Deceptively simple in design but epically engaging, Hearthstone will be instantly accessible to players regardless of their familiarity with Warcraft or collectible card games. Whether players prefer to wield magic or arms in battle, strike from the shadows or head on—or have never given any of that much thought—they’ll be able to jump right in, create a deck, and get in on the card-slinging action.
In addition to honing their skills in practice matches against the computer and taking on their buddies via their Battle.net friends list, players can challenge each other in two competitive game modes. “Play Mode” features traditional head-to-head battles, with players facing off for a chance to increase their medal ranking and earn card packs along the way. And for a different type of challenge, players can enter “The Forge,” where they start each match by building a deck from a new set of cards, and then use that deck to duel other Forge participants. Aside from winning new cards, players will be able to round out their collections by purchasing new card packs or disenchanting some of their existing cards to craft the ones they’re missing.
With hundreds of cards to choose from, featuring a wide range of colorful Warcraft spells, weapons, and characters, players will have limitless possibilities for developing and fine-tuning their deck-building strategies.
Battlegrounds Season 4 is coming soon, with Patch 26.2. Starting on May 9, Buddies are taking a break and E.T.C.’s World Tour is coming to Battlegrounds, with a new hero and a stadium full of new minions!
New Hero – Rockmaster VooneVoone is the frontliner to the show, and he’s ready to rock! Every third turn, his passive Hero Power gives you a plain copy of the left-most card in your hand. Time the beat to get your best card in perfect harmony!
New Upbeat Minions
Voone’s not the only upbeat artist hitting the stage. “Upbeat” minions are minions that have special effects that trigger every few turns that they’re in play. The longer you have them in play, the more times their effects trigger. These minions really put the “band” in your “warband”!
Keyword Updates – Poisonous, Venomous, and Windfury
We’re updating some keywords in Battlegrounds Season 4. Poisonous is being removed from Bob’s Tavern to be replaced with a new Battlegrounds keyword: Venomous! During each round of combat, the first minion that is damaged by a Venomous minion is instantly destroyed. You can think of Venomous like Poisonous, but it only triggers once (like Reborn and Divine Shield). We’re excited to see how this swap from Poisonous to Venomous will change up the Tavern.
Additionally, we’re removing Mega-Windfury from Battlegrounds. From now on, when a Windfury minion is tripled, it will still have normal Windfury. Windfury was the only Keyword that resulted in a “double-buff" when the minion is tripled, so we think taking that interaction out will make the game more consistent and open up space for us to explore in the future.
Massive Minion Type RemixIn Season 4, we’re remixing and revamping our entire Battlegrounds minion pool. 59 minions are being removed from the minion pool! In their place, we’re introducing 58 new minions and bringing back 3 returning minions! We’re also updating several of the minions that are sticking around. You can see what all the minion types will be up to, below.
Battlegrounds Track Refresh
On May 9, Battlegrounds Season 3 will end and Season 4 will begin. At that point, players will switch over and begin earning rewards on the new Season 4 Battlegrounds Track. Any rewards that were already earned from the Season 3 Battlegrounds Track, but not yet claimed, will be automatically claimed on your behalf.
The Season 4 Battlegrounds Track includes rocking new E.T.C.-themed and musical cosmetics. Pick up the Season Pass to instantly get +2 Hero options at the start of each game. Then, unlock all stages of the new E.T.C.’s World Tour Legendary Strike as you progress along the Track, earn up to 15 additional Hero Skins throughout the Season, and more!
Level XP To Level Cumulative XP Free Reward With Season Pass 1 0 0 2 Hero Slots 2 20 20 E.T.C.'S Main Stage (Rare Board) 3 20 40 Applauding E.T.C (Rare Emote) 4 20 60 World Tour (Rare Strike) 5 30 90 Punk-Pop Vol'jin (Rare Hero Skin) 6 30 120 Happy Blingtron (Rare Emote) 7 30 150 Tavernwave Tavish (Rare Hero Skin) 8 30 180 Mister Mukla (Legendary Hero Skin) 9 40 220 Merch Manager Silas (Rare Hero Skin) 10 40 260 Kragg Love (Rare Emote) 11 40 300 Mixmaster N'zoth (Epic Hero Skin) 12 50 350 E.T.C., King of Rock (Legendary Hero Skin) 13 50 400 Vanndar Stormpipes (Rare Hero Skin) 14 50 450 MC Scabbs, No (Rare Emote) 15 50 500 Doom Symphony (Rare Strike) 16 60 560 Glitch_CoilST0RM.ini // Glitchvibe Ini (Rare Hero Skin) 17 60 620 Whistling Mukla (Rare Emote) 18 60 680 The Pyramp 3000 // Pyramplifier (Epic Hero Skin) 19 60 740 Radnar Horns (Rare Emote) 20 60 800 Paparazzo Gro'kan (Rare Bartender) 21 60 860 Enhance-o-musician (Rare Hero Skin) 22 60 920 DJ Manastorm (Rare Emote) 23 60 980 Country Kragg (Epic Hero Skin) 24 60 1040 World Tour (Epic Strike) 25 60 1100 Sad Rocker Rokara (Rare Emote) 26 60 1160 Entrancing Ysera (Rare Hero Skin) 27 60 1220 Nevermind, A.F.Kay (Rare Emote) 28 60 1280 Sire Melodious (Legendary Hero Skin) 29 60 1340 Bru'kan, Rock God (Epic Hero Skin) 30 60 1400 Entrancing Ysera (Rare Emote) 31 60 1460 Doom Symphony (Epic Strike) 32 60 1520 Showstopper Alexstrasza (Rare Hero Skin) 33 60 1580 One-Vashj Band (Epic Hero Skin) 34 60 1640 One Vashj Band (Rare Emote) 35 60 1700 MC Scabbs (Rare Hero Skin) 36 60 1760 Study Kay (Legendary Hero Skin) 37 60 1820 MC Scabbs, Yes (Rare Emote) 38 60 1880 Rocker Rokara (Rare Hero Skin) 39 60 1940 DJ Manastorm (Legendary Hero Skin) 40 60 2000 World Tour (Legendary Strike) Tour Dates to Watch Out For
With so many changes coming to Battlegrounds, we’re rolling out our minions in phases instead of all at once. We’ll start with an initial batch of six minion types, and then add the rest of the minion types over the next couple weeks. This will give you a chance to learn the minions type adjustments without being overwhelmed, and it’ll spread the fun! We also have a special preview event and some upcoming Dev Talks to chat about the changes as they come out. Here’s the lineup:
Battlegrounds Preview Event
- May 3: Dev Talk 1
- May 4: Playtest Preview Event
- May 8: 26.2 Patch Notes
- May 9: Dev Talk 2; Patch 26.2 goes live with minion phase one (Beasts, Murlocs, Dragons, Elementals, Naga, and Undead)
- May 11: Dev Talk 3; Pirates are added to the minion pool
- May 15: Dev Talk 4; Demons are added to the minion pool
- May 22: Dev Talk 5; Quilboar and Mechs are added to the minion pool
On May 4 and May 5, players from around the world will be participating in preview stream events, playing with the new Battlegrounds Season 4 content. The players will be playing with just the six minion types (Undead, Beasts, Murlocs, Dragons, Elementals, and Naga) that will be available when Patch 26.2 goes live. Participating players will be streaming to their own channels and will have Season Pass giveaways for their viewers, so make sure you check it out! The participating players are:
NA Group (May 4, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. (PT))
LATAM Group (May 4, 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. (PT))
EMEA Group (May 4, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. (PT))
APAC Group (May 5, 3 a.m. - 6 a.m. (PT) / 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. (KST))
Battlegrounds Twitch Drops
Celebrate the new Battlegrounds Season with special Battlegrounds Twitch drops! From May 9 at 10 a.m. PT to May 16 at 11:59 p.m. PT, you can watch any Hearthstone Twitch stream for 1 hour to earn the Brann Bronzegill Battlegrounds Hero Skin! Make sure you link your Twitch and Battle.net accounts so that your viewing time counts towards drops.
Hearthstone is available for Android, iOS and PC.
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