Some hints for Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. The game changes fast, so this guide may be outdated in some or more points. Artemis formation General List of possible supporters Blooshi Artemis Kent, Antrius, Commodore Krux Dhadius, Valentine Evelyn Jim, Catti-brie Nrakk, Duke Ravengard, Jang Sao Birdsong Torogar Nova, Strix, Rust Zorbu, Bobby A Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Torogar Birdsong Valentine Zorbu Jim Blooshi Kent Nova Artemis Specialisations: Blooshi - Sliced Soul + Resilient Spirit / Alternatives: NERDS, Evelyn Artemis - Kent - Potent Poison / Alternatives: Antrius, Commodore Krux Valentine - All Hail the God Brain / Alternatives: Nrakk, Jang Sao Jim - Fan Club / Alternatives: Catti Brie Birdsong - Theme of Deception (right, evil) + Soptrano (middle, female) Torogar - Tiamat's Rage (right) Nova - Tight Knit Zorbu - Lead the pack Unlock Wren To unlock Wren you have to beat the variant "Twice Through the Grat Wheel" of the adventure "Titan on the Town" in the town "Sylvania" on the "Sigil" map of the campaign "Turn the Fortune's Wheel". If you have a lot of power, this variant might be very easy for you. This guide is for people, that have some power, but struggle a little with this variant. Power depends on the item levels and legendary levels of your champions, so this guide may not work for you. Variant text "You may only use Neutral Champions and Champions of the alignment(s) specified below. For the first 100 areas, you may use Lowful Good champions. Every 100 areas, this restriction changes: Neutral Good for area 101-200. Chaotic Good for area 201-300, and so forth. This restirction is linked to your highest area completed, not your current area. Every 100 areas, all Champions in the formation are removed and can't be used for the rest of the adventure. Champions can't otherwise be removed from the formation once they've been added. ..." Hints You will need to own nearly every champion in the game (this will be outdated some day) Be careful, where you use your Neutral Neutral champions. You may need them for later areas. They are marked bold below. Be careful to not add a wrong champion to the formation, you cannot remove them Be careful with familiars on leveling, they may place unwanted champions You can test and prepare your teams in the adventure "Titan on the Town" If need just a little more power on areas, upgrade legendary level to 1 for some of the used champions (see below). Some champions will not be very valuable, but at least they can carry legendaries. Level 1 is not so expensive. Use your ultimates on the bosses, e.g. the Gargantuan Owl Use event and/or weekend buffs for further power Over the time, when there will be more champions, this variant will become easier Area 1-100 (Lawful Good 1) Be careful to not use the champions needed for level 801-900 use - Celeste Nayeli Sentry - Dungeon Master (no extra champ!) - - Drizzt - - - This should be easy Area 101-200 (Neutral Good 1) Be careful to not use the champions needed for level 901-950 use only Bruenor Solaak - - - Sgt. Knox Farideh Vlahnya - Ulkoria Orisha Vi This should be easy Area 201-400 (Chaotic Good + Chaotic Neutral These areas should not be a big problem. There are plenty of champions you can use and the boss HP is not that high. But be careful to not use any Neutral Neutral Champions. You will need them later. You can use all your other alignment champions without care. Area 401-500 (Chaotic Evil) These are hard areas, since there are not many chaotic evil champions. Boss HP: 4E154 Voronika - - Baeloth (Over Excited) Prudence (She Hungers) Fen (Shadows of the Underdark) Xerophon (Neutral) Warduke (Chaos Reigns)(DPS, Tank) - - Warden (The Dark Hunger) - Vo Fe -- Pr -- -- Ba Wk Xe Wn Area 501-600 (Neutral Evil) These are hard areas, since there are not many neutral evil champions. Boss HP: 2E185 Sisaspia (Spreading Spores) Blooshi (Sliced Souls, Resilient Spirits)(Tank) - Jarlaxle (Leader of the Bregan D'aerthe) Viconia (Holy Power) Alyndra (Expansive Vision) - Jang Sao (Speed of Shooting Stars, Star Caller)(Neutral) Lazaapz (The Zapper) Astarion (Outflank: Bottom, Arcane Trickster) - Arkhan (Bulk Up) (DPS, Tank) As Vi -- Al Bl JS Si Ar Lz Ja Area 601-700 (Lawful Evil) These are hard areas, since there are not many lawful evil champions. Boss HP: 1E216 Deekin (Doom Doom Doom)(Neutral) Lae'zel (Battle Master) Artemis (Observance: Friend)(DPS) - - Krull (Traitor) Vin Ursa (Rear Deck, Friends in Low Places) Hew Maan (Law Maan) Jaheira (Class Act - Bruisers, Hunter - Soulless) (Neutral) Torogar (Tiamat's Word) - Miria (Methodical) Kr Jh -- Lz Mi Ar De To HM VU Area 701-800 (Lawful Neutral) These are hard areas, since there are not many lawful neutral champions. Boss HP: 8E246 Thellora (Callessa's Blessed) Merilewen (Stink Like Skunk)(Neutral) Omin (Form Ranks) Stoki (Ki Overflow) - Shadowheart (Find Yourself) Lucius (Elemental Master) Duke Ravengard (Strength of Baldur's Gate) Birdsong (Theme of Consideration, Unison) - Jamilah (Bruiser)(Neutral) Selise (Relentless Avenger, Tyr's Eyes) Lu DR St Bs Th Me Om Se Sh Ja Area 801 - 900 (Lawful Good 2) These are hard areas, because the boss HP is very high. Boss HP: 1E277 Turiel - Dynaheir Commodore Krux (DPS) Qillek Reya Umberto - Brother Uriah Barrowin (Tank) Dragonbait (Tank) Nerys Dy Ny Qi Um Ba Ry BU Db Kx Tu Spec for Lawful Good, Constitution and Favoured Foes. You can load up Commodore Krux in lower areas raise your BUD. You can load up Umberto's clue stacks with a lot of time (do never use the first investigation). Area 901-950 (Neutral Good 2) These are hard areas, because the boss HP is very high. Boss HP: 1E293 Gale (Tank) (Neutral) - Mehen Kent (DPS) Valentine (Neutral) Evelyn (Tank) Gazrick - Shaka Virgil Rust (Neutral) Wyll Formation depends a lot on Shaka's "Celestial Puzzle". You may have luck or not If "Celestial Puzzle" is bad, you can switch tanks positions temporary to raise your BUD You can stack up Rust's "One Gold Piece" with his ultimate This is just an idea: Ru? Gz? Me? Va? Ev? Wy? Vi? Ga? Sh? Ke? Patron: Elminster Restrictions Only Champions released or reworked in an event in the past 3 years can be used. Because of the restrictions, the useable champions will change over time. Therefore the suggested formations will be outdated soon. Variants have additional restrictions, that may make the suggested formations not useable. You may try to adapt, but that isn't possible always. Formations April 2024 Wylly Wonka The idea is, to have Wyll buff NERDS with Folk Hero. To get the max of four stacks, you must have one additional champion each for at least four of NERDS classes (Fighter / Ranger / Bard / Cleric / Rogue / Wizard). No other class has to have more than two champions. A Grand Tour of the Sword Coast Gazrick Astarion Lae'zel NERDS BBEG Karlach Wyll Valentine Shadowheart Specialisations: 1. NERDS: Pink Leader, Standing By (5th, pink) 2. Lae'zel: Battle Master (center, face) 3. BBEG: Min-Maxing (center, red square face) 4. Karlach: Wild Magic (right, blue) 5. Valentine: All Hail the God Brain (left, brain) 6. Shadowheart: Guidance (left, yellow) 7. Gazrick: Finesse with Frost (right, snowflake) 10. Astarion: Outflank (Bottom); Arcane Trickster (center, blue eye) 12. Wyll: Pact of the Chain (center, blue chain) Tomb of Annihilation Gazrick BBEG Wyll Tatjana Valentine Karlach Lae'zel Astarion Shadowheart NERDS Ceremorphosis Ceremorphosis is an ability that champions with the affiliation "Absolute Adversaries" use to get stronger. To get more Ceremorphosis stacks, you have to add special champions to your formation: Absolute Adversaries 1. Gale 2. Lae'zel 3. Minthara (1 + 2 additional with spec) 4. Karlach 6. Shadowheart 10. Astarion 11. The Dark Urge 12. Wyll Ceremorphosis Feat Some other champions have a feat, that, when used, adds a ceremorphosis stack. Most of them are "Heroes of Baldur's Gate". 3. Dynaheir 5. Viconia 7. Minsc 8. Nrakk, Duke Ravengard 9. Jaheira, Volo 11. Imoen Other Halsin: has a spec to raise Ceremorphosis stacks. Farming kills Some champions have a buff that scales with the certain kills they get over the time. You can farm kills in vartants that have resurrecting Enemies, like Variant AdventureMap No. / Waypoint No. CampaignRemarkMarch of the Undead Terror in the Dark1/1A Grand Tour of the Sword CoastEnemies have 5 Hit boxesKas the Bloody Handed The Sanctum of the Sword1/?A Grand Tour of the Sword Coastone NPC takes a slot in the formation Spirit of the Trickster GodsThe Lost Love 2/1The Tomb of Annihilationonly in stages with a certain debuff "Wongo", e.g. 41-45 Twilight Twist Fugitives 1/4 Waterdeep Dragon Heist Relentless Peril Wrecked Flying Fortress 2/8 Baldur's Gate Descent into Avernus An Unexpected Geist Tall Tales1/1The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Formations As example, we want to farm murder stacks for the Dark Urge. Farm in low levels of the variants. Dhadius* Widdle Selise Dhani Dark Urge Rorogar Jang Sao Widdle - Level 440 - Familiar on Ulitmate - copys attack cooldown to Dark Urge Dhadius or Imoen or Xander- Level 10 - for the 3.5s attack cooldown Dark Urge - max Level - Divine Soul + Resist the Urge Selise - Level 20 - Attack stance - Reduce attack cooldown in the two rows behind her optional: Torogar - Level 25 Jang Sao - Level 170 - Speed of Shooting Stars, Moon collector Brother Uriah - Level 40 - To heal Dhani - Level 70 - For leveling up the paint stacks, it would be better to remove Dark Urge and get her to max level Attack speed buff Sometimes you want to speed up the attack of one of your champions. Here are some champions that buff the attack speed: Selise - Level 20 - Divine Sense: Attach Stance -1s to the two rows behind her, if in attack stance Widdle - Level 160 - Hurry Up Now - 25% chance to reset attack cooldown for adjacent champs Widdle - Level 350 - Only As Slow as the Fastest Link - All adjacent champs get base attack cooldown of the quickest of them Hew Maan Ulkoria Desmond - Howl at the Moon - Embrace the Beast Korth Merilwen - Wildshape - -0.5s to adjacent, while in cat other champs to speed up attacks Alyndra - Heroes of the Planes - Combo with Widdle Ishi - Speeds up herself Duke Ravengard Champs with low attack cooldown Dhadius - 3.5s Imoen - 3.5s Xander -3.5s Caliope -3.7 Donaar -3.8 Regis -3.8 Arkhan -3.9 Nova -3.9 Trial Champion Benefits What champions should be chosen for Trials (not formation)? The team must max only the scales. Every other is neglectable. Must have Increase received Scales of Tiamat 100% That's why we do Trials.This should be maxed to 100% if possible. Limited use Increase Assault Party Damage May reduce the number of days, you have to participate. Rather useless, but better than nothing Increase Enemy spawn Speed Speeds the game up a little bit. Do not even bother about All others Durable Dragon - Korth Variant 3 Build the following team additionally to your pushing team. Replace used characters in your pushing team. Special team Orkira - Healer Grimm - Armor Breaker Antrius - Healer Krull - Armor Breaker Gazrick - Armor Breaker Duke Ravenguard - Support Strongheart Aila - Stun Wulfgar - Stun Strongheart - Stun (Feat Stunning Riposte) Selise - Armor Breaker Formation (Gri) (Sel) (Str) (Wul) (Duk) (Ail) (Ork) (Ant) (Gaz) (Kru) Fight Set BUD with your pushing team Swap to special team Set Selise to Aggressive stance (sword icon) Use fire breath potion Use health potion(s) Enter boss area Use Krull ultimate (key 4) Use Orkira, Grimm, Antrius, Gazrick and Duke Ravenguard ultimates (key 1,2,3,5,6) Use Aila ultimate (key 7) wait until stun ends Use Wulfgar ultimate (key 8) wait until stun ends Use Strongheart ultimate (key 9) Use Krull ultimate, when cooldown ready Swap to pushing team, if most are dead If it doesn't work out, try to kill the first resurrected dragons without ultimates, e.g. start to use ultimates on the fifth dragon. The House Always Wins - Strategy idea Strategy idea for "The House Always Wins" in Vecna campaign Because of the randomness of this variant, we cannot create a strategy that will always work. All we can do, is raise the odds. This is an idea for an strategy that raise you chances to be able to use certain champions in the areas 1101 to 1150. It is not fully developed yet. Maybe it isn't good at all. I have already found out, that the chances, this strategy works out isn't that great. It's estimated 1/3 (with lots of approximations). That isn't great, Preparation You need a lot of power to be able to use this strategy. Create two formations with 8 champions that can beat area 1150. You can test that in the free play of that variant "The Rod of Seven Parts". We call them formation 1 and formation 2. Spit both of them into two parts of 4 champions. We call them quads. We name the squads red 1 (1R) and black 1 (1B) for formation 1 and 2R, 2B for formation 2. Make sure that the red squads do not share any seat with the black squads, e.g. it 1R uses slot 5, then 2B must not use slot 5. Each part should contain a tank. Be careful with the formation layout. Make sure the formations work without the green slots. Play Try to get to area 901 using only champions that aren't in formation 1 or 2. Same for the green places. In Area 901, if the ball lands on red, put three champs of 1R into the free red slots of the formation. If the ball wasn't on red before, you can put the fourth champ of R1 into the slot, where the ball was before. if the ball lands on black, do the same with 1B. In the following tree, going left means red has to be replaced and going right means black has to be replaced. "1R" means, put in the red 1 part (1R) of formation 1. "XX" means, this strategy did not work out, sorry. All other branches would end in either formation 1 or formation 2, if there wasn't one slot blocked by the ball. In reality you will end up with "mostly" formation 1 or formation 2. The strategy idea is not yet fully developed. Area any 901 / 1R 1B 1001 / / 2R 2B 2R 2B 1101 / / / / XX 2B 2R 1B 1R 2B 2R XX Because of the green slots, the chances are about 1/3, that the strategy works out. Issues The ball slot The slot the ball lands on cannot be used. Therefore you can only swap in 3 of a squad into slots of the color. You may be able to put the fourth champ on another color, or you may not, if the ball was already on that color before. On the next ball area you may lose that fourth champion. Or you may never have the chance to swap in the fourth champion. The blocked slot can change your positional formation abilities, especially if it is the DPS slot. What if green needs to be replaced? If green needs to be replaced two or three times (from area 901), this strategy does not work out. You will end up with champions from the "any" team. If green needs to be replaced once, you have a 50% chance that the other two are black and red and a 50% that both are red or black. In the first case, the strategy still works out, in the second you will end up with champions from the "any" team. Before area 901 The rest of your available champions may not make it to area 901. Between 901 and 1101 You have a mixed formation, that may not be strong enough. You know, that formation 1 and formation 2 can beat 1150, but you can't that a mix will make it to 1101. Tanking This strategy may work for DPS, but you may still lose, because you cannot tank an area, if you do not take care of your tanking situation. Ramping Champions that ramp of with the number of areas will not have the opportunity to do so. Make sure you test your formations in free play without ramping buffs. Go to soft cap with another team. Then put in your formation 1 or 2, without beating any areas with them. Check, if the BUD is high enough for area 1150. It has to be 1e418 or higher. Improvements If you have two more formations (3 and 4) that can beat area 1150, you can use the same strategy to try to form the "any" team. Just start the tree from area 701 instead. If the strategy works out (also ~1/3 chance), formation 3 or formation 4 is your "any" team. Ideally, all of your prepared formations can beat 1150, even if you swap their red part with any red part of all the other prepared formations. Therefore I recommend to put your DPS for all prepared information on the same color, e.g. red. For the tanks, this works out automatically, since one tank slot is red and one is black. Prepare different "green" teams, having one tank and strong support. Depending on how many you can create, try to make sure they are used in the later areas. Other strategies Green team strategy Maybe, you have two strong champions, that you want to use in the lasts areas, e.g. your best DPS and your best Tank. You can put them into the green slots, in area X or later and then hope that the ball does never land on green again. It is best to swap in your green team on the next opportunity after area 700 (see Math chapter). Combine both Since the first strategy can win with just 8 champions, it doesn't matter, who is on green. Use the green team strategy additionally, for the case the first strategy doesn't work out. But maybe you do not want to use your best DPS and Tank in this case. Building squads Build squads: Red squads: 4 champions: 1 DPS + 1 Tank + 2 Support Black squads: 4 champions: 1 Tank + 3 Support Green squads: 2 champions: 1 Tank + 1 Support For the start you need one red, one black and one green squad. There are 11 "ball areas". That means you need the 3 starting squads and at least 11 additional squads. Total 14 squads. Ideally you have 33 additional squads, 11 red, 11 black and 11 green. But probably you do not need as much. 6 red, 6 black and 6 green should be fine. Sort them by strength (on their own). Start with the weakest. Try to swap in the next weakest squads in the "ball areas". If you see, that it gets tough, skip the next weakest squad and use a stronger one instead. Near the end, use your strongest squads. The House Always Wins - Math Odd calculation for the Idea Because of green, the odds are not as good as it looks on the first glimpse. In every "ball area", there is a chance of 4/10 for red, 4/10 for black and 2/10 for green. In 901 the chance for getting red or black is 8/10. In 1001 the chance for getting red or black is 8/10. Multiplied with the chance of 901, it is 64/100. In 1101 the chance for not XX and not green is 6/10. Multiplied with 64/100 is 384/1000. So there is roughly a 1/3 chance for this strategy to work out. That means in average, you will have to try this strategy three times. Odd calculation for Green team strategy Our event is, that the ball lands on green. The probability is 20%. We want to wait for the area, after that probability that the event occurs exactly once is the highest. In area 1101 (before the check) there is only one roll left, therefore the chance the event occors exactly once is 20%. Areaneverexactly oncemore than once 110180%20%0%100164%32%4%90151%38%10%80141%41%18%70133%41%26%60126%39%34%50121%37%42%40117%33%50% So it is best to wait for area 700 or 800 and swap in your "green team" the next time the the ball lands on green. You then have a ~41% chance, that you finish the variant with your "green team". The House Always Wins - Example Planning Planning my teams to test the idea. I do not know if it will work. Choose the teams To make it easier, I use the same seats, because seat conficts can hard to be resolved. Team 1: - Krydle (Tank) Minthara (Tank) Desmond - Kas (DPS) Jim - Volo Torogar Rust - Team 2: - Blooshi (Tank) Artemis (Dps) Antrius - Evelyn (Tank) Catti-Brie - Birdsong Virgil Nova (Tank) - Green Team: Miria Valentine Green Team Backup: Duke Ravenguard Briv Build squads Team 1: Squad Red: 3. Minthara (Tank) 7. Jim 6. Kas (DPS) 9. Volo Squad Black: 2. Krydle (Tank) 4. Desmond 10. Torogar 11. Rust Team 2: Squad Red: 3. Artemis (Dps) 7. Catti-Brie 6. Evelyn (Tank) 9. Birdsong Squad Black: 2. Blooshi (Tank) 4. Kent 10. Virgil 11. Nova Build Formations ♡: red ♣: black ♠: green (♣ Vol) (♠ ? ) (♡ Rus) (♡ Tor) (♣ Kas) (♣ Min) (♠ ? ) (♡ Des) (♡ Kry) (♣ Jim) (♣ Bir) (♠ ? ) (♡ Vir) (♡ Nov) (♣ Cat) (♣ Eve) (♠ ? ) (♡ Ken) (♡ Blo) (♣ Art) Test teams I run the free play "The Rod of Seven Parts" with the formations. I cannot rely on stacking abilities, like those of Kas or Blooshi. I do not clear any area with the formations. I go to soft cap with another team. I had to make sure, that for the Kas team all champs were turned into vampires an Voronika gets her crown. And I had to play Nrakks mini game to get 60 Ki points. To beat area 1150 we need a BUD of ~1e418. My Kas team does only BUD 1e320. That's far from enough. There are lot of bad choices for the formation: Kas is a ramping champ. Volo has the wrong position. Too few evil champs. Vecna campaign has fewer gold, not good for Rust, but Rust is still one of my strongest buffers. Better version of Kas formation: (♣ Des) (♠ ? ) (♡ Vor) (♡ Kas) (♣ Jim) (♣ Blo) (♠ ? ) (♡ Rus) (♡ Min) (♣ Tor) 1 Voronika 2 Blooshi 3 Minthara 4 Desmond - 6 Kas 7 Jim - - 10 Torogar 11 Rust Red squad: 1 Voronika 3 Minthara 6 Kas 11 Rust Black squad: 2 Blooshi 4 Desmond 7 Jim 10 Torogar My Artemis team does only BUD 1e335. Also far from enough. Better version (♣ Kru) (♠ ? ) (♡ Dha) (♡ Nov) (♣ Bir) (♣ Kry) (♠ ? ) (♡ Nra) (♡ Eve) (♣ Art) 2 Krydle 3 Artemis 4 Krix 5 Dhadius 6 Evelyn 8 Nrakk 9 Birdsong 11 Nova Black squad: 5 Dhadius 6 Evelyn 8 Nrakk 11 Nova Red squad: 2 Krydle 3 Artemis 4 Krux 9 Birdsong Seats do not fit, so I have to move something around. Kas cannot be moved without loosing to much. Therefore I swap Artemis with Nrakk. Now my Kas team does 1e396. and my Artemis team does 1e384. Still not enough. If I will be able to get Miria on the green tank slot at the end, it is nearly enough for both formations. So I have these squads: Formation 1 Black Squad (1B): 2 Blooshi 4 Desmond 7 Jim 10 Torogar Formation 1 Red Squad (1R): 1 Voronika 3 Minthara 6 Kas 11 Rust Formation 2 Black Squad (2B): 2 Krydle 4 Krux 8 Nrakk 9 Birdsong Formation 2 Red Squad (2R): 3 Artemis 5 Dhadius 6 Evelyn 11 Nova All slots are used but 12: So we have Miria in the Green Team. I need to find the weakest links of each squad, Because these are the champs I may not be able put in because of the ball slot or have to put into another color and risk to lose it. For the Artemis team this is Krydle and then Nova. For the Kas team this is Minthara and then Voronika. I now test 1R with 2B: 1e357 and 2R with 1B: 1e355 With Miria: 1R with 2B: and 2R with 1B: 1e388 That's not enough to get to area 1101, I need 1e401. Conclusion: My account power isn't enough. And the strategy has so many approximations. I also need more room for errors. I absolutely need lots of more power. Later I have worked on my legendary levels and now: Kas Team: without Mira: 1e413 with Miria: 1e446 Artemis Team without Miria: 1e403 with Miria: 1e424 The House Always Wins - Refined strategy idea Take green slots and the slot that is blocked by the ball into account. Disclaimer Everything is subjective I am not an expert I do not care about optimization I do not want to spend too much time into this game Everything depends on too many different factors Every account is different The game changes, it is hard to stay up to date It is fun to fiddle around and see what happens