A New Mystery Card Back Has Been Added To The Game
In today's patch, a new card back has been added to the game with the name "Mysteries of the Phoenix" and only a description telling us that we can receive this card back if we "solve the mysteries hidden throughout the Barrens" and an Achievement tracking progress for 4 steps or parts named "???" which tells us it will reward the card back (and 100 Achievement points).
With the colors and imagery of the card back, as well as invoking the Phoenix, it strongly hints at a Blood Elf or Silvermoon flavor to this particular mystery.
So what could this mean? How are we supposed to get this card back? We don't know, but if you have any ideas, let us know in the comment section!
The new achievement for this card back...
A first clue!
User ArcyroX has a far better memory than we did, because he remembered seeing the card in one of our news posts from several months back: https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/7987-chinese-card-back-design-competition-winners.
It was one of 3 runner-up Prize winners, and they equated the Card Back to Kael'thas Sunstrider! That is surely a place to start!
Kudos to ArcyroX for this first clue!
Quote from BlizzardEpic Award (3 winners)
Epic Prize: 10,000 yuan cash prize + works will have the opportunity to be included in the "Heartstone" game.
Author: liguang with his work: "Kael'thas Sunstrider"
Evaluation of the development team: With a quick glance, you can recognize the conspicuous pattern of Prince Kael'thas and the classic red and gold color scheme. The emerald orb is also an ideal carrier for Hearthstone Vortex. The team seems to be able to see the vivid effects of adding green magic special effects to the game! Details such as the folds of the fabric and the golden carved edges are exquisitely crafted, forming an excellent secondary structure.
Yeah, but not completable.
I heard he completed it on his own personal account to prove that it is achievable right now
You remember the source? I'm sure he searched a long time for the clues. Oh no wait.
I'd bet the Chinese will solve this first.
No matter how good you are, there is always an chinese guy who can do it better.
Not sure if this is in anyway helpful but in Warcraft 3 Kael has an ability to summon a Pheonix, which would later be known as Al'ar in WoW.
One thing is certain - the amount of grinding required will be phenomenal!
main problem is they put quests before you can do it, like the thrall quest and thrall adventure still not relased.
Are you sure you can do it now ? can someone ask Celestalon ?
Celestalon said that: "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."
source:
https://discord.com/channels/223122687227199489/772915211647844384/839296336818077716
so I wont take his word for it :D and gonna think this can be a clue. What would be harder to do on mobile?
first thing that cames to my mind is board interactions. Instead of clicking on a big screen by using mouse, on mobile that is much harder to do, especially if the targets are smaller. As someone said before, I bet it has something to do with the barrens board, that drum things on top right corner. I think there should be some secret interaction there, like that famous Un'goro board volcano interaction. Also I think it is a good sign that the drums are at top right corner, since on the mobile version top left and bottom right parts of the board are missing.
On mobile, you dont have full game boards. So my guess would be that you have to click the Barrens board in specific order.
Wasnt there a recent blue post about all the clickable things on the game board?
Edit: typo.
Also interesting to note that they say "harder to do on mobile (but still possible)". Which seems to indicate that the only parts of the board that are visible on mobile would be key. Since half of the interactable stuff is missing completely from mobile, it has to be what remains.
And harder to do, but possible, meaning it probably has some specific clicking/tapping involved.
on mobile there is no card info/description
I tried a lot of possibilities this morning on that game board but didnt found it :(. I am pretty sure that it will be this way too :)
dont have access to server nice
I was looking at the card changes extract from the game and noticed this:
4 Hero Powers have been updated from Warrior to Neutral. They are ALL named "???" and have a different IDs
{
"artist": "Konstantin Turovec",
"cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
"cost": 0,
"dbfId": 70375,
"hideCost": true,
"id": "BAR_734",
"name": "???",
"set": "THE_BARRENS",
"text": "<b>???</b>",
"type": "HERO_POWER"
}
------------------------
< "cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
> "cardClass": "WARRIOR",
{
"cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
"cost": 0,
"dbfId": 70402,
"hideCost": true,
"id": "BAR_747",
"name": "???",
"set": "THE_BARRENS",
"text": "<b>???</b>",
"type": "HERO_POWER"
}
------------------------
< "cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
> "cardClass": "WARRIOR",
{
"cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
"cost": 0,
"dbfId": 70579,
"hideCost": true,
"id": "BAR_753",
"name": "???",
"set": "THE_BARRENS",
"text": "<b>???</b>",
"type": "HERO_POWER"
}
------------------------
< "cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
> "cardClass": "WARRIOR",
{
"cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
"cost": 0,
"dbfId": 70652,
"hideCost": true,
"id": "BAR_761",
"name": "???",
"set": "THE_BARRENS",
"text": "<b>???</b>",
"type": "HERO_POWER"
}
------------------------
< "cardClass": "NEUTRAL",
> "cardClass": "WARRIOR",
I have no clue how to play them, but they are present in the card Database.
Have fun trying to trigger these Hero Powers.
Logged in just to upvote this. The four pictures for the hero powers look promising. A key, a map, a treasure chest and someone wandering/journeying. I wonder if there is a way to get special hero powers in the Book of Mercenaries? Maybe you have to tie one of the bosses (like the one Rokara refuses to kill--Feegly) or let them draw out their deck first?
The other thing I think is promising about these is the possible Duels connection. Duels hasn't gotten a lot of playtime from the community, and a quest that got people playing Duels seems like something Blizz might do. The Hero powers might be earned/unlocked by doing something special in duels or including certain cards in your deck?
Of course they could just be for the next solo adventure, but still...
Edit: since this is getting a little visibility I want to share a different connection that I noticed, but haven't seen here: Celeston's original cryptic tweet with the blue Question mark. It looks a lot like the repeatable quests symbol from WoW.
Since FitB has tried to tie in to WoW more with ranked spells, I couldn't help but notice there's really only two memorable repeatable quests in the Barrens: Chen's Empty Keg (Link to Wowhead entry) and the BLOODSHARD QUEST you get in camp Taraujo from a QUILBOAR (named Mangletooth: Link to the Questgiver because there are several repeatable quests and this page lists them all near the bottom) that asks you to kill Quilboars.
This looks like the solution of 1 out of 4 puzzles. Maybe you have to activate this heroe power in the correct sequence?
1. The traveler looking for the map.
2. Then the map (that has the information of the places where the key and the chest are).
3. Then the key to open the chest.
4. Then the chest.
The achievement has 4 parts to be completed so maybe this is 1 of them. Other can be in the board, because Celastion said: "One specific part of the mysteries will be harder to do on mobile but remains possible"
Actually, digging deeper in the card database, I noticed more "???" cards, with a total of 12 cards:
??? - id: BAR_730 - type: MINION - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_731 - type: MINION - mechanics: ["RUSH"]
??? - id: BAR_732 - type: SPELL - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_734 - type: HERO_POWER - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_741 - type: MINION - mechanics: ["DEATHRATTLE"]
??? - id: BAR_742 - type: SPELL - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_746 - type: MINION - mechanics: ["RUSH"]
??? - id: BAR_747 - type: HERO_POWER - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_752 - type: SPELL - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_753 - type: HERO_POWER - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_761 - type: HERO_POWER - mechanics: null
??? - id: BAR_762 - type: SPELL - mechanics: null
I let you guys solve the mystery
Opppsss that makes it harder!
By the way, Celestaron said "I've already got it favorited" so that means we can complete all puzzles right now. This information is supposed to be live soon or it's already on the game?