Dungeon Defenders II: Dungeon Defenders 2 Progression Guide [Embermount Update]

First I will explain how you will progress through the game, and give tips and example builds for every chaos level. Before we get into chaos we need to understand currencies.

• Gold – One of the biggest and most important currencies we use in DD2 is Gold. You can use gold for everything from upgrading to trading. You get gold from completing maps, so there is no special way of getting it but just playing.

• Defender Medals – This currency is obtained by doing daily and weekly quests (see by pressing j). You can also use it in upgrading, but two special things you can only do with defender medals is buying shards and buying new heros.
  – To buy a shard you can go to Gran Ma’ster. she is found on the boat in town, or near the dummies in your tavern. Every shard costs 1000 medals, or you can buy a bundle of 5 random shards from specific chaos for 500 medals.
  – Finally is heros, each hero has a different cost between 8000 and 12000 medals. You can see this by pressing I to go to your inventory and clicking the Create Hero tab.

• Blue Gems – This is the premium currency, in where you can only get it by spending money. With these gems you can buy heros, cosmetics, and more bag and vault space.
  – To access this shop you would press p.
  – If you were to buy any gems, I would suggest getting more bag space followed by the material vault. Bag space because it allows you to be more organized, and to run more maps without stopping to clear out your inventory. Also with more space you can save more shards for gilding.

Unfortunately inventory management is something you will be constantly doing, weather you are a starter or pro. There is no perfect system, and there never will be. Although there is no fix to this problem, you can prolong it by spending blue gems. In the shop you can purchase more bag spaces. with this it allows you to hold more gear. Pretty strait forwards. This is the same case with the vault.

Bags
One thing exclusive to your inventory is filtering. What this allows you to to is automatically pick up everything on the map, as long as it fits the filter’s conditions.

Vault
One of the most Important parts of vaults is the material vault. This allows you to hold an infinite amount of materials in one place, which prevents your inventory becoming full from multiple stacks of them.

There are a handful of materials in DD2, but I will be splitting them into 3 categories. These are Upgrade Materials, Reroll Tokens/Talismen, and Shard Dust.

Upgrade Materials
There are a ton of materials you can gather from doing different map types. Every map type has its own specific material it will drop.

Motes / Amps / Hammers
– Drop location = Every map
– Upgrade use = (motes are for everything from armor to relics)(amps are used to ascend the level of an item to the next chaos tier)(hammers are used for transferring mods from one item to another)
Leathers
– Drop location = Ancient ruins maps
– Upgrade use = Upgading Boots
Scales
– Drop location = The Liferoot maps / The High Seas maps
– Upgrade use = Upgrading Chestplates
Rings
– Drop location = Dragonfall Town maps
– Upgrade use = Upgrading Gloves
Quills
– Drop location = Dradonfall Castle maps
– Upgrade use = Upgrading Helmets
Ingots
– Drop location = Rotting Ravine maps
– Upgrade use = Upgrading Weapons
Clusters
– Drop location = Lost Dungeon maps
– Upgrade use = Upgrading Relics

Reroll Tokens / Talismen
– Drop location = Drakenfrost maps / The Wild West maps
– Used to reroll your mods for a chance of getting it higher. Every mod has a maximum of 10. One thing special to rerolling is you will get a guaranteed 10 mod after 286 rerolls. This has an invisible counter on your account when no matter what mod you reroll, as long as its not 10 it will keep counting until it gets to 286. If you get a 10 at any point, whether that’s 1 reroll or 286, the counter will start over.

Shard Dust
– Drop location = you get dust from selling shards in your inventory.
– Use = to the left of Gran Ma’ster you can talk to the guard and exchange 10 dust for an unidentified shard.

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Strategy = Anything with a wall
For the most part, they will tell you what to build, but for any reason you are struggling, here is an example of a build that should work through all of the campaign.

What’s placed
– 1 Flame Aura (monk)
– 1 Spike Blockade (squire)
– 2 Blaze Balloons (huntress)
– 6 Sky Guards Tower (monk) (final map)
On the flame aura and Blaze Balloon have medallions, and on the Spike Blockade have a totem. On the final map of the campaign in the middle on the stumps you can place 6 sky guards (3 each side) that will also have a medallion.

Dps tips – I would suggest having 2 heros that you do damage with. on that focuses on ability power and uses skills, and on that uses hero damage. You use the ability powr hero to do damage to big stuff like bosses, and the hero damage hero to kill the smaller stuff like goblins and orcs.

Betsy’s Special Mechanics
The fist one is a curse. Every wave Betsy will place a curse somewhere in the map that looks like a black area on the ground.

Any towers in this area will have their damage signifyingly reduced. If you happen to find that it is right where you have built, then just sell all of the towers and rebuild the lane.

The second is a tower stun. Periodically Betsy will give you a debuff in where is says you will explode. In this case make sure you aren’t next to anything you built.

The Third one is a buff to the enemies. If the screen stats that Betsy flaps her wings, then the enemies will move faster. because we have lost of damage and walls, this wont be problem.

Strategy = NO TOWERS
This means we will be using auras and traps for damage.

2 Shards I would recommend grinding back in the campaign for are constriction, and fortification. With the gold you get from running the campaign I would max out both of these as fast as you can. Another thing you can do with gold is upgrade your relics so they are 10/10 level campaign.
Construction – Increased repair and upgrade speed during combat phase (gloves).
Fortification – Increases the defense health of a tower (relics).

Our main strategy will be running around and repairing/upgrading walls. This sounds boring, but it is effective. With the enemies piling up on the wall they will take lots of damage from our auras and traps.

Biggest problems with chaos 1 in general is the bosses and throwers. Bosses because each one has a mechanic you have to now, and throwers, because they snipe your wall without getting hit. For the boss problem I chose to use the huntress, this is because her first ability (concussive shots) hits for a lot of damage and also stuns. This stun gives you enough time to react to a boss hitting your walls, and also slows them down. Another boss you need the huntress for is the drakenfrost boss. He will put a big blue bubble around himself and when this is up you need to throw an oil flask at him. This will remove his shield and allow you to do good damage to him.

Video on the build

Chaos 2 introduces Cyborgs.

These Enemies slam the ground and send out en EMP wave stunning all auras/traps/nodes.
This in mind, stick to using a wall with towers behind it.

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There are many heros you can spend your defender medals on, and i will give you an overview of each hero and rank them, in my personal opinion, on which ones you should save up for first.

Apprentice (starter)
Dps? – Can be good if you prioritize an ability power build.
– Towers
Flame-Thrower – Deals just ok damage.
Arcane Barrier – Its a wall.
Frostbite Tower – Slows enemies, and can buff towers with the right build.
Earthshatter Tower – Amazing damage and range, and can be used in elemental combos.

Squire (starter)
Dps? – I would personally avoid using squire for dps, because of his short range using a sword.
– Towers
Cannon ball Tower – Good damage, single target attacks.
Spike Blockade – its a wall.
Ballista – Good damage and range. Also pierces enemies.
Training Dummy – you spin me right around baby right around! Its not that good

Monk (starter)
Dps? – YES!
– Towers
Flame Aura – YES!
Boost Aura – YES!
Sky Guard Tower – YES!
Lightning Strikes Aura – YES!

Huntress (starter)
Dps? – Can be used for either hero damage or ability power.
– Towers
Explosive trap – Amazing damage but low range.
Geyser Trap – throws enemies up, but slow rand and attack speed.
Poison Dart Tower – Ok damage, but great element for combos.
Blaze Balloon – Underrated trap with good damage and ok range.

Abyss Lord (ok hero)
Dps? – Fun with a hero damage build.
– Towers
Orc Blockade – Skeleton wall.
Skeleton Ramster – Amazing tower that tits everything in its damage cone. Can also apply elements.
Skeleton Archers – Fun tower with good damage and an almost 360 damage radius
Colossus – BIG SKELETON WALL! lots of health, but costs a lot

EV2 (BEST HERO)
Dps? – Fun hero damage build and ability power builds.
– Towers
Proton Beam – Amazing! can apply elements.
Reflect Beam – Hard to build, but one built can stop cyborgs in their tracks, and also apply earth damage.
Buff Beam – YES!
Weapon Manufacturer – Has a mod that stuns enemies.

Gunwitch (Dps hero)
Dps? – YES! This hero has no towers, but with a hero damage, or ability power, build you can shred.

Lavamancer (good hero)
Dps? – Fun with ability power. Also used to buff towers. Best hero for stacking hero damage and making pets do crazy damage.
– Towers
Fissure of Embermount – YES! Flame aura with a little more damage but cant hit air.
Maw of the Earth Drake – That’s a wall? never used.
Oil Geyser – Applies oil so flame aura and fissure do more damage.
Volcano – Fun tower that launches magma balls everywhere.

Mystic (ok hero)
Dps? – You use one ability that makes enemies hit each other. Make her a tank.
– Towers
Snaking sands – Good trap for stunning and slowing.
Sand Viper – Fun tower that launches beams.
Vipers Fangs – A wall that encases enemies in a bubble to slow them down.
Obelisk – Hits hard across the whole map, and gives you a bubble that helps you survive.

Dryad (great hero)
Dps? – Use the starts in corrupt form to deal lots of damage. Ability power.
– Towers
World Tree – A wall that is required for her towers. Also heals the heros.
Moss Hornet’s Nest – Good damage and 3 can hit a single target.
Harpy’s Perch – Good tower with small damage cone.
Slime Pit – great damage, but they sacrifice themselves to do damage.
Angry Nimbus – Good damage, but too slow to be usefull.

Initiate (good hero)
Dps? – initiate can only really buff towers, not great for damage.
– Towers
Water Aura – Flame Aura but water.
Boost Aura – Same as monk.
Sky Guard Tower – Same as monk.
Lightning Strikes Aura – Same as monk.

Adept (great hero)
Dps? – Good with ability power, or hero damage
– Towers
Flameburst Tower – Great ranged tower with a little aoe on hit..
Chi Strike Tower – Weaken enemies = more damage
Tower – Slaps air with icicles. fun
ShatterStriker Tower – Amazing damage and range, and can be used in elemental combos.

Barbarian (dps hero)
Dps? – YES! with no towers this dude can go any build. hero damage, ability power, or tank.

Mercenary (Great hero)
Dps? – This guy is great with hero damage or ability power builds.
– Towers
Royal Guard Blockade – its another wall.
Nether Spider Spawner – like slimes on dryad but no tree is needed.
Nether Archer – Great damage, and shots bounce to other enemies.
Elvish Artillery Cannon – Amazing damage and has 360 damage radius.

Countess (Great Hero)
Dps? – Works with hero damage or ability power builds. Normally used to buff towers.
– Towers
Flack Cannon – Great for knocking back enemies and stalling for time
Oil Catapult – Great for setting up ignite combo
Dragon Nest – Aoe dps with good damage, but smaller range
Elder Dragon – Can only place 1, but is the best single tower for survival maps.

Engineer
dps? – One of best ability power heros
– Towers
EMP trap – stuns and slows enemies, awesome cc

Aquarian
dps? – not really sure

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