The Dark Altar update arrives on Tuesday, September 13th! Watch the trailer below, and then read this week’s Dev Log to learn more about our haunting new update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZfIWFCwiV4


Altar of the Athame Incursion
Next week we have something especially evil heading your way, laying the groundwork for the arrival of the Mystic. In this Incursion, Altar of the Athame, you’ll find yourselves in what may remind you of the Ramparts map from Dungeon Defenders; however, the Diaz brothers, Daniel Diaz and Jesus Diaz, reimagined this place as Steve Collins created the latest Incursion on the new map, the Crumbled Bulwark. I want to share some inside information on this map as it is actually insane to play and things can get out of control VERY quickly. Bring your “A” game for sure.

Location
Once the base of operations for a mysterious order of Old Assassins, the location appears empty. Don’t be fooled. Eons ago, they took part in a ritual that ascended them into an ethereal and almost ghostlike state, making them powerful additions to the Old Ones’ army. The altar where that ceremony took place, Altar of the Athame, stands before you now on top of a magnificent and evil fortress overlooking dead valleys. Two Eternia Crystals rest here, unprotected. Take a look around: Rumor has it previous cavaliers, perhaps hoping to stop the ritual, tried and failed. Perhaps they left clues as to what to expect.

Defend!
What DD2 session is complete without hordes of baddies? After all, Eternia Crystals hanging around in unprotected spots simply won’t do! Be sure and set up your best defenses, but be prepared because your arrival will not go unnoticed.

Desecration
Your presence is an affront to the assassin order. The Altar Assassins will rise up and come for you. That’s right, you! Not your defenses, not the Eternia Crystal. Your presence must end, and they will pursue you slowly and relentlessly. At times like these, mobility and player control is king. Be aware of where you are as you defend the crystals and keep a mental note of where the assassins are or you may find yourself in a world of hurt. There are bells in the map that when you ring them, send out a shockwave that stuns all the Altar Assassins in the map, but that’s only temporary in case you need to catch your breath. There is a way to defeat them, but that requires you to use their power against them. Read on.



Dark Prophets Have the Key
Amongst the hordes of enemies are servants of the Old Assassins, the Dark Prophets. These fanatical Warboars are evangelists of the Altar of the Athame, and they know the secrets to the ritual that carried the Old Assassins over from the world of living and into the ethereal realm. Wipe the Dark Prophets out and loot their Dark Tomes. Only upon placing the right number of Dark Tomes on the altar will you be ready to activate it, but before you do, gather your allies on top of the altar because a DPS race is about to begin.

All Guns Blazing
You’ve placed the right number of Dark Tomes on the altar and gathered your allies together. Stand on the altar and activate the ritual. As you do, you’ll enter their distorted world so watch for which of the ancient statues emanates the ghostly image of the Old Assassins and destroy it! Do so quickly because the ritual does not last long. Watch the timer! It may take a few tries unless your power and skill is true. Once the statue crumbles to rubble, the ethereal Old Assassin become corporeal again. Kill them all to win the wave.



The Inside Peek for a Laugh
Playing this reminded me of raiding in World of Warcraft back in Wrath of the Lich King. Ever jump into a raid with your crappy guild, when half the people are clueless ding-dongs and you wipe horribly on a new fight you’ve never done, mostly because no one bothered to read up on how to do beforehand? Hey, it’ll be fun, let’s just wing it! The raid leader’s yelling instructions he got from the web, some goofy hunter never misdirected, half the dpsers are padding the meters on trash, the tank doesn’t turn the boss, or some silly healer stands there and gets beaten on by adds, or better yet, stands in black stuff! That’s what this Incursion is like the first time. I was laughing myself silly as Steve yelled out what to do over Skype as literal twenty Altar Assassins started pulverizing us swarming the Altar. Get on the altar he said! Press the button he said! Splat!

Once the laughing died down, we settled in and focused. Not only do you have to defend two cores, but picking out Dark Prophets from the crowd, snatching up Dark Tomes and running them to the altar is a riot. Communication is key. If you play this one with friends, use VOIP! Once the tomes are in place, don’t activate the ritual until everyone is ready, hot swap to your best single target DPS, and burn the RIGHT statue down fast. Once you crush that, you can blast all the Altar Assassins, as they will no longer be immune.



Sounds easy, right? Now imagine you and your buddies all jumping on the altar ready to go but 10-20 Altar Assassins are buzzing round two-shotting people, like our VFX/Technical Artist Brian Goodsell. Once you figure out how to kite them away and use a little teamwork, you’ll be slaughtering this Incursion with tons of moment-to-moment improvising for your movement and shooting skills. What’s so fun is learning all the little tricks and playing with different people and using different heroes. The locations of the new enemies changes everything as they constantly track you.

The Dark Ritual Blade: Mystic Dagger
The Mystic is just around the corner, so this time around we wanted to give players a chance to snatch up a cool weapon for her before she goes live. We’ve got a proc-style effect on a very evil dagger lined up for her. The effect is serpentine to say the least, dominating the crap out of mobs in an AOE near her. I won’t spill the beans too much more on weapon so the other folks can show off the deserty-cobra-coolness.

We’re still shooting for our Mystic release in late September, and with that comes the Campaign Revamp and UI Improvements we’ve been chatting about. After these two releases, we’re digging in deep to many long-term goals to get this game done!

Speaking of the Mystic: While she’s not in this update, here’s a little sneak peek at some of her animations.

Hero run cycles are built from two base runs. Forward and Back are then adjusted to fit the other directions.



Make sure to keep your snake god appeased, because if not, then this may happen to you…



Snake gods are not known to be very forgiving.

UPDATES! GET YOUR UPDATES! It is update-a-palooza. Last week we put out the first patch since the Lavamancer release on PC and PS4 + an additional patch for PS4 that fixed a problem with the campaign. This week’s patch hopefully improved client/server communication, which we’re hoping to get more updates on soon. Then, next week, we’re releasing another content update with an Incursion that will straight one shot your core. Then, two weeks after that we have another major update scheduled that will totally, like, change the way you see the world and yourself and… like… reality… bruh?!?

In between all these releases we’re working on all sorts of secret projects the government doesn’t acknowledge the existence of (Thanks Obama!) and assembling our grand plan for world domination and happy hour from 7-9pm each day because, seriously, who gets off work @ 3 each day?

Coordinating some serious polish on the updated campaign flow. I’m having a blast playing through each new iteration. Alongside campaign polish, we are also pushing forward on the latest Crumbled Bulwark Incursion. This one is going to be pretty intense and more complex than previous versions.

Really excited with the new level we are working on! Prepare yourself for exploring a vast land full of player-only paths!

Working on a fresh new level! We started it last week so right now we have all pf the layout blocked out and have just started to decorate it like there's no tomorrow!

The Dark Altar update arrives on Tuesday, September 13th! Watch the trailer below, and then read this week’s Dev Log to learn more about our haunting new update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZfIWFCwiV4


Altar of the Athame Incursion
Next week we have something especially evil heading your way, laying the groundwork for the arrival of the Mystic. In this Incursion, Altar of the Athame, you’ll find yourselves in what may remind you of the Ramparts map from Dungeon Defenders; however, the Diaz brothers, Daniel Diaz and Jesus Diaz, reimagined this place as Steve Collins created the latest Incursion on the new map, the Crumbled Bulwark. I want to share some inside information on this map as it is actually insane to play and things can get out of control VERY quickly. Bring your “A” game for sure.

Location
Once the base of operations for a mysterious order of Old Assassins, the location appears empty. Don’t be fooled. Eons ago, they took part in a ritual that ascended them into an ethereal and almost ghostlike state, making them powerful additions to the Old Ones’ army. The altar where that ceremony took place, Altar of the Athame, stands before you now on top of a magnificent and evil fortress overlooking dead valleys. Two Eternia Crystals rest here, unprotected. Take a look around: Rumor has it previous cavaliers, perhaps hoping to stop the ritual, tried and failed. Perhaps they left clues as to what to expect.

Defend!
What DD2 session is complete without hordes of baddies? After all, Eternia Crystals hanging around in unprotected spots simply won’t do! Be sure and set up your best defenses, but be prepared because your arrival will not go unnoticed.

Desecration
Your presence is an affront to the assassin order. The Altar Assassins will rise up and come for you. That’s right, you! Not your defenses, not the Eternia Crystal. Your presence must end, and they will pursue you slowly and relentlessly. At times like these, mobility and player control is king. Be aware of where you are as you defend the crystals and keep a mental note of where the assassins are or you may find yourself in a world of hurt. There are bells in the map that when you ring them, send out a shockwave that stuns all the Altar Assassins in the map, but that’s only temporary in case you need to catch your breath. There is a way to defeat them, but that requires you to use their power against them. Read on.



Dark Prophets Have the Key
Amongst the hordes of enemies are servants of the Old Assassins, the Dark Prophets. These fanatical Warboars are evangelists of the Altar of the Athame, and they know the secrets to the ritual that carried the Old Assassins over from the world of living and into the ethereal realm. Wipe the Dark Prophets out and loot their Dark Tomes. Only upon placing the right number of Dark Tomes on the altar will you be ready to activate it, but before you do, gather your allies on top of the altar because a DPS race is about to begin.

All Guns Blazing
You’ve placed the right number of Dark Tomes on the altar and gathered your allies together. Stand on the altar and activate the ritual. As you do, you’ll enter their distorted world so watch for which of the ancient statues emanates the ghostly image of the Old Assassins and destroy it! Do so quickly because the ritual does not last long. Watch the timer! It may take a few tries unless your power and skill is true. Once the statue crumbles to rubble, the ethereal Old Assassin become corporeal again. Kill them all to win the wave.



The Inside Peek for a Laugh
Playing this reminded me of raiding in World of Warcraft back in Wrath of the Lich King. Ever jump into a raid with your crappy guild, when half the people are clueless ding-dongs and you wipe horribly on a new fight you’ve never done, mostly because no one bothered to read up on how to do beforehand? Hey, it’ll be fun, let’s just wing it! The raid leader’s yelling instructions he got from the web, some goofy hunter never misdirected, half the dpsers are padding the meters on trash, the tank doesn’t turn the boss, or some silly healer stands there and gets beaten on by adds, or better yet, stands in black stuff! That’s what this Incursion is like the first time. I was laughing myself silly as Steve yelled out what to do over Skype as literal twenty Altar Assassins started pulverizing us swarming the Altar. Get on the altar he said! Press the button he said! Splat!

Once the laughing died down, we settled in and focused. Not only do you have to defend two cores, but picking out Dark Prophets from the crowd, snatching up Dark Tomes and running them to the altar is a riot. Communication is key. If you play this one with friends, use VOIP! Once the tomes are in place, don’t activate the ritual until everyone is ready, hot swap to your best single target DPS, and burn the RIGHT statue down fast. Once you crush that, you can blast all the Altar Assassins, as they will no longer be immune.



Sounds easy, right? Now imagine you and your buddies all jumping on the altar ready to go but 10-20 Altar Assassins are buzzing round two-shotting people, like our VFX/Technical Artist Brian Goodsell. Once you figure out how to kite them away and use a little teamwork, you’ll be slaughtering this Incursion with tons of moment-to-moment improvising for your movement and shooting skills. What’s so fun is learning all the little tricks and playing with different people and using different heroes. The locations of the new enemies changes everything as they constantly track you.

The Dark Ritual Blade: Mystic Dagger
The Mystic is just around the corner, so this time around we wanted to give players a chance to snatch up a cool weapon for her before she goes live. We’ve got a proc-style effect on a very evil dagger lined up for her. The effect is serpentine to say the least, dominating the crap out of mobs in an AOE near her. I won’t spill the beans too much more on weapon so the other folks can show off the deserty-cobra-coolness.

We’re still shooting for our Mystic release in late September, and with that comes the Campaign Revamp and UI Improvements we’ve been chatting about. After these two releases, we’re digging in deep to many long-term goals to get this game done!

Speaking of the Mystic: While she’s not in this update, here’s a little sneak peek at some of her animations.

Hero run cycles are built from two base runs. Forward and Back are then adjusted to fit the other directions.



Make sure to keep your snake god appeased, because if not, then this may happen to you…



Snake gods are not known to be very forgiving.

UPDATES! GET YOUR UPDATES! It is update-a-palooza. Last week we put out the first patch since the Lavamancer release on PC and PS4 + an additional patch for PS4 that fixed a problem with the campaign. This week’s patch hopefully improved client/server communication, which we’re hoping to get more updates on soon. Then, next week, we’re releasing another content update with an Incursion that will straight one shot your core. Then, two weeks after that we have another major update scheduled that will totally, like, change the way you see the world and yourself and… like… reality… bruh?!?

In between all these releases we’re working on all sorts of secret projects the government doesn’t acknowledge the existence of (Thanks Obama!) and assembling our grand plan for world domination and happy hour from 7-9pm each day because, seriously, who gets off work @ 3 each day?

Coordinating some serious polish on the updated campaign flow. I’m having a blast playing through each new iteration. Alongside campaign polish, we are also pushing forward on the latest Crumbled Bulwark Incursion. This one is going to be pretty intense and more complex than previous versions.

Really excited with the new level we are working on! Prepare yourself for exploring a vast land full of player-only paths!

Working on a fresh new level! We started it last week so right now we have all pf the layout blocked out and have just started to decorate it like there's no tomorrow!

• We have optimized the way in which buffs replicate between the client and server. Ask Javo (lead programmer) if you want more details, but this will hopefully be the first of several improvements in connection stability and performance.
  
• The Awakening Weapons have been re-added to drop tables and all four are now available in the Throne Room.
  
• Metrics stuff added and fixed behind the scenes because every move you make / we'll be watching you...

• R3 now opens the pop-up shop in the pet menu again on PS4.
  
• Lavamancer Shine Spark (Fissure) Passive now spawns on items with defense power.
  
• Some enemies have finally left the nest and will no longer be hiding in spawn behind their mother's wing.
  
• We changed two descriptions (one for EV2 and one for Lavamancer) which means its time for a treasure hunt!!!
  
• Scorched Tome should now spit even moar hawt fiyah since it will only spawn with hero stats (if it knows what's good for it that is...)

• We have optimized the way in which buffs replicate between the client and server. Ask Javo (lead programmer) if you want more details, but this will hopefully be the first of several improvements in connection stability and performance.
  
• The Awakening Weapons have been re-added to drop tables and all four are now available in the Throne Room.
  
• Metrics stuff added and fixed behind the scenes because every move you make / we'll be watching you...

• R3 now opens the pop-up shop in the pet menu again on PS4.
  
• Lavamancer Shine Spark (Fissure) Passive now spawns on items with defense power.
  
• Some enemies have finally left the nest and will no longer be hiding in spawn behind their mother's wing.
  
• We changed two descriptions (one for EV2 and one for Lavamancer) which means its time for a treasure hunt!!!
  
• Scorched Tome should now spit even moar hawt fiyah since it will only spawn with hero stats (if it knows what's good for it that is...)

Greetings, Defenders!

Thanks for your feedback on our new weapon drop locations. After reading your threads and posts from the past two days, we’ve changed some of the drop locations to make these weapons more enjoyable to find. These are live right now in both the PC & PS4 versions:

• Siphon Site D
  
  • Huntress Harbinger Bow (Defense)
• Dragonfall Sewers
  
  • Monk Harbinger Polearm (Defense)
• Forgotten Ruins
  
  • Squire Harbinger Sword (Hero)
• The Ramparts
  
  • Monk Harbinger Polearm (Hero)
• Ramparts Siege
  
  • Huntress Harbinger Bow (Hero)
• Liferoot Forest
  
  • Apprentice Harbinger Staff (Hero)
• The Wyvern Den
  
  • All Betsy Weapons
• The Dead Road
  
  • Squire Harbinger Sword (Defense)
• Temple of the Necrotic
  
  • Apprentice Harbinger Staff (Defense)
• Harbinger’s Warship
  
  • Squire Harbinger Shield
• Nimbus Reach
  
  • Storm Boots
• Greystone Plaza
  
  • Storm Chest
• Assault on Throne Room
  
  • Storm Gloves
• Buried Bastille
  
  • Storm Helm
• Wyvern Enthusiasts Incursion
  
  • Huntress Phantom Phoenix Bow
• Griblok’s Horde Incursion
  
  • Squire Impaling Cutter Sword
• Chrome Enemies Incursion
  
  • Huntress Toxic Shock Bow
• Forest Poachers Incursion
  
  • Apprentice Chilling Touch Staff
• Unholy Catacombs Incursion
  
  • Squire Sword of Unholy Fire
• Kobold Bling King Incursion
  
  • Huntress Bling O’ Midas Bow
• Bastille Master Incursion
  
  • Apprentice Ghastly Halberd Staff
• Power Surge Incursion
  
  • Monk Glaive of the Storms Polearm
• Malthius Incursion
  
  • Monk Infernal Combustor Polearm (100% from Victory Chest)
    
  • Chance to get Apprentice Armageddon Staff, Squire Scarlet Enforcer Sword or Huntress Armored Cleanser Bow from Malthius in addition to the Victory Chest drop
• The Demon’s Lair Incursion
  
  • Abyss Lord Molten Tome

Greetings, Defenders!

Thanks for your feedback on our new weapon drop locations. After reading your threads and posts from the past two days, we’ve changed some of the drop locations to make these weapons more enjoyable to find. These are live right now in both the PC & PS4 versions:

• Siphon Site D
  
  • Huntress Harbinger Bow (Defense)
• Dragonfall Sewers
  
  • Monk Harbinger Polearm (Defense)
• Forgotten Ruins
  
  • Squire Harbinger Sword (Hero)
• The Ramparts
  
  • Monk Harbinger Polearm (Hero)
• Ramparts Siege
  
  • Huntress Harbinger Bow (Hero)
• Liferoot Forest
  
  • Apprentice Harbinger Staff (Hero)
• The Wyvern Den
  
  • All Betsy Weapons
• The Dead Road
  
  • Squire Harbinger Sword (Defense)
• Temple of the Necrotic
  
  • Apprentice Harbinger Staff (Defense)
• Harbinger’s Warship
  
  • Squire Harbinger Shield
• Nimbus Reach
  
  • Storm Boots
• Greystone Plaza
  
  • Storm Chest
• Assault on Throne Room
  
  • Storm Gloves
• Buried Bastille
  
  • Storm Helm
• Wyvern Enthusiasts Incursion
  
  • Huntress Phantom Phoenix Bow
• Griblok’s Horde Incursion
  
  • Squire Impaling Cutter Sword
• Chrome Enemies Incursion
  
  • Huntress Toxic Shock Bow
• Forest Poachers Incursion
  
  • Apprentice Chilling Touch Staff
• Unholy Catacombs Incursion
  
  • Squire Sword of Unholy Fire
• Kobold Bling King Incursion
  
  • Huntress Bling O’ Midas Bow
• Bastille Master Incursion
  
  • Apprentice Ghastly Halberd Staff
• Power Surge Incursion
  
  • Monk Glaive of the Storms Polearm
• Malthius Incursion
  
  • Monk Infernal Combustor Polearm (100% from Victory Chest)
    
  • Chance to get Apprentice Armageddon Staff, Squire Scarlet Enforcer Sword or Huntress Armored Cleanser Bow from Malthius in addition to the Victory Chest drop
• The Demon’s Lair Incursion
  
  • Abyss Lord Molten Tome

Here are the notes for Patch 15.1 on Steam!

• Defense Medal cost reduced to 10,000!

• Map-specific item drops (like the Toxic Shock bow) can drop up to iPWR 700 in NM4, regardless of the iPWR of the map.
  
• Players kicked from a public game can no longer rejoin the game.
  
• Added a DPS Numbers Only option for Target Dummies in the Options Menu.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies in an Onslaught Horde wave.
  
• Controller: Interacting with NPCs and picking up items is now bound to R3. Ping is now functioning properly on L1 > R1.

• Fissure of Embermount starts dealing damage to enemies at Tier 2 now.

• Several memory leaks that caused players to fall through the game world have been plugged. If you are still experiencing this issue, please contact our customer support and attach your client log from the session where it occurred. Directions for this can be found here.
  
• Material and texture loading optimized to decrease loading times.
  
• Maw of the Earth Drake no longer gives nearby towers attack speed boosts when under the effect of Eruption.
  
• Incursions should now drop the correct rewards.

• For the next two weeks, Series EV2 and the EV2 bundle are on sale!
  
  • Series EV2 Hero: 900 Gems
    
  • Series EV2 Hero + Costume Bundle: 1,400 Gems

Here are the notes for Patch 15.1 on Steam!

• Defense Medal cost reduced to 10,000!

• Map-specific item drops (like the Toxic Shock bow) can drop up to iPWR 700 in NM4, regardless of the iPWR of the map.
  
• Players kicked from a public game can no longer rejoin the game.
  
• Added a DPS Numbers Only option for Target Dummies in the Options Menu.
  
• Reduced the number of enemies in an Onslaught Horde wave.
  
• Controller: Interacting with NPCs and picking up items is now bound to R3. Ping is now functioning properly on L1 > R1.

• Fissure of Embermount starts dealing damage to enemies at Tier 2 now.

• Several memory leaks that caused players to fall through the game world have been plugged. If you are still experiencing this issue, please contact our customer support and attach your client log from the session where it occurred. Directions for this can be found here.
  
• Material and texture loading optimized to decrease loading times.
  
• Maw of the Earth Drake no longer gives nearby towers attack speed boosts when under the effect of Eruption.
  
• Incursions should now drop the correct rewards.

• For the next two weeks, Series EV2 and the EV2 bundle are on sale!
  
  • Series EV2 Hero: 900 Gems
    
  • Series EV2 Hero + Costume Bundle: 1,400 Gems

Upcoming Campaign Changes
While a number of folks continue with new Incursion maps, new gear, and the Mystic, another strike team continues to work with me on overhauling the existing campaign, game structure, and experience into something much smarter and more cohesive. This will affect all players, but mostly brand new and returning players. If you have heroes that have not hit 50 and beaten the campaign or geared well enough to enter Nightmare I, you’ll definitely want to check this out. These changes are slated to release at the same time as the Mystic (tentatively slated for late September) so it’s not far off.

Overview of Campaign Changes
Here’s a brief overview. Look for much more visuals from the team soon here, on social media, and on our Devstreams:

• All maps (18 in total) are in a new order and interconnected by an overarching story thread. It all starts with the intro video and ends with your climactic defeat of the Har… er… main bad guy.

• Story elements appear on both map-specific loading screens and in-game videos at key moments. We added a continue button to the map specific loading screens so you have a chance to check them out.

• The campaign takes you from 1-50. Yep, 50!

• The new campaign gears you for Nightmare I by the time you’re done. Finish the campaign and you’re a walking wave of destruction ready to get into much harder content right away.

• You can play through the campaign in 9-10 hours if you don’t lose and rush through everything. We’ve found most folks play through in around 16 hours or so, by doing extra activities such as meticulously upgrading four heroes along the way, enchanting, testing, goofing around with pets, etc.

• We have unlocked all NPC shops in the Heroes’ Marketplace at Level 1. Enchanting, Pets, Relics, Blacksmith, have at thee.

• Many minor things that the game used to lock out by an arbitrary level is gone and ready for you from the moment you start.

• A super brief starter quest points brand new players to the War Table, explains the Hero Deck, multiple heroes, how to unlock them, how to earn Defender Medals then sends you on your first chapter of the story. Brief, to the point, get playing.

• The flow of first install to playing is much cooler, cleaner, and faster. We’re cleaning up the Create Hero UI so you can jump to heroes faster and improving the flows.

• Over the course of the campaign, you need to win each map before you can play the next. We do this with a self-contained quest so you never have to go back to town! If you already beat campaign, nothing is gated.

• We’ve added a NEXT MAP button to every map in the campaign and in defense mode so you can keep playing. All the maps have the same story-driven order.

• We’ve adjusted the warm-up timers and end game timers. Warmup is immediate and controlled by you now. End game timers are gone, so you can collect loot, gear up, and take your time before you go to your next map. We felt that having to go back to town all the time killed fun and momentum. We use the “G” up type mechanic here at better spots to promote smoother play on your terms.

• When you win maps in the campaign, you get Defender Medals and gems! By the time you win that 18th map, you’ll easily have about 5,000 Defender Medals to give you a boost before you jump into Nightmare I, work on heroes, or horde them for future goodies.

• Freeplay and Endgame are gone! Campaign prepares you for Nightmare I. /flex

• The Campaign rewards much better gear drops, and at key chapters, tailored gear.

• We’ve remapped the old quest chain so if you were midstream in that or sub 50 previously, we put you in a great spot to go forward. Since we’re leveling you faster and you’re earning gear that is much more powerful sooner, we place you in a spot based on your iPWR so you can keep making progression.

• Enemy introductions fit the new progression of the story.

• Pacing is snappier and more meaningful. Many maps have less waves and almost all have more boss-style climaxes.

• Maps are harder, and we offer two difficulties for the campaign to choose from (Normal and Hard) which you can jump back and forth on with no penalty.

• The game’s tutorial is freestanding and accessible off the main menu. We’re adding some V.O. here and there for personality for now. We have grander plans for an in-game strategy guide, but for now, this allows you to access the tutorial when you feel like it.

• We’re redesigning the Main Menu with much more visual punch and a better flow for both console and PC (Continue Campaign, Go to Town, Go to Private Tavern, updates on the game, videos, social media, and all kinds of smart stuff). I’ll let visuals speak for themselves, so stay tuned!

• The Game Browser has a better linear flow for campaign, as each map is part of a 6-chapter story; we present each chapter in a linear sequence so you can get a feel for where you are in the bigger picture.

• We’ve expanded the Create Game section with more room for game messages, images, cleaner flow, and less iPWR monkey business in your face. Less clicks to get playing for sure.

• If you’ve previously finished the campaign on your account, you can still go back and play the campaign maps in any order you want to gear up which is actually pretty fun now that everything is connected better feeling more like a single-player RPG journey with meaning.

• You can of course play the entire campaign with friends in multiplayer.

• I could not convince the art team to make a DD2 style UT 99 Flak Cannon. Will keep working on them.

As we said earlier this year, making solid strides towards finishing the game is on point here. The content and changes we have planned through the rest of the year are even more compelling. Dynamic difficulty and enemy scaling, scaling for number of players, a huge range of difficulty to challenge players forever, hero specific gear, leaderboards, and tons more. Keep tuned in for more on the next Incursion, the Mystic hero, and the Campaign changes!

In other news, this week is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We’re working on finalizing our next content update. From the PS4 side of things, we’re working on adding split-screen support to gameplay options as well as other improvements to controller configuration. On the live team side, we’re following up on a number of issues including: lag during matches, loading times on PS4, and adding Loot V2 support to all the new heroes. Next week should see a patch coming out that solves some of the issues with the Lavamancer release and the first round of controller updates.

Upcoming Campaign Changes
While a number of folks continue with new Incursion maps, new gear, and the Mystic, another strike team continues to work with me on overhauling the existing campaign, game structure, and experience into something much smarter and more cohesive. This will affect all players, but mostly brand new and returning players. If you have heroes that have not hit 50 and beaten the campaign or geared well enough to enter Nightmare I, you’ll definitely want to check this out. These changes are slated to release at the same time as the Mystic (tentatively slated for late September) so it’s not far off.

Overview of Campaign Changes
Here’s a brief overview. Look for much more visuals from the team soon here, on social media, and on our Devstreams:

• All maps (18 in total) are in a new order and interconnected by an overarching story thread. It all starts with the intro video and ends with your climactic defeat of the Har… er… main bad guy.

• Story elements appear on both map-specific loading screens and in-game videos at key moments. We added a continue button to the map specific loading screens so you have a chance to check them out.

• The campaign takes you from 1-50. Yep, 50!

• The new campaign gears you for Nightmare I by the time you’re done. Finish the campaign and you’re a walking wave of destruction ready to get into much harder content right away.

• You can play through the campaign in 9-10 hours if you don’t lose and rush through everything. We’ve found most folks play through in around 16 hours or so, by doing extra activities such as meticulously upgrading four heroes along the way, enchanting, testing, goofing around with pets, etc.

• We have unlocked all NPC shops in the Heroes’ Marketplace at Level 1. Enchanting, Pets, Relics, Blacksmith, have at thee.

• Many minor things that the game used to lock out by an arbitrary level is gone and ready for you from the moment you start.

• A super brief starter quest points brand new players to the War Table, explains the Hero Deck, multiple heroes, how to unlock them, how to earn Defender Medals then sends you on your first chapter of the story. Brief, to the point, get playing.

• The flow of first install to playing is much cooler, cleaner, and faster. We’re cleaning up the Create Hero UI so you can jump to heroes faster and improving the flows.

• Over the course of the campaign, you need to win each map before you can play the next. We do this with a self-contained quest so you never have to go back to town! If you already beat campaign, nothing is gated.

• We’ve added a NEXT MAP button to every map in the campaign and in defense mode so you can keep playing. All the maps have the same story-driven order.

• We’ve adjusted the warm-up timers and end game timers. Warmup is immediate and controlled by you now. End game timers are gone, so you can collect loot, gear up, and take your time before you go to your next map. We felt that having to go back to town all the time killed fun and momentum. We use the “G” up type mechanic here at better spots to promote smoother play on your terms.

• When you win maps in the campaign, you get Defender Medals and gems! By the time you win that 18th map, you’ll easily have about 5,000 Defender Medals to give you a boost before you jump into Nightmare I, work on heroes, or horde them for future goodies.

• Freeplay and Endgame are gone! Campaign prepares you for Nightmare I. /flex

• The Campaign rewards much better gear drops, and at key chapters, tailored gear.

• We’ve remapped the old quest chain so if you were midstream in that or sub 50 previously, we put you in a great spot to go forward. Since we’re leveling you faster and you’re earning gear that is much more powerful sooner, we place you in a spot based on your iPWR so you can keep making progression.

• Enemy introductions fit the new progression of the story.

• Pacing is snappier and more meaningful. Many maps have less waves and almost all have more boss-style climaxes.

• Maps are harder, and we offer two difficulties for the campaign to choose from (Normal and Hard) which you can jump back and forth on with no penalty.

• The game’s tutorial is freestanding and accessible off the main menu. We’re adding some V.O. here and there for personality for now. We have grander plans for an in-game strategy guide, but for now, this allows you to access the tutorial when you feel like it.

• We’re redesigning the Main Menu with much more visual punch and a better flow for both console and PC (Continue Campaign, Go to Town, Go to Private Tavern, updates on the game, videos, social media, and all kinds of smart stuff). I’ll let visuals speak for themselves, so stay tuned!

• The Game Browser has a better linear flow for campaign, as each map is part of a 6-chapter story; we present each chapter in a linear sequence so you can get a feel for where you are in the bigger picture.

• We’ve expanded the Create Game section with more room for game messages, images, cleaner flow, and less iPWR monkey business in your face. Less clicks to get playing for sure.

• If you’ve previously finished the campaign on your account, you can still go back and play the campaign maps in any order you want to gear up which is actually pretty fun now that everything is connected better feeling more like a single-player RPG journey with meaning.

• You can of course play the entire campaign with friends in multiplayer.

• I could not convince the art team to make a DD2 style UT 99 Flak Cannon. Will keep working on them.

As we said earlier this year, making solid strides towards finishing the game is on point here. The content and changes we have planned through the rest of the year are even more compelling. Dynamic difficulty and enemy scaling, scaling for number of players, a huge range of difficulty to challenge players forever, hero specific gear, leaderboards, and tons more. Keep tuned in for more on the next Incursion, the Mystic hero, and the Campaign changes!

In other news, this week is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We’re working on finalizing our next content update. From the PS4 side of things, we’re working on adding split-screen support to gameplay options as well as other improvements to controller configuration. On the live team side, we’re following up on a number of issues including: lag during matches, loading times on PS4, and adding Loot V2 support to all the new heroes. Next week should see a patch coming out that solves some of the issues with the Lavamancer release and the first round of controller updates.