Dungeon Defenders General Guide

Dungeon Defenders General Guide by Malandm

Hi all,
This guide explains everything, from levelling guides to mana making guides. If you have ever needed help levelling quick all the way up to level 70, then this is the guide that helps you reach your goal! If you ever needed to buy an amazing animus in your shop that you didn’t have enough mana for, then this guide will definitely help you! If you ever needed help with a certain level, then search through this guide to find how to complete that level really easily!

Guides:

– 1. Levelling up!
– 1.1 Levelling your Apprentice!
– 1.2 Levelling your Huntress!
– 1.3 Levelling your Squire!
– 1.4 Levelling your Monk!

– 2. Mana Making!
– 2.1 The Lower Levels
– 2.2 The Middle Levels
– 2.3 The Upper Levels and the Experts

– 3. Level Guides!
– 3.1 Deeper Well
– 3.2 Throne Room
– 3.3 Ramparts
– 3.4 Raining Goblins
– 3.5 Zippy Terror
– 3.6 Death From Above (aka DFA)
– 3.6.1 Death From Above – Method One
– 3.6.2 Death From Above – Method Two
– 4. How to train your Dragon (or Familiar)!
– 5. Upgrading!

Happy Dungeon Defending!
~Malandm

Guide One: Levelling up!

On Dungeon Defenders, levelling up is something that can be quite tricky, or very easy!
This guide will teach you all about abc Levelling! From levels 1 all to way up to 70!

Guide 1.1: Levelling Your Apprentice!

The apprentice is most peoples first choice for their first characters as the apprentice has great towers.
Levelling up with the apprentice is quite easy. All you need is the right equipment which shouldn’t bee too hard to get!

Levelling from 1-10:
For all classes, levelling from 1-10 is best and easiest at the Deeper Well. You should start off with medium difficulty and you may lose at your first try, but soon you will eventually level up and the level will become more easier. Refer to my Deeper Well Guide if you have trouble. Once you feel confident with medium difficulty Deeper Well, start moving onto a harder difficulty at about level 7-8, or earlier if possible. You can earn mana easily at the beginning levels at Deeper Well.

Levelling from 10-40:
Now you should start doing Deeper Well on insane difficulty, it may be harder at first, but the XP you gain is much higher. Keep training at Insane Deeper Well until level 40, where you will then move to a harder challenge. With Insane Deeper Well, towers are really important and you can get good drops from there as well! You can earn about 40k per 10 minutes.

Levelling from 40-70 (Option One):
You can now leave Deeper Well to go to a harder, but better challenge. This challenge is called Raining Goblins which you can easily unlock by completing all the missions up to Alchemy Laboratory (you also need to complete Alchemy Laboratory). You should straight away jump to Insane Raining Goblins at level 40 as it is really easy and you can earn about 50k+ per 10 minutes. Refer to my Raining Goblins guide for more help of Raining Goblins solo.

Levelling from 40-70 (Option Two, requiring a Team):
This is the easiest method of levelling up! You can earn about 100k mana within 10 minutes, however you require a team of people who will help you and you need to have completed up to and including Hall Of Court. Zippy Terror is a very easy challenge in a group, and you should easily reach level 70!

Requested Methods:
Requested by a player. Wizardry! All you need is an Apprentice with good or alright Tower stats. Just build one Deadly Striker Tower along the routes of the Mages. If you haven’t met the level requirement for a Deadly Striker Tower, just use Fireball Towers instead. You should be able to get about 25k XP per 10 minutes. I wouLd still suggest doing Deeper Well Insane as it’s easier and you can get more experience!

Guide 1.2: Levelling up your Huntress!

Also some peoples first choice for their first hero, but my second character. The huntress can also very easily level up like the apprentice, with less lag XD !

Levelling from 1-10:
Level 1-10 is the same as for the apprentice, but with traps! Use mainly proximity mine traps but far apart from each other so that they don’t set each other on.

Levelling from 10-40:
Same as apprentice once again, however this time you have access to more traps so stack the traps in the order: inferno trap, gas trap, proximity trap and ethereal trap near the stairs near to the crystal, or the other set of stairs, your choice. If you choose the other set of stairs make sure the ethereal trap is positioned so it could still take out the orcs coming from the door near to the stairs.

Levelling from 40-70:
Same as apprentice once again. Stack the traps like before with the levelling from 10-40, in the same order near the two main entrances to the crystal. On the two minor entrances to the crystal, place the traps in the same way but without ethereal traps. You may not have enough defence units so you may have to not use some inferno traps, as proximity traps do much more damage.

Levelling from 40-70 (Option Two):
Same as apprentice.
Refer to the Zippy Terror guide. You will need a team.

Requested Methods:
Levelling from 10-40 (Option Two and New):
This method was requested by a player. Wizardry! Ever heard of it? It’s a challenge and is an alternative for Deeper Well Insane. This method is for all of you who hate doing the same thing over and over again. In Wizardry, you could get about about 25k XP per 10 minutes of playing. All you need is an alright huntress with good or alright Tower Stats. Build a gas trap and ethereal trap on top of each other a little away from each respawn area of the Mages. Just keep repairing or upgrading your traps and you should be fine! I would still suggest doing Deeper Well Insane as it is much easier and better XP.

Guide 1.3: Levelling your Squire!

Levelling your Squire may be a little bit harder than with the Huntress and the Apprentice as you won’t have as useful towers, however, levelling is still easy.

Levelling from 1-10:
Same as for the Huntress and Apprentice, however you use different towers. You need as many bouncer blockades as possible, two by the stairs (one of each) and spread the rest out on the battlefield on the ground. Levelling should be easy with squire from 1-10.

Levelling from 10-70:
Same as for the Huntress and Apprentice. However, this time you use two Slice N Dice Blockades at the bottom of the stairs (one on each) and two bouncer blockades on the top of the stairs. This should be enough to kill all the monsters. Just keep repairing your blockades. This can be used for up to level 70 as the option for the Raining Goblins is cancelled as your squire won’t be able to defeat all the goblins.

Levelling from 40-70:
Zippy Terror once again! This time, you can make yourself VERY useful and you would be able to take care of the top, or one pathway near the bottom! All you need to do is block, and have a good sword with a good block percentage.

Levelling from 60-70 (or 50-70, depending on your sword, fairy and a good resist set) :
Requirements: A good sword, a good fairy and good resists.
This time, you can REALLY easily level up by doing Monster Fest, a well known challenge which yields great rewards!
To unlock Monster Fest you need to unlock up to and including Oakvalle Crossing.
You can try easy Monster Fest if you don’t feel to confident, or you can go straight to Medium, Hard and Insane difficulties! You can reach level 70 from level 60 by doing insane Monster Fest for about 1 hour! You can also get great rewards worth a lot on the forums!

Guide 1.4: Levelling Your Monk:

Levelling your Monk will be harder than the other classes as the Monk’s towers aren’t as great as the rest. However at times you may find that levelling your Monk is easier than levelling your Squire.

Levelling from 1-10:
Try your best with Deeper Well medium as it is quite hard with a Monk. You may find that you need to go to Easy Deeper Well. With your monk, just use the first available aura you unlock when you start using a monk. Place it all over the map on the battlefield just outside of the purple aura on the ground which makes the monsters invincible. As you progress, start using enrage auras instead all over the battlefield. Make sure to kill the orcs coming from the sides.

Levelling from 10-40:
Same as for all the other classes, just use enrage auras all over the map like before. Should be trickier than before with the other classes but you will eventually manage it in the end.

Levelling from 40-70:
You now introduce Raining Goblins back into your XP farming list of levels! Use enrage auras just outside of the purple aura surrounding the crystal. Should be tricky once again, but you will eventually get the hang it in the end. I recommend using a multiple projectile range weapon on your monk as you will be able to attack more monsters quicker.

Levelling from 40-70:
Zippy Terror once again! You can try to help out as with the huntress and apprentice, but your helpers should hopefully be able to kill all the kobolds.

Thats it to the levelling guides for all your heroes!

Guide Two: Mana Making!

In Dungeon Defenders, mana is the trading unit and is essential for upgrading your equipment to make the most out of, buying items from the tavern keep or other players and also for building, upgrading and repairing towers (within a level only, in your tavern it’s free). This guide will teach you the very easiest methods of mana making from the lower level 10s up to the experts! The range of mana making guides are from about 60k per hour up to an amazing 10mil per hour!

Guide 2.1: The Lower Levels

At the lower levels, mana making seems to be REALLY hard! However, with a few tips, you can earn yourself a not too bad 60k mana per hour from level 10-40!
The method for this is Insane Deeper Well. If you need help with Insane Deeper Well, refer to my Deeper Well guide. In Insane Deeper Well, all you have to do during the combat phase is pick up all the loot found on the floor and send them to the forge, and by the end you should have at least 10k mana worth of items in your forge if you sent all of them to the forge. This is really easy and you can even level up really easily while you’re doing this! This is probably the best mana making guide for the lower levels so it will be the only method I will mention. If you would like more methods for the lower levels, just ask for some and I will soon add another method.
The Middle Levels

This is when the mana making starts to become really easy and quick! Between levels 40-60, mana making is really easy at The Throne Room (aka TTR) on Insane and Hard difficulties! Refer to my The Throne Room guide if you are stuck. The Throne Room is best done by an apprentice with good tower stats or a huntress with good tower stats. From the Throne Room hard, you can get about 1 million mana per hour, whereas in Insane you should be able to get about 1.2 million mana per hour! It’s really simple, all you need to do is pick up all the loot which has a mana value of 1k or more, and send them all the your forge. When an ogre appears, run straight to it and try to kill it and steal its loot, and if you’re lucky, you should get about 2-3 items worth 10k mana each or more at Hard difficulty, or 3-4 items worth 13k mana or more at Insane difficulty! If you do manage to find a Godly Enchanted Pristine on the floor, sent it straight to your tavern and if the stats are good you can sell it for around 2 million on the forums! If you are really confident attempt the Insane difficulty, however if you’re not that confident you should probably stick to the Hard difficulty. The Throne Room is very easy once you found the correct build which you can find in the Throne Room guide.

Another good place for mana making at the middle levels would be Hall Of Court (aka HoC), which I personally think is harder than The Throne Room solo. Although Hall Of Court doesn’t have as good drops as The Throne Room and is more spread out, it still has some GEPs which can be found there, not a lot, but still some. With Hall Of Court you could earn about 600k-800k on Hard and Insane difficulties, which is unfortunately lower than The Throne Room. I would suggest sticking to The Throne Room. One other good map would be Alchemy Laboratory where you could get around 600-800k mana once again, but is easier than Hall Of Court. Alchemy Laboratory is quite simple and you could possibly use the same build as for Raining Goblins but it just won’t be as efficient. Once again I would suggest sticking to The Throne Room as it is much easier and earns you more mana. As for the boss, try and get as high dps (damage per second) and strike the boss’ back, where you could do more damage.

Guide 1.3: The Upper Levels and The Experts!

From the level 60 and above, mana making is truly simple! You can get about 10 mil per hour from some places suitable for level 60 and above.
The first method I will be explaining is from Ramparts on Insane and Hard difficulties! Ramparts is the last possible mission for non-Tegra2 players, and can be quite tricky! Refer to my Ramparts guide for help. In Ramparts, just pick up all the items worth about 2-3k or more and send them to your tavern. You should collect about 1.5-2 million mana from each run of Hard or Insane Ramparts. At the higher waves, some items found can be worth about 10k+ mana quite commonly and the 20k+ are slightly uncommon. You just need to make sure to keep checking all around the map for any good loot as the map is quite big. A monster to look out for when looking for loot would be the wyverns. They can drop some good loot, so can the orcs and archers, but it’s mostly the wyverns that drop the good loot, along with ogres who drop amazingly great loot.

A very good mana making map would be Monster Fest on Medium and Insane difficulties, where you can get up to 400k mana from Insane alone. How you get the rest of the 9.6 million is simple. The Rewards. From Easy and Medium Monster Fest, you are rewarded with weapons depending on the class you used. On Hard and Insane difficulties, you are rewarded with fairies. Now, still how do u get the 9.6 million? The answer is simple, when using a Squire, you can be rewarded with GREAT blazemourns, where if the damage is 100 or above, you can sell for about 10mil on the forums, if you manage to find a blazemourn with 110 damage or above, you could sell it easily for 10mil, or you can be patient and wait for a 15mil offer to come. On Insane difficulty, if you manage to find a fairy with 140/4+ or 130/5+, you can easily sell it for 10 mil once again, however find one worth about 140/5+ and you should get an offer relatively quickly for 15mil. I would suggest doing Medium Monster Fest instead if Insane as it is quicker, easier and you could still get good items! Just remember to do Medium Monster Fest with a squire to get the blazemourn as the reward. That, is how you get 10mil per hour! (it usually takes about 3-4 tries to get an item that good for me, taking 1hour to 1 hour 20min)

Not yet there to do Monster Fest? Well, this method could get you about 15mil per 1 hour and a half! The place is Death From Above, a campaign which you unlock after completing Ramparts. For more help on Death From Above refer to my Death From Above guide. In this campaign, you are rewarded very generously on easy mode only with an iGameshot’s Reptillium! If you manage to find one with at least 50/7, then you can get about 8 mil for it on the forums, however, manage to find one with 60/7, especially one with 64/7+, and you should be able to really easily sell it for 15 mil on the forums. An iGameshot’s Reptillium is a staff used for an apprentice and could get you up to 40k dps, or even 50k dps with WCS (Weak Charge Shot). Its best to do the campaign in a team as the best rewards can be awarded that way. The more people in the team, the better the rewards. This is to in courage playing online within a team.

These are all the best methods of getting mana really quick! With the extra guide of the iGameshot’s Reptillium, added as an extra. Now you can easily get that animus you always wanted!

Guide Three: Level Guides!

In this guide you will learn about how to complete some of the most trickiest levels in Dungeon Defenders that is currently available for iOS and Android users. These guides will help you do the levels required for mana making or levelling up!

Guide 3.1: Deeper Well

Deeper Well is the very first level a player has access to and it can be very easy depending on your strategy. This guide will teach you how to easily be able to do Deeper Well on Insane difficulty.

Looks quite complex does it? Well it’s simple!
Firstly, you will need an apprentice, but the level is very doable with other classes as well.
Start off by going to all the chests and taking all the mana from them.
You then build the two magic blockades as shown in the picture.
Start off by building the Magic Missiles, at least one by each magic blockade.
You can start the wave now. Just be sure to help a little if your towers are struggling. Make sure you pick up all the mana left on the ground during and at the end of the wave.
Now go back and get the mana from all the chests.
Now build one more Magic Missile by each magic blockade and add one fireball tower by each blockade aswell.
Now you start the wave. Make sure to pick up all the mana left on the ground once again.
Get the mana from all the chests once again at the end of the wave.
Build one Deadly Striker Tower by each magic blockade if you have met or exceeded the level requirement, otherwise build more fireball towers. Making sure that all the towers are at a slight angle so they can take out the monsters coming from the sides.
Now just build more and more Fireball and Magic Missile Towers until your build looks something similar to the picture above.
Now you shouldn’t need to attack at all. Let the towers do all the work!

Guide 3.2: The Throne Room

This map is insanely easy! Only with the correct strategy that is. So I’m going to be explaining how to easily solo this map!

As you can see, the strategy once again is quite complex, but you will eventually memorise it after a few runs.
Start off by getting all the mana possible from the chests. You should have 420.
Start off by building the Fireball Towers by the lower crystal, and then placing the Magic Blockades next to them, at the top of the stairs.
Place three Magic Blockades on each entrance to the crystal where I have put two Magic Blockades instead of three (three doesn’t fit unfortunately). This is the REALLY important bit:
Make sure that the blockades on the edges next to the top crystal is as FAR as POSSIBLE from the crystal, but enough to guard the crystal so that kobolds don’t damage the crystal! Make them at a around 60 degree angle!
Now start the wave. At the beginning waves, you may have to attack as you haven’t yet finished the full setup. Make sure you are guarding the top crystal. Also try to get the mana left on the floor.
When the wave is over, go straight to the chests to get all the mana.
Now add two Fireball Towers to guard the top crystal. At this point also add one Lightning Tower just behind the crystal (above it on the map). This will take out the monsters which are resistant to fire. If you have 240 mana or more left over, place one Lightning Tower next to each Fireball tower. Make sure that the Lightning Towers are placed on the highest point on the map, which is on the sphere on top of the stairs. This will stop monsters from attacking your Lightning Tower and it will also kill wyverns.
Proceed to the next wave. This time, you would hardly do anything except attack the monsters on the floor. Make sure to pick up most of the mana.
When the wave is over, build two Deadly Striker Towers on the sides of the Eternian Crystal facing inside (look at the picture for help). This will kill some of the monsters on the ground. Now, as there wasn’t enough space in the picture for two Fireball and two Magic Missile Towers, I haven’t placed any there. Make sure that you do place some facing outside, without any angles so they can attack the monsters on the ground.
Now on the boss wave, just make sure to hit him on the back as that will do the most damage.
With this guide you should be able to do Insane and Hard The Throne Room depending on your Damage Per Second.

Guide 3.3: Ramparts

Ramparts is a little bit more tricky than the other levels I have mentioned so far, however, this level can be made less difficult when the correct strategy is used. Just remember, Dungeon Defenders is a strategy game. Good strategies make games like Dungeon Defenders much easier. Ramparts is easiest with a huntress build and only a few apprentice towers.

Requirements:
A Hybrid Huntress or a DPS Huntress and a Tower Build Huntress. (At least 10k dps Huntress needed)

Remember to repair all traps after each combat phase.

Now this build is much more complex than all the others. There are many traps and quite a few apprentice blockades and one Magic Missile.
Start off the wave by getting all the possible mana from the chests. Build an Inferno Trap, a Gas Trap and a Proximity Trap on the lower side of the map. Make sure its quite to the east, as this allows the Ethereal Trap (that you will build later on) not set off when a wyvern passes by, so that it can still damage the monsters on the floor.
Then you build the same order of traps north, as shown in the picture, on the right side of the roof.
Start the wave now. (Switch to your DPS huntress if you were using a Tower Build huntress)
Just kill all the monsters exactly west to the Crystal which is by itself. Try to get as much mana as possible as well. Also watch out for wyverns that do come.
On the build phase of the next wave, build an Inferno Trap, Gas Trap, Proximity Trap and an Ethereal Trap west of the Crystal. Also build one Magic Missile on the roof and one more Ethereal Trap on the roof if possible.
Start the next wave, guarding the Crystal by itself. (Switch back to DPS again)
At the end, pick up all the mana found on the floor once again.
On this build phase, build Ethereal Traps at the end of each set of traps. Also build the final set of traps by the west of the roof. The Ethereal Trap may even kill some wyverns for you. If you have mana left, build as many Ethereal Traps by the Crystal which is by itself. (The limit is 3 Ethereal Traps).
Start the wave. This time you can relax more.
At the next wave, just place one more Magic Missile on the roof. Also build the Magic Blockades after each trap set, excluding the trap set by the west of the roof.
Now start the rest of the waves. Just try to help out by killing the ogres.
That’s it!

Guide 3.4: Raining Goblins

Back to the easy levelling levels! This level is really easy! Especially on Insane!
Many people may think that Insane Raining Goblins is literally Impossible solo, but it isn’t! I used to think it was. Until I found out the perfect strategy for it!

This strategy seriously makes Raining Goblins easy. All you need is an apprentice. A tower build will do, or even a DPS one by itself!
Start off by getting all the mana from the chests.
Now build as many Fireball Towers as possible, each as close to the Crystal as possible, however as far away from each other as possible, therefore making a circle!
Start the wave and just attack as much as possible to help your towers. Try to get as much mana as possible as well.
Now at the end of the wave, get all the chests once again and place as much Fireball towers as you can until you have 8.
If you have 150 mana or more left, build a Deadly Striker Tower as shown in the picture.
Remember, you have only 40 defense units you can spend. Not 63 as shown in the picture (63 is for Alchemy Laboratory)
Now start the waves and you can relax.

Guide 3.5: Zippy Terror

This level is slightly tricky and is NOT doable solo. You need a team!

Requirements:
Any Combination Of:
Squire with 90% Block+ (DPS pet also preferred as an addition)
Apprentice with 10k dps (10k DPS pet OR Staff with 10k DPS+)
Huntress with 10k dps (10k DPS pet or bow with 10k DPS+)
Monk with 10k dps (10k DPS pet or bow with 10k DPS+)

As you can see, the map is very doable with 3 squires, which is not something many people know.
Just block everything with a squire. With the other classes, just attack all the kobolds in the same position as the squire.
The level is very easy and very useful for levelling up!
Just need to meet the requirements.

Guide 3.6: Death From Above

The guide you’ve all been waiting for: Death From Above (aka DFA)
DFA is one of the hardest maps solo, but can be quite easy in a group. This guide will teach you two different methods of achieving excellence in both Easy and Medium Death From Above, solo!

Guide 3.6.1: Death From Above: Method One

Requirements for method 1:
Monk (Tower Build)
Huntress (Hybrid is fine, DPS and Tower Build is better) with DPS pet if possible (10k dps+)
Apprentice (Hybrid is also fine, Tower Build is better)

That is method one. It requires a Tower Build monk, a Hybrid or Tower Build apprentice and a Hybrid huntress (at least).

To begin with, grab all the mana from all the chests with your apprentice and build the Fireball Towers as shown in the picture near the bottom crystal. Make sure to build them behind the crystal, so in the future the Towers won’t attack the ogres that will be coming.
Switch to a Huntress (Hybrid or DPS will do, or just 15k+ DPS) and start the next wave.
Go onto the roof and attack all incoming wyverns. This wave should be really easy.
When the wave is over, get all the mana the wyverns dropped and get all the possible mana from the chests as well.
Build a Proximity Trap, a Gas Trap and an Ethereal Trap by the east side of the roof, as shown in the picture.
Drop all your mana on the floor by the Forge and switch to your Tower Build Monk, picking up all the mana.
Build two Ensnare auras and an Enrage aura by the west side of the roof, placing one of the Ensnare auras on the floor and the other two Auras on the roof. If you have enough mana left, build two Enrage auras and an Ensnare aura in front of the Single Crystal (underneath it on the map) as shown in the picture.
Begin the wave, this time standing on the east side of the roof, rather on the top. Watch out for both wyverns and the ogres, as there is no Magic Blockade places yet to stop the ogre. This is why it’s best to have a DPS pet, the DPS pet would attack the wyverns while you can easily kill the ogre.
On the next wave, get all the possible mana from the chests once again and build another set of traps by the south-east of the Single Crystal as shown in the picture. Place the two Enrage Auras and one Ensnare Aura below the Single Crystal if you haven’t done so the previous wave. Also switch to Apprentice and build one Magic Blockade after each set of traps. Also try to build two Ethereal Traps below the Single Crystal as shown in the picture. Your build is now complete!
Just remember to keep the traps repaired!
Make sure to keep the mini-map open at all times so you are aware of the whereabouts of the wyverns.

Why is this Method Effective?
The Enrage and Ensnare Auras keep the wyverns still and they still lose damage from the towers.
The Ethereal Traps are placed on by the Enrage and Ensnare Auras under the Single Crystal so they can also do additional damage to wyverns.
The Trap sets are placed in a specific position so the Ethereal Trap doesn’t go off when a wyvern passes by, but it does go off when an ogre comes by, just as it’s supposed to.
The Magic Blockades stop the ogres from going further, so they take more damage from the Trap sets.

What is Death From Above good for?
-Mana making
-Getting a REALLY good staff (if lucky)

Guide 3.6.2: Death From Above: Method Two

Requirements:
Apprentice (Tower Build) with at least 50,80,70,70 AND Huntress (Tower Build) with at least 80,60,50,60 Tower Stats.
15k DPS Huntress (With 10k DPS pet) OR 20k DPS Apprentice (with 10k DPS pet)

This method is for those who don’t have such a good Monk to help out with freezing the wyverns.

Start off with your Tower Build Apprentice and get all the mana possible from the chests.
Build as many Deadly Striker Towers as possible behind the Crystal. You should be able to build three Deadly Striker Towers.
Switch to your DPS Apprentice or your DPS Huntress and start the next wave.
Go onto the roof and attack all the incoming wyverns. This shouldn’t be hard at all.
At the end of the wave pick up all the mana left on the floor. Also get all the possible mana from the chests.
Switch to Huntress Tower Build and build a Proximity Trap, a Gas Trap and an Ethereal Trap on the east side of the roof as shown in the picture. This will the the “Trap Set” for Death From Above.
Switch back to your Tower Build Apprentice and build as many Deadly Striker Towers as possible, but don’t build any more than 5 in total (with the ones already built).
Switch back to your DPS Apprentice or DPS Huntress and start the next wave.
Go onto the right side of the roof and kill all incoming wyverns. When an ogre comes, start attacking the Ogre and hopefully your DPS pet will kill the few wyverns that will come during the time that the ogre appears.
At the end of the wave, pick up all the mana left on the ground and also get all the possible mana from the chests.
Build the second Trap Set south-east on the map as shown in the picture, but this time start the set with an Inferno Trap, as you will be on the roof and you cannot kill the ogre approching from the south-west gate, so the Inferno Trap will do some extra damage to help out with killing the ogre. Make sure not to place the Ethereal Trap by the pathway of the wyverns approaching from south. Also try to build Magic Blockades after each Trap Set. If you have mana left over, also build one Ethereal Trap by the first East Crystal as shown in the picture. With any mana left, just repair the traps.
Start the next wave just like before, starting on the right side of the roof and killing all incoming wyverns, then killing the incoming ogre.
On the next wave, get all the mana on the floor and this time build two Ethereal Traps below the Single Crystal to help out with the Deadly Striker Towers in killing wyverns. Also repair all the traps and then you can upgrade the Deadly Striker Towers with the left over mana.
Proceed to the rest of the waves, starting in the same position as always, and always repairing your traps or upgrading them if you have the mana.

Why is this method effective?
Your Deadly Striker Towers and your Ethereal Traps will kill all incoming wyverns coming from south.
The Ethereal Trap east will kill all incoming wyverns which you didn’t manage to kill.
Your trap sets will kill the ogres.
Your Magic Blockades won’t let ogres get past the Ethereal Trap.
Your Deadly Striker Towers are placed behind the Single Crystal to kill only the wyverns and not any ogres, as your traps can kill the ogres.

Guide Four: How To Train Your Dragon (Or Familiar)

Familiars (aka pets) are really important for the bigger maps in Dungeon Defenders. They can help you out a lot and sometimes, they can even do more damage than you can! Familiars can be really hard to get, or sometimes really easy. This guide will teach you what familiars are best for attacking, healing and repairing.

Fairies

Fairies are familiars which heal your character as you take damage. They are quite small, and their heals can do as low as 50 (at level one) or go as high as 200, perhaps even more! Their heals per second go as high as 5, so they can heal you five times per second, which is really useful for the harder levels such as Monster Fest, where a fairy is necessary. Fairies can be found in your tavern after completing a level, or after completing Hard or Insane Monster Fest. They can be worth up to about 12 million mana on the forums with 150 heals, 5 heals per second and no negatives. Fairies are really useful and are definitely needed in your game! So try to get one! Make sure to watch out for ones with 150 heal and 5 heals per second or better!

Kain, Mesphito and The Demon

Kain, Mesphito and the Demon are familiars which repair your Towers as they start taking damage from monsters. They can be quite useful for maps which require a lot of towers, as you cannot keep repairing them along yourself. Kain can only be received by receiving all the trophies (which you get by completing achievements) and a Kain’s stats is random when you get one. You could get one with 200 heal, or one with about 50 heal. Mesphito is a pet that can only be received by pre-ordering the Dungeon Defenders game. They haven’t yet been seen by someone apart from the developers, but their stats may also be random. The demons can be received much more easily. All you have to do is complete a level and hopefully at the end you’ll see a Demon waiting for you in your Shop (which can be found in the Defender’s Forge)! They may cost little or a lot! So make sure to have some mana beforehand as if you do another level, your Demon will disappear in your Shop! Make sure to watch out for demons with 150 heal and 5 heals per second or better!

Animii

An Animus is a familiar that attacks enemies. The best Animii can cost up to 16 million mana! Even more than the max you’re allowed to have! Everyone is looking out for Animii nowadays so if you find one in your tavern, you can be kind and offer it to the person in exchange for the mana required to purchase the Animus or you can be less kind and ask for more mana than the Animus actually costs, just as a tip or “reward” for finding an Animus for them. They can range a lot in damage and shots per second, from about 50 damage to 200 damage, if you are very lucky! Make sure to have quite a lot of mana at all times if you wish to buy one! Animii are special to their characters however, e.g. An Apprentice Animus cannot be equipped by a Huntress, Monk or Squire and a Huntress Animus cannot be equipped by an Apprentice, Monk or Squire…
Animii can also do up to 30k DPS!
So why are animii so treasured?
Well, that is because their attack is multiplied by a certain amount depending on your hero’s attack!
That’s why they hurl HEROIC arrows. Their arrows are affected by your Hero! Make sure to watch out for an Animus with 150 damage, 5 shots per second and 1 additional projectile or better!

Guardians

Guardians do different things depending on whether they are an Apprentice Guardian, a Huntress Guardian, a Squire Guardian or a Monk Guardian. They can be obtained through two different methods:
If you are a Tegra2 player, you can get one by completing The Summit
Or
If you are an iOS player and you lost your data when updating to version 4.2, after filling out a form. You will then get your guardian later on. (Not too far from now Trendy says)
Guardians are quite special and they are worth a lot as not many players have them.

Hawks

This will be the last familiar I will talk about will be the hawk as all the others aren’t as good and something to keep an eye out for. The others all only do elemental damage, something some monsters are immune to. The hawk doesn’t do elemental damage and can be quite strong, going up to about 15k DPS, yet half of an Animus’ DPS. This is because the hawk doesn’t do twice it’s damage. You should only look out for hawks when you don’t have enough mana for an Animus. Hawks can be quite cheap, or expensive depending on what you consider to be expensive. They can also go up to 150 damage, 5 shots per second and 1 additional projectile and that’s what you should also be looking out for.

Guide Five: Upgrades!

In Dungeon Defenders, you need to upgrade items to make the most out of your items. However, upgrades cost mana, so you need to choose wisely what you want to upgrade and you should know beforehand what the stat will upgrade to if you do decide to upgrade it. That way, you can make the most out of your items. Even the not too good ones.

Lesson One: Upgrading Your Pets!

Pets are really useful and helpful as you must have learnt by now from Guide 4: How to Train Your Dragon (Pr Familiar), so it’s really important knowing how your upgrades will affect your pet’s damage, shots per second, or additional projectiles, or just another stat you want to upgrade. Firstly, when you upgrade a pet’s stat, the stat increases by 14%, meaning you multiply it by 1.14 to find out what it would be after an upgrade. However, the the stat is always rounded down, never up, so a pet with 105 damage would end up with 119 damage after an upgrade. However, the minimum the pet’s stat can increase is by 1 and the maximum is 80, so a pet with 1000 damage will have 1080 damage after an upgrade rather than 1140, and a health stat with 1 will end up with 2 after an upgrade. So be careful and wise about upgrading your pets. I suggest you find a pet with 150 damage, 5 shots per second and 1 additional projectile or better, and always upgrade the additional projectile whenever possible!

Lesson Two: Upgrading Your Weapons!

Just like pets, it’s important knowing how to make the most out of your weapons when upgrading. A weapon’s stat increases by 18% after upgrading, always rounded down. Therefore you have to multiply the stat by 1.18 to find out what it will be after an upgrade. The minimum a stat can increase by is 1 once again however, the maximum it can increase by is 120. For example, a sword with 100 damage will have 118 damage after an upgrade, and a sword with 1 health would have 2 health after an upgrade. However, this doesn’t work for all the weapons. A staff does upgrade by 18%, however, the maximum it can increase by is 50, which is something that many people don’t know. That’s why a staff can never go really high. The maximum of 50 was most likely added to make Apprentices not go overpowered, compared to the other classes.

Lesson Three: Upgrading Your Armour!

Armour is really important to upgrade, especially it’s resistances if you want the amount of damage you take from a monster to be minimized. Armour’s stats increase by 20% when upgrading, meaning you multiply an armour’s stat by 1.2 to find out what the armour’s stat will be after upgrading. The minimum an armour’s stat can increase by is 1, and there is no maximum (as all the ststs are quite low, however resistances have a cap to when they stop upgrading). So once again choose wisely when upgrading a piece of armour.

Hope you enjoyed all the guides! Any questions are welcome, any requests are welcome!

Thanks and Happy Dungeon Defending!
~Malandm (proud to be a member of the Dungeon Defenders Forums!)