You've been recruited by a merchant guild in Waterdeep to look into a number of mysterious missing ships over the past year. The Fair Seas Festival is a good time to look into this as people are quite open about the dangers of the sea, the fury of Umberlee, and so forth.

Many people blame Umberlee for the missing ships, but the merchant guild isn't so sure...

Fleetswake 5 introduces Desmond, the lyncathropic lone wolf human Ranger played by Deejay Knight on The Black Dice Society. Fleetswake also brings back Orisha, an Aasimar Cleric and Bard and Sisaspia, a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Circle of Spores Druid. Players have until Monday, March 7th at 12 PM Pacific to complete their Fleetswake 5 unlocks and objectives.

I. Desmond

While on the hunt for food as a teenager, Desmond was inflicted with the curse of lycanthropy. After a lot of work and time, he's accepted his new lycanthropic nature and now savors any opportunity to unleash the beast inside if the situation arises. Since his companions travel the dark lands of Ravenloft, there are plenty of occasions to transform!

Desmond is a Support Champion whose noble heart and fearsome bite can aid his allies through even the darkest of adventures. When you want to add him to your formation you can swap him with Jarlaxle in slot 4.

II. Desmond's Stats

Race: Human	Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Ranger	Gender: Male	Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 33
Affiliation: Black Dice Society

STR: 16	DEX: 15	CON: 11
INT: 11	WIS: 12	CHA: 13

Role: Support
Eligible for Patrons: Mirt, Zariel
Slot: 4 (Jarlaxle)

III. Desmond's Design

The Black Dice Society tells the dark tale of six souls struggling to survive their journeys through the horrific lands of Ravenloft. When he's not giving an outstanding portrayal of a fearsome ranger, Deejay Knight prefers happier moods as a variety streamer focusing on big laughs and positivity both on stream and in his community!

Desmond's lycanthropic transformation may make him incredibly deadly, but he's a Support Champion whose primary goal is to assist his pack. That's why his Noble Heart will always be focused on increasing the damage of adjacent Champions, and when Running With The Pack he'll further increase that bonus for Lycanthropes, Druids, and other Black Dice Society Champions. As the moon waxes and wanes, so does Desmond's power and ability to buff his companions. Should any of his companions fall, Desmond will increase all Champion damage to make up for their fallen comrade.

For more information on Desmond and his abilities, check out his Champion Spotlight!

Year Five Variants

• Adventure Variant 1: Full Moon Madness — Desmond takes up a slot in the formation, he can't be moved or removed from the formation. In Non-Boss areas, each wave creates extra sailors. They do not drop gold, or count towards quest progress.
  Complete Area 75.
Getting to know Desmond: Desmond's attack speed speeds up during the full moon can help you cut through hordes of enemies. Use his specialization to make the most of this!


• Adventure Variant 2: New Moon Nemesis — Desmond takes up a slot in the formation, he can't be moved or removed from the formation. In Non-Boss areas, each wave spawns one additional Armored Crab with 5 armored HP. It does not drop gold or count towards quest progress. Every time a crab spawns, a random Champion is stunned for 10 seconds.
  Complete Area 125.
Getting to know Desmond: Desmond's damage boost during the new moon can help you get through heavily armored foes. Use his specialization to make the most of this!


• Adventure Variant 3: Strength to Persevere — Only Champions with a STR of 16 or higher may be used. A werewolf starts in the formation. An additional werewolf joins the formation every 50 areas.
  Complete Area 175.
Getting to know Desmond: Desmond increases the damage of the formation when slots are filled with escorts (or dead Champions). Use him to reduce the sting of missing formation slots!

New DLC

Also launching with Desmond is the Shadowfell Desmond Theme Pack! This pack includes an unlock for Desmond, the new Shadowfell Desmond Skin, the Frost, the wolf cub familiar, Desmond's Epic The Raven's Call Feat, which increases Noble Heart by 80%, 1 Epic Potion of the Gold Hunter, and 16 Gold Desmond Chests with 2 Guaranteed Shiny Equipment Cards.

For information on previous years' variants, check out the Fleetswake 4 blog. And 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!

Idle Champions Presents: Court of the Raven Queen

We are excited to announce the return of Idle Champions Presents, a TRPG live play special event series starting Monday, February 21st. Each episode of Idle Champions Presents will broadcast live from 4PM until 7PM Pacific Time Mondays on the CNEGames Twitch.

Join Dungeon Master B Dave Walters (Black Dice Society, A Darkened Wish, Into the Mother Lands) as he takes a brave party of Champions through an epic level campaign across five episodes, leading them through the Shadowfell for a chance at rescuing some of their dear friends and allies from the Court of the Raven Queen.

The Party features Erin M Evans (Brimstone Angels, Dungeon Scrawlers), Mark Meer (Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition) , Shareef Jackson (Rivals of Waterdeep), Lauren Urban (Heroes of the Planes, Beyond Heroes), Deejay Knight (Black Dice Society), Becca Scott (Black Dice Society).

Vote for the Show You Want to See

Just like with our first Idle Champions Presents, Idle Champions players will be able to influence the characters and events of upcoming Idle Champions Presents episodes through in-game daily votes. Starting on Tuesday, February 15th with the in-game daily reset (12 PM PT), each vote will go live for 24 hours, with the final vote for the week ending on Monday at 12 PM PT.

For Season 3 we've made some changes to how voting works.

• Voting looks a bit different this time around. What has changed? — To start, there are no more challenges tied to Idle Champions Presents this time around. You get only one vote per day, so make it count! When you vote, you'll gain a reward token you can redeem to immediately collect ANY of the daily rewards that have been revealed. If you collect 3 of the daily rewards within any week, you can collect the super-sweet weekly reward for free (No additional reward token needed)! Important Note: You must log into the game and vote to collect a reward token before the vote closes at 12PM Pacific. Make sure you come back every day so you don't miss a token!

• What are the rules for reward tokens? — A reward token collected on Week 1: Day 1 is the same as a reward token collected on Week 5: Day 6. You can spend those tokens on ANY of the daily rewards in ANY of the weeks.

• Do you have to vote to collect a reward token? — Yes.

• Where are the rewards listed? — You can find the available reward tab on the bottom of the left column for each week. Each week has a unique list of items.

• When are the other daily/weekly rewards revealed? — On Monday night, at the end of each episode, the next week's first vote will be revealed and the daily/weekly rewards for that week will be revealed.

• I can't see all the rewards. How can I choose? — Daily rewards each week will be a mix of Chests & other consumables. Each daily reward will be able to be collected with a single reward token. From a weekly reward standpoint: Weeks 1, 3, and 5 will be an exclusive skin and Champion unlock for Baeloth, Orkira, and Shaka. Week 2 will be a Baby Darkmantle Familiar, and Week 4 will be 1,000 Modron Component Pieces to help you upgrade the components in your Modron cores! To collect a weekly reward, you only have to collect 3 of the daily rewards for that week. Collecting a weekly reward will not cost a reward token. Every day you vote allows you to collect an additional reward token!

• Can I vote for both choices? — No. You can only vote once a day.

• How many votes can I get each week? — There will be 6 votes each week, and you can vote once for each vote. That means someone who is logging in and voting every day can collect 6 reward tokens each week.

• How long do I have to redeem a reward token? — Rewards will be available for the duration of the Idle Champions Presents event. The notification will turn off at 11:59 AM Pacific on March 23rd, so we suggest collecting all of your rewards before then. Any remaining reward tokens will go away at the close of the Idle Champions Presents event.

The first vote begins on Tuesday, February 15th at 12 PM PT in-game. You'll want to check in every day if you want the most chances to influence Idle Champions Presents!

Champion Rebalance

We’ve made some adjustments to certain Champions ahead of the premier of Idle Champions Presents: Court of the Raven Queen.

Selise Astorio will receive the following changes:

• Updated Divine Sense to increase the buff by an additional 100% for each other Rivals of Waterdeep Champion in the formation, stacking and then applying multiplicatively.
• Note: Buffs to Divine Sense apply to the base damage buff only, not the Rivals bonus.

Mehen will receive the following changes:

• Updated the formula for Grumpy to make it easier and more productive to get Mehen in his sweet spot for that ability.
• Added a visual indication to move Mehen if his stacks are too heavily weighted towards one end of the curve for Grumpy, helping players reposition him.
• Updated and renamed the 'Exiled' ability to 'Found Family'.
  • Found Family: Increase gold find by 100% for each Tiefling in the formation, stacking multiplicatively. Buffs apply to the post-stack value.
• Added a new feat 'Adoptive Father' that lets Mehen count as a Tiefling in addition to a Dragonborn. This feat can be found in Gold Chests.
• Adding a third specialization. This spec allows Farideh and Havilar to join him in adventures even when the restrictions make them ineligible:
  • Always by your Side — Farideh and Havilar are eligible for this adventure.

Shaka will receive the following changes:

• Updated Celestial Puzzle to buff the party an additional 20% (stacking additively and then applying multiplicatively) for each Rivals of Waterdeep Champion in the formation.
• Added 6 new options for Celestial Puzzle:
  • Medium Difficulty: Speed or Healing Champions
  • Hard Difficulty: Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, and Dragonborn Champions
  • Tags pull from a fixed set of odds, with two being "easy", one "medium", and one "hard". Updated Listing:
    • Easy: male, female (non-binary Champions count in either)
    • Medium: support, dps, gold, speed, healing
    • Hard: human, kobold, elf, dwarf, tiefling, gnome, half-elf, halfling, dragonborn

When does Idle Champions: Court of the Raven Queen Premier?

Idle Champions Presents: Court of the Raven Queen begins on Monday, February 21st with the first episode broadcasting from 4PM until 7PM Pacific Time on Twitch.tv/CNEGames. Daily votes for the first episode will begin the week before, starting on Tuesday, February 15th at 12PM Pacific. For a reminder of the exciting conclusion of the Idle Champions Presents: The Trials of Mount Tiamat, check out this video:

While Season Three is related to the arc of the second season, it's not necessary to follow the story. If you want to relive the Idle Champions Presents magic, you can watch Season Two Idle Champions Presents: The Trials of Mount Tiamat on YouTube. Season One, Idle Champions Presents: The Unfair Seas and Idle Champions Presents: A Fool’s Errand on YouTube.

New DLC

With the first week of voting going live, we have also released the first of our Idle Champions Presents: Court of the Raven Queen DLC. Shadowfell Skin & Feat Packs for Farideh, Havilar, and Mehen, as well as a bundle of all of them together in the Brimstone Angels Shadowfell Bundle.

• The Shadowfell Farideh Skin & Feat Pack includes an unlock for Farideh, the new Shadowfell Farideh Skin, an Epic Feat for her (+80% to Pact Family), and 7 Gold Farideh Chests with 1 Guaranteed Shiny Equipment Card.
• The Shadowfell Havilar Skin & Feat Pack includes an unlock for Havilar, the new Shadowfell Farideh Skin, an Epic Feat for her (+50% damage to all Champions), and 7 Gold Havilar Chests with 1 Guaranteed Shiny Equipment Card.
• The Shadowfell Mehen Skin & Feat Pack includes an unlock for Mehen, the new Shadowfell Mehen Skin, an Epic Feat for him (+80% to Found Family), and 7 Gold Mehen Chests with 1 Guaranteed Shiny Equipment Card.

We can't wait to see how this all comes together! We hope you'll join us in discussion about Idle Champions Presents on Twitter using the #ICPRavenQueen hashtag and tagging @IdleChampions.