BlizzCon 2017 – Hearthstone’s Dungeon Crawling Roguelike Kobolds and Catacombs

God yes. How can I possibly tell you how happy I am that Hearthstone is getting an immensely replayable single player mode? I suck at card games. I also hate losing. But I love Hearthstone. Like Elder Scrolls Legends, Hearthstone has been consistently upgrading their single player offering for folks like me. I don’t mind losing to the computer as much as I do other players, and yes – lose you will in Kobolds and Catacombs.

A direct throwback to Tunnels and Trolls, the single player PnP RPG from way back when and recently revived in MetaArcade, Kobolds and Catacombs launch next month. And aside from having the new cards, everyone will get the Kobolds & Catacombs roguelike dungeon for free. You take a class, but get a random 10 cards for that hero, and more as you beat each encounter. You get permanent rewards, but each time you fail to beat an encounter, you have to start the dungeon from scratch and lose all the cards you gain during the dungeon. So while you’re earing permanent cards to use outside the dungeon, you use whatever you are given and whatever you earn one each run.

The demo pits you in three encounters. One easy, one medium, and one hard. It’s fantastically fun. The random nature of encounters, rooms, and rewards make each run something unique. The enemies you face have their own dangerous weapons, items, cards you don’t expect. I manhandled the tiny dragon whelp and furbolg, but when I got to the Frostpaw, I died… hard. The fact that each hero now gets legendary weapons, even my girl Jaina, means things are mixed up a lot. I can’t imagine how it’ll all play in the competitive side, but it makes PVE something else entirely.

December’s right around the corner, and Kobolds and Catacombs is looking really replayable. While there are plenty of new cards to get revealed still, but the PVE is what I’m here for. I cannot wait to play this and not get anything else done.