‘Hearthstone’ Just Got A Roguelike Game Mode Called ‘Mercenaries’ & It’s Free To Play

Blizzard’s already great strategy card game Hearthstone has traded deckbuilding for a brand-new roguelike game mode called Mercenaries.

Instead of building a deck to challenge other players like in standard Hearthstone, in Mercenaries you recruit characters into your party and go after bounties. Once you accepted a bounty, your party battles its way through procedurally generated encounters until they reach the final boss. Beat them boss and they’ll drop loot and your mercs will gain XP to level up. Fall at any point in the bounty and your party will be sent back to the village to start over.

The village is the central hub of Mercenaries, where you manage your party, accept new bounties, and prepare for your next run. You can grow the village over time by building things like a tavern, a fighting pit, and a campfire like classic RPGs. Each building unlocks new features, like PVP battles, the ability to buy new mercenaries, travel points, and more.

Building a cute village to return to makes the sting of failing a bounty a lot easier to deal with – which is good because, like with any roguelike, you’re going to fail at lot. But failing also gives you a chance to level up your mercenaries and add new ones to your party, so try to look on the bright side!

There are more than 50 mercenaries available at launch, including World of Warcraft icons Xyrella, Tyrande Whisperwind, and the legendary chieftain Grommash Hellscream.

Diablo is even unlockable through in-game Mercenary packs or crafting. It seems a bit unfair to bring the Lord of Terror himself to hunt down a regular bounty, but all’s fair in merc’s work.

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Hearthstone Mercenaries is out now and free to play. Download it and start building your mercenary party here.

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All images courtesy of Blizzard