Isle of Dread Notes

[L A W L T A]

Ahoy Defenders!

Dungeon Defenders II: The Isle of Dread Expansion is out now on ALL platforms! This expansion contains a treasure trove of features, changes, and improvements. Set sail for adventure on two new maps, strike down your foes to gain new weapons and Mods, take on new enemies, and so much more. Put on your best eye patch and get your parrot, let’s dive into some expansion notes!

New Maps

We’re excited to be introducing not one, but two maps with this expansion. These maps are available as their own Adventure set, can be selected when playing Expeditions, can come up as you progress through Onslaught, and one is even a Chaos VII Incursion!

The Jacked Sparrow
The first map is set on The Jacked Sparrow, previously known as The Sparrow before the heroes of Etheria hijacked it in order to reach their destination. As you traverse this map, enemies attack from above and below the levels of the ship, requiring all hands on deck to keep the masts safe from destruction! There’s a ton of fun to be had aboard this ship, as you use cannons to blast your enemies away, catapults to fly across the map, and vantage points to take out enemies when they least expect it!

Plunderer's Paradise
After braving the rough seas, the heroes land on an island besieged by an army of the Old One trying to break into the island’s mountain. Among these enemies are new foes that have not been seen before, helping beef up the horde that is coming your way! Protect the island to prevent havoc breaking loose, but also explore to find secrets hidden throughout the map. Conquer the Incursion version of this map by striking down Captain Dreadbones to unlock a new Barbarian weapon to add to your arsenal!

New Enemies

There’s a slew of enemies that are now donning pirate attire, an absolute necessity when conquering on such vicious tides! Here are a few of the enemies you encounter on your journey.

These goblins upped their pirate fashion game, but they also recruited additional allies to take down heroes from afar.

Cannon Ogres have joined the ranks of foes you must face! They are a fearsome terror that can ruin your defenses and range, but are also deadly when you’re up close and personal.

A cursed orc pirate, Captain Dreadbones, is a new boss that you encounter in this expansion. You can fight him and his mighty crew in Plunderer’s Paradise on all game modes the map is available! Be careful, his cursed strength is nothing to underestimate.

The World Map

The War Table is improved with this expansion, adding some wonderful visuals to the world of Etheria, and also providing some quality of life changes as requested by our glorious community! The World Map shows all the different places Defenders may explore through different game modes:

• Campaign: A new World Map that outlines where you’ve been, and where you’ll be going!
  
• Expeditions: Choose the region, map, and difficulty you want!
  
• Adventures: Four zones full of different Adventure story arcs are available to choose from!
  
• Onslaught: Hop right into your floor and get to climbing!
  
• Mastery: With a similar look to Expeditions, you can see your Mastery Star progression!
  
• Incursions: You can change difficulties to see each available Incursion!

Each game mode contains different formats for ease of use, but also provide an “Advanced View” session browser in each. The Session Browser allows quick visibility of all the games going on, allowing players to filter down to specific maps within specific difficulties of specific game modes. Very specific!

When navigating through the various world maps, there is also a new indicator that shows which maps are included in Daily and Weekly quests!

Social Improvements

Interacting with players is getting some good attention with this expansion, with much more coming even after the expansion! Player Lists are now easier to navigate, selecting another Defender and choosing to inspect their shop or invite them to party among other options provided via a drop down menu.

The Player List menu has also received additional features. You can now see who’s in your party, who’s the party leader, any friends in the hub, and skip time inspecting every player by seeing who has items listed in their shop!

Receiving invites is also streamlined to not take over your screen and there’s a timer to avoid invite spam. Parties received attention as well, for instance, the leader is now consistent and gives control to choose when and where your crew go! We’re continuing to develop social interactions between players, and this is a giant first step towards making it an easier and more enjoyable experience.

Replay From Wave

This is something we are introducing to help Defenders overcome the challenges they are presented with and promoting experimentation as you progress. Sometimes you can get up to a certain point and you want to try a different strategy. That’s where Replay From Wave comes in!

Now when you fail a wave, the Performance Optimization System outlines what defenses fell or which ones may have been underperforming. You are able to evaluate what changes you need, make adjustments, and get back to overcoming the challenge before you.

This system is available in Adventures, Expeditions, Onslaught, AND Mastery (without losing stars). The only caveat to this is that Replay From Wave is not available on Lost Temple, as it’s meant to stand as a final gauntlet to overcome every five floors. We can’t wait to see how far this system let’s Defenders go!

Onslaught

It’s finally here — one map floors are now the standard in Onslaught! This change was due to a lot of great feedback many of you provided. There are a few things that needed to change when going towards the one map format:

• Difficulty Scaling: We shifted the focus of investing time into each floor to overcoming greater difficulties sooner. As a result the rewards previously earned in Onslaught at various floors (Floor 114 for instance) are scaled down to the same difficulty; Ancient Power reset minimum reset floor is lowered; and Omega Waves were added in as an extra challenge to provide a greater feeling of progression.
  
• Rewards: Since players are facing a greater challenge faster, we wanted rewards that reflected overcoming said challenges. Now every 10 floors, players receive an Prestigious Weapon, with a guarantee on their unique Mods to roll a five or higher!
  
• More Maps: You are now going to be exposed to every map (except boss maps) as you climb Onslaught. Every five maps runs a format of easy, medium, and hard maps, with the fifth map being The Lost Temple!
  
• More Schedules: There are even more enemy schedules that you'll encounter now!
  
• Omega Waves: This is a new sixth wave added to the end of The Lost Temple. It’s a small victory lap as you continue to climb, where you will be provided with Mini-Boss only waves and unique schedules!

Onslaught is something we want to continue to build upon. With the feedback you provide, we’re able to make sure that we keep putting out content you enjoy, and these Onslaught changes are a result of that. We can’t wait to see how high you climb, maybe even a Memes For Marcos 2.0 is in our future!

Ancient Power

Onslaught and Ancient Power go together like pirates and the ocean, so of course we added more to this system! Ancient Powers themselves are more powerful than before and require less of a point investment to utilize their maximum potential. Now two players are able to reach the maximum strength provided by Ancient Power, previously something only four players were able to do.

There are also FOUR new powers to help bolster your battle against the horde of enemies coming your way. Protean Shift brought some order to the Critical Chance/Damage system, and as a result we are able to add the following Ancient Powers:

• Hero Critical Chance
  
• Hero Critical Damage
  
• Defense Critical Chance
  
• Defense Critical Damage

Ancient Power is also more accessible early on now. You are able to gain Ancient Power after completing Floor 30! You do not have to acquire Ancient Power here and can keep climbing gaining higher Minimum Ascension as you progress through floors. Previously you gained 3 Minimum Ascension for every floor you completed (with three map floors), but now you gain 12 Minimum Ascension for every floor with the one map system, and also gain 4 Talent Cap increases per floor as well!

As you gain more Ancient Power, your Minimum Ancient Power Floor increases as well. This system continues to climb until your Minimum Ancient Power Floor reaches Floor 50, requiring you to reach Floor 80 to acquire additional Ancient Power. You then have access to Floor 50 right away after acquiring Ancient Power, granted you’re equipped to take on those challenges!

One final change when acquiring Ancient Power: your pets no longer reset! This change may not be permanent as we’re investigating ways to improve pets, but for now, your pets are untouched by the Ancient Power System!

New Items

There’s one thing that pirates are always on the hunt for — TREASURE! There are multiple ways to acquire the new items coming.

Professor Proteus’s Seaworthy Weapons

Professor Proteus now has a new cache of weapons available for Defenders taking on the high seas. Using these weapons provide unique death animations that are fitting for the battles that await you! Turn your enemies into a boat, and watch them sink into a whirlpool, or drop your enemies and make them flop like a fish.

There are multiple animations these weapons provide, and they are available on all weapons! The variety of animations are on a rotation daily, so be sure to check back regularly to see if the one you want is available.

Pirate Map Seaworthy Weapons

We’re trying something new by allowing Defenders to get these new weapons by completing the new maps! These weapons do not have the unique death animations, but instead come with all new Mods. These Mods are not weapon or hero specific, though some of them are bound to being melee or ranged only. They aren’t like Mods that are currently in the game, some take your movement speed into account; another has a chance to poison, drench, or oil your enemies; and another can even prevent Dark Assassins from stunning you!

There are ten to discover, and they can only be acquired through completing The Jacked Sparrow, Plunderer’s Paradise, or through Player Shops

Depending on where you acquire these weapons, you are also met with new pirate themed Mods that pack quite a punch that can be transferred to any weapon; or unique death animations that can sink your enemies (literally, one can turn them into a boat and sink into the ground)!

New Features

What good expansion doesn’t contain some new features? We’re introducing new features to help Defenders as they keep Dragonfall and Etheria safe.

Primary Stat Reroll
Primary Stat reroll system that we’re experimenting with. This system allows you to acquire reroll materials from completing the Jacked Sparrow and Plunderer’s Paradise, and reroll your primary stat into a potentially higher number. This change is not enforced if the roll is lower, you are always given a choice to accept it or decline! The new reroll materials are also able to be traded.We’re looking for feedback on this system and if you all enjoy it, we’ll investigate greatly expanding it.

Player Shop Changes
There are a some changes coming with Player Shops to make them more enticing to a larger amount of Defenders:

Use any piece of gear you purchase! Previously players were limited to buying a piece of gear that was only available to their level. This meant players having gold to purchase cool Mods, but not having the gear score to do so. Now when you purchase a piece of gear, the gear is scaled down to your Champion Score. After purchasing an item, and it scaling, you are still able to sell it on your shop. Even more Defenders can now participate in buying and selling!

Gem Mine
We’ve introduced a new way for Defenders to get a sweet deal on gems. The Gem Mine can be purchased from the platform stores, providing 100 gems everyday that you login for 30 consecutive days. That’s a total of 3000 gems for a lot less!

Balance Changes

Protean Shift brought a lot of new ways to play and a ton of power to Defenders, which we really love! As a result, there are a slew of things that are either not as strong as we’d like or too strong, removing any challenge while playing. We’ve discussed a couple of these, let’s get into it:

Abyss Lord

• Towers
  
  • Colossus
    
    • Range increased to 800 from 600 (33% increase!)
      
    • Skeletal Archers
      
      • Damage scaling increased to 15 from 11.5 (30+% increase!)
        
      • Ramsters
        
        • Direct Command range increased to 5000 from 4000 (25% increase!)

Dryad

• Towers
  
  • Harpy’s Perch
    
    • Damage scaling increased to 5.175 from 4.5 (15% increase!)
      
    • Hornet’s Nest
      
      • Hornets from any nest can attack any enemy. Previously only one hornet per nest could attack the same enemy.
        
        Up to three hornets can attack the same enemy, regardless of where the hornet spawns.

EV2

• Towers
  
  • Weapon Manufacturer
    
    • Minimum range added to node placement similar to Auras. This change bring this tower in-line to similar towers, while still keeping it unique.

Huntress

• Towers
  
  • Explosive Trap
    
    • Damage scaling increased to 6.6 from 5.5 (20% increase!)
      
    • Range scaling increased to 0.0575 from 0.05 (15% increase!)
      
    • Range Max increased to 1150 from 1000 (15% increase!)
      
    • Base Range increased to 6900 from 6000 (15% increase!)
      
    • Trigger Radius increase to 400 from 200 (100% increase!)

Lavamancer

• Towers
  
  • Volcano
    
    • Damage scaling increased to 9.31 from 7 (33% increase!)

Mystic

• Towers
  
  • Sand Viper
    
    • Damage scaling increased to 6.875 from 5.5 (25% increase!)

Squire

• Towers
  
  • Ballista
    
    • Damage scaling increased to 21.27 from 18 (18+% increase!)

Mod Changes

• Tower Mods
  
  • Unique Defense Crit Chance Servo
    
    • Increased max Crit Chance to 30% from 25% (5% increase!)
  • Unique Defense Crit Damage Servo
    
    • Increased max Crit Damage to 40% from 35% (5% increase!)
  • Boom Mods
    
    • We’ve changed how boom mods work. Previously they were a flat percentage that allowed them to scale infinitely, making them a must for climbing later floors.
      
      They’ve been retooled to do damage based on the enemies they explode up to a cap. The number shown is an average of what that damage is based on the different kinds of enemies within that group. For example, a melee-splosion does less damage when exploding a small goblin than it does when exploding a berserker orc.

[L A W L T A]

General Changes

• Chaos VIII Amps and High Onslaught Mods
  
  • Modified Mark’s Thoughts:
    These now start dropping at floor 35. Their drop chance increases every two floors you complete up to a cap on Floor 83 for Amps and Floor 92 for Mods.

Bug Fixes

• All C8 shards have been disabled. We may revisit them sometime in the future, but to provide an equal battlefield for all Defenders, we’ve disabled C8 shards for now.
  
• We made some pathing adjustments, fixes to spawners, and adjustment to enemies that should improve their pathing across several maps. Looking at you Northwest flier lane in Lost Temple!
  
• Fixed a bug where the Betsy Staff could cause enemies to, more or less, one shot anything in their path.
  
• Fixed an issue with Betsy’s Curse shard allowing enemies to one shot anything in their path.
  
• Fixed spelling errors on Unique Crit Chance Servo, Unique Crit Damage Servo, Defense Crit Chance Servo, and Defense Crit Damage Servo.
  
• Removed some tutorial text that was hanging out in Gates of Dragonfall - Hard.
  
• Fixed a rare issue where when an item is upgraded to 10/10 Chaos 7 the ipwr could go to 0.
  
• Fixed an issue where Consecutive Win Bonus XP was being multiplied by Ancient Power an additional time.
  
• EV-2 no longer infinitely lazers the Bastille Master in her incursion.
  
• Fixed several cases where the Bastille Master could get stuck.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get into a state where they were unable to evolve pets.
  
• Fixed a case where split-screen users could have the Player Shops overlapping the Ancient Power UI.
  
• Player Shops - "Your inventory is full" notification now shows on other players shops when your inventory is full
  
• Piercing Towers now pierce Vanguards.
  
• Protective Downgrade Servo and Last Stand Chip now have a vfx to show when the effect triggers.

A lot of you submit bug reports constantly, and we make sure to squash as many of them as we can. As with any expansion, there are a lot of fixes coming your way. Please continue to submit them to our bug site, your help is invaluable to knocking out some of the pesky issues that appear.

Known Issues

• If beyond the first three tutorial maps, hitting Play Now on the main menu sends you to town.
  
• Traps are not respawning correctly when using Replay From Wave.
  
• Temporary fix in for rare instances where upgrading gear to 10/10 would greatly lower it’s stats. For these rare instances, instead of greatly lowering, stats are now slightly raised. This is a catch for if this error occurs, not a change applied to all gear.
  
• Tower-like abilities (Talisman of Empowerment, Abyss Stone, etc.) are running into a few issues that we’re aware of.
  
• The Champion Score filter is currently not functioning correctly.
  
• Player 2 in splitscreen is able to be kicked from party when in a party with a leader that isn't part of the splitscreen
  
• When the first player in split screen mode spends or receives currency the pop up appears on both screens.
  
• When placing defenses on the bottom floor of The Jacked Sparrow there is a chance to have it go to the top layer

Social Defenders

There’s a lot of people playing Dungeon Defenders II, and a lot of them gather on our social hubs. When it comes to finding other players, figuring out how to conquer a specific challenge, or just wanting to get to know others in the community, or getting the latest DD2 news, you can’t go wrong with our social platforms:

• Twitter
  
• Facebook[www.facebook.com]
  
• Discord[discord.me]
  
• Twitch[www.twitch.tv]

The entire team has had a blast making this content, we cannot wait for all of you to get your hands on this expansion. Get to setting sail!

For Etheria!

The Dungeon Defenders II Team