Mercenaries Showcase Live Recap – New Game Mode’s Gameplay, More Information, Release Date – August 31

It’s finally time! After the new game mode was announced at BlizzConline back in February, Blizzard basically went silent and didn’t reveal much more information about it. Many players were excited and hoped for Mercenaries to become the next Battlegrounds – another incredibly successful game mode evolved from Hearthstone.

Today (August 31), at 9 AM PDT (18:00 CEST) Blizzard will hold a Mercenaries showcase. Game Director Ben Lee, Game Designer Joe Killion, and U.I. Designer Hasiba Arshad will talk more about the new mode – show actual gameplay, reveal tons of content and share an official launch date. You can watch it live on Twitch or YouTube.

On top of that, Twitch drops are back. Watch any Hearthstone stream for 15 minutes to get one United in Stormwind card pack, and for 15 more minutes for a second pack. However, the eligible period is very short – drops will only work between 8:30 AM and 10 AM PDT (17:30 and 19:00 CEST). To read more and learn how to connect your Twitch and Battle.net accounts, refer to this post.

If, for whatever reason, you can’t watch the showcase live – don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. We’ll be doing a live recap here in this thread as well as on social media. At first it might be pretty chaotic as we try to keep up with the stream, but after it’s done we’ll tidy everything up and summarize all the most important info. We’re really hyped for the new mode and can’t wait to hear more about it.

Mercenaries Gameplay Showcase Recap

• Mercenaries launches on October 12!
• “Mercenaries village” will be a central hub, you’ll go there between adventures.
• The official cinematic trailer is playing now (find it below recap).
• You’ll play as a leader for your own “mercenaries enterprise”. You’ll send them on jobs, missions, get rewards, level them up etc.
• Here’s how the combat system of Mercenaries looks like (screenshots below). You first pick the characters that will fight, then select the abilities they will use. Combat is won by clearing all of the opponents, there’s no “face”. 
• They showcased some example abilities. They each have “speed value”, which determines the order of actions. Lower value = the action will take place sooner. Some of them also have cooldown, so you can activate them every X turns. 
• You first choose your team’s moves and then the combat plays out. If a mercenary dies before its their time to, their ability won’t be played and it can change the outcome of the match.
• There are three “classes” in Mercenaries – Fighter (green), Protector (red) and Caster (blue). Proctectors are tanks with Taunt etc. but they can also deal some damage.
• Protectors are your tanks, they are mostly there to keep your team alive. But they can also dish out some serious damage.
• Fighters are your damage dealers, they also increase the offensive abilities of your team and can summon extra minions.
• Casters are your backline. They can cast powerful spells and heal/buff allies.
• There’s an important balance of power between the roles. Protectors deal 2x damage to Fighters, Fighters deal 2x damage to Casters, and Casters deal 2x damage to Protectors. That’s why most of the time it’s better to have a balanced team to capitalize on those strengths and do not let opponents use the weaknesses.
• Mercenaries will have its own Quest system – “task board”. You’ll get visitors offering you jobs for rewards.
• Each Mercenary will have three equipment pieces you can get, but you can only equip one at a time. Each one comes with a different modifier/ability.
• Hearthstone gets a character from a different Blizzard franchise – Diablo! He’ll be available as one of the Mercenaries. You can pre-purchase him starting today.
• Once you build a Tavern, you’ll be able to find all of your Mercenaries there and customize them (including different portraits, equipment etc.)
• Mercenaries will join your roster at level 1, with a single ability. When they get to level 5 they obtain a second, and then third at level 15. You’ll also be able to use your resources to upgrade each ability – they become much stronger at each rank (up to rank 5).
• Abilities and equipment are upgraded with Mercenary coins. Each of Mercenaries have their unique currency, which will be obtained by doing bounties, missions and opening Mercenaries packs.
• A team consists of 6 Mercenaries. Only 3 of them will be able to participate in combat at once, but if one of them falls, you’ll be able to replace them with a “benched” one.
• Mercenaries will also have minion types. Just like in Constructed, they are important for the sake of synergies – like Murlocs attacking together or buffing each other.
• On top of minion types, spell schools are also making an appearance. It’s good to have multiple spells from the same school for the sake of synergies.
• There are seven bounty zones to explore, each with a higher level. You know what the final boss will be from the start, but the rest of the map is procedurally generated, so all of the encounters on the way to the boss are random.
• As long as your team is on the bounty level, minor encounters should be easy. Each encounter victory will award your entire party with XP, and one random Mercenary will get to discover an extra treasure. Treasure bonuses last throughout the bounty run, but are not permanent.
• Damage done to your Mercenaries will recover between encounters. However, if one of them dies, they are no longer available during that run.
• Elite encounters work the same way, but both the risk and rewards are much greater. They offer a much greater treasure and it’s unlikely that your party will come out unscathed. However, beating them gives one of your Mercenaries a super treasure with a MUCH bigger bonus.
• You might also encounter Spirit Healers, which can reive fallen members of your party. There are also many other random events, including Boons that buff a certain role until the end of the run (including enemies).
• The final encounter of the bounty will be boss, the biggest challenge. Beating him will give you access to a treasure chest with the biggest rewards.
• If your team falls mid-run, it will only retain the experience gained, no extra rewards.
• Bounties can be repeated any number of times, each instance will give you a new, random map with the same boss. You can also inspect the final treasure chest to know what it can give you, so you might want to repeat specific bounties if you need those rewards.
• Each bounty destination has two difficulties – Normal and Heroic. Heroic versions will scale up the power level of encounters and bosses. They will also have bigger maps, so your runs will be longer and harder.
• Later content update will unlock a third difficulty – Legendary, accessed by fully upgrading your village’s Travel Point. The team will be regularly adding new content – bounties, Mercenaries, and additions to the village.
• Mercenaries will also have a PvP mode. It’s fully optional and accessed through Fighting Pit in your village.
• Just like in regular bounties, you will bring a team of six Mercenaries and your goal is to defeat your opponent’s entire team.
• Everything you earn through PvE counts in PvP. Mercenary levels, their abilities, equipment etc. Because of that, matchmaking is quite a bit complex.
• Unlike in PvE,  you have no idea what you will face – after all, your opponent could have brought any kinds of synergies and you have no way to tell before fight starts. You can try balancing your team to beat different styles, or just go all in on one style and hope that you stumble upon a team you just counter.
• Players will gain daily rewards just for participating in PvP. But as you gain more PvP rating, you open ranked chests that give you even more Mercenaries rewards like coins to upgrade your characters.
• Mercenaries packs is a new kind of Hearthstone pack. It contains Mercenaries coins (necessary to upgrade your characters), items, portraits, and even new Mercenaries.
• All of the building and upgrading in the village is done with Gold.