We’ve received insight into a survey Blizzard sent out to some players asking about a Hearthstone “battle pass”. This new addition to the game would potentially replace rewards from dailies, achievements, and simply winning games with a system based on experience. There are both paid and free versions of this battle pass that are discussed, and they have some very interesting rewards including alternate art for cards for the first time ever.
The survey states that this pass would launch with a new expansion and would last until the next set releases, giving you around 4 months to complete the pass. Earning the maximum amount of experience per week would take you 16 weeks to get the full 100 levels of the battle pass, where the main reward structure is.
Battle passes have become very popular with games over the past few years with it originating in Valve’s DotA 2, back during The International tournament pass. The goal is simple: You play the game, earn experience, unlock rewards. The passes last a limited amount of time so they get players to engage more with the game so they don’t miss out on rewards. Epic Games really pushed the battle pass approach to free-to-play monetization with its Battle Royale game, Fortnite, giving it a huge spotlight and getting other companies to jump on board such as rival Battle Royale, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Whether you like them or hate them, the battle pass appears to be here to stay. Although this survey, which we’re going to get into in a moment, is a solid indication of development plans for Hearthstone’s new progression systems, it should not be taken literally for the rewards may change based on survey feedback. This is potentially good news for Hearthstone due to rival card game, Legends of Runeterra, being more rewarding to play and thus open to free to play players. If this pass is done right, this could be a huge boost to the free-to-play side of the game and may even beat out the pass that MTG Arena has been doing for a few sets now.
Let’s check out that survey!
Types of Rewards Discussed
Here are all the different types of rewards mentioned in the survey.
- Latest Expansion Packs
- Prior Expansion Packs
- Upgradable Hero Skins
- Experience Boost for the Pass
- Arena Tickets
- Individual Random Cards
- A Choice of Hero Skins
- Alternate Art for The coin
- Expansion Card Back
- Gold
As you can see, the idea is that you’d be able to upgrade the skins of certain heroes with 3 different tiers available. We’re assuming this means each upgrade they get cooler looking. Perhaps this is related to the new heroes that we datamined just over a week ago.
In total, here’s what this pass would give you as a member of the free tier if you get to level 100.
- 18 Packs for the Latest Expansion
- 14 Packs for a Prior Standard Expansion
- 4 Arena Tickets
- 2 Legendary Cards
- 2 Epic Cards
- A choice of a Hero Skin (unknown list)
- Expansion related Card Back
- 3990 Gold
Paid members of the pass would receive these rewards in addition to the free ones:
- 1 Non-disenchantable Golden Legendary (Likely a unique legendary and not random)
- 2 Upgradeable Hero Skins (3 levels of upgrades each) (Jaina and Rexxar)
- 20% XP Boost for the Pass
- Alternate Art for The Coin
- 17 Packs for the Latest Expansion
- 14 Packs for a Prior Standard Expansion
- 4 Arena Tickets
- 2 Legendary Cards
- 2 Epic Cards
Additionally, all players are able to earn 25 Gold for each level above 100, to a cap of 150, which would grant you an additional 1250 Gold.
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/1715-blizzard-adding-a-battle-pass-to-hearthstone-survey-highlights-alternate-art-for-the-coin-new-hero-skins-paid-leveling-rewards
Honestly, I don’t think it would work out. It works for mtg because drafts actually add to your collection. Arena doesn’t. It’s interesting they are thinking about new monetization models though.
4 Likes
So because Activision is part of Blizzard they feel this stupidity in Warzone would work here…
FK this company
3 Likes
seems to be based on a survey they sent to players so well this must mean some people want this
i was expecting a point system to earn rewards for free players i think that how shadowverse does it right ?
even a match 3 game i play on mobile added battle pass
2 Likes
better for new and limited budget players, but for me… no thanks. i hope i’d get the option to opt out of that as must of that stuff i dont care about at all.
i don’t care about aesthetics. i hate arena and always insta-retire my tickets. i dont need the packs or cards because i get everything as it comes out.
that would be a giant waste for me.
i just want want to pop my quests, get my monthly card back, and earn daily gold. everything else like heroskins i’d rather just purchase in the shop when and if i so choose (ive been playing hearthstone for 5 years and ive never bought a hero portrait that didnt come with a bundle.)
1 Like
Hey everyone I’m dropping by and saw this so figured I’d toss in a few cents.
It just really depends on the price. Due to the breakout I’d assume paid get additional packs AND the individual cards which seems to be forcing a bigger gap between paid and not paid imho
If they’re looking at Magic Arena for a source you get the ‘value’ from gold, gems, and packs from buying the pass (if you finish) but it isn’t amazing. Without price it’s tough to judge this but the inclusion of individual cards for paid likely is a way to make additional value and pull
2 Likes
new player: “So you can play this game for free?”
-yes
“Ok. Why does it say I need to buy a ticket here?”
-You can buy arena tickets.
“But you said the gameplay is free just a minute ago ?!”
-Well, part of the game is free.
“Why is there a store?”
-It’s to buy card packs. But don’t worry you can get cards for free by playing the game.
“So you can get the cards just by playing?.”
-Yes. Well, you have to buy adventures to get some.
“What?”
-Some cards are locked behind adventures that you need to buy.
“Ok…but all of the rest of the game is free?”
-Kind of, we now also have battlepasses that give you access to speci…wait…where are you going?..Come back…
19 Likes
I think Blizzard should reward players more exclusive cosmetic items which can only be obtained by completing battle pass since it really bring in players’ loyalty to this game.
3 Likes
For the record there was an playing experience version as well to the paid pass. They asked whether you like either the earn through playing and then the paid pass version.
So they are asking about multiple tracks for players. To be fair.
1 Like
give a couple of different options and let player choose what works for them.
Well, that could be either good or bad.
I personally really like the idea of just earning rewards through experience and just playing the game instead of focusing so much on winning.
But that you have to buy this pass for that is at the very least very annoying and also makes it feel almost pointless. I think rewards on experience rather than quests and winning games is better. But this should then be the general way and not just those who buy a pass or something.
What I’m most worried about though is potentially even more exclusive cosmetic items. I personally just really hate that. Not because I won’t be buying and unlocking that (hopefully) but because I just hate it that some people won’t be able to get what they really like. If there is one skin you really like you should be able to buy it and it shouldn’t be unaccessible just because some people like their “exclusiveness” of that skin. They probably don’t even use it. And at the same time you restrict access for people that really want like it and would actually use it? And that just for that stupid “exclusiveness”? Sorry, but I really despise people that think in those ways.
I’d be down for a battle pass, as long as it stays to the 10-15 dollar price tag every other game does.
LoR has a battle pass and I’m loving it, gives me more motivation and reason to play consistently and the rewards are great, all for just 15 bucks.
For ages now HS has also suffered from having little reason to play past just doing dailies, so an experience based system that encourages you to play consistently would be a pretty smart move.
As long as they don’t make it some stupid high price, which I wouldn’t doubt because activision, I’d buy into it.
Edit: after reading further it appears they’d also be removing the current gold system, and also make you grind excessively just to max. I think this would be omega stupid of them, and they should instead at least keep daily gold quests and be reasonable in the amount of play time to max out the pass.
5 Likes
The thing about MtGA is that the “paid” track is available to free players (but only if they play draft). And the pass itself actually is amazing, without the included cosmetics.
For 3400 gems you get, 4000 gems worth of packs, a 1500 gem draft token, 1200 just in gems, 800 gems worth of gold and 10 Mythics and as many Uncommons as you over-level the pass. That is over double the in game cost.
I would be done with hs if they remove quests. I generally purchase 1. expansion and save gold for the next. I bought 110 packs plus the BG perks with gold this expansion.
I’ll now save all gold for the rest of this expansion, buy the pre-orders for the next and save all gold again.
So you have gold from 2 expansions to spend. I doubt I’ll be able to earn 13k+ gold going by the battle pass info.
As a whale I want the pay rewards on all 150 level.
not only The first 50 level.
I don’t see any dust being offered as a reward.
If they remove daily quests, I’m done.
If I have to pay for a battle pass, I’m done.
3 Likes
So they want us to now buy expac bundles and a 4 month battle pass? I understand there is a “free” version of the pass but does “free” mean buy with gold? Yeah if they go this way I’ll probably be uninstalling.
1 Like
From a F2P point of view, how a new player can access this pass needs to be address. (anecdotally by the following poster)
Players now have choices, and ain’t afraid to drop HS, with the series of negative images.
As a f2p player I would potentially be much worse off under this system with much less gold and therefore far fewer packs.
2 Likes
pretty good system in my opinion.
- Better for F2p Player
- also better for all players
1 Like
Almost certainly not. I have yet to play a game with a free battlepass track that required any kind of ingame currency to unlock. And I wouldn’t play any game that forced you to pay any kind of currency to unlock a “free” battlepass track.
But if it is implemented it will likely completely replace daily quests and the 10 gold/3 wins, making it your only source of gold.