Dean "Iksar" Ayala talked a bit more about the new Hearthstone progression system this afternoon on Reddit.

  • Rewards will be removed from quests.
  • Experience earned from quests will be more rewarding than it is now.
  • You should not earn less gold or non-gold rewards in the new system.
  • The same amount of gold earnings means you can still buy the same number of packs on day 1 of an expansion.
  • The intent of the new reward system is to be an upside for all players.

This is the latest information we have on Hearthstone's upcoming Battle Pass, which was last addressed almost two weeks ago by Hearthstone's Game Director, Ben Lee

Quote From Dean Ayala

Assuming you play the same amount and have the same quest completion rate, you shouldn't earn less gold or non-gold in the new system. In nearly all circumstances you should be earning slightly more gold and more non-gold (packs, etc).

Our plan is to remove rewards from quests, though the experience you earn per quest on average will net you as much or more rewards as quests give you now.

Something that has come up a lot is the idea that you will no longer be able to obtain the packs you want on day 1, and instead will get a 'drip feed' of packs over the expansion. While you will receive rewards as the expansion goes on, the gold you earn per expansion should remain relatively flat from what you earn now. This should make your ability to buy packs on day 1 similar to what you get now, but with more non-gold rewards added on top.

Our intent with the system is for it to be upside for all players. We've done many checks on different player segments to try and make sure that is the case no matter how you play. Despite all this, we're making XP per level and XP bonuses as tuning knobs in case our predictions were incorrect. We can push legendary quests or give out additional rewards during events as well.

[Source: Countless hours spent staring at an excel sheet trying to get this right.]


You mention that gold gain shouldn't decrease; I will take your word for it since our calculations are probably not taking into account the full picture, as no one here has actually tested the system. I am curious of one thing - the Battle Pass seems very much tuned for Standard; with the lack of more 'immediate' gold gain quests provided, will this affect players' ability to consistently buy Wild packs if they would choose to forfeit grinding the latest expansion?

Quests give you experience, which helps you level up. Leveling up gives you rewards, most of which is gold. Gold gains should be roughly the same amount of 'immediate' in the new system as in the old system. (Source)


Seems more like a big upside for NEW players, while existing players used to ripping 50+ packs on day one of a new Expansion will have to wait ~4 months to get the same rewards

No, the amount of packs you will be able to open on day 1 shouldn't change much because your gold income shouldn't change much. (Source)


I don't want packs instead of gold, i want the same gold (actually more, but at least the same) as before, and then i decide if i want the new packs or to open some frozen throne packs to flesh out some commons and rares. Or use it for arena, battleground perks, adventures or whatever suit my fancy.

But i want to decide, not you. If i want to save 100 packs worth of gold for a big opening day 1 of the new expansion, i should be able to just like i did before.

And i want the battleground perks be purchasable f2p.

Great, we also don't want you to earn packs instead of gold. As a result, you will still earn lots of gold you can choose to do whatever you want with. (Source)