Patch 31.0 Arrives Tomorrow: The Pre-Release Brawl for The Great Dark Beyond, Warcraft Anniversary Event, and More!

The Great Dark Beyond has revealed all of its cards, so now comes the final prep-work for the official release. We also have the 30th Anniversary of the Warcraft universe to celebrate! So much to do in so little time. Patch 31.0 has quite a few things going for it, including:

• The Pre-Release Tavern Brawl, wherein you can open your packs early and take them into the Tavern Brawl to win prizes. You can learn more here.
• Updates to progression, including the latest expansion packs in Tavern Brawls, reverting the Weekly Quest changes, and adding more packs to the Rewards track.
• Community drops for more packs from this year's expansions.
• The Warcraft Anniversary event, which will net you a brand-new celebratory card!
• Arena updates.
• An update to Demonic Dynamics and Overplanner.

Plus a ton of bug fixes, as per the usual. You can read the full notes below:

Quote From Blizzard

Patch 31.0 launches tomorrow and starts the final countdown until we set off into The Great Dark Beyond on November 5!

Explore the Cosmos!

The Great Dark Beyond, Hearthstone’s next expansion, blasts off on November 5. The new 145-card expansion includes the new Starship keyword, new Draenei minion type, returning Spellburst keyword, and more! See all the new cards in the official Card Library today. Don’t forget to grab your Pre-Purchase before the expansion launches and it’s gone!

With the launch of The Great Dark Beyond comes a new and improved Rewards Track, filled with out-of-this-world goodies like XP boosts, cards, Gold, and more card packs than any track before! Check out the Rewards Track Refresh blog for details.

Open Your Packs Early and Join the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl!

The Great Dark Beyond Pre-Release Tavern Brawl begins tomorrow with Patch 31.0 and runs until expansion launch on November 5. Crack open your The Great Dark Beyond packs early, build a deck, and compete in a mini-competition to earn more The Great Dark Beyond prizes!

Everyone will get one free entry into the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl. After that, entry will cost 2 Tavern Tickets, 300 Gold, or 400 Runestones per run. For each run, you’ll lock in a deck and play until you get either 6 wins or 3 losses. Decks can be built with cards from Core Set, Whizbang’s Workshop, Perils in Paradise, and The Great Dark Beyond. Prize payouts will be based on how well you do on your run, as follows:

You can learn more about the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl in our dedicated Developer Insights blog.

Celebrate Community Days

In space, one Community Day is the same as four Community Days here in the Tavern. Watch your favorite streamers as they take on the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl and earn packs that you can use on your own runs! From October 29, 10:00 a.m. (PDT) to November 2, 10:00 a.m. (PDT), you can get up to 10 packs just for watching any Hearthstone stream (2 hours per drop):

• 1st Drop: 3 Whizbang’s Workshop Packs
• 2nd Drop: 3 Perils in Paradise Packs
• 3rd Drop: 4 The Great Dark Beyond Packs

 

Creator Deck Recipes Return

When The Great Dark Beyond launches on November 5, the in-game deck recipes will update to include decks from Hearthstone stars:

• Cantelope’s Rainbow Starship Death Knight
• Kibler’s Starship Crew Demon Hunter
• Kibler’s Starcaneship Druid
• Day9’s Ceaseless Discover Hunter
• SwayBae’s Fiery Elementals Mage
• Roffle’s Libram Paladin
• MarkMcKz’s Mystified Draenei Priest
• Clark’s Schematic Heist Rogue
• Roffle’s Spacerock Shaman
• MarkMcKz’s Demon Starship Warlock
• Sloot’s Akamattack Warrior

New and returning player loaner decks will update with the 31.4 Patch and will include cards from the main expansion, as they did in the 30.4 update.

 

Progression Updates

Three major progression updates are going live in Patch 31.0:

• Weekly Quests are being made easier to complete, but to grant less XP (reverting to the versions from before Patch 29.2).
• Tavern Brawls will now grant the latest expansion packs, instead of Standard Packs.
• The new Rewards Track and Tavern Pass have been upgraded with more The Great Dark Beyond Packs.

See the Progression Update blog from Game Director Tyler Bielman for more about these changes.

 

Card Updates

Demonic Dynamics

• Old: [3 Mana]
• New: [2 Mana]

Overplanner

• Reworded effect to remove Discover. This is a non-functional change to any existing interactions, but is in preparation for the new cards in The Great Dark Beyond.

 

In-Game Event: Warcraft Anniversary

Celebrate 30 years of Warcraft, and 20 years in the World of Warcraft, with a special Wacraft-themed event! From November 12 to December 3, complete Event Quests to earn Event XP on the special event rewards track. Complete the rewards track to earn 2 copies of the Champions of Azeroth card, 2 copies of the Golden Champions of Azeroth card, the World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary card back, and the Hogger Warrior Hero Skin.

 

Arena Updates

On October 29, with Patch 31.0, all ongoing Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will begin. With this season, we return to single-class Arena. The eligible sets that will make up this Arena card pool are:

• The Great Dark Beyond
• Perils in Paradise
• Showdown in the Badlands
• Festival of Legends
• Caverns of Time
• Scholomance Academy

 

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [General] Fixed various issues with swapping between languages or accounts on mobile.
• [Hearthstone] Rules update: cards that relate to C’Thun (like those that buff C’Thun) or Galakrond (like those that Invoke Galakrond) will now only be transformed into, Discovered, or randomly generated if a card from that grouping was in your starting deck.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where playing the Horseman’s Head from hand drew you a card. (This fix would have been written as a flavorful rhyme, if we were cleverer or had some more time).
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where, if you conceded during Mistah Vistah’s Scenic Vistah effect, it caused the background ambient sound effect to replay on loop into your next game—nobody signed up for that long of a hike.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where a transformed Hero didn’t show its Lesser Trinket in the Leaderboard.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where minions summoned by Cultist S’Thara were not getting Taunt from Greybough’s Hero Power.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Valorous Medallion Trinket triggered after Start of Combat Hero Power triggers.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Emerald Dreamcatcher Trinket triggered after Bru’kan’s Hero Power.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Elder Taggawag gained the wrong stats with the Promo Portrait Trinket in play.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Bob-blehead Trinket didn’t work with Wheel of Yogg-Saron.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Duos Warbands could appear empty or misaligned in the Full Stats tab.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where your own Hero could sometimes appear in the Duos Portal instead of your partner’s.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where all Bartenders appeared as Bob in the Duos Portal.
• [Progression] Corrected the wording on the KEEP OUT: BEWARE OF DOGS Achievement.
• [Progression] Fixed a bug where the Valedictorian’s Honor Achievement couldn’t be completed.
• [Cosmetics] Updated the Mythic Ragnaros Hero Power to differentiate for Golden Hero Powers.
• [???] Fixed a bug impacting the Alterac Valley Mysteries.
• [Misc.] Hearthstone: Music from the Tavern Volume 2, with over 50 tracks, will come in a later patch, towards the end of this calendar year.

Are you ready to travel to The Great Dark Beyond? Cooking up ideas for the Warcraft celebration card? Let us know in the comments below!