There’s a ton of new features and content on the horizon, so it’s time to give a little inside peek as to what’s coming in the next update for Dungeon Defenders II! Mod improvements, elemental combos, blockade buffs, and even more (somethings we aren't even talking about just quite yet) await in this update. Let’s get into it!
Alec “Lawlta” Saare — Community Expedition Leader
What’s up everyone, you know what it do!
We’ve been working incredibly hard on getting this update out to you before the new year and really put in some serious time. While there is new content coming (the new map looks amazing, there’s some image down below), we did a really big push to make a lot of systems feel a ton better. A little while ago we improved Mod drops and promised that there was a Phase II for this system, and Mark will cover the changes coming down below. Players want Elemental Combos to be awesome, so we went through and did our Phase I pass on them, with more coming in future updates. There’s been a lot of feedback on Blockades being viable, and boy did we bring the heat with them.
There’s additional features that are coming, you’ll see most of them laid out in the patch notes that come with the update. We’re excited for you to get your hand on this update, we’re just polishing things up a little bit before we release it. There’s a Dev Stream tomorrow (December 7th) 3PM EST where we are going to show some of them off. Don’t miss it!
Smooches,
Lawlta
Mark “Telflon” Telfer — Technical Designelf
Hey Defenders!
It’s been a while since we’ve last spoken! I’ve been doing a ton of MOD-related work over the interim, but alas, I was threatened by Lawlta to keep it all under wraps. Luckily, tis finally the season of giving, and I’ve been given the okay to give you some major bean spillage on what I (and the other Trendy elves) have been up to in our workshop.
Recently, the Trendy elves had started seeing a huge amount of holiday wishes come our direction and all said the same thing. They said, “Santa Lawlta, all I want for Christmas is a perfect MOD.” Many of you felt that it took way too long to find those perfect Qualibean™ MODs and that waiting forever was just no fun! I knew I had to do something about it fast, lest I find myself on the naughty list in perpetuity. I grabbed a bottle of spiked eggnog, locked myself into a room, and set out to right this issue once and for all. Thanks to the copious amounts of eggnog I drank, my memory gets a bit fuzzy after that, but a few days later I woke up and Lawlta told me that the rates for higher quality MODs had significantly increased with our last hotfix. Apparently, I had more than doubled the rate of perfect MODs and had substantially increased the drop rates for MODs of quality 6 and above! Presents for everyone! On average, you should see a perfect MOD about every four hours of active gameplay. Gone are the days where the ground is cluttered with nothing but MODs as red as Rudolph's nose. You should now be seeing far more green MODs in the mix (a Christmas Miracle)!
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Mark! The increase to drop rates sounds fine and dandy, but you see, I have a problem. That problem is bad luck. It’s a condition that I’ve had since birth and RNG has picked on me for it my entire life. Even though you’ve increased the drop rates, Mark, I still don’t think I’ll ever see anything good. I’m just too darn unlucky!” Well, dear player, I have a revelation to make. I too am afflicted with this most heinous condition, and I feel your pain. Playing 50 hours and still not seeing a perfect MOD feels worse than getting a lump of coal in your stocking! I knew that if I truly wanted this update to bring good tidings to all (especially myself), I would have to be sensitive to those in the community who share this affliction. Well, fear not! This new update brings with it a solution for even the unluckiest players. We have built a system that GUARANTEES that you will get a perfect MOD if you go an extended period of time without seeing one. If you haven’t seen a perfect MOD in about ten hours of active gameplay, then we will guarantee that a perfect will drop for you! That’s right! At worst, you’ll see one perfect MOD in less than 10 hours (as long as you are actively playing). And do you wanna know a secret? If you play in multiplayer and get the legendary loot bonus, the amount of time it takes to guarantee this perfect MOD gets drastically reduced. Don’t tell Lawlta I told you, or back onto the naughty list I go.
So now we’ve increased the perfect MOD drop rate, and guaranteed that even the unluckiest defenders will see them. But this still doesn’t fulfill the other biggie on people’s holiday wish list. Sure, seeing A perfect MOD is great, but ultimately what you are looking for is THE perfect MOD. There’s always something specific you have in mind that you KNOW will make your build perfect, and that’s the thing you really want a chance at getting (I’m looking at you, perfect tenacity). It is with great excitement that I announce the introduction of a brand new material, MOD rerolling! MOD rerolling lets you improve your chances of getting the specific quality MODs you want in more of a targeted way. Playing maps in our new region will guarantee you a drop of these awesome little guys, and the potential that they possess is amazing. You’ll be able to invest in your favorite MODs and guarantee yourself a risk-free chance at making it better each time you complete a map. This is a game-changer, guys. This reroll material makes the time it takes to get THE perfect MOD you are looking for in a fraction of the time that it takes right now. This is big.
So to recap:
Perfect MODs drop rates were more than doubled in our last hotfix. Six to Nine MOD drop rates were increased too.
This update brings with it a new system that guarantees unlucky players a perfect MOD drop in less than 10 hours of active gameplay.
MOD Rerolling is being introduced and this gives you a targeted way to invest in your favorite MODs. It lets you get a favorite MOD to perfect in a FRACTION of the time it would take to see it dropped.
Now all of that is super exciting, but I still have more in my bag of gifts, Defenders. We’ve heard you when you’ve said that you want to spend less time in menus and more time whacking gobus in their very punchable faces. It is with great excitement that I can announce MOD quality filtering in the inventory. In our new update, the “Filter By” tab (the last tab in your Inventory) now includes an option to filter by MOD quality. Selecting this option groups equipment by the highest quality MOD on it, highest to lowest, and then displays that number on the icon of the equipment itself. That means that you can visually scan your equipment with ease and find high quality MODs in a jiffy. Tune into the Dev Stream tomorrow at 3pm EST to see for yourself.
We’ve also adjusted the way Shard sorting works too. In the new update, Shards are sorted together by type and then alphabetically. For example: all defense (green) Shards are grouped together when sorted, and will be listed in alphabetical order. This makes it way easier to find the Shard you are looking for and should cut down the amount of time spent in menus substantially. We’re open to any feedback after this goes live, but we’re excited to get these changes to you!
The elves at Trendy are looking forward to the release of this update and can’t wait to see you play it. We’re far from finished when it comes to improving MODs in the game, so your continued feedback is always appreciated. Happy Defending and Happy Holidays!
Love,
Mark
Eric “Petire” Petrie — QA Designer
Hey all, I’m just going to get right into it! The focus for me this update was allowing players to have more choice and agency in what they use while feeling powerful based on their setups. I’m going to go over our first step in expanding two different systems that happened to work very well together. The first one is the Elemental Combo system. We think it’s a great way for players to expand on making builds they truly feel are their own. The problem with the elemental combo systems in the past were either they were the ONLY way to build, or they were completely useless. The reason for this was not the Elemental Combo system itself but more the ability for players to stack Crowd Controls over and over again to increase damage output beyond expected values, completely stunlocking enemies.
Allowing players to pick what kind of towers they enjoy using and use those in nearly every circumstance (as long as they put the time and effort in to get the mods/shards for those towers) is a cool and interesting aspect a RPG Tower Defense can have. For instance, having your Cannonball towers oil enemies so your flame aura begins an ignite, or allowing your Skyguard to stun enemies knocked up from geyser. Those are cool and interesting interactions that we want players to feel good finding and discovering for their first time, but not have them make all content trivial.
This is not the final stage of our combo system, but rather a first step. We’re hard at work on back end systems that need to be altered in order to future proof additions we create, and of course give our amazing artists enough time to go forward and make awesome visual effects (so awesome you may shed a tear) to show off new and amazing combos.
Another quick thing I want to talk about is Blockades. Blockades have decreased in use ever since we added shards, and even more so with Mods, because Crowd Control effects are too powerful on our enemies. The reason for this is the many instances of Crowd Control available at any point and time without any kind of cooldown on using them. Enter Diminishing Returns. Diminishing Returns allow certain passives and shards to increase their base values everytime any Crowd Control is applied to an enemy future CC’s will have less effect. There’s more to talk about on Diminishing Returns being added, but by adding them in we’re able to make Elemental Combos a lot more interesting, create even MORE Elemental Combos in our future patches/updates, AND buff Blockades so that they are part of your builds. All of these changes are because of feedback we received from so many of you, and we’ve done a lot to make them feel good.
Activating my trap card,
Petire
Daniel Diaz — World Builder
Hey everyone! I’m Daniel Diaz, and I want to share with you some of the work we’ve put into the next map coming to you all very soon.
Our main inspiration for this level came from Game of thrones (specifically Night's Watch, Castle Black) and some awesome concepts by artists at Trendy.
We had lot of fun working on it. I remember I started working on the front of the castle, if you wonder about the workflow just take a look at the pic below.
Finally, one of the biggest challenges for this level on the world building side was to create the ice cavern and backgrounds for the level (we had no concepts for them) so we had to explore and use our imagination.
We can’t wait to see you all conquer this frozen castle and reap the rewards for doing so!
Thanks everyone,
Daniel
What’s Next?
Our Dev Stream is December 7th, @3 PM EST. Be sure to come join us, check out all the epic snow covered goodness, system changes, and hard work poured into this update. Oh, also, you know, maybe win some prizes coming with this update!
To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
For Etheria!
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
LAND HO, PATCH 4.1 IS LIVE!
Ahoy Defenders!
Patch 4.1 has docked in Etherian ports and is now live on all platforms. This patch is focused on providing some nice change to perfect Mod drop rates, improving the visibility of Mod quality, polishing Mob pathing, and more. Get your eye patch and parrot ready, let’s set sail into some notes!
Perfect Mod Drops
This is something that we received a lot of feedback on and are working on in multiple phases. The first phase is in this patch allowed us to do calculations on changing the drop rates specifically. Previously we expected players to see a perfect Mod of any kind within less than nine hours of active gameplay (active gameplay being time spent efficiently and quickly completing maps, not just with the game open). After hearing feedback, we sent out a survey that gave a lot of good information. Our testing and simulations validated the feedback and our feeling was that there was more to add to this system. This first phase looks to increase the drop rate so on average you see a perfect Mod in less than four hours of active gameplay on average (which matches up with 31% of people surveyed asking for 1-5 hours, and 40% asking for 5-10 hours). This average is based around solo play, so multiplayer sessions may much shorter averages. When talking about averages there are going to be outliers, but for the short term this is the best fix we felt comfortable putting out.
The second phase of this is a lot more complex and requires a lot of work and discovery on our end, and it should be coming with our next update. We are working diligently to get rid of any outliers that cause players to feel as if they haven’t seen one in over 50 hours of active gameplay. Alongside that we also hear the desire to target farm Mods, and while it’s not something we’re going to provide outright, we are looking into way(s) to ease this quite a bit. We’re going to touch more on this as we get closer to our next big update (which isn’t too far away)!
Mod Quality Visuals
Players have requested that we make it easier to understand where your Mod quality ranges on a scale of 1 to 10, especially if you’re colorblind. Now there will be a number that reflects the quality nestled gently on top of the “Qualibean™.”
We’ve heard additional feedback on Mods regarding sorting and distinguishing perfect quality and are currently looking into ways to make this better.
Mob Pathing
We’re continuously finding ways to make our game experience as smooth as possible. Stuck enemies and those that go off their intended path are no fun to deal with, and they certainly are a challenge for us to ensure they work correctly. We changed A LOT of their behaviors and fixed a lot of stuck/pathing issues in this patch with some new logic. We’re going to keep a close eye on these changes to make sure they work correctly, and if there’s more work to be done we promise we’ll be hammering away it.
Replay From Wave
This was a feature added in with Isle of Dread that a lot of players have enjoyed. We ran into an initial technical challenge that did not allow this feature to work well on Lost Temple. Replay From Wave was released and since we set to work on getting it to work on Lost Temple. After testing it, we’re now able to get Replay From Wave to work on this map — including Omega Waves.
Prestigious Weapons
When Isle of Dread was released, players had the opportunity to earn a Prestigious weapon every 10 floor of Onslaught before floor 100, and every 20 floors after floor 100. With how the update was applied, it required people to overcome previous highest floors to receive these rewards. It didn’t feel great to have players reclimb to take part in this new system.
With this patch, we were able to get this working. As a bonus, all players as of this patch are able to go complete every floor a Prestigious Weapon drops and receive one. For example, if yesterday you completed Floor 60 and received a Prestigious Weapon, you are now able to not only complete Floor 60 to receive another one, floor 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 can be completed again and you’ll receive another Prestigious Weapon for each!
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue with the Abyss Lord’s Colossus not consistently attacking enemies in lane.
Fixed an issue with Earthshatter Tower not attacking Vanguard Gorbstock, Vanguards (shield goblins), Ranged Ogres, and Cannon Ogres.
Fixed an issue with Anti-melee Servo not working with Angry Nimbus.
Fixed an issue with the Harpy Tower functioning without a World Tree.
Fixed an issue with some towers where their Inspect DPS was not calculating Crit Damage and Crit Chance.
Fixed an issue with Angry Nimbus shocking enemies without the Dryad in Corrupt Form.
Fixed an issue with parties being disbanded upon transitioning.
Fixed an issue with towers affected by Boost Aura losing their yellow VFX when upgraded.
Multiplayer bonuses now work properly in Incursions and Onslaught.
Fixed an issue with EV2 getting stuck in the Proton Charge firing animation while moving.
Pet eggs can no longer rot in player shops.
Fixed an issue with Power Transfer showing a negative value.
A hard gold cap has been set at ~2,300,000,000 gold.
Made adjustments to the Mastery tab on the World Map to improve Mastery
Ranged Ogres no longer shoot into the sky when hit by Starfall. As a result the Ranged Ogre Space Association has been disbanded.
Chaos VI Jacked Sparrow and Plunderer’s Paradise now correctly drop C6 shards.
Now able to quick match for any region in the Expeditions tab of the World Map.
Lavamancer’s submerge travel SFX now play correctly.
Adjusted how jumps are handled slightly for smoother gameplay.
Fixed an issue on Xbox where players attempted to join maps that no longer existed.
Fixed an issue where Defender Pack pets and redeem code pets were starting with 5/10 affection. You gotta earn their love!
Adjusted the Game Browser UI elements on controller that appeared out of place.
Fixed an issue with Replay From Wave where Dryad Defenses would still work without the World Tree.
Fixed an issue where the Rain of Oil shard stopped functioning if you swapped to another hero then back to the Abyss Lord.
Fixed Vanguard Gorbstock’s minimap icon. It was too tiny.
Fixed an issue with Replay From Wave where Weapon manufacture weapons could not be set.
The Shackled Mod no longer applies to Lady Orcs, only triggers on Dark Assassins now.
Fixed a Gem Well timing issue.
Fixed an issue where players were unable to back out of the War Table if they expanded regions on the World Map.
Adjusted the Floor 30 and 38 Onslaught Flair rewards listing.
Fixed some War Table issues showing Chaos 4 and 5 enemies incorrectly.
Updated the Lightning Grenade Pet Ability description.
Made it so Player 2 in splitscreen is not able to be kicked while in a party where the leader isn’t Player 1 or 2 of the splitscreen group.
Fixed an issue where loading into hard versions of the campaign was causing 5001 errors.
The Forbidden Worshipper’s Mask was too small. We made it bigger. What’s the Forbidden Worshipper’s Mask? Secrets.
Changed the title screen to have “Play Now” only for new, returning, and freshly installed players to reduce confusion.
Fixed an issue with consecutive win bonuses were not carrying over correctly between games.
Fixed a couple issues with splitscreen players not able to be invited to parties.
Have adjusted Dryad Towers targeting AI slightly. Continuing to investigate this.
Fixed an issue with Tenacity not preventing EMP Kobold tower stuns on certain towers.
Added a potential fix for Green Mana not being properly distributed if the Warm Up phase is skipped before all players load in.
Added a lock icon for locked War Table regions.
Fixed an issue with hitting “Yes” on Replay From Wave breaking if done while a Core destruction cutscene played.
Fixed an issue with towers refreshing properly when a play who disconnects rejoins.
Fixed an issue for players who play at 4k resolution with the Option Menu going off-screen.
Fixed a visual issue when rerolling Defender Packs without enough medals.
The Favorable Wind Mod now correctly shows the stacks icon.
Added Mastery Star info to the Region and Difficulty drop downs.
Fixed an issue where the Player Shop UI wasn’t closing automatically when build phase starts.
Mastery stars were removed from filtering in the Advanced View.
Fixed an issue with items updating properly for returning players.
Changed a the Tinkering load screen to correctly show the Gobsplosion Mod info.
Fixed an issue with SFX not playing properly for buyback.
A lot of you submit bug reports constantly, and we make sure to squash as many of them as we can. As with any expansion, there are a lot of fixes coming your way. Please continue to submit them to our bug site, your help is invaluable to knocking out some of the pesky issues that appear.
Known Issues
Tabbing when matchmaking on world map before the UI updates can matchmake into an unintended game mode.
On splitscreen some NPC shops some UI elements come through the window. The shop is still the focus and works correctly, just visually not perfect.
Replay from Wave on Lost Temple sometimes keeps a broken core model.
Replay from Wave on Lost Temple is not maintaining the correct lanes/mutators.
Social Defenders
There’s a lot of people playing Dungeon Defenders II, and a lot of them gather on our social hubs. When it comes to finding other players, figuring out how to conquer a specific challenge, or just wanting to get to know others in the community, or getting the latest DD2 news, you can’t go wrong with our social platforms:
We’re getting the finishing touches on this patch and cannot wait to share it with you all.
For Etheria!
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
Patch 4.1 Preview
Ahoy Defenders!
Around the docks of Etheria there is talk of Patch 4.1 arriving later this week. Among these whispers are some predictions of what’s to come. Join us as we peer slightly into the future, it’s time to dive into Patch 4.1 preview!
Perfect Mod Drops
This is something that we received a lot of feedback on and are working on in multiple phases. The first phase is coming in this patch, it allowed us to do calculations on changing the drop rates specifically. We are going to be increasing the drop rate of perfect Mods by MORE than double, while lowering the drop chance of lower quality Mods.
The second phase of this is a lot more complex, and we’re not ready to discuss it just quite yet. We know the current drop rate has an average time that players should see perfect mods, and for a lot of players they are at or below that average. However, there are players that are outliers on this system, taking a long time to see any perfect Mod and that doesn’t feel great. We are currently developing ways to try and curb this entirely.
Mod Quality Visuals
Players have requested that we make it easier to understand where your Mod quality ranges on a scale of 1 to 10. Now there will be a number that reflects the quality nestled gently on top of the “Qualibean™.”
Mob Pathing
We’re continuously finding ways to make our game experience as smooth as possible. Stuck enemies and those that go off their intended path are no fun to deal with, and they certainly are a challenge for us to ensure they work correctly. There are changes coming with this patch aimed at drastically decreasing these types of behaviors. We’re going to keep a close eye on these changes to make sure they work correctly, and if there’s more work to be done we promise we’ll be hammering away it.
Replay From Wave
This was a feature added in with Isle of Dread that a lot of players have enjoyed. We ran into an initial technical challenge that did not allow this feature to work well on Lost Temple. Replay From Wave was released and since we set to work on getting it to work on Lost Temple. After testing it, we’re now able to get Replay From Wave to work on this map — including Omega Waves.
And That’s Not All!
There’s of course a slew of bug fixes coming, expanded explanations to the above, and a couple other unannounced changes that will be in the patch notes.
Social Defenders
There’s a lot of people playing Dungeon Defenders II, and a lot of them gather on our social hubs. When it comes to finding other players, figuring out how to conquer a specific challenge, or just wanting to get to know others in the community, or getting the latest DD2 news, you can’t go wrong with our social platforms:
We’re getting the finishing touches on this patch and cannot wait to share it with you all.
For Etheria!
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
Isle of Dread is Out Now!
Ahoy Defenders!
Dungeon Defenders II: The Isle of Dread Expansion is out now on ALL platforms! This expansion contains a treasure trove of features, changes, and improvements. Set sail for adventure on two new maps, strike down your foes to gain new weapons and Mods, take on new enemies, and so much more. Put on your best eye patch and get your parrot, let’s dive into some expansion notes!
New Maps
We’re excited to be introducing not one, but two maps with this expansion. These maps are available as their own Adventure set, can be selected when playing Expeditions, can come up as you progress through Onslaught, and one is even a Chaos VII Incursion!
The Jacked Sparrow The first map is set on The Jacked Sparrow, previously known as The Sparrow before the heroes of Etheria hijacked it in order to reach their destination. As you traverse this map, enemies attack from above and below the levels of the ship, requiring all hands on deck to keep the masts safe from destruction! There’s a ton of fun to be had aboard this ship, as you use cannons to blast your enemies away, catapults to fly across the map, and vantage points to take out enemies when they least expect it!
Plunderer's Paradise After braving the rough seas, the heroes land on an island besieged by an army of the Old One trying to break into the island’s mountain. Among these enemies are new foes that have not been seen before, helping beef up the horde that is coming your way! Protect the island to prevent havoc breaking loose, but also explore to find secrets hidden throughout the map. Conquer the Incursion version of this map by striking down Captain Dreadbones to unlock a new Barbarian weapon to add to your arsenal!
New Enemies
There’s a slew of enemies that are now donning pirate attire, an absolute necessity when conquering on such vicious tides! Here are a few of the enemies you encounter on your journey.
These goblins upped their pirate fashion game, but they also recruited additional allies to take down heroes from afar.
Cannon Ogres have joined the ranks of foes you must face! They are a fearsome terror that can ruin your defenses and range, but are also deadly when you’re up close and personal.
A cursed orc pirate, Captain Dreadbones, is a new boss that you encounter in this expansion. You can fight him and his mighty crew in Plunderer’s Paradise on all game modes the map is available! Be careful, his cursed strength is nothing to underestimate.
The World Map
The War Table is improved with this expansion, adding some wonderful visuals to the world of Etheria, and also providing some quality of life changes as requested by our glorious community! The World Map shows all the different places Defenders may explore through different game modes:
Campaign: A new World Map that outlines where you’ve been, and where you’ll be going!
Expeditions: Choose the region, map, and difficulty you want!
Adventures: Four zones full of different Adventure story arcs are available to choose from!
Onslaught: Hop right into your floor and get to climbing!
Mastery: With a similar look to Expeditions, you can see your Mastery Star progression!
Incursions: You can change difficulties to see each available Incursion!
Each game mode contains different formats for ease of use, but also provide an “Advanced View” session browser in each. The Session Browser allows quick visibility of all the games going on, allowing players to filter down to specific maps within specific difficulties of specific game modes. Very specific!
When navigating through the various world maps, there is also a new indicator that shows which maps are included in Daily and Weekly quests!
Social Improvements
Interacting with players is getting some good attention with this expansion, with much more coming even after the expansion! Player Lists are now easier to navigate, selecting another Defender and choosing to inspect their shop or invite them to party among other options provided via a drop down menu.
The Player List menu has also received additional features. You can now see who’s in your party, who’s the party leader, any friends in the hub, and skip time inspecting every player by seeing who has items listed in their shop!
Receiving invites is also streamlined to not take over your screen and there’s a timer to avoid invite spam. Parties received attention as well, for instance, the leader is now consistent and gives control to choose when and where your crew go! We’re continuing to develop social interactions between players, and this is a giant first step towards making it an easier and more enjoyable experience.
Replay From Wave
This is something we are introducing to help Defenders overcome the challenges they are presented with and promoting experimentation as you progress. Sometimes you can get up to a certain point and you want to try a different strategy. That’s where Replay From Wave comes in!
Now when you fail a wave, the Performance Optimization System outlines what defenses fell or which ones may have been underperforming. You are able to evaluate what changes you need, make adjustments, and get back to overcoming the challenge before you.
This system is available in Adventures, Expeditions, Onslaught, AND Mastery (without losing stars). The only caveat to this is that Replay From Wave is not available on Lost Temple, as it’s meant to stand as a final gauntlet to overcome every five floors. We can’t wait to see how far this system let’s Defenders go!
Onslaught
It’s finally here — one map floors are now the standard in Onslaught! This change was due to a lot of great feedback many of you provided. There are a few things that needed to change when going towards the one map format:
Difficulty Scaling: We shifted the focus of investing time into each floor to overcoming greater difficulties sooner. As a result the rewards previously earned in Onslaught at various floors (Floor 114 for instance) are scaled down to the same difficulty; Ancient Power reset minimum reset floor is lowered; and Omega Waves were added in as an extra challenge to provide a greater feeling of progression.
Rewards: Since players are facing a greater challenge faster, we wanted rewards that reflected overcoming said challenges. Now every 10 floors, players receive an Prestigious Weapon, with a guarantee on their unique Mods to roll a five or higher!
More Maps: You are now going to be exposed to every map (except boss maps) as you climb Onslaught. Every five maps runs a format of easy, medium, and hard maps, with the fifth map being The Lost Temple!
More Schedules: There are even more enemy schedules that you'll encounter now!
Omega Waves: This is a new sixth wave added to the end of The Lost Temple. It’s a small victory lap as you continue to climb, where you will be provided with Mini-Boss only waves and unique schedules!
Onslaught is something we want to continue to build upon. With the feedback you provide, we’re able to make sure that we keep putting out content you enjoy, and these Onslaught changes are a result of that. We can’t wait to see how high you climb, maybe even a Memes For Marcos 2.0 is in our future!
Ancient Power
Onslaught and Ancient Power go together like pirates and the ocean, so of course we added more to this system! Ancient Powers themselves are more powerful than before and require less of a point investment to utilize their maximum potential. Now two players are able to reach the maximum strength provided by Ancient Power, previously something only four players were able to do.
There are also FOUR new powers to help bolster your battle against the horde of enemies coming your way. Protean Shift brought some order to the Critical Chance/Damage system, and as a result we are able to add the following Ancient Powers:
Hero Critical Chance
Hero Critical Damage
Defense Critical Chance
Defense Critical Damage
Ancient Power is also more accessible early on now. You are able to gain Ancient Power after completing Floor 30! You do not have to acquire Ancient Power here and can keep climbing gaining higher Minimum Ascension as you progress through floors. Previously you gained 3 Minimum Ascension for every floor you completed (with three map floors), but now you gain 12 Minimum Ascension for every floor with the one map system, and also gain 4 Talent Cap increases per floor as well!
As you gain more Ancient Power, your Minimum Ancient Power Floor increases as well. This system continues to climb until your Minimum Ancient Power Floor reaches Floor 50, requiring you to reach Floor 80 to acquire additional Ancient Power. You then have access to Floor 50 right away after acquiring Ancient Power, granted you’re equipped to take on those challenges!
One final change when acquiring Ancient Power: your pets no longer reset! This change may not be permanent as we’re investigating ways to improve pets, but for now, your pets are untouched by the Ancient Power System!
New Items
There’s one thing that pirates are always on the hunt for — TREASURE! There are multiple ways to acquire the new items coming.
Professor Proteus’s Seaworthy Weapons Professor Proteus now has a new cache of weapons available for Defenders taking on the high seas. Using these weapons provide unique death animations that are fitting for the battles that await you! Turn your enemies into a boat, and watch them sink into a whirlpool, or drop your enemies and make them flop like a fish.
There are multiple animations these weapons provide, and they are available on all weapons! The variety of animations are on a rotation daily, so be sure to check back regularly to see if the one you want is available.
Pirate Map Seaworthy Weapons We’re trying something new by allowing Defenders to get these new weapons by completing the new maps! These weapons do not have the unique death animations, but instead come with all new Mods. These Mods are not weapon or hero specific, though some of them are bound to being melee or ranged only. They aren’t like Mods that are currently in the game, some take your movement speed into account; another has a chance to poison, drench, or oil your enemies; and another can even prevent Dark Assassins from stunning you!
There are ten to discover, and they can only be acquired through completing The Jacked Sparrow, Plunderer’s Paradise, or through Player Shops
Depending on where you acquire these weapons, you are also met with new pirate themed Mods that pack quite a punch that can be transferred to any weapon; or unique death animations that can sink your enemies (literally, one can turn them into a boat and sink into the ground)!
New Features
What good expansion doesn’t contain some new features? We’re introducing new features to help Defenders as they keep Dragonfall and Etheria safe.
Primary Stat Reroll Primary Stat reroll system that we’re experimenting with. This system allows you to acquire reroll materials from completing the Jacked Sparrow and Plunderer’s Paradise, and reroll your primary stat into a potentially higher number. This change is not enforced if the roll is lower, you are always given a choice to accept it or decline! The new reroll materials are also able to be traded.We’re looking for feedback on this system and if you all enjoy it, we’ll investigate greatly expanding it.
Player Shop Changes There are a some changes coming with Player Shops to make them more enticing to a larger amount of Defenders:
Use any piece of gear you purchase! Previously players were limited to buying a piece of gear that was only available to their level. This meant players having gold to purchase cool Mods, but not having the gear score to do so. Now when you purchase a piece of gear, the gear is scaled down to your Champion Score. After purchasing an item, and it scaling, you are still able to sell it on your shop. Even more Defenders can now participate in buying and selling!
Gem Mine We’ve introduced a new way for Defenders to get a sweet deal on gems. The Gem Mine can be purchased from the platform stores, providing 100 gems everyday that you login for 30 consecutive days. That’s a total of 3000 gems for a lot less!
Balance Changes
Protean Shift brought a lot of new ways to play and a ton of power to Defenders, which we really love! As a result, there are a slew of things that are either not as strong as we’d like or too strong, removing any challenge while playing. We’ve discussed a couple of these, let’s get into it:
Abyss Lord
Towers
Colossus
Range increased to 800 from 600 (33% increase!)
Skeletal Archers
Damage scaling increased to 15 from 11.5 (30+% increase!)
Ramsters
Direct Command range increased to 5000 from 4000 (25% increase!)
Dryad
Towers
Harpy’s Perch
Damage scaling increased to 5.175 from 4.5 (15% increase!)
Hornet’s Nest
Hornets from any nest can attack any enemy. Previously only one hornet per nest could attack the same enemy.
Up to three hornets can attack the same enemy, regardless of where the hornet spawns.
EV2
Towers
Weapon Manufacturer
Minimum range added to node placement similar to Auras. This change bring this tower in-line to similar towers, while still keeping it unique.
Huntress
Towers
Explosive Trap
Damage scaling increased to 6.6 from 5.5 (20% increase!)
Range scaling increased to 0.0575 from 0.05 (15% increase!)
Range Max increased to 1150 from 1000 (15% increase!)
Base Range increased to 6900 from 6000 (15% increase!)
Trigger Radius increase to 400 from 200 (100% increase!)
Lavamancer
Towers
Volcano
Damage scaling increased to 9.31 from 7 (33% increase!)
Mystic
Towers
Sand Viper
Damage scaling increased to 6.875 from 5.5 (25% increase!)
Squire
Towers
Ballista
Damage scaling increased to 21.27 from 18 (18+% increase!)
Mod Changes
Tower Mods
Unique Defense Crit Chance Servo
Increased max Crit Chance to 30% from 25% (5% increase!)
Unique Defense Crit Damage Servo
Increased max Crit Damage to 40% from 35% (5% increase!)
Boom Mods
We’ve changed how boom mods work. Previously they were a flat percentage that allowed them to scale infinitely, making them a must for climbing later floors.
They’ve been retooled to do damage based on the enemies they explode up to a cap. The number shown is an average of what that damage is based on the different kinds of enemies within that group. For example, a melee-splosion does less damage when exploding a small goblin than it does when exploding a berserker orc.
General Changes
Chaos VIII Amps and High Onslaught Mods
Modified Mark’s Thoughts:
These now start dropping at floor 35. Their drop chance increases every two floors you complete up to a cap on Floor 83 for Amps and Floor 92 for Mods.
Bug Fixes
All C8 shards have been disabled. We may revisit them sometime in the future, but to provide an equal battlefield for all Defenders, we’ve disabled C8 shards for now.
We made some pathing adjustments, fixes to spawners, and adjustment to enemies that should improve their pathing across several maps. Looking at you Northwest flier lane in Lost Temple!
Fixed a bug where the Betsy Staff could cause enemies to, more or less, one shot anything in their path.
Fixed an issue with Betsy’s Curse shard allowing enemies to one shot anything in their path.
Removed some tutorial text that was hanging out in Gates of Dragonfall - Hard.
Fixed a rare issue where when an item is upgraded to 10/10 Chaos 7 the ipwr could go to 0.
Fixed an issue where Consecutive Win Bonus XP was being multiplied by Ancient Power an additional time.
EV-2 no longer infinitely lazers the Bastille Master in her incursion.
Fixed several cases where the Bastille Master could get stuck.
Fixed an issue where players could get into a state where they were unable to evolve pets.
Fixed a case where split-screen users could have the Player Shops overlapping the Ancient Power UI.
Player Shops - "Your inventory is full" notification now shows on other players shops when your inventory is full
Piercing Towers now pierce Vanguards.
Protective Downgrade Servo and Last Stand Chip now have a vfx to show when the effect triggers.
A lot of you submit bug reports constantly, and we make sure to squash as many of them as we can. As with any expansion, there are a lot of fixes coming your way. Please continue to submit them to our bug site, your help is invaluable to knocking out some of the pesky issues that appear.
Known Issues
If beyond the first three tutorial maps, hitting Play Now on the main menu sends you to town.
Traps are not respawning correctly when using Replay From Wave.
Temporary fix in for rare instances where upgrading gear to 10/10 would greatly lower it’s stats. For these rare instances, instead of greatly lowering, stats are now slightly raised. This is a catch for if this error occurs, not a change applied to all gear.
Tower-like abilities (Talisman of Empowerment, Abyss Stone, etc.) are running into a few issues that we’re aware of.
The Champion Score filter is currently not functioning correctly.
Player 2 in splitscreen is able to be kicked from party when in a party with a leader that isn't part of the splitscreen
When the first player in split screen mode spends or receives currency the pop up appears on both screens.
When placing defenses on the bottom floor of The Jacked Sparrow there is a chance to have it go to the top layer
Social Defenders
There’s a lot of people playing Dungeon Defenders II, and a lot of them gather on our social hubs. When it comes to finding other players, figuring out how to conquer a specific challenge, or just wanting to get to know others in the community, or getting the latest DD2 news, you can’t go wrong with our social platforms:
The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on this expansion. Get to setting sail!
For Etheria!
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
Dungeon Defenders II: Isle of Dread Update Release Date!
Greetings Defenders,
We're excited to finally be announcing the release date for Dungeon Defenders II: The Isle of Dread Update! Originally it was going to be announced during our Dev Stream, but when have pirates ever followed the rules?!
The Isle of Dread Update is releasing on Wednesday, September 26th — THAT'S NEXT WEEK!
Dev Stream 85 is happening tomorrow, September 21st at 3PM EDT, is going to show off more of what's to come. We cannot wait for you to get this update into your hands and hooks!
This be the second Dev Log for the next update in Dungeon Defenders II! As we promised ye scallywags last Dev Log we’ll be talking about even more treasure and booty coming. Ancient Power changes, War Table improvements, and a lot more await ye in Dev Log 101!
Alec “Lawlta” Saare — Community Captain
This Dev Log is still just the tip of the iceberg for what’s coming. You all have been anticipating Ancient Power changes, and we’ve got them! A lot of feedback that we’ve received on this system (just like with Onslaught) was used to help mold it into what’s coming your way. On top of this, the War Table changes (session browser anyone?), and maps are a lot to cover. This update is ARRRRRRRRRbsolutely insane, to quote a certain Jose, “hype levels are through the roof, unsustainable!”
I’ll let others dive into what’s coming. I will say that we are going to have our FIRST Dev Stream for this update next week, September 14th, at 3 PM EDT. We’ll be showing off some stuff from Dev Log 99, 100, and 101! Who knows, we might even be giving away one of our new flairs during our Dev Streams. ;)
Jose “Scaredycat Scarecrow” Villegas — Technical Designer
Hey-o everyone!
What’s promised is owed, so here are some of the new changes to Ancient Power available to you in our next update. We have heard your feedback, and hopefully these changes will make you more excited to engage with this system.
Ancient Powers Here's a list of the changes regarding Ancient Powers specifically:
We have doubled the strength of each Ancient Power. To note, since you can add each AP level together when in a party to make the buffs stronger, now we will only add up to 10 levels per Power. This means you get twice the strength when playing solo, and up to the same amount when playing with others, but this limit is reached much easier now.
We have introduced four new Powers: Defense Crit Damage, Defense Crit Chance, Hero Crit Chance, and Hero Crit Damage.
The amount of power you gain per level has been redistributed so the first levels of each power will award you with a greater gain than the last ones.
Prestigious Weapons Like mentioned in the previous Log, you can now get one Prestigious Weapon every 10 floors, (20 after floor 100), at a guaranteed quality 5/10. The opportunity to earn this is reset when going through Ancient Power, so you will get the chance to earn them again.
Ancient Power Progression Faster base ascension, and talent cap raises. Since now the progression of Onslaught will be tougher, and faster, we have increased your base gains to match this increase.
Pets Pets no longer get reset when going through AP ;).
Starting Floor The final one is the biggest one yet: Every time you go through Ancient Power, you will unlock a higher floor in Onslaught that you can immediately start at. Your ‘Base Floor’ will raise by various amounts, but eventually you will be able to start right away beyond the C7 Floors when triggering AP.
Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without raising the floor you need to reach to trigger AP again, so whenever we raise your ‘Base Floor’, your ‘Target Floor’ will also be raised. There is a limit to how much both can be raised, but you will need to watch today’s hot Trendy Fun Stream w/ Lawlta and Jose and ask me live.
That’s it for me at the moment. Hopefully next time I will be allowed to talk to you about the new hot Pirate Mods that we have been working on.
Love,
Jose
Eric “Petire” Petrie — QA Designer
What's up Everyone?
We’ve received a ton of feedback regarding our War Table and the flow of how players get into games. Changes for the war table were two fold. First we focused on the flow of how players get into games with other players, where things were easily understood and executed, and also where they were not. Our second focus was on allowing people to know all of the options available in the game. As you progress in Dungeon Defenders II, a lot of doors open up, and we want to make sure Defenders can know where they can do, and what they can do.
War Table UI
Enter our new overworld view on the War Table, introducing a new interface for selecting what and where you play. The way we worked through this was by setting goals we wanted to accomplish in regards to getting into a game, and then finding ways to attain those goals:
Change how the world is presented to players
Adding a World Map that looks amazing and has distinct landmarks, helping immerse players into what they were defending.
Change how players are able to get into games
Adding Play Now getting players right into the game with other people who are doing the same thing. This requires less time going through menus, and gets you into the action of an appropriate level.
Allowing players to filter for any combination (even content that is locked) and see those open games as well!
Increase the amount of information given to players BEFORE they get into games.
Giving more space to give information about difficulty, game modes, chaos enemies, and maps.
Having information about rewards and what can be gained by completing the map.
Session Browser
And last, but certainly not least, a Session Browser that allows players to see everything playable in one location. This allows players to see EVERYTHING, even locked content that they haven’t unlocked through progression! By doing all of these changes, along with improving how the party and player interaction systems handle, it is going to be a lot more intuitive to get into games and have fun playing with friends and the community at a large!
Brian “Good Enough” Goodsell — Technical Artist
Hey All,
We heard you were kind of excited about there being new maps in the game. We weren't sure, so we decided to not make any. PSYCHE! This time around we brought two maps for all of you to conquer. Hopefully you brought some dimenhydrinate, you won't want to get seasick.
Our first map we're showing has you fighting on the high seas. This map is unlike anything you’ve seen in Dungeon Defenders II to date! You’re on a stolen ship with enemies coming at you from every direction. To really put the pressure of the high seas on Defenders we needed to add threats from above AND below!
The verticality involved in this map will have you flying all over the place with the help of the catapults added (at least 6)! There’s some cool tricks for players to discover, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Our next map we're showing is the fruits of your sailing adventure. They say it’s all about the journey, not the destination. Well that can go kick rocks, because the destination is just as awesome as the journey! This map is all over the place, has some awesome new enemies, and some hidden secrets (one that we’re really excited to see being found).
There’s a lot to be done here, both on land and on ships. Even failing this map is pretty insane. You’ll be seeing this map in multiple game modes, it might even be the incursion *wink* *wink*.
Dani Moore, Remote QA Lead
We're also looking to expand our tester pool once again. Our testers get the chance to try out our still-in development work, in exchange for some cool stuff as a thanks. They help us with balance, feedback and bugs and their contributions to our releases are very valuable.
We have two teams, RQA - our daily bug hunters (for folks with lots of free time each day), and RPG - our larger team for balance and feedback (for folks with limited free time).
Testing comes with two different Tester-exclusive rewards:
Betsy White
Parrot Wings flair
If you are interested, drop me an email at dani.moore trendyent (dot) com and ask. I'm happy to provide more information on both teams to see what best suits. A big thanks to everyone involved in the Update and the heaps of work and sweat that went into it all.
What’s Next?
In these two Dev Logs, we’ve covered a lot of changes that are coming, and there’s still a lot more to show off. Because of this, we’ll be doing multiple Dev Streams to showcase things you’ve seen in both of these Dev Logs, and maybe some extra bonuses.
Our first Dev Stream will be September 14th, at 3 PM EDT. Be sure to come join us, check out all the pirate-y goodness, system changes, and hard work poured into this update. Oh, also, you know, maybe win some prizes coming with this update!
To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
For Etheria!
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
DEV LOG 100 — ONSLAUGHT PARRRRRTY!
Ahoy there, DefendARRRRs!
In this Dev Log, we be talking about some changes to Onslaught and Party Controls that ye’ve been requestin, and we’re here to deliver. These changes are meant to improve the game mode, allowing many of you to set sail on adventure without having to sink a ton of time into each play session if ye’re not able to. Also greater control over who’s in ye’r ranks and leadin’ ye’r crew, alongside making it easier to interact between one another. Let’s dive in!
Alec “Lawlta” Saare — Community Overlord
First off, Dev Log 100, wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut! There’s a lot still to talk about, but being our 100th Dev Log, I thought it would be best that we talk about and confirm changes to a system many of you have requested. Onslaught is getting a round of polish with extra elbow grease to become more accessible for players and also bring some additional difficulty. The party improvements are also something that many of you gave a ton of great feedback on, so these changes should make being in a party not only feel a lot better, but also be easier to get into.
There’s a ton more coming that we cannot wait to share with you! We’ve been hard at work creating new maps for you to defend, new enemies to take on, new weapons to strengthen your arsenal, and so much more. To quote a Jose you may or may not know, it’s “coming sooner than you think”. Unless you think it’s tomorrow and a little bit of time after tomorrow, then that quote doesn’t apply here.
X Marks The Heart,
Lawlta
Mark “Telflon” Telfer — Technical Designer
Ahoy Defenders!
I’m here to talk improvements to the party system and a few things that are to come.
Seamless Invite System - Party invites in the live game are jarring. When you receive one, it stops you dead, it removes all movement control from your character, and the popup covers the majority of your screen. The only way to make the popup go away is to accept or decline the invitation to the party. With the new party system, these gameplay intrusions will be eliminated. Receiving an invite to a party will no longer stop you dead. Instead, you will receive an unobtrusive notification at the bottom of your screen informing you who invited you to the party with the option to accept or decline the offer. You will fully retain control of movement while this invite is pending, and your view of Etheria will not be occluded.
Vicinity Targeting - The way you initiate any social interaction in DD2 is by opening the player list, selecting the name of the person you wish to interact with, and then selecting how you’d like to interact with them. This is a good system if you already know the name of the person you wish to interact with, but it is not the best facilitator of organic interactions with people you serendipitously meet. For instance, let’s say you see someone run by with a sweet sweet costume, and decide that you want to make that person a part of your stylish crew. You’re standing right next to this player, but you can’t invite them to a party directly; you’ll to figure out their name, open the player list menu, find them, and then send them an invite. To make it easier and more organic to interact with others, we will be introducing vicinity targeting. What does it mean? It means that you can walk right up to someone and interact with them directly. You won’t have to open full-screen menus to invite people a party, kick people from a party, promote them to party leader (more on that), or view their shops. You will remain fully engrossed in the world of Etheria while you perform these interactions via vicinity targeting; you will retain full degree of movement control.
Player List User Experience - If you prefer the classic way of interacting with others then you’re still in luck! The player list has been refined to give a far smoother experience when interacting with others.
A Party Structure That Makes Sense - As I’m sure you all have noticed, some funkiness can happen with parties in the live game which really upsets expectations. One of my biggest annoyances with the current system is having the party leader change randomly when you load into a new map. Frustrating! It's time to bring some order to the party chaos that can happen in the live game, and we plan to do this by implementing the following:
The person who sends the first invitation to party up becomes the party leader.
The party leader REMAINS the leader until they either leave the party or they choose to promote someone.
The party leader will be able to promote other members to their position if they no longer wish to lead.
All party members can invite someone to join a party, but only the party leader can kick from a party.
Only the party leader can choose where players matchmake to.
There are more changes coming too. Stay tuned!
Thinking of you,
Mark
Jose Villegas — Technical Designer
Hey everyone,
We have heard your voice loud and clear, and we are making several improvements to Onslaught. Sit tight and get ready.
Floors will have only 1 map each. This was by far the largest concern that you had with the game mode. It took too long to complete a map, and a single failure led to having to play the entire floor again. Worry no longer, in the update a single victory is required to move forward.
Moar maps. Currently, the selection of maps in late game Onslaught is quite large, but not complete. With the newest changes we are introducing, all the maps will be available at all points in the Onslaught progression, late and early ;).
Faster progression. The difficulty increases were happening only little by little in each floor, which made the process of playing through Onslaught much slower than in Expeditions. Not anymore; now the jumps in difficulty (and rewards) happen much faster, and the number of floors that will take you to Chaos 7 strength have been reduced. This increased in difficulty per floor has also been carried to beyond the Chaos 7 floors, so reaching floor 999 will be an greater challenge than before.
More and better Prestigious weapons. Lawlta told me I can’t talk about AP yet, but I will try to spill this small bean here, as it’s related to the Onslaught climb. In addition to receiving a Prestigious Weapon when you trigger Ancient Power, now you will receive one every 10 floors when playing Onslaught (every 20 after floor 100). In addition, all new Prestigious Weapons will come at least at quality 5/10, and will have an increased chance of spawning at higher quality as well. These awards will also reset when you go through Ancient Power, giving you a chance of more weapons.
New post C7 difficulty schedules. Starting around the end of the chaos 7 floors, we will now start introducing new schedules of enemies at increased difficulty. To note, these schedules will not contain new enemies, but the same ones you are familiar at an increased difficulty and numbers.
Omega Waves. Last stream I promised Omega Waves in Onslaught, and people did not believe my words. Now, I can actually confirm Omega Waves may or may not, in fact, be coming to Onslaught.
You are probably wondering: what’s going to happen with my progression? Well the answer is very simple. When making the transition between the old to the new, we will check what floor you were playing previously, and set you at a floor with the closest difficulty to it under the new system.
For example, if Gobu was playing at Floor 80, now they will be placed around floor 35, since both are comparable in difficulty. This will also be true to the rewards tied to specific floor numbers, like 114, so while the climb to get there will be shortened, the difficulty of those maps will remain consistent.
One final feature that I’m happy to introduce is a new Replay system. Currently, when failing a map you have to start all over again, regardless of game mode or difficulty. Now, if you fail a map the game will allow you to go back to the wave where you failed, and retry from there with the defenses you had already placed in the map.
Having to build the whole map again after failing was something we always wanted to address, and now you can just simply adjust whatever defense cause you to lose and keep moving forward =).
That’s not all! The Replay feature will also be supported by a new Performance Optimization System. When loading the map again after trigger the replay, we will place several indicators on the towers that caused you to lose. All towers destroyed will have a handy Danger Indicator (!) to show that they fell. For towers that didn’t do much in combat, a Warning Indicator (?)will get your attention to reevaluate their placement, or equip better relics on them.
That’s it for now. Next time I will tell you more details about the changes to AP, which there are many. But let me tell you about these new Pirate MODS, they are great, they are awesome, and they are also great. The first one, currently named Set Sail, which turns you into a █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ , and then you can █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ , which allows you to █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ . The second one █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ .
Oof… I'm excited for these new Mods. Be sure to tune in for next Friday’s stream, where I may or may not answer your questions in the most ambiguous fashion possible.
Love you,
Jose
Ice "Ice" Ice, Ice Lead
Hi.
Cordially Yours,
Ice
Dani Moore, Remote QA Lead
We're also looking to expand our tester pool once again. Our testers get the chance to try out our still-in development work, in exchange for some cool stuff as a thanks. They help us with balance, feedback and bugs and their contributions to our releases are very valuable.
We have two teams, RQA - our daily bug hunters (for folks with lots of free time each day), and RPG - our larger team for balance and feedback (for folks with limited free time).
If you are interested, drop me an email at dani.moore trendyent (dot) com and ask. I'm happy to provide more information on both teams to see what best suits. A big thanks to everyone involved in the Update and the heaps of work and sweat that went into it all.
What’s Next?
Nothing, that’s it, no more news. No need to keep reading. Except wait, there’s a ton more coming that we’ll be talking about in our next Dev Log! This update is crazy big, bringing in some salty content for you landlubbers. Here’s what you can expect to see:
AP improvements
New Maps!
New Enemies!
New Weapons!
New Mods!
New Incursion!
New Flair!
More New Stuff!
We’re always listening to your feedback, and a lot of you do a great job of making sure it’s constructive and provide plenty of great ideas. Keep it up, we love reading it and it helps us mold Dungeon Defenders II into a better game.
To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
For Etheria!
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
DEV LOG 99 — ARRRRRRRRRRRT TO COME!
Greetings Defenders,
The next large update for Dungeon Defenders II is right around the corner. We’ve been hard at work trying to make this update something that everyone will enjoy. One thing players have requested for a while are new maps, new enemies, and new visuals in general. This Dev Log is focused on giving you all a sneak peek into what our team has been working on. Get your sea legs ready, let’s set sail!
Alec “Lawlta” Saare, Community Manager
Our next update has so much to show off, so we’re going to dive into some of the visuals you’ll be seeing. The artists have really outdone themselves on both the models, the maps, and the animations involved in both. We’ve been teasing some of our maps recently, and want to shake it up, showing off one of our new pets, only a couple (there’s so many more) of our enemies, and… well, keep reading, you’ll see.
There is a lot more coming, both visually and technically. It’s been an ARRRRduous amount of work, with the whole team really grinding away. We can’t wait to share the fruits of our labor, both for your enjoyment, and to prevent scurvy. Pirates.
Colin “Elandrian” Fisher, Associate Producer
August has been quite a month. Some of my favorite go-to games are releasing titles this month, so it’s been inspiring to see what advancements have been made in the industry.
Speaking of advancements, there’s quite a few changes coming to Dungeon Defenders II soon. We’re processing a lot of feedback from all types of players recently to make changes to many of our end-game systems and flows. There’s a number of changes coming to Onslaught and Ancient Power, and our goal is to make them both feel easier to progress in and more rewarding.
There’s a bit of new map content coming soon too, we’ll probably be talking more about that in the very near future, but for now I’ll just leave you with hints.
Ship just got real.
John Muscarella, Lead Animator
You know that feeling when you have, like, A TON of cool animations to show off, but the marketing department wants to “control the messaging and reveals”...?
No? Just me? Oh ok…
Well we do have a ton of cool stuff that we can’t show you all just yet. The last several weeks have been crazy, and I’m stupid excited for you to see. That’s right! I’m so excited it’s made me stupid…
In the meantime, here’s a few things to tide you over. Or, at least tide ME over…
We made him into a pet! Now you can blast enemies with the power of the Tinkerer’s greatest technological achievement; a barely competent bumbling mini-bot…
Yaaarrrr! We’ve reskinned a whole bunch of our devious little friends. Blast and pummel them to the tune of a catchy pirate chantey!
Like I said, there is sooo much more to come. Stay tuned, Defenders.
Keith “Keithimator” Walheim, Animator
Hey all, it’s been awhile since we last spoke. I’ve got some awesome animations that I’ve been working on, but we’re not able to show all of them yet. I’ve been able to sneak in some new ones, hopefully Lawlta doesn’t see this (Lawlta spoiler: I did). Here’s what I’ve been up to:
Professor Proteus’s new assistant is quite a show off. Most of all, he enjoys showing off his (finger) guns and will have a lot of fun following you around to help you out in game. It was a ton of fun putting personality into this little guy, and I hope that he really shines on the battlefields of Etheria.
“One fish, two fish, red fish, gobu fish.”
I got to work on some super floppy fish among many other wonderful things this update that I can’t wait to see these in the live game. This animation in particular is something you’ll use to put your enemies in their place. I really cannot wait for you all to see what’s coming!
Dan Driussi, 3D Character Artist
. . .- - - . . .To get myself into the pirate mindset I went and got myself shipwrecked while under the influence of scurvy. I currently only have the company of a chatty parrot who thinks he is funny and the ever present rum cache. I created a working computer from coconuts, bamboo, and spare life jackets and was able to make some cool stuff for the next patch. One of my favorites is the island war boar, just shove an apple into its mouth and you have mobile kalua pork just walking towards your defenses ready to be eaten! Just remember to use fire to seal in that BBQ war boar flavor! If you receive this message please send help, the parrot only knows dad jokes and puns . . .- - - . . .!
What’s Coming?
There’s so much more coming, and we’ll be having additional Dev Logs in the coming weeks leading to the update itself. Here’s an idea of what you can expect to see:
Onslaught floors are always one map floors, and how that changes progression.
Extra rewards as you climb through Onslaught.
Improvements and changes to Ancient Power.
Increased party control and functionality.
NEW ENEMIES, WEAPONS, MAPS, AND MORE!
To get reliable updates on what’s to come, be sure to check out our social platforms for the latest juiciest beans to be spilled:
The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on our next update. Stay tuned for more info soon!
For Etheria,
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
PROTEAN SHIFT PATCH 3.2 OUT NOW!
Greetings Defenders,
Protean Shift Patch 3.2 is now live! We’ve been hard at work ever since Professor Proteus made his glorious arrival in Etheria! The feedback from all of you has been tremendous and we greatly appreciate it. We’re addressing requests that players have wanted both for a while now and recently with the Protean Shift expansion. Let’s get into it!
Multiplayer Bonuses
Defenders love playing together, there is strength in numbers after all. Previously, when playing in multiplayer settings, enemies became stronger, but did not offer any additional rewards for the harder challenge. This is a pain point that you as a community have voiced to us for a long time, and with gear in a much better spot, we now have a way to reward the increased difficulty!
Previously, when playing in multiplayer sessions, enemies gained additional health without offering any increased rewards. Now when teaming up with fellow Defenders, you now gain additional Gear from Victory Chests. You may be asking, “how much?”, and the answer is A LOT. Here’s the breakdown you can expect to see when playing with multiple Defenders:
One Defender: Remains the same.
Two Defenders: +125% additional Gear drops!
Three Defenders: +275% additional Gear drops!
Four Defenders: +425% additional Gear drops!
When playing solo, the Escape/Options menu shows:
When in a group of two:
This pattern increases the more Defenders in your session. To have our bases covered, Gear is specifically armor, weapons, and relics. These additional pieces of gear offer players multiple opportunities on finding perfect stats and Mods while taking on stronger enemies. This means you have more gear to use or sell, boosting Defender strength and our player economy substantially. As a result, we’ve slightly tweaked sell prices to vendors. With the increased loot drops, you’ll be making on average the same amount of gold when selling to vendors. However, we maintained previous minimum Player Shop sell value of items to offset this. You’re now provided more opportunities to sell more gear between one another to obtain greater mountains of wealth than ever before!
We were able to get these changes out now to provide a feature the community highly requested thanks to the feedback we received via a survey many of you participated in. One concern that several Defenders brought up was in regard to party control and functionality. These will be coming in our next Update among a slew of new features not too far from now. We’ll touch on some additional changes later on in these notes!
Material Vault
In Protean Shift, we introduced a good chunk of crafting materials for Defenders to have more control over their gear. There’s a ton of new materials and one bit of feedback that we’ve received quite often, is about storing these spoils of combat.
Enter the Material Vault! It’s a new vault that will be available to players that want to be able to store extra crafting materials. This special vault allows you to hold 999 of every crafting material and access to materials saved in your Material Vault regardless of where you are. Want to pump up the strength of your gear, or move some Mods around, but you put the materials in your Material Vault? You can now do it on the fly without pulling the materials out! When doing anything that requires crafting materials, Inventory Materials are used first before using crafting materials in your Materials Vault.
What’s Coming?
In our last Check-In post, we outlined some short, medium, and long term goals. In our next update, here’s a sneak peek as to what you can expect to see:
Onslaught floors are always one map floors.
Extra rewards as you climb through Onslaught.
Improvements to Ancient Power
Increased party control and functionality
And…. A NEW BOSS, WEAPONS, MAPS, AND MUCH MUCH MORE!
As development continues, we’re going to be providing opportunities to test this content and earn “Tester Only” rewards, such as Betsy White, a true friend and confidant to any Defender.
Bug Fixes
Improved enemy spawn and pathing logic so enemies getting stuck in spawns will now have a better chance of finding their way out of the spawner.
Fixed additional cases where Berserker Orcs would get around blockades and walls.
Fixed an issue in Player Shops that caused a visual duplication while moving items.
Fixed an issue with Abyss Stone and Abyss Fountain giving an incorrect error message when there’s not enough mana available to use them.
Updated Shard Dust description to explain how it’s acquired.
Fixed a bug where the Jackpot shard increases gold reward upon wave completion.
Fixed an issue with comparison tooltips remaining when closing the Vault UI.
Fixed the text size of “LIST IT!” on 4k resolutions.
Fixed an issue with Gilded Colossal Fissure Shards receiving a negative increase.
Fixed an issue with Campaign Boot tinkering requiring an Iron Hammer.
Fixed an issue with Chaos V Boot upgrades requiring weapon crafting materials.
Fixed an issue with buy back items going to the wrong location in the inventory.
Fixed an issue where items claimed at the Scavenger while the inventory is full would look like it had been claimed but was still in the Scavenger.
Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:
We have much more on the way and will be spilling some beans in the coming weeks!
For Etheria,
The Dungeon Defenders II Team
PROTEAN SHIFT PATCH 3.2 PREVIEW
Greetings Defenders,
We’ve been hard at work ever since Professor Proteus made his glorious arrival in Etheria! The feedback from all of you has been tremendous and we greatly appreciate it. There’s more coming in our next update, but there’s also more coming next week with Protean Shift Patch 3.2!
There are some nice quality of life features that are coming with next week’s patch, let’s get into it!
Multiplayer Incentives
Defenders love playing together, there is strength in numbers after all. When playing together, enemies get stronger, but there’s not any increased reward for that increased risk. Well not anymore! We have been testing and looking for ways to reward players without trivializing content. With this patch, when grouping with other Defenders, you will receive additional loot from the victory chest. This scales per player added to the session, meaning the more Defenders you play with, the more loot you receive. The more loot you receive, the higher the chance at getting perfect mods!
Material Vault
In Protean Shift, we introduced a good chunk of crafting materials for Defenders to have more control over their gear. There’s a ton of new materials and one bit of feedback that we’ve received quite often, is about storing these spoils of combat.
Enter the Material Vault! The Material Vault is a new vault that will be available to players that want to be able to store extra crafting materials. This special vault allows you to hold 999 of every crafting material, and you will be able to automatically use them when interacting with items. Want to pump up the strength of your gear, but you put the materials in your Material Vault? You can now do it on the fly!
On the Horizon
There’s a giant “wave” of stuff coming to Etheria in our next update that is sure to knock your socks off. Related to multiplayer incentives, we’re going to be providing Defenders greater control over the parties they start, something many of you have asked for is on it’s way. We can’t get into a ton of the stuff coming just yet, but give Elandrian’s Check-In a visit to get an idea for what’s coming!
Bug Fixes and Optimizations
As always, we’re going to be squishing a lot of bugs, increasing performance, and increasing stability. Remember, if you run into any bugs, please let us know at our bug site. Also, check us out on social media for additional updates and game discussions with our awesome community:
