Today, Blizzard announced some major changes coming to how it gives out cards in its popular digital card game Hearthstone. These changes are aimed at providing a wider variety of cards for players and cutting down on the frustration of not getting the specific cards you want.
Beginning with the release of Hearthstone’s next expansion sometime later this year, every time a player opens a pack to discover a legendary card, it will be one they do not already own.
“Opening a legendary should be exciting,” said Hearthstone game director Ben Brode in a video about the news. “We think this change should make it consistently better.”
Brode went on to point out that if you craft a legendary using dust from cards you’ve disenchanted, you’re guaranteed to not open that same legendary in a pack. This should allow players to craft the legendaries they want without any fear of being given one a week later and feeling like they wasted dust, money or time.
On top of that change, the next expansion will also include a new guarantee: Everyone will find at least one legendary card within their first 10 packs opened. This is a major shift from how pack opening works currently, where it can sometimes take 20, 30 or even more packs to hit on your first legendary in a set.
“We’re super excited about the changes, especially in the context of our next expansion, which honestly, I’m super excited to announce,” Brode said. That next set, the second for 2017, will in all likelihood be announced and released late this summer, if the release schedule from previous years is anything to go by.
To celebrate the news, Blizzard is also running a sale on card packs in the Journey to Un’Goro set, which was released earlier this year. The sale will give you bonus packs depending on the number you purchase, as listed below:
- seven packs at $9.99 will earn you two bonus packs, for nine total
- 15 packs at $19.99 will earn you five bonus packs, for 20 total
- 40 packs at $49.99 will earn you 12 bonus packs, for 52 total
- 60 packs at $69.99 will earn you 18 bonus packs, for 78 total
Unfortunately, the new legendary rules don’t come into play until the next expansion, so you’re still just as likely as always to get repeats with your cheaper Journey to Un’Goro packs.
