A new expansion has been announced for Hearthstone at BlizzCon 2021. Titled Forged in the Barrens, this new expansion kicks off a new year of content for the game, which will be known as the Year of the Gryphon.

Hearthstone already had a big announcement last week when Blizzard revealed that a Classic Mode would be coming to the game. The mode will only allow players to use the base set of cards, and those cards will have all of their balance changes from over the years reset.

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As was predicted in leaks a few days ago, Hearthstone is getting a new expansion. Forged in the Barrens adds a new mode called Hearthstone Mercenaries, which will feature “strategic RPG gameplay and roguelike missions.” 10 Legendary Mercenary minions are also being introduced and will have each their own stories told through the mode and elsewhere. In the new mode, players will assemble a team of mercenaries before embarking on a series of randomly generated encounters. The mercenaries will be able to level up and evolve. There will also be a PVP mode.

A new mechanic called Spell Schools is also being introduced, which will put old and new spell cards in one of seven different groupings, and will add synergies to player’s collections, though the post does not specify how. Blizzard also released the following roadmap for the Year of the Gryphon, broken up into 3 phases. Classic Mode is part of Phase 1, as is a new Core Set, which is now being restructured, and will now change over time. Phase 2 includes another mini-set, a new trend for Hearthstone which first started last month.

Forged in the Barrons also adds new keyword for minions called Frenzy. Frenzy activates when a card survives being attacked for the first time. The Razormane Raider’s Frenzy keyword results in it attacking a random enemy, while Blademaster Samuro’s deals equal damage to all enemy minions.

In February, Blizzard is also celebrating its 30th anniversary with packs of content for all of its games, including Hearthstone. The cheapest pack comes with 10 pack from the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion, in addition to a pet for World of Warcraft, a mount for Heroes of the Storm, loot boxes for Overwatch, and the new Blizzard Arcade Collection, which was just announced.

Hearthstone is out now for PC and mobile devices.

MORE: What Hearthstone's New Core Set Means for the Game's Future

Source: Hearthstone Official Website