Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 5 will introduce gameplay Anomalies and Tier 7 minions

Hearthstone Battlegrounds is about to get its fifth season, and once again there are major gameplay changes on the horizon. Season 5, which releases August 22, will introduce gameplay Anomalies, which change the rule set for a game before it even begins — and one of the Anomalies that have been revealed so far introduces Tier 7 minions to the game!

This is likely to be a shakeup to the game on the same scale as Buddies, or Quests. So let’s cut to the chase and delve into all the information we have so far.

Anomalies are a new mechanic that will change the rules of a game

With Season 5, every game will have an Anomaly, which will be decided before players even select their heroes. The Anomaly will be visible to everyone at that moment, since it’ll influence everything from hero selection to which minion types are available in the game.

So far, we’ve only been shown three Anomalies, but we can already tell that they’re pretty significative:

• Money Match: Start at 10 Gold.
• Denathrius’ Anima Reserves: All heroes are Sire Denathrius.
• Secrets of Norgannon: Tavern Tier 7 exists. Start with 10 extra armor.

There will be 20 Anomalies at the start of the season, but that number will be increased as new Anomalies are added to the game each week, until the number is higher than 50 once they’re all introduced. Also, whenever new Anomalies are introduced, they’ll have increased appearance rates, so that players will be more likely to get to play with the new toys.

Tier 7 minions are being added to the game

Although they won’t be present in every game, Tavern Tier 7 will exist in some games (for instance, when the Secrets of Norgannon Anomaly is present) — and it’ll include powerful Tier 7 minions. We don’t know all Tier 7 minions yet, but we have been presented with a few of them:

• Argent Braggart. 1/1. Battlecry: Set this minion’s Attack and Health to the highest in the battlefield.
  • Golden version: 2/2. Battlecry: Set this minion’s Attack and Health to double the highest in the battlefield.
• Papa Bear. 12/12, Beast. Deathrattle: Summon 3 Mama Bears.
  • Golden version: 24/24, Beast. Deathrattle: Summon 3 Golden Mama Bears.
• Champion of Sargeras. 10/10, Demon. Minions in the Tavern have +10/+10.
  • Golden version: 20/20, Demon. Minions in the Tavern have +20/+20.

We can’t wait to find out the rest of these Tier 7 minions, and see just how much they can impact the game. All three minions depicted above look potentially very powerful.

New Hero: Thorim, Stormlord

But even if the Anomaly that adds Tier 7 minions isn’t in your current game, you’ll still get at least one more chance to play with them. The newest hero being added to the Battlegrounds, Thorim, Stormlord, has the following Hero Power:

• Choose Your Champion
  • Passive. At the start of the game, Discover a Tier 7 minion to get after you spend 65 gold.

It’s hard to evaluate just how powerful Thorim will be, since the power level of these Tier 7 minions is still largely unknown. However, he seems like a hero whose power level is somewhat easy to adjust: if he’s too weak, the developers can simply reduce the amount of gold needed for him to get the Tier 7 minion; if he’s too strong, they can increase it. Which means that it’s a solid bet to believe that Thorim will end up seeing play at some point.

A big minion shakeup is coming, including 32 brand-new minions

There’s also a big minion shakeup incoming. In total, 49 minions are being removed from the minion pool — and they’re being replaced by 32 brand-new minions (including a new batch of dual-type minions) and 12 older minions making their return. We don’t know what these minions are as of yet, but they’re going to be revealed over the next couple of days — you can check out the reveal schedule at the official blog.

With so many changes and additions to the Battlegrounds, it’s hard not to be excited for Season 5! And it’s coming in just about a week, on August 22, so we won’t be waiting much longer.