News Liste Dungeon Defenders: Awakened

Greetings Defenders!

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been focused on making DD:A feel better to play, clearer to understand, and more rewarding to stick with. This update is packed with Pure Strategy improvements, new rewards, Transmog updates and an Assault speedrun event to keep building momentum toward the future. Thank you for the reports, the patience, and for sticking with us while we keep bringing updates to DD:A

HIGHLIGHTS

• Pure Strategy is now playable on:

  [list]

• Yuletide Village

• Castle Armory

Added Pure Strategy phase info + wave progression data, and proper enemy lane data on supported maps

New Pure Strategy rewards (weapons, accessories, pets, and Action Figure tower-buff pets)

Transmog updates Assault updates + a limited-time Assault Speedrun Event (through 2/15/26)

PURE STRATEGY UPDATES

New / Updated Pure Strategy Maps

• Yuletide Village

  [list]

• Pure Strategy is now playable

• Added phase info + wave progression data

• Added enemy lanes (matches Survival lanes)

Castle Armory

• Pure Strategy is now playable

• Added phase info + wave progression data

• Added enemy lanes (matches Survival lanes)

Yuletide Village and Castle Armory are now visible in the Pure Strategy map select

Outpost (Pure Strategy)

• Reduced Djinn spawns to improve map flow (pulse count unchanged)

  [list]

• Waves 1–8: unchanged

• Wave 9: 18 Djinn throughout the wave (down from 40)

• Waves 10–14: 20 Djinn throughout the wave (down from 40)

• Waves 15–19: 25 Djinn throughout the wave (down from 40)

• Waves 20–25: 30 Djinn throughout the wave (down from 40)

Bazaar (Pure Strategy)

• Sharken spawns adjusted for more consistent pacing (pulse count unchanged)

  [list]

• Waves 1–4: 3 Sharken

• Wave 5: 6 Sharken

• Wave 6: unchanged (10)

• Wave 7: 10 Sharken

• Waves 8–11: unchanged

• Waves 12–14: 20 Sharken

• Waves 15–17: 25 Sharken

• Waves 18–20: 30 Sharken

• Waves 21–22: 35 Sharken

• Wave 23: 40 Sharken

• Waves 24–25: 45 Sharken

Ogre Copter spawns adjusted for better flow

• Waves 1–5: 1 copter per pulse over 2 pulses

• Waves 6–10: 2 copters per pulse over 3 pulses

• Waves 11–16: 3 copters per pulse over 3 pulses

• Waves 16–25: 3 copters per pulse over 4 pulses

Massacre: adjusted regular Ogre spawns for more uniform pacing

• Waves 3–10: 2 ogres per pulse with 2 pulses

• Waves 11–25: 3 ogres per pulse with 2 pulses

NEW REWARDS & DROP TABLE UPDATES

Yuletide Village (Pure Strategy)

• Flopsalot (Regular) added to Pure Strategy drop tables

  [list]

• Tower weapon rolls: Tower Damage (0.9), Tower Range (0.9), Tower Speed (0.9)

• Tower Damage is a guaranteed roll

Flopsalot (Fused) added to Pure Strategy drop tables

• Same stats as Fused Wolfbane’s Claymore

• Ability stat point scalar: 2.75 (25% higher than Fused Wolfbane’s Claymore)

Kringler’s Cap

• Now tradeable

• Added flavor text

• Now drops on completion of Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Yuletide Village Pure Strategy)

• Fused Kringler’s Cap drops on completion of Wave 15 and Wave 25 with Rift Mode toggled

  [list]

• Rolls similarly to other fused accessories

Tower Penguin

• Drops on completion of Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Yuletide Village Pure Strategy)

• Rolls with Tower Health, Tower Damage, Tower Range, and +25% Move Speed

• Tower Damage is the main roll

Tower Fused Penguin

• Drops on completion of Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Yuletide Village Pure Strategy with Rift Mode toggled)

• Rolls with Tower Health, Tower Damage, Tower Speed, and +25% Move Speed

• Tower Damage is the main roll

Tower Giraffe on the Treadmill now properly drops on Yuletide Village

Castle Armory (Pure Strategy)

• Meat Sword

  [list]

• Awarded for completing Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Castle Armory Pure Strategy)

• Exact same rolls as Flopsalot

Fused Meat Sword

• Awarded for completing Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Castle Armory Pure Strategy)

• Exact same rolls as Fused Flopsalot

Tower Ogre

• Drops on completion of Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Castle Armory Pure Strategy)

• Rolls with Tower Speed, Tower Damage, Tower Range, and +15% Versatility

• Tower Range is the main roll

Tower Fused Ogre

• Drops on completion of Wave 15 and Wave 25 (Castle Armory Pure Strategy)

• Rolls with Tower Speed, Tower Damage, Tower Range, and +15% Versatility

• Tower Speed is the main roll

Pure Strategy Victory Chest Fixes (Fusion Drops)

• Pure Strategy victory chests now properly drop:

  [list]

• A random Fusion armor piece

• A random Fusion weapon

Fixed on:

• Forsaken Temple

• Castle Armory

• Yuletide Village

Challenge Loot Quality Fixes

• Nightmare challenges now properly use the early Nightmare campaign wave quality distribution

• Massacre challenges now properly use the late Nightmare wave quality distribution

Monster Hunt / Monster Fest Rewards

• Waffle Pet (Massacre Monster Hunt)

  [list]

• Non-combat pet

• Gives: +50% Health, +10% Movement Speed

• Rolls: Vitality (1.5), Attack (1.5), Ability (2.0), stat base of 8

• Note: stat base implementation is still being finalized

Fused Waffle Pet (Massacre Monster Hunt in Rift Mode)

• Non-combat pet

• Gives: +40% Health, +10% Rift Armor, +10% Movement Speed

• Rolls: Vitality (1.75), Attack (1.75), Ability (2.25), stat base of 8

Waffle Pet is also now available via Monster Fest

Action Figure Pets (Pure Strategy Massacre + Bonus Difficulty)

• The Mill: Warden Action Figure

  [list]

• Speedy Gemstone effect at 25% less power, buffs up to 8 targets

• Rolls: Tower Health, Tower Range, Tower Speed (main stat)

• Stat scalars: 0.9 (rift and non-rift)

Bazaar: Summoner Action Figure

• Powerful Gemstone effect at 25% less power, buffs up to 8 targets

• Rolls: Tower Damage (main stat), Tower Range, Tower Speed

• Stat scalars: 0.9

Forsaken Temple: Guardian Action Figure

• Sturdy Gemstone effect at 25% less power, buffs up to 8 targets

• Rolls: Tower Health (main stat), Tower Damage, Tower Speed

• Stat scalars: 0.9

• Also now drops on completion of Forsaken Temple Pure Strategy with the Hardcore toggle

Lost Metropolis reward update

• EV Action Figure did not pass QA and will be released in a future patch

• In the meantime, a Monk Guardian is being used in its place

Additional New Drops

• Fused Leafy Piercer

  [list]

• Drops from completing The Mill on Rifted Hardcore Massacre with a Bonus Difficulty

• Weapon with boss weapon scaling

Traffic Cone

• Drops from completing Outpost Pure Strategy on Massacre

• Named and flavor text written by Corgi Cypher winner Crystonyx

Bubble Blaster 9000

• Drops from completing Lost Metropolis on Massacre Hardcore with a Bonus Difficulty

• Tower weapon rolls: Tower Health, Tower Range, Defense Rate (each scalar 0.95)

Fused Bubble Blaster 9000

• Drops from completing Lost Metropolis on Massacre Hardcore with a Bonus Difficulty

• DPS weapon with stats on par with Chimera Shot

Rogue Action Figure

• Drops from completing The Keep on Pure Strategy with a Bonus Difficulty

• Gives Prop Cat effect 50% less boost to damage than a regular propcat

Birthday Party Hat

• Drops from completing King’s Game on Pure Strategy with Hardcore + Bonus Difficulty

New Corgi Variant: Sirloin

• Drops at Wave 250 on The Summit (replacing the Corgi drop)

• Rolls with Hero scalars of 3.5 and Tower Fortify of 3.25

• Shout out to Tato

Lapis Gemstone

• Now drops on Treasure Hunt with a 50% chance

TRANSMOG & COSMETICS

• Updated the patch notes link to point to the Steam Community patch notes page

Pets Added to the Transmog System

• Fused Ramster can

• Fused Propeller Cat

• Golden Lil’ Bomber

• Lapis Gemstone

• Topaz Gemstone

• Fused (Rifted) Fairy

• Fused Genie

• Fused Helping Hand (Rifted Hand)

• Fused Mista Mine

• Gold Penguin

• Guardians (loot drops): Monk / Huntress / Squire / Apprentice

• Animus: Monk / Huntress / Squire / Apprentice

• Golden Striking Gemstone

Comically Large Weapons

• Added flavor text to the Comically Large Crossbow

• All Comically Large weapons are no longer hidden in the Transmog menu

Crystal Core Transmogs (New Feature) A long-awaited returning feature from Dungeon Defenders 1 has finally made its debut: Crystal Core Transmogs.

• Go to the Blacksmith → Transmog menu → Crystal Core tab

• Select and save your Crystal Core transmog to use in-game

• The Chromatic Gemstone Crystal Core Transmog is now available to everyone

• Additional locked Crystal Cores will appear in the menu, but they are not in the game yet (more details coming soon)

ASSAULT UPDATES + SPEEDRUN EVENT

Assault Updates

• Removed the jump de-buff from Assault (players can move freely)

• Assault can now be played in Rift Mode

• Fused Balasticus now drops from completing Assault

• Assault now awards a Victory Chest when played with a Bonus Difficulty

• Balasticus updated to resemble the DD1 Balasticus (by popular demand)

Assault Speed Run Event (through 2/15/26) Until 2/15/26, we’ve removed the speed de-buff from Assault as an experiment for potential future Assault-style challenges. We’d like to invite everyone to participate in the Assault speed-run event.

Winner Reward

• The winner gets to name one of the new weapons coming with the next map

Requirements to Participate

Level 80 character

Gear cannot be higher than Transcendent quality

Must run on Massacre with Hardcore, Rift Mode, and Bonus Difficulty toggled

No Rogue or Guardian

Video must be one take showing:

• Character sheet

• Full run

• Opening the chest

Video must be public or unlisted, titled: “Steam Username” - DD:A Assault Speed run Event - Time Remaining Upon Completion

To count, the link to the video must be posted in the comments of the Steam post of the patch notes

BALANCE & GAMEPLAY CHANGES

• Bowling Ball tower explosion AoE reduced by 20% (750 → 600)

• Comically Large Bow tower health scalar corrected to 0.9

• Tower Chicken now properly gives 30% Cast Rate

• Gold Gemstone buff increased to be 50% stronger than the regular gemstone buff

ITEMS, TOOLTIPS, AND SET BONUS FIXES

• Updated Arcane Alignment 5 tooltip to clarify accessory use (especially Rift accessories)

• Updated Spike Blockade description to include attack rate reduction to melee attackers

• Updated Golden Lycan King item card to show the 15% Rift bonus and maximum number of targets

• Updated Golden Lycan King item description

• Rearmed set bonus now displays properly

• Inspired Defense set bonus can now be completed with an Arcanist piece as intended

• Thundering Defense set bonus can now be completed with an Arcanist piece as intended

• Deadly Defense set bonus can now be completed with an Arcanist piece as intended

• Plagued Defense set bonus can now be completed with an Arcanist piece as intended

• Seal of the Forsaken (and Fused version) now properly classified as a Brooch

• Added a description to the Rifted Empowering Shrine describing its Rift effect:

  [list]

• Players standing inside the circle gain 25% cooldown reduction

Updated Owl description to fix typos

CINEMATICS

• Bazaar now has an intro fly-through cinematic

• Bazaar now has a lose cinematic upon failure

• Lost Metropolis now has an intro fly-through cinematic

• Lost Metropolis now has a lose cinematic upon failure

RIFT PORTAL UPDATES (PURE STRATEGY SUPPORT)

• All of Act 4 Rift Mode now has Rift Portals available in Pure Strategy

• Added / updated Rift Portal locations across many maps, including:

  [list]

• Ancient Mines

• Lava Mines

• Magus Quarters

• Tornado Valley

• Tornado Highlands

• The Ramparts

• The Throne Room

• Arcane Library

• Royal Gardens

• Promenade

• The Summit

• Glitterhelm

• Endless Spires

• Forges and Foundries (updated location)

• Bazaar

• Lost Metropolis

• Forsaken Temple

• Castle Armory

• King’s Game

• Yuletide Village

Note:

• On most of these maps we added extra portal support intended to help Rift Copters avoid getting stuck.

• We have not added the Rift-Copter-specific portal pass into the Act 4 maps yet (that will come in a future update).

• Deeper Well did not receive any Rift Portal updates in this patch.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue with Siren damage resistance where enemies could become effectively invincible due to a timed/infinite buff interaction

KNOWN ISSUES (STILL INVESTIGATING)

We’re aware of the following issues and they did not make it into this patch (they’re deeper than expected, but we are investigating):

• Gold disappearing when joining a friend’s game through Steam’s “Join Game” button

• Multiplayer crash when the host changes maps during an active session

• Repair ability not working when Cast Rate goes over 200%

Closing

As always, thank you for playing and for continuing to share your feedback with us. This update is another step toward making DD:A clearer, more rewarding, and better to play across all modes, especially Pure Strategy. Every report, suggestion, and discussion helps guide where we focus next. Our next major update will continue to focus on fixing bugs, improving stability, and making the game feel better to play from start to finish. We’re committed to steady, meaningful improvements that hold up long term, and your feedback plays a huge role in shaping that future.

Happy Defending, The Community Development Team