Progression - From Medium to Nightmare

You stuck? Your stats are too low to enter Nightmare? You've no idea how to progress? This guide could be made for you!

Important Note

Drops

With recent changes to the RNG something got screwed for the most important players, the beginners. Drops are extremely bad and inappropriate for lower difficulties, stat- and quality-wise. Let's hope these changes will be completely reverted to match earlier drops.

Saying this, the guide is obviously inaccurate right now. I'm struggling myself with a new playthrough. Please don't impress your disappointment by down-voting this guide.

Update:

The CDT Update 2 is out and issues from previous update should have been fixed. So no longer level 60 gear for your starters. If you still find gear which requires a much higher level to equip please let me known about and comment below.

Nonetheless, playing survival with any other hero than Summoner leads to massive increase of weapons drops. On maps like Akatiti and WW such as latest maps Ember and Moonbase you will see barely any armor drop.

Thank you for your understanding.

Introduction

I'm writing about the experience I've collected during my latest public playthrough November 2015 as a daily log. Starting from scratch, I've restricted myself to use only drops and rewards from this playthrough. Using known cheesy tactics to get my hands on mythical stuff such as Endless Spires' first wave are forbidden. Also, playing maps like Lab Assault and Moonbase, which are known to be well giving is highly restricted. Finally I reduced survival runs to a minimum, practically just to get my hands on a shooting pet, namely Dragon and later Seahorse.

At the end of this guide there will be a summary for those who are in rush but you may overlook important details. I'll link some very helpful guides. While those guides haven't talked explicitly about progression they have to be read for an overall understanding and to successfully break into Nightmare difficulty. The relationship is strong therefore you have to invest some time reading 'em all.

Talking about Nightmare prerequisite at least the purchase of Lost Eternia Shards Complete DLC otherwise you are not able to start a map on Nightmare by your own. While you are not forced to buy any other DLC but to make things even more handy, I suggest to purchase the Dungeon Defenders Collection which includes every DLC, also the Lost Eternia Shards. The whole collection is frequently on sale for 5-10 bucks and offers a lot of fun.

To clarify, the focus of this guide will be progression. I'm not going to hold your hand on an achievement hunt for a 100% walkthrough, if you are looking for such a walkthrough take a look at Omnisciurus' guide - a very similar progression guide.

I believe it is very important that you do your own experiences - wins as well as loses. The learning curve of this game is pretty awesome if you like to experiment, especially in an early state of the game. For sure, your building strategies will change over time as more as you learn about the game. There are some less and more effective building strategies, some you will find in this guide some others anywhere else but keep in mind that such a guidance has to be your last resource to beat a map. Do it yourself - is the message :)

Day 1 - Original Campaign on Medium

The agony of choice... lots of heroes to choose from... knowing the game I've chosen Countess because of the increased movement speed for female heroes and her healthy defenses. A Squire is as good as Countess in case you don't own the DLC. Apprentice / Adept would be also a viable choice but their defenses are less healthy and their most effective defense does elemental damage.

Alright... Countess Level 1... starting the game... entering The Deeper Well on Medium. No defenses unlocked yet except the Spike Blockade. I've build one of them on each stairs at ground-level... worked great while I was hunting enemies to dash them to the floor. Yay! Bouncer Blockade unlocked, build them close to the spawns at top-level.

Equipped directly every green-indicated item to increase my stats... even cursed and worn quality items and moved over to Foundries at Forges. Ended up with six Bouncer Blockades at top-level, two at each entry to the crystal. Last Wave... Ogre... kind of scared but had no issues at all... also unlocked Harpoon Turret. Yeeha, finally all important towers of Countess!

Magus Quarters and the first use for Harpoon Turrets... Wyvern :) Easy run, worked flawlessly thanks to the powerful Harpoon Turrets, your best friends besides Bouncer Blockades. In the meanwhile I've had to kick way overpowered players due to their level but finally the game gets filled with people around my level. Level 9 :)

Alchemical Laboratory... kind of scared because of the boss and the missing DPS... but everything went fine. The two players who stayed in the game and myself were able to beat him. Following maps were as easy as the previous just the Goblin Mech and Ancient Dragon were harder because of missing DPS :)

Playthrough on Medium done within 3 hours.

My stats at the end of the session with the pet earned on The Summit.

Day 2 - Original Campaign on Hard

There was one map left from previous playthrough on Medium - Glitterhelm Caverns. Haven't played this map for years with only one builder. So I had to figure a working build, 165 DU sounds much... not on this map. After a few trials I've created a well working build :)

The maps on hard are pretty much the same as on medium. If I changed a build it was a minor change. On this playthrough I was struggling with bosses. Demon Lord from Alchemical Laboratory was the easiest... well it's the first boss of the three.

Goblin Mech on the other hand was quite hard and I failed the first run. The main issue I had were low points into hero stats since I specialized on tower stats. Thankfully a level 32 Barbarian was fighting him while my Harpoon Turrets shot him on the second try. Anyways I had to re-build a lot of Harpoon Turrets during this fight. The message was clear... I need a DPS hero for bosses.

The Ancient Dragon took a while, about 50 minutes. Thanks god this wasn't Hard Hardcore. We all died quite often but the defenses lasted long although we hadn't to care about since I was fighting with a builder. The whole run was scary and eye-opening... I definitely need a DPS hero for such fights.

Glitterhelm Caverns on Hard was really easy compared to The Summit. Good stuff was dropping there.

My stats after 4 hours on Hard.
 
After a break of couple of hours I've got time for another session. Glitterhelm Caverns was rewarding and I also gained a lot of XP. Therefore I decided to level up my fresh created DPS Monk there. I've chosen a DPS Monk because of his abilities, Tower Boost and Hero Boost are great and helps a lot to increase the damage output of your towers, your mates and yourself. In addition I would be able to build auras, not very strong ones but they would be helpful anyways.

I did three runs within an hour on Hard Hardcore. The first one failed on Wave 9 after I died, the second has been successfully finished. The third and last run was rescued by other players on Wave 10. I died again :)

My stats after 1 hour power-leveling.

Day 3 - Unlocking Dragon

A DPS hero without a shooting pet is not a DPS hero and the likelihood to succeed on Insane is lower. I've played The Summit survival on Hard to get my hands on a shooting pet, a Dragon. I failed two times on Wave 10 until I got it to work. It was quite hard and I think I would have failed more often if I've had no help by three more players upgrading and repairing my defenses. We all were around the same level with equally stats.

All the effort, the deaths and the trouble to finally succeed was awesome. One of my happiest moments during this playthrough.

The Dragon I've got had only one projectile but it was good enough to start with. Later I've got another one with additional projectiles from the Tavern Shop. Yeeha!

Day 4 - Original Campaign on Insane

Now much easier with a DPS hero I can use during the Combat Phase. A mate had a tower Monk with similar stats compared to my Countess. As a team we were able to build much more effectively. The bosses were still challenging but I would say much easier than before on Hard with builders and without auras :)

Also the stats we earned during our playthrough on Hard were quite nice to succeed on Insane. You will notice it if you check todays stats with previous. Some gear got replaced, the stats remained steady but the new gear had much more upgrade levels.

While playing through Insane I played mainly with my DPS Monk and Tower Countess to level them. I've also created a Huntress which reached Level 52 at the end of the day. Playthrough on Insane done within 3 hours.

My stats at the end of the day.

Day 5 - Original Campaign on Nightmare #1

We've started immediately The Deeper Well on Nightmare just to get slaughtered. We were laughing hard that a single Djinn is doing so damage while being almost invulnerable. We figured quickly that neither our DPS heroes nor my defenses were prepared for Nightmare.

To have at least a chance on Nightmare, we had to gear up. Glitterhelm Caverns on Insane Hardcore was our first choice to complete our armor sets since we already knew a build. You have to know that godly pieces of an armor set of the same armor type (e.g. Chain) are receiving a bonus of 25% to their stats. We did three or four runs and the sets were almost completed. During those runs I also farmed XP for my own Tower Monk (Initiate).

We decided to run a few other maps and challenges from Medium to Insane. Be sure not all went fine but now we defined our limits. Boss Rush on Medium (later also on Hardcore) and Ogre Crush on Insane Hardcore were rewarding a better Monk weapon than Glitterhelm Caverns. Especially Boss Rush was rewarding, we've got our first mythical :)

Some of the rewards to give you an idea about todays rewards.
 
The final stats on Day 5 after 4 hours of my playthrough.

Day 6 - Leveling Heroes #1

Yesterdays mythical stuff was amazing and for sure we wanted to equip them as fast as possible. Tavern Defense is known to give much XP, so we did a few runs on Medium Hardcore to reach Level 74.

While the main goal of Tavern Defense was farming XP we also got more mythical rewards. A mate got very lucky and received a Dragon much better than from The Summit, one I would have liked for myself... congratulation :)

Finally, I reached Level 74 with my DPS Monk and my Tower Countess, I equipped my mythical stuff I earned the last two days and we went over to some challenges. Boss Rush on Medium Hardcore was a cakewalk, so we tried it on Hard. Lots of fun and rewarding :)

Some of the gear from Tavern Defense and Boss Rush
I've had time for one more map. Boss Rush on Hard was working so well that we decided to run Akatiti on Medium. Not knowing any build since nobody of us has done Akatiti without Series EV and Summoner yet nor with that low stats, it was a pure guess.

The main build was made with three Aura stacks, five Harpoon Turrets and a Gas Trap... 72 Defense Units. Positions of Auras and Harpoon Turrets got tweaked during the whole run until we reached the final wave. For the boss fight I've build an Ensnare, Heal and Drain Aura which sums it up to 84 Defense Units. Kind of nervous... awaiting the Golden Goblin Mech.

After the cutscene I was a little bit shocked... Goblin Mech with 73 million health... no way... no!!! We fought hard and it took a while but when one of the crystals got hit. Please no... noooo...

Boom Shakalaka!!! Very close but won :)
Next time the build will be tweaked for the final wave :)

Day 7 - Original Campaign on Nightmare #2

Although we have beaten the Golden Goblin Mech yesterday I wanted to be more prepared for Nightmare. My DPS pet, the Tiger, performed terrible such as me. I was still using a weapon from Boss Rush on Medium Hardcore.

So we started this day with Tavern Defense on Hard Hardcore with hopes on its rewards. I'd be happy with any type of shooting pet. The runs were rewarding but I had no luck on a DPS pet. We moved over to Ogre Crush on Nightmare Hardcore to get at least a better weapon for my DPS Monk. The Barbarian I played with was pretty badass already due to the two mythical Obsidian Gladius we earned yesterday from Akatiti on Medium. Without the Barbarian I had no chance at all yet.

 
I've got a really nice Ogre Party Hat with 186 upgrades and good hero stats but sadly it performed worse than my Monk Punk Glaive earned from Boss Rush on Medium Hardcore. A real bummer.
 
That meant for us to go to Boss Rush on Hard Hardcore. We did two runs until I've got a new Monk Punk Glaive. A mate got a spare Dragon with the second run and gifted it to me. A lucky day and I finally felt prepared for Nightmare, cheers!

Todays drops and rewards before we started the campaign on Nightmare.
And finally my first mythical set :)
 
Being prepared - time for a revenge. The Deeper Well felt very easy now compared to our first try. Also the next maps were easy enough, we didn't have any trouble. Drops were kinda disappointing most likely because we were really well prepared. Alchemical Laboratory and the Demon Lord wasn't challenging at all but the drops and the reward for beating it looked way better than the drops before.

Next maps were harder, especially the first wave because of the low mana we had to build. We reached the Goblin Mech in The Throne Room, we tried it several times but whenever we left our spots to fight the Goblin Mech, the pure number of enemies overwhelmed my defenses. Whatever we tried, we couldn't save enough Defense Units to build two aura stacks on each entry, east and west. My auras were simply too small yet and we gave up for now.

Rewards and drops from Alchemical Laboratory on Nightmare.

Day 8 - Leveling Heroes #2

Session 1 of the day was a little bit boring because I played most of the time alone. Playing with friends makes so much more fun. At least I was able to put in two additional heroes with my controllers. So the runs were effective as much as possible.

Although I knew that I'd have to carry at least two heroes, in regard to rewards and XP, I've chosen to run Tavern Defense on Hard Hardcore. A single run was rewarding me with 5.8m XP, enough to reach Level 71 with my additional, freshly created heroes, Demoness and Series EV.
 
After each run I returned to my Tavern to buy XP Bonus from the Tavernkeep. Although you only gain 10% experience needed to reach the next level with Level 70+, it was enough XP to reach Level 74 within three runs on Tavern Defense.

Rewards from Tavern Defense on Hard Hardcore.
Later this day I had a little bit more time for another short session. Some of my friends were joining my game, woohoo fun again :) We were playing Kings Game on Insane Hardcore two times. I myself had the ambition to get a Gambler's Polearm for my Tower Initiate which I've got on the second run. The first run was rewarding me with a Gambler's Polearm with 106 upgrade levels for a DPS hero. Fully upgraded it reached 33k Base Damage but it dealt less damage than my previous Monk Punk Glaive earned from Boss Rush on Medium Hardcore.

My Initiate at the end of the day.

Day 9 - Bonus & Shard Maps on Insane

Today I played a bit with a Jester. To level her relative quickly I've chosen to play once again Tavern Defense on Hard Hardcore. Some of my friends were joining the game to level their heroes as well. The tower stats of my builders were high enough that we were not in need to support the defenses with our DPS heroes except for the boss wave for obvious reasons.

Tavern Defense was well giving today :)
After a few runs we changed from Hard Hardcore to Insane Hardcore. Bosses were a bit tougher but not too much. We played some more maps such as Palantir, Kings Game and Akatiti on Insane Hardcore. The Golden Goblin Mech was much tougher but our effort got amply rewarded with an Ultimate Obsidian Gladius. Todays cherry on top of several good pieces.
To do boss fights much easier in the future we were looking forward for a Seahorse from Aquanos. The campaign was smooth. The Kraken a bit trickier but beatable after a while. Now, being able to run survival, we did our todays last run. All Defense Units were used for Auras, Traps, Bouncer Blockades and Harpoon Turrets. We still haven't used Series EV nor Summoner. After a long run and a long day we gained our very first Seahorse. Mine wasn't great with only 80ish upgrades but hey... tomorrow is another day :)

Day 10 - Farming Seahorse

The gear which I received last days were lying around in my item box. So I had to take a closer look and was switching around armor, weapons and pets. I also had to respec some heroes to compensate less points from equipment.

My heroes on session start.
 
Since I've done a survival run on Aquanos on Insane Hardcore without Series EV and Summoner yesterday I was tempted to use both heroes today. I had to build and upgrade much less. Starting on Wave 18 and quitting by reaching Wave 20, the runs were done in no time.

Some of the Seahorses I've got this day.
With the new pet for my DPS Monk, we played the Eternia Shard maps and Akatiti on Insane Hardcore. The bosses were so much easier to kill than before. While rewards from Eternia Shard maps were disappointing, Akatiti rewarded us so much better.
Final map today: Crystalline Dimension on Insane Hardcore
Used builders: Initiate, Huntress, Series EV, Summoner

The map itself wasn't that hard as expected, although we had lots of Defense and Minion Units left. Well, with two seasoned vets who have played this map easily 300 times on Nightmare Hardcore, no wonder. I imagine - hell I remember my first runs on this map - that beginners will struggle due to missing practice and their excitement. Stay calm!

Day 11 - Original Campaign on Nightmare #3

Earning transcendent stuff two days ago I just had to level up. Leveling all heroes at once would have been a painful and boring task. I've done some XP runs over the next days to reach Level 78 with my heroes.

Todays XP runs were done on Tavern Defense and Akatiti on Insane Hardcore. Both maps were done with Series EVs Tower Buff Beam for less maintaining but without Minions.
Returning to Nightmare difficulty. We still had to beat the Goblin Mech from The Throne Room, using the exact same build just with much better stats for my Initiate. Finally my defenses dealt enough damage to kill incoming enemies. Obvious to say that also our DPS heroes did a step forward, so the boss fight itself was done quickly. Following maps were not too hard including Glitterhelm Caverns. Sadly the drops and rewards wasn't worth the effort anymore. To be fair we progressed very well by playing bonus maps on Insane.

We went over to Palantir and Kings Game on Nightmare. The very first time I've used Series EV and Summoner on Nightmare. I've used the 1k stat builds out of my guide. Kings Game has dropped quite good mythical stuff. If you need to complete a set, I suggest to farm your gear here.

Day 12 - Shard Maps on Nightmare

Starting the day with another XP runs on Tavern Defense and Akatiti on Insane Hardcore. Recognizing that leveling takes much more time than expected. At least both maps are rewarding generously such as other bonus maps but these two are coming along with a relatively easy build :)
Mistymire Forest on Nightmare - In the meanwhile I've surpassed the 1k mark for all of my builders. The build taken out of my guide was a quick setup. The brood of the Spider Queen can be annoying but if you keep moving around all the time then it's an easy fight.

Moraggo Desert Town on Nightmare - Haven't build Gas Traps fast enough, so a sneaky Djinn was able to desummon a Tower Buff Beam. Easily fixed with next build phase. The Genie King wasn't challenging at all. We've had to be careful when he attacks with his tongue. Always have a wall at your back, so you are not getting pushed out of the map.

Aquanos on Nightmare - Such as the previous maps, the run itself was easy. The Kraken on the other hand way harder. We've lost our first run. Having an extremely high electric resistance helps a lot to reduce incoming damage dealt by the Kraken. I switched from Monk to Jester with a weapon from a Squire which provides a block of at least 100%. Using this tactic my Seahorse, earned from Insane Hardcore, had to do all the work.

Sky City on Nightmare - I messed up some tower placement, therefore the crystal got hit. Had to change the build on next build phase. Hardest part of the map is fighting the Goblin Battlecruiser. Its rockets are dealing a lot of fire damage, so having an high amount of fire resistance helps tremendously to survive while hitting the red shard. Once you are unable to deal any damage to the shard you are jumping off of the ship. Do not use the fan near the shard, I usually get killed by using this one. Instead walk to the front of the ship and use the fan there.

Sadly none of the Eternia Shard maps were rewarding.

Day 13 - Bonus Maps on Nightmare

I've run Akatiti on Insane Hardcore two times to level up my last builder to 78. Finally, leveling has been done for now. A really boring task because you basically just hide, awaiting a small mana flow to upgrade your defenses from time to time. A DPS hero pretty much levels itself :)
 
Heading to the bonus maps on Nightmare. Kings Game and Palantir has been done already two days ago, so we started with City in the Cliffs. First wave was heavy with current stats, without my mates I wouldn't have been able to beat this map. Pretty much expected since this map is designed for six players. Same with Talay Mining Complex which has been designed to support eight players. On both maps the first wave build was built with Ensnare Aura, Drain Aura and Archers due to the low amount of mana given by chests.

Tavern Defense and Akatiti was some kind of a home match, even though I switched from Countess to Demoness. Carrying people during the boss fights is a big no unless your stats are beyond good and evil. A lot of players are joining these maps although they are not even close to be prepared for Nightmare. I've seen DPS heroes with stat pets, without resistances, without armor sets, some are even playing with builders during a boss wave. In order to have a chance to beat the bosses with lower stats you have to get rid of these people. Helpful players have at least stats of around 1.5k with resistances while running around with a shooting pet like a 20k+ Dragon, 12k+ Seahorse or a 15k+ Mega Chicken.

We moved over to Winter Wonderland. Using the 2k build out of my guide we failed during the boss fight simply because I only had an Aura range of around 1200. Ogres piled up outside of the Strength Drain Aura and were smashing my Minions whenever we had to fight the bosses. I had to change the build and for a long time it was working fine until a Djinn was able to desummon some stuff. The boss fight just took to long. We do have to work on our DPS heroes in addition to my Auras.

Because of the small auras we haven't touched Tinkerer's Lab but tried a few challenges. Halloween Spooktacular 2, Riddle of the Deep and Boss Rush were working well. We finally run Crystalline Dimension. Sadly my connection seemed to become laggy since my mates claimed to not being able to upgrade defenses. We failed at the end because of the lags and stopped playing for today.

Summary

Although we haven't beaten all maps yet I consider this playthrough and progression check done. I just have to work on my Initiate within the next days. Playing the game regularly for 13 days from Medium to Nightmare has lead to following stats.


Countess / Squire (Tower)

• Health: 1583
  
• Damage: 1919
  
• Range: 1184
  
• Rate: 1415

859 points left from upgrades



Initiate / Monk (Tower)

• Health: 1435
  
• Damage: 1966
  
• Range: 1213
  
• Rate: 891

782 points left from upgrades



Huntress (Tower)

• Health: 735
  
• Damage: 1337
  
• Range: 1261
  
• Rate: 1336

748 points left from upgrades



Series EV (Tower)

• Health: 1616
  
• Damage: 1465
  
• Range: 946
  
• Rate: 648

565 points left from upgrades



Demoness / Summoner (Tower)

• Health: 1815
  
• Damage: 2135
  
• Range: 982
  
• Rate: 983

448 points left from upgrades



Monk (DPS)

• Health: 1328
  
• Damage: 1914
  
• Tower Boost: 583
  
• Hero Boost: 1530

very low hero stats on weapon/pet



Jester (DPS)

• Health: 1194
  
• Damage: 1192
  
• Wheel O' Fortune: 1210

jester just for laziness... heal allies



Keep in mind that the stats for my builders could be even higher if I would have used Kobold on a Treadmill instead of a Turtle on a Treadmill. A Kobold on a Treadmill can reach up to 600 points into a stat while it just requires around 1k stats on your builders to beat a regular survival of Tavern Defense on Insane Hardcore.

You probably noticed that most of the gear isn't even upgraded yet. The mentioned points at the graphics above doesn't include any upgrades from pets. I also haven't used any accessories which are considered to be even mid-tier and as you have seen we do have access to supreme accessories without playing Lab Assault. Let alone the additional hero points by leveling your builders to Level 83 and higher.

My DPS heroes are also able to achieve higher stats. I just haven't tried hard to get my hands on a Seahorse with better hero stats (I'm still using the one from day 10) and the transcendent weapon of my Monk doesn't have high hero stats either. The stats of my Jester are good enough since she has been mainly played to upgrade defenses and to heal allies using her Wheel O' Fortune.

Finally, most of the time I farmed XP, admittedly on maps which are also rewarding items but I haven't tried hard at all to farm gear. Don't level your heroes on Pure Strategy... it's pure waste of time.

Update:

A few days later...

After playing more on Insane and Nightmare difficulty, all kind of maps... upgrading gear and changing pets... all my heroes are above 3k or at least pretty close to it.

Countess / Squire (Tower)                   Initiate / Monk (Tower)
 
Huntress (Tower)                           Series EV (Tower)
 
Demoness (Tower)                          Monk (DPS)
 
Jester (DPS)

Progression from the scratch

A short step-by-step guidance to progress in Dungeon Defenders. I'm trying to give you a golden thread through the intended (arguable) playthrough. At least you've got here a relatively easy way to progress with some serious evidence above. Nonetheless, this is an evaluation based on my experience during the recent playthrough, values may vary.

• Original Campaign (includes Glitterhelm Caverns) on Medium
  expectable armor quality: Amazing
  
  
• Original Campaign on Hard
  expectable armor quality: Legendary
  
  
• Original Campaign on Insane
  expectable armor quality: Godly
  
  
• Bonus Maps on Medium (Original Campaign on Nightmare)
  expectable armor quality: Mythical with stats up to 100, upgraded
  
  
• Bonus Maps on Hard
  expectable armor quality: Mythical with stats up to 200, upgraded
  
  
• Bonus Maps on Insane
  expectable armor quality: Mythical with stats up to its cap of 360, upgraded
  possibility of Transcendent
  
  
• Bonus Maps on Nightmare
  expectable armor quality: Mythical with stats up to its cap of 360, upgraded
  possibility of Transcendent, Supreme, Ultimate

Please take into account that transcendent and higher quality gear doesn't drop high frequently. There is no specific map with guaranteed transcendent or higher quality drops. Those are rare drops, as higher the quality as rarer. Take them as a reward to your regular drops, as a chance to progress even faster and higher, as a possibility to compensate some of your worse gear. It has been proven by many that you will not be in need of higher quality armor than mythical to beat the game.

One of the most played maps during this playthrough was Tavern Defense. This map not only is rewarding XP but also decent equipment on success. The bosses themselves are easier to kill than surviving last wave... lots of Ogres and Copters.

To get you started I've recorded a run with a very basic build using defenses of Huntress, Monk and Squire. While this run was done on Medium difficulty the build doesn't really change on higher difficulties. Once your aura range is huge enough you will build a single aura stack outside instead of two.

Notes:

• In case you have access to Series EV, a Tower Buff Beam will be extremely helpful even without points into tower stats.
  
• You are not allowed to upgrade defenses at south-east entry of the Tavern otherwise Djinns will be attracted towards them.
  
• Don't forget to repair your defenses in build phases, so you can focus on fighting enemies during combat phases.
  
• Probably you noticed that I've sold Squires defenses before the boss fight started. I did this to show you that you don't have to worry too much if a Harpoon Turret or Bouncer Blockade goes down during last wave.
  
• Keep moving!

Last but not least, you can easily skip a huge part of the game at the cost of game experience by playing Lab Assault on easy/medium as soon as possible to reach quickly stats of around 1k. The next big step forward would be Moonbase' Fish in the Bowl to boost your tower stats even more. Once you've got your hands on these items (takes 3-5 hours) the game gets significantly easier.

Breaking into Nightmare

First off, don't be in rush to enter Nightmare. Play on Insane for a while to get a feeling about the mechanics of the game, to practice fighting enemies such as Ogres and bosses, to be able to dodge attacks by enemies, to discover and tweak building strategies. There is nothing more valuable than experience to succeed on Nightmare.

Major Changes

By entering Nightmare difficulty, the game changes its rules. The major changes are...

• Your weapon damage will be reduced to 15.5% of the damage you dealt on other difficulties while attacking pets are receiving a damage boost. The boost itself varies from pet to pet e.g. ~61% for a Seahorse but ~71% for a Dragon. This means that your pet is responsible for a major damage output on Nightmare. Running around as DPS hero with a stat pet such as Kobold on a Treadmill or Fish in a Bowl is a major flaw on all difficulties but especially on Nightmare.
  
  
• Your hero health will be boosted (multiplier depends on hero) while resistances of your heroes will be significantly reduced. As higher your resistance as higher the penalty. To hit the cap of 90% resistance on Nightmare you will have to compensate a penalty of around 45%. At the end these changes are leading to a lower survivability. You will die faster by getting hit less often.
  
  
• Your towers are receiving boosts as well as penalties.
  
  
  • Apprentice: HP +62.5% / DMG +62.5%
    
  • Huntress: HP -25% / DMG +35%
    
  • Monk: HP -15% / DMG +12.5% (Electro Aura) / Range -30%
    
  • Squire: HP +62.5% / DMG +62.5%
    
  • Series EV:
    • Proton Beam DMG +89%
      
    • Physical Wall HP +62.5%
      
    • Shock Beam HP -25% / DMG +35%
  • Summoner: HP +62.5% / DMG +225%
  
  
• Enemy health and damage will be significantly increased such as their movement speed. You will have to deal with the Eternia Shard enemies (Spiders, Djinns, Sharkens, Goblin Copters) on all maps and there will be an increased amount of Ogres.

Building a DPS

You will not succeed on Nightmare without a DPS hero. To survive on Nightmare you will have to get your resistances upgraded. To make this more clear, a hero with 70% resistance receives triple damage compared to a hero with 90% resistance. Even with 80% resistances you will receive double amount of damage. Resistances are extremely important!

For more details, hero selection and pet selection read following guides.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=273293575 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=197161711

Basic Strategy

There are a few building strategies on Nightmare some are more obvious than others. I'm showing you two variants of a basic building strategy. Do you discover other building strategies?

Type A - most commonly used
A simple wall of Minions sitting on a Tower Buff Beam including at least one Mage and one Spider. A Mage will heal your Minions while a Spider will web enemies. Webbed enemies take double damage, very helpful to fight Ogres.

Your Minions will be covered by an Aura stack of Ensnare, Electric and Strength Drain Aura. Your Aura stack usually kills all smaller enemies. You fight Sharkens, Djinns and enemies which will be not killed immediately by your Auras with a Gas Trap. A Gas Trap "freezes" (stuns) enemies in a manner that your defenses are able to kill them over time.

Type B - less known but effective
Aura stack and Gas Trap fulfill the same job as above. The Bouncer Blockade replaces your wall of Minions. If you are building Harpoon Turrets like this then there is a huge chance that incoming Ogres pile up behind the Bouncer Blockade. You literally lure them to stuck between your Bouncer Blockade and the environment as you would have built a funnel. Since Ogres are targeting defenses which are doing the most damage to them they usually don't attack your Bouncer Blockade.

Whatever strategy you use, one of this or your own, you have to keep a sufficient distance between your defenses and the crystal. Building to close to the crystal causes random hits and probably leads to a lose.

You also have to stay away from crystals with your heroes. There are enemies like Warriors which are targeting you and while they are trying to hit you they also hit the crystal. Let alone the Ogres which may get lured directly to the crystal because you are attacking them. To support your defenses as best as possible you have to stay between your defenses and enemies. So in front of your defenses but still in range of your auras for an increased survivability.

If you follow this advise, Nightmare should be way easier. In case you are struggling with a build and you are out of ideas then you may want to take a look at following guide which includes builds for 1k and 2k stat builders. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=216908696

Final Notes

I mentioned it already several times but I have to admit that experience and knowledge helped a lot during this playthrough. Probably you will stuck at some point, most likely at fighting bosses. Therefore take your time studying the behavior of enemies and especially of bosses. They are not as hard as they seem to be if you are able to predict their attacks and movements.

The progression looks very fine from my side. Reaching 2k stats within 2 weeks (about 90 hours playtime, which can be easily stretched to several weeks) with non-optimal pet choices and mostly non-upgraded gear seems to be very reasonable. There's more to come. Changing the pet and upgrading armor and weapons has lead to 3k stats as proven above.



I want to thank jemmajule for checking the spelling and grammar. You are awesome!
I also want to thank Caa, Claudi, HuynhLe and all others who joined the sessions. Thanks a lot!



If this guide gave you some assistance then a would be much appreciated :)

In case you are going to vote this guide down for any reasons, it would be nice to contact me first. Probably we can sort out misunderstandings or obscurities to improve the guide.

Feel free to take a look at my other guides by clicking » here «

[Carriage]

Is it possible to see your build videos? Just out of curiosity to see how things have changed. Great job on the guide btw!

[Rainb0]

Were you playing with randoms online or people you knew?

[Bloodwork]

gj at all for some newcomers i like it

[pew pew pew]

😂

[YungGoat]

Noob

[✿ スターリン ✿]

XD nice guide it helped

[✿ スターリン ✿]

Just go to your friendly neighbor hood dillan the hacker

[pew pew pew]

Sure, feel free to translate this or any other guide as long as I'm mentioned to be the original author :)

I'm glad you like this guide :)

[Katniss]

How come I've never seen this guide??? Can I translate it In french ? I'd add you as co-author and make very clear you are the creator of it.
Well you've already gave me the right to translate your guides during a SN run with Claudi but I ask again since it's been a very long time.

This guide really is the exact kind of guide I'd be interested to translate for the french community.

[4001SRpeak]

Amazing guide for progressing my alt account. You're definetly one of the most active- and helpful community members as of now!