• How to get to this point? I am not going to go into much detail about this as their is already a great guide by Chiku for this:
  https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2968079729
  
  
• All DLC's: This guide will be including all up to date DLC's and it will be difficult to follow this guide if you do not have the majority of DLC's or at least all DLC characters. I HIGHLY recommend buying all the DLC's as they are rather cheap and will more often than not go on sale together for a huge sale. The majority of maps and content for the middle to late game progress is DLC locked like the in game difficulty labeled as nightmare mode hardcore (nmhc).
  
  
• The Heroes needed: Every hero has its own use for the game but some of them will not shine until extreme late game, which this guide is not for.
  
  The Builder heroes order goes as:
  • Apprentice/adept>Monk/Initiate>Series EV>Hermit>Summoner>Huntress
    The DPS heroes order goes as:
    
  • Monk>Jester>Count/Squire>Apprentice>Huntress
  Now to iterate; this order of heroes can easily be debated like stating that hermit could be the most important hero as it can easily solo most maps with just its towers, however, Hermit is still a rather new hero at this point and some people still do not have this hero to utilize and is not required to complete all maps (makes them way easier though).
  
  
• What is considered early to mid-game: It is impossible to explicity define when you are ready to move on to the next stage of the game but you can be considered mid-game when you have completed the entirety of the campaign on nmhc and have beat some select few maps like dread dungeon and arcane library on nmhc as well. However, for this guide mid-game is considered when you are able to start progressing most of the lost quests map on nmhc, although they be extremely difficult at this point with about 3-4k stats. The goal is to make these maps all farm-able by the end of this guide.

Hotkeys are everywhere!! I am only going to cover the less obvious keybinds but there is plenty more than just the ones listed below:

• +- can be used to cycle through towers while trying to sell
  
• +- can be used to shrink auras/traps
  
• F2-F8 toggles in game emulator
  
• "killme" in chat kills player
  
• Holding alt+click to drag around characters in swap character menu
  
• U opens trade
  
• O toggles mob cards for build phase
  
• P toggles tower icons
  
• Ctrl+G force starts round
  
• H toggles Hud
  
• V skips boss timer
  
• B toggles item color beams
  
• Ctrl+M drops mana locally
  
• Ctrl+C censor rare items like ++'s
  
• Ctrl+Drag drags whole page of items to folder
  
• Ctrl+Z toggles auto lock-on

There are many more keybinds, however at this point in the game you should know the majority of the well known ones and these are the lesser known ones that are hard to figure out without asking for them.

At this point in the game it is going to be best to start to look into what tower stacking is and why we do it. Tower stacking started as a glitch that was extremely liked by the community and so the Developers have openly accepted this as an allowed add-on to the game. Tower stacking is really not needed for everything up this point but now the build timers are going to get slower and saving more Defense Units (DU) is more optimal for builds; That is why we use Tower Stacking. Almost every build you look at is going to require stacking without having to change the build up.

What to do?

• Download the Auto Hot Key script and start stacking. Here is the most commonly used and known video to download AHK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zjqUsIMXrg
  
• Here is Washy's video on how to download AHK and setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fveBB6p4qBE
  
• Instead of using the commonly used script method for stacking you can also create a macro using the same concept as the script but it is no where near as consistent unfortunately but I am sure there is way to make the macros more consistent. I am just to lazy lol.
  
• There is also a "legit" way to do stacking but it is extremely difficult to do and not practical. In order to do it "legitimately" you need to jump at roughly the same time you place a tower. Good luck trying to get the timing right though, especially when you are trying to build during wave as well.
  

I could easily make a whole separate guide just for this section but I am going to try and simply explain how to build and what the current meta builds are. A little side comment: All builders should be the female variant. You should not be using the male variant for building.

• Where to find builds: Dungeon Defenders Planner is going to be the best place to find any build for any map besides the challenges. https://dundefplanner.com/list.php

However, where to find builds is not the main goal. We are here to figure out how we should be building on maps for the best success. This is extremely difficult to explain to many players as they have a big misconception from playing in the past or are just strictly interested in only using certain characters.

What to do:

• Start with aura monk: Auras are the start of every build as they are REQUIRED for every map at this stage of the game to end game. There is a saying in the community where there are FULL aura stacks and then aura stacks. A full aura stack refers to the use of an ensnare, strength drain, and electric aura. A normal aura stack is usually just an ensnare and strength drain aura. To put it simply, you should use electric auras only in the case of playing NMHC and it is to help keep aggro of ogres off of the cores and help kill wyverns. In ruthless mode there is virtually no reason to use an electric aura as the mobs just have way too much health and you will be essentially wasting 5 DU.
  
  What are auras used for: auras are essentially used to debuff/remove resistances from mobs to allow your towers, mainly Lightning towers (LTs), to kill the mobs much quicker. Ensnare aura is used to slow down mobs once they enter the auras range. The reason why this is so good is to allow your towers to deal more damage before the mobs reach your towers.
  
  Now, Where to place auras. Auras should be placed at pretty much every crystal there is on the map, at the bare minimum a strength drain, and/or where your towers are placed. Usually, your towers/minions and at least one core should be able to be covered by just one aura stack to help save DU. There are very, very few maps where you can get away with not placing any auras on a crystal, like Wintermire.
  
  
• Next is Series EV: This character is rather simple to explain for the standard builds. EV will utilize her reflect beams, Buff Beam (BB), and physical beam (phys beam). The most essential out of these 3 is the BB.
  
  What are BB's,Phys Beams, and reflect beams used for: To start BB's are simply, as the name states, to BUFF your towers by increasing range, rate, and damage. BB's are the next most essential part of any build after your auras and should be used to boost all of your towers and auras. Very rare is it practical to not buff one of your towers or auras for a build as it is not getting the most optimal use of your DU. Next, there is reflect beams; These are not as commonly used and not required for a build but can be helpful to help protect your towers are crystals from being hit by any projectile. Finally, Phys beams are just simply a wall. This tower is very uncommon to use for builds as there are now golems to heal towers but they can be helpful if there is a substantial amount of ogres reaching your towers.
  
  
• Now there is apprentice (App): Hermit would technically be a better option to build with first but it is not required compared to the app towers for builds. App is really simple to explain: you only ever should be using LT's and/or Deadly Striker Towers (DST's). The thing to keep in mind about LT's is there should always be at least 2 LT's. Simply put, 1 LT is not efficient alone and so it is always recommended to place at least 2. DST's are used for killing single mobs, primarily wyverns and djinns then ogres. Also, DST's are most commonly used to keep aggro of ogres off of core if your stats are lower.
  
  
• Finally, there is hermit: This hero is not required for builds, especially at this point in the game, however this hero will simply and save every build DU; It also makes almost every builds afkable which is really nice for when farming maps. Every tower is used by the hermit but the 3 main towers will be your golem, mushroom, and seed bombers. It is worthwhile to mention that the web walls and pylon are both good for builds but it is not needed and so we will not discuss them within this guide. Golem is the most essential tower from hermit as it is the best tower to be used for aggroing all/any mobs from anywhere, it can heal all towers besides auras and traps, and does really great damage to mobs that get close. Mushroom is the next most used for builds as it essentially does some damage but really shines the most for simply debuffing any mob it touches by 20%. Finally, seed bombers are really great for a damage aoe. They act very similar to DST's but do not shoot through walls, however, seed bombs can hit multiple targets at once while DST's can not.
  
  Where to place Hermit towers: As said before golems are used for aggro so wherever you want ogres to go is where you should put a golem. There should also be at least one golem next to your towers to help prevent them from dying as it can heal them and aggro mobs to your towers. Mushrooms should be next to your towers. Usually, they are placed under your golem. Finally, seed bombers are mainly used to kill wyverns are can just be used as the main killinig towers depending on the map. Seed bombers are not too commonly used for NMHC but on ruthless mode they are a lot more common and often times essential.
  
  
• That is all I am going to discuss about for when it comes to meta builds. This is very simplified and can be expanded upon many, many times. There is just way too much to explain for this category but this hopefully helps you learn about how to start creating your own builds.
  - Also, I know I should include huntress as her traps are sometimes used for some survival builds and very few campaign maps but I believe she is not required and I do not use her for almost all of my builds as I personally do not care for her traps. It is a waste of DU in my opinion.

!!SURVIVAL IS NOT AN EXP FARM!! I am purely making this category due to the fact that so many players who are at this point in the game think running survival over an over is a good exp farm. It is horrible! Survival is for 2 things and 2 things only. Armor farming and pet farming. There is not other reason you should ever run survival.

• The non-debatable best exp farm is The Tinkerer's Lab campaign map. At this stage you should be able to farm this map for exp without any issues. This is all you will do for exp to reach each milestone (lvl 83,90,93, etc.) on your active characters or new ones that you are preparing to use. Finding a build is really easy to find for this map as everyone, I mean everyone has farmed this map a lot at one point in their play through.
  
  
• The only alternative to Tink's Lab is Embermount Volcano. This is an earlier and much easier farm because you just keep completing the first wave of the map and then restarting. Use this method if you do not have the stats for TInk's Lab and/or are still lower level. However, since this guide is for more middle game progression you should have no issues doing Tink's Lab.

I am going to make a list of each ideal tower pet for middle game to late game progression. The way to farm the pets on survival mode is by starting 2 rounds before and when start the wave before the wave the pet drops you bring in your splits during the round unless its the final round.

• Giraffe on Treadmill: Has 300-400 stat roles and is received from last wave of base campaign maps on survival.
  
  
• Fish in Bowl: This is the most commonly used pet for this stage of the game. It roles up to 600 and is received by completing campaign of Moonbase after completing the secret and showing off some dance moves xD.
  
  
• Skeleton on Treadmill: This is an early alternative to the fish in a bowl since it also rolls 600 stats but is more easy to farm since its from arcane library wave 30 of survival.
  
  
• Turkey on Treadmill: This pet is primarily used for its Movement Speed (MS). A lot of people at end game will use this pet even though its stat rolls are maxed at 750. Some people prefer MS over the 50 stat differential for building. This pet is obtained from final wave of Winter Mire on survival.
  
  
• Dice: This pet is technically one of the first tower pets but its not recommended to farm as its normally obtained variants will roll around the same as a giraffe on treadmill. However, if a ++ is farmed you can cap your stats out at 999 which is the highest any pet can roll. But getting one to roll as ++ that can cap dmg stat or range stat and has good sides is just very rare. This pet is obtained from King's Game map on wave 25 survival.
  
  
• Pumpkin Pirate on Treadmill: This is probably the most commonly used end game tower pet as they are easy to farm and roll up to 800 pretty easily. These are farmed on the final wave of Spooktacular Bay survival.
  
  
• Diamond/Heart: These pets are rarely used for tower pets as they are mainly used as the games currency. However, they do roll up to 800 as well in stats but are very, very tedious to farm up as it requires 88 coal to forge a diamond. Coal is best farmed from Winter Mire campaign.
  
  
• Animorphic Ember: This pet is rarely used as a tower pet as getting it to roll to its cap at 825 is just so rare and farming this pet is just extremely long and painful. It is acquired on wave 40 from Embermount Volcano survival.
  
  
• Any ++ pet: This is not a specific pet but to simply explain this is not very commonly used besides for summoner. When your farming for ++ DPS pets or whatever pets you will sometimes get a pet that has all tower stats that roll fairly high while being able to cap at least one stat at 999. However, these pets do not have a MS buff and so they are almost always used only on summoner.
  
  
• Jade Island: This is non-debatably the best tower pet in the game. However, farming for a good one is just "copeium." The odds of getting a ++ jade island is insanely rare and then getting one that is able to cap tower damage and has good sides is just ridiculous odds. This pet is for extreme endgame and should be farmed at this point in the game at all. It takes wayyyy too long to get a decent one to use. This pet is farmed from The Striking Tree final wave of survival.

I am going to make a list of each ideal DPS pet from worst to best (keep in mind there is no "best" pet in the game, they each have their own use).The way to farm the pets on survival mode is by starting 2 rounds before and when start the wave before the wave the pet drops you bring in your splits during the round unless its the final round.

• Mega Chicken: This is pretty much the first official dps pet you are going to start with. It is obtained by farm last wave of Tink's Lab survival. Recommended game mode is insane as it will always drop transcendent quality.
  
  
• Harpoon Pet: This pet is a really good starting dps pet as it has high fire rate and does decent damage while rolling with good sides quite commonly. It is obtained from wave 30 of Magus Citadel survival. You should play this in insane mode as it will always roll as transcendent quality.
  
  
• Mr. Owl/Mr. Peckers/Ancient: This pet is primarily used for count/squire as an assault pet due it being able the hero as it does damage to mobs. However, getting a good one is quire rare and requires a pet size of about 60% or higher. This pet is obtained by completing wave 20 of arcane library or wave 25 of tropics of etheria.
  
  
• Little Wizard: This pet is a commonly used pet for end game that is easily obtainable during the mid-game. This pet is very useful for most dps cases and is one of the best for a dps monk. This pet is obtained from wave 25 of Spooktacular Bay survival.
  
  
• Mini Snowman: This pet is not too commonly used anymore as the little wizzie is better now days. However, it is still a good dps pet for monk. This pet is obtained from wave 25 Winter Mire survival.
  
  
• Cat: This pet is strictly used for buffing a characters attack damage. This pet is used on several different heroes but the main heroes are Jester, EV, Huntress, and App. As said before this pet effectively boosts your heroes dps by a scale multiplier that can go over 2x. You obtain this pet from wave 25 of Sky City survival.
  
  
• Baby Goblin Minimech: This pet is relatively new but it still useful as a dps pet on monk. It is sorta an alternative to the mini mech. This pet is only good for dps monk and is obtained only from ruthless survival on the final wave of The Throne Room.
  
  
• Christmas Elephant: I know very little about this pet is getting one of these that is usable is just ridiculous odds because you have to have a high base damage stat for it to be good. This pet to my knowledge, is a good melee dps pet that can heal your hero while attacking mobs ONLY in ruthless mode (do not know this for yet, will update later after some testing). This pet is obtained from wave 30 of Winter Mire survival.
  
  
• Eye of Ruin: This pet is considered one of the top 5 best dps pets in the game. However, getting one that can live up to that name is just an absurd rarity; One of the rarest drops in the game. This pet is known for being able to shoot through walls and its extremely high range that allows the character to be far from a boss but still able to shoot it. I would not recommend farming for this at this point in the game but it is decent to put on an AFK dps summoner. This is obtained from wave 30 of Spooktacular Bay.
  
  
• Mini Mech: This will almost always be considered the #2 or #1 best dps pet overall. Obviously, there is no technical #1 best dps because there is no pet that is versatile enough but this pet is considered THE best essentially. There is only one other pet that is able to out dps this pet consistently and that is the next pet on this list. This pet is obtained from the final wave of Omenak on survival.
  
  
• Crystalline Dragon(CDrag): This pet is THEE best pet in the game for dps. It has the highest dps output without any competition besides the seahorse. However, if you have a seahorse that can out dps a good CDrag you will most likely be called a hacker and be looked into as it is just considered impossible to get a seahorse that has that potential. The one draw back to the CDrag is that it is only fire damage which does not go to well as the best dps weapon for monk is only fire damage as well. But the CDrag is still by far the best monk dps pet and is also really good for count/squire. If used on monk you will need to change your weapons so you can still kill fire res. mobs. This pet is obtained from the final wave of Crystalline Resurgence 3 on survival. This is considered one of the hardest pets to farm in the game so really high stats are required for this.

I will be expanding upon this section as there is just so much content to be covered. Also plan on adding pictures to help show the ideal way to upgrade a dps pet and what they look like.

What is Armor Farming? Armor farming can be considered the most important part of the game as getting better armor is essential to progress through this game no matter what stage you are at. The way you armor farm is by playing on survival mode and starting at wave 22 NMHC and go to either wave 30 while collecting chest between rounds or you can go all the way up to final round. I use to farm all the way up to final round for end of map rewards however with ruthless mode a thing now I personally think it is better to just "Target" farming those rewards on ruthless and just stick to wave 30 completion for armor farming as it is only done on NMHC. When you are armor farming you should only ever have out 2 summoners if you are collecting chests or 3 summoners if you are not collecting chests. It is fine to bring in all splits for pet reward waves but do it as the wave is already playing through, for example, bringing in all 4 summoner splits during the wave of 24 and 29 respectively.

Where to Farm? There is essentially 4 maps you should stick to when farming for armor: Infested Ruins, Omenak, Spooktacular Bay, and Lovers Paradise. There is technically 3 tiers of armor farming maps and you want to stick to tier 1 which is often called Infested quality maps. There are more maps as of now but there is yet to be a new document for it as there is no real reason to just not farm the maps stated already. It is also good to note that there are maps that are simply not made for armor farming so do not think you cant just farm any map for armor and it be viable.

No Towers Allowed: Crystal Cave (NTA CC): This map is fairly new but it is specifically made to provide an alternative to armor farming in a unique way. This map is dps specific but is extremely easy to farm as you can do it on insane mode or nm mode. A ++ has a chance to drop around every 1/20 rounds for insane and 1/12 for nm but insane mode is just super easy so if you want to actively farm for armor and not afk it then this map is extremely well suited for you.

For starters there is a couple of places you can go to find help if need be:

• RNGDiscord: https://discord.gg/KEpUhG4q
  This is the main place for anyone in the community of DD1. There are several people who will be able to help you with every question you have, including me.
  
  
• Youtube: There are thousands of youtube videos out there for DD1 you just gotta find what it is you are looking for. I am only going to post 3 different youtubers but there are many more out there that have tons of videos for noobie players.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/@washboardproductions.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/@Theoran1911
  
  https://www.youtube.com/@Meshak98
  
  
• Guides: There are many more guides out there that pretty much covers every bit of the game. However, almost all of them are outdated which is why I have created my own to introduce the newer stuff within in the game and how the meta currently is.
  
  
• Builds: You can essentially find every map with a build that works for you with this link.
  https://dundefplanner.com
  
  

That is all I have for this guide as of right now. I do plan to add on a lot more content and edit the formatting to make it more appealing and attractive to the eye.

I hope this guide was helpful and please leave a like if this helped!!