Info
Armor is a form of secondary Health Health, sometimes referred to as life, hit points or HP, is an attribute found on heroes and minions, reflecting the remaining survivability of the character. Health can be reduced, almost always by taking damage. If 
available only to heroes A hero is a character in the Warcraft universe representing the player. In Hearthstone, this concept is expressed in three interrelated but distinct ways: Heroes are gameplay characters representing players or bosses within a match. 
, gained through certain spells Fireball, a simple mage spell. It costs 4 mana, dealing 6 damage to a chosen target. Spell cards are cards that can be played to trigger a one time effect or ability, described in the 
, Hero Powers Anduin Wrynn with the basic priest Hero Power Lesser Heal A Hero Power is a special ability displayed to the right of each hero s portrait. Usually Hero Powers can be used once per turn and 
and minions Bloodfen Raptor, a simple minion card. A Beast-type minion, it has 3 Attack, 2 Health and a mana cost of 2. Minions are persistent creatures on the battlefield that will fight for their hero. Minion 
. Damage taken will always be deducted from Armor before Health. Only when a character has 0 Armor will they lose Health from a damaging attack. Armor can effectively extend a hero`s Health far beyond the 30 points otherwise allowed. All regular heroes enter play with 0 Armor, although bosses Bosses are unique computer-controlled heroes encountered in adventures, the tutorial, and some Tavern Brawls. Each boss presents a unique encounter, featuring their own Hero Power and decks. Bosses use a combination of regular cards and 
and Tavern Brawl The Tavern Brawl interface Tavern Brawl is one of Hearthstone s lighter game modes. A weekly event, a new Tavern Brawl begins each Wednesday (Thursday in Asian regions), ending the following Monday. Outside of these times, 
heroes often start with some Armor.
Sources of Armor include the warrior The Warrior is one of the nine classes in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, represented by Garrosh Hellscream and Magni Bronzebeard. Contents 1 Heroes 2 Overview 3 Background 4 Hero Power 5 Strategy and gameplay 6 
Hero Power Armor Up! Armor Up! Type: Hero Power Class: Warrior Cost: 2 Abilities: Gain Armor Hero Power Gain 2 Armor.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Armor Up! is the warrior s basic Hero Power. Contents 1 Notes 2 
, the druid The Druid is one of the nine classes in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, represented by Malfurion Stormrage Heroes edit | edit source] Contents 1 Heroes 2 Background 3 Hero Power 4 Unique mechanics 5 Strategy 
Hero Power Shapeshift Shapeshift Type: Hero Power Class: Druid Cost: 2 Abilities: Gain Armor Hero Power +1 Attack this turn. +1 Armor.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Shapeshift is the druid s basic Hero Power. Contents 1 Notes 
, the mage Contents 1 Heroes 2 Overview 3 Background 4 Hero Power 5 Strategy and gameplay 5.1 Common deck types 5.2 Counters 6 Spells 6.1 Uncollectible 7 Minions 7.1 Uncollectible 8 Leveling rewards 8.1 Starting cards 8.2 Secret A Secret is a spell card that is cast normally but has a delayed, hidden effect, which only takes place when a specific event occurs. When a Secret is played, a Secret icon appears on 
Ice Barrier Ice Barrier Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Mage Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Abilities: Gain Armor, Secret Tags: Combat-related, Triggered effect Secret: When your hero is attacked, gain 8 Armor.This is Rank 1. Rank 2 is 
and the warrior minion Armorsmith Armorsmith Set: Classic Type: Minion Class: Warrior Rarity: Rare Cost: 2 Attack: 1 Health: 4 Abilities: Gain Armor Tags: Damage-related, Triggered effect Whenever a friendly minion takes damage, gain 1 Armor.She accepts guild funds for 
. Some cards have more novel relationships with Armor, such as Shield Slam Shield Slam Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Warrior Rarity: Epic Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Armor-related Deal 1 damage to a minion for each Armor you have."What is a better weapon? The sharp one 
, which uses a warrior`s Armor to deal damage to a target minion.
When present, Armor is shown on the centre right of the hero, just above the Health icon, set against a silver, unbroken shield.
Armor is most strongly associated with the warrior class, followed by the druid class.
Strategy
While Armor serves as a substitute for Health, loss of Armor will not reduce the summoning cost of Molten Giant Molten Giant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Epic Cost: 25 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Health-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each damage your hero has taken.He gets terrible 
. Warriors with Shield Slam Shield Slam Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Warrior Rarity: Epic Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Armor-related Deal 1 damage to a minion for each Armor you have."What is a better weapon? The sharp one can likewise benefit from Armor more than from Health, and Armor is not affected by Alexstrasza Alexstrasza Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Dragon Rarity: Legendary Cost: 9 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Battlecry Battlecry: Set a hero s remaining Health to 15.Alexstrasza the Life-Binder brings life and hope to everyone. Except Deathwing. 
`s Battlecry, making it an effective defence against this card. A low Health or damaged status can also be useful for cards like Battle Rage and Mortal Strike.
For these reasons, Armor is generally considered to be superior to Health. Where possible, it is usually therefore preferable to take any damage before gaining armor, such as by attacking with your hero before then using Armor Up! Armor Up! Type: Hero Power Class: Warrior Cost: 2 Abilities: Gain Armor Hero Power Gain 2 Armor.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Armor Up! is the warrior s basic Hero Power. Contents 1 Notes 2 . This way the player can benefit from Zombie Chow`s Deathrattle, having its hero`s health restored and keeping the previously gained armor.
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Notes
- Armor is persistent, and will last until removed through damage. Unlike Health, Armor cannot be affected by enchantments An enchantment, or buff or debuff, is a special effect gained by a minion. Enchantments may be generated by spells, minion texts or abilities such as Battlecries, or other sources, may be temporary or permanent,
, and there are currently no effects which directly set a hero`s Armor total.
- Like Health, Armor will not prevent or mitigate any effects other than damage.
- Armor has no known maximum limit. A programming limit is presumed to exist, but reaching this level may be impossible given the game`s 89 turn Hearthstone takes place in turns. Each turn gives a player the opportunity to act. At the end of each turn, play is passed back to the other player. A round describes one turn for each limit and the selection of cards currently in the game. Amounts as high as 45,779 Armor have been recorded in-game.
- Damage taken while protected by Armor still counts as taking damage for game purposes. For instance, a Water Elemental Water Elemental Set: Basic Type: Minion Subtype: Elemental Class: Mage Cost: 4 Attack: 3 Health: 6 Abilities: Freeze Tags: Damage-related, Triggered effect Freeze any character damaged by this minion.Don t summon a water elemental at a will Freeze A Frozen minion A Frozen hero Freeze is an ability that marks a minion or hero as Frozen. Frozen characters miss their next possible attack. After this, the Frozen status is removed. Frozen status only any hero it damages even if the hero loses only Armor from the attack. Likewise, Floating Watcher Floating Watcher Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Demon Class: Warlock Rarity: Common Cost: 5 Attack: 4 Health: 4 Tags: Damage-related, Triggered effect Whenever your hero takes damage on your turn, gain +2/+2."Evil Eye `s triggered effect The lightning bolt icon, explicitly indicating a triggered effect Triggered effects are effects that activate in response to specific events. Triggered effects may belong to minions, weapons or spells (in the form of Secrets), as will activate from the controlling hero taking damage on their turn even if they only lose Armor.
Sources of Armor
Wild format
- This section contains information exclusive to Wild format Wild format or Wild is one of Hearthstone s two game formats, the other being Standard format. Wild format appears in game modes in which players are allowed to play decks without the deck restrictions of .
| Name / Desc | Rarity | Type | Subtype | Class | Cost | Atk | HP | Description | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Siege Engine Siege Engine Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Class: Warrior Rarity: Rare Cost: 5 Attack: 5 Health: 5 Tags: Armor-related, Triggered effect Whenever you gain Armor, give this minion +1 Attack.Wintergrasp Keep s only  | Rare | Minion | Mech | Warrior | 5 | 5 | 5 | Whenever you gain Armor, give this minion +1 Attack.Wintergrasp Keep`s only weakness! | |||||||||||
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Related cards
| Name / Desc | Rarity | Type | Subtype | Class | Cost | Atk | HP | Description | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shield Slam Shield Slam Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Warrior Rarity: Epic Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Armor-related Deal 1 damage to a minion for each Armor you have."What is a better weapon? The sharp one | Epic | Spell | Warrior | 1 | Deal 1 damage to a minion for each Armor you have."What is a better weapon? The sharp one your enemies expect, or the blunt one they ignore?" - The Art of Warrior, Chapter 9 | ||||||||||||||
| Showing the only card | |||||||||||||||||||
A
- All
- Every possible target on the board for the spell or Ability.
- Attack
- To be on the offensive either by attacking an opponents card or your opponent himself/herself
- Ability
- There are a group of common keywords that are used on multiple cards that are collectively called abilities. They can for example specify when the action will happen, or how. These keywords are written in bold on the cards.
- Aggro Deck
- AoE
- See Area of Effect
- Arcane Dust
- The ingredient used to craft new Hearthstone cards. Can only be obtained in two ways: as a reward for doing Arena or through Disenchanting an existing card in your possession. Crafting costs depend on the rarity of a card and whether it is Golden or not.
- Common - 40 Dust
- Golden Common - 400 Dust
- Rare - 100 Dust
- Golden Rare - 800 Dust
- Epic - 400 Dust
- Golden Epic - 1600 Dust
- Legendary - 1600 Dust
- Golden Legendary - 3200 Dust
- Arena
- A Hearthstone game mode. In this mode, players can choose to either pay 150 Gold or real money ($1.99/⅁1.49/⃢₂ⅹ1.79) to enter. In Arena, you are given a random draft of three classes to pick then must pick cards individually out of a choice of three cards until you have completed your deck. Unlike Constructed, there is no limit to how many copies of the same card you may possess in your deck.
- In an Arena run, you compete against other players to win as many games as possible. An Arena run will end when you either win twelve times, retire, or lose three times. Winning Arena games will upgrade the key in your possession, which will improve the spoils (You will receive five boxes of rewards, each having a chance to contain Gold, Arcane Dust or a Pack). You are always guaranteed to get a pack of cards, but if you do well enough it is possible to get two. Generally speaking, a Diamond Key (7 wins or above) is usually required to earn back the Arena entry fee in Gold while a Lightforge Key (12 wins) will earn you the greatest possible reward.
- Area of Effect
- Spells or attacks that affect more than a single target and either specifies a certain general area or an area emanating from a source point.
- Armor
- A resource similar to Health, that can be gained through the hero powers Armor Up! and Shapeshift, or spells like Shield Block, Ice Barrier and Bite. Armor gets removed before Health when taking damage, but you lose the game if your Health drops to 0 even if you manage to gain some Armor after taking the damage.
- Attack Power
- The attack power of a minion is the amount of damage it can do on each attack.
B
- Battlecry
- An ability that is triggered immediately, when a minion is summoned.
- Burn
- Powers and cards played with the purpose of lowering the health of the enemy hero, disregarding board control.
C
- Character
- A character is either your hero₠or any minion on the battlefield.
- Charge
- This Ability lets a minion attack during the turn it is summoned.
- Choose One
- This Ability gives you the option to choose between two spell effects when playing a spell, or between two minion Battlecry effects when playing a minion. This ability is associated with the Druid class.
- Combo
- A card with the ability Combo gets the ability triggered it if is not the first card that is played that turn, i.e. it is played in a combo with another card. Playing The Coin does trigger the Combo ability. Hero Power does not enable Combo. This ability is associated with the Rogue class.
- Constructed
- Refers to any Hearthstone game mode in which the player is allowed to use decks they have built from their own card collection. In any constructed deck, the player is allowed a maximum of two of each common/rare/epic card and a maximum of one of each legendary card.
- Control Deck
- A deck that aims to win through board control. Usually these type of decks have high emphasis on removal spells and lack burn damage. Most notable archetypes are Handlock Control Warrior and Control Priest.
- Coin
- A card that is given to the player who is going second at the start of the match. It grants the player 1 extra Mana Crystal for one turn only when they use it.
- Crafting
D
- Deathrattle
- Ability that is triggered when the minion dies.
- Deck
- The set of 30 cards that player uses in a game of Hearthstone. Player draws one card from the deck each turn until there are no cards left, after which the player will be Fatigued
- Destroy
- Remove a minion from the board. There is no damage dealt so Divine Shield is ignored.
- Discover
- When a Discover ability is activated player is presented with three random cards to choose from and to take into one`s hand.
- Disenchant
- Disenchanting cards will give you Arcane Dust. It`s good to use when you have many duplicates. Rarer cards provide more Arcane Dust. Basic cards cannot be disenchanted.
- Common - 5 Dust
- Golden Common - 50 Dust
- Rare - 20 Dust
- Golden Rare - 100 Dust
- Epic - 100 Dust
- Golden Epic - 400 Dust
- Legendary - 400 Dust
- Golden Legendary - 1600 Dust
- Divine Shield
- Absorbs one attack or spell/effect that deals damage before the minion itself takes any damage.
- Dream Cards
- Cards that a player draws at the end of each turn while having Ysera on the board.
- Durability
- Number of times a hero can attack with a weapon before it is destroyed.
E
- Enrage
- This Ability is triggered when a minion takes damage.
F
- Fast decks
- Typically all-out decks that play many small aggressive minions, trying to close out the game as early as possible, leading to fast victories or defeats.
- Fatigue
- When you are out of remaining cards in your deck and the start of your turn or a card effect makes you draw a card, you take fatigue damage. The first time you`re out of cards, it`s 1 damage, the second time, it`s 2 damage, and so on until you or your opponent is dead.
- Freeze
- Cannot attack for one turn, Hero abilities can still be used (although Rogues and Druids would be unable to attack with said Hero abilities.
G
- Gold
- Gold is the in-game currency. It cannot be directly purchased, but is instead won through arena matches and/or playing in matchmade constructed games.
H
- Health
- The amount of life a card or hero has left before it is discarded or, in the case of a hero, loses the game.
- Hit Points (HP)
- See Health
I
- Immune
- Everything is ineffective and damage cannot be inflicted to you.
- Inspire
- An effect that activates when the owner of the minion uses a Hero Power.
M
- Mana
- Mana is used to play cards. Your current mana is displayed in the bottom right of the screen. Each card requires a certain amount of mana to be summoned. You start with one Mana; at the start of each player`s turn mana is fully restored and the mana pool gets increased by one until both players have 10 Mana. Certain cards can increase a player`s mana pool.
- Medal
- Medals were an early ranking system in Hearthstone. Players started at Apprentice and based on their ladder performance in ranked games could work their way up to a higher medal. You did not lose Medals for losing games. This system was replaced with the current ladder system before launch.
- Mill Deck
- Milling is the act of flooding your opponent`s hand, making him discard cards due to drawing over the 10 card limit.
- Minion
- Minion is a character with health and attack values that players summon to the board by playing minion cards or certain spells such as Feral Spirit
- Mulligan
- To mulligan a card is to discard it from your initial hand and draw a replacement from the remaining deck. You are allowed to mulligan as many cards as you want from your initial draw, but this can only be done before turn 1.
- Murloc Deck
- Deck that focuses on Murlocs. One of the most aggressive decks in the game. Most commonly used by warlocks, since they can use Life Tap to draw a lot of cards to keep the aggression going. Very susceptible to Area of Effect.
O
- One Turn Kill
- A combination of cards that leads to killing an opponent in one turn.
- OTK
- See One Turn Kill
- Overload
- Reduces the amount of mana a player can use the next turn.
P
- Pack
- Hearthstone cards are purchased in packs. Each pack has five cards in them, at least one of them being Rare or of higher rarity. Packs may also contain Golden cards or multiples of same card. Packs are earned as rewards or can be bought from the in-game store.
- Plain Card
- A plain card is a minion which has no text on it, ie. it only has Mana Cost, Attack Power, and Hit Points.
- Power
- See Attack Power
R
- Ramp
- The act of playing cards that add mana crystals to your mana pool in order to play high mana creatures faster than your opponent. This includes cards that increase your mana pool temporarily (The Coin and Innervate) or permanently (Wild Growth, Nourish).
- Rarity
- In order from least rare to most rare: Common(White), Rare(Blue), Epic(Purple), Legendary(Orange). Although it mainly determines how uncommon certain cards would appear in a Pack, it also determines the crafting cost (in Arcane Dust) of a card. Rarity does not necessarily correlate to power.
- Removal
- A term applied to cards that deal damage or Destroy one or more minions on the turn they are played.
S
- Secret
- A Spell that is triggered when a certain action occurs (ex. attacking an enemy minion). The identity of a secret is hidden from the opponent until it is triggered, portrayed only as question mark graphic above the casting hero`s portrait.
- Silence
- This Ability removes any effects (ex. +1/+1, taunt) from the chosen target(s). This does not remove spells like Hex or Polymorph that turn the creature into something else, although it would remove the taunt from the Hexed creature. Casting silence on a creature that is silenced already does not remove the first silence. You can use silence on your own creatures however to remove enemy spells such as Humility that negatively affect your minions.
- Slow decks
- Decks that try to stall out the game until high mana turns where they can bring out impactful minions like Ancient of War, Ysera and Ragnaros.
- Soulbound
- Cards that belong to the Basic set. They cannot be disenchanted and are available for all players. Also Reward cards belong to this category.
- Spell Damage
- Each point of Spell Damage makes spells deal one additional damage. It also applies to some spells like Shadowflame and healing spells with Auchenai Soulpriest.
- Standard Format
- A type of game mode where only the recent 2 years of Hearthstone cards can be used. Classic and Basic cards are always usable in Standard.
After coming out of Standard rotation, cards are classed as Wild
- Stealth
- This Ability makes a minion untargetable by attacks or targeted spells/effects. They still take damage from Area of Effect spells/effects, and can still be hit from spells that hit a random target. They can also be hit by spells that target adjacent minions. An Explosive Shot that targets a minion will still do 2 damage to the stealthed minion next to it. Stealth is removed after the minion attacks.
- Subtype
- A Minion category that generally has synergies within its type and with some spells (example Timber Wolf and Kill Command). Currently, there are seven subtypes: Beast, Dragon, Demon, Mech, Murloc, Pirate and Totem.
T
- Taunt
- This Ability forces enemy characters to attack this minion before any other minion without taunt or your hero. If there are multiple minions with taunt you can choose which of them to attack.
- TBD
- To be determined - Something yet to be determined such as tournament participants, or release date. In terms of release dates, TBA (To be announced) can also be used.
- Tempo
- A general concept used not only in TCGs but also in other strategy games such as Chess and Starcraft that refers to who has the initiative in a game. If, for example, both players play some minions but yours can attack first, you are said to have tempo.
- Tempo Deck
- A deck designed to gain the initiative in a game, often through a lower Mana Curve, cards holding significant Value relative to their Mana cost, and a healthy dose of Control options. Not to be confused with a Rush Deck which will often aim to win the game outright in a short number of turns with a tiny Mana Curve.
- Token
- A card that is summoned by another card, such as Violet Apprentice, Gnoll, Silver Hand Recruit and Wicked Knife.
- Token Deck
- A deck that floods the board with small, weak minions using cards like Violet Teacher, Haunted Creeper or Muster for Battle to get high value from buffs such as Power of the Wild, Bloodlust, Hobgoblin and Savage Roar.
- Top-Decking
- Drawing a powerful card that turns the game around in your favor while faced with a major card disadvantage (i.e. either having no or very few cards on your hand or in play) compared to your opponent. A term often used in other card games (particularly YuGiOh where some deck archetypes were notorious for top-decking.)
- Tribe
- See Subtype
V
- Value
- Value can be defined in two different ways:
- 1. By the effects and stats of a card relative to its Mana and Card cost (if applicable.) For example, Novice Engineer is deemed to be a valuable card due to its "Draw a card" Battlecry, Knife Juggler can potentially provide great value each time you play a minion and the Dark Iron Dwarf is deemed very valuable for a 4 Mana 4/4 due to its Battlecry which grants an additional 2 Attack to a minion.
- 2. A metric used to describe the efficiency of a certain play. For example, the act of eliminating a Bluegill Warrior with an Elven Archer`s Battlecry can be deemed valuable both in terms of card advantage and Mana cost due to a 1 Mana 1/1 minion eliminating a 2 Mana 2/1 Charge minion with only its Battlecry (meaning the attacker who played the Archer did not lose the minion in the process.)
W
- Windfury
- This Ability allows a minion to attack twice in one turn.
- Wild Format (game type)
- A game type that allows any card in Hearthstone to be used in a deck. Standard decks are allowed, but not the other way round. See Standard Format above for information.
