Today, popular digital CCG Hearthstone released a reveal trailer for the game’s newest event: The Forbidden Library. It’s a special, limited-time event that celebrates Hearthstone’s latest expansion – Scholomance Academy. The event’s layout is similar to the Felfire Festival, a limited-time event that promoted the Ashes of Outland expansion. The event will run from September 8 to September 29, and all three weeks are packed with new content and bundles.
Stepping away from The Forbidden Library for a moment though, let’s take a look at the patch that’ll be ushering in Week 1 of the event – because it’s bringing a whole lot more than just that. Patch 18.2 will be making several notable changes to Hearthstone’s meta, in both the standard game as well as its extremely popular auto-chess style Battlegrounds format. Players will now have the ability to host Battleground Parties – you can queue up with up to four friends and tackle the ranked format, or create a private (and unranked) lobby with up to seven friends. The patch also introduces three new heroes to Battlegrounds – all adapted from Scholomance Academy: Lord Barov, Jandice Barov, and Forest Warden Omu. Along with the addition of these three new heroes, there’s also several minion changes taking place, from removals to new additions, to nerfs. On top of the Battlegrounds changes, several key nerfs are being made to problematic cards, and, for the first time in a while, some buffs to weaker ones. Changes happen September 8 – you can read about them in detail here.
The Forbidden Library will also be bringing a brand-new, free-to-play solo experience – the Hearthstone Book of Heroes. Taking place over the next 12 months, each chapter in the Book of Heroes tells the story of all 10 core Heroes in Hearthstone, starting with the Mage Hero Jaina. It releases on September 15, and players who can beat all 8 bosses of the Mage adventure will receive a special Mage pack, containing cards only for the Mage class.
On September 23, the last event of the Forbidden Library releases – the Heroic Brawliseum. Replacing the traditional Tavern Brawl for the week, for 1000 Gold (or $9.99) players build a deck and compete against each other for a chance of huge rewards. Getting to 12 wins will award you with a surplus of packs, Gold, and Arcane Dust – but it won’t be easy. It’s also capped at 3 losses, meaning after your 3rd loss, it’s game over.
On top of all of the above content, the Forbidden Library event will bring two bundles. The first, releasing in Week One, is a Mega Wild Bundle – 56 packs split among seven different expansions that have already rotated to Wild. The second, releasing in Week Two is the Scholar Jaina bundle, containing five Mage packs as well as the Scholar Jaina alternate Hero for the Mage class. Prices for the bundles have not been released yet.
Overall, The Forbidden Library seems to be a fascinating event that’ll breathe new life into several parts of the game, and I for one can’t wait to experience all it has to offer. You can read more about the event here.