Blizzard just announced a major update for the Mercenaries game mode. It releases in Patch 25.4 (mini-set patch), which should be out within the next couple of weeks – sadly we don’t have an exact date for it just yet. It’s the biggest content release for Mercenaries since… well, probably since the mode’s release. It will add six new Mercenaries, but old ones will also get updated with Dual-Types and Factions. Dual-Types are self-explanatory, but Factions is a sort-of new system. Now each Merc will be assigned to one of seven factions – including Alliance and Horde. Those synergies were already in game, but there was no clear indication. We’ll also get other factions and faction synergies like League of Explorers, The Empire or Legion. The game will also get its “ultimate” endgame activity – weekly Mythic Boss Rush, special bounties allowing you to upgrade your Mercs past max level (but those extra levels won’t carry over to previous content like regular Bounties or PvP).
However, it’s also going to be the last major update for Mercenaries – devs have decided to shift the focus elsewhere. And it makes sense. When it comes to game modes, Mercenaries was definitely the least popular, and devoting extra resources to that instead of, well, anything else. Mercenaries will now be in maintenance mode – with only bug fixes and smaller updates like balance changes.
You can read more in the blog post below:
Patch 25.4 will bring some awesome updates to Mercenaries, including new Mercs, Mercenary Faction designations, dual-type Mercenaries, and the all-new Mythic Boss Rush end-game system! It will also be the last major update to the Mercenaries mode as we align our goals and focus on continuing to make Hearthstone the best digital card game in the world. We’re excited to share more details about the next Hearthstone year, Core Set, and expansion, ahead of Patch 25.6. But first, we want to talk about the major Mercenaries updates coming in 25.4.
Six More Mercenaries Join the Village
Six new Mercenaries are coming in Patch 25.4. This is our final planned infusion of new collectible Mercs into the mode, and they’re some of our most interesting Mercs yet.
You can get all the details about the new Mercs in the 25.4 Patch Notes, coming soon. Once these Mercs join the fray, we’ll have over 120 total Mercenaries for players to collect, add to their Parties, level-up, and max out. That’s one bustling Village!
Dual-Types, Reworked Types, Factions, and more!
Starting in 25.4, Mercenaries will be able to have two different Types to better represent their identities. We’ll have Human-Undead, Celestial-Beasts, and more! Several Mercs will gain a second Type in this update, opening up a whole slew of new synergies across your collection.
Many Mercenaries will also be gaining Factions, like Horde and Alliance—signified by the flag in the upper-right corner of the card. These will make it easier to tell exactly how a particular Treasure or Ability might impact your Party. Some Abilities, Equipment, and Treasures have been updated or reworked to refer to Factions and/or to better work within the new Mythic Boss Rush system. On top of that, we’re adding five new Factions, for a total of seven.
You already know the Horde and Alliance well, but now they will have clear flags to show where their loyalties lie. Explorers represents the League of Explorers who are now, truly, in a League of their own. The Empire, Legion, and Scourge Factions represent different enemies of Azeroth. The Empire is comprised of the Old Gods and their followers; the Legion is the Demons and demigods who make up the Burning Legion; and the Scourge is made up of the Lich King and his shambling Undead servants. Finally, Pirate has been converted from a Type to a Faction, and represents those raiders and rapscallions who don’t fly any flag but their own.
Mythic Boss Rush End Game Content Coming Soon
The final big system update to Mercenaries is the new and challenging Mythic Boss Rush end-game system. At its core, Mythic Boss Rush is a gauntlet of bosses with randomized elements that you can face to earn more Renown and push your Mercs beyond their limits.
Mythic Boss Rush is weekly content, with a new Boss Rush unlocking every day throughout the week, until a reset at the end of the week. Each Boss Rush is like a Bounty with 3 Bounty Boss fights in a row, leading to a final Boss that is two Bounty Bosses at the same time!
Mythic Boss Rush has been streamlined to include only the most interesting PVE content: there are no Point of Interest nodes or mob fights, just bosses. Bosses will also have random anomalies that make them stronger—with power that scales based on a sliding difficulty setting you can choose for yourself. You earn Renown as a reward for each clear, with the bulk of your Rewards being granted after your first clear, based on the difficulty you were set to for that run.
How are you supposed to take on this bevy of big, bad bosses? In Mythic Boss Rush, you’ll be able to spend your Renown to upgrade your Mercs’ Abilities, Equipment, Treasures, and stats beyond Maxed! Those upgrades persist from Boss Rush to Boss Rush, letting you take on bigger and badder bosses each week.
In Mythic Boss Rush, you can spend Renown to upgrade your Mercs beyond their Max. These upgrades don’t carry over to regular Bounties or the Fighting Pit.
You’ll be able to unlock Mythic Boss Rush via a free upgrade to the Travel Point. The upgrade becomes available once you’ve unlocked Heroic Bounties and have at least one Maxed Merc. Mythic Boss Rush adds tons of replayability to Mercenaries for players who love the PVE aspect of the mode and are hungry to push their Parties to the limits.
Continued Support and New Frontiers
After these updates, we will be focusing on making the Hearthstone and Battlegrounds modes the best they can be. At the same time, Mercenaries will continue to get support for bug fixes and periodic balance changes as needed, but no further regular content updates. With the new additions in this patch, we hope that Mercenaries will be a fun, fulfilling mode for players.
To everybody who has ever chased a Bounty or gathered around the Campfire, we thank you for making this chapter in Hearthstone’s history special, and we hope you’ll enjoy everything Mercenaries has to offer in 25.4. See you in the Tavern!
Thank You
Well an attempt to cash in on Slay the Spire’s popularity with a shallow copy while trying to charge microtransactions has failed. Good, this was a scummy attempt at a cash in. I hope they’ve lost money on it, but more likely they’re just not making enough.
They’ll let it limp on and take people’s money still, but it’s now been put out to pasture.
If cash flow was really the intention of mercenaries (and let’s be honest: cash is the only thing blizzard really cares about), they should have tried to sell interesting items at reasonable prices.
All I get offered is cosmetics, and I could not care less.
For example, if they sold the equipment that needs heroic wins for runestones some impatient players might have paid for it.
They might even have added a button where you can refresh toki’s quest for gold, just to put one more leak into the player’s gold bags.
Let’s wait and see what they have in store for us with this “final” update.
I always thought the meaning of mercenaries is to winn all bouties, complete every task of each merc, and max out every merc.
Then you finally look around and wonder how much the world has changed while you were in your bubble grinding for mercenary coins.
I guess “mythic boss rush” is a nice offer to those who have already “completed” the game mode, but those people will probably not come back, or they will only briefly return to get the 6 new mercs, complete their tasks, max them out, and leave the game mode forever.