Yes, I’m one of those people that also play games on my mobile phone. In this case, I’m talking about Hearthstone, the free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed by Blizzard. They launched a new game mode this month called Mercenaries, and I took it upon myself to work my way through it to give you the latest! So let’s dive in!
Hearthstone
For those unfamiliar with Hearthstone, let’s do a quick summary. First, keep in mind that this mode is entirely different from your regular Hearthstone games.
Hearthstone is a turn-based card game between two opponents, using constructed decks of 30 cards along with a selected hero with a unique power. Players use their limited mana crystals to play abilities or summon minions to attack the opponent, to destroy the opponent’s hero. Winning matches and completing quests earn in-game Gold, rewards in new cards, and other in-game prizes. Players can then buy packs of new cards through gold or microtransactions to customize and improve their decks. The game features several modes of play, including casual and ranked matches, drafted arena battles, and single-player adventures. New content for the game involves the addition of new card sets and gameplay, taking the form of either expansion packs or adventures that reward the player with collectible cards upon completion.
Mercenaries
All caught up? Well, Mercenaries shakes this whole concept up. Mercenaries are focused on a party-based combat system with roguelike mechanics. A player creates a party from six minions from a central Minion Village and uses that party to complete various quests, both as player-versus-environment and player-versus-player. Battles in this model use a color-coded system similar to rock paper scissors, where minions of one color are strong against another color but weak to the third color. Players use this system and minion abilities to try to win battles. With loot gained from combat success, players can use facilities in the Minion Village to improve the attributes and skills of individual minions or recruit new minions.
The Village
The Village is the jumping-off point for all things Mercenaries, including managing your collection in the Tavern, setting off on Bounties, jumping into the Fighting Pit, and more! You can also upgrade the buildings in your Village as you play to upgrade their functionality or make them more efficient. Some upgrades are free, unlocked through gameplay, while others cost Gold. At launch, it will cost 900 Gold to upgrade your Village fully: 100 to open the Fighting Pit, 200 to upgrade the Travel Point (which unlocks Heroic difficulty for Bounties), 200 to upgrade the Campfire (to add a slot to the Task Board), and another 400 to upgrade the Campfire a second time (to add another slot to the Task Board).
Traveling time!
The Travel Point is your access to Bounties across Azeroth for Mercenaries PVE gameplay. From here, you can pick a Zone and then a Bounty to hunt within that Zone. The Bounties unlock sequentially within a Zone, and each has a suggested level and predetermined Bounty Boss, so you have some idea what you’re getting yourself into. After you upgrade your Travel Point, you will also be able to unlock the Heroic difficulty, which will make Bounties much more challenging! The current travel zones include The Barrens, Felwood, Winterspring, and Blackrock Mountain.
Mercenary Roles
Immediately after selecting a Bounty, you will be taken to a Party select screen similar to choosing a deck in Play Mode. From there, you can choose a Party you’ve already created, or you can make a new one. Picking which 6 Mercenaries to put in your party is essential for taking on any Bounty.
The first thing you will notice when selecting Mercenaries for your party is that they are separated into three Roles:
- Fighters have green frames. They tend to use aggressive Abilities to deal significant damage to your enemies.
- Casters have blue frames. Casters tend to cast spells for powerful effects—sometimes supporting your party, sometimes blowing the other party up—but they tend to have less Attack, which can make them softer targets for your enemies.
- Protectors have red frames. They tend to be your tanks and supports. They often have a lot of Health and tend to utilize effects like Taunt and buffs to control the flow of battle. Some of them are pretty good at hand-to-hand combat but do not have many ranged options and tend to be a bit slower than the other Roles.
You can build a team with any combination of Mercenaries, but neglecting one Role or another might expose your party’s weaknesses. For example, while on offense, Fighters deal double damage to Casters, Casters deal double damage to Protectors, and Protectors deal double damage to Fighters. You’ll want to keep these weaknesses in mind when building your party.
Watch it Unfold in the Combat Phase.
When all commands have been input, the actions play out automatically, in order from lowest Speed number to highest Speed number. If multiple actions have the same Speed, one side will be randomly chosen to take their actions first. If a character goes down before their move, that action is skipped. If a target of action goes down before that action, then the action will randomly re-target.
Some Abilities include physically attacking an enemy. As you might guess, these types of Abilities are more common in Fighters and Protectors than in Casters. When a character attacks an enemy, they damage each other equal to their Attack stats, just like in traditional Hearthstone. However, the defender’s damage back to the attacker does not get double damage based on the Mercenaries’ Roles. In addition, spells and ranged attacks avoid taking any damage from the defender at all! Therefore, you need to be mindful of enemy attacks and your Abilities when trying to figure out how to preserve your Mercenaries best.
Mercenaries launched with over 50 Mercenaries! To start with, all players will receive 8 Mercenaries just for completing the Mercenaries prologue missions. In completing your early adventures, you will also amass some Mercenary Coins and some Mercenaries Packs. These are the two main in-game methods for receiving new mercenaries. Luckily mercenary coins are easy to come by, so if you can’t wait to unlock a certain merc, you can always craft it.
Fighting Pit
Once you’ve collected a few Bounties, you can head to the Fighting Pit for a different kind of combat! In the Fighting Pit, you are always paired against a similarly powerful team of Mercenaries, even when trying out one of your new, under-leveled Mercenaries. Gameplay is also a little different in the Fighting Pit than while hunting Bounties because you can’t see what moves your opponent is locking in. Compete in the Fighting Pits to complete achievements, get rewards, and even push for a spot on the leaderboard!
Conclusion
Hearthstone Mercenaries is shaping up to be a tremendous full-sized adventure, with a bit of a pacing problem for the moment. You can grind your way through the bounties, but without the daily tasks, you won’t be able to ‘complete’ specific equipment for your mercs. Luckily there are plenty of mercs to go-’round, so you can always make a new party and level some mercenaries you haven’t tried yet. Unfortunately, the PVP matched me mostly with bots since most players are still working their way through the bounties and haven’t been paying attention to leveling a party to level 30. Not a bad thing though, I’m sure this will work out in the future, just like Duels did. Mercenaries are another one of those modes I will visit daily to complete some quests and dive deeper into the personas I have grown to love.
