Early Game + Twitch Integration Update + Upcoming Event News!

DEFENDERS,

Today we have a small game update and a handful of other events to talk about! This update contains the Early Game changes to make things harder. As well as Twitch Integration which will allow streamers to connect their twitch account to the game and let viewers vote on events to take place in game!

[b]Upcoming Events[/b]

Free Steam Weekend

Have you been curious to try the game before buying? Got a friend you want to convince to play? Well now is their chance! We’ll be running a free weekend for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on Steam! There will also be a sale for the game so if you decide to buy the game after giving it a try you can continue right where you left off in progression.

The Free Weekend will start March 9th at 10AM Pacific / 1PM EST and will run until March 13th at 10AM Pacific / 1PM EST.

Twitch Drops

What better time to offer some free cosmetic rewards than during a free weekend. We’ll be running our first ever Twitch drop campaign. All you have to do is connect your twitch account on our website - https://drops.dungeondefenders.com/ then watch any twitch channel streaming Dungeon Defenders: Awakened with drops enabled.

The following rewards will become available at specific times:

Starting Mar 9th - Mar 30 Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Squire Guardian Pet
Mar 10th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Huntress Guardian Pet
Mar 11th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Monk Guardian Pet
Mar 12th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Apprentice Guardian Pet
Mar 13th - Mar 30 · Watch for 1 hour and claim the reward Crystalline Pizza Wings

Note: You will have to redeem the rewards in order and watch the required hours per reward.

Galaxy Costume Bundle

The Galaxy Costume Bundle will be releasing alongside the free weekend on March 9th at 10AM PST / 1PM EST! Explore the world of Etheria with these new cosmic themed hero costumes cosmetics. This DLC Bundle unlocks the above costumes through the Transmog UI accessible in the tavern through the Blacksmith or Escape Menu.

The Galaxy Costume Bundle applies to the following heroes:

Squire
Apprentice
Huntress
Monk
EV
Warden
Rogue
The Outcast Summoner
Guardian (once released in-game)

The bundle is currently only available on Steam and will cost $6.99 with a 15% launch discount bringing it down to $5.95 for the first week!

[b]Game Update Patchnotes[/b]

Twitch Integration

As many games have added, Twitch integration will allow streamers to link their Twitch account and have their chat vote on randomly chosen events to happen in-game. Events can be both negative and positive for the streamer and only happen in the combat phase.

Streamers will also be able to configure the amount of voting time, time between events, number of events per wave and whether they want to disable positive events entirely.

To use this feature, go to the Twitch tab on the options UI and fillout the info to link your Twitch account.

Early Game Changes

We've heard a lot of player feedback about the early game and so one of the main goals for these changes is to increase the difficulty of the early game to help better match the power level of players and entertain players who want a harder experience. At the same time our goal is also not to make the early game too difficult as some players do want an easier experience.

That said here are the following changes

Hard is now unlocked from the beginning.
We’ve shifted all the difficulties down from Easy to Insane, What this means is the following:
- Easy - The difficulty of what Medium used to be.
- Medium - The difficulty of what Hard used to be.
- Hard - The Difficulty of what Insane used to be and slightly harder.
- Insane - Is what Insane used to be but with higher scaling to be a new middle ground between Hard and Nightmare.
We’ve changed how progression unlocks work, the way it works now is the following:
- If a map is unlocked on any difficulty, you can play that map on a higher difficulty without having to play it on lower difficulties first.
  - Example: If you’ve beaten The Throne Room on medium, you can play Endless Spires on any difficulty you have unlocked (Insane, Nightmare or Massacre) assuming you meet the requirements.
Removed gear level requirements until nightmare to allow players to equip the gear they are getting as they progress.
Insane is now unlocked after beating Easy, Medium or Hard on Campaign Summit.
Decreased Nightmare Level requirement to 60 from 70
Decreased Massacre Level requirement to 80 from 83.
Added some new difficulty explanation popup for when you open the map select for the first time.
Maps are now hidden on the map select if you don’t have the difficulty unlocked and it explains why the difficulty is locked.
Increased IPWR on Swords and Polearms to help bring them in more in line with Staffs and Crossbows.
Greatly Reduced the amount of stats that item effects provide in the early game
- Ex: Armor giving +50 Fortify on a piece that only gives +10 Fortify.

What’s Next?

This is just the tip of what’s to come for the Dungeon Defenders franchise as a whole! We got updates for all the games around the corner. In regards to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened we have Episode 2 Part 2 coming which will feature the Guardian a new hero, 2 new maps, one of which is a boss map. Our goal is to get this into PTR playtesting the week of March 20th.

To stay up-to-date on the latest news from Chromatic Games and the Dungeon Defenders franchise, follow us on all our social channels:

For Etheria!
Chromatic Games

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened update for 8 March 2023