Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, the popular and addicting virtual strategy card game from Blizzard, will be receiving a single-player adventure mode titled Curse of Naxxramas, Blizz announced today at PAX East. “Beware the Necropolis” the announcement says, “the Curse comes!”
The new mode takes players to the ancient floating necropolis of Naxxramas, home base for the lich Kel’Thuzad, which will be familiar to World of Warcraft fans. The player versus environment (PVE) adventure pits you against a range of iconic bosses with a deck of your choice.
Five different wings will be available and will offer up 30 new cards for players to collect by beating bosses in each quarter, including the giant arachnid Maexxna, the fungal horror Loatheb and the abomination Patchwerk, to name a few.
Bosses feature their own unique cards and hero powers that you’ll have to face off against. For example, a boss in the Plague Quarter, Heigan the Unclean, boasts an Eruption spell that does 2 points damage to your left-most minion and Mindpocalypse that grants both players a two-card draw and one mana crystal.
Curse of Naxxramas will also include a new game board with interactive corners (“what could possibly lurk within that mass of quivering eggs?”) and brand new Class Challenges for each of the nine classes which reward players with new class-specific cards to add to your collection.
Blizzard will roll Curse of Naxxramas out over the coming five weeks, one wing at a time. The first wing, the Arachnid Quarter, will be free for all players to enjoy. However, subsequent wings will need to be unlocked by either in-game currency (gold) or real money. There is no set release date for the Arachnid Quarter yet, but it will release simultaneously across PC, Mac, and iPad.
A quick rundown of what Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft actually is for those unfamiliar. Officially titled a free-to-play digital collectible card game, Hearthstone is basically what it sounds: you start with a set of basic cards and you face off in a turn-based 1v1 battle against an opponent – either online or vs. computer AI.
As you continue to play, you can unlock new cards and classes with different abilities to bolster your deck against challengers. The game also features an Arena setting where card sharks can select from a random smattering of cards to build a completely new deck and try their luck against others doing the same.
While it officially is free-to-play, Hearthstone uses an in-game currency of gold to acquire new cards, which you can purchase with actual cash. Check out a trailer for Hearthstone below.