4 Steps to Get Started in Hearthstone

So, you've decided to get into Hearthstone. Maybe you're a World of Warcraft fan who wants to experience the card game based on the series, perhaps you are a card game fan who wants to try something new, or maybe you just came across this article and I've enticed you to play. Regardless, welcome to the club.

There are several things that you will need to do as you get started. If you go through the following list, you'll learn the first actions to take as you begin your Hearthstone adventure. With that in mind, let's learn:

4 Steps to Get Started in Hearthstone

1. Complete the Tutorial: Assuming you've already created an account at battle.net and logged into the Hearthstone game, your first move is to fire up Hearthstone and complete the tutorial. You'll play five simplified games as a mage, during which you'll learn the basics of the game, like how to play the cards, monitor your mana, and see what minions on the board. If all that sounds tricky, don't worry, the tutorial makes it nice, simple, and pretty entertaining to boot.

2. Unlock the Other Classes: When the tutorial is over, you'll be in the game itself, but can only play as the mage. If you want to play as any other classes, you'll need to unlock them first, which should be your first step regardless. The easiest way to do that is through the Practice mode. Just click Solo Adventures, then Practice, and then Normal, and you'll be able to select your deck and which opponent you want to fight. Complete a battle against each class to unlock them, and when you're done with all the battles (including one against another mage), and you'll be able to play as any class, plus get the Ready to Go! Achievement and 100 gold for your trouble.

At this point, you'll unlock several new modes of play, including the Arena and Adventures. We're going to hold off on those for a while; they cost gold/money to get into, and you need more experience with the game before you hope to do well. First, you should rank up your heroes to (at least) level 10, by:

3. Beat the Expert Level AI Opponents: With all of the heroes unlocked, you can try to take on the Expert level opponents. They are, as you can guess, much harder, but yield more experience to your novice heroes (when they aren't below level 10; you'll need to switch to a new hero at that point when facing AI opponents to gain more experience). You can (and should) create custom decks for these battles; while the basic decks can hold their own against Normal opponents, you'll need to improve your holdings when facing harder opponents. When you defeat all the Expert level opponents, you'll complete the Crushed Them All quest and net yourself another 100 gold.

4. Fight Human Opponents in Play Mode: By this point, you should have all the basics of the game down, so it's time to try your hand against some human foes. Go into the Play section and you can select Casual or Ranked to choose your preferred style of play. In Ranked, each victory will get you a star and improve your ranking, while each loss (when you are at rank 20 or above) will cause you to lose a star. Casual doesn't, although don't let that fool you; the players can be just as rough, especially once you get over rank 20.

A good approach for new players to take is to play Ranked until you are at Rank 20 (since you can't lose any ranks until that point), then switch over to Casual mode; you'll get plenty of practice, plus, getting to level 20 gives you a new card back each month. You'll achieve the First Blood quest (and a pack of cards) for your first battle against another human, and The Duelist quest (and 100 gold) for winning three victories against real people.

Play each of your characters until they get to level 10 and you have all the basic cards in the game. The first character you get to level 10 will net you the Level Up achievement and a pack of cards, while getting them all to level 10 will achieve the Got the Basics! achievement (since you have all the Basic cards that you earn by leveling up) and 100 gold. You'll also get 10 gold for every three victories you get in either Ranked or Casual mode, which can add up pretty well.

At this point, you should have a fair amount of gold, a few card packs, and a decent understanding of how the game works. Where to go from here will depend greatly on what you hope to accomplish in this game, but hopefully, this has helped you to get the ball rolling on your smashing Hearthstone adventure!