[Mobile games]A Free-to-Play collectible card game by Blizzard Entertainment set in the Warcraft universe.

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Hearthstone is a free-to-play collectible card game set in the Warcraft universe. The game was previously known as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, this was changed to simply "Hearthstone" in December 2016. Conceptually, the player takes on the role of a Warcraft hero, playing a card game to relax while inside one of that universe's many inns. Using a shuffled deck of 30 cards, players attempt to defeat their opponents either by attacking with an army of minions, casting spells directly at the enemy hero, or a mixture of both.

The game comes with nine default, basic decks, but also allows players to construct new decks as they gain new cards. Cards can be obtained by levelling up a hero character (by participating in duels), by completing quests, or by purchasing Expert Packs in the store. There are five levels of card rarity: free, common, rare, epic, and legendary.

Deck construction begins by choosing a hero. The available heroes correspond to classes from the initial launch of World of Warcraft (Death Knights and Monks, the two classes that were added in expansion packs to WoW, are not currently represented in Hearthstone). Each hero has an assortment of cards that are exclusively available to that hero, as well as a unique hero power that is reusable every turn.

These are the currently selectable heroes, alongside the Warcraft character that represent them while playing the game, and their Hero Power.

As of July 2015, 3 new Hero skins have been added to the in-game shop (Magni, Medivh and Alleria). They do not have unique hero powers and as such have no effect on gameplay but come with unique animations and voice-over.

Decks must be 30 cards in size, and no more than two copies of any single card (and only one copy of any legendary card) can be added to a deck. Arena mode is an exception to this. The deck must still contain thirty cards but through the random draw it is possible to use more than two copies of a card.

 

All Hearthstone matches are duels where one hero fights another. Order of play is determined randomly; the player who is chosen to go second will gain an extra card, known as the Coin, to compensate. When played it gives the player an extra mana crystal on the turn it's played only. Each player begins with three or four cards drawn randomly from their deck. They also each begin with thirty Health, and play continues until one hero loses all of his or her Health.

A player may cast as many cards as they wish during a turn, but they will be restricted in their ability to do so by the number of mana crystals that they possess. Each hero begins with one mana crystal, and gains another crystal each turn, up to a maximum of 10. Mana crystals are expended to cast spells or minions, but are refilled every turn. Thus, if a player has 10 mana crystals, they can cast one spell or minion with a cost of 10, or two cards that each cost 5, and so on.

Minions are the most common method of attacking an opponent in Hearthstone. They act similarly to creatures in Magic: The Gathering, in that they have attack and defense ratings, and many of them also possess special abilities, such as Battlecry (performs a special action when the minion comes into play) or Taunt (forces enemy minions to attack the creature before any other target).

Most non-minion cards are spells, which have a wide variety of effects. Some spells will deal direct damage to enemy minions or heroes, some will buff minions or hero, some will grant more mana crystals or card draws, etc.

 

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