Hi! This is my guide for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. I hope this is helpful and answers most of the questions you have about progressing through the game! I have tested the methods I will be giving you but remember these are my opinions and others may agree or disagree with them.

I also stream DDA and other indie games so if you have more questions check me out on Twitch.

https://www.twitch.tv/havrix_ggs

I will be updating this guide as patches come out and I will be making hero guides. You can find all my guides on my YouTube channel.

Make sure you make one of each hero and add them to your hero deck. The hero's in the hero deck will level at the same time. You will want one of each hero so you can build all the different defenses in the game. For the most part you do need to use all the hero's at some point.

A few short cuts:

You can quick swap between hero's buy using F1-4 and pressing [H] will open your hero deck. Pressing will open your inventory, while in your inventory hold [S] and clicking an item will sell and holding [L] and clicking and item will lock it.

At the time is am writing this we have 5 hero's to play The Squire, Apprentice, Huntress, Monk, and Series EV-A.

The Squire is a melee hero and does physical damage. This is the only hero who has defenses that only do one damage type.

Defenses:

Spike Blockade - Blocks enemies and deals physical damage to them when struck. (its a wall)

Harpoon Turret - Shoots a spear that deal physical damage to all enemies in a line. (the spear goes past turrets range)

Bouncer Blockade - Spins, dealing damage and knocking enemies back. (doesn't knockback ogres)

Bowling Ball Turret - Fires a bowling ball that bounces of enemies and environment, dealing physical damage and knocking enemies back. (doesn't knockback ogres)

Slice N Dice Blockade - Spins, dealing physical damage.

Abilities:

Circular Slice - A whirlwind attack that deals physical damage and knocks enemies back.

Blood Boil - Hero goes berserk, increasing damage, knockback, move speed, and armor.

The Apprentice has access to defenses that use different elemental types. He uses staffs that can have poison, electric, or fire damage.

Defenses:

Magic Missile Tower - Rapidly fires magical missiles at a single target doing physical damage.

Elemental Barrier - Blocks enemies and strips them of their elemental immunity when attacked. (isn't use that often)

Flame Burst Tower - Shoots a fireball at an enemy that explodes, dealing fire damage to the enemy and those around it.

Lightning Tower - Shocks enemies with a lightning chain, dealing lightning damage and stunning weaker enemies.

Deadly Strike Tower - Locks on and charges an energy blast that heal high physical damage to a single target. (will shoot through walls)

Abilities:

Mana Bomb - Summons a massive explosion, dealing physical damage in a large area.

Overcharge - Infuse yourself with arcane energy, allowing your Arcane Surge (right click) to empower nearby defenses.

The Huntress is a ranged hero that uses traps to CC and deal damage to enemies.

Defenses:

Explosive Trap - Explodes in a large radius when triggered, deals physical damage to all enemies in the radius.

Poison Gas Trap - Releases a noxious poison that stuns enemies for the duration. (doesn't stun ogres)

Inferno Trap - Inflicts fire damage on all enemies in the radius for the duration.

Darkness Trap - Covers enemies with a veil of darkness, blinding them for the duration and stripping them of their elemental immunity.

Thunder Spike Trap: Strikes a single enemy with a high amount of lightning damage.

Abilities:

Piercing Shot - Call forth an ethereal spirit that deals physical damage to all enemies in a straight line. (shoots a phoenix)

Adrenaline Rush - Your adrenaline surge providing you with increased attack rate, move speed, and jump height.

The Monk is a melee or ranged hero that does elemental damage when using ranged damage.

Defenses:

Ensnare Aura - slows the movement and attack speed of all enemies who enter the aura.

Electric Aura - deals periodic lightning damage to all enemies who enter the aura.

Healing Aura - Periodically heals hero's inside the aura and makes them immune to spider CC.

Strength Drain Aura - Reduce the damage of enemies inside the aura and strips their elemental immunity.

Enrage Aura - Enemies inside the aura have a chance to become enraged, causing them to stop moving and attack nearby enemies.

Abilities:

Defense Boost - Place a sphere of yin energy, increasing the damage of all defenses in that sphere.

Hero Boost - Surrounds yourself with an aura of yang energy, increasing the damage and move speed of nearby heroes.

The EV-A is a ranged hero that can use both staffs and bows/guns to deal damage. All her defenses DU and health increase the longer you make them.

Defenses:

Proton Beam - Generates a radioactive beam that rapidly deals physical damage to enemies that enter it.

Blocking Field - Generates a neutralizing field that blocks enemies and absorbs damage. (its a wall)

Reflect Field - Generates an energy field that reflects enemy projectiles. Reflected projectiles deal increased damage to enemies.

Shock Beam - Generates an electrifying beam that shocks enemies, dealing lightning damage and stunning enemies. (doesn't stun ogres)

Overclock Beam - Generates a beam of positive energy that empowers defenses based on your defense attributes. If a defense empowered by this beam is destroyed so is the overclock beam.

Abilities:

Proton Charge - Shoots a beam of energy that deals continues damage to enemies it hits.

Decoy - Creates a holographic copy of the Series EV-A that will force enemies to attack it.

All your stats effect some part of your hero or your hero's defenses and for the most part should be stacked on 1-3 stats.

Hero Stats:

Vitality: Increases hero's health.

Attack: Increases hero's physical damage.

Agility: Increases hero's move speed. (only need 100)

Casting: Increases the rate the hero builds, upgrades, and repairs defenses.

Skill: Increases the strength of active skill.

• Circular Slice
  
• Mana Bomb
  
• Piercing Shot
  
• Defense Boost
  
• Decoy

Boost: Increases the potency of hero's boost ability.

• Blood Boil
  
• Overcharge
  
• Adrenaline Rush
  
• Hero Boost
  
• Proton Charge (weapon increases the damage)

Defense Stats:

Fortify: Increases the health of your defenses. ( trap charges on huntress)

Power: increase the damage defenses inflict.

Range: Increase the targeting or trigger range of defenses.

Defense Rate: Increase the attack rate of defenses or decreases the recharge rate of them.

If you have never played a Dungeon Defenders game before the start can be a little overwhelming. To start make sure you make one of each hero and add them to your hero deck. The hero's in the hero deck will level at the same time. You will want one of each hero so you can build all the different defenses in the game.

1. Campaign clear on Medium:

I suggest starting on medium, it should be pretty easy but it gives you time to understand how your defenses all work. It also gives you time to figure out what hero you like the most. Take this time to experiment with your defense, learn what does what and how things can be used. I suggest you do this so you can get use to learning why you do things not just how to do them.

2. Campaign clear on Hard:

Once you have finished medium it is time to dive into hard. Depending if you have played a Dungeon Defenders game before or not this could also be pretty easy. This is where you might start getting some gear that has some stats on it. This is also where you might want to pick a hero to do some damage on.

- I suggest using a monk to dps because you can always use your hero boost to buff towers. All you have to do is upgrade the damage and projectiles on a weapon and it should be good enough.

3. Getting ready for Insane

You finished Hard and now you are looking to get into Insane, you are most likely level 35+ and have a little hear. This is where most people start to struggle a little so if you do don't give up. There is a few things you might want to do before starting insane.

- Get gear with defense stats on it. At a lower level this will most likely be the Miner set. You also want to make sure you have a full set of gear on ( four piece) because you will get a 40% buff to stats.

- Choose a DPS hero and level up the weapon for it. Most people pick Apprentice because it is easy to get a decent weapon ( I like monk better). Upgrade the weapons projectiles and attack speed as much as possible then put the rest in damage. (range damage if monk)

- Most of your stats will still come from your hero points at this point of the game so place them where you think you need them. If you have no idea where you think you need them here are a few suggestions.

Monk:
- Most points in range to increase the size of auras.
- If auras seem to be losing a lot of health put some points in fortify.
- Upgrade gear for power

Huntress:
- About 50/50 in range and fortify
- Fortify will give your traps more changes
- Range will make the trigger and effected range larger

Apprentice:
- About 3/4 of your points should be in rate
- The other 1/4 in range You can swap this if needed.

Squire:
- All in fortify

EV-A:
- For a waller all in fortify
- For boost most of the time you want it all in power

These all just suggestions and my change based on gear and map or mage mode.

There are two ways to get more gear or levels for Insane.

1. Is farm Hard Summit on campaign.

2. Is a little harder but can be more fun. Do your best to get to beat Ancient Mines on Insane Campaign then farm it on survival. You will get better gear and more EXP doing this but it isn't an option for everyone. Video Guide

4. You are ready for Insane

This is where the game gets a bit harder! Go at your own speed, this is not easy to get through. If you get stuck on a level maybe you need to farm up some gear or levels. Stop at Ancient Mines and farm it a bit on survival, after completing wave 14 you get rock pet! The rock pet slows your movement (can be annoying) but it gives you a lot of stats! Another good stopping point is Promenade, the build to farm this map is pretty simple and can be done with low stats. You might need to farm it a bit before you can finish Insane campaign.

5. Now to hit 70!

After finishing Insane campaign you might be pretty close depending oh much survival you did. You really have three option for getting to 70 once you finish the campaign.

1. Farm summit on Insane

2. Farm Ancient Mines Survival ( You might be geared enough to get a giraffe on wave 25)

3. Farm Promenade Survival

Good job you got to 70! Now this is where the game takes it up a notch and you see some new enemies. Time to have some fun with Nightmare and really test what you have learned so far.

Like I said Nightmare introduces new enemies to the game and these enemies are nothing to laugh at.

Spider:

- They spawn from above all over the map.

- They have two attacks

- Jump attack ( jump at player from a distance and melee attack)

- Web attack (shoots a web at player or tower, slowing attack and movement)

- They don't do damage to the core and they have low health!

Dealing with spiders:

- Darkness trap ( makes it so they cant target)

- Explosive trap at the core ( if you don't have defenses near the core and you aren't standing near it the spider will afk at the core)

- When placing walls have your trap trigger range go behind it a little ( spiders attacking from behind will trigger trap that way)

- DSTs ( deadly strike towers, place at least two and make the ranges overlap the towers so they can shoot spiders off each other)

Sharken:

- They have a charge attack ( they start charging at a distance then sprint towards your defenses pushing them out of the way!)

- Medium sized health pool

Dealing with sharken:

- Gas traps ( stuns just about everything besides ogres)

- Shock Beams (^^^^)

- Other traps and auras, the sharken can't push traps and auras with its charge.

Djinn:

- They have two channeled attacks

- Yellow beam ( buffs minions, increases health and damage)

- Red beam ( destroys your defenses at the end of channel)

- Shoots a slime ball that will knock you back and do high damage

- Flies a little off the ground so they are easy to target

- They can destroy auras and traps!

Dealing with djinn:

- Gas traps close to spawn door.

- Auras at the door will keep them close to the ground and inside trap range

- DST ( deadly strike tower, they prioritize nightmare enemies first!)

Goblin Copter:

- Flies in from air spawns

- Drops an ogre when it reaches its destination

- Shoots rockets at player and defenses (will 1 shot most players)

- Ogre that is dropped can't damage crystal ( can damage defenses)

Dealing with goblin copter:

- DSTs are your best friend ( deadly strike towers )

- Attacking them yourself

- Killing them before they drop the ogre will either kill the ogre (if dropped off the map) or the ogre will have under half health.

Now that you know about the new enemies and how to deal with them lets get into the campaign! Don't worry you don't have to deal with all these new enemies on the first map!

Deeper Wells

An ogre is going to spawn on the first wave. You have two ways of dealing with this, you can kill it yourself with a hero that has a weapon upgraded or set up a DST behind the crystal. I personally put an explosive trap in front of the crystal to kill the spiders and DPS the ogre. Just remember spiders drop from above so they can attack your defenses from behind!

Ancient Mines

Much easier than Deeper Wells in my opinion! That being said this is where you get your first look at sharkens. Throw some gas and explosive traps down, monk auras, squire walls, and some apprentice towers and you are good.

Now you have a choice you can keep going through the campaign or you can stop here and farm Ancient Mines on survival till 80/83. I personally did a little of both, I farmed Ancient Mines a bit to get some good rock pets to help my builders then I continued with the campaign. Once again Promenade is a good place to stop and gear up and get some EXP. I hope you like Promenade because that is where you are going to be farming for a while. Luckily it gets pretty AFK after a while.

Now finish Nightmare and get 83 so you can start Massacre

This is where things get a little tricky! Once you reach level 83 you can start Massacre campaign but you might not want to. Hear me out, Massacre is a huge step up from Nightmare. I would suggest waiting till 90 to go past the first act of massacre, but I know most of you are going to at least try the first level on massacre so do that then come back.

You are going to want to do a few things before starting Massacre, to give you a better chance at success.

1. Make a DPS hero

You really have your choice of heroes besides the apprentice. The apprentice just cant attack fast enough and doesn't have any hero damage boost or attack speed boost.

Huntress

- Mythic/transcended gear

- Full Militia set ( always rolls with attack, focuses hero stats

- Mini gun, Paintball gun,(later on) -> Protean Blaster, Demon Horn, or Draconic Spitfire

- Propeller Cat ( Alchemical Labs wave 15, 90% or higher) Or a Genie ( The Ramparts wave 15)

Monk

- Mythic/transcended gear

- Full set ( anything get gives you a lot of Vitality and Boost)

- Any weapon that can be upgraded to shoot x4, any damage type but if you are playing solo poison is not a good damage type!

- Genie (The Ramparts wave 15, anyone will do)

EV-A

- Mythic/transcended gear

- Full Militia set ( always rolls with attack, focuses hero stats

- You want the highest base damage you can get, the only weapons worth mentioning are drops in massacre. Protean Blaster, Draconic Spitfire.

- Propeller Cat ( Alchemical Labs wave 15, 90% or higher) Or a Genie ( The Ramparts wave 15)

Squire

- Mythic/transcended gear

- Full Guard (always rolls vitality, a Militia set will also work)

- Any sword and shield

- Steam Robot (Lava mines wave 15) Dragon pet ( The Summit wave 15, 80 upgrades or better, x3 damage, .4 attack speed) Or a Genie ( The Ramparts wave 15) This makes it so you can keep blood boil on while attacking.

- all you do is right click and block while your pet kills everything or keep blood boil on and attack, using your circle slice here and there.

Apprentice

- Doesn't attack fast enough

2. Get pets!

Not only are you going to need the Propeller Cat, Genie, and Steam Robot / Dragon pet you are going to need a few Giraffes or Rock pets for your builders. If you are farming Promenade you should be getting these every run so it shouldn't be hard to get a good one.

3. Farm that gear

When you are farming 83-90 you are really doing it for the gear. Yes the hero points from the levels help but really you want to be able to use max level gear. To farm gear and EXP I ran Promenade wave 23-25 it gets boring but you can AFK it and you can normal get a full group in public. This should get you full level 90 transcended gear by the time you hit level 90.

3.1 Farm that gear in Massacre

Okay so I said don't do massacre but you might be able to do a few levels with a group before getting stuck. Lots of people get to Alchemical Laboratory and then farm that boss to try and get a good Demon Horn, you also get some level 90 gear that has high max upgrades here. You wont be level 90 though so it will just sit in your bag. Massacre does introduce a new enemy that you might want to be aware of first!

Siren:

- Large health pool.

- Can't be attacked by defenses.

- Has a random elemental resistance including physical.

- Gives this to minions around it.

- Shoots a ball of light that hits very hard.

- You need to attack it to kill it.

- Will leave after a little if it isn't attacked.

- Drops good loot!

Dealing with sirens:

- Kill poison resist sirens as fast as you can ( sharkens will not be stunned by gas trap if they have poison resistance, having shock beams and gas traps helps with this)

- Attack when they get to the crystal or not at all

- Reflect Fields between you and core (this will reflect their attack so you dont get hit)

- Have more than one person ( one can tank it on a squire the other can do the damage)

- Have lots of CC (gas traps and shock beams to heal with sharkens)

Massacre

It is much easier to finish massacre with a friend, some of the maps are large and it is hard to build everything you need with a short timer. Take your time! There is no rush to finish the campaign on massacre and you could just make yourself made. Only 3% of players have finished the campaign on massacre you will get it.

This is end game people! You made it and now all that is left is for you to gear up and level up for massacre survival.

Leveling Fast

Honestly don't worry about leveling after you get 90. You will get levels from finishing massacre campaign and from doing massacre survival. You need gear more than levels.

Gearing

- For weapons to get into late waves in massacre survival I would suggest doing the massacre campaign bosses. Demon Lord and Ancient Dragon both drop good dps weapons for Huntress, Monk and EV-A. Goblin Mech drops good builder weapons for all heroes and good dps weapons for Squire and EV-A.

- Once you have some good weapons do Magus Quarters, Royal Gardens and Glitterhelm massacre survival for gear and the bosses on massacre survival for better versions of their weapons.

- You are going to be farming gear and weapons for a while before you get max gear so throw some pet runs in to mix it up. You do get a random act pet from killing the bosses on wave 25 but you never know what pet they will buff next.

"Do you have builds for these maps?"

Yes I have builds for a few of the harder ones and the maps you will farm. you can look them up on my YouTube or try to make your own build. You learn more making your own build and not just copying someones build. There is more then one way to do all these maps.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBA0hxtjNjwpRx14awm2DiQ?

"Do you have guides for each hero?"

Not at the time that I am writing this but I will be making video guides and writing guides to post on here.

"What is the best armor type?"

Mixed answer for this for builders pre level 83 I would say miner but after 83 you really just want to get the best stats for what you need. The set type doesn't matter later on as long as you have a full set.