Blizzard released its latest expansion for Hearthstone on Aug. 6. Scholamance Academy, the 15th expansion for the game, offers rich content in terms of lore and also introduced a new keyword, Spellburst.
Though each expansion plays a significant role in keeping existing players engaged and old players’ interests kindled, it’s the free content that helps Hearthstone reach a broader audience. Hearthstone Battlegrounds, Blizzard’s take on the autobattler genre, has been a clear example of this. The developer recently announced a new free-to-play PvE story mode that will be going live after the release of Patch 18.2.
Book of Heroes, the new story mode, will tell a story about 12 different Hearthstone heroes. Each hero will battle against eight bosses and Jaina will be the first one under the spotlight. A new calendar month will mean a new story for Hearthstone players, which is likely to keep millions logging back to get a taste of Blizzard’s epic storytelling.
When does Book of Heroes release in Hearthstone?
Patch 18.2, which will lay down the groundwork of Book of Heroes, is scheduled to go live on Sept. 8. The first chapter of the story mode won’t be available until Sept.15, however.
The first chapter of this free-to-play adventure will feature Jaina Proudmoore and detail how she’s become a mighty mage from a regular scholar. A Scholar Jaina bundle is also planned to go live when the event kicks off, featuring five Scholamance Academy packs and an alternate hero version of the Scholar Jaina.
Though Blizzard is keen on adding a new story to Book of Heroes every month, the developer didn’t specify when exactly it’ll be releasing the rest of the cast. Considering the game mode’s initial release date falls into the third week of September, Blizzard will likely aim for a similar timing for the following chapters.
What are the rewards for beating all the bosses in Book of Heroes?
Beating the eight available bosses as Jaina will reward players with a Mage pack that contains Mage cards from Standard.
While Blizzard can decide to tinker with rewards in the future, it looks like the plan is to follow a similar route and reward players with a class pack belonging to the hero class starring in the story. This means you should be able to earn a class pack for all the hero classes in Hearthstone by this time next year.
What’s the format of Book of Heroes?
The format of the game mode is relatively straightforward. Starting with Jaina, you’ll be going against eight different bosses with each of the Hearthstone heroes. Each step of the battle will tell a story about the hero you’re playing with, while the matches should test your Hearthstone puzzle-solving skills.
Though Blizzard hasn’t released any details about who the bosses are or what kind of in-game scenarios fans should expect, story modes like Book of Heroes tend to feature predetermined decks to get players going as soon as possible.
