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Hearthstone is doing things a little differently this year; the three expansions and solo adventure content will all be tied together by one overarching storyline. So far we’ve had the release of Rise of Shadows, which introduced us to the “League of E.V.I.L.,” a group of returning villains – Arch-Villain Rafaam, Dr. Boom, Hagatha the Witch, Togwaggle and Madame Lazul – but aside from some cool new mechanics and cards, we didn’t really know what they were up to. Until now!
Yes, the next solo adventure launches on May 16 in NA (local times may vary – it will be May 17 in ANZ, for instance) and will be called The Dalaran Heist. In it, the League of E.V.I.L. is clearly thinking big – they’re not just planning heists within the magical floating city of Dalaran, they’re planning on making off with the whole thing!
As part of this operation, players become a henchman working for the League, and must fight their way through five chapters, each of which consists of a series of boss battles and follows the nefarious aim of an individual League member. Chapter one, for instance, is themed around Togwaggle robbing Dalaran’s bank, while chapter two is set in The Violet Hold, where Hagatha is freeing prisoners to distract the guards.
Each of these chapters has a unique twist. In keeping with the idea of freeing prisoners in The Violet Hold, for instance, each encounter starts with a prisoner on either side of the board – a random minion – which is freed after a certain number of turns (determined by its mana cost).
There are nine Henchman to choose from – each aligning with an existing class, but each bringing unique twists to that class. Rakanishu, for instance, is the Mage henchman – well, henchflame, really – and while its starting hero power is the one we’re all familiar with, there are two other hero powers to unlock: Burning Wit, which costs one mana and reduces the cost of a random card in your hand by two, and Frostburn, which costs two mana and can be used to freeze a character, or, if it’s already frozen, deal two damage.
Each class has game-changing options.
Each henchman can also unlock multiple starting decks – three pre-determined and one entirely random. From what I’ve played, each of the pre-determined decks seems to lean towards one or other of the hero powers, but you’re free to mix and match as you see fit.
Like the previous deck-building solo adventures – Dungeon Run, Monster Hunt and Rumble Run – the starting decks are obviously just that, and you’ll regularly be choosing between selections of Treasures and cards to add in to improve your deck or game plan. Unlike those adventures, however, chapters in The Dalaran Heist also include non-combat friendly encounters. These take place in taverns around Dalaran and give you special cards that can be played to manipulate your deck; adding cards, removing cards, buffing minions and so on. Most of these cards cost in-run coins to play, so you’ll have to pick and choose what’s most important.
To evil!
And once you’ve beaten all five chapters, you’ll earn a brand new legendary card – Zayle, Shadow Cloak, which has a similar effect to Whizbang the Wonderful. Can’t wait to find out what those “EVIL” decks are like!
Anomaly mode also opens up once you have all five chapters unlocked, and it lets you start new runs with a random modifier. For instance, you may get “Wild Magic” which is a passive effect whereby all spells cast an additional time, with targets chosen randomly. As you can imagine, that would have a huge impact on the kinds of spells you’d want to pick up, as well as how the run will likely play out.
So, how does it play? It’s a whole heap of fun, but I definitely found I liked some of the chapter twists and hero power choices more than others. The first chapter, for instance, has a pretty straightforward one, in which your opponent starts each game with a 0/3 “Cache of Cash,” which has a deathrattle that gives each player two coins. This immediately gets you thinking. How will you use the coins? Are you worried about giving coins to your opponent? Do you even want to sink three damage into it? All these things make it an interesting element to introduce to encounters, and it has the potential to play into your game plan in spectacular ways. In one run, for instance, I wound up with a buffed Arcane Anomaly (one mana 4/3 with upside? Don’t mind if I do), a Vex Crow, a Stargazer Luna, an Archmage Antonidas and a Yogg-Saron in my deck. That was a seriously good time.
Back, in Yogg form.
Chapter two’s twist, however, is far less interesting. As mentioned earlier, the setting is The Violet Hold, where Hagatha is freeing prisoners. What that amounts to is each player starting with a random “prisoner” who is freed at some point during the encounter. How worthwhile that minion will be is entirely random, and yes, you have a number of turns to prepare for both yours and your opponent’s, but I didn’t find it very engaging.
Chapter three, Streets of Dalaran, has a twist called “Crowded Streets,” which means that three spots on each side of the board are already taken by “carts” (inert minions basically), meaning you can only have four minions on board at any one time. It definitely changes how you build your deck and approach the run. In chapter four, The Underbelly, all minions have swapped attack and health, which again presents an interesting wrinkle, forcing you to re-evaluate every minion you could potentially add to your deck. The last chapter, Kirin Tor Citadel, doesn’t have a twist in the same way as the previous chapters did, instead being a longer challenge, with four additional encounters.
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I spent about eight hours playing this mode and feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface.
On their own I’d say these twists probably wouldn’t be enough to convince me to pay for additional chapters, but Team 5’s whole strategy here is to offer options at every turn, so maybe instead it’s a handful of the additional hero powers that I’ll get really excited about, or maybe it’s Anomaly mode. (Spoiler – it’s probably both those things. Stat-tracking, too!) The bottom line is that I spent about eight hours playing this mode and feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface.
It’s also worth pointing out that one really big difference between The Dalaran Heist and the similar modes that have come before is that the re-introduction of Heroic difficulty means that the normal difficulty is way easier. And I mean way easier – I completed the vast majority of the runs I started on normal difficulty. What that means is that the people who want a real challenge will have to push through each chapter on normal to unlock Heroic, while players like myself will feel freer to try weird and wacky twist/hero power combos, as we’ll likely be able to get further with them. Overall I think it’s a change for the better.
The Dalaran Heist will be released in stages. The first two chapters will be available on May 16 in NA (May 17 in some locations), with chapter one being free and chapter two costing 700 gold or $6.99 USD ($9.50 AUD, $10.99 NZD). Subsequent chapters will be released over the following weeks for the same cost, or you could just purchase the entire lot in one go for $19.99 USD ($26.95 AUD / $31.99 NZD).
As a supercharged version of the Dungeon Run concept, The Dalaran Heist promises to give me countless ways to blow off steam in Hearthstone when I’m sick of ladder, and for that reason alone, I can’t wait!
Like Hearthstone? Be sure to check out what pro players think of Specialist, which cards pro players think should be nerfed and why Hearthstone esports was overhauled for 2019.
Cam Shea is Editor in Chief for IGN’s Australian content team. He’s on Twitter.
