Similar to what we saw with the battle royale genre, we're now starting to see more developers dive into auto-battlers. The latest is Blizzard with their new
Battlegrounds mode for
Hearthstone.
Announced during BlizzCon 2019,
Hearthstone: Battlegrounds is a new way to play the popular free-to-play digital card game. The free mode sees eight players participate in a raucous battle for supremacy in a free-for-all.
The game mode features 24 different Heroes, each with a unique Hero power that changes the way you recruit, battle, and strategize. At the start of the mode, you can select an available Hero. From there, you can strategically recruit Minions and place them on the board. Most of the between-round mechanics seem similar to other auto-battlers as you spend gold to recruit and level up Minions, refresh the board for new recruits (or freeze it you like a Minion but can't yet afford it), etc.
While most auto-battlers are played on a 3D board space, Battlegrounds has a single line with Minions attacking in order from left to right (the enemy attacked is completely random unless your opponent as a Taunt Minion).
Welcome to Hearthstone: Battlegrounds, the brand-new auto-battling game mode that introduces a fresh, strategic, 8-player experience to Hearthstone. In Battlegrounds, you’ll take on the role of a familiar Hero straight out of Hearthstone history, craft a powerful board of recruited Minions, and face-off in an action-packed series of duels until a single winner is crowned!
Hearthstone: Battlegrounds is being designed as a standalone experience with no deckbuilding or card collecting. An early access period runs from November 5-11 for everyone who attended BlizzCon, purchased the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, or pre-purchased either of the Descent of Dragons bundles. It will enter open beta starting on November 12.
Full rules and details for Hearthstone: Battlegrounds can be found
here.