The game-changing Forged in the Barrens patch update is a much anticipated one and Hearthstone is looking to keep increasing the hype surrounding this update that marks their switch into the Year of the Gryphon.

The release date has finally been revealed, with the Forged in the Barrens update set to hit Hearthstone servers on the 30th of March. However, there is lots more in store for Hearthstone on PC enthusiasts during the last few days of the pre-patch period.

Hearthstone has announced a pre-release party for the Forged in the Barrens update, with many rewards up for grabs including a chance to open your Forged in the Barrens card packs exclusively before the patch is launched.

The Pre-Release Party – Cards, Creators and Decks

The party starts on the 22nd of March, with Hearthstone Creators hosting a Decklist Content. The creators will be using the decks to play during the Theory Crafting Livestreams, with each creator set to choose one winner, who is going to receive a Mega Bundle Code. Users interested in submitting Decks should build a Standard Deck with a minimum of 10 Forged in the Barrens Cards through Hearthstone’s website. 

Once the deck is built, users have to submit their deck code in response to the creator’s deck contest post. This is an intriguing feature as users will have to choose the perfect combination of their deck and their favorite creator who will prefer decks like theirs, thus adding another layer to the competition.

Each creator will also be giving away 10 Mega Bundle codes each, which amounts to a total of 160 Mega Bundle Code Giveaway on the 23rd of March along with Hearthstone set to gift up to 100 subscriptions on several of the creators’ Twitch channels.

Fret not, Redditers! Hearthstone has also reserved up to 100 Mega Bundle Code Giveaways on the Hearthstone subreddit on the 24th of March. For the next two days, users will have more Mega Bundle Codes up for grabs, with 30 creators set to give away 10 codes each between the two days on their respective Twitch channels. The 27th of March will witness the return subscription gifts from Hearthstone on the chosen creators’ channels.

Unpack, Build and Brawl – The Pre-Release Bonanza

The main feature of the pre-release party though, is between the 26th of March and the 29th of the said month. The Private pre-release Fireside Gathering offers participants a chance to open their Forged in the Barrens Card Packs before the official launch on the 30th of March. Users can also play with the unpacked cards in Fireside Brawls that will also be available during these four days.

There are two Brawls available – a Forged in the Barrens No Cards Barred! Brawl and a pre-constructed Brawl called A Recipe for Tenacity. The first of the two will allow users to make decks with the unpacked Forged in the Barrens Cards and use them in the Brawl, with no restrictions on class or duplicates. A Recipe for Tenacity is a pre-constructed Brawl that will have pre-constructed deck recipes for users to play with. Users who did not pre-purchase the Forged in the Barrens packs will also be able to play this Brawl.

However, Hearthstone has issued a note stating that offline Private Fireside Gatherings have been disabled in the light of the ongoing pandemic and the subsequent lockdown impositions in several regions of the world. Instead, Hearthstone has enabled players to register their own one-player event from the confines of their own homes in order to experience and enjoy opening the Card Packs while also playing the Brawls available as part of the pre-release offering. Players can still join these Private Fireside Gatherings and they will have the same Fireside Brawls as the public Fireside Gatherings.

The one-player private Fireside Gatherings will not be visible anywhere in the Tavern or the upcoming event pages, neither will they appear as a result of searches for the same on the upcoming events page. The revamped Private Fireside Gatherings will also not count as a progression towards the Tavern or Innkeeper challenges and more! This means that players will still need to host a public event with at least 3 check-ins to establish their own Tavern.

Post-launch Community Twitch Drops

Hearthstone isn’t done yet, though. There is a ‘party’ scheduled after the launch, with users eligible to receive Twitch Drops wherein players can earn Forged in the Barrens packs while watching their favorite creators between the 2nd of April and the 4th of the same month. Players can watch any Twitch channel playing Hearthstone between these days to be eligible to receive the drops. All the users must do to be eligible is to link their Battle.net and Twitch accounts. Further details about the post-launch Twitch drops event will be released on the day of the official launch on the 30th of March.

The Forged in the Barrens update on March 30, 2021 will change the landscape of competitive and casual Hearthstone in many ways and the pre-release party will give us a glimpse into what the future holds for the game meta, with enthusiasts hyped for the same since the reveal at BlizzConline 2021.