DEFENDERS,

Today we are putting out a small, but very impactful, update where we are happy to welcome back the Session Browser on Steam and PlayStation! (that feels reallllly good to finally type out btw) In addition to bringing back the browser, we are also enabling the DDGR hero costumes, changing the Dark Elf Warrior, and fixing some frustrating bugs!

This feature is back, you’re once again able to find other Defenders to play with. We’re sorry it was gone for a while, but it was out of our hands and took a lot of work to get back up and running. This is currently live for Steam and PlayStation, with Switch and Xbox coming at a later date



As promised in our release of Dungeon Defenders Going Rogue, we’ve provided five free costumes that were released in DDGR for DDA! You should be able to select them through transmog once you have the update.

• Removed the Rifted Dark Elf Warrior Cloaking mechanic
  
  • This means that towers will be able to target and attack rifted warriors without needing to be a fusion tower.
• Greatly increased the transparency of the Reflect Field’s texture to be less distracting.

• Fixed a bug where Aim Assist was targeting defeated enemies
  
• Fixed a bug where Inventory Stats points would mess up when you swap heroes on the stat page
  
• Fixed a bug where XP/Radial Bars were not properly showing values
  
• Fixed a bug where applying stat points changes in some cases would get rejected and return to the unspent pool
  
• Fixed a bug where heroes would sometimes display -1 health
  
  • Let us know if you see this in game. We believe we fixed this, but it’s hard to reproduce on our end.
• Fixed a bug where the secret room stairs didn't have collision, causing you to fall through

We’re currently working on getting these patches for Xbox and Switch. Because of the changes we had to make to multiplayer, the Session Browser requires custom setup on each platform with their own requirements. We’ll keep you posted as to when those are coming out. We are continuing to work on DDA, using your feedback to greatly influence the things we work on, with more surveys on the way to get more of your feedback. We’re wanting to get more small patches out between now and Episode 2 that address some issues that have been outlined as we continue our work. There’s also more updates for DD2 and DDGR on the way, there’s so much we’re doing that we can’t wait to get out to all of you!

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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

Today we are surprising everyone with our newest game: Dungeon Defenders Going Rogue! This is the Chromatic Games take on the roguelite genre using your favorite Etherian Heroes. In Going Rogue you will battle through familiar dungeons, fight waves of enemies, and defeat reimagined bosses in your never-ending quest for loot.

To celebrate our expansion of the Dungeon Defenders Universe, we are now offering bundles with DDA and Going Rogue!


Since Going Rogue is built out of DDA, we wanted to make sure we provided not only a fair price to purchase the game, but also something that rewards people for already owning DDA. That’s where the Dungeon Defenders Bundle comes in! If you own DDA, you’ll be able to purchase Going Rogue for a reduced price, and even better saving during our release sale. However, we’re also releasing with a sale, so purchasing Going Rogue through the bundle will be even less!

For our new Defenders that purchase Going Rogue, but do not own Dungeon Defenders Awakened, you’ll be able to pick DDA up for a reduced price as well through the Dungeon Defenders Bundle as well (and again, even cheaper when there is a sale going on).


We are still hard at work on Episode 2 and so far we have revealed:

• New Map: The Bazaar
  
• New Map: The Lost Metropolis
  
• New Feature: Runes

As you’ll notice in Dungeon Defenders Going Rogue, there’s an overlap in features with runes being very core to the gameplay. These runes serve as an example of what you’ll be seeing in Dungeon Defenders Awakened as well. We’re still working diligently on Episode 2 and didn’t want to leave our brave DDA players hanging without spoiling some new content. So we’re going to talk about something you’ll be getting for free right now, and also giving a sneak peak at our next hero!


First, the thing that you’ll be getting right away. In Dungeon Defenders Awakened, we will be providing the Going Rogue versions of the base four characters FOR FREE. All you’ll need to do is update your game, and you will have them. That’s it. This is something we’re doing for ALL PLATFORMS. While Going Rogue won’t be on consoles right now, we want to make sure that all our Defenders are able to have fun with these new cosmetics! Getting the cosmetics onto consoles is going to be reliant on the certification process, so once they pass the individual platform certifications, we’ll have them out to you.

Second, we gave a very small tease on our next hero, which people had guessed, but we’ll announce it here as part of our Going Rogue celebration.

An exiled general from the armies of the Old One after questioning if war was the answer, The Outcast uses his crystalline arm to call upon forces to aid him on the battlefield.



We’re not going into his kit just quite yet, but the Outcast will be the answer to what many fans have been asking for — a remake of The Summoner that fits within Dungeon Defenders Awakened. This is also another hero that we’ll be bringing into Going Rogue as well. We’re serious about making the most out of all the things we’re creating!

We are very excited about the future of DDA, DD2, and now DDGR. Thanks for all of your support, and we look forward to showing off even more in the near future!

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

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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

It’s about that time that we drop some news on some of the stuff that we’ve been working on. We recently released an update to Dungeon Defenders II, and before that we were talking about our PlayStation development for Dungeon Defenders Awakened, and BEFORE THAT we showed the new maps The Bazaar and The Lost Metropolis. Go over a new map? No shot, we’re getting into a new feature and some other stuff.  Let’s talk about RUNES!

Runes are a new item that Defenders can find throughout their journeys in this cursed realm of Etheria, giving even greater power to take on the foes that appear before you. Starting off, players don’t have access to runes right away. As you level, your heroes unlock rune slots to place the runes acquired throughout your adventures. Rune slots are locked on a level basis, meaning if you have a specific hero type at max level, you’ll have access to all rune slots for that hero type.



Runes are broken down into two different categories and within those categories, two different types:  General Runes and Class Runes, and they work in the following ways:

• General Runes - Runes that can be applied to any hero. These are typically flat stat increasing runes, with some slight variations.
  
  • Hero Runes - Runes that affect your hero’s stats, attacks, and abilities.
    
  • Tower Runes - Runes that affect your tower stats and activation (whether that’s damage or utility).

• Class Runes - Runes that are applied to a specific hero, or specific list of heroes.
  
  • These are also split into Hero and Tower Runes.

These types of runes also mimic the types of rune slots that are available. Once you unlock all rune slots, you’ll have access to two hero slots and four tower slots. These runes, when equipped, will apply to all versions of the hero that you create. This means when you set up your Squire runes, they apply to both your max level Squire, as well as a level 1 Squire that you may have created as well. (Note: runes do not affect characters within Boss Tests)

We’ve talked about types of runes, unlocking runes lots, and a little bit about how they’re applied to your hero, but how the heck do you get these things? Easy, you fight for them! Runes will  drop on specific maps, with various tiers dropping in different difficulties. The higher the difficulty, the better the rune, pretty simple. The rune available is always your highest unlock, so if you have unlocked the hero rune Vitality IX, you will only be able to equip that rune to one of your hero slots, and you’ll need to equip a different rune in the second hero rune slot. No duplications here.

This also means that playing a map on the hardest boss wave of the hardest difficulty will net you the best version of the rune that drops. As we continue to release additional episodes and bosses, this will continue to scale as well, giving you more and more powerful runes to hunt as the challenge increases. This doesn’t mean that all runes drop across the entire game, some just start dropping a lot sooner than others. 



But how do you unlock runes? There’s two requirements to unlock a rune, and that’s hero class level and gold. For General Runes, there are level requirements, but they require you to have any hero at or above their required level; for Hero Runes, it requires one of the applicable classes to be at or above the required level. The stronger the rune, the higher the level and more gold that needs to be spent. Let’s say you get a Rune of Vitality III and you haven’t unlocked Rune of Vitality II. You can still unlock it by paying the cost and having the proper level. You aren’t gated by the previous runes, so whichever highest rune you acquire, if you have the gold to spend and meet the level requirement, you’re able to unlock that rune. Once you unlock a rune, it’s unlocked for all applicable classes. This means you don’t have to unlock a Rune of Vitality IX for each individual hero - once it’s unlocked on one, all classes that could use it, can use it.

Oh yeah, you might want to know some examples of actual runes. Well first, there’s hundreds of these things across every tier, with a rune for pretty much every stat for both heroes and towers. Then on top of that, there are runes similar to some of the item effects that you see on items now (mana regen, projectiles, sunder armor, etc.) And even on top of that, there are runes for pretty much every tower and ability in the game. We’ll go over one for each of the base four heroes:

• Squire
  
  • Explosive Shield - Your Shield Throw now explodes for X damage per enemy hit.

• Huntress
  
  • Focus Fire - Repeated attacks against the same enemy increase damage dealt against that enemy by X. Stacks Y times.

• Apprentice
  
  • Pulsator - When Lightning Tower fires off, it also deals X damage to all enemies within its range.

• Monk
  
  • Iron Fists - Enrage Aura now increases the damage enraged enemies deal by X.

Now that was fun to finally talk about even just a little bit. Let’s keep the fun going, we’ve even got some fun general runes, so that you don’t think all the fun is had on just the class runes:

• Death From Above - While in the air, deal X% increased damage.
  
• Bouncy - Gain X extra jumps.
  
• BURN, BURN, BURN - Fire damage dealing towers also increase damage enemies take by X% for 6 seconds after being hit.
  
• Napalm - Enemies killed by fire damage dealing towers apply a Burn to nearby enemies for X damage over 6 seconds.

Did we list those to show specific combos that might interact with each other? Who knows, probably, or it could have just been random runes chosen. Believe what you will!

Oh yeah. If we get everything up and running proper (we ran into some multiplayer hurdles as we’ve outlined here), some (if not all) runes will be tradeable. So we guess that means trading as well if all our work with these new systems pans out. You’ll still need to meet the requirements to unlock them (gold and level requirements).

Runes. There’s a lot of info. There’s general runes, class runes, ones for heroes, ones for towers, different tiers of runes. We’re still spending a lot of time on these, so pretty much anything here is up to be changed in some way, shape, or form as we continue to develop these. Also if we’re able to get trading in, it’ll be in with this update, and you’ll be able to even trade some runes!

We’re still in our PlayStation certification process and are hoping to have a release date real soon as we squash any of the issues that Sony finds. We’re also working on another DD2 update that is going to be pretty bonkers. Maybe the next thing we talk about has to do with a hero? There’s no telling, but maybe? Probably. 

Did somebody drop this?



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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

As of March 1 we will be ending the use of PlayFab's multiplayer features, and as such we have just released an update for our Steam and Xbox DDA players:

• Multiplayer updated to no longer utilize PlayFab
  
  
  • We're utilizing each platform's multiplayer capabilities, and we are working towards restoring the session browser in the future
• Multiplayer Session Browser temporarily removed
  
  
• Healing Aura and Heal Abilitiy icons updated to match certification requirements.

Players on Steam and Xbox will still be able to play with friends, but will do so by using friend invites. Unfortunately, Switch players will experience some multiplayer downtime as we await certification approval. We will continue to post updates for all of our players as we have them.

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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We’ve talked a bit here and there about some changes that we have to face with multiplayer for Dungeon Defenders Awakened. We wanted to go through and give an update here as to what’s happened, where we’re going, and what you’ll be seeing in the coming weeks and months.


We currently use a system called PlayFab to help manage cloud saves, profiles, and multiplayer. We were notified in late November that what we use for multiplayer within PlayFab would no longer be supported. They had an updated version, but we’d need to rewrite and reconfigure A LOT to make this work, so our three paths were:

• Rework a lot of systems to try and get on PlayFab’s new system.
  
• Rework our multiplayer system to work with Epic Online Systems (EOS).
  
• Rework our multiplayer systems to work with each platform’s multiplayer system.

We spent time looking into each option. PlayFab for multiplayer wasn’t a feasible option as it would require a lot of time, and we’d potentially lose functionality by the due date to get this done (March 1st). Playfab also doesn’t support peer-2-peer, which is what our systems are built around.

Then we looked into EOS, which requires a whole login flow and account creation to work, which would also be a considerable amount of time to get up and running. EOS is also still experimental, so Epic doesn’t recommend using it in production environments, which means we’d have to do some pretty extensive work and testing to make sure we had our bases covered.

Ultimately we landed on using each platform’s multiplayer system to meet our deadline, while still continuing investigating options within EOS. So what does this mean?


We’ll be maintaining the ability to play with your friends online through invites using each platform’s friend system. However, we do lose the ability to have the session browser going this route for when these changes go live. That being said, we are still looking into additional options to get the server browser functionality back up and running (as well as any additional features and fun to add). For now, our main focus is to make sure that in some capacity, playing with friends and fellow Defenders is maintained.

That said, we’re still looking into additional options to get the server browser functionality back up and running, as well as any additional features and fun to add.


Nothing changes here. We’re still using PlayFab for account management, so uploading your profiles to the cloud and pulling them down should not change at all.


With this change, there are a few things that are different on each platform, and that is timing. We are wrapping up our work on these changes and getting things submitted. Here’s the expected timelines for each platform

• PC/Steam - This is the easiest one to update, as we just push updates as they are ready. There is not a certification process, so PC players should not notice any major hiccups.
  
  
• Xbox One/Series X/S - The approval times for this platform tend to be pretty quick (usually a day or so), so players shouldn’t notice any major hiccups.
  
  
• Nintendo Switch - The certification process with anything we push through varies in length (sometimes 5 business days, sometimes 20). We’re not really sure on the length until we submit and find out. This may cause some potential hiccups with players losing multiplayer services until the patch is approved. We’ll be keeping people posted as this develops.
  
  
• PlayStation - We put a survey out previously asking if PlayStation preorders/backers wanted us to include multiplayer services. We sent this survey out via email to thousands of preorders/backers, it was a pretty dead even split:

This is the total votes after removing the unverified votes. Unverified votes were votes that didn’t match our database for preorders/backers (35 unverified votes were removed. 24 that responded “earlier release” and 11 that responded "later release”). Because of how close it was, if it was absolutely necessary to get PlayStation out at a reasonable time, we were going to forego multiplayer. We made this survey to see if that was the option we needed to take, and polling the community was a way to make sure if we did that, it’d be okay to some extent. We’re showing the results here as part of our promised transparency on how development for DDA goes.

That being said, we’re doing multiplayer anyway. We kept working even as the results were coming in and were able to get multiplayer working. We’re currently in our larger certification process for the PlayStation release, adding tweaks and updates to multiplayer as they go through doing their extensive checks. We’ll keep you posted on when the release is as we get more word on where our approval for certification is, but multiplayer should be included on PlayStation release.


As noted, we’re still working with Sony on getting DDA out for PlayStation, we’re almost there! We just got a DD2 update out this week for Embermount, with a hotfix going out today with continued support and work to squash any bugs that appear. We’re plugging away on DDA and some really big work that we’re going to be excited to show and share within the next month.

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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We just put out a new patch for DD2, and didn’t want to leave the DDA fans out in the cold! We have added some new Winterfest cosmetics, and will be having a login event coming up soon for those of you looking to earn even more.

The following cosmetics are all part of our Winter Defenderland DLC that is purchasable on all platforms. Like everything in DDA, anything that is purchased for the game is cosmetic only. These unlock directly in the transmog UI and can be applied to any hero.

Have you been naughty or nice? Krampus knows. Grab this terrifyingly festive costume to strike fear into the hearts of all those who have misbehaved this year.

• Krampus Hat
  
• Krampus Wings
  
• Krampus Tail

While admittedly not the most aerodynamic, you can still show off your holiday cheer with these two new sets of Winterfest themed wings!

Note: Do not attempt to eat the Candy Cane Wings.

Snowflake Wings and Giant Snowflake (this is a single version of the Snowflake wings)



Candy Cane Wings

• Fixed an issue where wings would disappear in Transmog if no accessory was equipped
  
• Fixed an issue where equipping a skin made wings disappear in Transmog

First off, we want to wish everyone in Etheria a safe and happy Winterfest! We hope that everyone gets time to spend with family, friends, and farm the occasional map during this holiday season.

To help facilitate your grind, we will be running a DDA login event from Dec. 22 - Jan. 2. By just logging in, you will receive the Santa Hat to help you celebrate the season!

This is just a slight glimpse of what we are currently working on and we can’t wait to show you more as our progress continues!

DEFENDERS,

Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for you, and to show our appreciation we wanted to give back in the best way we know how: with a free steaming turkey mask! Anyone who logs in from now until December 8th will get our newest transmog, the Harvest Gobbler Mask! Don’t miss out!

Thanksgiving Login Event

Harvest Gobbler Mask (Gobble, gobble!)



From now until December 8th, all defenders who login will receive the Harvest Gobbler Mask, unlocked through the Transmog UI. Make sure to hop on to get this absurdly tantalizing turkey mask before time runs out! Nintendo Switch players will get credit for this reward if they login during this period, and receive the cosmetic in our next Nintendo Switch patch.

General Changes

Cosmetics

• Forest Ally Wings have been added for valid PC players that participated in the PTR and who filled out the survey

• Fixed incorrect display format value for tower attack rates.

We are still working away on Episode 2, and will definitely be spilling some more beans in December! The DDA PlayStation port is still coming along nicely and will post more updates as we have them.

DD2 fans, we haven't forgotten about you either! We have more updates coming your way in the near future!

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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We just pushed our PTR changes live, along with a spooky new login event. All of the patch details can be found here!

Make sure to login from now until November 7th 11:59 PM ET to claim your Hallow's Evil Grin mask!




For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

Based on your feedback, we have made the following updates to the PTR. We expect this to be the last round of changes, and look forward to bringing these changes to the live client soon!


UI

• Updated tooltips that item effects and set bonuses that affect Primary Attacks also affect Secondary Attacks.

Gear

• Added cosmetic rewards (Raven Lord Wings) to the Test of Lycan completion.

Heroes

Squire

Hero Abilities

• Shield Throw (Secondary Attack)
  
  • Damage increased to 350% of Weapon Damage up from 300%.

Towers

• Bowling Ball
  
  • Increased AOE Size of Bowling Ball by 100%.

Test of the Lycan King

• Nerfed the Lycan King's damage on Medium
  
• Gave the Rogue a Genie on Medium and Hard to help with mana (Hard genie has lower stats)
  
• Buffed Rogue and Warden damage on Medium

• Fixed issue where Skeletons (both summoned and mixed mode) respawn with 0 hp when they resurrect.

We’re looking to get this PTR out as the live version very soon, with some spoOoOoky reward as well! Alongside that, in the coming weeks we’ll be updating you on some PlayStation porting work, showing off some Episode 2, and releasing a Dungeon Defenders II update. We’re doing it all!


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For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

We just set our PTR for our Post Episode 1 patch live and you can test it out now! By testing and providing us feedback, you will be rewarded with unique tester-only wings:

The reward for your first PTR phase:


The reward for your second PTR phase:


For more information on what's in the patch, check out the full list on our forums here!

Need help on joining the PTR directly? Go here!

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games