A young elven wizard is on a pilgrimage to the Grandfather Tree, and she has hired the Champions to escort her.

The wizard has foreseen an acorn falling from the tree - an extraordinary and truly rare occurrence - and she hopes to collect the holy relic to take to Silverymoon.

Yet as the party ventures forth, the very forest itself resists them, while elves from the Feywild and the Underdark seek to claim the acorn for themselves...

The Running 4 introduces Shaka, Tiefling Celestial Warlock of Rivals of Waterdeep, and brings back Krydle, the charismatic half-elf rogue of the Heroes of Baldur's Gate, Spurt, the beloved shortlived Kobold. Players have until Monday, May 10th at 12PM Pacific to complete their The Running 4 unlocks and objectives.

For more information about Year 4 Events and how they work, please check out our Year 4 Events Dev Blog.

I. New Champion: Shaka

As a member of Rivals of Waterdeep, Shaka is always looking for the latest adventure and the latest puzzle. His party has encountered mysteries and foes throughout Waterdeep, Candlekeep, Icewind Dale, and Avernus. Their base of operations is located in the Trollskull Manor in Waterdeep where a brain in a jar named Brian stands watch.

Shaka is here to help, using his keen intellect to solve the Celestial Puzzle and bolstering his allies with Celestial Resistance. When you want to add him to your formation, you can swap him with Makos (Slot 9).

II. Shaka’s Stats

Race: Tiefling	Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Warlock (Celestial)	Gender: Male
Age: 29	Affiliation: Rivals of Waterdeep

STR: 10	DEX: 16	CON: 15
INT: 16	WIS: 13	CHA: 16

Role: Support & Healing
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, Strahd von Zarovich, Zariel
Slot: 9 (Makos)

Shaka's Abilities

Shaka is a Support and Healing Champion. He can boost damage with A Celestial Puzzle, provide shielding with Celestial Resistance, and further amplify his abilities through specialization choices.

If more direct action is needed, Shaka can summon a Wall of Light as his Ultimate Ability and choose to Blind or Disintegrate enemies. The Blinding Wall of Light will push enemies away from the formation and cause their attacks to miss, while the Disintegrating Wall of Light will kill or damage those attempting to do his friends harm!

For more information on Shaka and his abilities, check out his Champion Spotlight!

Year Four Variants

• The Web Was On The Wall — Giant Spiders appear in each area. Whenever a Champion destroys a Giant Spider, they become webbed (stunned) for 3 seconds. Gold Find is reduced by 99%.
• Reach Area 75.

• Shaka's Puzzle — Shaka starts in the formation, he can be moved. Only Shaka and the Champions who match the tag for their slot from Shaka's A Celestial Puzzle ability can deal damage; Shaka's A Celestial Puzzle starts out unlocked.
  Getting to know Shaka: Shaka's main ability is A Celestial Puzzle. It will tag 4 random slots with a specific tag. When you solve the puzzle and place a Champion that matches the tag, A Celestial Puzzle buffs the damage of the entire party by 100%. Match all the tags to give your party the biggest boost.
• Reach Area 125.

• Lolth's Blessing — A Drow Wizard spawns in each area, with the Blessing of Lolth: 8 armored hit points that must be cleared before they can be killed. While the Drow Wizard is alive, all Drow enemies deal 300% additional damage and move 100% faster.
• Reach Area 175.

For information on previous years' variants, check out the The Running 3 blog.

A puzzle master arrives to help unravel all your mysteries!

Sharafka aka 'Shaka' is a tiefling celestial warlock from the Rivals of Waterdeep, who brings a love of mazes while protecting his friends from monsters. He joins the Champion ranks next week during The Running!

I. Shaka

As a member of Rivals of Waterdeep, Shaka is always looking for the latest adventure and the latest puzzle. His party has encountered mysteries and foes throughout Waterdeep, Candlekeep, Icewind Dale, and Avernus. Their base of operations is located in the Trollskull Manor in Waterdeep where a brain in a jar named Brian stands watch.

Shaka is here to help, using his keen intellect to solve the Celestial Puzzle and bolstering his allies with Celestial Resistance. When you want to add him to your formation, you can swap him with Makos (Slot 9).

II. Shaka’s Stats

Race: Tiefling	Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Warlock (Celestial)	Gender: Male
Age: 29	Affiliation: Rivals of Waterdeep

STR: 10	DEX: 16	CON: 15
INT: 16	WIS: 13	CHA: 16

Role: Support & Healing
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, Strahd von Zarovich, Zariel
Slot: 9 (Makos)

III. Shaka's Design

It’s been truly wonderful to work with Shareef Jackson, a passionate STEM diversity advocate and founder of Math Looks Good LLC, which provides math and physics tutoring services. He’s been featured in the New York Times, the Smithsonian, the Guardian, NPR, Scientific American, and MacLean's talking about science and technology. Shareef has been on Rivals of Waterdeep not just as the tiefling warlock Shaka, but stepping into the Dungeon Master role for two of their seasons!

While helping his adopted family through Avernus, Shaka made a pact with the Celestial Kagoya and now uses those powers to focus on healing and support. He can boost damage with A Celestial Puzzle, provide shielding with Celestial Resistance, and further amplify his abilities through specialization choices.

If more direct action is needed, Shaka can summon a Wall of Light and choose to Blind or Disintegrate enemies. The Blinding Wall of Light will push enemies away from the formation and cause their attacks to miss, while the Disintegrating Wall of Light will kill or damage those attempting to do his friends harm!

IV. Shaka's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Eldritch Blast — A beam of crackling green shoots towards an enemy, dealing damage.

Formation Abilities

• A Celestial Puzzle — Shaka attempts to solve a celestial puzzle with the potential for great rewards. Four random slots in the formation are assigned a random tag. For each Champion in those slots that match the slot's tag, Shaka buffs the party by 100%, stacking multiplicatively. Tags pull from a fixed set of odds, with two being "easy", one "medium", and one "hard";
  • Easy: male, female (non-binary Champions count in either)
  • Medium: support, dps, gold
  • Hard: human, kobold, elf, dwarf, tiefling

• Celestial Resistance — Shaka adds 10 temporary hit-points to the entire party when changing areas. This is increased by 25% for each A Celestial Puzzle slot that is filled properly, stacking additively (ie. +100% with 4 slots filled properly). This ability can be buffed by upgrades, equipment, and feats.

• Feats or Famine — Shaka increases the effect of A Celestial Puzzle by 20% for each puzzle slot he's adjacent to, stacking multiplicatively. This ability can be buffed by equipment and feats. Buffs apply to the post-stack value.

First Specializations

The first set of specializations deal with the ability A Tough Puzzle:

• Sunday Edition — A fifth slot in the formation is assigned a random tag and can be matched to further increase A Celestial Puzzle.

• Better Luck Next Time — The slots chosen for A Celestial Puzzle are rerolled. Note that the rerolled slots and tags are consistent for the adventure, so you can't use Potions of Specialization to repeatedly reroll for different slots (if you do respec and pick the other spec will swap back to the original slots/tags).

Second Specializations

Another set of specializations determine how Shaka’s Ultimate works:

• Blinding Wall of Light — Unlocks the Blinding Wall of Light ultimate, which pushes enemies back and then appears near the formation and causes enemies that pass through it to miss with most of their attacks.

• Disintegrating Wall of Light — Unlocks the Disintegrating Wall of Light ultimate, which appears close to where enemies spawn and can cause enemies that pass through it to instantly be killed; enemies not killed take additional damage for the next little while.

V. Shaka's Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Global DPS	Slot 3: A Celestial Puzzle
Slot 4: Celestial Resistance	Slot 5: Feast or Famine	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

We’re very excited to have Shaka joining Idle Champions, and excited to see him lending his skills to the rest of the Champions! What do you think about Shaka? 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!

Remember that time we ended up lost in the underdark? Well, it’s time to head to the kuo-toa city of Sloobludop to find our way out, but the underdark can be confusing...

Note: you will need to have completed the previous two Grand Tour Adventures, Into the Unknown and Prisoner of Velkynvelve, in order to access these new Adventures.

Lost in the Underdark

While finding your way to Sloobludop you’ll need to avoid the drow from Velkynvelve that continue to hunt you!

• Variant: Demons Here, Demons There — Find your way to Sloobludop with a collection of demons standing in your way! Abyssal Chickens, Bulezau, and Quasits will appear in each area, causing havoc and debuffing the Champions while granting a buff to enemies.
  Reach Area 375.

Leemooggoogoon Rises

You’ve arrived in Sloobludop and just need to find a boat, which would be easy if you weren’t continually distracted with requests for assistance!

• Variant: Stragglers — While helping the Kuo-toa, a few straggler prisoners join the formation while being accompanied to safety. Gold find is reduced by 99%
  Reach Area 375.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!

We are proud to partner with Take This, Parker Games, & Beadle & Grimms to offer these Psychomancer Beadle & Grimm skins, available by donating to the Boxed-In: The Enclosure Experience!"

Content Creator, Gamer, Influencer and Disney XD star Parker Coppins a.k.a. ParkerGames, has set the goal to raise $1,000,000 and vital awareness in an effort to highlight COVID’s impact on mental health.

“By raising awareness of mental health, depression and isolation – how it affects many in the gaming community, my goal will be to reinforce to those who are currently dealing with these issues, that they are not alone” said ParkerGames. “Covid has taken a toll on everyone’s mental health. I felt it was necessary to not only raise much need funds for a great cause, but in my own way help reduce the stigma about seeking support.

From April 19, 2021 to April 29, 2021, Parker will be completely isolated (under professional supervision) inside a 12’ x 9’ plexi-box located in his studio in Harlingen, TX. Each day Parker will provide his fans and over 1M followers updates by live-streaming his experiences, playing video games and encouraging those who can to donate funds to help him reach his goal. Proceeds will benefit Take This a 501(c)(3) non-profit mental health organization providing comprehensive resources and support that is tailored for the unique needs of gamers and the game development community.

• Players and supporters can donate $10+ receive a code to unlock the exclusive Beadle & Grimms Champion and Limited Edition Psychomancer skin (limit one code per unique qualifying donor).
  
• Codes will be sent to donors via email after April 28th at the conclusion of Boxed-In: The Enclosure Experience.


• Parker will also be playing in a D&D game segment featuring Matthew Lillard from Beadle & Grimms, and Dr B from Take This as the Dungeon Master. The game starts on Monday, April 19 at 4:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM CT and ends around 7:30 PM PT / 9:30 PM CT.


• Please be sure to add support@parkerboxedin.com to your contacts, address book, and safe senders list to help prevent your message from ending up in spam.


• Parker will be playing Idle Champions every morning from 6:30 AM PT / 8:30 AM CT to start his day throughout the 10-days.

The entire event will be multi-cast across Parker's YouTube and Twitch channels.

Find the full synopsis and links to each episode below! Warning, here be spoilers!

Our Champions have concluded their Idle Champions Presents: A Fool's Errand adventure. If you're looking for a quick recap of the adventure with links to each episode, look no further!

Idle Champions Presents: A Fool's Errand starring B Dave Walters as the Dungeon Master and Freely, Krystina Arielle as Orisha, Erin M Evans as Havilar , Mark Meer as Baeloth Barrityl Jen Kretchmer as Alyndra Saarbarand, and Adam Bradford as Briv Steelmarrow. Our adventure saw the Champions starting in the village of Hornfirth during the Festival of Fools.

We are proud to present Fool's Errand encounter, written by Scott Fitzgerald Grey for you to download and play here.

Find the full synopsis and links to each episode below! Warning, here be spoilers!

Episode 1

Disembarking from their Drow submarine ride are Freely, Orisha, Baeloth, and Havilar. They’ve arrived in the village of Hornfirth during the colorful Festival of Fools, and Orisha is once again overcome with a cryptic vision and warning that she imparts to the group. Revelry with the party and the bar patrons ensues.

A sudden ruckus nearby, including the sounds of Freely calling out in distress, cause the group to dash outside. In a nearby alley, they find the halfling protecting a red panda from a pack of wild dogs. No one wants to hurt the dogs, and between some illusions, fire, and snacks they are able to convince the dogs to run away. Freely is happy to see his old friends, and introduces the red panda as Cinnamon.

Another cry of terror rings out, and running back out of the alley the heroes find a tipsy conjurer using a spell scroll to summon fiends! Spined devils, quasits, and a nightmare appear as well as a drunken group of angry party goers who want to join the fight. Our heroes are quick to dispatch the spined devils and quasits, convince the intoxicated revelers to stand down, and persuade the nightmare to a truce. The fake Halister Blackcloak is killed, and several scrolls are found on his body. Briv makes a connection with the nightmare, who agrees to come four times when he calls, before disappearing.

Link to the full episode here

Episode 2

Just as one problem is solved another commotion starts up from Heiley, a distraught festival reveler crying for help. Her husband Beirn and his friends have gone into the mountains to play a prank on the frost giant Wrerdor and his ogre servants. Normally the frost giant is a good neighbor, but the townsfolk are terrified that Wrerdor will be infuriated and attack the village. Iris the friendly beholder shows up to offer some advice on the situation and agrees to help with any plans the heroes come up with, as well as offer a new title for both Alyndra and Briv.

The group head up the mountain to try and find the pranksters before they can strike. Their way is blocked and their trip is hampered by a Sneeze Breeze trap and then a pack of angry owlbears. The creatures are quickly killed, but Orisha’s deva rewinds time to save the owlbear’s life. After casting speak with animals they discover she’s just protecting her cubs hiding in a nearby tree, so Briv casts revivify to bring the other back to life. Continuing up the mountainside, they are distracted by the sight of a flaming mountain with a massive creature flying over it that brings Havilar infernal vibes. But it’s too far away to do much about.

Eventually, they find a tunnel entrance with a sign indicating it leads to Wrerdor, and running out of the cave is a screaming woman - a member of Beirn’s crew. She relays the group put itching powder in Wrerdor’s underclothing, but the giant did not appreciate the prank and attacked. After a stern talking about the stupidity of their actions, she is sent out into the cold to head back to town while the group head into the caves to try and rescue the other eight townsfolk. After getting lost for a while they finally find the cavern with ice mephits tormenting the captured townsfolk. They defeat the creatures and free the prisoners but are informed that Wrerdor and his ogres are heading for the town to extract revenge!

Link to the full episode here

Episode 3

Beirn informs everyone that he knows a quick way to get back to town, so after a few healing words they rush off. He leads them to a log flume that can be used to get down the mountain quickly as long as they can put together a raft. Havilar’s strength and Briv’s liquid metal are put to good use in crafting the raft, Alyndra oversees the building, and Baeloth and Orisha terrify and inspire the townsfolk to help. The heroes jump on the raft and head down the flume, narrowly avoiding several potential disasters including an otter dam they manage to dodge while saving the otters. With a frantic leap, they manage to exit the raft just before hitting the lake, taking a variety of cuts and scrapes but no major injuries. While the trip was dangerous, it did manage to get them in front of Wrerdor!

Bubbles the Hollyphant appears and offers to help them scare off the giant, transforming them all into were-red pandas before disappearing again. The group prepares to try and stop Wrerdor and his three ogres, putting up a wall of fire and preparing a massive pond full of bubbles. The ogres charge into battle, but some persuasive words from Havilar and Orisha, a joke from Briv, and a command to parlay from Alyndra convinces Wrerdor to talk first. The giant admits that he’s not mad, he’s just upset he was left out of the festivities. After some discussion and calming down, Wrerdor is convinced to throw his own party! They’re going to have a foam party, with drinks and snacks, and Baeloth agrees to sing for entertainment. Orisha coordinates the decorations, Briv takes over food prep, Alyndra leads some on some calming meditation, and Freely gathers up the townsfolk to join the festivities.

The party is a success! The Festival of Fools is finished with a fantastic festival of foam!

Link to the full episode here

A great cosmic conflict has spilled out upon the prime material plane.

While celebrations to mark the start of spring begin in the quaint Sword Coast town of Triboar, a Githyanki raiding party descents from above, raining destruction.

It's up to the Champions to defend the innocent and figure out what has drawn the attention of the Gith and their Endless War. It's time for Greengrass 4!

Greengrass 4 introduces Orkira Illdrex, the Dragonborn Cleric of Heroes of the Planes, and brings back Melf, the legendary Elf Fighter and Wizard and Aila, Wild Elf Barbarian of the Heroes of Aerois. Players have until Monday, April 19th at 12PM Pacific to complete their Greengrass 4 unlocks and objectives.

For more information about Year 4 Events and how they work, please check out our Year 4 Events Dev Blog.

New Champion: Orkira Illdrex

Orkira Illdrex is a gold dragonborn from the Nentir Vale, where she grew up nurturing a love of healing and fire. Between a strange life filled with monsters, Gods, time and multiplanar travel, death, the destruction of worlds and the saving of others, Orkira has survived and adapted to deal with any situation with a motto of 'One problem at a time.'

Orkira is a Healing and Support Champion who continuously heals non-adjacent damaged Champions with Lesser Restoration, and will Self-Sacrifice if she can prevent the death of one of her companions. She also boosts DPS with Elemental Fire. When you want to add Orkira to your formation, you can swap her with Bruenor (Slot 1).

II. Orkira's Stats

Race: Dragonborn (Gold)	Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Cleric (Phoenix Domain)	Gender: Female
Age: 34	Affiliation: Heroes of the Planes

STR: 13	DEX: 14	CON: 16
INT: 8	WIS: 20	CHA: 18

Role: Healing, Support

Eligible for Patrons: Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, Zariel

Slot: 1, (Bruenor)

Orkira's Abilities

Orkira heals and buffs the party, she continuously heals nonadjacent Champions with Lesser Restoration, she aids the party by damaging enemies with Elemental Fire. This is boosted by her Healing Flame. Noble and kind of heart, she will Self-Sacrifice to swap places with a non-adjacent ally when they are about to receive a killing blow. The Phoenix has played a large role in Orkira's life, and her bond with the Phoenix is explored with her Specializations Breath of the Pheonix to increase damage and Tailfeather of the Phoenix to increase healing.

For more information on Orkira and her abilities, check out her Champion Spotlight!

Year Four Variants

• Wise Warriors Wait — Only Champions with a WIS score of 13 or higher can be used. Enemies move 100% faster. Every 25 areas, that speed boost is increased by 100% (additively).
• Reach Area 75.

• Volo's Guide to Orkira — Orkira starts in the formation and can't be moved or removed (save for her ultimate, of course). Volo joins the formation and catalogues Orkira's unique capabilities. - Volo forgot to mention that he angered a swarm of spined devils before joining us. They appear in each area and deal 300% additional damage.
• Reach Area 125.

• Flayer Whispers — Armored Mind Flayer Guards appear in each area. The Elder Brain slowly drives your Champions mad. When a Champion gets a killing blow, they gain 5-10 stacks of a "Whispers" debuff. When they reach 100+ stacks, they are stunned for 15 seconds. Mind Flayers and the Elder Brain all deal 100% additional damage.
• Reach Area 175.

For information on previous years' variants, check out the Greengrass 3 blog.

Orkira Illdrex joins her friends Avren, Penelope, Freely, and Briv Steelmarrow, and Alyndra Sarrbarand.

You may recognize Orkira from Heroes of the Planes and D4. Previously, she starred on D&D Beyond's Silver & Steel, Heroes of the Vale.

We are delighted to welcome her Idle Champions roster with your Year 4 Greengrass event. It's time for the latest Idle Champion Spotlight!

I. Orkira Illdrex

Orkira Illdrex is a gold dragonborn from the Nentir Vale, where she grew up nurturing a love of healing and fire. Between a strange life filled with monsters, Gods, time and multiplanar travel, death, the destruction of worlds and the saving of others, Orkira has survived and adapted to deal with any situation with a motto of 'One problem at a time.'

Orkira is a Healing and Support Champion who continuously heals non-adjacent damaged Champions with Lesser Restoration, and will Self-Sacrifice if she can prevent the death of one of her companions. She also boosts DPS with Elemental Fire. When you want to add Orkira to your formation, you can swap her with Bruenor (Slot 1).

II. Orkira's Stats

Race: Dragonborn (Gold)	Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Cleric (Phoenix Domain)	Gender: Female
Age: 34	Affiliation: Heroes of the Planes

STR: 13	DEX: 14	CON: 16
INT: 8	WIS: 20	CHA: 18

Role: Healing, Support

Eligible for Patrons: Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, Zariel

Slot: 1, (Bruenor)

III. Orkira's Design

We were always excited about the possibility of working with Lauren Urban about bringing her beloved Orkira to Idle Champions, and little did we think many moons ago during our initial planning meetings that we would be welcoming not only Orkira to Idle Champions but also Lauren herself as our Community Manager!

When Lauren isn't working with us at Codename, she's a prolific DM and player on a variety of livestreams and podcasts (Heroes of the Planes, D4, Dungeon Drunks), as well as a professional classical oboist.

Orkira is sweet and straightforward, much like she is on livestream, healing and buffing the party. Orkira continuously heals nonadjacent Champions with Lesser Restoration, like most healing, it's most effective when her allies are damaged. Noble and kind of heart, she will Self-Sacrifice to swap places with a non-adjacent ally when they are about to receive a killing blow. Orkira also aids the party by damaging enemies with Elemental Fire. This is boosted by her Healing Flame.

The Phoenix has played a large role in Orkira's life, and her bond with the Phoenix is explored with her Specializations Breath of the Phoenix to increase damage and Tailfeather of the Phoenix to increase healing.

IV. Orkira's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Burning Hands — Orkira leaps to a random enemy and raises her hands, causing fire to erupt from the tips of her claws in a small area of effect cone.

Formation Abilities

• Lesser Restoration — Orkira heals all non-adjacent damaged Champions. Buffed by equipment, feats, and upgrades.

• Elemental Fire — Whenever Orkira damages an enemy, they receive one stack of Elemental Fire, taking 10% of Orkira's damage per second for 15 seconds and receiving 100% additional damage from all attacks. This ability stacks up to 10 times (additively) and attempting to add another stack will reset the cooldown of all stacks. Buffs to this ability increase only the damage debuff bonus (not the damage over time). Buffed by equipment, feats, and upgrades.

• Healing Flame — Increase the effect of Elemental Fire by 100% for each order of magnitude worth of effective healing done with Lesser Restoration on the current run. Buffed by equipment, feats, and upgrades. Buffs apply to the post-stack value.

• Self Sacrifice — If a Champion Orkira is able to heal (ie. non-adjacent) is about to take a killing blow, Orkira instantly swaps formation slots with that Champion for 10 seconds and takes the hit for them. During this time Orkira's overwhelm point is set to twice the other Champion's and neither Orkira nor the other Champion can be moved, removed, or swapped out; after the time expires they swap back regardless of whether Orkira and/or the other Champion died during the time. This effect can only occur once every 60 seconds. This ability is not buffed.

Specializations

• Breath of the Phoenix — Increase the size of Orkira's Burning Hands area of effect cone and have Elemental Fire apply two stacks instead of one.

• Tailfeather of the Phoenix — Increase the effect of Lesser Restoration by 100%. Lesser Restoration will now "heal" undamaged Champions and Healing Flame will count 1% of this non-effective healing as well.

Ultimate Ability

• Radiance of the Phoenix — Orkira flies up over the enemies, grasping The Domain of the Phoenix and uttering a prayer, summoning The Phoenix to rain Elemental Fire down upon the battlefield. This deals damage over time and increases the Elemental Fire stacks of affected enemies by 1 every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.

V. Orkira's Epic Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Global DPS	Slot 3: Lesser Restoration
Slot 4: Elemental Fire	Slot 5: Healing Flame	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

We are thrilled Orkira is keeping her friends on the Idle Champions roster alive and we are excited to see how well she fits into the 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!