Item Drops
Dungeon Defenders makes it easy by putting a green ring and a thumbs up outlining equipment that is better than what you've got on - simply press 'F' while mousing over it to put it right on (and move your current equip to the item box) or 'E' to move it straight to the item box. On the overhead map (press 'shift') items will appear as dark dots if they aren't good for you, and bright green ones if they are. You can even see green items through walls as urgent green arrows. Items that are left on the ground are automatically sold to the bank and proceeds split evenly among the players, so you can just leave the stuff you don't want.
Item Box
The item box can hold 120 items, and can be accessed from the defense forge (the cabinet-looking thing that's there during build phase and in the tavern). From here you can equip your hero, sell excess equipment, upgrade items, and lock items. Click on a piece of equipment you want to save for later, and use the 'lock' on it. You will see a lock appear on that item, and it will not be sold if you press 'Sell All'. This makes equipment sorting and selling a pretty quick and painless task. Want to move it to your hero? Click on the item and choose 'Give to Hero'. It will automatically equip it in the right slot for your person. That's all there is to it!
Colors and Attributes
Red is health
Yellow is damage
Blue is physical speed (range for towers)
Green is casting speed
If the symbol is in the shape of a shield, that indicates defense (lightning + shield = lightning defense) in a square means it's an offensive stat.
So if you're glancing at a set of stats, and you can't quite figure out what the symbols mean, because there a lot of symbols in this game, use that as your base guide.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Navigation in this game is generalized for use in consoles and even the iPad, so it's not going to be the best setup for PC players. You press the middle mouse button to bring up the circle menu, and then you go from there. What you'll want to do is bring up that menu, hover over something you want, let's say: Repair, and then hold down a number button on the keyboard, like you're setting radio stations. It will remap the number buttons to anything in that wheel-menu for faster access. Defense Units
In the upper right hand corner of the screen you'll see a number xx/xx that defines your defense units. Each of your towers, if you hover over them in the circle menu, has a certain number of defense units associated with it, and there's a max for the map, so if you can't build towers, that may be the reason why.
Resistances
You have resistances, listed in the character sheet (press 'I' to view) but the monster also will occasionally have resistances, and that can cause big problems for someone like the apprentice. The resistant monsters will not look any different than regular monsters - just because a monster is a fiery red color does not mean it's resistant to fire. There will be an elemental symbol next to the monster's health bar (just to the right of it) when you hover over him. Resistant monsters often take NO damage at all from that element, so be sure, as an apprentice, to have double coverage of lightning / fire towers, or else a resistant creature will walk right up to a tower and destroy it without taking any damage.
