Meet the new addition to Hearthstone - Murder in Castle Nathria

The long-awaited update is now live for all PC users, and phone gamers will, as usual, have to wait a bit to enjoy the many new features that we will tell you about.

From the description of the update, we learned that Sir Denathrius invited all friends and rivals to his castle in order to reveal the truth about the anima reserves to them. But suddenly there was a murder in the castle, and the players, along with Murloc Holmes, have to find the culprit.

Even in the world of the living, murder is not favored, but in the Shadowlands, such crimes are a real scandal.

Previously, we reviewed patch 24.0 with its innovations, and today we will tell you in more detail about the new game mechanics.

Saturation

One of the most important components is the addition of new game mechanics. As planned by the developers, each creature has a life force - Anima, when extracted, it is able to strengthen other cards.

It works like this: if a card with saturation is in your hand, you need several of your units to die (depending on the feature of the card) and then the creature will receive an additional effect.

We will not analyze all 135 cards, but we will show you new legendaries with this effect.

Sir Denathrius is the hero of the occasion himself, and the overall legendary has perhaps one of the strongest saturation effects, the mechanics are similar to Cthun from the Old Gods, only this time it is important for us to get this card in hand as early as possible. Each time one creature we control dies, Denathrius's warcry damage will also increase by one.

Inventor Zymox is a new Demon Hunter Legendary, when five creatures under our control die, instead of one relic we will unearth three. An interesting legendary, it will probably affect the current DH meta, because now it plays mainly aggro decks.

Imp King Rafaam is a Warlock legendary creature that aims to resurrect the Zulok. The battlecry resurrects four imps that died during the match, but if the saturation effect is active, then Ruffam buffs the imps for +2 +2.

Stalker Altimore is the last legendary with saturation for the Hunter. The effect is similar to the epic hunter spell Call of the Forest from the Old Gods.

Warcry summons one gargon pet, but is buffed over time by saturation. Gargon pets are all old pets with new names: instead of Misha, Huffer and Leok, now Gekutis, Bargast, and Margor.

Prince Renatal deserves a special mention - a new generic legendary was added in patch 24.0, although it does not have a saturation effect, but its passive ability drastically changes the gameplay. By putting this card in your deck, you increase its capacity to 40 cards, and increase your health at the start of the match to 40 as well.

New type of Area maps

In addition to new mechanics, the developers presented us with unusual cards - Areas (locations) that are not related to either skills or creatures. They work as follows: when this card is put on the table, it takes up one space, and will be inactive on your next turn. After that, you can use it on your units, or on opponent's creatures (depending on the effect). The area also has a health margin, after which they disappear.

A total of 10 areas were added, one for each class.

Warlock - Unholy Library. Another card for a possible Zulok, which is tied to demons.

Demon Hunter - Relic Cache. Like the new saturate Legendary, the area is focused on relics, but given its cost, it can play well in tempo decks.

Robber - Cemetery of sinfall. Despite the fact that the update added a lot of secret rogue cards in an attempt to resurrect it, the area adheres to the standard mechanics of disguise.

Paladin - Great Hall. A very controversial card on the ground, on the one hand it resembles the skill from the Knights of the Frozen Throne - Unrighteous Judgment, and can be used to control large creatures. On the other hand, considering how the new expansion is trying to resurrect the Paladin on the hero power, perhaps the area will play in this archetype.

Hunter - Kennel at the castle. This area fully adheres to the old canons of the hunt - a pet buff on attack with getting onslaught.

Mage - Shrine of nightcloaks. The card is focused on slow decks, allows you to freeze creatures, and then clear the board thanks to the Explosive Skeleton. It seems to me that the area is useless, because with the addition of Renatal, mages already live well thanks to 40 hp.

Priest - Cathedral of Redemption. Although the area has two main effects, the +2 +1 creature buff is absolutely useless, so this card is attracted only by the presence of an additional one, which makes it attractive for a small mana cost.

Druid - Forest labyrinth. Great area, will work well with the new legendary added in this patch (Cecilia of Ardenwald). When combined, it will allow you to get and reduce the cost of heavy creatures.

Shaman - A puddle of slurry. Another attempt to resurrect the ancient archetype of the Shaman on evolution.

Warrior - Bloody Catacombs, the new area will synergize well with class cards in the new patch, especially with the legendary Decimator Olgra.

Battle Pass

As usual, with the new addition, a battle pass will be added, it will have a lot of different rewards, both for donators and f2p players.

In the free version, players will be able to get: the epic mercenary Sera Finley, the legendary Sir Denathrius. There will also include standard packs and gold cards.

The paid version will bring players a diamond Murloc Holmes, two copies of the golden epic card, a portrait of Prince Renatal, 9 additional character portraits, a new innkeeper Bob (Battlefields mode), three portraits of mercenaries (Mercenaries mode), and a new custom coin.

In addition, players will be able to get a diamond copy of Olgra's Decimator, for reaching the collection of 25 legendary cards of the expansion.

The second custom coin can be obtained by collecting all 135 expansion cards.

Above, we told you about all the significant changes in the new addon, and now hurry to try everything yourself. Innovation is already available in the game.