The mystery has been solved!
Note: If you cannot join a game against the Innkeeper it is because the servers are full. Try again later!
On May 4th, Blizzard patched Hearthstone with Patch 20.2 that brought Quilboars into Battlegrounds, a shiny new Diamond Ragnaros, new Tier 2 Hero Skins, and so much more. The best addition though was by far the activation of a new achievement, "???" that rewards us with a new card back which was one of the runner-ups in a competition that was run over in China earlier this year.
The community is out in full force seeking answers. What could be the 4 different mysteries that we have to solve in order to obtain the card back?
Table of Contents
What We Know So Far
Although Celestalon has stated that there will not be any hints, he has had a few words of wisdom for us all.
- We do not need World of Warcraft.
- It does not appear we need to have a full collection of Barrens cards to solve the mysteries.
- One specific part of the mysteries will be harder to do on mobile but remains possible.
- This is not the first part of the mystery.
- We can infer that this requires all the mysteries to be completed in a certain order.
- Mobile users should also be able to participate in the achievement without issue tells us anything desktop-specific to Hearthstone could be ignored.
Quote From Celestalon
And from the WoW Secret Finding Discord:
Quote From Celestalon You can all solve it.
I'll be up-front about one thing: There is one specific part of this whole mystery that is harder to do on Mobile (but still possible). However, you're nowhere even remotely close to it right now. It's safe to assume that mobile players can help just as much as desktop players right now. And no, nothing in this message is a clue.
Possible Hints
None of these are confirmed to be useful, but Celestalon has been sneaky so who knows!
Celestalons "?"
The night before the new patch hit, Celestalon teased everyone with a glowing, blue question mark.
Celestalon's New Profile Art
Celestalon tweeted his new profile art that he received which is surrounded in mystery shortly before the patch went live.
Click to open a larger version with more detail.
How to Solve Barrens Mystery #1
Initially solved by LynxZh on the WoW Secrets Discord.
We're going to be fighting The Innkeeper as Rogue with the following Rogue cards in our deck:
We're also going to include Efficient Octo-bot so we can reduce the cost of these cards. We'll need to play them all in a single turn.
To start your match against the Innkeeper, go to "Solo Adventures" followed by the "Practice" category where you can queue for a Normal game. You may play against any of the Innkeeper's heroes.
Now, you need to draw all five of these cards and play them in the same turn to progress to the next phase. As stated above, we'll use Efficient Octo-bot to make this happen. Once they have all been played, in any order, and you end your turn, a new spell will be added to your hand.
- Get all 5 cards in your hand.
- Reduce their costs so you can play them all in one turn.
- End your turn.
- A ??? Spell will be added to your hand.
- Play the ??? Spell.
Playing this card is going to reset the board to a new state with a full field on your opponent's side, that contains some magical cubes, and three rings of keys on yours. Your hero power will also be changed.
What you do in the next part is VERY important. This is a puzzle that is solved by setting the enemy minions to a certain attack. This is effectively a 7 digit lock.
You will only be attacking with your left-side minion to set this lock.
Only attack with your first, or left-most minion.
Perform the following actions to complete the mystery in order, from left to right on the opponent's board. Remember, only attack with your left-side minion.
- Attack your opponent's first minion once. (Far Left)
- Attack your opponent's second minion twice.
- Attack your opponent's third minion three times.
- Do not attack your opponent's fourth minion. (Middle)
- Do not attack your opponent's fifth minion.
- Attack your opponent's sixth minion three times.
- Attack your opponent's seventh minion twice. (Far Right)
These attacks will change the attack and health of the enemy minions. It is all over when the following board state is achieved, with all enemy minions having 4 attack:
After these attacks are carried out, press your hero power. The game will end and you will now have achieved 1/4 progress in the mystery.
How to Solve Barrens Mystery #2
Initially solved by MustBeSenpai the WoW Secrets Discord.
We're going to be fighting the Innkeeper as Warrior with the following cards in our deck:
Much like the Rogue puzzle, hold all these cards in your hand and get ready to play them all in a single turn. Once they have all been played, in any order, and you end your turn, a new spell will be added to your hand.
- Get all 5 cards in your hand.
- End your turn.
- A ??? Spell will be added to your hand.
- Play the ??? Spell.
This is a challenging next part of the puzzle so pay close attention. Your new board that has been generated is filled with Orcs, Quilboar, and a Caravan.
- Any minions to the right of the Caravan will be sent over to the other side when you hit your hero power.
- You can drag and drop the minions on the board in any order, though they remain on the side they are on.
- We will be sending minions from one side to the other in a specific order.
There are some bad scenarios that mean you've messed up:
- If you send over only the Caravan, a centaur will spawn and kill it.
- If you send over the Caravan and three minions, Centaurs will spawn and kill them.
Here are the steps we need to take to solve this challenge. We've got the side of the board you want to be on for each of the moves.
- Yours - Move two Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Enemy - Move one Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Yours - Move two Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Enemy - Move one Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Yours - Move two Orcs to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Enemy - Move one Quilboar and one Orc to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Yours - Move two Orcs to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Enemy - Move one Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Yours - Move two Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Enemy - Move one Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
- Yours - Move two Quilboar to the right side of the Caravan. [Hero Power]
Following these steps results in a victory and you will now have 2/4 completion.
How to Solve Barrens Mystery #3
Initially solved by the Korean Secrets Finding Team.
We're going to be fighting the Innkeeper as Druid with the following cards in our deck:
Much like the previous puzzles, hold all these cards in your hand and get ready to play them all in a single turn. Once they have all been played, in any order, and you end your turn, a new spell will be added to your hand.
- Get all 6 cards in your hand.
- End your turn.
- A ??? Spell will be added to your hand.
- Play the ??? Spell.
Now we're going to be going through a maze! Depending on which minion you attack decides how you move in the maze.
- Attacking the left minion turns you left.
- Attacking the right minion turns you right.
- Attacking the middle minion will advance you forward.
- When the immune shield is on the middle minion, that means there is a wall in front of you.
You will notice that there are a limited number of left turns due to the low health of the left-side minion. Luckily, we can turn ourselves right three times to effectively make a left turn.
The solution is to make it through the following path. Each letter is an attack that corresponds to the minion.
(L=Left, M=Middle, R=Right)
RRRMM RMMRM RRRMR
RRMMR MMRRR MMRMR
RRMMM MRRRM MMRMM
RMMRM RRRMM MMMRM
MMRMR RRMMR RRMMR
MMRMR RRMRM RRRMR
RRMRM MMMRR RMMMR
RRMRM RRRMR MMRRR
MRMRR RMRRR MRMRM
RRRMM
Thanks to ParaSightPlays, Alexander A, Van Fej, Sebliend, Remit, Kajox, ONDRA, GulioElTorch and Issc!
I am very thankful for not having to create this map.
How to Solve Barrens Mystery #4
Solved by Fiufa and the Chinese Secret Finding Community. Thanks to Miko on Discord for writing proper English instructions.
We're going to be fighting the Innkeeper as Hunter with the following cards in our deck:
Much like the previous puzzles, hold all these cards in your hand and get ready to play them all in a single turn. Once they have all been played, in any order, and you end your turn, a new spell will be added to your hand.
- Get all 5 cards in your hand.
- End your turn.
- A ??? Spell will be added to your hand.
- Play the ??? Spell.
Quote From Miko (Warcraft Secrets Discord) STAGE 1
- Three potions for 10 coins, a dagger, a bandage for the potion, a pendant for a bandage, and a pendant for 11 coins.
- 11 coins for three potions, two daggers, potions for bandages, and three bandages for 13 coins.
- 13 coins for four potions, potions for bandages, bandages for dolls, dolls for 18 coins, and three daggers for 6 coins.
- Buy 25 daggers for 25 coins for three whistles and 22 coins for three whistles.
- 22 daggers for 22 daggers, 26 daggers for 2 shields, and 2 shields for 25 daggers.
- 25 coins for 12 cheeses, 10 cheeses for 25 coins, 26 coins for all daggers.
- 28 daggers for 4 whistles, 4 whistles for 2 sapphire rods, 2 sapphire rods for 1 Gilneas dagger, Gilneas dagger for 70 coins.
- At this point the first stage is completed, you have 70 coins, 2 cheeses.
STAGE 2
- 70 coins to buy two scrolls, 20 coins to buy a Panpipe, four axes, a dagger, two scrolls for 70 coins.
- 70 coins for 6 panpipes and 50 coinsfor 4 Panpipes.
- 54 coins for 4 panpipes, 6 panpipes for 2 Ruby crowns, 10 coins for 3 potions, 1 dagger, and 72 coins for crown.
- 72 coins for 36 hand axes, 10 fishing gear, 2 fishing gear for 18 coins.
- 18 coins to buy 9 hand axes, hand axes for fishing gear, 10 fishing gear for 120 coins.
- At this point, the second stage is achieved. You have 120 coins, 2 cheeses, 1 hatchet, 3 potions, 1 Panpipe and 2 daggers.
STAGE 3
- 120 coins for 120 daggers, dagger for dwarf shield, 7 dwarf shield for 60 coins
- 60 coins for dagger, dagger for dwarf shield, dwarf shield for tiger amulet, 2 amulet for 114 coins
- 114 coins to buy 57 potions, potions for glasses, 7 glasses for 65 coins
- 65 coins for 21 potions, 1 potion, 20 potions for anger crystal, 1 anger crystal for 60 coins
- 60 coins for potion, potion for wine cup, wine cup for hammer, 5 hammer for 125 coins
- 125 coins to buy medicine, medicine for bandages, bandages for dolls, 9 Dolls for 166
- At this time, the third stage is achieved. You have 166 coins, 1 potion, 2 cheese, 2 daggers, 1 hatchet, 1 Panpipe
STAGE 4
- 166 coins to buy potion, potion for wine cup, wine cup for warhammer, warhammer for candle, candle for 180 coins
- 180 coins for potion, potion for bandage, bandage for doll, doll for angel drink Agent, Angel Drink sells 204 coins
- 204 coins to buy cheese, cheese for night potion, night potion sells 240 coins.
- At this time, the fourth stage is reached. You have 240 coins, 2 daggers, 1 hand axe, and 1 Pan flute
STAGE 5
- 240 coins potion, potion for wine glass, wine glass for Wisdom Ball, Wisdom Ball sells for 205 coins
- 205 coins to buy potions, potions for Shadow Gems, Shadow Gems sell for 166 coins
- 166 coins to buy potions, potions for angry crystals, 2 coins left to buy potions, angry crystals sell for 150 coins
- 150 coins to buy the reel, the reel sells for 138 coins
- Buy a dagger for 138 coins, exchange a dagger for a whistle, exchange a whistle for a sapphire wand, and a wand for 125 coins
- Buy a panpipe for 125 coins, exchange the panpipe for a ruby crown, the crown sells for 92 coins
- At this point, the fifth stage is reached, you have 96 coins, 1 hand axe, 1 potion
STAGE 6
- 96 Coins to buy potions, potions for wine glasses, wine glasses for warhammers, and warhammers for 70 Coins
- 70 Coins to buy panpipes, panpipes sell for 42 Coins
- 46 Coins for potions, potions for bandages, bandages for dolls, dolls for angel potions, potions for 30 Coins
- 31 Coins to buy potions, and 15 Coins for potions
- 16 Coins for a hand axe, and a hand axe for 10 Coins
- 10 Coins for a hand axe, a hand axe for a hat, and a hat for 14 Coins
- 14 Coins to buy potion, potion for 10 Coins
- DONE!
Special thanks to the Secret Finding Discord's Doc where everyone has been helping to figure out the mysteries. Discord ID tags withheld to prevent potential harassment.
Comments
How did they get to discover all this ? this is more important than throwing just the solution.
Well it was a community effort, and for English speakers discord channel trying different things with a shared word document detailing progress/theories etc. I even added to it when we were trying to discover how to even start. Other countries had other collaborative forums.
But it turned out that flavor text of say, Rokara, shows the spells needed. Same for the quotes in Barrens cards added to the other classes we work with here. e.g:
"Tread carefully, but stand tall, and stand together. For strength and honor!" —Rokara
1) Rogue puzzle
I suspect clever algebraic maths or a brute force program was used here. I've mapped the interactions needed (key attack vs box attack and then result on both, for each box attacked it's effect in the other boxes etc) to write a program to iterate through permutations which I might do just for fun even though solution is known.
But probably maths was used as 7 actions = 1.8 billion possible combinations though it's doable.
2) Warrior puzzle
Easy enough to solve yourself
3) Druid puzzle
Pen and paper :) (or multiple bits of paper in my case)
4) Hunter puzzle
I didn't spend time on this because the text was too small and my eyes aren't the best. But someone in the comments seemed to have pretty close by themselves. A logic puzzle after detailing the costs, items + amounts, vendor/seller relationship matrices etc.
In all fairness, the hunter puzzle isn't as hard as it looks. Once you've worked out what the value of all items is in terms of gold, the path you need to take to get more gold becomes pretty clear. Some sellers offer the same items for different prices, and as the gold gain of selling all items to buyers is exactly 0, you know for a fact that you have to buy every item for the cheapest price. Knowing all this, you're halfway there already.
That rogue puzzle looks like the hardest one to me, but that could also be because it's the most boring one of course.
I meant how did people know that they needed to play "x class", in "x mode" with "x cards" in "x order".
Well the four classes have 4 Barrens legendaries that give flavor text quotes detailing suspicious information.
The order of cards played doesn't matter though if it did you refer to the order in which they are referred in the flavor text.
After a fair bit of people tanking their rank/MMR trying things in ranked, as this is a game play achievement none of which can be done outside of ranked/duels/arena Celestation tweeted that in fact this achievement was an exception.
We were a bit wrong footed in that he also stated these could be done on mobile, though one of them was harder on mobile but we weren't anywhere near it. Flavor text isn't on mobile though of course you can use a website to see them.
Also many didn't think collection mattered due to another tweet of his which arguably isn't the case for Rogue. Though again you can randomly generate the cards you need.
Then I went to sleep and when I woke up it was all pretty much solved lol.
Ah thanks for the clarifications ;)
Lmao, they told us we won't need collection of cards for this yet we need 3 epics. Pass for me
Yeah, I've had to use peons, scorpions, dragons from wild to discover the missing spells
if it helps you, you can easily do the Rogue one without any of the epics if you just include Venomous Scorpid, Wandmaker, Steward of Scrolls and a bunch of Shuffle effects (Gang Up and Togwaggle's Scheme).
It might take a few tries, but you'll eventually find a copy of each spell, especially in practice mode against something like Warrior who has no card draw and will likely survive a while.
Just looking at the amount of work involved in solving all 4 mysteries makes me wonder why only 100XP is awarded considering some players will waste hours of their time
you mean achievement points right?
No cheap xp anywhere here
Oh you're right! 🤦♀️Well seeing as achievement points don't amount to much atm, it's really just for the card back
Not worth it with that Hunter Puzzle. Staring at fine print like that is just going to give you a headache so until they bring out a guide that just spells out the minions names i'm not gonna bother.
Its been nicely worded out by @Cowtastrophe below
oh, sweet, thanks bud
Just so there's one less unfortunate victim to the hunter's bazaar
When you do everything right, you'll have 10 gold and everyone on the 2nd row will have no more demands.
After this press the fking hero power button.
If you end up pressing the end turn button everything will reset and like me you'll waste 20 more minutes redoing everything.
lol, I thought I was the only one that made this same mistake, twice even! I wasted over an hour doing this mad buying and selling quest, feelsbadman ☠️
Yeah, unfortunately reddit didn't spell it out nicely. Nearly wanted to break my keyboard after that first reset.
Same here, I nearly lost my cool too, lol 😎
Great work, That hunter puzzle. Much head pain