Descent: Champions

Descent: Champions is an hour-long race league introduced in Season Five. A 40-minute version is the signature event for Season Eight, with a separate leaderboard for Descent: Champions racers.

The race is similar to Descent and uses many aspects of roguelike games. Characters enter a dungeon and fight their way through 15 levels, meeting increasingly tougher foes on the way down to the bottom level where a final boss awaits. Although Descent is a hardcore race, dead characters are still eligible to receive race rewards.

The race temporarily returned during the last month of version 2.6.X as the deployment of the major expansion, version 3.0.0, has been delayed. The race was deployed in parallel with the close beta of version 3.0.0

Differences
Like Descent, Champions is a significant departure from the other race leagues. Here is a rundown of the main differences.

Differences from Descent

 * Descent: Champions uses different areas with new bosses. There are also multiple paths and optional side-areas, while Descent has a linear area progression.
 * The inclusion of more game features such as map modifiers, passive skill point rewards, etc.
 * Custom unique items that are exclusive to Descent: Champions.

Interaction with other leagues and players

 * No partying is possible. A Descent: Champions race is purely a solo experience.
 * At the end of the race, surviving characters join the dead characters in to a Void league and become unplayable. Items cannot be transferred to Standard or any other league.

Area differences

 * There is no town area or vendor, and therefore no reason to pick up valuable items that you won't use.
 * Descent: Champions areas have their own unique names and themes. They are based on existing tilesets and are similar to endgame maps.
 * Once a character enters the next area, they can't go back. If you log out during the race, your character will respawn at the beginning of the current area.
 * There are no waypoints or any other quick means to travel between areas. You cannot skip any levels, aside from running through and ignoring monsters.
 * Some areas (Shrine of the Pagan God, The Cage, The Glittering Cave, The Glittering Crypt and The Nexus) contain unique bosses similar to their map counterparts, but unlike most maps, these areas are just boss rooms
 * Some areas contain rogue exiles, but these are different from the usual ones and do not spawn at random

Difficulty and ladder positioning

 * Descent: Champions doesn't use the same "Normal—Cruel—Merciless" difficulty system where areas repeat with increasing difficulty, but instead switches to Cruel and Merciless resistance penalties (-20% and -60% respectively) starting with certain areas.
 * Areas from The Entrance Hall to The Cage are considered Normal, The Necromantic Crypt to The Glittering Cave/The Glittering Crypt are Cruel, and The Inner Halls Level 1 to The Nexus are Merciless.
 * If a character dies during the race, it can still hold a position on that race's ladder, marked accordingly.
 * If a character dies in a Cruel or Merciless area, it is subject to experience loss, which is applied before the final experience value is put on the ladder.

Gear and drops

 * Item drop rates are improved compared to other leagues. The exact differences are unknown.
 * There is no stash and no vendors to trade items with. Everything that may be of use must be used or carried in inventory; any items that you won't use are only a burden.
 * Some equipment and currency is provided via special chests in each area.

Special chests
Each area has a chest at the beginning except for the boss areas. These chests contain useful items such as flasks, skill gems, equipment, and crafting currency. The contents of each chest are predetermined and depend on the character class and the area they're located in: see Descent: Champions Chests for a complete list of items.

Because the race has multiple paths, players cannot open every chest and should strategically choose their route.

Unique item chests
At the start of the race—after the first provisions chest—there are two chests containing special unique items. Each chest vanishes after one item has been removed from it, so players may only take one item from each chest. Each item has three white linked sockets.