Eight years ago, Quest cards were first introduced to Hearthstone. A Quest challenges a player to complete a specific task, typically one thematically related to their class, by the end of the game. Completing the Quest rewards a powerful card, often a Hero Power, but sometimes a minion or weapon. After first introducing Quests in Journey to Un'Goro and featuring them several times since, Hearthstone is naturally bringing back Quests in The Lost City of Un'Goro, which sees players returning to the Un'Goro Crater for another adventure.
"We went in with a little bit of hubris, honestly," Senior Game Designer Cora Georgiou admitted in a conversation she and Lead Designer Edward Goodwin had with The Best War Games. "Quests are hard." As soon as it was decided the expansion would feature Un'Goro Crater and its Tortollan inhabitants, it was pretty much a given that Quests would return as well. The team had learned a lot about Quests from their inclusion in the Saviors of Uldum and Reunited in Stormwind expansions , but they still encountered a variety of challenges when bringing the mechanic back.
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Quests Had To Feel Challenging, But Not One-Note
One goal with Quests, Goodwin revealed, was to ensure that there was more than one way for players to complete them. He referenced "Defend the Dwarven District," a damage spell-based Hunter quest from Reunited in Stormwind, which he felt encouraged players to build a single deck and stick to the same playstyle each game, and included little back and forth between players. In The Lost City of Un'Goro, he hopes players will feel freer to experiment with how to fulfill each Quest's requirements:
"I think the goal with a lot of these Quests is not to tell you how to win. It's like, "Here's a powerful thing. Now go figure out how to win with it" rather than "Here is the game plan that you're going to be doing for every single game, so go do it.""
The Lost City Of Un'Goro Features A Variety Of Quest Rewards
Not all Quests and their rewards in The Lost City of Un'Goro have been revealed yet, but those that Blizzard has shown off are quite exciting. For example, Death Knights must spend 18 Corpses to earn Tyrax the Bone Terror, while Mages who discover 8 cards will be rewarded with the Origin Stone. In addition to Quests, The Lost City of Un'Goro introduces "Kindred," a keyword that rewards players for playing minions or spells of the same type, as well as Maps, which can potentially add an element of randomness to the game. New Stories also allow players to reminisce about key moments from the 2017 Journey to Un'Goro expansion.
Goodwin and Georgiou both hinted that all eleven Quests are unique and worthwhile, with Georgiou naming the Warlock Quest and Goodwin the Hunter Quest as their respective favorite cards in the entire expansion, which will feature a total of 145 new cards. Players will be able to experience all eleven new Legendary Quests when The Lost City of Un'Goro launches on July 8, 2025.
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