Mercenaries is no longer going to be receiving content updates after the next update, which we've got all the details on below!
- Six new mercenaries are joining.
- Mr. Bigglesworth, Arfus, and Kel'Thuzad appear to be a part of this.
- Some mercenaries are being updated to have dual-types.
- Many mercenaries will be getting a faction banner to show who they belong to.
- Some updates to other cards in the mode will now reference factions.
- In addition to Horde and Alliance, we are getting:
- League of Explorers
- The Empire (Old Gods)
- Legion (Burning)
- Pirates (No longer a type, instead a faction)
- Scourge
- This should have been a thing from the beginning...
- Mythic Boss Rush is being added!
- A gauntlet of bosses with randomized elements to fight to earn renown.
- Weekly content with a new boss rush unlocking each day.
- Each boss is a bounty with 3 bounty boss fights in a row, leading to a final boss that is two bosses at the same time.
- Only the most interesting PVE content is here - no Points of Interest or mob fights.
- Renown can be spent to upgrade mercenaries beyond their normal limits.
- These upgrades only apply to Mythic Boss Rush and not the normal mode.
Patch 25.4 does not currently have a release date. The full patch notes will be coming soon.
Announcement
Quote From Blizzard Patch 25.4 will bring some awesome updates to Mercenaries, including new Mercs, Mercenary Faction designations, dual-type Mercenaries, and the all-new Mythic Boss Rush end-game system! It will also be the last major update to the Mercenaries mode as we align our goals and focus on continuing to make Hearthstone the best digital card game in the world. We’re excited to share more details about the next Hearthstone year, Core Set, and expansion, ahead of Patch 25.6. But first, we want to talk about the major Mercenaries updates coming in 25.4.
Six More Mercenaries Join the Village
Six new Mercenaries are coming in Patch 25.4. This is our final planned infusion of new collectible Mercs into the mode, and they’re some of our most interesting Mercs yet.
You can get all the details about the new Mercs in the 25.4 Patch Notes, coming soon. Once these Mercs join the fray, we’ll have over 120 total Mercenaries for players to collect, add to their Parties, level-up, and max out. That’s one bustling Village!
Dual-Types, Reworked Types, Factions, and more!
Starting in 25.4, Mercenaries will be able to have two different Types to better represent their identities. We’ll have Human-Undead, Celestial-Beasts, and more! Several Mercs will gain a second Type in this update, opening up a whole slew of new synergies across your collection.
Many Mercenaries will also be gaining Factions, like Horde and Alliance—signified by the flag in the upper-right corner of the card. These will make it easier to tell exactly how a particular Treasure or Ability might impact your Party. Some Abilities, Equipment, and Treasures have been updated or reworked to refer to Factions and/or to better work within the new Mythic Boss Rush system. On top of that, we’re adding five new Factions, for a total of seven.
You already know the Horde and Alliance well, but now they will have clear flags to show where their loyalties lie. Explorers represents the League of Explorers who are now, truly, in a League of their own. The Empire, Legion, and Scourge Factions represent different enemies of Azeroth. The Empire is comprised of the Old Gods and their followers; the Legion is the Demons and demigods who make up the Burning Legion; and the Scourge is made up of the Lich King and his shambling Undead servants. Finally, Pirate has been converted from a Type to a Faction, and represents those raiders and rapscallions who don’t fly any flag but their own.
Mythic Boss Rush End Game Content Coming Soon
The final big system update to Mercenaries is the new and challenging Mythic Boss Rush end-game system. At its core, Mythic Boss Rush is a gauntlet of bosses with randomized elements that you can face to earn more Renown and push your Mercs beyond their limits.
Mythic Boss Rush is weekly content, with a new Boss Rush unlocking every day throughout the week, until a reset at the end of the week. Each Boss Rush is like a Bounty with 3 Bounty Boss fights in a row, leading to a final Boss that is two Bounty Bosses at the same time!
Mythic Boss Rush has been streamlined to include only the most interesting PVE content: there are no Point of Interest nodes or mob fights, just bosses. Bosses will also have random anomalies that make them stronger—with power that scales based on a sliding difficulty setting you can choose for yourself. You earn Renown as a reward for each clear, with the bulk of your Rewards being granted after your first clear, based on the difficulty you were set to for that run.
How are you supposed to take on this bevy of big, bad bosses? In Mythic Boss Rush, you’ll be able to spend your Renown to upgrade your Mercs’ Abilities, Equipment, Treasures, and stats beyond Maxed! Those upgrades persist from Boss Rush to Boss Rush, letting you take on bigger and badder bosses each week.
In Mythic Boss Rush, you can spend Renown to upgrade your Mercs beyond their Max. These upgrades don't carry over to regular Bounties or the Fighting Pit.
You’ll be able to unlock Mythic Boss Rush via a free upgrade to the Travel Point. The upgrade becomes available once you’ve unlocked Heroic Bounties and have at least one Maxed Merc. Mythic Boss Rush adds tons of replayability to Mercenaries for players who love the PVE aspect of the mode and are hungry to push their Parties to the limits.
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Comments
Love the dual type and faction flag concept... that being said the picture of the Sylvanas cards blows my mind. Horde faction - sure I guess even though she hated them.. wouldn't the new scourge faction be better fit (even though she hated them too I guess). High elf type, so above getting any of the elf buffs, and also so elevated to avoid get any other kind of synergy with that half type? Undead type has no treasures that I'm aware of as well, but sure we'll see some with this patch given the theme.
Hi,
Guys, what will you do with all of your mercenary packs ?
open them, get 1/10 value for renown to apply to lvl ups on mythic mode.
Yes I 100% agree that these factions should've been included in Merc since inception. Maybe the mode wouldn't have died then 😅
It's one of many little things that, when combined, maybe could have made a difference. The lack of polish at launch did the mode no favors: there was a lot of hype at launch, but players dropped off very quickly.
In particular as someone who never played WoW, it was hard to remember which mercs were Horde, which were Alliance and which were neutral. Some patterns are easy: humans and draenai are generally Alliance and orcs and trolls are generally Horde, but what about an elven druid like Malfurion?
Atleast they quickly (as in 1 month after launch...) made Horde/Alliance keywords. So when you hover over thse treasures you can see which tribes get these bonuses.
That helped a little, but it mainly provided the rule of thumb rather than exact details. At least, I don't think tribe entirely determines Horde/Alliance: as far as I know Sylvanas is Horde in WoW lore, while Dawngrasp is Horde according to the Barrens storyline, but others of their tribes are not.
Sylvanas is Undead (Forsaken) and they're Horde. Dawngrasp is a Blood Elf and they're Horde, too, for reasons stemming from WCIII and WoW, long before the Barrens story in HS. On top of this, everything in WoW is either slightly- or way more stupid compared to WCIII (my bias is evident) so researching WoW is a pain in the butt.
This is time-period-dependant. Slylvanas would have been part of the Lich King's Undead faction before the middle of WCIII's expansion the Frozen Throne (and was an Alliance member before she was Undead). Gul'Dan is a Horde member that betrays the Horde for Real Ultimate Power way back in WCII -- and dies. He's such an important plot-mover that he has models and dialogue and time-travelly dimension-shifty reappearances in WoW and a place in Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm even though he's dead as fuck before WCIII begins and isn't arguably even Horde anymore because, y'know, betrayal. Gul'Dan, no longer a Horde member, is so important that his bleached skull gets more screen time in WCIII than some characters.
But he's Horde in Mercenaries because of course he is. Which is fine, but you have to signpost this stuff.
You can't possibly follow this. None of this is intuitive. This was a problem noted in the lauch teasers. I was asking how you identify factions before the game had released.
As of right now it actually does. And yes, this does lead to some canonnically horde characters to get aliance buffs.
Have to give them credit, without the boss rush this game has a definite end far as pve is concerned. So now there's more reasons for those who actually like this game to grind upwards, as opposed to oblivion.
The mythic bonuses appear to be bespoke, which means that some human being had to give each and every ability in Mercenaries a pass. Ignoring the bug fiesta that will probably create (they did say they would do some bugfixes going forward, so that's fine), there's just no way that the abilities can be anywhere close to balanced with that kind of work. Which is not a big deal since this is PvE and it should create some funny moments and reliable comps.
Indeed, imbalance towards the players is even more justified as this renown system puts pressure on those trying to level-up mercs by removing a good source of upgrade points from their toolbox.
The faction insignias and multi-tribe features are examples of things that should have existed for Mercenaries and mainstream Hearthstone both and from the very beginning. Mercenaries seemed to be a more intimate exploration of the themes of the card game which made it all the more disappointing when the game dismissed details from the world background's lore in design.
Incidentally, this also means that taking the treasure that makes your mercs all pirates will no longer screw over as many comps. (Just the ones relying on faction identification, which are fewer than tribal reliance.) And fewer dumb Lich King debates.
Atleast the boss rush should keep me entertained for a bit with random bosses and random modifiers. Personally I wished it would also include less agency in which mercs you have in your team. Maybe like only starting with 3 mercs and you discover a new merc for your team after every boss. I always had the most fun when not playing with optimal comps. Oh well, I guess it's too late now.