Blizzcon 2015 is underway and one of the things we suspected that would be getting announced is a new adventure update. Sure enough that is exactly what happened today and even better, it will be releasing next week. Welcome to the League of Explorers adventure update.
Update: November 12th, 2015 10:39am PST: The League of Explorers adventure update is now available! If you don’t see it just yet, give it a few minutes as it is still propagating throughout the Google Play store.
Update: November 9th, 2015 8:16am PST: Just a quick heads-up about the launch of this update. We weren’t entirely sure if the November 12th, 2015 launch date was true but apparently it is. It seems awfully quick to us, going from announcement to release in barely a week’s time. So, if you’re looking forward to this new adventure update, you only have a few more days to wait.
Adventure mode is a single-player mode that pits you against bosses from certain dungeons from World of Warcraft. So far we have had Blackrock Mountain and the Curse of Naxxramas adventures to play through. The next one is League of Explorers and like the previous two adventures, this one will also be added a few new cards to the game. Well, it will actually be 45 new cards, including 5 new legendary ones. The legendary cards are for each member of the League and the final boss.
This particular adventure will actually have less total missions than previous ones, with a total of four wings instead of five wings. However, there are more cards being added to the game with this new adventure than what has been added with past ones. The League of Explorers will have four heroes taking on the adventure:
– The dwarf Brann Bronzebeard, who founded the League
– The cocky human Reno Jackson
– The night elf cartographer Elise Starseeker
– A murloc who can speak named Sir Finley Murgleton
Unlike past adventures that take place within a single location, this one will actually take place in multiple areas as the League of Explorers try to find pieces of an artifact called the Staff of Origination. Each piece of the staff are located in Temple of Orsis, Uldaman and Stranglethorn Jungle, so three pieces in total. After you combine the pieces to form the staff, you will head to the Hall of Explorers where it will end up being stolen by the evil archaeologist named Rafaam. That is the final ‘wing’ of the adventure.
Some of the new cards are very interesting as well, offering multiple effects that can bring a whole new level of strategy to the game. For exmaple, there is a new hunter spell called Explorer’s Hat that will give a minion one extra attack and one extra health. That’s not all though. When that minion dies, they’ll drop another Explorer’s Hat card into your hand.
Some cards will feature a new mechanic that will be added to the game with this adventure called Discovery. For example, a minion might have a battlecry that reads “discover a spell.” If you play this minion, you’ll be shown a choice of three spells. Choosing one will have that spell immediately put into your hand. You won’t be able to get spells from other classes though, only spells for the class you’re playing and neutral ones.
If you think this is all pretty awesome, then you’re in for a treat because there is even more to check out. The final boss Rafaam’s card will give players access to three powerful artifacts. These are unique spells that cost 10 mana in exchange for “crazy effects”, although what those effects are haven’t been revealed. What is even more insane is the Elise Starseeker card.
A Golden Monkey… OF DOOM
The Elise Starseeker card sounds incredibly fun. If you play her card, a spell card called “Map to the Golden Monkey” will be shuffled into your deck. When Map to the Golden Monkey is played, then a minion named Golden Monkey will be shuffled into the deck. Guess what happens when you play Golden Monkey? Every card in your hand and in your deck will be replaced with random legendary minions. We will let that just sink in for a bit…
This is probably the craziest adventure update for Hearthstone, and hell, it is probably the craziest update period for the game. As for when it will arrive, Blizzard just mentioned it will be available on November 12th which seems awfully quick. After a bit of searching, other places are saying by the end of 2015, so we will have to see which is true. We will post an update once it arrives. You can check out the update’s trailer below.
Official Website: League of Explorers Hearthstone
