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March 30th, 2020
Idle Champion Spotlight: Melf 
Posted in Idle Champions.

Today's Idle Champion Spotlight is a bit special for us. We are always honored to be able to include legacy characters in Idle Champions, most recently with Artemis Entreri, and before that with the Companions of the Hall. Today we are very excited to introduce you all to Prince Brightflame, better known as Melf, an elven Fighter/Wizard created and played by Luke Gygax, son of one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax.

Yes, THAT Melf! Creator of such spells as Melf's Acid Arrow and Melf's Minute Meteors.

We had our work cut out for us - but at the same time, we were blessed with the opportunity to work with Luke to bring his lifelong D&D character to life! Would you like to know more? Read on...

I. Prince Brightflame

Dungeons & Dragons Melf

    Born into the royal family of Celene, he assumed the simple name of Melf eschewing a life of comfort as a noble to study the arcane arts and train as a swordsman. He delved in the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk, the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and many other harrowing places honing his skills, knowledge and amassing powerful magic items. Melf sees himself as a weapon of weal hurtling toward the heart of the darkest evils in the realm. He is opinionated and has a touch of conceit that he is blissfully ignorant of possessing.

Melf is a Fighter and Wizard Support Champion. His legendary spellbook is filled with versatile Support Spells, offering a variety of potential damage buffs and speed boosts. When you want to add Melf to your formation, you can swap him with Arkhan (Slot 12).

II. Melf's Stats

Race: Elf Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Fighter/Wizard Gender: Male
Age: 210 Affiliation: none

STR: 17 DEX: 15 CON: 14
INT: 19 WIS: 11 CHA: 10

Role: Support
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, Strahd von Zarovich


Dungeons & Dragons Melf

III. Designing Melf

Having the opportunity to bring Melf into Idle Champions was a real treat for us at Codename Entertainment. Not just because we were bringing a legendary character from Dungeons & Dragon's past into the spotlight, but because we try to work directly with the creators of each character whenever possible. This time around, we got to work closely with Luke Gygax!

Luke was excited to hop on board and help us out, and he would regale us with tales of Melf, telling stories about playing Dungeons & Dragons as a child with his father as his Dungeon Master. To the rest of the world, Gary Gygax is the icon who helped to create the greatest role-playing game of all time. But to Luke? He was playing D&D with his Dad, who just happened to be 'the' Gary Gygax.

Over the course of our conversations and email exchanges Luke shared stories with us about how each of Melf's items came to be in his possession, often in incredible detail despite the events having occurred during games in his childhood. Melf has been a character for a long time, and Luke still has all of his character sheets, some of them written completely out on lined paper decades ago. Wow!

So what does all that leave us with? Well, we honed in on some of Melf's legendary artifacts and spells, choosing to craft for him an extremely versatile set of formation abilities that can be tailored to a variety of formations and situations. Melf's Adaptive Support Spell and Melf's Augmented Support Spell help you to refine your DPS buffs in a way that best works for you. At the same time, Melf's Speedy Supplement offers a mix of options for increasing the speed at which you complete adventures and variants.

Melf's legendary weapon, Zagyg's Needle, starts off being his Basic Attack, but once you combine it with his Ultimate Ability, Melf's Minute Meteors, things really start to get interesting, adding massive damage and AoE to Melf's attacks.

At this point you might be asking yourself, "Where is Melf's Acid Arrow?" -- but if you look closely, you'll find it ;)

IV. Melf's Abilities

Basic Attack

  • Zagyg’s Needle — Melf leaps out and attacks the nearest enemy with his magic spear. If Melf has any Minute Meteors active, he fires one at a random enemy as well.

Formation Abilities

  • Melf's Adaptive Support Spell — Melf creates a new spell to assist the formation. He customizes it based on the Champions in the formation and where Melf is placed within it. It increases the damage of Champions adjacent to Melf by 100% and that value is augmented based on some other parameters, each of which applies multiplicatively.
    • If there is another Elf (aside from Melf) in the formation, increase the effect by 50%.
    • Increase the range by 2 if Melf is not in the front-most or rear-most columns in the formation (affects all champions within 3 slots).
    • Increase the effect by 10% for each unique race in the formation.
    This ability is buffed by upgrades and equipment (buffs apply to the final calculated value, not the individual increases).
  • Melf's Augmented Support Spell — Melf augments his Adaptive Support Spell for each Champion it affects.
    • Increase the effect by 50% on the non-dominant gender in the formation (applies to non-binary champions all the time).
    • Increase the effect by 50% for each slot away from Melf a Champion is (multiplicatively)
  • Melf's Speedy Supplement — Melf provides one of the following effects at random. A new effect is chosen at random every 50 areas (though it could pick the same one multiple times in a row).
    • Increase chance to spawn an additional enemy with each wave by 25%.
    • Increase enemy spawn speed by 25%.
    • Increase chance of double quest drops by 25%.
    This ability is buffed by equipment; note if the chance of double quest drops gets above 100% it will then always cause double quest drops with a chance to cause triple quest drops, etc. Likewise with spawning additional enemies with each wave.
  • Melf's Righteous Determination — Melf knows exactly what evil is. Whenever an enemy spawns it has a 50% chance of being deemed "evil" by Melf. Enemies that are deemed evil take 100% more damage from all Ultimate attacks.

Specializations

  • Bonus Adaption — Increases the effect of Melf's Adaptive Support Spell by 100%.
  • Extra Supplements — Increase the effect of Melf's Speedy Supplement by 100%.
  • Absolute Righteousness — Increase the effect of Melf's Righteous Determination by 100%.

Ultimate Ability

  • Melf's Minute Meteors — Melf summons six Minute Meteors that float around him. They are fired when he attacks normally and deal BUD-based damage to all enemies in a small area.

V. Melf's Legendary Equipment



Slot 1: Global DPS
Slot 2: Global DPS
Slot 3: Adaptive Support Spell
Slot 4: Speedy Supplement
Slot 5: Righteous Determination
Slot 6: Ultimate Damage

VI. Conclusion

What do you think about Melf? Will he fit into any of your formations? Let us know your thoughts, that we may flay them! 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 30th, 2020
Idle Champions Coloring Sheets 
Posted in Idle Champions.

Coloring in pictures are a surprisingly pleasant to way to relax. We've seen time and again at different conventions that attending fans love to stop by our booth and take 10 minutes to fill in one of our many sheets.

However, we haven't had a good way to release the sheets to all of you who aren't lucky enough to meet-up with us at a convention. That is, until now: below you will find our entire collection of available coloring sheets as of today. However, we're going to be releasing more in the coming weeks!

Starting this week, we will release a community chest code for every 100 examples of completed coloring sheets you share!

All you have to do is post your examples to our Facebook page, post to your Twitter or Instagram feed and tag @idlechampions on Twitter or @idle_champions on Instagram, and include the hashtag #idlecoloring.

Or if you prefer to you can submit your creation to fan_art on our Discord server or upload to our subreddit.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Click the Thumbnails to Download the PDF

March 25th, 2020
Idle Champions: v1.0 & Spring Extravaganza 
Posted in Idle Champions.

    Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
    “With your help we expect to go to full launch in three to six months from Early Access launch.”

~Idle Champions, September 2017


Looking back, we were pretty ambitious in thinking that we would be able to fully develop all the features we were planning for Idle Champions within six months of launching on Steam. Since then we have expanded upon our vision, developing features that are the foundation for a long term live service game. It has been a long journey to get to this point, and we are eternally thankful to the community and the team here at CNE for helping us to get to this point. Thank you!

The time has come to leave Early Access, and to officially launch Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms v1.0!

If you're interested in learning more about what's coming with today's update, you've come to the right place...

Table of Contents


Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza

Spring Extravaganza

With the launch of Idle Champions v1.0 we wanted to have a bit of a celebration. We decided upon doing something similar to our Second Anniversary Celebration, with daily rewards you can claim once each 24-hours. Players who claim rewards on at least four days will be able to earn exclusive rewards!

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza Daily Rewards

Daily Rewards

Each daily chest grants you four awesome items, hand-picked by the team here at Codename Entertainment to help you in your adventures.

These rewards are unlocked once you have claimed at least four days worth of rewards during the Spring Extravaganza.

  • Exclusive "Champion Minsc" Skin
  • A Rare "+1 CON" Feat for Celeste
  • 5 Gold Chests

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza General Updates

General Updates

Today's update includes a number of changes to Idle Champions, some of which we expect to create significant changes to the meta, including: a Formation Saves update, changes to Ultimate ability balance, a Champion Balance update, and a Level Soft Cap Increase.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza Formation Saves

Formation Saves Update

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.

Today we have increased the number of formations you can save from 3 to 50(!), and included an updated UI to allow players to better track individual saved formations for each of their campaigns.

For more information, including our Formation Saves FAQ, check out our Formation Saves Update Dev Blog.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza Ultimate Balance

Ultimate Balance Changes

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".

For information on the rationale behind these changes, check out our Champion Balance Update (March 2020) Dev Blog or the in-game Change Log.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza Champion Balance

Champion Balance Update

Today's update sees updates to the remaining Champions not included in last year's update to Year One Champion Balance update. Champions included in this review are Deekin Scalesinger, Ishi Snaggletooth, Dhadius the Scarlet, Krond, Hitch, Birdsong, Barrowin Undurr, Strix Beestinger, and Azaka Stormfang. Two of these Champions, Gromma and Azaka, received little-to-no changes; we are keeping our eyes on how the anticipated meta shift with this update affects these two, and we may make changes to them in the future.

For Detailed information on these changes, check out our Champion Balance Update (March 2020) Dev Blog or the in-game Change Log.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza New Patron Strahd von Zarovich

New Patron: Strahd von Zarovich

Another Patron has arrived! Count Strahd von Zarovich joins Mirt the Moneylender and The Blackstaff, Vajra Safahr, as the third Patron in Idle Champions. Those seeking to serve the Lord of Castle Ravenloft will need to unlock at least 40 Champions (including Core and Evergreen Champions) and complete the Towering Expectations adventure in the Grand Tour of the Sword Coast campaign. Once these criteria are met, players can spend 10 Rare Bounty Contracts and 20 Silver Chests to unlock Strahd von Zarovich as a Patron!

Strahd suffers no fools to run his errands. With Strahd as your Patron, only Champions with an INT score of 13+ can be used.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza New Patron Strahd von Zarovich Familiars

New Patron Familiars

New Familiars have appeared in the Patron Shops! Complete weekly challenges and Patron variants for Mirt the Moneylender, Vajra Safahr, or Strahd von Zarovich to earn your Flameskull, Spider, or Toy Werewolf Familiars.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza New Patron Strahd von Zarovich Skins

New Patron Skins

Champions who find themselves in service of Strahd von Zarovich will have access to unique rewards, including the Vistani Regis Skin and the Vampire Catti-brie Skin through the Patron Shop.

Dungeons & Dragons Spring Extravaganza New DLC

New DLC Packs

Two new DLC Packs are now available!

The Shade Artemis Skin & Feat Pack unlocks the Artemis Shade Skin, the ‘Part Shade’ Epic Feat, 7 Gold Artemis Chests, and a Potion of Polish. It will also unlock the Artemis Entreri Champion if you don't already have them.

The Iron Pup Familiar Pack will unlock the Iron Pup Familiar, an assortment of epic potions and contracts, and two Potions of Polish.


Feedback Wanted!

These changes are scheduled to go live at approximately 9:00AM PDT on Wednesday, March 25th. We very much look forward to your feedback, so please let us know what you think in a Community Q&A or feedback post on the Idle Champions Subreddit, a post on the Steam forums, or on the Official Idle Champions Discord!

Enjoy :)
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.