Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms: Complete Guide

A practical guide to Idle Champions: building formations, choosing when to reset, spending gems and contracts, and making the most of events. It also covers the systems added in 2026: Mastery Variants and the Bastion.

Researched September 2026, current as of the 9th Anniversary / Highharvestide 2026 event, the September 2026 Mastery Variants batch and the Bastion opt-in beta. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

The formation is the game. Champions auto-attack. Your decisions are which Champions go in which slots and which specializations you pick. Most Champion abilities buff neighbours, the row in front or behind, or a specific role.
Every Champion has a Seat (1–12) and only one Champion per Seat can be in a formation. Seat 3, for example, holds Caramon Majere and Nayeli among others. When you get a new Champion, check which Seat mate they compete with.
Always keep a tank in the front row. If your front-line Champions get knocked out, your gold income falls apart.
Level your main DPS, then buff it. Most formations have one damage dealer and eleven support Champions whose abilities multiply that one Champion's damage.
Reset, don't grind. When progress stalls, finish the adventure to earn Favor, a campaign currency that permanently multiplies gold. Early resets are cheap and pay off fast.
Open chests and use contracts. Chests drop equipment. Blacksmith Contracts upgrade gear levels. Put contracts on your main DPS and key support first.
Log in during events. Events like Highharvestide give free Champions, event tokens and Flex Champion upgrades. The 9th Anniversary (2–9 September 2026) gave out Raistlin, Caramon, Laurana and Volo just for logging in.
Use Familiars. Familiars click for you, level Champions and collect gold, so the game really can play itself.

Core Systems

Champions, roles and specializations

Each Champion has a base attack, an ultimate ability and a set of passive formation abilities. At certain levels you choose a specialization, and your choice changes who the Champion buffs. For example, Caramon's main buff is a specialization choice called Raise Spirits, which other Champions in the formation can duplicate. Champions are tagged with roles:

Role	What it does in practice
DPS	The one Champion you are building the formation around
Support	Multiplies damage for others, often based on position, race, class or alignment
Tanking	Takes hits in the front column, sometimes with healing or damage reduction
Healing	Keeps the front line alive on hard areas
Gold Find	Increases gold drops so you level faster
Speed	Moves you through areas faster

Positioning rule of thumb: read each ability's targeting ("adjacent", "in the column behind", "all Champions with the Human tag"). Place buffers so they touch your DPS, and put tanks where the enemies attack.

Adventures, Variants and Campaigns

Campaigns hold adventures, and each adventure has harder Variants with formation restrictions. Grand Tour of the Sword Coast, Tomb of Annihilation, Light of Xaryxis, Turn of Fortune's Wheel, Vecna: Eve of Ruin and Tales of the Champions are some of the ten current campaigns; others are based on published D&D adventures such as Descent into Avernus. Curse of Strahd's Barovia appears through the Strahd patron content.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin unlocks after you complete 100 Adventures & Variants.
Mastery Variants are a fourth, very hard tier introduced in July 2026, with a new batch each month. As of the 23 September 2026 update they become visible only after 400 Adventures & Variants (up from 100). They no longer count toward campaign or game completion percentage, and new batches no longer add platform achievements. Clearing them earns currency for the Mastery Shop, which sells Legendary Feats (new Feats were promised for October 2026).
August 2026's batch covered the second adventure of each of the first eight campaigns. One example is "This Formation is Cursed" on The Cursed Farmer, which requires reaching area 1,450 with cursed slots, a Chicken and a mad Cow taking up formation spots.

Favor and resetting

Each campaign builds up its own Favor. Resetting (completing the adventure) turns your progress into Favor, and Favor raises gold income for that campaign's adventures.
When to reset: when gaining an area starts taking minutes rather than seconds and you have no new upgrades to buy. Early on this happens often, and that is fine.
Automation later handles resets for you (see Modron below), and fast farming runs are built around resetting quickly.

Gear, chests and contracts

Item	Use
Silver/Gold chests	Random equipment for Champions in that chest's pool; Gold chests roll noticeably better rarity (and a chance at Shiny gear)
Blacksmith Contracts (Tiny to Huge)	Add levels to a Champion's gear, which raises the effect's value
Bounty Contracts	Pay out tokens and other rewards
Potions	Temporary boosts (for example Speed), plus rare Equipment Potions that upgrade gear
Gems	The main in-game currency for chests; farmed from adventures and events

Spending priority: gear on your main DPS and top buffers first. Tank gear matters when your front line keeps falling.

Patrons

Patrons are alternate "modes" for adventures, with their own restrictions and their own shop currency and rewards. The patrons are Mirt, Vajra, Strahd, Zariel and Elminster. Each Champion lists which patrons they can be used with. New Champions sometimes have a time-limited list, such as Caramon being eligible for Mirt, Vajra, Zariel and Elminster until 2 September 2029. Patrons unlock as you progress, and their shops sell some of the strongest long-term upgrades in the game, so start them as soon as they unlock.

Familiars and Modron automation

Familiars can click enemies, level Champions, use ultimates and pick up gold. Drag them onto the relevant parts of the screen.
The Modron automation system lets you save a formation and reset conditions so your background parties can reset and restart on their own. This is how long-term players farm gems and Favor while offline.
Background parties: you can run more than one party at once, on different adventures. Use extra parties for farming while your main party pushes.

Events and Flex Champions

Most months have a D&D-calendar festival event (for example Ahghairon's Day in August 2026 and Highharvestide in September 2026). Each event includes:

A new Champion. Recent ones include Flint Fireforge (Ahghairon's Day 2026) and Caramon Majere (Highharvestide 2026), both from the Heroes of the Lance.
Flex slots. These let you unlock additional returning event Champions. In 2026, each event rebalances three older Champions instead of fully reworking one. Stoki, Pwent and Corazón got buffs for Highharvestide, and Jim, Omin and Prudence for Ahghairon's Day.
Event tokens, event chests and event variants.

Event tip: unlock the new Champion first, then decide whether a Flex Champion fills a Seat gap for you.

The Bastion (Opt-In Beta, September 2026)

Announced on 9 September 2026, the Bastion is a 15-room manor that works as a navigation hub and tutorial path. Each room is tied to game features, for example the Guildhall, Observatory, War Room and Legendary Forge. Rooms unlock in order to introduce new players to systems one at a time. Veterans start with most rooms open. Your Champions wander the halls and chat with each other. The beta also added customizable DPS box buttons for non-gamepad UI. It is opt-in for now, so enable it if you want the guided path.

Building Your First Strong Formation

Choose a DPS you have gear for and put them in the middle column.
Find the Champions whose abilities buff "adjacent" or "behind" Champions and surround the DPS with them.
Put a tank in front. Add a healer if you are still losing Champions.
Add a gold-find Champion somewhere harmless for faster levelling.
Level everything to its specialization unlocks. Most support buffs are weak until specialized.
Check your party's formation save slots and keep one formation for pushing and one for speed farming.

The in-game DPS box and each Champion's ability tooltip give the most reliable numbers. The community keeps formation calculators, but the game rebalances Champions every month, so check they're current.

A Simple Session Routine

Collect and open. Claim login/event rewards, then open chests and apply new gear.
Spend contracts. Blacksmith Contracts on your main DPS and its biggest buffers.
Check every party. Make sure each background party is still progressing or resetting; restart any that stalled on a wall.
Advance the event. Earn event tokens, unlock the new Champion, then work through event variants.
Push once. Run your push formation on your hardest current adventure until it walls, then reset for Favor.
Set up for offline. Leave your parties on formations that can keep going (or keep resetting under Modron) while you're away.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Spreading contracts across every Champion. Concentrate them on your DPS and the supports that multiply it.
Never resetting. Favor grows much faster from frequent resets than from grinding one more area.
Leaving specializations unpicked or unread. Some Champions only buff the right target after you choose the matching specialization.
Ignoring patrons once unlocked. Their shops are where long-term power comes from.
Trying Mastery Variants too early. The developers raised the unlock to 400 Adventures & Variants because the power requirement is far higher than when Vecna unlocks.
Missing event login windows. Anniversary-style login rewards (free Champions, chests, a Level 9 Legendary Equipment Potion) are only available for a limited time.

Advanced Tips

Speed farming vs pushing: keep two formations. The push formation maximises DPS and survivability. The farm formation maximises speed and area skipping so you reset quickly for gems and Favor.
Use background parties with Modron automation so all your parties earn overnight.
Plan around Seats. A new Champion might be better than your current one in that Seat for your DPS's specific tags, even if they look weaker on their own.
Legendary Items and Legendary Feats are long-term goals. Save Mastery Medallions for Feats that affect your main formations.
Follow the Thursday Dev Insights stream and the monthly Champion Spotlights. They explain rebalances before events go live.

FAQ

Is Idle Champions free? Yes, it's free-to-play on Steam, consoles and mobile, with optional purchases and DLC Champion packs.

Does it progress while the game is closed? Yes. Champions keep fighting offline. Automation (Familiars, Modron) makes offline progress much better.

When should I reset? When areas take noticeably longer to clear and you have nothing new to buy. Resetting turns your progress into Favor.

Why can't I see Mastery Variants? Since 23 September 2026 you need 400 completed Adventures & Variants, plus all three standard variants of that adventure, and all ten campaigns unlocked.

How do I get Caramon Majere? He was free to unlock via the 9th Anniversary login rewards (2–9 September 2026) and is the featured Champion of Highharvestide 2026. He's a Seat 3 Tanking/Support Human Fighter.

What is the Bastion? An opt-in beta navigation and tutorial hub of 15 themed rooms, each linked to a game feature.