As BlizzCon 2019 remains underway, the new content for all of the Blizzard games keeps coming. For Hearthstone, Blizzard is gearing up to put a cap on the Year of the Dragon narrative. With it, comes the final chapter, the Descent of Dragons, as well a new auto chess mode for the game in the form of Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
Both Descent of Dragons and Battlegrounds were announced during the Hearthstone presentation of BlizzCon 2019. Descent of Dragons brings with a host of new cards, but also a couple new interesting mechanics: Invoke and Sidequests. Invoke is tied to an all new evil card and the greatest dragon in all of Azeroth, Galakrond. Galakrond comes in 5 different forms based on the class you play in the game, and by using cards with Invoke, you can power Galakrond up. Each of the cards with Invoke is a capable card on their own, but with them, Galakrond can become a formidable force. Moreover, players can get all five forms of Galakrond for free by logging in when the Descent of Dragons event begins on December 10.
The other main new mechanic to come with the many cards appears in the form of Sidequests. Sidequest cards ask that you do various tasks in the midst of a game, such as using a Hero Power or spending a minimum amount of mana, and with it, you score a reward, such as freely played units. With Learn Draconic in the Mage deck, if you spend 8 mana, you’ll be rewarded with a 6/6 dragon to play. Meanwhile the Hunter’s Toxic Reinforcement will award the player with 3 1/1 Leper Gnomes if their Hero Power is used three times. Sidequests don’t start in the player’s hand like Quest cards did before and are meant to add flexibility and neat boosts to a player’s capabilities.
Outside of expansions, Hearthstone is also adding the Battlegrounds mode to the game. This interesting new mode is Hearthstone’s take on the popular auto chess genre coming to games like League of Legends and DOTA. In Hearthstone’s version, players will play one of 24 heroes and challenge a room of 8 combatants for superiority. As two players duke it out, the rest watch, and the one to conquer all foes wins it all. Battlegrounds will be opening in Early Access on November 5 to November 11, and a global open Beta will be available on November 12.
Between Battlegrounds and Descent of Dragons, casual and competitive players of Hearthstone will have a lot on their plate. Be sure to stay tuned for more info on Hearthstone and the latest announcements from BlizzCon 2019.
