About two months ago, we began rolling out Mastery Variants. Since then, we've been listening closely to your feedback. Based on what we've heard, we're making some changes!

As we roll out the September Mastery Variants batch today, we want to share some updates on how Mastery Variants connect with other game systems, as well as a preview of what we're working on to help players tackle their challenges.

Our goal for Mastery Variants is to create challenging, aspirational content that tests your Champions, formations, and game knowledge. They're not intended to be content that every player can immediately complete as soon as they're unlocked, but your feedback has highlighted ways we can improve the experience around that challenge. We're addressing some of those areas today, with more improvements to come.

Today

We're making several changes to better establish Mastery Variants as their own form of aspirational content and reduce the pressure players feel to complete them immediately.

1: Increasing the Adventure requirement

When Mastery Variants launched, they became visible after completing 100 Adventures & Variants (along with the first three Variants of the associated Adventure). We missed the mark there. 100 Adventures & Variants is also when players can unlock Vecna: Eve of Ruin, but the power required for Mastery Variants is considerably higher. Moving forward, Mastery Variants will become visible after completing 400 Adventures & Variants, to ensure players' progression is commensurate with the challenge. For players with the Bastion enabled, in Version 655, there is a new level for the Guild Hall to unlock after completing 400 Adventures & Variants to unlock access to the Mastery Variants. For players who have previously completed a Mastery Variant, the Guild Hall upgrade is available even if you haven't yet reached the 400 Adventures & Variants threshold

2: Separating Mastery Variants from Campaign Completion

Mastery Variants will no longer count toward your campaign or game completion percentage. Rolling out in Version 654, Mastery Variants will be treated as their own category within the Campaign section of Collections. We want players to be able to tackle Mastery Variants at their own pace while preserving their existing progress towards the campaign completion target.

3: No New Steam Achievements for Mastery Variants

Starting with today's batch, Mastery Variants will no longer include platform achievements. Like the Collections change, this is intended to let players approach future Mastery Variants when they're ready rather than making them feel required for completion.

Coming Soon

1: Community Notes

We're working on a new Community Notes feature for Mastery Variants, with the possibility of expanding it to other Variants in the future. Mastery Variants require inventive solutions, and we hope Community Notes will help players share their best strategies. Players will be able to share strategies and tips about what worked for them in-game, while others can upvote, downvote, or report those notes. The most helpful responses will rise to the top, giving players somewhere to turn when they've hit a wall and want to see how other players approached the challenge. Our initial rollout will be text-based, but we're exploring sharing formations directly as we refine the feature through internal testing and player feedback. With more than 160 Champions available and countless ways to synergize them, we're excited to give players another way to share the creative strategies and formations they've discovered.

2: Continued Bug Fixing

We know some Mastery Variants are experiencing bugs & issues with background parties and offline progress. These aren't intended to be part of the challenge. If you encounter one of these issues in a Mastery Variant, or any Variant, please submit an in-game ticket so we can investigate and continue smoothing out the experience.

Thank you for playing with us over the past 9+ years, and for always being willing to share your feedback. We hope these updates, along with the changes still to come, continue to make Idle Champions better for everyone!

September 2026 Mastery Variants

A Grand Tour of the Sword Coast

The Mad Wizard

Variant: Mastery - The Maddest Wizards

Investigate the odd imp-infested tower you passed earlier while being constantly harassed by Wizards.

• An Imp takes up a slot in the formation.
• Champions placed adjacent to the Imp must be Evil and may not have the Speed role.
• Every 200 areas, the Champions in the front-most and rear-most formation slots are removed from the formation.
• Champions can not otherwise be removed nor swapped out of the formation after they are added.
• With each non-boss wave, a Ragged Mad Wizard Clone also spawns and attacks the formation. Clones do not drop gold nor count for quest progress when defeated.
• When a Clone is defeated, it:
• - Morphs into Pure Energy which cannot be attacked or killed. Pure Energy does not block spawns from occurring.
• - Lowers the damage of all Champions in the formation by 99%, stacking multiplicatively up to 50 times. This effect is only reset when a new boss area is completed.
• Complete Area 1475

Tomb of Annihilation

Exploring Port Nyanzaru

Variant: Mastery - Monkey Business

Explore Port Nyanzaru while right smack in the middle of the local intrigue.

• Three citizens take up slots in the formation. They're happy with their slots and do not move around every 25 areas.
• Topknot Guy requires all adjacent Champions must have a base attack cooldown of 5s or higher.
• White Scarf Guy requires all adjacent Champions must have a WIS score of 16 or higher.
• Balding Guy requires all adjacent Champions must have a melee base attack.
• 2-4 Undead Flying Monkeys spawn randomly alongside normal non-boss waves. They toss monkey skulls at random Champions in the formation dealing 5% of the target Champion's max health per hit. They do not drop gold nor count toward quest progress.
• Complete Area 1575

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

The Dinner Party

Variant: Mastery - Beep Boop Boom

Protect the hidden lords of Waterdeep from a very scary cannon alongside Nordom and R0AM.

• Nordom starts in the formation and can be moved but not removed. He also can not be placed in the front-most column of the formation.
• R0AM starts in the formation as an escort.
• Whenever Nordom is moved, R0AM also moves to take up the slot opposite to Nordom.
• Champions placed within one column of Nordom must have a CHA score of 16 or higher. If they do not, the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• Aside from Nordom, Champions placed within one column of R0AM must have a DEX score of 16 or higher. If they do not, the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• In all boss areas, an additional Drunken Sailor boss spawns alongside the normal boss. This boss must also be defeated to continue. The Drunken Sailor moves 100% faster, has 10 armored health, and is riding a cannon that one-shots any Champion it hits.
• Complete Area 1675

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus

The Darkness Runs Deeper

Variant: Mastery - Meddlesome Mimicry

Learn more about the events in Baldur's Gate with two of the same Champion?

• Amrik Vanthampur (under arrest) takes up the null formation spot in the center of the formation.
• Only Event Champions who are Human or Evil can be used.
• A Doppelganger joins the formation in the backmost slot and takes on the appearance of the Champion in the front-most center formation slot.
• The damage of all Champions not being mimicked by the Doppelganger is set to 0.
• All Champions in the formation must have at least one of the following attributes in common with the Champion being mimicked by the Doppelganger: an ability score, species, class, or full alignment (ie. Chaotic Good). If they don't, the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• Complete Area 1775

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

Moose Tracks

Variant: Mastery - The Birds

Enter Ten-Towns and help chase down some local wildlife.

• Van Richten and Birdsong start in the formation and can not be removed or swapped out.
• Aside from Birdsong, only Champions who qualify for one of Van Richten's specialization choices can be used.
• The damage of all Champions aside from Birdsong is set to 0.
• An Awakened Axe Beak arrives in each wave with 5 armored hit points.
• The Awakened Axe Beaks instantly kill Champions that they attack.
• Paper Birds take up two formation slots.
• Complete Area 1875

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Thieves of the Coven

Variant: Mastery - Waltz of the Patrons

Dive deeper into the mysteries of the Witchlight Carnival with a rotating cast of patron pals.

• Normal and boss enemies do not drop gold.
• Sowpig appears in the second wave of every boss area with 15 armored health. She is the only enemy in the adventure that drops gold.
• Two slots in the formation are taken up by patrons. The patrons occupying these slots change every 400 areas.
• Champions placed in slots adjacent to each patron must fulfill that patron's restrictions. If they do not, the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• Champions from the same event year may not be placed adjacent to each other. For the purposes of this restriction, non-event Champions all count as being from the same year. If this restriction is not followed, the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• Complete Area 1975

Light of Xaryxis

Who Lurks Below?

Variant: Mastery - Pie in the Sky

Set sail into Wildspace while watching for falling pies.

• Squiddly riding a rocket joins the formation. His rocket is looking a little rickety, and he needs some strong folks to help him hold it together.
• Only Champions with a STR score of 15 or higher can be placed adjacent to Squiddly
• Only Champions with a CHA score of 15 or higher can be placed non-adjacent to Squiddly
• The formation must have a combined INT score of 125 or higher, or else the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• A Space Clown Ringmaster spawns in each boss area.
• As soon as it has spawned, and until it is defeated, the Space Clown Ringmaster causes giant Cream Pies to fall on the entire formation every 5 seconds, dealing 50% of each Champion's max health and having a chance to stun them for 30 seconds. Each Champion has a chance to take half damage and resist the stun based on their CON score.
• Complete Area 2075

Turn of Fortune's Wheel

Welcome to Sigil

Variant: Mastery - Finding Your Balance

Explore Sigil and learn more about the predicament you find yourself in.

• Your formation MUST contain ONLY one Champion of each alignment. If it does not, the damage of all Champions is set to 0.
• If you are running this variant with Mirt enabled, three slots in the formation are taken up by Fools.
• The slot opposite to the forced empty slot in the formation is marked as "Unbalanced".
• In each boss area, either a Herald of the Dust boss or a Sivak Draconian boss spawns alongside the boss, and must also be defeated to continue.
• Only Good Champions can deal damage to the additional Draconian boss.
• Only the Champion in the Unbalanced formation slot can deal damage to the additional Herald of the Dust boss.
• Complete Area 2175

New Legendary Feat

With 8 new Mastery Variants available today, players can earn another Legendary Feat from the Mastery Shop, choosing from Drizzt, Pwent, and Wulfgar. Three more play-reward Legendary Feats will be added to the Mastery Shop in October. In the meantime, a new Legendary Feat for Eric, from the Saturday Morning Squad, is available today via DLC!

Eric

Weekend Warrior - Level 1: Eric increases the effect of his Trait specialization by 100% for each 5% of his current Corrupted Gem Scavenger cap that he has collected. Once all Champions in the formation have knocked back enemies at least 60 times in the current area, Eric's second specialization ability gains 1 additional stack(s). The requirement is reduced by a static 5 if it's the weekend (ie. a Weekend Promo Buff is active).

• Per Level Adjustment:
• x2 damage buff per Feat level
• -5 stacks required to activate additional buff
• Second spec buff additional stacks +0.33 (note: rounds to nearest)
  • Note: This rounds to the nearest whole stack number, to a max of +4 at Level 9 & 10

• Caps at level 10

We Want YOUR Feedback

We're interested in hearing what you think of today's Mastery Variants, and the changes we're making to Mastery Variants today and in the future. Join our community on one of our official platforms and let us know what you think!

• The Official Idle Champions Discord.
• The Official Idle Champions Subreddit.
• Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Bluesky, or Instagram.