Hearthstone’s Patch 24.2 is lauching now, with some controversial changes in a form of Battlegrounds perks (the 4 heroes instead of 2 part to be more precise) being only purchasable with real money and not Gold. Another change that received very negative reception is the introduction of Runestones.
The patch is already live on PC, but since it’s a really big update, the mobile version will take some more time to release. It’s usually up to a few hours after the PC version, so check back in a while.
You can find a summary of the changes below:
- Battlegrounds Season 2 – A new Battlegrounds season has launched with a big update. New mechanic – Quests, new XP system + rewards track, new heroes & minions, balance updates and more. Sadly, it’s also the introduction of P2W mechanics to Battlegrounds – you will no longer be able to purchase access to 4 hero choices with in-game Gold, only with real money. Old Guardian covered that in detail in this article. We also have some interesting “general updates” for the mode, such as players being able to excess 10 gold during shop phase. We’ll also receive a 3 Legendary quests chain with new cosmetic rewards to celebrate the launch of Season 2.
- Mercenaries Update – We have some balance changes to Mercenaries, no new features or events.
- Wild Heroic Brawliseum – Heroic Brawliseum returns on September 14, this time in Wild format. Play in an Arena or Duels-like format (up to 12 wins or 3 losses), but with much higher stakes.
- Runestones – Runestones are the new premium Hearthstone currency, something along the lines of “gems” or “diamonds” in many other mobile/F2P games. They will be used to purchase stuff like cosmetics etc. that you could purchase straight up with real money previously. Everything you could buy with in-game Gold remains the same.
- Updated Leaderboards – Official Hearthstone leaderboards will now update live and will no longer be limited to Top 200 – for Standard, Wild and Classic it will show ALL Legend players (really interesting, because we will now be able to tell how many people are in Legend much easier).
- In-Game Reporting – A long-awaited feature is finally live. You will be able to report players in-game for all kinds of things, such as inappropriate names, chat or gameplay (the last one probably means bug abusing etc., and not stuff like emoting or roping).
- Bug Fixes & Game Improvements – Just like always, the new patch comes with a lot of bug fixes and minor QoL improvements. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t break more things than it fixed!
Or, if you want to learn more, check out full 24.2 Patch Notes here.
“ Everything you could buy with in-game Gold remains the same.“
Wasn’t the old Battlegrounds season pass purchasable for 2000 gold. That is not true anymore. Or am I missing something?
Well, if you want to get technical, “Battlegrounds Perks” no longer exist, all of the perks are available for free, except 4 hero picks instead of 2, which are a part of a Season Pass. But it’s a new item, you can no longer buy Battlegrounds Perks at all.
But yes, 4 hero picks instead of 2 is the only exception to the “you can still buy everything you could with gold”, but it’s also explicitly stated in the post.
Gotcha. Battleground Perks were 2000 gold and those no longer exist. I forgot that name. That was always my main gold purchase, outside of new expansion packs. That sucks. Thanks for the reply.
And so it begins.