The new Hearthstone 18.2 patch is now available for download on all platforms, and will kick things off with a Forbidden Library limited-time event that includes a new Battlegrounds feature and update. There’s also some upcoming solo-content in the form of Hearthstone Book of Heroes set to unlock, some card nerfs, and a Heroic Brawliseum that you can engage in to earn some rewards.

A brief overview of the 18.2 patch brings the following changes and additions to Hearthstone:

  • Battlegrounds Parties - Queue up in Battlegrounds with people from your friends list! New Battlegrounds heroes are available: Lord Barov (Cost 1) - Guess which player will win their next combat. If they win, get three Coins. Jandice Barov (Cost 0) - Swap a friendly non-golden minion with a random one in Bob’s Tavern. Forest Warden Omu (Passive) - After you upgrade Bob’s Tavern, gain 2 Gold this turn only. Micro Mummy has been added as a Tier 1 minion to Battlegrounds. Pack Leader has been nerfed and gives less attack to Beasts and has lost 1 attack stat. Card Balance Updates for the following: Secret Passage - Replace your hand with 5 cards from your deck. Swap back next turn. New: Replace your hand with 4 cards from your deck. Swap back next turn. Cabal Acolyte - 2 Attack, 6 Health. New: 2 Attack, 4 Health Totem Goliath - 4 Attack, 5 Health. Overload (2). New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Overload (1) Archwitch Willow - [Cost 9] 7 Attack, 7 Health. New: [Cost 8] 5 Attack, 5 Health Darkglare - [Cost 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health. After your hero takes damage, refresh 2 Mana Crystals. New: [Cost 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health. After your hero takes damage, refresh a Mana Crystal.

Battlegrounds Parties

Starting on September 8th, 2020 you can now queue up to Battlegrounds with friends and family. You can group up to 4 players together and head into normal ranked matches, or you can exceed that group number and play together privately! Battlegrounds is one of the best ways to play Hearthstone right now and it’s completely free if you want it to be. Have some fun finding out who the best play among your group really is!

  • Lord Barov (Cost 1) - Guess which player will win their next combat. If they win, get three Coins. Jandice Barov (Cost 0) - Swap a friendly non-golden minion with a random one in Bob’s Tavern. Forest Warden Omu (Passive) - After you upgrade Bob’s Tavern, gain 2 Gold this turn only.

  • Secret Passage - Replace your hand with 5 cards from your deck. Swap back next turn. New: Replace your hand with 4 cards from your deck. Swap back next turn. Cabal Acolyte - 2 Attack, 6 Health. New: 2 Attack, 4 Health Totem Goliath - 4 Attack, 5 Health. Overload (2). New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Overload (1) Archwitch Willow - [Cost 9] 7 Attack, 7 Health. New: [Cost 8] 5 Attack, 5 Health Darkglare - [Cost 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health. After your hero takes damage, refresh 2 Mana Crystals. New: [Cost 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health. After your hero takes damage, refresh a Mana Crystal.

Hearthstone Book of Heroes

The Book of Heroes is going to be the ongoing single player content that will be played over the course of the next 12 months! There will be 10 stories in total for all of the core heroes involved in Hearthstone. The journey will start with Jaina Proudmore by seeing her evolve from scholar to full-fledged Mage! If you can defeat all 8 bosses in this first adventure, you will be rewarded with a Mage Pack, which contains only Mage cards from the Standard format.

Heroic Brawliseum

If you fancy yourself a competitive player then you can go head to head with other Hearthstone players to find out who is the best! You can queue up for 1,000 gold or go in with $9.99 USD. The play is just like Arena but with a locked in Standard deck instead. The run ends if you are able to reach the pinnacle of 12 wins or you feel the agony of 3 defeats! If you can make it far in the run, you have some pretty large rewards to look forward to!

Those are the highlights of the new patch, if you want to see all of the bug fixes, you can check them out on the official Hearthstone website.