After yesterday’s teaser, Blizzard just dropped a full-blown announcement of the upcoming Battlegrounds season – “Second Nature”. It launches on April 29, themed around Ardenweald (Winter’s Queens realm in Shadowlands). It’s the second season with no brand new mechanic or minion type added. However, it doesn’t mean that it’s a small update – on the contrary.
Trinkets are returning after a revamp. As previously, players will pick one of four Lesser Trinkets on Turn 6 and then one of four Greater Trinkets on Turn 9. Those Trinkets offer special gameplay bonuses that should make things more interesting. But you will now more frequently get offered trinkets for your most common minion type. We’ll also see over 100 new and over 100 returning Trinkets, so things should be interesting.
The season introduces two new Heroes – Forest Lord Cenarius (Hero Power increasing your maximum gold, letting you “ramp up” in Battlegrounds) and Buttons (Passive Hero Power giving you an extra Greater Trinket on Turn 8). Additionally, the minions are getting another big refresh, with over 75 new and returning minions and Tavern Spells. All the new minions and Trinkets will be revealed over the next week or so.
As a QoL change, minions will now have… class borders. Well, not exactly – since there are no classes in Battlegrounds, different borders will mean different minion types. And so, for example, Pirates will have a Rogue border (black) and Elementals will have Mage border (light blue). Dual type minions will use half and half dual class frames. This change is done to recognize the minions more easily at a first glance.
An early access event with Twitch Drops is scheduled for April 25. Content creators will be able to test the patch a few days ahead of release. Watch for a total of 2 hours to earn 4 Battlegrounds tokens.
And finally, as always, everything will be reset at the Season launch. All players will be back to 0 MMR and a rewards track will refresh. So if you haven’t finished the current one, you still have some time until April 29.
Check out the official blog post below:
See the other side of the Emerald Dream, with revamped Trinkets, a huge minion refresh, and more in Battlegrounds Season 10, Second Nature, going live on April 29!
When Season 10 begins, Anomalies will be removed from the Tavern and turn lengths will be temporarily lengthened.
Returning Mechanic: Trinkets
Trinkets are back! Trinkets are special passive power-ups that you buy with Gold and use for the rest of the game. Trinkets are offered twice per game: on turn 6 (Lesser Trinkets) and turn 9 (Greater Trinkets). Each offering, you’ll get 4 Trinkets to choose from.
The Trinket system has been adjusted for their return, so that you now more frequently get Trinkets for your most common minion type. To keep things interesting, we’ve also infused the Trinket Shop with tons of new offerings: 100+ new Trinkets to go alongside 100+ returning Trinkets!
Two New Heroes: Forest Lord Cenarius and Buttons
Harness the power of Nature with the Druidic demigod, Cenarius, and ramp up your Gold reserves for powerful late-game plays!
Or celebrate the return of Trinkets with… more Trinkets! Buttons is a regular at the Trinket Shop, picking out an extra Greater Trinket to grab towards the end of his vacation.
A Massive Minion Refresh
Explore the second side of the minion pool, with over 75 new and returning minions and Tavern spells!
Over the next week, we’ll be sharing more information about all the new, returning, removed, and updated cards. You can see all the card updates as they’re revealed in the official Card Library. You can see the whole reveal schedule towards the bottom of this post.
Quality of Life Improvement: New Minion Frames
We’re updating minion frames to make it easier to tell which minions belong to the same minion type, even when you’re quickly rerolling the Tavern! Each minion type’s frame will correspond to one of the Hearthstone class frames, and dual type minions will use the half and half frames that Hearthstone uses for dual-class cards.
Creator Early Access Event (with Drops!)
On April 25, watch your favorite content creators play the new Season live! Participating players will be streaming on their personal channels, so make sure you have notifications turned on. Time slots by region are:
JP: 2:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. (PDT)
Americas and EMEA regions: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (PDT)
Drops will be enabled category-wide on Twitch. Watch for a total of 2 hours to earn 4 Battlegrounds Tokens (2 total hours, 1 hour per drop).
Upcoming Reveals
April 17: Neutral and Elemental Reveals
April 18: Dragon, Demon, and Mech Reveals
April 21: Undead and Pirate Reveals
April 22: Naga and Quilboar Reveals
April 23: Murloc and Beast Reveals
April 24: Patch Notes
April 25: Early Access Event
April 29: Patch 32.2, new Battlegrounds Season begins
See the Card Library for updates during reveal season. Unlike prior minion refreshes, there won’t be any minion rollout with the patch—all the new cards will be available right away—make sure you follow along with reveal season so you’re ready to play as soon as the patch drops!
Battlegrounds Track Refresh
On April 29, Battlegrounds Season 9 will end and Season 10 will begin! With that, Battlegrounds Ratings will reset and the Battlegrounds Track will update. Any rewards that were already earned from the Season 9 Rewards Track, but not yet claimed, will be automatically claimed for you.
The Season 10 Battlegrounds Track includes afterlife-themed cosmetics. Pick up the Season Pass to instantly unlock +2 Hero options at the start of each game. Then, progress through the track to earn the Ardenweald Legendary Strike, 13 additional Hero Skins, a new Bartender, and more! Or the Season Pass + to get all the rewards from the Season Pass plus one included Hero re-roll per game.
A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.
