Dungeon Defenders II Update The Mines of Etheria Patch Notes

The Mines of Etheria Update, released on March 28th, 2023, is the latest update to Dungeon Defenders II. This update introduces a new hero, the Engineer, with abilities such as Bunker Buster, Drill Smash, Orbital Cannon, and Steam Blast, and new towers like the EMP Trap, Sentry Turret, Magnetic Knight Tower, and Rail Gun Tower. The Engineer also has various shards, including Advanced Rocketry, Diamond-Tipped Drill, and Electric Discharge. In addition, there is a new difficulty level called Chaos X, which includes new enemies such as the Orc Chieftain, Orc Queen, and Berserker Goblin, and a new miniboss, Orc Warlord. The update also introduces a new material tier, Exquisite, and Chaos X shards like All For One, Arcane Refulgence, and Bot Augmentation. This was a preview of this major update, check out more details below

The Mines of Etheria Update

New Hero - Engineer

Passive: Nanobots - Restores a percentage of your health every 5 seconds.

Passive: Heatsink - Engineer damage scales by current Heat Percentage.

Abilities

Bunker Buster - Shoots a fast-moving rocket that explodes on impact, dealing splash damage.

Drill Smash - The Engineer slams his drill into the ground, sending earthen spikes forward in a line that damages enemies.

Orbital Cannon - Marks an area on the ground. Any enemies within this area will be bombarded with lasers, dealing damage over time!

Steam Blast - Vents all accumulated heat in a blast of steam, damaging and drenching nearby enemies. The Engineer’s movement and attack speed also increases for a short time.

Towers

EMP Trap - Emits pulses of electricity, dealing electric damage and stunning nearby enemies.

Sentry Turret - Fires single-target projectiles at nearby enemies at an incredible rate.

Magnetic Knight Tower - Throws a lance that extends outward, then returns back to it, damaging everything in its path.

Rail Gun Tower - Charges up a powerful laser that hits the strongest enemy in range for massive damage.

Engineer Hero Shards

• Advanced Rocketry - Increases the damage of Bunker Buster by x%.
• Diamond-Tipped Drill - Increases the damage of Drill Shot by x%.
• Electric Discharge - Steam Blast also deals x% damage as storm damage.
• EMP Shells - Orbital Cannon damage increased by x%, and its hits have a y% chance to Stun enemies for z seconds and slow them by 30% for X seconds.
• Focused Lens - Increases the damage of Orbital Cannon by x%.
• High Explosives - Increases Bunker Buster projectile damage by x%, and reduces damage falloff by y%.
• High Pressure - Increases the range of Steam Blast by x%.
• Incendiary Rocket - Bunker Buster ignites targets on hit, dealing x% of Ability Power as damage every second over 5 seconds.
• Laser Rounds - Your attacks have a 30% chance to spawn a laser that pierces enemies dealing x% of your Hero Damage as Electric damage.
• Rupturing Smash - Drill Smash damage increased by x%, and it Stuns enemies hit for y seconds.
• Satellite Strike - Shortly after an Orbital Cannon triggers, a massive laser slams into the ground dealing x% of Ability Power as magical storm damage.
• Scorching Steam - Increases the damage of Steam Blast by x%.
• Seismic Tremors - Increases the damage of Drill Smash by x%.

Engineer Tower Shards

• Electric Paralysis - EMP Trap slows enemies hit to x% speed for y seconds.
• Enhanced Throw - Increases the Defense Range of the Magnetic Knight Tower by x%, and increases its Defense Damage by y%.
• Heavy Rounds - Increases the damage of the Rail Gun Tower by x%, but lowers the tower’s range by 40%.
• Kinetic Energy - Increases the damage of the Rail Gun Tower by x%, and has a y% chance on hit to stun the target for z seconds.
• Sentry Rocket - The Sentry Turret’s attacks generate 1 stack. At 5 stacks, it fires a Rocket dealing x% Defense Damage in an area.
• Spinning Up - The Sentry Turret deals more damage as it strikes enemies, up to a maximum up x% extra damage. Damage increase resets after not attacking for 5 seconds.
• Sharpened Spear - Magnetic Knight Tower has a x% chance on hit to cause the target to bleed, dealing y% of your Tower Damage stat as magical damage each second for zs.
• Voltage Spike - EMP Trap has a x% chance to deal y% more damage.

Engineer Mods

• Overclock - Gain up to +x Crit Chance and +y Crit Damage stat from your current heat percentage.
• Energy Overload - When a Rail Gun hits a target it overloads dealing x% damage to nearby enemies.

New Difficulty - Chaos X

A new chaos tier has been added to Expeditions, Incursions, and Mastery. This is planned to be the final level of chaos, so the difficulty has been set appropriately high with this in mind. Unique to this chaos tier are three new chaos enemies, collectively dubbed the “War Party”, and a new miniboss to push your defenses to their limit.

New Enemy - Orc Chieftain: Incredibly bulky leaders of the Goblins and Orcs. When their health is low, they unleash a rallying Warcry, granting themselves increased speed, healing over time and near-immunity to damage and status ailments for several seconds. Nearby Orcs and Goblins have their speed and damage reduction increased, and also gain healing over time.

New Enemy - Orc Queen: Relentless fighters who cannot be slowed or stopped on their way to their target.

New Enemy - Berserker Goblin: Fanatical goblins that have bombs strapped to their back. When they are killed, the bomb explodes, stunning nearby towers!

New Miniboss - Orc Warlord: An even more powerful version of the Orc Chieftain, with a similar ability to buff nearby Orcs and Goblins.

A new Material Tier unique to Chaos X, Exquisite, has been added.

Chaos X Shards

• All For One - Increases Defense Health, Power, Range, and Attack Rate of the affected tower by x% if only one is built.
• Arcane Refulgence - The projectile resistance of the Arcane Barrier is further increased by x%.
• Bot Augmentation - Increases the damage of Anti Gravity Bots by x%.
• Broad Head Arrows - Poison Dart Tower now pierces through shields and an additional target, and its Defense Damage is increased by x%.
• Buster Booster - Increases Blunder Broom Buster damage by x%.
• Coup de Grace - Increases your Hero Crit Damage by x%, but reduce your Crit Chance by 6%.
• Diffusion - Buff Beam now increases the Defense Range of towers it affects by x%, but the Buff Beam's power is reduced by 25%.
• Double Eruption - Your Volcano has a x% chance to fire twice in succession.
• Double Wish - Using the Starfall ability has a x% chance to drop two stars. No effect while corrupt.
• EF Upgrade - Increases the damage of Tornado by x%.
• Empowered Furious Slash - After Furious Slash collides with 2 targets, it spawns an additional Furious Slash that travels in the same direction as the first, dealing x% of your Ability Power as damage to each target hit.
• Empowered Slam - Increases the damage of Seismic Slam by x%.
• Enduring Effigy - Increases the lifespan of the Dark Torment serpent by x, and increase its damage by x%.
• Heightened Rage - Increases Furious Slash damage by x%.
• Meditation - Increases the base cooldown of Heal Self to 30s. After using Heal Self, gain x mana per second over 5 seconds and gain a shield equal to y% of Ability Power for 10 seconds.
• Mighty Hawk - Increases Hawk Strike damage by x%.
• Radiant Rate - Increases the Attack Rate of nearby defenses by x%.
• Ramping Beam - Sand Viper Damage Ramp up per stack is increased by x%
• Range Pylon - Increases the Defense Range of nearby defenses to x%. Does not buff the Tower that equips this Shard.
• Spirit Blessing - Increases the Chi Spirit cripple effect by x%
• Stoking Fury - Landing physical attacks increases the damage of Fury by x% for 5s. Stacks 5 times.
• Steel Hurricane - Increases Whirlwind damage by x%.
• Volatile Gemstone - Increases the damage of Abyss Stone by x%.
• Weighted Stone - Increases the health of Maw of the Earth Drake by x%. The maw's beam attack now affects enemies' attack speed as well as their movement speed.

Chaos X Shards moved from other Chaos tiers

• Power Transfer - Increases the Defense Critical chance by x% and reduces Defense Health by 30%.
• World Tree McBufferson - The World Tree’s hero buff now lingers for an additional x seconds after leaving its radius, and it also increases Hero Damage and Ability Power by 10%.

Chaos X Mods

• Anti Heal Servo - Reduce Healing of enemies by x%.
• Anti Heal Chip - Reduce Healing of enemies by x%.
• Pre-emptive Strike Chip - After not dealing or taking damage for 5 seconds your next attack deals x% more damage and is a guaranteed Crit.
• Fragile Power Chip - +x Ability Power. After taking damage, lose this effect for 10 seconds.
• Fragile Damage Chip - +x Hero Damage. After taking damage, lose this effect for 10 seconds.
• Armor Chip - +x Hero Armor.
• Healthy Crit Chip - +x% Crit Chance and +x% Crit Damage when at 90%+ Health.
• Air Superiority - While in the Air Primary Attacks deal x% more damage.
• Swap Tenacity Chip - +x% Tenacity for x seconds after swapping in.

Chaos X Incursions

With the final Chaos tier comes the final set of Prime Incursions at their highest level of difficulty. These Incursions will drop Chaos X variants of the Chaos IX Ring equipment, with higher stat levels, in addition to their normal drops.

Similarly to Chaos IX, completing each Prime region will not give a new set of Hyper Shards. However, completion of all Chaos X Prime Incursions will reward one new Hyper Shard:
Tandem Strike - After damaging an enemy, all Defenses deal x% more damage to that enemy for 5 seconds.

Another copy of this Hyper Shard can be earned through the completion of all Chaos X Mastery objectives.

Chaos X Onslaught Changes

• The minimum Onslaught floor will not change after completing a Chaos X expedition.
• A new Onslaught lane, “War Party”, has been added to Onslaught floors 650 and above.
• A new Onslaught lane, “Stabby LavaBugs”, has been added to Onslaught.

New Region - Hidden Caverns

Only recently uncovered, the Hidden Caverns is a new region in Dragonfall that has become a point of interest for the heroes and the Old One’s army alike! This region consists of two new maps - Lava Caverns, and Crystal Mine. Though some parts of these maps may be familiar, others have never before been seen! Fitting for mines, players will receive Ingots for completing these maps.

New Enemy - Lava Bug - A variant of the Lightning Bug native to the Hidden Caverns.

New Boss - Lava Beast - A giant, mutated Witherbeast found only in the Crystal Mine, this enemy has a wide variety of fiery attacks. Its hide is extremely durable, but there may be a way to deal increased damage…

Hidden Caverns Weapons

• Earth Guardian’s Arm
• Earth Guardian’s Mace
• Earth Guardian’s Tome
• Earth Guardian’s Spear
• Earth Guardian’s Rifle
• Earth Guardian’s Dagger
• Earth Guardian’s Canister
• Earth Guardian’s Staff
• Earth Guardian’s Bow

Hidden Caverns Unique Mods

• Axearang - Once every 2 seconds, your attacks spawn a flying Pickaxe that pierces enemies and returns to you dealing x% of your Hero Damage as Physical damage to all enemies hit.
• Gold Rush - Gain x Hero Damage for each enemy killed; resets when damaged.
• Metamorphosis - After taking damage, take x% less damage from further attacks for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Molten Cage - 10% chance on hit to trap the enemy in a cage of fire, stunning them for 3 seconds and dealing x fire damage over 5 seconds.
• Shift Rotation - +x% Hero Damage and Ability Power for 10 seconds after swapping in. Afterwards, reduces Hero Damage and Ability Power by 25% until swapped out.

New Pets

• Earthen Dragon - Found in Hidden Caverns on Chaos VIII, IX, and X
• Unique Pet Ability: Dust Devil - Fires a magical Stone that stirs up a heavy Sand Storm, slowing enemies by 40% and dealing 600% Hero Earth Damage every second for 10 seconds. Cooldown of 30.00s.
• Golden Earthen Dragon - Rarely found in Hidden Caverns on Chaos VIII, IX, and X
• Shares the Dust Devil ability with the Earthen Dragon.
• Cyberdragon - Premium Pet
• Unique Pet Ability: Overcharged Laser - Fire a devastating magical blast dealing 2,500% magical Fire Hero Damage and knockback to one enemy. Cooldown of 30.00s.
• Shinobi Turtle - Premium Pet
• Unique Pet Ability: Bouncing Shell - Fires a Shell that bounces to 10 nearby enemies dealing 2000% Hero Earth Damage and explodes on the last target dealing the same damage to all nearby targets. Cooldown of 45.00s.

New Skins

• Captain Boom Gunwitch skin
• Pirate EV2 skin
• D.I.V.E.R. 1000 Engineer skin

New Flairs

• Corrupted Ancient Wings - Complete C10 Mastery
• Golden Wings - Available from the Black Market Vendor for 1 Billion gold for a limited time only!

Bundle

• Diver Bundle - Includes Engineer Hero and the D.I.V.E.R 1000 Engineer skin

Balance

• Reduced Focused Power Chip and Focused AP Chip from 60% -> 30%
• Improved targeting for Ballista, Harpy, Poison Dart, and Chi Spirit towers.
• Rescaled Celebration canister to reduce server lag. Overall DPS should be similar to before.
• Goblin Siege Rollers are now tagged as Goblins.

Bug Fixes

• Several back-end optimizations to improve loading times.
• Fixed an issue where cutscenes wouldn’t load properly.
• Fixed an issue where Accumulator Servo wasn’t working properly.
• Fixed an issue where the Elder Dragon couldn’t hit flying enemies.
• Fixed an issue where some minibosses were not properly tagged as minibosses.
• Fixed an issue where hero models would sometimes be incorrect when swapping.

QOL

• Premium Eggs now appear in the Black Market Vendor.