Dungeon Defenders: Awakened News

[p]Greetings Defenders,[/p][p][/p][p]With the holiday season starting, we wanted to express our gratitude to you all. We wouldn't be here without you. Here is a first look at a couple of new tower pets coming in the future. What are it's effects? Tell us down below.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Greetings Defenders,[/p][p] We heard your feedback loud and clear about wanting more tower-focused gear, and we’ve been hard at work creating new additions for future updates. During development, one of these pets, a variant of the Genie’s Lamp, accidentally slipped into the live build earlier than intended. While it isn’t ready for release just yet, this hotfix removes the unintended behavior and cleans up a couple of other issues[/p][p]Runes[/p][p]  The quality of runes from Victory Chests in Nightmare Campaign has been reduced by 18%. This adjustment brings the mode back in line with our original design, where Transcendent runes are meant to be the rare high-end drop for Nightmare. The previous quality values were unintentionally high, which allowed Godly runes to appear more often than intended.[/p][p]Pets[/p][p]• Rifted Genie’s Lamp now properly displays Vitality, Attack, and Ability stats
• Yellow Ramster can no longer apply its effect to towers[/p][p]Towers[/p][p]• Holy Bulwark now correctly applies its protection effect to any tower inside its buff circle Note: Towers inside the circle will still take splash damage and damage from a shaken charge,[/p][p] We truly value all of your feedback, both the good and the bad, and we appreciate every defender who takes the time to share their thoughts with us. Your voice helps guide and shape the future of the game, so please keep it coming.[/p][p]Until next time,
The Community Development Team[/p][p]
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[p]Greeting Defenders,[/p][p][/p][p]Here Is the full list of rune drop locations and their weighted chances, which were introduced as part of our temporary fix for the rune crash in the last patch. This system allows every individual rune to be target farmed so players can reliably work toward the upgrades they need while we continue building a long-term solution. Nightmare Campaign is now intended to help players who are still leveling get access to higher tier runes earlier than they normally would, and Massacre Campaign increases the likelihood of seeing a Godly rune during progression. Completing Campaign missions on Hardcore currently gives the best chance at receiving higher-quality runes. We also want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to LichtAbzeichen8, the community member on Discord who created the full weighted list of drops; their work made it possible for us to share this information quickly and clearly with everyone. This system is a stepping stone while we work toward a permanent fix, so please keep the feedback coming as we continue improving rune progression.[/p][p]Happy Defending,
The Community Development team


DDA Campaign Rune Drop Locations and Chances[/p][p]Below is the complete list of Campaign rune drop locations and their weighted chances. These values represent the percentage chance for each rune to appear when completing the corresponding Campaign map.[/p][p][/p][h2]ACT 1[/h2][p]Alchemical Labs
Noxious Fumes – 41.66%
Lightning Strikes – 16.66%
Toxicity Overload – 41.66%[/p][p]Ancient Mines
Explosive Striker – 23.08%
Multiple Marks – 76.92%[/p][p]Deeper Well
Boom Boom Boom – 76.92%
Spin-To-Win – 23.08%[/p][p]Lava Mines
Focus Fire – 23.08%
Mystical Repair – 76.92%[/p][p]Magus Quarters
Pulsator – 16.66%
Entangling Roots – 41.66%
Flash Buff – 41.66%[/p][p][/p][h2]ACT 2[/h2][p]Endless Spires
Blinding Darts – 33.33%
Rejuvenating Aura – 66.66%[/p][p]Ramparts
Berserker Aura – 50%
Shell Shocked – 25%
Spider’s Poison – 25%[/p][p]Throne Room
Piercing Upgrade – 40%
Phantom Ball – 40%
Pet Master – 20%[/p][p]Tornado Highlands
Sluggish Aura – 21.74%
Decoy-GR – 43.48%
Kobold Launcher – 34.78%[/p][p]Tornado Valley
Electric Shock – 52.63%
Overdrive – 15.79%
Flaming Owl – 31.58%[/p][p][/p][h2]ACT 3[/h2][p]Arcane Library
Chance Grenade – 76.92%
Extra Spikey – 23.08%[/p][p]Glitterhelm
Blazing Fire – 25%
Targeted Mana Bomb – 50%
Radiant Outbreak – 25%[/p][p]Promenade
Shield Explosion – 50%
Immolation – 25%
Life Leech – 25%[/p][p]Royal Gardens
Bouncing Magic – 25%
Static Shock – 50%
Empowering Friendship – 25%[/p][p]The Summit
Focus Flame – 50%
Critical Rage – 25%
Broadhead Rounds – 25%[/p][p][/p][h2]ACT 4[/h2][p]Foundries and Forges
Poison Tipped Spears – 16.66%
Toxicity Overload – 27.77%
Divine Absorption – 55.55%[/p][p]The Keep
Exploding Wisps – 25%
Elemental Discharge – 50%
Heal Master – 25%[/p][p]The Mill
Yum Yum Seed – 55.55%
Focus Blossom – 16.66%
Poison Dagger – 27.77%[/p][p]The Outpost
Strengthen Field – 50%
Arcane Blast – 25%
Retribution Aura – 25%[/p][p][/p][h2]ACT 5[/h2][p]Castle Armory
Immobilizing Ray – 50%
Empowering Ring – 25%
Deadly Gaze – 25%[/p][p]The Bazaar
Spike Trap – 25%
Full Coverage – 50%
Sludge Pool – 25%[/p][p]The Forsaken Temple
Reflective Screech – 15.79%
Exploding Aura – 31.58%
Paralyzing Smite – 52.63%[/p][p]The Lost Metropolis
Etheral Blades – 25%
Warrior Monk – 25%
Raging Shrooms – 50%[/p][p][/p][h2]BONUS ACT[/h2][p]Kings Game
Sluggish Aura – 50%
Pet Master – 25%
Flaming Owl – 25%[/p][p]Yuletide Village
Spider’s Poison – 27.77%
Overdrive – 16.66%
Shell Shocked – 55.55%[/p]

[p]Announcement:

Dear Defenders of Etheria,[/p][p]Apologies for the disruption and we appreciate your patience while we hot fixed as quickly as we could. The last patch caused serious problems for many of you: multiplayer access was broken and our anti-cheat system incorrectly flagged players as hackers after the stat and gear-roll changes. That prevented people from playing online and caused a lot of frustration. We prioritized a hot-fix to get multiplayer back online and to stop the false positives[/p][p]I want to be transparent about the tower reorder and whck a damaging tower until level seven, her primary and secondary damage magnitudes were low, and Shield Slam had a long cool-down and slow cast, which made early Guardian play feel slow and unrewarding. The Warden, despite having strong towers on paper, felt clunky as an active hero because of high cool-downs, low magnitudes, and a poor seed pickup range. At the same time we saw many towers that were solid in isolation being overlooked because a tower in a previous tier was simply better early on. Rather than patching balance with a dozen quick buffs and Nerfs that only chase one another, we reorganized tower order and tuning so each hero’s defenses feel meaningful and fun from the start. This was a choice for the long-term health of DD:A and we will continue iterating based on play-tests and your feedback.[/p][p]We also reworked the Lycan King fight because it was being trivialized. A bug allowed players to phase him into a howling state and let the game auto-kill him in under two minutes at multiple progression stages. The Keep encounter should be a cornerstone challenge that tests gear and strategy, so that exploit had to go. When we fixed the trivial kill the encounter became too slow and passive, so we redesigned the mechanics to encourage active play and to act as a proper gear check. We buffed healing auras and fairy heals and improved items like the Obsidian Gemstone and the Happy Hera so skilled groups can sustain the fight. Expect cornerstone fights to reward thoughtful builds: higher armor or vitality helps, mobility matters, and using the fight mechanics matters. We did find some issues with test-mode scaling after the rework and we will give those modes extra attention in the next major patch.[/p][p]This update also brings new pet content and a little bit of fun. New pets begin appearing in Survival at wave 250 and then every 50 waves up to wave 500, and we tucked a small Easter egg into the tavern that reveals a secret message once it is cracked for everyone to see. A few honest call-outs on things that did not make this hot-fix: there is an item-box duplication glitch we are actively investigating, some pet and item tool-tips are not displaying correctly, and starting manna values on Lost Metropolis and the forge and foundry maps are higher than intended. Those fixes were planned for this patch but needed more testing than we could give while rushing the multiplayer hot-fix. They remain high priority and will be included in the next patch after proper testing. We also hear you about consoles; Xbox and PlayStation updates will come, but our first focus is overhauling and stabilizing the game on PC so the console ports land in good shape.[/p][p]From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. The Community Development Team is currently two people working day in and day out on this game because we love it and we care about this community. We read your posts on Steam, Discord, and social media, and your feedback—good and bad—shapes what we do next. If you want to help, please keep sending clear bug reports, leave feedback on our Steam posts, join the official Discord to talk with us and meet your fellow Defenders, consider leaving a positive review if you’re enjoying the fixes and content, share the game with friends and family, or support us by buying cosmetics. We truly cannot do this without you and we appreciate every bit of support and feedback.[/p][p]With gratitude,
The Community Development Team (two people, one huge amount of love)[/p][p][/p][p]Patch notes:[/p][p][/p][p]Hero Changes:[/p][p]Squire:[/p]

• [p]Input key bindings now properly reflect the tower changes[/p]
• [p]Bowling Ball Tower damage decreased by 30% to reflect the DU change[/p]
• [p]Sniper Cannon Damage decreased by 5%[/p]

[p]Apprentice:[/p]

• [p]Arcane Blast Damage Coefficient from 1.0 - 1.5[/p]
• [p]Manna Bomb Damage Coefficient from 1.0 - 2.0[/p]
• [p]Manna Bomb Cool-down reduced from 20 s to 12 s[/p]

[p]Warden:[/p]

• [p]Input key bindings now properly reflect the tower changes[/p]
• [p]Wrath gives the Hero a 25% Melee Damage increase[/p]
• [p]Wrath gives the Hero a 10% Speed Increase[/p]
• [p]Roots of Purity Wrath now gives a 25% boost armor, up from 15% roots[/p]

[p]Guardian:[/p]

• [p]Input key bindings now properly reflect the tower changes[/p]

• [p]Divine Judgement Rune Stun lasts for 1.25 s, Maximum of 2 stacks[/p]
• [p]Guardian takes 75% damage from nearby Hero’s during Divine Protection[/p]

[p]Weapons:[/p][p]Obsidian Sword-[/p]

• [p]Increased Hero Stat Scalars by 1.0[/p]
• [p]Increased Damage Scalar +10.0[/p]
• [p]Knock back Scalar of 0.05[/p]
• [p]Increased Attack Rate max by 0.2[/p]
• [p]Crit Chance Scalar increased by 0.1[/p]
• [p]Crit Bonus Scalar increased by 5.0[/p]

[p]Obsidian Staff- [/p]

• [p]Increased Hero Stat Scalars by 0.5[/p]
• [p]Increased Damage Scalar +10.0[/p]
• [p]Increased Projectile Roll Count Scalar to 0.4 from 0.2[/p]
• [p]Added Knock back with a Scalar 0.005[/p][p][/p]

[p]Obsidian Pole-arm-[/p]

• [p]Increased Hero Stat Scalars from 2.5 to 3.5[/p]
• [p]Increased Weapon Damage Scalar from 33 to 50[/p]
• [p]Crit Chance Scalar + 0.1[/p]
• [p]Crit Bonus Scalar + 0.1[/p]
• [p]Crit Bonus Maximum Scalar increased from 25 - 40[/p]

[p]Obsidian Bow-[/p]

• [p]Rolls with 5 Projectiles from 3 (U.I reflects 6?)[/p]
• [p]Attack Rate Maximum -0.1[/p]
• [p]Added Knock back of 0.05[/p]

[p]Pets:[/p]

• [p]Topaz gemstone is functioning properly, (replaced its skeletal mesh with the gemstone) (Change the description to: Gives nearby Heroes 15% increase to Move Speed and Attack Rate for 4 s, with 2 s Cool down )[/p]
• [p]Lapis gemstone now applies the correct status effect to enemies, making them deal less damage. (There was a bug where the applied effect would give the enemy armor[/p]

[p]- Mista Mine:[/p]

• [p]Added a Rift Variant to Ancient Mines[/p]
• [p]Gold Variant has a 50% Cast Rate, and a 50% Move Speed Reduction[/p]
• [p]Rift Variant has a 40% Cast Rate, and a 40% Move Speed Reduction[/p]
• [p]Normal Variant has a 30% Cast Rate, and a 30% Move Speed Reduction[/p]
• [p]With Increasing Hero Stat Scalars per variant[/p]

[p]Corgi’s:[/p][p]With permission, we’ve added a family of Corgi pets to Survival drop tables. These are special: they are the first pets in the Dungeon Defenders franchise to grant the player an extra jump. You can find these good boys darting through Survival starting at Wave 250, and a new Corgi is added to the drop table every 50 waves up to Wave 500. Currently these drop only on Massacre difficulty, Hardcore, and Bonus Waves, and they can appear on all maps.[/p]

• [p]Base/Rift Corgi:Provides the Hero with 10% Versatility, 40% Cast Rate, and Hero Scalars of 2.75, Rift Corgi gives 5% Rift Armor, and an EXTRA jump![/p]
• [p]Fightin’ Corgi: Provides the Hero with 15% Weapon Crit Chance, Hero Scalars of 2.8, and an EXTRA jump![/p]
• [p]EdE CorgE: Provides the Hero with 15% Move Speed Boost, Hero Scalars of 2.85, and an EXTRA jump![/p]
• [p]Chubbs The Corgi: Provides the Hero with 15% Hero Damage Boost, Hero Scalars of 2.9, and an EXTRA jump![/p]
• [p]Milton’s Militant Mutt: Provides the Hero with 2 x Vitality increase, Hero Scalars of 2.95, and an EXTRA jump![/p]
• [p]Golden Douglas: Provides the Hero with 15% Attack Rate increase, 10% Move Speed increase, Enemy Knock back, Hero Scalars of 3.0, and TWO EXTRA jumps![/p]

[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]
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