Prepare for Mercenaries—Coming October 12!
This post contains information about the release date and small scale overview of the Mercenaries game mode as well as information about pre-orders.
Quote from BlizzardHearthstone Mercenaries is the new game mode where you collect iconic Mercenaries, assembling Parties to take down procedurally-generated Bounties. It is an entirely new way to play Hearthstone, combining RPG and roguelike elements with some of your favorite Hearthstone characters. There’s a lot to take in, so we created a series of blog posts to help you jump right into Mercenaries when it launches on October 12!
This post will give you an Overview of the new Mercenaries game mode, then you can check out the Gameplay blog for more specifics on how to fight, and the Collection/Village blog for details on the mode’s progression and collection systems.*
* Mercenaries is still in development and all stats and effects are subject to change. The Card Library will be updated when Mercenaries launches on October 12 to represent any updated versions.
The Mercenaries Village
The Village is your central hub for all things Mercenaries! In the Village, you can manage your collection, collect task rewards, head directly to the Mercenaries shop, set off on Bounties, and so much more! The Village is also itself a gameplay and progression system because you can build and upgrade buildings in your Village to unlock more content and make them more effective. You can learn more about the Village in our Village and Collection blog post, here.
Picking Fights
What is being a Mercenary if not collecting Bounties? From the Village, you can use the Travel Point to go to the Bounty Board. The Bounty Board is where you can choose which Bounty you want to go after—which can be thought of as choosing what “mission” or “level” to tackle. Seeking Bounties is a major part of the Mercenaries experience, and is critical for leveling up your Mercenaries, even if you plan to focus on PVP play.
Each Bounty has a suggested level, and a designated Bounty Boss at the end, so you have an idea of what you’re getting into. There are several Bounties to go after, and each one includes procedurally-generated encounters leading up to the Bounty Boss, to keep play interesting. As you play longer, additional difficulty levels can be unlocked, too, for even greater challenges!
Selecting a Bounty will bring up the Party selection menu. In Mercenaries, you control a Party of up to 6 Mercenaries, instead of a deck of cards. In combat, you will pick 3 of your 6 Mercenaries to fight at a time, with reinforcements coming off your Bench if one of your Mercenaries falls or uses a special Ability to swap out.
All experience you earn during your run sticks with you—even if that Mercenary rides the Bench or if they don’t make it out of the Bounty alive. After you claim a Bounty, you can move on to the next one, or keep coming back to ones you’ve already beaten to collect more loot and level up your team. Each Bounty has a different type of loot it can drop, so keep coming back to the same Bounty if you’re looking to focus on a specific reward!
After you’ve claimed a few Bounties, your Party might be ready to head to the Fighting Pit! In the Fighting Pit, you always be paired against a similarly-powerful opponent, even when trying out a new Mercenary. Compete in the Fighting Pit to complete achievements, earn rewards, and even push for a spot on the leaderboard!
Get This Party Started!
Try out Mercenaries when it launches on October 12 and get eight Mercenaries (pictured below) just for completing the prologue and introductory missions! That’s enough to put together a Party and immediately start chasing Bounties. Keep playing to continue growing your collection!
The More the Merrier
Start up a new Bounty after the introductory missions and you will also receive the adorable new Sarge mount for World of Warcraft! Learn more.
WoW and Hearthstone fans have even more to celebrate! Purchase a 6-month WoW Subscription between now and October 19, or have a current subscription set to renew at a later date, and you will receive the Tavern Pass and Battlegrounds Perks for this and the next expansion, 15 packs from United in Stormwind, 15 packs from Hearthstone’s next expansion, and 30 total Mercenaries Packs across your subscription period! Additional details and restrictions apply.
Diablo Comes to Mercenaries!
Last, but certainly not least, the Lord of Terror is coming to help celebrate the launch of Mercenaries! Diablo is available as part of one of three pre-purchase bundles, each including an iconic Blizzard character!
The Diablo Mercenaries Pre-Purchase Bundle includes a Diamond Legendary Diablo Mercenary Card and 50 Mercenaries Packs; the Lich King Mercenaries Pre-Purchase Bundle includes a Diamond Legendary Lich King Mercenary Card and 50 Mercenaries Packs; and the Sylvanas Mercenaries Bundle includes a Golden Legendary Sylvanas Mercenary Card and 30 Mercenaries Packs.
The Diablo, Lich King, and Sylvanas are all also obtainable in-game, without purchasing these bundles, from Mercenaries Packs or the crafting system. To learn more details about Mercenaries, make sure to check out our Gameplay and Collection blogs. We’ll see you in the Village!
People complaining about spending money in Hearthstone clearly have never gotten anywhere near MtG. It just cost me $5 to type "MtG". There I go again.
No one really cares about this story and your comparisons ... That's also why MTG sucks online, so it's basically nearly dead. They have this mana systems, which is the biggest hurdle and can't be replaced, since it defines the game ... Anyway, bla bla. I mean, I played it for 1,5 years online, I'm done with it.
Of course you can have a little more money than the others, and nothing is wrong with that: enjoy it and play the games you like.
What I wanted to say it's: a game should be around 10-15 €/$ per month, and not the 30-40/month that I for example exceed by far. If I start to pay also for mercenaries (which btw. I wanted to do, but then they released this expansion and nerfed my preferred class into the ground, and made this messed up 1st presentation for mercenaries, that showed clearly, that the human capital in the game is very abysmal at the moment.
Bla bla ... Why am I even writing this stuff ...
Yeah Magic was dying when I last played it too.
In 2004
I mean we did get no duplicate cards 🤷 thats after Bens time. Saved a lot for us all.
I am interested in this game mode too.
What's your source for saying there are "no rewards from this mode concerning the normal Hearthstone game"? If XP is gained in Mercs (pretty sure it is), then it would have an impact on the reward track, and therefore "normal" Hearthstone. Would be interested if anyone knows more details about the interactions with the current XP/gold economy.
"Prepare for Mercenaries—Coming October 12!"
Sorry but my wallet will never be ready for this...
One thing I'm wondering is if there might be HS rewards (eg gold, Reward Track XP) for accomplishing things in Mercs. In fact, the video clips they showed included a Rewards Track icon appearing at the bottom of the screen at the conclusion of battles, so unless they're re-using icons this is pretty much confirmed.
We'll see, but it's possible that playing Mercs will actually be net-profitable to your Gold reserves.
I really don’t understand why this isn’t a stand alone game.
Shoehorning it into the HS client just feels like an attempt to trigger FOMO in existing HS veterans, but in reality there is - quite sensibly - very little connection between core HS and this mode. If it turns out that there are massively intertwined rewards (i.e. there are repeatable non-cosmetic rewards for core HS buried in the Mercs mode) then players will get cross about being ‘forced’ to play.
TBH I’m wondering whether theyve realised that too many regular spenders and whales have been building up huge piles of gold and dust and are trying to create a huge sink for all those accumulated rewards that will otherwise eat into profits
The reason is sinister - it's so they can siphon off your resources for playing Hearthstone (gold, etc) into this mode, making it harder to play regular Hearthstone F2P without paying.
Honestly I can't be bothered to read ad nauseum about a new mode. Or maybe what little I've read I have no interest in. They've explained this and presented it very poorly. Feels like "busy work", like a lot of phone games.
"Busy Work" is a good way to describe it. In the past, I've used phrases like "it's not objectively fun" when describing Pokemon Go or something similar, but your description is more clear.
Feels like I'm the only one but I'm super excited for Mercenaries, been playing since BlackRock and it always feels good to have new things to do in HS. Let's hope it will be ok for F2P players !
You are not alone. People are just mad at Blizz but it looks very good. Looking forward to it. Dont know if PvP is worth it but the rest is nice.
Everyone needs to stop complaining it doesn't detract from Hearthstone. Its extra and new and option. I actually really like this style. Its not for everyone you don't have to pay anything....
If it requires you to use gold to buy packs and upgrades, it ABSOLUTELY detracts from Hearthstone.
Additionally, every single dev hour used to make this money grab mode could have been used to improve the game. That detracted from Hearthstone.
Not just "buy packs" but "buy NEW AND UNIQUE packs". Previous additions to the game (Tavern Brawl, Duels, BG, etc.) remained locked within the boundaries of the existing currency framework: Real world money, Dust, Gold and 5 Card Packs. For 7 years this has been the case. I don't think it's out of line for anyone to balk at them suddenly changing that.
Equipment feels so boring, almost duplicating abilities' text.
Blizzard: "Don't you guys have money?"
when i was in need of an excuse to quit the game after 7 years ... i think blizzard just gave me one ! when i was just managing to have an almost full collection of cards ... that's sad