Hearthstone Battlegrounds - Updates and Patch Notes

Thankfully, we’re seeing a fair few changes in Battlegrounds already, with new alterations and tweaks added throughout the early period of the game’s release.

Navigation:

• March 2020 Updates
• February 2020 Updates
• January 2020 Updates
• December 2019 Updates
• November 2019 Updates

March 2020 Updates

26th March 2020

Finally, Illidan is a hero in Hearthstone. Sure, it's in Battlegrounds, but we'll take what we can get. Here's all the changes in the latest Hearthstone patch 17.0 that impact Battlegrounds.

Illidan added as a Hero

Illidan can now be chosen as a Hero in Battlegrounds. His hero power is Wingmen, and it's a passive ability which lets your left- and right-most minions attack immediately.

New minions

Two minions have been added to Battlegrounds. Here's what we've got:

• Deflect-o-Bot - tavern tier 3 Mech, 3/2 stats, Divine Shield. Whenever you summon a Mech during combat, gain +1 Attack and Divine Shield.
• Felfin Navigator - tavern tier 3, Murloc, 4/4 stats. Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +1/+1.

The Deflect-o-Bot, when upgraded to golden, gains +2 Attack per mech summoned instead, whilst Felfin Navigator upgrades your Murlocs by +2/+2 each.

Early March 2020

A few changes have been made to Battlegrounds, including new Heroes being added and some balance changes being made. Here's everything you'll find if you update your game:

New Heroes

3 Heroes have been added into the pool:

• Fungalmancer Flurgl - Passive Hero Power, Gone Fishing: After you sell a Murloc, add a random Murloc to Bob's tavern
• Sir Finley Mrrglton - Passive Hero Power, Adventure!: At the start of the game, Discover a Hero Power
• Professor Putricide - 1 mana Hero Power, Rage Potion: Give a friendly minion +10 Attack for the next combat only.

Battlegrounds Hero Balance changes

The Heroes of the Battlegrounds have been changed - here's all of the tweaks:

• The Lich King - you can now target which friendly minion has Reborn, rather than it being only the right-most one. This should make it a bit more flexible.
• Ysera - New hero power: Passive - at the start of your turn, add a Dragon to Bob's Tavern. This guarantees a Dragon board pretty swiftly, even early game if you can't afford it.
• Pyramad - This guy's Hero Power has had a pretty basic buff: it now gives a friendly minion +4 Health rather than +3.
• Millhouse Manastorm - Instead of starting with 2 gold, you start with 3, making it a bit easier to keep up with your upgrade curve.
• The Rat King - now gives any upgraded units +1/+2 rather than +1/+1.
• Milificent Manastorm - now gives Mech minions in Bob's tavern +2 Attack rather than +1.
• Deathwing - he's been nerfed slightly. Now, all minions have +2 attack rather than +3, meaning you're not as likely to kill enemy minions with your tokens.
• Reno Jackson - Gonna Be Rich! now costs 3 mana rather than 4. It can still only be used once per game to make a minion Golden though, so you'll want to save it for slightly later on.

Battlegrounds minion balance changes

Heroes aren't the only things getting changed in the latest patch. Ahead of Ashes of Outland, minions are getting shuffled in the Battlegrounds too. Here's all the changes:

• Savannah Highmane - moved from tavern tier 5 to tavern tier 4
• Herald of Flame - buffed from 4 health to 6 health. The Golden version has gone from 8 to 12 health.
• Steward of Time - buffed from 2 attack to 3. Golden version buffed from 4 attack to 6.
• Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect - buffed from 2/8 to 4/12. Golden version buffed from 4/16 to 8/24.
• Nathrezim Overseer - nerfed from 4 health to 3. Golden version nerfed from 8 health to 6.
• Twilight Emissary - moved from tavern tier 5 to 3. Changed from a 6/8 to a 4/4, who buffs a friendly Dragon by +2/+2 rather than +3/+3. Golden version is an 8/8 who buffs a friendly Dragon by +4/+4.

Updates for March 26th

New content keeps on coming for Battlegrounds. Here's what to expect.

Illidan enters the Battlegrounds. His Hero Power, Wingmen, will make your left and right-most minions attack immediately.

February 2020 Updates

February 26th 2020

February 26th's update is a huge one for Battlegrounds. Dragons are finally here, bringing in a huge number of brand new minions, as well as a couple of old favourites. We're also getting a whopping 7 new Heroes, and it's all live now on PC. The full post is on Hearthstone's website, but we've put all the changes below for your convenience.

New Heroes

• Galakrond - Galakrond's Greed - Costs 1: Replace a minion in Bob's Tavern with a minion from a higher Tavern Tier.
• Deathwing - ALL Will Burn! - Passive: ALL minions have +3 Attack.
• Ysera - Dream Portal - Costs 1: Refresh and add a Dragon to Bob's Tavern.
• Nozdormu - Clairvoyance - Passive: Your first Refresh each turn costs 0.
• Malygos - Arcane Alteration - Costs 0: Replace a minion with a random one of the same Tavern Tier.
• Alexstrasza - Queen of Dragons - Passive: After you upgrade Bob's Tavern to Tavern Tier 5, Discover 2 Dragons.
• Reno Jackson - Gonna Be Rich! - Costs 4: Make a friendly minion golden (Once per game).

That's a whopping 7 new Heroes, all with some pretty wildly powerful effects. We'll be updating our Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tier List accordingly.

New Minions

18 brand new minions have been added to Battlegrounds to make Dragons a proper thing. Here's all of them:

• Dragonspawn Lieutenant
• Red Whelp
• Glyph Guardian - Battlegrounds
• Steward of Time
• Waxrider Togwaggle
• Unstable Ghoul
• Bronze Warden
• Hangry Dragon
• Drakonid Enforcer
• Herald of Flame - Battlegrounds
• Cobalt Scalebane
• Murozond
• Twilight Emissary
• Razorgore, the Untamed
• Holy Mackerel
• Imp Mama
• Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect
• Nadina the Red

We're also seeing some balance changes for existing minions and heroes, as well as a bit of rotation to compensate for all the brand new heroes coming in.

Battlegrounds Balance Changes

• George the Fallen - Boon of Light Hero Power cost reduced from 4 to 3.
• Sneed's Old Shredder - Moved from Tier 6 to Tier 5.
• Mama Bear - Buffed from 4/4 giving all summoned beasts +4/+4 to 5/5, giving all summoned beasts +5/+5.

Removed heroes

• Professor Putricide - the devs are going 'back to the drawing board' with his effect, so have removed him in order to give him a bit of work.

Removed minions

• Shielded Minibot
• Annoy-o-Tron
• Mounted Raptor
• Phalanx Commander
• Psych-o-Tron
• Tortollan Shellraiser
• Piloted Sky Golem
• Festeroot Hulk
• The Boogeymonster
• Sated Threshadon

According to the devs, minions have to be taken out to make room for all the new ones coming in. These ones have been chosen to balance things out a bit - there are far more Mechs than other minion types, so some of them have been removed. Minions who haven't been performing brilliantly have also been taken out.

General improvements and bug fixes

Finally, there's a few miscellaneous changes to be made. Here's what's in store with the update:

• Speeding up animations from 0.8s > 0.2s across all game modes for Overkill, Lifesteal, Poisonous, Inspire, and cards that reference "Whenever" and "After" in their text, outside of some special cases.
• "Recruit" will no longer be displayed on the turn timer when a player is about to lose in Battlegrounds.
• Rafaam's Hero Power will no longer trigger a Triple notification before you transition to the combat phase in Battlegrounds.
• Fixed a visual issue in which Golden Primalfin Lookout would sometimes display Golden Murloc cards.
• Fixed an issue where the scoreboard would not sort players correctly on the first turn if they conceded during the mulligan in Battlegrounds.
• Fixed an issue where the scoreboard could appear unsorted when reconnecting to a game in progress in Battlegrounds.

February 13th 2020

February contains just a small update to Hearthstone's Battlegrounds mode. Community Manager Chris Sierra posted the full notes on Blizzard's forums, but we've put the change below for your convenience.

• Floating Watcher is moving from Tavern Tier 3 → Tavern Tier 4

This'll nerf Demons ever so slightly, as their self-damaging ability was often able to snowball ridiculously. In addition to this, an issue with Galakrond, the Nightmare's cost reduction priority was fixed. Now, it doesn't usurp effects like Loatheb and its cost-increases.

January 2020 Updates

January 21st 2020

With the launch of Galakrond's Awakening, we're seeing some new Battlegrounds content too. New minions, a Hero rotation, and a couple buffs and nerfs. You can find all the info on Hearthstone's Blog page, but we've put it below for your convenience.

New Heroes:

• Tirion Fordring. Hero Power - Honorable Warband (Cost 1): Give minions with no minion type +1/+1.
• Millhouse Manastorm. Hero Power - Manastorm (Passive): Minions cost 2 gold. Refresh costs 2 gold. Start with 2 gold.

New Minions:

• Imprisoner: Demon. Tier 2 3/3. Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon a 1/1 Imp.
• Fiendish Servant: Demon. Tier 1 2/1. Deathrattle: Give this minion's Attack to a random friendly minion.

Additional Changes:

• Voidwalker: Has been removed from the Battlegrounds minion pool.
• Golden Zapp Slywick: Now has Mega-Windfury rather than Windfury
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton has been removed from the Battlegrounds Hero pool (he'll be back with a new Hero Power in the future).

Bonus Stats

Minion lineup history has been added to the Bonus Stats page. You'll beb able to go through your last 5 board states before you won or lost.

When hovering over opponents on the scoreboard, you'll be able to see how many of the majority minion Tribe they have in their lineup. This'll help you plan your buys around the opponents' board.

In-game Matchmaking adjustments: You'll no longer face the same player, or Kel'thuzad, more than once every 3 combat rounds.

Battlegrounds Improvements

• Spawn animations have been disabled when playing minions from your hand in Battlegrounds.
• Increased the drag speed of minions in the Shop phase of Battlegrounds.
• Cut down the animation time of the Poison effect in Battlegrounds.
• Reduced the amount of screen shake in Battlegrounds games.
• Minion 'sleep' animations have been disabled in Battlegrounds games.

Battlegrounds Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where +0 rating was incorrectly shown at the end of the game
• Fixed an issue where minions would swap positions on the board when playing and moving them very quickly.
• Fixed an issue where minions in the shop would be un-interactable if you clicked on them immediately after a refresh.
• Fixed an issue where Battlegrounds buttons could not be clicked while the hand was enlarged on mobile devices.
• Fixed an issue on mobile devices where tapping a minion would cause it to hover on the board.
• Fixed an issue where Zapp Slywick would attack a Taunt minion before redirecting to his correct target. (Note: This caused Secrets like Autodefense Matrix to trigger on the Taunt minion instead of Zapp’s real target.)
• Fixed an issue where a minion’s voice over line would play when buying a minion immediately after a reroll.
• Fixed an issue where a minion resurrected by Redemption would not attack.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the effects of normal Brann Bronzebeard and golden Brann Bronzebeard to stack.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the effects of normal Baron Rivendare and golden Baron Rivendare to stack.
• Fixed several issues related to spectating Battlegrounds games.
• A fix has been implemented to prevent an accidental use of the Hero Power during the hero select phase.
• History for damage done to Kel’Thuzad now correctly includes damage from minions.

January 8th 2020

We're about to be hit with a brand new update this week. Along with some Standard format balance changes, the Battlegrounds are impacted too. You can find the full blog post by Kurt Ocher on Blizzard's forums, but for your convenience you can find it below. Expect buffs to heroes who have been performing poorly over recent weeks, as well as a couple old faces returning to the game mode.

Here's a quick roundup of patch 16.0.8 in Battlegrounds:

• Shudderwock - Burbling: Cost reduced from 2 to 1.
• Queen Wagtoggle - Wax Warband: Give a random friendly Mech, Demon, Murloc and Beast +2 Attack (instead of +1 Health).
• Infinite Toki - Temporal Tavern: Cost reduced from 2 to 1. Now reads: 'Refresh Bob’s Tavern. Include a Minion from a higher Tavern Tier.'
• Patches the Pirate - Has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool. Fire the Cannons!: At the start of next combat, deal 4 damage to two random enemy minions (increased from 3 damage).
• Pyramad - Has returned to the Battlegrounds Hero Pool. Brick by Brick: Give a random friendly minion +3 Health (increased from +2 Health).

Minion Changes

Golden Soul Juggler has been changed to deal 3 damage to a random enemy minion twice when a friendly Demon dies (instead of 6 damage one time).

Quality of Life Changes

Selfless Hero's Deathrattle, which gives a friendly minion Divine Shield, will now only target minions who don't already have Divine Shield.

December 2019 Updates

December 19th 2019

The 16.0.5 balance update isn't as extensive as its predecessor, but it's still likely to have a big impact on the metagame. We're seeing a number of cards who've felt a bit too expensive get moved down a tier, while others which have felt too strong get a price hike.

Here's a quick roundup of the tweaks:

• The Boogeymonster - Moved from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4.
• Mechano-egg - Moved from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4.
• The Beast - Moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 3.
• Coldlight Seer - Moved from Tavern Tier 2 to Tavern Tier 3.
• Primalfin Lookout - Moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 5.
• Nightmare Amalgam - Has been removed from the pool of available minions.
• Brann Bronzebeard - Has been removed from the pool of available heroes.
• Bartendotron Has been added to the pool of available heroes.

December 5th 2019

Three new heroes, plus plenty of buffs and nerfs have hit the battlegrounds. First, here's a look at all the new heroes:

• Edwin VanCleef- Sharpen Blades - Costs 1. Give a minion +1/+1 for each minion you’ve bought this turn.
• Sylvanas Windrunner- Banshee’s Blessing - Costs 0. Remove a friendly minion to give adjacent minions +1/+1.
• Arch-Villain Rafaam- I’ll Take That! - Costs 1. Next combat, add a plain copy of the first minion you kill to your hand. (Note: this is an unbuffed, non-golden copy.)

A number of heroes have been temporarily benched. They'll be back at some point in the future, likely with some tweaks to make them a touch better to play. Here's who's taking a break:

• Patches the Pirate
• Bartendotron
• Pyramad
• Professor Putricide
• Trade Prince Gallywix

Some have made a triumphant return, though. Here's who's back:

• Millificent Manastorm
• Lich Baz'hial

Finally, here's a roundup of all the buffs and nerfs:

• Millificent Manastorm: All Mechs in Bob's Tavern get +1/+1. → All Mechs in Bob's Tavern get +1 Attack.
• Patchwerk: All Patched Up - Starts at 60 Health. → Starts at 50 Health.
• A. F. Kay: Procrastinate - Skip your first 2 turns. Start with a minion from Tavern Tier 3 and Tavern Tier 4. → Start with two minions from Tavern Tier 3.
• The Rat King: King of Beasts - Whenever you Hire a Beast give it +1/+2. Swaps type each turn. → Whenever you Hire a Beast give it +1/+1. Swaps type each turn.
• Lich Baz’hial: Graveyard Shift - Get a Coin and take 3 damage. → Get a Coin and take 2 damage.
• The Great Akazamzarak: Prestidigitation - Will now be harder to get Ice Block consecutively. Removed Hand of Salvation as a possible secret.

November 2019 Updates

On November 19th, we saw the 2nd ever Battlegrounds patch. It’s brought about some brand new Heroes to play for the first time since the mode’s launch. Members of the League of Explorers - Brann, Elise, and Finley - have been added to the mode, as well as Sindragosa. You can find their specific Hero Powers and abilities below, and we’ll be updating our Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tier List accordingly.

With these additions, some Heroes have been dropped. King Mukla, Luch Baz’hial, Giantfin, and Millificent Manastorm have made way, but we’ll probably see them again soon.

We’re also getting some long-awaited balance changes to the Tavern. Mech synergies have been given a nerf, with Junkbot upped from rank 4 to 5, meaning you’ll need to upgrade your Tavern an extra level to get that ridiculous snowball effect. Murlocs and Demons have received some buffs too. Primalfin Lookout and Coldlight Seer can now be accessed a rank earlier, and Voidlord has been moved from tier 6 to 5. This should make these two builds more viable.

The development team has promised more updates too, including balance changes, new Heroes, and new minions, including King Bagurgle (a completely new card) and Floating Watcher (from Goblins vs. Gnomes).

Early December is the date of the next update, so keep an eye out - we’ll keep you abreast of the situation.

We’ve put the full patch notes below for your convenience, but you can check out the blog post on Hearthstone’s site if you fancy.

November 19th 2019

Bob the Bartender has been hard at work keeping the tavern tidy for Hearthstone’s heroes, and it appears that the news has started to spread. Hearthstone Battlegrounds is about to add some extra chaos—and a few Explorers—with a new update coming to the mode today.

Sindragosa, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton are the latest heroes to enter the Battlegrounds. Each one comes with a new hero power to give you more options to push toward a first-place finish. Read on for details on these new heroes, as well as some additional updates coming to Hearthstone Battlegrounds.

Please note that these updates do not require an additional download.

New Hero: Sindragosa

New Hero: Elise Starseeker

NOTE: The "Recruitment Map" recruits a minion from your current tavern tier after upgrading Bob's Tavern.

New Hero: Brann Bronzebeard

New Hero: Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Heroes Leaving the Battlegrounds

To make way for new challengers, the Heroes below have left Hearthstone Battlegrounds for the time being. We may see them return in a future update.

• King Mukla
• Giantfin
• Millificent Manastorm
• Lich Baz’hial

Balance Updates

Minions:

• Primalfin Lookout: Moved from Tavern Tier 5 to Tavern Tier 4
• Voidlord: Moved from Tavern Tier 6 to Tavern Tier 5
• Junkbot: Moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tavern Tier 5
• Coldlight Seer: Moved from Tavern Tier 3 to Tavern Tier 2

Developer comments: We wanted to buff both Demons and Murlocs, so we moved those minions down a Tavern Tier. Junkbot was a bit too strong for Tavern Tier 4 and often made it so mech players never had a good reason to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5. With these changes, we think the minion types are closer together in power level.

Ranking System

We’ve made adjustments to the number of points given for first place. In the original system, you got 240 points for a first place on your first game, and 24 pts for a first place on your 150th (or later) game. Now, you will get 190 pts for a first place on your first game and 95 pts for a first place on your 150th (or later) game.

Bug Fixes

• Infested Wolf: The Triple version of Infested Wolf has been moved from Tavern Tier 2 to Tavern Tier 3, consistent with its base form.
• Rat Pack: The Triple version of Rat Pack has been moved from Tavern Tier 3 to Tavern Tier 2, consistent with its base form.
• Plant tokens spawned from Adapt effects are now Tavern Tier 1.
• Snake tokens spawned from Snake Trap are now Tavern Tier 1.

Future Updates

As of today, we are planning our next Battlegrounds update for early December. Below is a brief preview of some of the things we’re working on.

• We’d like to continue balancing minions and Heroes based on how they’re performing. We don’t have the changes solidified yet, but we’ll be watching things closely and will have more to say soon.
• We’d like to continue rotating new Heroes into the game while rotating some existing Heroes out. We have some recognizable faces we’re working to include in December.
• We have two new minions in the works that we’re currently planning to include in the December update: King Bagurgle, a brand-new card, and Floating Watcher, which you may recognize from the Goblins vs. Gnomes set.
• We have been working on the first iteration of the Stats feature, to give you more insight into your performance. We’d like to surface some fun stats, like how many Triples you’ve created, your top five Heroes by wins, and more. An updated version of Stats will be available next year.

November 11th 2019

We’re in the process of releasing a new update, which is now live on PC and rolling out over the next few hours on mobile operating systems. This update contains a variety of optimizations to improve performance when playing Battlegrounds, especially on devices with fewer than 2GB of RAM. Please note that players on devices with lower memory may still experience degraded performance.

As a note for iOS users, please ensure you have updated to the latest version of iOS to receive the greatest performance increase from these optimizations.

There were some balance changes that we identified based on our initial testing that didn’t quite make it in for release, so we’re making those live with today’s update.

Balance Changes

Minions:

• Mama Bear: Changed from 5/5 giving +5/+5 to 4/4 giving +4/+4.
• Kangor’s Apprentice: Changed from 4/8 to 3/6.

Hero Powers:

• Infinite Toki: Changed from 1 cost to 2 and now reads “Refresh Bob’s Tavern. Add a minion from a higher Tavern Tier.”
• King Mukla: Changed to “Passive Hero Power: Whenever you buy a beast, add a Banana to your hand.”
• Jaraxxus: Hero power changed from 3 cost to 2.

Game fixes and improvements

• Squelch now works as intended + no longer causes crashes under certain circumstances
• Daily Quests can now be rerolled
• Hallow’s End Arena Daily Quest can now be completed
• A variety of Android crashes have been fixed
• Memory optimization for Battlegrounds for devices with less than 2GB of RAM

We’re aiming to make updates fairly regularly – every month or so, or perhaps a little faster. We’ll have more information on future updates over the next few weeks.

While I’m here, I wanted to talk a bit about Battlegrounds and what we’re seeing and feeling since we launched in beta last week.

Overall, we’ve been thrilled by the response players have had to Battlegrounds, and we’ve been closely watching the feedback coming in. We’re continuing to work on a variety of things coming in the future, but I’d like to call out to a few of them. Please note all of this is future-looking – none of this is getting added quite yet.

New Heroes and Minions!

We’ve been cooking up some new heroes and minions, and we’ll be making them live within the game with our next update. We don’t want to say too much right now, but a couple of very familiar faces will be included.

Stats!

We know the amount of gameplay information that informs how players are performing is limited right now, and we are already hard at work on an advanced stats screen that will be available in the next update. We’ll have much more detail soon, but expect things like your top 5 heroes by wins, most played heroes, how many first place finishes you’ve completed, and more.

Leaderboard Updates

We want to give players more useful information about their opponents so they can make more informed gameplay decisions and build more complex strategies. On the left-hand leaderboard we’re going to be adding some addition information on the minion types that your opponents have. For example, you’ll be able to see that one of your opponents currently holds three murlocs and two demons.

The Selling Experience

We want to make some improvements to how minions are sold, allowing minions to be sold from your hand. We think this will make it into the game some time early next year, and we’ll have more updates on how that is progressing, especially if we think it will come later than January.

Open Beta begins tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 12th @ 10am PT! We hope to see you all in the Tavern!

That’s all the patch notes from Hearthstone Battlegrounds! We’re expecting updates monthly, and will keep you updated whenever new changes are made. We’ve got more help on how to access the mode, as well as a helpful tier list detailing the best Heroes to pick too, so give them a browse if you need a hand!