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By taking inspiration from classic RPGs and roguelikes, Hearthstone’s Dungeon Run has quickly become the game’s most enjoyable new mode. Here’s why, and how it could grow further in the future.
On the first day of a new expansion launch for Hearthstone, everyone is supposed to be scrabbling round their collection of new cards and trying to put together whatever they think will be the next tier one deck. It’s a chaotic and experimental time on the ranked ladder, and also when Hearthstone can be at its most enjoyable for new and old players alike. The thing is, that’s not where a lot of us headed on day one of Kobolds and Catacombs. We’d found somewhere entirely new to explore.
Since Blizzard have moved away from the adventures that used to launch on and off between larger expansion packs, single player content has changed slightly in Hearthstone. Instead of having its own release period, the Icecrown Citadel adventure in Knights of the Frozen Throne was launched alongside the expansion, adding a number of AI encounters for players to tackle. It was like a mini-World of Warcraft raid on your digital tabletop. With Kobolds and Catacombs, however, Team 5 tried something a bit different.
Dungeon Run is the new single player offering and it's undoubtedly one of the best additions to Hearthstone for some time. The concept is simple: you begin with a small deck of cards from your chosen class and must work your way through a series of increasingly more difficult boss fights. With each victory you can earn powerful treasures and the choice between some new cards to add to your deck. Defeat eight bosses in a row and you succeed – but if you lose just once you fail.
It works so brilliantly because every single run is so different. You might start with the same handful of cards with each class or run into same boss every now and then, but how your deck develops over the course of each attempt is entirely directed by you. One run might find you toe-to-toe with Elder Jari – his constant armor gain no threat if you’ve built a mill deck to burn through his cards. Whereas, your next run might overload you with cheap and aggressive minions to rush through your opponents.
These fluctuations between each attempt is what makes something like Arena such a compelling game mode already. Dungeon Run capitalises on that too, but instead drops the entry fee and removes the pressure of going against another real player. With those stresses gone, you’re willing to take more risks, try some crazier ideas and don’t feel too punished if you crash out early.
Team 5 have really gone out of their way to design some ridiculous cards and bosses that could only exist in Dungeon Run too. Take the treasures you get at certain milestones throughout a run. They can be, quite frankly, broken.
For example, Gloves of Mugging allows you to straight up steal three cards from your opponent. That’s not just copy, as you would with a Thoughtsteal, but switch them from their hand to yours. Others, such as Wand of Disintegration, are just silly. A three mana card that silences all enemy minions and then destroys them? Imagine that in constructed… Or there’s the Rod of Roasting, which randomly casts Pyroblast until a hero dies. It’s madness.
The passive upgrades are cool little bonuses too, granting effects that might guide your deck down a certain path or boost your early game. Something like Cloak of Invisibility, which gives all your minions permanent stealth during a game, can set up plays that would otherwise fail under normal conditions. Still, despite all these seemingly overpowered choices, bosses can put up a stiff contest with some of their high power level abilities – even if the AI doesn’t always spot the best play.
We’d already seen a glimpse of Team 5’s inventiveness in the solo adventures and that shines through once again with the design of some of the Dungeon Run encounters. One standout includes the ingenious Trapped Room – one of the mode’s hardest encounters – which throws secret after secret at you. Oh, and when you trigger a secret, a 3/3 Sawblade minion is summoned. Good luck puzzling your way out of that one.
With a terrific baseline established we can only hope that Blizzard continue to support Dungeon Run for the future of Hearthstone. Even though new single player content is now bundled in to fit the theme of each expansion, it would be a shame if Dungeon Run were left to simply stagnate over time. Especially when the possibilities to keep it fresh are limitless too.
It’s obvious that new treasure cards and bosses could be introduced over time, as well as new card sets from forthcoming expansions. Story specific runs could be created as time-limited events, much like the game’s current Tavern Brawl mode which rotates a new set of rules every so often. Wouldn’t it be fun to run some classic World of Warcraft dungeons in the CCG?
Perhaps what Dungeon Run offers best of all, though, is a fun experience for new and returning players. As Hearthstone grows older and piles of new cards are added to the game, it can be a challenge for anyone to keep up with it – especially if you just dip in and out on the odd occasion or are trying the game for the first time.
In Dungeon Run, you don’t need to know what’s top tier in the meta, you don’t have to worry about obtaining card packs to fill out your collections and you even get a chance to play with all the crazy legendaries you might not see otherwise. Hell, even if you’re not a massive CCG player and are interested in seeing a new spin on roguelikes, Hearthstone’s Dungeon Run is well worth the trek.
