Hearthstone: Journey to Un'Goro

Hearthstone: Journey to Un’Goro is another expansion for the free-to-play card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft for PC, iOS and AND. It comes from the creators of the core game, Blizzard Entertainment. This add-on takes us on another journey to the land of Azeroth, known from Warcraft series and World of Warcraft. This time we venture into Un’Goro Crater – an exotic location from the said MMO. Players are given 135 new cards, another ability called Adapt, a completely new card type (Quest) and many other features. The release also brought the second season of the Standard format, called “Year of the Mammoth”.

Plot

The lore of Hearthstone: Journey to Un’Goro focuses on the jungle that covers most of the titular Un’Goro Crater. It is untouched by civilization and filled with unique species of fauna and flora, not to mention the wild energy of magical elementals. An expedition of young explorers set out to traverse this fascinating land, led by a Night Elf Elise Starseeker, which players might remember from The League of Explorers expansion.

Mechanics

PC, iOS and AND’s version of Hearthstone: Journey to Un’Goro introduces many novelties, with the most important being: 135 cards, new minion (Elemental), new keyword (special ability of minion) called Adapt and a new card type (Quest). There is also a game board with Un’Goro theme and card back called Fossil.

Newly introduced cards include shaman’s Volcano, which bombards all minions on the battlefield with fireballs until a total of 15 damage is done. Another interesting addition is firebird Pyros, who like mythical phoenix returns from dead to our deck as a more powerful and expensive unit. It is one of Elementals, a type added in this expansion that consists not only of new cards, but also some older minions.

Ability of Adapt (new keyword) lets players enhance one of the selected minion’s aspects. After activating Adapt we can choose one of three improvements, randomly selected from the pool of ten, among them cards that can: summon two plants with attack and defense equal to 1 after losing a strengthened minion; giving the minion immunity to spells and special abilities; providing it with Provocation or Divine Shield, or simply increasing its attack.

Quest is a new card type that works similarly to Secret. Due to their legendary status, only one such card can be added to a deck. However, it will always appear in our hand at the beginning of the game, which means we can work on activating it instantly. Each Quest has specific requirements and provides specific effect after those are met. After playing, for example, Awaken of the Makers (which costs one mana point) from our deck, we are given the task of summoning seven minions with Agony. After that, we receive Amara, Warden of Hope – a powerful card with 8/8 stats – the Provocation ability, and Battlecry, which sets our health at 40 points.

Miscellaneous

With the release of Journey to the Un’Goro for PC, iOS and AND, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft reached the end of Year of the Kraken and started Year of the Mammoth. This means that players can no longer use cards from some of the older sets in the so called Standard format. With that, anything from the expansions Blackrock Mountain, The Grand Tournament and The League of Explorers can only be played in the Wild.

Last updated on 06 March 2017