BlizzCon was chock full of announcements and both cinematic and gameplay trailers for the myriad of Activision Blizzard games. From the dark and spine-tingling reveal of Diablo IV to the action-packed trailer for Overwatch 2, there’s tons of new and improved properties on the horizon for fans around the globe. There are exciting announcements for Hearthstone as well!

Coming soon to Hearthstone early access on November 5th at 10 AM, players who have purchased the Descent of Dragons expansion will have an entire week to experience Battlegrounds – an 8-player auto-battling game mode.

Beginning November 12th at 10 AM, Hearthstone Battlegrounds’ early access ends and the open beta begins where players can access via Bob’s Tavern. There will be tutorial to walk everyone through the new feature. For text-based directions on how to play the upcoming game mode, check out the official walkthrough here. For a quick run-down of what it is all about, here’s the gist of it:

It’s Tavern Time

In Battlegrounds, rather than building a deck of cards, you’ll construct an ever-evolving board of Minions during visits to Bob’s Tavern at the start of the match and between combat rounds. As the match progresses, you’ll be granted an increasing amount of Coin to be spent upgrading and modifying your board. Most things you do in the Tavern will cost you Coin, and Coins can’t be saved up to be spent in future rounds.

Enter the Fray

Once your time in the Tavern is over, combat will begin! During the combat phase, you will be pitted against a randomly chosen opponent and your recruited Minions will battle to the death until a victor is decided. Minions will take turns attacking, starting with each player’s left-most Minion. Minion keywords work just as they would in a normal game of Hearthstone. For example, Taunt Minions must be attacked first, Poisonous Minions destroy any Minion they deal damage to, Divine Shield will block the first source of damage, etc.

What were you most impressed by during BlizzCon 2019’s opening ceremony? Were you stunned by the myriad of cinematic and gameplay trailers? Let us know what you think in the comments section below or start a conversation on Don’t Feed the Gamers Facebook page. To stay up to date on gaming and entertainment news as it happens, follow us on Twitter! Here are some of our latest:

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Hearthstone is available to play on PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices.