Hearthstone: How the Mercenary mode works

In Hearthstone: Mercenaries, you collect iconic heroes from the Warcraft universe to send them on procedurally generated bounties.

In this guide, we'll explain:

  • What the mercenary village is
  • How to fight battles and complete bounties
  • How to recruit and level up mercenaries

You don't know Hearthstone? Then take a look at our article where we explain the game in detail.

It all starts in the mercenary village

Your mercenary village is your first port of call when starting the mode. This is where you recruit new mercenaries, select current missions, and then embark on your adventure. You can also compete against other players from the mercenary village. However, you first have to unlock the buildings and further expand your village.

Some buildings can be obtained during the tutorial, while others must be purchased with coins. In addition, some buildings can be expanded with coins. This will unlock additional features or increase their efficiency.

From the camp, you manage your group and go on new hunts.

Here you will get a detailed listing of the buildings:

The Workshop: The Workshop is your first building in Mercenary mode. From here you can expand and upgrade the other locations.

The Inn: This is the relaxation room for your mercenaries. Here you'll manage your squad, recruit new warriors or upgrade their skills and equipment. You can also make the earned cosmetic changes here.

The Travel Point: From here you can access the PvE missions. You select a zone and then the corresponding bounty. After completing a hunt, you'll unlock new objectives. Upgrading the location will also unlock the Heroic difficulty.

The Battle Pit: This is where you and your squad compete against other players. Depending on the level of your fighters, the automatic matchmaking system promises equally strong opponents. Successes, rewards and advancement in the ranking list await you for winning matches.

The merchant cart: This location leads you directly to the Hearthstone store, where you can buy mercenary packs and boosters for earned coins and real money. Each booster contains five items, consisting of new mercenary cards, mercenary coins or mercenary skins.

The Mailbox: This is where you can get the latest announcements about Mercenary Mode.

The campfire: Here your mercenaries not only tell each other about their glorious adventures, but also look at the task board. Because this is something like a quest log for you. Every day, the mercenaries bring you new tasks that will unlock various rewards. So you should visit the task board every day.

On the board you will see your current quests and collect your rewards.

Bounty hunts in Mercenary mode

Besides the PvP battles, the majority of the Mercenary mode consists of the bounty hunter missions. These take place in dungeon runs: you create a squad of six mercenaries and send them on a journey. You then use a map to decide which path your fighters should take.

Depending on where you go, various dangers lurk along the way or various bonuses await you. These can be particularly strong enemies, additional abilities for your mercenaries, special combat effects or the revival of fallen heroes.

On the map you choose your path and see special bonuses.

If one of your mercenaries dies during a dungeon run, he is removed from the game until he completes his mission (or fails completely).

To ensure that your chances are still good, mercenaries are completely healed at the end of a fight. In addition, level ups take place directly after a victory.

At the end of the mission, the bounty target awaits you in the form of a strong boss. If you defeat him, you can loot the treasure chest and get valuable mercenary coins.

The reward for your efforts: at the end, the boss will be waiting for you with his treasure.

How to fight in mercenary mode

Once you have chosen your opponent, the preparation for the battle begins. Your hunting party consists of six mercenaries. Place three of them on the battlefield, the rest will be placed on the reserve bench.

When placing your mercenaries, their roles play an important and decisive role. This is because the characters take or suffer critical damage according to the "rock-paper-scissors" principle.

The following roles exist:

  • Fighters have a green frame and rely on very aggressive attacks for massive damage.
  • Protectors, on the other hand, have a lot of life and use special abilities such as taunt or god shield to try to deflect the enemies' attacks towards themselves. You can recognize them by their red frames.
  • Spellcasters with their blue frames mainly cast powerful spells with special effects. This can be increased damage, weakening the enemy's strength or freezing enemies. However, they have little defense and often represent an easy target.

Depending on the role, a character can do double damage to another character. That is, a fighter is particularly effective against spellcasters, the latter against protectors, and the protectors against fighters.

Critical damage is based on the "rock, scissors, paper" principle.

Once you have placed your three mercenaries, the battle begins. Similar to the battlefield mode, this takes place automatically. The only thing you have to decide is who to attack and what spells to cast.

If you select one of your mercenaries, his action menu will open. There you'll see the available abilities. The number you find with them will give you an idea of when your hero will make his move. The higher the number, the more likely it is that he will make his move last.

This is important, because after you've selected all the abilities and targets, you'll see your hero's move number. Accordingly, the one will be the first to perform its move.

Iftwo or more characters have the same move number, chance decides who gets their turn and when. Keep this in mind, because especially weakened characters might die before they get their turn.

On the other hand, if an attack target is killed before an ability takes effect, a random new target will be chosen by the corresponding mercenary.

The number on your heroes tells you when he will strike.

Whether and how much damage the heroes deal and take is revealed by the stats below the character image. Players of the classic Hearthstone already know this. On the left is the attack power, on the right the health level. If the latter drops to zero, the mercenary is removed from the game and a new fighter can be substituted from the reserve bench onto the battlefield.

For example, if a protector with three strength attacks another protector with five strength, the enemy takes three damage and the own mercenary takes five. If, on the other hand, the protector targets a fighter, he inflicts a critical hit on him, that is, six points of damage.

For special abilities or spells, the explanation text tells you how much damage is done. It always shows you thenormal damage without critical hit.

You can also find the level of healing spells there. However, there is no critical success here.

The higher the number of the ability, the later the hero will perform it.

How to recruit and upgrade mercenaries

After you have fought your first battle, your troops will automatically improve. In doing so, they can level up, unlocking the possibility for new abilities. They will also be credited with more attack and defense points.

At the end of your bounty hunt, you can then upgrade your squad at the inn. Earned mercenary coins can be used to recruit new warriors and unlock new abilities for your core group.

The price for the heroes as well as for skills varies. Simple mercenaries can be recruited for just a few coins, while legendary characters in particular can be paid for their services accordingly.

Legendary mercenaries cost 500 coins.

The cost of new skills is also cheaper or more expensive depending on the level. While the second of three action points can be unlocked fairly quickly, the last ability will cost you quite a bit of mercenary coins.

Once you've unlocked it, you can craft equipment for your mercenaries. These also want to be paid for with mercenary coins. In return, the characters get passive bonuses for the fight.

Your mercenaries can learn new skills and get equipment.

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