Hearthstone is introducing a new auto-battling game mode with Battlegrounds. This upcoming mode gives a fresh and strategic 6-player experience to the game. Think Auto Chess but with a Hearthstone flair.
That's right, in Battlegrounds, players take the role of a Hero straight out of Hearthstone history. Players craft a powerful board of recruited Minions and then face-off against others in an action-packed series of duels until a single player remains and is crowned the winner.
That Blizzard has eventually released a game in the auto battler genre is not all that surprising. The first version in the genre was known as Dota Auto Chess, which was a mode for Dota 2. When it became clear that developer Drodo Studio wouldn't be able to partner with Valve, the former released a standalone version simply known as Auto Chess. Valve later released their own version titled Dota Underlords. Meanwhile, Riot Games wasn't far behind and came out with their own version with Teamfight Tactics.
Early Access for Hearthstone Battlegrounds is scheduled to go live on November 5 at 1:00 PM EDT. Early Access lasts for a week and is available to those who have purchased the Descent of Dragons pre-purchase bundle, attended BlizzCon 2019, or are BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders.
Once the Early Access ends, the game is going to enter into open Beta, allowing everyone to give it a shot. If you're new to the game, don't worry since Battlegrounds is going to launch with a fully functional tutorial.
However, considering that this new mode allows for 8-player matches, there are going to be lots of attacks, effects, and animations that are triggered at the same time. Thus, only mobile devices with at least two GB of RAM are going to be able to run the game. What this means is that older devices are not likely going to be able to run Battlegrounds. However, as Battlegrounds progresses out of the Beta, Blizzard said it is going to optimize the experience to allow players with older devices to participate.
There's no doubt that Battlegrounds has everything you know and love about Hearthstone, but played in a way that's never been experienced before. Additional information about this new game mode is going to be released in the coming days.
