All Changes Brought to Hearthstone Battlegrounds With Patch 24.6, Plus Developer Insights - The Quest Meta Expands

With the recent Hearthstone Patch 24.6 landing on the same day as the announcement of the new March of the Lich King expansion, Battlegrounds received a load of new content. It's still the Quest Meta and the same Season that was introduced back at the end of August, just now being further expanded. Let's dig in, along with some added developer insights!

• Also See: Battlegrounds Quest & Armor Balance Adjustments Detailed, Atramedes Returning to Minion Pool, Bug Fixes

New Hero - The Jailer

Hero Power: Runic Empowerment - [1 Gold] Give a minion +1/+1. Upgrades after 9 friendly minions die.

(Armor Tier 3)

The Jailer will be available in all lobbies for two weeks after patch launch.

General 

• Changed all instances of “gain 1 Gold this turn only” to “gain 1 Gold.” This is not a functional change.
• Changed all instances of “gain a Blood Gem” to “get a Blood Gem.” This is not a functional change.

Hero Power Changes

C'Thun - Saturday C'Thuns

• Old: [2 Gold] At the end of turn, give a friendly minion +1/+1. Repeat 0 times. (Upgrades after each use!)
• New: [2 Gold] At the end of turn, give a friendly minion +1/+1. Repeat 0 times. (Upgrades each turn!)

Infinite Toki - Temporal Tavern

• Old: [1 Gold] Refresh Bob’s Tavern. Include a minion from a higher Tavern Tier.
• New: [1 Gold] Refresh Bob’s Tavern. Include two minions from a higher Tavern Tier.

The Rat King - A Tale of Kings

• Old: Passive. Whenever you buy a minion of a specific type, give it +2/+2. Swaps type each turn.
• New: [2 Gold] Discover a minion of a specific type. Swaps type each turn.

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

• Ghastly Mask works with C'Thun's upgrade

Armor Tier Changes

The following Heroes have less Armor:

• Bru'kan, Pyramad, and The Rat King are now Armor Tier 1 (0 Armor)
• Lich Baz'hial is now Armor Tier 2 (2-5 Armor)
• Deathwing, Infinite Toki, Kurtrus Ashfallen, and Tavish Stormpike are now Armor Tier 3 (3-6 Armor)
• Onyxia is now Armor Tier 4 (4-7 Armor)

The following Heroes have more Armor:

• Patchwerk is now Armor Tier 2 (2-5 Armor)
• Alexstrasza and Ambassador Faelin are now Armor Tier 4 (4-7 Armor)
• Chenvaala, Mr. Bigglesworth, and Zephrys the Great are now Armor Tier 5 (5-8 Armor)

New Quests

These are baseline requirements, actual ones in-game might vary. See details on the Quest system.

• Hire an Investigator - End your turn with unspent Gold 3 times.
• Crack the Case - Have friendly minions attack 11 times.

New Quest Rewards

• Blood Goblet - At the end of your turn, give your right-most minion Attack equal to your missing Health.
• Essence of Zerus - At the end of your turn, add a “Shifter Zerus” to your hand which transforms into random minions.
• Hidden Treasure Vault - At the start of your turn, gain 1 Gold. (Upgrades each turn!)
• Ethereal Evidence - At the start of every turn, choose from 2 new Rewards.
• Volatile Venom - Your minions have +8/+8. After they attack, they die. Horribly.
• The Golden Hammer - Spellcraft: Make a friendly minion Golden until next turn.
• Sinfall Medallion - After you play a minion, give 2 other friendly minions of its Tavern Tier +2/+2.
• Kidnap Sack - Spellcraft: Choose a non-Golden minion. Add it to your hand.

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

• Ethereal Evidence is weighted so that stronger rewards are rarer
• Volatile Vemon is an aura and will apply to all friendly minions (including summons in combat) 
• Kidnap Sack can target the shop
• Vashj's HP will make The Golden Hammer's effect permanent
• Cooked Book, Another Hidden Body, Ghastly Mask, Alter Ego, Friends Along The Way, and Hidden Treasure Vault are all banned from Ethereal Evidence
• Ethereal Evidence is also banned from Ethereal Evidence lol
• The secret 25th reward is also banned
• Hidden Treasure Vault has no cap and will stack with the gold you would have normally generated on your turn (e.g. if you are on turn 7 where you normally gain 9 Gold and HTV is at 3 Gold, you'll start with 12 Gold. Next turn you'd start with 14 (10+4), then 15 (10+5), etc.)

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

Somewhat related, I've had instances of Golden Hammer and Kidnap Sack not getting added to hand at the start of the turn until I take another action.

Yup this is a bug. They should give you your card though after taking any action (including something that doesn't seem like an action like moving a minion on your board, or even picking it up and putting it back in the same spot)

Not familiar with the secret Battlegrounds Buddy Quest Reward (technically no longer the 25th, with the introduction of these)? We have covered its existence a little while ago!

Existing Quest and Reward Updates

• Quest: Find the Murder Weapon has had its baseline completion requirement reduced from 17 to 14.
• Reward: Anima Bribe has been removed from the Reward pool.
• Reward: Theotar’s Parasol has been returned to the Reward pool.
• Reward: Stolen Gold has had its appearance rate reduced by 50%.

New Minions

• Dozy Whelp (Tavern Tier 1, Dragon) - 0 Attack, 3 Health. Taunt. Whenever this minion is attacked, gain +1 Attack permanently.
• Patient Scout (Tavern Tier 2) - 1 Attack, 1 Health. When you sell this, Discover a Tavern Tier 1 minion. (Upgrades each turn!)
• Bristlemane Scrapsmith (Tavern Tier 3, Quilboar) - 4 Attack, 4 Health. After a friendly Taunt minion dies, get a Blood Gem.
• Faceless Disciple (Tavern Tier 4) - 6 Attack, 4 Health. Battlecry: Transform a minion into one of a Tier higher.
• Vigilant Stoneborn (Tavern Tier 4) - 2 Attack, 6 Health. Battlecry: Give a minion +6 Health and Taunt.
• Ball of Minions (Tavern Tier 4, All) - 5 Attack, 5 Health. When you sell this, give its stats to a random friendly minion.
• Interrogator Whitemane (Tavern Tier 5) - 8 Attack, 5 Health. Start of Combat: Give the enemies opposite this Taunt. They take double damage.
• Vanessa VanCleef (Tavern Tier 5, Pirate) - 3 Attack, 7 Health. Whenever this attacks, give your Pirates +2/+1 permanently.
• The Walking Fort (Tavern Tier 6) - 4 Attack, 6 Health. At the end of your turn, give 4 friendly Taunt minions +4/+4.

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

• If Patient Scout is tripled, it will keep the highest tier out of the 3 minions that made it (e.g. if you have ones at Tier 3, Tier 2, and Tier 1, the Golden will be Tier 3)
• Patient Scout WILL NOT upgrade in hand. It must be in play at end of turn to upgrade.
• Dozy Whelp will trigger Whelp Smuggler in combat, but Whelp Smuggler's buff is not permanent
• Tarecgosa will not keep the debuff from Whitemane 
• The debuff from Whitemane will stack
• Atramedes is hiding, but I will find him. I hear his heart beating…

Mind that Faceless Disciple has been temporarily removed from the minion pool due to causing game crashes. And apparently Atramedes is missing in action. 

Minion Updates

Prophet of the Boar

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health. Once per Turn: After you play a Quilboar, gain a Blood Gem.
• New: 2 Attack, 3 Health. Taunt. After you play a Quilboar, get a Blood Gem.

Tarecgosa

• Old: This permanently keeps enchantments from combat.
• New: This permanently keeps your enchantments from combat.
  • Not a functional change, just a precaution against Interrogator Whitemane and similar effects in the future.

Removed minions

• Spawn of N'Zoth
• Gemsplitter
• Reef Explorer
• Nightmare Amalgam
• Nosy Looter
• Yrel

Returning minions

• Menagerie Mug

The saga of Nightmare Amalgam rotating in and out continues. This time, it had to go in order to make room for Ball of Minions. See you again sometime, strange creature. 

Quote From Mitchell Loewen

Were Spawn & Yrel mainly removed to make space or were they problematic for the stat increase quest?

More for space

New Battle Bash: Hallow’s End Collection

Battle Bash is a new way for players to earn a limited-time Battlegrounds cosmetics! The first Battle Bash collection will be the Hallow’s End (purchasable for money or 1000 Runestones) containing ten items, including two Legendary ones: a Legendary Board, a Legendary Strike, a Rare Bartender, 5 Epic Skins, and 2 sets of three Rare Emotes!

Purchasing the Battle Bash will immediately unlock 2 Hammers and will let you earn one “Hammer” with each Top 4 finish during the Battle Bash period. Each Hammer can then be used to Bash for a random prize from that Battle Bash collection. Also, Bob will give all players one free Bash to try it out. That means players have a random chance to get their favorite prize for free!

This first Battle Bash period will last for three weeks from the initial Battle Bash offering (November 1st).

Each Battle Bash collection will only be available as a whole collection for a limited time. However, individual items within a Battle Bash may become available at a later time. Items within each Battle Bash have different pull weightings, according to the following table as shared by Blizzard:

Battlegrounds Lobby Legends Returns

The 8th edition of Lobby Legends will return on November 12. Keep an eye out for more event details closer to the launch date.

Bug Fixes & Game Improvements

A leaner category. The Rewards Track is no longer as annoying to claim from: it doesn't always open on the initial page anymore. Although the missing mustache visual from the Evil Twin Quest Reward, that does sound very serious and potentially game-breaking! 

Quote From Blizzard

• [Battlegrounds] The Battlegrounds Track will now open to the page of the most recently earned item.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where some Alternate Bartenders were not saying their voicelines as frequently as expected.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bugged interaction between the Time Thief Darkmoon Prize and the Secret Sinstone Quest Reward.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where minions summoned off the Evil Twin Quest Reward were not copied by Khadgar. There remains a visual bug where the now copied Evil Twins will not have their mustaches; we will award them the appropriate facial hair in a later patch.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Leeroy Jenkins killed the last minion that damaged him, not the one that dealt him lethal damage.

That was A LOT of Battlegrounds news. Thanks to the Lich King's envy, we've had a bit of a rocky start following the huge expansion announcement, but then let me ask you this: What did you get from your Battle Bash reward and how are you enjoying the new Hero and Minions? Tell us in the comments below!