Nova V'ger is a curious Air-Genasi Hexblade Warlock making her debut during Dragondown 3. Nova joins her companions on the Idle Champions roster, the Heroes of Aerois; Aila, Qillek, and Sentry.

I. Nova V'Ger

Nova V'ger has a voracious appetite for knowledge; she needs to know anything and everything about anything and everything. Her magic powers have been gifted to her by a mysterious entity called Tiangong. She dreams of traveling to the stars and discovering the location of the true genasi homeworld.

Nova is played by Kim Richards, a member of The High Rollers D&D crew, based in the UK. The High Rollers stream each week at the High Rollers Twitch page. For more info on Nova, the High Rollers crew, and the homebrew world of Aerois created by professional dungeon master Mark Hulmes, check out the High Rollers Aerois wiki.

Nova is a Tank and Support Champion who understands knowledge is power. She buffs her most intelligent allies for each monster killed, protecting herself with her Hexblade, Tiangong. When you want to add Nova to your formation, you can swap her with Jamilah (Slot 11).

II. Nova's Stats

Race: Air-Genasi	Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Warlock (Hexblade)	Gender: Female
Age: 20	Affiliation: Heroes of Aerois

STR: 7	DEX: 16	CON: 16
INT: 15	WIS: 8	CHA: 20

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

III. Nova's Design

It's always fun to work closely with a creator to make their character come to life, and Kim Richards was no exception. Kim provided us with a depth of material to draw from, including information about Nova's backstory that has still yet to be discovered on High Rollers(!). Like Kim, we've had a great time adding a bit of a science-fiction spin to D&D spells and abilities -- for example, turning 5E's Warlock Invocation, Tomb of Levistus, into Failsafe.

As a Champion, Nova is an explorer and a scientist, so we wanted to highlight those qualities in her Idle Champions design. Her main abilities focus around discoveries related to the internal anatomy of monsters and bosses, and sharing that knowledge with the party in the form of buffs to other intelligent party members.

With the addition of the final member of the Aerois team, Lucius Elenasto in Simril 4, Nova received updates to her Formation Abilities and her Aerois Synergy

IV. Nova's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Dissect — Nova leaps out and slices through the nearest enemy with Tiangong. The slash produces a spark of green flame. If her attack kills the enemy, and the enemy is a normal mob, it is guaranteed to drop a monster heart (once as Curiosity is unlocked).

Formation Abilities

• Curiosity — Nova is intrinsically curious about the world around her. When monsters are killed, there is a chance she will collect a trophy from it. Trophies augment her abilities and reset every run. Bosses always drop monster brains, which provide big buffs but only drop once per boss per run. Normal monsters have a 10% chance to drop monster hearts, which can be farmed indefinitely and provide smaller buffs.

• Discovery — Nova increases the damage of the five Champions in the formation with the highest Intelligence score by 100%. In the case of a tie for fifth place, all Champions with the given INT score are affected. This effect is buffed by 0.1% for each monster heart she has collected (stacking additively and then applying multiplicatively), and 10% for each monster brain she has collected (stacking multiplicatively and then applying multiplicatively).

• Close Encounters — Nova increases the effect of Discovery by 100% for each enemy attacking her and each point of enemy/boss enrage, stacking additively and then applying multiplicatively.

• Slow — Nova's attacks slow the movement of enemies she damages by 50% for 5 seconds. Enemies that are Slowed by this ability deal half damage to Nova. This effect does not stack if it is applied again before it expires, but the cooldown is refreshed.

• Failsafe — When Nova becomes Overwhelmed, Tiangong creates a protective barrier around Nova, giving her 250 points of temporary HP and stunning her until the shield is broken or she is no longer overwhelmed. This can only trigger once per area (changing areas resets it so it can happen again). The amount of temporary HP granted is increased by 5.75% for each monster brain she has collected, stacking multiplicatively.

• Protective Field — Nova increases the max health of all other Champions by 25% of her base max health.

• Cosmic Resonance — Heroes of Aerois are automatically buffed by Discovery and are not included in the calculations for highest INT score.

• Aerois Synergy — Nova contributes to the Aerois Synergy Pool as follows: 60% per Champion buffed by Discovery (multiplicative). Discovery is then increased by 25% of the total Aerois Synergy Pool.

Specializations

• Mass Appeal — Discovery — now applies to the top eight Champions by INT score, up from the top five.

• Journaling — Increase the effect of Discovery by 100%

Ultimate Ability

• Activate Tiangong — Nova levitates up in the air as Tiangong floats in front of the formation, releasing three waves of blue energy that deal big damage (each deals 1/3rd of her stated ultimate damage) to all enemies. The damage is increased by 1% for every 20 monster hearts Nova has collected, stacking additively.

V. Nova's Legendary Equipment

Slot 1: Global DPS	Slot 2: Global DPS	Slot 3: Max Health
Slot 4: Buff Discovery	Slot 5: Ultimate Damage	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

What do you think about Nova? 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!

You asked for more, and so we're giving you more -- MOAR VARIANTS!

Learn more about the latest challenging variants to come to Idle Champions below...

Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Variants

• Who Lurks in Lurkwood: Modrons in the Mud
  • Two lost modrons have taken up position around your formation. They're interesting, but they don't do much else. Only Champions with CHA of 14 or lower can be used.
  • Reach area 350.
  
  
• Orcs are Wild: Dino Nightmare
  
  • Illusory dinosaurs spawn in each area. They drop no gold and do not count towards quest progress. Champion base attack cooldowns are increased by 100%. Asharra, Azaka, Birdsong, and Jamilah each deal 400% more damage and are not affected by the base attack cooldown change.
  • Reach area 350.

Tomb of Annihilation Variants

• The Forbidden City: Fall From Grace
  • Every 15 seconds, the Champion with the highest damage has their damage reduced by 99.9% for 60 seconds. This effect can stack.
  • Reach area 350.
  
  
• Captured!: Underground Railroad
  
  • Three slots in the formation are taken up by various slaves who happened to be in the Prisoner Pens with you when you were rescued. Get 'em to safety!
  • Reach area 350.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Variants

• Vault of Dragons: Vault of Poison
  • The Zhentarim have poisoned their weapons to properly prepare you for Manshoon's arrival. Anyone hit by a Zhentarim Spy is poisoned for the next 2 minutes. While poisoned, Champions lose a percentage of their max health every second based on their CON score.
  • Reach area 300.
  
  
• Champions of Waterdeep: Strike!
  
  • Champions are demanding better profit sharing after it was discovered that Jarlaxle is running an entire secret organization on the side! Champions with the Gold Find tag cannot be used. Enemies drop 99% less gold.
  • Reach area 300.

Baldur's Gate Descent into Avernus Variants

• Darkness Runs Deeper: Dark Doppelgangers
  • Every boss area, a Doppelganger disguised as one of your Champions attacks! You must defeat the Doppelganger to advance.
  • Reach area 300.
  
  
• Difficult Terrain: Madcap Adventures
  
  • Madcaps arrive in each area. If a Madcap deals damage to a Champion, another Madcap immediately spawns. These bloodspawned Madcaps do not drop gold or count towards quest progress. Each time a Madcap is bloodspawned, Champion damage is reduced by 99% for 3 seconds.
  • Reach area 325.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!

Over the past few weeks many folks playing on Steam have been affected by glitches affecting their progress. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and would like to take some time to explain what happened and what it means for the future of Idle Champions.

Why did everything break?

There was a perfect storm of things that caused the issues over the past couple of weeks.

The first issues were caused by a major overhaul of the game systems to support multiple adventures running at once, as described in our dev blog from the end of 2019. Changes were made to both the server and client code, and while they were tested internally quite a bit before being pushed, a number of non-trivial issues slipped through the cracks.

Additional issues cropped up later that week due to both our rush to fix the initial issues (for example a late-night 11pm update had issues that were missed in testing and persisted until morning), and other tech that was being worked on in parallel (for example Modron Automation, which will function hand in hand with multiple adventure mode). It's a small spoiler, but Modron Automation will be able to reset your adventure multiple times if you're offline for a while, so the reset code was being touched and that caused some of the issues around resetting.

Finally, with our launch on the Nintendo Switch we were attempting to do a fair number of optimizations to both the client and our server infrastructure. Some of those optimizations caused some unintended side-effects that affected saving, but on the flip side in the longer term they will end up resulting in much smoother gameplay and less issues with memory growth.

At this point, we are confident that we have addressed almost all of the major issues resulting from the initial push and we're preparing to move on to the next phase of testing of these upcoming features.

Why only on Steam?

Steam is often the first place we push new builds and content live, especially high risk ones like the system revamps for multiple adventure mode and modron automation. The reason for this is that we, as the developers, can control the client releases without having to go through an arduous or time consuming approval process (which are not designed to catch the types of issues that occurred anyway).

Other platforms, such as phones and consoles, have complicated release cycles that can range from 24 hours to several weeks before a submitted build is available to players. By releasing first on Steam and then observing the build for a few days we ensure that players on these harder-to-reach platforms will receive a generally well tested build without any major issues.

Why not test more before releasing on Steam?

While we make every effort to not release buggy clients by testing them internally, at the end of the day we are a small studio with a very ambitious release cadence. The occasional bug may slip through, and we always prioritize things that are affecting a large number of players for immediate fixes.

The magnitude of the issues these past couple of weeks on Steam was outside of what we find to be acceptable, and we have provided compensation to affected users as an apology of sorts. We will always endeavor to do better in the future.

What is coming?

One benefit of these growing pains is that we are now one major step closer to completing all of the new features outlined in our 2019 end of year dev blog. Multiple adventure mode and Modron Automation are closer than ever, and you will start seeing more information about them in the coming weeks. We are very excited about what the future holds for Idle Champions, and we hope that you are too.

Congratulations to our Griddle Champions giveaway winner Tony A, from Colorado, USA. Tony is the lucky winner of a Dancakes Pancake Art Kit. used by legendary pancake artist Lee Goldberg every week on Griddle Champions.

All is not lost if you didn't win. If you'd like to get your own Dancakes Pancake Art Kit to make your own Champions pancakes, you can buy one at Dancakes' online store.

A modron sighting is a rare occurrence outside Mechanus, the plane of true law.

At least, it's supposed to be a rare occurrence -- word has it that thousands of modrons have been seen on the march in the wilderness, and they are heading towards Waterdeep!

The Great Modron March 3 introduces Jaheira, the renown half-elf druid from Baldur's Gate, and brings back Qillek Ad Khollar and Evelyn Avalona Helvig Marthain. Players have until Monday, May 25th at 12PM Pacific to complete their event unlocks and objectives.

A Note Regarding Nintendo Switch

We're immensely excited to be on the Nintendo Switch, and chomping at the bit to share our corner of the Forgotten Realms with all of the new players that have joined us.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 related delays, we were unable to release our latest build on Switch in time to launch the Great Modron March event. We are genuinely sorry for the delay. We're working with our partners at Nintendo to minimize future delays.

As compensation for missing the event, we'll be crediting players with the following when we can release the next Switch build:

• Unlocks for all three event Champions (Jaheira, Qillek, and Evelyn)
• 3 Silver and 3 Gold Chests for each of those Champions.
• 6 Time Gate pieces

You can follow us on our Twitter and Facebook to be the first to hear when the update (and Champion unlocks) are out on Switch.

Year 3 Champion: Jaheira

Jaheira is a noble-born half-elf who was raised by an enclave of druids after her family was killed. Having gained an understanding of balance, she resolved to serve nature with the skills the druids taught her. She was recruited by the Harpers, where she met her late husband, Khalid. Jaheira knows life isn't black and white. She lives in the balance, as nature demands.

Jaheira is a DPS and Support Champion who channels her anger into powerful DPS buffs for herself and her allies. Specializations amplify the abilities based on allied classes and enemy types. When you want to add Jaheira to your formation, you can swap her with Jarlaxle (Slot 4).

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

Year 2 Champion: Qillek Ad Khollar

Qillek is timid, meek and nervous, being a comparably young character in the party and thrown into a world he doesn’t understand with no wing to fly him out of a bad situation. His charisma, wit, and superiority ripped away when flying through the Valley of the Storms, taking his left wing and arm away but introducing him to H’esper, who gave him dark visions to push him forward. Inside him is an envious amount of courage and a stable sense of logic when things get dire, which has led other party members to consider him their leader. He doesn’t agree with the idea, but he’s not ready to let his friends down.

Qillek is a Support Champion capable of buffing allies while also debuffing enemies. He casts Prayer of Healing to heal the formation and Bless to boost their damage. When you want to add Qillek to your formation, you can swap him with Calliope (Slot 5).

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

Year 1 Champion: Evelyn Marthain

Caring, motherly, and endlessly optimistic, Evelyn has adventured across the realms as part of the Waffle Crew with Strix, Diath, and Paultin for many years. She's always first in battle, thanks to her flying boots, and will always take a hit to protect others. Short, yet tough, her devotion to Lathander has seen her through many perilous situations.

Evelyn is a powerful Tank and Support Champion. She buffs her allies with her Divine Prayer, Channel Divinity, Steadfast Might, and Conduit of the Light abilities. When you want to add Evelyn to your party, you can swap her with Asharra (Slot 6).

Year Three Variants

• An Unkindness of Ravens — Jaheira starts in your formation in slot 3. She can't be moved. Ravens appear in each area; Whenever any raven dies, 1-2 more spawn. Ravens do not drop gold, nor do they count towards quest progress.
  Reach Area 75.


• The Backwards Modron — Nordom the Modron joins the cause! Nordom takes up a spot in your formation and cannot be moved or removed. He is intent on helping Waterdeep with his lightning crossbow bolts, but instead of stunning the constructs, Nordom's lightning bolt accidentally empowers them!
  Reach Area 125.


• Chickens in the Deep — In each area, an armored Abyssal Chicken spawns after 10 enemies. Abyssal Chickens drop no gold and do not count towards quest progress. Every 10 areas (from area 11 onward), the number of Abyssal Chickens that spawn per area is increased by 2.
  Reach Area 175.

Year Two Variants

• Division — Every time a Modron is killed (including bosses) it splits into two copies of a Modron one level lower on the Modron hierarchy. You must kill all the split Modrons in boss Areas.
  Reach Area 75.


• Machine Learning — The Modorns have decided to stop bashing their melee weapons against the Champions with no results. All melee Modrons now throw gears at Champions while at range. Champions struck by four gears are stunned for 15 seconds.
  Reach Area 125.


• Messenger of Hope — Qillek has a dream that his god has granted him the power to overcome The Great Modron March. Qillek begins the adventure in the formation and cannot be moved. Only Champions within two slots of Qillek can deal any damage.
  Reach Area 175.

Year One Variants

• The Neverending March — Every time a Modron is killed in non-boss areas it shuts down for five seconds and then comes back to life with full health.
  Reach Area 75.


• (Hu)man vs. Machine — All human Champions get a buff called "The Human Spirit" which increases their damage by 5% in each area (stacking multiplicatively).
  Reach Area 125.


• Charge Into Battle — Enemies move extremely fast and deal massive damage to everyone except Evelyn. Evelyn starts the adventure at level 1 and in the front slot of the formation.
  Reach Area 175.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!

A fierce protector of the balance of the natural world, Jaheira is the half-elf fighter/druid coming to Idle Champions with The Great Modron March 3 event.

Some of you may already know the name - perhaps you recognize her from last year's Dungeon Mayhem expansion? Or maybe you played one of the most acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons video games of all time and recruited Jaheira into your party?

If you'd like to learn more about Jaheira, read on...

I. Jaheira

Jaheira is a noble-born half-elf who was raised by an enclave of druids after her family was killed. Having gained an understanding of balance, she resolved to serve nature with the skills the druids taught her. She was recruited by the Harpers, where she met her late husband, Khalid. Jaheira knows life isn't black and white. She lives in the balance, as nature demands.

Jaheira is a DPS and Support Champion who channels her anger into powerful DPS buffs for herself and her allies. Specializations amplify the abilities based on allied classes and enemy types. When you want to add Jaheira to your formation, you can swap her with Jarlaxle (Slot 4).

II. Jaheira's Stats

Race: Half-Elf	Alignment:True Neutral
Class: Fighter/Druid	Gender: Female
Age: 36	Affiliation: none

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

Role: DPS, Support
Eligible for Patrons: Vajra Safahr

III. Jaheira's Design

We were inspired by the updated aesthetic design to Jaheira that came with her inclusion in Dungeon Mayhem last year, so much so that we based the Idle Champions version of Jaheira off that look instead of her appearances in the BioWare classics. It just felt right for us. But fear not, Champions. There are still plenty of throwbacks to her Baldur's Gate days.

When it came to Jaheira's mechanical design, well, we knew she was a fierce protector of nature so that's what we went with. Jaheira enrages whenever beasts are being killed, even if it was her hand that killed them. If you kill enough beasts, Jaheira goes into a primal rage, boosting her damage and abilities. She is ideal for adventures with lots of beasts, and depending on the specializations you select, she can be incredibly valuable in fights against humanoids and fiends as well.

There are a lot of beast enemies in Idle Champions, making Jaheira a strong fit for many formations, but in the event that your adventure doesn't include beasts you can choose a specialization for this fighter/druid that swaps beasts for fiends or humanoids.

IV. Jaheira's Abilities

Basic Attack

• Tangling Scimitar — Jaheira attacks the nearest enemy with her scimitar, briefly rooting them in place with some vines.
  Note: this does not stop enemies from attacking, it only stops them from moving toward the formation.

Formation Abilities

• Fierce Protector — Jaheira goes into a rage whenever she sees a Beast enemy die (even if she herself is the one who killed it). This increases her damage by 400% and increases the effect of Class Warfare by 100% for 10 seconds.

• Battle Rage — Jaheira keeps track of the number of enemies killed that she is a Fierce Protector of. After 20 protected enemies have been killed she flies into a Battle Rage, increasing the effects of Fierce Protector by 200% for 30 seconds. This ability is not buffed by anything. Once Lingering Anger is unlocked, when the effect expires she gains one stack of Lingering Anger.

• Lingering Anger — Jaheira increases the damage of all Champions, including herself, by 10% for each stack of Lingering Anger she has, stacking additively. This ability is buffed by equipment and upgrades.

• Unity — Increase the effect of Class Warfare by 100% for each Champion affected by it, stacking multiplicatively. This ability is not buffed by anything.

First Specializations

• Class Warfare - Spellslingers — Jaheira increases the damage of Clerics, Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks by 100%.

• Class Warfare - Bruisers — Jaheira increases the damage of Barbarians, Fighters, Rogues and Monks by 100%.

• Class Warfare - Hybrids — Jaheira increases the damage of Paladins, Rangers, Druids, and Bards by 100%.

Second Specializations

• Protective - Nature — Jaheira continues to be a Fierce Protector of Beast creatures.

• Protective - Twisted Creatures — Jaheira's Fierce Protector and Battle Rage ability now trigger off of Fiend creatures instead of Beasts.

• Protective - Civilization — Jaheira's Fierce Protector and Battle Rage ability now trigger off of Humanoid creatures instead of Beasts.

Ultimate Ability

• Insect Plague — Jaheira blankets the area in front of the party with a swarm of insects for 30 seconds, dealing a small amount of damage to all enemies within the swarm every half-second.

V. Jaheira's Legendary Equipment

Slot 1: Self DPS	Slot 2: Global DPS	Slot 3: Class Warfare
Slot 4: Lingering Damage	Slot 5: Ultimate Damage	Slot 6: Ultimate Cooldown

VI. Conclusion

What do you think about Jaheira? 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!

The Champions have made powerful enemies in Waterdeep.

Returning home triumphant following their exploits in the Vault of Dragons, the Champions discover their enemies have been there before them - the Xanathar has kidnapped Ulkoria Stonemarrow and taken her to Undermountain.

Their ally in danger, the Champions meet with their old friend Durnan and descend into the Yawning Portal.

Note: you will need to have completed the previous two Dragon Heist Adventures, Vault of Dragons and Champions of Waterdeep, in order to access these new Adventures.

Once More Into The Breach

An ally has been taken, and in order to save them the Champions will need to descend once more into Undermountain.

• Twice More Into The Breach — Each boss needs to be defeated twice to advance. Only Champions with WIS of 12 or lower can be used.
  Reach Area 275.

Wyllowwood

The Champions need to convince the Wyllow of Wyllowwood to help them to find their ally, but the Githyanki have other plans.

• Displaced Anger — Wyllow's Displacer Beast companion Crissann arrives at every boss level, intent on stopping us from destroying Wyllowwood. The Displacer Beast is tough to hit. When it first spawns, each attack has a 1% chance of hitting. With each attack, your team gets better at finding the Displacer Beast's true location.
  Reach Area 275.

See the in-game Change Log for more information!