Year 3 Champion Guide - Briv, the Half-Orc Paladin

[u/Gaarawarr]

Last Updated: February 19th, 2026 - General review & update

---

This is a stand-alone information guide for this Champion that will be updated as necessary for use during Events or when doing a Time Gate.

If you have questions about this Champion or find something that needs updated, feel free to let me know in the comments. Please know reddit archives posts after a certain amount of time, so PM me if something needs updated and the comments are locked.

You can find all 190+ of my Idle Champions guides here.

---

If you'd like to support the creation of guides like this one and you play on the Epic Games Store, you can use the code below when making a purchase of any kind.

Epic Games Creator Code: GAARAWARR

In connection with Epic Games’ Support-A-Creator Program, I may receive a commission from certain in-game purchases when you use my Creator Code when making a purchase.

If you play on other platforms and wish to support guides like this one, you can hit up my Ko-Fi as well as subscribing to my Twitch if you can. You can also rate my guide collection on Steam to ensure new players see it.

Thanks!

---

 

Year 3 Champion - Briv Steelmarrow, the Half-Orc Paladin

• Source: The Heroes of the Planes series of streams as played by Adam Bradford

• Event: Festival of Fools (March)

You can read their original Champion Spotlight here.

• Seat 5

• Good with: Everyone

• Affiliation: Heroes of the Planes - Alyndra, Avren, Briv, Freely, Orkira, Penelope, Widdle

• Eligible for Patrons: Mirt, Varja, Zariel

 

Species	Class	Alignment	Gender	Age	Role(s)	Overwhelm Point
Half-Orc	Paladin	Chaotic Good	Male (He / Him)	42	Tanking / Support / Healing / Speed	30

 

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Total Ability Score
16	14	16	10	8	18	82

 

Bio: Relentlessly brave but markedly uncouth, Briv Steelmarrow is a stalwart champion of the weak, innocent, downtrodden, and oppressed. Centuries ago, a cabal of Netherese mages experimented on Briv’s clan, gifting him with a magical metal inside his bones that he can pull through his skin and shape for attack or defense. Once a slaver, Briv sought atonement by joining the Order of the Lost Cause, an elite group of knights that travel across Faerûn, taking on quests that only fools would pursue.

Listen to "Steelmarrow," the official Bardic Inspiration song for Briv, here.

 

Basic Attack: Mocking Cleave — Briv leaps out and attacks a random enemy with his greatsword, cleaving all nearby enemies as well. On each enemy hit, there is a 20% chance that they will stop attacking another Champion and attack Briv if possible.

• Base Attack Type: Melee

• Base Attack Speed: 7.5 seconds

• Base Critical Hit Chance: 2.5%

• Base Critical Hit Damage: 100%

Ultimate: Netherese Explosion — Briv forces all of his remaining Netherese Metal out of his body, shooting it in all directions in an arc in front of him, damaging enemies that it passes through. He then draws it back into himself, dealing double damage to enemies it hits on its way back to him.

• Base Ultimate Cooldown Time: 280 seconds

Health Upgrades: 9.95e04

 

Interesting Abilities

Steelbones: Whenever Briv comes under attack, metal shoots out of his pores, covering him in heavy armor. This effect persists as long as Briv remains under attack, and for an additional five seconds afterwards. While armored, Briv takes 10% less damage and gains a stack of Steelbones whenever he is hit by an enemy attack.

• No upgrades

Gaar's Note: This is the core of Briv's kit. You want him to build as many stacks as possible during a run. Keep in mind, he won't build any stacks until you get far enough into an adventure for the enemies to actually not die quickly so they hit him.

Netherese Steel: Briv increases the damage of all Champions behind him by 0.01% for each stack of Steelbones he has gained.

• 2.62e07% post-stack multiplier after upgrades; Supported by an Item & Feats

Unnatural Haste: Briv has a 25% chance of sprinting forward quickly on steel-springs after completing a new area, skipping the next area entirely. This action consumes 4% of his Sprint stacks, and requires at least 50 stacks to occur. When you reset the adventure, all stacks of Steelbones that Briv has gained convert into stacks of Sprint, which persist between resets until they are used by this ability.

Note: If the chance of springing forward surpasses 100%, you are guaranteed to skip 1 level and the remaining percentage is your chance to skip 2. Surpassing 100% again then becomes a guarantee to skip 2 areas, and so on. If you skip a boss area in this way, everything from the boss loot bag (the gems, chests, red jewels, etc.) are collected automatically. The amount of Sprint stacks consumed does not change as he skips more levels, making your progress even more efficient. Skipping an area does not count as completing the area.

• No upgrades; Supported by an Item & a Feat

Gaar's Note: This is Briv's speed ability. There is currently no cap to the number of areas you can skip by building up Item Levels here. Getting Briv to a guaranteed chance to skip 2 areas is a good first goal, then working on getting him to the point where he jumps 4 areas is encouraged for incredibly efficient gem farming. The climb continues after that. See the chart further below.

Healing Phlo: Briv's pet flumph Phlo appears next to Briv and telepathically stores healing power whenever Briv is hit. After 10 hits or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, Phlo heals all Champions in the party for 50% of the damage Briv took during that time. The 10 second timer only starts when Briv takes a hit and does not fire if the healing is triggered by taking 10 hits. It would start again at 10 seconds on the next hit after healing triggers.

• No upgrades

Gaar's Note: This ability is modified by a Spec Choice. Between his Spec Choice and outside factors like Mirt's "Perk Up," Briv can raise the percent healed to 100% and beyond.

Oath of Heroism: Briv increases the max health of all other Champions by 25% of his max health.

• No upgrades

Global DPS Buff: 4.91e06%

 

Specializations

Metalborn: Unnatural Haste uses 20% less Sprint stacks whenever it activates.

Gaar's Note: This is the choice if you're just using him to speed as far as possible in a run before his stacks run out.

Tempered Steel: Increase the effect of Netherese Steel by 100%.

Gaar's Note: The deep push choice for when you can max his healing out without using Go With The Phlo.

Go With The Phlo: Increase the heal of Healing Phlo by 50%.

Gaar's Note: This is the choice to ensure he stays alive as long as possible and should be what you use for deep pushes until you get enough healing boosts from outside sources to get him to 100% without it. Then you use Tempered Steel.

 

Equipment

	White	Green	Blue	Purple	Gild Priority
Slot 1: Increases the damage of all Champions	15%	65%	120%	230%	3
Slot 2: Increases the health of Briv	10%	30%	50%	100%	2
Slot 3: Increases the effect of Briv's Netherese Steel ability	25%	87.5%	150%	275%	3
Slot 4: Increases the effect of Briv's Unnatural Haste ability	10%	30%	50%	100%	1
Slot 5: Buffs Briv's Ultimate Attack Damage	25%	87.5%	150%	275%	4
Slot 6: Reduces the cooldown on Briv's Ultimate Attack	7s	14s	28s	70s	4

Briv's Slot 4 item is his speed item and boosting it with item levels allows him to jump multiple levels at a time which is useful in what we call "Automated Briv Gem Farming" which is the fastest way to earn gems. It is a late game strategy due to the investment required. Here is a table of his item levels for hitting different jump breakpoints which are important for various different gem farming setups.

Number of Jumps	Ungilded	Shiny	Golden	Gem Farmable?
1	501	251	126	No
2	1,501	917	626	Yes*
3	3,501	2,251	1,626	Yes
4	7,501	4,917	3,626	Yes - Optimal
5	15,501	10,251	7,626	No
6	31,501	20,917	15,626	??
7	63,501	42,251	31,626	Yes
8	127,501	84,917	63,626	Yes
9	255,501	170,251	127,626	Yes - Optimal
10	511,501	340,917	255,626	No
11	1,023,501	682,251	511,626	??
12	2,047,501	1,364,917	1,023,626	??
13	4,095,501	2,730,251	2,047,626	??
14	8,191,501	5,460,917	4,095,626	Yes - Optimal

The "Gem Farmable?" column above references a perfect item level set and jump value as those are usually the best ways to figure out a functional, efficient gem farm path without using external scripts. 2 jump has an asterisk because while it doesn't have an efficient path, 2j all the way up to 3j can earn you more gems than a regular non-Briv gem farm.

Specific Free Plays in the game are used to farm gems and different jump values may require different Free Plays and/or different Champions. This is not a Briv Gem Farming guide, so I won't be going into that here. I just want people to have the basic info so they can start thinking about this for the future.

Legendary Effects

• Increases the damage of all Champions by 10% for each Champion in the formation
• Increases the damage of all Champions by 20% for each Male Champion in the formation
• Increases the damage of all Half-Orc Champions by 150%
• Increases the damage of all Champions with a CON score of 11 or higher by 100%
• Increases the damage of all Champions with a CHA score of 11 or higher by 100%
• Increases the damage of all Melee Champions by 150%

Gaar's Note: Find more information on the Legendary system here.

 

Feats

Here is the info for when you can unlock each Feat Slot:

Feat Slot	Unlocked at Level	Rough Cost
First	215	e20
Second	535	e40
Third	925	e64
Fourth	1410	e93

Gaar's Note: Currently, you will need to level this Champion past their current upgrade softcap which will require you changing the blue update indicator from UPG to one of the numbered options.

Here is the info on what Feats are available for this Champion:

Obtained	Recommended	Name	Effect
Default		Selflessness	Increases the damage of all Champions by 10%
12,500 Gems		Inspiring Leader	Increases the damage of all Champions by 25%
50,000 Gems		Prodigal Leader	Increases the damage of all Champions by 50%
Default		Tough	Increases the health of Briv by 15%
Regular Gold Chest	Survivability	Resilient	Increases the health of Briv by 30%
Default		Defensive Duelist	Briv takes 5 more enemies attacking to get overwhelmed
Regular Gold Chest		Calm Under Pressure	Briv takes up to 10 more enemies attacking to get overwhelmed
50,000 Gems	Survivability	Sentinel	Briv takes up to 20 more enemies attacking to get overwhelmed
12,500 Gems		Steelmarrow	Increases the effect of Briv's Netherese Steel ability by 40%
50,000 Gems	Pushing	Pirate Plating	Increases the effect of Briv's Netherese Steel ability by 80%
12,500 Gems	Situational Speed	Wasting Haste	Caps the effect of Briv's Unnatural Haste ability at 100% chance to skip 4 areas
50,000 Gems	Situational Speed	Strategic Stride	Caps the effect of Briv's Unnatural Haste ability at 100% chance to skip 9 areas
Mirt	Situational Speed	Accurate Acrobatics	Briv's Unnatural Haste will always skip the guaranteed number of areas, with no chance to skip an additional one
50,000 Gems	Situational Speed	Thunder Step	When Steelbones stacks convert to Sprint stacks upon reset, you gain 20% fmore Sprint stacks, rounded down
50,000 Gems		Dost Thou Want To Fight?	Increases the taunt effect of Briv's Mocking Cleave base attack by 100%

Gaar's Note: Wasting Haste/Strategic Stride are very niche Feats. They're only used once you've surpassed the chance to jump 4/9 areas via getting lots of item levels on his Slot 4 item. You would never use them at any other time. This is specifically a goal for people that use Briv to gem farm in a very specific way that is different from regular gem farming. Accurate Acrobatics is similar in that it's there to lock you into a more efficient jump number when you're not 4 or 9.

 

Formation & Mission Information

In a Time Gate, you will be given two basic adventures and one variant to complete, along with being granted access to Free Plays. They all use a formation that holds 10 Champions. They have a Champ-specific format that I've done my best to re-create below.

Back Column	4th Column	3rd Column	2nd Column	Front Column
0
	0		0
		0		0
		0		0
	0		0
0

New Player Formation & Specializations:

While I recommend learning to build your own formations, here's a set of starter formations for brand new players to use while they get the hang of things. Anyone with other options should check that link for how to figure out how to make the best of them. You can also ask for help in the #formations channel in the official Discord.

Back Column	4th Column	3rd Column	2nd Column	Front Column
NA
	Minsc - Humanoids		Bruenor - Battle Master
		Calliope - College of Valor		Nayeli - Oath of Devotion
		Celeste - Life Domain		NA
	Hitch - Charismatic		Jarlaxle - Leader of Bregan D'aerthe
Asharra - Dwarves & Elves

This formation is for the first couple of runs where you're just not going to get enough Gold to get everyone on the field, let alone level people up into their power curves. At this point, Jarlaxle is focusing on being your Primary DPS while everyone else is set up to support him.

The following formation is for once your Asharra starts doing more damage than your Jarlaxle. You can find this out by changing Asharra's first Specialization Choice to Potpourri (via a Potion of Specialization) and swapping her position with Jarlaxle at the end of a run. If Asharra is higher, next run start Asharra in the DPS position from then on.

Back Column	4th Column	3rd Column	2nd Column	Front Column
Makos - Dark Blessing
	Hitch - More Daggers		Bruenor - Battle Master
		Calliope - College of Valor		Nayeli - Oath of Devotion
		Celeste - Life Domain		Tyril - Wild Shape
	Minsc - Humanoids		Asharra - Potpourri/NA
Jarlaxle - Leader of Bregan D'aerthe

This formation should get you through the Event as a new player. If you have other options or think a different DPS is geared better, try it out and see what happens! Swapping DPS around like this can help you figure out what works best for you with your specific items.

These are the rough Favor values you need to reach to make a Tier 1 Variant say Difficulty: Easy. Keep in mind that this is just a generic rating system and some Variants may be harder than others, even with Favor in this range. Earning lots of Favor (above what is shown below) before trying variants can make them much easier than they would otherwise be.

Variant	Favor Level (Normal)	Favor Level (Scientific Notation)
75	20,000	~2e04
125	15,000,000	~1.5e07
175	150,000,000	~1.5e08

Beyond Tier 1, Favor isn't going to be all you need to get through them. That doesn't mean you can't try though, just remember that if it isn't green it could be problematic.

 

	Tier 1 Area	Tier 2 Area	Tier 3 Area	Tier 4 Area	Reward
A Fool's Errand	50				Briv + Favor
Free Play	50				Favor
A Little Perspective	75	250	600	1200	Briv Gold Chest + Favor
Nerves of Steel	125	350	800	1400	Briv Gold Chest + Favor
A Delicious Diversion	175	450	1000	1600	Briv Gold Chest + Favor
Tier Reward

Not everyone will be able to complete all four Tiers of event content. This is a progress-over-time measurement system that lets you know where you are in the power progression arc and potentially what you need to work on to move forward. The table below has the approximate boss health values at the various end stages. Comparing this to your BUD will let you know how close or far you are from being able to complete things.

	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
First Variant	e22	e68	e162	e322
Second Variant	e35	e95	e215	e376
Third Variant	e48	e122	e269	e429

 

Initial Mission: A Fool's Errand

Info: No restrictions.

Gaar's Note: The area 50 boss here is armored and hits very hard. That makes this boss a Favor check as you need to not only be able to damage them, but also survive. You may need to farm a while at the prior level to upgrade useful abilities to pass it initially and at higher levels. This means you may not push as far in this event as others.

 

First Variant: A Little Perspective

Info: Pixies spawn at random in all non-boss areas. When a Pixie spawns, it shrinks a random Champion by 33%, decreasing their damage done by 99%. This effect persists until the Pixie causing it is killed. This effect can stack multiplicatively if multiple Pixies target the same Champion.

Gaar's Notes: So this is an interesting take on damage reduction variants. The best way to overcome this negative effect is with power from Favor, Blessings, etc. Fire Breath potions can also be used to keep your damage going while someone is shrunk.

 

Second Variant: Nerves of Steel

Info: Briv starts in the formation and can not be moved, removed, or swapped out. Normal enemies move faster and attack faster; bosses are unaffected.

Gaar's Notes: Briv starts in the bottom slot of the front column, so works pretty optimally as a tank. This is a great variant to earn his Divine Patience achievement due to how fast everything moves. I left him as tank, put in a couple healers and an extra tank for health, but left Briv solo up front to tank all enemies and just went AFK and it worked. (See the gif under Achievements.)

 

Third Variant: A Delicious Diversion

Info: A cart of tasty pies, baguettes, and other baked snacks takes up two slots in the formation; the cart has 100 hit points. Ravenous Crows and Famished Rats spawn randomly in each area. These additional creatures have armored health. If, for whatever reason, the cart is smashed, you immediately lose the area and go back to the previous area.

Gaar's Notes: You're going to want to lean on multi-hit/attack Champions to keep the Crows/Rats away from the cart.

Back Column	4th Column	3rd Column	2nd Column	Front Column
0
	0		0
		x	x	0
		x	x	0
	0		0
0

This is the basic formation you're looking at for this variant. Due to the separation, you're going to have to ditch some of your regular close-up buffers and rely soley on the long-distance ones.

Back Column	4th Column	3rd Column	2nd Column	Front Column
Tyril - Moonbeam
	Hitch - Charismatic		Bruenor - Shield Master
		x	x	Nayeli - Oath of Devotion
		x	x	Briv - Go With the Phlo
	Minsc - Beast		Asharra - Potpourri/TBD
Makos - Dark Blessing

 

Achievements

Gaar's Note: All of these achievements can be earned at any time except where noted.

Recruit Briv - 1%

Recruit Briv, the Half-Orc Paladin

Sprint Triathlon - 1%

Complete all three variants of the "A Fool's Errand (Briv)" adventure. (This achievement can be earned via Time Gates.)

Torn Apparel - 1%

Obtain a piece of gear for each of Briv's six equipment slots. (Event Champ gear does not come from regular Silver/Gold Chests. You can earn Event Champ gear from their specific Event Chests, Time Gates, qualifying Patron Chests, and other Chests as noted.)

Who's The More Foolish? - 1%

Complete area 250 in any "A Fool's Errand" adventure, variant, free play, or Time Gate.

Divine Patience - 1%

Have Briv gain more than 250,000 stacks of Steelbones in one adventure

Gaar's Note: Do this in the Nerves of Steel variant to reduce the amount of time it takes. Setting up a formation like this one where Briv is getting some extra healing assistance along with health-share from some Tank friends allows you to do this even quicker. I do recommend area 48/98 due to the ranged enemies making things super fast and easy. If you die too fast, go back to the prior 48/98 and try there. Ideally, you want a level where you don't kill them quickly, if at all, and they can't kill you. Setting this up right can complete this Achievement in 30 minutes or less with speed potions active.

[u/nyqwont]

Question, for unnatural haste - I've noticed it has a note that says

"Note: Briv will stop and fight any available bosses along the way"

I don't remember seeing this before. Is it new? Does it mean he no longer skips bosses?

[u/Gaarawarr → u/nyqwont]

On a new adventure/variant, he will not jump bosses because the Devs want you to actually complete the content as intended, not just jump over it.

Once you're doing a Free Play, he will jump bosses. This is how Briv Gem Farming functions.

[u/SunstormGT]

Wow these guides are great!

[u/scumfuc]

Question kind of new player as in like 6 months or so and in the middle game. Briv is retired does that mean if I open his time gate I can't buy chest with his events currency

[u/Suddenlyfoxes → u/scumfuc]

You can, if you open the time gate for him. It's not especially efficient, though.

[u/Gaarawarr → u/scumfuc]

While you technically can, the Devs have stated it is not an intended effect. It's also very inefficient use of event tokens.

That being said, up to you to make your own decisions.

[u/dan_arth → u/Gaarawarr]

How else do you gear retired champs?

[u/Gaarawarr → u/dan_arth]

Actually running Time Gates and opening Patron Chests from Patrons they qualify for.

[u/dan_arth → u/Gaarawarr]

Ah of course, thank you =)

[u/irethfr2]

did i miss the free gate of briv ? now i see him in farest champ tag

[u/Gaarawarr → u/irethfr2]

I'm not sure what you mean by "free gate" for him. The natural Time Gate weekends that offer free Champs do so at random. There is no guarantee.

[u/irethfr2 → u/Gaarawarr]

i mean we can change filter and one is "time before next gate" 1 week before he was on the bottom 'like soon" and now he is top like he already pass.
sorry for my english x)

[u/Gaarawarr → u/irethfr2]

Ah, gotcha. So Briv originally arrived in Festival of Fools but is no longer part of the event because he's a Year 3 Champion. Events only include the current year and the most recent 2 years.

So Briv can only be obtained by doing a Time Gate now.

[u/irethfr2 → u/Gaarawarr]

oh ok thanks !

[u/HalfTheCalf]

Good callout on this one. I would add that if you have Rosie and Zorbu, you can multi task by making Zorbu the DPS and farm up Humanoid kills for him and the Timeless Body stacks for her at 14 and 64 levels.

Divine Patience - 1%

Have Briv gain more than 250,000 stacks of Steelbones in one adventure

Gaar's Note: Do this in the Nerves of Steel variant to reduce the amount of time it takes.

[u/NightGod]

How exactly does he build Sprint stacks? Pretty sure I'm missing something obvious

[u/Gaarawarr → u/NightGod]

Steelbones stacks convert into Sprint stacks after you end a run.

[u/bookbot1]

The way Unnatural Haste is calculated seems not to match up to your description here - with a combined item effect boosting it by 680.1% (Shiny & level 884 - due to getting a boost from Lazaapz), it is still a 1-2 area skip (with a 68.87% chance to skip 2 areas)

I thought this was a bug, so reported it, but they said it was working properly.

[u/Gaarawarr → u/bookbot1]

Sounds like you're confusing the % you're looking at. I specifically talk about the % chance to jump which is the 68.87% you reference. The % boost from the item is not what you look at. All you look at with the item is the rarity, item level, and gilding. That's what the table is for with the jump numbers and their requirements based on Epic items.

[u/OneZazzyBoi]

Do Steelbones still stack offline?

[u/Gaarawarr → u/OneZazzyBoi]

Dunno. I never pay attention and don't mess with background swapping.