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Hearthstone debuts new "Battlegrounds" mode in latest update

The hit World of Warcraft battler tasks you with teaming up to take on the competition

Hearthstone debuts new "Battlegrounds" mode in latest update
  • Hearthstone's new mechanic brings the battle-royale experience (sort of) to the card battler
  • In Battlegrounds, you face off against others either duo or solo for a fight to the death
  • Season 7 even comes with new heroes specific for duo teams

It seems as if every game nowadays has some sort of battle-royale mode, and if you thought hit Blizzard card-battler Hearthstone was immune, you're very much mistaken. In Season 7, Hearthstone is set to debut its new 'battlegrounds' mode that will put you either on your own or in duos in a fight to the 'death'.

The way it works is that you and another player queue up against three other two-player teams. You have shared life totals, can pass each other cards through the Portal (for 1 Gold), and duel it out in tag-team card battles to take the crown. Naturally, you can either queue solo to match with another random player, or invite your friends to battle it out as a duo.

Player known, card-battler

I mean hey, battle-royale in a card-battler? We've heard stranger ideas...and certainly, with Hearthstone being so popular, it's difficult to keep a game like this fresh when you can't really interfere with the core gameplay elements. The fact that Blizzard is also set to add duo-specific cards and other mechanics to encourage playing this mode is also a great move, as it shows it's not a mere afterthought.

With Hearthstone's 10-year anniversary already passed and the game looking just as strong as when it launched, it seems that this hit mobile card-battler is very much here to stay. And now, it looks as if you'll have a new way to show off your mastery of Hearthstone's thousands of deck combos, like the ones added in the most recent expansion Whizbang's Workshop.

And if that's still not pulling you in to play Hearthstone, don't worry, because we've got plenty more games to recommend. Check out our list of the top 5 mobile games to try this week, constantly updated for each week of the month with new indie gems and major hits!

Iwan Morris
Iwan Morris
Iwan is a Cardiff-based freelance writer, who joined the Pocket Gamer Biz site fresh-faced from University before moving to the Pocketgamer.com editorial team in November of 2023.