Overview
This guide covers what’s in the update, what items can be found during the events and what to look out for when dealing with the Harbinger. The guide is separated into the different events that are part of this patch. The harbinger, the holiday event, the awakening event and the core game changes.
Intro
This new update brings the cold, the evil, and the new to Dungeon Defenders 2. I will be breaking down the update into 4 separate parts. The Harbinger, The Holiday event, The Awakening and the Core. The Harbinger section will detail all you need to know that entails the story and the new boss. The Holiday event section will describe what will be going on during the holiday event, what items are available and how to get them. The awakening section will show what will be in game during and after the social event. And finally the core section will describe what changes went into the game itself to be better and closer to the final version of the game.
The Harbinger
This new update continues the story of our heroes and the fate of Etheria by introducing a new boss that’s threatening the royal family in the game. As always there is a new map and weapons to be had.
The maps that are part of this ark in the story are Ramparts, Throneroom, and Harbinger’s Warship. The first two are the same maps as before just with new atmosphere added. The new map is the harbingers warship. This map has a new way to play and many things to keep track of.
Unlike other boss battles the Harbinger will be attacking every round. Keeping the lanes under control, dealing with the ship and also fight off the Harbinger is just the start of the battle.
There are two sets of challenges.
- Evil defeats Evil – Defeat the Harbinger while under the effects of Harbinger’s Sight.
- Shoot at Me Bro – Defeat the Harbinger without destroying his cannons.
- Savior of the Ramparts – Defend Ramparts without losing the Cannon.
- Savior of the Throne – Deafend Throneroom without losing the Window Control.
- Falcon Regiment – Complete all the Harbingers Challenges.
- We don’t need your help – Defeat the Harbinger without any party member getting the Harbinger’s Sight on Nightmare 2 or harder.
- All the Cannons – Defeat the Harbinger without destroying his cannons on Nightmare 2 or harder.
- Anti Air Specialist – Prevent flying Kobolds from dealing damage to the Airship on Nightmare 2 or harder.
- Hands off Harbinger – Defend the Airship and keep the core health above 80% on Nightmare 2 or harder.
- Scourge of the Harbinger – Complete We don’t need your help, all the cannons and anti air challenges.
Dealing With the Harbinger
The new boss, The Harbinger, takes place on the Harbinger’s Warship Map. There are three lanes where enemies will come out of, but that’s the least of your problems.
The Harbinger’s ship has Cannons on the side facing your core as well as a vacuum chamber on the ship’s deck that will such you into the dungeons within the ship.
When fighting the Harbinger there are a few things to look out for.
- The cannons on the side will shoot the core. One cannon will be added each wave for a total of 3.
- The Harbinger will shoot homing missiles that will attack you or the core.
- The Harbinger has a slam ability that shoots 3 rows of crystals from the ground. As well as a dash attack that you will have to dodge.
- After the first wave, the build phase is timed so be quick about upgrading and repairs.
- On wave two the Harbinger will open the vacuum chamber on the deck once in awhile. Dont stand to close and you will be fine..
- On the third wave the Harbinger will shoot meteors down on the map. Keep an eye out for your defences being destroyed.
- On the final round, the Harbinger will start on the heroes ship deck right next to the core. Make sure you have towers protecting that area before wave starts.
- Harbinger’s Sight is a medium size yellow crysytal that can be collected from the Wyverns flying over Harbingers ship deck or inside Harbingers dungeon. The crystal is a buff that will heal and increase damage of hero.
When killing the Harbinger, you have a really small chance of getting a golden lockbox to drop from him. In the lockbox will be a skin for your hero. So keep an eye out for that rare lockbox.
Weapons of the Harbingers Defeat
The new weapons for this update can be collected by defeating the Harbinger. Every time you defeat the Harbinger you have a chance of getting one of the new weapons with a special passive. All four weapons comes in two types, the Defense Passive and the Hero Damage Passive, for a total of 8 weapons.
Hero Damage Passive: With Provoke active, enemies will get knocked back and burn over time. Seismic Slam deals more damage and gets reduced cooldown on a successful block.
Defense Passive: Training Dummy gets more defense health and gains a range attack that can open a portal and send enemies back to the spawn. Even ogres can be affected by the portal.
Hero Damage Passive: While changing a Mana Bomb, a shield will appear around the Apprentice and open a portal that makes it rain meteors.
Defense Passive: The Arcane Barrier gets more Defense Health as well as dealing damage over time like the squire’s barricades. It also has a chance to open a portal making it rain meteors.
Hero Damage Passive: The Concussive shots shoots a wave of spikes that damages all enemies it hits. After some time the spikes will explode.
Defense Passive: Geyser Traps shoots up a shard, like water, and after a few seconds will explode hitting all enemies around the trap.
Hero Damage Passive: Pole Smash now deals two moments of damage. The first slam deals damage and increase knockup radius. The second attack has an uppercut rise from the ground and deal even more damage.
Defense Passive: When an enemy is hit by the Lightning Strike, that enemy will be hit by a fist that deals AOE damage marks the other targets with fists.
The Holiday Event
This event comes with 6 maps that have the winter weather effect applied to them. This is a feature Trendy has been working on that will change the climate of the map to fit the seasons. In the Map selection menu any map that’s part of the Holiday event with the winter effect will have a snow flake icon in it.
During this holiday event there will be lockboxes that will drop throughout the snowy maps. These lockboxes can be opened with a key to reward you with a holiday accessory for your heroes. There is four to five items per hero.
There is also a holiday pack that can be bought in the steam store. This pack comes with eight lockbox keys and four winter lockboxes with a chance to get the new hero skins based off of the Christmas story “A Christmas Carol”. The skins are the four ghosts that haunts Ebenezer Scrooge in the story. These skins can also be bought in game for 400 gems each or found in the lockboxes so if you want to save some money and gems, you can unlock them from the boxes for free if you are lucky. This event ends on January 12th.
Note: The Lockboxes will drop from end of round chests. You can get duplicates of items when opening lockboxes.
The Monk – Mournful Moorley after Jacob Marley.
The Huntress – Nymph of Yesteryears after the Ghost of Christmas Pasts.
The Squire – Lord of Winter’s Bounty after the Ghost of Christmas Present.
The Apprentice – Reaper of Future Winters after the Ghost of Yet to Come.
These items are random and requires a key from the treasure pirate vender.
The Awakening Social Event
This is a event that trendy is doing that ties in with their Steam group. For every person that joined their official steam group, it will unlock weapons that will be added to the game permanently. Right now every person can open the War Cache and get one random weapon. After getting your first weapon, the only way to get the others would be to unlock them from the steam group, so if you’re not part of the group please go join .
Note: For every weapon unlocked, the War Cache will reset so you can get another random weapon as well as the weapon be permanently in the game for drops.
To get your weapon, go to the Christmas tree down by the test training dummy and activate your gift that’s under the tree. The passive on the galactic weapons are based on the builds that are already in the game. So you might get the spooky build or any of the originals on the weapon.
Note: The Weapon that you get is based on what hero opens the gift. The weapon item power will be based on that hero who opens it, so make sure you have the highest item power gear on before opening it with the hero of your choice.
Trendy has also made a new pack that can be bought on the steam store. This pack comes with $20 in gems, four new Skins in the star wars theme, a new pet “G4- Robo Gato” and the “Awakened Defender title.. The skins can also be bought in game for 800 Gems each if you don’t want to by the pack.
Arcanatrooper
Dark Disciple
Dark Shawl
Galactic Assassin
The Core Update Changes
This section is about all the core game improvements that were added for this patch. In this patch we have smarter loot, less trash, better shopkeepers, and no more level cap grind.
The loot is now smarter when dropping. What this means is that loot now will have stats that go together and passives that uses those stats. This allows for you to find better gear more often and not getting crap that you have to keep selling over and over. Less of a grind to find that perfect gear with the stats you need.
Less trash loot is part of the smarter loot changes. There will be less drops since the drops will be better. So you won’t be filling up your bags after one round with junk. Trendy said that they will be changing the gold value for items once they feel they have the right settings so we don’t loose out of the lack of items to sell.
The shopkeepers finally learned how to do business with supply and demands. The blacksmith and the relic venders in the tavern now will look at the heroes deck at hero level as well as item power and show gear that is within that range. No more seeing level 3 gear for level 50 heroes.
Note: Gear in the shops will NOT go up to nightmare four since you have to play to get that gear.
Now players under level 40 won’t have to grind to get to level cap. At level 40, Endgame will be unlocked and allow players to start Nightmare mode for better gear and more experience.
And finaly for you art lovers. Loading Screens with great DD2 Art.
Comments and Concerns
Please Rate the guide if you liked it. Thank you.
I will be updating this guide with better images and more information as they come. If I have missed any infromation or got something wrong please let me know. Please rate this guide so I know where it stands. Thanks and Enjoy.