Last year, Blizzard finally decided to jump into the auto chess phenomenon, with their new game mode, Hearthstone Battlegrounds. The problem with many auto chess games today is that they can feel pretty much the same – from the pieces, to the admin round, to the raw action, you're essentially playing the same game. Some games have tried to offer innovations – Teamfight Tactics uses a hexagonal grid instead of the classic square chessboard. Might & Magic Chess Royale crushed both battle royale and auto chess.
But only Hearthstone Battlegrounds feels truly unique, and for one simple reason – instead of taking auto-chess and trying to be creative, they instead took their existing Hearthstone CCG, and tried to build a version" automatic chess". By making it an optional mode within Hearthstone's core client (à la TFT and League of Legends), it remains rooted in the existing ecosystem, giving them the ability to test and grow the formula.
We've put together a guide to some Hearthstone Battlegrounds basics for anyone who has yet to experience this fascinating mode.
How to play battlegrounds
Hearthstone Battlegrounds is available on PC and mobile, iOS and Android. It's part of the main Hearthstone card game client, so as long as you can download and play, you're fine. Just go to 'modes' in the main menu and it's listed next to 'arena' mode.
When you start a match, you have a choice of two heroes drawn from a total of 33. Each hero has a special power (similar to how the main game works) that you can spend gold on to activate it. Not all abilities are considered equal, but you won't know that until you start playing the game and try each one. Keep an eye out for our hero guide!
RECRUITMENT / PURCHASE PHASE
Like other auto chess games, Battlegrounds consists of a series of rounds that include both a buy phase and a fight phase. The purchase phase is similar but with some very important differences:
- Each minion, regardless of level, costs three gold coins to purchase.
- You can get gold by selling a minion from your board (not your hand) to the tavern.
- You can spend gold to "level up" in the Tavern to gain access to higher level units.
- It costs one gold to refresh the trade line to get a new minion draw.
- You can "freeze" the line in place for free so that it does not reset at the start of the next round.
- You start the game with three gold coins and your maximum increases by one turn until it caps out at ten gold coins.
- At the start of each turn, your gold reserve will fill up to the current maximum.
- As long as you have less than ten gold coins, you can increase your gold supply beyond your starting limit by reselling minions at the tavern.
It can be a little tedious at times to manage your minions and board, but essentially you drag the minion you want from the line to your hero, and it goes into your “hand”. As far as we know, there is no hand limit. Once in your hand, you can then deploy it from the board.
Collecting triplets from a minion is still a thing in Battlegrounds, but it's more limited. You only need to do this once to get a “gold” version of a minion, which has better base stats (and retains all stat bonuses) and potentially a better ability, depending on the card. . The combination of three is automatic and the minion is returned to your hand in its golden state for you to play again.
When you play a gold minion you get a bonus card that lets you pick one card from a set of three randomly drawn from the level of the tavern above where you are currently, so you basically get two minions for the price of one .
COMBAT PHASE
Once the timer runs out, the tavern will close and you will enter the combat phase. You will be assigned a randomly selected opponent from the other seven players (their avatar will be highlighted in red in the sidebar).
There are no 'econ' or 'mob' rounds in Battlegrounds (and no items either), so the only respite you get is if there's an odd number of players in the game. In this case, you'll be up against Kel'Thuzad - essentially an AI opponent who will use the board state (and tavern level) of the most recently defeated player. It should be noted that every three combat rounds you will only encounter Kel'Thuzad (not another player) more than once, unless there are only two players left.
Each player's minion board squares up and combat begins using the following rules:
- Early 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 chosen at random, unless there are "taunting" minions on the board, in which case those are attacked first.
- The attack works like in Hearthstone; attacking and defending minions apply their attack and defense stats simultaneously.
- Once you've gone through your array, the sequence starts over with the one that's left.
- This continues until one player is the only person with minions on the board (or neither player, in which case it is a draw).
- Damage is dealt to the losing player's health pool. Damage is equal to the star rating of all surviving minions, plus your Tavern Rating.
Keywords and card abilities of course modify the above. For example, if a minion's Deathrattle ability summons a new minion in its place, then that minion will become the next in line to attack, not the minion that was originally meant to be next. Once a winner has been determined and the damage done, it's the next round. Barring exceptions, heroes start with 40 life points.
Tribes and Card Abilities
There's a lot to discover about what sets Battlegrounds apart from other top auto chess games on mobile, and almost all of it comes down to the fact that they based it on the Hearthstone CCG. The fact that a Hearthstone match means there are no animated pieces jumping around, (which might make it less vibrant) means there is room for tactical decision making to be richer.
The order in which you place your minions is very important, as triggering the right keywords in the right sequence can make or break a strategy. If you're relying on summoning minions through card abilities, you need to make sure there's room on your board for them to go. Minions can also be throwable, as you can summon a minion for its battle cry effect and then instantly sell it so you can use your hero ability, or even buy someone else if you run out of gold .
There are still a few recognizable elements, such as building bridges around minions of the same type. There are fewer "tribes" in battlegrounds, and there is no advantage to having a certain number of each tribe. Instead, they synergize through card abilities, just like the main game.
The main tribes in the game are:
- Demons
- Mechs
- Stupid
- murlocs
- Dragons
Murlocs tend to be stronger in the early game, while Mechs are stronger in the late game. Demons are great but require the right hero or build to really work (and can damage you for using them). Beasts are a bit in the middle of the road, but can grow stronger and have plenty of procs and summons. Dragons are a recent addition, but it's almost always about dabbing other dragons or granting them protection, like with Divine Shield.
Along with tribes and card abilities, keywords form the third important tactical dimension of this game. These are lifted directly from Hearthstone and behave much like they do in the main game. Important keywords that you can recognize are:
- Taunt – Means enemies must attack this unit first.
- Divine Shield – Grants invulnerability to a unit against an 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 to the left of another will fuse with it.
- Reborn – When destroyed, this unit comes back with one HP.
- Overkill – Inflicts excessive damage.
- Toxic – Destroys one enemy in one.
- Discover – Choose one of three different maps.
- Immune – A unit cannot be attacked.
- Windfury – A unit can attack twice.
- Adapt – Choose one of three bonuses for a minion.
It would be fair to say that the most common universal strategy is stat boosting - there's a lot of potential to boost your minion stats in a Battlegrounds match (which is a mechanic that doesn't really apply to other auto chess games, which makes it unique here), to the point where you'll see crazy numbers late in the game. But there's plenty of room for versatility, as how you synergize all of these abilities is usually what determines your victory or defeat.
In general, it's a good idea to build with increasing stats in mind. Many stat buffs in Battlegrounds are permanent and persist from turn to turn, meaning they can stack buffs as they appear. This is essential to maintain momentum. Summoning additional minions is probably the second most important strategy, as it will help ensure that you are the last hero standing.
Being able to deal damage outside of a minion's attack and attack multiple minions with a single attack is also a great way to crowd control.
Hero Tier List
As with any good competitive title, there is a tier list. Now, that's a little weird because it's not like you have a choice depending on which hero you're assigned to in a Battlegrounds game. You have two and you can choose one. We'll go through the generally accepted upper tier, so you know what to look for and why, but we'll spare you every hero for now, as you might find it a little depressing before you walk into a match and find yourself offered a two. or four levels.
Tier 1 Hearthstone Battlegrounds Heroes
YOGG-SARON, THE END OF HOPE
Yogg's main ability means he's hard to come up with a tribe strategy, but he's a great early to mid-game player. Not only can you get a minion for two gold, but you can also boost its stats by +1/+1. During the initial stages, a little health and/or attack power can be the difference between win or lose. Or, as I have experienced many times, the difference between losing and drawing.
Note that the minion you get is tied to the minions currently on your shopping line. This means you can manipulate the one you get by buying other minions and reselling them if you don't want them; although this strategy does not hold up towards the end of the game.
DANCIN ’DERYL
He is a strong hero but can be quite difficult to pilot. Essentially, you'll need to buy token-generating minions so you can use them for fodder trading, as well as buying line minions so the "right" minion gets upgraded. Note that both +1/+1 buffs can go to the same minion, which means it's even more important to make sure you're pulling all the cheats to put those buffs in the right places.
Ideally, you'll do all of this in one turn, but the freeze feature will allow you to carry over minions to the next buy phase.
ARCH-VILLAIN RAFAAM
You can smell a themed building; all of the strongest heroes around now involve getting minions through other means. Rafaam lacks the stat boost that comes with the two heroes above, but he makes up for that by theoretically improving the overall quality of the minions you get.
For a gold you basically get a free minion (provided you actually kill one during the fight phase), and if you don't like it you can resell it, which means at least you can reach profitable level. This can be a great way to get minion triplets to fight with someone else, but obviously you can't really "choose" which minion you'll get.
EDWIN VANCLEEF
Early on, it became somewhat obvious that the main problem with this game is the out-of-control stat buff; so what could go wrong, including a hero whose sole theme is the out-of-control stat buff? It's a time-scaling ability, as it's tied to your ability to buy minions - it gets stronger in the late game when you have more coins to spend.
Beyond that, however, it has many tactical applications: you can use it to buff a single minion, re-level over multiple turns, or you can use it to shore up key support minions so they last longer in the combat phase. Given my experience so far, you'll want to do the first one, because it's the "super minions" that can make or break an array.
Deathwing
In the case of the Dragon formerly known as Neltharion the Guardian of the Earth, the hero power is quite simple. Deathwing's ability to buff all minions by +3 is very powerful under the right circumstances, because if you can use your unit's abilities to take out enemy minions effectively, you'll hit with a lot of power. It's also great because it's a passive ability, which means you don't even have to spend any coins to get its effect.
It's an all-or-nothing ability, but at the same time, what do you expect from a literal, world-shattering dragon-god?
Nozdormu
The recent addition of Dragons to the battlegrounds has really shaken things up, and another scaly snake with a powerful ability is Nozdormu. Another of the five aspects of the dragon, in this case time, this bronze beast makes your first refresh free per turn, adding enormous versatility to your game.
Much like Deathwing, it's another passive ability, meaning you can save these coins for your precious minions.
AF KAY
Last, but not least – Miss Kay. This is another tricky one, because for the first two rounds you won't be able to do anything, which means you'll have to swing out from the third round. Having two level three minions will help you, as they'll likely be better than what everyone else has, but you'll have less time to strategize and have to make up lost ground.
On the plus side, this means you can be a bit more aggressive with your Tavern upgrades early on, as you won't have to worry about saving money to buy minions.
Latest Thoughts
Hearthstone Battlegrounds is good. It has a lot going for it, which makes it both superior and unique; especially when compared to other auto chess variants. But he's also held back by the fact that he uses the deck of cards as his base. Hearthstone has developed quite a reputation for facilitating ridiculous combos and strategies, and that also seems to be baked into the battleground meta.
The stat buff is extremely common in the game - it's the main strategy that matters and it can be difficult to keep track of what your opponents are capable of. In other auto chess games, escalation is mostly in the form of key pieces and how many two or three star minions you can assemble. In Battlegrounds, there's more math involved, so it's harder to predict the real strength of your opponents.
Still, the economic system is better, and tactical decision-making is much more rewarding. I hope the tips and tricks above will give you a foundation and help you reach greater heights in this fascinating game mode. If that didn't give you deck filler, be sure to see our picks for the best mobile card games.
