New DDA Hero – The Warden

Chromatic Games April 22nd, 2021

DEFENDERS,

We’ve shown two maps in the past two weeks coming in Episode 1, and now we’re excited to present… ANOTHER MAP! Wait, sorry, we read that wrong, it was supposed to say A NEW DDA CHARACTER. Wow, that’s actually way cooler. Let’s get into it!

New Hero – The Warden

The Warden breaks loose from the grip of a tree.

As hinted at in our April Fools Day “update”, we misspelled the hero name as The Andrew (an anagram for Warden, what a coincidence). A guardian of the forest that was banished to the realm our heroes find ourselves in, The Warden joins our roster to help push back the evils that stand in your way!

In our surveys and roadmap voting, the Dryad from Dungeon Defenders II was one of the most requested heroes. The Warden is her spiritual successor, using the powers of the forest to take down any foe that approaches. Let’s dive into the abilities and defenses for this guardian of the grove.

Attacks and Abilities

Developer Note: All of these things are subject to change in regards to balance, functionality, and visuals.

Weapon of Choice: Polearm

Primary Attack: The Warden swings her mighty polearm like a scythe clearing a field, destroying foes that stand before you in melee range.

Secondary Attack – Sprout: The Warden calls forth a sprout that erupts from the ground, dealing low AoE damage to nearby enemies, shooting a seed a short distance away.

Normal Form: Picking up the seed instantly regenerates 15% of the Warden’s mana.
Wrath Form: The seed grants increased damage and movement speed for 5 seconds.

Ability 1 – Mushroom Circle: Beckons forth a burst of mushrooms from the desired location.

Normal Form: Mushrooms heal allies within the circle, while slowing enemy movement speed and reducing attack rate.
Wrath Form: Enemies take damage while within the circle. After 10 seconds, the mushroom circle erupts, dealing damage and stunning all enemies within the circle.

Ability 2 – Wrath Form: Calls upon the power of the forest causing the Warden to surge with energy.

Wrath Form increases the strength of all The Warden’s abilities and defenses while active, regardless of range.

Defenses

Roots of Purity- Defense 1: Summons a blockade that can take a beating from enemies. Blesses the ground with the Zone of Purity around the roots that allows the Warden’s other defenses to be constructed. The Zone of Purity restores 1% HP per second to any hero within its coverage.

Mana Cost: 20 Build Mana
Defense Units: 1 DU
Wrath Form: The Zone of Purity becomes the Zone of Wrath, dealing damage over time to enemies within its boundaries, while also slightly reducing enemy damage.

Wisp Den – Defense 2: Opens a portal, pulling through three wisps that focus down enemies within its range, always prioritizing high-threat targets.

Mana Cost: 50 Build Mana
Defense Units: 4 DU
Wrath Form: Wisps become enraged, attacking enemies at a much faster rate.

Beaming Blossom – Defense 3: Grows a flower that collects solar energy that then goes crazy towards enemies within its range, shooting a continuous beam of pure solar energy that deals high damage before needing to gather more energy.

Mana Cost: 70 Build Mana
Defense Units: 5 DU
Wrath Form: The beam becomes magically empowered, piercing through enemies.

Shroomy Pit – Defense 4: A pit appears that spawns a Shroomy, a brave mushroom warrior of the forest. Shroomies don’t have a lot going on in their heads, and as a result they do two things. Idly stand still, and as they spot an enemy, charge legs first (they’re a bit off-balance) and explode into enemies, dealing damage in a large area.

Mana Cost: 40 Build Mana
Defense Units: 5 DU
Wrath Form: Shroomies enter their own Wrath Form, applying a damage over time effect to enemies hit by their explosion.

Sludge Launcher – Defense 5: Vines and logs are infused together, pulling in toxins from the ground, shooting out giant globs that explode on contact, dealing a large amount of damage to the first enemy hit and heavily coat them in sludge, lightly covering nearby enemies in sludge, slightly slowing them.

Mana Cost: 80 Build Mana
Defense Units: 7 DU
Wrath Form: If the Warden attacks heavily sludge-covered enemies, they can be stunned for 1.5 seconds.

We’ve discussed on stream quite a bit, which if you haven’t been watching you should join us on Fridays at 3:00 PM ET, the new maps and heroes we are adding to DDA. The goal is to bring back fan favorites, while also bringing in brand new additions. We’ve also got a lot of fantastic never used characters in our vault that we’ll be using as a foundation and reworking to give them new life as they make their way into DDA. The Warden is further proof we’re looking at adding in the things you, our GLORIOUS DEFENDERS, want to see in future DDA updates.

What’s Next

We’re going to be streaming The Warden THIS WEEK on April 23rd at 3:00 PM ET over on Twitch, showing off all of her nature-infused power. If you’re not able to make the stream, we post our VODs and a condensed version of the new info in a “Just the Beans” edit the following week on YouTube.

We’re also going to continue doing weekly reveals until Episode 1 is out in the wild, so there’s a lot to look forward to. With all of this going on, we’re still continuing our Nintendo Switch and PlayStation development. The console development takes the efforts of specific individuals, so while we’re showing off all the episodic content we’re working on, rest assured that we’re still diligently working on getting DDA onto the remaining promised consoles.