Dungeon Defenders II: Protean Shift – Shaping the Upcoming Free Expansion

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Xbox Wire.

Dungeon Defenders II: Protean Shift is nearly upon us!  Get ready to set up shop, gain new rewards, and explore our new Expeditions in one of our biggest expansions ever. Protean Shift features an airship-load of new features and systems for players to engage with.  Because this is such a substantial change, we wanted to make sure we had community input on the new direction. We shaped this latest expansion with our community utilizing user research, live playtests, and giving earlier access to testing new features.

Community and creativity are key to the Dungeon Defenders experience. Defenders are constantly experimenting within the game, tailoring their heroes and defenses to their liking, and interacting with others. Protean Shift deepens and extends the core experience, adding several tasty new layers to the delicious cake that is Dungeon Defenders II.

The first layer is build expressiveness. We’re a loot-based game, and we want to empower players to customize and maximize their loot to fit their unique play styles. Items can now contain Magical Offensive and Defensive Subroutines, or “Mods” for short. These Mods add unique additional powers to items that grant them the ability to excel at thwarting specific threats or dangers. Tired of those pesky Geodes that reflect your projectile attacks with their shield? Find a new item with a Piercer Mod and watch as your attacks phase through their shield effortlessly. Because we love you, we’ve added a Mods for Relics that produce similar effects. Thus far we’ve crafted over 120 new Mods for you to experiment with and lay waste to the Old One’s armies. I’ve even heard rumors around the office water cooler that there are unique Mods coming from deep floors of Onslaught and gaining Ancient Power.

But how will I coordinate my Mods you ask? Am I to lay myself at the altar of RNGesus and pray for his favor? Well, dry your eyes and look no further than our second layer – Tinkering and Player Shops. Tinkering is a new process available in Town that will allow you to instantaneously transfer Mods between pieces of equipment. Using Tinkering will be key to developing the sort of build hyper-coordination that will cement your name in the history books of Etheria. If you can’t find a specific Mod at the quality you need, however, you may be able to purchase one from a Defender who has. Starting with Protean Shift everyone will be able to sell items to other Defenders in their session via Player Shops. To help aid in the discovery process, we’ve added a Dragonfall Market map to the War Table that will be exclusively for facilitating player-to-player purchases.

With all this new gear you will be uniquely tailoring to maximize each hero’s potential and style, you’ll need a method to carry gear through Chaos difficulties and Ancient Power.  That is why the third new layer is our revamped upgrading system. You can now upgrade, evolve, and advance items all the way from Worn quality at the first map of the campaign to Legendary Chaos 8 tier (and no that’s not a typo).  Want to slay enemies in Onslaught floor 9001 with that awesome sword you got from killing you first boss in DD2? (oh the memories!)  This system allows you to do that provided that you obtain the correct materials, catalysts, and currency. Shards have even gotten some love. You can now “dust” your unwanted Shards and purchase new ones. When you find the one you want, you can Gild it in order to reach new levels of power and forestall the effects of Ancient Power.

The final layer, or you could say “the icing on the cake” would be our additional content and rewards. There are new costumes for our Gunwitch and Barbarian, and several new weapons for every hero. There are even new Protean weapons that will “Shrinkinate” your foes. We can’t wait for everyone to share their favorite new looks and weapons.

Unfortunately, with all this new stuff going into the game, we had to end Chaos Trials. There was just too much going on and we couldn’t figure out how to keep them going. Though we know this will be a loss felt deeply throughout the community, in their place you will now find Expeditions that allow you to choose where and how you want to play. Did I mention we were focusing on player choice and creativity?

Protean Shift is the largest expansion that we’ve ever released and brings many game-changing new systems and updates to Dungeon Defenders II. We still have many more places to go, and we can’t wait to share the journey with our Xbox community. In the future, look forward to exploring new areas of Etheria and new ways to interact with your friends and fellow Defenders.  As always, check out our official forums and social media and let us know what you think about these upcoming changes. Additionally, check out our various content creators online and look for us on Mixer! We’re always watching streams and engaging with community members.

Dungeon Defenders II: Protean Shift releases on June 19, 2018 on Xbox One.  We can’t wait to see you in Etheria!