Onslaught
NOTE : THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. THIS IS NOT FINAL. THERE WILL BE UPDATES EVENTUALLY.
Onslaught is one of the gamemodes in Dungeon Defenders 2, which features stronger enemies as you progress. It is available as soon as you complete the Campaign.
Contents
Features
Onslaught has many special rules that aren't present in other gamemodes. Here is a list of the special ruleset:
Rule 1
The further you progress through floors in Onslaught, the higher level enemies will become. This seems straightforward on the surface, but you can end up with enemies far stronger than in chaos 7 difficulty on floors above 30.
Rule 2
Every lane has special conditions as to which monsters can spawn from it. The name of the lane will also change as well to indicate what will spawn there. A list of common names for lanes is listed below.
Rule 3
Enemies can be affected by lane mutators. You will probably encounter your first lane mutator at floor 3. Lane mutators can be viewed by holding shift and will appear below the list of enemies. The further you go in Onslaught, the more mutators that will appear in each game. Each lane is limited to 2 mutators at a time, and which mutators appear is completely random (re-rolling an onslaught floor will re-roll mutators again). A list of lane mutators can also be found below.
Spawning Conditions
These are common prefixes, suffixes, and names that will appear on a lane and determine what spawns from it. Bosses are not affected by special spawning conditions.
The first category determines what type of non-chaos monsters will spawn.
Fodder
Any monsters can spawn in this lane.
Wompers
Only melee monsters can spawn here, like Warboars and Orcs.
Throwers
Only ranged monsters can spawn here, like Javelin Throwers and Drakins.
Healers
Dark Mages will spawn here.
Crippling
Wither Beasts will spawn here.
The following will determine what chaos monsters will spawn. The prefixes/suffixes/names must be listed in a lane in order for said monster to spawn:
Vanguard / -Guard
Vanguards will spawn from this lane. Cannonball Towers, Poison Dart Towers, and other projectile-based towers will not be very effective against them in these lanes. Consider using traps, auras, AOE towers, or even Earthshatter Towers if you need long-range targeting.
Cy-
Cyborks will appear. Auras, traps, and nodes used in this lane are at risk of being disabled. If you wish to use any of them, a tenacity servo can help mitigate stuns.
Geo-
Geodes will spawn here. They protect all enemies within its barrier from projectile attacks. Counter them in a similar way that you would deal with vanguards.
Zerker-
Berserker Orcs will charge out of the lane and will usually run in front of the pack. It is fairly common for them to escape crowd control builds and leak through your defenses. Cannonball Towers are a great method for dealing with leaks.
Stabby-
This only appears in a flyer lane. Dark Assassins will spawn and try to assassinate you. They never appear alone in a flyer lane, so don't ignore anti-air defenses!
Hex-
Hex Throwers will appear. These guys are great at sniping your towers, and in some maps, can even snipe a core or sub-objective from the spawn. A Reflect Beam is great at protecting anything vulnerable to snipers, and can also cause them to waste time trying to pick off their target.
EMP-
These guys also only appear in flyer lanes. Just like Kobold Flyers, Kobolts will attempt to dive-bomb any nearby defenses or anything if their health drops too low. Traps, auras, and nodes cannot be stunned by kobolts, but multiple Sky Guard Towers can take them out before they have the chance to dive-bomb. Extra range on your sky guards can reduce the chance of a successful dive-bomb attempt.
Frosty-
Frost Enemies can be seen here. This will only appear at Chaos 7 difficulty or higher (floor 28+). The Yeti incursion will introduce you to these mobs.
Lava-
Lava Guardians will spawn here. This also only appears at Chaos 7+ difficulty (floor 28 or higher). If you are having trouble dealing with these guys, they can also be found in the Demon Lord incursion.
The third category contains names that appear in flyer lanes:
Dargons
Wyverns will spawn here. If the name were corrected to "dragons", these lanes would probably be a lot scarier.
Zappers
Lightning Bugs will appear. They prefer to destroy your towers and blockades rather than head straight for your cores.
Kami- / Kamikaze
Kobold Flyers will spawn and attempt to dive-bomb your defenses.
The last category has special names that heavily change spawning conditions for the lane. None of the names above will be combined with any of these names:
Floppy Arms and Pig Bois
Only Goblin enemies and Warboars will appear here. This name is usually only present in lower-level floors of Onslaught.
Air Raid
Hence the name, this will only appear in flyer lanes. This causes all types of enemies to spawn - usually in a larger quantity than usual. Heavy anti-air is highly recommended, but careful not to spend too many Defense Units!
The Front Line
Vanguards will spawn here in huge quantities along with a few Geodes, making projectile-based towers essentially useless, possibly even with a piercer servo.
This lane can easily be dealt with by using Flame Auras or by crowd-controlling enemies with nodes.
Sparks And Shields
This lane specializes with Vanguards and Cyborks, but unlike The Front Line, vanguards won't appear in as big of quantities. This lane can be tricky, since vanguards will block projectiles from towers, and cyborks will disable and traps, auras, and nodes they come across.
One strategy is to try and pick off the cyborks with towers; then, use an aura/node setup behind your towers to deal with the vanguards. Alternatively, Earthshatter Towers can bypass shields while not attracting the attention of cyborks and getting disabled.
Also unlike The Front Line, this lane won't solely spawn vanguards and cyborks. Support troops like Dark Mages and Kobolds may also be seen, especially in later rounds.
Orcish Horde
Any assortment of mobs can spawn here, but only if they're orcs. This ranges from regular orcs to Cyborks to Berserker Orcs. The anti-orc or orc-boom servos are great counters for these lanes.
Omega Squad X
Omega Squad lanes specialize in spawning Chaos monsters. The types of chaos enemies that spawn in omega squad lanes depends on what greek letter replaces "X" in the name (e.g. Alpha, Beta, Epsilon, etc.). Plan accordingly to what spawns.
Dreadbones' Crew
A random assortment of monsters will spawn with pirate outfits. Captain Dreadbones will also spawn here every wave.
Timmy's Revenge
A random assortment of monsters will spawn. Timmy also spawns once every wave.
Game Ogre
Only Ogres will spawn in this lane. Unlike most ogres, these guys can range from smaller ogres to regular-sized ogres. Because nothing else spawns in this lane, Cannonball Towers or other single-targeting defenses work well.
Just Timmy
Timmy spawns multiple times. Just like with Game-Ogre, single-targeting defenses are great for handling this lane.
High Roller
Only Goblin Siege Rollers will spawn. Unlike Game Ogre, there are no miniature seige rollers that will appear.
Goblin Siege Rollers move very slowly, so don't worry about them making huge progress to your core(s) if another lane needs your attention. If you want to use defenses against this lane, you will need to use ones that can specifically target the back of rollers. Siege Rollers take double damage when hit from behind, but they can absorb 90% damage dealt to them when hit anywhere else. If you can't find a good spot for a Cannonball Tower or a Poison Dart Tower, consider using Reflect Beams as their explosions can hit the roller's weak point once the roller passes the node.
Alternatively, you can actively defend in this lane. Keep in mind that siege rollers will shoot rockets at you, so don't stop moving unless you like to explode. Don't accidentally move in front of a roller either, because their roller attacks deals heavy damage and can kill you in seconds.
Lane Mutators
Lane mutators can change enemy mechanics, such as health, resistances, and even immunities. Lane mutators usually don't appear until floor 3, but the further you go in Onslaught, the more mutators you will see. Each lane may have a maximum of 2 mutators altering it.
Here is a list of the possible mutators that can be found:
Proximity
The closer your hero or your defense is to an enemy with this mutator, the more damage said hero/defense deals. Traps are extremely effective in these lanes due to most of them requiring close proximity, but auras and nodes can do some decent work, too. If you're in an earlier onslaught floor, blockades also work well.
Long Shot
This is the opposite of Proximity - the farther you or your defense is from an enemy, the more damage the enemy will take. Towers benefit most from this mutator. Poison Dart Towers and Earthshatter Towers make a great combo for Long Shot lanes as you can petrify enemies while hitting them from a long distance.
Armored
This mutator causes enemies to take less physical damage, but more magical damage. You will want to avoid using any of the Squire's defenses as they all deal physical damage. Explosive Traps will also be less effective. All of the Apprentice's and Monk's defenses deal magical damage, so consider using them when building this lane.
If you wish to use a tower that normally deals physical damage, you can apply an elemental servo to convert the tower to magical damage. All elements will do the trick.
If you want to know whether or not your tower deals physical or magical damage, look at the damage numbers that appear when enemies take damage. While numbers are physical damage, purple numbers are magical, and red numbers are critical hits (can be physical or magical).
Spellbreaker
Just like how the Armored mutator reduces physical damage and increases magical damage, this mutator does the opposite. The Squire's defenses are highly recommended, but Explosive Traps are great source of AOE damage while still dealing physical damage.
Because the Sky Guard Tower shoots magical bolts, this mutator can be a nightmare on air lanes, as you're essentially to use Cannonball Towers or Ballistas to effectively deal any considerable damage to flyers with this mutator.
Power Block
Enemies with this mutator are immune to hero abilities. However, they take extra damage from your weapons. If you are actively defending in a lane with this mutator, you will want to use a hero with high Hero Damage but low Ability Power.
Brittle
Brittle enemies spawn with more health, but receive a resistance debuff when hit by any of your hero abilities. It is ideal for you to actively defend in this lane, so your defenses don't have to deal with the extra health. However it won't be really useful if you don't use active abilities very often or abilities that can be toggled. Don't ignore your other lanes, either!
Soft Spot
Enemies receive less damage from all sources, except when they're attacked from their weak point. Unfortunately, there aren't many enemies that have weakpoints, making this mutator rather annoying. If you're lucky enough to have a Goblin Siege Roller spawn with this mutator, however, you can utilize it's weak point to destroy it very quickly.
Unstoppable
Unstoppable enemies are immune to slow debuffs. This does not affect Berserker Orcs or Frost Enemies as they are already immune to slow effects. While unstoppable enemies cannot be slowed, they are still vulnerable to stuns.
Headstrong
Instead of being immune to slows, Headstrong enemies are immune to stuns. You will want to use Frostbite Towers, Proton Beams, or Boost Auras with a Boosted Grasp shard to help control these monsters.
Air lanes usually don't benefit from being headstrong, as most flyers move very slowly. However, should you encounter a headstrong assassin, taking them off of you can be extremely difficult. Without the ability to stun, your only options are to either kill the assassin quickly with high DPS, or wait out the bind. If you have a Barbarian in your deck, Turtle Stance can prevent assassins from binding you in the first place.
If you're unlucky enough to end up with a headstrong Berserker Orc or Frost Enemy on a high-level floor, it essentially becomes impossible to control the lane, because the enemies will be too strong for any blockades to handle. You can try to distract these enemies with a melee hero, but at a high level, they can easily kill you with a single blow. If you aren't confident that you can defend against headstrong beserkers or frost mobs, your best option is to intentionally lose and re-roll the level.
Pain Aura
Enemies will emit a pain aura that constantly damages nearby heroes. It is best to not actively defend in this lane unless necessary, and let your defenses handle the job, as these auras cannot damage any of your defenses.
Maximum Effort
Enemies start with more health, but lose resistance every time they are hit with a different defense. In these lanes, it's best to use a variety of defenses than to stick to a single type. For example, spamming Flame Auras will only count as 1 type of defense, so it won't be very effective.
Bullet Sponge
This gives monsters a shield that reflects any projectiles that hit it, essentially giving all monsters in that lane the same properties that Geodes have. However, unlike Geodes, these shields will break in a single hit from a non-projectile attack - either from your hero or from a defense.
Traps, auras, and nodes are all great for removing bullet sponges. AOE towers like the Flamethrower Tower and the Skeletal Ramster are also capable of removing bullet sponge. Once this mutator is removed from an enemy, it becomes vulnerable to all projectile attacks.
Detonator
Enemies in this lane explode upon death. Blockades, and short-range towers like the Flamethrower Tower are not recommended, as this mutator can cause such defenses to take massive damage. Traps, auras, and nodes don't take damage from these explosions, but be wary about using them if Cyborks are spawning from this lane.
Toxi-kaze
Any Kobolds that are killed (doesn't matter if they successfully kamikaze their target) release a patch of red mushrooms that damage any heroes standing on them. Be cautious about using melee heroes to defend in this lane.
Cursi-kaze
Instead of releasing mushrooms that damage heroes, cursi-kaze causes Kobolds to curse nearby defenses. Cursed defenses have their attack damage and range reduced. Cursi-kaze can affect any defense, including traps, auras, and nodes. Therefore, long-range towers are the best way to deal with them.
Cursi-kaze is capable of stacking, should multiple kobolds be defeated at the same time. This can result in nonexistent damage and range on your defenses, effectively rendering them useless. Be careful!
If you boost a defense's range far past its range cap, it can become resistant to this mutator and reduce (or even completely nullify) the range debuff. However, your defense's range can still be easily overwhelmed should multiple curse zones stack, so it's not a permanent solution to this mutator.
Controlled Burn
This is arguably the scariest lane mutator in Onslaught, as enemies are completely invincible if they don't have status effect. Any status effect works, so crowd control builds won't suffer from this mutator. If you want to be able to damage these enemies with your hero, Drenching Strikes will allow you to damage them (this also sets up the Electrocute combo should enemies take storm damage afterwards). Burning Strikes also works effectively, but it doesn't activate as often as drenching strikes does.
If you do not have a decent crowd control build, consider using Poison Dart Towers. Geyser Traps applies drench to enemies, which not only allows them to take damage, but it also slows them. However, geyser traps have one of the smallest ranges in the game and a very long recharge, so it is not a reliable way to deal with controlled burn.
Frostbite Towers will chill enemies, which also counts as a status effect. However, frostbite towers alone cannot deal damage, so be sure to pair it with another defense while the frostbite if focused on a group of enemies. If you also manage to drench enemies as well, your Frostbite can Freeze them solid.
History
Onslaught used to be much harder before it was temporarily removed in the Trials update. Each floor required you to beat multiple maps to pass it - usually around 3 per floor. Additionally, should one of your main cores get destroyed, Onslaught was much less forgiving. Instead of being able to restart at the wave you lost to, you had to start back on the first wave AND on the first map! Mods weren't featured in the game at that time either, meaning it was much harder to attune a defense to a specific element and use said defense to apply elemental combos.
From the 19.0 Patch notes, "Onslaught is finally taking the rest we’ve been talking about. In the future, we have plans for an Onslaught revamp or for a new system to take its place. It shall be reborn!"