Now Balloomia: Sky Playground has skins for your ball and two more achievements for those that can't stop falling down!

The new playtest build is now live and ready to go. This update includes a bunch of fixes, tweaks, and improvements based on your earlier feedback.

I’d love to hear your thoughts after you jump in and please leave your feedback and bug reports in the community discussion thread so I can keep improving the game before release.

Thanks for testing and helping shape the game!

Our Dearest Defenders,

It has been quite some time since we have crossed paths in the realms of etheria, July of 2024

to be exact, with the addition of cross saves. Across all social media platforms there have been

lots of questions about content for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, seemingly met with silence

until now. During the July 2025 Dev Stream, it was announced that Chromatic Games brought in

members of the Dungeon Defenders community to restart updates for the game. We have been

hard at work learning the systems by looking under the hood of the game. We proudly mark with

today's update the initiation of the Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Renaissance.

Who's behind the Community Development Team?

Coolgamer:

Hi everyone,

“It is an honor to be working under Chromatic to bring updates to DDA. I am a long- time

player of the Dungeon Defenders Franchise. Starting with DD1 on the xbox 360 at the age of 11,

I played off and on from the launch of DD1 on the Xbox 360 until 2018 accumulating around

3000 hours of gametime over the years, spending a lot of that time in the tavern connecting with

many other players within the dungeon defenders community, where I made many friends, some

to which I still talk to today. I'm also a player of both DD2 and DDA on the xbox, and I played a

lot of DD1 and DD1 Redux on pc throughout the pandemic. I played dd2 for a total of about 500

hours across various platforms and DDA for about 475 hours. 250 of which I played from the

launch of the xbox port of DDA up until the stat overhaul shortly after the keep came out, then

took a break until January of this year. Outside of the dungeon defenders franchise I have

played a wide variety of games ranging from Call of Duty to Kingdom Hearts, to Terraria, to

MMO RPGS such as dungeons and dragons neverwinter. I have a Bachelors Degree in physics

and I am in pursuit of a master’s degree in Physics with an emphasis on Computational Physics.

I fell in love with the dungeon defenders franchise because of the loot grind aspect, playing this

hard map, or beating this hard boss and seeing if you can get a better piece of gear. Each gear

felt unique, and more importantly it felt like mine. I also loved the wide variety of pets there were

in the game to collect, each unique. My goal while working on the cdt is to bring that feeling

back into dda, while offering many more hours of fun and memorable moments within this game.

I look forward to working with you all to make an amazing experience from start to finish.”

Best,

Coolgamer

Tato:

“Greetings Defenders of Etheria! A little backstory on myself: I have grown up playing all

types of games, ranging from Pokemon on the Gameboy, to Wii Sports, to Fruit Ninja using a

Kinect, all the way to shooters like Halo, the list could go on for forever. Having played all these

different types of games, on all these different consoles, and yet… DD:A holds me near and

dear. Due to peer pressure long ago, I now own a PC that I probably spent too much money on

for the sake of playing games, so I make good use of it by streaming as well. In doing so, I

managed to build a strong connection with some of you Players, as well as our Developers,

giving the opportunity for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened to show its true potential.PS: I have 2

adorable little animals, Sirloin Corgi/Pitbull Mix (Black & White) and Mouse: ShortHair Kitty,

(White & Grey).”

What Can you Expect From Us:

Before we get into the bulk of today’s update and roadmap, there is an elephant in the room we

want to address. Throughout the original life cycle of DDA, there were many frustrations with the

handling of the development. We want to assure you that we hear you and we are voicing what

you say on social media, youtube comments, twitch chats, and on the Official Dungeon

Defenders Discord Server. Some of you may be skeptical about returning to the game or to trust

that the game we all love isn't mistreated again, which is understandable. The Community

Development Team is a brand new team working on DDA, and we were players just like you

during those times. As we enter this period of Renaissance for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened,

the Community Development Team pledges to communicate with you about what's being

worked on in the game. With every update you can expect patch notes detailing the changes

and our thought processes behind each major change. We will interact in the discord server

posting teaser and posting polls/surveys; we want to hear from you. We can't promise every

suggestion will make it to the game but we can promise to be open minded and hear you out.

With this pledge we hope you all will continue to provide us with feedback in any way you see

fit. If you haven’t already, join the Dungeon defenders discord server to directly interact with us

during the development cycle. Lastly, we hope you guys put your faith in us and show patience

as we continue to learn the systems within DD:A

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Renaissance Roadmap:

It is no secret that everyone involved went through a roller coaster throughout the original

development cycle of Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. From the developers putting their heart

and soul into the creation of the game’s content throughout the development cycle to the player

base enduring multiple system reworks to communication issues amongst all parties, we can all

agree that Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is a special game despite its flaws and has much

potential to keep players coming back for years down the road. Our goal as the community

development team is to exploit that potential.

A common feedback we encountered was about the game being too easy in its current state,

and that its rewards pacing was really fast. We heard you loud and clear. Throughout the 5

phases listed on the road map we have the vision of making the game much harder and more

rewarding as you guys play through all of the content offered in DD:A before we can add new

maps and other content. We also need to preface that our current focus is on the Steam port of

the game to give us a solid foundation for the game to work with. Console versions of the game,

specifically Xbox and Playstation, will be investigated and worked on at a later date, if possible.

For those that play on the Nintendo Switch, we are truly sorry but there isn’t a big enough player

base to justify the immense task of updating this version of the game. Add to it that DD:A is a

REALLY intense game to run on most platforms and due to the limitations on the Switch

console, we have decided for now we won’t be bringing any updates for the foreseeable future

to said console. Please note this is the current plan; as we work through the roadmap things

may change but we will make sure to let you know.

Phase 1 - Critical Bug fixes and rebalancing:

With our design vision guiding this first phase of the Dungeon Defenders: Awakened

Renaissance project, we are focusing on eliminating the most critical game-breaking issues

that disrupt progression, trading, and the overall flow of the game. Right now, several factors

make the experience feel too easy and unbalanced, and Phase One is all about restoring

challenge, stability, and integrity to the core gameplay. Today’s update marks a big step forward

in that effort, as we have made meaningful progress in fixing major glitches and improving

overall stability. While many issues have been resolved, a few key bugs remain on our radar

and are currently being worked on for the next update. It has come to our attention that there

may be a duplication glitch related to trading, and we are moving quickly to investigate and

resolve it since it has a major impact on progression and the in-game economy. We are also

aware of a crash related to dropping runes; while the crash itself has been resolved, rune loot

drops from enemies will stay temporarily disabled until we can safely restore them in a future

update. Phase One lays the groundwork for the rest of this project, ensuring the game feels

stable, fair, and rewarding again. Once these core issues are fully addressed, we will move on

to Phase Two, where we will begin building on that foundation with new systems and balance

improvements.

Phase 2: Further Investigation into game rebalances:

In phase 2 we will look into rebalancing the game almost entirely, adjusting all heroes,

towers, gear, and pets as needed to improve the game’s overall health. We will also focus on

quality of life changes to improve the experience for players.

Phase 3: Game Mode rework:

In the current state there is little to no incentive to play the other modes outside of

survival and mixmode. In this phase we would like to focus on each of the game modes and dial

them in and give them a purpose and a reason to be played. Enemy scaling, better rewards,

and quality of life improvements to the modes are all potential changes.

Phase 4: Dev Promises, Tavern Updates, Console Updates, & adding steam deck support

Once we improve DD:A’s experience, we can look into fulfilling promises made by the

previous development team, bringing Xbox & Playstation console versions, and looking into

4-player splitscreen and updating the tavern to allow more customization. This Phase will be the

final phase before adding new maps and DLC content.

Phase 5: New Content

As most will remember, new content for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened was promised

for free. While this was a good-spirited monetization model, to support future updates DD:A will

have to move towards a paid monetization model inline with DD1, following your suggestions in

the Dungeon Defenders Discord server. The base game will include all things currently released

and future updates will be purchasable.

Patch Notes:

General Updates:

With today’s update, we’ve made significant progress toward fixing several

game-breaking glitches and improving gameplay balance. Sand Keepers on Forsaken Temple

now have a minimum movement speed of 6, allowing them to move much faster and provide a

more dynamic challenge. Forsaken Temple Rifted Boss Weapons now have a much higher stat

quality bound of 60, increasing their potential rolls and overall

Armor, Weapon, and Accessory changes:

We’ve adjusted gear bonuses to make early-game progression more meaningful and

late-game loot feel special. Bonus Item Effects on gear of rarities Rare - Transcendent have

been removed. Early on, these effects were giving players too much power, making the game

feel too easy with so many stats and effects stacked early. Godly equipment now gets 1 bonus

instead of 2, Supreme equipment gets 2 bonus instead of 3, and rarities beyond Supreme

(when added) will roll with 3 item effects. Set bonuses on main-hand and off-hand weapons will

follow a similar progression, dropping at Godly and higher. Pets are not affected by this change

at the moment.

Stat changes:

The total number of skill points has been decreased to 1385, with the last 10 levels

granting 40 skill points per level. This aligns the maximum base stat value more closely with

DD1, lowering the overall early-game power and making progression feel more balanced.

Boss Changes:

1. Demon lord:

The Demon Lord has been too punishing early in the game due to low health.

We’ve adjusted him as follows:

● Base attack power decreased from 63 to 40

● Shockwave damage decreased from 53 to 50

2. Goblin Mech:

Players were able to cheese the Goblin Mech by standing on its spawn point. To

fix this:

● Added a killbox beneath the boss to prevent players from exploiting the

spawn point

3. Ancient Dragon:

Mannabomb now hits the Ancient Dragon.

4. Lycan King:

The Lycan King fight has been reworked to feel challenging and rewarding for the

first piece of Arcanist gear and some of the best weapons in the game. Changes

include:

● Fixed the “stuck and killed” exploit

● Increased damage reduction during Howling state by 500%

● Disabled player collision with the boss to prevent throwing him under the

map

● Increased movement speed in lured state from 1.25 to 5 and in fleeing

state from 1 to 8

● Increased damage resistance while fleeing from -75 to -0.95

● AoE Howl changes:

● Damage is now multiplicative (scalar 2.5)

● Attack rate buff increased by 50%

● Buff duration increased from 5s to 17.5s

● Damage reduction from player attacks 50%

● Movement speed buff 1000%

● Boss stun mechanics now allow the player to deal 50% more damage

● Stalking mode adjustments:

● Movement speed increased by 50%

● Stalking swipe cooldown reduced from 3s to 2s

● Single swipe cooldown coefficient decreased from 1 to 0.95

● Howling state now applies Poison DoT that disappears in lured state

● Bomb timer increased from 15s to 25s and updated in UI

● Added Laspis Gemstone pet to Act 4 Survival reward

5. Dune Eater:

The Forsaken Temple map has been reworked for a more rewarding experience:

● Added Arcanist Gloves to the end loot chest of Survival and Mixed Mode

● Added Topaz Gemstone pet to Survival reward loot table

● Players can no longer target Dune Eater while it is under the lake, forcing

proper gameplay

Defense Changes:

Healing Aura:

The Healing Aura has been significantly improved. Healing output increased by a

factor of 8, making it a much stronger choice for the Lycan King fight and other

challenging encounters.

Guardian changes:

The Guardian has been rebalanced to make Divine Protection more tactical and engaging.

● Cooldown on Divine Protection increased to 7 seconds (up from 1)

● Divine Protection now consumes 25 ability mana per second (up from 16)

● While active, the Guardian now takes 25% of the damage that allies

inside the circle receive

● Shield Slam maximum range increased from 500 to 1000

● Shield Slam maximum charge time is now 0.5 seconds

● Shield Slam cooldown set to 2 seconds

● Shield Slam scalar increased from 1 to 2.5

● Shield Slam now applies a 4-second stun

Warden Changes:

The Warden has received a series of improvements to make their abilities feel faster and more

rewarding.

● Sprout cooldown reduced from 5s to 3s

● Sprout damage coefficient increased from 1 to 2.5

● Sprout pickup range increased from 300 to 750

● Sprout cast time reduced from 3s to 1.5s

● Pure Sprout now applies a 15% buff to the player when picked up

● Wrath Sprout now doubles player speed, increases damage by 35%, and

adds 15% damage resistance

● Shroom Circle max range increased from 1000 to 5000

● Shroom Circle cooldown reduced to 7 seconds

● Shroom Circle Wrath damage coefficient increased from 1 to 1.5

● Coefficient doubled when Wrath Stun is active

● Sludge damage coefficient increased to 1

● Sludge Slow duration increased to 3.5 seconds

Summoner Changes:

● Petboost had its coefficient increased from 1 to 1.5.

Rouge Changes:

● Stealth buff post-multiplicative additive bonus decreased to 0.1 (down

from 0.2)

● Rip State damage coefficient decreased from 1 to 0.75

Pets:

A major focus of this update is pets. Many new pets have been added for players to

collect, and existing pets will be rebalanced in a future update. Highlights include:

● Laspis Gemstone: Added to the Act 4 Survival reward upon defeating the

Lycan King. This buff pet is similar to the Obsidian Gemstone but provides

a small reduction to enemy damage for a short duration on your next

attack, making it a strategic addition for tougher fights.

● Topaz Gemstone: Added to the Forsaken Temple Survival and Mixed

Mode end loot chest after defeating the Dune Eater. This pet functions

similarly to other buff pets, giving nearby allies a temporary boost to

movement speed and attack rate, helping players navigate the

challenging fight more effectively.

Additional updates:

● New drops in Lost Metropolis, Alchemical Laboratory, Ancient Mines,

Ramparts, Throne Room, Royal Guardians, Promenade, Arcane Library,

Tornado Valley, Tornado Highlands, and The Mill

● Golden pets now drop on all maps at wave 100 of Rifted Survival

● Rifted and Golden pets have been rebalanced with updated Hero Point

scalars, Pet Ability Damage, Vitality, and Attack Rates

● Notable additions: Gold Griffin, Gold MistaMine, Gold SteamBot, Gold

Little Wizard, Gold Etherian Ancient, Gold Genie, Gold Lycan Prince,

Gold Demi Demon Lord, and many more

● The Golden Ramster Can and Rifted Ramster Can each have a 10%

chance to drop from Halloween Ramparts.

● The Obsidian Gemstone has been improved to apply its Sunder Armor

effect for 6 seconds (up from 3), with a cooldown of 4 seconds (down

from 8).

● All fairies heal for much more

Note: Some tooltips are incorrect for new pets; this will be fixed in the next

patch

Tower and Defense Changes:

We’ve rebalanced defenses to better reflect their intended cost and power levels. Please note

that these reordering and DU adjustments do not currently reflect in the UI and will be updated

in a later patch.

● Empowering Shrine is now Defense 5

● Holy Cannon is now Defense 2

● Obelisk is now Defense 3

● Owl is now Defense 4, costing 4 DU

● Holy Bulwark is now 3 DU

● Poison Dart Tower is now 3 DU and costs 80 mana

● Spider Minion Webbed Effect now applies 1.25× damage (down from 2×)

● Siren Minion now costs 90 mana and is Defense 4

● Dark Mage Minion is now Defense 4, costs 80 mana, and uses 3 DU

● Ogre Minion DU cost reduced to 120 DU

● Squire Blockade is now 2 DU

● Sniper Cannon is now Defense 2, costs 80 mana, and uses 4 DU

● Harpoon Tower is now Defense 4

● Bowling Ball Tower is now Defense 3, costs 70 mana, and uses 4 DU

● Shroomy Pet is now Defense 2, costs 60 mana, and uses 1 DU

● Whisp Den is now Defense 3, using 3 DU

● Beaming Blossom is now Defense 4, using 4 DU

● Sludge Launcher is now Defense 5, costing 100 mana

● Overclock Beam Rune coefficient decreased to 0.5, reducing the bonus

damage from the rune by half

Conclusion:

With today’s update, we’re excited to introduce the developers behind the Community

Development Team and share a glimpse of what’s ahead for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened.

This update marks the first of many and serves as a “how-to” for pushing a build live, officially

beginning a new era for the game, the DD:A Renaissance. We hope this update excites you and

invites you to join us on this journey by cheering us on, sharing your feedback, and helping us

shape the future of the game. Thank you for trusting us to deliver meaningful updates and

improvements. If you would like to support the Community Development Team directly, consider

purchasing existing cosmetic costumes and joining the official Dungeon Defenders Discord

server, where you can connect with us and the wider community as we continue building the

DD:A Renaissance together.

Until Next Time,

The Community Development team

Pets were obviously going to be the centerpiece of the class, and once we decided on finite slots the moment of "you filled all your slots so now you can only replace, not add" was set in stone. From then on you need to use a variety of abilities, buffs, artifacts, pets and even a few attacks to buff AP and make your board hit (and sometimes block) even harder. But there's also a LOT of synergy in Unraveling (sacrificing) Pets, and...

It's hard to even know how to write this post - AP buffing pets synergizes with your token Spiders since they also deal their AP as damage when Unravelled (even if you already attacked with them this turn). And any normal Pet keeps its AP when Unravelled so you can discard them and then draw them again and play them with whatever AP you buffed them too. A few kinds of Pet have ways to duplicate themselves, and then Unravel so you can play and duplicate them again at a higher AP value. You can Unravel by playing over something with a Pet card, but there's also plenty of cards (and Pets) that directly munch Pets to (often optionally) boost their effects, and that can clear space to mass-Weave more Spiders so you can buff them and then Unravel them again for damage.

Oh yeah, and all of this Pet-based damage, Unravels included, works with Rage, so you can save up buffed Spiders for a Rage turn and then Unravel them all (after having already attacked with them) for a fight-ending spike of damage. Oh and there's Infests you can put on enemies that'll be triggered by dealing enough damage... it just keeps going. In the limited amount of playtesting as I write this we've already seen an unprecedented amount of hybridizing and archetype-pivoting throughout Weaver runs.

Trying to describe any one aspect of the class and potential synergies very quickly turns into describing the entire class. You might be stacking AP buffs onto a main damage Pet so it can trigger a pile of Rage-Infests quickly on a turn you plan to go off so your AP-buffed Spiderlings can be mass-Unraveled by a card that also gives future Pets you Weave this turn more AP for every Pet you used it to Unravel so you can refill the board with a Pet that duplicates itself so the duplicates can benefit from the new-Pet-AP-Buff twice and... you get the idea.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4047440/Vault_of_the_Void_The_Weaver/

So to limit the amount of run-on sentences I'll be writing, let's just center in on three Pets that fill a similar niche in different ways and give examples of some things they synergize with particularly well.

A very straightforward common. As you deal damage, get a bit of Block. This might not be as crazy as it sounds since if it's blocking enough to keep you safe, it's already dealing enough damage to win a fight. Nevertheless, the fact that the Block scales perfectly to the damage means it has a great relationship with Rage and Vulnerable, as well as benefitting immensely from extra actions given by abilities or artifacts, since a second attack on the same turn also means double the block.

An uncommon that can fuel itself but massively benefits from building around it. There's a variety of support Pets that have AP (and might benefit from AP buffs) but don't actually use their AP, as well as Pets like the basic Rat that have an optional action (a Delay Block 4 in their case) that doesn't scale to their AP and doesn't care if you drain them down to 0. This happy otter is still only going to be attacking for his baseline AP value, but he'll be refunding cards invested into buffing him on the way there. Spend early turns where you're building up your board gaining AP (and drawing even more cards to help build up), and then once you're setting up big damage-boosting Rage start attacking for big chunks and closing things out pretty fast.

There's a number of much more complicated AP-payoff Pets up at the rare level, so let's go with the simple one. Every turn after the first, you'll be getting 2 actions out of this guy, doubling whatever AP you've buffed on it. The trick is, the fact that this is in the form of "two actions" instead of just "double damage" still has a lot of neat interactions.

Put a Red Void Stone into it, shove it in the leftmost slot, and have it also produce 50% Rage in the process of attacking twice. Throw in an upgraded Sceptre of Command and that's another 50%. Buy a Blue Ribbon at the floor 2 soul collector and as soon as you buff Wombat enough to get to 10 it'll be keeping the biggest enemy locked down by debuffs consistently.

This is just 3 of the 25ish Pets Weaver has to offer, and I've already seen playtesters surprise me with enough clever synergies to know that even I haven't fully grasped the potential of the class yet. Hopefully all the players reading this find lots of interesting ways to (ab)use the possibilities offered by Pets.

- Dabor

• Fixed an issue where the Camera Effect for seeing the butcher was not enabled in certain scenarios, causing the achievement “I’m the butcher now” to trigger incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue where audio cues revealed which painting was correct.

• Reduced the distance at which the witch can hear the player.

• Readjusted Stacy’s spawn position in Part 3.

• Lowered the volume of the join/leave lobby audio clip.

• Increased the auto-close distance for doors in several locations.

More than 530 players have already walked through the halls of Red Hollow Sanatorium.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to explore, share, and listen to the whispers.

Your feedback has been amazing — every comment and every shared scare pushes us to go even further for the full game.

This is only the beginning.

➤ In Silent Walls: Sujet 13 – Demo available on Steam

The walls listen. The Signal spreads.

Hi, everyone!
My game is currently in development and is planned for release in early 2026. There aren’t many details to share just yet, but I’ll be posting updates as development continues — so stay tuned!

For now, I’m excited to share the very first in-game gameplay video! Check it out!

After 1,5 years of development, Unshine Arcade is finally officially announced and the alpha version of the demo is ready for your feedback!

Help improve the demo before the full proper version goes public (which will be soon).

Press the green button on the steam page to play.

Thank you!