Your thoughts on new Mutators!

Hey guys!

We are working hard on new and exciting content and we want to hear from you! 

Currently we are looking into the possibility of adding lane Mutators to a new mode. By Mutators, we mean effects that slightly modify how the map, a specific lane, or specific enemies will play out. For example, how about enemies that have giant heads and take extra headshot damage, but less regular damage? Or a Mutator that doubles enemy health, but also doubles the damage output of Environmental Traps?

We're looking for more Mutator ideas! Please post your ideas here and we'll funnel the feedback to the design team!

Enemies that take Nx Hero Damage but no Ability damage, Enemies that take only Ability to take down. 

Resist to specific element, or weaker to a specific element.

More damage if combined elements like oil and fire, but less damage if one type of damage.

Enemies reflect element, so if enemy has reflection and you use storm you get electrocuted.

Enemies don't get damaged by defences or enemies don't get damaged by hero damage (like pure strategy).

Super slow kobolds that have high hp and damage (screaming as they slowmo run down the lane for a long time as you struggle to take 'em out and can see your life flashing before your eyes)

Minibosses only spawn in all lanes, a little bit of stagger time between each spawn (no more than 2 simultaneous spawns)

Goblin copters that deposit minibosses halfway down lanes

Skeletons and dark mage/Malthius swarms

Kobolds with heavy armor that needs to be destroyed before they can be affected by damage or stuns

Trojan horse siege roller that must be destroyed before the hordes inside can even be damaged

Well this could be endless! and could lead to some fun laughs!

Some ideas below....with some random names because - why not!

random projectiles - you fire chicken eggs! or even if randomly your weapon spawned a mini boss in the map where you were stood ( but it could only attack defences or you not the crystal)

Super slow mode wave - reduced enemies but everything moves really slowly even you! ( used to love picking up a bow that had negative speed on dd1 and could run faster than my arrows)

The floor is lava mode - you have to parkour around a map - every time you touch the floor a few more enemies spawn or it heals enemies in the map 

Mini apocalypse - all enemies that spawn are super small and super fast! 

Gicanta mode - enemies that spawn are all really big - lots of health and really slow!

Horde mode - some enemies that spawn completely ignore defences and just hunt you down

Random timer - a timer ticks down every 30 seconds - upon doing so a random boss spawns at a random entrance to the map

Healing hell - enemies that spawn all have a healing aspect ( recover xhp a second)

Ticking Time bomb - a special enemy spawns adding a bomb to x amount of defences - a timer begins - if the enemy isn't destroyed in the timer those defences explode

DPS/DU seesaw - the more DU you use the less damage you deal -- don't use as much DU deal more damage

Hero heaven - each wave enemies are immune to a certain character (in your deck) you must change to another character ( including towers) to kill them

Mirror mirror - controls are reversed for some time ( down is up , left is right etc)

Confused enemies - randomly an enemy swaps teams - he attacks enemies and on death spawns a random tower ( can go over the du cap )

Trick Or Treat  at the end of each wave you have a choice of opening a box - this can give you mana, du, speed, or cause more enemies to spawn in a lane or even activate any of the mutators perhaps!

I could do this all day.... 

Elementalists - enemies that spawn are immune or can damage in a certain element. 

Pogo gogo - enemies have a chance to completely absorb damage but to take recoil and bounce off surfaces

Deflective walls - walls deflect bullets up to x amount of times

Raining enemies - enemies fall from the sky 

rising dead -  enemies spawn from the ground

target practice - certain enemies spawn completely invulnerable except for a small target area they have on their person

Catch me if you can - enemies become scared and run out of the map - then they return at another door

That's all for now - i need sleep :D

Just add a lane with bosses pls?I mean it. it would be fun to struggle against all of them at once. *except siege*

Can't catch this - The further mobs travel down a lane the faster they get.

Missed one or two - Mobs explode and spawn two smaller weaker versions of themselves on death.

What's the hurry? - Mobs within a certain radius slow hero movement and attack speed.

For the legion! - Bombers no longer damage towers/heroes but instead when triggered explode into other mobs giving them temporary buffs. EX: Increased speed, health, damage.

We will get that later - Mobs target towers with a DOT attack that stacks and doesn't stop unless a repair is started or an upgrade completed.

Now you see me, now you don't - Enemies fade in and out essentially becoming transparent at times. During the fade out period they cannot be damaged.

We're Grounded - Bombers do not explode when killed but land and turn into ground based mobs instead.

Tricked you - Mobs that get half way down a lane then teleport to another random lane halfway down that lane also.

Two in one - When a boss/mini-boss is at half health it re-spawns as a different boss/mini-boss.

Fly like an eagle - All enemies in a lane levitate/fly so they can only be targeted by towers that can hit flyers. (Excluding bosses)

Unleash the Beast! - A lane spawns only berzerkers.

Reversed Mechanic : Mobs (or a specific one) is able to put a debuff on a tower , wich will force players to use blue mana for repair a tower instead of green mana (upgrade will still use green) , if an another mob put the debuff again on a "reversed" tower , the tower will be turn back to normal (so debuff will be canceled , green mana will be needed again for repair it , like as actual behavior) , the tower will have blue colored filter on it for recognize this debuff.

Time Bomb : Mobs (or a specific one) is able to put a timer on a tower (10sec ?) , when it reach 0 the tower explode , for cancel that the players just need to start a repair on the tower , 25 green mana cost (or more ? or less ?) but will only cancel the timer.
Timed tower cannot be fixed if damaged , If players want repair a damaged timed tower , he must first stop the timer , then use repair mode again (so second repair will act like a normal fix) , the tower could have a red colored filter on it for recognize this debuff.



sry for my english.

Thinking Hurts - Mobs are immune to all player damage and can only be damaged by defensive buildings.

The Walking Dead - Mobs that are killed are reanimated as skeletons.

Can't Touch This - Mobs are immune to all defensive building damage and can phase through blockades.

Will mutators someday be added to end game trials to spice things up a bit?

As for suggestions:

Something feels different... - The more hp enemies have, the smaller and faster they are. And vise versa. So, giant goblins, tiny lady orcs etc.

Weird science - Any overkill damage dealt to regular enemies is added to the final boss hp (and possibly damage).

The Thing - At the start of a round, a curse aura appears on the ground and slowly follows the players, inflicting damage and slow effect if it's gets close enough. Also, stun towers and make enemies invincible if they are near the aura.

@TrendyJose quote:

-snip-

Quick question if you will... Will these be per lane per map? As in, the effect rolls at the start of the map, but doesn't change between waves. Because I seriously hope it does not. It's one of the issues that has always been wrong with the current watered down lane "mutators". Speaking of which... will those frankly annoying things be removed finally with this new game mode?

Otherwise, a new game mode sounds great. Could do a lot for the lack of meaningful choices end game.

Bosses with a ghost ability to phase through towers but moves slowly 

This would be a perfect time to go old school for some of the mutators by bringing back some of the DD1  challenges. 

No Towers Allowed - Finish all the waves with no towers. Are your heroes strong enough?

Tower Defence Strategy - Finish all the waves with only towers. Hero and pet attacks and abilities are locked.

Hardcore Mode - Enemies have more health and deal more damage. The player only has one life per wave. Can you survive?

Unlikely Allies - Protect your friendly gobu from the enemy! (I know a certain someone who would love this!)

Warping Core - The crystal will warp to a different place at random intervals. Stay alert! It might move in front of your defences! 

Moving Core - Instead of warping the crystal will constantly move around the map. Make sure you keep up with it. 

Raining Gobus - Gobus are falling from the sky instead of coming from the lane! Conventional lane tactics won't work!

Magical Malthius - Malthius has managed to create invincible clones of himself but his spell isn't perfect. Find the vulnerable Malthius clone and defeat it to make another one vulnerable. Defeat them all to win!

Ogre Crush - Incoming Ogre army! 

Kobold Kaboom - Incoming waves of Kobolds! Will your defences hold up to them? (Could also include EMP Kobolds at higher levels)

Taunted! - One player at random is chosen as the legions next meal and they want it badly! Enemies will chase down the player and the player moves slower and has a hard time jumping.

Air Superiority - The flying squadron has arrived. Take out these troublesome air enemies before they get to your crystal.

Would love to see what Argick posted above ^. I miss that about DD1 greatly. 

Mutators sound like a fun idea, but be careful not to make the game any more cookie cutter (if being added to Chaos Trials/Incursions). Chaos Trials already limit the options you have for towers, so i would be careful about adding enemies that may be immune, or close to immune, to auras on a map that you can only really use auras, and vice versa. Also, i wouldn't add anything that would ruin solo play, or multiplayer play. Penalizing people for playing solo or with a group would be discouraging. Fun Gimmicks that i can think of off the top of my head that could be challenging but not game ruining would be; 

Spirit Link - Enemies in a lane all share a health pool, so you cannot target specific enemies to kill first. This would probably be best to not apply to bosses, but it could work either way.

Reaching - Ranged enemies have their attack range increased by x amount. Could decrease damage to help compensate or increase their damage if that's too easy. 

Kobold Party - For this wave, everything that spawns is a kobold, including the boss. 

Snipers - Hex throwers target blockades last. If there is any tower in their range to attack that isn't a blockade, or any hero for that matter, they will attack them first.

Jetpacks - The weakest enemies, goblins i think, have jetpacks. If they make it to a blockade alive, they will fly over it and continue to the crystal cart. 

Soft Spot - You can pick any enemy or make a new enemy for this, but they can only be damaged by a hero jumping on their heads. They are immune to any other damage. 

Bezerker - Enemies in this lane have their attack damage/health/speed increased by x% for every 15 seconds they are alive in this lane. 

One of a kind - Make entire lanes spawn just one enemy for this round. 100 hex throwers, 100 kobolds, 100 malthius etc. Would be very problematic and it would take a lot of strategy to deal with each lane differently. 

Overwhelmed - Have the entire wave spawn from one lane.

Overloaded - Have all of the bosses spawn at the same time on one lane. 

Mini-me - have miniature bosses spawn with the same abilities as their bigger versions, but with much less health and damage. IE: a whole wave of mini ogres, mini skeletons, mini malthius etc. Only on one lane at a time.

Fire breathers - Weakest units, goblins, now have 5-10x more health and breathe fire from approximately half the distance that hex throwers can.

Mecha Dragon - That purple dragon that shoots purple fire (can't think of the name) is now 5 times its normal size, attack damage and health. Essentially, make it into an added mini boss with armor and the only way to damage it is by shooting it in the mouth. 

-

@enigma007 quote:

Will mutators someday be added to end game trials to spice things up a bit?

Nothing is out the question =).

@xArcAngel quote:

@TrendyJose quote:

-snip-

Quick question if you will... Will these be per lane per map? As in, the effect rolls at the start of the map, but doesn't change between waves. Because I seriously hope it does not. It's one of the issues that has always been wrong with the current watered down lane "mutators". Speaking of which... will those frankly annoying things be removed finally with this new game mode?

Otherwise, a new game mode sounds great. Could do a lot for the lack of meaningful choices end game.

Thanks for the feedback! What is it that you don't like about the Mutators per lane? Is that you don't like the current ones, or is the system itself you don't like? 

All of your guys' opinion is super important and we are definitively committed to hear you out in things like these.

@Argick quote:

Kobold Kaboom - Incoming waves of Kobolds! Will your defences hold up to them? (Could also include EMP Kobolds at higher levels)

@Derek564 quote:

Kobold Party - For this wave, everything that spawns is a kobold, including the boss. 

Fun fact: this is basically already in the game!  I had a kobold only mutator wave in the campaign when farming one of the ruins maps for a daily.

@TrendyJose quote:

@xArcAngel quote:

Quick question if you will... Will these be per lane per map? As in, the effect rolls at the start of the map, but doesn't change between waves. Because I seriously hope it does not. It's one of the issues that has always been wrong with the current watered down lane "mutators". Speaking of which... will those frankly annoying things be removed finally with this new game mode?

Otherwise, a new game mode sounds great. Could do a lot for the lack of meaningful choices end game.

Thanks for the feedback! What is it that you don't like about the Mutators per lane? Is that you don't like the current ones, or is the system itself you don't like? 

All of your guys' opinion is super important and we are definitively committed to hear you out in things like these.

Reasons why not to post you're tired... My bad, failed English in that post. I mean't that I was hoping that the new mutators would lock from the start of the map, and do not re-roll like the current ones do. With rebuilding a lane every wave being impossible in a practical sense, the current ones are something that you can't really build around since they change every wave. Because of that I was wanting to know how these new ones would be handled in that regard.

And as to why I don't like the current "mutators" that are in the game atm (i.e. the lane passives), it's mostly because of this re-rolling nature. Since you can't really plan for them with them changing every wave, it makes it something we just ignore (I imagine a lot of new players don't even notice they exist actually). The only time we might notice them is if we try to do a fun gimmicky knockup build, and that grounded passive appears. Which would be acceptable if it wasn't RNG to me.

Sorry for the confusion. Complete flub by me.

Wow some great ideas in here - i love that i started a little trend and everyone followed suit - community = awesome :D

Ps. Sorry trendyjose if the trend was completly the opposite of what you wanted.... but at least we gave you 100 new challenge levels! :D

@xArcAngel quote:

@TrendyJose quote:

@xArcAngel quote:

Quick question if you will... Will these be per lane per map? As in, the effect rolls at the start of the map, but doesn't change between waves. Because I seriously hope it does not. It's one of the issues that has always been wrong with the current watered down lane "mutators". Speaking of which... will those frankly annoying things be removed finally with this new game mode?

Otherwise, a new game mode sounds great. Could do a lot for the lack of meaningful choices end game.

Thanks for the feedback! What is it that you don't like about the Mutators per lane? Is that you don't like the current ones, or is the system itself you don't like? 

All of your guys' opinion is super important and we are definitively committed to hear you out in things like these.

Reasons why not to post you're tired... My bad, failed English in that post. I mean't that I was hoping that the new mutators would lock from the start of the map, and do not re-roll like the current ones do. With rebuilding a lane every wave being impossible in a practical sense, the current ones are something that you can't really build around since they change every wave. Because of that I was wanting to know how these new ones would be handled in that regard.

And as to why I don't like the current "mutators" that are in the game atm (i.e. the lane passives), it's mostly because of this re-rolling nature. Since you can't really plan for them with them changing every wave, it makes it something we just ignore (I imagine a lot of new players don't even notice they exist actually). The only time we might notice them is if we try to do a fun gimmicky knockup build, and that grounded passive appears. Which would be acceptable if it wasn't RNG to me.

Sorry for the confusion. Complete flub by me.

Hahaha, no worries. That is definitively good feedback, thanks!

@commandandco quote:

Wow some great ideas in here - i love that i started a little trend and everyone followed suit - community = awesome :D

Ps. Sorry trendyjose if the trend was completly the opposite of what you wanted.... but at least we gave you 100 new challenge levels! :D

Oh, not at all! This is just what we wanted ;D. You guys have some great ideas!

Great idea, devs! Here's some good ideas:

Risk yet reward: Some enemies rise from the ground upon death (excluding bosses) but if their undead form is killed they drop lots of loot.

I'm faster than I look: Slower enemies now move insanely fast, but normally faster enemies now move slower.

Betrayal: Some enemies (excluding bosses) have extra health but will sometimes start killing other enemies.

Distraction: Some enemies (excluding bosses) are superpowered but sometimes will distract enemies and cause them to turn around.

Eyes on the skies: Enemies drop from the air instead of coming out of portals. It'd be the same difficulty as it is now, just fun :D

360 noscope: On the affected lane, you now preform crazy tricks on enemies instead of normal slices, shots, arrows, whacks, etc. You'd still do the same amount of damage, but it'd look a hell lot cooler :)

A true challenge: 20% of enemies in the affected lane are supersized and stomp on the ground, insta-killing heroes unfortunate enough to get squashed, and unleashing a shockwave that does massive damage, and could insta-kill depending on your health. However, the stomps and the shockwave would damage and possibly kill / squash enemies that are not supersized (Excluding bosses, they would be immune to both the shockwave and stomp) giving you a slight advantage over the enemies not affected. The stomp would crush the core(s) in 5 stomps, and it would take 10 shockwaves to defeat a core.

I think some mutator effect one lane some other effect one round. (like kobold invasion)

I never miss: You must appease no-scoped god.If you miss a ranged attack almighty zaps you and stun you for 2 second.If you dont attack anything for 10 second you make almighty angry he vaporized you.(kills you shortly)

The assassin, with the sassin: Only assasin wave ( don't look at me like that i'm scared.)

Are we doing it?! Now?! Right here?! : Only spawns colossal goblins.They take %50 less damage from normal attacks and defenses unless you hit back of their heads.

Don't kill the goblin that lays the golden egg: A golden goblin spawn when the lane starts.Has higher hp than normal enemies.Deal less damage.If he is only enemy at the end of lane he drops 1m gold (or higher based on diffuclulty and which raund you play)  and runs away.If you kill it before that you get nothing. 

EXPLOSIONS?!?!?!? :Enemies have %25 more hp and have %10 damage increase but when they die they explode deal their %5 hp as a damage in a small area around the enemy. Because why not.

I believe that since almost if not all crystals are on carts there should be a mode or something that uses it say  were the cart is moving and you need to set up defenses as the cart stops for repairs or something or just add more game modes that will give the game more verity similar to invasions but different

What about map spesific mutators , like

• Sometimes Betsy creates temporary curse zone for Greystone Plaza.
• Toxic slime rain for for Forest Biome.When they fall to the ground they deal damage to player.So you must watch your head when slime rains.

I'll be honest; any mutator that makes the tower defense aspect of the game more difficult to idle in, is a concept I won't enjoy. Although I'm sure it will be more of a voluntary game mode versus the forced Chaos Trial nonsense.

A fun alternative mode is essentially following the spirit of DD1. So I'm all for it in that regard.

Also yes, Strategy mode should return :)

@commandandco quote:

The floor is lava mode - you have to parkour around a map - every time you touch the floor a few more enemies spawn or it heals enemies in the map

Hahaha, YES! This would be amazing!!!  This would capitalize on how fun it already is to try and get around the map as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Personally I'd rather it just work like the classic rules of "the floor is lava" -- if you touch the lava too long, you die.

In DD that would translate to, the lava depletes your health over time. I think it should drain it really fast--the idea should be that you don't want to touch the ground at all. So just touching it 2-4 times will kill you, regardless of how OP you are.

id start small with these mutators, let the player base try dipping their toes in the water before adding a bunch of massively game changing ones. Add smaller ones that dont effect strategy too much then if most of us like it, add in more in the next patch.

Also I hope this new game mode is a freedom mode, where we can pick what map we do, can use whatever towers we desire, whatever heroes we want. Being able to checkmark extra things we want, like have chaos enemies included, have random enemy spawns, changing lanes, etc whatever is an extra thing, the most important thing is we get the choice and freedom back that chaos has robbed us of.