Welcome, fellow achievement hunter.
Here we will be taking a closer look at what Hearthstone has for us in store when it comes to Gameplay XP Achievements for the Hunter class in Forged in the Barrens expansion. Each one gets its own section below, so you could always scroll down if looking for tips and tricks for anything in particular. All other important info along with the links to other classes and categories can be found here.
Table of Contents
Hunter Barrens Achievements - General
Might seem trickier than the last batch at first glance, but it's actually one of the smoother sets of class achievements in this expansion. With a somewhat decent possibility to hit a couple of them at once:
But it should be even faster and very efficient to get things done one by one with more specialized decks, so that's where we will head with a small stop for every relevant goal.
As always, we will be defaulting to Standard format lists with the assumption that many players may not have the necessary older cards, then adding relevant notes for Wild and Duels where applicable. Remember that this is just one example of a possible direction to take! Mix and match per your own needs. Tips, tricks, and recommended cards for each separate achievement as follows:
How to Complete the "Pack Attack" Barrens Achievement
Swift Hyena is a pack creature, evidently. So we only need to ensure we summon enough of its companions. Spawned Hyenas don't have to survive and can be rushed into opposing minions instantly. Which means you don't even need that much space on the board.
- Mulligan for: Kolkar Pack Runner, Wound Prey is also a fair keep.
- Both Kolkar Pack Runner and Wound Prey summon the same Swift Hyena required for the achievement, so you can double dip when you have both. Takes even less mana as a result.
- It's handy to go second and have The Coin at the ready.
- If you don't have any Kolkar Pack Runner and can't find it with Resizing Pouch, you could get very creative by copying the beast from Wound Prey with Dire Frenzy and finding extra copies through Selective Breeder and the like. Even Shan'do Wildclaw could help in a pinch. Not to mention discovering more of Wound Prey. A true roundabout way if one can survive long enough.
- Wild format note: just more cheap spells, especially Rapid Fire. Flare and Secret Plan also have their uses. Even Stitched Tracker for tutoring Kolkar Pack Runner. Revenge of the Wild is able to resummon Hyenas.
- Duels note: you could always find yourself a Bag of Coins.
How to Complete the "Like Raptor, Like Son" Barrens Achievement
This little Sunscale Raptor could grow on infinitely if allowed - luckily for us, we need to help it do that "only" 5 times in succession. So play along as your raptor kid becomes more frenzied and bigger:
- Mulligan for: Sunscale Raptor, Scavenger's Ingenuity.
- Only a single copy of Sunscale Raptor, because running both tends to start two separate Frenzy chains, and you don't want that kind of mess in your deck. Selective Breeder and Dire Frenzy are also no good for that reason.
- Since it's the only Beast, tutoring it from the deck should be fairly simple. Between Pen Flinger, Rocket Augmerchant and cheap spells, there should always be a Frenzy activator at hand. Don't play your Sunscale Raptor if you can't trigger the effect on the same turn, you don't want to be at the mercy of somebody else.
- Many cards can be switched for cheaper alternatives: be it more draw, survival, or Frenzy triggers. Warsong Wrangler does make it so much easier, admittedly, even though having two Epics is not a given.
- Wild format note: a lot more cycle and draw, especially Tol'vir Warden and to a lesser extent Master's Call. Cheap Rapid Fire comes in handy.
- Duels note: starting with a smaller deck might be useful, more so if you don't own extra copies of the cards. Sadly there is no Hero Power or Signature Treasure that would be particularly helpful for this goal.
How to Complete the "Who Let The Dogs Out?" Barrens Achievement
Ah, the eternal mystery for those who remember that hit song from a couple of decades ago. It turns out that Tavish Stormpike might've been the culprit - at least within the Hearthstone universe. In any case, you are going to need his help with releasing some beasties for this one:
- Mulligan for: Tavish Stormpike, the rest should line up eventually.
- Since our dear Tavish Stormpike is unlikely to survive more than one turn once he hits the board, it's best to have a decent amount of mana crystals before launching off. Also possible to play around with Youthful Brewmaster to return him safely to hand for another go - but that's extra mana and card slots.
- If you don't have Tavish Stormpike, you would need to pray to RNG gods while using Resizing Pouch. Not too reliable in the long run.
- The best-case scenario involves at least one of your Stealth minions surviving a turn on the board and there already being a few minions on the other side, then dropping Tavish Stormpike to start a chain (often by attacking their face with your beast, so you leave up enough targets). Any Rush Beasts make it easier to keep going - you can teach some of them how to through the power of Animated Broomstick. They only need to attack, not survive, but that will still be limited by the size of your opponent's board.
- Tame Beast (Rank 1) lines up very nicely for this purpose. Beginning with Tamed Crab, then Tame Beast (Rank 2) brings out Tamed Scorpid, while Tame Beast (Rank 3) provides Tamed Thunder Lizard. They all got Rush and, more importantly, different mana costs. At 10 mana you could start quite a chain.
- Wild format note: Stitched Tracker could get Tavish Stormpike copies, but the big one here is the Tundra Rhino. When everything can Charge (even at your opponent's face as needed), there is no need to worry about ever breaking your summoning chain or running out of enemy minions to hit. You also get access to a larger amount of Beasts with Stealth and Rush: Hippogryph, Diving Gryphon, Vicious Scalehide, Springpaw, Escaped Manasaber, plus the cuteness of Snowflipper Penguin to fill that 0 mana slot.
- Duels note: we haven't heard of any surefire way to make Tavish Stormpike appear in loot buckets, but you could always try your luck and see.
Other Resources
Our clever community members set up a forum thread just for such achievement progression, and we have added separate #achievements channel to our Discord server. Feel free to join in! Any comment in here will also not go unnoticed, if you'd like to share your own experiences or point out anything in particular. We try to keep an eye on things and reply swiftly.
Good luck tackling any of these achievements for your experience boost or just for the sake of satisfying completion!
Comments
Kinda late to the party but here's the deck I used for the Sunscale Raptor hunter achievement. You probably shouldn't craft Master's Call just for this deck alone, but it's the best card in the deck.
It's never too late to share. ;) I like that there are different strategies. Although still recommending only a single copy of Sunscale Raptor for the achievement, you will have a far easier time than juggling two different ones as they grow separately.
An example deck to try for the Tavish Stormpike achievement in Wild is this one:
This deck goes for a combo-like strategy to maximize the number of beasts pulled for each Tavish Stormpike you play. More importantly, it can keep you with a positive winrate during your grind (winrate and stats included in the deck guide)!
I like the Wild Bloodstinger tech! That's all pretty inventive. Besides that I've had better results with more tutoring and rushing personally, but it's nice to see there are multiple ways left to explore.
I've been iusing this deck and its pretty good, far better than the one on the article itself, and it helps on winning some games too, thanks for posting it.
Ah, I knew I meant to clarify something and kept forgetting.
Any deck examples presented in the articles are primarily for Standard, as that's the main default where most people might at least have enough of the necessary cards. So by that definition, any Wild deck has the potential to be "better" simply due to all the extra options. But that's just two different worlds, apples and oranges. Which is why we add separate lines for Wild, Duels, and what not, to suggest other avenues for people who actually are able to use them. In that regard you might find similar strategy covered there.
I'm glad to hear you are finding success with it! I was shocked while playing it that I was winning so much. On top of that, it felt pretty good most of the time too!
Should be worth noting that most of these are easier in Wild because Starving BUzzard is a 2-mana Auctioneer for a class that doesn't really have draw.
Certainly noting the Wild favorables as they come up. ;) Which is probably something in every instance with such a huge pool of cards.
When it comes to Starving Buzzard, I actually found it not very helpful for this set of achievements. Don't really need it for Tavish, as that's all about getting the guy and a few relevant beasts in your hand and deck; so drawing extensively instead of tutoring could result in worse payoff chains. Definitely don't want it for Raptor when just aiming to have that be the only Beast in the deck. And for Hyenas it just felt better to invest in spell density with a dash of tutoring and discovers, so by the time one has enough mana it can be pretty much done.
Between Tracking, Barak, Wrangler, Scavenger's and a few more options in Wild like Stitched Tracker, the class has been doing surprisingly okay in that department. Poor Shaman should be envious.