New player experience

The new player experience seeks to help players who are new to the game to quickly learn the ropes, a key focus point for the developers of Hearthstone.

Various special accommodations exist to ease players into the game, such as:

• The tutorial
• The Apprentice Track and Tavern Guide
• Practice mode
• New player pools in Casual mode and the Arena
• Free choice of a 30-card starter deck each time they are eligible (decklists here, as of Showdown in the Badlands)
• Deck Recipes
• Tips on the Finding Opponent and Starting Game loading screens prior to entering a game.
• Additional guidance and tooltips

Introduction

In the beginning, new players are restricted from accessing certain Hearthstone features and game modes so that they are not overwhelmed. Initially, players can only play as the mage class, with other classes locked until the player unlocked them in the Apprentice Track. Similarly, adventures, other game formats, and other game modes are locked until players finish the Apprentice Track or skip it. For Wild and Twist formats, players must have crafted a card from a Wild or Twist format set. Certain quests are also not given to new players.

Upon opening a new account, all players can first complete the introductory tutorial before they are able to play the full game of Hearthstone (or skip it entirely). Once the tutorial and Apprentice Track are finished or skipped, the "vast majority" of players progress to playing basic difficulty practice mode matches. Some new players choose to go into Casual Play mode, while a minority go directly to Ranked Play mode. In Casual Play mode and the Arena, new players are initially placed into special matchmaking pools to ease them into the game.

Apprentice Track

After finishing the tutorial, new players get access to the Apprentice Track. All classes are unlocked during the Apprentice Track, as well as the Tavern Brawl and Arena modes. Other game modes (excluding Battlegrounds) are unlocked after finishing the Apprentice Track. The Apprentice Track also rewards card packs, catch-up packs, Battle-Ready deck choices, and the loaner deck feature.

Along with the Apprentice Track, players are placed into the Tavern Guide, a quest system to help introduce new players into the game. The quests in the Tavern Guide range anywhere from playing games and completing gameplay challenges to doing tasks outside of matches like buying and opening packs, or replacing cards in decks.

Quests

The Tavern Guide contains the following quests:

General

Id	Name	Description	Rewards	Next quest
653	Warm-Up	Play a game.	25
654	Arena Fighter	Play a game of any mode.	250
655	Tavern Brawler	Play a game of any mode.	100

Learning Aggro

Id	Name	Description	Rewards	Next quest
656	On Curve	Deplete your mana for 5 turns in a row.	50
657	All-In	Use all the cards in your hand at any point, and win.	50
658	Knock-out Punch	Finish off an opponent while they control a minion.	50

Learning Control

Id	Name	Description	Rewards	Next quest
659	Card Advantage	Draw 3 extra cards during a match.	50
660	Board Control	Use a spell to remove 3 or more minions.	50
661	Trading	Attack an opponent's minion with your minion and have it survive.	50

Touring the menus

Id	Name	Description	Rewards	Next quest
662	Gold Rush	Buy a pack with Gold.	25 , Tavern Guide - 250 dust
663	Pack City	Open 5 card packs.	50 , Tavern Guide - 250 dust
664	Dusting	Disenchant a card in your collection.	50 , Tavern Guide - 400 dust
665	Crafting	Craft a card to add to your collection.	50 , Tavern Guide - 400 dust
666	Upgrading	Replace a card in one of your decks.	75 , Tavern Guide - 400 dust

Gallery

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Rewards

Apprentice Track

Lv	XP to reach	Cumulative	Free Track
1	0	0	Class: Hunter 25x Gold
2	100	100	Standard pack
3	100	200	Class: Warrior Class: Paladin 25x Gold
4	100	300	50x Gold
5	100	400	50x Gold
6	100	500	Class: Druid Class: Shaman 50x Gold
7	100	600	50x Gold
8	150	750	50x Gold
9	150	900	Class: Priest Class: Warlock 50x Gold
10	150	1050	50x Gold
11	150	1200	Standard pack Standard pack Standard pack
12	150	1350	Class: Rogue Class: Demon Hunter 50x Gold
13	150	1500	50x Gold
14	150	1650	Class: Death Knight 50x Gold
15	150	1800	Booster id 0 pack
16	200	2000	Deck: Drums and Deathrattles Deck: Titanic Traps Deck: Astral Array
17	200	2200	Standard pack Standard pack Standard pack
18	200	2400	50x Gold Game mode: Tavern Brawl
19	200	2600	Standard pack Standard pack Standard pack
20	200	2800	Deck: Elemental Creations Deck: Mimiron's Machinations Deck: Brutal Demons
21	200	3000	50x Gold
22	200	3200	1 Tavern Ticket Game mode: Arena
23	200	3400	Booster id 0 pack
24	300	3700	Standard pack Standard pack Standard pack
25	300	4000	Loaner deck choice

Deck Recipes

Main article: Deck Recipe

Deck Recipes are pre-made card lists which players can use when creating a new deck. When creating a deck from a Deck Recipe, cards which the player does not possess can be substituted, with alternative suggestions provided. Deck Recipes are intended to give newer players an easy way to explore new deck types while simultaneously helping them to learn about card synergies and deck building.

History

While many new players will be familiar with similar games like Magic: The Gathering or the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, "a lot" of new players have never played a collectible card game (CCG) before. Because of this it is important that the new player experience teaches and eases players into the basic mechanics of card games in general, as well as the specific details of Hearthstone.

Over time the developers have made numerous changes to improve the new player experience. As of 2015 some of the main reasons for new players stopping playing early on were confusion over how Taunt works; and deck building and large card pools being "overwhelming". The developers sought to address these weaknesses chiefly through changes to the tutorial and hero emotes regarding Taunt and its function, the introduction of game formats (ensuring a moderately sized card pool for new players), and the introduction of Deck Recipes, prebuilt decks giving new and beginner-level players a stepping stone to exploring new deck types and learning about deck construction; the collection's card suggestion system was also improved in the same patch, helping players to fill in gaps in their decks and collections. Changes to the Casual Play mode matchmaking also improved the new player experience, allowing new players to have "a much higher winrate" in that mode compared to Ranked mode. The developers also considered locking Ranked the same way that Arena was initially locked for new players to avoid potentially bad experiences.

In February 2017, milestone ranks were implemented at Ranks 20, 15, 10, 5, and Legend, preventing players from falling below that rank during a season if they had reached it during the season. Ranks 25-21 were additionally limited to players who never reached Rank 15; this was intended to make sure new players were matched more appropriately.

As of 2017 Game Director Ben Brode admitted that the previous new player experience "needs more work", stating that certain elements of the experience still had "some pretty serious weaknesses", and that Ranked in particular "has poor matchmaking for new players" and was "becoming more difficult for new players over time". However, he explained that improvements to the experience had seen significant improvements in retention rate for new players since the game's launch in 2014.

In October 2018, a special set of 25 ranks for new players (Ranks 50-26) were implemented and were limited to new players only. These New Player Ranks were introduced into the Ranked system to allow new players to better ease into the game, with a substantial number of free packs along the way during their climb.

On March 26, 2020, with the release of Ashes of Outland and the start of the new Year of the Phoenix, free decks were made available to new and returning players.

If you’re new to the game—or you’ve been away for a spell—we’d like to help you get right to playing and having fun. Starting today, players new to the game who graduate from the New Player ranks will get a free competitive deck from a class of their choice [...] ! This also applies to players who haven't logged into the game in the past four months.

On April 1, 2020, the Ranked system received a large overhaul. New players were put into a new "Apprentice league" with 40 ranks.

On December 5, 2023, the "Apprentice league" was retired, and the Apprentice Track and Tavern Guide took its place.

See also

• Matchmaking#New players
• Returning player experience

Patch changes

• Patch 28.2.0.190416 (2023-12-05): Apprentice league retired. Apprentice Track and Tavern Guide introduced for new players.
• Patch 24.6.0.154203 (2022-11-01): Instead of immediately picking a deck, players can now borrow all free decks for one week following their eligibility before making a selection.
• Patch 17.0.0.44222 (2020-03-26): (Implemented on 2020-04-01): New Player Ranks redesigned into the Apprentice League containing 40 ranks from Apprentice 40 to Apprentice 1.
• Patch 17.0.0.44222 (2020-03-26): Free decks added for new and returning players. (Decklists here).
• Patch 12.2.0.26996 (2018-10-02): A special set of ranks called the New Player Ranks (Rank 50 - 26) is introduced for new players below the normal ranks of Rank 25 to Legend.
• Patch 7.1.0.17720 (2017-02-28): Improved matchmaking for new players.