BlizzCon 2017 kicked off today with an opening ceremony where the developer announced Hearthstone: Kobolds and Catacombs, the next expansion for the popular collectible card game.
Hearthstone game director Ben Brode took the stage for the big reveal. He called it “a return to the roots of fantasy.”
The debut trailer for Kobolds and Catacombs emphasized exploring dungeons and finding loot. It included images of dragons, massive vaults of gold and the titular kobolds, rat creatures with candles on their heads.
Brode went on to reveal a few cards from the new expansion, such as Marin the Fox, a new legendary that will be available to anyone who logs in beginning next week. A new hunter spell called Crushing Walls will destroy the left- and right-most minions of your opponent.
Brode also revealed a new keyword for the expansion: Recruit. Cards marked with recruit will pull a minion from your deck and put it directly into play. Each class will also get a legendary weapon. The priest legendary weapon is called “Dragon Soul” and will summon a 5/5 dragon every time the priest casts three spells.
Kobolds and Catacombs will also introduce a new single-player mode to Hearthstone called “dungeon run.” Players will have to defeat eight random bosses, earning new cards for the deck as they go. But if they lose, the deck gets thrown away and they have to start over.
“It’s essentially a Hearthstone roguelike,” Brode said. “And it’s our most replayable single-player content ever. And also, it’s totally free.”
Hearthstone: Kobolds and Catacombs will launch in December. We’ll continue covering news about the new expansion as well as Hearthstone generally from BlizzCon 2017.
