It's time for the Magical Talking Map to take the Champions on another adventure around Waterdeep to celebrate another Wintershield, marking the end of one year and the transition into the next!

This year the Champions are joined by a deadly and devout Cleric of Kelemvor, Nerys Kathon, ally to Minsc, Boo, Delina, and the Heroes of Baldur's Gate!

Wintershield 2 runs until Monday, January 7th, 2019 at 12:00pm PST, introduces Nerys Kathon, War Domain Cleric of Kelemvor, and also brings back Barrowin Undurr, the Gold Dwarf Cleric!

New Champion: Nerys Kathon

Nerys Kathon joined the Heroes of Baldur's Gate on a mission to protect her church, but was soon pulled into a harrowing journey to Barovia and beyond. As a cleric of Kelemvor, she grew up in service to the dying and the dead, and developed a cold detachment to anything outside of duties to her faith. Beneath that frosty exterior is a loyal and caring adventurer, but it's a side she rarely shows to anyone outside her closest friends.

Nerys is a Support / Healer Champion. She uses her Spiritual Weapon ability to support DPS Champions, giving a powerful extra attack to the highest DPS Champion in the formation, while at the same time healing Champions within two spaces. When you want to add Nerys to your formation, you can swap her with Arkhan (Slot 12).

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

Returning Champion: Barrowin Undurr

A proud daughter of Clan Undurr and a devout follower of Gorm Gulthyn, the dwarven god of vigilance and duty. She spent fifteen years in the city of Ironmaster, in Icewind Dale, overseeing and protecting her family’s investment in the city’s lucrative mining operations. However, she saw little action and feared that her talents were being squandered. She has recently found a home within a budding organization called the Order of the Gauntlet, which vigilantly guards against the rise of evil in all its forms.

Barrowin is a Support / Healer Champion. She uses her Blessed Hammer ability to increase the power of Champion’s attacks through a stacking buff each time she attacks, while at the same time healing Champions in her column. When you want to add Barrowin to your formation, you can swap her with Tyril (Slot 10).

Year Two Variants

• Dragons Are Wild — The Cult of the Dragon attempts to distract you by unleashing illusionary dragons within the walls of Waterdeep! Armored Bronze Dragon Wyrmlings spawn in each area. They do no damage and drop no gold.


• A Waterdhavian Party — Now that you're a 'local' adventuring group, you've become a tourist attraction. Two Drunk Waterdhavians join your adventure, taking up slots in your formation and moving every 25 areas.


• Once More with Necromancy — Nerys begins the adventure in your formation. Relentless Undead spawn in each area, attacking your formation. When Relentless Undead are killed, they get back up after three seconds and continue their attack. However, Relentless Undead killed by Nerys' Spiritual Weapon are destroyed for good.

Year One Variants

• The Chatty Map — The map is extremely chatty. Every 15 seconds it engages in deep conversation with a random Champion in your formation, disabling their DPS and Formation Abilities for 15 seconds.


• The Cult of Daggers — Dagger-throwing Cultists spawn alongside normal waves and toss daggers at random Champions in your formation. These additional monsters drop no gold.


• Only the Strong Survive — Only Champions with a Strength stat of 13 or higher can be used.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

New Mechanic Merchant And More! (December 21st, 2018)

- Added a new wandering merchant to the Amicus Isle rotation: The Mechanic!
- They’ll be guaranteed active on Amicus until noon on Monday December 24th before joining the regular rotation.
- They have 6 items in their store, including new bicycle mounts!

- Added a Golden Bicycle and Golden Unicycle to the VIP store.

- Added 3 new rat companions, two to PAGAS for DNA and one at the wandering pet collector.

- Added Turd companion to the PAGAS store for DNA.

- Added Flux-lorean mount to Flux Store.

- Added two new Michin Serpent skins. No details on how to get them though! :P

- Mount types with skins will always show as basic skin in the Mount Collection Dialog, and the name of the skin will not change to the name of a mount that has it.

- Pet/Mount sale items now show how many of them you’ve owned in the mouse over tooltip. This number includes released and unreleased pets/mounts of that type.

- Moved sugarless costume drinks from the energy restoration list to the Key Items list in your inventory bag. You can click on them in your inventory to use them.

- Fixed not being able to buy pets/eggs from Gen 7 and 8 if you didn’t already own at least 5 of them (Monday, Dec 17th).

- Fixed the rune graphics not showing in the Disenchant and Combine dialogs (Monday, Dec 17th).

- The dogs in the Dog Sled mount now switch places properly on the left and right facings.

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!

Today, we're going to go into early detail on our newest Champion: Nerys Kathon, the Human Cleric of Kelemvor and the latest addition to the Heroes of Baldur's Gate!

Nerys will be available in our next Year Two Event, Wintershield, which launches on Wednesday, December 26th. I hope this blog will give you all you need to know about our latest champion. But don't forget that Wintershield is also a chance to collect and gear up Barowin Undurr, the Dwarf Cleric from last year's Wintershield extravaganza!

How you can unlock Nerys:

Nerys is unlocked by playing Wintershield, a limited-time event launching on December 26th at noon Pacific and running until January 7th at noon Pacific. Once you unlock Nerys, she swaps with Arkhan, Zorbu, and Azaka (Slot 12)

Who is Nerys:

Nerys Kathon joined the Heroes of Baldur's Gate on a mission to protect her church, but was soon pulled into a harrowing journey to Barovia and beyond. As a cleric of Kelemvor, she grew up in service to the dying and the dead and developed a cold detachment to anything outside of duties to her faith. Beneath that frosty exterior is a loyal and caring adventurer, but it's a side she rarely shows to anyone outside her closest friends.

Nerys is a member of the Heroes of Baldur's Gate. A group of adventures known well throughout Baldur's Gate and the Sword Coast. Other members include Minsc (and Boo!), Delina, Krydle, and Shandie. Minsc & Delina are already in-game, and Krydle and Shandie may join them sometime in 2019...

The Heroes of Baldur's Gate have been featured in the IDW comic series' written by Jim Zub titled Legends of Baldur's Gate, Shadows of the Vampire, Frost Giant's Fury, and the most recent, Evil at Baldur's Gate which featured a variant cover on the back of issue 5 drawn by our very own Adam Kosh!

Nerys's Design:

Nerys was created by Jim Zub and Max Dunbar for the Shadows of the Vampire comic series and she's not your typical cleric. To quote Jim: "As a cleric of Kelemvor she sees to the dying and the dead and regards most pain with a sense of cold detachment even as she heals others and helps them deal with their own suffering." Nerys is a devout follower of Kelemvor, known as the God of the Dead. She firmly stands by the idea that death comes to all, and those that die should move on. Because of that belief, she is strongly against the concept of undead.


Max Dunbar created a Nerys image for twitter that coincided with our launch on consoles!
We chatted with Jim Zub about what makes Nerys tick and how best we could integrate her with the champions. In the end, we landed on a late-game healer who focuses on helping the team kill enemies and stay alive until it is their time to meet their maker.

Base Attack - Dash and Slash: Nerys cleaves all targets near the closest enemy.


Formation Ability: Spiritual Weapon: Nerys' first formation ability unlocks her companion, a spiritual weapon. The spiritual weapon takes the form of her greatsword and attacks with her, doing a high percentage of her damage.

Formation Ability: War Healing: Nerys' next formation ability unlocks her healing capabilities. As death comes to all, so too does it come to baddies. Whenever an enemy is killed, Nerys heals the most damaged Champion within 2 slots of her.

Formation Ability: Unholy: Nerys' next formation ability focuses on the type of enemies Nerys abhors: Undead. She increases the damage all champions do to undead monsters. She'll be a great addition to any Tomb of Annihilation adventure!

Formation Ability: Follow My Friend: Nerys' final formation ability breaks the mold of spiritual weapon a bit, but it works with the spirit of her character. Her Spiritual Weapon now follows the Champion with the highest DPS, doing a portion of THEIR damage instead of Nerys'! Once you unlock this upgrade, having Nerys in your party will be a huge DPS boost in addtion to having her added healing capabilities. Speaking of those:

Nerys' Specializations:

Nerys's specializations are all about deciding whether the party needs her to focus on healing or damage.

If you choose Dig In, Nerys will heal an additional time. Once when an enemy is reduced to 50%, AND again when it's killed! If you choose Kelemvor's Will, she increases the effect of her Spiritual Weapon, including when it's basing it's damage off of another Champions' DPS.

Nerys' Ultimate Attack: Tip the Scales

For Nerys' ultimate, we wanted to come up with something really fun. She jumps into the fray, unleashing a halo of divine energy. It hits all enemies and both decreases the damage of those enemies AND increases the damage the party does against all enemies (including newly spawned ones) for 30 seconds.

Nerys' Equipment

Slot 1: Greatsword

• Nerys' main weapon increases the damage of all Champions.

Slot 2: Breastplate

• Nerys' armor increases the damage of all Champions.

Slot 3: Eyeshadow

• Her eyeshadow increases the effect of her Spiritual Weapon.

Slot 4: Cloak

• Her cloak increases the effect of her War Healing.

Slot 5: Holy Symbol of Kelemvor

• Her holy symbol increases her ultimate attack damage.

Slot 6: Barovian Locket

• The locket that led to the Heroes of Baldur's Gate's adventures in Barovia reduces the cooldown of her ultimate attack.

What about any other Nerys details I'm looking for?

Nerys is Lawful Good and a member of the Heroes of Baldur's Gate. Her stats are as follows:
Str: 16 Dex: 13 Con: 15 Int: 12 Wis: 17 Cha: 15

TL/DR- Final Nerys Thoughts

Nerys is a is a strong, smart, and brave cleric of Kelemvor. She'll heal damaged Champions whenever you kill an enemy, increase the Champions' damage against undead monsters, and uses her Spiritual Weapon to boost the DPS of the highest DPS Champion in your formation.

We'll be watching the discussion online and on discord to see how well she's received, so let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, or on the official Discord! If you are enjoying Nerys, consider checking out the Legends of Baldur's Gate comic series by IDW!

Happy Holidays Champions Fans! Thanks for an amazing 2018! We can't wait to start 2019 with all of you!

~The Idle Champions Team

Just in time for the holidays, we have an update featuring new challenging variants for adventures in the Grand Tour of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaigns!

From a variant for the strongest Champions to an adventure for the elite group Force Grey, there's a little something for everyone with these seven(!) new variants!

Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Variants

• Escort to Waterdeep: The Long Haul — Only Champions with a Strength score of 14 or higher may be used.


• Waterdeep Detours: Rude Welcome — Additional citizen 'monsters' attack the party with each wave: Butcher, Baker, and Candlestick Maker, each with their own unique abilities.


• Underdeep Cartography: Expert Opinion — Volothamp Geddarm takes up a slot in the formation, reducing the damage of adjacent Champions.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Variants

• A Mysterious Summons: Force Grey Unleashed — You begin the adventure with Calliope in your formation. Only Champions affiliated with Force Grey may be used.


• Building Trust: Sleuth it Out — Only Champions with an Intelligence score of 12 or higher may be used.


• A Dinner Party: Modron Assistance — Nordom the Modron joins you on this adventure, taking up a slot in your formation. Nordom is reminding the waterdhavians of the Great Modron March, inspiring them to defend Waterdeep. Damage caused by humanoid monsters in this adventure is increased.


• A Botched Kidnapping: Domesticated Owlbears — A crazed Owlbear attacks the party in each area, stunning a random Champion.

For more information, check out the in-game Change Log!

Twas the Nate Before Christmas, with a chill in the air,
a new Crusader arrives — Wrena the Fair!
she's badass but friendly, joyous and caring,
she joins the Crusaders, in a holiday pairing,
from an Elvish enclave, deep in the mountains,
she journeys outward, destination uncertain,
to fight for her people, there's no line she won't cross,
she'll slay all the monsters, just like a boss!

The end of another year approaches, and with it a brand-new badass Elven Crusader arrives to herald in the new year! Collect Wrena the Fair and the rest of The Nate Before Christmas' Crusaders before the event wraps up on New Year's Day, January 1, 2019!

The Nate Before Christmas 4 runs until January 1, 2019 at 12:00PM PT!

New Tier 4 Crusader: Wrena the Fair

Wrena the Fair is one badass mutha — but she's also really friendly, and wants to promote Elvish welfare! She's come down from the Elven enclave in the mountains, as she's heard about your band of Crusaders...

Wrena is a DPS Crusader the way we wanted Tauriel to be (we're looking at YOU, Peter Jackson). She does DPS based upon how many Crusaders are in the formation.

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. Xander the Xmas Dragon, The Dark Helper, Robo-Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, and RoboSanta are all once again available to unlock!

New Tier 4 Objectives

• Recruit Wrena, the Fair | Wrena takes up a slot in the formation. Only elves adjacent to Wrena do DPS. Wrena decreases Global DPS and Gold Find for each non-Elf Crusader adjacent to her. Taskmasters are disabled. Reach area 600.


• A Very Fair Christmas | Only Elf and Angel Crusaders are available to use. The Reset ability has moved to Alan the Archangel at level 250. Reach area 700.


• Deck the Halls | A fragile Christmas ornament takes up a slot in the formation and increases spawn speed for each monster killed. If the ornament dies, you instantly wipe the area. Additionally, angrey green Grunches spawn at random and they live for at least a second. Reach area 750.


• Die Harder | Bruise Wallace takes up a slot in the formation. He buffs your DPS by 2000% minus 200% for every dead Crusader. Monsters also have increased health. Reach area 800.


• Caution! Hot Chocolate! | Hot Chocolate cups spawn randomly. The first few buff your DPS for 15 seconds. If you've killed 7 on an area, all subsequent Hot Chocolates killed disable your DPS for 15 seconds. Reach area 850.

Help! Where’s the Loot?

Equipment for event Crusaders can be found in Silver and Jeweled Christmas 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 January 1, 2019 at 12:00PM PT to complete The Nate Before Christmas 4!

Inventory Favourites (December 14th, 2018)

- Added ability to favourite Pets, Mounts, Hats, Capes, Gauntlets, Swords, Eyewear, and Trinkets in your inventory so you can more easily find what you’re looking for.

- Improved load time of opening your inventory by only loading the graphics of visible inventory items.

- Current equipped item/pet/mount/trinket now appears at the front of the inventory selection list regardless of the filter selected so you can find it easier for toggling it as a favourite.

- Empty item now appears at the front of the inventory selection list regardless of the filter selected so it is more accessible.

- Changed the "Age" filter for pets and mounts to sort ascending instead of descending, so you can more readily access your newest pets.

- Fixed the inventory button, like to change your hat, keeping the old tooltip when you unequip it.

- Fixed the inventory icons being wrong if you change tabs while they're loading, now that only the visible items are loaded instead of all at once.

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!

Christmas Event 2018 Update (December 12th, 2018)

- Updated Christmas Event
- Added new customization and ranch items
- Added new ribbons and 100% reward
- Added 3 new pets available from Dec 17th to Dec 19th
- Added 4 new quests that unlock at Noon Dec 22nd
- Added a new unique item to fish up from the North Pole ice fishing hole
- Added a new unique developer present!
- Added a new unique snowman quest reward!
- Added a new item to steal from one of the houses!

- Added Dog Sled Mount promo (free with BB purchase over $10; 30% more BBs over $5)

- Corrected the puzzle image for the skeletons blocker reveal in The Palace Grounds.

- Added the Celestial Cape to the Tailor wandering merchant.

- Made headway on Trinket Sets update!

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!

Limited Time Tribute Quest (November 30th, 2018)

- Limited time quest line, available via visiting NPCs in the Commons (Dec 7th - Dec 10th)
- 1 main quest
- A 2nd repeatable quest on a 12 hour cooldown

- Fixed being unable to place the Thanksgiving Statue on your mini golf course.

- Made headway on Trinket Sets update!

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!

This skill! This innate competence! Could it be... Talent? Your Crusaders have awakened a bevy of new powers that will send monsters packing - and get you the Idols you crave.

Open up the Talent window to browse 8 all-new Talents, all affordably within the existing tiers. We've also made changes to a couple of existing talents, Speed Runner and Bonus Training. Check out the Change Log for more details!

New Talents

Super Clicks Increases base Click damage by 200% per level. Requirements: Costs 50 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 150 in any Campaign. Has 25 levels.	Task Mastery Increases the Click damage of Taskmasters by 5% per level. Requirements: Costs 100 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 300 in any Campaign. Has 20 levels.
Nurturing Increases the number of Crusader levels that Taskmasters purchase with each click. Requirements: Costs 1000 Idols for the first level. Must have completed area 300 in any Campaign. Has 20 levels.	Higher Magnification Additively increases the effect of Magnify by 5% per level. Requirements: Costs 2000 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 600 in any Campaign. Has 10 levels.
Speed Runner UPDATED: Decreases the duration of missions by 2% per level. Requirements: Costs 1000 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 600 in any Campaign. Has 10 levels.	Synergy Multiplicatively increases the DPS of all Crusaders by 3% per level for each other Crusader with whom they share at least one tag (excluding gender and event tags). Requirements: Costs 300 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 600 in any Campaign. Has 15 levels.
Head Start Provides 2500 event tokens at the beginning of every special event. Requirements: Costs 10000 Idols for the only level. Must have completed Area 600 in any Campaign.	Golden Age Increases the DPS of all Crusaders by 1% per level of the Gold bonus provided by Crusaders. Requirements: Costs 7500 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 900 in any Campaign. Has 50 levels.
Kilo Leveling Multiplies the Crusaders' damage for every 1000 levels they have. Requirements: Costs 500,000 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 900 in any Campaign. Has 5 levels.	Bonus Training UPDATED: Increases the max level of Crusaders by 25, starting from the first bench seat. Each level adds another seat, while increasing the max level of previous seats by a further 25. Requirements: Costs 225,000 Idols for the first level. Must have completed Area 1500 in any Campaign. Has 29 levels.

A Simril Spoilsport has been pillaging the food stores around the outskirts of Luskan!

We may be gearing up for the holidays, but the Champions have some work to do first: find and stop this festive food thief and make sure the Luskans have enough provisions for the long, cold Sword Coast winter.

Simril 2 runs until Monday, December 17th at 12:00pm PST, introduces Warden, the Warforged Hexblade Warlock, and also brings back Dhadius the Scarlet, the Human Wizard!

New Champion: Warden

Forged to be the jailer for a prison filled with eldritch horrors in a faraway land, Warden became corrupted by the monstrosities they sought to keep locked away. Now they journey at the behest of an otherworldly master, seeking souls for the insatiable Dark Hunger to corrupt and feast upon.

Warden is a DPS and Support Champion, corrupted by their Hexblade, the source of their otherworldly strength. At the same time, it is also from this Hexblade that the Elder Evils of Realmspace have laid their claim to Warden, infesting their body with eldritch malignancy. They use their Hex ability to curse enemies, debuffing them and causing them to take additional damage for each stack of the Hex curse they are afflicted with.

When you want to add Warden to your formation, you can swap them with Jamilah (Slot 11).

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

Returning Champion: Dhadius the Scarlet

Dhadius is a mage of legendary status and acclaim (at least, in his own mind), who sees everyone else as intellectual worms. Being an egomaniac, he seeks out esoteric lore and rare magical secrets, so he may know things that the 'common fools' do not.

Dhadius hails from Luskan in the north, where he is a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, an infamous group of wizards. He joined them only recently and hasn't been taken as seriously by the others as he thinks he should be. He's determined to let it be known far and wide that he is a wizard to be respected and feared.

Dhadius is an arrogant Wizard and Support Champion. His Skill Empowerment ability increases the damage of nearby Champions - if they are intelligent enough.

When you want to add Dhadius to your formation, you can swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

Dhadius Updates

With this update Dhadius has received the following changes he so rightfully deserves:

• Dhadius' Magic Missile Barrage ultimate attack now fires an additional 5 magic missiles


• Skill Empowerment upgrades at level 500 and 610 are now +200% instead of +100%


• Dhadius now earns a new ability at level 525: Chromatic Specialist. This causes Dhadius' chance to fire the same orb to be higher (33% * 1.5 = 50% chance to repeat the same orb)

Year Two Variants

• Unlucky Hunters — Local beasts do not take kindly to the Champions trespassing upon their land. Beasts deal increased damage, and their hides are thickened like armor.


• Frostbitten — The thickness of the falling snow in outdoor areas increases as the adventure goes on. Champions on the outside of the formation deal less damage the further they go due to the cold weather.


• Unspeakable Horrors — Warden begins in your formation. Starting in the first area and continuing every 25 areas after, you lose a formation slot to creeping eldritch horrors. For each tentacle taking up a slot in the formation, Warden's damage is increased.

Year One Variants

• Frightful Weather — In areas where it is snowing (excluding boss areas), the party takes damage every second.


• Light in the Darkness — Several slots in the formation are taken up by floating magical torches.


• A Wise Endeavour — Only champions with a wisdom score of 13 or higher – and of course, Dhadius – may be used.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!