We've known a new major patch focused on Hearthstone Battlegrounds was due before the end of this month, and now it's been confirmed to be arriving on August 30! With that, we've also entered what might amount to a short reveal phase. Prepare for a lot of new info to take in!
There is so much more coming than we might've ever anticipated - with the game mode receiving its own special Rewards Track and Season Pass, new mechanic in the form of Quests, added minions and heroes, and a different way of handling in-game purchases (Runestones, already known to Chinese players for quite a few years). In that sense, it all feels like a small revamp. Read on for all the fresh details:
Quote From Blizzard Since November 2019, Battlegrounds has grown into one of our most popular and beloved game modes. For many players, Battlegrounds has become their main way to play Hearthstone, and we’re excited to further support and grow the mode for all Battlegrounds players. With that in mind, Patch 24.2, launching on August 30, will bring some of the most significant changes to Battlegrounds we’ve ever seen!
Quote From Blizzard Welcome to Battlegrounds Season 2!
New Battlegrounds Track
Battlegrounds will now have its own progression track that grants Battlegrounds-specific rewards each season. Like the current Hearthstone-wide Rewards Track, there will be both free and premium unlockable rewards along the Battlegrounds Track, and progress towards those rewards is earned by playing. Those Battlegrounds-specific rewards include new Battlegrounds Emotes, Hero Skins, Strikes, and more!
The level 3 reward is free to all players, while the other rewards shown are unlocked through the Season Pass.
By giving Battlegrounds players their own rewards track, we can give them more rewards they care about, and we no longer need to try to mesh Battlegrounds rewards with a Gold and XP system that was designed to serve traditional Hearthstone.
Battlegrounds will remain a free-to-play mode, with more free rewards than ever before. In addition to the free rewards on the Battlegrounds Track, the base emotes, advanced stats, and hero early access that were previously purchased through Battlegrounds Perks will now be available to all Battlegrounds players. We’re excited to make these features free for all players.
Get the Battlegrounds Season Pass to Earn Even More Rewards
The new Battlegrounds Season Pass will get you access to the premium rewards on the Battlegrounds Track, including exciting new tiers of Battlegrounds cosmetics including additional Emote options, Legendary Hero Skins, and a new three-stage Legendary Strike! Purchasing the Season Pass will also immediately unlock the option to choose from two additional heroes at the start of each game. We’re committed to maintaining hero and gameplay balance so that regardless of which heroes you choose from, you know your chance for the crown is based primarily on player skill.
The Season Pass can be purchased in-game with Runestones, Hearthstone’s new virtual currency. Runestones can be purchased through both the in-game shop and the Battlenet web shop, once Patch 24.2 goes live. During the transition period for this first season, the Season Pass can also be purchased with money directly, either in-game or through the Battlenet web shop.
Level XP To Level Cumulative XP Free Reward With Season Pass 1 0 0 2 Hero Slots 2 20 20 Crystallarium (Rare Board) 3 20 40 Guardian Xyrella (Rare Emote) 4 20 60 Crystal Justice (Rare Strike) 5 30 90 Dark Force Malygos (Rare Hero Skin) 6 30 120 Dark Flight Malygos (Rare Emote) 7 30 150 Sky Sailor Galewing (Rare Hero Skin) 8 30 180 Magic Guardian Elise (Legendary Hero Skin) 9 40 220 Nozdormu, Time Warden (Rare Hero Skin) 10 40 260 Guardian Reno (Rare Emote) 11 40 300 Tamsin, Shadow Mage (Rare Hero Skin) 12 50 350 Adventure Beauty Reno (Legendary Hero Skin) 13 50 400 Shadow Helm Saurfang (Rare Hero Skin) 14 50 450 Guardian Nguyen (Rare Emote) 15 50 500 Corrupted Arcana (Rare Strike) 16 60 560 Mystical Mentor Nguyen (Rare Hero Skin) 17 60 620 Guardian Bigglesworth (Rare Emote) 18 60 680 Bigglesworth, Feline Guide (Rare Hero Skin) 19 60 740 Tuxedo Bob (Rare Emote) 20 60 800 Tuxedo Bob (Rare Bartender) 21 60 860 George the Fated (Rare Hero Skin) 22 60 920 Dark Flight George (Rare Emote) 23 60 980 Rokara, Arcane Warrior (Rare Hero Skin) 24 60 1040 Crystal Justice (Epic Strike) 25 60 1100 Dark Flight Prestor (Rare Emote) 26 60 1160 Omencaller Prestor (Rare Hero Skin) 27 60 1220 Guardian Jandice (Rare Emote) 28 60 1280 Dawn Guardian Varden (Legendary Hero Skin) 29 60 1340 Spellbound Baz'hial (Rare Hero Skin) 30 60 1400 Guardian A.F.Kay (Rare Emote) 31 60 1460 Corrupted Arcana (Epic Strike) 32 60 1520 AF Kitsune (Rare Hero Skin) 33 60 1580 Deal Speaker Blackthorn (Rare Hero Skin) 34 60 1640 Dark Flight Blackthorn (Rare Emote) 35 60 1700 Sorceress Greymane (Rare Hero Skin) 36 60 1760 Secret Destiny Aranna (Legendary Hero Skin) 37 60 1820 Guardian Toki (Rare Emote) 38 60 1880 Spellwinder Toki (Rare Hero Skin) 39 60 1940 Enchanting Edwin (Legendary Hero Skin) 40 60 2000 Crystal Justice (Legendary Strike)
The Season 2 Battlegrounds Track rewards will focus on the anime-inspired “Magic of Azeroth” theme. In a new, alternate timeline, The Dark Flight has launched a crusade to extinguish all traces of magic from society. They have rallied the Horde as their army, gathered a few select magic users to their side, and conquered most of Azeroth. Nozdormu is forming a team to take down The Dark Flight and restore the true timeline. This group, the Guardians of Azeroth, and their allies, must awaken the power within them to save the Magic of Azeroth!
Gain Battlegrounds XP to Earn Your Rewards
In addition to its own seasonal rewards track, Battlegrounds will be getting its own special Battlegrounds XP system. Earning Battlegrounds XP will progress you along the Battlegrounds Track towards free and premium rewards. You’ll automatically earn Battlegrounds XP for every Battlegrounds game you win, similar to how you earn XP on the Hearthstone Rewards Track now.
You can earn even more Battlegrounds XP by completing new Battlegrounds Missions. Battlegrounds Missions are like Battlegrounds-specific Weekly Quests or Achievements. You’ll be offered 3 new Battlegrounds Missions every week, and you can complete them to earn Battlegrounds XP. These Missions will bank for each Battlegrounds Season, so if you miss a week, you can come back and complete that Mission later. You can also re-roll one Mission per day. Completing Missions will be pivotal for getting through the Battlegrounds Track and earning all those sweet rewards.
You receive three Missions per week that each award 60 Battlegrounds XP.
All players will still continue to get their normal daily and weekly progression Quests that progress the Hearthstone Rewards Track. Hearthstone daily and weekly Quests will still be able to be completed in Battlegrounds as before, but the Battlegrounds-only weekly Quests will be removed from the general Quest pools and moved over to Battlegrounds Missions pool.
New Battlegrounds Gameplay Mechanic: Quests!
Battlegrounds Season 2 will feature a new mechanic for the duration of the Season: Quests! At the start of turn 4 (the 6 Gold turn), you’ll be offered three random Quest/Reward pairs to choose from. Similar to Hearthstone Quest and Questline cards, the Battlegrounds versions will ask you to complete a particular challenge and, once you do, give you a reward that makes you more powerful for the rest of the game.
Will you go for the powerful Quest Reward that’s hard to reach, or the Quest that most matches your established gameplan? The different options mean that no two Battlegrounds games will play the same way, and you’ll have to think on your feet to adapt on the fly. You can learn more about these new gameplay Quests in the dedicated Quests preview blog.
New Minions and Heroes
In addition to the new Quest mechanic, Season 2 will introduce two new heroes, eleven new minions, and several updates to heroes, minions, and the overall minion pool. Here are a couple of the new minions we’ve invited to the party:
Rendle the Mistermind is quite suspicious. Whenever you end the turn with this minion in play, minions start disappearing from Bob’s Tavern! One could make a pretty penny with those ill-gotten gains.
Theotar saw nothing. Or did he? The Tea Master spills buffs on your other minions whenever you play another minion without a minion type. What sort of criminal lineup can you put together with this powerful minion leading the way?
These are just a couple of the guests coming to Battlegrounds with Patch 24.2. The two new heroes will be revealed at 11 a.m. (Pacific) today! Keep an eye out for more details in the 24.2 Patch Notes, coming this Thursday.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is there anything I can use my Gold for in Battlegrounds?
A: No, there are no plans for Battlegrounds to use Gold in any way. Players who don’t want to spend real money or Runestones will still be able to enjoy the free rewards from the Battlegrounds Track.
Q: I used to be able to get Perks with Gold, why do I need to pay now?
A: We want Battlegrounds to be played and loved for years to come. This change will allow us to continue to support and make content for the growing Battlegrounds community. Though the ability to choose from among four heroes at the beginning of a match is changing to a paid-only feature, all players can still play Battlegrounds for free. We’re committed to maintaining hero and gameplay balance so that the choice from four heroes is more about optionality than power.
Additionally, as part of these changes, we're giving away more free Battlegrounds content than ever before. Advanced states and base emotes are now available to all players, we’ve dissolved Hero Early Access to allow all players to play with new Heroes on patch day, and there are several free rewards on the Battlegrounds Track.
Q: What are Runestones?
A:Runestones will be replacing real money purchases for nearly every product in the Hearthstone shop. Some products, like Pre-Purchase Bundles, the Hearthstone Tavern Pass, and Packs (purchasing more than one at a time) will be able to be purchased with money or Runestones. A few other select products, like individual packs and cosmetics crafted in the Collection, will remain purchasable with only Gold.
With Runestones we’ll be able to offer additional smaller-scale items, such as the individual Battlegrounds Hero Skins offered in the shop with this patch. Runestones will be available in bundles of various sizes, including quantities that correspond to our major products (like the Battlegrounds Season Pass), so you can buy exactly the quantity needed for that product or you can stock up on more for later. No product costs are changing with this conversion—all prices are staying the same, just converted to Runestones.
Q: Can I earn Runestones in-game?
A: No, there are no plans to earn Runestones in-game.
Q: How long will it take to complete the Battlegrounds Track?
A: The Battlegrounds Track is designed to be completed with a reasonable amount of playtime throughout the Battlegrounds Season. The first few levels of the Battlegrounds Track take 20 XP to complete, and this scales up to 60 XP per level. There are a total of 40 levels in the Track, which require 2000 XP in total.
Each Battlegrounds game win (top 4 finish) gives you 10 Battlegrounds XP. Each other placement gives 0 Battlegrounds XP. If you want to accelerate your progression, make sure to complete your Battlegrounds Missions. You get three Battlegrounds Missions every week and each one is worth 60 Battlegrounds XP! Any unfinished Missions for the week are banked until the end of the season, so even more casual Battlegrounds players can take advantage of their big XP boosts whenever they play.
We calibrated the system to allow a significant portion of our engaged Battlegrounds players to complete the Battlegrounds Track by the end of the Season. The system is designed to allow even less-engaged players a good chance to complete it. We will make adjustments in future Seasons if necessary.
Q: Do Battlegrounds Missions award regular XP, too?
A: No. You will still gain some Hearthstone Rewards Track XP as you play Battlegrounds, and there will still be some Daily and Weekly Hearthstone Quests that will be completable in Battlegrounds, but the Battlegrounds Missions will only award Battlegrounds XP.
Q: How does a tiered strike work? What does a Legendary Strike entail?
A: We have upgraded the Strikes you know to add even more KABLAM! With the Season Pass, you not only get the initial two-tier Crystal Justice Strike, but also can unlock two more tiers to that Strike. That includes a tier with a special effect when you knock out a player, and a second tier with an even larger special effect when you knock out a player to win first place. As you progress along the track you will unlock each new stage of the same strike.
Q: What is a Legendary Battlegrounds Hero Skin?
A: Battlegrounds Legendary Hero Skins include animated portraits and voice over effects.
We have big plans to continue bringing new content to Battlegrounds. New heroes, new minions, new events, and new systems will keep Battlegrounds fun and fresh. We’ll also keep bringing back old favorites and updating all our current systems. This is our final major Battlegrounds update of 2022. We’re incredibly excited about everything coming in Season 2 and beyond, and we can’t wait to share it all with you soon. Until then, we’ll see you in Battlegrounds!
Comments
I just hate that the passes can't be bought using gold. I'd literally be willing to spend 10k gold per expansion for both, so 5k each. Possibly even more. I'm not, however, willing to ever spend real money on this game. Their free to play model is HORRIBLE. I wish it was more like something like Legends of Runeterra.
I couldn't care less about BG and it's new contents, free or not.
But the question remains, how long will BG stays in Hearthstone platform and not getting it's own. Because with new contents like this, the game size is getting bigger than ever. To most players that only play traditional HS, it's getting annoying. Why would you ever need to download several GB of contents that you don't touch at all.
The monetization part is kinda restricted to BG for now.
But the moment it disrupt HS economy, that's when you know something bad gonna happen.
Its only a matter of time anyway. BG is coming up in popularity and blizz isn't going to let this slide without some wads of cash slipping into their pockets. So the next big thing is to bring up new currencies, remove gold from BG, and make tons of cash off their adoring fans. Here's an idea blizz, free of charge, just give BG its own server and client already and stop forcing me to update hearthstone for a mode I simply dont care about. At very least I'll be relieved to know some of the profits actually goes towards player experience and not into Bobby's ill-deserved bonus package.
But new currency. Nobody asked for it, but here it is. Wouldn't be too long before regular hearthstone gets stoned to death by it, so let's have a more positive perspective. We might be able to buy the stones using another currency to cheapen the costs, or buy it in bulk during promotions to be spent at a different date. What with USD going up and my own country's down in the pits, the exchange rate has gotten so insulting that Im tempted to buy these digital stones if only because I know it'll get worse later.
Certainly a step in the wrong direction. But with any luck the resulting furor and pitchforks might force a more amicable implementation that might just improve the gaming experience.
The problem isn't that BG is "pay to win" now, or any such silliness. The problem goes all the way back to when BG launched and they didn't bother to monetize it properly. That set up all these extremely unrealistic expectations among the players that it would totally free forever.
If it became popular (and it certainly did!), they were always going to start charging you to play the game with unrestricted access. It took them way too long to figure out how to do that, and that's why people are upset now. The absolute dumbest part is that this is barely any different from the way they monetized HoTS, so it's baffling why they didn't just put this system in place at the outset.
Congratulations, F2P players: you're looking at what might be the worst patch in Hearthstone history.
The Runestones are an obvious cash grab, but here's what the Battlegrounds changes are really all about:
This is a massive, massive convenience punish for f2p players. You can no longer buy packs in bulk using in-game currency. Now the top of every expansion is sinking five to ten minutes just clicking on a button to earn your privilege of playing Hearthstone. It's a deliberate reduction of game quality to increase the financial cost of the game to you.
Further, this is a way to kill the gold gained by playing Battlegrounds. BGs was the best way for f2p players to hit that rewards track because the game spends less time on interstitial screens and wastes less gameplay on non-rewards-track time. Blizzard knew this: this is why BGs was updated some time ago to force lowest-level players to play with some low-mid players no matter what because the lowest-level players are always a bunch of afk'ers. (This has the hilarious effect of punishing low-level players, encouraging them to go afk.) Given the massive connection problems HS has, BGs was the best way to play through the rewards track since the constant bugs and disconnects don't feel nearly as bad for a throwaway game of auto-chess.
These changes are a direct attack on those tactics, so now you can expect even more dead games of casual and Tavern Brawl as people find other ways to crawl the rewards track.
Edit: And I forgot to mention the xp gains are only on wins on BGs. If this change hits the regular Hearthstone rewards track, this will all be even worse.
This is on top of the p2w changes on heroes making BGs even less enjoyable. Players lose at every opportunity.
If that wasn't enough, the fallout from this will dominate every discussion online.
Welcome to Hearthstone: Reddit Controversy Edition.
What are you talking about? Gold purchases would remain exactly the same. You misread this part somehow.
I didn't misread it -- but they did, in fact, miswrite it.
After checking on the devs on social media, they clarified that they hadn't written up the announcement all that well and, thankfully, contradicted it.
Welp, that seems like start of the end for BG, these changes are complete bs, I won't be surprised if people will jump to TFT or Dota autochess, maybe not the same thing but at least they're not hidden by a paywall (Or at least TFT isn't)
Oh I wish more people would play Dota Underlords, I wish it so much, but sadly Valve stopped updating the game 2 years ago. Such a shame, it was by far my favorite auto-chess game and the playernumbers even were fine when the devs out of nowhere and without a official announcement first reduced and finally completely stopped updating the game.
The fact that you can’t buy the pass with gold seems like an obvious step from their perspective. Judging on my friends list, many people play BG’s only and for them the game was 100% free. This was nice - obviously - but I get that cosmetics aren’t enough to pay the bill.
Also, the fact that they take BG’s cosmetics onto their own pass, leads to the conclusion that they will fill the gaps in the regular pass with actually interesting things for regular players. I really didn’t care for a second Sneed’s skin so that’s a positive in my book.
Where I get upset, is that the most paying HS fans get billed too. I bought pre orders mostly because they gave me access to every aspect of the game. Taking that away, immensely lowers the pre order value and as long as they don’t compensate, this change will make them earn LESS money from my side.
The P2W is indeed real but I couldn’t care less about BG’s ratings. It’s just a number without any frame of reference anyways
Runestones are obviously pure BS. I wonder if they dare the scummy 1900 Runestones package but the pass costs 2000. Oh boy, Reddit would burn.
They already said, that they will keep 1 USD = 100 runestones and sell packages same size as preorders/passes. They do it mainly to sell small items like single BG portrait to avoid huge fees on these small purchases.
Oh boy... looks like those greedy execs and Bobby Kotick got their hands on BGs, RIP
Good thing that i stopped palaying BG for the most part already, and now that I won't be getting weekly quests for it I might as well forget the kode exists
Okay, so now instead of paying a bunch of gold for more hero options at the start of a BG game, you are now FORCED to pay REAL money in order to get more options? Now that's straight up P2W, because you can spend money in order to increase the chance of getting a better hero. Sure they say that they will balance the other heros in order to make up for the less slots, but lets be real...
If they say there going to balance the heros better.... WHY DIDN'T THEY DO IT ALREADY? Additionally if you look at this from a business standpoint, they probably WANT most heros to be trash. Why? Because that will incentify players to buy the pass in order to get a increased chance of getting a better hero. Additionally when i'm talking about balance, the armor system is honestly not that good. Too much armor = more highroll games, which are boring because then it's highroll vs highroll. Don't hit the card you want? Concede. And on top of that, their often pretty late with removing armor from OP heroes, so that just makes their previous track-record look worse. So i personally have no faith in blizzard actually balancing the heroes.
Tbh one of the things people also forget about is that there is Lobby legends, which is the BG E-SPORT. Which means if you buy the pass for more hero options, your actually getting a BIG competative advantage... because getting better heroes = climbing a bit easier = better chances in the long-run of reaching Lobby Legends, high MMR or the top of the leaderboards. So basically by spending money, you get a competative edge in a mode that has it's own dedicated E-SPORT. That goes way too far.
Honestly, have they learned NOTHING from the previous Battle Pas controversy?!? I just don't understand why there is no way to unlock those slots with gold. (Actually i do, its "Blizzard Greed") If this pass was cosmetic only, (And maybe a EXP boost or something) like the battle pass then there would be not that much to complain about, actually the rest of the update looks very good/interesting. It's just this P2W bs that's holding the update back. R.I.P. the most F2P friendly mode in HS. (Which was also one of the main reasons why its so popular.)
Yaaaay, in-game currency, totally what this game needed.
Fucking hell, one of the better parts of Hearthstone's monetization was that you would always know what you were paying for, but now you're gonna go ahead and add an unnecessary middleman so you can discreetly fuck with the pricing.
Wouldn't be surprised if this Runestone shit makes it into regular Hearthstone as well.
Thank fuck I don't actually care about BGs but my heart goes out to anyone that does.
Same thoughts here, this new runestones BS is the really scary stuff. In the near future they will probably link this new currency to the other game modes as well and that will just further devalue our gold stashes.
Sadly but they are implementing the runestones for all the modes now... altough the things you can buy with gold you can still buying with gold
As far i understand it, the runestones is how most real money purchases will now be done.
like instead of 15 euro/dollar bundle youl need 15 euro/dollar worth of Runestones to buy it now iinstead of directly with real money
Doesn't appear to be the case for now. Right now they're mostly targetted at BG, but maybe they're gonna be used for main game cosmetics as well, but the essential purchases like Tavern pass and pre-orders will still be available for money directly.
What is the advantage of using a fantasy currency?
You will still have to grab your debetcard or creditcard to buy the runestones.