Hearthstone ends the year with another big expansion, three more due 2018

Hearthstone is set to close out the year with its 135-card expansion, Kobolds & Catacombs on December 12th. This hasn’t stopped people looking ahead at what’s to come, as lead artist, Ben Thomson reveals that 2018 is set to see three more sizeable expansions, including single-player content.

Kobolds & Catacombs will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, Knights of the Frozen Throne, by including some free content alongside its 135-card expansion. In particular, players will get access to ‘Dragon Run’, and activity in which players choose their own adventure.

“It's hard to put definitive numbers to those sets, but three full sets – whatever that may mean, give or take cards – is absolutely the plan, with missions in each,” Thompson said when speaking with Metabomb. Those missions will be replicating the single-player experience that fans got with Adventures. “At this point we feel it's best to continue to add mission content to the actual release set for several reasons,” Thompson continued.

“There's a lot of solid single-player content that happens with each and every set, there's certainly a subset of players who like those – and even prefer those in some cases. At the same time, it provides a lot of opportunity for complexity to be put in that model.

Get ready to delve deep into an underground realm packed with monsters, traps, and treasures beyond imagination! #Kobolds & Catacombs launches Dec. 7! https://t.co/eBYHqq055W ?️ pic.twitter.com/pKMemfLttj

— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) November 28, 2017

The reason for ditching the ‘Adventures’ system is so that specific cards are no longer gated to players that didn’t wish to participate, and therefore offsets the meta of the multiplayer. “We needed to tone down the complexity of the Adventures, and as a result they were less challenging for the more experienced players – and we certainly got that feedback, ” said Thompson.

“This is a way we get to put the challenge into them – and certainly with the Dungeon Run there'll be a ton of challenge in there – but there's no gated content behind that, other than a card back for beating all nine heroes. It's very different from ‘I don't have a card I can add to my deck now and make a certain deck type'.

“For that reason, putting together three full releases with mission content is a big part of how we see the game going forwards.”

KitGuru Says: Hearthstone isn’t without microtransactions of course, but it does offer a lot with its expansions constantly changing the meta for players who wish to simply play the game without real-world money being spent. Are you excited for the next in Hearthstone’s saga?

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