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November 29th, 2018
Idle Champions: Tanking, Healing, and Offline Gold 
Posted in Idle Champions.

It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here: the Tanking, Healing, and Offline Gold Update!

Many of these changes were discussed during Monday's Tanking & Healing Dev Blog. However, there are far more details below for anyone interested in digging in!

Note: the full list of changes is included in the in-game Change Log.

I. Features

  • This update includes major changes to champion health, healing amounts, and monster damage. See the balance changes section for more details.

  • Added new upgrades for all champions up to approximately e49 gold spent.

  • The front-end now checks for invalid/no longer valid upgrades when loading champion data from the server. It will also purchase all unbought upgrades up to your champions' current level on load. This is to ensure that all new/changed upgrades are immediately available and to fix an edge case where you could miss out on upgrades by switching to the gamepad UI without having purchased earlier ones.

  • Shield amounts are now shown on the character sheet.

  • Shift clicking the area selector's left arrow goes to the first 5 areas. Shift clicking the area selector's right arrow goes to the highest unlocked area.

  • Gamepad UI has been massively improved (Still in BETA)

  • Hotkey F to show familiar slots. Clicking a slot with F held will assign an available familiar to that slot. Clicking the familiar button with F held will unassign all familiars. (Steam only)

II. Balance Changes

  • Monsters in all campaigns now only increase their damage when the adventure story resets (eg. in areas 51, 101, 151, etc.); Monster damage is increased by 75% at each of these breakpoints.

  • Champions' base health values have been completely rebalanced. Champions have been divided into four general categories: squishy, tanky non-tank, general tank, and durable tank. The Champion's category, plus the champions' con score, armor class, and bench slot, now determine each Champions' base health.

    • Squishies (no bonus): Asharra, Azaka, Birdsong, Calliope, Catti-brie, Celeste, Deekin, Delina, Dhadius, Diath, Drizzt, Farideh, Hitch, Ishi, Jarlaxle, Makos, Minsc, Nrakk, Regis, Stoki, Strix, Vlahnya, Zorbu.

    • Tanky Non-Tanks (~x2 base health): Barrowin, Binwin, Bruenor, Donaar, Jamilah, Krond, Wulfgar.

    • General Tanks (~x3 base health): Evelyn, Nayeli, Arkhan.

    • Durable Tanks (~x4 base health): Gromma, Tyril.

  • Champions' health no longer increases as you level them up, only from upgrades, formation abilities, or other buffs.

  • We've created a new outgoing Global DPS/Formation Ability curve that maps total gold spent on a hero to their relative Global/FA buff amounts. We've applied this curve to the Champions that have been rebalanced in this update, and will apply it to all other Champions in a future balance pass. In general this will result in a decent increase to the buffing ability of Champions in later seats and a small nerf to the buffing ability of Champions in earlier seats.

  • Champions will now get an "overwhelmed" debuff when more than 15 enemies are attacking them (using the same definition of "attacking them" as other effects). The debuff causes them to take 10% more damage from monsters for each enemy attacking them above 15 (10% at 16 attackers, 100% at 25 attackers, 200% at 35 attackers, 250% at 40 attackers, 850% at 100 attackers, etc.). Some champions have abilities that increase the starting point or decrease the debuff. This debuff shows up as a FA icon on champions who are being overwhelmed.

  • We've updated the formula that calculates your party DPS to be much more accurate, taking into effect things like Minsc's favored enemy, Barrowin's hammers, and Regis' damage type bonuses. This has resulted in ultimate abilities getting a healthy damage boost.

  • Additional, as a result of the party DPS formula changes, offline gold, gold found in silver chests, gold from distractions, and gold from bounty contracts should now be more in line with gold earned while actively playing.

  • Monsters and bosses now enrage slower and ramp up their damage bonus slower; effects that increase based on # of monsters attacking also ramp up along with enrage bonuses.

  • We've done a pass through several adventures looking for monsters that are broken/OP/UP under the new champion health values. We may have missed some, so let us know if something seems unfair or underpowered!

  • The Chained Up Ogre now attacks from slightly further away and does 40% more damage than other bosses.

  • Monsters that attack with Fireball do 20% more damage than other monsters.

  • Monsters that attack from range now do damage that is more comparable with melee monsters.

  • Reduced the damage of the Lich and Father Kendra bosses.

  • The Stone Juggernaut now attacks from further away and does less damage.

III. Champion Updates

You'll find the full list of Champion updates for this patch below. We are very excited to hear what you think of these changes! Feel free to jump onto the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord and give us your feedback.

Celeste

Not much change to Celeste. We reworked her healing numbers to match the new tanking/healing curves and reduced the difference in healing/buffing between her two specializations so they can both be used depending on whether you need just a bit more damage or just a bit more healing (this brings her general design closer to more recent heroes, whose specializations have a smaller impact on their overall power).
  • Mass Cure Wounds base healing amount reduced from 10 to 3 (6 with the Life Domain specialization; improved by gear -- see below).

  • Reduced the base values of Celeste's healing loot from 25/87.5/150/275% to 10/30/50/100%.

  • Reworked all of Celeste's upgrades that improved Mass Cure Wounds. Removed about 20 and re-positioned the remaining 6 among her levels up to 950.

  • All upgrades to Crusader's Mantle no longer require the War Domain specialization, meaning that between the two specs Crusader's Mantle's total value is much closer (just x2 from Life Domain to War Domain).

  • Removed some of the global DPS upgrades that were associated with Life Domain and overlapped with War Domain spec upgrades.

  • Celeste's healing achievement now requires only 20e6 health healed, down from 1e9, but it now only tracks effective healing and not wasted healing. The achievement has been reset for all players, but those of you who completed the old achievement will find it in the Legacy Achievements category.

Nayeli

We're pretty happy with how Nayeli works as a tank. We simply reworked her health to match the new tanking/healing curve and reduced the difference in buffing/tanking between her two specializations so they can both be used depending on whether you need Nayeli to buff a bit more or take a few more hits before dying (this brings her general design closer to more recent heroes, whose specializations have a smaller impact on their overall power). We also added a new tank-specific formation ability to Nayeli to help her protect the group against AOE damage in later areas.
  • Oath of Devotion now increases Nayeli's health by 70, down from 300,000; it also moves her from a low end General Tank to a Durable Tank, providing at least 50% more health on average with her subsequent health increases.

  • Replaced all health increasing upgrades and moved them around. There are now less health upgrades and they increase Nayeli's health by less. Nayeli also now receives health upgrades regardless of her spec, however she receives smaller upgrades with Oath of Vengeance compared to Oath of Devotion.

  • All of the upgrades to Aura of Courage no longer require the Oath of Vengeance specialization, meaning that between the two specs Aura of Courage's total value is much closer (just x2 from Oath of Devotion to Oath of Vengeance).

  • We have removed Nayeli's taunt upgrade. We like the general idea of the taunt and may add it back in a future balance update.

  • Reduced the base values of Nayeli's health increasing gear from 25/87.5/150/275% to 10/30/50/100%.

  • Nayeli's attack cooldown has been reduced to 6.7 seconds from 8 seconds.

  • Nayeli's STR and CON stats have both been improved to 16 (from 15 and 13 respectively).

  • Reduced the effect of Nayeli's level 55 global DPS upgrade from 200% to 100%, but added a completely new 100% global DPS upgrade at level 550 to compensate. Overall this bring's Nayeli's buffing ability in line with other support champions.

  • Aura of Protection now also stacks when enemies or bosses begin to enrage. It counts each enrage increase as one additional attacking enemy.

  • Added an upgrade at level 280 with Oath of Devotion spec that increases the max health of all other Champions in the formation by a 25% of Nayeli's max health. This includes other tanks (4 tanks in formation ~= tank-health level squishies and double-health tanks).

  • Nayeli's tanking achievement now only requires 40e6 damage taken, down from 1e12. The achievement has been reset for all players, but those of you who completed the old achievement will find it in the Legacy Achievements category.

Calliope

Calliope's shields are quite powerful at delaying the death of tanks, especially under the new tanking/healing curves. As such, when a Champion is shielded by Calliope there is now a 15 second cooldown before they can be affected by her shield again. Calliope's ultimate overrides this limitation, and the shields still last until they are broken. College of Lore, instead of increasing the amount of her shields, now decreases the new cooldown by 5 seconds to 10 seconds total, meaning you can shield more often. The difference in subsequent upgrades between College of Valor and College of Lore has been removed, so that the two specializations are simply a choice between more frequent shields or slightly higher Bardic Inspiration buffs (this brings her general design closer to more recent heroes, whose specializations have a smaller impact on their overall power). Calliope emerges as a decent death delayer, and one of the few healer-types who can protect the majority of the formation from incidental damage.
  • Song of Protection base value is now 100, down from 250.

  • Replaced all upgrades to Song of Protection and moved them around. There are now far less upgrades and they all increase Song of Protection by much less. Removed approximately 18 upgrades and the remaining 6 have been distributed among Calliope's levels up to 1030.

  • All upgrades that previous only unlocked if you chose the College of Valor specialization now unlock under College of Lore as well. Two upgrades that you previously only got under College of Lore have been removed.

  • Calliope's "bracers" loot items (increase Song of Protection amount) have had their base values reduced from 25/87.5/150/275% to 10/30/50/100%.

  • Fixed a bug where Song of the Protection's base value was being doubled when applied via her ultimate.

  • Calliope's "bag" loot items now increases her ultimate damage, instead of further increasing the Song of Protection amount.

  • Calliope's shield now has a 15 second cooldown before it can be applied to the same Champion again. She tries to cast it every 1 second.

  • Calliope's College of Lore specialization now decreases the cooldown of Calliope's shield by 5 seconds (to 10 seconds total).

  • Calliope's shielding achievement now only requires 60e6 damage shielded, down from 1e27. The achievement has been reset for all players, but those of you who completed the old achievement (hah! not likely!) will find it in the Legacy Achievements category.

Tyril

Tyril's original Wild Shape design had him creating big damage shields for himself with his ultimate, allowing him to survive much longer than he otherwise would have. This design has been refined in the rework. His ultimate attack now does AOE damage, and the shield it generates is a percentage of his max health times the number of enemies he hit, with bonuses for enemies killed. Time his ultimate correctly and he can create a shield that will allow him to tank for an extended period of time. We've of course adjusted his health increases to match the new tanking/healing curve, though he'll only gain tank-level health in Wild Shape spec. Tyril is essentially two completely different champions, depending on the spec you pick, so we've thrown some love at his Moonbeam spec as well and changed the way Moonbeam scales based on adjacent Champions. Moonbeam also has more, larger upgrades, making Tyril more competitive with Barrowin in more situations. His Moonbeam spec heal has also been rebalanced to match the new tanking/healing curves. Finally, Tyril's new "Forces of Good" ability ramps up the damage of your "Good" champions when he's under attack or the enemies are enraging.
  • Wild Shape now increases Tyril's health by 265 (down from millions).

  • Wild Resistance now only decreases damage taken by 10 (down from millions). It cannot reduce damage below 25% of the initial damage (up from 5%).

  • Upgrades that affected Tyril's max health (Wild Shape only), Druidic Healing (Moonbeam only), and Wild Resilience (Wild Shape only) amounts have been rebalanced to the new tanking/healing curve. Approximately 24 upgrades were removed, and the other 13 were redistributed and rebalanced.

  • Tyril's base attack cooldown in human form has been lowered to 4.7 seconds. It remains at 6.2 seconds in bear form.

  • Increased Tyril's first global dps upgrade to give him an early game boost, added another 100% global dps upgrade at level 1000, and added and boosted several other upgrades for Moonbeam; Tyril's buffing ability now matches that of other buffers based on his total invested gold.

  • Tyril's Wild Shape increases his "overwhelmed" starting point to 25.

  • Moonbeam is now reduced by 0% for having 1 adjacent champion, 10% for 2 adjacents, 40% for 3 adjacents, 70% for 4 adjacents, and 90% for 5 or more adjacents.

  • Tyril's ultimate attack with his Wild Shape spec (Shielding Bite) now does AOE damage in a small radius. After his attack, he creates a shield that is his max health times the number of enemies hit. Enemies that were killed by the attack count for triple. So for example, if his bite hits 10 enemies but only kills 2, he gains a shield that is his max health x14 (8x1 + 2x3). Note this shield still degrades by 1% of its original value per second, meaning that it expires after 100 seconds at the latest. The shield continues to degrade even if Tyril is benched, but doesn't degrade while changing areas/watching cinematics. If you use his ultimate again before the previous ultimate shield expires, the new shield overrides the previous shield completely, unless it would generate a smaller shield than what Tyril has remaining from the old one.

  • Tyril's "Shielding Fury" achievement has been restructured. Now requires Tyril to create a shield greater than 50x his max health. The achievement has been reset for all players, but those of you who completed the old achievement will find it in the Legacy Achievements category.

  • Tyril's equipment has been adjusted. Slot 1 has been changed from Self DPS loot into max health increasing loot (10/30/50/100). Slot 2 has been changed from Self DPS loot to Global DPS loot. Slot 4 has been changed from Buff Moonbeam/Wild Shape to Buff Moonbeam/Wild Inspiration (both formation buffs). Slots 3, 5, and 6 are unchanged in this balance pass.

  • Added a new buff that unlocks if you choose the Wild Shape specialization. "Wild Inspiration" increases the damage of all Champions within 2 slots of Tyril by X%. It is much less of a buff than a well-placed Moonbeam, but still enough to make Tyril a decent buffer while tanking, assuming you can lay out your formation correctly. Various upgrades have been added to Tyril's upgrade tree to buff this ability.

  • Added a new formation ability called "Forces of Good" that increases the damage of all "Good" champions in the formation for each enemy attacking Tyril (and/or each boss/monster enrage stack active). This FA is only available when you choose Tyril's Wild Shape spec.

  • Added an upgrade to Tyril's Wild Shape spec that increases the max health of all other Champions in the formation by a 25% of Tyril's max health. This includes other tanks (4 tanks in formation ~= tank-health level squishies and double-health tanks).

Arkhan

We wanted to use this opportunity to completely redesign Arkhan, morphing him into the bad-ass group-leading force of nature that he is in his tabletop appearances, and always was intended to be in our game. To that end, we've redesigned him with the idea of a "Tank DPS" in mind. We've removed nearly all of his existing abilities ("First in Line", "Loyalty", "Chango Unchained", "Chango Restrained") and replaced them with new ones. With "Rage of the Dragonborn," Arkhan's damage ramps up drastically when more enemies are attacking him by changing his attack to hit more and more enemies -- for example, Flame Breath becomes his basic attack when 16 or more enemies are targeting him! Through his brand new specializations, Arkhan's damage is increased in ways that no other Champions' are. "Bulk Up" increases the effect of formation abilities that target him, and "Usurped Power" causes positional formation abilities that target champions adjacent to Arkhan to *also* target him, regardless of their normal restrictions. A new formation ability called "Rising Anger" increases the damage of evil champions when Arkhan is under attack (go go Krond!). Finally, we've adjusted Arkhan's gear to better suit his new build, including giving him the game's very first Gold Find loot item. We hope that with these changes, Arkhan could conceivably be used to build some very interesting formations.
  • Arkhan's level cost curve has been reduced from 68% per level to 28% per level. This gives us more levels to work with for the same gold cost.

  • Removed the First in Line and Loyalty formation abilities/upgrades, along with the Chango Unchained/Restrained specializations. Also removed Arkhan's gold increasing upgrades (but don't worry, his new equipment more than makes up for it).

  • Reworked Arkhan's health increasing upgrades to match the new tanking/healing curves. Also added some additional upgrades that increase Arkhan's health at higher levels. These increases are all independent of your specialization choice, so Arkhan is always super tanky.

  • Arkhan's "overwhelmed" starting point is 25, instead of 15.

  • Added an upgrade to Arkhan's tank spec that increases the max health of all other Champions in the formation by a 25% of Arkhan's max health. This includes other tanks (4 tanks in formation ~= tank-health level squishies and double-health tanks).

  • Added a new upgrade called "Rage of the Dragonborn". When Arkhan attacks, his attack is based on how many enemies are currently attacking him. With 0-5 enemies attacking, he does his normal single target swing. With 6-15 enemies attacking, he does a small cleave with each attack, and his attack damage modifier is increased (5x modifier). With 16+ enemies attacking, he does a massively damaging flame breath attack (20x modifier).

  • Rage of the Dragonborn also stacks when enemies or bosses begin to enrage. It counts each enrage increase as one additional attacking enemy.

  • Arkhan's specializations have been completely reworked. You now choose between the following specs: "Bulk Up: All formation buffs Arkhan receives are increased by X% if he's in the front column of the formation" or "Usurped Power: When in the front column of the formation Arkhan now receives any positional formation buffs that are received by those adjacent to him at X% efficiency, even if he doesn't meet the positional requirements. (Doesn't apply the same FA twice if he already gets it)."

  • Arkhan's Flame Breath ultimate attack has been removed; he now unlocks Chango Unchained regardless of specialization.

  • Arkhan's personal achievement now requires that he attack with Flame Breath 10,000 times. Since his ultimate has changed, this means he must attack with Rage of the Dragonborn while tanking 16+ enemies X times in order to earn the achievement. The achievement has been reset for all players, but those of you who completed the old achievement will find it in the Legacy Achievements category.

  • Added a new formation ability called "Rising Anger" that increases the damage of all "Evil" champions in the formation for each enemy attacking Arkhan (and/or each boss/monster enrage stack active). This FA is available in all specs.

  • We've made some changes to Arkhan's loot to match his new build. His Global DPS item in slot two is now Self DPS. His third slot item now increases global gold find instead of the defunct First in Line FA, and his fourth item increases the effectiveness of his specializations.

Gromma

We like the *idea* of Gromma, she just needed some tweaking to get her numbers right. With her tough tortle shell, she's tanky no matter which spec you pick, so she can fulfill the role of front-line support if the adventure or variant calls for it. We've pumped up her Grandmotherly Love ability to the extreme, so if your DPS is on the young-end of the spectrum, she's definitely worth considering for a buffing slot in your formation. We've also looked at each of her specializations and made some tweaks to each, focusing on her Tanking, Support, and DPS ability for Circle of the Mountain, Arctic, and Swamp respectively. Her tanking kit has been redesigned, with a completely new "Spiked Shell" mechanic, as well as other new formation abilities for buffing the party's health and the damage of neutral champions while Gromma is under attack. We also threw a new formation ability into her Circle of the Swamp spec so that she can benefit from a portion of her Grandmotherly Love ability.
  • Added numerous upgrades to Grandmotherly Love and Global DPS, bringing Gromma's buffing ability up out of the doghouse and into a respectable range.

  • Removed a number of the odd discrepancies in Gromma's upgrade tree that were based on her specialization. Aside from buffs to her specialization-specific abilities, her upgrades should be more uniform across her three specs.

  • Added health increasing upgrades to Gromma to match the new healing/tanking curve. These upgrades exist independent of her tanking specialization.

  • Gromma's outgoing global and formation buffs have been matched to a new target curve. Other champions will be adjusted to this new curve during a future balance pass.

  • Gromma's base attack cooldown increased to 6.9 seconds from 4.6 seconds. If you specialize Circle of the Swap her Melf's Acid Arrow attack has the original 4.6 second cooldown with a +50% dps modifier so that the attack damage remains the same.

  • Added an upgrade to Gromma's tank spec that increases the max health of all other Champions in the formation by a 25% of Gromma's max health. This includes other tanks (4 tanks in formation ~= tank-health level squishies and double-health tanks).

  • Gromma's Hardened Shell upgrade now decreases the effect of the "overwhelmed" debuff system by 25%.

  • The Spiked Shell upgrade (Circle of the Mountain spec 2nd ability) has been reworked. Now instead of taking a percentage of Gromma's damage, enemies that attack Gromma are debuffed by a "Pierced Armor" effect. This effect can stack up to 25 times, and by default causes enemies to take 100% more damage per stack (stacking additively). This makes enemies squishier and squishier the more then attack Gromma, making them easier for your other Champions to defeat.

  • Freezing breath (Circle of the Arctic spec 2nd ability) has been substantially buffed. The base effect now increases damage monsters affected by Sleet Storm take by 400%, up from 25%. Further upgrades to this ability ramp up the bonus damage even more.

  • Acid Splash (Circle of the Swamp spec 2nd ability) has been buffed from 25% to 100%. Buffs to it have been removed.

  • Gromma's Circle of the Swamp specialization will receive additional dps buffs compared to her other spec, making it a viable DPS spec in the right circumstances. If you choose this specialization, Gromma will also learn a new FA called "Love Thyself" that increases her damage by 75% of her maximum Grandmotherly Love buff.

  • Added a new formation ability called "Shades of Gray" that increases the damage of all "Neutral" champions (lawful, true, and chaotic; doesn't include neutral good or neutral evil) in the formation for each enemy attacking Gromma (and/or each boss/monster enrage stack active). This FA is only available when you choose Gromma's Circle of the Mountain spec.

Barrowin

Barrowin's reign of terror over other buffing champions is finally over. It was good while it lasted, but if you live by the hammer, you die by the hammer, and the nerf hammer has brought Barrowin's buffing ability back in line with other Champions. Blessed Hammer has had the way hammers stack adjusted. Instead of stacking multiplicatively with each other, each additional hammer provides a flat multiplier to the blessing: 1x for 1 hammer, 3x for 2 hammers, 7x for 3 hammers, and 15x for 4 hammers. This still provides for a 230,000%+ buff with 4 hammers at max level and with decent gear, but it's a far cry from the game breaking 1e15% buffs that the ability was providing before. To make up for the nerf, Barrowin's attack speed has been slightly lowered, increasing your chance to get an extra hammer stack once in a while, but in general her ability to buff has been brought more in line with other Champions in her seat. With her increased survivability when she's in the tank link, Barrowin is an excellent healing choice for formations with multiple front-line slots and a cluttered 2nd column. Her ultimate has also been redesigned to give your formation a quick boost of power and survivability whenever you desire.
  • Barrowin's base attack speed has been lowered to 4.1 from 4.4 seconds.

  • Reduced the base effect of Healing Word to better match the new health/healing curves.

  • Upgrades to Healing Word have been rebalanced. Removed approximately 8 upgrades and distributed the remaining 5 among Barrowin's level curve.

  • Added to and adjusted Barrowin's set of Global DPS upgrades.

  • Barrowin's slot 1 loot items now buff Global DPS instead of Self DPS.

  • Barrowin's slot 4 loot items (increase Healing Word amount) have had their base values reduced from 25/87.5/150/275% to 10/30/50/100%.

  • Added a new FA ("Divine Aid") at level 210 that increases Barrowin's max health by 50% of the max health of the Champion in her column with the highest max health. This can count Barrowin herself, so if there are no other Champions in the column, or all Champions in her column have a lower max health than her, she increases her max health by 50% of her own max health. This effect also increases her "overwhelmed" point to 25.

  • Added a new FA ("Even Temper") at level 325 that increases Barrowin's attack speed by 1 sec whenever she has been attacked in the last 8.2 seconds.

  • Blessed Hammer's stacking is no longer purely multiplicative. Instead, each hammer provides a flat multiplier to the base buff amount: 1x for 1 hammer, 3x for 2 hammers, 7x for 3 hammers, and 15x for 4 hammers. Additionally several upgrades have been spread out across Barrowin's levels more evenly. All in all, the ability should be as good as comparable support champions with equal gear at 2 hammers, slightly worse at 1 hammer, and still best in class at 3+ hammers.

  • Barrowin's ultimate has been reconfigured. She throws her hammer at a random enemy, stunning it for 5 seconds. This also instantly sets all adjacent champions to *6* hammer stacks (the 5th stack adds another 16x and the 6th another 32x, for a total buff 63x the "base" Blessed Hammer amount; these stacks override any existing stacks) and a 10x normal health shield to all champions in her column.

  • Barrowin's shielding achievement has been changed to a healing achievement. Requiring 120e6 damage healed, down from 1e22 damage shielded. This must be effective healing, not just any healing ticks. The achievement has been reset for all players, but those of you who completed the old achievement will find it in the Legacy Achievements category.

Evelyn

Evelyn didn't require much maintenance. She's intended to be squishier than Nayeli or the other buffer tanks, but with more buffing potential. We added health upgrades to keep her in line with the new health/healing curve, and adjusted her upgrades to improve the scaling of her Divine Prayer buff effects.
  • Added health increasing upgrades to Evelyn to match the new healing/tanking curve.

  • Buffed Evelyn's Global DPS upgrades, and added another one near max level. Adjusted her upgrades to Divine Prayer as well to get her on-par with other tanking buffers.

  • Added an upgrade that increases the max health of all other Champions in the formation by a 25% of Evelyn's max health. This includes other tanks (4 tanks in formation ~= tank-health level squishies and double-health tanks).

  • Steadfast Might now also stacks when enemies or bosses begin to enrage. It counts each enrage increase as one additional attacking enemy.

  • Evelyn's axe gear (slot 1) is now global DPS instead of self DPS.

Donaar

Donaar was designed after most of the tanking and healing update was laid out, so his changes are minimal. Mostly just tweaks to his healing values to bring him in line with the new health curve.
  • Donaar's healing ability has been rebalanced in line with the new health curve. This has resulted in several upgrades being removed, and several being heavily nerfed.

  • Reduced the base values of Donaar's healing loot from 25/87.5/150/275% to 10/30/50/100%.

IV. Changes

  • Potions of Heroism (health potions) have been added back into chests. The effects have been reduced to 50%, 100%, 200%, and 300%, due to the change in the health scaling curve.
  • Bosses now spawn in lower 2/3rds of spawn area so tall bosses are less hidden.
  • Added equipment shininess border to the champion info menu.
  • Added buttons to inventory sliders to allows single increments and decrements.
  • Added mouse wheel support for sliders.

V. Fixes

  • Fixed the description of the number of eyeballs bobbing in the Large Potion of Clairvoyance.
  • Familiar count text now always remains on one line.
  • Fixed a bug where Azaka's Weretiger progress bar would disappear.
  • Fixed a bug where the Chief Yorb boss monster could be plane-shifted away by Vlahnya's Ultimate, rendering the level un-completable.
  • Fixed event dialog boxes being in the wrong spots when graphics are not yet loaded.
November 27th, 2018
Idle Champions coming to PlayStation and Xbox 

Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, Coming to PlayStation®4 and Xbox One

We are delighted to announce the launch dates of Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this December! If you own a PS4, be sure to check the PlayStation Store on Tuesday 11th December when the game will be available. XB1 owners will be able to install the game on Friday 14th December.

At launch, players will be able to buy a Founder's Pack we've created to celebrate the launch of Idle Champions on both consoles. This awesome new package contains a serious amount of cool content that will enable players to kick off their campaigns in style. But don’t worry - this new pack won’t be console-exclusive! That’s right: the Founders Pack will be available across all platforms, so even if you don't have a PS4 or XB1, you won't miss out!

The launch of Idle Champions on PS4 and XB1 also debuts a significant design update that we're extremely proud of. The game's user interface has been completely redesigned from the ground up to work with console controllers, and we think players will agree that it is a great new look for the game.

Founders Pack

In honor of the launch of Idle Champions on PS4 and XB1, we have created a brand new Founder's Pack to help you kick off your adventure! The Founder's Pack is full of exclusive goodies at an awesome discount!

For USD $19.99, you'll get:
  • 42 Gold Chests.
  • 5 guaranteed Shiny loot cards (50% stronger than their non-shiny counterparts).
  • 5000 Gems that you can use for silver or gold chests, or familiars to help you adventure
  • 10 epic potions and contracts that you can use to help you push further in your adventures.
  • An exclusive buff for 1 week: Increasing the gem drops by bosses by 50%.
  • An exclusive familiar (Iris the Beholder)*
  • An exclusive skin for Celeste (Undead Celeste from Neverwinter's M12 module)
* Iris the Beholder familiar will be available once you reach area 66 in any adventure.

Celebration Week

Our final new big update is that starting on December 14th, we'll be celebrating the launch on Console with a week of in-game freebies on all platforms! That's right, whether you play on PS4, Xbox, PC, iPad or Android tablet, you'll be able to come back for daily rewards during an epic event all week long. All you have to do is log in and play every day to pick up a console celebration chest which has four unique items selected by the Idle Champions team! Collect 4 of the chests to unlock an additional five Gold Chests, and a free Golden Epic card for Joe Manganiello's Arkhan the Cruel!

Mark your calendars! We are very excited to welcome even more fans to the Idle Champions' family.
November 26th, 2018
Dev Blog: Tanking and Healing 
Posted in Idle Champions.


Hey everyone, Justin from the Codename Entertainment development team here. Today I'm going to talk about something that has been a long time in the making.

I. What's Going On?

It's finally time! The long awaited tanking and healing update -- or as the community has lovingly nicknamed it, the "Shielding, Healing, and Tanking (SH&T)" update -- is almost here. This update includes changes to tanks, healers, and monsters, and is designed to provide more interesting and varied choices for dealing with the inevitable mob of monsters that constantly attacks your formation.

    TL/DR: — I've decided to put the TLDR at the top of this post, since it is quite extensive. When we began to talk about this patch in earnest, we've seen quite a bit of concern about this patch changing the game completely, but in reality the changes are focused primarily on the part of the game near "your wall" -- the point at which enemies start to reach your formation on a regular basis. Prior to that point in gameplay the effects you'll feel from this update will be fairly minor. At your wall, in general, Champions won't be able to take as many hits, but if properly spec'd and healed they can pull you a few extra areas further than if they weren't there. This update also includes improved offline gold, ultimate damage, and upgrades for a soft cap increase up to approximately e49 gold.

We are aiming to have this update released this week, though as always unforeseen issues have the potential to delay it, so don't bet the farm on it.

II. Champion Health & Monster Damage

One of the biggest issues this update addresses is the disparity between Champion health and monster damage, especially in higher areas. Prior to the update, Champion health very quickly outpaces monster damage, resulting in even the squishiest of Champions being able to tank high level enemies for far longer than they should.

After the update, Champion health has been completely rebalanced. It starts lower and no longer increases with each level-up. Tanking Champions gain health through upgrades, and non-tanking Champions can gain additional health through new formation abilities that tanking Champions get. Monster damage also only increases when the adventure story resets (in areas 51, 101, 151, etc.), meaning each time you go through you need more tanking and healing power (in addition to damage) to keep up. In general, the curves are a lot shallower, so Champions have less health but monsters do less damage as well. This has resulted in your DPS being the much more important metric for if you can or cannot go further.

    Minor tidbits:

  • Healing and shielding abilities have been adjusted to match the new lower health values.
  • Loot items that affected health, healing, or shields have also been adjusted.
  • Health potions (Potions of Heroism) have also been added back to the pool of possible chest contents.

III. Overwhelming Attacks

A key tenant of this update is that tanking Champions should be able to stand fast against a small number of enemies without any issues, assuming they're getting some healing, but against overwhelming force you'll need some hefty tanks and healing. A new mechanic, "Overwhelming Attacks," causes Champions to take more damage when they begin to be overwhelmed by enemies. For most Champions, they can handle up to 15 enemies without any issue, but some tankier Champions have a higher break-point.

IV. Offline Gold & Party/Ultimate Damage

We've updated two of our primary algorithms: Party Damage and Offline Gold.

For Party Damage, the damage number displayed in the top-left corner of the game has been updated to take more effects into account, including things like Barrowin Hammers, Minsc's Favored Enemies, Champions with cleave and AOE attacks, and so on. This has resulted in a more accurate representation of party damage, which has translated into an increase in Ultimate Attack damage across the board, since Ultimate damage is based on party damage. The days when your base attacks do more damage than ultimate abilities are (hopefully) in the past.

The other change is to Offline Gold. The new algorithm also accounts for all of the same things the party damage does, resulting in a more accurate gold per second estimation. This has resulted in increased gold from offline time, bounty contracts, silver chests, and distractions. We will continue to monitor these numbers and make further tweaks as necessary.

    Other Minor Changes:

  • The enrage mechanic for bosses has been rebalanced so that damage ramps up more slowly.
  • Abilities that power-up based on the number of enemies attacking also increase based on enemy enrage stacks.
  • The game now automatically buys non purchased upgrades on load. This fixes a couple of edge cases with the Gamepad UI.
  • Speaking of which, the Gamepad UI will be updated with new graphics and tweaks in this update.
  • We've rebalanced the buffing multiplier curve and applied the new curve to all the tanking and healing Champions affected by this update. The curve will be applied to everyone else over time (the largest impact will come with next year's major balance update). In general this will result in a softening of the buffing ability for Champions in earlier bench seats, and an increase in the buffing capability of Champions in later bench seats, however only a few Champions have been changed at this point.
  • We've added new upgrades for all Champions up to approximately e49 gold.
  • We've made minor tweaks to some monsters and encounters to make them work better in a post tanking & healing update world.

V. Champion Updates

We've taken this opportunity to rebalance all tanks and healers currently in the game. This includes the Base Champions Celeste, Nayeli, Calliope, Tyril, and Arkhan, as well as the Event Champions Gromma, Barrowin, Evelyn, and Donaar. Some of these Champions have received only minor tweaks, while others (like Arkhan and Barrowin) have received more significant reworks. A summary of the changes are listed below. The full details will be included in the change log for this update.

Base Champion Updates

Celeste

Not much change to Celeste. We reworked her healing numbers to match the new tanking/healing curves and reduced the difference in healing/buffing between her two specializations so they can both be used depending on whether you need just a bit more damage or just a bit more healing (this brings her general design closer to more recent heroes, whose specializations have a smaller impact on their overall power).

Nayeli

We're pretty happy with how Nayeli works as a tank. We simply reworked her health to match the new tanking/healing curve and reduced the difference in buffing/tanking between her two specializations so they can both be used depending on whether you need Nayeli to buff a bit more or take a few more hits before dying (this brings her general design closer to more recent heroes, whose specializations have a smaller impact on their overall power). We also added a new tank-specific formation ability to Nayeli to help her protect the group against AOE damage in later areas.

Calliope

Calliope's shields are quite powerful at delaying the death of tanks, especially under the new tanking/healing curves. As such, when a Champion is shielded by Calliope there is now a 15 second cooldown before they can be affected by her shield again. Calliope's ultimate overrides this limitation, and the shields still last until they are broken. College of Lore, instead of increasing the amount of her shields, now decreases the new cooldown by 5 seconds to 10 seconds total, meaning you can shield more often. The difference in subsequent upgrades between College of Valor and College of Lore has been removed, so that the two specializations are simply a choice between more frequent shields or slightly higher Bardic Inspiration buffs (this brings her general design closer to more recent heroes, whose specializations have a smaller impact on their overall power). Calliope emerges as a decent death delayer, and one of the few healer-types who can protect the majority of the formation from incidental damage.

Tyril

Tyril's original Wild Shape design was based around creating big damage shields for himself with his ultimate, allowing him to survive much longer than he otherwise would have. This design has been refined in the rework. His ultimate attack now does AOE damage, and the shield it generates is a percentage of his max health times the number of enemies he hit, with bonuses for enemies killed. Time his ultimate correctly and he can create a shield that will allow him to tank for an extended period of time. We've of course adjusted his health increases to match the new tanking/healing curve, though he'll only gain tank-level health in Wild Shape spec. Tyril is essentially two completely different Champions, depending on the spec you pick, so we've thrown some love at his Moonbeam spec as well and changed the way Moonbeam scales based on adjacent Champions. Moonbeam also has more, larger upgrades, making Tyril more competitive with Barrowin in more situations. His Moonbeam spec heal has also been rebalanced to match the new tanking/healing curves. Finally, Tyril's new "Forces of Good" ability ramps up the damage of your "Good" Champions when he's under attack or the enemies are enraging.

Arkhan

We wanted to use this opportunity to completely redesign Arkhan, morphing him into the bad-ass group-leading force of nature that he is in his tabletop appearances, and always was intended to be in our game. To that end, we've redesigned him with the idea of a "Tank DPS" in mind. We've removed nearly all of his existing abilities ("First in Line", "Loyalty", "Chango Unchained", "Chango Restrained") and replaced them with new ones. With "Rage of the Dragonborn," Arkhan's damage ramps up drastically when more enemies are attacking him by changing his attack to hit more and more enemies -- for example, Flame Breath becomes his basic attack when 16 or more enemies are targeting him! Through his brand new specializations, Arkhan's damage is increased in ways that no other Champions' are. "Bulk Up" increases the effect of formation abilities that target him, and "Usurped Power" causes positional formation abilities that target Champions adjacent to Arkhan to *also* target him, regardless of their normal restrictions. A new formation ability called "Rising Anger" increases the damage of evil Champions when Arkhan is under attack (go go Krond!). Finally, we've adjusted Arkhan's gear to better suit his new build, including giving him his very own Gold Find loot item. We hope that with these changes, Arkhan could conceivably be used to build some very interesting formations.

Event Champion Updates

Gromma

We like the *idea* of Gromma, she just needed some tweaking to get her numbers right. With her tough Tortle shell, she's tanky no matter which spec you pick, so she can fulfill the role of front-line support if the adventure or variant calls for it. We've pumped up her Grandmotherly Love ability to the extreme, so if your DPS is on the young-end of the spectrum, she's definitely worth considering for a buffing slot in your formation. We've also looked at each of her specializations and made some tweaks to each, focusing on her Tanking, Support, and DPS ability for Circle of the Mountain, Arctic, and Swamp respectively. Her tanking kit has been redesigned, with a completely new "Spiked Shell" mechanic, as well as other new formation abilities for buffing the party's health and the damage of neutral Champions while Gromma is under attack. We also threw a new formation ability into her Circle of the Swamp spec so that she can benefit from a portion of her Grandmotherly Love ability.

Barrowin

Barrowin's reign of terror over other buffing Champions is finally over. It was good while it lasted, but if you live by the hammer, you die by the hammer, and the nerf hammer has brought Barrowin's buffing ability back in line with other Champions. Blessed Hammer has had the way hammers stack adjusted. Instead of stacking multiplicatively with each other, each additional hammer provides a flat multiplier to the blessing: 1x for 1 hammer, 3x for 2 hammers, 7x for 3 hammers, and 15x for 4 hammers. This still provides for a 230,000%+ buff with 4 hammers at max level and with decent gear, but it's a far cry from the game breaking 1e15% buffs that the ability was providing before. To make up for the nerf, Barrowin's attack speed has been slightly lowered, increasing your chance to get an extra hammer stack once in a while, but in general her ability to buff has been brought more in line with other Champions in her seat. With her increased survivability when she's in the tank line, Barrowin is an excellent healing choice for formations with multiple front-line slots and a cluttered 2nd column. Her ultimate has also been redesigned to give your formation a quick boost of power and survivability whenever you desire.

Evelyn

Evelyn didn't require much maintenance. She's intended to be squishier than Nayeli or the other buffer tanks, but with more buffing potential. We added health upgrades to keep her in line with the new health/healing curve, and adjusted her upgrades to improve the scaling of her Divine Prayer buff effects.

Donaar

Donaar was designed just prior to most of the tanking and healing update being laid out, so his changes are minimal. Mostly just tweaks to his healing values to bring him in line with the new health curve.

VI. What do YOU Think?

As always, we're excited to hear what you think of these changes. Feel free to jump onto the Idle Champions Subreddit, Steam forum, or the Idle Champions Discord channel and give us your feedback.

Additionally, both our Subreddit Community Q&A and Weekly Livestream will be focused on the Tanking & Healing Update this week, so we will hopefully be able to answer all your questions!
November 23rd, 2018
BW2: Nov 23rd, 2018 Release Notes 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Black Friday Sale (November 23rd, 2018)

- Running a Black Friday Pet/Mount Sale (Nov 23rd to Nov 26th, 2018.)

- Running a Black Friday Bush Buck Sale (Orthrus mount free with BB purchase over $10; 30% more BBs over $5.)

- Fixed being unable to travel between Pompeii and The Idyllic Isles after you’ve found the secret switch.

- Adjusted the trinket ratings from levels 401 to 440 to be inline with past rating growth.

- Made headway on Trinket Sets update!

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!
November 19th, 2018
BW2: Halloween Haunted Mansion Winners 2018 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

We've chosen our 2018 Halloween Decoration Contest Winners! If you weren't aware, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners are picked by the whole Codename Entertainment studio, while Community Choice was voted on by you, the wise Whacker community! Our top three choices earn 250, 200, and 150 Bush Bucks respectively, while the Community Choice takes home a cool 50 Bush Bucks.

Without further ado here are your winners:

Facebook Winners


1st Place
Marcin G.

2nd Place
Steven V.

3rd Place
Russel D.

Community Choice
Barbara T.

Kongregate Winners


1st Place
mdjoyce

2nd Place
she89

3rd Place
hellvin

Community Choice
LilacRoseD

Armor Games Winners


1st Place
Fenrir025

2nd Place
abner69

3rd Place
PlayerII123

Community Choice
mfitzj

Big Fish Games Winners


1st Place
Flybaby

2nd Place
jelab

3rd Place
no22pw

Community Choice
swenlo



Congratulations again to all our winners! Your Bush Buck prizes have been added to your accounts!
November 16th, 2018
BW2: Thankful Thanksgiving Event 2018 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Thanksgiving Time!

The residents of The Commons are preparing for a massive feast to celebrate the end of harvest season, and of course they need your expertise at finding things in bushes!

First and foremost, it's all about helping the chefs fill their food stations to the brim - and beyond. There's three of them for three types of meals, so you'll be collecting Meat, Veggies and of course Deserts to feed the hungry masses of Bushwhackia! Can you make all the Pristine Food? Keep doing turn-ins to achieve it!

On the subject of food - four of the guests have promised they would bring a dish to share, but they've forgotten ingredients.

And then, there's the problem of the Turkeys. Apparently, they need to be rescued in some fashion, so you'll need to get on that. You have the whole event to complete it.

Once again we're celebrating other harvest festivals around the world and hosting an inflatable surprise. They'll unlock as the event goes on. And tune in on Thanksgiving (or after, if you're enjoying your day off), for a fun show!

Of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Black Friday questline introduced in a previous year, and a fridge to store all those leftovers!

We've updated the goals required for the ribbons and 100% award, since there are so many quests that award event progress, and added some new quests to the Other Harvest Festivals quest line!

Event Achievements - POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!

Achievements Returning in 2018:
  • Special Order - You helped all of the people prepare their special dishes.
  • Master of the Ways - You have helped cook each dish excellently for the pristine table.
  • Short Order Cook - You've helped prepare one of each dish.
  • Turkey Lover - You saved enough turkeys to guarantee survival. This year.
  • Historical Detective - You helped Bob the Historian investigate the Pilgrims.
  • Family Matters - You brought all of Brock's family together for Thanksgiving.
  • Parade Enthusiast - You watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
  • Fridge Fix-Up - You helped Fatima fix an old fridge and move it your ranch.
  • Thorough Taste Testing - You helped out Miss Mei enough to try all the different daily side dish samples.
  • Fattened Feathered Friend - Help Nate fatten up his turkey.
Added/Changed for 2018:
  • Banquet Blowout - You purchased all the Thanksgiving 2018 items.*
We have 7 achievements from previous years' events, which may be earned by spending some Bush Bucks if a player was not present during the original years:
  • Thankful Decorator - You bought all the house items from the 2012 Thanksgiving Event.
  • Thankful Dresser - You bought all the player items from the 2012 Thanksgiving Event.
  • Thankful Shopper - You bought all the 2013 Turkey Day items.
  • Black Friday - You bought all the 2014 Thanksgiving items.
  • Thanks For The Stuff - You purchased all the Thanksgiving 2015 items.
  • Grateful Expenditure - You purchased all the Thanksgiving 2016 items.
  • Feastful Frittering - You purchased all the Thanksgiving 2017 items.
* The Mini Golf piece is NOT included in the Banquet Blowout achievement, and therefore it is not required to purchase it.

Pet Packs:

2018 Pets -- Available in Packs! COMING SOON!



The event will run until Friday November 30th at Noon PST!

Give thanks and feedback here!
November 16th, 2018
BW2: Nov 16th, 2018 Release Notes 
Posted in Bush Whacker 2.

Thanksgiving Event 2018 Update (November 16th, 2018)

- Updated the Thanksgiving Event for 2018
- Added new customization and ranch items
- Added new ribbons and 100% reward
- Added 3 new pets available from Nov 21st to Nov 23rd

- Can now send Turkey Dinner Gifts to friends, which contains random energy, mana, power, and something special for the duration of the event. These items do not expire and function like the Wrapped Presents from Christmas

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

- Fixed being unable to speak with the two NPCs in the Salty Settlement.

- Fixed various reported typos and quest descriptions. Keep the reports coming!
November 15th, 2018
COTLI: Kaines' Dinner of Doom 4 

Doom. Dooooom! As the seasons turn from Autumn to Winter, Kaines' Dinner of Doom arrives once again!

Kaines' Dinner of Doom 4 introduces 43G1S, an all-new Tier 4 Robot Crusader, and brings back Chef Casey, Paul the Pilgrim, Petra the Pilgrim, RoboTurkey, and Momma Kaine!

New Tier 4 Crusader: 43G1S

43G1S (also known as 'Aegis') is a Tank Crusader, ready and willing to add their skills to your formation. They'll absorb the damage of the Crusaders in the column in front of them. They'll charge up while the formation isn't under attack, and unleash their wrath on all monsters on screen once the monsters reach the formation. Plus, they've got a way with monsters, causing them to slow down and not reach your formation as quickly.

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. Chef Casey, Paul the Pilgrim, Petra the Pilgrim, RoboTurkey, and Momma Kaine are all once again available to unlock!

New Tier 4 Objectives

  • Recruit 43G1S | 43G1S takes up a slot in the formation. They constantly summon robots to attack the Crusaders. Reach area 600.

  • Trim the Fat | The fatty formation slots have been trimmed. Additionally, Fat blob monsters spawn in each area, reducing Crusader DPS by 10% (multiplicatively) for each blob. These blobs can only be killed by projectiles and activated abilities. Reach area 700.

  • Assigned Seating | Several tables have taken up positions in the formation, disabling DPS and formation abilities of adjacent Crusaders who do not have the correct tag that matches the adjacent table. Every 75 areas, 2 of the tables will swap positions. Reach area 750.

  • Help's Day Off | Support Crusaders and Taskmasters cannot be used as you strive to reach area 800. Note: the reset ability is available on the Gold Panda when she's level 250.

  • Electro Dance Party | Only Robot and Healer Crusaders can be used. A beat-blasting robot takes up a spot in formation, randomly disabling the DPS and formation abilities of 2 adjacent Crusaders. Reach area 1000. Note: the reset the world ability is available on Khouri the Witch Doctor when he's level 250.

Help! Where’s the Loot?

Equipment for event Crusaders can be found in Silver and Jeweled Thanksgiving 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 Tuesday, November 27th at 12:00pm PST to complete Kaines' Dinner of Doom 4!
November 14th, 2018
Codename Plays Games for Kids! Extra Life 2018 
Posted in Codename News.

Welcome Back, Extra Life!

It's that time of the year again - and we're not talking about Christmas, though Christmas is pretty great - it's time for Codename Entertainment Extra Life 2018!

For those who may not know, Extra Life is a wonderful program set up to raise donations for Children's Miracle Network hospitals. The money raised is donated as unrestricted funds for hospitals to use as needed. But the best part? We can help by doing what we love to do: gaming!

For more information about the Extra Life program, check out their FAQ.

What's the Plan for 2018?

Like in previous years, the Codename Entertainment team will be playing all kinds of games, including TRPG games, board games, card games, and of course, video games. Dave even built a VR streaming setup!

The 24 hours of streaming include:
  • Two Eberron-based D&D sessions, each influenced by donations to the Idle Champions Extra life Page. Two different teams of thieves will attempt to complete Adam's all-new scenario: LIGHTNING TRAIN HEIST!

  • Art galore! Michelle and Alexis will be drawing sketches with pencil and paper and Kat will be drawing a tavern scene! Donations to Kat's Extra Life page get you a character added into the final scene! Follow Kat on Twitter to see her final image!

  • A founders Q&A hour with co-founders Dave and Justin!

  • A Magic the Gathering tournament!

  • Classic SNES games played by Justin and friends!

  • CNE plays the VR game Beat Saber!

  • Our very own version of Hot Ones, mixed with party board games!

  • Plus more!
And when we're not doing scheduled content, you get a bird's eye view of the office, awesome elevator music, and a custom stream overlay made by Dave and Adam, listing our schedule and current donations!

How Can I Help?

We've got a few different things happening this year for Extra Life.

Each of our actively supported games (Bush Whacker 2, Crusaders of the Lost Idols, and Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms) has a special item available for you to purchase in the game. Starting today, and until 10:00am Pacific Time on Wednesday November 21st, all net proceeds from purchases of these special in-game items will be donated to Extra Life!

Additionally, if you are feeling generous and want to donate more, you can contribute to any of the game's pages on Extra Life: Plus you can check out the Codename Entertainment Extra Life page here.

When do you Start?

We have time-gated our stream to this coming weekend, starting on Friday, November 16th, at 9am PST and running for 24 hours until Saturday, November 17th at 9am PST. You'll be able to watch the event in all its glory over on the Codename Entertainment Twitch.

Once again, you can find all our info and more over on the Codename Entertainment Extra Life Team Page.

Wish us luck surviving again!
November 14th, 2018
Idle Champions: Feast of the Moon 2 
Posted in Idle Champions.

As the Feast of the Moon approaches, the Champions descend into an infamous crypt in order to pay homage to their deeds.

What they find is a tomb of restless undead, raised by necromancy and gathering in the depths for some nefarious purpose...

Feast of the Moon 2 runs until Monday, November 26th at 12:00pm PST, introduces Vlahnya Um'Vairar, Eladrin Bard and Wizard, and also brings back Gromma Nander, the Tortle Druid!

New Champion: Vlahnya Um'Vairar

Fate Weaver, Spy mistress, New Olamn college of whispers instructor, Band Manager of Sirens of the Realms & Magic Missile, long time pal of Durnan. This noble looking Eladrin Elf has friends in high and low places. Her true origins are unknown though it is rumored she traveled across FaerÈ—n with a bard troupe and learned about the world one tavern at a time.

Vlahnya is a Support Champion, able to buff Champions in columns ahead of her with Enthralling Performance. The more harmonious the party, the greater the buff. When you want to add Vlahnya to your party, you can swap her with Delina (Slot 8).

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

Returning Champion: Gromma Nander

A wise Tortle matriarch, Gromma Nander is an elderly Circle of the Land Druid with nearly one hundred grandchildren. She has picked up many skills over her long life, and is able to fulfill DPS, support, or tanking roles in a formation. No matter her specialization, Gromma has a particular grandmotherly fondness for young members of any race, and will empower members of her party, with the youngest receiving the greatest boost.

Gromma is a versatile Tank and Support Champion. Her Druid Circle specializations offer different tanking options depending on the situation, while her Grandmotherly Love formation ability buffs your party, with the youngest Champions receiving the greatest benefit. When you want to add Gromma to your party, you can swap her with Nayeli (Slot 3).

Year Two Variants

  • Inevitable Betrayal — Skeletal warriors accompany you in your adventures through the crypt of legends. They take up 2 slots in the formation. While they are both 'alive' the champions deal 50% less damage.

  • Siren's Song — A doppelganger has taken on the guise of Vlahnya and is filling the crypt with dissonant tunes, waiting to destroy Vlahnya and take her place. Vlahnya starts the adventure in your party. This Doppel-Vlahnya appears in each area, stunning Champions, and only the true Vlahnya can deal damage to her until she reverts to her Doppelganger form.

  • Undead Legends — Additional undead stalk the Champions within the crypt. Additional boss monsters appear in each boss area, including some legendary bosses from your past, present, and/or fugure. This variant features unique dialogue.

Year One Variants

  • Respectful Restraint — Ultimate Attacks are disabled, and any attacks with a cooldown of 5 seconds or less have an additional 3 second cooldown (so a 4 second cooldown becomes 7 seconds, but a 6 second cooldown stays at 6 seconds). These lengthened attacks don't do any additional damage due to their longer cooldown.

  • The Relentless Undead — Undead monsters have their health doubled, and when they take a killing blow, they are stunned for 10 seconds before coming back to life (they still drop gold and quest items and count towards the quest each time they are killed).

  • A Grand Nandventure — Gromma Nander is forced to be in your formation. She starts at level 1 in your formation right away alongside Bruenor (or Deekin). Gromma cannot be removed from the formation or moved from her formation seat. She has a 4x damage boost and her normal attack cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds.

See the in-game FAQ for more information!