Dungeon Defenders

[polity4life]

Has anyone else downloaded this gem? It's an action RPG tower defense game that is challenging and fun. The game puts synergy on display as many stages and challenges require the distinctive towers from any grouping of the four classes; apprentice, squire, huntress, and monk.

What's great is that the play styles vary depending on the class you choose. The apprentice utilizes strong, sustained damage from its rangy towers while the squire emphasizes towers that damage in melee. The huntress lays proximity traps that range from huge burst damage to crowd control. The monk's omni-directional auras cover the more ground and can slow, electrocute, or weaken enemies. He also can heal others or cause enemies to fight themselves!

Within the game, you can find and acquire items to bolster your twelve core stats; four affect the capabilities of the player, four affect the capabilities of the towers, and the other four are defenses against the four damage types: general, lightning, fire, and poison.

Presently, I'm playing a squire with huge health reserves for himself and his towers, making himself and his constructs nigh indestructible (until I put it on hard and the crap hits the fan).

So again, has anyone else picked this up? I have it on XBox but it's available on all networks.

[Knight9910]

I haven't got it myself. Not a huge fan of tower defense game. My brother has it, though, and loves it.

Have you noticed yet that the squire is pantsless? XD

[polity4life]

I haven't got it myself. Not a huge fan of tower defense game. My brother has it, though, and loves it.

Have you noticed yet that the squire is pantsless? XD

In my opinion, the only major flaw in this game (that I have discovered) is the squire's character design. It's a bit odd that he walks around in his boxers...

The huntress also shows off her butt crack.

[ufo]

I played it on a friends computer and I absolutely love it.

The only major concern though, is balance. Not all characters are equally important in all maps. The Squire, for example, can solo most maps once he gets harpoon towers, while for example the huntress is helpless without some of the other heroes. The game promotes teamwork, for some people :P

[Knight9910]

Yes. The huntress' choice of clothing is especially off if you (like me) assume the main characters are children.

[polity4life]

Ufo,

When choosing a character, the difficulty of playing the classes is displays. Apprentice and Squire are easy mode while Huntress and Monk are difficult (I've still yet to beat the second stage on medium with the Monk while playing solo). And yeah, it is built for team work which is why I like the game. However, the only real solo options are the Apprentice and Squire unless your character is very strong.

Knight9910,

They are children and yes, it is creepy that the Huntress is dressed and behaves in a salacious manner. If you can forgive that though, her class is interesting to play albeit difficult.

[Sipex]

I downloaded the demo for this game and played it through with my wife. Very interesting and challenging to boot.

Demo included the forge and a 'protect the ogre' level.

Forge was doable (albeit difficult) but protecting our ogre got ridiculous. He'd run off and fight other ogres with 4x the HP he has. How are we supposed to keep up with that?!

[Knight9910]

Protecting the ogre is one of the challenge levels. They're different from the usual "defend the crystals" levels and are meant for high level characters. It should say somewhere on the screen what the suggested minimum level is. For Protect The Ogre I think it's somewhere around 40, but I'm not sure. Like I said, my only experience with the game is watching my brother play it.

[Sipex]

Ah, that explains it.

I think we were level 4.

[ufo]

Ufo,

When choosing a character, the difficulty of playing the classes is displays. Apprentice and Squire are easy mode while Huntress and Monk are difficult (I've still yet to beat the second stage on medium with the Monk while playing solo). And yeah, it is built for team work which is why I like the game. However, the only real solo options are the Apprentice and Squire unless your character is very strong.

Oh, I didn't see that before :P

I'm still not convinced that too much thought was put into it, though. I solo'd the first few levels as a monk, and that was only moderately difficult. Besides, (and this is my personal opinion!) I don't think it makes much sense to make some characters better in a game that (seems like it) is about teamwork.

[Knight9910]

Makes sense. You'd think they'd make all the characters equal.

[polity4life]

They approach a semblance of equality if you consider builds and the purpose of each character. For instance, a build for the Apprentice will not be the same build for a Monk. From what I've gathered, the Apprentice can rely on his towers to destroy enemies while the Monk largely has to kill the enemies on his own, meaning the build points for the Monk will likely be spent on increasing the hero stats rather than the tower stats.

It just seems that the game play for the Apprentice is largely to place and sit back, which is much more in line with a traditional tower defense game, while the Monk is place and kill manually, much more in line with the action elements of the game.

However, if people aren't clever enough to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the classes then they will have a hard time. For what it is and what it's worth (1200 Microsoft points), it isn't a bad game. It has enough going on to keep replay value.

[polity4life]

So I tried the "Protect the Ogre" challenge with my level 20 squire. The gametip says this is a level 20 challenge...uh uh. On medium, by wave three you captains (I call the creeps with two ranks captains, one rank lieutenants) of all makes, barely any time to build, and you're building as though constantly under combat with heavily delayed build and repair times.

My girlfriend and I almost beat the fourth stage on hard but her Apprentice towers failed just before the boss popped. She enjoys the game thoroughly, perhaps even more than I (as evidenced by her two days of playing and having a level 24 character).

So again, try it out folks! I wouldn't mind playing online with some folks from these boards on XBox Live!

[Makensha]

Yes. The huntress' choice of clothing is especially off if you (like me) assume the main characters are children.

They are apprentices, not children. If she was a child, why does she have prominent breasts?


Anyways, I find that having an Apprentice or Squire on your team is absolutely essential, but after that it doesn't really matter what your comp is (obviously one of each is ideal, but not necessary). Fun game.

[Archangel Yuki]

I was actually on my way to make this thread when I saw this one. :smallamused:

Anyways, I'm The Charizard on steam. I normally spend most my time farming Ramparts insane on my Squire. I'm a little crazy about this game; been following it for almost a year now, pre ordered it, and had a level capped character 2 days after release.

I'm currently running Survival mode with friend I have made trying to defeat a challenge set my one of the devolpers; the first person (or group of people) to break 30 waves on Survival Insane get 500$. Considering it's going to take like 20 solid hours of playing, I don't know that it will be worth it.

If you find me on, feel free to message me. I don't have a problem running lower level character through stuff. I can solo Insane Ramparts very easily and I probably wouldn't mind the company :smallwink:

[Knight9910]

Decided to get the demo. It's pretty good.

Incidentally, why do the missions never start you at wave 1? IT always seems to start me at wave 2, and I remember my brother always starting at wave 3 or 4.

[Sholos]

Squire is awesome. His defenses can deal out the pain stupid quickly, and since it's all physical, no one's immune. It's a pain to set up an electric aura in a beautiful place, only to have all the electric immune guys walk right through it. Though the squire mixed with certain other classes just gets even meaner. Also, the harpoon turret is your friend. I think it's probably one of the best turrets out there.

[Knight9910]

Yeah, the squire is easily one of the best characters, aside from his lacking lots of range attacks.

[Sholos]

Yeah, the squire is easily one of the best characters, aside from his lacking lots of range attacks.

Which you don't really need for the most part (and familiars can supplement) since you have the harpoon turrets and there's always running in with Blood Rage active and a really big sword. Clears things out nicely. I am loving him. The fact that he's doing all this without pants is even better.

[Sholos]

Anyone beat Halloween on Insane yet? How'd you do it?

[polity4life]

I too am playing the Squire. I have something of a hybrid build with emphasis on the hero's stats rather than the towers' stats.

My girlfriend is playing the Apprentice and when her towers fail and go down, and a torrent of hard-mode red-skinned, red-hooded, red-clothed monsters are tearing their way to the Eternia crystals, I hop in there and just start cleaning out. It has a distinct, "You shall not pass!" feel when you're the only thing between an assured loss and near-miss victory.

[late for dinner]

I have the demo downloading now...I have been looking forward to this game since I heard of it like a year ago...

[Archangel Yuki]

Anyone beat Halloween on Insane yet? How'd you do it?

right now there is no confirmation that anyone has finished it on insane. There was a glitch that let people get the costumes, but as of yet no one has posted actual proof they have finished it on Ranked. People have finished it on Open from what I hear, but well, it's Open.

[Knight9910]

I'd really like someone to play with, but I don't know the XBox Live names of anyone here. ^^;;

[Sholos]

RAGE!!! :smallfurious:
They nerfed the Squire towers immensely. I am very, very sad.

In other news, you can get the special costumes by beating Halloween on Hard, now, instead of Insane.

[Knight9910]

Oh, apparently everyone here is playing on the PC. Lame. :\

[polity4life]

I'd really like someone to play with, but I don't know the XBox Live names of anyone here. ^^;;

ManofOpposites is my XBox live name. Feel free to add. I play with three other friends so there's usually at least myself and one other around.

[Knight9910]

Ah, cool. I'll send a friend request, from Mike9910.

[Sholos]

How's everyone finding the updates? I'm liking them, except for the upped cost of Monk auras.

On another note, my Steam name is vampirebunbun, if anyone wants to add me and play a game. I'd like to actually complete some of the levels on Insane (like Summit).

[Snowstorm]

I started out with the huntress, then swapped over to the Apprentice when I decided I really needed some sort of barrier.

I've beat everything on Medium so far, now I'm working my way up the path on Insane. :)

[Sholos]

Argh, electric aura went up again, now to 5 DUs. Seriously messes with plans somewhat.

[Hida Reju]

This game rocks on all levels. I have gotten to lvl 37 and played up through the ramparts.

A few tips I found to deal with solo play. All opinion by the way.

1. Boss lvls are your friend. Farming is annoying but on boss lvls its worth it. Do the hardest boss you can take every time you can stomach the board. Try to always do at least medium diff or higher for better gear. You can get 100k or more crystals for the Throne Room.
2. Even if your main is not a Squire lvl one up to at least 15 lvls below your main. You will love being able to swap him in for barriers for choke points. If you do this then put every point you can in tower boosting. (This is not confirmed just a feeling I have if its wrong let me know.)
3. Do not neglect health on your characters the Squire gets so much they can take a hit or two with average investment while the others need to scrounge points for extra health to deal with dark elf warriors that hunt you and hit hard. Not to mention the bosses tend to chase or damage you.

I am sure it will get better as the game progresses.

[Dogmantra]

I love the game too, but am I the only one who feels like it's cheating to swap between heroes during setup?

[Sholos]

I love the game too, but am I the only one who feels like it's cheating to swap between heroes during setup?

Most people don't, especially since a mixed setup on later levels makes them significantly easier. Not saying that only using one hero throughout the entire fight is wrong, but it makes things much harder on you.

As for general strategy, monk auras are your friend, especially Ensnare auras. Slowing things down to 19% speed is lovely. Lightning auras on top of Ensnares is almost always a good idea as well. As for the Apprentice, Magic Missile, Fireball, and Deadly Striker towers all have their place, especially in conjunction with Ensnare auras.

The Huntress is stupid good for DPS, and a trap-focused Huntress can also lay some serious pain down. The Squire has become somewhat of an odd duck. His towers used to be incredibly good, but what with the damage nerfs, he's be regulated more to special cases and personal tanking.

As for farming, Ramparts on Hard is extremely easy to AFK for xps and mana. Not so much for gear (although the occasional decent piece drops). the best gear is found on high waves of Insane Survival (Mixed Mode for even better results).

Also, if anyone's looking to get through Halloween on Hard, I can help. I can't quite AFK it, but I'm confident I can drag even a mediocre level 30 through it. My name on Steam is vampirebunbun/arrowbro (screen name/account name because I can't remember which you add people by). Add me, shoot me a message, and I'll be happy to run through stuff.

EDIT: On a side note, if you add me, message me here as well, just so I know who I'm looking for.