Wintershield sees a celebration of maps in the Realms, symbolizing our paths through the new year. As part of this year's tradition, the Champions have purchased a map from a Waterdeep street vendor. Then it started talking...

December 21st, 2022 is the beginning of both Wintershield 6 and Season 2: The Flayer Hunters! Wintershield 6 introduces Imoen, a rogue/wizard and member of the Heroes of Baldur's Gate, and brings back two of her fellow Baldur's Gate heroes: Viconia DeVir, Drow Cleric of Shar, and Baeloth the Entertainer, Drow Sorcerer and proprietor of The Black Pits! Players have until Monday, January 2nd, 2023 at 12 PM Pacific to complete their Wintershield 6 unlocks and objectives.

Season 2: The Flayer Hunters

This is also the launch of Season 2, featuring five of the Heroes of Baldur's Gate, specifically Nerys, Shandie, Krydle, Jaheira, and Viconia. For our Season 2 skins, we were very excited to collaborate with Max Dunbar to create The Flayer Hunters! All of these Champions have received updates and buffs, and you can see an overview of the changes we have made in the video below and in the game.



Aside from the Champion balance updates, we've been listening to your feedback about the quests and rewards. The quests for this season have been tweaked to reduce some of the grind players experienced in Season 1. We outright removed some of the most disliked quests and added new ones in their place.

On the rewards side, we've added an entirely new reward slot for non-season pass players, providing ten more items to that reward track. Some of these items will even increase the Season Champions' item level. For tier 11, we've removed the requirement that you must purchase all the items from tiers 1-10. Instead, tier 11 now has the same unlock requirement for both season pass and non-season pass players: simply purchase 40 items from tiers 1-10 and you're good to go! We have made some other adjustments to tier 11, removing several items, adding two new ones, and tweaking the costs and reward counts for the remaining items.

A lot of these changes were in response to player feedback, so please keep that feedback coming on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!

Imoen's Design

Imoen is a surprisingly cheerful young woman, considering she eventually discovered that she was the child of a deadly murder god. As an orphan, she moved to Candlekeep at the age of 10 with her adoptive father and innkeeper, Winthrop. Soon she traveled to Baldur's Gate with a childhood friend, where she joined forces with powerful Champions like Minsc and Jaheria.

Imoen is a Support and Healing Champion who complements her thieving abilities with spells! She boosts her party's damage whenever a Favored Foe is defeated, and while not primarily a spellcaster, she doesn't mind stepping in with an occasional Polymorph or Stoneskin spell. Once unlocked, you can find this Human Rogue/Wizard in Slot 11 opposite Jamilah. You can find out more in Imoen's Full Champion Spotlight.

Year Six Variants

• Adventure Variant 1: Heya! It's me, Imoen! - Help a poor map find its way home for the holidays with Imoen! Imoen joins the formation, and can't be moved or removed. Only Imoen and Champions next to her can deal damage.
  Complete Area 75.


• Adventure Variant 2: Mutton Mongering Riff Raff - Help a poor map find its way home for the holidays fighting against a menagerie of beasts. Imoen joins the formation, and can't be moved or removed. 1-2 Beasts spawn with every wave, who don't drop gold nor count towards quest progress.
  Complete Area 125.


• Adventure Variant 3: Gotta Go Fast To Cast Fast - Help a poor map find its way home while blasting monstrosities as quickly as you can. Imoen joins the formation and can be moved, but not removed. You may only use Champions with an INT of 12+ and/or Champions from the Heroes of Baldur's Gate affiliation. Imoen's base attack cooldown is reduced by 0.5 seconds for each Champion next to her. 1-2 Monstrosities spawn with every wave, but they don't drop gold nor count toward quest progress.
  Complete Area 175.

Remember that if you have feedback, let us know in a Community Q&A or Champion feedback post on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!

"So, you ready to go? I'd prefer to travel with you, if I could."

With a lighthearted outlook and a care-free disposition, Imoen has managed to remain cheerful even in the face of deadly enemies and startling revelations. With her thieves tools in one hand and powerful magic in the other, she is ready to deal with any challenge the formation encounters when she joins the Champions during Wintershield!

I. Imoen

Imoen is a surprisingly cheerful young woman considering she eventually discovered that she was the child of a deadly murder god. As an orphan, she moved to Candlekeep at the age of 10 with her adoptive father and innkeeper, Winthrop. Soon she traveled to Baldur's Gate with a childhood friend, where she joined forces with powerful Champions like Minsc and Jaheria.

Imoen is a Support and Healing Champion who complements her thieving abilities with spells! She boosts her party's damage whenever a Favored Foe is defeated, and while not primarily a spellcaster, she doesn't mind stepping in with an occasional Polymorph or Stoneskin spell. Once unlocked, you can find this Human Rogue/Wizard in Slot 11 opposite Jamilah.

II. Imoen's Stats

Race: Human	Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Rogue/Wizard	Gender: Female	Pronouns: She/Her
Age: 20	Affiliation: Heroes of Baldur's Gate

STR: 9	DEX: 18	CON: 16
INT: 17	WIS: 11	CHA: 16

Role: Support, Healing
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt, Vajra, and Strahd
Slot: 11 (Jamilah)

III. Imoen's Design

As a recurring character in the Baldur's Gate series of video games, Imoen has proven herself as a valuable party member to join you on your quests. She also appears in several Baldur's Gate novels and even appears on a Magic: the Gathering card! When things are bleak, Imoen will be there with a joke to try and lighten spirits, and is excited to use her unique mixture of roguish and wizarding talents for good uses.

Imoen is focused on supporting the formation against her Favored Foe. She helps keep Optimism high by increasing the damage of adjacent Champions. With Perseverance she'll increase Optimism's damage boost every time any Champion's Favored Foe either appears or is defeated. For monsters that are not on her special list, Imoen can magically Polymorph them into an enemy that is the same type as her Favored Foe. Since the front-most column of the formation takes the brunt of attacks, she'll help them out by casting Stoneskin to give them a temporary hit point boost.

There are four Specializations that Imoen can choose from, making her regular attack do more damage against a specific type of enemy. She can focus on beasts, dragons, monstrosities, or aberrations, making them her Favored Foe and turning her ammo into Slaying Arrows for that specific type of creature. Usually Imoen attacks at range with her Short Bow, but if it's time to get up close and personal with her Ultimate, she'll pull out her short sword and lockpicks to leap into the fray! She'll Disarm Traps and strike multiple times dealing extra damage against hits-based enemies, proving as deadly with thieves' tools as she is with a weapon.

IV. Imoen's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Short Bow - Imoen makes a ranged attack against a random enemy, dealing one hit. Once her specialization is unlocked, Imoen prioritizes attacking Favored Foes, and she deals an additional 5 seconds of BUD-based damage with every hit to these enemies.

Formation Abilities

• Optimism - Imoen increases the damage of adjacent Champions by 100%.

• Perseverance - Any time any Champion's Favored Foe appears or is defeated, Imoen increases the effect of Optimism by 50%, stacking multiplicatively and then applying multiplicatively. Stacks up to 50 times. Stacks are reset each time the Champions change areas.

• Polymorph - Before every third attack, Imoen polymorphs a random non-boss non-static enemy into a monster with the same type as her Favored Foe, but only 10% of its original health. She can not polymorph enemies that are already polymorphed by this ability a second time.

• Stoneskin - Before every eighth attack, or upon entering a new area, Imoen casts Stoneskin on all Champions in the front-most column of the formation, granting them 300 temporary hit points. The amount is increased by 5% (additively) for each Favored Foe that is alive.

Specializations

• Beast Slaying Arrows - Beast enemies become Imoen's Favored Foe. Her Short Bow attacks against Beast enemies deal an additional BUD-based damage with each hit.

• Dragon Slaying Arrows - Dragon enemies become Imoen's Favored Foe. Her Short Bow attacks against Dragon enemies deal an additional BUD-based damage with each hit.

• Monstrosity Slaying Arrows - Monstrosity enemies become Imoen's Favored Foe. Her Short Bow attacks against Monstrosity enemies deal an additional BUD-based damage with each hit.

• Aberration Slaying Arrows - Aberration enemies become Imoen's Favored Foe. Her Short Bow attacks against Aberration enemies deal an additional BUD-based damage with each hit.

Ultimate Ability

• Disarm Traps - Imoen leaps out into the fray, attacking five enemies in sequence with her short sword in one hand and her lockpicks in the other. She prioritizes enemies with hits-based health and deals 5 hits per attack. If no hits-based enemies are available she deals normal ultimate damage to enemies she attacks.

V. Imoen's Epic Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Optimism	Slot 3: Perseverance
Slot 4: Stoneskin	Slot 5: Ultimate Attack Damage	Slot 6: Ultimate Attack Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

The Heroes of Baldur's Gate have gained another ally! Let us know how much you enjoy Imoen in your formations in a Community Q&A or Champion feedback post on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!

Our Winterfest Celebration has arrived! There are new goodies for you to unlock and new adventures for you to enjoy, so read on to find out about what you can expect!

Daily Rewards

Every day during the Winterfest Celebration you can log in and open a new chest, but each chest is only available for 24 hours! Each chest contains 5 awesome items, hand-picked by the team here at Codename Entertainment to help you in your adventures. If you get goodies in those chests for content you have not yet unlocked, then your account will retain those items and save them for you to enjoy when you have unlocked those systems in the game.

Once you have claimed at least four daily chests, you unlock Lazaapz as well as an exclusive Spelljammer skin, an epic Lazaapz feat, and 3 gold Lazaapz chests!

Gem Shop Updates

A brand new familiar is now available in the gem shop! He's a little nervous, as he just started to exist after being pulled out of a Bag of Tricks. But we think you'll find Jeremy the Baby Tiger, available for 1000 gems, an excellent addition to your familiar family!

We're also adding Gladiator Minsc, Vecna Cultist Korth, and Birdie Lucius to the gem shop, all 20,000 gems!

Season 2 Champion Updates

Idle Champions Season 2: The Flayer Hunters will be focusing on five of the Heroes of Baldur's Gate. Ahead of the season starting on December 21st, we've made some updates and buffs to all of these Champions. Check out this video for a quick overview of the changes, with all the details available in game when Season 2 launches!

Adventure Variants

Winterfest also brings 10 new adventure variants for 5 different Campaigns!

Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Adventure Variants

• The Dark Heart Variant 2: Underdark Chill
Travel to Vizeran DeVir in the middle of a snowfall? Underground?!?
• The tunnels are unnaturally cold. The weather is snowing in every area. Ice Piercers spawn randomly with each wave, but they don't drop gold, nor do they count toward quest progress. You can't use Champions that have CON as their lowest ability score, including ties.
• Complete area 450.


• The Alien Underdark Variant 2: Brains on Ice
Assault a mind flayer colony with a brainy friend.
• An Intellect Devourer riding a Snow Golem joins the formation. Champions next to the Intellect Devourer have their base attack cooldown increased by 5 seconds. Mind Flayer Zombies spawn randomly with each wave, but they don't drop gold, nor do they count toward quest progress.
• Complete area 450.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Adventure Variants

• Wyllowwood Variant 3: Smooth Talkers
Convince the lady of Wyllowwood to guide you with your most persuasive heroes.
• You can only use Champions that have CHA as their highest ability score, including ties.
• Complete area 375.


• An Illithid Undertaking Variant 3: An Owlbear of an Undertaking
Head deeper into the Illithid infested Undermountain with an oversized pet.
• A Snowy Owlbear joins the formation. Every 5 seconds, it takes a bite out of a random Champion next to it, dealing damage equal to 25% of the Champion's max health.
• Complete area 400.

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus Adventure Variants

• Elturel Has Fallen Variant 3: Hailstorm!
The weather gets worse, so you'll need to be strong.
• You can only use Champions that have STR as their highest ability score, including ties. Every 5 seconds, a large Hailstone falls from the sky striking a random Champion, dealing damage equal to 50% of the Champion's max health.
• Complete area 350.


• Resolve Amongst Chaos Variant 3: Avernus Frozen Over
Ice monsters and white abishai are making things extra difficult!
• White Abishai spawn randomly with each wave, but they don't drop gold, nor do they count toward quest progress. Each Boss wave spawns an Ice Devil as an additional Boss. It must also be defeated to progress. You can't use Champions that have WIS as their lowest ability score, including ties. The weather is snowing in every area.
• Complete area 375.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Adventure Variants

• Dwarven Rumors Variant 3: It's Cold Out There Today
Explore a rumor about invisible dwarves in Caer-Konig in the middle of a blizzard.
• It's snowing heavily in all outdoor areas. Due to the blowing snow, it's too cold to hold weapons. You may only use Champions with magic attacks.
• Complete area 400.


• Sunblight Variant 3: It's Cold Out There Every Day
Learn what you can with those tough enough to handle the cold.
• You can only use Champions that have CON as their highest ability score, including ties.
• Complete area 425.

Wild Beyond the Witchlight Adventure Variants

• Will of the Feywild Variant 2: Will of the Frozen Feywild
Face off against the next member of the League of Malevolence while under assault by Winter Eladrin!
• Winter Eladrin spawn randomly with each wave. They don't drop gold, nor do they count toward quest progress. You can't use Champions that have DEX as their lowest ability score, including ties.
• Complete area 650.


• Best Laid Plans Variant 2: G. O. A. T.
  
Face off against Skabatha Nightshade with the Greatest of All Time.
• A giant goat joins the formation. You can't use Champions that have WIS as their lowest ability score, including ties.
• Complete area 750.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!

Tell us all how your Winterfest is going on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!

Christmas Event! (December 14th, 2022)

- Updated Christmas Event
- Added new customization and ranch items
- Added new ribbons and 100% reward
- Added new snowman pet and christmas tree quest rewards
- Added new item to fish up from the ice fishing hole
- Added new item in leftmost dev present
- Added a new to deliver presents to
- Added a new gift to steal
- Dreidel quest awards a new Dreidel ranch item that can be rotated for each of its 4 letters
- Added new gingerbread house building quest
- Increased gem reward from dev gift for players level 400+
- The Greatest Carol Arrangements quest now awards a gnome-sized music stand ranch item
- The Caroling Music Stand ranch item is now available in the Christmas prior items store and ranch store
- Added 3 new pets available the second weekend of the event
- Added new event mounts in Bush Bucks sale and mount packs, available the first weekend of the event

- Added American Flower and Canadian Flower ranch items, unlocked during the 2013 Patriot event, to the ranch store

- The Christmas Fireplace now lights dark ranch themes

- Fixed the Thanksgiving Mini Golf Piece ranch item having inverted collision depending on whether the turkey has its head in the hole or not

Coppers of the Creature Collector

The eccentric Creature Collector has returned to the Commons, this time with a trio of mythical ahuizotl mounts!



Head to the event area and choose one to train. You have until noon on Wednesday December 7th to complete the collector's four daily quests, level up your chosen creature, earn Creature Coppers to spend in their store, and get another page to your Creature Collector's Compendium!

The Compendium Page will be given after the event ends. If you don't have the Creature Collector's Compendium ranch item, you'll get it when you get your first page.

After the event, the collector will be taking their creature back unless you adopt it by purchasing its corresponding mount pack, available starting Monday December 5th.

Train hard, Bush Whackers!

The training quests unlock at noon on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Those busy on the weekends can still catch up!

Notes
- The VIP "Quest Reset" power does not reset these mini event quests, and they are not affected by the Time Turner and Timey Whimey Watch.
- Swapping your event mount with a higher level mount doesn't count towards event progress.
- These three mounts earn double the experience compared to other mounts for the duration of this mini-event!
- Expiring mounts cannot have their bonuses swapped.

Ye Olde Creature Collector's Galleria - Mounts

When you speak to Tanela Tiva in the event area, you can select the "What past mounts are for sale?" chat option.

This will open a new store, which will contain 3 non-event premium mounts you have never owned! They cost Bush Bucks, like in event stores. The selection will change next time Tanela Tiva visits to event area.

We've done this in response to players asking to see old premium mounts they've missed out on, to help you fill out your pet collection. Snag those old-school mounts you're missing out on!

Read the Release Notes!

Creature Collector - Ahuizotl Mounts (December 2nd, 2022)

- Rerunning Coppers of the Creature Collector mini event with 3 new mounts and custom items

- Added more mounts to the collector's un-owned mount store pool

- Added new Christmas Night Ranch Style, a giant Christmas tree ranch item, and snowy model village ranch items in a new premium package deal available in the coming weeks. The Christmas Night theme changes some of the perimeter trees to Christmas trees, changes the music, and darkens the zone so lighting ranch items can shed light.

- Added Christmas Lamp ranch item, unlocked during the 2013 Christmas event, to the ranch store

- Added the Kitchen Island ranch item, unlocked during the 2017 Thanksgiving event, to the ranch store

- Can now place items on top of the White Stove ranch item

- Added a light effect to the Lantern ranch item on dark themes

- Fixed zone objects loading in bits at a time, which is only supposed to happen if loading the zone takes more than 15 seconds. This was particularly noticeable when slide-transitioning between areas, like from the Forest Detour to the Commons and the Lost Woods.

- Swapped some doodads in the Winter ranch style to more appropriate doodads, like the water plants and lilies to ice cracks and snow.

- Fixed dynamic bushes not showing the correct energy cost when at level 480

- Added new music to the tropical island zones, Beach ranch style, and North Pole

- Permitted the Igloo, Ski Supplies, Fish Statue, Scarecrow, and Cooked Turkey ranch items on the mini golf course