Beginner's Guide to the Dryad

To my surprise there is not a single Dryad guide yet, even though it is a necessity. With heroes costing at least 15 dollars, I was very hesitant to buy her despite my love for Terraria. My usual solution would be to read a guide but there is none. So here are my findings.

Dryad has a bad reputation because she is like the Summoner and Jester of the previous Dungeon Defenders; she works different than the standard of this game and can be quite complicated. However, she is also just as rewarding and flexible as they are. She has essentially two forms, and being two characters in one breaks the regular DPS and Builder molds.

-In Purification form she is the best tank. She can stack multiple healing and protection effects on herself.

-Overlord: In Corruption form she boosts all her defenses on the entire map, making them pierce, stronger, and faster, and apply negative status effects.

-Builder and DPS at the same time, as she can boost her buildings while on the field and fighting.

-She can not only double jump, but even fly when holding down the jump button after the first jump. This makes it very easy to solo. Combined with her tankiness, she can be a mobile yet immobile wall of thorns, or a nuking flyer.

-She uses her own mana instead of that dropped from foes, allowing her allies to pick it up instead, essentially boosting the entire group's power.

-She has 6 different skills, instead of 4; two sets of 3 that she can switch between.

-Her World Tree projects an aura of healing and damage buffs. She may not have a Self Heal skill, but she can just do her Thorn Dance tactic while near them and benefit from all her skills at once. No more having to chose between fighting and healing.

-Her hornets and clouds fly even around corners, letting her kill enemies from afar, and can shore up holes in defenses.

-If build for DPS then she is a tank with a spammable nuke that is said to be OP.

This is the key to playing Dryad. She is a perfectly viable character even if you use Corruption only as a panic button. But if you can juggle the drain of Corruption with harvesting Starfall from Purification then she evolves into a higher rank of hero.

As an expy from Terraria, Dryad reflects that game. There she sells plant related items, and can tell you how much of the world is corrupted or hallowed. But during a Blood Moon she sells vile and vicious powders that can corrupt the world and its critters. According to the designers of this game, this was the inspiration for her Corruption ability. In her natural state she is in Purification mode and her techniques are defensive. When using her alternate attack, Dryad switches to an aggressive mode called Corruption which asides from switching her abilities to offensive versions, also improves the attacks of all her buildings. It drains mana while in use, but with some tact she can have it activated for nearly the entire fight.

It should be noted that she can build while flying. Also, remember that upgrading a defense fully repairs it for free. Dryad has 5 buildings.

World Tree (40 DU)

These aura projectors double as her walls. Dryad can only build defenses within the aura of her trees. This is a SEVERE limitation as it makes it hard to place a defense in the back to guard against flyers so plan accordingly. Fortunately, upgrading the trees never cost more than 50 mana and when you do then the aura increases in size. While in their aura, Dryad enjoys fast healing and +20% Hero Crit Damage and +10% Hero Crit Chance.

It should be noted that her defenses become paralyzed if they are no longer within a World Tree's aura. On the bright side, one can fly near a boss, drop a tree, and then fight them from within the aura.

According to the dev's, this projects a little pocket of Terraria into this world, which is why Terrarian phenomena can be summoned here by Dryad.

Moss Hornet's Nest (30 DU)

The nest spawns hornets over time that will attack anything that comes within range, even if they are around a corner. While they are weak, this is essentially an AOE tower, and they are very cheap to build at only 30 DU. Good against flyers, and they poison enemies. If Dryad is in her corrupted state then her hornets spawn faster.

Harpy's Perch (40 DU)

These are fancy arrow turrets that can attack ground and air units, and are the mainstay of a regular army. It would have been cool if they could leave their perches, but I guess throwing all their feathers leaves their wings unable to support their flight. During Corruption, they will pierce through enemies, hitting up to 3 targets.

Slime Pit (40 DU)

Fun but hard to use, these are a trap of sorts. The pit will spawn those cute little slimes iconic to Terraria, and sometimes they even come equipped with their trademark umbrella hats--as far as I can tell, these are purely cosmetic. I call them a trap because every time a slime spawns, the integrity of the Slime Pit drops, necessitating repairs or upgrades. When an enemy comes near, the slimes will suicide run into them and explode on impact. They work best if they can go downhil or jump of an elevated position. When corrupt, they deal more damage in an area and oil enemies, meaning they combo great with any character capable of igniting foes.

At the time of this writing there are still some bugs with it, which may cause them to not attack enemies unless they are really close.

Angry Nimbus (100 DU)

Her most costly unit, and my absolute favorite. These flying units have enormous range and will cover a lot of the map. I used to build mostly harpies until I learned how to maintain Corruption. Now I build barely anything but cloud soldiers who dog the enemies as soon as they leave the spawn, all the way up to base. In Purification mode they already drench and slow enemies, but during Corruption they also strike with lightning, and a drenched enemy hit with electricity is stunned. Combine that with the fact that they will hunt down enemies that sneak behind the lines, I barely have to do anything while leveling, other than maintaining my mana.

Also, when you win the round they will applaud me, which is nice.

Dryad's Blessing

Straight from Terraria, her trademark ability increases her defenses. This ability costs so little mana that you can keep it up indefinitely in most cases. During Corruption, it will deal damage around her which can help out a lot. Try to use it in the aura of a World Tree for a nasty combination of attack and self healing.

Powder Toss

Another reference to her character in Terraria, these are the powders she sells there. When tossed to the ground, mushrooms will sprout temporarily. Purification mushrooms heal nearby allies and slow enemies. Corrupt mushrooms deal damage and stun when they expire. This ability allows her to have a healing spot on demand, or yet another nuke. Combined with her Blessing and perhaps a World Tree, this makes her a self healing wall of plant power that can sting like a thorn. Go and tank some bosses.

Starfall

When the dev's had a mob they were fighting in Terraria be obliterated by a falling star, they just had to include it in this game. This summons a projectile from above, that can be picked up as her source of mana--I think that since this world is unnatural to her, she can't use the local mana and instead has to summon it from home. When Corrupted, the stars deal even more damage and explode, but not before radiating a harmful aura first.

The resulting stars are the only source of mana that she can use. This ability has about 15 seconds cooldown, but has several stacks which recharge independently. Starfall spamming is her panic button nuke, especially combined with Corruption, and the way to go if you build for Ability Power. Keep in mind that corrupted stars can not be used as mana.

The precise mechanics of how the stacks and cooldowns work is not something I have been able to find out. If someone can help me, then I will credit them and edit this guide.

Beginner's tactic

Use Dryad's flying and double jumping to position yourself quickly. Do not be afraid of dying, because with careful Starfall mana resuplying, you can keep up your defenses and health. While flying to enemies you can already place a Starfall as a nice opener. If you hear that an objective is under attack, activate your Corruption as a blanket solution; it will simply boost EVERYTHING, leaving you free to not rush over there and simply stick to what you were doing. Fly away to one of your trees if things get hairy, and make a last stand there--it's funny that she is really good at standing her ground, because in mythology a dryad is an oak tree spirit .

Advanced tactic

Nothing says that a corrupted dryad can not pick up fallen stars. Switch freely between the two forms. Before a fight drop a few stars far from you. The cooldown will run while you transform into Corruption, which boosts all your defensive units, and when your mana drops you can run over your stars. Drop your Corruption whenever there are not enough enemies nearby, and drop a few more stars. Do this right and you can spend nearly the entire fight into Corruption mode.

Tree Placement:

The trees cover more ground than the wimply level 1 tree base would suggest, yet often you will find enemies worming their way past your trees because they do not cover as much as you might think. A simple test is to try and run past your trees yourself. If you can't, then neither will the mobs.

Multiple Dryads

Dryads can pick up the stars of each other, yet they will still remain there for you to pick up. Weird, but it essentially means that they pick up a copy while the original remains. Use this to your advantage.

If someone could tell me how multiple dryads interact with Corruption and Tree auras, then I will credit them in this guide.