Blizzard's September 2021 announcement of Hearthstone's "Mercenaries" mode was, to borrow our expression, "a master class in how to present a game" (opens in new tab). Despite that inauspicious opening, it actually turned out to have great potential (opens in new tab): Hearthstone streamer and podcaster Ben "RidiculousHat" Goodman, after playing the game for several days Ben "RidiculousHat" Goodman, a Hearthstone streamer and podcaster, said that after playing the game for a few days, he "felt pulled to the couch and wanted to play it just one more time"

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Unfortunately, it seems his long-term concerns about competition and the economy were prophetic; Blizzard announced today that Mercenaries will receive another major update (opens in new tab) with patch 25.4.

The patch will add six new mercenaries that Blizzard describes as "the most interesting mercenaries ever," bringing the total number of mercenaries in the mode to over 120. Mercenaries will also be able to have two different types after the update, such as human and undead, celestial and beast.

A faction indicator will also be added to many mercenaries, making it easier to see how treasures and abilities affect the party. Two factions in the game will be expanded to seven: Alliance and Horde, with the addition of Explorer, Empire, Legion, Scourge, and Pirates.

Another major change is the addition of Mythic Boss Rush end-game content for players who can't get enough of Mythic mode.

"The Mythic Boss Rush is weekly content, with a new boss rush unlocked every day throughout the week until it resets at the end of the week. Each boss rush is like a bounty where you fight three bounty bosses in a row, culminating in a final boss where two bounty bosses appear at the same time."

"Mythic Boss Rush is streamlined to include only the most interesting PVE content. Bosses are also made stronger by random anomalies, and their power varies based on a sliding difficulty setting that you can select. Each clear earns you a renown as a reward, with the majority of the rewards being granted after the first clear, based on the difficulty level at the time.

Mythic Boss Rush allows you to spend renown to upgrade your mercenaries beyond their maximum value. This upgrade does not carry over to regular bounties or fighting pits.

We've seen this happen many times (open in new tab) and the fact is, unless a game can establish and maintain a large enough audience, and in Blizzard's case, it is a really big audience. The good news is that Mercenaries is not being abandoned entirely: Blizzard says the mode "will continue to receive support for bug fixes and periodic balance changes as needed."

But I'm not sure how much comfort that is for players who have spent a lot of money. Although somewhat controversial, the mode has been pack-priced from the moment it was officially announced, and I sympathize if such players are going to have no small amount of hardship; I suppose that's what CCG is all about. Certainly the news will come as no surprise that the number of players in the mode is down; looking at the Firestone app's user data, Mercenaries performed abysmally last month; PvP data is flat; and the number of players in the mode has been declining for the past few months!

More details on the update will be revealed in the 25.4 patch notes.