Introduction

Welcome to my first published Steam guide. In this guide I will attempt to show you the best way to farm gems. I will be making a few assumptions.

1. You have a general knowledge of the game.
2. You have the Modron Core unlocked.
3. You have the Champions named unlocked. If you don’t have them unlocked you can just disregard their mention. No Speed champions mentioned have alternatives.

I will continue to update and work on this guide. I am publishing now to get the information out there. I will optimize the guide over time.

Why Farm Gems

Gems are the main resource of the game. With gems you can buy Chests which have gear for your Champions and other useful items. You can purchase Familiars with gems which allow you to automate more of the game. The more familiars you have unlocked, the better your gem farm will be, You can also purchase a second Modron Core in order to have three parties, two of which will be automated.

Set Up

The best variant to run for gem farming is The Mad Wizard in A Grand Tour of the Sword Coast. This is the variant we will be using.

The first step will be figuring out your Click Damage wall. In order to find this you want to put one Familiar on the field and one familiar upgrading your click damage. Let this run until your click damage stops instantly killing the mobs. Make a note of the last boss level where your click damage was still instantly killing, this will be your reset level.

At this stage you are also going to want to save your formation with your champions and familiars in it.

Speed Champions

These are the most important champions for gem farming. In this section I am listing the Specialization choice for speed and the Feats that boost speed. The effectiveness and priority order will be different for each player based on champion unlocks, Feat unlocks, and item levels.

Deekin, Slot 1:

• Mechanic: Increased Enemy Spawn Speed
• Specialization: Boss Wants Speed
• Feat: Overconfidence (Gold Chests)
• Item: n/a

Sentry, Slot 4:

• Mechanic: Decreased Quest Requirements
• Specialization: Echo’s Will
• Feat: n/a
• Item: Slot 3, max effectiveness at 600%

Shandie, Slot 6:

• Mechanic: Increased Game Speed
• Specialization: Ranger Training
• Feat: n/a
• Item: n/a

Hew Maan, Slot 8:

• Mechanic: Increased Quest Progress
• Specialization: Impressive Coatwork
• Feat: Walking Lessons (Gems)
• Item: Slot 4, unknown max

Havilar, Slot 10:

• Mechanic: Increased Quest Progress
• Specialization: n/a
• Feat: n/a
• Item: n/a

Melf, Slot 12:

• Mechanic: Increased Enemy Spawn Speed, Increased Quest Progress, Increased Enemies Spawned Per Wave
• Specialization: Extra Supplements
• Feat: Rushed Plans (Gold Chests)
• Item: Slot 4, no max

Briv (Slot 5), Xander (Slot 5), and Minsc (Slot 7) are all considered speed champions. They are not useful for the 100% automated gem farm in my opinion. I have listed why under the “Extra Information” section.

My personal order of priority is the following. Remember that this can change based on your own unlocks and item levels.

1. Deekin
2. Shandie
3. Melf
4. Sentry
5. Hew Maan
6. Havilar

 

Extra Champions

The Champions in this section do not have Speed boosting abilities but help to get through the armored stage faster. The armored stage in each run is 14, 64, 114, etc. The Champions are listed in order of effectiveness. I have not included any Champions that share a slot with a Speed mechanic. Only the best Champion in each slot has been mentioned, with one exception.

Hitch, Slot 8:

• Specialization: More Daggers
• Feat: Excess Dagger Storage (Strahd)
• Effectiveness: Removes 2.77 armored segment(s) per second.
• Extra Info: n/a

Binwin, Slot 3:

• Effectiveness: Removes 1.90 armored segment(s) per second.
• Extra Info: n/a

Farideh, Slot 7:

• Effectiveness: Removes 1.17 armored segment(s) per second.
• Extra Info: Slot conflicts with Black Viper. Farideh is better for Speed. See Black Viper for more information.

Qillek, Slot 5:

• Effectiveness: Removes 1.00 armored segment(s) per second.
• Extra Info: n/a

Birdsong, Slot 9:

• Effectiveness: Removes 1.00 armored segment(s) per second.
• Extra Info: n/a

Black Viper, Slot 7:

• Specialization: Collector
• Effectiveness: Removes 0.76 armored segment(s) per second.
• Extra Info: When Black Viper is in your party there is a chance for the gem bags from bosses to drop a special Red Gem. Black Viper collects these to increase her effectiveness. Currently there is not a benefit to collecting past her last upgrade at 6500 Red Gems. I keep collecting them for fun as she seemingly collects them forever. As mentioned above, Farideh is the optimal choice by a slight margin.

 

Method

The minimum requirements for the automated gem farm is 2 familiars, 100% optimized farm is 15 familiars. Each additional familiar beyond 2 just speeds up your farm. It is perfectly acceptable to work your way up over time.

Start a Mad Wizard free play. Put one familiar on the field and one on your click damage. The next step is putting familiars on each of the champions you will be using. I would prioritize champions like this.

1. Deekin
2. Melf
3. Shandie
4. Sentry
5. Hew Maan
6. Havilar
7. Binwin
8. Black Viper

You will click your Modron Core and select Setup Automation. Select your saved Gem Farm formation. Pick your champions specializations. Also enable “Set Area Goal” and have it reset at whatever level you figured out during Set Up.

Havilar must have her imp follower summoned in order to get the speed buff. The proper imp is the first one that gets summoned when using her ultimate, Dembo (bright red). If you keep a familiar on Havilar’s ult she will continue to sacrifice her imps and summon the next one, this is bad. Use the ult once so that Havilar has the proper imp out when you save your formation.

Above your click damage you have the option to change how you level up your champions. If you have this set to “x100” Havilar will keep the proper imp out through all of your resets. You don’t need a familiar on her ult, and this will allow her to provide her speed buff as much as possible. If you set the level option to “Upg” (upgrade) Havilar will NOT keep the proper imp. You need to run with x100 at all times.

Formations & Specializations

Minimalist Formation: (8 Familiars)

		Melf – Extra Supplements
	Shandie – Ranger Training		Hew Maan – Impressive Coatwork
Sentry – Echo’s Will		(empty slot)		Havilar – Mastery of Battle
	(empty slot)		Deekin – Boss Wants Speed
		(empty slot)

My Formation: (15 Familiars)

		Melf – Extra Supplements
	Shandie – Ranger Training		Hew Maan – Impressive Coatwork
Sentry – Echo’s Will		Birdsong – Soloist / Theme of Consideration		Havilar – Mastery of Battle
	Black Viper – Collector		Deekin – Boss Wants Speed
		Binwin – More Minions

Kiransalee’s Formation: (16 Familiars)
OUT OF DATE

		Shandie – Ranger Training
	Birdsong – Theme of Consideration/Soloist		Melf – Extra Supplements
Sentry – Echo’s Will		Spurt – Kobold Family		Briv – Metalborn
	Deekin – Boss Wants Speed		Havilar – Mastery of Battle
		Korth – Rapid Training

 

Patron Mirt

Mirt Formation: (X Familiars)

		Melf – Extra Supplements
	Shandie – Ranger Training		Hew Maan – Impressive Coatwork
Sentry – Echo’s Will		(empty slot)		Havilar – Mastery of Battle
	(empty slot)
		Binwin – More Minions

 

Extra Information

Briv, Xander and Minsc are considered Speed champions but are absolutely useless for the automated gem farm.

Minsc Assessment:

(credit to Kiransalee)
Idle Champions spawns enemies in ‘waves’. Each wave on a non-boss zones consists of 1-3 enemies, which spawn in rapid succession from one another (three enemy waves are rare).The next wave of enemies spawns when 1 of 2 conditions are met: A short delay from when all enemies from the previous wave are killed. 5 seconds have passed.”

From this we have some observations why Minsc is bad as a speed Champion.Facts:

1. Minsc has a 10% chance of summoning one extra enemy on a wave, and a 2% chance of summoning 2 extra enemies.
2. Waves are 1-3 mobs.
3. Usually the mobs of a wave arrive sequentially, not simultaneously (not in the quote above but mentioned in the longer reddit article).
4. Clearing a wave causes the next wave to spawn after a quick delay.
5. Not all procs of Minsc’s ability will happen in stages where the proc is useful.Deductions:
6. When we add an additional mob spawn in a wave, we increase the amount of time it’ll take to spawn the next wave. Each mob enters the screen sequentially as part of a wave. The next wave won’t start to spawn until the prior wave is destroyed or 5 seconds has passed. So by summoning an additional mob we increase the time of the wave. I believe the summoning works as a time saver but it does extend another time saving mechanism at the same time (extending the spawn time of the next wave).
7. Summons 2 additional mobs compounds this delay.Consider interactions with other champions:
8. Deekin (/Melf 33% of the time) causes enemies to become targetable faster once they are on the screen but they don’t make the wave sequence happen faster.
9. By reducing “Kill X Monsters” or “Collect Y Things” area requirements, Sentry reduces the viability of increased summoning. Also, the more monsters that spawn in a native wave (1-3) the less likely an additional monster spawns is going to be an efficient speed up mechanism.
10. Havilar’s first Imp ULT (+Melf 33% of the time) also significantly decreases wave duration of fiend waves (When Melf has his version it applies broadly), giving Minsc less opportunities to be useful.
11. 2 of Melf’s 3 speed mechanisms have a complicated relationship with Minsc. My Melf has a 380% increase to his speed mechanic. So when he summons additional enemies he summons an additional 3-4 enemies. This ends stages fairly quickly. When Melf multiplies an individual kill’s collection value a kill counts as 4 or 5 kills for collection purposes.
12. Melf and Sentry together greatly diminish Minsc’s opportunities. If I need 17 X or Y to complete a stage, then a Melf who summons more enemies summons 4-7 enemies, which means I need 3 to 5 waves to clear an area. If I need 17 X or Y to complete a stage, then a Melf who collect more per kill only needs 4 or 5 collections to complete an area, which is 2 to 5 waves. Minsc only has 2 to 5 opportunities to be useful here, if he happens to proc his ability at a useful time.
13. Melf, Havilar, and Sentry combined mechanisms make it possible to complete an area with Fiends in one wave. Nothing Minsc will do here helps.

 

I hope you enjoy the Guide we share about Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms – Optimized Modron Automated Gem Farming; if you think we forget to add or we should add more information, please let us know via commenting below! See you soon!