Not content with just a "Battlegrounds" mode against autobattlers, Hearthstone seems to be aiming for the roguelike deckbuilder genre with its next mode, Hearthstone Mercenaries. Announced today at BlizzConline, "Mercenaries" allows players to form teams of mercenaries, from familiar faces like Sylvanas Windrunner, King Krush, and Ragnaros the Firelord to those appearing for the first time in this mode, and then take on the final boss in The game's main objective is to create a team of mercenaries, ranging from familiar faces such as Krush and Ragnaros the Firelord to those new to the game.

Each battle yields loot and experience, and mercenaries eventually evolve and become more powerful. It's like Pokémon or those mobile games that advertise that as you level up, you get cooler. If played well, they become strong enough to defeat bosses and other players' teams in PvP mode.

The combat system in Mercenaries is based on choosing which character to launch and selecting actions for each turn. If you learn from other games that use simultaneous turn-based combat, you will realize how bad you are at predicting other people's moves.

PC Gamer spoke with game director Ben Lee earlier this week: "The big difference with other roguelikes is that progression is persistent. For example, when you level up King Krush and Rexxar, they gain experience and keep it. They have skills and abilities, and as they level up they drop items that enhance their abilities. They have all those things.

"You level up with the bosses until the end of the game, when you reach the maximum level. At that point, the game changes a bit. [At that point, it's not so much about level progression, it's more about skills, meta counters, etc.

Hearthstone Mercenaries will be released in 2021.

BlizzCon is currently underway. Here's how to watch. So far, there has been plenty of Hearthstone news, including remined versions of Malygos, Ysera, and Deathwing being added to the core set and the Forged in the Barrens expansion being for the Horde.