Useful Information

Page Sections

These sections are helpful for new and returning players, but they are kept separate from the main progression route so that page stays easier to follow.

• Common Issues and Account Reset
• Before Starting - DLCs, Settings, and Hotkeys
• Built-in Emulator
• Item Box Management
• Dungeon Defenders Wiki
• Other Useful Information
• Original Steam Guides

Common Issues and Account Reset

This section covers account reset options, save file issues, hosting problems, audio bugs, crashes, workshop map problems, and ranked account issues.

Resetting a Local Save

If you are using local saves and want to reset your account, turn off Steam Cloud first. Then delete the local Dungeon Defenders save files.

1. Turn off Steam Cloud.
2. Delete DunDefHeroes.dun and DunDefHeroes.dun.bak from your Steam userdata folder.
3. Delete the same save files from the Dungeon Defenders game folder under Binaries/Win32.

Resetting a Ranked Save

Ranked saves cannot really be reset normally. The closest option is a soft reset: delete heroes, delete items, and get rid of your mana.

This will not reset map progression or achievements. Another option is to use another Steam account and either buy the game again or use family sharing.

Basic Troubleshooting

Before trying more specific fixes, start with the simple options.

• Verify game files through Steam.
• Restart your computer.
• Reinstall the game if needed.
• Try the 64-bit version of the game from the game files.

Steam Maintenance

Steam maintenance usually happens on Tuesdays around 5 PM CST. During maintenance, players may be kicked off the server. Usually it only takes a few minutes, but sometimes it can take longer.

Can Join Games but Cannot Host

VPNs, Hamachi, tunneling software, or extra network adapters can interfere with hosting. Dungeon Defenders may choose the wrong network connection.

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Go to Network and Sharing Center.
3. Open Change Adapter Settings.
4. Disable extra adapters and leave only your main internet connection enabled.

Special characters in your Steam name may also cause hosting issues.

Intro Has Sound but the Game Does Not

Bluetooth headphones or speakers can sometimes cause the intro or cutscenes to have sound while the actual game has no audio.

A possible fix is to disable the headset device as both recording and playback, so Windows only uses the headphones device.

Crashing on Launch

Audio settings can sometimes make Dungeon Defenders crash when the intro cutscene starts.

1. Open Sound Control Panel.
2. Click your main playback device.
3. Open Properties.
4. Go to Advanced.
5. Change the frequency to 44 kHz.

You can also unplug or disable sound devices temporarily to test if audio is causing the crash.

Random Crashing While Playing

If the game randomly crashes, open Command Prompt and run:

If Windows finds corrupt files, verify Dungeon Defenders game files and restart your PC.

Network Connection Lost Every Few Minutes

If you crash often and get a message like “Your network connection has been lost,” try adding a Steam launch option.

1. Right-click Dungeon Defenders in Steam.
2. Open Properties.
3. Find Launch Options.
4. Type -tcp.

Flickering Characters or Black Screen Multi-box

If you see z-fighting, flickering characters, or a black screen while multi-boxing, open your NVIDIA Control Panel and toggle anti-aliasing settings.

Package Mismatch Errors

Package mismatch errors commonly happen after using workshop maps or joining someone who has used workshop maps. Usually, both players restarting their game fixes it.

If workshop maps keep causing issues, unsubscribe from workshop maps and delete files from the CookedMods folder.

“Banned from the Current Game Session” Message

This usually does not mean you are actually banned. It often means you tried to join a game you were kicked from, or you tried to join a hidden game.

Corrupted Saves or Lost Progress

If you randomly lose progress or think your save is corrupted, stop logging in. Continuing to log in can keep creating new saves and may make the progress loss permanent.

Visual Studio Redistributables

Reinstalling the latest Visual Studio redistributable packages can fix some random issues.

Banned from Ranked

If the game literally tells you that you are banned from ranked, you can contact Chromatic Games support. They may do an unban, but only after five years, and your ranked save will be wiped.

Before Starting - DLCs, Settings, and Hotkeys

Play on Ranked

Chiku strongly recommends playing on the Ranked server. It is the same game, and you can still play privately or with friends.

Ranked is recommended because it gives you cloud saves, access to the main community, and Steam achievements. You can also copy your Ranked save over to Open or Local if needed.

Required and Recommended DLC

This progression route requires DLC. Chiku recommends buying the Ultimate Collection when the game goes on sale, but these are the most important DLCs and heroes in order.

1. The Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards: Unlocks Nightmare difficulty. This is basically mandatory because Nightmare unlocks a huge amount of content and power.
2. Series EV: Probably the most important hero for mid to late-game because of beams and utility.
3. Summoner: Very useful late-game. Minions can act like self-healing walls, and Summoner can force only armor to drop.
4. Tinkerers Lab: A great map for leveling quickly at almost any stage of progression.
5. Hermit: Adds to the late-game meta, helps against tanky enemies, and is one of the best early-game heroes.
6. Warden: A strong alternative to Apprentice or Adept towers, especially on more open maps.
7. Hero Pack: Includes Adept, Countess, Initiate, and Ranger. Adept is great for upgrading, Countess is useful much later for Assault DPS, Initiate can replace Monk for aura building, and Ranger is not very useful.
8. Jester: A strong DPS hero with one of the best general wave-combat utility abilities.
9. Guardian: Not required yet, but adds another fun hero option.
10. Gunwitch and Barbarian: These are not high priority for this route because they are pure DPS heroes and do not place towers.

Settings to Consider Turning Off

These settings can make the game feel cleaner and less distracting.

• Show Tutorial
• Auto Show Level Up
• Camera Shake
• Step Toward Melee Target
• Enemy Spawn Notifications
• Auto Adjust Camera

Settings to Consider Turning On

• Fast Gameplay Menu Transitions
• Enable Censor Items, especially if you are streaming, recording, or posting screenshots of rare items.

Chiku also plays with the FOV zoomed out almost all the way. This mostly helps with the Great Old One boss and its variants, but it can make top-down building feel zoomed out too far.

Menu Hotkeys

• Escape: Menu
• Tab: Chat
• F1: Chat and chat log
• killme: Type this in chat to kill your player if stuck
• F2-F8: In-game emulator
• F11: Toggle windowed/fullscreen
• 1-0: Number hotkeys
• Change number hotkeys: Hover over an option in the hero wheel and hold the number you want to assign it to.
• 1-8: Select heroes in hero selection
• 9 and 0: Change pages in hero selection
• Hold Alt in hero selection: Swap characters around
• U: Open trade window
• L: Lock a single item while hovering over it
• T while trading: Add or remove an item from trade
• Ctrl + T: Add or remove a page of items from trade
• Ctrl + Drag: Move a full page of items into a folder

Upgrading Stats Faster

• Hero stats: Hold Shift to upgrade up to 5 at a time, or Ctrl to upgrade up to 100 at a time.
• Item stats: Hold Shift to upgrade up to 10 at a time, or Ctrl to upgrade up to 50 at a time.
• Unequip All Gear: Unequips all gear from the character stat screen.
• Ctrl + Unequip All Gear: Unequips accessories.
• Shift + Unequip All Gear: Unequips armor.

Defending a Dungeon Hotkeys

• O: Toggle mob cards
• G: Ready up for the wave
• Ctrl + G: Force start the wave as host
• V: Skip boss timer
• Ctrl + Shift: Show a minimap on the left side of the screen

General Gameplay Hotkeys

• Mouse Wheel: Zoom in and out
• Middle Mouse Button: Open hero wheel
• T: Open hero wheel
• Plus / Minus: Change trap and aura sizes while placing them
• Plus / Minus or E: Swap between selected towers when hovering over multiple towers for selling, upgrading, repairing, and similar actions.
• Hold Alt + Scroll Wheel: Swap between selected towers when hovering over multiple towers.
• P: Toggle towers on the map
• Q: Look around
• R: Same as right-click
• I: Character information and level-up screen
• H: HUD
• Shift: Open map
• X: Swap weapons on Series EV or Jester
• C: Ping
• B: Toggle item color beams
• M: Drop mana
• N: Drop half your mana
• Ctrl + M: Locally drop mana
• Ctrl + P: Toggle green arrows
• Ctrl + C: Toggle censor items
• Ctrl + B: Toggle EV beams snapping to DU
• Hold Ctrl: Move camera with mouse
• Ctrl + O: Toggle item quality borders
• Ctrl + Z: Toggle Step Toward Melee Target

Summoner Overlord Mode

• Mouse Wheel / R3: Change camera height
• Click and drag to move items around in your tavern.
• Abilities cast where your cursor is.
• You can cast different minions, repair, upgrade, and use abilities at the same time as long as you have enough mana.
• You can pick up items in build phase with mouse controls.
• Controller R3: Opens or closes the map.
• You can click the map to move your camera to that location.

Tower Stacking

If you are the host, you can stack towers by pressing the tower hotkey and spacebar at almost the same time. If timed correctly, this lets you place towers inside each other.

Some players use a macro for this, but Chiku does it manually and has also figured out how to do it with Steam Controller Input.

A Built-in Emulator

If you are returning to Dungeon Defenders, you might remember using multiple controllers or a third-party emulator to bring in extra heroes. You do not need those anymore because the game now has a built-in emulator.

The built-in emulator lets you spawn in extra players and swap your controls to the hero you want to play. It also has controller support.

Built-in Emulator Hotkeys

• F2: Swap to player 1.
• F3: Spawn in and/or swap to player 2.
• F4: Spawn in and/or swap to player 3.
• F5: Spawn in and/or swap to player 4.
• F6: Spawn in splits using the first few heroes listed.
• F7: Remove all splits.
• F8: Hide splits and show only player 1.

Auto-Fire Trick

If player 2, 3, or 4 has a right-click attack, you can hold right-click and then swap back to player 1. This can make that hero keep firing automatically.

With Apprentice, you can hold both left-click and right-click to auto-fire. This only works with one hero at a time.

You can also use this same method to keep your map open.

Item Box Management

Keep Your Main Page Clear

Chiku recommends keeping your main item box page clear of items. This makes it much easier to see new rewards when you receive them.

Why Use Folders?

Dungeon Defenders gives you a lot of loot. If your main page is full, it becomes harder to tell what new rewards you just received.

Folders help keep your forge cleaner and make sorting items less stressful.

How Folders Work

In the forge inventory, folder options are on the left side of the screen. You can make, delete, and rename folders there.

• You can make up to six folders per page.
• You can make folders inside folders.
• You can keep nesting folders many layers deep.
• Chiku usually only goes about three layers deep.

Moving Items With Mouse

With mouse controls, click and drag items into folders.

To move an item up one folder level, drag the item to the folder option in the top-left area.

Moving Items With Controller

With controller, select a folder using Y on Xbox or Triangle on PlayStation.

• Press L3 on an item to move it up one folder.
• Select a folder, then press L3 to move items into it.

Recommended Basic Folder Setup

You can organize your forge however you want, but this is the minimum setup Chiku recommends.

• To Sort Later: A folder for items you do not want to sort right away.
• Equipment: A folder for items you regularly swap between or use often.
• Other: A folder for bulk items you do not want to throw away yet.

Armor Farming Note

The Other folder is especially useful while armor farming. Since you need full armor sets for multiple heroes, you may end up holding many pieces until you can finish the sets you need.

Sorting Preference

Chiku prefers keeping folders simple and using the Type and Quality sorting option.

This avoids needing separate folders for Leather, Pristine, Mail, Plate, and other armor types. Being that organized can become too much work.

Dungeon Defenders Wiki

More Information

The Dungeon Defenders Wiki is a great source for extra information. Chiku mostly recommends it for achievements, but it also has information about pets, map rewards, costume stats, armor set bonuses, and more.

Some older information is still correct, but the wiki may need updates in some areas. This section lists useful wiki pages that can help newer players who do not already have most of the game memorized.

Useful Wiki Links

Other Useful Information

Gameplay Info

This section covers extra Dungeon Defenders information that does not fit cleanly into the main progression route, but is still useful to know.

Ultimate Quality Rolls

Ruthless does not increase the overall ultimate drop rate or quality rate. Instead, it changes the distribution within the Ultimate tier.

Of all Ultimates obtained on Ruthless:

• Ultimate 90: ~58%
• Ultimate 93: ~26.88%
• Ultimate+: ~11.7936%
• Ultimate++: ~3.3264%

Of all Ultimates obtained on Nightmare:

• Ultimate 90: ~60%
• Ultimate 93: ~26.8%
• Ultimate+: ~10.56%
• Ultimate++: ~2.64%

For example, Dice pets from King's Game Ruthless Hardcore will roll Ultimate++ about every 1/42 ultimate drops instead of Nightmare's average of about 1/50 ultimate drops.

Important Nightmare Changes

Nightmare difficulty changes several player, pet, and tower values compared to Insane or lower.

• Hero HP is buffed.
• Hero resistances are nerfed.
• Hero damage is nerfed.
• Pet damage is buffed.
• Weapon projectile speed is nerfed.
• Tower damage is buffed.
• Tower range is nerfed.

Player Scaling

The more heroes you have in play, the harder the game becomes. More players can add mobs and increase enemy HP. This scaling only goes up to four players.

Builder Bonus

When your builder hero is active in the map, the towers that hero built get a 33% damage bonus. If the builder dies, the bonus only stays active until the hero avatar disappears.

Best Experience Bonuses

These bonuses each give around 33% extra experience per wave. Other bonuses do not come close.

1. Do not get hit.
2. Hit something.
3. Do not let the core get hit.

Quality Table

This table shows level requirements, set bonuses, and stat upgrade caps by item quality.

Unlocks

Experience Orbs

You need the Ultimate Defender achievement to use experience orbs. You earn one from getting Ultimate Defender, and you can earn another from each True Boss Rush clear.

True Boss Rush and Great Old One

To access True Boss Rush, you need to complete Eternal Defender and defeat Great Old One in CR3.

The required maps for unlocking Great Old One are:

• Crystalline Dimension
• Dread Dungeon
• Arcane Library
• Buccaneer Bay
• Pirate Invasion
• Embermount Volcano
• Temple of Water
• Temple of Polybius
• Crystalline Resurgence Parts 1-3 on NMHC

After meeting the requirements, a button appears next to the Experience Orb in the basement. Press it to enter True Boss Rush.

Changing the Tavern

• Requires the Mythical Defender achievement.
• Requires specific map completions for specific taverns.
• Click the option and re-enter the tavern to change it successfully.

All One-Time Rewards

• Entering Your Tavern: Four TF2 pets and Aperture Science HPD
• Main Campaign Clear: Secret Room and Parents Weapons
• Legendary Defender: Chicken Pet
• Warping Core Pack 1: Four Zamira Fairies
• Mythical Defender: Tavern Changing
• Hardcore Mythical Defender: Aperture Science HPD Mk2
• Tropics of Etheria Secret: Wicked Glasses
• Clear all Original Challenges on Nightmare: Companion Cube
• Ultimate Defender: Secret Basement Room
• Eternal Defender: Defender's Party Hat, Celebration Horn, and Eternal Gift accessories
• Great Old One: Ultimate Crystalline Defender Shield
• Great Old One no armor clear: Glass Accessory Set. This must be done solo with no splits and no armor equipped.
• Love Machine Magi: Reach the required wave based on heroes in play: 1 hero wave 17, 2 heroes wave 20, 3 heroes wave 23, 4 heroes wave 26, and 5-6 heroes wave 29.

Inventory Increases

• Ultimate Defender: 600 slots
• Ultimate Defender + Eternal Defender: 800 slots
• Ultimate Defender + Eternal Defender + Ruthless Defender: 1000 slots

Total possible storage, if you do not overcap:

• +250 from your personal mana shop
• +230 from your tavern floor
• +9 or +10 per hero, with up to 48 heroes
• With everything unlocked: 1912-1960 total storage
• Without Ultimate Defender: 1232-1280 total storage

Useful Files

These files can be useful:

• UDKInput: Useful for saving custom hotkeys. If an update resets your hotkeys, you can paste your saved copy back in.
• UDKCDTSettings: Lets you manually change item beam colors, upgrade order, and item box page size.

Item box page size options include default 5x3, old 4x3, and experimental 6x4.

Good Information Sources

Original Steam Guides

These are the original Steam guides by Chiku. This site ports and reorganizes the guide content into a uniform website layout, but the original guides are still linked here for reference.