How to Complete the Forged in the Barrens Druid XP Achievements

Welcome, fellow achievement hunter.

Here we will be taking a closer look at what Hearthstone has for us in store when it comes to Gameplay XP Achievements for the Druid class in Forged in the Barrens expansion. Each one gets its own section below, so you could always scroll down if looking for tips and tricks for anything in particular. All other important info along with the links to other classes and categories can be found here.

Druid Barrens Achievements - General

Compared to before, these continue the theme of Druid being such a nuisance. All of them still requiring quite some time and effort to complete. Technically there is a way to come up with a deck that could cover everything all at once, but the resulting amalgamation might prove to be rather unwieldy:

If you were running into a lot of Control Priests or Warriors or people who give you time, perhaps it could be doable. But in the interest of efficiency, it's undoubtedly better to just focus on one thing and then move onto the next. So with that in mind we'll look at them in more detail.

As always, we will be defaulting to Standard format lists with the assumption that many players may not have the necessary older cards, then adding relevant notes for Wild and Duels where applicable. Remember that this is just one example of a possible direction to take! Mix and match per your own needs. Tips, tricks, and recommended cards for each separate achievement as follows:

How to Complete the "Do It for the Vines" Barrens Achievement

Naturally, by using cheap spells of a certain type. If you'd like to attempt this while climbing ranks, then old reliable Token Druid is fully capable of turns that occasionally get there (adding Guidance over a copy of Guess the Weight or Soul of the Forest and Pride's Fury increases the achievement odds). For an even more consistent route we could just throw out those cute Gibberling guys along with a couple of more expensive spells:

• Mulligan for: ramp and card draw, Lightning Bloom and Innervate if hoping for an early explosive turn.
• Not all of these spells belong to Nature category. More freedom in cycling Guess the Weight, Guidance can be cast early to help you find some relevant cards, and Resizing Pouch used at 1 mana crystal left offers a high chance for Innervate or Lightning Bloom. 
• There was a bug with Dual Class spells (so Lightning Bloom in this case) not counting correctly for this achievement during the first weeks of the expansion, but it has been since fixed. 
• Don't be surprised if the second cast of Solar Eclipse is not registering for the achievement, sometimes we will need to count to 6 instead! It seems to be coded in a way that counts the spells played from your hand.
• Wild format note: becomes even easier, a ton of cheap spells with the Nature type. There were reports of Jade Blossom not counting; if something seems off with the progress, that's your likely suspect. 
• Duels note: if you prefer a smaller deck to start with, then Nature's Gifts hero power plus treasures such as Warden's Insight or Marvelous Mycelium might do the trick.

How to Complete the "The Final Frontier" Barrens Achievement

Now this is an interesting one. You only have to pull this combo off once, which means that on average it should take less time than some of the more repetitive achievements. It actually doesn't even have to be completed while playing Druid; will fully count if done through any other class as well. But as it was primarily intended for Celestial Alignment, we will start there: 

• Mulligan for: Wild Growth and Overgrowth primarily. You can always concede and try again if ending with a clunky hand. 
• Aside from Celestial Alignment, you don't really need all those other Legendaries and Epics. As long as you have enough 8+ cost cards to throw in as replacements and hope to get lucky with queueing into some slow deck. Ysiel Windsinger exists as a different, harder alternative.
• There were a lot of bugs associated with this particular achievement during the initial weeks of the expansion, not counting minions discounted through various other strategies. Which caused some headaches and made it seem much harder than it actually is.  
• If you manage to heavily discount 4 other cards, the final one could be pretty much played for its full cost.
• It's not as easy to get it done in Standard with a different class, although Miracle Priest might hope to hit enough discounts with Nazmani Bloodweaver and generate several of Power Word: Fortitude. Even throw in G'huun the Blood God and Flesh Giant for good measure. Deck of Lunacy Mage with several Incanter's Flow could technically get there too. 
• Wild format note: plenty of options. With the infamous Aviana plus Kun the Forgotten King combo, Juicy Psychmelon, Dreampetal Florist, Jungle Giants quest, Jepetto Joybuzz, Emperor Thaurissan, etc. You can pick any class and stack your deck with appropriate giants (Mountain Giant, Sea Giant, Molten Giant, Arcane Giant... you know the drill). Or go Rogue with Galakrond, Azeroth's End, Heistbaron Togwaggle for Wondrous Wand, Lorekeeper Polkelt for proper ordering, and Togwaggle's Scheme to shuffle in copies of your big minion of choice. Spirit of the Shark or Brann Bronzebeard could power this up further if needed. 
• Duels note: Invigorating Bloom is a handy hero power, although it won't discount the base cost of cards below 4. Warden's Insight or Awakened Ancient fit in further, along with any passive treasures that can reduce the mana cost of cards.

How to Complete the "Buy One, Get One Free (of Taunt)" Barrens Achievement

Plaguemaw the Rotting plus a bunch of Taunt cards is the obvious way, but it's fair to predict that many players we meet won't be particularly cooperative, attempting to snipe our Quilboar dude with spells before even proceeding to kill any of our taunts. So ideally we'd like to prevent that by taking care of things ourselves. The way of Animated Broomstick allows for everything to rush to their deaths as needed, as long as there is a larger board on the opposing side.

• Mulligan for: ramp and Plaguemaw the Rotting, can keep Animated Broomstick if already hit the other pieces. 
• Ironbark can turn even Animated Broomstick into a taunt for free later on, but it can also land on Plaguemaw the Rotting to place another copy in your hand if used in conjunction with Mark of the Spikeshell. Maybe even let it survive an extra turn with that increased health. 
• Greybough can chain into multiple Taunt minions if anything gets to live, but it's far from necessary. N'Zoth, God of the Deep allows to bring everything again for round 2, as Plaguemaw the Rotting is the only honorary Quilboar there ever since one of the recent patches added the tribe tag to the card. 
• Lunar Eclipse or Bogbeam could be used to snipe own taunt minions that survive, even if it's not particularly effective. Still, an option if going for a lower curve without other Legendaries. Youthful Brewmaster can return Plaguemaw the Rotting to your hand just as well, albeit it's very clunky to spend 6 mana on such combo. 
• If you don't have Plaguemaw the Rotting, you could always try your luck with Resizing Pouch (and Discover spells for more copies of that one) - the pool of 4 mana cards isn't that large in Standard. There are more options in Wild (Golden Scarab, Crystalsong Portal), but also far more cards to be found in that mana slot. Only for those with endless patience. 
• Wild format note: there are a lot of older cheap Taunt cards, such as Goldshire Footman, Tournament Attendee, Frostwolf Grunt, Pompous Thespian, or Infested Goblin. Also cards such as Naturalize and Mulch to usher in more self destruction. If you own Flobbidinous Floop, that's your ticket to get two Plaguemaw the Rotting turns in a row - just play the Quilboar last! 
• Duels note: Harvest Time! hero power gives you another way to kill off your own Taunt minions, just remember that Tour Guide is banned there. Disks of Legend or Endurance Training could also prove useful. There is no guarantee that stacking your deck with Taunt cards will let you get Plaguemaw the Rotting from loot buckets available between the games, but it might be worth a shot. 

Other Resources

Our clever community members set up a forum thread just for such achievement progression, and we have added separate #achievements channel to our Discord server. Feel free to join in! Any comment in here will also not go unnoticed, if you'd like to share your own experiences or point out anything in particular. We try to keep an eye on things and reply swiftly. 

Good luck tackling any of these achievements for your experience boost or just for the sake of satisfying completion!