Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is a popular free-to-play strategy game and is becoming well known among D&D fans. The game itself is based in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Faerûn and developed by Codename Entertainment. The multiplatform game was released in 2018, initially on iOS, Android, PS4, and Xbox One. In 2020, Idle Champions was released fully on Steam and arrived in the eShop for the Nintendo Switch.
Idle Champions brings together characters from throughout Dungeons and Dragons lore to act as champions for the player. By collecting these champions, players can progress through various campaigns earning rewards and gear to make each new adventure a little easier each time. Champions can be acquired through a few different methods to gradually fill out a player's roster.
Although, on the surface, a simple clicker game, Idle Champions has more depth than most games that fall into the idle category. The variety of the champions available to players aids when solving the game's various puzzles. The link to D&D lore and the wider community provides another fun aspect for newcomers and long-term fans alike.
D&D: The Basic Premise Of Idle Champions
When playing Idle Champions, players work through different D&D campaigns, which are divided into smaller adventures. Each adventure has 50 levels which then repeat with enemies getting progressively more challenging. When an adventure is completed, it unlocks the free-play version of that adventure and its particular variants.
Each campaign has a different deity whose favor must be earned in order to progress faster. Completing adventures and their related variants is how players earn favor with the various deities. This favor is then used to level up the champions quicker and provide the player with blessings. Blessings are buffs that can be applied to individual campaigns as well as universally to all campaigns.
There are currently six campaigns in Idle Champions available for players to work through. In the beginning, new players will start on "A Grand Tour of the Sword Coast," which is a broader campaign following a path down the Sword Coast as well as a quick trip to D&D's infamous Barovia. Other campaigns loosely follow the storyline and locations of their corresponding sourcebooks. For example, Tomb of Annihilation takes place in Chult, whereas Baldur's Gate: Decent into Avernus drags the players into the first level of Hell.
Initially, a player will start with 12 champions taken from throughout D&D lore and the community. Characters from campaign books, Neverwinter, and the Force Grey team are known as the 'evergreen' champions. By g up to the Idle Champions newsletter, players will also be given a code to get a further champion: Hitch from Force Grey. Characters such as Bruenor Battlehammer and Jarlaxle from R.A. Salvatore's novels fight alongside Minsc and Boo from the Baldur's Gate series and Joe Manganiello's Arkhan the Cruel.
Other champions are obtained through Time Gates and in-game events. Free Time Gates are available approximately every three weeks, although players can open one whenever they choose if enough Time Gate pieces have been gathered. Events also run roughly every 3 weeks and allow players to obtain up to three new champions in each event. Champions from past events are available through the Time Gate at any time.
Idle Champions Is A Dungeons & Dragons Strategy Game
Each campaign in Idle Champions has its own formation layout, and it is these formations' differences that provide some of the challenges for players. Creating a good formation is key to progressing in each campaign, and working out which champions work well in which position is important. Understanding what D&D style role each champion plays and how they will interact with the overall formation and an element of strategy to what otherwise would be a simple game. As each adventure is completed, it unlocks its variant, which offers additional challenges and puzzles for the player to solve. Some variants will take away some of the slots available in a formation, which a player will have to work around to complete the adventure. Others will limit what champions can be used by imposing restrictions based on class, party role, or stats.
After players have progressed a certain amount in Idle Champions and have unlocked a set number of champions, Patrons become available. Patrons are an additional way to replay previous adventures and variants and provide players with new rewards and perks. Each Patron has their own set of restrictions about which champions can be used, which can provide unique challenges for players when combined with specific variants.
Idle Champions & Links To The D&D Community
Idle Champions sponsors several D&D streams on Twitch as well as running their own channel, which streams D&D and Idle Championsrelated content. Idle Champions works with the D&D community and its own gaming community, with many Idle Champion streams being championed by the developers. A small pop-up box appears in-game when an d stream has begun allowing players to keep up to date whilst playing. Most of these streams have codes available for in-game rewards such as gold and electrum chests.
Many event champions have been added since Idle Champions first launched, and most of them are characters from D&D streams. Players can add characters from popular streams like the Waffle Crew, Critical Role, and Penny Arcade's C-Team to the roster to work alongside 'canon' characters. More recently, characters from newer and perhaps less known streams have ed the ever-growing team of champions. Characters from streams such as High Roller's Aerois, Rivals of Waterdeep, and Sirens of the Realms are all available for players. The latest additions to Idle Champions have been characters from the Oxventure Crew, with the newest, Tabaxi Rust on the Harbour, coming soon.
As Idle Champions enters its 5th year and updates are constantly being rolled out and new campaigns ahead, there is plenty to keep players busy. New adventures like the new "Trials of Mount Tiamat," asynchronous cooperative multiplayer missions, provide more challenges. However, it is Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms' links within the Dungeons & Dragons community that set it apart from other officially licensed games.
