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July 15th, 2020
Idle Champions: Midsummer 3 
Posted in Idle Champions.

It's the day before Shieldmeet and the Open Lord of Waterdeep has gone missing. Nobody has seen Laeral Silverhand in days and it is imperative that she be found before the meeting with the Masked Lords begins.

At the behest of the Blackstaff, the Champions are sent to discover what happened...

Midsummer 3 introduces Beadle & Grimm, the purveyors of the Pandemonium Warehouse and owners of the Giant's Bane Tavern, brings back the speedy hero of Baldur's Gate, Shandie Freefoot, and the street rogue, Xander Cesso. Players have until Monday, July 27th at 12PM PDT to complete their event unlocks and objectives.

Dungeons & Dragons Beadle Grimm Pandemonium Warehouse Matthew Lillard

Year 3 Champion: Beadle & Grimm

    Beadle and Grimm have been best friends & adventuring partners their entire lives. Together, they have faced the most dangerous foes their realm had to offer and built a respite alongside the frozen north's harsh realities: The Giant's Bane Tavern.

Beadle & Grimm are Support and DPS Champions able to swap places in the formation on demand. The longer that one is in the formation, the more powerful the other becomes when swapped in. When you want to add Beadle & Grimm to your formation, you can swap them with Delina (Slot 8).

For more information about Beadle & Grimm, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Beadle & Grimm dev blog!

Dungeons & Dragons Shandie Freefoot Baldur's Gate Jim Zub

Year 2 Champion: Shandie Freefoot

    Shandie grew up on the rough streets of the Lower City of Baldur's Gate. She quickly learned that if she wanted to survive, she needed to be fast on her feet and even faster with her wit and weaponry. The first time Shandie saw a bowmaster gracefully launch an arrow into a bull's-eye, she knew she had to master archery. With years of practice under her belt, any opponents underestimating this stealthy halfling will soon realize how dangerous she is as a volley of arrows bear down on them unexpectedly from shadowy corners.
Shandie is an agile Support Champion. Her Dash ability can increase formation speed, while Explosive Arrows and Agile Allies offer potent formation buffs. When you want to add Shandie to your formation, you can swap her with Asharra (Slot 6).

For more information about our latest Champion, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Shandie Freefoot dev blog!

Dungeons & Dragons

Year 1 Champion: Xander Cesso

    Fascinated by magic at a young age when he lived in an orphanage, but lacking any ability or proficiency, Xander is not terribly good at much of anything, though something about his adorable clumsiness and childlike wonder anytime magic is being used nearby has been known to inspire those around him. Until recently, he was living on the streets of Waterdeep, scraping together just enough to survive. Now, he is a faithful member of your party, always ready to leap into the fray, even if he doesn't really seem to be able to hit much of anything.
Xander is a Support Champion. His Lucky Shot ability has a chance to double quest progress, and his Streetwise ability increases the damage of Champions behind him. When you want to add Xander to your formation, you can swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

Year Three Variants

  • Arvaiss' Next Trap - Every area, a collection of magical monsters attempt to thwart your progress. Once they spawn, their effects are active until they are destroyed.
    • Young Red Dragons(Armored) - No other monsters can be damaged until all the Young Red Dragons on-screen are destroyed.
    • Fire Snake - The base attack cooldown for each Champion is increased by 1 second while this enemy is alive.
    • Giant Fire Beetle - While this enemy is alive, all enemies are increased in size by 20%, deal 300% more damage and move at 100% increased speed.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Showoffs - Beadle & Grimm are ready to show the Champions how they do things in the frozen north! Beadle starts unlocked and in the formation. They can be moved. Champions can only be used if they meet one or more of the following requirements:
    • Strength 18 or higher
    • Dexterity 17 or higher
    • Intelligence 16 or higher.

    Reach Area 125.

  • A Contest, You Say? - Beadle & Grimm have started some infighting on which method of attacking is best. It's time to answer the question, but the enemies are not going to make it easy on you!
    • Enemies have 300% more hit points.
    • Enemies attack twice as often.
    • When an enemy is killed by a type of Base Attack (Melee, Ranged, or Magic) the Champions with the same Base Attack type have their damage decreased by 2% while Champions with the other Base Attack types have their damage increased by 1%.

    Reach Area 175.

Year Two Variants

  • Dreams of Grandeur — Jenks really wants to meet Vajra Blackstaff. From Area 12 onward, Jenks takes up a slot in your formation.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Stay Back — Only Champions that attack with ranged or magic-based attacks can be used.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Haunted Past — Only Neutral, Evil, or Champions with a Dexterity (DEX) score of 15 or higher can be used. Shandie beings the adventure in your formation and cannot be swapped out, moved, or removed. Strahd Vampires that can only be damaged by Shandie randomly spawn in non-boss Areas. Luckily, Shandie will prioritize Strahd Vampires over all others and attack twice as frequently when they are present.
    Reach Area 175.

Year One Variants

  • Waterdeep Escort — The Waterdeep City Watch Officer insists that he accompany you on your adventure. He fills one slot in the formation, and if he is killed, your DPS goes down by 33% every 10 seconds.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Drow Deception — The Drow said they were looking for a wizard, but the Champions seem like a more interesting quarry to chase! A Stealthy Drow Pickpocket appears on every level, and if they reach the formation, you fail the area and have to head back to the previous level.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Commander Xander — Xander takes the lead as his childhood wishes of becoming a Hero have come true! Champions not adjacent to Xander have a 50% chance to miss whenever they attack (Xander isn't great at command). Those that are adjacent to Xander attack normally. He does enough missing for everyone.
    Reach Area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

March 24th, 2020
Dev Blog: Champion Balance Update (March 2020) 
Posted in Idle Champions.

Since July of last year we've had an item on our 'to-do list' that we've been pushing further and further back. First it was to make room in our development schedule for Feats, then came Patrons, followed by Patron Challenges & Advanced Effects Descriptions, Updated Time Gates, and Offline Progress.

It has been a busy 8 months! But we never forgot about finishing our balance update for our remaining Year One Champions, and today we're going to talk about the updates to those Champions coming with our v1.0 Launch / Spring Extravaganza Update tomorrow. This blog ended up being a bit of a longer one, so we've included a Table of Contents for you to browse.

Would you like to know more? Read on!

Table of Contents


General Updates

As many players may be aware, Champions with debuff abilities are quite powerful in the current meta because they allow you to double-dip on their debuffs when you use ultimate attacks. Champions' base attacks take into account the debuff in their damage and thus that increased damage determines your BUD. When you use an ultimate attack it uses the BUD value for the damage and then applies the debuff again, allowing debuffs to double dip, something that regular formation buffs do not do. Unfortunately this is something that we feel needs to change, as it means that debuff Champions are simply too powerful compared to their non-debuffing counterparts. The biggest change in this patch is that debuffs will no longer apply to ultimate attacks. They will still apply to base attacks, and so still influence BUD just like normal formation abilities do, but ultimates will no longer double dip. This will not affect the BUD that players can obtain, but will affect the top area that players can grind to as ultimate damage may be drastically reduced. We will continue to monitor the results of this change over the coming days and weeks and take action to offset the lost progress if necessary.

Ultimate Damage Change

Ultimate attacks will no longer have their damage increased by debuffs on enemies. Affected abilities include, but may not be limited to: Minsc's "Go for the Eyes!" (ultimate debuff portion), Gromma's "Spiked Shell", Strix's "Poor Hygiene", Catti-brie's "Mark for Death", Donaar's "Command: Flee", Warden's "Hex", Aila's "Storm Soul/Storm Aura", Spurt's "Wa-speration: Skunky", Krull's "Plague: Pain", Minsc's "Favored Enemies", and Regis' "Ruby Weakness".

Level 'Soft Cap' Increase

New upgrades have been added for all Champions, increasing the soft cap to approximately e62/e63 gold.

Champion Updates

Dungeons & Dragons Deekin Scalesinger

Deekin Scalesinger

Deekin's Story of Doom stacked a little differently from other support Champions so we tweaked how buffs apply to it to bring him more in line with the others. This necessitated a rebalance of all of his Story of Doom upgrades, so he should come out a little ahead of where he used to be with average gear levels. We also expanded his speed-up abilities through a new specialization choice and feat.
  • Buffs to Story of Doom now apply to the post-stack value instead of the pre-stack value.
  • Upgrades for Story of Doom have been rebalanced given the above change.
  • The Epic Tale of Little Kobold specialization now increases the effect of "Story of Doom" by 100%, up from 50%.
  • Added new specialization choice, Boss Wants Speed, which increases the effect of Confidence in the Boss by 100%.
  • Added a new Feat to increase the effect of Confidence in the Boss.

Dungeons & Dragons Gromma Nander

Gromma Nander

No changes to Gromma this go-round as she was already tweaked somewhat recently in the Tanking Healing & Shielding Update and sees decent usage (though we will watch the effects of the ultimate damage change and tweak things accordingly).


Dungeons & Dragons Ishi Snaggletooth

Ishi Snaggletooth

We've shown Ishi a lot of love with boosts to her DPS and gold find. Some of her abilities that used to stack additively now stack multiplicatively, really rewarding you for building a non-human focused formation. We removed her two gold find-related specializations and replaced them with a single ability that boosts her gold find when she gets a killing blow. We've also updated her Friends to X specializations with new races, increasing her synergy possibilities.
  • The Monsters Are People Too! ability now stacks multiplicatively instead of additively and we have increased the base stack size to 100%, up from 25%.
  • Increased the base effect of Let's Find Some Treasure, however this ability continues to stack additively.
  • The specializations Wait for it! and Clear 'em out! have been removed
    • Upgrades for the above specialization have been removed.
  • Added a new ability, Treasure Hunter, which increases the effect of Let's Find Some Treasure for 5 seconds after Ishi gets a killing blow.
  • Added new races to the Friends to X specializations.
  • The Friends to X specializations now stack multiplicatively.
  • The gear in slot 2 which increased Global DPS now increases Ishi's DPS.
  • Ishi's self DPS upgrades have been redistributed.

Dungeons & Dragons Dhadius the Scarlet

Dhadius the Scarlet

Dhadius got both some DPS and Support tweaks. A properly utilized Dhadius should excel at buffing high intellect, magic using Champions, with even his buffs now varying over time based on his trademark Practice Makes Perfect ability.
  • Added a new ability, Together In Magic, which increases the effect of Skill Empowerment on Champions with a magic base attack.
  • The Empowered Orbs specialization now also increases Dhadius' damage by 400%.
  • The Empowered Empowerment specialization now also increases the effect of Skill Empowerment by 50% for each stack of Practice Makes Perfect that is active.
  • The Chromatic Specialist upgrade no longer requires the Empowered Orbs specialization, so Dhadius will now more often cast the same elemental orbs in a row regardless of specialization choice.
  • Dhadius' self DPS upgrades have been rebalanced.

Dungeons & Dragons Krond

Krond

Krond was already a pretty powerful evil damage dealer, thanks to his earlier rebalance when his event re-ran again in year 2 and the addition of more strong or evil Champions over the past year. We've made some small tweaks, but nothing major.
  • Updated the advanced effect display of Survival of the Fittest to reflect that upgrades and equipment apply to the pre-stack multiplier value (a rare occurrence in the current meta).
  • Updated the Cantrip: Shocking Grasp specialization to also stun the affected target for 3 seconds.
  • Reduced the damage multiplier of the individual Cantrip: Fire Bolt fire bolts so that Cantrip: Shocking Grasp may be a superior choice vs. individual enemies.

Dungeons & Dragons Hitch

Hitch

As the least-recently created Champion in the rebalance, Hitch needed quite a bit of love. While his Friendly ability was invaluable in the meta in the past he has fallen out of favor more recently. With that in mind we've completely redone his dagger throwing ability and added some big buffing power there that ramps up in certain situations. Since we want this new Hitch to focus on buffing others, we've removed his DPS tag and reorganized some of his equipment buffs and feats in order to emphasize his support role.
  • Renamed Friendly to Natural Performer.
  • Added a new ability, Ricochet, which gives Hitch's thrown daggers a chance to bounce off of their target and hit another target. Each time they do Hitch increases the effect of the "Natural Performer" ability. This effect can stack with each ricochet and the stacks degrade naturally over time. Due to years of intense practice (and some DM hand-waving), daggers can ricochet off of an enemy and then strike the same enemy again. There are buffs to this ability that increase both its ricochet chance and the bonus it provides.
  • Replaced Hitch's self DPS feats with ones that increase the damage bonus from Ricochet.
  • Added a new Feat that increases the odds of the Ricochet ability proc'ing.
  • Added a new epic Feat that increases the number of daggers thrown.
  • Removed many upgrades that increase the number of daggers thrown.
  • Removed DPS tag.
  • Changed the effect of Hitch's slot 1 and slot 2 equipment (to Buff Ricochet Damage Bonus and Global DPS respectively).

Dungeons & Dragons Birdsong

Birdsong

Birdsong is one of my personal favorite Champions, so I wanted to make sure that we addressed some of her long-standing issues in this update. The main issue she has is that while she's a decent buffer, her Song of Victory stacks are very difficult to consistently keep up, especially if she's not also your main damage dealer. To fix this we've added new specialization choices that add a secondary trigger for Tempo of Victory, each tuned with a certain situation in mind. Now even if Birdsong isn't your primary damage dealer she can keep her song-based-buff going long and loud. We've also given her upgrades some love to make sure she can stand tall as either a primary DPS option or a powerful support Champion.
  • Individual stacks of Tempo of Victory are now multiplicative with each other instead of additive, and buffs to this ability apply to the post-stack multiplier.
  • Added a new set of specializations:
    • The new Soloist specialization increases Birdsong's damage by 400% and increases the base cooldown of Tempo of Victory stacks to 60 seconds.
    • The new Concertino specialization causes Tempo of Victory stacks to also be triggered when any Champion affected by Song of Battle (including Birdsong) gets a kill. Stacks triggered in this way last for at least 10 seconds.
    • The new Crescendo specialization causes Tempo of Victory stacks to also be triggered when any Champion affected by Song of Battle (including Birdsong) attacks a boss enemy. Stacks triggered in this way last for at least 5 seconds.
  • None of these specializations affect the fact that Birdsong getting a kill will continue to trigger a stack of Tempo of Victory that lasts for at least 15 seconds.
  • Added a new feat that buffs Tempo of Victory.
  • Birdsong's slot 2 gear now buffs Tempo of Victory.
  • Birdsong's upgrades have been rebalanced to increase both her buffing ability and her self damage, including new buffs for Song of Battle and global damage.

Dungeons & Dragons Barrowin Undurr

Barrowin Undurr

As one of our earliest "OP" champions, Barrowin's power has waned over time as we've tried one thing or another to fix her. She also suffers from being in the same slot as some powerhouse Champions that see a lot more use than she does. We've decided to double down on the niche that we want Barrowin to fill: the best support in the game for Champions that attack very very slowly. We've completely redesigned her Blessed Hammer ability in a way that directly emphasizes this core design, and given her a number of other small buffs as well.
  • Barrowin's Blessed Hammer ability now statically buffs adjacent Champions based on the differential between her attack speed as theirs, causing Champions with slower attacks to receive a much larger buff.
  • Barrowin's Healing Word ability will now buff Tank Champions in the column in front of her by half its normal amount.
  • Barrowin's Even Temper ability will now trigger whenever any ally that is eligible for Healing Word is attacked (Champions in the same column or Tank Champions in the column ahead of her).
  • Barrowin's ultimate now increases her attack speed by 2 seconds for 15 seconds following its use.
  • Barrowin's base attack speed has been adjusted.
  • Added a new Feat that reduces Barrowin's base attack speed.
  • Rebalanced all buffs to Blessed Hammer.

Dungeons & Dragons Strix Beestinger

Strix Beestinger

We expanded upon Strix's "Haunted" ability in order to increase her buffing ability in certain situations. If your team is having trouble defeating a boss, why not turn all those wipes into a good thing?
  • Strix's Haunted ability will now persist its stacks through area changes, and can add multiple stacks for the same Champion if they are killed multiple times during an adventure.
  • Strix's existing specializations have been completely removed and replaced with three new options.
    • Added Anxious Fireballs specialization which increases Strix's base attack cooldown by 2 seconds and her damage by 300%.
    • Added Echoes of the Past specialization which increases the effect of Haunted by 200%.
    • Added Smelly Lunch specialization which increases the effect of Poor Hygiene by 100%.
  • Updated Strix's upgrades (for Haunted, Poor Hygiene, Global DPS, and Self DPS).

Dungeons & Dragons Azaka Stormfang

Azaka Stormfang

No changes to Azaka at this time. We were hesitant to do too much too quickly; the ultimate changes will be a big adjustment in this update, and we wanted to hold off on changing players' other major farming technique at the same time.


These changes will go live as part of the v1.0 Launch / Spring Extravaganza Update. As always, we look forward to your feedback: let us know in a Community Q&A or feedback post on the Idle Champions Subreddit, on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!
March 24th, 2020
Idle Champions Twitch Drops 2.0 
Posted in Idle Champions.

Watch our Idle Champions streams tomorrow, Wednesday 25th March, on Twitch.tv/cnegames to receive in-game rewards as part of our Twitch Drops 2.0 launch! Check out the stream schedule below:
  • 10 AM to 1 PM PT - Official CNE Stream (3 hours)
  • 1 PM to 3 PM PT - Mars' Guiding Hand (2 hours)
  • 3 PM to 5 PM PT - Gaarawarr's Stream (2 hours)
Twitch Drops will be available after 15 minutes for players on Steam after the drops are claimed. Players on web, consoles, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices will still be able to collect their drops but their accounts will be updated in the coming weeks!

Getting Your Twitch Drops

Watch our streams to claim your Twitch Drops. Then unlock the rewards in-game when you link your Idle Champions account to your Twitch account in the Settings menu. If you don’t already have a Twitch account, you can sign up for one here.


Link
Link your Twitch account here!

Rewards include:
  • Gold Chests.
  • Mirt Patron Chest.
  • Vajra Patron Chest.
  • Strahd Patron Chest.
  • Birdsong Barovian Witch Skin.
We hope you like the Extravaganza!
March 23rd, 2020
Dev Blog: Formation Saves Update 
Posted in Idle Champions.

We’re very excited to announce that our Spring Extravaganza brings a much requested quality of life feature - more Formation Saves!

For a while now, we received requests to expand the ability to save formations from our current three save slots to reflect the changes in formations needed over the course of a run, and also allow for more flexibility to try new formation combinations.

That’s why we’ve increased the number of formations you can save from 3 to 50.

Formation Saves FAQ

  • Favorite Formations — The three side buttons remain, but are now ‘Favorite’ slots.
  • More Formation Saves — Creating a new saved formation prompts a new dialog box where you can scroll through all 50 of your formation saves. From here you can load, overwrite, delete or favorite individual saves.
  • Name your Formations — Saving a new formation will prompt you to name it, and you can rename one by tapping the little pencil icon on existing saved formations.
  • Unlock and place — If you load a formation but you do not have all the champions unlocked, as you unlock them the game will attempt to place them in the correct slot (may be blocked by carts or other accompanying obstacles).
  • Familiars — Familiar Saves remain unchanged. When saving a formation, all familiars assigned will be saved in the slot they are assigned to.


Dungeons & Dragons Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

Feedback

As always, if you have feedback or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out on the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord!
March 11th, 2020
Idle Champions: Festival of Fools 3 
Posted in Idle Champions.

How far would you go to celebrate foolishness?

Festival of Fools is a time honored tradition in Sword Coast communities. Townsfolk engage in the usual gluttonous consumption of food and drink during the festivities, but they also play pranks on each other.

Unfortunately, one prankster has decided to play a practical joke on a Frost Giant nearby...

Festival of Fools 3 introduces Briv Steelmarrow, Half-Orc Paladin (Oath of Heroism), and brings back Rosie and Strix Beestinger. Players have until Monday, March 23 at 12PM Pacific to complete their Festival of Fools 3 unlocks and objectives.

Dungeons & Dragons

Year 3 Champion: Briv Steelmarrow

    Relentlessly brave but markedly uncouth, Briv Steelmarrow is a stalwart champion of the weak, innocent, downtrodden, and oppressed. Centuries ago, a cabal of Netherese mages experimented on Briv’s clan, gifting him with a magical metal inside his bones that he can pull through his skin and shape for attack or defense. Once a slaver, Briv sought atonement by joining the Order of the Lost Cause, an elite group of knights that travel across Faerûn, taking on quests that only fools would pursue.

Briv is a Tank, Support, and Healing Champion. He uses his Unnatural Haste ability to speed up area progression, and his Steelbones boosts his defense while buffing Champions behind him. When you want to add Briv to your formation, you can swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

For more information about Briv, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Briv Steelmarrow dev blog!

Dungeons & Dragons Rosie Beestinger Acquisitions Incorporated

Year 2 Champion: Rosie Beestinger

    Weighing in at just under 30 pounds and with a grandmotherly demeanor befitting her advanced age, Rosie Beestinger is easily mistaken for someone on the wrong side of the “aggressor/victim” relationship. But this is a mix-up that few people make more than once.
Rosie Beestinger is a sassy DPS Champion. Her damage increases for each Champion in the formation younger than she is, and she catches and deflects incoming missiles.

When you want to add Rosie Beestinger to your formation, you can swap her with Tyril (Slot 10). For more information about Rosie, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Rosie Beestinger dev blog!

Dungeons & Dragons Strix Beestinger

Year 1 Champion: Strix Beestinger

    The Sorcerer known as Strix is from Sigil, the City of Doors at the center of the multiverse. Very little is known of Strix's heritage, even to herself, but it was recently discovered that she was a powerful member of the Skizzicks family, who long ago made a pact with Asmodeus, ruler of the Nine Hells, to become Tieflings.
Strix Beestinger is a 'Trash Witch' DPS Champion who attacks enemies with Fireballs. Her Poor Hygiene ability causes approaching enemies to take increased damage. When you want to add Strix to your party, you can swap her with Jamilah (Slot 11).

Year Three Variants

  • A Little Perspective — Pixies spawn at random in all non-boss areas. When a Pixie spawns, it shrinks a random Champion by 33%, decreasing their damage done by 99%. This effect persists until the Pixie causing it is killed. This effect can stack multiplicatively if multiple Pixies target the same Champion.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Nerves of Steel — Briv starts in the formation and can not be moved, removed, or swapped out. Normal enemies move faster and attack faster; bosses are unaffected.
    Reach Area 125.

  • A Delicious Diversion — A cart of tasty pies, baguettes, and other baked snacks takes up two slots in the formation; the cart has 100 hit points. Ravenous Crows and Famished Rats spawn randomly in each area. These additional creatures have armored health. If, for whatever reason, the cart is smashed, you immediately lose the area and go back to the previous area.
    Reach Area 175.

Year Two Variants

  • A Lighter Touch — Only Champions with a Strength (STR) score of 14 or lower may be used. Additionally, Champions with an Intelligence (INT) score of 14 or higher deal 400% increased damage.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Flay the Fools — During boss areas, Mind Flayers appear and attack the formation. While alive, Mind Flayers make all other enemies immune to damage.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Beestingers Unleashed — This adventure features unique dialogue created with the help of Strix & Rosie themselves! Strix and Rosie Beestinger begin the adventure in your formation with Strix asking Rosie what it means to be a Beestinger. No other Champions are able to be used, however, both Strix and Rosie Beestinger have increased damage, increased attack speed, and reduced Ultimate ability cooldowns. Additionally, Rosie Beestinger's Matriarch also doubles her health.
    Completing this adventure will unlock a bee outfit for both Rosie & Strix!
    Reach Area 175.

Year One Variants

  • Foolish Variance — Champions randomly do between 0.1% and 199.9% of their actual damage with each hit.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Persistent Foolishness — The Drunken Fool appears randomly in non-boss areas. Only one can be spawned at a time, but he has special abilities each time he appears.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Like Father Like Son — The farmer's son takes up a slot in the formation. He moves to a new slot every 25 areas. Every 15 seconds (in non-boss areas) the farmer's son foolishly summons a Frost Giant to attack the formation unless Strix is adjacent to him.
    Reach Area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

March 10th, 2020
Idle Champion Spotlight: Briv Steelmarrow 
Posted in Idle Champions.

It's time for the latest Idle Champion Spotlight, and this time around we're talking about a Tanking, Support, and Healing Champion who can create heavy armor with Netherese Steel stored in his very bones!

And did we mention that this Half-Orc Champion has his very own flumph ally?

Read on and learn all about Briv Steelmarrow...

I. Savage Paladin



    Relentlessly brave but markedly uncouth, Briv Steelmarrow is a stalwart champion of the weak, innocent, downtrodden, and oppressed. Centuries ago, a cabal of Netherese mages experimented on Briv’s clan, gifting him with a magical metal inside his bones that he can pull through his skin and shape for attack or defense. Once a slaver, Briv sought atonement by joining the Order of the Lost Cause, an elite group of knights that travel across Faerûn, taking on quests that only fools would pursue.

Briv is a Tank, Support, and Healing Champion. He uses his Unnatural Haste ability to speed up area progression, and his Steelbones boosts his defense while buffing Champions behind him. When you want to add Briv to your formation, you can swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

II. Briv's Stats

Race: Half-Orc Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Paladin (Oath of Heroism) Gender: Male
Age: 42 Affiliation: none

STR: 16 DEX: 14 CON: 16
INT: 10 WIS: 8 CHA: 18

Eligible for Patrons: Mirt, Vajra

III. Briv's Design

It's always a joy to work with a passionate creator to bring their character to life as a Champion in our game, and working with D&D Beyond's Adam Bradford was no exception. Adam was quick to provide numerous examples of Briv character art, including the official art by Max Dunbar, which really went a long ways towards helping to paint the visual picture of Briv Steelmarrow.


Art by Max Dunbar


Briv's abilities were an interesting challenge. With Netherese Steel in his bones, Briv has the ability to shoot it out of his pores to create heavy armor at will — or even violently expel it as a kind of shrapnel weapon, pulling it back into his body afterwards. These abilities became Steelbones, the core of Briv's design where he gains stacks of Steelbones when he is attacked, Netherese Steel, where Briv increases the damage of Champions behind him based how many stacks of Steelbones he has, and Netherese Explosion, where he uses the steel in his body to create an explosion out from him.

With Unnatural Haste we gave Briv a unique new ability that allows you to actually skip areas(!), consuming stacks of Sprint in the process. There is a minimum number of stacks needed for this ability to be able to proc (50), and each time it triggers it will consume a percentage of your stacks. How do you get Sprint stacks, you ask? When you reset, all stacks of Steelbones you have are converted into Sprint stacks, which persist through resets until they're consumed by Unnatural Haste. This will offer players quite the boost through those early levels after you complete a long Free Play. Don't worry about missing out on gems or loot — you will still earn anything you may have missed from areas you skip!

A pet flumph named Phlo accompanies Briv wherever he goes, and he has a unique ability, Healing Phlo, where Phlo stores healing power whenever Briv is struck by an attack. After 10 hits or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, Phlo heals all Champions in the party for 50% of the damage that Briv received during that time!

Flumphs really are the best.



IV. Briv's Abilities

Basic Attack

  • Mocking Cleave — Briv leaps out and attacks a random enemy with his greatsword, cleaving all nearby enemies as well. On each enemy hit, there is a 20% chance that they will stop attacking another Champion and attack Briv if possible..

Formation Abilities

  • Steelbones — Whenever Briv comes under attack, metal shoots out of his pores, covering him in heavy armor. This effect persists as long as Briv remains under attack, and for an additional five seconds afterwards. While armored, Briv takes 10% less damage and gains a stack of Steelbones whenever he is hit by an enemy attack.
  • Netherese Steel — Briv increases the damage of all Champions behind him by 0.01% for each stack of Steelbones he has gained.
  • Unnatural Haste — Briv has a 25% chance of sprinting forward quickly on steel-springs after completing a new area, skipping the next area entirely. This action consumes 4% of his Sprint stacks, and requires at least 50 stacks to occur. When you reset the adventure, all stacks of Steelbones that Briv has gained convert into stacks of Sprint, which persist between resets until they are used by this ability.

    Note: if the chance of springing forward surpasses 100%, it is divided by 2 and becomes a 50%+ chance to spring forward 2 areas. Likewise for surpassing 200%, 300%, etc.
    • 100% / 2 -> 50% chance to skip 2 areas
    • 200% / 4 -> 50% chance to skip 3 areas
    • 300% / 6 -> 50% chance to skip 4 areas
    • If you skip a boss area in this way, the gems, chests, red jewels, etc. from it are collected automatically.
  • Healing Phlo — Briv's pet flumph Phlo appears next to Briv and telepathically stores healing power whenever Briv is hit. After 10 hits or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, Phlo heals all Champions in the party for 50% of the damage Briv took during that time. The 10 second timer only starts when Briv takes a hit and does not fire if the healing is triggered by taking 10 hits. It would start again at 10 seconds on the next hit after healing triggers.
  • Oath of Heroism — Briv increases the max health of all other Champions by 25% of his max health.

Specializations

  • Metalborn — Unnatural Haste uses 20% less Sprint stacks whenever it activates.
  • Tempered Steel — Increase the effect of Netherese Steel by 100%.
  • Go With The Phlo — Increase the heal of Healing Phlo by 50%.

Ultimate Ability

  • Netherese Explosion — Briv forces all of his remaining Netherese Metal out of his body, shooting it in all directions in an arc in front of him, damaging enemies that it passes through. He then draws it back into himself, dealing double damage to enemies it hits on its way back to him.

V. Briv's Equipment



Slot 1: Global DPS
Slot 2: Max Health
Slot 3: Netherese Steel
Slot 4: Unnatural Haste
Slot 5: Ultimate Damage
Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

Briv Steelmarrow is an absolute beast of a Champion, a savage paladin who can offer tanking, healing, and support, all in one package. We are excited to see how well he fits in to the Idle Champions meta. 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!
March 4th, 2020
Idle Champions: The Grand Tour, Part 11 
Posted in Idle Champions.

Beneath the Sunless Citadel an ancient evil stirs.

As the Champions descend into the depths, they find themselves hunted by an unknown enemy and faced with unholy horrors.

Note: you will need to have completed the previous two Grand Tour Adventures, The Sunless Citadel and Meepo's Quest, in order to access these new Adventures.

Lost in the Goblin Halls

Venturing deeper into The Sunless Citadel, the Champions become lost...
  • Variant: Batiri in the Goblin Halls — The goblins have some exchange students from Chult to assist! In each area, the Batiri Goblin Stack arrives to hinder the Champions. Batiri Goblin Stacks drop no gold and do not count towards quest progress. Only Champions with an INT score of 12or lower may be used.
    Reach Area 375.

The Twilight Grove

In the depths below The Sunless Citadel the Champions discover a grove filled with unholy dangers.
  • Variant: The Nimble Grove — Only Champions with a DEX score of 14 or higher may be used.
    Reach Area 375.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!
March 3rd, 2020
Idle Champions: Baby Spurt and Game to Grow 
Posted in Idle Champions.

We are very proud to announce that we have partnered with Game to Grow for the release of the Baby Spurt Familiar Pack!

Dungeons & Dragons Spurt Game to Grow

Net proceeds from all Baby Spurt Familiar sales through March 17, 2020 will be donated to Game to Grow, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the use of games of all kinds for therapeutic, educational, and community growth. Game to Grow's game-based therapy groups help kids and teens build real-world skills and develop lasting friendships in a setting that is safe, supportive and fun. It's a cause we are proud to support.

Familiars are NPCs that players can assign to specific tasks, such as clicking enemies, leveling up Champions, or using ultimate abilities. Familiars will click at different rates depending on the task they are assigned to. For more information, see our Introducing Familiars Dev Blog.

When we first wished Spurt a Happy Birthday back in January, we could not have anticipated the community response to that lovable kobold. It is our pleasure to have our latest Charity DLC honor Spurt's memory with proceeds going to such a worthy cause.

The Baby Spurt Familiar is available now in the in-game shop on PC and Mac on Steam and web, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iPad, iPhone, and on all Android devices.
February 19th, 2020
Idle Champions: Fleetswake 3 
Posted in Idle Champions.

You've been recruited by a merchant guild in Waterdeep to look into a number of mysterious missing ships over the past year. The Fair Seas Festival is a good time to look into this as people are quite open about the dangers of the sea, the fury of Umberlee, and so forth.

Many people blame Umberlee for the missing ships, but the merchant guild isn't so sure...

Fleetswake 3 runs until Monday, March 2nd, 2020 at 12:00pm PST, introduces Sisaspia, a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Circle of Spores Druid and brings back The Black Viper, an infamous Human Rogue from Waterdeep, and Zorbu "Thunderbolt" Natten, the Gnome Ranger!

Dungeons & Dragons Sisaspia

Year 3 Champion: Sisaspia

    An outcast even from her home city of Omu on Chult, Sisaspia does not seek wealth or glory for herself. Instead, she wishes only to hone her powers, and anyone or anything that gets in her way will learn that she has already made great strides towards doing so. A reluctant ally, she joins the Champions solely because they are a means to an end: an endless stream of foes on which to unleash and perfect her sinister machinations.

Sisaspia is a Healer and Support Champion. Her Halo of Spores infects her enemies, forcing them to take more damage. She also uses them to heal her allies - if she has to. When you want to add Sisaspia to your formation, you can swap her with Bruenor (Slot 1).

For more information about Sisaspia check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: Sisaspia dev blog!

Dungeons & Dragons The Black Viper

Year 2 Champion: The Black Viper

    The Black Viper was a notorious burglar, pickpocket, mugger, and assassin who died a century ago, after a long and nefarious career. Esvele Rosznar, a brash young noble, has recently adopted the Black Viper’s persona to lead a secret life of crime. Like many other nobles, Esvele gossips about the Black Viper’s exploits to lend credence to the villain’s mystique.
The Black Viper is a DPS Champion able to take advantage of Distracted Foes and deliver powerful Sneak Attacks for extra damage. Her Jewel Thief ability improves with every boss kill across all adventures.

When you want to add The Black Viper to your formation, you can swap her with Minsc (Slot 7). For more information about our latest Champion, check out the Idle Champion Spotlight: The Black Viper dev blog!

Dungeons & Dragons Zorbu Natten

Year 1 Champion: Zorbu "Thunderbolt" Natten

    Zorbu grew up in a small village on the slopes of the mountains south of Yartar. He lived a typical gnomish childhood: tinkering with mechanical toys, pulling pranks on unsuspecting neighbors, and exploring the woodlands covering the mountains in the company of a local dwarf ranger, Galor Rockshield.

    A grizzled veteran of many battles, Galor was waging a secret battle against a clan of drow who were holed up in some deep caves near the village. He carefully struck from the shadows, attempting to drive them back into the Underdark. One night, after a particularly prolonged encounter, a drow scout followed Galor home, and on the night of the next new moon the drow and their minions descended upon the village in force. Galor saved Zorbu's life, but many others were killed, including Zorbu's parents. From that day forth, Zorbu trained under Galor as a ranger, vowing revenge upon the drow and any who claim allegiance to them.

    Cunning and imaginative, Zorbu makes use of his tinkering skills to wield an impossibly large crossbow (named Thunderbolt, which is also Zorbu's nickname) and unleash clever mechanical traps against his foes.

Zorbu is a DPS and Support Champion. He increases damage against Favored Enemies for all Champions and deals extra damage to injured or hordes of enemies. When you want to add Zorbu to your party, you can swap him with Arkhan (Slot 12).

Balance Update: Zorbu's Hunter's Pack ability now targets himself in addition to adjacent champions, and the effect has been increased.

Dungeons & Dragons Fleetswake 3 Variants

Year Three Variants

  • Shattered Shields — Umberlee's curse has broken all shields and heavy armor, rendering tanking Champions useless! The shattered remnants have been stolen by some fiendish creatures and co-opted for their own nefarious use. Champions with the tanking role can not be used. Random enemies spawn with 5 armored hit points. Reach Area 75.

  • The Suspicious Shipment — A strange shipment takes up slot 5 in the formation. It's so distracting that Champions in adjacent slots deal no damage with their attacks. Reach Area 125.

  • Seas of Sickness — Sisaspia takes up slot 5 in the formation and can not be moved, removed, or swapped out, and starts out with Halo of Spores unlocked. Enemies move 5x faster and deal 5x damage unless they are infected by one of Sisaspia's spores. Reach Area 175.

Dungeons & Dragons Fleetswake 2 Variants

Year Two Variants

  • Umberlee's Deluge — Sea Spawn monsters appear and attack the formation, growing in number the further you progress. These Sea Spawn monsters drop no gold and do not count towards quest progress. Reach Area 75.

  • Tightfisted Foes — The Black Viper starts in the formation. Only enemies killed by The Black Viper drop gold. Reach Area 125.

  • Extra DEXterous — Champions are augmented based on their Dexterity (DEX) scores:
    • 10 or less: Global DPS reduced by 50% (stacks).
    • 11–12: Enemies move 2x faster (stacks).
    • 13–14: Gold Find increased by 25% (stacks).
    • 15–16: Global DPS increased by 50% (stacks).
    • 17–20: Increases Champion's damage by 300%.
    Reach Area 175.
Dungeons & Dragons Fleetswake Variants

Year One Variants

  • Thunder and Lightning — A crazy storm blows in, affecting all outdoor areas. In addition to the wind and rain, lightning strikes your formation every 5 seconds, dealing 90% of max health unavoidable damage to a random Champion. When Zorbu "Thunderbolt" Natten is hit by the effect, his next normal attack does 10x damage. Reach Area 75.

  • Crashing Waves — Only two of your formation's columns do damage at a time. Columns change every 10 areas. Start with back two (slots 4-9), then middle two (slots 2-6), then front two (slots 0-3), then front and back (0-1 & 7-9), then repeat. Reach Area 125.

  • The Shipwright's Ball — Two Shipwrights take up slots (2, 9) in the formation. The Shipwrights dance with adjacent Champions, swapping the position of two random adjacent Champions every 15 seconds (the one in slot 9 swaps 6 and 8, while the one in slot 2 swaps two of 0, 3, and 4).
  • Reach Area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

February 18th, 2020
Idle Champion Spotlight: Sisaspia 
Posted in Idle Champions.

We've received many requests for more evil champions, as well as an evil healer.This Fleetswake we are pleased to debut another Codename Entertainment Original — a Circle of Spores Druid and Yuan-ti Pureblood, Sisaspia.

I. A Sinister Start

Dungeons & Dragons Sisaspia

    An outcast even from her home city of Omu on Chult, Sisaspia does not seek wealth or glory for herself. Instead, she wishes only to hone her powers, and anyone or anything that gets in her way will learn that she has already made great strides towards doing so. A reluctant ally, she joins the Champions solely because they are a means to an end: an endless stream of foes on which to unleash and perfect her sinister machinations.

Sisaspia is a Healer and Support Champion. Her Halo of Spores infects her enemies, forcing them to take more damage. She also uses them to heal her allies - if she has to. When you want to add Sisaspia to your formation, you can swap her with Bruenor (Slot 1).

II. Sisaspia's Stats

Race: Yuan-ti Pureblood Alignment: Neutral Evil
Class: Druid Gender: Female
Age: 37 Affiliation: none

STR: 11 DEX: 13 CON: 15
INT: 14 WIS: 18 CHA: 16

Eligible for Patrons: Mirt, Vajra

Dungeons & Dragons Sisaspia Portrait

III. Sisaspia's Design

Sisaspia is a CNE Original Champion, meaning we didn't draw from streams or podcasts or existing lore characters when designing her. These types of Champions are always exciting for us, as we get to create something entirely new, and we wanted to provide players with as many new options as we could. She's our first Yuan-ti Pureblood, our first evil healer, and our only evil, healing, or female champion in slot 1.

Sisaspia is a healing and support druid who leans heavily on the Circle of Spores Druid Circle from D&D 5e. She slowly builds up a supply of spores over time and uses them to infect enemies as they approach, which causes those enemies to take additional damage over time whenever they're attacked. She uses any spores she has in reserve to buff and heal nearby Champions.

These mechanics allow her to focus her energy based on how your formation is doing. If you're insta-killing enemies, she'll buff nearby Champions to help them do that better. Once enemies start to survive the initial barrage and reach your formation, she'll shift her attention to debuffing enemies, resulting in an even bigger damage boost. Eventually, once only a boss and a few trash mobs remain, she'll naturally settle into both roles, providing a big static buff, some healing, AND a debuff as her spore reserve slowly refills.

IV. Sisaspia's Abilities

Basic Attack

  • Blight — Sisaspia unleashes a wave of necrotic energy which damages a random enemy. If the enemy is a Plant this attack deals 300% more damage, however if it's an Undead or Construct it deals no damage.

Formation Abilities

  • Halo of Spores — Sisaspia is surrounded by a continuous yet finite torus of necrotic spores. When enemies approach the formation and if Sisaspia has spores available, one of her spores shoots out and attaches itself to a valid enemy every second. When enemies are damaged, they take 50% additional damage over 5 seconds for each spore affecting them. Normal enemies can only be affected by one spore at a time, while bosses can have up to 4 spores affecting them. Sisaspia regenerates a spore every 4 seconds and can have up to 20 spores in her reserve. Note that due to the nature of this debuff, the additional damage done over time does not contribute to your formation's BUD.
  • Symbiotic Infection — Sisaspia uses her reserve of necrotic spores to empower a subtle infection she maintains upon her "companions", goading them forward and hopefully assisting her in her own selfish goals. This infection increase the damage of all Champions within 2 slots of herself by 10% for each spore she has in reserve.
  • Symbiotic Healing — Sisaspia's subtle infection heals damaged Champions within 2 slots of herself for 1hp per second for each spore she has in reserve.

Specializations

  • Simple Infection — Increase the effect of Symbiotic Infection by 100%.
  • Spreading Spores — Halo of Spores now generates a new spore every 3 seconds, instead of every 4 seconds, and Sisaspia's maximum spore count is increased to 30.
  • Fungal Body — The effects of Symbiotic Infection and Symbiotic Healing are increased by 200% when Sisaspia's spore reserve is full.

Ultimate Ability

  • Fungal Infestation — Sisaspia causes all the spores affecting her enemies to delve deep into their targets and tear them apart from the inside, dealing massive damage. The amount of damage each spore deals is increased based on the total number of spores affecting all her enemies (20% per active spore, stacking additively). Note that bosses with more than 1 spore infecting them take damage from each spore they have. This consumes all the spores affecting her enemies, so there is no additional damage from Halo of Spores, and she must reapply her spores to all surviving enemies in range.

V. Sisaspia's Equipment

Dungeons & Dragons Sisaspia Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS
Slot 2: Halo of Spores
Slot 3: Symbiotic Infection
Slot 4: Symbiotic Healing
Slot 5: Ultimate Damage
Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

We're really excited to add an evil healer to the game, and to introduce an evil and female champion to Slot 1. We can't wait to see what delightfully sinister formation options are introduced with Sisaspia. Feel free to send us feedback on via the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord!.