Hearthstone Mercenaries Guide

Mercenaries is a Hearthstone game mode like no other. It contains a mix of both RPG and Roguelike elements where you can embark upon adventures with your team of Mercenaries to take part in turn-based strategic battles against other players in PvP and AI-controlled PvE challenges.

Mercenary battles take place on a board in which both you and your opponent will have multiple Mercenaries in play at the same time. Typically there will be 3 Mercenaries in play for both parties, however, at times this may differ for a variety of reasons such as Mercenaries being eliminated, additional minions being summoned, or PvE battle conditions. Both parties then simultaneously queue up actions for everything on their side of the board and the actions are then subsequently resolved based on the speed of the actions.

For more detailed information regarding Mercenaries gameplay, check out our Mercenaries gameplay guide.

Regardless of which Mercenaries content you choose to participate in, you will be required to use a team of 6 mercenaries at all times. After the completion of the tutorial, you will be given a team of 6 starter mercenaries to begin with, however, you may quickly wish to change some or all of them.

Much like with Hearthstone, you will have a collection of mercenaries that can be used to assemble a team, just like you would build a deck. These mercenaries can by primarily be acquired through packs, which can be purchased in the game's store for varying amounts of money or 100 gold each. Alternatively, some packs will also be rewarded for completing parts of the tutorial and story.

If you do not wish to try your luck with packs, each mercenary has their own respective Coins, which can come from packs or be earned while playing the game. These coins are primarily used for upgrading a mercenary's equipment and abilities, however, they may also be used to craft the mercenary at a cost of 100 of their respective coins for rare, 300 for epic, and 500 for Legendary mercenaries.

As you begin to use your mercenaries, you will get more comfortable with them, progress them, and make them stronger. There are 3 primary ways in which mercenaries can be improved: levels, abilties, and equipment.

Mercenaries can be leveled simply by playing the game and it is the only way to do so. By participating in both PvP and PvE encounters, either actively or being on the bench, mercenaries will received experience that will go towards leveling them up. Mercenaries can reach a maximum level of 30 and as they level up, they will gain more Attack and Health, increasing their effectiveness in battle.

The abilities of each Mercenary can be levelled up by spending their unique Coins dedicated to that Mercenary, which can be earned from playing PvP and PvE content or acquired directly from packs. Each of a mercenary's 3 abilities must be levelled up individually with increasing cost. Levelling an ability to level 2 and 3 will offer a large increase in effectiveness, greatly increasing damage, healing, and stats they offer. Levels 4 and 5 are typically only a very small amount better than level 3, making them very costly for minimal gain.

Mercenaries have access to 1 of 3 pieces of equipment they can use to enhance their abilities. This equipment is initially acquired from playing the game by either levelling a mercenary to 30 or by completing tasks. Once acquired, the equipment can be enhanced through the use of that mercenary's coins to boost the power of its effect.

For more detailed information on how to optimally progress your mercenaries check out our Mercenaries Progression guide.

The PvE content found within Mercenaries comes in the form of bounties. Bounties feature a gauntlet of battles and encounters that must be overcome in order to reach the final boss and receive the final reward from the bounty.

Bounties come in a range of difficulties with varying rewards, which can be looked at before undertaking a bounty. You must commit an entire team of mercenaries to a bounty before progressing through map, that will often offer a choice of multiple paths to take toward the final boss. Each node will be a Battle, Boon, Spirit Healer, or Mystery.

Battle nodes feature an encounter against AI-controlled enemies that must be defeated to progress. Unlike in PvP battles, you will be able to see the ability that each enemy will use, allowing for more strategic planning of you actions. At the end of the battle all of your mercenaries will be returned to full Health, but any that are defeated will not be resurrected.

Boon nodes provide a global buff to all mercenaries of a single type, affecting both you and your enemies. Before claiming the boon you will be told which type of mercenaries will be affected, but not in what way. Typically, boons will either buff attack, health, speed, or give permanent Windfury.

Spirit Healer nodes will randomly resurrect one of your mercenaries if you have lost one to a prior battle node.

Lastly, as the name suggests, Mystery nodes can have a range of effects including: taking you straight to the boss, giving you a task, randomising the enemy types on the board, and more. The exact effect given by the mystery node will only become clear when you are in a position to move onto it.

The Pit is where battles against other players take place. The rating within The Pit follows the a similar system to that used within Duels and Battlegrounds, providing players with a numeric rating ascending from 0. The matchmaking system will attempt to pair you with an opponent with a similar rating and Mercenaries of similar strength.

Pit battles follow a 6v6 format where both players queue up with a team of 6 Mercenaries. At the start of the fight both players simultaneously pick and position 3 Mercenaries to begin with, putting the remaining 3 on the bench for later. Unlike in PvE bounties, both players will queue their actions at the same time before combat takes place. After each combat, if a player's mercenary is eliminiated they will be able to bring more mercenaries into play from their bench until they have 3 mercenaries in play. The battle will follow this cycle until one player has no mercenaries on the board or on the bench, resulting in defeat.

Along with gaining rating, you will also earn chests containing a random assortment of mercenary's coins for defeating other players in The Pit. 1 chest is awarded for the first win of the day, the next 2 wins will earn another chest, with each subsequent chest for the day requiring an increasing number of wins.