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September 27th, 2019
BW2: Generation 11 Pets are Here! 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Gotta find 'em all! A new selection of critters are now available to be your companions!

Those weirdly random abandoned eggs scattered all over Bushwhackia have been switched up and all new pets are ready to hatch when you accept the "Find an Egg" quest from Misty. She will also have all the Generation 11 eggs available to purchase for Bush Bucks during the "Find an Egg" quest.


Other changes to Misty and Hank for Generation 10:
  • Misty will no longer let players abandon Gen 10 pet eggs that they are hatching (they're now too rare). Only current generation pet eggs can be abandoned during hatching. Please note that if you're in the middle of hatching a pet, then that egg will still hatch into whatever pet it would have been before.

  • Generation 10 pet eggs can now be found in Quester's Satchels (with the same limitations as the Generation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 eggs, which will still be available in satchels as well.)

  • Hank now sells a random assortment of hatched level 1 Generation 11 pets (instead of Generation 10) for Bush Bucks in his pet store.

PAGAS changes for Generation 11:
  • Generation 11 pet eggs are available to buy with DNA in the PAGAS store, once you have hatched at least five Generation 11 pets.

  • The Pet Progress dialog now includes Generation 11 pets. Another 11 new pets that all players can unlock!


And now, without further ado, the information you've all been waiting for:

Generation 11 Pets:
  • Pig
  • Fruit Beetle
  • Gopher
  • Vulture
  • Dolphin
  • Echidna
  • Aardvark
  • Walrus
  • Thylacine
  • Cuttlefish
Comment on the new additions on the forum!
September 27th, 2019
BW2: September 27th, 2019 Release Notes 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Coffee Break Charity & Generation 11 Pets (September 27th, 2019)

- Running our annual Coffee Break charity drive for the Alzheimer Society of Canada

- 10 new pets are now in rotation for Misty’s pet raising quests!

- Added 8 new unique variations of the gen 11 pets to the PAGAS egg store.

- Rotated the pets for sale in the Island Tokens store on Amicus.

- Fixed being able to find any quest hub quest items in the Plateau Ruins.

- Fixed getting stuck when you Mana Whack and there’s no viable bushes (such as a field of 6 Power Bushes from Kaine's Caustic Chasm Curiosity).

- Fixed half of the dock on the Lake Island sorting on top of the player.

- You can now only buy one of each of the Arcade Machine, Fancy Stable, and Deluxe Dog House from the Furniture Salesman.

- Moved achievements Reverse Santa, Napping Nate Nabber, Reverse Santa 2.0, The Gift of Taking, and Naughty Nabber from the Christmas category to the Legacy category, as they can no longer be achieved.

- Renamed Chainmail Shirt, available at the Tailor, to Chainmail Tabard. This is to differentiate it from the other Chainmail Shirt custom item.

- Made headway on the Salt Desert Quest Hub! Sorry for the wait.

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!
September 26th, 2019
COTLI: Missions & Challenges Update (Sept 2019) 

Happy Thursday, Crusaders!

Our latest update will have you test your mettle against new challenges, earn gear for the remaining Tier 4 Crusaders, and complete additional new missions for Enchantment Points and crafting materials.

Today brings:
  • Additional missions to earn gear and/or recruit the four remaining Tier 4 Crusaders: Kebos the Mummy, Langley the Conductor, Euodia the Fencer, and Aphelion the Distant

  • 10 new missions that award Enchantment Points

  • 2 new missions that award crafting materials

  • 2 new Challenges have been added to the challenge rotation (Top to Bottom and The Grail of Power)
See the in-game change log for the QoL changes also added in this update!
September 25th, 2019
Idle Champions: Highharvestide 3 
Posted in Idle Champions.

The Savage Frontier of the Sword Coast can be a dangerous place. At the junction of the Long Road and Evermoor Way, the town of Triboar seeks the aid of heroes. Bandits have begun to assail the small town while the citizens are meant to prepare for the Highharvestide Festival...

Highharvestide 3 sees the beginning of Year 3 Events and the introduction of one of the fiercest and most loyal allies to the Companions of the Hall: Thibbledorf Pwent, Dwarven Battlerager! Our first Y3 Event also brings back the Y2 and Y1 Champions to unlock: Stoki, the Rock Gnome Monk, and Farideh, the Tiefling Warlock. For more information about how Y3 Events work, check out our Year 3 Events Dev Blog.

Players have until Monday, October 7th at 12PM Pacific to complete their Highharvestide 3 unlocks and objectives.

New Champion: Thibbledorf Pwent

    Despite a reputation as a loud, gruff, and stinky dwarf who hates bathing, Thibbledorf Pwent is a loyal and beloved member of Clan Battlehammer. Known as 'Pwent' to his friends, he leads the Gutbusters of Mithral Hall, a dwarven battlerager squad focused on direct combat with little regard for their own safety. He wears armor completely covered in spikes to help rend the flesh of his enemies, and in the midst of battle Pwent often falls into a bloodrage, doing anything to protect his allies.

    While not an official member of the Companions of the Hall, Pwent will always aid his King when possible — even beyond death...
Thibbledorf Pwent is a Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian and Support Champion. His attacks cause enemies to bleed, he can boost ally damage for adjacent Champions, and he greatly buffs dwarves and Companions of the Hall members in the formation. When you want to add Thibbledorf to your party, you may swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

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

Year 2 Champion: Farideh

    Abandoned as an infant and adopted by an outcast dragonborn warrior, Farideh grew to adulthood acutely aware of the drawbacks of being a tiefling. Despite doing everything she could to reassure her neighbors, including keeping her wild twin sister, Havilar, out of trouble, the villagers focused on Farideh as the one who would embrace the dark side of herself. They weren’t wrong.

    When Havilar tried to summon an imp to practice her blade on, she drew the attention of Lorcan, a cambion looking to make warlock pacts with the descendants of one of the first Infernal warlocks, the Brimstone Angel. But Havilar was always meant for the glaive--and Farideh would do anything to keep her sister safe. While Lorcan, Asmodeus, and the Nine Hells do their utmost to corrupt her, Farideh isn’t interested in power so much as defending the world from demons, the undead, and any other villains trying to bring trouble or drag her friends and family into danger. Even being made the Chosen of Asmodeus--something Asmodeus isn’t going to explain to Farideh or anybody else--just means she has more magic to turn against the powers of evil.
Farideh is a DPS Champion with a tank-synergy twist. She attacks using Scorching Ray and will use Hellish Rebuke against enemies who attack either her or adjacent Champions. When you want to add Farideh to your party, you can swap her with Minsc (Slot 7).

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

Year 1 Champion: Stoki

    Born Stami Gackle, she fled her home after a terrible accident at a young age and joined a monastery of the Even Hand to study ki. An adept monk and extremely capable adventurer, her thoughtful approach to problems has earned her a reputation as an uncommonly stoic Rock Gnome.
Stoki is a DPS and Support Champion, able to attack multiple enemies. Furthermore, enemies damaged by Stoki will drop additional gold when killed. When you want to add Stoki to your party, you can swap her with Jarlaxle (Slot 4).

Year Three Variants

  • Underdark Reinforcements — Drow cultists appear alongside the enemies in each area, seeking to further Loth's dominion. Each cultist deals double damage. Additionally, they can only be damaged once they have been bled by Thibbledorf.
    Reach Area 75.

  • The Plague Cometh — Cursed Cows spawn randomly in each area. If any of them reach the formation, the Champion they damage becomes cursed. Cursed Champions deal no damage and have max health halved. After 5 seconds, the curse spreads to adjacent Champions.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Somebody's Poisoned the Well! — The bandits have poisoned the well! Luckily, Thibbledorf has some Gutbuster flasks to help. Champions lose health every time they attack. Thibbledorf is not affected by the poison.
    Reach Area 175.

Year Two Variants

  • Asmodeus is Watching — Cultists of Asmodeus randomly spawn alongside the normal monster waves. They drop no gold when killed.
    Reach Area 75.

  • It's Quite A Puzzle — Only champions with Intelligence/INT score of 12 or higher are allowed in the formation.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Time to Step Up — Asmodeus is testing Farideh. You start with Farideh in your formation, however, she is the only Champion that can deal damage. All other Champions' damage is reduced to 0, but they continue to grant buffs.
    Reach Area 175.

Year One Variants

  • The Farmer's Kids — The Farmer's Daughter and Son block two slots in the formation.
    Reach Area 75.

  • Due Diligence — Quest requirements are doubled.
    Reach Area 125.

  • Wanton Necromancy — Undead enemies randomly spawn alongside the normal monsters. These additional enemies drop no gold.
    Reach Area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

September 24th, 2019
Idle Champion Spotlight: Thibbledorf Pwent 
Posted in Idle Champions.

It's time for our next Idle Champion Spotlight! Today, we're previewing our newest Champion: Thibbledorf Pwent. Yes, you read that right. The hygiene-lacking dwarven battlerager from Mithral Hall is "launching" (get it?) tomorrow! Read on to learn all about the dwarven wrecking ball who strongly supports a dwarven formation with some additional Companions of the Hall support!

I. "Thibbledorf" Who?

    Despite a reputation as a loud, gruff, and stinky dwarf who hates bathing, Thibbledorf Pwent is a loyal and beloved member of Clan Battlehammer. Known as 'Pwent' to his friends, he leads the Gutbusters of Mithral Hall, a dwarven battlerager squad focused on direct combat with little regard for their own safety. He wears armor completely covered in spikes to help rend the flesh of his enemies, and in the midst of battle Pwent often falls into a bloodrage, doing anything to protect his allies. While not an official member of the Companions of the Hall, Pwent will always aid his King when possible — even beyond death...
Thibbledorf Pwent is a Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian and Support Champion. His attacks cause enemies to bleed, he can boost ally damage for adjacent Champions, and he greatly buffs dwarves and Companions of the Hall members in the formation. When you want to add Pwent to your party, you may swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

II. Pwent's Stats

Class: Barbarian (Battlerager) Alignment: Chaotic Good
Race: Dwarf Gender: Male
Age: 176 Affiliation: None

STR: 18 DEX: 14 CON: 17
INT: 9 WIS: 12 CHA: 8

Eligible for Patrons: Vajra & Mirt

III. Pwent's Design

Pwent was an interesting nut to crack. He's always been a side character in the Legend of Drizzt novels. Not a "member" of the Companions, but eventually becoming a valued friend and ally. As his story wound to a close, he showed true bravery, love, and faithfulness to his king, Bruenor.

We started discussing Pwent around the time of Wulfgar's design, in 2018. There were so many different ways we could have introduced him. We discussed using him as Wulfgar's ultimate, having his ghostly form race out of the horn. However, being a fan of him in the books, I really wanted the spiky battlerager in the game as a Champion.

When it came time to design him, we had two routes: Battlerager Pwent, or Vampire Pwent. While Vampire Pwent sounds awesome (Vampire Champion when?), I have a soft spot in my heart for the old boy and I didn't want to represent him in the form that he truly hated. Instead, I chose to go back to his roots: the gruff battlerager who dons a set of armor filled to the brim with spikes, who runs ahead and slices and dices his enemies.

By focusing on his pre-undead form, we could highlight his allies more. As Pwent's design grew, I realized that this stalwart dwarf from Mithral Hall was a great lynchpin for a dwarven fighting force. He is the leader of the Gutbuster Brigade after all. Oh, you haven't heard about the Gutbusters? They are a group of dwarven battleragers Pwent founded. They focused less on strategic plans and more on just running into battle. With the Gutbusters, the cannon fodder is filled with spikes and coming right at you!

Pwent's final design is something I'm really proud of. Not only does he make Barrowin relevant again, he also helps elevate Binwin and Bruenor in an especially big way.

IV. Pwent's Abilities

Basic Attack

  • Spiked Hug — Pwent headbutts a random enemy using his spiked armor to inflict a DOT bleed effect. That bleed effect is key to his big formation ability: Count 'Em Off.
    • The enemies will have a red blood drop effect while the bleed is active. When it is no longer damaging them, the blood drop turns black, so you know that they were affected, but it's no longer doing damage.

Formation Abilities

  • Count 'Em Off — Whenever an enemy that is or was affected by Pwent's bleed effect is killed (including if it is killed outright by Pwent), he gains one stack on this ability. Pwent increases the damage of all Champions by 20% for each stack of Count 'Em Off, stacking multiplicatively. The stacks cap at 25, and every 12 seconds, the stack total is reduced by 25%.
  • Battlerager — When Pwent attacks, if he attacks an enemy that has already been affected by his bleed effect (active or inactive), there is a 33% chance that he'll attack again immediately.
  • Can You SMELL That? — Champions that are adjacent to Pwent have their base attack cool downs increased by 8 seconds, divided by the number of Champions affected. This effect has a hard cap of 20 seconds per affected Champion in cases where other Champion's abilities can increase the effect.
  • Gutbuster Recruits — Champions affected by Can You SMELL That? have their base damage increased by 75% for each second their cooldown is increased by, stacking multiplicatively and counting partial seconds. This effect is doubled on dwarves.
  • Bruenor, Me King! — While not a member of the Companions of the Hall, Pwent fully supports them in their quests. Pwent increases the Bounty of the Hall pool (gold find) by 100% and increases the effect of Count 'Em Off by 100% if you have at least 1 Companion of the Hall (Bruenor, Drizzt, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, or Regis) adjacent to Pwent.

Specializations

  • Counting Class — Increases the effect of Count 'Em Off by 100%.
  • Bloodstained Armor — Increases the chance to attack again with Battlerager by 50%.
  • Dwarven Hair Grease — It's all-natural! Increases the total cooldown of Can You SMELL That? by 5 seconds.

Ultimate Ability

  • Round 'em up! — Pwent dashes quickly around the area rounding up all available enemies and then stuns, damages, and inflicts a bleed effect on them. He attacks up to 10 enemies in this way, applying his bleed to all of them, and (if not static) forcing them into a position in the middle of the screen (between the formation and the wall), stunning them for 5 seconds.

V. Pwent's Equipment



VI. Conclusion

Pwent will hopefully unlock a whole new dwarven formation, with Binwin, Bruenor, Barrowin, and himself. He also slides into any Companions of the Hall formation. Try him out and let us know what you think of this spiky dwarf!

Feel free to send us feedback on via the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord!
September 23rd, 2019
Dev Blog: Year 3 Events 
Posted in Idle Champions.

This week we'll be releasing the Highharvestide event for the third time, marking a new milestone in Idle Champions history. It's an exciting time for us, but also a challenging one, as we start to run into many issues that did not exist in earlier versions of our events. In this blog I will briefly outline our plan for year three and future events, and then take a step back to touch on the challenges with (and our goals for) events in years 3, 4, 5, and beyond.

Notice: This structure was changed dramatically in the second event of the year: Liars' Night. This blog no longer represents the final implementation of year 3 events.

The System

  • The new Year 3 Champion will be available to unlock just like previous years' Champions have been (you have immediate access to their recruit adventure, variants, and free play).
  • You can choose one of the previous years to also unlock like normal (you will then able able to access that year's Champion recruit adventure, variants, and free play).
  • Additional years of the event will cost 6 Time Gate Pieces to unlock (as above).
You may have some questions about why we choose to implement a system like this. I will address a number of player concerns that we've read since we announced this on our weekly stream last Thursday, however, first I want to talk about the challenges and things we had to consider with year 3+ events.

The Challenges

Each time we repeat an event we add a new Champion to that event. For example, year one of Highharvestide only had Stoki. In year two we added Farideh. In year three we will add yet another Champion. This is very important for us as it gives us an opportunity to shake up the meta and potentially introduce some new lore or bring a popular content creator's Champion to life. These are all exciting things, and we want the newest Champion to always be the star of each repeated event. One possible solution was to lock the newer years' Champion behind earlier years' completion (as we have in Crusaders of the Lost Idols), but for the aforementioned reasons this was not something that would work well in Idle Champions. The new Champion always needs to be available right away.

With all of these new Champions becoming available, this excess of event content presents a challenge, as the available time to do it in remains constant (12 days per event). Imagine a sixth year event with six Champions to unlock, gear up, and experiment with. We can easily see new players being incredibly overwhelmed with the extremely tight timelines required to complete 24 adventures/variants and a similar number of free plays. It could make Idle Champions start to feel more like a full-time job than a fun game you can play in your spare time. This is something we desperately want to avoid, so any solution we came up with needed to be able to scale in future event years and keep the amount of content players will have available to play relatively consistent.

Other Goals

One of the things we balance our events around is how much equipment players' have for their new Champions upon completion. Generally this is a full set of blues and at least one epic item. We would like this to continue to be the case moving forward, as recruiting a new Champion without any gear isn't terribly compelling and often times means that new Champion will simply be ignored in favor of their more geared compatriots. With three, four, five, or more Champions available to recruit from an event, the time and token pressures would quickly lead to most, if not all, of those Champions emerging from an event under-geared. We would rather players focus on gearing up one or two Champions per event as opposed to feeling like they need to spread themselves thin in order to try to gear up all of them. While this may be a minor problem in year 3 of an event, it compounds itself moving forward.

With that said, we did want to give our more hardcore players the option to spend more time and currency (Time Gate Pieces/event tokens) on an event if that's their desire. Time Gate Pieces seemed to make sense in this regard, as they can already be used outside of events to unlock what are essentially two event free plays with a guaranteed gold chest in each. Instead of two gold chests, we could let people access an entire years' worth of event content, with the base adventure to unlock the Champion, three variants, and unlimited free plays for as long as their event tokens held out. Many players already used bounty contracts to get additional tokens in an event and do more free plays than the basic token drops would allow.

Side Benefits

This system has a couple other indirect benefits. As mentioned above, it increases the value of Time Gate Pieces. Instead of getting two gold chests for six Time Gate Pieces, you could potentially get eight or nine chests (with most likely 3+ being gold). That's twice the value for something you already had and were already going to use to get event chests anyway. Additionally, in some analysis earlier this year, a large percentage of active players had more than one Time Gate worth of Time Gate Pieces (6+) saved up, with a non-trivial percentage having at least a dozen pieces just sitting around. This new system allows players to derive some additional value out of those extra pieces, if they so desire. It also allows players who have a hard time finding time to open manual gates to get predictable, arguable more powerful use out of their Time Gate Pieces that they may otherwise struggle to use. This has an overall effect of increasing the value of Time Gate Pieces, making them a higher priority item for players to obtain and giving us a better excuse to include them as rewards in future game systems.

Secondly, one of the main things we rely on to tell how we're doing is community feedback, and another small benefit of this change will likely be an increase in community chatter around the start of each event about which of the previous years' Champions are the highest priority to recruit and gear up. We gain a similar benefit each time a natural time gate weekend begins and we get to see what people are suggesting on the reddit thread, steam forums, and discord discussion. These discussions and debates give us insight into what the community thinks about each Champion, and informs our balancing decisions in the future.

Player Concerns

We've been reading a lot of reddit, discord, and forum discussion since we initially talked about this system last week during our weekly stream and we've seen a lot of good feedback and concerns. I'd like to take a few minutes to address some of those comments directly, so hopefully you can all understand where we're coming from a little better. These aren't direct quotes from any particular player, but rather generalizations of feedback we've seen across the board.

"I can't get as much stuff from year 3 events as I could from earlier years"

We've designed this system to actually keep the amount of content you can easily get from events exactly the same -- that's one of the core goals! You get two potentially new Champions and exactly as much gear for them as you could from year 2 events. We consider content beyond those two Champions to be a bonus; more content than you have been able to unlock in previous years.

"But I want to unlock and gear up all the available Champions"

That's a fair point, and that's why we provided an option to unlock additional years instead of just locking them out entirely. What we want to avoid is players feeling like they have to unlock and gear up all the available Champions in order to keep up with the meta. Gearing up all available Champions from scratch will require a significant investment, including additional bounty contracts to get the tokens you need for additional free plays. We want that to be a choice that is not made lightly.

We also don't think that, in practice, most players will be too concerned with unlocking and gearing up all event Champions right away. From both our impression and analysis, players tend to focus on only one "meta" Champion per event and mainly gear that one up, doing only a token amount of work (pun intended) on the other, less desirable Champion. With three (or more) available Champions, events where more than two of them will be actively considered "OP requirements of the meta" are unlikely.

"You're locking me out of content behind a rare item or paywall"

While this is true, players do have the means to eventually make the Time Gate Piece cost fairly negligible through Patron shop purchases and the normal drops. Some players have made the point that new players may not have access to Patrons, and this is absolutely fair, but I would also argue that since they don't yet have access to Patrons (a large chunk of content in the game), is it actually unreasonable that they also don't yet have access to additional content in events? There will always be a progression curve from a new player to a veteran player, and these additional costs will inevitably become negligible at some point on that progression curve. We will also likely be adding more ways to get Time Gate Pieces in the future.

"I can't complete the event achievements and am missing out on those bonuses"

This is a fair comment. However, four out of the five "event" achievements can actually be completed outside of their events. Only the achievement for completing event variants can not be completed by recruiting the Champion (say through a time gate) and gearing them up/using them outside of events. For those concerned about the difficulty of gearing up event Champions outside of their events, we have actively been taking steps to make it easier with weekend promo chests (sign up for the newsletter to get a free one each week), time gates (which will be receiving some more love in the future), and more recently Patron chests (which can drop gear for a wide variety of Champions). Future Time Gate tweaks should also help in this regard.

"Just increase the event tokens drops and leave everything like it was. Problem solved."

It's true that this may have been a workable solution for year 3 events (and we did consider it), but as we move forward into years 4, 5, and 6+, the other challenges and design goals described above would have eventually overcome any additional token drops we provided. For the vast majority of our players there simply isn't enough time over the course of a 12 day event to recruit, gear up, and learn to use so many new Champions.

"This is unfair to veteran players."
"This is unfair to new players."
"This is unfair to middle-of-the-road players."

We've seen a lot of comments like this, and while no system is perfect, we believe our solution strikes the right balance between new, mid-range, and veteran players. New players may indeed struggle to obtain enough Time Gate Pieces to unlock three Champions every event, but this will allow them to be more strategic about their unlock choices and let them spend more time exploring the Champions they do unlock. Likewise for mid-range and veteran players who may already have one or both of the Champions from previous years, this will let you make real decisions about which Champions you truly value, or whether you'd like to spread out your effort to gear up more than two Champions per event.

"I'll never be able to catch up now"

It is true that this change will slow down the ability of new players to "catch up" to veteran players in terms of having all the Champions unlocked and having them all geared up. It may surprise you to hear that we don't necessarily view that as a bad thing. Spacing out content and new Champion unlocks may actually be more fun than unlocking them in masse. Additionally, since you always get immediate access to at least two Champions each event every year, you will eventually be able to unlock all of that event's Champions without spending any Time Gate Pieces. For players who start now, that will be after playing all the events twice. Considering "day-one" players may have been playing for four years by then, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to have done it in basically half the time.

With That Said...

With all of that said, we always pay attention to how these types of changes are received by the community and will not hesitate to make changes in future year 3 events if our solution isn't doing what it was intended to do. We appreciate all of your feedback and encourage you to keep it coming. We are interested in hearing what you all think after the Highharvestide event has ended and we've all experienced the system in practice as opposed to just in theory.

An Apology and a Gift

I'd like to close off with an apology. One of the other big concerns we saw from players is that we've announced this new system too late and they don't have time to save enough Time Gate Pieces for the Highharvestide event. That is fair, and it's our fault that we didn't say anything until now, so we're sorry for that. With that in mind, we'll be gifting everyone six Time Gate Pieces when the event starts. You can use these to unlock all three Champions from Highharvestide, or save them for a manual Time Gate or future event unlock. They won't expire or disappear if you choose not to use them right away. Our goal here isn't necessarily to eliminate the unlock cost for this event, but rather to let everyone enter the event as if they'd been saving up Time Gate Pieces for a couple of weeks in anticipation.

Update: Wed Sept 25, 2019

Spending 6 Time Gate pieces to unlock the last Champion also comes with an extra 5000 event tokens to spend on the event. Thank you for your feedback on these changes.
September 18th, 2019
Idle Champions: Variants Update (Sept. 2019) 
Posted in Idle Champions.

    "Looking for a new challenge? We can arrange that!
    How do you feel about being attacked by flaming undead?"
Our latest Idle Champions update introduces six new variants for the Grand Tour of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaigns. Some of these variants include extra Flameskulls, while others require either your smartest or least-insane Champions. You will need to have completed the original adventures in order to unlock these variants.

Don't forget to bring fireproof clothing! Enjoy :)

Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Variants

  • The Mists of Ravenloft: We're not in FaerÈ—n Anymore — A group of 3 armored and powered up Flameskulls appears in each area (after 10 enemies). Each of them has the following enhancements:
    • 4 hits of armored health.
    • Deals 300% damage.
    • Stuns the target for 3 seconds.
  • You can only use melee/ranged Champions.
    Reach area 275.
  • Family Entanglements: Relentless Misfortune — Relentless Undead monsters spawn and attack your formation. When they are killed, Relentless Undead don't disappear. Instead after 3 seconds, they get back up and start attacking again.
    Reach area 275.
  • Tower on the Lake: Intelligence Hunt — Only Champions with an Intelligence (INT) score of 13 or higher may be used.
    Reach area 275.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Variants

  • A Mysterious Summons: Vajra's Guards — Vajra has asked that three Stone Golems accompany you on your adventures. I'm sure she's not monitoring them at every moment.
    Reach area 200.
  • Hopelessly Lost: Flame(skull) War — Trenzia's Flameskull is back and ready to start a war in Undermountain! Not only has she hoarded all the treasure, but she's also found a way to power herself up!
    • Instead of appearing only in areas 41-45, she now appears in every area, and her damage is increased by 200%.
    • All gold found is reduced by 99%.
    Reach area 250.
  • Enter the Sargauth: The Madness Grows — You've become lost. The friends you knew have abandoned you and been replaced with gibbering mouthers. I doubt it'll be long before Halaster himself appears to smite you. All champions in the 'even' (2, 4, 6, etc) seats have disappeared. They probably abandoned you. Or maybe they are the sounds you hear from the shadows?
    Reach area 250.
See the in-game Change Log for more information!
September 13th, 2019
BW2: Jr. Whacker Event 2019 Edition 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Teach Me How to Whack!

It's time to put your knowledge of whacking bushes to good use as you help educate the next generation! Take a trip to the Event Area of the Commons and get helping!

Help three aspiring young ones learn how to whack bushes, mana whack, and power whack! Bring the Jr. Whackers some Cardboard Swords to use, found in bushes throughout the world, and they'll share the spoils of their training with you. As you help them, they gain experience, "leveling up" and will award more items with each turn-in. Each of the determined young padawans will have a daily quest to power up the spoils from their next turn-in.

One Jr. Whacker appears to have suffered a head injury, since they are idolizing Nate. Talk to them and see what's going on.

Another Jr. Whacker is pursuing their Capitalism badge. After you help them achieve that, perhaps they'll try their hand at Socialism?

What's a funner thing to earn than your Baking badge? Nothing of course! Help one Jr. Whacker get theirs later on in the event.

Help Keisha get her camping badge again this year! Check back daily for her quest unlocks.

New for 2019
A young student of the bush whacking arts challenges you to whack more than 100 cardboard bushes before the end of the event! This is a challenging quest, and we hope you enjoy it. Note: Quest Odds will not increase the likelihood of these cardboard bushes to appear.

Event Achievements - POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!

There are an incredible TWENTY TWO possible Achievements to earn in the Jr. Bush Whacker 2019 event:

Achievements Returning for 2019:
  • Working Harder - You've helped a Jr. Bush Whacker level up.
  • Power to the People - You've helped each Jr. Bush Whacker power up.
    • Working Better - You've helped each Jr. Bush Whacker level up to 5.
    • Working Faster - You've helped each Jr. Bush Whacker level up to 10.
    • Working Stronger - You've helped each Jr. Bush Whacker level up to 15.
  • Honorary Jr. Whacker - You completed all 8 enthusiastic Jr. Whacker quests!
  • Won a 'Diamond!' - You got a cardboard diamond. Isn't that awesome? No?
  • Fashion Badge - Help the Jr. Whacker earn their Fashion badge.
  • Capitalism Badge - Help the Jr. Whacker earn their Capitalism badge. (Cookie selling quest-line)
  • Cooking Badge - You helped Jaidee earn her Cooking Badge.
  • Camping Badge - Help Keisha set up a demo campsite to help other Jr. Whackers get their Camping badges!
  • Tree Planter - You planted 100 trees for Julia during the Junior Bush Whacker event!

Added/Changed for 2019:
  • Jr. Benefactor - Buy all the 2019 Jr. Bush Whacker items. *
  • Cardboard Crusher - Whack all the Cardboard Bushes. *

We have 7 achievements from previous year's events, which may be earned by spending some Bush Bucks, if a player was not present during the initial years:
  • Putting on the Uniform - You got all the player items from the Jr. Bush Whacker Event!
  • Junior Decorating Award - You got all the house items from the Jr. Bush Whacker Event!
  • Jr. Merchandiser - You bought all 11 items from the 2013 Jr. BW Event!
  • Supporting the Cause - Buy all the 2014 Jr. BW Event items.
  • Jr. Shopaholic - Buy all the 2015 Jr. Bush Whacker custom items.
  • Jr. Patron - Buy all the 2016 Jr. Bush Whacker items.
  • Jr. Whacker Wares - Buy all the 2017 Jr. Bush Whacker items.
  • Jr. Acquisitions - Buy all the 2018 Jr. Bush Whacker items. *

*The Mini Golf piece is NOT included in the Jr. Benefactor achievement, and therefore it is not required to purchase it.

Pet Packs

New 2019 Pet Packs (Coming Soon)



New 2019 Mounts!

To kick off the event, we're having a sale! Get 30% more on purchase of 50 Bush Bucks or more! Plus, all new mounts are available this weekend, from September 13th to 13th!

The Scouter Moose mount comes free with your first purchase of 100 Bush Bucks or more!

The Groovy Moose and Punk Moose are in packs containing 100 Bush Bucks, 10 Pristine Feed Vouchers, and a VIP Voucher! These two mounts produce their own unique sparkly particles when you ride them!



Share your mentoring success on the forums!

Have a large energy pack! Redeem this code: JRBU-SHWH-ACKS-2019 It will no longer be usable once the event ends!

The event will run until Friday, September 27th at Noon PDT!
September 13th, 2019
BW2: September 13th, 2019 Release Notes 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Jr. Bush Whacker Event (September 13th, 2019)

- Updated Jr. Bush Whacker Event
- Added new customization and ranch items
- Added new ribbons and 100% reward
- Added a new challenging quest
- Added the Mossy Stone to Ye Environmental Conservator's Equipage store
- Added 3 new pets available from September 20th to 23rd
- Added Scouter Moose mount available in Bush Bucks sale from September 13th to 16th
- Added Groovy Moose and Punk Moose mounts in standard mount packs from September 13th to 16th

- Added a rotation to the Fireplace ranch item so it can be aligned with the entrance way.

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!
September 12th, 2019
COTLI: Sasha's Schoolhouse Scourge 4 

Heading back to school is the worst. Literally anything is better! Even a full-on invasion by demonic hordes resulting in some kind of 'Schoolhouse Scourge' would be better.

This year it's time to get edgy. You thought we were being edgy last year with our brooding Crusader? Well this new pixie gives no fluffs! Their name is Aphelion, the Distant, and they are definitely too cool for school...

Sasha's Schoolhouse Scourge 4 introduces Aphelion, the Distant and brings back Karen, the Cat Teenager, Mr Boggins, the Substitute, Willy the Weregoat, The Exchange Student, and Zoraeban, Demonic Angel. The adventure ends on Tuesday, September 24th, 2019 at 12:00PM Pacific!

New Tier 4 Crusader: Aphelion, the Distant

    "You couldn’t handle my true dark side..."
Don't let the size of this moon pixie fool you — Aphelion is a formidable Support/DPS Crusader. Their Waxing Gibbous increases the DPS of Crusaders at the top and bottom of the formation, and Twilight increases the effect of Waxing Gibbous for each Evil Crusader in the formation.

When it comes to self-DPS buffs, Synchronous Rotation increases Aphelion's DPS for each Crusader affected by Waxing Gibbous, and it gets even better once you unlock Waning Crescent to improve the buff for each Flora Crusader. Jade Rabbit is a straight self-DPS buff, and Lunar Mare increases Aphelion's DPS by the square of all owned Epic or Legendary items(!).

Crusaders Return

If you haven't collected them already, you can unlock previous Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 Crusaders by completing their respective objectives. Karen, the Cat Teenager, Mr Boggins, the Substitute, Willy the Weregoat, The Exchange Student, and Zoraeban, Demonic Angel are all once again available to unlock!

New Tier 4 Objectives

  • Recruit Aphelion, the Distant | Aphelion takes up a slot in the formation. Only Evil Crusaders may be used. If Aphelion dies, the formation wipes.
    Reach area 600.

  • Jock Shock | Only Crusaders whose names begin with 'J', 'O', 'C', or 'K' may be used. Burly fellows attach the formation.
    Reach area 700.

  • After School Club | Four representatives from a variety of after school clubs take up spots in the formation. Did we mention they each have annoying debuffs? They're the worst.
    Reach area 750.

  • High School Recap | From Area 1 to 200 you can only use Tier 1 event Crusaders. From Area 201 to 400 you can only use Tier 2 event Crusaders. From Area 401 to 600 you can only use Tier 3 event Crusaders. From Area 601 to 800 you can only use Tier 4 event Crusaders.
    Reach area 800.
    Note: Starting at Area 801 you cannot use any Crusaders!

  • Supernatural Activities | Only Supernatural Crusaders may be used.
    Reach area 850.


Help! Where’s the Loot?

Equipment for event Crusaders can be found in Silver and Jeweled Educational Chests, which you can earn from objectives and the free play or buy in the shop. Each non-recruitment objective will drop a chest for its given tier of Crusaders, and free play will drop all-tier chests. Gear for Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 Crusaders will only appear in all-tier chests once you've unlocked the respective Crusaders. You can select the tier of chest you buy in the shop.

You'll have until Tuesday, September 24th, 2019 at 12:00PM Pacific to complete Sasha's Schoolhouse Scourge 4!