Hearthstone

Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.

Hearthstone

Developers
	Blizzard Entertainment
Engines
Former	Unity 5
	Unity 2018
Release dates
Windows	March 11, 2014
macOS (OS X)	March 11, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	88
OpenCritic	87
IGDB	88
Taxonomy
Monetization	Free-to-play
Microtransactions	Cosmetic, Free-to-grind, Infinite spend, Loot box, Unlock
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Top-down view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	CCG
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Warcraft

Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans	1994
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness	1995
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans	Cancelled
Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition	1999
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos	2002
World of Warcraft	2004
Hearthstone	2014
Warcraft III: Reforged	2020

Warnings

This game requires a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Key points

Available for free

General information

Official forums

Official technical support forum (EU)

Wowpedia - A huge wiki mainly for World of Warcraft, but also handles anything Warcraft universe related

/r/hearthstone's Resources page - A compilation of links to various websites, guides, and community databases

Hearthstone Players - A community resource site for the game

HearthPwn - Another community resource site for the game

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Battle.net

All desktop versions require Battle.net DRM and a constant internet connection for all game modes, as well as a free Battle.net account.

Also available on mobile (iOS and Android, via their respective official storefronts), fully cross-platform and with full feature parity between platforms, aside from differences in UI and graphics settings. Still always online and the mobile client sometimes becomes briefly unavailable if Apple or Google are slow to approve an update, but Blizzard typically waits for the update to go live on mobile to push it to PC players so this has become much less common.

For a complete and up-to-date list of expansions, see the Hearthstone community wiki page. See also: this list of Adventures from the now defunct adventure pack system (the existing content is still available but more recent sets make the single player content free (but you don't get all the new cards, just a couple free packs typically), and the idea of a "mini expansion" has stuck around but they have been reworked so the new cards are added into the most recent full expansion's card pool and obtainable through packs of that set from then on (or as a one time purchase for a limited time after launch).

All expansions and Adventure packs (excluding Heroes) can be purchased with in-game gold, making them effectively "free" (700 gold per Adventure pack "wing", with each Adventure pack containing 4-5 wings)

Individual cards from all released decks can be made via the in-game crafting system (including cards from Wild-only expansions and Adventure cards).

With the release of Forged in the Barrens on March 30, 2021, the old Basic and Classic sets were rotated out of Standard and the Core set was added to replace them. Core is a rotating set that changes with the annual Standard rotation upon the launch of each year's first new set, and contains a mix of older existing cards and newly designed ones. It is about a third smaller than Basic and Classic, but with a much higher power level than the latter sets which had become largely filler due to power creep over the years of expansions.

The entire Core set is obtained for free by leveling each class to 10 (the same requirement as Basic card unlocks previously). Golden copies can be earned through gameplay as well. There are fewer total cards than Basic+Classic combined but due to much higher average card quality the number of cards that actually see competitive play is higher. The number of free cards to get new players started in constructed has nearly doubled, and the quality of those cards has increased dramatically.

Some of the most popular formats, such as Battlegrounds and Arena, do not depend on the player's collection at all. The only disadvantage new players are at is due to their lack of game knowledge and skill/practice. Arena costs gold to enter but rewards gold, gems, and at least one guaranteed pack per run; Battlegrounds is entirely free to play but offers fewer rewards (just exp for reward track progress, and the ability to complete some daily and weekly quests for more reward track progress). Battlegrounds is inspired by titles such as Dota Underlords and AutoChess, and despite being aimed initially at more casual play has fostered a very active competitive scene (in part due to its distinction as the only Hearthstone format that both uses MMR-based matchmaking and shows your MMR to you directly).

Wild format, and to a lesser extent the Duels game mode, is extremely expensive for new players to get into due to the large number of older sets that the top decks draw from. It's not quite to the level of trying to assemble a Power Nine set for M:tG's evergreen format but if you expect to be competitive in the format as a newcomer you'd better have some very deep pockets.

Battlegrounds has a paid Perks option, which confers gameplay advantages (mainly the increase from 2 random hero choices at the start of each match to 4, significantly reducing your odds of getting stuck with all bad/underpowered options; but also the 2 week exclusivity for newly added heroes who historically are far more likely to be overtuned than under) and unlike every other paid feature in the game offers no permanent bonuses; the perks expire with a new expansion's release and you're left with nothing to show for it. BG is very much playable without them, and you can obtain the perks with gold earned through in-game activities instead of real money - but that gold could have been spent on card packs instead, so it's effectively slowing your permanent progression in exchange for a mix of gameplay and cosmetic bonuses in Battlegrounds. To be clear, the only gameplay-affecting bonuses are the extra hero choices at the start of each match and new heroes being unlocked early. Once the match proper starts the only benefit that actively applies is the ability to emote to other players which is purely a social/cosmetic feature.

There is no casual/free-to-play version of Arena, the game's booster draft-esque limited format. The rewards are generally well worth the entry price in gold, but until you learn the ropes you will likely have to either spend real money or play other game modes as you wait to earn enough gold for your next Arena run if that's the mode you're most interested in.

Card releases come out at a pretty good and consistent pace, and due to its popularity Battlegrounds has gotten pretty regular content updates and balance patches, but some secondary formats have much more sporadic updates. Arena stands out in particular as feeling so neglected it's easy to forget it exists.

Accounts, and thus card collections, ranking, cosmetic purchases, etc., are region-specific. You can play in a region other than the one you're physically in, but you can't transfer progress or content between regions, so if you know you wanna play with a friend who lives in another country and already plays the game, make sure you set up a Blizz account on their region from the start so all your progress can be in one place.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Blizzard\Hearthstone\options.txt
macOS (OS X)	~/Applications/Hearthstone/client.config

Video

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			No 21:9 resolutions available.[citation needed]
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		The "full screen" option in-game is borderless by default. There is no normal full screen.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Add "vsync=1" or "vsync=0" to the configuration file to turn it ON or OFF.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Add "targetframerate=60" to the configuration file, or Set Quality to High.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unity page for more details.

Input

Keyboard and mouse, touch	State	Notes
Remapping		Mouse driven.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Touchscreen optimised
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master and music.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Labeled as "Sound In Background".

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Can switch between US and UK English.
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Thai

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		2	Versus Supports crossplay with iOS and Android

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	1119, 3724
UDP	1119, 3724

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9, 11
OpenGL	2	OS X only.[citation needed]
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	Battle.net

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium D AMD Athlon 64 X2	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	3 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT	Nvidia GeForce GT 240 ATI Radeon HD 4850
Other	1024x768 resolution

A 64-bit system is recommended.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.12	10.13
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo	Intel Core i3
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro	Nvidia GeForce GT 650M ATI Radeon HD 5670
Other	1024x768 resolution