CHRISTMAS EVE PTR UPDATE – DECEMBER 24, 2025
[p]Merry Christmas Eve, Defenders![/p][p]
[/p][p]Yesterday we released the first part of our holiday PTR update, and today we’re following it up with another PTR patch based on the early feedback and issues you’ve already found. Both of these updates are still on the Public Test Realm, which means everything you see here is still being tested, tuned, and adjusted with your help before we push it to the live branch. This pass is mainly focused on Arcanist armor, fusion interactions, Rift balance, and a few pet and reward tweaks that came straight from your reports.[/p][p]
[/p][p]ARCANIST ARMOR & FUSION BEHAVIOR[/p][p]
[/p][p]We’ve updated how Arcanist armor interacts with fusion sets to avoid bricking builds and to better match how most players are currently gearing.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Arcanist Armor Changes:[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Crown:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 1.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 2 Guard Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Gloves:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 2.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 1 Ancient Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Chest:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 3.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 4 Miner Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Boots:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 4.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 3 Militia Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Player feedback note:[/p][p] Many players mentioned they had spent a lot of time farming the Crown, and after our earlier tower changes, most of their armor ended up being Miner Armor. In that setup, the previous Arcanist behavior could effectively brick their builds. These changes are intended to fix that and make Arcanist feel usable again without wiping out existing setups.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Rift boss accessories can no longer be used to complete fusion armor sets.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Arcanist pieces now correctly will NOT fuse with the specific sets they are restricted from completing.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Arcanist Gloves now properly drop on Forsaken Temple.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Updated descriptions on all Arcanist armor pieces to better explain their behavior.[/p][p].[/p][p]- Regular Soldier’s Bracers no longer count as Defense 5 / rifted.[/p][p]
[/p][p]RIFT & GENERAL GAMEPLAY TUNING[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Rift Mode should now properly apply in Challenge Mode[/p][p]
[/p][p]- The Bonus Wave and Bonus Wave Hardcore chests are now properly spawning in all modes.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Updated the Spider tooltip to better reflect its behavior.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Rifted Enemies and Resistance:[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Ogres now spawn as Rifted 100% of the time (up from 90%).[/p][p]- Rift resistance on non-Rift enemies has been decreased to 65%.[/p][p]
[/p][p]To keep fusion damage still feeling like a 100% bonus against Rifted enemies:[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Rifted enemies now take 165% fusion damage (down from 185%).[/p][p]
[/p][p]- The non-Rifted training dummy now has the same Rift resistance that non-Rift enemies have.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- The Rifted training dummy now takes 165% fusion damage, so tests on the dummies line up with the intended “100% bonus damage” behavior for fusion towers.[/p][p]
[/p][p]PET CHANGES & NEW REWARDS[/p][p]
[/p][p]Naming & clarity updates[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Rifted Propeller Cat to Fused Propeller Cat.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Yellow Ramster Can to Fused Yellow Ramster Can.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Rifted Mista Mine to Fused Mista Mine.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Rifted Mystical Genie to Fused Mystical Genie.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Gac the Golden Dice pet the proper “Golden” name so it matches other golden pets.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Tower Giraffes (Pure Strategy):[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Tower Giraffes are now awarded on Wave 25 in Pure Strategy[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Each Tower Giraffe provides:[/p][p] - 10% Cast Rate bonus.[/p][p] - 5% Active Hero bonus.[/p][p]- All Tower Giraffes roll with 0.85 stat scalars.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- There are 4 variants, each tuned for different builder styles:[/p][p]
[/p][p] 1. Rolls with Tower Speed, Tower Range, Tower Damage.[/p][p] 2. Rolls with Tower Health, Tower Damage, Tower Range.[/p][p] 3. Rolls with Tower Health, Tower Speed, Tower Range.[/p][p] 4. Rolls with Tower Damage, Tower Speed, Tower Range.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Animus tuning[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Animus pets now have a fastest attack rate of 0.4 seconds.[/p][p]
[/p][p] - This is a cap on how fast they can attack once fully geared and optimized.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Golden Gemstones[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Golden Gemstones now drop at Wave 100+ Survival on The Summit.[/p][p]
[/p][p] - 20% chance to drop when the conditions are met.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- A Golden Gemstone can contain one of the 4 different buff effects (matching the existing gemstone types).[/p][p]Thank you for jumping into not just one, but two holiday PTR updates back-to-back. We know this is a busy time of year, so the fact that you’re spending part of your holiday testing builds, breaking things, and writing feedback for us means a lot. These kinds of quick follow-up patches are only possible because you’re so active on the PTR and honest about what feels good and what doesn’t. Everything in this update is still in that “work in progress” stage, so please keep telling us what works, what feels off, and where something still isn’t clear. The more we learn from PTR, the better shape these changes as we move towards our goal of patching before the new year. If you’d like to support the game’s development, please consider checking out our DLC on Steam, and if you want a place to share builds, report bugs, or just talk Dungeon Defenders with other players, we’d love to see you in the official Discord server (the link is on the store page and in our community posts).[/p][p]
[/p][p] From all of us on the Community Development Team: thank you for your time, your patience, and your passion for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Have a wonderful holiday, enjoy the PTR updates, and happy defending![/p][p]
[/p][p]The Community Development Team[/p][p]
[/p]
[/p][p]Yesterday we released the first part of our holiday PTR update, and today we’re following it up with another PTR patch based on the early feedback and issues you’ve already found. Both of these updates are still on the Public Test Realm, which means everything you see here is still being tested, tuned, and adjusted with your help before we push it to the live branch. This pass is mainly focused on Arcanist armor, fusion interactions, Rift balance, and a few pet and reward tweaks that came straight from your reports.[/p][p]
[/p][p]ARCANIST ARMOR & FUSION BEHAVIOR[/p][p]
[/p][p]We’ve updated how Arcanist armor interacts with fusion sets to avoid bricking builds and to better match how most players are currently gearing.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Arcanist Armor Changes:[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Crown:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 1.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 2 Guard Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Gloves:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 2.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 1 Ancient Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Chest:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 3.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 4 Miner Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Boots:[/p][p] - Grants fusion to Tower 4.[/p][p] - Now prevents completion of the Tower 3 Militia Armor fused set.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Player feedback note:[/p][p] Many players mentioned they had spent a lot of time farming the Crown, and after our earlier tower changes, most of their armor ended up being Miner Armor. In that setup, the previous Arcanist behavior could effectively brick their builds. These changes are intended to fix that and make Arcanist feel usable again without wiping out existing setups.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Rift boss accessories can no longer be used to complete fusion armor sets.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Arcanist pieces now correctly will NOT fuse with the specific sets they are restricted from completing.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Arcanist Gloves now properly drop on Forsaken Temple.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Updated descriptions on all Arcanist armor pieces to better explain their behavior.[/p][p].[/p][p]- Regular Soldier’s Bracers no longer count as Defense 5 / rifted.[/p][p]
[/p][p]RIFT & GENERAL GAMEPLAY TUNING[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Rift Mode should now properly apply in Challenge Mode[/p][p]
[/p][p]- The Bonus Wave and Bonus Wave Hardcore chests are now properly spawning in all modes.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Updated the Spider tooltip to better reflect its behavior.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Rifted Enemies and Resistance:[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Ogres now spawn as Rifted 100% of the time (up from 90%).[/p][p]- Rift resistance on non-Rift enemies has been decreased to 65%.[/p][p]
[/p][p]To keep fusion damage still feeling like a 100% bonus against Rifted enemies:[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Rifted enemies now take 165% fusion damage (down from 185%).[/p][p]
[/p][p]- The non-Rifted training dummy now has the same Rift resistance that non-Rift enemies have.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- The Rifted training dummy now takes 165% fusion damage, so tests on the dummies line up with the intended “100% bonus damage” behavior for fusion towers.[/p][p]
[/p][p]PET CHANGES & NEW REWARDS[/p][p]
[/p][p]Naming & clarity updates[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Rifted Propeller Cat to Fused Propeller Cat.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Yellow Ramster Can to Fused Yellow Ramster Can.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Rifted Mista Mine to Fused Mista Mine.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Renamed Rifted Mystical Genie to Fused Mystical Genie.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Gac the Golden Dice pet the proper “Golden” name so it matches other golden pets.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Tower Giraffes (Pure Strategy):[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Tower Giraffes are now awarded on Wave 25 in Pure Strategy[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Each Tower Giraffe provides:[/p][p] - 10% Cast Rate bonus.[/p][p] - 5% Active Hero bonus.[/p][p]- All Tower Giraffes roll with 0.85 stat scalars.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- There are 4 variants, each tuned for different builder styles:[/p][p]
[/p][p] 1. Rolls with Tower Speed, Tower Range, Tower Damage.[/p][p] 2. Rolls with Tower Health, Tower Damage, Tower Range.[/p][p] 3. Rolls with Tower Health, Tower Speed, Tower Range.[/p][p] 4. Rolls with Tower Damage, Tower Speed, Tower Range.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Animus tuning[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Animus pets now have a fastest attack rate of 0.4 seconds.[/p][p]
[/p][p] - This is a cap on how fast they can attack once fully geared and optimized.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Golden Gemstones[/p][p]
[/p][p]- Golden Gemstones now drop at Wave 100+ Survival on The Summit.[/p][p]
[/p][p] - 20% chance to drop when the conditions are met.[/p][p]
[/p][p]- A Golden Gemstone can contain one of the 4 different buff effects (matching the existing gemstone types).[/p][p]Thank you for jumping into not just one, but two holiday PTR updates back-to-back. We know this is a busy time of year, so the fact that you’re spending part of your holiday testing builds, breaking things, and writing feedback for us means a lot. These kinds of quick follow-up patches are only possible because you’re so active on the PTR and honest about what feels good and what doesn’t. Everything in this update is still in that “work in progress” stage, so please keep telling us what works, what feels off, and where something still isn’t clear. The more we learn from PTR, the better shape these changes as we move towards our goal of patching before the new year. If you’d like to support the game’s development, please consider checking out our DLC on Steam, and if you want a place to share builds, report bugs, or just talk Dungeon Defenders with other players, we’d love to see you in the official Discord server (the link is on the store page and in our community posts).[/p][p]
[/p][p] From all of us on the Community Development Team: thank you for your time, your patience, and your passion for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Have a wonderful holiday, enjoy the PTR updates, and happy defending![/p][p]
[/p][p]The Community Development Team[/p][p]
[/p]