Blizzard has provided answers to some frequently asked questions about Hearthstone Mercenaries. Read on for full details.

Quote From Blizzard

With an entirely new way to play, it’s understandable that you might have questions about how everything will work when Mercenaries launches on October 12. We’ve listened to community feedback and have prepared some answers to your most common questions:

Q: How much does Hearthstone Mercenaries cost?

A: Mercenaries is completely free to play! Each Mercenary Card and Mercenary Portrait can be unlocked through regular play. You get eight free Mercenaries for completing the introductory missions, which is more than enough to form a Party powerful enough to complete all Mercenaries Bounties! You’ll also earn Mercenaries, Mercenary Packs, and Mercenary Coins as you play through the mode to unlock many more characters for your roster. For instance, each Mercenary you own will give you a series of Campfire tasks over time. The rewards for completing each Mercenary’s Campfire task chain include 3 packs and over 1500 total Mercenary Coins split between your mercs and random mercs you don’t yet own! There will be 51 Mercenaries at launch, so that amounts to 153 Mercenary Packs and over 76,500 Mercenary Coins just for completing all the Campfire tasks.

For players who want to invest in their Mercenaries experience, the Mercenaries Shop will also dynamically update over time to offer items based on how you play and what you like to buy. Whether you plan to collect all the different Mercenary Cards you can, hunt Mercenary Portraits, or just focus on a few favorite mercs, you can check back often to see what the shop has for you.

Q: Is Hearthstone Mercenaries part of the Book of Mercenaries?

A: No, Hearthstone Mercenaries is a new mode that combines RPG and roguelike elements, while Book of Mercenaries is solo-content within Hearthstone’s traditional gameplay. The two modes have different gameplay and you do not need to play one before you play the other. That said, all your favorite Mercenary characters from Book of Mercenaries do appear in Hearthstone Mercenaries, alongside over 40 other iconic characters from the Warcraft universe!

Q: How many Mercenary Coins does it cost to craft a Mercenary you don’t own?

A: Mercenary Coins are specific to each Mercenary. Those Mercenary Coins can be used to upgrade a Mercenary’s Abilities and Equipment, or to craft the Mercenary if you do not already own it. The cost to craft a Mercenary depends on the Mercenary’s rarity: 100 Coins for Rares, 300 Coins for Epics, and 600 Coins for Legendary Mercenaries.

Q: How do we get these Mercenary Coins?

A: You can get Mercenary Coins a number of ways, including from purchases, Mercenary Packs, Campfire tasks, Fighting Pit rewards, and Bounties. Each Bounty has a pool of Mercenary Coins that it pulls from more regularly, so returning to a Bounty that you’ve already beaten can be a good way to work towards a particular Mercenary you want.

Q: What’s in a Mercenaries Pack?

A: A Mercenaries Pack can be purchased for 100 Gold, like current Hearthstone packs. A Mercenaries Pack includes 5 Mercenaries items, which can include new Mercenary Cards, Mercenary Coins, or Mercenary Portraits. You are guaranteed one new Mercenary Card in each Mercenaries Pack until you have all Mercenaries of a rarity tier. The rates for Legendary and Epic Mercenary Cards are equivalent to the rates for Legendary and Epic cards in traditional Hearthstone packs. You can learn more details about Mercenaries Packs here.

Playing in Mercenaries will give you XP towards your rewards track, so you can earn Gold for your packs from playing.

Q: What are Mercenary Portraits?

A: Mercenary Portraits are alternative art options for a Mercenary, each reflecting a different stage of that character’s personal journey. Just like Golden and Diamond frames, there is no gameplay difference between different Portraits for the same Mercenary—they just let you customize how your squad represents you! Usually, when you first obtain a Mercenary, you will get their default Portrait. On rare occasions, you might get an alternate Portrait before you have received the default Portrait. When that happens, that Mercenary will become unlocked and playable with that Portrait, just like if it was the default.

Q: How long will it take to max my Mercenary’s level?

A: It depends on how you play. At launch, each Mercenary will be capped at level 30. Whenever you get a new Mercenary Card, that Mercenary will start at level 1. If you just stick with your starting team and play through Bounties as they unlock, we expect it to take less than 10 hours of gameplay to max level your starting Mercenaries. The Fighting Pit is also a pretty good source of experience, and can fully level a Party slightly quicker than playing through those first Bounties.

Later on, you’ll be able to stick new Mercenaries on the Bench and have them watch your more powerful Mercenaries take on tougher Bounties. Remember, all members of a Party get the same experience from fights, even if they don’t participate. Power-levelling like that could cut the leveling time drastically. Heroic Bounties offer 50% more experience than the normal versions, so things can get even quicker in late-game Mercenaries!

Q: Can players challenge each other to Mercenaries fights?

A: Yes! The Fighting Pits are open for friendly challenge like in Standard, Wild, and Battlegrounds. You’ll also be able to spectate your friends playing Mercenaries!

Q: What will the Mercenaries Leaderboard look like?

A: The leaderboard will show the top 200 Fighting Pit players, by their numerical ranks, based on their internal MMR, like the Standard and Wild leaderboards. Rating resets will happen once per month, while MMR will adjust over time, similar to the Standard and Wild internal MMR calculations.

Q: How often should we expect updates to Mercenaries?

A: We plan to make Mercenaries content part of our regular development cycle, with regular updates in most patches and at least one large update per expansion cycle, like Battlegrounds. We are really excited about what avenues this mode can open up to us for entirely new features down the line, too. Depending on how the mode and playerbase develop, we may adjust and re-prioritize our plans to best serve the overall Hearthstone community, just like we do with all the other modes.

Q: What is the balance adjustment philosophy for Mercenaries?

A: Mercenaries has a large PVE component and we don’t mind it if players find a way to beat up on the A.I. Even in the Fighting Pits, any power outliers can be smoothed out by our dynamic matchmaking that takes things like team power into account. For those reasons, we don’t anticipate balance changes being a major part of the Mercenaries development cycle. But, of course, if there are game-breaking or unintended interactions, we will make any changes necessary to correct them.