Finally, Blizzard has chosen to enter the auto chess phenomena with Hearthstone Battlegrounds, a brand-new game mode. The issue with many of the auto chess games available today is that they might have a repetitive feel to them. From the pieces to the round-by-round admin to the actual action, it seems like you're playing the same game every time. A hex grid is used in Teamfight Tactics in place of the traditional square chess board, as one example of how some games have attempted to innovate.Battle Royale and auto chess have both been eclipsed by Might & Magic Chess Royale. However, Hearthstone Battlegrounds seems really original since it makes use of the current Heartstone CCG and modifies it into a new auto chess mode.
This new game format also calls for a new set of strategies, which is where we fit in. This Hearthstone Battlegrounds guide has been produced by us. packed with cheats, tips, and methods that are ideal for helping any novice stack the cards in their favor.Check out our guide on Hearthstone decks if you're an avid Hearthstone player. Alternatively, if chess is your thing, check out our selection of the top mobile automatic chess games to discover new games to play.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds: How to Play
Hearthstone Battlegrounds is accessible on iOS and Android mobile devices as well as PCs. You should be good to go as long as you can download and play the primary client for the card game, Heartstone. Just choose "modes" from the main menu; the "arena" mode will be displayed next to it.You have an option between two randomly selected heroes from a pool of 33 when a match begins. Like in the main game, each hero has a specific ability that you may spend money on to activate. It won't be clear to you until you start playing the game and test each ability that they're not all equal.Watch out for our next guide on heroes!
HIRING/PURCHASING STAGE
Battlegrounds is an auto chess game that is played in rounds, with each round consisting of a purchase phase and a battle phase. While the purchasing step is identical, there are a few significant variations:
- Every minion, regardless of tier, costs three gold to buy.
- You can get one gold back by selling a minion from your board (not your hand) to the tavern.
- You can spend gold to ‘level up’ the tavern so that you get access to higher tier units.
- It costs one gold to refresh the trade row to get a new draw of minions.
- For free, you can ‘freeze’ the row in place so that it doesn’t reset at the start of the next round.
- You start the game with three gold, and your maximum increases by one a turn until it caps out at ten gold.
- At the start of every round your gold pool will fill up to the current maximum.
- As long as you’re under ten gold, you can increase your gold pool beyond your starting limit via selling minions back to the tavern.
Essentially, you drag the minion you want from the row to your hero, and it enters your "hand." Occasionally, managing your minions and board might be a little tricky. There doesn't seem to be a hand restriction as of now. You may then use it from the board once it's in your hands.Although it's less common, gathering triples of a minion is still possible in Battlegrounds. To get a "gold" version of a minion, you only need to accomplish it once. These versions have stronger basic stats (and retain any stat boosts) and, depending on the card, could have better abilities. The minion automatically returns to your hand in its gold condition after you combine three, allowing you to play again.You gain two minions for the price of one when you play a gold minion because you get a bonus card that allows you to choose one card from a group of three randomly selected cards from the tavern tier above the one you're at.
PHASE OF COMBAT
The tavern will shut after the countdown expires, and you'll enter the fight phase. One of the other seven players will be allocated to you at random; their avatar will be shown in red in the side column.The only break you receive in Battlegrounds is when there are an odd number of players in the game since there are neither "econ" or "mob" rounds—nor items—in the game. You will be playing against Kel'Thuzad in this scenario, who is effectively an AI opponent that will utilize the board state and tavern tier of the most recent player to be vanquished. It's important to remember that, until there are only two players remaining, you will only confront Kel'Thuzad (and not another player) once per three battle rounds.When the minions on each player's board line up against one another, battle commences according to the following guidelines:
- Start of combat phase abilities will trigger first.
- Then, starting with the first minion on the left, each player’s board takes turns attacking the opposing player one minion at a time.
- The target of a minion’s attack is randomly selected, unless there are ‘Taunt’ minions on the board, in which case those get attacked first.
- Attacking works like it does in Hearthstone; the attacking and defending minion apply their attack and defence stats to each other simultaneously.
- Once you’ve gone through your board, the sequence starts again with whoever’s left.
- This continues until one player is the only person left with minions on the board (or neither player, in which case it’s a draw).
- Damage is dealt to the losing player’s health pool. Damage equals the star rating of all surviving minions plus your Tavern rating.
Naturally, keywords and card abilities change what's stated above. When a minion uses its Deathrattle ability, for instance, and another minion is summoned in its stead, the new minion will strike first rather than the one who was initially meant to. It's on to the next round when damage is done and a winner is declared. Heroes begin with 40 health, with one exception.
Card abilities and tribes in Heartstone Battlegrounds
There is plenty to analyze about the differences between Battlegrounds and the other
top auto chess games on mobile, and almost all of them can be attributed to the game's foundation in the Heartstone CCG. There is room for more complex tactical decision-making in a Heartstone game since there aren't any animated pieces leaping about, which some may argue makes the game less lively.As activating the proper keywords in the right sequence may make or break a plan, the order in which you arrange your minions is crucial. Make sure there is room on your board for your minions to go if you want to summon them using card abilities. Additionally, minions are expendable as you may call one for the battle-cry effect, sell it right away to activate your hero ability, or even buy another one if you're low on cash.Even yet, some recognizable components remain, such the deck construction around similar minions. Battlegrounds has a reduced amount of "tribes," and there are no advantages to possessing a certain quantity of each tribe. Rather, they work together using card powers, much as in the main game.In the game, the main tribes are:
- Demons
- Mechs
- Beast
- Murlocs
- Dragons
- Pirates
- Elementals
- Quilboars
- Naga
Early in the game, murlocs are often stronger than mechs, whereas late-game, mechs are stronger. Demons are intriguing, but they need the correct build or hero to be really effective (and utilizing them might injure you). Beasts are a little mediocre, but they have a lot of triggering and summoning effects, and they can enhance each other. Although they are a relatively new feature, dragons are nearly often used to enhance or defend other dragons, like in the case of Divine Shield.The third crucial tactical component in this game, after tribes and card powers, is keywords. They act very much the same way they do in the main game, and they are directly taken from Heartstone
. Crucial terms that you could recognize are:
- Taunt – Means enemies must attack this unit first.
- Divine Shield – Grants a unit invulnerability against one attack.
- Battlecry – An ability activates when the card is played.
- Deathrattle – An ability activates when the card is destroyed.
- Charge – This unit can attack immediately.
- Magnetic – A mech played left of another will fuse with it.
- Reborn – When destroyed, this unit comes back with one HP.
- Overkill – Deals excess damage.
- Poisonous – Destroys an enemy in one.
- Discover – Choose one of three different cards.
- Immune – A unit can’t be attacked.
- Windfury – A unit can attack twice.
- Adapt – Choose one of three bonuses for a minion.
The most common universal strategy, it could be said, is stat boosting. In a Battlegrounds match, you have a lot of opportunity to raise your minion's stats (a unique mechanic not found in other auto chess games), to the point where you'll see some insane numbers in the late game. Nonetheless, there's a lot of leeway since how well you combine all of these skills usually decides whether you win or lose.In general, it makes sense to construct with stat-boosting in mind. They may stack buffs as they become available since many of the stat boosts in Battlegrounds are persistent and last from round to round. This is necessary to maintain momentum. The second most crucial tactic is definitely summoning more minions, as doing so will increase your chances of being the last hero remaining.Another great way to manage a crowd is to be able to do damage outside of a minion's attack and to attack numerous minions with one attack.
Hero Tier List for Hearthstone @ Battelgrounds
Like every good competitive game, this one has a list of tiers. This one is a little strange, however, as when you play Battlegrounds, you don't really get to choose whatever hero you were given.
.Two are presented to you, and you may choose one. We'll walk you through the commonly recognized top tier so you know what to watch out for and why, but for the time being, we won't show you every hero since you may find it a little disappointing to join a battle and only be given a few tier fours.Heroes of the First Hearthstone Battlegrounds
YOGG-SARON, THE END OF HOPE
Yogg's main skill makes it hard to establish a tribal strategy, although he excels in the early to mid game. For two gold, you can obtain a minion and increase its stats by +1/+1. Gaining an additional amount of attack power or health during the early rounds might be the difference between winning and losing. Or, as I've encountered several times, the distinction between failing and succeeding.Keep in mind that the minion you get depends on whatever minions are in your shopping row at the time. This implies that you may control which one you get by purchasing more minions and selling them back if you decide you don't need them. However, this tactic becomes less effective as the game progresses.
DERYL DANCIN
Although a powerful hero, this one may be challenging to control. To put it simply, you'll need to purchase token-generating minions to serve as trade-in fodder and purchase minions from the row to boost the "right" minion. Because two +1/+1 buffs may be applied to the same minion, it's much more crucial to use all the strategies possible to position those buffs correctly.Although it is ideal to do all of this in a single turn, you may move minions to the subsequent purchase phase by using the freeze option.
RAFAAM ARCH-VILLAIN
You can see a trend emerging here; all of the most powerful heroes right now include obtaining minions via dubious ways. Rafaam potentially raises the overall quality of the minions you obtain in exchange for not having the stat increase that the two heroes mentioned above have.You can practically obtain a minion for free for one gold (as long as you kill one during the battle phase), and you can sell it back if you don't like it, so you can at least break even. Though you can't really "choose" which minion you'll receive, this may be a terrific method to obtain triplets of minions that you're battling over.
VANCLEEF EDWIN
Overuse of stat boosting has been the main issue with this game from the start, so what could go wrong—especially with a hero whose main motif is overuse of stat buffing—? Due to its relationship to your capacity to purchase minions, this ability grows in power as the game progresses and you have more money to invest.Beyond that, however, it has a plethora of tactical uses: you may use it to reinforce important support minions so they survive longer during the battle phase, or you can use it to boost a single minion or redo levels across many rounds. My experience so far suggests that you should choose the former since a board's "super minions" have the power to create or ruin it.Deathwing
The Dragon who was formerly known as Neltharion the Earth-Warder has a rather straightforward hero power. When used properly, Deathwing's ability to boost all minions by +3 is incredibly potent since it allows you to nullify opponent minions with your unit abilities and do a lot of damage.It's even better since you don't even need to pay any money to utilize it—it's a passive ability.It's an all-or-nothing ability, but what do you really expect from a god dragon who can literally destroy the entire world?
Nozdormu
The recent inclusion of Dragons to Battlegrounds has significantly changed the game, and Nozdormu is another scaly snake with a potent ability. This bronze beast is another one of the five Dragon Aspects, this time it's time. It gives you a free refresh every round, which greatly expands your game's potential.It's a passive ability, much like Deathwing, so you may store those money for your valuable minions.
A. F. KAY
Not to be forgotten is Miss Kay. She's another hard one since you won't be able to accomplish much for the first few turns, so you'll need to come out strong starting on turn three. It will be easier if you have two tier three minions since they will probably be superior than everyone else's, but you won't have as much time to plan a strategy and will have to make up ground that you lost.Positively, you won't have to worry about saving money for minions, so you can improve your tavern a little more aggressively at the beginning.Final Thoughts
It's excellent, Hearthstone Battlegrounds. When compared to other auto chess variations, it stands out for having several advantages that make it both exceptional and distinct. However, the fact that it bases itself on the card game is also impeding development.Hearthstone has gained a reputation for enabling absurd combinations and tactics, and the Battlegrounds seem to include this as well.
meta.In the game, stat boosting is quite popular; it's the main tactic that matters, and it may be challenging to stay on top of your opponents' abilities. The major ways to increase the difficulty in other auto chess games are by adding more two or three star minions and important pieces. Because Battlegrounds involves more arithmetic, it is more difficult to estimate the true strength of your opponents.Nevertheless, the economic system is superior, and making tactical choices yields more rewards. With any luck, the aforementioned pointers and advice will help you get some perspective and propel you forward in this fascinating game mode. If you're still not tired of deck building, check out our selection of the top mobile card games.