Hearthstone’s Datamined: Dual-type Minions, QoF changes and Skins!

Though some very concerning news have hit the Hearthstone community recently - such as the cut in competitive prize pools and circuit and the price changes in several regions, which doubled the product prices - there are still many good things to come for the game in the next few months.

A new datamine leak revealed tons of information, besides a few unannounced changes for the 25.4 patch, which hit servers on February 14th. Let’s take a look at a few of the most relevant changes:

Several minions had their type changed to fit the dual-type standard that now is in the game. Notably, many Minions went from Mech to Mech+Dragon or Mech+Beast. In addition, others who had no type of their own had the Undead type added to them, except for Nerubian Unraveler, which went from having the Undead type to having no type at all.

These changes were for the Standard and Wild format, one of the few notable changes coming to the latter format, including a special summit specifically for Wild, as a way to get the team working on this format a bit more carefully.

Regarding the change, this is what developer Leo Robles had to say:

“Let's address the mecha-elephant in the room: Why did we change so many minions into Mech/Beasts in the latest patch? In 25.0, we added dual-type minions and adjusted several minions in Standard and Wild to fit the new dual-type world.”

“At the time, we did not make cards like Spider Bomb or Ursatron Mech/Beast and kept them as just Mechs. After all, they're Mechs made in the image of Beasts, not "real" Beasts. BUT, we DID make cards like Lightray or Arcanosaur Elemental/Beast.”

“Thing is, Lightray and Arcanosaur aren't "real" Beasts either. They're just Elementals that take the shape of Beasts. Because of this, we re-evaluated how we wanted to treat cards like Ursatron to be consistent with our new dual-type ruling on cards like Lightray.”

“With dual-type minions being a brand new thing, we want to be as consistent as we can with the rules around it. We do see that some changes are having bigger effects on decks than others and will keep a watchful eye out for minion dual-type synergies in future sets.”

Skulking Geist Change

An update to this card’s mechanic hit servers and caught everyone by surprise.

Skulking Geist’s effect, which destroys 1-cost cards in both hands and decks, used to look at only the original cards’ cost. Now, it looks at the current cost of cards, which means it hits any 1-cost cards that had their cost altered by some effect.

Though the jury is still out regarding whether this one was a buff, or nerf, it is undeniable that this card’s mechanic is unique, and it now seems to be more acutely attuned to the game state.

As the Mercenaries’ game mode went on to get a final update in patch 25.4, a look at the game’s source code data showed there would be three more characters released for the mode.

This could indicate this decision was not so well-planned after all, and points to it being probably something needed, not wanted.

Check them out:

Some time ago, the now infamous coin cards were leaked to the community via a bug in the game’s library. Now, once more, the cards’ files could be found in the patch, though no information regarding their release or further details about the mechanic have been found:

A few very small, unannounced, but not irrelevant changes were made to make players' lives a bit better in this patch.

Replayable Tutorial

Store Update

Now, the store shows how many shards are needed to get a certain product.

Expanded Audio Settings

Visual Updates for Death Knight Borders