Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone is an online trading card game from the US game developer Blizzard Entertainment . The computer game was released in March 2014 for Windows and macOS , on April 16, 2014 for the iPad , on December 15, 2014 for Android tablets and on April 14, 2015 for the iPhone and Android smartphones . It is a free-to-play game supported by micropayments .

After new expansions and adventures initially appeared alternately, Hearthstone has been receiving a major expansion regularly every 4 months since 2017 with Journey to Un'Goro, which adds 135 new cards to the game. Since Conspiracy of the Shadows (2019), an additional adventure has been published six weeks after each expansion that tells the background story of the respective expansion. However , like the adventures in the early years, the adventure Heir of the Dragons - Galakrond's Awakening (January 2020) also brought 35 new cards into play.

Gameplay

Hearthstone is played online and contains 1106 playing cards with a selection of units ( servants ), weapons and spells based on the Warcraft computer game series . Two heroes with 30 life points each play against each other and try to use their servants, spells and hero skills to set the life of the opposing hero to 0 in order to win.

Heroes

There are nine hero classes. These are magicians (Jaina Proudmoore), priests (Anduin Wrynn), warriors (Garrosh Hellscream), warlocks (Gul'dan), shamans (Thrall), druids (Malfurion Stormrage), hunters (Rexxar), paladins (Uther Lightbringer) and villains (Valeera Sanguinar). These nine heroes are modeled on existing heroes in World of Warcraft . Each of the hero classes has a different unique hero ability.

Before a game

For each of the nine classes already mentioned ( magician, priest, warrior, sorcerer, shaman, druid, hunter, paladin and villain ), the player can choose a deck from the cards he has already collected (30 cards, each card may contain a maximum of twice, except are legendary cards that can only be included once). He can choose from class-specific spells, weapons and servants as well as class-independent servants. When creating the deck, the player also has to decide whether a deck is to be put together that only consists of basic, classic and cards that were published a maximum of two years ago (a so-called standard deck), or whether to put together a deck , which can consist of all cards already published (a so-called wild deck).

Course of a game

At the beginning of a game, a drawing is drawn to see who will make the first move. The starting player is offered three cards and his opponent four cards from their decks as starting hands. The players can swap any number of the proposed cards for random other cards from the deck. In addition, the player who starts second receives the spell “The Coin”, which generates an additional mana crystal for one turn. Mana crystals are required to use cards or hero skills that cost a certain amount of mana.

At the beginning of each turn, the player draws a card from his deck, a mana crystal is added to his mana pool, and the mana crystals used in the previous round are recharged. A maximum of 10 cards can be held in hand. Any further card drawn or added in any other way is destroyed. If you cannot draw any more cards because all cards have already been drawn from the deck, you suffer from exhaustion and the hero receives one point of damage. For each further missing card to be drawn, the damage received is increased by one damage point.

There are three types of cards: servants, weapons and spells (see section Servants / Weapons / Spells / Heroes / Quest ). Servants remain on the field until their death and can attack other servants or the opposing hero; they can have special properties such as strengthening other servants. Heroes can equip weapons to attack the other hero or their servants. Spells are one-time effects that, for example, cause damage or weaken enemy servants.

Game types

There are five game modes. In "solo adventures" you compete against the computer. With the variants “play”, “arena” or “card chaos” you compete against a human player selected by the computer, with “card chaos” sometimes against the computer. In addition, there is the possibility to compete against a player from the friends list without ranking.

Play

In play mode you have the choice between unrated and rated. When rated, you measure yourself against opponents of the same rank in order to move up ranks. Initially you have rank 25 and receive a star for every victory. If you have five stars, you move up a rank. From rank 20 you can lose stars in the event of a defeat. From rank 19 onwards, you can also go down a rank. Up to rank 5 you receive an additional star for each victory if you have three wins in a row. At rank 1 with five stars, you will rise to the rank of "legend" with another victory and cannot be relegated from it. It also shows what place you have in the overall ranking. At the end of each season (at the end of the calendar month), if you have won at least five games, you will receive a month-specific card back and a rated chest , whose rating corresponds to the highest rank of the season and contains rewards (cards). The ranking is then reset, each player starts four ranks behind the rank of the previous season. For example: a player who reached rank 10 in the preseason starts at rank 14.

Solo adventure

In solo adventure mode, you can choose between a practice mode and various adventures. The practice mode offers the player the opportunity to practice his decks and skills against a computer opponent. You have the choice to play against AI normal or against AI professional. KI-Normal only uses basic cards, while KI-Profi can also use cards from the professional packs. The individual wings of the adventure must be unlocked with real money or the in-game currency gold . In each wing you fight in turn against different, special AI opponents to choose from, some of them have more than 30 lives, have hero abilities or cards that are otherwise not found in the game. The victory against the last opponent of a wing unlocks cards that cannot be obtained any other way. In every adventure there is a challenge mode after completing the wings , which must be completed with certain heroes and which unlocks special cards for their classes.

arena

The Arena mode is chargeable except for the first time. Either you pay with 150 gold ( in-game currency ) or real money. When starting a new arena round, you have the choice between three randomly selected game classes. Once you have decided on a class, you have to put together a deck from a random selection of cards. The player is always offered three random cards to choose from; the player does not have to have them in his collection. In this mode it is allowed that the same card appears more than twice in the deck (the prerequisite is of course that it has been offered and selected that often). As soon as you have "forged" your deck, you can play against other arena players; this goes on until you have either lost three times or won twelve times. You are assigned opponents with a similar win / loss ratio. The more often you win, the better the reward key.

You can play the games on different days.

Reward key

Victories	key	number	Guaranteed rewards	Possible random rewards
0	novice	2	1 pack of cards 1 random reward	25-50 gold 25-40 dust 1 ordinary card
1	apprentice	2	1 pack of cards 1 random reward	30-50 gold 25-50 dust 1 ordinary card
2	Journeyman	2	1 pack of cards 1 random reward	40-60 gold 40-50 dust 1 ordinary card 1 rare card
3	copper	3	1 pack of cards 25-35 gold 1 random reward	20-25 gold 20-25 dust 1 ordinary card 1 rare card
4th	silver	3	1 pack of cards 40-60 gold 1 random reward	20-30 gold 20-25 dust 1 ordinary card 1 rare card
5	gold	3	1 pack of cards 45-60 gold 1 random reward	45-60 gold 45-60 dust 1 ordinary card 1 rare card
6th	platinum	3	1 pack of cards 75-145 gold 1 random reward	45-60 gold 45-60 dust 1 ordinary card 1 rare card
7th	diamond	3	1 pack of cards 150-160 gold 1 random reward	20-30 gold 20-25 dust 1 ordinary card 1 rare card
8th	champion	4th	1 pack of cards 150-160 gold 2 random rewards	20-45 gold 20-25 dust 1 gold or regular ordinary card 1 gold or regular rare card 1 gold or regular epic card 1 gold or regular legendary card
9	ruby	4th	1 pack of cards 150-165 gold 2 random rewards	20-120 gold 20-50 dust 1 gold or regular ordinary card 1 gold or regular rare card 1 gold or regular epic card 1 gold or regular legendary card
10	Frost dying	4th	1 pack of cards 150-185 gold 2 random rewards	65-125 gold 65-95 dust 1 gold ordinary card 1 gold or regular rare card 1 gold or regular epic card 1 gold or regular legendary card
11	melt	4th	1 pack of cards 195-210 gold 2 random rewards	70-180 gold 60-95 dust 1 gold ordinary card 1 gold or regular rare card 1 gold or regular epic card 1 gold or regular legendary card
12	Light forge	5	1 pack of cards 215-235 gold 3 random rewards	25-185 gold 1 gold ordinary card 1 gold or regular rare card 1 gold or regular epic card 1 gold or regular legendary card 1 pack of cards

The reward key shows that an average of 3-4 wins are necessary to get back the amount invested in the form of various prizes.

Card chaos

In the chaos of cards, the rules and restrictions of the game are changed weekly. This mode is unlocked as soon as the player has at least one level 20 hero. Heroes advance in level by completing games.

Depending on the type of game, for example, ready-made decks, special heroes or field effects are brought into play. The possibilities are many. Every new week there is a pack of classic cards as a reward for the first win against a player. In Germany, the card chaos begins every Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. and ends on Monday 6:00 a.m. After that, the mode can no longer be used until the following Wednesday.

Battlefield

Battlefield mode is free. This mode is from the auto battler genre and is played with 7 opponents. At the beginning of each round, the player can buy units in a time-limited buying phase, play a maximum of 7 units on the Hearthstone-typical field and also change their order. After that, the player's units automatically fight against a random one of the 7 opponents. The units in this mode are partly servants from the normal Hearthstone collection, but there are also servants that are only available in battlefield mode. Each servant is assigned a certain inn level, which determines when this servant can be bought and how much damage can be caused by this servant at the end of a round.

Before the start of the first round, each player selects a hero from 33 different ones, whereby you have the choice of 2 or 3 different ones (depending on how many card packs of the latest expansion you have already bought) and no hero can appear twice. The heroes have different (passive and active) hero abilities and start with 40 lives. You start the first round with 3 gold (instead of mana, as in other modes) and each round the available gold increases by 1, up to a maximum of 10. The place where units are bought is called an inn. This is divided into 6 tavern levels, you start the game at tavern level 1. At this level there are 3 units of tavern level 1 in the tavern, the purchase of which costs 3 gold each. From inn level 2 there are 4 units, from level 4 there are 5 units and from level 6 there are 6 units to choose from. Other possible actions are to update the game board (costs 1 gold), which means that new units are offered for sale according to the current inn level; sell a unit (earns 1 gold); freeze the board (costs 0 gold), which prevents the board from automatically updating at the start of the next round; Upgrade the inn (costs vary), unlocks units of the next inn level and form three of a kind: If a player has acquired 3 identical units, these are combined into a better golden version, for which the player receives an additional card of the next inn level when played . When the buying phase is over, the fighting phase begins: The player is drawn to a random opponent and the units of these two players automatically fight against each other until one player has no more units. Then the player who has won this round causes damage to his opponent, which is calculated as follows: the base damage corresponds to the current inn level, the inn level of each unit that has survived is added to this. As soon as only one player has life after a few rounds, that player wins.

Friends list

You can also compete against players from your contact list. Here both players can choose a deck and compete against each other. Since December 2014 there is the "spectator mode", in which you can watch a friend play via the friends list.

cards

properties

There are many different cards that can be differentiated according to several criteria:

Basic cards versus trading cards
Servant to weapons and spells
Neutral cards compared to cards of a hero class
Normal cards versus golden cards
According to rarity

What they all have in common is that they cost a certain amount of mana by default.

Basic cards / trading cards

There are 133 base cards (43 neutral and 10 for each of the nine hero classes) that the player can obtain by improving the levels of their heroes. At the beginning of the game, all 43 neutral base cards and 5 magician base cards are available. If one of the other eight heroes is unlocked, 5 base cards are also unlocked for this class. As the individual heroes level up, at hero level 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 the remaining base cards for this class are activated. There are 565 trading cards (were called professional cards before the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion ). There are cards that only exist within a game and are created by an event or by playing a spell or servant (eg "The Coin", dream cards) - they cannot be collected.

Servants / weapons / spells / heroes / quest

There are five types of cards: Servants, Weapons, Spells, Heroes, and Quest

"Servants" are placed on the play area after being played and can attack from the next turn. When attacking, the attacker can decide whether the enemy hero or an enemy servant is attacked. Each servant has the attributes attack and life . Attack indicates how much damage is dealt to the opponent in an attack or defense. Life indicates how much damage the servant can take before dying and leaving the field. Each player can have a maximum of seven servants on the field. Many servants still have special properties such as " Gains +1 attack at the beginning of each turn ". In addition to such individual effects, there are some effects / mechanics that several servants have by themselves or through spells:

effect	description
Rush	The servant is ready to attack immediately.
combo	A bonus comes into effect if a card has already been played this turn.
echo	Cards with an echo can be played multiple times in the turn in which they are played.
zeal	The servant can attack immediately after being played. However, heroes can only be attacked one turn after entering the game.
Discover	Choose one of three cards and put it in your hand.
Spare part	Spare parts are 1 mana spells that have only weak effects.
Toxic	Destroy any servant who is injured by it.
Shield of god	The first time this minion is dealt damage, that damage is ignored and the shield is extinguished.
inspiration	An effect takes effect after you use your hero ability.
Battle cry	An effect takes effect when the card is played.
Deprivation of life	Damage caused by this card heals your hero.
Magnetic	If you place a servant with a magnet on the left side of another 'Mech, the values and card texts of the two units merge into a single unit.
Mutated	Select one of three traits that instantly improve the servant.
Recruit	Makes a servant appear on the board without costing mana.
Ridicule	Enemies must attack this servant.
Death rattle	An effect takes effect when the card is destroyed.
Overload: X	On your next turn, you have X less mana available.
Overwhelm	Grants bonus effect if damage higher than necessary to destroy enemy servants
Stealth	The character cannot be attacked directly or targeted until it deals damage. It can be destroyed by area damage.
Return	Diener is revived with a life after the first death.
Wind rage	Can attack 2 times per turn.
tantrum	If injured, this servant has additional ability (s)
Spell Damage + X	Your spell cards deal [X] more damage.
To silence	Removes all card texts and enchantments.
Twin spells	When you cast a twin spell, you get a copy of it in your hand (without the twin spell effect).

The hero receives “weapons”. With this he can attack a servant or the enemy hero. Each weapon has the attributes "attack" and "durability". Each time the weapon is used, the durability is reduced by 1. If it is at 0, the weapon is destroyed. Weapons, like other cards, can have additional effects, for example "Restores 2 life to your hero every time he attacks."
“Spells” are very diverse. When used, they develop a unique effect: for example, they cause damage or heal in different ways, strengthen your own servants or weaken opponents, let you draw cards, etc. A special form of spells are secrets , a played secret (whereby the opponent does not knows which one was played), remains in effect until the trigger named on the secret is activated (in the opponent's round) and thus the named consequence is caused. A trigger is, for example, the playing of a servant by the opponent and a consequence that this servant is dealt 4 damage. Secret cards are only available for hunters, mages, paladins and villains.
"Heroes" would be inserted with the "Knights of the Frost Throne" expansion and transform the player hero into another character and get a new hero ability, they also give the player armor and / or have a battle cry effect or permanent effect
"Quest" would be introduced with the expansion "Journey to Un * Goro". They cost 1 mana and are displayed to the player from the deck at the start of the game. They grant powerful artifacts / spells / duration after fulfilling the requirement.

Neutral cards / cards of a hero class

Neutral cards are exclusively servants. Unlocked servants can be used by any hero class. The cards of a hero class (servants, spells or weapons) are strictly bound to them when building a deck. If, due to special circumstances, a player receives a card from another hero class during a game, he can still use it.

Normal cards / gold cards

Each card is also available in a gold version. This is a purely visual change: the frame is golden and the image of the card is animated. Golden basic cards are obtained by reaching higher levels of individual classes, golden trading cards are obtained through the usual manufacturing process. However, gold cards require a larger amount of dust.

Rarity

Trading cards have a gem in the middle, the color of which indicates the rarity of the card. There are common (white), rare (blue), epic (purple) and legendary (orange) trading cards. Base maps are not uncommon. The rarity level essentially only has an effect on the probability of receiving the cards in a card pack. When creating a deck and playing some cards, the only decisive factor is whether a card is “legendary” or not. It is not possible to put two versions of the same legendary card in one deck and some cards have an effect that only affects legendary servants (e.g. "Battle cry: Destroy a legendary servant when you have a dragon in your hand").

Collecting cards

Cards are the main part of the game. There are several ways to get new cards:

By leveling with a hero class you get two (same) class-specific base cards.
Opening packs gives you five cards, at least one of which is a rare one. Epic or legendary, but also golden ones can be included (multiple times).
Through arena runs with an above-average number of wins, it is likely to receive individual cards as a reward.
By creating (see section Disenchanting and creating ) the desired trading card.
Special rewards such as “Attending BlizzCon 2013” or “Buy at least one pack during the beta” give you a special card (promo card).
Collecting all cards in a category gives you a special card that cannot be obtained otherwise, for example by collecting all Murloc or Pirate cards.

Disenchant and create

Every collected card (but not base cards and quest reward cards) can be disenchanted . The card is destroyed and gives the player arcane dust with which he can make new cards (see table). Naxxramas, Blackrock, Karazhan and Basic cards cannot be produced, golden Naxxramas, Blackrock and Karazhan cards can be produced after they have been unlocked.

With the exception of the Arena game mode, all cards may appear a maximum of two times in a deck, but legendary cards only once. Thus, excess cards can be turned into arcane dust without hesitation.

Arcane Dust: Yield and Cost
		normal cards		golden cards
rarity	Icon color	disenchant	produce	disenchant	produce
Base	no symbol	-	-	-	-
Usually	White	5	40	50	400
Rare	blue	20th	100	100	800
Epic	violet	100	400	400	1600
Legendary	orange	400	1600	1600	3200

Overview

The following table shows how many new cards of which rarity have been added to the game with each expansion. Please note that in the course of balance updates, cards are removed from their original set and assigned to the timeless classics. In addition, individual cards were published independently of expansions or adventures, which were subsequently assigned to a set. This can change the number of collectable cards in a set. This table is therefore limited to the number of cards on the issue date. Furthermore, the table only takes into account cards that can be obtained from packs and no reward cards or gifts. These are listed in the notes.

When cards from the basic set become timeless classics, they are immediately replaced by new basic cards and added to the player's collection. Archived basic maps are given the "common" rarity and can be produced or enchanted from now on. Cards from the classic set are also replaced by new cards, but not always at the same time as they are archived, so that the total number of classic cards that can be collected may be lower at times. Also, the new classic cards are not added to the player's collection, but have to be purchased from packs or arcane dust. Cards from expansions and adventures are not replaced. So far (as of April 2020) this only affects the set The Witches Forest .

Overview of the published card sets
set	Publication date	Total (maximum number)	usually	Rare	epic	legendary
Base	March 11, 2014	133 (266)	N / A	N / A	N / A	N / A
Classic	March 11, 2014	245 (457)	94 (188)	81 (162)	37 (74)	33
Timeless classics	N / A	35 (61)	11 (22)	8 (16)	7 (14)	9
Classical Sets (2014-2015)
Naxxramas	July 22, 2014	30 (54)	18 (36)	4 (8)	2 (4)	6th
Goblins versus Gnomes	December 8, 2014	123 (226)	40 (80)	37 (74)	26 (52)	20th
Black Rock	2nd April 2015	31 (57)	15 (30)	11 (22)	0	5
The big tournament	August 24, 2015	132 (244)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	20th
The research league	November 12, 2015	45 (85)	25 (50)	13 (26)	2 (4)	5
Year of the Octopus (2016)
The whispers of the old gods	April 26, 2016	132 (244)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	20th
One night in Karazhan	11th August 2016	45 (85)	27 (54)	12 (24)	1 (2)	5
The streets of Gadgetzan	December 1, 2016	132 (244)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	20th
Year of the Mammoth (2017)
Journey to Un'Goro	April 6, 2017	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Knight of the Frozen Throne	August 10, 2017	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Kobolds and catacombs	7th December 2017	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Year of the Raven (2018)
The witch forest	April 12, 2018	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Dr. Bumm's secret laboratory	7th August 2018	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Rastakhan's Rambazamba	4th December 2018	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Year of the Dragon (2019)
Conspiracy of the Shadows	April 9, 2019	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Savior of Uldum	August 6, 2019	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Legacy of dragons	December 10, 2019	135 (247)	49 (98)	36 (72)	27 (54)	23
Galakrond's awakening	January 21, 2020	35 (66)	15 (30)	12 (24)	4 (8)	4th
Year of the Phoenix (2020)
Demon Hunter Initiate	April 7, 2020	20 (38)	8 (16)	6 (12)	4 (8)	2
Outland Ruins	April 7, 2020	135 (245)	52 (104)	35 (70)	23 (46)	25th
All published maps	-	2496 (4606)	891 (1782)	650 (1300)	426 (852)	386

↑ With the release of Ruins of Outland (2020), 10 cards from the new Demon Hunter class were added to the basic set. The number of collectable cards increased to 143 (286).

↑ When opening a Whispering of the Ancient Gods pack for the first time , the player receives the Evil Summoner and C'Thun cards . If you add this, the number of collectable cards increases to 134 (247).

↑ In April 2019 6 cards (including 2 legendary) from The Witches Forest were assigned to the timeless classics. The number of cards that can be collected thus fell to 129 (237).

↑ In June 2019, the SCHN1PP-SCHN4PP card appeared as a reward during an event and was added to the Dr. Bumm's secret laboratory assigned. The number of collectable cards rose to 136 (248).

↑ In May 2019, the Shadow Cape Zayle card was released as a reward for unlocking all chapters of the adventure The Great Coup . The number of collectable cards rose to 136 (248).

↑ The first time you open a Heritage of the Dragon pack, the player receives all 5 legendary Galakrond hero cards. If you add these, the number of collectable cards increases to 140 (252).

Extensions

Expansions and adventures bring many new cards into play. The cards of the expansions can be bought in the shop for gold or real money in appropriate packs. The expansions themselves do not have to be purchased and are installed before the next start of the game and are then part of the game for all players.

Curse of Naxxramas

The Curse of Naxxramas is the first Hearthstone adventure . It was officially announced on April 11, 2014 and released on July 22, 2014. In this adventure, the player plays against individual bosses from the Warcraft universe, who can use normal base cards for all heroes, but also use classic cards. They each have their own hero ability. The single player mode is divided into five wings, which are opened individually. The first wing was available for free during the launch event, all others must be paid for in either gold or real money. In addition, each time you defeat a boss, you receive one of the new cards. When all bosses on a wing are defeated, you are also given a legendary card. In total there are 30 new Naxxramas cards, 21 of which are neutral (including six legendary) cards and nine are class-specific cards. The non-legendary neutral cards can be unlocked by defeating all 15 bosses (five in each wing). The nine class-specific cards can be unlocked through class-specific challenges, of which there is one per class.

Goblins versus Gnomes

The first expansion Goblins versus Gnome was released on December 9, 2014. With over 120 new cards, the Hearthstone expansion adds the subcategory Mech for servants to which other cards in the expansion refer, as well as spare parts that are classified as spells for the game mechanics and bring small benefits.

The Black Rock

Blackrock is the second adventure to Hearthstone . It was officially announced on March 6, 2015 and released on April 1, 2015. In the second adventure, as in the first adventure, you play against individual bosses from the Warcraft universe: you are supposed to "free the mountain [Black Rock] from evil [...]". The adventure is divided into 5 wings, which are optionally available for in-game currency or real money. There are 31 new cards that can be obtained by defeating individual bosses and completing class tasks.

The big tournament

The second expansion, The Grand Tournament , was officially announced by Blizzard on July 22, 2015 and was released on August 24, 2015. The expansion brings 132 new cards, the new Inspiration and Joust mechanics, and an update to the arena rewards.

The research league

The adventure is divided into four wings. It was announced on November 6, 2015 and released on November 12. In search of the "Fragments of a Mighty Titan Artifact, the Staff of Origin" 45 new maps are available.

The whispers of the old gods

The third map expansion, which appeared in Europe on April 27, 2016 and also introduced a new map rotation process, contained 134 new maps. In connection with the new standard and wild mode, the year of the octopus was ushered in. In wild mode, all previously published cards can be used with all their expansions, whereas in standard mode only cards from the expansions of the previous and current year and the basic and classic cards can be played.

One night in Karazhan

A night in Karazhan is the fourth adventure. It was announced on July 29th and released on August 11th. It is divided into four wings like a foreplay boss, for two more cards. The other 43 cards are taken from the other four wings.

The streets of Gadgetzan

The fourth expansion card was released on December 1, 2016 in the US and on December 2, 2016 in Europe and Asia. Thematically, the extension deals with the rivalry between three gangster gangs. 132 new cards are available. One innovation is that, in addition to neutral and class-specific cards, there are also three types of cards, each of which can be used by three classes. These groups are:

Hunter, paladin and warrior
Druid, villain and shaman
Magician, priest and sorcerer

Journey to Un'Goro

The fifth map expansion was released on April 6, 2017. The expansion takes place in the primeval jungle world of Un'Goro and brings 135 new cards and two new game principles. Mutating allows servants to be given one of three suggested mutations immediately. There are ten possible mutations in total. Quest cards are a new card type that, if present in the deck, is always in the starting hand. For each class there is a playable quest with a specific task to be completed during the game. After completing the quest, the player receives a reward in hand. The Elemental servant class has also been introduced in Journey to Un'Goro .

Knight of the Frozen Throne

The sixth Hearthstone expansion was released in Europe on August 11, 2017. It takes place in the icy expanses of Northrend and the expansion revolves around the mighty Lich King, whose power each of the nine heroes of Hearthstone absorbs and becomes a death knight in his service. New to the game are 135 trading cards, the new hero Prince Arthas, new hero cards for each class that replace the hero and the player's hero ability, as well as the deprivation of life mechanics. In addition, the solo adventure Ice Crown is part of the expansion.

Kobolds and catacombs

The seventh expansion to Hearthstone was released in Europe on December 8, 2017. For this expansion, Blizzard focuses on the exploration of Azeroth's catacombs, created by the rat-like, candle-loving goblins. In addition, 135 trading cards come into play. As a novelty there are nine legendary weapons, unidentified items, magic stones and the keyword recruit . The treasure hunt solo adventure is also part of the expansion. It's about defeating AI opponents one after the other to get to the next one. The player first chooses a hero class and receives new cards after each defeated AI, which are added to the deck. If you defeat the eight AIs with all classes you get a card back.

The witch forest

The eighth expansion to Hearthstone was released in Europe on April 12, 2018. It is set in a creepy forest near the haunted city of Gilneas from Warcraft . The keywords Echo and Zeal are new . In addition, there are cards with special effects that are triggered by playing cards with even or odd costs. Finally, the expansion also includes the monster hunt solo adventure . Similar to the treasure hunt, the goal here is again to defeat eight consecutive AI opponents. Instead of the previously known hero classes, you have the choice between Princess Tess Greymane , Lord Darius Crowley , dog master Shaw and time tinkerer Toki . These four heroes each have a unique hero ability. If you have defeated the eight AI opponents with all four heroes, you unlock the final battle. Here the heroes join their forces to face Hagatha the witch . If you pass this challenge, you get a card back like in the treasure hunt .

Dr. Bumm's secret laboratory

The ninth expansion for Hearthstone was released in Europe on August 21, 2018. It focuses on Mech category servants , similar to goblins versus gnomes. One innovation is the keyword magnetic . For the first time there are also legendary spells for every class. In addition to the expansion, there is the solo adventure puzzle lab , where players have to solve Hearthstone-related puzzles for given game situations. There are four different labs, death zone , mirror image , tabula rasa and survival , each of which has four different types of puzzles to solve. So you have to z. B. defeat the enemy hero in the laboratory death zone with given cards, in the laboratory mirror image exactly reproduce the other side of the battlefield, in the laboratory tabula rasa empty the entire field and in the laboratory survival survive the attack of the enemy hero. If you have all the puzzles, the puzzles can be solved in any order in the four laboratories and the additional puzzle from Dr. Loosened the boom , you get a card back like in the treasure and monster hunt .

Rastakhan's Rambazamba

The tenth expansion for Hearthstone was released in Europe on December 4, 2018. Rastakhan is the king of the Zandalari. With this expansion, each class is assigned a totem animal ("Loa"). Another innovation are special servants in the form of spirits. The new keyword is overwhelm and in the new solo adventure Troll Arena you play as one of nine trolls in an arena.

Conspiracy of the Shadows

The eleventh expansion to Hearthstone was released on April 9, 2019. It is all about the rogue league Ü.BEL, consisting of the chief villains master thief Rafaam, King Togwaggel, Madame Lazul, Dr. Boom and Hagatha the witch. You face the defenders of Dalaran. The Conspiracy of the Shadows adds 135 new cards to the game, the new mechanic plans , the new twin spell keyword and servants of the minions category . The accompanying solo adventure entitled The Great Coup was released on May 16, 2019.

Savior of Uldum

The twelfth expansion for Hearthstone was released on August 6, 2019. It expanded the game with 135 new cards, the new keyword return , plague spells, new quests and on September 17, 2019 the solo adventure Graves of Horror followed .

Legacy of dragons

The thirteenth expansion for Hearthstone was released on December 10, 2019. It expanded the game with 135 new cards, the new keyword Empower , side quests, Dragon Breath cards and on January 21, 2020 the solo adventure Galakrond's Awakening followed , for the first time since 2016 35 new maps were published again in the course of an adventure.

Outland Ruins

The fourteenth expansion was released on April 7, 2020. It expanded the game with 135 new cards and, for the first time, a new class, the demon hunter. In addition, the new keyword outsiders , captive demons and prime cards were added.

Quests and rewards

There are various quests and rewards that are helpful or necessary for unlocking maps or adventures:

Beginner quests (not repeatable): If you have successfully completed the tutorial in Hearthstone, you can expect three beginner quests that cannot be repeated and will reward everyone with professional packs, gold and 1 free arena ticket.

Overview of the beginner quests
Quest	description	reward
Field trial	Complete a game in Play Mode	1 professional card pack
The duelist	Play 3 games in Play mode	100 gold
Thing!	Brings a class up to level 10	1 pack of cards
Off to the arena	Enter the arena	1 arena ticket

Daily Quests: This is a random task that is given once a day. You do not have to master these on the same day, but can accumulate several of them (maximum three) or discard one quest per day in order to receive a new, random one. There are many different tasks such as B. “Win two games with Mage or Rogue” or “Deal 100 damage”. Gold is awarded as a reward for successfully completing a quest.

Overview of the daily quests
Quest	description	reward
Right in the middle there instead of just!	Be there in spectator mode when a friend wins a game	1 classic card pack
Victory of the druid or hunter	Win 2 games with a Druid or Hunter	40 gold
Victory of the druid or villain	Win 2 games with a druid or villain	40 gold
Victory of the hunter or magician	Win 2 games with a hunter or mage	40 gold
Victory of the magician or shaman	Win 2 games with a magician or shaman	40 gold
Victory of the paladin or priest	Win 2 games with a paladin or priest	40 gold
Victory of the paladin or warrior	Win 2 games with a paladin or warrior	40 gold
Victory of the priest or warlock	Win 2 games with a priest or warlock	40 gold
Victory of the villain or warrior	Win 2 games with a villain or warrior	40 gold
Victory of the shaman or sorcerer	Win 2 games with a shaman or warlock	40 gold
Dominance of the druid or hunter	Win 5 games with a Druid or Hunter	60 gold
Dominance of the druid or villain	Win 5 games with a druid or villain	60 gold
Dominance of the hunter or magician	Win 5 games with a hunter or mage	60 gold
Dominance of the magician or shamanan	Win 5 games with a magician or shaman	60 gold
Dominance of the paladin or priest	Win 5 games with a paladin or priest	60 gold
Dominance of the paladin or warrior	Win 5 games with a paladin or warrior	60 gold
Dominance of the priest or warlock	Win 5 games with a priest or warlock	60 gold
Dominance of the villain or warrior	Win 5 games with a villain or warrior	60 gold
Dominance of the shaman or warlock	Win 5 games with a shaman or warlock	60 gold
Destroy them all	Destroy 40 servants	40 gold
Only size matters	Play 20 minions that cost 5 or more	40 gold
Small but mighty	Play 40 servants that cost 2 or less	40 gold
Magician	Casts 40 spells	40 gold
Do you like that?	Deals 100 damage to enemy Heroes	40 gold
Absolute superiority	Win 7 games in any mode	100 gold
3 wins!	Win 3 games in any class	40 gold
Victory of the paladin	Win 3 games as a paladin	50 gold
Victory of the Hunter	Win 3 games as a hunter	50 gold
Victory of the warlock	Win 3 games as a warlock	50 gold
Victory of the druid	Win 3 games as a druid	50 gold
Victory of the priest	Win 3 games as a priest	50 gold
Victory of the warrior	Win 3 games as a warrior	50 gold
Victory of the villain	Win 3 games as a villain	50 gold
Shaman's victory	Win 3 games as a shaman	50 gold
Victory of the magician	Win 3 games as a magician	50 gold
Win 5 games in Card Chaos mode	Win 5 games in Card Chaos mode	60 gold
Challenge your friends!	Play against a friend and both get rewarded	80 gold

For every three wins in the "Play" mode you receive a reward in the form of 10 gold. However, more than 100 gold per day is not possible.
Hidden rewards (not repeatable): There are rewards that occur once as soon as a certain criterion is met. z. B. there is 100 gold for free spins of all classes and all base cards.

Overview of the hidden rewards
Quest	description	reward
Dust off	Disenchant a card	95 Arcane Dust
Ahoy !!! (Expired!)	Call every pirate your own	Captain's parrot
Golden Ahoy !!! (Expired!)	Call every golden pirate your own	Captain's Parrot (Gold)
Mrglglglgl! (Expired!)	Call every Murloc your own	Cloudy eyes the old man
Golden Mrglglglgl! (Expired!)	Own every golden murloc	Cloudy Eye the Old One (Gold)
At 100 km / h	Win 100 games in any mode	300 gold
Radiant winner	Win 1000 games in any mode	300 gold
Here we go!	Unlocks every hero	100 gold
The real professional	Defeat every AI hero at the professional level	100 gold
Base secured!	Collect all cards in the basic set	100 gold
All mine!	Collect all cards in the professional set	100 gold
Beta rocker! (Expired)	Thank you for helping us test our shop	Gelbin Mekkadrill (gold)
BlizzCon rockers! (Expired)	Thank you for attending BlizzCon 2013	Elite Tauren Chieftain (Gold)

Hero level rewards: Up to level 10 you receive two basic cards for the respective class every two levels, up to level 52 then the golden versions of the basic cards of the respective class and then up to level 60 the golden versions of the neutral cards.

development

Hearthstone: announced during a presentation during the Penny Arcade Expo in March 2013. Blizzard Entertainment planned to release the game in 2013, but it was still in beta in early 2014. It is now available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android. The game is localized for German, English, Spanish (Spain and Mexico), French, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Chinese and Taiwanese.

The game's closed beta kicked off in North America on August 16, 2013. The game's open beta kicked off in North America on January 21, 2014.

In Europe, the game was presented to end customers in a restricted version for the first time at Gamescom 2013.

The European closed beta phase started on September 4th, 2013. The game's open beta started in Europe on January 23, 2014. On March 11, 2014, the European PC version was officially released.

Expansion sets will be added to the game over time. These should u. a. many new cards included.

The first card expansion with the name "Goblins versus Gnome" appeared on December 8, 2014 and adds 123 new playing cards to the game.

On April 14, 2015, the game was released for IOS and Android smartphones with full functionality and a customized user interface.

E-sports

reception

reviews
publication	Rating
Eurogamer	9/10
Gamereactor	9/10
GameStar	81%

Hearthstone is often criticized for the ability to purchase in-game content. Above all, the price of € 1.20 per pack of cards is too high. The low complexity of the game is also criticized. Nevertheless, the reviews were largely positive.

“Hearthstone does just about everything right and captivates fans of trading card games like Magic: The Gathering for hours on the computer (and hopefully soon on the tablet too). Blizzard achieved the biggest coup with the arena. Interesting combinations of decks constantly come together here. Thanks to the balanced matchmaking, it doesn't get frustrated or too easy. We like the tactics in the arena best in Hearthstone - and not just because there are the best rewards to be won.

There is little to criticize: When choosing music, Blizzard should add a few more pieces. A local LAN mode without being online would also be desirable. Otherwise, only an absolute Warcraft phobia speaks against giving Hearthstone a chance. "

- Golem.de

“Hearthstone knows exactly what it wants to be: A fast and entertaining card game that both beginners and experts can have fun with. And it succeeds with flying colors. The game is not quite as complex or extensive as some other genre representatives, compared to the five mana colors of a Magic: The Gathering, for example, I find the automatic resource gathering a bit shallow.

But there is method behind the simplicity: Beginners understand the rules after just a few rounds, casual gamers can play a quick game every now and then, and for experts, the fundamentally simple game mechanics hide new strategies even after countless games. So if you can make friends with trading card games even remotely, you should at least give Hearthstone a chance. "

- Gamestar

“Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a colorful, addicting, high quality collectible card game. One can, of course, wonder if it is 'fair' that players can use hard cash to buy a truckload of cards and then dominate the field with legendary and epic cards. But in the end, no card combination guarantees victory and players will automatically end up in a match with opponents of equal value anyway. The game is not without small bugs, but it is damn close to being perfect. "

- Gamereactor

Awards

The Game Awards 2014
- Best mobile / handheld game
DICE Awards 2015
- Mobile game of the year
- Strategy / simulation game of the year
Game Developers Choice Awards
- Best design
British Academy Video Games Awards 2015
- Best multiplayer game
SXSW Gaming Awards
- Mobile Game of the Year
German Computer Game Award 2015
- Best international multiplayer game

Web links

Official website
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft at MobyGames (English)

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