The monster hunt in Hearthstone is intense. In our Hearthstone guide for the monster hunt, we have tips for the 4 hunters: for tracker Tess Greymane, gunner Darius Crowley, dog master Shaw, and time tinkerer Toki. With our tips, you will defeat the final bosses Toki the Infinite, Glinda Crowskin, Lord Godfrey, and Captain Shivers.
The game mode “Monster Hunt”, the new solo adventure, has been playable in Hearthstone for a few days now. The monster hunt must be completed with a total of four characters to unlock the final end boss and snag a card back with victory. Each monster hunter presents players with different challenges that must be mastered. We provide you with numerous tips and hints to maximize your attempts.
A complete “step-by-step” walkthrough is not possible in the Witchwood, as many factors depend on chance, such as the order of bosses and the treasures offered. However, we provide some tips and tricks for each of the four characters that should make the monster hunt easier.
Basics of the Monster Hunt in Hearthstone
The monster hunt resembles the dungeon run from Kobolds and Catacombs. You begin by choosing one of four different heroes, the so-called monster hunters. You then fight against eight different bosses in random order, but with a noticeably increasing difficulty.
The eighth and thus final boss is specifically tailored to your chosen hero. Darius Crowley will always face Lord Godfrey in the finale, and dog master Shaw will always encounter his nemesis, Glinda Crowskin.
After each won fight, you will be presented with a selection of 3×3 cards from which you can choose a set and add it to your deck. After fights 1, 3, 5, and 7, you also get to choose from one of three treasures that particularly enhance your deck.
General Tips for Deck Building
Passive is better than active: Generally, passive treasures are better than active ones. The reason is clear: you benefit from passive treasures in every match and are not dependent on drawing the card first. While there are exceptions where active treasures can be helpful, typically, this relies heavily on luck rather than skill.
Diversity over unity: It is very tempting to create a deck that focuses only on one theme. A pure spell deck for Toki is alluring, as is a deck full of small minions for Shaw. However, there are clear counter monsters in the forest to both examples of decks that could quickly lead to failure. Of course, one can choose a focus, but a few spells can work wonders in a minion deck as well.
Area damage is a must: In later fights (monster number 6+), opponents not only have powerful hero abilities and stronger cards, but also a mana advantage – starting with two or even three mana. Coupled with hero abilities that copy minions, you could be hopelessly overrun before your deck even gains momentum. Therefore, if you have the choice, take cheap, effective area spells or minions with comparable effects.
Tips for the Individual Monster Hunters
In the following sections, we have some tips and tricks for you that will certainly help you in the individual monster hunts.
Tips for Tracker Tess Greymane
Hero ability – Empowering: Discover a class spell that has been played in this game.
Tess can discover spells that have already been played during the match with her hero ability. However, even if no spell has been played yet, the hero ability can still be worthwhile. Tess will then receive a “Stone” in her hand – a spell that deals 1 damage to a target for 0 mana. A perfect activator for “combo” cards.
For Tess, the treasure “Cult of the Wolves” is particularly worthwhile, allowing her to use her hero ability up to 2 times per turn while reducing the mana cost to 1.
The most reliable method for Tess to succeed even in the final fights is to focus on cards that summon jade golems. Pair this with the spell Triplet and copy minions that produce golems. Thanks to the hero ability, you can also copy Triplet infinitely and thus create an endless number of jade golems.
Also good in this combination is the treasure “Moon Seal“, where deathrattle effects of minions are created directly upon playing them. Then Aya Blackpaw summons two jade golems immediately and upon her death, another third. If you copy Aya with the Triplet, the jade golems quickly rise to an area with 10, 15, or even 20 health/attack points.
A special tip for Tess: If you play against “The Whisperer”, you can win in your first or second turn. Use your hero ability before any other spell is played to get a “Stone”. This deals 1 damage for 0 mana. Since all spells in this fight have “Echo”, you can throw the stone infinitely and win directly.
Tips for the End Boss Captain Shivers
Captain Shivers permanently has the weapon Kingbane, which he can continuously draw from the deck thanks to his hero ability. As he has both lifesteal and poison, rushing is hardly possible. The most effective path to victory leads through an army of jade golems. If health gets low, it can also be worthwhile to equip a weapon and copy the poison to gain lifesteal yourself. Aside from Blade Flurry, he has few mechanics that are particularly devastating.
Tips for Gunner Darius Crowley
Hero ability – Fire!: Fire the cannons! Usable again when it destroys a minion.
Darius starts each match with a cannon on the battlefield. With the hero ability, the cannon can be fired to deal 1 damage to opposing targets. If two targets are opposite the cannon (for example, with an odd number of minions), both opponents take damage.
One of his best treasures is Tactical Reinforcement. Each time you fire the cannons, the cost of a card in hand is reduced by 2. Since the cannons can often be used multiple times, even expensive minions become playable early.
Especially in combination with Dragonfire Shot (the cannons deal 1 more damage), it allows particularly powerful minions like Ragnaros or Y’Shaarj to be played early, triggering a chain reaction that can lead to a quick victory.
Tips for the End Boss Lord Godfrey
Darius’ end boss is Lord Godfrey, who has many counter methods in his deck. Especially with Grim Patron, one must be careful that the cannons do not accidentally summon more minions than they destroy. However, once you gain the upper hand on the battlefield, the fight is relatively easy. Godfrey has few options to recover – if you survive the first few turns, victory is within reach.
Tips for Dog Master Shaw
Hero ability – Dog Whistle: Summon a Bloodhound (1/1) with Rush.
Shaw can summon a Bloodhound with Rush each round for 2 mana, which can immediately pounce on enemy minions.
Thanks to his Bloodhounds, Shaw can respond very quickly to threats and often eliminate them in the same turn. His special treasure “Faithful Companions” is recommended, which boosts the Bloodhounds from 1/1 to 3/1, making them significantly more effective.
Shaw generally benefits from the typical hunter playstyle – rush at all costs. However, this becomes more difficult in later matches where the enemies have a mana advantage and particularly high health. Therefore, it can be worthwhile to carry some “Inspiration” effects for later.
A particularly great combination is when you can choose the treasure “Faithful Companions” twice, raising the damage of the Bloodhounds by 2 each time and combining it with the druid quest Giants of the Wilds. Every time you summon a Bloodhound, you get closer to completing the quest and can play Barnabus as early as turn 5, which reduces the cost of all minions in the deck to 0. Combined with hefty minions in the deck, this forms a devastating combination that makes many boss battles easier.
Also worthwhile can be the treasure minion Hasso. He is a 9/9 Wild Beast for 7 mana that summons 6 Bloodhounds when summoned, which attack a chosen minion. Hasso’s Bloodhounds also benefit from the “Faithful Companions” treasure. Ideally, you summon for 7 mana a 9/9 dog and 6 dogs with 5/1 and Rush. As with all active treasures, you must still draw the card first.
Tips for the End Boss Glinda Crowskin
The end boss Glinda Crowskin is particularly nasty. She cannot take damage as long as she has a minion on the battlefield. Moreover, she has several minions in her deck that are shuffled back in upon their death, so she never runs out of cards unless these minions are silenced. The fight is purely a race against time, where you must use your limited deck sparingly. Be careful not to put all minions on the battlefield, as Glinda likes to wipe the entire field with cards like Doom!
Tips for Time Tinkerer Toki
Hero ability – Time Loop: Restart your turn.
Through her hero ability, Toki is predisposed to select many cards with random effects. Especially effects like the “Unstable Portal” or “Portal: Firelands“, as well as the “Deck of Wonders” and Arcane Missiles can be much better controlled this way. However, always remember that you can only reset your turn once. You must accept the second outcome of the effects.
Toki’s greatest asset is the treasure Double Time, which you can even receive multiple times. This treasure ensures that the first spell you cast in the turn is cast again with a random target selection. This treasure is particularly powerful with cards like the unstable portal. Because then you not only get a minion to hand that costs 3 mana less, but 2 (or 3, if you have the treasure twice). Thus, an unstable portal for 2 mana has an effective value of 9 mana – hardly any other card provides such value.
Also nice is the combination with the Deck of Wonders – this fills your deck with random spells. Instead of mixing just 5 cards into the deck, you can add 10 or even 15 cards, which can quickly lead to a devastating chain reaction. Don’t like the result of the chain reaction? Just rewind time.
No randomness when unnecessary: Although Toki is the master of randomness, you shouldn’t rely solely on that. For instance, if you played a Blingtron and your opponent received a powerful weapon, rewind time. However, don’t risk repeatedly playing Blingtron, but rather choose another step without randomness. In the next turn, you can then try Blingtron again, ensuring that you don’t have to live with the result of chance.
Many places praise and recommend the treasure “Back to Square One”. As long as you have the treasure, you basically have a second life. If you fail, the treasure is removed, and you can start the match again. We strongly advise against this treasure, as it essentially has no notable effect on games. Instead, choose a treasure that actually provides you with a tangible advantage in matches. It is essentially a wasted treasure that doesn’t benefit you in the actual match.
Tips for the End Boss Toki the Infinite
Additionally, Toki the Infinite has a special spell in her deck. For 10 mana, she restarts the match – however, the player’s health remains the same, only Toki regenerates. You can counter this spell if you have played a Counterspell or steal the card with “Death Grip“; otherwise, you have to live with the consequences. She uses this spell only once. The second permanent threat is Toki’s hero ability. She can grant a minion “double Windfury” – allowing it to attack 4 times in one turn! Therefore, you must eliminate all minions as quickly as possible or have a reliable taunt on the battlefield.
The End of the Monster Hunt: Hagatha the Witch
Once you have successfully completed the monster hunt with all four hunters, you unlock the mode “The Last Fight”. Here you will face Hagatha the Witch, the final boss of the Witchwood.
Hagatha herself has a deck of 40 cards that consists almost entirely of minions. However, her passive hero ability ensures that she receives a shaman spell in hand each time she plays a minion. This circumstance gives the fight a strong RNG component, so often luck or misfortune determines whether you are crushed by a rush in the third turn.
In the fight, you rotate through all four monster hunters in turn. You start with dog master Shaw, select a treasure, and have the other three heroes as special hero cards in hand as well. When playing each respective card, multiple effects are triggered.
- Time Tinkerer Toki (3 mana): Grants 5 armor, deals 3 damage to all minions, chooses a passive treasure, and replaces your hero ability with Time Loop.
- Darius Crowley (5 mana): Grants 5 armor, deals 5 damage to all minions, chooses a passive treasure, and replaces your hero ability with Fire!
- Tess Greymane (8 mana): Grants 5 armor, deals 8 damage to all minions, chooses a passive treasure, and replaces your hero ability with Empowering.
The key to victory here is choosing the right treasures. As before, you should choose treasures with regard to long-term benefits. A Moon Seal for activating deathrattle effects can be sensible, but also a Bandage that heals all your characters (including hero) by 2 health at the end of each round can give you the endurance you need. Avoid treasures that only enhance your current hero (like a cannons upgrade), unless it is the last hero that you play.
If possible, you should copy “Evolution” and thereby drastically enhance your own minions. Combined with the treasure “Double Time” (Toki), you can receive several dozen mana with just one click of buffs.
Basically, Hagatha is not particularly difficult – as you can challenge her repeatedly and do not first need to defeat 7 other bosses, defeats are not that painful.
If you defeat Hagatha, you will earn an exclusive new card back that you can use in all game modes!
We hope this guide has helped you. If you have any tips and tricks for specific fights or combination ideas, feel free to write them in the comments!
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