The puzzles from Dr. Boom’s Puzzle Lab in Hearthstone are quite good. Cortyn believes they should even replace the actual tutorial.
It took me many hours in Hearthstone to finally solve all four “normal” puzzles from the new Hearthstone expansion “Dr. Boom’s Secret Lab”. And even before I tackle the final boss puzzles, I can say: Dr. Boom’s Secret Lab is a better tutorial than the actual tutorial.
If we’re honest: The standard tutorial of Hearthstone is a joke. Yes, you learn the basics – but that’s it. All the cards shown are relatively straightforward and have no special effects. Anyone who jumps straight into a match against another player after this tutorial will most likely lose. Because you learn very little about synergy effects or the order in which different mechanics are activated.
- In what order do multiple deathrattle effects activate?
- What is the difference between “playing” and “summoning”?
- What is fatigue damage?
All these things the Hearthstone tutorial teaches you only insufficiently or not at all.
If you really want to understand what is possible in Hearthstone, you have to spend hours watching streamers on YouTube or Twitch – or play the new puzzle mode.
Puzzle mode forces new ways of thinking
The puzzle mode presents players with some pretty clever tasks. More than once, I had to stare desperately at the screen and my first reaction was “This is absolutely impossible!” Closely followed by the realization that an impossible task would indeed be a pretty bad puzzle.
Especially the puzzles where you have to maximize your own healing with certain cards to get back to 30 health points are brilliant. I didn’t think it was possible to regenerate 29 health points in a single turn in so many different ways before this mode.
The puzzle mode teaches players how to use cards in ways that “casuals” would never think of.
Ultimately, the puzzles teach one more thing: mana efficiency. Most of the later puzzles can only be solved by using mana with maximum efficiency, and even small mistakes can lead to failure.
Of course, in a real game, you don’t have unlimited time like you do in the puzzles. But that’s okay. Because only through the time does a player have the opportunity to truly understand the potential of all cards and find a solution path they wouldn’t have thought of with a “quick” glance.
So here’s a little tip for anyone looking to improve in Hearthstone: Don’t look up solutions for the puzzles in advance. Because then the learning effect won’t kick in.
And now, please excuse me, I have to turn my attention to the final puzzles with Dr. Boom as the final boss – that will certainly take several more hours of time …
How do you like the puzzles from Hearthstone? Have you also learned some cool things or did you just play through it “after a guide”?
