You've unlocked Anson, recruited the rebalanced Binwin, and pushed your limits across multiple Wintershield variants. Now it's time to put your skills to the test with WINTERSHIELD MASTERY!

Welcome to the second run of this exciting Event augment! You can learn more about how Mastery Challenges work in last month's Introduction blog. Today, however, we're here to talk about the specifics for this month's challenging restrictions as we all push to get Dragonsoul Card Sleeves for Artemis the Wintershield Event Champions!

Wintershield Mastery Challenges

Base Restriction: Fellowship of the Fallbacks

• You may only use Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and members of The Fallbacks affiliation.

• Restriction A: Slow Going
  
  • Enemies gain 5% more health in each area, stacking multiplicatively.
  • You may only use Champions with a base attack cooldown of 5 seconds or higher.

• Restriction B: Shadow VIPs
  
  • Enemies gain 5% more health in each area, stacking multiplicatively.
  • Two Formation Slots in the formation are taken up by Shadow Imp Escorts.

• Restriction C: Attack Pattern
  
  • Enemies gain 5% more health in each area, stacking multiplicatively.
  • If a Champion is adjacent to another Champion with the same base attack type (ie. melee, ranged, magic), all Champions have their damage set to 0.

• Restriction D: Building Shadow
  
  • Enemies gain 5% more health in each area, stacking multiplicatively.
  • In non-boss areas after area 10, an invulnerable Shadow enemy has a 100% chance to spawn alongside each enemy. This chance is reduced by 10% for each unique alignment in your formation. Subsequent enemies spawn with 100% more health for each Shadow enemy in the current area, stacking multiplicatively.

Champion Shop Improvements

With today's update, we also began implementing quality-of-life improvements to the Champions section of the Shop. These updates will roll out gradually over the coming months.

We also noticed during Chest Vaults last year that players enjoyed having access to every Champion's chest. We decided to make that a feature moving forward, accessible through the updated Champions section of the Shop.

Mastery Challenges & Card Sleeve Feedback

Are you excited to test your Wintershield Mastery and collect Card Sleeves for your Wintershield Event Champions? Which Champion are you looking forward to decking out first? Your feedback is important to us, and we would love to have you join our community on one of our official platforms to share your thoughts:

• The Official Idle Champions Discord.
• The Official Idle Champions Subreddit.
• Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Bluesky, or Instagram.

Happy Birthday Nate!

It's that time of year again! Help celebrate Nate Dragon's birthday by decorating the Commons for him....because no one else will.

Safety First

First and foremost, whenever Nate is involved, safety becomes a priority. Find Safety Coins in the bushes and bring them to the stations in the Commons to stock up on protective gear. Turn in 10 coins at each station 50 times for an achievement. You can see the number of turn-ins you've completed at a station when you turn in a set of coins. The Kevlar Pad station is there on the first day of the event, and the Fire Extinguisher and Band Aid stations will unlock as the event goes on.

Party Preparation

Then it seems Nate needs decorations and activities to set up in the Commons. Go out daily and find things for his party. Have fun trying out the activity stations as many times as you want!

Dragon Costuming

If you're trying to get Tiny Little Arms or Just Like Nate achievements, or if you just want to have a little fun, you need to be wearing all pieces of the Dragon gear or the Nate outfit (available from the vendor's Bush Bucks store if it's your first time playing this event) while completing the 4 party Stations: Dynamite Activity, Campfire Activity, Digging Activity and the Training Whacking Activity.

Fire! Fire!

If you've built the Town Hall, you can expect an fiery visitor to the party as well!

New this Year

This year's update includes:

- a new cursed cubes quest, with a new companion to collect!
- new costume items in the store!
- new ranch items in the store!
- new pet packs!
- new mount packs!
- new ribbons and 100% reward!
- Updated 2 of the VIP event rewards

Holiday Banners!

As this is the first event of 2026, we're introducing a new 100% reward set - Holiday Banners! Collect them all!

Nate's Generous Uncle

New year, new gift from Nate's uncle! He seems apologetic enough, so maybe this one won't be cursed...

Achievements

-- POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT
There are a total TWENTY FOUR possible Achievements to earn in this event:

Returning Achievements

Safety First - You completed a turn-in at each of the Safety Stations.
Safety Inspector - You completed 50 turn-ins at each of the Safety Stations.
Without a Hitch - You helped Nate with all of his Birthday quests!
Neverending Supply - You completed all 4 of the Birthday event daily quests 3 times.
Firefighter - You put out a fire and saved a building in the Commons! [Requires the Town Hall built]
Dragon Slayer - You scared off a dragon and saved the Commons!
Surprise Explosions! - You helped organize a surprise party for Nate.
A Heroic Gift - Help Natalie make Nate look like a hero for his birthday.
Cursed Cubes! - You removed the cube curse!

New Achievements

Birthday Bushels - You bought all the 2026 Nate's Birthday event items!

Retired Achievements

We have 14 achievements from previous year's events, which may be earned by spending some Bush Bucks, if a player was not present during the initial year:

Loot Deluge - You bought all the 2025 Nate's Birthday event items! Nate's Fortune - You bought all the 2024 Nate's Birthday event items! Nate's Novelties - You bought all the 2023 Nate's Birthday event items!
Nate-tional Treasure - You bought all the 2022 Nate's Birthday event items!
Birthday Spoils - You bought all the 2021 Nate's Birthday event items!
Birthday Blowout - You bought all the 2020 Nate's Birthday event items!
Nate-Nacs - You bought all the 2019 Nate's Birthday event items!
Nate's Treasures - You bought all the 2018 Nate's Birthday event items!
Birthday Souvenirs - You bought all the 2017 Nate's Birthday event items!
Nate's Finer Things - You bought all the 2016 Nate's Birthday event items!
Nate's Stash - You bought all the 2015 Nate's Birthday event items!
Tiny Little Arms - You bungled each activity station while dressed like a Dragon
Nate's Inventory - You bought all the 2014 Nate's Birthday event items!
Just Like Nate! - You bungled each activity station while dressed like Nate.

*The mini-golf piece is not included in the Birthday Bushels achievement, and therefore it is not required to purchase it.

Grab a new bombastic partner!

Mount Packs

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 Jan 9th to 12th!

Nate's Fire Truck mount comes free with your first purchase of 100 Bush Bucks or more!

Nate's Rocket and Nate's Tank 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!

Pet Packs

Three new pets, the Toy Helicopter, Cursed Chest, and Altar, can be seen in the event area later on. You can pick them up January 16th to 19th in Pet Packs bursting with goodies! Want them all? Grab them all for less in the bundle!



Many other pets and ranch items available from previous years via "Nate's Olde Mischief Market". Talk to the event store clerk to view this store!

This event runs until Friday January 23rd, 2026 @ Noon PST (8pm UTC).

See the full Release Notes!

Post your thoughts and feedback here!

Endangered Species - Tenth Encounter

Habitats are changing, and it's endangering many different animal species. Carson Tiva has found that three different endangered species can currently be found in Bushwhackia, as they search for new places to live.

Three Endangered Species

Mongolian Beaver - An endangered beaver native only to the Wulungu River in Mongolia

Smoky Mouse - An endangered Australian species of mouse named for its colour

Desert Tortoise - An endangered tortoise threatened by wildfires and development

Collect Conservation Data

Like you did during Carson's last visit, apply your bush whacking skills to help them collect Conservation Data on these unique animals for the limited time they're here. To gather data, you just have to give them a whack with your sword or other whacking implement. With said data, Carson Tiva can use it to try and help what's left of these unique animals.

Which species you encounter in the fields will be random, so if you fall behind in finding one of the three animals, you can start one of Carson Tiva's pursuit quests. You can do one pursuit quest every 20 hours.

Earn Rewards

Your efforts will not go unrewarded! Carson Tiva will trade you for this data in their store, plus you'll earn a unique plaque for your contributions! Like event ribbons, this plaque will increase your maximum energy based on your performance.

Collect data, complete the achievements, and earn rewards!

In addition to a new set of species, Bush Buck Bundle, and energy boosting plaque, you can earn a new Animal Chest ranch item reward!

Limited Time Only

Go to the event area of the Commons to get started, and gather as much data as you can before noon on Tuesday January 6th, Pacific Time!