Hearthstone Patch 23.0: All Known Issues and Fixes - Book of Mercenaries Pack Reward, Hero Cards, Friendly Challenges, Duels Treasures, & More

We've had more than half a week now to spend with the latest big update for Hearthstone - Patch 23.0, marking the imminent arrival of the Year of the Hydra and bringing in everything necessary for the upcoming expansion launch of Voyage to the Sunken City on April 12. We don't have access to all of the new additions yet, but there's been enough to keep us plenty busy for the time being. 

As is always the case, this also means players had numerous opportunities to stumble across various things which perhaps don't work quite as intended. It's actually not a massive list (yet?), given the scope of all these significant upgrades, but it's worth knowing about nevertheless. Also worth noting that a fair number of these issues have already received swift fixes. Hearthstone team didn't wait long before deploying an extensive server-side Patch 23.0.1:

Quote From Blizzard

4/8 Update: Today we released a hotfix patch with bug fixes and balance changes Standard, Battlegrounds, and Duels. You can find the details of that patch on its own dedicated post, here.

• Hearthstone Patch 23.0.1 - Pandaren Importer, Diamond Loatheb, Other Game Modes, & More

There is the usual official forum thread established for cataloguing all known problems and subsequent solutions over the lifespan of the patch 23.0. If you encounter anything else that might warrant a report and hasn't been already confirmed as a 'known issue', it's the best place to head to!

Quote From Blizzard

Hey all,

Patch 23.0 is a big one, bringing with it the new Voyage to the Sunken City expansion, the Core Set update, and the next Hearthstone Year! There’s a lot going on, so follow this post for information about known issues in Patch 23.0.

[…] We will continue to track Patch 23.0 and update this post when we have new information to share.

Aside from that, users reporting random issues on Twitter sometimes receive attention and answers directly from the involved game designers, writers, or QA analysts. 

We happen to know of a few more topics than what's currently included on the Blizzard forums, so let's do our thing and put them all together:

Already Resolved

Quote From Blizzard

• [Resolved 4/5]: The team is aware that completing the Mi’da Bounty in Patch 23.0 caused a crash that locked players out of the Mercenaries Game Mode. The team temporarily disabled the Bounty while that issue was resolved. The team is in the process of rolling out an emergency hotfix that will fix the issue and turn the Mi’da Bounty back on.
• [Resolved 4/6]: The Sunken City Warlock collection achievement will be based off the wrong set’s cards at launch, so it might show progression (or even completion) before the expansion even launches. This will not impact the collection achievements that give diamond/coin rewards, as those are tracked in a different way. This will be resolved via hotfix shortly after the patch goes live. 
• [Resolved 4/8]: The team is aware that the Diamond Loatheb card—a reward for owning a complete Curse of Naxxramas collection—is not claimable by players who already owned the entire Curse of Naxxramas set prior to this patch going live. The team is working on resolving this issue.

The Mi'da, Pure Void bug was quite nasty, but luckily only lasted a few short hours after the patch's initial launch. If you were one of the unfortunate people who got caught up in the crashes and it has made you stay away from the mode, rest assured it's all safe once again. 3 Mercenary Packs and Ninja-Looting 1 for Leeroy Jenkins await! We even have a handy guide to assist in your efforts: 

• Mi'da, Pure Void Mercenaries Bounty - Leeroy Jenkins Equipment and Final Task for 3 Packs

Book of Mercenaries Completion Reward 

Once the final chapter in the year-long Book of Mercenaries adventure opened up with Patch 22.6, it didn't take long for diligent completionists to notice that perhaps something was still missing. A not-so-mysterious pop-up appearing randomly had only confirmed such suspicions. And besides, we'd been over the exact same issue before by the end of the Book of Heroes. 

There is something in there... surely.

Since the previous reward for clearing all adventure chapters included a Golden Standard Pack, the expectation was we would be seeing something along those lines. Which indeed proved to be true - even though many people were still surprised to log into a reward notification seemingly out of nowhere: 

Quote From Blizzard

• [Added 4/7]: Players affected by the blank celebration image after completing all Book of Mercenaries content (a bug in Patch 22.6) have now been awarded the intended Golden Standard Pack. The underlying issue was resolved in Patch 23.0, so going forward players will be awarded the Pack upon completing all the content.

Shiny!

The "outside of the game" part of the message might've added to the confusion. If you've got one of those as well, it's probably a good idea to hold onto it until the new Standard rotation is here on April 12 (the same goes for the most recent Tavern Brawl reward) - that is, unless you really want to find even more cards from the departing Year of the Phoenix instead.

In any case, the golden pack reward is there to stay from now on. Don't worry if you are also "a little" behind on these solo adventures! 

Uhm, where did all that time go?

Quirky Hero Cards

If you kept up with the news and the most recent series of hotfixes, you might know by now that Kurtrus, Demon-Render is back to his old power level. But for the first few days of Patch 23.0, there was no shortage of reports and screenshots demonstrating just how much the pet demon bats could grow erroneously - 'only' the Attack values, as the Health is always capped at 4. Apparently that's what happens when the game also counted all the times your Hero was attacked. It actually even led to a swift ban of the card for the initial Masters Tour Qualifiers of this weekend (if somebody had it in their deck, they weren't allowed to use it or they'd earn instant disqualification). 

Quote From Blizzard

• [Resolved 4/8]: The team is aware that Kurtrus, Demon-Render (the hero card) is scaling the summoned demons incorrectly. A fix to this bug is expected in a hotfix planned for later this week.

But that's actually not the only Hero Card-related issue that saw a good deal of publicity. Remember the card reveal of Emergency Maneuvers from a little while ago? We learned then that it also came with the improved version for Beaststalker Tavish. And somehow this discover option has already snuck into the game. 

Quote From Gallon

Improved Emergency Maneuvers already in Standard! Is this intended?

….yeeeees….? Write that down as my final answer

So there you have it, naturally "everything has been working as intended". Just a little unexpected taste of the upcoming expansion. Some Hunter players already had their fun respawning Mountain Bear and friends. There was also another issue where this discovered Secret would occasionally cause your opponent's minions to go dormant instead, but they just fixed that one. And apparently decided to keep things as is with Voyage to the Sunken City right around the corner. 

Duels & Solo Adventures

You won't find anything about these in the official forum thread for Patch 23.0, but our favorite Test Analyst Daniel Duffin has put up a convenient list on Twitter to help keep track of various bugs for Duels: 

Quote From Daniel Duffin

Known Issues for Duels 23.0:

• Hero Powers unlocked in Uldum sometimes won't stay unlocked. (Still being investigated, please comment if you experience this)
• Info popup for Bob's Bazaar in Tombs of Terror isn't being dismissed. (Restarting will solve this issue.)
• Minions added to deck by Addarah are revealed to the opponent when drawn. 
• Uncollectible Legendaries are not triggering Ring of Phaseshifting.
• Sr Tomb Divers activation aura triggers at 6 instead of 5.
• Wildheart Guff can cause the Lost in the Park Questline to advance more than intended. 
• Elemental Chaos is not interacting with Stormcaller Bru'kan as intended.
• Warmaster's Frenzy text is not updating with Hero Power damage modifiers.

It's quite possible there are other odd or minor interactions hiding in the wings, with so many cards and treasures in the mix. We know there might be something peculiar going on with certain Treasure synergies, as various players have reported seeing Emerald Goggles and the like almost all the time. Safe to say not everything is behaving as it should.

As mentioned above, apparently even Bob is out of control. Just bothering players as they try to make their way through solo adventures (especially for unlocking signature moves from the new Heroes via Tombs of Terror). Not very nice. 

Over and over again... Ok, we get it, Bob!

You can get rid off the stubborn pop-up by restarting... until it comes back at the earliest opportunity.

Mercenaries

Mysterious Stranger crashes (for players who have run out of available tasks) got fixed, so we mainly keep hearing about three main bugs that have yet to be officially acknowledged: 

• All chosen portraits reverting to their default base versions at random intervals. 
• Team editing causing problems for some players, requiring constant deletion and restarting. 
• Losing a PvP game but still gaining some rating (happens to players with high internal scores) can make one miss out on the rating chest, as the game just skips it. This is actually an old bug. 

More than just mere nuisances, in any case, as each of these issues might negatively impact gameplay experience. And the only thing listed on the Blizzard forums is this: 

Quote From Blizzard

• The graphic on the Mercenaries daily Fighting Pit rewards chest will be a bit more colorful than intended. This will be corrected in a future update.

Apparently that's what it means with a pink/violet tint? 

It's just for better highlighting purposes, really.

Friendly Challenges - Out of My Lobby!

Patch 23.0 apparently didn't take too kindly to players issuing friendly challenges to one another. Normally you would just return to the Hero Selection screen after any such game, but what kept happening instead was people getting kicked back to the main screen, with a pop-up message stating that the challenge was canceled. Except... it naturally wasn't. Somebody tell Hearthstone we are past April Fools' Day. 

For anyone going for a handful of odd challenges it's more or less just an annoyance to deal with. But for the smaller subset of players participating in the tournaments, that's something else. We've got plenty of Masters Tour Qualifiers this weekend alone. Imagine the sad comedy of misunderstandings as competitors get upset with each other, full of "???" messages thinking somebody else is at fault. Chaos abound.

Arena Offering Rates

This one is... sort-of-confirmed-but-not-really? Almost two months ago we posted about the Arena community investigating yet another instance of the "Epic offering bug", which had become a recurring issue over the years. Basically fewer spells in the draft and a higher chance of picking Epic minions (think Spammy Arcanist and friends). Which is neither typical nor intended. 

Now some people are willing to believe everything's been fixed with the patch 23.0, while others aren't entirely sure just yet. But there are talks about adjusted offering rates here and there. It's a strange place to be in; even the developer interaction we have witnessed wasn't entirely conclusive: 

Quote From Celestalon

Wasnt mentioned in the patch notes but has the epic offering rate in arena bug been fixed ?

Should be! Let us know how it feels!

as in today or when the new set its out ?

Ah, when the expansion starts next week, I think.

If not already, then at least soon enough? Here is hoping.

Honor Achievements

Something we talked about even before the big pre-expansion patch dropped, largely turning out as expected: 

• Alterac Valley Honor Quest Chain Coming to an End, Achievement Rewards to Take Its Place

Maybe with just a tiny quirk most everyone should've noticed when logging in over the past few days. 

Quote From Blizzard

• [Added 4/5]: The team is aware that the conversion from the Honor Track to an Achievement gave players a celebration for each phase of the Honor Track they had already completed during the battle for Alterac Valley. This is a visual-only bug.

There was some "spam" to get through and then the rewards still seemed claimable once again from the achievements themselves. 

Such demotion.

One way or another, the Honor picks live on; albeit in a different manner. Quite elegant and generous one at that. Anyone who's missed out on Alterac Valley expansion should be able to live through a part of that system while attaining "ranks" and Golden cards at their leisure.

Miscellaneous

One final point from the official forum thread: 

Quote From Blizzard

• Three cards being added to the Core set in this year’s update (Bronze Explorer, Darius Crowley, and Wrathscale Naga) will show in your collection at the when Patch 23.0 goes live (April 5), instead of at the Core Set update (April 12). This is a visual-only bug. Those cards will not be playable as part of the Core until all the Core updates are live.

For the record, you can already stumble onto cards such as unnerfed Bronze Explorer outside of Wild; for example in this little game mode called Arena.

Solar Eclipse apparently had its text adjusted? Used to say "Your next spell this turn casts twice". But no apparent functionality change. 

And we have managed to uncover what happened to one former potent Battlegrounds minion. Trigger warning: it's an unfortunate twist of fate. 

Next time we'll try to end on a more uplifting note. Promise. Protect your Murlocs! 

So that's another batch onto the pile of various Issues & Fixes - that is, until more friendly bugs find their way towards us. Most of them don't seem particularly heavy this time around, when compared to the previous instances with the patch 22.2 or the patch 22.4.

Have you encountered any of these or know about anything else we might've missed? Don't forget to also report in the official forum thread if you are able!