News Liste Dungeon Defenders: Awakened

[b]A COLLECTION OF EVERYTHING WE TESTED AND REFINED ON PTR[/b]

Greetings Defenders,

Before anything else, thank you. The PTR feedback, build tests, bug reports, and straight-up honest opinions you shared are the reason we were able to shape this update into something we’re proud to ship. As we wrap up 2025, this patch sets the stage for us to keep expanding these systems with more “everything” going forward. We still have some early-game flow tweaks to make and a few bugs to iron out, but with every update we get closer to bigger goals like investigating the console roots, bringing updates back to consoles, and continuing work on new content.

[b]SUMMARY OF THE BIG CHANGES[/b]

• Tower and hero balance passes across multiple heroes and defenses

• Pure Strategy and Challenge Mode got major reward, scaling, and chest fixes

• Rift Mode tuning based directly on community feedback (spawn rates, resistances, and problem enemies)

• Tower weapons rebuilt to feel stronger, more tower-first, and more reliable to earn

• Fused accessories cleaned up and improved (with better passive options)

• Arcanist armor rules updated for consistency and less “build bricking”

• Tower pets got a major sweep (better tower scaling, better bonuses, clearer naming)

• Holiday and boss reward improvements (Kringler’s Kap, Fused Boss accessories, Crystal Core rewards, and more)

[b]TOWERS AND DEFENSES[/b]

Series EV – Proton Beam

• Maximum beam distance increased from 750 to 1250

• Minimum DU distance increased from 25 to 50

• Maximum DU distance increased from 750 to 1000

• DU health scale increased from 1.2 to 1.75

• DU health exponent increased to 15%

• Health drain per tick reduced from 4.5 HP to 3 HP

• Defense Rate hero stat exponent increased from 0.20 to 0.25

• Shock Rune stun duration increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds

Series EV – Heat Cannon

• Defense Range hero stat exponent increased from 0.30 to 0.50

Warden – Roots, Wisps, Wrath, Shroomy Geyser, Sludge Launcher 

Roots of Purity

• Tower Health scalar increased from 1.0 to 1.5

• Tower Health exponent increased from 1.005 to 1.055

Wisp Den

• Defense Unit cost reduced from 4 DU to 3 DU

Wrath

• Defense Rate buff multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.30

• Rune explosion radius increased from 250 to 500

• Wrath cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds

• Empowering Rune linger duration after leaving the circle increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds

• Wrath tooltip updated

Shroomy Geyser (Wrath Mode)

• Now applies a 10% Strength Drain for 3 seconds

• UI now properly reflects the debuff

Sludge Launcher

• Sludge pool radius (from rune) increased from 300 to 400

Summoner – Archer Minions

• Tower Health scalar increased from 1.0 to 1.25

• Life Leech Rune health penalty reduced

  [list]

• Internal value reduced from 1.0 to 0.6

• Rank 8 HP reduction lowered from about 25% to roughly 10–15%

Guardian – Divine Judgement

• Blast radius increased from 150 to 350

• Spellbook updated to reflect the change

Holy Bulwark

• Protection effect now applies correctly (range scaling fix)

Deadly Striker Tower

• Attack speed scaling improved

  [list]

• Exponent increased to 0.85 (up from 0.77), allowing it to shoot faster at higher stats

[b]HERO ABILITY REBALANCES[/b]

Squire

• Blood Rage cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds

• Bowling Ball Tower description updated

• Spellbook updated

Apprentice

• Overcharge cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds

• Arcane Blast Rune now applies an enemy debuff

  [list]

• Enemies take 15% more damage for 5 seconds

• Stacks up to 3 times

• Tooltip updated

Huntress

• Adrenaline Rush cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds

• Piercing Shot cooldown reduced from 7 seconds to 6 seconds

• Second Chance now procs on damage dealt (instead of enemy killed)

Series EV (Hero)

• Series EV now has access to Arcane Blast Rune

• Decoy Rune (Decoy GR)

  [list]

• Duration increased to 8 seconds

• Post-multiplicative additive value increased from 1.0 to 1.4

Decoy ability scaling (EV ability 1)

• Full stat exponent increased from 0.33 to 0.50

• Full stat scalar increased from 0.1 to 0.2

Known interaction

• Arcane Blast Rune does not function correctly if Decoy GR or Second Chance Grenade overrides the ability

Monk

• Tower Boost cooldown reduced to 12 seconds

• Hero Boost cooldown increased to 8 seconds

Summoner

• Pet Boost cooldown increased to 8 seconds

Warden

• Wrath cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds

• Empowering Rune linger duration increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds

[b]PURE STRATEGY AND CHALLENGE MODE[/b]

Pure Strategy

• Hardcore can now be toggled

• Bonus Difficulties can now be toggled

• Special enemies added to Pure Strategy across all maps in Acts 1–3

• Pure Strategy now scales with the loot modifier

• Pure Strategy loot floor now properly matches Mixed Mode

• Bonus Wave and Bonus Wave Hardcore chests now properly spawn in all modes

• All difficulties now correctly scale when Hardcore and Rift Mode are enabled

• Chest behavior cleaned up so Pure Strategy no longer spawns the wrong chest and accidentally awards extra map-specific rewards

• Victory chest for completing waves other than 15 and 25 is now properly awarded in Pure Strategy when modified with a Bonus Difficulty

Challenge Mode

• Bonus Difficulties enabled and toggleable

• Challenge Mode can now toggle Rift Mode (same spawn percentages as other modes)

• Rift Mode should now properly apply in Challenge Mode

• Reward chest added to Challenge Rifted Mode on all maps

  [list]

• Frequently drops Godly items

Challenge weapons renamed to their Dungeon Defenders 1 counterparts with classic-style descriptions restored

• Scaling and stats unchanged

• Rift Mode awards Rifted versions of challenge weapons

[b]RIFT MODE AND ENEMY SPAWNS[/b]

What “Rift Conversion Scalar” means

• Rift Conversion Scalar is the chance for an enemy to spawn as a Rifted variant

• Example: 0.8 means an 80% chance

Current Rift spawn rules

• Rift Conversion Scalar is 0.8 for all enemies in Survival, Mix Mode, and Pure Strategy

• Deeper Well matches these Rift conversion settings across all game modes

• Ogres still spawn Rifted 100% of the time

Rift resistance and fusion damage math (updated last night)

• Based on community feedback, the Rift resistance on non-Rift enemies was still too high (later Survival waves were getting nearly impossible)

  [list]

• Non-Rift enemies now have 50% damage reduction against Rift damage outside of Rifted mode

Rifted enemies now take 150% bonus damage

• This is meant to offset the resistance math when enemies spawn Rifted, so fusion damage still lands where it should

Sirens no longer have Rift resistance

• They were stacking too many defenses and were far harder to deal with than intended

Gold enemies buffed by a Rifted Djinn are no longer immune to crowd control

• This gives players a real chance to stop a buffed enemy before it reaches “one-shot the core” territory

Training dummies (for accurate testing)

• Non-Rift dummy now matches the same Rift resistance as non-Rift enemies

• Rifted dummy damage behavior is tuned to match intended fusion math

[b]ARCANIST ARMOR[/b]

Drop locations

• Arcanist Crown and Arcanist Chest drop on The Keep

• Arcanist Boots and Arcanist Gloves drop on Forsaken Temple

Set and fusion behavior (updated)

• Arcanist armor no longer completes weapon set bonuses

• All Arcanist pieces can now be used to complete Primitive armor sets

• Arcanist pieces still follow their intended fusion restrictions

• Armor descriptions updated for clarity

Current restriction mapping

• Crown

  [list]

• Grants fusion to Tower 1

• Prevents completion of the Tower 2 Guard Armor fused set

Gloves

• Grants fusion to Tower 2

• Prevents completion of the Tower 1 Ancient Armor fused set

Chest

• Grants fusion to Tower 3

• Prevents completion of the Tower 4 Miner Armor fused set

Boots

• Grants fusion to Tower 4

• Prevents completion of the Tower 3 Militia Armor fused set

Stat roll consistency

• Arcanist Gloves no longer guarantee Tower Health as a forced stat (all stats now have equal chance)

• Arcanist Boots no longer guarantee Tower Health as a forced stat (all stats now have equal chance)

• Arcanist Chest no longer guarantees Tower Health as a forced stat (all stats now have equal chance)

[b]TOWER WEAPONS[/b]

General drop rules

• Tower weapons drop after completing Wave 15 (Hardcore on or off)

• Tower weapons drop in all difficulties, in both Rift and non-Rift

• Non-fused tower weapons can drop even while Rift Mode is active

• Main stat on tower weapons is always a tower stat

• Non-fused tower weapons roll Hero Ability plus two tower stats

• Fused tower weapons roll three tower stats

• Tower weapons have their own passive pool, separate from normal weapon passives

Tower weapon passive pool

%Dmg: 60 Tower Damage: 375 Tower Health: 375 Tower Range: 375 Towe Speed: 375 MP Regen: 60 Move speed: 60 Cast Rate: 375

Drop fixes and selling (updated last night)

• Glitterhelm’s tower weapon should now drop properly upon completion

• Forsaken Temple tower weapons should now drop properly upon completion

• Comically Large Sword can now be sold

Additional drop notes

• Lost Metropolis drops a random staff

• The Bazaar drops a random polearm

• King’s Game drops a random Huntress weapon

[b]FUSED ACCESSORIES[/b]

General rules

• Fused accessories drop after completing Wave 15 (Hardcore on or off)

• Fused accessories are exclusive to Massacre difficulty

• Fused accessories have their own passive pool

• Rift/fused accessories can no longer be used to complete Fusion armor sets

• Regular Soldier’s Bracer no longer incorrectly counts as Defense 5

Fused accessory passive pool

%Damage (Repair) 60 MP Regen: 33 Move Speed: 33 %Armor (Repair): 60 %Armor (Upgrade): 60 %Dmg (Upgrade): 60 HP Regen: 33

Tower Damage: 60 Tower Health: 60 Tower Range: 60 Towe Speed: 60

[b]HOLIDAY AND BOSS REWARDS[/b]

Kringler’s Kap

• Drops in Yuletide

• Now also drops in Survival, Mix Mode, and Campaign (with both Rifted and non-Rift toggles active)

Boss accessories and icons

• Boss accessories added to their respective boss maps in Pure Strategy

• New boss accessory added

  [list]

• Seal of the Forsaken (Forsaken Temple, brooch-type accessory)

Rift icons added for

• Sapphire Brooch

• Soldier’s Bracer

• Ancient Monocle

• King’s Face

• Seal of the Forsaken

Crystal Core

• Drops on Warping Core and Moving Core

• Increases Jump Height and cast rate

• All variants are now sellable

Regular Crystal Core

• Main stat: Tower Damage

• Rolls with Tower Damage (1.0), Tower Health (1.0), Hero Ability (1.5)

Fused Crystal Core

• No main stat

• Rolls with Tower Health (1.0), Tower Damage (1.0), Hero Ability (1.5)

Gold Crystal Core

• No main stat

• Rolls with Tower Health (1.0), Tower Damage (1.5), Hero Ability (1.5)

[b]PETS AND GEMSTONES[/b]

Global tower pet scaling sweep

• All tower stats on tower pets had their scalars increased to 1.0 (anything below 1.0 was raised)

DPS pet range adjustments

• Rift DPS pets received a 25% range increase

• Gold DPS pets received a 50% range increase

• Happy Hera range increased from 700 to 900

• Raging Zeus range increased from 700 to 900

• Lil’ Bomber did not receive an increase

Animus pets (returning class DPS pets)

• Added class Animus DPS pets (Squire, Apprentice, Monk, Huntress)

• Fires up to 3 projectiles that explode on impact

• Current tuning

  [list]

• Range: 2200

• Damage Scalar: 185

• Attack Rate: 0.63

• Explosion Radius: 500

Animus fastest attack rate cap is 0.4 seconds

Tower Giraffes (Pure Strategy reward)

• Awarded on Wave 25 in Pure Strategy

• Tower Giraffe on a Treadmill now has proper range scaling

• Tower Giraffes roll with 0.85 scalars and come in builder-style variants

• One duplicate giraffe was updated to roll Tower Health, Tower Speed, and Tower Damage for more variety

Other pet and item fixes

• Yellow Ramster no longer incorrectly applies its effects to towers

• Gold Genie now correctly gives Ability Mana

• Chubs the Corgi now correctly applies its damage boost

• Chubs self-damage buff increased from 15% to 100% (self-buff only, stacks with other hero buffs)

• Spider tooltip updated

• Lapis and Topaz gemstone item cards updated for clarity

[b]RUNE UPDATES[/b]

• Yuletide Village Campaign now properly drops its rune collection

• King’s Game Campaign now properly drops its rune collection

• Nightmare rune quality should now drop lower-level runes more frequently

• We’ve made major progress tracking down the “rune crash” from enemy rune drops, but it needs a bit more time to fully dial in

[b]CONCLUSION[/b]

That’s the full bundle of what we built and refined with you through PTR, now landing live: defenses and hero abilities should feel more consistent, Pure Strategy and Challenge rewards should finally line up the way they’re supposed to, Rift mode should be clearer and less punishing in the wrong spots, and builder gear (weapons, accessories, and pets) should feel much more exciting to earn and use. Thank you again for testing, sharing builds, and speaking up when something didn’t feel right. We genuinely wouldn’t be here without you. If you want to stay involved, come hang out with us in the official Discord (best place for feedback and build talk), and if you’d like to support the game’s continued development, please consider checking out our cosmetic DLC on Steam.

Happy defending, The Community Development Team