Dungeon Defenders: Awakened News

[p]Greetings Defenders,[/p][p]We want to start by giving everyone a clear picture of where we are and why this patch arrived when it did. While working hard on the next major update, we discovered fixes for several severe issues including players being incorrectly flagged as hackers and a handful of crashes that could interrupt gameplay. Our original plan was to ship these changes in the upcoming PTR, but because of the severity of the problems, we stopped everything and pushed these fixes out immediately along with the tower rebalances that were already completed and tested. The next major update will include the remaining tower rebalances, several hero rebalances, additional bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and will be released to the Public Testing Realm so the community can help us refine Phase 1 as we continue moving forward. This patch also addresses the fact that runes were not dropping properly from enemies and were appearing only in chests. We took this opportunity to correct that behavior and to give attention to towers that were falling behind. These changes mark the beginning of broader balance improvements across DD:A.

[/p][p]Lycan King Changes[/p][p]We’ve received a lot of feedback about the Lycan King fight, with many players saying it felt unfair across all stages of play. While we originally aimed to simply tone down the damage-over-time effect, that adjustment ended up breaking it entirely. As a result, the DoT effect applied during the Lycan King’s howling state should no longer occur.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Campaign Rune Drop Tables[/p][p] The rune crash was identified as a major issue affecting progression, so we’ve made significant adjustments to how runes drop in Campaign. Runes can now drop directly from completing Campaign missions, with their preferred maps serving as guaranteed locations for these drops. The qualities of the runes have been increased to allow higher-quality drops, giving players a better chance at Godly or Transcendent runes.[/p][p]Runes are weighted on a scale from 1 to 10, and some runes will drop in lower quantities than others. Massacre Campaign typically drops a Godly rune, though it is not guaranteed, while Nightmare Campaign can drop any rune level, with Transcendent being extremely rare. To maximize quality, running Hardcore or Rift Mode is recommended.[/p][p]Below is the updated list of preferred maps for each rune and their weighted drop values:[/p][p]Deeper Well: 10/3 (two drops)
Ancient Mines: 10/3 (two drops)
Lava Mines: Focus Fire and Mystical Repair, favoring Repair 10/3
Alchemical Laboratory: 10/4/10 (three drops)
Magus Quarters: 4/10/10 (three drops)[/p][p]Tornado Valley: 10/3/6 (three drops)
Tornado Highlands: 5/10/8 (three drops)
Ramparts: 10/5/5 (three drops)
Throne Room: 10/10/5 (three drops)
Endless Spires: 5/10 (two drops)[/p][p]Arcane Library: 10/3 (two drops)
Royal Gardens: 5/10/5 (three drops)
Promenade: 10/5/5 (three drops)
Summit: 10/5/5 (three drops)
Glitter-helm: 5/10/5 (three drops)[/p][p]The Mill: 10/3/5 (three drops)
Outpost: 10/5/5 (three drops)
Keep: 5/10/5 (three drops)
Foundries and Forges: 3/5/10 (three drops)[/p][p]Bazaar: 5/10/5 (three drops)
Metropolis: 5/5/10 (three drops)
Forsaken Temple: 3/6/10 (three drops)[/p][p]Castle Armory: 10/5/5 (three drops)[/p][p]Kings Game Campaign (Massacre/Nightmare): drops the following runes Sluggish Aura, Pet-Master, Owls at the following weights 10/5/5
Yuletide Village Campaign (Massacre/Nightmare): drops the following runes Xplo, Overdrive, Spiders Poison at the following weights 10/3/5[/p][p][/p][h3]Apprentice[/h3]

• [p]Magic Blockade tower health hero stat scalar increased to 1.5 from 1.0[/p]
• [p]Deadly Striker Tower Rune AOE range increased to 450 from 250[/p]
• [p]DST Rune cooldown halved (Godly: 3.5s → 1.75s)[/p]

[h3]Squire[/h3]

• [p]Spike Blockade tower health hero stat scalar increased to 2.0 from 1.0[/p]
• [p]Spike Blockade tower damage increased to 1.75 from 1.6[/p]
• [p]Spike Blockade now applies a 5% attack rate slow for 3 seconds to attackers[/p]
• [p]Bowling Ball projectiles now explode on impact, dealing 50% physical AOE damage[/p]
• [p]Sniper Cannon no longer prioritizes copter flares[/p]
• [p]Slice and Dice Blockade tower health hero stat scalar increased to 2.75 from 1.0[/p]
• [p]Slice and Dice Blockade Rune damage increased across tiers (now 8/16/24/32/48/64/96/120)[/p]

[h3]Huntress[/h3]

• [p]Poison Trap Rune damage reduced by 0.25 (200% → 150%) and now affects up to 21 targets[/p]
• [p]Poison Dart Tower projectiles pierce one extra target[/p]
• [p]Poison Dart Tower scales 10% better with defense rate, reaching 0.25s faster[/p]
• [p]Poison Dart Tower Rune duration changed from 3/4/5 to 4.5/6/7.5[/p]
• [p]Inferno Trap base speed reduced to 9 seconds from 16.62s[/p]
• [p]Inferno Trap Rune duration increased from 3s to 5s[/p]
• [p]Inferno Trap reset speed now scales from a 1-second base with a 0.6 exponent[/p]
• [p]Thunder Spike Trap reset time base increased to 2.5s (up from 0)[/p]
• [p]Thunder Spike Trap hero stat exponent increased to 0.65, improving reset scaling
  
  [/p]

[h3]Guardian[/h3]

• [p]Holy Bulwark’s Protective Ring now scales with tower Range[/p]
• [p]Holy Bulwark tower health hero stat scalar increased to 2.5 from 1.0[/p]
• [p]Note: Holy Bulwark does not benefit from Striking Gemstone[/p]
• [p]Note: While trying to implement the Range scalar for the Holy Bulwark, we broke the Protective effect it applies, a revert to the original ends up crashing the game. We are aware of the bulwark’s protection effect not applying properly. We are investigating this, and will be fixed in a future patch. So sorry for the inconvenience, it will be worth the wait. For now, it can be played as a regular wall with more than normal HP scaling.[/p]
• [p]Obelisk DoT damage scalar increased by 25%[/p]
• [p]Obelisk minimum slow increased to 50% from 25%[/p]
• [p]Obelisk base slow increased to 75% from 70%[/p]
• [p]Obelisk scales 20% better with defense rate, reaching 0.25s faster[/p]
• [p]Obelisk tower damage hero stat scalar increased to 1.75 from 1.5[/p]
• [p]Empowering Shrine now costs 2 DU and 200 mana, with a 5% rune buff increase[/p]

• [p]All Helping Hand variants no longer cost build mana to repair defenses[/p]
• [p]All Corgi-related items are now tradeable[/p]
• [p]Lost Metropolis wave 1 build mana increased to 360 from 160[/p]
• [p]Bazaar wave 1 build mana increased to 315 from 160[/p]
• [p]Foundries and Forges wave 1 build mana decreased to 380[/p]
• [p]Foundries and Forges subsequent waves now award 350 mana instead of 800[/p]
• [p]Rift Corgi now properly grants 5% Rift Armor[/p]
• [p]Gold Ramster speed de-buff now correctly applies for 5 seconds[/p]
• [p]All Yellow Ramster Cans now properly restore speed scaling before Sugar Rush loops[/p]
• [p]Castle Armory crash fixed[/p]
• [p]Reflected Field Rune description updated[/p]
• [p]Gold genie now properly applies a 50% stronger mana drain than the base genie with a 4 second cooldown[/p]
• [p]Rift genie now properly applies a 25% stronger mana drain than the base with a 6 second cooldown. 
  [/p]

[p]Conclusion:[/p][p]With today’s update, we’re excited to share a clearer look at what’s ahead for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened and the work of the Community Development Team. We’re a small group of passionate people doing our best to deliver meaningful updates, so we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the game. This update brings us one step closer to Phase 2 of the DD:A Renaissance, and we hope it encourages you to cheer us on, share your feedback and ideas on all socials, and, if you’d like to support the team directly, consider purchasing the existing cosmetic costumes. You’re also welcome to join 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.[/p][p]Until Next Time,[/p][p]The Community Development Team[/p][p]
[/p]

Greetings Defenders,

In today’s update we address a couple of issues. We are still at work on major fixes, and we will utilize the P.T.R for you guys to try and give us feedback


Patch Notes:

The base corgi now drops correctly upon the completion of wave 250
Corgi’s now have an upgrade cap on par with other stat based pets
Base Mista Mine now correctly gives a 30% speed reduction
Rifted Mista Mine now correctly gives a 40% speed reduction
Fixed the name on the Rifted Mista Mine’s item card
Gold MistaMine now correctly gives a 50% speed reduction
Rifted Genie correctly rolls with Vitality, Attack, and Ability

Thank you for all of your support, we would not be here without you guys.

Until Next time,
The Community Development Team

[p]Greetings Defenders,[/p][p]The updated DD:A Pet Guide is now live and ready for everyone to use, and we’re really excited to share it with you. It includes just about everything you might need, from detailed pet stats and abilities to cool-downs, variants, drop information, and general behavior across different modes. We worked hard to make the guide accurate, clear, and easy to follow so both new and veteran players can rely on it when deciding which pet fits their play-style. We’ll keep expanding and refining the guide as new pets, balance changes, and reworks arrive, and if you notice anything missing or anything that needs clarification, please let us know in the Steam forums or the official Dungeon Defenders Discord so we can update it quickly. Thank you for the continued support and enthusiasm, and we hope the guide helps you get the most out of your companions in DD:A.[/p][p]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OtOLgD-qOXeaRufgJXY8-oc6qN19kCKBa3f7mHcO2K0/edit?usp=sharing[/p][p][/p][p]Best,

CDT[/p]

[h3]Announcements[/h3][p]We want to start by saying thank you. We see every single piece of feedback shared across socials, and we genuinely appreciate all of it. Your thoughts and perspectives help guide us as we move forward. To make sure your feedback always reaches us, the best places to post are the Steam forums and the official Dungeon Defenders Discord server. We check the Steam forums multiple times a week, and Discord remains our main hub for day-to-day communication with the community.[/p][p]We also want to address something we saw a lot of discussion about last week: involvement on the Steam forums during events like the Corgi Cipher. We hear you, and we’re sorry that some of you felt left out. The next community event will be fully open to the Steam community, so everyone has a chance to take part.[/p][p]We received a lot of feedback about the Lycan King changes as well. Some of those adjustments made the test mode challenges extremely difficult, which was never our intention. Because of that, we’ve begun the process of un-linking the base Lycan King from the Rift and Test mode variants so each version can be tuned separately with better control and balance.[/p][p]Finally, we want to acknowledge the reports concerning crashes and hacker-flag issues. This week’s patch fixes the hacker-flagging problem, but the crash fixes weren’t ready in time. Before the first CDT update, some essential editor files were missing or corrupted, and those assets are tied to key functions under the hood of DD:A. When the game calls them and they aren’t there, it crashes. We’re currently loading an older version of the game to recover those missing assets, which is a slow but necessary process. Tool-tips also remain unfixed in this update, but we are working tirelessly to correct all of these issues as quickly and safely as possible. Out next Update will go to the test server for you all to test the update ahead of time and give us feedback. [/p][h2]Game-play & Balance Changes[/h2]

• [p]Hero stat points restored to maximum values Prior to the first CDT Update.[/p]
• [p]Anti-cheat: fixed false flags caused by duplicated traded items.[/p]
• [p]Adjusted stunned-state duration across all versions of the fight:
  [/p]
  • [p]Test: 12 seconds[/p]
  • [p]Base: 10 seconds[/p]
  • [p]Rifted: 8 seconds[/p]

[p]Lycan King – Test Mode Game-play Effects[/p]

• [p]Stalking speed de-buff reduced to 1.1 from 1.75.[/p]
• [p]Stalking speed buff reduced to 2.5 down from 1.[/p]
• [p]Fleeing speed reduced to 4.5 down from 6.[/p]
• [p]Fleeing armor reduction decreased to 25%.[/p]
• [p]Lured speed buff reduced to 3.5 from 5.5.[/p]
• [p]Lured armor reduction reduced to 25% from 75%.[/p]
• [p]Stunned state (test mode): Lycan King now takes 250% bonus damage when stunned.[/p]
• [p]Howling armor reduction in test mode is now 15%.[/p]
• [p]Howl AOE in test mode has a damage scalar of 15%[/p]

[p]Pet Changes & Additions[/p]

• [p]Golden Hera attack rate exponential final result is now 1.57 (1.77 for base, 1.67 for Rifted).[/p]
• [p]All golden DPS pets can now spawn in all elements.[/p]
• [p]Obsidian Gemstone description now reflects correct information.[/p]
• [p]Raging Zeus attack rate exponential final result is now 1.57 (1.77 for base, 1.67 for Rifted).[/p]
• [p]Rifted Propeller Cat negative post-multiplicative additive is now -0.9 (10% more than original Rifted cat).[/p]
• [p]Golden Cat additive value is -0.8 (20% more than original).[/p]
• [p]Rifted Propeller Cat cool-down: 1.75 s[/p]
• [p]Golden Propeller Cat cool-down: 1.5 s[/p]
• [p]Hero stat points restored to maximum values.[/p]
• [p]Ede CorgE now rolls tower damage, range, and speed.[/p]
• [p]Ede CorgE now gives a 20% player speed boost (up from 15%).[/p]
• [p]Golden Douglas now gives a 15% speed boost (up from 10%).[/p]
• [p]Milton Corgi now provides the correct 2x Vitality increase
  [/p]

[p]Throne Room Rifted Survival Changes[/p]

• [p]Victory chest drops either:[/p]
  • [p]Rifted Ramster Can[/p]
  • [p]Rifted Bomber[/p]
• [p]Wave 100 completion drops either:[/p]
  • [p]Golden Ramster Can[/p]
  • [p]Golden Lil’ Bomber[/p]

[h3]Yellow Ramster Can Rework[/h3]

• [p]Now applies Sugar Rush, increasing attack rate for a short time.[/p]
• [p]Post-multiplicative additive:[/p]
  • [p]Rifted: -0.9 (down from 1)[/p]
  • [p]Golden: -0.8[/p]

[p]Sugar Rush Buff Duration[/p]

• [p]Base: 10 seconds[/p]
• [p]Rifted: 12 seconds[/p]
• [p]Golden: 15 seconds [/p]

[p]Sugar Rush De-buff (“Sugar Crash”)[/p]

• [p]Applies movement speed reduction after buff ends:[/p]
  • [p]Base: 30% for 8 s[/p]
  • [p]Rifted: 20% for 15 s[/p]
  • [p]Golden: 10% for 2.5 s[/p]
• [p]Sugar Rush cool-down is 20 seconds across all variants.
  [/p]

[h3]Helping Hand Rework[/h3]

• [p]Base: drains 3 mana/sec[/p]
• [p]Rifted: drains 2 mana/sec[/p]
• [p]Golden: drains 1 mana/sec[/p]
• [p]Now provides a speed boost:[/p]
  • [p]Base: 10%[/p]
  • [p]Rifted: 15%[/p]
  • [p]Golden: 20%[/p]

[p]Helping Hand stat rolls[/p]

• [p]Base: tower health, tower damage, tower range[/p]
• [p]Rift: tower health, tower rate, tower range[/p]
• [p]Golden: tower damage, tower range, tower rate
  [/p]

[p]Hera Adjustments[/p]

• [p]Happy Hera projectile count scalar increased from 0.5 → 0.7[/p]
  • [p]Rift/Gold from 0.5 → 0.8[/p]
• [p]Happy Hera attack rate scalar increased from 0.5 → 0.7[/p]

[p]Rift/Gold from 0.5 → 0.8
[/p]

Changed Golden Douglas to a 5% Drop Chance