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Hearthstone patch 25.4 includes last major Mercenaries update

The story of Hearthstone Mercenaries will come to a close with the next update.

Ozzie Mejia

February 7, 2023 12:25 PM

Blizzard Entertainment

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For the past few years, Hearthstone Mercenaries has gradually received updates from Blizzard. The game mode has represented a different way to approach the long-running digital card game, focusing less on cards and more on individual minion battles. It also didn't appear that an end was in sight, but that suddenly changed on Tuesday, as Blizzard outlined what will be Mercenaries' final major update.

"Patch 25.4 will bring some awesome updates to Mercenaries, including new Mercs, Mercenary Faction designations, dual-type Mercenaries, and the all-new Mythic Boss Rush end-game system!" reads the post on the Hearthstone website. "It will also be the last major update to the Mercenaries mode as we align our goals and focus on continuing to make Hearthstone the best digital card game in the world."

Blizzard is promising more details on the new Mercs in the official patch notes post, which will come down the road. Fans can get a brief glimpse at what's coming, as the Hearthstone post features images of Kel'thuzad, Mr. Bigglesworth, and Arfus. As has been the trend since the introduction of the March of the Lich King expansion, look for a handful of Mercs to get reworked and classified with new dual-type designations. On top of that, Mercs will also receive faction designations, including the Horde, the Alliance, the Explorers, the Empire, the Legion, the Scourge, and the Pirates.

If Hearthstone Mercenaries is coming to a close, that means it's time to wrap up the story. Sure enough, new end-game content is on the way. The Mythic Boss Rush will task players with taking on a string of bosses with randomized elements, which will add some extra challenge. This mode will do away with the Mercenaries overworld and simply toss players into battle, testing them to see how far they can go.

While this is the end of Mercenaries content updates, Blizzard is assuring users that the game mode will continue to receive bug fixes and balance tweaks when needed. Shacknews tried out Mercenaries back in late 2021 after it was first unveiled and while it was an interesting tweak on the Hearthstone formula, it may have proven to be a little too different from what the player base was expecting. Criticisms from content creators and fans ranged from the time investment required to the monetization system. Blizzard will now focus on the Standard mode and Battlegrounds going forward and those two modes appear to be going strong. We'll be on the lookout for the next set of patch notes, so keep it on Shacknews for any updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?