50 Fun Facts About Hearthstone

Hearthstone's interactive boards, which players can poke between turns, were inspired by which film?

Jumanji, in which a board game comes to life, gave the designers the idea. The clickable scenery also mimics how card players fidget with their cards while waiting for an opponent.

Which Hearthstone Legendary, born from a World of Warcraft viral video, shouts his own name?

Leeroy Jenkins charges in as recklessly as he does in the video: his Battlecry summons two 1/1 Whelps for the opponent. His dying words are the clip's punchline, 'At least I have chicken!'

Which Hearthstone mode, revealed at BlizzCon 2019, seats eight players in Bob's Tavern?

Battlegrounds swaps deck-building for an auto-battler: players buy minions each round and combat plays out by itself. Three matching minions fuse into one golden triple.

Marin the Fox's Hearthstone flavor text, ending 'Prepare to die', parodies a line from which film?

The Princess Bride is where Inigo Montoya vows 'You killed my father, prepare to die'. Every player was given Marin free a month before Kobolds & Catacombs launched.

In Hearthstone, the player going second gets which free spell worth one temporary Mana Crystal?

The Coin won out after Blizzard tested other ways to offset the disadvantage of going second, including starting that player on 35 Health.

Which class, whose Hero Power costs just one mana, was the first new class added to Hearthstone?

Demon Hunter arrived with Ashes of Outland, six years after launch. Its Outcast cards gain bonus effects when played from the left or right edge of the hand.

Which Hearthstone Legendary cannot attack but deals 8 damage to a random enemy each turn?

Ragnaros the Firelord growls 'By fire be purged' on arrival and 'Die, insect!' with each blast. His card shows the original legless form, not the two-legged one from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Which Warcraft sorceress is every new Hearthstone player's first hero, representing the Mage class?

Jaina Proudmoore is every newcomer's starting hero, and she stars in the tutorial too. New players begin with only the Mage class and unlock the rest on the Apprentice Track.

Which Hearthstone penalty deals growing damage each time a player tries to draw from an empty deck?

Fatigue starts at 1 damage and rises by 1 with every failed draw, so even the slowest game has to end.

Which Hearthstone dragon destroys all other minions and discards its owner's hand when played?

Deathwing announces himself with 'I am power incarnate!', and his flavor text recalls that he was once a noble dragon named Neltharion.

Al'Akir the Windlord belongs to which Hearthstone class, represented by the orc hero Thrall?

Shaman players summon Al'Akir to the cry 'Winds! Obey my command!', and his flavor text jokes that he is the weakest of the four Elemental Lords.

Al'Akir packs four keywords onto one Hearthstone card: Charge, Divine Shield, Taunt and which other?

Windfury lets Al'Akir attack twice each turn, and Charge lets him do it the moment he lands. Until a 2017 patch reordered the card text, this keyword was listed first.

Al'Akir was called one of Hearthstone's worst Legendaries until data showed he had the highest what?

Win rate figures saved Al'Akir from a planned buff to 3/7. It was the first time the developers used hard data to settle a balance argument.

Which Hearthstone Legendary from the League of Explorers shouts 'We're gonna be rich!' when played?

Reno Jackson fully heals your hero if your deck has no duplicate cards, a condition that inspired a whole family of one-of-each decks.

Which Hearthstone minion yells 'Everyone, get in here!' and summons another after surviving damage?

Grim Patron powered Patron Warrior, one of the strongest decks after Blackrock Mountain's release, and the innkeeper later adopted a version of the line as a greeting.

Which Hearthstone Paladin Legendary has a Deathrattle that equips his owner with a 5/3 Ashbringer?

Tirion Fordring enters to the words 'Put your faith in the Light!', protected by both Divine Shield and Taunt.

Which Hearthstone minion, once ranger-general of Silvermoon, steals an enemy minion when she dies?

Sylvanas Windrunner was turned into the Banshee Queen by Arthas, and her flavor text adds that he probably should have just killed her, because it only made her angry.

Which Hearthstone Legendary casts one random spell for every spell its owner has cast that game?

Yogg-Saron picks targets at random too, so the spells can hit friendly minions, either hero or the caster itself. The flavor text puns, 'I spell your doom'.

Which Hearthstone Legendary arrives with two 1/1 bots and later had an expansion built around him?

Dr. Boom slotted into almost every deck after his 2014 debut, and that popularity led to The Boomsday Project in 2018, set in his laboratory.

Which Hearthstone format, introduced beside Standard in 2016, allows every card ever released?

Wild keeps every retired card playable, while Standard is limited to the Core set and the expansions of the last two years.

In Hearthstone, destroying unwanted cards yields which material used to craft new ones?

Arcane Dust prices climb steeply with rarity: a regular Legendary costs 1,600 to craft and a golden copy 3,200.

Which gem colour marks a Hearthstone Legendary, a scheme borrowed from World of Warcraft's loot?

Orange marks the top tier, above purple Epics and blue Rares. A deck may hold only one copy of any Legendary.

Which Hearthstone class has the Hero Power Life Tap, which draws a card at the cost of 2 damage?

Warlock decks treat their own Health as a resource, an idea taken from World of Warcraft, where Life Tap trades health for mana.

Which Hearthstone keyword, introduced in League of Explorers, offers one of three cards to keep?

Discover was called 'Treasure' during development, and it was designed as a contrast to decks that simply draw lots of cards.

Which haunted adventure, the first in Hearthstone, was designed around the Deathrattle keyword?

Curse of Naxxramas launched in July 2014 with 15 bosses, some of which deliberately broke the game's basic rules so they would feel unlike human opponents.

Which Hearthstone set, announced at BlizzCon 2014, was its first expansion and centred on Mechs?

Goblins vs Gnomes added 123 cards in December 2014, and its makers said the aim was to 'blow up the meta all at once'.

Which Hearthstone expansion gave every player C'Thun and one of its disciples for free?

Whispers of the Old Gods built its Lovecraftian theme around C'Thun, which other cards could strengthen wherever it was, even while it sat in the deck.

Hearthstone's Miracle Rogue borrows its name from 'Miracle Gro', a deck in which older card game?

Magic: The Gathering players built Miracle Gro around a creature much like Hearthstone's Questing Adventurer, and the Rogue version dates back to the beta.

One-of-each Hearthstone decks are nicknamed after which 'There can be only one' film franchise?

Highlander cards are all Legendary, and their unusually powerful effects are balanced by the lower consistency of a deck with no duplicates.

Which roguelike Hearthstone mode, added with Kobolds & Catacombs, pits players against eight bosses?

Dungeon Run draws its bosses from a pool of 48 and hands out treasure cards found nowhere else. One defeat ends the attempt and the player has to start again.

Which Hearthstone Legendary from Kobolds & Catacombs swaps decks with the opponent?

King Togwaggle hands the opponent a Ransom spell to swap back, and he arrives shouting 'We be taking this now! Is kobold way!'

Kobolds & Catacombs gave every Hearthstone class, even first-timers, a Legendary of which card type?

Weapon cards went even to classes that had never fought with one, and every player received one of the nine at random, free, when the set launched.

Hearthstone's Kobolds & Catacombs short 'The Light Candle' spoofed 1980s films by which filmmaker?

Jim Henson directed the puppet fantasies The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth in that decade, and the live-action short borrows their look for its own cast of explorers.

Hearthstone's Kobolds & Catacombs was first planned as a 'Lootapolooza' about which Warcraft robots?

Blingtron robots were swapped for kobolds because the new theme had better flavour and was easier to illustrate, even though some promotional work had already begun.

Which American won the first Hearthstone World Championship at BlizzCon 2014, taking home $100,000?

Firebat beat Tiddler Celestial in the final and ended 2014 as the game's most successful tournament player, with $105,650 in winnings.

Which StarCraft commentator won Hearthstone's first tournament, an invitational at BlizzCon 2013?

Artosis won the eight-player Innkeeper's Invitational months before the game's full release and was crowned 'Grandmaster of the Hearth'.

At BlizzCon 2019, which Chinese player became the first woman to win a Hearthstone world title?

VKLiooon was also the first woman to win any tournament at BlizzCon, and she earned $200,000 for taking the Grandmasters Global Finals.

Which European city hosted Hearthstone's first World Championship final held away from BlizzCon?

Amsterdam staged the final in January 2018, after Blizzard moved it so that it would line up better with Standard's yearly rotation.

Which Hearthstone pro did Blizzard ban in 2019 for backing the Hong Kong protests in an interview?

Blitzchung wore a mask and said 'Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times'. After a boycott and a letter from members of the US Congress, Blizzard reduced his punishment.

Which Hearthstone game director, long its public face, left Blizzard and later made Marvel Snap?

Ben Brode joined Blizzard as a game tester at 20. When Journey to Un'Goro launched without a theme song, he recorded his own at the community's request.

Blizzard first announced Hearthstone in 2013 at which fan convention, rather than at its own show?

Penny Arcade Expo crowds saw the game unveiled for Windows, Mac and iPad with a release promised that same year, though it did not launch until March 2014.

Hearthstone's composer mixed Celtic music with which genre, imagining ZZ Top in the Middle Ages?

Blues rock suited the tavern setting, and composer Peter McConnell also worked earlier Warcraft themes into the new songs.

Hearthstone was made by a small experimental Blizzard group of 12 to 15 developers known as what?

Team 5 was simply the fifth development team formed at Blizzard, set up to try smaller projects at a time when the studio's other games had teams of more than 60.

Blizzard said in 2018 that Hearthstone had how many players, ten times its launch-month total?

100 million players came less than five years after release, and the game had needed only its first month to sign up 10 million accounts.

Hearthstone went dark in China in January 2023 when Blizzard's licence with which company expired?

NetEase had run the Chinese servers. The game returned to China in September 2024, and returning players were given golden copies of every 2023 card for free.

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan gave Hearthstone three crime families: the Grimy Goons, the Kabal and who?

Jade Lotus cards summon Jade Golems that grow stronger the more of them are played. The set was announced at BlizzCon 2016 and began as a 'cops and robbers' idea.

Which Hearthstone Legendary, granting 'the power to ROCK', went to BlizzCon 2013 ticket holders?

Elite Tauren Chieftain is a real band of Blizzard employees who often play at BlizzCon, and the three spells the card hands out are named after their songs.

Which creature gave its name to Hearthstone's first Standard year, which began in April 2016?

Kraken was picked as an otherworldly but recognisable creature, because the team wanted to avoid animals that already belong to a real zodiac calendar.

After an Adobe Flash prototype, Blizzard built the finished Hearthstone on which third-party engine?

Unity sits under all four versions of the game, on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, which share cross-platform play.

Which set did Hearthstone create in 2017 to retire overused Classic cards from the Standard format?

Hall of Fame cards were refunded at their full crafting value, and their owners could keep playing them outside Standard.