Hearthstone’s new expansion “Kobolds and Catacombs” offers, in addition to the 135 new cards and legendary weapons, extensive single-player content. Our author Guddy has gone through numerous randomly generated dungeons and takes a short break here to share her experiences.
Up until now, much of Hearthstone revolved around cold hard cash, whether virtual or real. You pay to enter the arena, you pay for card packs, and for more in-depth solo content. It’s refreshing that the dungeon runs, also known as “treasure hunts,” introduced with the expansion “Kobolds and Catacombs” have absolutely nothing to do with costs.
Your own cards do not affect the debate
You start as one of the nine heroes with a corresponding pre-made deck of ten cards. Which cards you own does not matter at all, and the cards you gradually receive as loot are drawn from the entire pool and not from your own. This is particularly appealing for new players and those who do not want to invest enough time or money to acquire new cards.
This way, you can quickly try out classes and decks that you might not have considered otherwise. Why not? You can test it for free!
Harder than expected …
While the first two or three bosses are laughably easy, they get tougher with each stage until you face the last and hardest opponent. At first, I thought: “Hey, you can easily conquer the dungeon runs, what could possibly go wrong?!”
But you never know in advance which bosses you are going to face, as each dungeon run is randomly shuffled. 48 potential bosses with different abilities are at your doorstep, and if you get unlucky, your hero deck may be useless against them. Playing against a boss that counters spells with a deck focused almost entirely on spells? Not so much fun.
And damn, can that be frustrating! You also do not have full control over the deck’s composition. In the first loot, you might choose the jade cards, only to find that you cannot build on them in any later loot. That’s mean, especially since you only have one attempt per run and cannot repeat the match after a loss – but it’s still a lot of fun!
What rewards await in the dungeon run in Hearthstone?
This reminds me of the arena, where you can also have luck or misfortune with the composition of the cards. The good thing about the dungeon runs, however, is: They are free. It doesn’t really matter whether you win or lose. You cannot even win a flower pot!
It’s a shame that you do not receive a reward, no matter how small. Good: Once you have successfully completed a dungeon run with each class, a card back awaits you. And by completing a daily quest, you get a classic card pack if you defeat 5 dungeon run bosses. But I wouldn’t have minded getting one or two dust particles per defeated final boss.
“Well played” – No more!
The best part for me, however, is that on the other end, there’s no presumably mean player who bombards you with ironic “Well played” remarks as soon as you are about to lose or make a mistake. No, on the other end is just a mildly smiling NPC who doesn’t think anything of it.
Dungeon runs are just relaxed games for a break. You can take a pause whenever you want and play classes for which you actually do not have good cards. It costs nothing, and you can play it over and over again since it’s different every time.
Guddy’s win combination
There are thousands of possible combinations and also plenty of different bosses to fight against. My most successful run – which was the fastest and, quite literally, most explosive – was with Jaina yesterday. Maybe it would have been different if I had to fight against other bosses, but hey, details!
Twice, I was able to choose the passive upgrade “+3 spell damage” and had the candle as treasure. It deals 4 damage to all enemy minions and then gets shuffled back into the deck. I always chose cards that fall under “big spells.” In short: My spells were deadly, and thanks to the many crowd control cards, I had nothing to fear from a full line-up of opponents. This combination has definitely been the most fun I’ve had so far!
The treasure hunt is what Hearthstone, in my opinion, has always needed. It provides the fun and finesse of a card game without making the player reach into their pocket. Hearthstone for everyone!
What do you think about this game mode? How many times have you already defeated an 8th boss, and which is your favorite?
