Hearthstone Dev Tracker

Following two Grandmasters seasons and six Masters Tours, we are gearing up to conclude the year with the Hearthstone 2020 World Championship! With $500,000 (USD) on the line, the top eight players in the world are set to meet on December 12-13 to see who will join the Hall of Champions and finish off 2020 as the next Hearthstone World Champion.

We recently asked each of the competitors a series of quick-fire questions to learn more about them ahead of the 2020 World Championship. Let’s get to know Jerome “Monsanto” Faucher.

The Comedian

With a quick wit and dry sense of humor, Monsanto quickly endeared himself to the Hearthstone Esports team when he first landed on the scene in 2016. His good-natured spirit and lightheartedne...

We’re excited to announce our first ever Duels tournament, Darkmoon Duel-Fest! 24 of your favorite Hearthstone creators will compete for a piece of a $200,000 prize pool on November 24, from 10:00 a.m. PT to 4:00 p.m. PT on Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstone, YouTube.com/Hearthstone, and their own respective channels!

...

Following two Grandmasters seasons and six Masters Tours, we are gearing up to conclude the year with the Hearthstone 2020 World Championship! With $500,000 (USD) on the line, the top eight players in the world are set to meet on December 12-13 to see who will join the Hall of Champions and finish off 2020 as the next Hearthstone World Champion.

We recently asked each of the competitors a series of quick-fire questions to learn more about them ahead of the 2020 World Championship. Let’s get to know Brian “bloodyface” Eason.

Duels: Season One has begun! Thank you to everyone who played through Duels: Early Access. Duels is now accessible in-game to all players from the Modes menu and comes in two flavors (with two separate matchmaking pools)—Casual and Heroic!

Casual runs are free and are a perfect starting point for exploring the mode and experimenting. Heroic runs feature success-based rewards identical to Arena rewards, including gold, arcane dust, cards, golden cards, and card packs from the latest expansion. Heroic Duels runs cost 150 gold or a Tavern Ticket (US $1.99), which have replaced Arena Tickets, and now grant entry to Arena or Heroic Duels. If you’ve been sitting on Arena Tickets, you can use them on a Heroic Duels run now!

Now that we’re in Season One, each class will have access to 2 Hero Powers and 3 Signature Treasures! These new Hero Powers and Treasures can be unlocked by meeting the below criteria associated with your Collection.

• Ne...

Below are the Arena leaderboards for September 1, 2020 – October 31, 2020. Arena rankings reflect players’ best 30 consecutive runs throughout a season. The players featured below have exhibited top-notch deckbuilding skills, in-the-moment decision making, and unyielding dedication to achieve a most noteworthy feat!

For an Arena run to be included in this season, its end time must have been between September 1 at 10:00 a.m. and October 31 at 9:59:59 a.m.

Dynamic ladder rankings are now also available for the Standard and Wild ladders.

• ...

Tomorrow’s 19.0 patch includes an all-new progression system, several game improvements, and some updates to Battlegrounds. Its arrival means Hearthstone’s newest expansion, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, is almost here! All Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards have officially been revealed, and while you can’t use the new cards until they’ve unlocked on November 17, you can get a head start on building your launch day decks with our ...

In light of the ongoing global health risks associated with in-person gatherings, we’ve canceled official Fireside Gatherings for the near future and disabled the ability to create public events.

We do, however, want individuals at home to have an opportunity to partake in the upcoming Pre-Release weekend, so we’ll be keeping private event functionality intact. Players can register their own one-person event to enjoy opening Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs from November 13-15.

Thank you all, innkeepers and patrons, for understanding.

Private Fireside Gatherings will:

• Be eligible to receive Nemsy Necrofizzle if they fulfill all hosting prerequisites. This means having an established Tavern - ...

We’re planning to release a sizable balance patch for Duels and Battlegrounds tomorrow! You can read the full details below.

Duels Balance Updates

• Ratings change dialog at the end of a run will now be more impressed with your number of wins.

Active Treasures

• Mr. Bigglesworth has been removed from the active Treasures pool.
  • Dev Comment: Mr. Bigglesworth was a very bad kitty and snuck into the pool, he has now been removed and is being dried off.

•  Old: 6 Health → New: 4 Health

To bolster our usual Theorycrafting Livestreams and Pre-Release Weekend, we’re introducing something completely new: A Pre-Launch Party! To sum it up, we’ll be doing Mega Bundle code giveaways, Twitch Drops, sub giftings, and more in the lead up to the launch of Madness at the Darkmoon Faire and Duels: Season One!

Our goal with the Pre-Launch Party is to make this period feel a bit more interactive for everyone while celebrating our incredible community and the launch of the new expansion. Check out the calendar to see what’s happening around the community and what we've got in store for you!

Card Reveal Livestream & Reddit Deck Contest

Join Kripp, Community Manager Chris Sierra, and Game Designer John McIntyre on November 11 at 10:00 a.m. PT as...

Zheng “iGXc” Qianhao is the Masters Tour Online: Madrid champion! In the final Masters Tour event of 2020, with 304 players from more than 40 countries, iGXc secured the championship following an intense 3-1 final against Asia-Pacific Grandmaster Yashima “Alutemu” Nozomi. He is the first Chinese player to win a Masters Tour, earning the Masters Tour Online: Madrid trophy, and $32,500 in champion prizing!

With the relegation of nine Grandmasters following Grandmasters 2020 Season 2, as well as the retirement of Americas Grandmaster Fei “ETC” Liang, Masters Tour Online: Madrid was the last chance for players aiming to earn enough to advance to Grandmasters. The top three players from ...

The 18.6 Patch brings the introduction of a new game mode: Hearthstone Duels, pre-purchase for Hearthstone’s newest expansion Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, Battlegrounds updates, game improvements, and more! 

Duels Early Access, Live Today

...

We’ve been hinting at a new progression system for a while, and it’s finally here! In what is shaping up to be Hearthstone’s biggest systems update ever, the progression revamp includes four major parts:

• The addition of an Achievements System that tracks your in-game accomplishments.
• A central Rewards Track for all earnable rewards outside of Ranked play.
• A Quest Revamp that supports daily and weekly quests.
• An updated Profile Page with player info, ranks, and stats.

You’ll be able to access each of these pages by clicking on a new Journal icon that will replace the Quest Log on the main menu. The Progression & Rewards revamp detailed here will go live on November 12!

Achievements System

INTRODUCING HEARTHSTONE DUELS!

Welcome to Duels, a new competitive Hearthstone game mode that changes every season! In Duels, you’ll choose a Hero, a Hero Power, a starting Treasure, and build a 15-card starter deck from your collection before facing off against a series of worthy human opponents—Dungeon Run-style! Devise your path to victory by enhancing your deck after each match with minions, spells, and powerful Treasures to aid in increasingly difficult encounters with other players!

How It Works:

Duels will be accessible through the Modes button from the Hearthstone main screen, where you’d go to play Battlegrounds or Arena. Here’s how it works:

• When you start a Duels r...

ANNOUNCING

MADNESS AT THE DARKMOON FAIRE

HEARTHSTONE’S NEWEST EXPANSION

Come one, come all...

...to the Darkmoon Faire, Azeroth’s one and only traveling carnival! Bear witness to supernatural wonders, spectacular performances, and exotic beasts! ...

With more than 300 players to keep an eye on, Masters Tour events are full of new competitors to follow. For every returning player at each event there is someone new hoping to make a name for themself, and everyone is playing for their shot at joining Hearthstone Grandmasters. It is this mix of players that makes the Masters Tour so exciting to watch!

Although Grandmasters also participate in the Masters Tour, I’m going to introduce you to regular players who have incredible stories you may not be familiar with, all of which you should keep an eye on. This is the second of two Tales from the Tavern explorations for Masters Tour Online: Madrid, live beginning this Friday only on ...

With more than 300 players to keep an eye on, Masters Tour events are full of new competitors to follow. For every returning player at each event there is someone new hoping to make a name for themself, and everyone is playing for their shot at joining Hearthstone Grandmasters. It is this mix of players that makes the Masters Tour so exciting to watch!

Although Grandmasters also participate in the Masters Tour, I’m going to introduce you to regular players who have incredible stories you may not be familiar with, all of which you should keep an eye on. This is the first of two Tales from the Tavern explorations for Masters Tour Online: Madrid, live beginning this Friday only on ...

The final Masters Tour of 2020 is here! Over 300 invited players from more than 40 countries, will compete for the Masters Tour Online: Madrid trophy and their share of the $3,000,000 (USD) total prize pool for Hearthstone Masters Tour 2020. Join us this weekend for all of the competitive action only on YouTube Gaming!

After this weekend, the top total earners across all six 2020 Masters Tours in each region will earn invites to Hearthstone Grandmasters. There are currently a total of 10 spots open: three spots opened by Grandmasters Season 2 relegation in each region, and a fourth in Americas following Fei “...

Come one, come all! On October 22 at 8:00 a.m. PT, on both Twitch and YouTube, Hearthstone Game Director Benjamin Lee will open our Fall Reveal stream with several major announcements! From there, Game Designers Pat Nagle, John McIntyre, and John Yang will speak to each reveal in-depth with our host, Brian Kibler. We’ve got some very exciting news in store that you won’...

The first EMEA Battlegrounds Cup begins! Utilizing the new Battlegrounds Lobbies, the top 8 Hearthstone Battlegrounds players on the European Ladder and 8 invited streamers are ready to compete this weekend, October 16-18, for a share of the $10,000 (USD) prize pool and bragging rights as the best Battlegrounds players in the region.

Details

Dates: Friday, October 16 – Sunday, October 18

Broadcast Start Time: 9:00 a.m. PDT

Where to Watch: YouTube.com/HearthstoneEsports, ...

On October 15, we’ll be releasing the 18.4.2 patch that includes numerous Battlegrounds balance updates! You can check out the full details of the patch below.

Battlegrounds Hero Updates

• Bartendotron has been removed from the Battlegrounds Hero Pool.

• DIE, INSECTS!
  • Old: After you kill 20 enemy minions, get Sulfuras. → New: After you kill 25 enemy minions, get Sulfuras.

• ...