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Patch 29.6, launching today, starts planning for Hearthstone’s next expansion, Perils in Paradise, returns Baku and Genn to the free Core Set for a limited time, brings Buddies back to Battlegrounds (including Battlegrounds Duos), sets the stage for the next Twist season, and more!

Pre-Purchase Perils in Paradise

Prepare for an island vacation to Hearthstone’s next expansion, Perils in Paradise, arriving on July 23! The old fox Marin has put his questing days behind him and is taking on a new adventure: resort management. Tucked away in the Spiral Isles, his new resort has everything you need for an unforgettable adventure—class-hopping Tourists, tasty Drinks, Locations you’ll want to visit over and over again, and a dash of danger. Book your tickets now, it’s almost time for Perils in Paradise!

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Perils in Paradise has 145 all-new collectible cards. You can learn more about what’s on the trip itinerary in the Perils in Paradise Announce Blog. Two pre-purchase options are available now, so pack your bags!

Pre-purchase

Log in and Get Marin the Manager for Free!

What better way to prepare for your trip than a chat with the resort manager? Log in to Hearthstone now to start planning with the free Marin the Manager Legendary card!* Play him and he promises you’ll Treasure your trip.

* Limited one per account. After Patch 30.6, Marin the Manager will be granted upon opening your first Perils in Paradise pack, instead of upon logging in.

Genn and Baku Return to Core

With Patch 29.6, until the launch of Perils in Paradise on July 23, Genn and Baku will be added to the free Core Set! That means they will be playable in Standard and Wild for everyone during that time. Years ago, these two iconic cards were so powerful they were sent to Wild early! Now they’re back to celebrate Hearthstone’s history—and for a bit of revenge. What Odd creations will you Even come up with?

Buddies are Back in Battlegrounds!

Buddies return for the Battlegrounds, and come to Duos for the first time, in the 29.6 mid-season update! Each Hero has a special Buddy that is unique to them and synergizes with their Hero Power. Press your Buddy Button during the shop phase to get yours! The cost to press the Buddy Button reduces throughout the game and resets when pressed—press it again for three total copies of your Buddy.

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There are 12 all-new Buddies, 23 updated Buddies, new and returning minions, minion pool changes, and more this patch! Check out our dedicated Battlegrounds preview blog for all the details.

In-Game Event: Midsummer Fire Festival

The summer season is underway, with a new Fire Festival in-game event before we set sail for Perils in Paradise! From June 25 to July 16, complete Event Quests to earn Event XP on the special event rewards track. Complete the rewards track to earn 6 Whizbang’s Workshop Packs and the Reaver V-07-TR-0N Rogue Hero Skin.

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July Twist Season: Even More Heroes

Whizbang’s Heroes is returning in July with 9 additional new Heroes to try! Each Hero is unlocked when you have the card with the same name as the Hero in your Collection. You can see all Hero details—including their decklists and a direct link to their unlock card—from the Twist Hero selection screen once the July season begins.

Marin the Manager

Marin-the-Manager

  • Passive: Seize the Opportunity! - When you play your right-most card, draw a card.
  • Hero Power: Investment - [1 Mana] Shuffle 3 Coins into your deck.

Lady Liadrin

Lady-Liadrin

  • Passive: Liadrin’s Champion – After you cast a spell on a friendly minion, draw a card. It costs (2) less. Once per turn.
  • Hero Power: Patience - [0 Mana] Refresh your Mana Crystals. Lock this Hero Power for that many turns.

Sargeras, the Destroyer

Sargeras

  • Passive: The End is Nigh! - At the start of your turn, shuffle a 10-Cost spell that deals 30 damage into your deck.
  • Hero Power: Twisting Nether - [3 Mana] Destroy all minions. Only usable once.

Elite Tauren Champion

Elite-Tauren-Champion

  • Passive: KEEP ON ROCKING! - At the end of your turn, give a random Taunt minion in your hand +2/+2.
  • Hero Power: Riffraff - [1 Mana] Get a 2/1 Rocker with Taunt. Finale: Summon it.

Halveria Darkraven

Halveria-Darkraven

  • Passive: Outcast Anthem – The left and right-most cards in your hand cost (1) less.
  • Hero Power: Song of Angst - [1 Mana] Choose a minion, it takes one extra damage from all sources this turn.

Heartbreaker Hedanis

Heartbreaker-Hedanis

  • Passive: Starstruck – When a minion enters your hand, give it -2 Attack and reduce its cost by (1).
  • Hero Power: Captive Audience - [2 Mana] Give a minion +2/+2. If it is Silenced, draw a card.

Thorim Stormlord

Thorim-Stormlord

  • Passive: Titanic Surge – Your Totems have +2 Attack (wherever they are).
  • Hero Power: Harness the Storm - [1 Mana] Summon a basic Totem. Summon two if you’re Overloaded.

Queen Azshara

Queen-Azshara

  • Passive: Shifting Tides – After you play a spell, refresh a Mana Crystal and switch to Naga. Also swaps your Hero Power.
  • Hero Power: Command Naga - [1 Mana] Get a Naga that costs (3) or less. Shifting Tides swaps this.
    • Command Magic - [1 Mana] Get a spell that costs (3) or less. Shifting Tides swaps this.

Tamsin Roame

Tamsin-Roame

  • Passive: Perfume Phylactery – You have two lives. After you die, your Hero Power deals damage instead of summoning a Demon.
  • Hero Power: Blood Pact - [2 Mana] Take 1 damage. Summon a 1/1 Demon. Increases each turn.
    • Soulbound - [2 Mana] Take 1 damage. Deal 1 damage. Increases each turn.

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Diamond Disenchanting Update

Starting with Patch 29.6, most Diamond cards will be able to be disenchanted for the same value as if they were Golden cards. As with other card qualities, the Diamond cards that won’t be able to be disenchanted are the ones that are specially granted, like those on the Rewards Track or included in the Golden Mini-Set. As with Signature cards, Diamond cards still won’t be able to be crafted, to keep them exciting and special.

Matchmaking Update

Previously, matchmaking on the ranked ladder was based on your internal rating (commonly called “MMR”) while you had bonus stars and based on ladder rank after you ran out of bonus stars. Now, matchmaking will continue to be based on your internal rating even after you run out of bonus stars. This change should reduce matchmaking complexity and result in more consistent and fairer matches throughout the ladder.

Passive XP Grant Adjustment

In our continued efforts to combat bots and exploitive play patterns, extended periods of inactivity will now reward less XP. This change will not impact players taking normal game actions on their turns, such as playing cards, making attacks, or even just hitting the end turn button, so most players won’t see change in their XP earned—just fewer bots wasting their time.

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Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

  • [General] Updated minimum specifications to require 64-bit support.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where the “Complete Your Deck” button went missing.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where persistent effects like Sigils and Auras didn’t stack if replayed by cards like Tess Greymane or Jotun, the Eternal.
  • [Hearthstone] Made Khadgar’s Magic Wisdomball more helpful in cases where all enemy characters are unable to be targeted.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where playing Boom Wrench caused a momentary client freeze up.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Return Policy could Discover cards that were granted Deathrattles—that's outside of policy. Also fixed a visual bug where Golden Return Policy’s main character was missing—it has now been returned.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where T.N.T.s copied by Jotun the Eternal’s effect would hit the enemy side, instead of Jotun’s side.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Treants and Piranha Swarmers with different art pieces were treated as different minions.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where the Cast When Drawn cards shuffled into the deck with Runic Adornment could target functionally dead minions.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Proving Grounds could cause illegal attacks if one of the minions was transformed or changed zones during the attack.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Arcanite Ripper’s effect would only trigger once when dealt damage and healed at the same time.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where a Banana couldn’t have a funny mustache; and a related bug where Remornia, Living Blade’s weapon form couldn’t have a funny mustache.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Poisoned Blade didn’t work with Sing-Along Buddy.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where cards like Spirit of the Dragonhawk and Wickerclaw didn’t work with Sing-Along Buddy.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed various minor visual bugs with the Whizbang’s Heroes Twist user interface.
  • [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where a card turned into Malygos with Wave of Nostalgia cosplayed as random other minions.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed bugs with Aranna Starseeker and Queen Azshara's transform, and returned them to the Hero Pool.
  • [Battlegrounds] Minions that had Venomous and/or Stealth, but lost them in combat before dying, will have them again when resummoned by Cultist S’Thara.
  • [Battlegrounds] Reno’s “We’re Gonna be Rich!” can no longer target Putricide’s Creations.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Polarizing Beatboxer wouldn’t gain taunt if you Fortified a Magnetic minion and then Magnetized it.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the turn timer and the rope were out of sync during the Tavern Phase.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a visual bug where Greybough’s Hero Power caused Undead summoned in combat to not show their Undead buffs.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Putricide’s Creations looked different from your teammate’s perspective.
  • [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug causing desyncs.
  • [Solo Content] Fixed various Boomsday Puzzles that were unable to be solved due to card updates.
  • [Localization] Fixed various localization issues across languages.
  • Misc. other bug fixes and game improvements.

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Mana Crystals Page Footer Image

Originally posted by Lexail

Matchmaking Update

Previously, matchmaking on the ranked ladder was based on your internal rating (commonly called “MMR”) while you had bonus stars and based on ladder rank after you ran out of bonus stars. Now, matchmaking will continue to be based on your internal rating even after you run out of bonus stars. This change should reduce matchmaking complexity and result in more consistent and fairer matches throughout the ladder.

Passive XP Grant Adjustment

In our continued efforts to combat bots and exploitive play patterns, extended periods of inactivity will now reward less XP. This change will not impact players taking normal game actions on their turns, such as playing cards, making attacks, or even just hitting the end turn button, so most players won’t see change in their XP earned—just fewer bots wasting their time.

HUGE. Sounds like we should expect more fairer matches going into D5-Legend. And less incentive to rope every turn is always a huge plus.

Yep, that's the point of both of these changes. Better matches, fewer bots encountered.

Originally posted by Voltairinede

Now, matchmaking will continue to be based on your internal rating even after you run out of bonus stars.

Great, so now ladder rank is totally meaningless.

Your rank is your ladder progression, and is still a good indicator of your skill for most people (just not for bots). And it does still affect your bonus stars for next month. The fact matchmaking switched to a different mode when you ran out of bonus stars used to be a slight upside, but nowadays was just a big downside because it was just "you can now encounter bots" mode.

Originally posted by HS_Celestalon

Your rank is your ladder progression, and is still a good indicator of your skill for most people (just not for bots). And it does still affect your bonus stars for next month. The fact matchmaking switched to a different mode when you ran out of bonus stars used to be a slight upside, but nowadays was just a big downside because it was just "you can now encounter bots" mode.

(And I'll reiterate, we continue to ban bots regularly. Botting is a problem that we need to attack from multiple angles.)

Originally posted by Firaskftw

And less incentive to rope every turn is always a huge plus.

How do you get that out of the XP change? they said doing literally any action will prevent the lowered reward, so as long as you're playing the game, roping or not, nothing changes. Bots 'play' the game too so this change in fact seems entirely useless.

Some bots and exploiters do. But some *completely* afk for whole turns at a time, and this combats those. Not just on ranked ladder, but everywhere. Battlegrounds and solo adventures, etc.

Originally posted by RidiculousHat

battlegrounds has literally always worked this way. if you've felt like you were getting good matches there, it's because you were. progression matters.

I can try to explain why this is the case.

Progression and Matchmaking are different things, with different systems supporting them.

The point of Progression (Ladder Rank or Battlegrounds Rating) is to give you feedback on your progress, goals to aspire to, sometimes rewards. And do so in an understandable and comparable way. That's why these are usually a simple rating or rank.

The point of Matchmaking (which uses MMRs) is to give you the most fun (fair) matches possible. This can be really complex. It's never as simple as a single number. A whole lot of factors go into that, and they only need to be understandable by the matchmaking system, not players.

We don't show your raw MMR (and virtually no major game with advanced matchmaking does), because it's not a single number, it's a set of values that would be super confusing and very difficult to compare between players. Instead we show something that provides an approximation of them and is understandable and comparable: Rating in BGs or Rank in Hearthstone.

Originally posted by Voltairinede

Are you trolling? Prior to the change the main method of finding an opponent was the visible ladder rank, after this change the main method finding an opponent is the invisible MMR rank.

No... Prior to this change, the method of finding an opponent was 95% of the time invisible MMR and 5% visible ladder rank. Now it's 100% invisible MMR. Only that 5% changed.

Originally posted by Voltairinede

If this is true why wasn't this change made however many years ago?

If you're asking why we even did the matchmaking-by-rank part at all...

Prior to the new ranked system (long ago, Ashes of Outland maybe?), matchmaking was much simpler, simply based on Rank. We knew how that felt, and thought that felt good when people were at their peak rank, but that seasonal resets created periods of bad matches until they reached their max rank again. So when we made the new ranked system, we kept matching-by-rank for that top tier, as a precaution. It turned out that matching-by-rank and matching-by-mmr were both fine when you were at peak rank, because peak rank and MMR were highly correlated. We could have swapped it all to matching-by-mmr years ago, but any change has some risk so we just left it that way.

...then bots came along, and rank and MMR stopped being highly correlated. So, we're switching it all over to the other system that works in all cases, matching-by-mmr.

Originally posted by HomesickJoystick

Celestalon couldn't get past the Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring so looking at HS for competitive and skill testing is the last place you want to be at lol

lol, good story

Originally posted by Voltairinede

But if the two things aren't correlated then surely it is a problem that you don't show some abstraction of internal MMR. Unless you mean that basically just bots had inconsistent rank and MMR and for everyone else they remained largely consistent.

Prior to the new ranked system (long ago, Ashes of Outland maybe?), matchmaking was much simpler, simply based on Rank.

I stopped playing years before Outland, and have come back this year, so the whole idea that matchmaking wasn't based on rank was new to me.

Yes, it's just bots that have inconsistent Rank and MMR, generally. For everyone else, they remain largely consistent.

Originally posted by Oct_

This change is awful. Now I play against legend players regardless of the rank I am at. This makes every monthly reset absolutely miserable being forced to grind my way back. If I am at bronze ranks, I want to play against bronze players.

That has never worked that way for as long as this ranked system has existed (like 5yr or something). It isn't a fun experience for either person for Legend players to stomp people who are brand new to the game.