A guide that is solely based on META and Lategame progression. I have played 500+hours, and have enough experience. Hopefully, this guide teaches you how some players do maps NMHC (Nightmare Hardcore) solo. This guide is assume that you have all the DLC’s
 
 

Things to know about getting armors

Armors are huge factor of your stats, without armor, your stats wouldn’t really mean anything. But you have reached level 74 yet? If yes, Congrats, you made a milestone! Why is it that important when it’s not even lvl 100? Hitting Level 74 means you can finally use Mythical Items, (Lightblue shiny outlined items) which will boost your stat dramatically. You will now, be able to solo maps in nightmare hardcore mode! But, only if you know how to build properly.
 
 
Your basic builds should include: Auras, Minions, Apprentice Towers, EV Beams, and maybe even traps.
 
 
(The Bracketed Towers mean they are META)
 
 
Basic Idea of the Builds:
 
 
(You should buff beam everything you have)
 
 
Apprentice Towers (Lightning (LT) and Deadly Striker (DST) ) = Main Source of Damage with chain effects, and insane damage. (Should Focus on Tower Dmg > Tower Rate > Tower Range > Tower Health)
 
Minions (Archer, Spider, Mage) = Blockades that can be healed on it’s own (Focus on Tower Health> Dmg > Rate > Range)
 
Aura Stack (Slow, electric, Strength Drain) = An effective support that will filter out goblins and small mobs, while reducing incoming damage and slowing enemies.(Focus on Either Tower Range, or Tower Damage > Health > Rate)
 
EV Beams (Buff Beam, Physical, Reflection) = Buff Beam is a support that will increase tower damage by twice, three times, etc. Just by placing buff beam on a tower and max upgrading it, you will see how much more damage you do with your towers.
 
(use buff beam on Minions, Traps, Auras, Apprentice Towers) Reflection Beam bounces off all projectiles, it’s very useful for protecting your main source of damage, DST and LT. (Focus On Either Tower DMG or Tower Health and forget about other two)
 
Traps (Gas, Ethereal Lightning) = Support to damage boost and stalls small mobs while they get killed by aura. (Tower Dmg > Range > Health > Rate)
 
 
*You/Everyone in the lobby needs to be summoner, in order to get armors only!!*
 
 
Where to keep grinding and get to Level 74? : Glitterhelm Carvens, on insane mode hardcore survival. (Grind means play on Survival after beating without survival mode on)
 
 
After reaching level 74, try Deeper Well on nightmare hardcore and work your way up to the whole campagin. Once you beat the Ancient Dragon, Move on to Glitterhelm Carvens on nightmare hardcore.
 
 
You will, be able to find mythical item there! Your first big step! For armors, you can get more stats by equipping same type of armor!
 
ex: If you are wearing Plate Helmet, equip all plate items, it results with 25% stat boost)
 
Stat boost by 25%? That’s right. But even better, there is better items than Mythical.
 
The better the quality of the item is, the higher stat boost you will receive!
 
 
What to do after getting Glitterhelm Carven mythical items?: Move on to Dread Dungeon on NMHC, it’s not a hard map. In dread dungeon, you will be able to find Transcendent Items, around wave 20 or 23. You should always remember to equip items that has high stats on stats you should be focusing on.
 
 
After that, Move onto either MistyMire, or King’s Game, (If you are level 100 and have 4-5k stats, move onto Infested Ruins survival and get Ult, Ult+ and Ult ++)
 
 
 

Hero Class

DIsclaimer (There is no best hero, you need all the combination to play this game)
 
 
Effective Builder Heroes: Initiate, Adept, Summoner, EV, Huntress
 
 
Best Builder pets: Diamond, Treadmil on Treadmil, Moon, Skeleton on Treadmil, Turkey On Treadmil, Animorphic Ember, Dice
 
 
Best Builder Weapon:
 
 
Adept: Elder staff, Obsidian Clava, Fusion Rift
 
 
Initiate: Obsidian Sparus, Ember Cresent, Mischief Maker, Chicken Baller
 
 
Huntress: Blaster Rifle, Kraken Kannon, (and other Prize Drop weapons that have high stats on tower)
 
 
EV: Obsidian Clava, Fusion Rift, Elder Staff. (But you can have two of them)
 
 
Not Effective Builder Heroes: All the male heroes (Males are generally slower, switching costume into male costume will reduce speed, switching to female will make you faster), and countess (Her Tower Deals Poor Damage)
 
 
As I Wrote in the Armor Section, I will rewrite it here!
 
 
(You should buff beam everything you have)
 
 
Apprentice Towers (Lightning (LT) and Deadly Striker (DST) ) = Main Source of Damage with chain effects, and insane damage. (Should Focus on Tower Dmg > Tower Rate > Tower Range > Tower Health)
 
 
Minions (Archer, Spider, Mage) = Blockades that can be healed on it’s own (Focus on Tower Health> Dmg > Rate > Range)
 
 
Aura Stack (Slow, electric, Strength Drain) = An effective support that will filter out goblins and small mobs, while reducing incoming damage and slowing enemies.(Focus on Either Tower Range, or Tower Damage > Health > Rate)
 
 
EV Beams (Buff Beam, Physical, Reflection) = Buff Beam is a support that will increase tower damage by twice, three times, etc. Just by placing buff beam on a tower and max upgrading it, you will see how much more damage you do with your towers. (use buff beam on Minions, Traps, Auras, Apprentice Towers) Reflection Beam bounces off all projectiles, it’s very useful for protecting your main source of damage, DST and LT. (Focus On Either Tower DMG or Tower Health and forget about other two)
 
 
Traps (Gas, Ethereal Lightning) = Support to damage boost and stalls small mobs while they get killed by aura. (Tower Dmg > Range > Health > Rate)
 
 
REMEMBER THAT CHARACTERS THAT ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO FIGHT IN WAVES NEED RESISTANCE! Every 10th upgrade will allow you to upgrade resistance if you cannot upgrade it randomly anymore. Make sure to get it to 90% or close to that
 
 
You would also need AT LEAST 1 jester throughout the game to upgrade buff beams. Using Mana Swirling technique, (Which is genie and lupine bow combo) you can get them fully upgraded in seconds. And get a good DPS staff, for clearing ogres and djinns. Try to get Wheel O’ Fortuna skill to 3752. that should do half the original bar health damage to all enemies, if ogre is health is below 50% wheel would insta kill it if it’s at 3752.
 
 
Monk is pretty much required to be helpful online. Monk can be used many ways, as a Hero Booster, Tower Booster, or DPS. But I will explain just Tower boost and DPS since DPS is kind of a mixture between dps.
 
 
Tower Booster : Use Chicken Baller, with a genie. Since chickens bounce off the walls and explode, it can hit multiple enemies and give you insane amount of mana and you can keep boosting.
 
 
DPS : You are going to want more health since you cannot boost forever. Try focusing on your Hero Damage Stat while also focusing on hero boost stat. Or leaving it at around 2k is still fine. Try using high damage pets and weapons.
 
Recommended Weapon: Mischief Maker, Candy Cane, Obsidian Sparus, Monk Wrench.
 
Recommended Pets: Seahorse, Desert Goblin, Fenix, Propeller Cat, Fairy (For Polybius. Not only monk should have these pets, but all the DPS except for Barbarian and EV should have these)
 
 
Barbarian and DPS Ev are also a nice DPS heroes, consider getting them when you have time.
 
(Just build either skill or full on hero dmg and just get nice damage weapons, but make sure to use Propeller cat as a pet. It will help so much on damage using their skills)
 
(But, DPS Ev must use Ember Sceptre because of how much damage proton beam charge would deal)
 
 
You also might want a booster summoner, which is basically an AFK character with Huntress Guardian and either Monk or Apprentice guardian on to boost DST and LT.
 
 
 

Notes From Author

Thank you So MUCH for reading my guide! It’s still nice to see players play this old game. Long story short, please leave suggestions and your thoughts down below and feel free to correct me if I wrote a mistake.
 
 
I will leave some Links that will help you out a bunch!
 
 
https://discord.gg/FE4cRCs – [discord.gg] 
 
 
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/DDRnG – [steamcommunity.com] 
 
 
https://discord.gg/dd2 – [discord.gg] 
 
 
https://dundefplanner.com/list.php – [dundefplanner.com] 
 
 
And Thank you @Danfeop for suggesting some guide contents!
 
 

 
 
This is all for Dungeon Defenders General Game Information & Gameplay Tips hope you enjoy the post. If you believe we forget or we should update the post please let us know via comment, we will try our best to fix how fast is possible! Have a great day!