As a part of the second week of the Summer Felfire Festival, the Trial by Felfire Story is live in Hearthstone. Overall, there are 17 encounters for you to face, all filled with rhymes and lore for the newest Hearthstone exclusive character, Aranna Starseeker.
Completing the story grants you a Rusted Legion card back and a couple of packs for completing the first chapter legendary quest granted upon logging in. Here’s what you need to know for each chapter of the Trial by Felfire to attain victory and how to claim your card back.
Chapter one: A World in Ruin
As Aranna Starseeker, you are given a Rogue and Hunter hybrid deck with a unique and strong hero power, The Right Tool. For only two mana, you’re allowed to discover a card from your deck to draw it. This allows you to plan your future turns accordingly if you do not have an early turn-two play.
Encounter one, Inquisitor Dakrel
As the first encounter, Inquisitor Dakrel is fairly simple. His hero power, Spread the Word, encourages you to trade into his Deathrattle minions, since if they live he can destroy them, proccing their Deathrattle effects twice in a row.
Blackjack Stunner can be a worthy keep if you have it, as it can bounce back Voidcaller, delaying any big mana cheating for Demons that lay in Dakrel’s hand.
Encounter two, Xur’goth
For players that have played against the Chaos Gazer card from the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure, this hero power should be familiar. Everytime Xur’goth begins their turn, for the cost of one mana, they will corrupt a playable card in your hand, forcing you to play it or discard it.
While the effect may sound powerful, Xur’goth is operating each of their turns on one less mana each time. This allows you to accrue an early advantage, and snowball an early board into a free victory. Another aspect to this fight is there is an ally to recruit, Shalja, who is locked away and dormant until you destroy four demons. But you can usually kill Xur’goth before completing the requirements to awaken Shalja from being dormant.
After completing this, whether or not you awaken her, you will get a new ally, Shalja, for future encounters.
Encounter three, Zixor, Apex Predator
Zixor’s hero power, Ravenous Omnivore, is a very powerful one that gives him a free four attack to swing with every single turn. To make up for this, you start off your battle with a new fungal friend, Sklibb, and two 0/6 mushrooms.
Whatever minions are next to Sklibb, they gain one attack and taunt. This allows you to gain a powerful advantage in the fight if you are mindful of proper positioning. Shuffle your stronger minions onto the board and put them next to Sklibb to protect weaker minions. Alternatively, you can put your weaker minions next to Sklibb, so when they die another stronger minion can take the role of defending Skllibb.
A powerful card to consider keeping in this encounter is Shadowstep. This is because Sklibb is a card with an Outcast effect, and replaying him on the far right of your hand, where Shadowstep will bring him, allows him to summon two more 0/6 mushrooms to naturally defend him.
Encounter four, Baltharak
This herald of the rusted legion has the strongest hero power, All Shall Serve, of any encounter. Whenever a friendly demon dies, he restores 10 life and draws a card from his deck. Even though Baltharak restores life and card advantage whenever a demon dies, his deck is finite. If you can consistently value trade and kill every demon he throws at you, he will fatigue eventually.
If you empty his deck, you will find a new ally, Karnuk, who was imprisoned at the start of the encounter.
Chapter two: To the Black Temple
After finding these outcasts and leading them as your friends, you seek a place of safety with them.
Encounter one, Kanrethad Prime
Kanrethad Ebonlocke has an expensive hero power, Rebuild from Scrap. For 10 mana, Kanrethad resummons three of his friendly Demons who died this game while also destroying four of his mana crystals. This means that if the game goes on long enough, Kanrethad can eventually grind you out with infinite value every four turns.
Kanrethad’s most powerful tool starts at turn five with a spell called Endless Legion. It lets him draw three cards, and summon any minions that are drawn within that pile. This means that using Blackstunner, and Freezing Trap are your best tools to get around this potential swing turn from Kanrethad. Once your turn six begins, you find your final ally, Baduu, and she casts vanish and returns every other minion on the battlefield to everyone’s hand.
Upon victory, Baadu joins your deck, and urges you to go to the Black Temple.
Encounter two, Burgrak Cruelchain
This battle provides a different challenge. To win, you must play 12 Spare Parts. While your deck only has Toshley to provide you with two spare parts, Burgrak’s hero power, Grease Monkey, grants both players a Spare Part whenever any mech dies. This means you must trade into any mech you see, and play each of the Spare Parts you gather to claim victory.
Encounter three, Felstorm Run
Similar to other unique adventure challenges in the past, this encounter gives you a unique deck and hero power to survive for 10 turns against a constant wave of powerful enemies.
Your hero power, Reroute Power, gives you an Arcane Missile-like effect for each card in your hand. This hero power alone can deal with the early waves of enemies. Once you get to the later turns, you need to consider how many unique cards you use each turn. If you use too many, your future usage of Reroute Power will become weaker.
Encounter four, Mother Shahraz
This boss should be familiar to those that raided the Black Temple in World of Warcraft. She also provides an interesting hero power, Parry and Riposte, to play around when trying to defeat her. The first time she takes damage during your turn, she ignores it and inflicts an equal amount of damage to that source.
To best play around this ability, send in any weaker token units, or use your own face, to take the counterattack damage first. Once the encounter begins, you will find that your newest friend, Baadu, too scared by Illidan to continue, runs away from your group in fear of joining his forces.
Chapter three: To be a Demon Hunter
Upon arriving at the Black Temple and proving your worth, Illidan takes you and your group under his tutelage to become Demon Hunters. Once this chapter begins you now gain Demon Hunter cards, in addition to your previous Rogue/Hunter deck hybrid.
Encounter one, Shalja, Outcast
Shalja’s hero power is a unique one that lets her get extra potential value from her Overload spells by casting random lightning-themed spells. Outside of this gimmick, there is nothing too special to consider when tackling Shalja. Once you win this training session, both you and Shalja become full-fledged Demon Hunters. You also watch your two remaining friends practice to join you in Illidan’s ranks.
Encounter two, Karnuk, Outcast
As opposed to playing as Aranna, you play as your mycelium friend Sklibb to fight against Karnuk. Sklibb’s unique hero power, Felspores, lets you destroy a random friendly mushroom to draw a card and grant the rest of your board +1/+1 in buffs. After succeeding in this session, the both of you become Demon Hunters as well, and your Outcast friend cards gain new effects.
Encounter three, Jek’haz
This is the first genuine challenge to face, as her hero power, Rocket Wings, passively gives her minions both Rush and Windfury, a powerful combination for securing the board. At this point, your deck fully becomes a Demon Hunter, which will allow you to find plays to help you keep Jek’haz’s board controlled properly. During this encounter, Illidan and Aranna will recant about their lives, both humorously sharing their disdain for their perfect siblings.
Encounter four, Maghteridon Prime
The final boss of this chapter has a unique power, which turns any damage he takes on his turn into a 2/2 Rusted Fel Orc. While these Rusted Fel Orcs may increase in power as they attack each turn, they aren’t too powerful when you can keep clearing them. Constant board control trivializes this fight.
Upon victory, you gain a new hero power for the end of the story.
Chapter four: Battle for Outland
With Demon Hunter training complete, you now have the power to fight back against the Rusted Legion.
Encounter one, Gok’amok
This boss has a hybrid Mage/Warlock deck, and can provide a potential challenge due to his hero power, Second Opinion. Each turn, for the cost of one mana, he can either cast a random Mage or Warlock spell from Ashes of Outland, or summon a random minion that is unique to this adventure. If you lose to this fight due to their hero power, do not worry, as it just meant you were unlucky, and trying again will yield a victory most of the time.
Encounter two, Flikk
While sharing a name with the powerful rogue legendary, this encounter is nothing similar to that. As a two phase fight, your objective in the first phase with Flikk is to gather as strong a board as possible before phase two. Once Flikk gets hilariously gets replaced by a Rusted Fel Reaver, phase two begins, you must use your board you amassed early to win. If the fight goes on too long then the Rusted Fel Reaver will get free extra attack power from their hero power.
Encounter three, Baduu Prime
Unfortunately corrupted by the Rusted Legion, you must defeat your old friend to get closer to stopping their invasion. Baadu Prime’s encounter however, is fairly easy as their hero power either gives their minions either Poisonous or Stealth randomly. As with every other encounter, good board control, and relying on your Demon Hunter friend cards, will allow you to secure victory.
Encounter four, MECHA-JARAXXUS
As the penultimate boss, Mecha-Jaraxxus has a scaling mechanic which makes his reactor minions become stronger whenever he ends his turn. If you can destroy them each turn after they awaken, though, Mecha-Jaraxxus and his armies will be extinguished once you amass a large enough board.
Chapter final: The Final Test
After staving off the Rusted Legion, Illidan has become lost in his own ways, and you must stop him. Illidan’s newest hero power, Burning Rage, means that to find success, you need to make boards that are taller with more health, as opposed to wider boards with weaker minions. While his 100 health looks daunting at first, the key to winning against Illidan is to survive until turn 11, where he realizes the error of his own ways and stops the encounter.
Trial by Felfire’s story is live now, with the deckbuilding challenge where you construct your own list to tackle the Rusted Legion going live on June 24.
