Patch 21.4 is releasing tomorrow – October 12. And it’s a huge one – maybe not for the already established game modes, but we’re getting a completely new one! Here’s a summary of what’s coming:
- Mercenaries officially launches – Hearthstone’s latest game mode will be out. We’ve got a final release trailer for it, as well as an official full list of Mercenaries available at launch. One important note, though, is that most of the Daily & Weekly Quests won’t work in Mercenaries – only the ones that ask you to win games in “any mode” will do. This will be fixed in a future update.
- Hallow’s End is coming – Well, not yet. Tomorrow we’re getting two Halloween skin bundles – one for Constructed and another one for Battlegrounds. The actual Hallow’s End celebration will start in Patch 21.6 – we’ll get more details closer to the patch.
- Bug Fixes – The patch also fixes a lot of bugs, including ones that they’ve been working on for a long time now (causing the screen to not be clickable in the middle sometimes on mobile devices).
You can find full patch notes below:
The 21.4 patch, releasing tomorrow, launches Hearthstone’s newest game mode, Mercenaries! The patch also includes some bug fixes and preparations for future updates.
Quite the Roster
Mercenaries is launching with 51 playable Mercenaries! We’ve compiled a list of all Mercenaries who will be playable at launch, as well as all their Abilities and Equipment. The Card Library will hold all this information in a future update. On top of the stats shown here, every Mercenary gets an additional +1/+5 when you fully max them out at level 30, with max Abilities and Equipment.
Keep in mind, this is just a snapshot of all the Mercenaries as they will exist at the launch of Hearthstone Mercenaries. We plan to cover future updates in patch notes and other blog posts, and in the Card Library once it’s been updated.
A Village Comes to the Tavern
With the addition of Mercenaries comes a new way to interact with Hearthstone, in the Mercenaries 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 fully upgrade your Village: 100 to unlock 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). You can learn more about navigating by checking out our Village/Collection blog.
Mercenaries Matchmaking and Rating System
The Mercenaries Fighting Pit will have its own, new matchmaking and rating system. This new system is the most complex matchmaking and rating system Hearthstone has ever seen, to account for all the variables in each Mercenaries matchup. And if the perfect match can’t be found, we’ll make one for you with new A.I. opponent technology! Look for an article highlighting and further explaining the new system, soon.
A Note on Quests and Other Known Issues
At launch, most Daily and Weekly Quests will not be compatible with Mercenaries. The only Quests that will be able to be completed in Mercenaries will be those that require you to win games in any mode, and those that require you to take a certain number of turns. In future patches, we will be fixing the Quests that are not working properly, as well as possibly making new Daily and Weekly Quests or adjusting the language of certain existing Quests to include Mercenaries.
Don’t worry, you will still be able to complete your Daily and Weekly Quests in the other modes. On top of that, the new Campfire Tasks in Mercenaries are separate from the Daily and Weekly Quest system, so you can still complete those for even more rewards. You can head to the forums for a list of known issues shipping with 21.4.
Spooky Season is Nearly Here
Preparations for Hallow’s End begin in patch 21.4, with festive box dressing and fun, costumed cosmetic options coming next week. The Fairy Tales Bundle includes fairy tales-themed hero skins for Rexxar, Jaina, Thrall, and Anduin. The Battlegrounds Bundle – Hallow’s End includes a Gala Medivh alternate Bartender and seven costumed hero skins. After you’ve gotten your costume picked out, the festivities will kick off in patch 21.6 (details coming closer to that patch).
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the middle of the screen to become unclickable.
- Fixed a bug where Blood Knight would cause Highlord Fordragon to trigger for all minions, regardless of whether they had Divine Shield.
- Changed the name of the 3/3 token spawned by The Beast to Pip Quickwit.
- Fixed a bug where, when the Duels Treasure Meek Mastery was in play, and a minion affected by it was Silenced, the minion got healed 1 Health.
- Fixed a bug where minions buffed by the Duels Treasure Avenging Armaments retained their buffs if moved from the board into the hand or deck.
- Updated the wording and punctuation on several Duels cards and effects to be clearer and more consistent with established Hearthstone formatting.
- Fixed a bug that caused players to get stuck in the Boomsday Project and Dalaran Heist single-player content, and cause the game to crash.
- Fixed a bug that caused friends who are online, but not in the Hearthstone client, to appear able to be challenged to a Friendly Challenge.
- Fixed a bug that made you unable to re-challenge a friend after completing a match against them.
- Fixed a bug where having your friends list open while reconnecting to Battle.net would cause the friends list to sometimes not fully populate.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Options menu to be cut off while playing in Practice mode on mobile.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused pack types to switch places on the pack opening screen.
- Fixed a bug that incorrectly showed Achievements as completed after clicking through them.
“Performance bug where playing Mercenaries for longer periods (around 1.5-2 hours) will cause lag and performance slowdowns, especially in devices with less RAM. The workaround at this time is to restart the client if that begins.”
Launching it with bugs? Literally?
Honesty is one thing. But it’s not gonna be an excuse to release such a disaster of an unfinished game to the public! Are we as players so lenient now that we’ll just accept every unfinished game they threw at us?
And pretty sure, it’s just a tip of the iceberg compared to the unknown bugs later.
I mean, even some of the bugs is not really that hard to fix when I read it, like visuals or card values.
SMH. Totally awful.
Something I have noticed is that when playing QL Shaman is that revolve never triggers twice after playing QL Brukan.
Anyone else? Strange bug, not really consequential since it’s RNG anyways.
Nice! Mercenaries is here (almost). 😀