For Hearthstone players who pride themselves on collecting Golden cards, the highly-anticipated Upgrade feature is finally coming to Hearthstone. This feature is not just convenient–the full Arcane Dust cost of the base card is applied to the cost of the Golden Upgrade, rather than the Disenchant value, meaning Upgrading a card costs less dust than crafting the Golden copy from scratch.
Players can also share Hearthstone deck codes through the in-game chat system, allowing players to easily share decks with one another. This allows players to show off their latest wacky deck with a friend, or swap strategies for ladder climbing and rank grinding, without having to rely on outside chat programs.
Lastly, players can now Favorite multiple card backs. This allows players to add several card backs to their Favorites list and have one pulled randomly each time a default card back is used by the game.
These are just some of the many features coming in the Hearthstone patch. The update also begins the first Battlegrounds Season, called “Rise of the Naga,” which adds the transforming Azshara hero and adds 23 minions to the pool, including the new Naga minion type and Spellcraft keyword. The contentious Battlegrounds Buddies system is also being removed to help preserve balance between heroes.
The Mercenaries game mode is also getting a limited-time N’Zoth event, where players can earn the deep-sea Old God of Warcraft fame as a Mercenary by completing special tasks. In addition, the Wailing Caverns and Deadmines min-sets from last year are returning to the store for purchase in their normal and Golden forms for a limited time.
Many Hearthstone players are excited about the upcoming quality-of-life updates coming in 23.2. The convenience and efficiency provided by the Golden Upgrade and Deck Code sharing systems will be invaluable to collectors and hardcore players alike, and the ability to favorite multiple card backs will let players show off their gallery of card backs without having to rely on the Random option.
Of course, some players are upset about certain things from the patch. Some Battlegrounds players are sad to see the Battlegrounds Buddies leave, as they added an interesting twist on hero selection. Other players are upset at the lack of changes to Traditional Hearthstone in this patch. However, Hearthstone is always working on more updates–though this patch did not change the game’s original mode, future ones will.
Hearthstone is available now for mobile and PC.
MORE: Hearthstone: All New Cards Coming to Battlegrounds in ‘Rise of the Naga’ Update
