Dec 15, 2022

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened - Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The holiday season is upon us and as such it’s time for some holiday fun! This update brings a brand new map to the Dungeon Defenders universe as well as some QoL features that have been requested.

Santa Hat Login Reward

Starting between now and January 5th, 2023 if you login in on any platform you’ll be rewarded a Santa Hat transmog to help you celebrate the season! Go talk with the blacksmith to get your festive spirit going!

Yuletide Village

It wouldn’t be the holidays without a festive new map to play. As such we’ve gone through and made a brand new never seen before map called Yuletide Village. This winter map should feel right at home for the holidays.

It can be played in Campaign, Survival and Mixed mode with Rifted & Bonus Difficulties if you want an additional challenge. It also features a festive pet reward when played on Survival or Mixed, and does have a fusion variant to go along with it. The map will be unlocked if you have completed Throne Room on campaign.

Hero Selection Filtering

Are you someone who likes to have lots of different heroes? Do you have issues finding the right hero in the hero list? Well now you have the ability to filter to a specific hero type. This should help players more quickly find the hero they want and should serve as a nice little QoL.

Tower Targeting Priority Presets

One big feature request we’ve gotten over the years is being able to select what kind of targeting priorities your towers have. That said we’ve added the ability for users to switch what kind of targeting towers have. This is done in the spellbook by selecting the defense that you wish to change.

Currently we only offer the user the ability to switch between Fodder, Special, Air and Strong. Fodder and Special should work how they currently do in the game. Air works how the Plasma Defense System works and targets Air enemies first then follows a special priority. Strong works by targeting enemies that have larger health pools first, Such as Ogres, Sirens, Lycans, Djinn, etc.

Our end goal is to expand this system to allow users to eventually make their own presets so they can really fine tune things to their liking, but this will come at a later date as it requires more UI and backend work.

Miscellaneous

Fusion gear and the Arcanist helmet no longer have guaranteed stats.
Electric, Ensnare, Healing, and Strength Drain can all be overlapped with each other but provide no benefit for doing so. This should be a small QoL for smaller maps at the endgame.

Bugfixes

Fixed issue with Bonus Difficulty display not showing on clients on the pause menu.
Summoner Minions now unlock at proper levels (1, 2, 7, 11, and 15)
Fixed issue with EV Rune damage applying to the hero and not just the decoy.
Fixed issue with movement speed item effects not stacking properly.

What’s Next?

Well with this update out, this wraps up all the updates we’ll be doing in 2022. It’s now time to look towards the new year in which we have some great stuff planned. We are continuing to work on Episode 2 Part 2 which will have the Boss Map & Boss, a bonus encore map and a new hero. Besides that update we plan to continue to be more frequent in our updating providing smaller content updates along the way to keep things fresh.

Lastly I’ll leave you with the first look at the new hero The Guardian, coming to the game next year!

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games

Nov 17, 2022

Episode 2 Part 1 is now live!

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened - Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The long awaited Episode 2 Part 1 update has finally arrived! This update features a ton of new features and content such as The Summoner, Runes, Trading, New Defense Changes, 2 New Maps and more! Get ready as this is gonna be a long post!

The Outcast Summoner

The Outcast Summoner, One of the most iconic heroes joins the battle for etheria! You’ll be able to create and try out the new hero along with all their abilities and minions for free.

General Features

Before we cover Hero Abilities, let's talk about some of the general features that the hero has first. The hero doesn’t have weapon slots and as such doesn’t have an actual attack. Instead the hero will be allowed to equip 2 pets at once. Additionally the Summoner will be able to equip Tomes and will be able to complete a weapon set using a single tome.

Regarding Minions we also have opted to not have Minion Units but instead use DU for the defenses. This solves 2 issues, the first being that players felt that they were missing out if they didn’t take advantage of having double the “DU” and additionally it would require we balance every map both past and present around having this feature. As such we’ve made sure that the DU of the minions is very light so that you can have more of them and fit them better into existing builds.

Finally the Summoner has the ability to hover by pressing and holding the jump key at any point while the hero is falling. They will still be able to take advantage of the double jump as any hero can.

Abilities

Primary - Minion Select

Since the hero doesn’t attack, his primary will be used to select his minions. You are able to do single selection by pressing once or you can do a multi select by holding the input and dragging around the ground reticle to select multiple minions. Additionally if you click and hold when telling them to move you can tell them to evenly space out on a line between 2 points.

Secondary - Overlord Mode

A big feature of the Summoner was his ability to go into overlord mode and have a more top down RTS style camera. This ability will allow the Outcast Summoner to pan around the map and place minions remotely as well as move them as necessary.

Active Ability - Flash Heal

Flash heal offers the ability to heal nearby heroes, Minions and defenses by a percentage of their max health, scaling off the hero's Ability stat.

Buff Ability - Pet Boost

While active the hero's pets will be buffed increasing attack damage and attack speed, scaling off the hero's Ability stat. This was a redux addition that we felt added a lot of potential to the hero being used as a DPS and playing off the ability for the hero to equip 2 pets.

Minions

Minion 1 - Archer (2 DU): Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Archer. Shoots non-piercing arrows at enemies.
Minion 2 - Spider (3 DU): Summons a Crystalline Spider to the battlefield. Flings webs at nearby enemies, slowing them down and doubling all damage they receive.
MInion 3 - Siren (4 DU): Summons a Crystalline Siren to the battlefield. She casts protective shields around defenses reducing incoming damage and also attacks offensively with her ranged attack.
Minion 4 - Dark Elf Mage (4 DU): Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Mage to the battlefield. Casts fireballs and periodically heals themselves and other nearby minions, as well as heroes.
Minion 5 - Ogre (5 DU): Summons a Crystalline Ogre to the battlefield. Crushes enemies within melee range and occasionally fires poison snot balls from a distance.

Runes

Runes are a new feature that allow players to augment their defenses in new ways! These can range from simple additions to completely different abilities. Runes can drop from normal enemies at all levels of play as well as from victory chests. Each act has its own pool of which runes drop from enemies, and each map has a smaller subset of that act pool that drop in the form of a guaranteed drop from the victory chest. You can view where a rune drops on the rune UI itself, displayed as “Favored Map”

Since the Episode 2 Part 1 post we have since changed our minds about having generic runes in the game. This is mainly because we want players to feel like they can use the special runes designed for each tower without feeling punished for not using a generic rune that just gives them more power. We just think this provides a more fun opportunity to players and lets us continue to create more unique runes rather than balance the battle between unique and generic runes.

Currently there are about 53 runes in the game to playtest, some heroes and defenses are missing runes and we will be working on getting those in over time in smaller updates.

Trading

The long awaited feature is here. As described in the Episode preview post, players are able to send trade requests with one another using the party bar in the top right of the pause menu. Once a player accepts a trade request, the two players may offer up items and gold between each other and then confirm the trade once they feel like they are happy with the trade.

Act 5 - 2 New Maps

With the first part of Episode 2 comes 2 new maps to kick off Act 5. After defeating the Lycan King, the heroes traverse a great desert uncovering forgotten locations along the way. The first 2 maps in Act 5 can be played. However they drop the same quality of items that would be seen on the keep, as we are still deciding if a quality increase before the boss / bonus difficulty is worth it currently.

The Bazaar (100 DU)

You’ll have to fight your way through the Bazaar in order to progress deeper into the secrets this desert holds! As a reward for completing this map on Survival, you’ll be able to obtain a pet version of Hammel!

The Lost Metropolis (130 DU)

Defend your core from threats old and new in the shadow of structures from a forgotten civilization. This map doesn’t yet have a pet reward but will be added in the near future so stay tuned!

Wave Progression Updates

We’ve seen a lot of feedback about how waves feel like they sorta just trickle out and don’t feel very lively. As such we’ve done some investigating and made changes to the way waves come out of their spawners. Players should see more enemies coming out of the spawners at a faster pace. Additionally because of this we’ve increased the total mob counts for the maps to ensure a balance with wave times.

Defense Changes

Squire - Sniper Tower

The Sniper tower offers the squire a new single target defense that will be very strong at defeating tanky enemies. It will use a special enemy targeting priority. This tower will replace the Bouncer Blockade as we felt the blockade was often overshadowed by the other blockades in the game.

Huntress - Poison Dart Tower

The Poison Dart Tower is the first addition of a defense to the Huntress’s kit. The PDT will shoot 3 individual projectiles. These projectiles are fanned out so that they spread out and hit multiple enemies down the path. It will use a fodder targeting priority. This tower will replace the Darkness Trap, as it was the most unused defense in the game, the alternative was the Thunder Spike Trap which we felt could have more use cases.

EV - Heat Cannon

The Heat Cannon provides a unique defense to the game. It’s a short ranged flamethrower defense that hits all enemies within its range arc. While this defense is limited in range it will more than make up in defense power. This defense will have a fodder targeting priority. It will replace the new empty slot where Reflect Field was.

EV - Plasma Defense System

The Plasma Defense System or PDS is an omni-directional sentry that can target and attack up to 3 separate targets at once. The defense does have one major flaw in the form of a deadzone. The dead zone prevents the tower from attacking enemies that are too close to the tower. This defense will have a modified version of the special enemy targeting but instead prioritizes Djinns, Copters, and Wyverns before targeting other special enemies. This defense will replace the Shock beam, as we felt that the crowd control it provided was just outclassed by other crowd control oriented defenses regardless of balance.

Auto Loot 2.0

Auto Loot filters will have been reset. You’ll want to take some time to play around with the new system and make auto loot profiles for the different kinds of items you want to be picked up. As long as an item matches 1 of the filters in the list it will be picked up. Do note you can only have 8 filters currently.

Auto Loot Filters also determine what Items get shown on your tactical map. We’ve even added a special icon for Runes, and a purple glow for any Fusion items. So make sure to be on the lookout for those.

Pet Balance

Pets

Monkey King

Damage stat scalar increased from 100 to 150.
Damage base increased from 25 to 50.

Mista Mine

Slow reduced from 50% to 40%

Hero Balance

General

Hero Abilities

Due to implementations for Runes and how those interact with abilities most abilities will have updated scalings which should be equivalent or a slight buff in power.

Stat Scalar Changes

Squire, Huntress, Monk, EV and Rogue all have a increased tower attack Rate stat scalar match Apprentice and Warden, The following towers should be buffed because of this change, some more than others:

Harpoon, Bowling Ball and Slice N’ Dice, Explosive Trap, Thunder Spike Trap, Electric Aura, Healing Aura, Proton Beam, Overcloc.

Squire

Slice N’ Dice

Can now attack Sirens.

Apprentice

Flameburst

Starting damage increased from 192 to 250.
DU Reduced from 5 to 4.

Warden

Sludge Launcher

Base Damage reduced from 450 to 425
Tower Damage Stat Scalar reduced from 1.6 to 1.45
No longer slows by default, which can be readded as a rune.

Map Balance

All Maps

All maps now have the same enemy caps as The Keep of 55, which is determined mainly by performance. This should decrease wave times on earlier maps that were being limited

The Keep

Added tower prevention volumes to the top of the walls as these were often used as safe spots and provided line of sight that was unbalanced for the intended map design

Alchemical Labs

Reduced amount of fodder enemies and spiders

Ramparts

Reduced amount of spiders on Ramparts

Bug Fixes

Fixed issue with Halloween Copter Ogres spawning.
Fixed issue with Upgrade / Repair item effects weren’t stacking duration properly.
Fixed potential crash with damaging emitters.
Fixed issue with aiming past dead enemies would cause projectiles to shoot up into the sky.
Fixed issue with Loot not showing on the tactical map.
Fixed issue with Decoy not showing nameplates.
Fixed issue with Rift portals having 0 hp in mixed mode.

Misc.

Training Dummies have more health.
Training Dummies now can display DPS values above 2B without going negative.
Siren drops were dropping at much higher than expected levels.
Skeletons now take 1 second to respawn instead of 3.
Tavern difficulty scaling should line up with gameplay maps more closely now.

What’s Next?

Well now that Episode 2 Part 1 is out, the next focus is on getting the remaining Part 2 additions done. Currently looking at releasing that sometime early next year as with all the holidays coming up it will limit work capacity. Besides the remaining Episode 2 work, we may look at doing a smaller Winter Holiday update / event but let you know as that progresses.

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

Nov 2, 2022

Episode 2 Part 1 PTR is open!

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened - Chromatic Games

DEFENDERS,

The long awaited Episode 2 Part 1 PTR is here! Players who own a copy on steam can access the steam beta branch and play the PTR to help us gather feedback and find bugs before release.

How to Join

We want you to join the PTR! If you own Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on PC/Steam, check out our forum post that shows you exactly how to join!

PTR Reward

Given the Halloween nature, the PTR reward will be a RGB Pumpkin Mask Transmog, as what’s more spooky than a bit of RGB.

If RGB is not your flavor, We’ll be allowing people to collect any of the previous PTR rewards in the past. You’ll be given the choice of reward in the survey. This includes the following rewards:

Forest Ally’s Wings
Eagle’s Wings
Crystalline Corgi

Episode 2 Part 1

So we already did a long winded reveal of the vast majority of the features coming in this update, so this post won’t be going into details but will serve as a quick overview of the contents with any changes.

Click here to read the full post to get a better understanding.

The Outcast Summoner

The Outcast Summoner, One of the most iconic heroes joins the battle! In this PTR you’ll be able to create and try out the new hero along with all their abilities and minions. We are looking for feedback on the functionality and balance, as we are in the process of still getting Art, Animations, SFX and VFX all hooked up still.

Runes

Runes are a new feature that allow players to augment their defenses in new ways! These can range from simple additions to completely different abilities. Runes can drop from normal enemies at all levels of play as well as from victory chests. Each act has its own pool of which runes drop from enemies, and each map has a smaller subset of that act pool that drop in the form of a guaranteed drop from the victory chest. You can view where a rune drops on the rune UI itself, displayed as “Favored Map”

Since the Episode 2 Part 1 post we have since changed our minds about having generic runes in the game. This is mainly because we want players to feel like they can use the special runes designed for each tower without feeling punished for not using a generic rune that just gives them more power. We just think this provides a more fun opportunity to players and lets us continue to create more unique runes rather than balance the battle between unique and generic runes.

Currently there are about 54 runes in the game to playtest, some heroes and defenses are missing runes and we will be working on getting those in as time permits or before release of the update.

Trading

Act 5 - 2 New Maps

With the first part of Episode 2 comes 2 new maps to kick off Act 5. After defeating the Lycan King, the heroes traverse a great desert uncovering forgotten locations along the way. The first 2 maps will be in the PTR and can be played. However they drop the same quality of items that would be seen on the keep, as we are still deciding if a quality increase before the boss / bonus difficulty is worth it currently.

The Bazaar

You’ll have to fight your way through the Bazaar in order to progress deeper into the secrets this desert holds!

The Lost Metropolis

Defend your core from threats old and new in the shadow of structures from a forgotten civilization.

Defense Changes

As outlined in the original post, there are 5 defense changes. The only difference between the post and the PTR is that we decided after reading feedback and playtesting that the combined Reflect field was causing more issues being the default EV defense, and as such we’ve made the original reflect field the default EV slot 2 defense. There is a rune to convert the reflect field into a blockade should you want to have that functionality back.

Auto Loot 2.0

In the PTR your Auto Loot filters will have been reset. You’ll want to take some time to play around with the new system and make auto loot profiles for the different kinds of items you want to be picked up. As long as an item matches 1 of the filters in the list it will be picked up. Do note you can only have 8 filters currently.

Auto Loot Filters also determine what Items get shown on your tactical map. We’ve even added a special icon for Runes, and a purple glow for any Fusion items. So make sure to be on the lookout for those.

Balance

This update is gonna bring a lot of balance changes to the game in the form of runes and other forms of balance tweaks. Due to the sake of time writing this post, There won’t be specific numbers, but will have those for the final post.

That said most defenses and abilities for Squire, Huntress, Monk, EV and Rogue got some kind of buff. So play around with those heroes and their defenses.

PTR Hotfixes

Any PTR Hotfixes we do will have their notes posted on our fourms under the patch notes section. Here is a link to that directly.

What’s Next?

Well with the Halloween Event now released, our next stop is the Episode 2 Part 1 PTR which will begin on October 28th. This will feature the Outcast Summoner Hero, 2 new maps, Runes, trading and more! Check out the full post talking about these features on our forums later today!

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

Oct 8, 2022

Upcoming Halloween Event Details & Episode 2 Part 1 Preview & PTR News!

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened - Philamancer

DEFENDERS,

This post will provide an update on Episode 2 Part 1 work as well as announce the details about the upcoming In-game Halloween Event and Episode 2 Part 1 PTR. With that said let's get into it as this will be a long post!

In-Game Halloween Event

For the first time ever in DDA’s history we are doing an in-game Halloween event. This event will feature some new cosmetics for both login rewards and in-game rewards. In addition to this every enemy across the game will receive a special halloween theme for the duration of the event. This Halloween Update will be released on October 14th, 2022 and the event will go until November 4th, 2022.

If you login between the dates listed above, you’ll unlock the following transmogs:

Hallow's Evil Grin Mask
Fish in a Jar Mask

Halloween Spooktacular Map

With the introduction of the in-game halloween event we have remade Halloween Spooktacular from the original game. This map will feature the new halloween variants of the enemies permanently even after the Halloween event is over. It also has new lanes and an additional core to defend.

Completing the map will give you a Brain in a Jar Mask Accessory as a guaranteed drop, but for those out there that prefer a bit of gold or Neon to their look there will be a very low drop chance version that allows you to unlock the golden transmog variant.

Episode 2 Part 1 Progress Update

The Outcast Summoner Hero

As many of you know, the summoner from the original Dungeon Defenders game will be returning to DDA as The Outcast Summoner. This iconic hero has been one of the most requested heroes to return to DDA and as such we wanted to try our best to stay true to the original as best as we could, while also making adjustments to better fit DDA.

With that in mind, one of the things we felt strongly about was that the original model shown previously didn’t reflect what users expected for a remake of the Summoner. As such we’ve gone through and reconcepted and made a new model that fits the theme better.

Here is a first look at the new model!

Next up let’s talk about how the hero itself will work. After going through all the data from the Summoner Survey we have come to the following abilities, defenses and changes to the summoner.

General Features

Before we cover Hero Abilities, let's talk about some of the general features that the hero has first. The hero doesn’t have weapon slots and as such doesn’t have an actual attack. Instead the hero will be allowed to equip 2 pets at once. Additionally the Summoner will be able to equip Tomes and will be able to complete a weapon set using a single tome.

Regarding Minions we also have opted to not have Minion Units but instead use DU for the defenses. This solves 2 issues, the first being that players felt that they were missing out if they didn’t take advantage of having double the “DU” and additionally it would require we balance every map both past and present around having this feature.

Finally the Summoner has the ability to hover by pressing and holding the jump key at any point while the hero is falling. They will still be able to take advantage of the double jump as any hero can.

Abilities

Primary - Minion Select

Since the hero doesn’t attack, his primary will be used to select his minions. Currently we only allow single unit selection but will continue to iterate on this as feedback is received.

Secondary - Overlord Mode

A big feature of the Summoner was his ability to go into overlord mode and have a more top down RTS style camera. This ability will allow the Outcast Summoner to pan around the map and place minions remotely as well as move them as necessary.

Active Ability - Flash Heal

Flash heal offers the ability to heal nearby heroes, Minions and defenses by a percentage of their max health, scaling off the hero's Ability stat.

Buff Ability - Pet Boost

While active the hero's pets will be buffed increasing attack damage and attack speed, scaling off the hero's Ability stat. This was a redux addition that we felt added a lot of potential to the hero being used as a DPS and playing off the ability for the hero to equip 2 pets.

Minions

Before we get started all the minions are still going through active balancing so these values might not represent what goes live for the PTR as well as adjusting balance as we receive PTR feedback.

Minion 1 - Archer (2 DU): Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Archer. Shoots non-piercing arrows at enemies.

Minion 2 - Spider (3 DU): Summons a Crystalline Spider to the battlefield. Flings webs at nearby enemies, slowing them down and doubling all damage they receive.

MInion 3 - Siren (4 DU): Summons a Crystalline Siren to the battlefield. She casts protective shields around defenses reducing incoming damage and also attacks offensively with her ranged attack.

Minion 4 - Dark Elf Mage (4 DU): Summons a Crystalline Dark Elf Mage to the battlefield. Casts fireballs and periodically heals themselves and other nearby minions, as well as heroes.

Minion 5 - Ogre (5 DU): Summons a Crystalline Ogre to the battlefield. Crushes enemies within melee range and occasionally fires poison snot balls from a distance.

Runes

This will mostly be a recap of the full runes introduction post as a lot of it remains unchanged from the original design but figured it was important to give a recap and fill in any blanks as needed.

Runes are broken down into two different categories they work in the following ways:

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).

Additionally there are 2 types of Runes, General Runes and Class Runes and can be used in different situations.

General Runes - Runes that can be applied to any hero. These are typically flat stat increasing runes, with some slight variations.

Class Runes - Runes that are applied to a specific hero, or specific list of heroes.

Unlocking runes is a 2 step process. First you must obtain a rune which can be found by playing various gamemodes, maps and difficulties. Some runes will have specific drop locations while others will have random drop locations. Secondly you will need to pay a gold cost to consume the rune and permanently unlock the rank of rune.

Once you’ve unlocked a rune you can choose to use that rune in any of your available slots. Each hero has 2 Hero runes and 4 Defense Runes slots. Those rune slots can be set on each individual hero. Allowing you to add more customization to the way that hero builds.

With all that recapped, let's talk about some examples of runes we can expect to see in DDA.

Squire

Explosive Shield - Shield Throw explodes on hit, dealing 100% of it's normal damage to all nearby enemies and increases number of Bounces by X.
Spear Trap - Every X Seconds when the Spike Blockade is attacked it shoots out 8 piercing projectiles damaging enemies for X% Tower Health.

Apprentice

Arcane Blast - Arcane Surge becomes a ranged piercing projectile which deals X% of secondary attack damage.
Bouncing Magic - Magic Missile Projectiles deal X% damage and bounces up to Y additional targets.

Huntress

Chance Grenade - Grenade Toss has a X% chance to spawn another grenade upon killing an enemy.
Shell Shocked - Enemies hit are slowed by X% and deal Y% reduced damage for Z seconds.

Monk

Mystical Repair - Tower Boost slowly repairs defenses for X% of tower health over Y Seconds.
Lightning Strikes - Every X Seconds, the Lightning Aura deals Y% tower damage to a single enemy within range.

Decoy-GR - Decoy now shoots along with the hero at the same direction dealing X% of hero damage.
Electric Shock - Proton Beam has a X% chance to shock and stun enemies for Y seconds.

Warden

Yum Yum Seed - Sprout Seeds on-pickup restore X% HP and gives a Healing over time for Y% Max HP over Z seconds.
Focus Blossom - Beaming Blossom does additional X% damage for each attack made against the same enemy, stacking up to Y times.

Rogue

Multiple Marks - Increases max number of Marked targets by X.
Spin-To-Win - Carnage consumes -50% mana and does Y% of the original damage.

Outcast Summoner

Flash Buff - Defenses within Flash Heal gain Attack rate and Power for X Seconds.
Healing Master - The Dark Elf Mage Minion can also heal nearby defenses for X% of the normal minion healing.

Trading

Now with all this talk about runes, there is another way to acquire them that wasn’t mentioned above which would be through trading. Trading will allow 2 players to exchange items and gold between one another.

Players can request to open a trade and then add items and offer gold. Not every item is tradable, specifically any kind of entitlement reward like from the Kickstarter. Outside of that you are free to trade Armor, Weapons, Pets, Offhands, Accessories, and now Runes.

Additionally we also added a new gameplay setting to auto reject trade requests for the popular few that don’t wish to be overwhelmed with trade requests. You can still send trade requests while this setting is enabled but any attempts for others to trade with you will be rejected without notification.

Finally since we know players will want better ways to find other traders, we’ve added a way to host a public tavern with custom session names. While this isn’t a perfect solution, we hope we can improve this in the future and potentially look at new ways to host trading lobbies.

Act 5 - 2 New Maps

With the first part of Episode 2 comes 2 new maps to kick off Act 5. After defeating the Lycan King, the heroes traverse a great desert uncovering forgotten locations along the way.

The Bazaar

You’ll have to fight your way through the Bazaar in order to progress deeper into the secrets this desert holds!

The Lost Metropolis

Defend your core from threats old and new in the shadow of structures from a forgotten civilization.

Defense Changes

As we hinted at in one of our live streams there will be 5 changes to the defense roster. These changes are based on metrics, survey data and general community discussions. That said if the feedback from these changes is not well received we will look at making changes as needed.

Squire - Sniper Tower

Defense Rune - Piercing Upgrade:

Pierces an additional enemy and scales damage of the attack by X%.

Huntress - Poison Dart Tower

Defense Rune - Blinding Darts:

Enemies hit by the Poison Dart Tower have a X% to become blinded for Y seconds.

EV - Combined Blocking + Reflect Field

In order to make room for the upcoming defense changes, we’ve decided to merge the Blocking Field and Reflect field. This means the defense will be able to serve as a wall or a reflect field and will have the same DU scaling of the original reflect field so that they continue to be used as they have in the past.

Defense Rune - Electric Fence:

Blocking Field deals X% of Tower Health back to all attackers as electric damage.

EV - Heat Cannon

Defense Rune - Immolation:

Heat Cannon applies a fire DoT onto enemies dealing X% of tower damage over Y seconds.

EV - Plasma Defense System

Defense Rune - Full Coverage:

Increases the Plasma Defense System’s defense range by X% but also increases the dead zone by Y%.

Auto Loot 2.0

This has been a highly requested quality of life for endgame players. Auto Loot 2.0 will allow players to have multiple loot filters using the existing setup. This allows players to have filters tied to specific types of items, for example having a Auto Loot Filter specifically for picking up Accessories or a filter to pick up only swords. As long as an item matches 1 of the filters in your list it will get picked up when Auto Loot happens.

This UI will allow you to create and manage the multiple filter profiles. Each one can have a name and Icon associated to help associate them. You will be limited to 8 filters at any point.

Public Test Realm (PTR)

So now that we’ve talked about all the amazing things coming in episode 2, I know you all are dying to know when the PTR will go live. On that note I can say we are aiming for the PTR to go live on October 28th, 2022 pending any major setbacks. While we had initially planned for it to start early october we felt the extra time was needed, and with the halloween event it would be odd to have those launch at nearly the same time.

What’s Next?

After the halloween event is over and the PTR is finished we’ll look at releasing the update live after we’ve made any necessary changes based on player feedback. Once that is live we’ll begin work on the remaining Episode Part 2 work and keep you all updated as that is developed. Though it is too early to say what the timeline will be like at this moment.

Social Defenders

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

For Etheria!

Chromatic Games