPGRADE! You no longer max upgrade a piece of gear and wait for another piece of gear that’s a higher quality and/or Chaos tier to replace it. You can take that gear, and through the genius of Prof. Proteus, Advance that gear to the next tier!

Advancing
Have an Uncommon piece of gear with the stats you want early on? You can now upgrade that piece to its max level and once it’s maxed, you can Advance that piece of gear into Epic quality. The same can be done to go from Epic to Mythical, and from Mythical to Legendary. This isn’t the only form of improving your gear, which is where Evolving comes in!

Evolving
Evolving is icing on the gear permanence cake. Regardless of a piece of gear’s quality tier, you can choose to Evolve it to bring it through the various Chaos levels. With Evolving you can now choose to push a sword that you found in Chaos II all the way up to Chaos VII, and beyond!

Upgrading, Advancing, and Evolving applies to every piece of gear that drops — weapons, armor, and relics!

ADVENTURES AND EXPEDITIONS

Adventures

We’re adding in additional ways for both new and veteran Defenders to play! The Campaign is now different than many of you experienced in the past. After completing the Campaign, Defenders can now take on Adventures! These let you choose specific side stories to progress and prepare for the challenges that await you in Expeditions, Onslaught, Mastery, and Incursions provide.

Expeditions

Map choice, map choice, MAP CHOICE! Something many have wanted is now here. The Chaos Trials are finished, and Defenders can now go on Expeditions throughout various Chaos difficulties. Do you have one favorite map to play, and just want to play that one as you progress through different Chaos difficulties? Now you can!

Expeditions also provide the ability to acquire different materials needed for new systems being added, such as Evolving and Tinkering. Different types of maps drop different specific materials as you play through a map and as you complete them. You can choose to farm for a specific material on a specific map, or play random maps that offer more materials. These materials are earned as you play a map and when victory is yours!

SHARDS

Shard Dusting

Shards are a great way to really increase the power of the heroes you play. Some players enjoy playing only a few select hero, so it can be a real bummer if you get Shards for heroes that don’t fit your play style. Now you can take any unwanted shards and break them down into dust through Shard Dusting. You can take the Shard Dust from unwanted shards and trade them in for Chaos equivalent Shard Packs to have another try at getting the shard you want. You can use this process to help work towards getting the shards.

Gilded Shards

All our gear is getting the ability to be pushed past its limits, so it’s only fitting that Shards get the ability to as well. When you Gild Shards, you combine Shards of the same kind to unlock additional upgrade levels. This is a focus for end-game players to grab additional power in order to take on the challenges that Onslaught, and also protect their shards from being reset when attaining Ancient Power!

New Weapons!

Professor Proteus is a man of intellect, sophistication, and style. In Protean Shift every hero is receiving their own special weapons, with their own special appearances! Some of these weapons not only look legendary, but contain legendary power in the form of unique Mods. These Mods are found on the Prestigious weapons gained from attaining Ancient Power, though that’s not the only way to get them!

Player Shops and Markets

In Protean Shift, gear is no longer magically locked to each Hero Deck.  Professor Proteus has slightly alleviated the restrictions that existed previously.

All Defenders will be able to list their items for sale on their own personal Player Shops.  Most items that have not been altered in some way (think Upgraded/Evolved/etc.) will be available to post on your shop!  You will be able to browse all the Player Shops from the Player List on the Pause Menu. Feel free to shop to your heart's content!

In addition to creating your own Shop, you’ll be able to enter the new Markets.  From the War Table, you can browse lists of open Markets and choose which to join.  Markets are themed for the various types of items that can be sold, but you can still freely sell any item of your choice while you’re there.  If you don’t see a Market of the item type that you’re looking for, you can always just Quickmatch and it will automatically create one for you!

The Final Bean

We’ve been spilling the beans for a while now, and there’s one last bean that we have to spill — the release date. Dungeon Defenders II:  Protean Shift is releasing on June 19th on PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox One! This release is very close to one year since we’ve released, and there’s more to come.

Want More Info On Dungeon Defenders II?

Check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

We’ve got one more Devstream to show off more stuff coming with Dungeon Defenders II:  Protean Shift. Thank you for defending Etheria with us, there’s only more to come. Stay tuned!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

The update is coming along smoothly and lots of work is being done as we speak. We released two DevLogs over the past two weeks, and there’s one more coming, but we didn’t want to leave a week without any beans spilling, so we’re going to spill a couple today. Just as an extra note, some of the terms discussed here and any content is still subject to change. Let’s go!

Shards

Gear and stat changes affect the entire game, meaning Shards are also affected. With the upcoming update, just about every Shard is going to change as a result (get ready for probably our longest patch notes ever). They should more or less retain their same power, but because of the stat changes and base damage increase on towers, you may find some Shards way more useful than before! There’s also an additional feature being added that affects Shards, what we’re currently calling Shard Dusting.

Shard Dusting

While a lot of Shards are gaining additional strength or coming into the spotlight because of tower/gear changes, there are many different Shards in the game. Very few people utilize all the Shards that drop. Some people like playing with the base four heroes and focus on Shards for them, and some like using just the Mystic and the Lavamancer. Getting Shards for the heroes you don’t use can sometimes feel like you aren’t working towards improving your own unique build. With Shard Dusting, you can now find a utility for unwanted Shards instead of just selling them for little gold.

Taking the Shards you do not want, and deconstructing them into dust, it now allows you to acquire another chance at getting a Shard you want. For a set amount of dust, you are able to go to our Shard vendor and trade your dust for another Shard container that contains a random Shard from the appropriate Chaos tier. This a feature the community asked for, and we’re here to deliver! Getting multiples of the same Shards also has an advantage as well. We know that many of you have been hording Shards in anticipation of something new to do with them, and now you can! We're introducing Gilded Shards!

Gilded Shards

Gear is getting a major overhaul and additional features to increase its power, we wanted to give Shards some attention as well. With this next update, the Shards (both wanted and unwanted) you find are going to possess more utility than they currently do. Gilded Shards are Shards whose power pushes past the current limits. When gilding a Shard, they gain increased upgrade levels, increasing their power. That’s not the only bonus — Gilded Shards do not get reset when you attain Ancient Power, alleviating some of the currency costs that come with resetting!

Now you might be thinking, “Lawlta, how do I gild my Shards?”, and that’s a great question. Gilded Shards come from combining a specific number of the same Shard. We’re not announcing any specific numbers yet, but we want to make sure this feature feels good to use, and are getting great feedback from our RPG and RQA testers. The goal for this is to allow players who are pushing in end game Onslaught to increase the power of their favorite and/or most used shards. This is our first step towards adding more goals for end game players that have long lasting impact on their power.

New Weapon Models

Professor Proteus is a man of intellect and sophistication, but also a man of style. There are more weapon models coming for every weapon type this update, and they may be attained in a special way. Here’s a sneak peek of what our artists created:

2D Concept Art by Zack Smith


3D Models by Zack Smith

There are more weapons coming, this is just a sneak peek of the awesome ones we are introducing into this update!

An Even Further Look to the Horizon!

The beans continue to flow! The systems discussed here build upon all of the things we discussed in the previous DevLogs. Believe it or not (actually just believe it), there’s even MORE coming!

The next DevLog is going to be a summation of everything we put out so far, as well as a feature that brings together a lot of the features revealed in recent weeks. There may also be a release date in there that’s sooner than you (don’t) think. It’s going to be our last DevLog before we release the Patch Novel™ (calling them notes doesn’t capture just how gigantic that post is going to be).

A lot of the changes that are coming give us a lot to create additional future content. Many of the changes within this huge update, including Shard Dusting, are a result of community feedback on what Defenders want. The feedback all of you provide is incredibly important. Game development is a very arduous process, and at times can feel like we aren’t listening if the changes you want are not released very quickly. These changes (and ones coming in future updates) have a heavy community influence to them. You all are great at providing constructive feedback and it helps us make sure the additions we make are something you enjoy! :)

If you want an early look (as well as helping us polish things before release), our testing groups are just for you! There’s so much coming, and every bit helps to make this expansive update great.

Want More Info On What’s Coming?

Check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

There’s even more information coming next week. We’re really excited to share the last beans of this update, and hope you enjoy what’s coming. Stay tuned!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

Our second DevLog has arrived as promised! These DevLogs are going to build upon one another, making the order of their reveals very important. If you have not had the pleasure of reading our previous one, click here. It makes a lot more sense if you understand what’s going on and why these additions and changes are important.

In the previous DevLog we talked about giant changes to stats and gear in Dungeon Defenders II. Every piece of gear is going to be affected by these changes. Critical chance, critical damage, and speed are revamped; base damage is boosted to compensate for these changes; and gear is gaining magical properties. These features and changes are to allow players to build how they want to and have the tools needed to take on challenges they encounter with the heroes they enjoy.

This isn’t going to be our last DevLog for this update, but there is a ton to cover here. The things we are covering in this DevLog continue to increase what we are able to do as we release future content. Enjoy!

A Quick Note From Elandrian

Colin Fisher (Elandrian) — Associate Producer

Hey, Everyone!
Just a quick check-in from me to make sure expectations are clear!  All the features mentioned in this post are still work in progress/in development and shifting based on feedback and theming with our expansion. The names of the features may change, but the overall goal and core functionality will most likely remain the same.

I hope everyone appreciates the additional beans that Mark and Jose provide today.  Beans are weird. Did you know the first game I worked on was as a designer for a certain popular baked beans brand’s website? True story.  Anyways, back to spilling.

Sincerely,
Elandrian

REFORGING AND UPGRADING!

Mark Telfer — Technical Designer

Hey, Defenders!

In the last dev blog, we left you with some juicy tidbits about how we are revamping the gear system and adding new magical properties. If you haven’t read that one, go check it out now! At the end of the previous Devlog, I promised more bean spillage, and it’s time to deliver (TE-liver™)!

Magical Property Reforging

I’ve had the pleasure of playing a ton of the new content coming to DD2, and I’m having too much fun finding and utilizing the new magical properties on gear. I even found one awesome property that let my defenses counter those pesky Cyborks I was fighting! Truly some great stuff! I fell in love with the relic that the property was on and knew I wanted to perpetually bask in its intrinsic majesty. That is, I thought I did, until I found another relic with an equally amazing property a few minutes later. So there I was, staring down the barrel of a gut-wrenching choice. In a moment of passion, should I spurn my beloved Cybork-countering property for the new relic, or do I thwart this temptation and preserve the ardent bond I have with my current relic. I don’t know about you, Defenders, but my delicate little heart just can’t handle decisions like these. I knew that for the sake of Etheria, I had to protect all heroes from such agonizing choices. And besides, I’ve always been the type that wants to have his cake and eat it too.

So with that, I have one simple question for you, Defenders. Do you also like to have your cake and eat it too? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could discover two incredible properties on separate pieces of gear, and bring them together in a glorious union? With great pleasure, I can announce Magical Property Reforging, which lets you do just that. Cake for everyone!

Property Reforging empowers you to transfer properties from one piece of gear to another. Prepare to get crazy, creative, and experimentative! The only barrier between you and a perfect combinations of properties is your imagination! Fear not, for you don’t have to pray for an item drop that naturally possesses perfect combinations of properties. You, yes you, can mix and match them to your heart’s content. You don’t like a property on your favorite weapon?  Overwrite that sucker with a better one. Want to give that weapon a boost! Throw a new property into a slot that rolled blank! Did you find a more powerful version of a property you are already using? Purge it for the better one!

So how exactly does this bad boy work, you ask? Well first, you must defend Etheria and reap the sweet, sweet gear rewards for doing so. Once you find two (or more) magical properties you want that reside on separate pieces of gear, head over to the town or tavern. Find a brand new character populating the town who loves to tinker with things, and initiate a Reforge.  From the reforge screen, you select gear that you want to transfer properties from and gear that you want to transfer properties onto. You can then transfer any number of properties from one gear to another so long as there are available property slots. Once you’ve concocted a marauding masterpiece, confirm the transfer and get back to showing the enemies of Etheria who’s boss! Be careful though, the gear you transfer properties from gets destroyed by the reforging process and only the gear that you transferred properties onto survives.

You can transfer properties between two pieces of gear so long as certain guidelines are followed:

• Properties must be transferred between two pieces of gear of the same type (both are weapons, or relics, or helmets, etc).

• The gear you are transferring properties from must be earned in a Chaos difficulty that is at or below the Chaos difficulty of the gear you are transferring properties onto (i.e. you can transfer properties from Chaos V to Chaos VII gear, but not the other way around).

• All properties on a piece of gear must be unique.

• Only one elemental attunement is present.

Other than that, the sky's the limit!

Now I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking, “Mark! I’ve seen you on the devstream before!  You’re a smart, good-looking, cool, weird-looking, strong, Mark-looking guy, but pray tell, you’ve overlooked something here!  All of the new gear properties and reforging sound great, but what good is all of this if I’m currently progressing through DD2?  I get a lot of gear upgrades each map. Doesn’t this mean all my gear and the effort I make reforging will quickly become obsolete?”  Well, dear reader, you are correct. I am indeed weird-looking. You are also correct in that this does pose a challenge to this new gear system. The challenge here is what I like to call gear permanence, or in the case of the current live game, the lack thereof.  

Gear Permanence and You!

One of the reasons I love working on (and more importantly playing) Dungeon Defenders II is because of how unique of a game it is. One of these unique aspects is how we handle hero progression after you reach level 50. As you test your might in Chaos Trials, gear is progression. Cumulative and incremental progress to your heroes comes in the form of a consistent flow of new item drops that possess increasingly higher gear scores. Equipping those items on a frequent basis raises your champion score, and building champion score unlocks new challenges for you to take head-on.

This system is pretty cool, but it’s not conducive to long-term attachment to a specific piece of gear. Since the Barbarian’s Wrath update, the loot system assures that the plethora of gear you earn continuously rolls higher gear scores so long as you’re playing at the appropriate difficulty. Throughout the course of even one map, you’re likely to see higher gear scores for a given slot many times over. This meant that swapping gear several times in one map would be a formidable progression strategy. The current system encourages, and in fact rewards you, for constantly swapping to new gear with a higher gear score.  This system results in gear being ephemeral during progression and furthermore, relegates all of the new gear we are creating to nothing more than a short-term decision.

That’s not what gear in Dungeon Defenders II should be. Equipping behavior should be a result of careful and meaningful deliberation which rewards the opportunity to carve out a creative and unique playstyle. Having to constantly swap gear makes this deliberation fruitless and frivolous. We knew that if we are truly going to make the gear revamp meaningful, we must allow players to keep their favorite gear long-term and ensure the gear remained viable in the process. Essentially, we had to ensure that players had the freedom to make gear permanent if they desired.

Equipment Upgrading and Evolution

At the heart of creative and diverse gameplay is freedom. Freedom means emancipating players from constraints that would otherwise impede their goals as heroes of Etheria. Based on this sentiment, we’ve totally revamped the equipment upgrading system, and it is with great pleasure that I can announce the brand new system that will take its place: Upgrading and Evolution!

Now what do I mean when I say freedom?  Buckle up! Our new system literally lets you take the first piece of gear you ever earn in Campaign and power it up to a strength that is greater than the current Chaos VII gear cap in the game. That’s right, Defenders. If you find any awesome piece of equipment that you like, you can keep it viable for as long as you want. Do you love the Harbinger’s shield that you get for completing campaign? You can power that bad boy up beyond the Chaos VII cap.  Do you love a property the way I love the Cybork-countering property? Upgrade the gear that it’s on and power it up beside you as you progress.

So how does all of this work? Like I said earlier, the current upgrading system will be replaced. Gone are the days where you have a small amount of upgrade levels that max out.  Instead, you will be able to take your chosen piece of gear through a two-step process called (new) upgrading, and evolution.

(New) Upgrading!

Every piece of gear will track the chaos level that it was dropped in. As you know, each Chaos has a gear score range that can drop, a min and a max if you will. That range will be abstracted to a meter on our new upgrading screen. Filling this meter will power your gear from the min to the max of the corresponding Chaos range. If you get a gear drop whose gear score falls somewhere between the min and the max, meter levels will automatically be awarded retroactively. Filling that meter substantially beefs you up and makes your enemies cower before your fortitude. Once that meter has been filled and you’re at the max of that Chaos level’s range, you’re not done —you’re ready to Evolve!

Evolution!

Okay! So your gear is beefed up, and you’re at the maximum gear score possible from the Chaos level the gear was dropped in. It’s time to evolve! Evolution allows you to break that gear past its current Chaos level and bring that gear up to the minimum of the next Chaos level. Magical properties see a massive strength increase when you perform an evolution to ready you for the next challenge that you undertake. The upgrade meter then is set back down to 0.  You can keep repeating this process for as long as you wish to keep using a piece of gear. You can even use this process to evolve gear past Chaos VII! MIGHTY POWER AWAITS!

Upgrading and Evolution Costs

Currency cost, especially gold costs, will be substantially different than our current upgrade costs. You can spend currency for each upgrade/evolution you preform. Currency isn’t all you’re going to need to do this though…

New and powerful materials have been discovered across Etheria that make power boosts like this possible. With this update, these materials drop in specific maps and at specific difficulties as you defend Etheria from the goblin legion. Gather these materials up because they empower you to perform these brand new upgrades and evolutions.  

The Road to Freedom!

So at this point you might be saying to yourself, “I want to gather as many of these awesome materials up as possible, but Mark just said that they only drop on specific maps.  Right now, I can’t just choose a specific map I want to play, especially in Chaos Trials. Isn’t that a problem?” Defenders, I wasn’t kidding when I said that we are striving to give you the freedom to play the way you want. I’m going to let Jose take it from here and make our next big announcement. That said, I’ll leave you with this:  Jose, the rest of the team, and I STILL aren’t done revealing all of the big things that are coming in this next update. We seriously have even bigger features to announce in the future. I can’t wait for more bean spillage to occur.

Love,
Mark

EXPEDITIONS!

Jose Villegas — Technical Designer

Hey everyone! Last week’s Dev Log was all about the changes to the core systems of Dungeon Defenders II. Now, let me tell you about the new stuff we are making, and things to get you even more excited for the future of the game.

One of the long standing pain points for the community has been the lack of map choice in Chaos Trials. With this in mind, I’m excited to tell you we have taken a look at this and the Trials are finally over. You now have Expeditions.

Expeditions take the same encounters that you have grown to love (and hate) from Trials, but adds the ability to choose any map you want to play. Actually, we have taken one step further and allow you to select any map that was previously unavailable to that Chaos level!

This new game mode also ties into our improved Upgrade system that we are unveiling today. In order for you to upgrade your items, and reforge your properties around, you must gather all sort of materials across Etheria. Each type of map (Town, Spooky, Castle, Forest, Ruins, and Dungeon) award you with different materials, so make sure to play all of them.

There are still a few secrets we are keeping before the release of the update, so make sure to keep coming back in the following weeks for more info!

Essentially,
Jose

A Further Look to the Horizon!

Alec Saare (Lawlta), Community Manager and Bean Overlord

Hey All,

As promised, the beans continue to floweth! The systems discussed here build upon all of the things we discussed in the previous DevLog (found here). There’s still more information coming (wuuuuuut), and as you can expect, it builds upon everything covered here! Crazy, right?

We talked about some major systems in the game here today. One of the common issues presented talking with all of you is that gear doesn’t feel special and that it doesn’t really matter until you’re maxed out. These changes are to help address that, and we are confident you’ll enjoy what we’re cooking up. Also Expeditions providing map choice, where have I seen that requested before? :)  Your feedback is invaluable to the things we create. Though it takes time, we are always listening and trying to get everything possible into the game. Keeping your feedback constructive and objective makes it easier to find the things that matter most, and ways to implement it so that you not only enjoy it, but utilize potential new or additional systems. Now you may be thinking, what else could they possibly talk about next time with these changes. Here’s a small hint:  there’s an aspect of gear you all use currently that we haven’t talked about yet. Is that vague enough? I think that’s vague enough. You’ll have to wait for the next DevLog to find out!

If you want a sneak peak (as well as helping us polish things before release), our testing groups are just for you! There’s so much coming, and every bit helps to make this expansive update great.

Smooches,
Lawlta

Want More Info On What’s Coming?

Check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

We’re going to give even more details very soon! Our designers are excited to continue sharing what they are working on and explain what changes are coming and why. Stay tuned!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders

Our pledge with this gigantic update is to increase and improve communication. This is our first DevLog in a series of DevLogs coming your way! We recently teased big changes to two very important stats:  Critical Chance and Critical Damage. There is so much coming with Professor Sebastian Proteus, here’s what he’s bringing in this DevLog:

Stats: Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Speed, and more are getting their impact cranked up!
Gear:  Stats aren’t the only thing changing. Gear now has a primary and secondary stat, as well as unique magical properties to really amp up your playstyle!
Properties:  Now a part of gear and relics, properties lend a much needed helping hand into bringing interesting builds to the Defenders of Etheria!

There’s a ton of information to cover here. These are the foundational changes that affect everything else you are going to see in future DevLogs. These changes open the door for a lot of features we are wanting to add. It’s a lot to take in, so let’s begin!

Stat Improvements!

Jose Villegas, Technical Designer

Hey Everyone!

I’m excited to tell you that big changes are coming soon to DD2. We have been paying close attention to the balance of the game for a while, so we took it upon ourselves to tackle  several of the core systems of DD2, and how to improve them.

Similar to the recent changes to Shards and Gear Progression, the goal of these changes is to enhance your DD2 experience by making things as clear and simple as possible. To this extent, we modified and improved how stats work:

• Hero and Defense Critical Damage: This was my biggest source of concern by far. Previously, Critical Damage was a separate stat that increased damage from critical strikes independently from your regular non-critical damage, which meant that one had no relation with the other. We felt that this directly conflicts with what most players would expect from a normal critical damage system, where your critical damage was a multiplier that affected your regular damage. So, we made precisely that change. With this update, your critical damage is a percentage that affects any source of damage. Whenever you trigger a critical strike, your regular damage is multiplied by your critical damage stat. Revolutionary!

• Hero Damage, Defense Damage, and Ability Power: Since the overwhelming majority of your damage in DD2 came from critical damage sources, we are increasing how much damage your regular attacks, abilities, and towers deal. So whenever you login  after the update, your base damage is now stronger than ever!

• Hero and Defense Critical Chance: Now that your normal and critical damage pulls from the same source, we decided to also remove the 33% Critical Chance cap previously used. In order to encourage people to make whatever builds they find the most fun, we opened the floodgates and removed the crit cap!! Our goal is to make crit builds an option for players, and an actual choice rather than the only way to play the game.

• Defense Speed: This is an obscure stat in the game. Each Defense currently has a Defense Speed stat that affects how fast it attacks, however, it was not very clear how much you gained whenever you increased it. Due to the fact that it was a numerical stat instead of a percentage, making the conversion between that number and the attacks per second is very difficult, since each tower worked differently. For example, the Defense Rate Shard increased your Defense Speed by 33%, but that percentage changed the stat, and not the actual attack rate, so it affected different towers in different ways. In this update, Defense Speed is also a percentage, and is directly tied to the actual attack rate of the Defense. Whenever you raise the Defense Speed you will know exactly by how much you are increasing that tower’s attack frequency.

Now, you may be asking, if Defense Speed and Critical Damage are changed this much, how does that affect gear? Well, we are improving the gear in the entire game! We know that right now gear is a little bit stale and lacking in variety, so we are introducing our new “Magical Property” (work-in-progress name) system on gear that is going to shake things up quite a bit. These new properties are all about gaining power in new ways, including Defense Speed and Critical Damage. We are going to update you with more info about the changes to gear sooner than you expect =).

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. We are listening to your feedback, and all of the changes we are doing are with the goal of making DD2 a better game for you. Thanks for enjoying our game, and please let us know how can keep doing better!

Essentially,

Jose

Magical Properties!

Mark Telfer, Technical Designer

Hey Defenders!

It’s been a while since I last checked in with you all, and boy, do I have a ton to share!  We’ve been hard at work making some gargantuan additions to Dungeon Defenders II over the past few months, and I am excited to say that I can finally spill the beans on some of what the team has been working on. Hang on to your CatHatters, because gear in DD2 is in for a wild ride.

The Current State of Gear

As we were wrapping up the Barbarian’s Wrath update, I sat down with the team and we all took a hard look at gear.  There were many things we saw as opportunities to improve upon. At its heart, Dungeon Defenders II is a loot-centric game. Conquering enemies and beating down precocious little gobus gives you a bonanza of gear drops on each map. Getting a piece of gear should be an exhilarating experience! That dropped piece of gear should represent potential untapped, possibility incarnate, and the spoils of victory well earned. It should inspire creativity in builds and a diversity of outcomes. In essence, gear equipping should be a meaningful and gratifying choice that lets you define your identity as a hero of Etheria.

Unfortunately, the current gear of DD2 falls a bit short of this goal. As most of you know, gear currently has a primary stat, a varying number of secondary stats, and a differing amount of shard slots (depending on its tier). There is a very limited number of secondary stats in the game, and this hampered the amount of unique stat combinations we could drop for you to play with. For example, a legendary medallion has every single defensive secondary stat on it.  That means there is only one type of legendary medallion in the game! That’s the antithesis of giving players meaningful choices. 

Exacerbating this issue, there was one particular stat that was of supreme significance - Critical Damage. If you’re not building for maximum Critical Damage right now, then what are you doing!? Critical Damage accounts for the vast majority of damage output a player can potentially do. This meant everyone was essentially building in a singular way. Boooooring! Needless to say, the design team knew we could do better.

Jose worked hard to bring order to the Critical Damage system (outlined above), and brought sanity to critical damage output; it will no longer disproportionately affect DPS. Because of this adjustment, we now had a ton of wiggle room within the game balance to introduce new ways for you slay enemies. That’s when things got crazy. The design team made a pot of coffee, locked themselves into a room, and started imagining unique, fun, and crazy ways that we could let the heroes of Etheria dispatch the goblin legion. The time has come where I can (finally) let you in on where we landed.

Magical Properties Everywhere!

With great excitement, I can announce that all gear in the coming update will have the chance to roll new, unique, game-changing properties that allows you to creatively concoct entirely new strategies in DD2. These properties are affixed to gear that drops and defines playstyles, empower creativity, and engender build diversity to the likes that Etheria has never seen. These aren’t your Grandma’s old gear passives!  What are some of the insane things properties can do, you ask? Well, my friend…

Have you ever wanted to make goblins explode upon death and have that explosion ripple out onto the luckless enemies in near proximity? You can do that! Oh, did I mention that if you’re smart then you create a chain of explosions?

Have you ever wanted to make your cannonball tower deal elemental water damage?  You can do that! Would you prefer a different element? Pandora’s Box has opened when it comes to elementally attuning non-elemental towers.

But despite how awesome both of those are, I must confess that I have a favorite. I’ve always had trouble with those pesky Shield Geodes. I love building Cannonball Towers and Poison Dart Towers, but those knuckleheads always reflect my projectiles. Well, they used to... until I found a property that makes projectiles penetrate shields. Just don’t tell Lawlta that I told you*. ;) (*Lawlta note: I see everything!)

These awesome properties, and many many many more, have a chance of dropping on the gear you earn while playing. The better the gear (mythical, legendary, etc.), the more properties there are. There will be properties for both your towers and your heroes, and they can be combined to glorious effect. And did I mention properties get crazier and more powerful the further you push in DD2?

These new properties will come to replace many of the secondary stats currently on gear. Don’t get me wrong, secondary stats such as Hero Health are still on gear, but there are less of them. Gear will soon only have one primary and one secondary stat.

Properties fill in the gap that the removed secondary stats left, and gear is vastly more interesting because of this. Instead of being forced to see and use the same four secondary stats, you now have a myriad of choices in which properties you want to play with. With all these changes to gear and items, one thing we did not change was shard equipping. Prepare to make some serious decisions on property combinations and how confluences of different properties that best compliment your playstyle!

I’d love to tell you more, but Lawlta is breathing heavily over my shoulder and I fear for my safety. However, I can tell you that this isn’t even half of what we are working on for this upcoming update. Seriously! This isn’t hyperbole! There is way more coming your way, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Until next time, Defenders!

Love,

Mark

A Quick Note From Elan!

Colin Fisher (Elandrian), Associate Producer

Hey everyone,

I hope that gives a little more information about some of the systems that are coming up in this expansion. I hope people get excited about our new Magical Properties (the name is a work in progress) and the other statistical changes on gear. In our playtests, we’ve seen that it’s provided some new defensive options that were otherwise unviable.

We’ll be releasing more information in the coming weeks to let everyone know about the plethora of system, balance, and content changes that are part of this expansion.

If you’re interested in checking out the changes early, you can join our playtester groups, the Remote Playtesting Group (RPG) and the Remote Quality Assurance (RQA).  These groups have access to a test build of the upcoming changes and have been instrumental in providing feedback while we flip our balance on its head. If you’re interested, make sure you’re 18 or older, can test on PC (rewards are available to every platform though!), and contact our RQA Manager, Dani Moore!  

(It’s dani dot moore at trendyent dot com. Why don’t links work well? I don’t know. We’ll fix it one day… Game systems are more important.  Right? RIGHT!? PLEASE CONFIRM FOR ME.)

Lovingly,
Elandrian

A Look To The Horizon!

Alec Saare (Lawlta), Community Manager and Bean Spiller Extraordinaire

Hey All,

We discussed quite a bit of information here, but this is only the tip of the controlled burn and frosty mutated gobu-berg. There is so much more coming on top of this that we are going to get EVEN MORE information out soon. The bean spillage that occurred here will continue to flow!

The systems we are going to talk about continue to build off what’s discussed here, they're real game changes. All stats are being changed and rebalanced, new magical properties (work-in-progress name) are being added to really empower your gear. Seriously, some of them are crazy, and we took good care in making sure they also address some of the great feedback many of you have provided (thank you for all your efforts on that front). These changes really offer us a lot of opportunities to continue creating awesome and rewarding systems and features! As we release information, you’ll see how everything builds upon the previous post. There might even be some information about how game modes are affected or even more information about your gear coming! ;)

If you want a sneak peak (as well as helping us polish things before release), as Elandrian outlined above, our testing groups are just for you! There’s so much coming, and every bit helps to make this expansive update great.

XOXO,
Lawlta

Want More Info On What’s Coming?

Check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

• Twitch

We’re going to give even more details very soon! Our designers are excited to continue sharing what they are working on and explain what changes are coming and why. Stay tuned!

Greetings Defenders!

I thought everyone could benefit from one of my more recent discoveries that I’ve made in my research, my new Shrink-o-matizing technology!  It really was just a simple matter of combining a crystal core with the matter quantizing array. This allows all sorts of items and materials to be stored at a much smaller size than before! This is only one of the many new item transmorphications that I plan on making.

I do hope that Protobot is in good health and did not damage anything upon his arrival. He’s had some slight malfunctions in his navigational subroutines recently, but his Shrink-o-matizer is in perfect condition! You can trust your items to be protected and stored properly upon the Vault Ship.

I can’t wait to arrive in Dragonfall to share all of my latest research with all of you. I simply was held up making some last minute adjustments to my latest creation, the Robo-witch Prime!  Or was it Mecha-witch? Gunda-witch? Don’t worry, I’ll figure out what I’m calling it and head right over! I can’t wait to share all my latest findings with everyone! The Old Ones won’t know what hit them!

Sincerely,

Professor Sebastian Proteus

Patch 2.4 crash landed into the Dragonfall Marketplace today and is now live! This patch brings a highly requested feature in the form of a shiny spaceship — The Sky City Bank! With the bank’s arrival come some tremendous improvements to load times, optimizations, and bug fixes. Let’s get into it!

Sky City Bank

The Sky City Bank is now available! This futuristic bank is located directly behind the Emporium in Town, or next to the training dummies in your Private Tavern. The bank is used to store items that you want to hold onto, but don’t necessarily need on your journeys throughout Etheria.

For starters, every player gets at least one Bank Vault for free right when they login. This means if you only have the default inventory space, you now have that same default inventory space AND a Bank Vault upon logging in!

For people that purchased the old Inventory Packs or the Bag Booster Pack are going to notice a shift in their inventory. Bags obtained through those packs that go over eight Inventory Bags become Bank Vaults with this patch. Previously it confused players when they saw other players with ten or eleven bags, when they could only have eight. Because of this, we are standardizing inventory bags.

The change looks like this:

Pre-Patch 2.4

8-11 Possible Maximum Inventory Bags

0 Bank Vaults

Post-Patch 2.4

8 Possible Maximum Inventory Bags
12 Bank Vaults

FREE Sky City Bundle

To celebrate the Sky City Bank’s arrival, we are offering a FREE bundle that you can redeem from the in-game shop for 0 Gems. This bundle awards:

• One additional Bank Vault!

• Shutter Shades Flair!

By redeeming the free bundle, you are able to start off Patch 2.4 with at least two free Bank Vaults! This bundle is available for two weeks, so grab it while it’s here!

Stack Splitting

This patch brings the ability to split stackable items into different stacks and amounts. For instance, if there’s a stack of 99 pet food in your inventory, you can now break it down into two or more stacks of whatever size you choose. Want to keep some items on you, but store the rest of the stack in the bank? Now you can do that! Stacks on stacks on stacks.

Transfer All

Now that the Sky City Bank is open for business, moving items quickly to the bank is a must. You can now move an entire bag full of items with one button press. The “Transfer All” button moves all non-locked items in the bag you currently have selected into the Bank Vault that you have selected. You can move Locked Items as well, they are just done individually. “Transfer All” also automatically stacks any stackable items so you don’t have to!

Load Time Improvements

Patch 2.4 contains an emphasis on inventories. Our Lead Programmer looked into ways our inventories could be better to really add some “oomph” to this patch. After investigating how profiles saved, loaded, and handled inventories, we made a lot of improvements when loading into any part of the game! Some players are going to notice drastic load time decreases, while others may notice slightly quicker loads.

General Changes

Pets

• When at the Hatchery, eggs can be hatched directly. No more drag and dropping or incubating!
  
  

Visuals

• Tower Inspect UI updated for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (PC already has this).

• Zapper Kobold Flier now has a red outline.

• Made Lavamancer Weapon drops larger, something hot now looks cooler.

• Mana Node received some visual improvements.

• Slight tweaks to some of the Barbarian’s Accessories.

• Minor adjustments to the Barbarian’s whirlwind.

• Blacksmith’s shop no longer has a confirmation pop-up for purchases.

• War Table Cybork info now includes that they disable nodes.

• Bug reporting page received updated buttons.

Audio

• New audio cue for Wave Complete!

• Betsy fight sequence in Dragonfall Bazaar received updated sound cues.

• Added and improved on Berserker Orcs during the Glitterhelm matinee.

Hero Changes

Dryad

• Corrupt Form

  • When building a tower in Corrupt Form, towers now gain the Corrupt benefits when placed.

• Slime Pit Tower

  • No longer slow enemies that are immune to slow. Berserker orcs aren’t afraid of slimes!

Huntress

• Shards

  • Explosive Poison

    • The shard is now working correctly, spreading poison if a poisoned enemy dies.

Shards

• Inspiration

  • Can no longer be equipped to the Abyss Lord or EV2

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where EV2’s Proton Charge could produce higher than intended damage while gaining zero heat.

• Fixed an issue with the Barbarian’s Leap preventing resource decay.

• Fixed an issue where the Flamethrower Tower’s VFX did not get larger when defense range was increased.

• Fixed an issue where Auto-Equip Relics did not work on the first press.

• Fixed an issue where Chaos 3 Shard Packs were not on the Emporium.

• Fixed an issue when comparing equipment on the Squire.

• Fixed an issue where the Barbarian could get out of bounds in The Throne Room.

• Fixed an issue where the Sub-Cores are on the incorrect sides in The Throne Room.

• Adjusted the Dryad Starfall resource cost so it no longer overlaps.

• Fixed an issue that allowed parties to play the tutorial maps (we are looking into letting parties into these maps down the road).

• Fixed an issue that caused an infinite loading screen. Please let us know if you experience them after this update.

• Removed the ability to auto-equip when in the Portal.

• Fixed a bug where multiple towers could be placed simultaneously. May look into adding a stable version of this down the road.

• Fixed an issue where several weapons were not consistently dropping in the world without their vfx visible.

• Fixed an issue where the Lavamancer VFX would appear on some maps when using the Barbarian Leap.

• Fixed an issue where the champion crowns were not properly rotated on hero cards.

• Updated an issue where golden eggs would show up as a regular egg in several places.

• Fixed an issue where purchasing the last item in the list from the Blacksmith or Relic Hunter shop using a controller causes the list to lose focus.

• Fixed an issue where several items in the blacksmith shop were displaying improperly.

• Fixed an issue where item comparison was not working for equipped items.

• Removed references to the shards being equipped on the sell all message.

• Equippable is now spelled correctly in the shard folder when you have no shards available for the gear slot. Stay in school kids.

• Removed a reference to the old pet bag when trying to hatch an egg with a full inventory.

• Fixed a visual issue where a large number of shards displayed the current upgrade level is in the wrong location on the tooltip.

• Quest Complete pop-up will now say Daily Mission completed when completing a Daily Mission.

• Attempting to equip a shard to an invalid tower slot throws either unknown error, or no error. Now has a valid error string.

• Fixed an issue on XB1 where sub-core icons were not being removed after losing a sub-core.

The Sky City Bank is the first arrival for something much larger coming to Etheria. Over the next couple months we are going to be actively discussing the new features coming with our next expansive update. For more information sources as we post updates, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (doing so also gets you the Pirate Monk and Academy Apprentice skins for free):

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Discord

We’re still tinkering away to get some gigantic changes to Dungeon Defenders II that we think you’re really going to enjoy. More information coming soon!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Hey Fellow Defenders!

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

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

Sky City Bank

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

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

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

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

Old Version:

8-11 Possible Maximum Inventory Bags

0 Bank Vaults

New Version :
8 Inventory Bags

12 Bank Vaults

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

Stack Splitting

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

Transfer All

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

Load Time Optimization

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

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

But What Else?

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

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

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

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

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

Colin “Elandrian” Fisher

Greetings Defenders,

Today, there’s some big news to unveil in our upcoming patch —  the Sky City Bank is making its way to Dragonfall! We are releasing a new way to manage your inventory, a request many of you have made, in anticipation for our upcoming new features. We are currently still hard at work on these and are not ready to unveil them just quite yet. For now, let’s talk about the new ship that is going to be coming to a marketplace near you!

Sky City Bank

The Sky City Bank is a new way to manage the many items you come across during your adventures in Etheria! It’s accessible only in town, located right behind the Emporium. When using the bank, you are presented with Vaults to store your items. Each Vault contains 64 slots, the same amount as inventory bags, giving a lot of additional storage. You even receive one FREE Vault with the update!

Load Time Improvements

This release contains some amazing optimizations that are going to greatly impact a lot of Defenders. Our Associate Producer, [[3957,users]], mentioned this in a tweet last week describing the impact applied toward one user’s account.

We aren’t announcing the release just yet, but it is not very far away! For additional sources regarding announcements and updates, give us a follow on Twitter or like us on Facebook (also you can get some awesome Apprentice and Monk costumes by doing so).

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

Greetings Defenders,

We’re finally ready to announce the next big step in Dungeon Defenders II — The Tower Royale Expansion! This expansion takes everything you know and love about Dungeon Defenders II and combines it with a never-before-seen battle royale game mode that’s sure to blow your freakin’ mind!

This expansion is a gigantic endeavor that really made us grow as a studio. With this growth, we needed to consult an expert to make sure our direction was right. Our new Battle Royale Consultant, Mitch Z. “xEyeDeeaGaix” Fortgrounds, had this to say about coming aboard and working on this expansion:

Hey everyone, Mitch here, or xEyeDeeaGaix for short! Joining the team and being able to bring my ideas to reality has been a dream come true. I’ve really enjoyed working closely with the Designers, Producers, Programmers, Marketers, Artists, and Janitors at Trendy Entertainment. I taught them a lot! This one guy, “El Darian” and the design team were insistent that “my ideas were bad and I should feel bad” but I forced them to push forward anyway! They all call me Mitch the Genius now, they look up to me and it really shows.

A little bit about my background, I’ve put about 3000 hours into both Fortnite and PUBG (6,000 hour total), so I know what it takes to really get a battle royale just right! While working on this project, I’ve been sure to study the best streamers and watch the ultimate ownage and fail compilations on Youtube. There’s a ton of work still left to do, a lot of Dr. Disrespect to research to make sure we get this just right. I hope you enjoy what we’re showing so far, back to you Lawiita!

Thanks, Mitch… There’s a ton in this expansion, so let’s get into it!

New Game-wide Mode:  Tower Royale

Tower Royale is a new game-wide mode, but what does that mean? Whenever you load into any mode or map, you are automatically in Tower Royale. No need to change settings, or select the option, we made that choice for you! Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s dig into the Redbull and Medpacks of this mode!
 

Increased Party Size on All Maps

Mitch informed us that four players in a party is old news.  We kept insisting that this breaks our game in every way, but he kept pressing that we were wrong and this was the right move. So now we have a hundred players in every game, including the town, and friendly fire is also enabled.  Except it’s not very friendly anymore, so it’s probably just PvP? I don’t know. Mitch did this.
 

New Town Queue

Mitch really wanted to provide the full experience for this game mode, so when you try to load into the town, you are placed into a queue that requires 100 people to join. Once the queue is full, you will airdrop into the Heroes Marketplace. Then, you’ll have 60 seconds to interact with NPCs and choose a map to load into before our new “Blue Zone” system becomes active.

The Blue Zone

For those of you who are not familiar with the Battle Royale genre, there is a giant bubble that protects players from poison/radiation. This bubble shrinks over time, and if you are outside of it, you take increasing damage.

If you are unable to make it out of the town in time and die to the Blue Zone, you are logged out and given the option to log back in and try again. To really commit to this change, Mitch had us remove the Private Tavern until after you’ve completed a map!

Once loaded into any mode or map, you are given 10 minutes to win before the Blue Zone absorbs the whole map. Inside the Blue Zone, enemies will gain health and increased damage, and anything player-related takes damage, including towers!

Mitch understands that this mode is not for all players, so he made us add an easy opt-out feature that he is going to cover later in this post, so continue reading!

PVP and Loot Importance:  Two Birds, One Stone

Mitch believes that players want PVP and loot to feel special and important. He decided that the important part of loot is not the stats, rarity or how it might change your playstyle.  The important part is the feeling that you might lose it all. Now when you play in an online session, a player can come into your map and fight you as you’re defending the core. If you kill the player, or they kill you, either of you are now able to be looted. They can take your items, and you can take theirs. It’s like Dark Souls, but way better.  Also your hero is permanently dead. We mentioned that permadeath is in the game now right? We didn’t? Augh, it’s not important.

FREE to purchase PAY FOR FUN PACK (1 of 7)

Mitch really wanted to allow players to choose how they play, with their wallets. In this first installment of what’s almost guaranteed to be a great success, he made us offer a wide array of purchase options for players to gain the greatest experience!
 

Premium Connection

Some players do not have the best connections, and he sympathizes with them. By purchasing the PAY FOR FUN PACK (1 of VIII), he made us guarantee we will not kick you from the game with our new server maintenance bot “Kick-o-tron”. You can feel secure that you’re well taken care of from any connection issue. No tricks.
 

Random Access

A lot of games these days offer “Early Access” into the game, which has gotten stale. Since this expansion is about breaking the mold and being a real game changer, Mitch decided to create Random Access. This means early adopters for the PAY FOR FUN PACk (1 of 9) are able to access the expansion early, but at random designated times each and every day. Sometimes the window is from 12:54PM - 1:08AM IST, the next day you might have a window from 1:20PM - 2:03PM GMT. It really makes every day an exciting and special event to just login!
 

Blue Zone Protection Shard

This is a new spin we’re taking on our shard system. By taking part in the PAY FOR FUN PACK (I of 10), you are now granted access to purchase this shard from our new Blue Zone Protection Shard Vendor, Garg (located in the Private Tavern for easy access). This vendor sells a shard that reduces all Blue Zone damage by 50%, it can be bought multiple times, and equipped onto every relic, and one into only one piece of armor (Mitch guided us to not make it TOO powerful)! This really helps players adjust to this expansion, especially those unfamiliar with the battle royale genre. This shard is sold for 1500 gems, but for the first two weeks of release, take advantage of the Eiffel 65 Shard Bundle Pack, which provides 10 Blue Zone Protection Shards for only 20,000 gems. Those are savings!

Bluer Zoner Protectioner Shards

Mitch gets that players may want a more laid back experience, and that the Blue Zone might be too much for them. He has you covered! The Bluer Zoner Protectioner Shard is sold by the Bluer Zoner Protectioner Shard vendor, Gerg, located in your Private Tavern, next to a vendor of the similar name. These shards have a price range of 3000 - 5000 gems, depending on how much you’ve already spent in the game. The benefit to these is that they not only protect your shards from blue damage, but also make your core immune if one is equipped!

Premium Wyvern Drops

In the PAY FOR FUN PACK (1 of 7), having the ability to purchase a call in for help not only raises the skill ceiling, but also just packs more action into every session. Once a wave, you can call in a Premium Wyvern Drop, gaining a wyvern that kills every enemy in that wave. This purchase is presented at the start of every wave for a really good price.  Every enemy killed will give you one Wyvern Token.

Paid Opt-in Optimizations

Some players value frames and performance during their experience, versus graphical fidelity with only a few FPS. While this may seem like an inferior way to experience things (it is), Mitch wants us to be inclusive. By taking advantage of the PAY FOR FUN PACK (1 of #), you have these additional Opt-in Optimizations to purchase:

• 4k Shadows:  1003 Gems

• 30 FPS:  2000 Gems and 400 DMs

• First Try Start Up:  4000 gems and One Hero Card

• 60 FPS:  One Juicebags Music Video

• Live Action Graphics:  One Dreamanime Visual Novel of your life

• Anime Graphics:  9001 Gems

You can return these optimizations at any time and receive 50% of the original cost.
 

Bag Locks

Are you just downright terrible at PVP? Fear not, Mitch wants you to enjoy the game your way. New Bag Locks that prevent non-paying players from looting your bags and taking your gear.  These are available for purchase from your local bag vendor.

Bag Lock Keys

Are you god-tier at PVP, but hate when you can’t loot from players that try to opt out? By purchasing the Bag Lock Key, you can now unlock those Bag Locks and have at all their loot! This vendor is in town next to the new bags vendor.

Bag Locks in Locked Chests

Are you still just downright terrible at PVP? Fear not, we want you to enjoy the game your way. For purchase from the bags vendor in town are new Bag Locks in Locked Chests that prevent Bag Lock Key paying players from looting your bags and taking your gear.  The Locked Chest vendor is in town next to the new Locked Bag vendor.

Bag Locks in Locked Chests Keys

Are you still god-tier at PVP, but hate when you can’t loot from players that keep trying to opt out? By purchasing the Bag Locks in Locked Chests Keys, you can now unlock those chests to unlock those bags and have at all their loot! The Locked Chest Bag Lock vendor is in town next to the new Locked Chest vendor.

Defender Packs

Mitch knows that Defender Packs could be way better. By taking part of the PAY FOR FUN PACK (1 of some), he wanted to offer the Gold-Encrusted Ancient Artifact Defender Pack (or GEAADP to save time). GEAADP (which stands for Gold-Encrusted Ancient Artifact Defender Pack for short) contains access to the newest content before any other Defender Pack. If you happen to get any duplicates in this pack, you gain 50 floors in Onslaught. 3000 gems. Buy it.

New Features

Mitch doesn’t want everything to be in the PAY FOR FUN PACK (1/7). He said something about avoiding pay-to-win, it wasn’t very clear. Now we’ll show you some features that originally were going to be stretch goals, but through Mitch’s tireless dedication to create a balanced game with a great experience and tons of content, we pushed out so much more. He was the wind beneath our wings throughout this expansion. We are contractually obligated to say that.

Over 50 New Heroes

Some of them are enemies too. The assets are free, so why not? To provide a good transition, Mitch demanded we not touch their numbers. You can check out their stats here.

Two Brand New Maps

Also from Paragon. Mitch demanded that we leave the scale of our heroes the same in these new maps.  Our heroes are so tiny now. Why are the new heroes so enormous? This isn’t how game development is supposed to be!  (Our tech artists are in our livestream room in the fetal position.)

New Enemy: Kobold Vaulter

The Berserker Orc gained notoriety for being able to leap over blockades, and Mitch insisted that it was our best Chaos enemy design. He really wanted to expand on this idea, being a former Olympian (or so we’re told), and he knew pole vaulting would fit in great.

Introducing the Kobold Vaulter. This armored kobold sprints towards your defenses with his Gobu Pole, clearing them in a single bound. Afterwards, this enemy sprints towards your core and cannot be slowed or crowd controlled in any way. Mitch wanted to give a pro-tip: build a second blockade way further behind your first blockade. This adds an additional layer of strategy he knows (not thinks) you enjoy already.

New Weapon: Guided Missile Launcher

Ready to rocket surf your way to victory? We’ve added the Redeemer from Unreal Tournament.  Yes. It’s literally just the Redeemer. We added collision to the top of the rocket because Mitch says “that’s what real games do.”

New Movement System: Vaulting

You can now vault over the many fences in Etheria while sprinting, without having to jump. This is very important for Floor 503+ in Onslaught. We’ve even added a new Ancient Power: Vaulting Speed Increase.

New Social Feature: The Always On Microphone

Communication is the key to playing any game. Mitch says that even a millisecond of delay when it comes to communicating is unacceptable. As a result, microphone activation is too slow so now microphones will always be on. To be a considerate teammate, schedule when your parent, guardian, or carer vacuums. Also everyone is auto-tuned.

Trading The Things That Count

There’s been quite a hubbub about adding trading to the game. This requires a ton of balance, but with Mitch’s “wisdom”, that balance has been attained. Following his patented “mental design doc”, we introduced his version of trading. In order to trade, go to the Petrinarian and buy all the Broccoli you want, it’s placed in your bag as a consumable now. Then hover over another player and press PageDown on PC, or by pushing down both joysticks+LB+RB+LT+RT to initiate the trade. You can then select how much Broccoli you want to trade. With this system, you can now barter how much your services are, or reward your friends for just being awesome. We heard your feedback, and Mitch delivered. You’re welcome! :)

New Justin.tv Integration

Streaming is how gamers really take a first look at games. Mitch showed us Justin.tv, and how important it was to really get players interested. There’s also a down-side: stream-sniping. When you link your Dungeon Defenders II account with your Justin.tv account, we can see if you are watching streams of someone you’re trying to gank. For every “honest” kill, you will get something extra. We call it our Stream-Snipe Preventing Buster and Rewarder. Do not log out of Justin.tv to avoid it, we’re using the honor system on this one. Mitch has promised you’ll do the right thing, he just knows it!

New Platforms

We love having the game on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Mitch says it isn’t enough, and we guess we agree. Here’s a sneak peek into where DD2: Tower Royale is going:

• Nintendo Switch - April 20th, 2019

• VR on Steam - November 3rd, 2018

• VR on Virtual Boy - August 16th, 1995

Nintendo Labo

Mitch tells us the future of gaming is cardboard, and we reluctantly trust him. With the release of our Switch version, we are including an optional Nintendo Labo Squire Cannonball Tower to celebrate this transition. Welcome to the Age of Cardboard, in the future!

Miscellaneous Changes

• Turkey was too powerful.

• Terraria corruption was added to all maps, then swiftly removed.

• Dryad was nerfed and buffed.

• Tamagotchi functionality has been added.

• Gary Busey voice-over added to our New User Experience.

• Hardcore Permanent Death option added for each hero.

• Mastery reworked into Novicery, with better rewards.

• Mobile-only mode Offslaught added for playing on-the-go.

• Smell-casting added to the Town hub.

• Voice commands.

• Arby’s-themed tower skins. Big Beef and Cheddar Cannonball Towers anyone?

• Four Nightmare difficulties added per Chaos Trials tier.

• Mirror Mode Map-wide Mutator every tenth Onslaught floor.
   

RELEASE DATE

We want to make sure we get this just right, and allow Mitch to move on to making other games greater as well. The current release date is set to June 20th, to celebrate one year of our release. To ensure quality, he required us to not compress anything, meaning it will be an additional 106 GB patch, on top of our mandatory 4K texture pack feature that is 231 GB.

No More To Come

After this expansion, we believe the perfect game will exist. All games will seem meaningless, and we’re glad to have created an experience to cause such a reaction. This was all made possible thanks to Mitch. Let us know what your favorite feature is. We do not need feedback, because again, this is the perfect expansion.

For Mitch!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team and Mitch Z. “xEyeDeeaGaix” Fortgrounds the Genius



Greetings Defenders,

The Barbarian’s Wrath, Update 2.3, is available now on PC and PlayStation 4, with the Xbox One update coming soon! This update heralds the arrival of the Barbarian, a pure damage hero powerhouse; huge changes to item progression and gearing; shard changes to get you out of the inventory and into the battle; and updates to many important systems. Grab your axes, it’s time to slash through some barbaric patch notes!

NEW HERO:  THE BARBARIAN!

“Hailing from the mountains of Etheria, the Barbarian is a notorious warrior king that can wield the powers of Wrath and Fury to crush his enemies. Becoming an unstoppable flurry of muscle and steel, the Barbarian can hurl himself into battle becoming a whirlwind of death. His foes tremble at the mighty shouts of this tremendous warrior leaping in to crush his enemies.”

The Barbarian is the first hero to have two unique resources: Wrath and Fury. Wrath is gained whenever the Barbarian deals damage, and Fury is gained whenever damage is received. In order to put out the most damage you are going to be in the fray constantly. Stance dancing and balancing your Wrath and Fury are your keys to being an unstoppable force!

The Barbarian is a hero with only damage abilities — four abilities and four stances that modify his play style:

Furious Slash

• A mid ranged Fury resource spender that pierces enemies but does not trigger weapon shard activation abilities.

Staggering Shout

• A mid ranged frontal cone debuff ability whose effects are modified by the Barbarian’s primary active stance.

Whirlwind

• A powerful persistent AOE damage ability that gains different abilities based on the primary active stance.

Hawk Strike

• A high damage short ranged attack that consumes all the Barbarian’s Wrath resource when used.
  

Tornado Stance

• Increases movement speed, attack rate, and jump height, but primary attacks deal less damage. With Tornado Stance active, Staggering Shout and Whirlwind will slow.

Turtle Stance

• Reduces attack speed and less mobility, but takes less damage and become immune to crowd control. Staggering Shout gains a stun and Whirlwind withers enemies.

Siphon Stance

• Turned damage dealt with primary attacks into self-healing. Siphon Stance causes Staggering Shout to apply a lifesteal debuff to affected enemies, converting Whirlwind damage dealt into self-healing.

Lightning Stance

• Gain bonus storm damage to primary attacks and chain storm damage every third attack. Each hit causes self-inflicting damage. Staggering Shout causes enemies to take more damage and Whirlwind gains chain storm damage.
  

Along with the Barbarian are a lot of visual additions. There are the four material effect costumes and the terrifying Blood Reaver costume with five additional accessories, twenty-seven different axes, and custom enemy death animations for smaller enemies. Send them gobus flying!

Limited-Time:  Barbarian Complete Pack and Barbarian Cosmetic Pack

We have included a new type of package that includes his Blood Reaver Costume, as well as all of the Costumes and Accessories that are available normally through Defender Packs. This pack is located on the Feature section of the in-game shop!

And if you've already purchased the Barbarian and/or Blood Reaver Costume separately, you can purchase the Barbarian Cosmetic Pack and get his Accessories and Costumes that are normally only available in Defender Packs.

These packs do not include the new flair added with this update.

Loot Revamp

Item Progression

Items and upgrades produced a lot of issues for players as they progress through Onslaught and Chaos Trials. With this update, we took a good hard look at items and progression. Players wanting to progress the fastest used a system called “muling” to have a steadier stream of gear upgrades drop. Now, mules are a thing of the past! Every piece of equipment that drops is now based off of the highest gear score you’ve seen drop. Not picked up, not equipped, but dropped. All of this is tracked behind the scenes, taking all of the spreadsheet calculating and muling away, so you can get into the action sooner!

Gear Score

We mentioned above that gear is tracked off of the highest gear score item you’ve seen drop. Gear score is a new take on a previous system used to display an item’s power — iPwr. This system previously did not reflect the strength of an item correctly, causing items that may not be upgrades to have a higher iPwr than equipped items. This affected item progression and the general flow of how players were intended to progress.

Hero and Champion Score

Hero and Champion Score are additional ways to help measure the strength of your heroes’ gear! Hero Score is the average of all the gear equipped to any specific hero, and is shown on your hero cards as shown above. Champion Score is the highest Hero Score among all of your heroes, indicated with a crown above your hero cards (and a smaller one on the hero with the highest Hero Score). These scores are used to let you know when you’re ready for growing challenges you encounter as you progress. To better smooth out progression, different Chaos Trials are unlocked once you reach the appropriate Champion Score.

Auto-Equip Gear and Shards

There is a lot to learn in Dungeon Defenders II in order to become the greatest Defender of Etheria! While gear maketh the Defender, it can be a lot to manage when learning the intricacies of every hero and enemy. To help through this process, we’ve created an Auto-Equip feature for both gear and Shards. Both buttons (located below your relics) have you confirm if you want to use this feature, and if confirmed, equips the highest Gear Score for every slot. For relics, it will discern between a blockade and towers, focusing on equipping Totems for blockades and Medallions/Marks for all other towers.

If you wish to only Auto-Equip the highest gear score per slot, you will be able to select the slot and “Auto-Equip Slot”. On PC this is bound to "U" by default; on PlayStation 4 by pressing “”; and on Xbox One by pressing “”.

Shards

Previously, Shards were placed into Shard Slots located on equipment. This system caused Defenders to spend more time in their inventory, moving shards around any time they received an upgrade or wanted to change their build than we liked. When progressing for the first time, or after gaining Ancient Power, this meant a lot of time spent managing your inventory.

In this update, Shard Slots are now equipped on equipment slots directly to your heroes! This means as you receive upgrades, you equip them and your shards stay put. You can still equip up to three shards per slot. However, all three slots will be active only if you have the appropriate tier equipped. Slot activation follows the same conventions it previously did, with Uncommon activating the first slot, Epic activating the first and second slots, and Mythical and Legendary activating all three.

In this update, shards that are on equipment already equipped to your heroes are automatically migrated to those heroes. You login and continue playing without having to manage the shards they were previously wearing. However, shards slotted into equipment that is in your inventory will be removed from the gear. If your inventory is full, the shard(s) are placed into Shards of Containment and sent to the Scavenger.

Incursion Weapons

Incursion weapons are very unique items in the game as they each contain unique passives that previously took up a Shard slot. With this Shard change, we wanted to make sure that Incursion weapons were still something players wanted to acquire. Now, all Incursion weapons will retain their passives AND have three Shard slots. We took a balance pass at these weapons as well, which we’ve included below.

What Happens To Stored Shards?

For users that do not have enough inventory space to hold all of the shards that was previously attached to gear, we've created the Shard of Containment. This Shard is a tool used to segue Defenders into our new Shard system while reducing stress of losing items many of you have farmed. Any shards previously in equipment that cannot fit in your full inventory with the Shard migration are placed into a Shard of Containment and sent to the Scavenger.

The Shard of Containment holds up to 16 shards before another one is created. These are located on the Scavenger and NEVER expire. Shards will be grouped by their upgrade level, bundling the highest Shards together, and the lowest Shards together. This makes it easier to decide which Shard of Containment to open in order to get all of your most used shards.

In order to use a Shard of Containment, you must have the amount of inventory slots open equal to the number of Shards located within the Shard of Containment. If you have 8 Shards, in order to open a Shard of Containment you’ll need 8 inventory slots.

Shards of Containment are a tool we’re using as we bring in our new Shard equipping system. There are more inventory management changes coming down the road!

New User Experience

There’s a lot for new Defenders to learn in order to properly defend Etheria, and it is not an easy undertaking! This update introduces a New User Experience to help acclimate new players understand the basics of the game without getting bogged down on reading tons of details and instructions.

There are a myriad of changes that go along with this:

• New floating instructional text!

• Tutorial level replaced with new animated interactions with Betsy!

• Huntress available immediately

• Ascension UI locked until 50
  

Mananode Changes

Green mana allocation is now completely different! Mananode chests are a thing of the past, here’s what you see now:

• Green mana is now automatically distributed by Mananode itself at the beginning of the Build Phase!

• There is no longer a green mana cap. There is a green mana bar that goes to 2000 green mana. If you go above this amount, the bar starts to fill again!

• Mana and gold collection radiuses are TRIPLED during the build phase. No more pesky out of reach mana!

These changes are an additional measure to allow Defenders to do the things they enjoy the most:  building and fighting!

General Changes

• When you create a hero, you can now choose to create them at your highest hero’s level or at level 1.

• On gamepads, hitting Right Button + D-Pad Down will open the Inventory.

• The D-Pad can now be used on gamepads to navigate the left side of the inventory.

• Added East and West descriptors to subcores for Throne Room maps.

• Added new Loading Screen text:

  • “Mastery provides some of the toughest challenges in all of Etheria but rewards you with powerful Hyper Shards, golden pets, flair, and more!”

  • “The stars you earn across different Chaos difficulties in Mastery pool together.  Tackle maps in any order that you want to unlock rewards!”

  • “Defender Packs contain costumes, accessories, exclusive flair, and much more!  Earn them by achieving victory on your current highest Onslaught floor!”

  • “Feeling lucky?  Rerolling Defender Packs gives you another chance at earning rare rewards!”

  • “Beating Incursions allows you to purchase exotic weapons from the Wayfarer.”

  • “Got eggs?  Visit the Stable Boy in the Town HUB or Tavern to hatch new pets!”

  • “Pet eggs that expire in your inventory will turn into resources that you can use to evolve your pets.”

  • “Get your style on!  You can access the Cosmetics Manager from the Inventory.”

  • “Climbing higher in Onslaught and earning Ascension Levels allows you to unlock your Ancient Power!”

  • “Need a boost?  You can spend gold and Defender Medals to upgrade equipment and shards!”

Defender Packs

We’ve added a slew of new costumes and flair to our Defender Packs:

Flair (crowns):

• Ebonfire Blaze

• Winner’s Crown

Flair (Wings):

• Gilded Honorwings

• Earth Drake Wings

• Great Eagle Wings

• Hive Strike Wings

• Gargoyle Wings

Flair (Sets):

• Bonemancer Set:  Bonemancer Crown and Bonemancer Wings

• Bramblewood Set:  Bramblewood Crown and Bramblewood Wings

Costumes:

• Gilded Chrome EV2

• Rosen Chrome EV2

• Amethysium Chrome EV2

• Verdanite Chrome EV2

• Carbide Chrome EV2

Incursion Weapons

Incursion Weapons maintain their previous effects as passives with the new Shard changes. With maintaining these passives, we took a balance pass to adjust some slightly overpowered passives, while buffing underperforming passives.

Molten Tome

• Now deals:

  • 1000% (previously 950%) Ability Power per Meteor.

  • 850% (previously 650%)  Ability Power per Lava Fissure.

  • 200% (remains the same) Ability Power burning over 5 seconds.
    

Haunted Halberd

• Summons up to 5 (previously 3) Halberds that deal 250% (previously 150%) Ability Power.

North Pole

• Secondary Projectiles now deal 350% (previously 1000%) Hero Damage.

Shadowflame

• Now hits up to 4 targets dealing 75% (previously 135%) Hero Damage.

Glaive of the Storms

• Storm deals 1000% (previously 1500%) Ability Power as Storm Damage.

• Bolts deal 350% (previously 500%) Ability Power as Storm Damage.

All Incursion Weapons not listed here will have their max upgraded shard values applied to their new passives. For instance, Terra Blade’s passive will pierce up to 3 targets dealing 100% Hero Damage.

Hero Updates

Barbarian

Abilities

• Furious Slash: Mid-range attack that pierces enemies.

  • Cost:  5 Fury

  • Cooldown:  2 seconds

• Tornado Stance: Hit faster, move faster, jump higher, but deal less damage.

  • Cost: 6 Fury per second.

  • Cooldown:  None.

• Turtle Stance:  Take less damage, become crowd-control immune, but move slower.

  • Cost:  6 Fury per second.

  • Cooldown:  None.

• Siphon Stance:  Gain Health Points while attacking.

  • Cost:  6 Fury per second.

  • Cooldown:  None.

• Lightning Stance:  Attacks gain additional lightning damage, but self-inflict damage.

  • Cost:  10 Wrath per second.

  • Cooldown:  None.

• Staggering Shout: Debuff enemies in a frontal cone.

  • Cost:  15 Wrath.

  • Cooldown:  5 seconds.

• Whirlwind:  Deal Area of Effect damage to enemies within melee range.

  • Cost:  26 Wrath per second.

  • Cooldown:  None

• Hawk Strike:  Deal massive damage in a small area. The more Wrath consumed, the higher the damage.

  • Cost:  All Wrath.

  • Cooldown:  10 seconds.

Shards

• Zephyr’s Warpath:  Increase movement speed in Whirlwind by 5%-105%.

  • Found in Campaign.

  • Equipment Slot:  Boots

• Full Shell Ahead: Increases movement speed while in Turtle Stance by 25-525.

  • Found in Chaos I.

  • Equipment Slot:  Boots.

• Turtle Power:  Increase Damage Protection while in Turtle Stance by 1%-21%.

  • Found in Chaos II.

  • Equipment Slot:  Chest.

  • Cowabunga!

• Echoing Shout:  Increases the duration of Staggering Shout debuffs by 0.5s-4.5s.

  • Found in Chaos III.

  • Equpment Slot:  Helmet.

• Draining Strikes:  Increase the healing from Siphon Stance by 5%-25%.

  • Found in Chaos IV

  • Equipment Slot:  Helmet.

• Maelstrom:  While Lightning Stance is active, the Barbarian's attacks have a 5%-25% chance to drench enemies, stunning them for 1.5s-3.5s.

  • Found in Chaos V.

  • Equipment Slot:  Weapons.

• Talon Strike:  Hawk Strike now stuns for 2s-4.5.

  • Found in Chaos V.

  • Equipment Slot:  Weapons.

• Boiling Blood: Causes the Barbarian to take 20%-2% of his Max Health as damage, every 5s during combat phase gaining Fury.

  • Found in Chaos VI.

  • Equipment Slot:  Chest.

• Shellshock: While Turtle Stance is active the Barbarian's attacks wither enemies hit for 3-13 seconds reducing their damage to 75%-35%.

  • Found in Chaos VI.

  • Equipment Slot:  Weapons.

• Ride the Lightning:  Increase the damage bonus of Lightning Stance by 1%-21%.

  • Found in Chaos VII.

  • Equipment Slot:  Gloves.

• Wreckless:  The Barbarian deals up to 0.5%-20.5% bonus damage based upon current Wrath.

  • Found in Chaos VII.

  • Equipment Slot:  Gloves.

Bug Fixes

• Adjusted Dark Arts Apprentice green clouds effect.

• Fixed issues causing floors to appear black.

• Fixed an issue causing crashes when opening extremely large numbers of Defender Packs.

• Adjusted the material on the Yesteryear Nymph costume.

• Fixed an issue on Nimbus Reach with the Victory Chest always being Powerful (green).

• Fixed an issue on Dead Road in death areas where character models would fall through the map.

• Fixed an issue with Direct Command not castable on multiple Skeletal Orc towers.

• Fixed an issue where Slime Pits were not dealing damage to enemies affected by the Power Block mutator.

• “To HUB” now says “To Town”.

• Fixed an issue being able to play as a deleted hero.

• Fixed an issue where Haunting Shard was not showing the correct VFX.

• Fixed an issue when using a controller that would lock NPC/Object interactions.

• Fixed an issue when multiple cores are active and one dies, it would show a dead core with 75% health value.

• Fixed a split screen issue where core health bars were not displaying correctly.

• Fixed a frame drop issue when inspecting a billboard and then looking away from it.

• Fixed an issue with Betsy’s Curse zones disappearing when switching heroes.

• Fixed an issue with The Abyss Lord’s primary attack SFX.

• Fixed a split screen issue where health bars for Player 1 were appearing much larger than intended.

Known Issues

• Inputs were reset for all platforms.

• Sometimes you have to hit “Auto-Equip Relic” a few times before it works.

• When using the All Bags option in the inventory and sorting items by Weapons, it will cause all items in the inventory to disappear. Purely a visual issues and toggling inventory bags will refresh the inventory screen and they will reappear.

• Occasionally the Auto Equip function doesn't prioritize the highest gear score items first.

• Occasionally players will get stuck on a black screen when trying to load into the Outdoor HUB. Restarting the game will fix it (or if you know where the menu options are in the escape menu you can click the Leave game button which will still work if you can find it).

• Occasionally when booting up the game with the controller already active, the navigation focus will be on one of the social media links to the side instead of the main menu options.

• The keybindings that appear throughout the tutorial maps don't show the correct button icons with custom keybindings set.

• The icons of the towers on the mini-maps of the tutorial maps are different colors.

• Some of the weapon firing rates did not carry over correctly.

Greetings Defenders,

In our most recent Devstream we announced that the Barbarian is making his glorious return to defend Etheria once more. His return is something Defenders waited for a long time, and he’s bringing some great features with him:

• New Hero: The Barbarian, a whirlwind of wrath and fury!

• New User Experience:  New Defenders are thrown into the action of defending Etheria!

• Shard Slot overhaul to spend less time in your inventory and more time on the battlefield!

• Item Progression rework to increase power and knowledge of the gear you acquire!

We recently discussed the changes to the shard system and our item progression during our last Devstream (check it out here). Our latest Devstream recapped that information and also showed off the might and power of the Barbarian in all his glory! This update included a lot of work to create this new Hero and make some much anticipated changes to core systems of the game. Let’s get started!

Alec Saare, Community Manager (Lawlta)

Since working at Trendy, there have been two things that our brave, powerful, and passionate community of Defenders have wanted for a long time: The Barbarian and a way to track gear strength. Everything in this update has been affected directly by the feedback and desires that all of provide, and we’re very grateful for your help in making the game better as a result.

Creating The Barbarian was an amazing process to be a part of. We went from having a base design, and overhauling him completely to crank his epicness up to 11! There was a huge goal of capturing the spirit of the Barbarian from Dungeon Defenders 1 and turbo-charging that spirit. The result is a whirlwind of wrath and fury that is both an immovable object and an unstoppable force. HE. IS. A. BEAST.

With his arrival is something as a player I am stoked to see in the game — gear and shard changes. As someone who has gained Ancient Power and is climbing Onslaught, not having to move shards combined with the changes to gear progression and visibility feels so great! You’ll experience yourself very soon.

The introduction to Dungeon Defenders II is also vastly different than before. Our veteran Defenders are not exposed to this area of the game, but we noticed a lot of newer players were not getting pumped up with the original tutorial and so we set out to improve tenfold! Now new Defenders experience action from the get go, with a certain dragon really setting the pace of the rest of the game.

We cannot wait for all of you to really sink your teeth into this meaty update!

Colin Fisher, Associate Producer (Elandrian)

Hey everyone, just a quick update from me. I have been making larger posts recently about upcoming features so the Dev Log won’t have TOO many tidbits… but I’d like to give everyone some pieces to start thinking about. There’s some areas of our game that we’re planning to improve, so I’d like to clue you in on what those are. I’m sure I’ll have mentioned some of them before, but I’d just like to reiterate what we’re looking into next.

We’re looking at ways to store items, ways to create and customize existing items, ways to exchange items, and ways to enhance items. Did I mention that we’re heavily looking into making items more interesting? We have some features that we’re planning, but we’ll reveal more specifics about them at a later date. There’s a lot of ways we want to make the game more engaging and interesting to players, while also figuring out a plan to continue rolling out new content like maps, costumes, heroes and such. We’re a small team, so finding that balance between improving areas of the game while also adding content is a challenge.

We appreciate our community that are playing, giving feedback, and even just following our updates on the site, forums and social outlets. Can’t wait to tell you guys about what’s to come, so stay tuned!

Eric Petire, QA Designer (Petire)

Being a Dungeon Defenders player and playing a ton of Barbarian in the past, I wanted to bring the visceral gameplay of jumping across the map at rapid speed while also clearing hordes of enemies and wiping bosses off the map with a speed second to none. One of my goals was to bring back the stances that made the Barbarian so much fun to play, flying between lanes and destroying any enemy.

He is meant to have some of the strongest and most fun abilities to use that require an active playstyle to have his damage reach its highest potential. Many different ideas were thrown around to allow players to interact with other players or other heroes/defenses; the end result is we wanted the Barbarian to be focused on just absolutely demolishing the hordes of monsters you face. This means that instead of being able to buff others, he can debuff enemies in some fun and unique way for other heroes and defenses to interact with.

Daniel Driussi, 3D Character Artist

I was recently hired at Trendy, and I am very excited to be here! When I started there was a working model of the Barbarian that was already modeled and textured by the previous character artist. Likewise this older barbarian was fully playable, but it did not meet the new look that we were trying to achieve. So my first task here was to model and texture the “New” Barbarian.

(Untextured progression of the Barbarian’s 3D model.)

The process to create the 3D model of the Barbarian consists of a couple of steps.  First, I took the concept art into Zbrush and quickly made a body. Then I took that into Maya to complete the rest of the modeling and created the clothing and armor. Many iterations went into making sure everything worked properly.

(Textures for the Barbarian’s head and torso.)

From that point, I took the model into 3D Coat and Photoshop to paint the textures.  My biggest hurdle that I faced in getting the “style” of the textures of the barbarian was matching the look of Dungeon Defenders.

(Texture progression and 3D model changes of the Barbarian.)

This took a lot of work, but I am glad to say that the hurdle was vaulted and the Barbarian looks awesome next to all the other characters in game. Now that he is finished, I really enjoy seeing this hulking mass of muscles, that I helped to get into this game, glide through combat like a beautiful murder ballerina!

Keith "Keithimator" Walheim, Animator

Hey Defenders! Rage, wrath and sheer power were just a few of the words going through my head while animating the Barbarian. Oh, and SMAAAAAAAASH! He is definitely not a dainty ballerina, but he is still quite an agile character. I would say one of the greatest challenges while animating this human tank was moving all that muscle mass around while making him quick enough to react for the Defender playing him. One way we approached this was to really focus on emphasizing the weight shift in his shoulders.

(Various reaction animations)

Some of my favorite animations that I got to work on for this bad boy were the death animation (finding interesting ways to make characters meet their demise can be fun), and the stances.

(Death Animation for the Barbarian.)

The four stances were challenging because of the animation needed to depict the functionality of the stance in a split second, while still showing the weight of this huge character. One of the animations that I had the most fun with was a one armed handstand pushup that unfortunately didn’t make it into the game, but you can see it here.

(The Barbarian staying in shape.)

There is one thing related to the Barbarian I got to animate that I feel makes playing him a whole lot more interesting, the enemy death animations. Each time the Barbarian smashes a Kobold, Goblin, or Javelin thrower they will — well, give him a try and see what happens. Run, don’t walk!

(Run cycles by John Muscarella, Lead Animator)

Jose Villegas, Technical Designer (TrendyJose)

Hey Everyone! Since last update I have been ESSENTIALLY focused on various Quality of Life improvements. Chief amongst those is the revamp of the previous iPwr system. In theory, iPwr should have been a good indicator to know how strong an item is, but in practicality it didn’t reflect that. You could have an uncommon item drop alongside a legendary item and both of them would have similar iPwr, but because the legendary had multiple stats, it seemed to be way better. This led people into equipping lower iPwr items by trying to maximize their stats.

This also led to the ‘muling’ issue many of you are aware of. Since the highest iPwr of your heroes would determine the drops you see in the game, you were encouraged to have a throw-away character to get the best drops.

GearScore is the solution we came up for both issues. A piece of equipment’s GearScore value is determined after evaluating every single element of what makes it strong. That is the value of the item’s stats, the number of Shard slots it will enable, and the number of secondary stats it has. Like we mentioned in the Devstream, GearScore should give you the certainty that an item with a greater GS value is overall better than a lower one. Of course, if you are pursuing a certain strategy, you are encouraged to play the game your own way and ignore GS.

Alongside this, I want to say under no ambiguity: Muling is dead. The gear that we are dropping in the game has no relation, whatsoever, with what you have equipped, or what’s even in your inventory. The strength of the items that you see in DD2 is tied to your progression. The more you play, the stronger items you will see, across all game modes. Of course, each game mode and difficulty has a ceiling of the strength at which items may drop, so you are encouraged to always keep pushing higher.

On a different note, we also brought some improvements to Shard management. We want you to keep playing the game with the least amount of interruptions as possible, so we decided to streamline the Shard equipping process. Now shards will be tied to Gear Slots, instead of Gear. This will allow you to naturally equip better Gear, without having to move your Shards around to keep your same build. These Shards improvements come with inventory adjustments to the UI so you can quickly equip and unequip shards.

Anyhow, I’m sure these new systems will allow you to keep doing what you like to do the most: blasting goblins and building towers. I’m more than happy to listen to your feedback, post on our forums and I will see it. Happy defending =).

Mark Telfer, Technical Designer (TrendyMark)

Hey Defenders! From this day forward, I am officially taking all noobies under my wing!  Since the Power of the Ancients update, I’ve been hard at work revamping the new user experience (NUE) of Dungeon Defenders II. Our goal was to make the first hour of the campaign exciting, informative, and most importantly, a showcase for what makes Dungeon Defenders II special.

Over the past couple of months we’ve brought testers into our studio and watched them play both the current tutorial level and the first hour of the campaign. These tests revealed that many people were confused about how to interact with some of the fundamental systems of DD2.  Players were having a hard time understanding how to interact with gear that was dropping, they were forgetting to go to the green mana chests, and worst of all, many didn’t realize you could swap between different heroes!

It was clear that the new user flow needed an overhaul. The approach we took involved creating immediate stakes for players by throwing them straight into the action-packed combat of DD2.  We also wanted to incrementally introduce the foundational systems of the game so that players could fully appreciate their intricacies. Finally, we wanted to present each mechanic in a way that is concise, clear, and within context that demonstrated its value.

(Behind the scenes of the new user experience)

After many late nights and frequent focus group testing of our work, I am very pleased to announce that my self esteem remains (mostly) intact and that our new user experience will be dropping “sooner than you expect.” Happy defending!

Love,

Mark

P.S.

All of the designers read every single forum post. Keep the awesome feedback coming.

Dani Moore, Remote QA Lead

Our testing groups had fun putting the early Barbarian through his paces. The ability to combine stances made for some interesting discovery of combinations, but also some interesting bugs and balance issues over the course of testing.

The new shard slots were immediately pounced upon as a solid quality of life addition by most of the testing folks, and  thankfully didn't present too many issues.

We're also looking to expand our tester pool once again. Our testers get the chance to try out our still-in development work, in exchange for some cool stuff as a thanks. They help us with balance, feedback and bugs and their contributions to our releases are very valuable.

We have two teams, RQA - our daily bug hunters (for folks with lots of free time each day), and RPG - our larger team for balance and feedback (for folks with limited free time).

If you are interested, drop me an email at dani.moore @ trendyent (dot) com and ask. I'm happy to provide more information on both teams to see what best suits. A big thanks to everyone involved in the Barbarian and the heaps of work and sweat that went into it all.

Greetings Defenders,

Dungeon Defenders II:  Power of the Ancients is live for all platforms! This expansion is full of new progression, power, and challenges.

The content released in this expansion is massive.  We’ve included the long awaited Onslaught game mode, our new largest map ever, The Lost Temple, and our new Ancient Power system.  There’s tons of things to share in these patch notes, so let’s get right to it!

Onslaught

Onslaught introduces a new floor based progression, enemy Mutators, and unique enemy schedule and lane selection. You gain better loot with every floor, see different enemies in every lane, and have to tailor your defense to each and every threat. The deeper you descend, the stronger your opponents become, unleashing familiar Trials enemies, as well as progressively difficult Mutators and enemy schedules.

In addition to the new systems, we’ve added some new Onslaught rewards!  For beating certain floors, you can unlock new Flair sets.  You might even be able to find a new companion from Victory Chests…

Did we mention Victory Chests?  Onslaught will feature a new Victory Chest that is exclusive to Onslaught and is a little more visually impactful. You’ll see what we mean when you beat your first floor!

In each floor of Onslaught, there can be 1-3 maps on each floor.  This will cycle between 1, 2, and 3 until you reach our end-game scaling around Floor 60.

For Example:

• Floor 1: 1 Map

• Floor 2: 2 Maps

• Floor 3: 3 Maps

• Floor 4: 1 Map

• Floor 5: 2 Maps

And so on and so forth. In our end-game, every floor will be three maps.

Each floor that you beat will have better and better loot up to our current maximum Chaos VII level.

Mutators

Mutators are a system that existed in the game previously, but now we’ve really cranked it up to eleven. There are over 20 different Mutators that will unlock as you progress deeper into Onslaught. These Mutators will be semi-randomly selected based on the enemies that they’re assigned to.  Mutators will shift and change how you need to build each lane, so pay attention to the enemy billboards that appear over each enemy spawn, and check out the new corresponding Mutator icons that will show up when you target an enemy that has one.  We’ve blacklisted certain combinations of Mutators from appearing together, but there are some crazy combinations that will definitely crank up the difficulty for players interested in strategizing.

Some Example Mutators:

• Berserker Mutator:  Enemies start off weak, but become stronger the longer they are alive.

• Exhaustion Mutator:  Enemies start off strong, but become weaker the longer they are alive.

• Detonator Mutator:  When enemies die, they explode, causing damage to heroes and defenses around them.
  
  

New Enemy Schedules

Groups of enemies within our game are referred to as “schedules” in our studio.  These schedules determine what types of enemies that spawn out of each enemy lane.  In Onslaught, each lane will spawn a different enemy schedule and will require you to build a set of defenses that is effective against that group of enemies.

Example Enemy Schedules:

• Game Ogre Enemy Schedule:  All enemies are Ogres.

• Timmy’s Revenge Enemy Schedule:  Every type of Goblin in a lane. Gobu.

• Cy-hex Lava-zerker Wompers: Cyborks, Hex Throwers, Lava Orcs, Berserkers, and Melee Goblins… have fun!

• And many more!
  
  

New Gating and Unlock Progression

The choice is YOURS!... in regards to how you progress. As you unlock more floors through Onslaught, more tiers of Trials are unlocked, and on the flip side, the more Trials tiers you complete, the more floors you unlock. Current players that have completed certain difficulty levels of Trials will already have appropriate Onslaught floors unlocked. For example, players that completed Chaos VII have Onslaught Floor 55 available now. Here’s a list of where you’ll end up in this expansion when you first load in:

• Chaos I:  Onslaught Floor 3

• Chaos II:  Onslaught Floor 4

• Chaos III:  Onslaught Floor 7

• Chaos IV:  Onslaught Floor 10

• Chaos V:  Onslaught Floor 16

• Chaos VI:  Onslaught Floor 37

• Chaos VII: Onslaught Floor 55

Defenders can choose to progress through each Floor of Onslaught, or clear through our unlock progression via Trials and each Chaos difficulty.  Check the Challenges UI for details about when these unlock or check out the next Chaos level of Trials at the War Table and it will show you the requirement needed to unlock the next level.

The Lost Temple

It’s HUGE, it’s crazy, and it changes every time you play!  The Lost Temple is by far the largest and most interesting level we’ve ever made. During each visit to this humongous map, different lanes and cores will be selected and activated, providing a different experience upon each visit. As you are playing the map, keep an eye out for an additional lane opening up.  When a new lane opens up, we’ll give you more mana and Defense Units to be able to properly defend it.

Another awesome addition to this map is the sheer number of enemies that will be able to be on the map.  Combat may be a little more chaotic with the huge waves of enemies that will be spawning on this map.  We cranked up the number of enemies on screen by almost 200%!  Maybe even more?  I don’t know, it’s insane… but also very fun.  We hope you’ll enjoy it.

Ancient Power

Get far enough into Onslaught, and unlock the ability to gain Ancient Power, an additional character progression system. Each time you gain Ancient Power, you will receive a number of permanent account buffs, raise the maximum cap of points that you can put into each Ascension talent, and keep/increase your new Minimum Ascension Level.  

Minimum Ascension Level

The Minimum Ascension Level is based on your Highest Achieved Ascension Level, your Highest Achieved Floor of Onslaught, and will increase each time that you push your limits.  You will gain +3 to your Minimum Ascension Level for each additional Floor of Onslaught that you beat over Floor 65 and for every 50 Ascension Levels that you have when you finally hit “Gain Ancient Power”.  When you gain Ancient Power, your new Ascension Level after the reset will be whatever your Minimum Ascension Level is.

For example:

On your first playthrough, you hit the minimum requirements to gain Ancient Power and have beaten Floor 65 and have 250 Ascension Levels.  Your Minimum Ascension Level will be 15.  You got +0 for beating Floor 65 since you didn’t push above it, and you gained +15 for your 250 Ascension Levels.

On your second playthrough, you also only do the minimum requirements to gain Ancient Power.  You will gain +0 to your Minimum Ascension Level because you did not push any additional Floors past 65, and you didn’t gain any additional Ascension Levels that would have raised your “Highest Achieved Ascension” number.

At this point you need to push Onslaught Floors or Ascension Levels over 250 to gain more Minimum Ascension Level.

Permanent Buffs

Each time you gain Ancient Power you will also yield permanent buffs:

• +5% Permanent Experience Bonus.

• +5% Permanent Gold Gain Bonus.

• Ascension Talent Cap raised by an amount that corresponds with your progression.

• Increase or Keep your new Minimum Ascension Level.
  
  

Ancient Powers

In addition to the permanent buffs, you will also receive one point that you can allocate into a number of additional unique Powers!  These are the ones that stack with other party members.  Some of these include:

• Increased Tower Health %.

• Increased Tower Damage %.

• Lifesteal based of x% of Hero Damage dealt.

• Reduced resurrection timer.

• Increased resistances %.

• And more!

All the buffs can be used in every game mode!

Limited Progression Reset

When you gain Ancient Power, your progression will be reset back to Onslaught Floor 1 and Chaos I with your gear and shards reset to that appropriate level.  Using your new Powers, you’ll be able to reprogress back through our end-game at a quicker pace and push into deeper floors of Onslaught with your newfound strength!

Leaderboards

We are adding leaderboards to see who have progressed the furthest through Onslaught. There are two new boards that track different things. The first, our Onslaught Leaderboard, will track the furthest floor progressed similar to Mastery’s leaderboard (i.e. players completing the highest floor at the same are both listed as first).

The second, our Ancient Power Leaderboard, will track which players have acquired the most Ancient Power. There is more info regarding these leaderboards down the road, but are currently used to see who is the best of the best!

Defender Packs

We’re introducing a new system, Defender Packs, to acquire flairs, costumes, pets, and accessories. We weren’t a fan of our old lock box system because it had limited accessories you could unlock, and required keys to open them. Defender Packs were made to always feel rewarding whenever you received one. There are various ways to acquire them, a couple include completing the campaign or progressing through Onslaught. They have a chance to drop from the highest floor you've completed, even when farming your highest floor. If you’ve already completed the campaign, you automatically receive the Defender Packs you would have earned.

Defender Packs include a giant inventory of different skins and flairs, some being extremely rare and prestigious. If you happen to receive a flair, costume, or accessory you already own, you’ll be rewarded handsomely with gold instead!

Maps

Forest Biome

• Updated to give 1250 mana from 1000 mana.

  • Now matches the maps Defense Unit cap.

Deadroad

• Updated to give 1250 mana from 1000 mana.

  • Now matches the maps Defense Unit cap.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a button display issue with Ev-2 when placing a defense with a controller.

• Fixed an issue with Frosty Power not displaying Defense Power as a valid stat.
  

• Fixed an issue where Serpent’s Coil was not displaying kills and damage dealt.
  

• Fixed an issue where Automation was healing more than intended.
  

• Frostbite Tower can now target training dummies.

• Fixed a spelling error with The Dawn of the Blood Moon Incursion.

• Fixed an issue where the “G-Up” sound was not playing correctly.

• Fixed a pet unequip issue at the Petrinarian.

• Fixed an issue where the town hub music was tied to the SFX slider.

• Thunderbolts and Lightning can only be equipped to magic staves now.

• Fixed Lavamancer Harden/Inflame VFX.

• Fixed an issue with Start Campaign appearing after completing it.

• Escape can now cancel pet rerolls.

• Water spout trap now named properly.

• Orbs should no longer drop during Campaign.

• Less words are caught by the profanity filter now.

• Glaive of Storms attack animation ends correctly now.

• Fixed an issue where controller inputs could provide an extra daily mission.

• Fixed an issue where EV2's Proton Charge was dealing around twice as much damage as it should have been.

Known Issues

• We are investigating an issue where Harpy’s Perch currently does not gain the pierce buff while corrupted.

• We are investigating an issue where Angry Nimbus does not gain storm damage or change material while in Corrupt form.

• Frosty Beams Shard affected enemies are not kept frozen through the entire duration.

• Vampiric Empowerment Shard’s current stat boost is being displayed incorrectly.

• Automation does not work on Snaking Sands, Slime Pits, Geyser Trap, and Angry Nimbus towers.

• Tuskar is currently using Witherbeast's icon.

• Assault on Throne Room with mini-Ogres has a chance to spawn at the core.
  

• Mutator text descriptions are small and hard to read on consoles.
  

This is just the start for what’s to come in Dungeon Defenders II! We poured a lot of love into Power of the Ancients and know you’ll enjoy Onslaught. We have a lot of planned for Dungeon Defenders II in 2018, and are grateful for the support you show us to make the game the best it can be.

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team



Greetings Defenders

Today we announce the next chapter of Dungeon Defenders II, the Power of the Ancients Expansion, releasing next month! Within our Expansion are some legendary additions to the game:

• Onslaught, our new game mode that is your main focus of progression.

• Ancient Power, our new character progression that allows you to push the limits as defenders and increase your strength.

• The Lost Temple, our new HUGE map that changes its layout every time you attempt to conquer it.

• Defender Packs, a new way to unlock unique flair, costumes, and pets.

• And much more!

We are going to be revealing more Power of the Ancients info soon, and talking about Power of the Ancients on our Devstream this Friday at 3PM EST! To give insight into what we’ve been working on, we’re having some of our epic developers chime into the work they’ve put into Power of the Ancients, experiences throughout our development process, as well as what we’re most hyped about! Let’s get started:

Alec Saare, Community Manager (Lawlta)

For those of you who don’t know me from our different social platforms, I’m Community Coordinator turned Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders II. My focus has been taking all the feedback that you, our courageous, strong, glorious community, have provided to help make sure that Power of the Ancients is a behemoth of an expansion that you all want to conquer. This means taking your feedback and wants, meeting with designers, discussing the things that defenders enjoy, molding our new content to the things you enjoy, and then testing the beastly content that is created. You’re in for a wild ride!

Onslaught provides something for everyone to enjoy, from those who have just completed campaign, to the grizzled veterans of Chaos Trials 7. The progression feels so incredibly solid and polished. You steadily get gear and shards that are improvements as you progress. Trials now drop MORE gear and shards than before, making them more rewarding for taking on harder enemies sooner than you would in Onslaught. You can choose to progress through Trials to unlock Onslaught floors, or through Onslaught floors to unlock Trials, which just feels great having the option to go between the two and still progress. On top of this you also can increase your Ancient Power (a new form of character progression), which just offers a slew of benefits and choices that provide meaningful character advancement.

Besides putting time into our new expansion, I’m constantly working on ways to make our community a better place to be. I’ll be rolling out some new initiatives to make our social spaces an even better place to interact with one another; give our streamers a single banner to fly under, transparent requirements, maybe even some incentives; and everything I can to spotlight the greatness that is the Dungeon Defenders II community. There’s more to come soon!

Colin Fisher, Associate Producer (Elandrian)

FINALLY.  I’ve probably been teasing most of our players for too long about our new “end-game mode” and “update” that we’re working on, but now I can finally talk about it!  Huzzah!  It’s not just a “game expanding update” anymore… It’s an expansion.

I remember a day, where I was just a baby armchair developer, playing the old version of Onslaught, wishing for checkpoints and some sort of save system that would keep my progress.  Whelp, I wish I could say those were the “good ol’ days”, but this new version of that game mode is far beyond anything I could have expected.

We’ve taken several pain points of gameplay that players have been experiencing and kicked them to the curb!  Facing off against the same enemies every map and the build never changes? CURBED. Tired of smart loot being weird? CURBED. Wanted more things to do in the game, but Trials was the only option? CURBED?  (DISCLAIMER: Trials is still an option, but we tried to make Onslaught a better option. I mostly just wanted to use the “kicking to the curb” analogy but it may not have been the right choice.  The aforementioned “CURBED” features still exist in the game in the Trials game mode, we’re just building future content in a better way.)

To give a really quick “Elandrian’s TL;DR” set of bullet points about this expansion:

• Onslaught is a brand new game mode that completely changes our end game progression and is nothing like the previous version of Onslaught.

• Onslaught features new loot progression that makes sense.  Higher Floor Number = Higher Loot Stat Numbers.

• Onslaught features enemies and modifiers that will make your defense different each time.

• Onslaught will save which floors you were able to beat, you can then immediately play the next floor in your progression.

• Ancient Power is a way to do a limited reset on your account but keep progressing over time.

• The new map is unreal.  You’ll have different lanes and cores each time you load in.

We’ll go over the specifics about each feature in future Devstreams and posts, so make sure to stay tuned for more specifics! You could also probably join our Remote Playtesting Group, sign an NDA, and check out the new content early, but I’m sure Dani will mention that below!

John Muscarella, Lead Animator (Muskie4242)

Howdy defenders.  It’s been a while.  

This milestone the animation team has been pretty focused on some very ambitious cinematics to announce our awesome release. Hope you enjoyed them. As well as an in-game event piece that you end game players will be seeing very soon...

There is a lot more to come, but until then, please enjoy one of my favorite cosmetic flairs we’ve been working on over here.

Creepy right? Almost like it’s going to reach out and grab you…

Dani Moore, Remote QA Lead ([[25251,users]])

Our testing teams have been hard at working getting Onslaught up and going, and we’re ready to expand testing to our Remote Playtesting Group to get our community feedback and gut checks before we push for release.

Our playtesters are great folks and have helped make our releases better. If you want to get early access to Onslaught in exchange for giving us feedback and helping us iron out issues before release, we want you! 

If you are 18 or over (sorry you need to sign our NDA so we can’t bend on this rule) and wish to help (PC only help for now, sorry console bros!), email me dani.moore(at)trendyent.com and let me know. We’re hoping to start testing this week, so you’ll want to be there when we do!

Steven Collins, Level Designer (Esorath)

Holy frick, this map was a challenge and a half. This isn’t your grandpappy’s old Dungeon Defenders II level.

Since there are so many different possibilities that can happen in this game mode, I wanted to be really intentional with everything this map has to offer. We ran through scenarios and tests as to what combinations of the different Onslaught elements could appear and made sure that these combinations came together in a meaningful manner.

When the lanes open and cores are different each time, you get to have a different experience with different core and lane combinations. These two things working alongside the enemy modifiers make this one of the top experiences for Dungeon Defenders II.

Mark Telfer, Technical Designer (TrendyMark)

Hey Defenders!

I can’t tell you how fun it has been to watch all of you play Mastery each week, and I am incredibly grateful for the positive feedback you’ve given me. I’m still hard at work revamping the loot generation system (it’s going to make sense, dammit) and designing out some new and exciting things coming in the future. I can’t wait to see the final weeks of Mastery and to watch you guys conquer Onslaught and beyond!

Love,

Mark

My first thought when looking at the concepts for the Onslaught expansion was, “whoa! I get to create these amazing concepts in 3D?!” I was very excited to create a variety of the 3D models and textures for the Onslaught Expansion. I enjoyed creating a wide range of assets ranging from a dragon to a tiling floor texture. The goal was to create a look that was mysterious, fun, and vibrant with bold colors.

Jose Villegas, Technical Designer (TrendyJose)

Hey Everyone!

My name Jose and I’m a Technical Designer here at Trendy. Over the past couple of milestones, I have been working as the designer for the new Onslaught game mode. It has been a long and tiring endeavor, but we are so happy to finally have reached the point where you can see what we made for you.

Let me go over a few points to give you insight on our expectations for Onslaught and the immediate future of DD2. For this I need to go back to the somewhat-distant past of March 2017 and the release of Trials. While we enjoyed what Trials provided to the game, as a recurring game mode, it was evident that we needed a true end game with a longer life, and clearer progression.

This led us into thinking about how to create a new game mode that will keep you engaged with exciting content and challenges, regardless of how much time you put into the game. Onslaught, at its core, is just that: an ever-increasing challenge that will grow alongside the player, for as long as they want.

The main obstacle in front of us to achieve this goal was how to ensure a satisfying replayable experience. The immediate answer for us was the enemy selection, and how to mix them effectively. So far, every game mode in DD2 has run the same enemy types in each lane whenever you load into a map. However, for Onslaught, each lane will have different enemies coming through them. For example, one lane may have Cyborks and the other one may have Vanguard Goblins. That means that the same build will not work in every situation, and you will have to react independently to each lane. We gave each schedule of enemies a distinctive name, which you can use to strategize and share your best builds online on how to counter them.

As a secondary way to achieve replayability, we are bringing back enemy Mutators with full force. In the past, Mutators are modifiers that have been used to affect the performance of a given lane. A few months ago, I asked people in the forums to give me ideas for exciting new Mutators, and they did not disappoint. I’m pleased to say we have made roughly 35 new Mutators, all of them impacting gameplay in many ways. None of them are going to be boring flat number increases, but our goal was to provide you with fun challenges to overcome. In fact, some Mutators act as double-edge swords for the enemies by making them stronger in some way, but weaker in another.

Finally, the best example of Onslaught’s replayability lies in the new map we made for it: The Lost Temple. The Lost Temple is the biggest DD2 map yet, with 30 lanes and 10 cores! Of course, these are not going to be all open at the same time, but different lane/core combinations will be selected each time you play it.

Alongside replayability, our priority from Design was to help clarify the game’s gear progression. For this we are dividing Onslaught into Floors that will guide players in an upwards ladder of power progression and enemy difficulty increase. No longer will you have to worry about whether or not you should be playing a given Chaos difficulty to progress effectively, you now can just simply play the next floor in Onslaught and you will know you are on the right track.

My job was to design, balance, and work on the implementation of all the systems that I have talked about in this log. Anyway, I think I wrote way too much already. I don’t use twitter, but you can reach me on the official Discord. I hope you will enjoy all the exciting content we are preparing for you in the expansion =).

More Info Soon

We'll be talking more about Power of the Ancients over the next few weeks. To make sure you get the most up-to-date information, check out our social media platforms:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Discord

Also visit our Devstream this Friday at 3PM EST on Twitch, where we'll be showing off some Power of the Ancients goodness.

As always, we are incredibly grateful for the support that you, our glorious community, provide us. Get ready to dive deep into Onslaught, it’s going to be here before you know it!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

The Isomicon reveals its first secrets! While you’ve been defending against the evil that threatens Etheria, Gran Ma’ster found a way to imbue certain shards with incredible power. These hyper shards contain a very unstable power so she is only providing them to defenders that prove their mastery of the defensive arts. At the Gran Ma’ster’s behest, the Defense Council devised a set of challenges for the heroes to overcome.

With the aid of the Abyss Lord, Gran Ma’ster continues to delve deeper into the forbidden knowledge contained within the Isomicon. There’s still much more to decrypt, but there is a growing concern from what’s been revealed — dark forces are coming, and we are NOT ready. Go forth, Defenders! Prepare yourselves, and PROTECT ETHERIA!

Greetings Defenders,

It’s time to prove your strength, Ancient's Prelude (Update 1.2) is live! This is a monster of an update, introducing some amazing features that will push your limits. This patch has some awesome new content, a new additional cosmetic system, quality of life changes, balance, bug fixes, and kicks off the beginning of our seven week progression event. Let’s dive in!

New Game Mode: MASTERY

The new game mode, Mastery, provides access to all Chaos maps, allowing you to choose where and how you progress. Gran Ma’ster requires you to complete up to five challenges per map, each indicated with a star on the Mastery progress bar. She’s not going to be making it easy either. In order to earn the full five stars on each map, you’ll need to complete all of the challenges together. All stars are earned one time, so once you’ve five starred a map, you have mastered the challenges presented and will have earned all the rewards it has to offer. The power contained within the Hyper Shards is unstable, so only Defenders that prove their might may equip them.

When conquering the Mastery game mode you’ll receive great rewards as you progress. Here’s what you can expect to earn as you decimate challenges:

• Hyper Shards

• Exclusive Flair

• Golden Pets

• Ascension levels

• Defender Medals

• Gold on gold on gold

With the Mastery game mode, we’ll be releasing a new tier every week, for the next seven weeks at on Wednesday at 9 AM EDT! It’s a lot of content to conquer, here’s a look at the schedule:

• Mastery 1:  October 11th (TODAY!)

• Mastery 2:  October 18th

• Mastery 3:  October 25th

• Mastery 4:  November 1st

• Mastery 5:  November 8th

• Mastery 6:  November 15th

• Mastery 7:  November 22nd

The cap of earn-able stars will start at 105 with Mastery 1. Every additional tier will add an extra 105 stars to be earned, with the last week providing a total of 735 stars to be earned.

To achieve absolute mastery, experimentation with new builds is required to overcome the tasks set before you, pushing your limits as a Defender. Over the coming weeks, the Defense Council will work diligently with the Gran Ma’ster and Abyss Lord to continue deciphering additional levels of challenges and rewards for heroes capable of proving their mastery. The amount of time needed to decipher and develop each new Hyper Shard is about a week. To fill that time, we’ll be providing a little competition to celebrate this new discovery!

Special Event:  PROVE YOUR MASTERY

We’re running a special event:  PROVE YOUR MASTERY over the next SEVEN weeks! This provides time for Gran and company to conjure the Hyper Shards that each tier rewards. The event showcases players on special weekly Mastery leaderboards. It lists the first 10 players to reach 105 stars per Mastery tier, per platform (PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4). If there aren’t 10 people to reach 105 stars at the end of the event, it ranks the furthest progressed players.

The Mastery leaderboards will update every 15 minutes, and require defenders to reach at least 10 stars before appearing on the leaderboard. Click here to check out the Mastery leaderboard.

The event starts at 9 AM EDT, and lasts until 9 AM EDT the following Wednesday. As the previous week-long event ends, the next event starts immediately after. Special prizes will be revealed soon after the event launches! These prizes do not give any powerful benefits, but provide visual bragging rights that spotlight defenders conquering the content the fastest. Teaming up is a huge benefit to dominating these challenges. If a team of two to four players claims the first spot, they’ll all be listed as first place. This means that second, third, and fourth place are still up for grabs. We’ll be sharing more information on the rewards soon!

New Shards:  HYPER SHARDS

Exclusive to the Mastery game mode are Hyper Shards, unique shards that you’ll only be able to claim if you are able to conquer the challenges Gran Ma’ster has provided for you. Hyper shards will be reminiscent of some of your favorite shards, except cranked way up in power. Each type of these shards will only be earned one time, and don’t worry — you can’t sell them.

There are seven different shards that can be earned. Here is a look at the shards and where you can earn them:

• 50 Stars:    Mass Destruction

• 155 Stars:  Vicious Strikes

• 260 Stars:  Radiant Critical Power

• 365 Stars:  Explosive Shielding Guard

• 470 Stars:  Thunderstruck

• 575 Stars:  Destructive Pylon

• 680 Stars:  Super Fortification

These shards pack an extra punch, and can all be earned once. There is no limit to how many can be equipped at the same time. They are needed to bolster your strength to take on Gran’s challenges!

New Cosmetic System:  FLAIR

A new cosmetic system, Flair, allows your heroes to look even more legendary than before! Flair can be equipped over any existing costumes or looks on a hero and there’s currently four categories of flair:

• Head (Halos, masks, and auras)

• Back (Wings)

• Waist (floating objects and auras)

• Feet (auras, fire, and other effects)

There’s more than one way to acquire this new cosmetic so you can look even more heroic on the battlefield. Flair is available through:

• Collecting stars through Mastery

• Future game content

• In-game Shop

• Platform Storefronts (Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network)

Flair will unlock as you collect more stars through Mastery, future game content, and available through our various store fronts. One of the packs will be available outside of the game for a particularly demonic look, but we’ll discuss later in the blog. With such a wide variety of customizable ways to mix and match flair, you’ll be sure to stick out in the Heroes Marketplace!

New pets: GOLDEN PETS

Golden pets are BACK!  Well… some of them. Golden pets are pets that you will receive while playing through the Mastery game mode. It’s another way to show off just how great of a defender you are to those around you.

You’ll be able to earn a single golden pet type multiple times, for a total of seven pets:

• 90 Stars:    Golden Gato Egg

• 195 Stars:  Golden Creeper Egg

• 300 Stars:  Golden Dragon Egg

• 405 Stars:  Golden Gato Egg

• 510 Stars:  Golden Creeper Egg

• 615 Stars:  Golden Dragon Egg

• 720 Stars:  Golden Gato Egg

With golden pets and the new flair system, you’ll be the envy of all that see you!

Halloween in Etheria

You’ll notice that your Private Tavern and the Heroes Marketplace have been decorated to celebrate Halloween. To add to the celebration, the Halloween-themed seasonal flair is now available! This flair is our first iteration of seasonal-themed flair, but it most definitely will not be our last — you have to look amazing year-round, right? With the Halloween set in particular, you’ll not only terrify your enemies on the battlefield, you’ll also be their worst nightmares!

Our Halloween pack, The Bundle of the Beast, will become available closer to Halloween on Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network.

Quality of Life

Selling Equipment With Shards

Implementing new shards that are acquired only once required some special attention. With this patch, if you sell a piece of loot that has shards inserted, the shards will be put into your inventory instead of being sold as well.

If your inventory is full when you sell a piece of loot, the shards will go to the scavenger for 30 minute. If you close the game, go between the Town, Private Tavern, or a map, the Scavenger will still have it for 30 minutes. Once 30 minutes has past, you won’t be able to reclaim them from him.

Orbs

Orbs have been relics that we’ve received a ton of community feedback on. To keep things balanced and functioning, defense speed has a cap. Orbs specifically were avoided by defenders due to them not being effective in providing optimal stats throughout the entirety of progression. Every relic type should be useful in most levels of play, and Orbs were not able to do this to a level we were content with.

Based off community feedback, we’ve removed Orbs from loot tables. This means that you won’t see orbs dropping, but instead another piece of gear will be dropping in its place. Current orbs will not be removed from your inventory or equipment. With orbs removed, you’ll be receiving more loot that will help you progress!

Hero Changes

Mystic

• Call To Madness

  • Cooldown increased 10 seconds to 20 seconds.

    • Previously players were able to infinitely confuse a lane when using the inspiration shard.

Series EV-2

• Weapons Manufacturer

  • Adjusted range scaling with the introduction of Vicious Strikes Hyper Shard.

General

Weapons

• Shadowflame Dagger

  • Projectile life-time reduced to 2 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where comparing items on the ground was not properly appearing.

• Fixed a homing issue with Shadowflame Dagger.

• Fixed an issue where Dryad could build a third permanent hornet nest.
  

• Fixed an issue with Deadly/Vicious Strikes being removed from a world tree, that allowed defenses to remain outside the reduced range.

• Fixed an issue where pressing Esc to leave the Emporium or Inventory caused lag spikes.

• Fixed an issue where clicking To Hub would freeze players and return them to the title screen.

• Fixed an issue where Power of Storms shard was restoring 56 mana instead of 60.

• Fixed an issue with the Limit Break challenge not properly awarding score bonuses.

• Fixed an issue with the Heroic Power shard not performing correctly.

• Fixed an issue where failing the Kobold Bling King map allowed you to continue playing the map.

• Removed Consecutive Win row on scoreboard when it would appropriately show “0”.

• Fixed an issue that disconnected players loading into Forest Biome on Xbox One.

• Fixed an issue with various shards using incorrect values.

• Fixed an issue where Join Game and Create Game were placed incorrectly.

Even More On The Way...

Mastery is just the tip of the iceberg for you, Defenders. While you conquer Gran’s difficult challenges and tests, you’ll attain the strength needed to protect Etheria and the citizens of Dragonfall from the darkness that lies ahead. We’ll learn more as Gran, the Defense Council, and the Abyss Lord decipher the Isomicon in the weeks to come!

We are eternally grateful for your support, Defenders, and will be providing more information on the upcoming power of the Ancients over time.

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team

The Isomicon reveals its first secrets! While you’ve been defending against the evil that threatens Etheria, Gran Ma’ster found a way to imbue certain shards with incredible power. These hyper shards contain a very unstable power so she is only providing them to defenders that prove their mastery of the defensive arts. At the Gran Ma’ster’s behest, the Defense Council devised a set of challenges for the heroes to overcome.

With the aid of the Abyss Lord, Gran Ma’ster continues to delve deeper into the forbidden knowledge contained within the Isomicon. There’s still much more to decrypt, but there is a growing concern from what’s been revealed — dark forces are coming, and we are NOT ready. Go forth, Defenders! Prepare yourselves, and PROTECT ETHERIA!

Greetings Defenders,

It's time to take a look at the future of Dungeon Defenders II by talking about our upcoming 1.2 Update, Ancient's Prelude. This is a monster of an update, introducing some amazing features that will push your limits. Not only are you getting some awesome new content, but you’re also getting numerous bug fixes, balance changes, quality-of-life fixes and more! Thanks for giving us feedback as we continue to evolve the game into its final form!

In Ancient’s Prelude, we are introducing Mastery, a game mode that challenges your ability as a defender and rewards you with great power. In addition to a new game mode, we’re introducing Flair! Flair is another cosmetic system that will take the look of your heroes to the next level. Shards and Flair aren’t the only rewards though.  We’ll be handing out rewards such as golden pets, Ascension levels, gold, and more!

This is only the beginning of some serious changes in the world of Etheria and we can’t wait until the Isomicon reveals more information about what’s to come. There have been whispers of an endless level of challenge on the horizon.

New Game Mode: MASTERY

The new game mode, Mastery, provides access to all Chaos maps, allowing you to choose where and how you progress. Gran Ma’ster requires you to complete up to five challenges per map, each indicated with a star on the Mastery progress bar. She’s not going to be making it easy either. In order to earn the full five stars on each map, you’ll need to complete all of the challenges together. All stars are earned one time, so once you’ve five starred a map, you have mastered the challenges presented and will have earned all the rewards it has to offer. The power contained within the Hyper Shards is unstable, so only Defenders that prove their might may equip them.

The discovery of a secret tome could lead to new power! During a recon mission, Etherian Army scouts discovered a glowing sarcophagus within an ancient catacomb. The container exploded revealing the source of the light -- the Isomicon, the fabled tome of an ancient race of warriors. According to the Gran Ma’ster, the Isomicon reveals long-lost secrets to battle the Old Ones.

Producing the power within these secrets is incredibly difficult, and only the Gran Ma’ster has the expertise to create such power. With such demanding requirements, she’s creating challenges to find Defenders who are worthy to wield it. She says more information will come next week!



Greetings Defenders,

Patch 1.1.1 is out now! This patch is focused on addressing a couple balance issues that you as a community have helped raise awareness to, as well as taking care of some nasty bugs. We will have some pretty big announcements in the coming weeks, so while these patches may not be very heavy, consider them the calm before the storm. You've been warned. Now let's get into some patch notes!

General Balance

• Cybork

  • EMP stun duration reduced to 12 seconds from 15 seconds.

• Thorc

  • EMP stun duration reduced to 18 seconds from 60 seconds.

• EMP Kobold Flier

  • EMP stun duration reduced to 20 seconds from 30 seconds.

• Zapper

  • Stun duration reduced to 30 seconds from 45 seconds..

Hero Changes

Huntress

Towers

• Blaze Balloon

  • Defense Power ratio increased to 4.25 from 3.5.

  • Critical damage ratio increased accordingly.

Shards

• Blazing Phoenix

  • Max damage increased to 5000% Defense Power from 850% Defense Power.

  • Phoenix projectile increased in size.

  • Phoenix projectile speed slowed slightly.

Monk

Abilities

• Pole Smash

  • No longer causes the Monk to get stuck on top of enemies if used mid-air above enemies.

  • Can now turn/target during the animation.

Series EV2

General

• Sword Container

  • Fire rate increased to 1 per second from 1 per 2 seconds.

  • Reduced firing width.

  • Reduced pellet number to 20 from 30.

  • Increased pellet lifespan.

  • Increased secondary lifespan.

  • Heat reduction reduced to 15 from 22.

• Various EV2 weapons have had their firing rates tuned.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with inventory tooltips going off the bottom of the screen when comparing items.

• Fixed an issues where certain regions were unable to be selected.

• Fixed an issue with sorting weapons, armor, and relics when using a controller.

• Fixed an issue where the end game “Press G” message was not appearing.

• Monk Skyguard Tower properly tracks damage for ‘Clear Skies’ challenge.

• Fixed typos in Hailstorm Tower description.

• Removed outdated attention/aggro text from several towers.

• Fixed an issue where players weren’t getting sent back to hubs after Incursions/Campaign sessions.

• Chlorophyte Arrows no longer changes color when upgrading.

• Fixed an issue causing players to get the “Press G to Ready Up” notification stuck.

• Fixed a bug where boost aura was causing Hailstorm Tower to increase enemy health instead of dealing damage.

Greetings Defenders,

Update 1.1, the Wizards and Blizzards Update, has arrived! Our focus for this update is the arrival of the Adept (our new gender-swap hero), bringing Revenge of the Yetis Incursion to all platforms, updating many important systems, and paving the way for the addition of larger modes and variety to Etheria in our coming updates. Let’s dive into some chilling patch notes!

New Hero:  The Adept!

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

The Adept is our new gender-swap hero, and with her comes two new abilities and one new defense:

New Ability:  Arcane Bubble

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

New Ability:  Arc Lightning

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

New Defense:  Hailstorm Tower

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

Try the Adept for Free!

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

Check the Adept’s section of our Hero section for more information on abilities, towers, and shards!

Revenge of the Yeti’s Incursion on PS4 & PC

This frosty Incursion is available on PS4 and PC in this update! Prepare to face the mighty Yeti and his abominable new minions on the Hot Springs map. Revenge of the Yetis is available in Chaos VII, prepare to overcome the cold or get frozen in your tracks.  Succeed in doing so, and gain the power that the Withering Blast Shard has to offer! 

Double EXP Weekend!

To help beat back this frozen behemoth and his horde of frozen allies, level up twice as fast this weekend!  The event runs from:

• Start:  Friday 4:00 PM EDT
• End:  Monday 4:00 PM EDT
  
  

User Interface

• Added a rotating preview model to hero customization.

• Last hero focused in customization will now be the focus when returning to your inventory.

• When going to hero details window, gamepad focus is set to the weapon slot.

Matchmaking

This update implements some major backend matchmaking updates, which we’ll be able to grow and improve the matchmaking experience upon. With this particular update, we’ve been able to address the following:

• Ascension minimum level requirement will be enforced when transitioning to the next map.

• Joining nearly completed matches is now less likely.

• Sticking with party members between maps has been improved.

• Custom session name will now preserve between maps.

• Default session name will change and update between maps.

• NOTE: Periodically the ‘Next Map’ option will instead send you back to the Tavern / Town. This is a temporary server-relief measure that we hope to remove in a future patch.
  

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

Gamepad Improvements

• Swapping Heroes, in both gameplay and at the Inventory screens, now uses D-Pad directions without the L1 (PS4) or LB (Xbox) combination.

• Selecting an item automatically focuses a valid equipment spot.

  • Selecting a helmet highlights the helmet slot on the current selected hero.

  • Selecting a relic chooses the first relic slot.

• Quest UI, Ping, etc. have been moved to L1 (PS4) and LB (Xbox) + D-Pad directions.

• Controller key bindings have been updated in the Options menu.
  

Leaderboards

We've introduced a new leaderboard feature on our site!  

• Compare the top scores on individual maps.
• Compare scores for both single and multiplayer sessions.

Click here to check it out and see where you rank!

General Balance and Features

• Multiplayer Enemy Health Scaling

  • Enemies now only gain 20% health per additional player (was 25%).

• Wisps are back on all game modes!

Hero Updates

Abyss Lord

Ascension Powers

• Abyss Knight Talent increases damage dealt and scales with ability power.
  

Adept

Abilities

• Arcane Bubble: The Adept creates a pulsing shield that reflects all enemy projectiles and periodically stuns all enemies within.

• • Mana Cost: 80

  • Cooldown: 25 seconds

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

  • Mana Cost: 35

  • No Cooldown

Towers

• Hailstorm Tower: An anti-air tower that fires a barrage of damaging ice shards at flying enemies, which also weakens them to follow-up attacks.

  • Defense Cost: 40 DU

Shards

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

  • Found in the Chaos 1 Shard Pack.

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

  • Found in the Chaos 2 Shard Pack.

• Icefall:  Hailstorm Tower attacks have a X% chance on hit to freeze enemies for 2 seconds.

  • Found in the Chaos 2 Shard Pack.

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

  • Found in the Chaos 3 Shard Pack.

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

  • Found in the Chaos 4 Shard Pack.

• Marking Bubble: Arcane Bubble will place a Mark on all enemies in the initial spawn area and increases Mark count X.

  • Found in the Chaos 4 Shard Pack.

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

  • Found in the Chaos 5 Shard Pack.

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

  • Found in the Chaos 6 Shard Pack.

• Glacier: Every 10 attacks, Hailstorm Tower fires an icy boulder that explodes on impact dealing X% Defense Power as damage in a small area.
  

  • Found in the Chaos 7 Shard Pack.
    

• Withering Blast: Enemies damaged by Arcane Barrier take 20% increased damage for 3 seconds. 
  

  • Found in the Revenge of the Yeti Incursion.

Apprentice

General

• Secondary Attack projectiles no longer magnetize to targets, ensuring they always travel in a straight line. This increases their accuracy when trying to pierce and Mark multiple targets. Adept’s secondary attacks have been updated to use this new targeting as well!

Abilities

• Arcane Volley

  • Due to an improvement in trajectory and visibility, projectiles reach their Marked targets sooner.

Shard

• Added - Withering Blast: Enemies damaged by Arcane Barrier take 20% increased damage for 3 seconds. 
  

  • Found in the Revenge of the Yeti Incursion.

• Magic Missile

  • Updated the description.

Huntress

Abilities

• Oil Flask

  • Animation speed greatly increased.

Monk

Towers

• Skyguard Tower: Skyguard Tower has been bugged for a while, firing 4 projectiles from a single barrel instead of 1 from each of its 3 barrels. It now fires correctly, and we had to rebalance the damage-per shot to balance out kill times on packs of enemies.

  • Defense Power ratio increased 5.5 -> 6.5 (+18%)

  • Projectiles per attack decreased from 4 to 3 (-25%)

Mystic

Towers

• Serpent's Coil:  Now affected by Defense Speed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue partially with mobs walking over blockades by increasing blockade height.  Please watch where you step.

• Fixed multiple split-screen crashing issues.

• Fixed multiple split-screen party invite issues.

• Fixed multiple split-screen party continuity issues.

• Fixed an issue where scrolling without a gamepad was not responding correctly.

• Fixed an issue when trying to turn off gamepad control without having a gamepad connected.

• Fixed an issue in sewers where North East sub-objective destruction was causing incorrect spawns the following waves.

• Fixed an issue where tower skins for the Apprentice, Huntress, and Squire were not purchasable.

• Fixed an issue where shop tooltips were appearing offscreen in 1920x1080.

• Fixed a description issue with Dragon Stance; changed to “Each enemy hit with a primary attack.”

• Fixed an issue where the Dryad controlled worse in the air than other heroes.

• Fixed an issue where the 8-bit skin for Dryad was not purchasable.

• Fixed an issue with the Weapon Manufacturer Damage talent display.

• Fixed Scourge Dragon Pet ability tooltip to include it happens “for the first 5 hits.”

• Fixed an issue where Initiate’s hand customization was not saving when exiting the shop.

• Added description to Betsy shards to warn users that only one of the shards will be active at any given time. (Equipping a Betsy shard to a Betsy weapon does not duplicate the effect).

• Fixed an issue where the Prince’s cannons were not dealing damage.

• Fixed an issue where EV2’s Buff Beam would flash red on the minimap without being low health.

• Fixed an issue where Drenching Broomnado shard’s drench was not working with storm damage correctly.

• Fixed an issue where upgrading an item could increase its required level.

• Removed unneeded tooltips for Hero Customization top row.

• Fixed default Shinobi Monk Head’s eyes.

• Fixed an issue where accessories descriptions weren’t displaying correctly.

• Fixed an issue with PS4 shader cache.

• Fixed an issue where the Xbox store was referencing the PlayStation store when attempting to purchase with insufficient gems.

• Fixed an issue where Hero Levels and Ascension Levels were not displaying correctly on the HUD hero name-plate.

• Concussive Chi shard now only affects one target at a time, has the same behavior as Overwhelm.

• Fixed accessory tab segment bug.

• Fixed several audio special effects that played louder out of the left channel, and all music playing louder out of the right channel.

• Fixed several spelling errors with shards.

• Added default skin names for towers.

• Fixed a bug where Demon Scythe’s secondary fire was dealing incredibly high critical damage.

• Demon Scythe’s secondary attacks should now fire in a straight line, using the same improvements as Magic Staves for the Apprentice / Adept.

• Fixed an issue where the gamepad on Xbox incorrectly displayed the R and L button bindings.

• Fixed several spelling errors with equipment.

• Removed option for Gunwitch to select tower skins.

• Lowered volume level of rivers.

• Fixed an issue where a number of shards were using negative numbers in their tooltips.

• Fixed an issue where loading screen pro-tip referenced practice maps.

• Fixed a volume issue with critical hit and headshot sounds.

• Fixed an issue with shop data and scrolling with gamepads.

• Fixed a sound issue when choosing a location for a tower.

• Removed an effect that was a remnant from Huntress’s Explosive Trap.

• Fixed a material issue for forest maps.

• Fixed a focus issue with the Petrinarian UI.

• Fixed default skins to not have tooltips.

• Added death volume in sections of Demon’s Lair/Molten Citadel map.

• Fixed an issue with gamepad performance on the Hero Customization window.

• Fixed an issue when opening the wartable when not in a party.

• Demon’s Lair Incursion steps for completion typo corrected (previous Demon Slayer Incursion)