🌌 Dimension Defenders — The Progression Update
Hey everyone — this is the biggest update since the playtest went live. Two huge new systems (hero skill trees and per-turret upgrade trees), a rebuilt multiplayer sync layer, and a long list of fixes and polish — a ton of it straight from your reports. Here's everything.
🌳 Hero Skill Trees (NEW)
Every hero now has a freeform, branching skill tree — start at the root and grow whichever direction you want to build the hero you want. Each class (Engineer, Commander, Skirmisher) has its own tree with a powerful capstone at the end.
Earn a skill point every dimension cleared and every 5 hero levels
Spend points in the setup window, or open your tree anytime with the HERO SKILLS button or the 'K' key
Fully per-run — everything resets each match, so ranked stays fair
Capstone weapons: Engineer → Flamethrower · Skirmisher → Marksman Rifle · Commander → Railgun turret (Commander-only)
🔧 Turret Upgrade Trees (NEW)
Select any turret and hit ⬡ UPGRADES to spend gold on its own upgrade tree. Tiered, so capstones must be earned — not rushed.
Shared upgrades: Reinforced Barrel, Servo Tuning, Extended Optics, Scavenger
Type capstones: Basic → Twin Cannon · Sniper → Headhunter · AOE → Concussive · Laser → Focusing Lens · Slow → Cryo Field · Mortar → Cluster Rounds · Tesla → Overcharge · Railgun → Penetrator
⭐ Hero Progression
New HP bar, XP bar, and level on the HUD
Heroes earn XP from combat and from building turrets
Leveling up now meaningfully scales your damage, raises max HP, and heals you — with a big "HERO LEVEL UP" banner
🤝 Multiplayer — Co-op & 1v1 (rebuilt)
You and your teammate/opponent now share the exact same map, paths, scenery, and enemies — in sync
Rebuilt match timing so wave countdowns line up across machines
New 30-second build window after every dimension shift
Fixed false "teammate disconnected" pop-ups, floating/animation-less players, lobby ready-up, 1v1 match start, and leaving-a-match cleanup
🛡️ Stability & Compatibility
Fixed a crash that could stop the game loading into a match (graphics/render-scale related — also hit Steam Deck & integrated-GPU handhelds)
Auto-detect integrated GPUs and apply smoother defaults for stable handheld play
Fixed the loading screen sometimes hanging near 90%
Steam Cloud saves now sync across your PCs
Game now pauses on Steam Overlay open and on controller disconnect
Fixed a stray contact-damage tick after kills near your hero
⚖️ Balance & Quality of Life
Tuned down Commander's gold economy
Added a chat filter
Bigger, clearer skill descriptions; hidden UI scrollbars; green level-up flash
Moved the tutorial pop-up off the turret menu; menu text no longer highlightable
Various turret aiming and visual cleanups
Thank you for playing and for all the feedback — keep it coming in the discussions and reports. More on the way. — Dimension Defenders