We've known it's coming ever since the first peek at the published 22.4 patch notes - and now that day is here. Chi-Ji has entered the Mercenaries game mode! Except, the "here" in this case was dependent on your Hearthstone region(-s) of choice, as the special event seems to be closely tied to 'server resets' for each of the respective timezones: meaning it first went live on Asia, then it was Europe's turn, with Americas having to wait the longest. In the end, everyone will be given the same amount of time to complete these tasks.
We've also been updating the text accordingly as new information comes to light. Using Ctrl+F function to scan for all recent "Updates" is one way to stay up to date. Plus all the useful comments below!
That's already different from how other Hearthstone specials have worked in the past, with simultaneous activation at a specific time for Quest journals everywhere. But Mercenaries clearly follows its own set of rules, and it's the first-ever event of this type tailored specifically for the game mode. Makes sense it remains self-contained per region; which also shows what we might expect going forward.
It's also arguably the first Hearthstone event that isn't going to be as easily accessible for all players. If you haven't been playing Mercenaries on a semi-regular basis, it could very well turn out that your underlings aren't quite up to the challenge. That's pretty much intended by design, although it's not difficult to imagine not everyone is going to be happy to learn about such hurdles the hard way.
Veteran Mercenaries, Brace Yourselves
While the 22.4 patch notes only gave us a fairly vague warning and reasonably small amount of information to go with it, that was at least enough for some kind of preparation. With 4 new Mercenaries and 4 new Bounties joining the fray just over a week ago, most players couldn't be expected to have their Niuzao, Xuen, Yu'lon, or Long'xin primed and ready for the expected fights. It's a lot of coins and tasks to worry about, after all. Luckily, we should still be able to get things done without relying on this newest bunch of recruits.
Besides the official description, we've only really heard a little about the Hearthstone team's reasoning behind this event:
Quote From DeckTech I haven’t seen anyone highlighting this tip for the upcoming mercs event, so I wanted to make sure everyone saw it. From talks with the dev team, this event seems aimed at giving established players something new, not a “anyone can jump in once it’s live and just do it” thing.
If you need a quick refresher as we dive in further:
Quote From Blizzard NEW LIMITED TIME EVENT
Starting on February 22, Mercenaries will be hosting its first-ever limited time event! Complete a chain of 10 exciting event Tasks to harness the power of Chi-Ji, and strengthen all the August Celestials. Two new Tasks will be available on each of the first 5 days of the event, but you have until March 8 to complete all 10 Tasks. Complete all 10 Tasks to earn the Chi-Ji Epic Mercenary Card, a Chi-Ji Mercenary Portrait, and over 1000 total Mercenary Coins for the new Mercenaries! As you prepare for this event to begin, make your way through all the Alterac Valley Bounties and take special care to strengthen your Beasts and Dragons, which will be essential for some of these Tasks.
Update: It turns out the patch notes didn't tell us the whole truth - the plans might have changed, or the live implementation somehow didn't quite go as planned. As a result, all 10 Tasks became available straight from Day 1, instead of unlocking gradually as laid out by the initial description. And so the rush to completion began!
Demanding Tasks Ahead
Now, if you are averse to any potential spoilers or wish to learn everything at your own pace, your best bet would be to skip this following section. Following along with Chi-Ji in-game should eventually show you everything there is to the event.
For anyone else thirsty for some extra knowledge, it's worth noting that the list of tasks for this event has first appeared on the web more than a week ago. If you frequent these other places, you might've seen early mentions of it on the Mercenaries Discord or Reddit. In this case, the credit goes to Use25 posting this (and some more datamined information from the patch) on the Hearthstone Wiki.
Update: Since then we've had more than enough time to compare that data with all the tasks available on the live servers; being able to confirm that all presented values and the order of quests are exactly as shown here:
(Source)
So yeah... that was always going to take quite some effort. Especially if your Beasts and Dragons aren't quite up to scratch (it's a good thing Heroic Lokholar saw its difficulty lowered). At least even the less dedicated players might be able to get their hands on Chi-Ji and finish a few of the early tasks; before having to grit their teeth while dealing with potentially frustrating encounters later on.
Not all challenges might be as difficult as they seem at a glance: there are usually tips and tricks to be found to make everyone's lives easier. The only requirements that cannot be really circumvented have to do with owning enough Beasts and Dragons, and ideally having at least some of their abilities or equipment properly developed.
Bugs, Fixes, and Solutions
Update: With everything going live all at once, we've been getting reports of some pesky bugs finding their way into the event as well. Luckily, determined players were quick to test everything for possible workarounds. Tasks 4 and 8 especially made many an individual's blood boil, as picking up Class Boons (Protector, Fighter, or Caster) along the way or any of the Bombs (Hot Potato!) from Random Encounter tiles would trigger a bug and prevent completion.
But that should be an issue no more! The Hearthstone team needed a few days to save everyone not in the know from numerous restarts and having to retry these fights while being at a disadvantage:
Quote From Blizzard 2/24 Update:
- Fixes a bug with two of the special Chi-Ji Event Tasks (Tasks 4 and 8) that caused them to not count when completed if the player selected certain non-fight nodes during the Bounty.
That should certainly be a relief to anyone who might've been stuck on these tasks, or has yet to try. Hopefully there aren't any other hidden problems persisting (such as non-Beast summons interfering with the completion requirements).
Now, as for the rest of them: Tasks 5 and 6 can still be a little quirky. You can use non-Beast comps for the fights and have your 3 Beasts sitting safely on the bench, but you should make sure that you don't lose any to normal encounters on your climb to the Bosses. The final combat seems to scan for your Beasts being alive or not as you begin. Having any of them die during the last fight itself should still allow for the task progress to count.
Also, picking certain treasures along the way (such as [Hearthstone Card (Hunting Party 1) Not Found] against Ahune the Frostlord bounty) can go a long way for your success rate. While Tasks 9 and 10 (dealing with Heroic Balinda Stonehearth) tend to become easier with a strong Holy comp.
Toki Goes on Vacation & Future Events
Chi-Ji Task chain also replaces the Daily "Complete 2 Bounties" Toki slot for the duration - which, for the min-maxers out there, was reason enough to try to 'speed run' through the special event in hopes of getting access to their 2x25 Coins source again.
Update: But as it turns out, we're not going to see Toki return for a little while longer:
Quote From DeckTech Confirmed with dev that it's intended for this first one. Maybe design can speak more on "why," but my guess is the intent was this goal of "shaking up" how Toki works by replacing her with this alternative.
If you remember the whole "What's Next for Hearthstone Mercenaries" from almost 4 months ago, that's where the team first hinted at exploring various alternatives to Toki's daily task. This seems to be merely the beginning.
Best get used to seeing that second icon if you've finished the Chi-Ji task chain.
As you can see, there is no real reason to hurry - nothing lost, nothing gained by doing so. You can take your time and aim to finish the event at a more relaxed pace. The extra days (and perhaps the added rating rewards from the coming new PvP season in March) could be just what your Beasts and Dragons need in order to catch up.
It also sounds like the Mercenaries team is gathering feedback as they go, and we might get to experience another such special event even sooner than we might've thought:
Quote From DeckTech That said, we've heard the feedback on some rough edges with this event and the team is specifically looking to incorporate feedback to improve future events (maybe not a ton of changes for the next one, since it is very far along at this point, but going forward).
Sounds like we're going to see a lot more variety in our mercenary future. Regardless of the current difficulty woes and perhaps raising this initial entry bar a little too high for casual players, it's definitely the right idea to keep the PvE component of the game lively and sufficiently challenging. Revisting former Bounties from all the new angles is bound to prove inherently more interesting than just grinding the same old places over and over again.
Chi-Ji & Friends
Chi-Ji completes the ranks of the August Celestials, next to Niuzao, Xuen, and Yu'lon. These are four powerful beings hailing from the mystical land of Pandaria (World of Warcraft had an entire expansion devoted to the continent at one point - that's pretty much where all these rumors about the Monk class originate from). With this particular angle and a recent set of portrait bundles, Hearthstone has certainly had a little unofficial theme going on. We'll have to see whether such sneaky teasing eventually takes us anywhere.
The Red Crane proves to be sufficiently fiery:
Players who miss out on or skip the event altogether will still have their chance to acquire this Mercenary, just at a later date:
Quote From Blizzard Chi-Ji will be earned exclusively through the Chi-Ji event until it is made available through the normal means of acquiring Mercenaries in the next major patch after the event is over.
Does that also indirectly tell us to expect the next major Patch 22.6 on March 8? The timing would be just about right. We also know that a couple of bugfixes are scheduled to take place only by then.
Also remember, the remaining two Alterac Valley Bounties are set to arrive around that time as well:
Quote From Blizzard
The Vanndar Stormpike and Kazakus Bounties will be added to the game after the conclusion of the Chi-Ji event.
With such wide variety of challenging tasks for us to tackle, there is also a lot of Mercenaries and potential strategies available to explore! Aside from the most hardcore players with very advanced (if not already maxed) Mercenaries collections, the rest of us will have to make do with whatever we got up until this point. And so everyone's experiences might be slightly different.
Meanwhile, feel free to discuss any and all tips and tricks with fellow members here in the comments section, on our forums, or the Out of Cards #Mercenaries Discord channel. There is also a reliable subreddit for the game mode with its associated active Discord, if you are looking for a particularly dedicated crowd of players.
Comments
I completed the final task yesterday, and damn I'm proud of myself. When I first saw the task list right here on our beloved Out of Cards, I thought, "Ok, I'll do the first few at least, but I think some of the later ones will be beyond me." But with a little perseverance (and certainly some luck) I made it through. I have spent almost no money at all on Mercenaries, but I have played it daily since launch.
My comp for the final battle (for anyone interested) was Brightwing, Anduin and Sinestra. I had Cornelius, Alexstrasza and Tirion in the wings just in case Brightwing had to bounce, but didn't need them. None of these Mercs are maxed out. As long as you make sure either Brightwing or Anduin has their mass healing ready for when Balinda does the 1-health thing, it's actually kind of easy. I was even at a disadvantage because I picked up a boon that sped up fighters, so I could rarely attack with Sinestra because she would have attacked at speed 3 and died before her friends could heal her at speed 4 or 5. Ultimately, her Twilight Extinction was the MVP.
Good luck to everyone still plugging away at these! I believe in you!
Same here! I also felt hesistant at first but got it done today.
For the last three tasks, Sinestra was the MVP by a mile. Protectors have a bad time with Balinda so for #10 I went with Sinestra, Anduin and Velen. Don't sleep on Twilight Extinction vs. Balinda's casters!
Honestly, I think Sinestra might be the first nerf candidate in Mercenaries (if they're going to do nerfs in this mode). The amount of damage Twilight Extinction puts out and her off-the-charts healing ability make her a massive threat.
As someone who's never bought a Mercs pack (neither with gold or cash), I recently completed the Chi-Ji Questline and boy, it was a struggle.
In the end, the total MVPs were Yu'lon, Sinestra and Brightwing - they carried me through multiple tasks.
Although some tasks were really dumb (yep, #8 and #9: I am talking about you), this event left me satisfied, as it rewarded me a rather strong Merc and a lot of coins, so I hope they'll do more of this in the future.
Yulon/sinestra/brightwing is absolutely the best thing that came out of this horrible set of tasks. To be honest I wouldn't even have seen it if it weren't for task 8. Too bad the dps from this team is so low it could never truly be top tier in pve.
Chi-ji being able to slot neatly into fire teams is another thing I discovered while completing the tasks. Being able to heal and combo with geddon definitely puts it one step higher than rag in pve.
Im not as optimistic about the way team5 handled this event though. Tasks 4 (annointed blade) and task 8 can go take a jump off a cliff far as Im concerned. The sheer levels of luck required, and Im still convinced that no casual fan that didn't grind from day 1 can go through this. I very nearly ragequit on task 8 myself.
Good job! I have only invested a little in Mercenaries, though I play it a lot. These tasks have been very challenging, but like you say, the rewards are decent. I'm on the final one now, and have not yet attempted it. I'm thinking Anduin, Brightwing, Sinestra. My newer mercs, like Yulon and Chi-Ji, are not upgraded enough to make the cut
I grinded some of the new Mercs by a good portion.
Sinestra - Halfway there: I unlocked all the equipments and I am at task 14ish; abilities are at 2 or 3. Mana Barrier 3 is bonkers: makes your Dragons almost unkillable, especially in combination with [Hearthstone Card (Mana Brooch 4) Not Found] (maxed).
Yu'lon - Love it so much. [Hearthstone Card (Jade Gust 5) Not Found] is maxed, Enveloping Mist 4 is almost there and then Pearl of Yu'lon is going to be my main concern. Probably one of my favorite Mercs.
Niuzao - Abilities at 2 or 3, and I still have to unlock one equipment. Not very hot on this one.
Wrathion - It's a Human and not a Dragon, so I haven't paid much attention to it.
Xuen - See Niuzao.
Chi-Ji - So satisfying to play, and it's (relatively) free for everyone! I love casting [Hearthstone Card (Blazing Song 5) Not Found] into [Hearthstone Card (Firestorm 5) Not Found].
Long'xin - I don't have it, so...
The current economy is horrible in this game mode. I am treating it F2P and save up every pack from tasks and wait for new mercenaries to get introduced before opening them. Until they do something about the enormous duplicate coins issue and without some pack opening protection, there is no way buying packs seems a viable strategy. Especially not with real money.
Yeah, sadly the Mercs packs as they currently are (with no pity timers) can mean somebody finds their Legendary in 5 packs, and another will need 40 if unlucky. They aren't nearly as valuable or worthwhile as Constructed ones, despite similar pricing. The only upside here is that we can get them for free from tasks 16-18 for all Mercs, and a few from PvP.
Ok, I’m calling out for help. I have no idea how to clear task 8 (heroic Lokholar). I don’t know what comp to use or how to play it. My beasts/dragons of reasonably high level are Alex, Brightwing, Mukla, Krush, Blink fox and Trigore.
That was my comp (except I used Sinestra instead of Trigore). I think the main thing is to get lucky with treasures. For example, my Brightwing picked up the "your mercs take 10 less damage this turn" treasure, and that was key, especially on the turn when Lokholar attacked 5 or 6 times.
Just an FYI: that amazing passive that immediately snipes summoned minions does not work on him, since the guys he summons are mercs, not minions (as opposed to Ahune, against whom it works great!).
Leveling up Sinestra if you have her is well worth the time. She's amazing in PvP as well.
There's two main ways far as I know;
- Use Yulon/brightwing/blink fox and try to focus down lokholar. Once he's dead, the others a really just easy pickings. You need to get a little lucky because Lok has three main moves and only one that attacks (and therefore damages himself).
- Or just use the tried tested and true, king krush + Mukla cheese for the win. All you need to do is to keep king krush alive by turn 2. Shouldn't be too hard. Or you can lead with the dragons, and then when they die, you can immediately go for the cheese.
I might add that its worth spending some time getting Yulon's third treasure (reduce damage to dragons). Then your climb towards lokholar wouldn't be too nerve wrecking. Once again team5 have demonstrated why attackers in mercs are so much less efficient than rangers.
But seriously this task is quite hellish because I doubt any average player would have longxin by now. And that one would be ideal in this task.
Whenever you have trouble completing a specific task or bounty, just look up Old Guardian's YouTube channel for some helpful guides. They have always worked for me so far.
We've been making thorough updates to the article, so everything about the ongoing Chi-Ji event should be fully up to date. By now many players have been able to complete all the tasks, so there is more live server data to go by.
Also added a couple more segments and clarifications, especially dealing with the following new information from the Hearthstone team:
On Toki daily and the future:
For more context and explanations, look up to read above!
Replacing Toki is fine, but at least put an alternative immediately in place instead of leaving us with nothing. I do not need more duplicate coins, but how this is handled now almost feels like a robbery.
Chi-Ji is meant to be that alternative Toki for the event duration. ;) They just didn't quite think about how people who might rush through the event in the first few days might react to seeing a blank space for the remainder of it.
I see, then if they can just solve this 'gap' issue it would be fine, at least for me.
Yep, there is also that fact (if you recall what the patch notes first stated) we were not supposed to get all 10 tasks available all at once. The final 2 would've only unlocked today if everything went according to the original schedule. Although that would still leave more than a week of "blank Toki space" for the fastest crowd. If they wanted to play around that, they probably should've gone with "1 special task daily" implementation.
Here's a tip on the Chi-Ji healing task in case anyone is stuck on it:
1) Take Chi-Ji, Cookie and Brightwing on any easy bounty.
2) Have Cookie summon a fish, then kill the enemies.
3) The match won't end until you kill the fish (which won't attack or do anything).
4) Have your mercs punch each other in the face until they have all taken at least 34 damage and Chi-Ji's healing is boosted enough to do it
I did this one yesterday with a comp that summoned extra bodies on my side (Tamsin's void taunts and Anacondra's beasts, etc). That plus a Hot Potato meant that I didn't need 3 Mercs damaged to 34, less damage (and less healing) spread across more bodies did the trick.
Still took a while! Cookie's target dummies would have been faster!