Over the past few years, Hearthstone has taken many strides toward creating quite a few different game modes, which is a far cry away from what it was in its original state. Among its plethora of content is its auto-chess game mode, Battlegrounds, an interesting take on the auto-chess format.
It has a great deal of variety when it comes to its different playable heroes, multiple minion types, and all the combinations possible with these two aspects. However, as is the case with any new game or game mode, there are always certain things we wish we knew before starting them games up. So, let’s look at what you should know before hopping into Hearthstone Battlegrounds.
8 Tavern Tiers
There are six Tavern Tiers in Hearthstone Battlegrounds and six tiers of minions to correspond to this. Every player starts in Tavern Tier one (denoted by the number of small stars in the circle above), and the shop will only offer tier-one minions for sale. Upgrading to the next Tavern Tier requires a hefty amount of gold (denoted by the number within the gold-coin insignia in the circle above), but decreases in cost by one gold for each turn that passes. The gold cost jumps back up to full cost once you upgrade to the next Tavern Tier.
Each Tavern Tier upgrade unlocks the corresponding minions of those tiers. So, if you’re in Tavern Tier three, once you upgrade to Tavern Tier four, tier-four minions will be added to the shop pool of tier one, two, and three minions.
7 Minions Attack From Left To Right
Though the title is rather self-explanatory, it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. You cannot choose the order in which your minions attack, nor do they attack in a random order, but they attack from left to right and one at a time.
There are some exceptions to this. Some heroes cause minions to attack immediately and out of order, like Illidan Stormrage, while some minions have passive effects that also cause them to attack out of order, like Yo-Ho-Ogre. This out-of-order attacking will typically occur if a minion or hero has an “attack immediately” effect.
6 Three Of A Kind Makes A Golden Minion
If you buy three of the same exact minion, it will become a golden version of the minion with doubled stats and effects. For example, Metaltooth Leaper is a three-attack, three-health Mech minion whose Battlecry is “give your other Mechs +2 attack.” If you were to collect three Metaltooth Leapers, it would turn into a six-attack, six-health unit whose Battlecry would read “give your other Mechs +4 attack.”
When you upgrade to a golden minion, once you play the golden minion, you get to Discover (choose from three cards) a minion from a Tavern Tier higher than the one you were at when you played the golden minion.
Some minions have effects that cannot be doubled, like Leeroy the Reckless.
5 There Is A Shared Minion Pool
This one is crucial to remember because sometimes you will have to pivot your strategy. If you’re running dragons, for example, and you can’t seem to find many of them, that probably means some of your opponents are also running dragons (or you’re incredibly unlucky).
4 Scouting Is Weird
You can scout your opponents, but it’s a strange form of scouting. You can’t actually look directly at their boards, but if you hover over their portraits, you can see what their dominant minion type currently is. So, if you hover over Ysera’s portrait, and it says “Dragons,” it’s safe to say that a majority of her in-play minions are dragons (this doesn’t necessarily mean she is only running dragons).
There’s also a chance you might see “Mixed Minions,” which means there is no dominant minion type on their board.
3 Minion Types Are On A Random Rotation
While there a plenty of minion types in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, only five minion types will be present in a given game. On top of that, as you are selecting your hero for your game, you will be told which minion types are in the game you’re playing.
Certain heroes have hero powers that are directly tied to a specific minion type. For example, Ysera’s hero power, Dream Portal, adds a dragon-type minion to the tavern every time it is refreshed. As such, if dragons are not an active minion type in a given game, Ysera will not be offered to anyone as a hero.
2 You Don’t Have To Stick To One Minion Type
Considering the healthy number of minions within each minion type, it might be tempting to just stick with one minion type and build a team around it. However, there are plenty of minions that are not bound to a specific minion type (and some that have all minion types), and a nice chunk of minions that even have Battlecry or end-of-round effects that buff minions of multiple types like Menagerie Jug or Lightfang Enforcer. So, go ahead and try out a mixed minion composition!
1 No Deckbuilding Required
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Unlike Hearthstone’s base game mode which requires you to own a slew of cards primarily attainable through Blizzard’s RNG-based card packs (which to some are quite deceptive), you can hop right into the Battleground game mode without a care for the status of your card collection. There are no prerequisites to playing Battlegrounds (aside from, perhaps, some knowledge of the game mode), so what are you waiting for?