Hearthstone Beginner’s Tips

Hearthstone Beginner’s Tips by Dutchmasta

I made this quick guide with the basics of Hearthstone, and tips/tricks to teach my girlfriend how to play who became interested when she saw me play. I thought I would share this with the Hearthstone community in hopes that other new players would appreciate it and learn something from it. So here it is:

HEARTHSTONE PLAYER GUIDE w/ Tips & Tricks (at bottom)

Attack/Damage – Every minion card (any card this is not a spell but actually a dude) has 2 numbers on the bottom, the cards attack is the left number, the cards health is the right number. It is good to attack the other guy’s cards when your card’s attack and health is equal to or greater than his card’s attack and health. Basically if you can kill something in one shot, and your guy is still alive, it’s worth killing that guy. But sometimes you need to be careful, because if your guy is left with low health, he will probably get killed the next turn easily. You can also throw out a guy with taunt to protect your injured card after u kill one of his. Sometimes it’s more worth attacking the enemy hero instead of his cards, because you can get damage out, and he will have to attack your minion and kill his own next turn.

Taunt – This card is a shield that protects all of your other cards. The enemy must kill your shield first before he can kill any of your other minions.

Battlecry – This card will do whatever it says on the card just once the first time you put it down on the table. So if it says Battlecry: Deal 2 damage to any enemy, when you put it down, you can pick something to do 2 damage to right at that time and then that special is done and he’s just a normal card with attack/damage after that

Divine Shield – The first time this card takes damage (or attacks another card), he will take no damage and then lose his divine shield. So basically you must attack cards with Divine Shield twice, before they die. A good way to do this is waste one of your low attacks on him first (use like one of your guys with only 1 attack) then he loses his shield and you can see what’s the best way to kill his health.

Enrage – If you attack a card with “enrage” written on it and you don’t kill it in one shot, it will gain attack points every time it takes damage. So basically you want to kill one of these types of cards completely before you end your turn, or completely ignore it and kill it after he attacks with it once. You can also play a card with enrage, and use your mage “2” mana “special power” to attack your own card that has enrage, so it takes 1 damage but gains 3 attack.

Windfury – This card can attack twice, you want to kill cards with windfury quickly, because they can do their attack twice every turn.

Deal “X” damage to ALL minions/Deal “X” damage to enemy minions – These are spell cards, make sure you read what they do. Some of them do damage to all minions including your own, some do just damage the enemy minions.

Freeze – Minions who get frozen cannot attack next turn, they are stuck for 1 turn then unfrozen. Use freeze when you cannot kill his minions, but don’t want them to attack you after you end your turn. Freezing buys you time to make it to the next turn to kill his stuff. Also if your a mage, and you can use the card “ice lance” it does 4 damage to any already frozen target.

Adjacent Minions – Many cards say they do something to adjacent minions. This means that if you place this card down, any cards directly on the left and right of it, will gain whatever power the card says. This could be +2 attack, +2 health, etc etc.

Charge – This minion can attack the same hand that you put it down on the table. Some spell cards allow you to grant another card charge, meaning you can play a minion and then grant him charge with a spell card so that he may attack the same turn he is put down on the table.

Overload – Shamans get to play cards that cost little mana but are very good by using cards that say “overload” on them. The basic concept is, get better cards out this turn, but pay for it the following turn. So for example, you could play a card that 3 costs 3 mana this turn and is extremely better than normal cards that cost 3 mana, but the card will say “Overload:2” or “Overload: 3”, meaning next turn you lose 2 or 3 mana.

Combo – Rogues get special cards that say “combo” on them to allow them to do extra power then normal. All combo means is, if you play ANY card before you play a card that says “combo” in the same turn, you will receive the extra reward for it. For example, a card will say “Give a minion +2 attack, Combo: Give a minion +4 attack”. This means that if you play this card as the first card in the turn, it will only give your minion +2 attack, but if you can play another card BEFORE you play this card that has “combo” on it, you will receive +4 attack on your minion instead.

Character Weapons – Many characters have cards that equip their character a weapon. Most weapons have numbers just like cards do, a number to the bottom left, and a number to the bottom right. The left number is the attack, the right number is how many times you can use it, which is called them item’s “durability”. If a weapon says 4 on the left, and 2 on the right, this means you can use a 4 attack once this turn, and once the next turn and then the weapon is dead. It is important to remember that when your character has a weapon, your character takes damage back at whatever he attacks. It’s just like when a minion attacks another minion.

Important Tips –

• Make sure you kill cards that give other cards “special powers”, or in proper term “buffs”. For example, a card could say “Give all your beasts charge”. This means that any beast your opponent plays will be able to attack the same turn that he puts it down on the table. This is bad so you want to kill that card as soon as possible. Another example could be shamans “Flametongue Weapon”, this card gives +2 attack to minions directly to it’s left and right. This is dangerous so you probably want to kill it fast so that it doesn’t keep giving your opponents cards +2 attack.

• Try to keep board control. This means always try to have more minions on the board then your opponent. Or at least better minions if not more. This means trading SMARTLY with what he has. If you can kill an opponent minion that has more attack then your minion in 1 shot, then do it. But sometimes its not worth attacking.

• Don’t always attack because you think you need to. For example if you have a taunt card up, that taunt is your shield protecting your other cards on the board, don’t kill your shield just to kill another minion on the board unless it makes sense. You could attack the enemy character instead with your taunt card, and that way you dealt damage with him, and the enemy will still have to kill him next turn.

• Know when it’s smart to draw cards, think about the future of the game, and not always in the moment. You could play another minion to have lots of attack and health on your side of the table, but then you might run out of cards later in the game and lose because you can’t play anything back at your enemy when he figures out how to kill all your stuff on the table.

• Save buff cards for minions for a turn where you know it will not be destroyed immediately. For example, a paladin can give +3 attack to a minion. Don’t just give that minion +3 attack if you know the next turn he’s going to die, unless its necessary to kill game –changing enemy minion.

• Learn the possible cards that different enemy classes can play against you. For example, a mage on turn 7 could possibly have a card called “Flamestrike”, this card deals 4 damage to ALL enemy minions. So if it’s turn 6, and you have a the chance to throw down a bunch of minions on the table, be aware that they could all die as soon as the mage gets his turn 7.

• Google hero “secrets” during games. When you see a enemy play a “secret” card, type in google what enemy hero your playing against and say secret after it, to find what possible secrets that hero could have played so that you may make your next move accordingly. For example if your playing a hunter, type “Hunter Secrets Hearthstone” in google, and you can see all the possible secrets the hunter could have just added to his character.

Lastly, enjoy the game for what it is. If you don’t want to pay to win and feel that legendaries are the reason you are losing, then do your dailies everyday and win gold for winning games, and do arena runs. There are players that stream on Twitch that reached legendary with $0 real money invested, it just takes time. Spend two or three months of free playing, earn gold and eventually you can start your ranked push. Until then, enjoy the game for the hunt for gold, because gold = making your account better and earning new cards. That’s plenty of satisfaction for your time until your account is ready.