Dungeon Defenders II

Updated: 7/1/2017

To make this achievement as smooth as possible make sure that the relics you equip has a primary stat between (4959 to 7152) that's the range between high Chaos 3 drops and high Chaos 4 drops. In Chaos 1 maps, start to remember which lanes have bosses and don't be afraid to tack on another defense to guarantee your defenses won't go down.

Ogres, Slekeleon, and the Siege Rollers, do not count towards the achievement.

> You get 9 chances each map to spawn a boss that counts towards the achievement.
> Wave 2: 1
> Wave 3: 2
> Wave 4; 2
> Wave 5: 4

I mainly used Flame Auras Monk with Chaos 7 gear, but if you go with Chaos 4 gear you will need Walls for Bosses. Any type of wall is good, and I was using the Squire's Blockades.
Just note that your tower's kills do count towards the achievement, but not your friend's towers. Not super-sure if teamwork affects the achievement or not, as I did grind the game solo. But on PC the rules were if you or your towers didn't get the kill it doesn't count.

Here is the shard setups I used on my defenses for this achievement. (I made sure to keep in mind what shards drop when, so you don't have to farm for the shard to make the defenses work. Included replacement shards in case you just wanna get the achievement as soon as possible.)

Flame Auras: Medallions
> Deadly Strikes: Range is important, but only truly important on later Chaos difficulties.
> Destruction: Increases your Defense Attack
> Defense Rate / Power Transfer: Either of these shards can help as one increases rate and the other increases Critical Damage. Your choice or which ever one you get first.

Replacement Builds: Marks
> Defensive Critical Damage:
> Defense Rate:
> Deadly Strikes:

Marks are the Defense Critical Version of Medallions and maybe easier to earn in terms of luck: If anyone is having issues with collecting certain shards, a worthy replacement shard is Encroaching Flames, but palls in comparison to any of the other shards I mentioned before.

Blockades: Totems
> Fortification: That's it! Your choice on any other shard for your defense in the game. They won't hinder nor harm your build as you try to finish this achievement.

For those in Chaos 7, you can use Power Pylon, and Shielding Guard as the other shards to make your defenses more viable in later Chaos difficulties.

Those are some general tips and tricks I used, for the most part I could have earned this achievement sooner, but I wanted reach Chaos 7 and see the new exclusive content for the console version. Hopefully the game's poor launch week didn't dissuade you from entirely.

TL;DR
- Create an idle setup for Wave 5 on your map of choice.
- Make sure there are (at least) 3 special enemies that count towards the achievement.
- Set up so the crystal will always die after the special enemies.

Overview
While the other solution is pretty spot-on, after finishing the campaign I initially had a great deal of trouble coming to terms with this achievement. Had no idea what Chaos IV was, what Marks or Medallions were and even how the achievement was supposed to work. So this guide is for you - anyone who's finished the campaign and unsure how to tackle this awful achievement.

I say "awful" for a number of reasons. "Special Enemies" refer to the beefed up regular enemies with their name and health bar in the middle of the screen, like an Ogre or Griblok. Throughout the whole campaign, I only managed to register around 2 or 3 special enemy kills, so having an achievement for 1,000 them is just rubbish. A pointless and rather boring way to keep people playing the game.

The second reason this achievement is awful is because only kills made by you and your towers count. Kills made by your friends or randoms in public games will NOT count towards your achievement, even if you deal 95% of the damage to the special enemy, only the final hit matters. This just encourages you to play in private matches by yourself instead of playing this co-operatively as its clearly intended.

The third reason is the key to understanding how best to get this achievement over and done with. Not all enemies count towards this achievement! This is very important. You could very well run a stage with 5 waves and 10 special enemies, but will only count as 1 towards this awful achievement and thats 15-20 minutes of your time. Understanding which enemies counts towards the achievement is the real gem here.

With that out of the way, I have a big shout-out to Fanta Morgana, without their guidance I wouldn't have understood half of what I do now about the post-game content, and how to get this blasted achievement.

Getting Started
From the War Table, you'll want to head on over to Expeditions, pick a map and off you go. You'll probably only have access to "Chaos I" difficulty at this stage, but that is perfectly fine. You may not even win, but that is just fine too. Just clearing the earlier waves gives you access to some gear, and if you do manage to complete the stage you'll get some Shards too.

Looking at gear first, each gear item has a "score" associated to it as noted by the gear/cog icon. The way loot drops work (at the time of writing!) is based off your highest character's score. With this in mind, you want to have one of your 4 Heroes equipped with the highest "score" item in each slot. Doesn't matter if the gear doesn't have stats or abilities you're likely to use, just plonk the highest score item into the slot. This is my "loot" hero, I never touch them. For me, its my Apprentice. They have the highest "score" of my heroes and reflects my overall character rating. If you keep equipping this character with your highest gear, the loot drops you receive will be based off this guy. The other thing to keep in mind about your gear is that it also has a "Chaos" value. "Chaos I" difficulty maps will only drop "Chaos I" level gear (as noted by a "I" on the gear). This simply reflects how high the stats can be (or upgraded to). The gear can be evolved to "Chaos II", but its really not worth it, you can simply aim for a high roll "Chaos I" or "Chaos II" item (and upgrade it with coins) and that'll do for now.

Once you're comfortable clearing Chaos I, give Chaos II a try. Even if you don't see it through, you'll get a few gear drops, hopefully you'll get a relic or two. If you get a few decent Epic (Purple) or Legendary (Gold) relics, consider investing some coin in upgrading them as they'll see you idling through Chaos I with ease. Even an upgraded Rare (Blue) Chaos II relic to get you started is pretty good.

When you complete a map, you'll get a random loot chest at the end. This will give you one standard Shard and one Shard from the Chaos level you ran it at (so, Chaos I for now). Opening these Shards is what gives you "Marks" that you can further improve your gear/relics. You can apply two Marks to Rare (Blue) gear, and three Marks to Epic (Purple) and Legendary (Gold) gear. These are certainly nice to have, but there are also a lot of rubbish ones. To equip a Mark, select the item in your inventory (with A button), change to your backpack and "move" the Mark from the backpack to the character panel. You can't simply equip with X button. Keep an eye out for these Marks:

Standard - Concussive Shock (Huntress)
Standard - Construction
Standard - Defensive Critical Damage
Standard - Fortification
Standard - Speed Boost
Chaos I - Concussive Power (Huntress)
Chaos I - Destruction
Chaos I - Stun Fire
Chaos II - Encroaching Flames (Monk)

Now, where to equip all this stuff you're about to get.

Heroes
Primarily you only need 2 heroes - Monk and Squire. Having a good DPS character is certainly handy early on until you can safely idle, but you probably already have a full roster of 4 characters left over from the campaign anyway, and I'm assuming they're already Level 50 or close to it.

Monk
Flame Aura - This will be your bread and butter to kill the regular enemies. You want to put the highest Defense Power relic on here.
Skyguard Tower - This is your aerial defense, just give it some kind of relic with Defense Power, but not too high, more on this in a bit.
Other Equipment - Nothing else matters, can be completely naked.
Marks - Flame Aura - Encroaching Flames is good (Chaos II) but otherwise Destruction and any Critical Marks. No Marks for the Skyguard Towers.
To give you an idea, I was able to idle the map with the following items:
Flame Aura - Chaos II, 7000 Def Power + 1250 Def Power
Skyguard Tower - Chaos I, 4500 Def Power + 850 Def Power

Squire
Training Dummy - This is your blockade, you want the highest Defense Health relic on here. If this falls, so does your crystal.
Cannonball Tower - This is your special enemy killer. Sure, if you get some high Chaos gear on your Flame Auras they'll do everything for you, but thats crazy talk. Cannonballs work just fine. Put your second best Defense Power relic here.
Other Equipment - Nothing else matters, can be completely naked.
Marks - Stun Fire is good for the Cannonball, but otherwise just Destruction and Critical Marks. For the Dummy you only really need Fortification.
To give you an idea, I was able to idle the map with the following items:
Training Dummy - Chaos II, Def Health 5000 + Reduced Damage at 20%
Cannonball Tower - Chaos II, Def Power 7000 + 850 Def Power

Huntress
Gear - Whatever boosts your Hero Power as you'll likely be hiding behind your towers anyway. I went with the highest base Power/Attack values on each armour piece. Having abilities that boost the attack of your chosen weapon help too (ie Single Projectile Attack) or increased attack when over 90% health, these all help if you're struggling to take down the enemies with towers alone. Don't invest any upgrades here though, the ultimate goal is to never use this hero anyway.
Relics - Probably none, you won't be using towers.
Other - I picked Huntress as my DPS character purely for her Oil ability. This is the best way to get rid of the Drakenlord special enemy. More on this later.

Loot Hero (Apprentice)
Doesn't matter who this character is, just make sure they have the highest Gear items on there. Just weapons/armour is all you need to worry about. Relics don't increase your "score". You'll never use this character, they're just there to improve the quality of your loot.

Strategy
Really any map will do, whatever you're comfortable with, but Ive based this off Molten Citadel because its small and familiar. I'll run through the quick and easy setup I use below, but first its important to know that only some enemies count! I've had runs on this map where I've only had one special enemy count out of the whole 5 waves. It can be pretty disheartening spending 15-20 minutes setting up the map only to have one enemy count. Your ideal scenario is to reach Wave 5 and have 3 special enemies that DO count. Kill all three, then fail on purpose and restart the wave. You will have the same 3 special enemies and can continue to kill them over and over.

Of all the enemies that show up on Molten Citadel on Chaos I difficulty, the following COUNT towards the achievement:

Shield Goblin Gorbstock
Plaguing Hulk
Quibly
Griblok
Malthius
Tuskar

These enemies DO NOT COUNT:

Captain Dreadbones
Cannon Ogre
Goblin Siege Roller
Ogre
Drakenlord
Slekeleon

The Siege Roller needs to be shot in the small circle at the back, and the Drakenlord needs to have the Huntress' oil thrown at it (Y button) to remove the ice shield before it can take damage. You can't really have your towers kill these enemies, so the best outcome is when they don't show up on Wave 5. If they show up on earlier waves, just be prepared to run out with your Huntress and take care of them quickly.

Wave 5 on Molten Citadel takes roughly 3 minutes to complete (or fail). If you're lucky enough to get 3 special enemies that count, you're looking at 1,000 minutes for this achievement (around 17 hours), but this doesn't take into account the number of times you'll have to set up the wave only to have bad enemies in the final wave. The best thing about Molten Citadel is at the very end of the wave, you have a large number of Wyverns that can fly over your Flame Auras and destroy your Crystal. You just need to make sure you kill all the special enemies before this happens.

The Setup
Head on over to:  War Table, Expeditions, Lost Dungeons, Molten Citadel. Press the Window button to bring up the Advanced settings, press Y button to create a match, check the difficulty is Chaos I, match set to Private and off you go.

Molten Citadel has 3 sets of staircases leading up to the Crystal, I like to have the same setup for each one.



Wave 1
Squire - Place a Training Dummy at the top of each staircase. Behind it, place two Cannonball Towers aimed down the stairs.
Monk - Place two Flame Auras down the staircase, with another two on each side at the bottom in a "T" shape. These two additional ones will take care of any ranged enemies that can hit your Dummy from a distance. Then place a single Skyguard Tower on the walkway to the South-West and two Skyguard Towers on the walkway to the South-East.
Upgrade the two central Flame Auras in each staircase to Tier 2 (one star) as well as the Training Dummy. This should put you to 750/800 Defense Units and use all your Green Crystals (whatever they're called!)

Wave 2
Upgrade all Flame Auras, once. This will put the two staircase ones to Tier 3 (two star). You should have 50 Green Crystals left over (assuming none fell off the stage), so upgrade one of the Skyguard Towers to the South-East. Leave the South-West Skyguard Tower at the base level.

Wave 3
Upgrade the two additional Flame Auras at each staircase to Tier 3 (so all Auras should now be Tier 3) and upgrade all Cannonball Towers to Tier 2. If you have any Green Crystals left, upgrade the other Skyguard Tower to the South-East to Tier 2, again ignoring the South-West Skyguard.

Wave 4
No upgrades unless you're struggling. Can be pretty flexible here.

You should see two Special Enemies on this wave, its up to you if you want to repeat this wave or try your luck for the next one. I've often replayed this wave simply because I'd had a run of bad luck and found two easy enemies here (like Quibly and Tuskar). Getting 2 kills in 3 minutes was better than one in 15.

The final series of enemies are Wyverns to the South-West. This is why you only have a single Tier 1 Skyguard Tower here, and not dealing too much damage. You don't want to kill them all. The South-West Skyguard is mainly to pick up any stragglers early in the wave from destroying your Crystal too early. The large mob at the end will just fly over it.

If you're happy killing the two special enemies here, let the Wyverns destroy the crystal so you can restart the wave. If you're going to Wave 5, just use your Huntress to shoot them down and complete it.

Wave 5
This is where the fun begins. I don't really mean fun, but you know. There will be 3 or 4 special enemies here. The ideal scenario is that they are all ones that count towards the achievement, but I've never seen that happen. Having 3 that count and one that doesn't is a good outcome. Works out to one kill per minute. If you only have one special enemy that counts, consider finishing the wave, collect your loot (including the Shards!) and hope for the best next time.
Restarting the wave will give you the exact same special enemies you had previously. Keep an eye out for where they appear as they always show up from the same entrance when you restart the wave. You should have plenty of Green Crystals to spend. Use this to optimise how quickly you can kill the special enemies. Upgrade towers/auras where the special enemies appear, or even add additional tower or two. The special enemy needs to die before the Crystal, thats all that matters. I've rarely seen special enemies appear from the West, so feel free to sell Cannonball Towers here to free up Defense Units elsewhere.

Don't fret if you get a Goblin Siege Roller or Drakenlord. If you have 3 other special enemies that count, just upgrade your Training Dummy so it can last long enough to kill the ones that DO count and let your Crystal die.

You will sometimes get a Shield Goblin Gorbstock on the West side at the very start of the wave. You might think it would be quicker to kill that one special enemy and let the Crystal fall at the very start of the match. Its not far off. Including loading screens, a full wave is on average 3 minutes where killing the Shield Goblin is just 1 minute. Its the same number of kills towards the achievement for the time taken, however you'll have to hit those Y and Window buttons a lot more, but there were certainly times I resorted to this after my 5th run through the stage getting only 1 or 2 special enemies in the whole run. 

Wrap-up
While it certainly looks complicated, it really isn't. I hope that helps take the burden out of those struggling to go from the campaign into the Chaos tier maps and covers how to get better loot items as this really isn't made clear in the game.

Just one last note, if you think you'd be able to use some autofire macro, you're out of luck. If you happen to press the Window button instead of Y to retry, you get a mission summary screen with a countdown to return to Town/Tavern, then you have to start over again.