Many Hearthstone players have been experiencing problems while trying to purchase the expansion Curse of Naxxramas or card packs. Blizzard announced this weekend that they have a solution.

The issue was that the players weren't getting what they paid for. Their money was going to Blizzard but the expansion and card packs didn't appeared in player accounts. The company confirmed this bug on September 4th. Shortly afterward, they announced that the bug has been fixed so it won't happen with any future purchases.

On Thursday, Blizzard said announced their solution for the botched transactions: they're issuing refunds to everyone.

"Refunds for real-money purchases will be applied back to the payment method that was used," said community manager Glaxigrav on the Battle.net forums. "Refunded gold will be placed back on the account. The gold totals won't be seen until the account has logged out and back in."

Hearthstone players began seeing the refunds appear in their accounts throughout Saturday. Blizzard admitted that some players may not have received them, though. If you're still waiting for your refunds, drop a comment on that forum thread. The developers say they're still watching the thread and will add any further issues players are having.

Curse Of Naxxramas is the first single-player expansion pack for Hearthstone. Players will challenge 15 bots with different abilities and decks. In the process, they earn brand-new cards for their collection. The expansion also includes a heroic mode with a higher difficulty and class-specific challenges.

Blizzard released Naxxramas across five weeks. Players could purchase each wing separately or buy the whole expansion all at once. These bundles, along with the gold or money payment options, may have contributed to the bugs players experienced. Providing extra choices also results in more work, though.

The studio plans to release additional single-player expansion packs in the future. Blizzard promised that these add-ons will arrive faster thanks to the Adventure Mode framework they established with Naxxramas. Hopefully they're less prone to bugs, too.

Naxxramas costs $6.99 or 700 gold per wing. You can also spend $24.99 to get the full expansion. If you buy the expansion and need some help on the fights, check out our guide.

Hearthstone's sixth season launched earlier this week. This latest season brings another reward. Any player who hits Rank 20 will receive a pirate-themed card back at the beginning of Season 7.

Update: We've published a guide to Blackrock Mountain in case you need help with the newest expansion's bosses.

Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas presents players with some challenging single-player encounters. If you're stuck, here's a run-down on how to beat each of the dungeon's encounters.

The expansion has three game modes: Normal, Class Challenges, and Heroic. Normal and Class Challenges are the same difficulty. The difference is that the latter forces you to use a specific deck against a specific boss. Heroic mode cranks up the difficulty. It boosts the effectiveness of the boss' hero abilities while also bumping their health up to 45.

This guide focuses on teaching you the heroic fights. The strategies apply to the Normal and Class fights as well, though you'll have a much easier time of things in those modes.

Curse of Naxxramas's five wings are being rolled out over five weeks. We'll update this guide when a new batch of bosses is available.

Arachnid Quarter

Anub'Rekhan

Hero power: Skitter (2 mana) - Summon a 4/4 Nerubian

Description: Anub'Rekhan's Hero power makes him a pain in the early game. He can start throwing down these powerful Nerubians in the second turn and get some quick damage on your Hero. He then protects them with Taunt minions like Deathlord or Abomination.

If you manage to survive through the early rounds and get some minions on the board, Anub'Rekhan will start casting Locust Swarm. This annoying spell can rip apart your army while giving him crucial HP.

Strategy: The other two Arachnid Quarter bosses are essentially DPS races. However, beating Anub'Rekhan is all about patience. You need to keep his minions off the board with spells while getting your own out there. You can't surrender the board to him early on.

Taunt minions are especially key here. Be sure to buff or heal them as needed. These tanks will give your high-damage minions some protection so they can focus on damaging Anub'Rekhan or his defensive line.

Once you're past the early game, things get a lot easier. Anub'Rekhan doesn't have many high-mana tricks to speak of. Eventually you'll be able to summon minions too powerful for him to take out with a single hit. Locust Swarm sucks but 3 damage isn't that much on an 8 health minion. Slowly but surely, you'll overwhelm him.

Suggested deck: Ramp Druid for its quick mana gain and consistent defense throughout every stage of the fight. It's the perfect deck for surviving until the late game and then steamrolling Anub'Rekhan.

Grand Widow Faerlina

Hero power: Rain of Fire (1 mana) - Fire a missile for each card in your opponent's hand

Description: Faerlina's cheap Rain of Fire on Heroic means that she can wreak havoc on your hero and minions right from the start. To make matters worse, she has a 3 mana card called Worshipper that gives her 3 attack on every turn. This bonus stacks with multiple Worshippers and she's got five in her deck so this battle can get out of hand really quickly.

Strategy: If you want to take down Faerlina, you're going to need board control. Try to get multiple, cheap minions on the field. This cuts down on the size of your hand, minimizing the damage of Rain of Fire and spreading out its damage among multiple targets. Inexpensive taunting minions like Shieldbearer or Voidwalker will buy you some much needed time. Once you've got some minions on the field, put most of your energy toward damaging Faerlina.

There are two minion types you should make sure to clear, though: Worshippers and Necroknights. Necroknights are like the exploding barrels of Hearthstone: if you kill them, they'll destroy minions on either side of them. They have 6 health, though, you're better off letting them whittle down their HP by hitting your taunts or other minions. Then finish them off and take out several of Faerlina's minions at once.

Suggested deck: Zoo Lock because of its abundance of cheap minions and early damage potential.

Maexxna

Hero ability: Web Wrap (0 mana) - Returns two random enemy minions to your opponent's hand.

Description: Maexxna's Hero power suuuucks. A zero mana Web Wrap will keep you from keeping minions on the battlefield. This ability works even on minions that normally can't be targeted, like Faerie Dragons or creatures with Stealth.

While keeping your side of the board clear, Maexxna steadily fills hers with minions. She has 6 Haunted Creepers, a spider minion that becomes two more spiders when you kill it. On the other end of the mana curve is her pair of Spectral Knights, minions that can't be hit with spells or Hero powers. Once her mana is built up and she has enough cards on the field, she'll play a Sea Giant to make short work of your Hero.

Strategy: Maexxna is a little dumb when it comes to using her Hero ability. She'll always cast it at the start of her turn. In other words, she'll return minions to your deck rather than get easy kills. As long as you have two minions or less on the field at the same time, they'll never get killed.

The result is that you can use Battlecry minions over and over. Throw down cheap minions with Charge, buff them with minions like Abusive Sergeant, and then smash Maexxna in the face. Battlecry heal minions can help you stay upright when Maexxna has control of the board.

She only has two Taunt minions and their 5 mana so you can open up a big lead on her. Even when she does put the Taunt minion (Sludge Belcher) on the field, you can throw down an Ironbeak Owl to remove its abilities.

Make sure that you have some abilities to help you clear the board as well. Maexxna's minions are bound to outnumber yours at multiple times throughout the fight. Cards like Holy Nova, Kill Command or Consecration are really helpful in removing this advantage.

Suggested deck: Face Hunter due to its early-game offense. The other nice part about the deck is that it has cards like Hunter's Mark, Explosive Trap and Misdirection to blunt Maexxna's offense and remove her minions.

Plague Quarter

Noth the Plaguebringer

Hero power: Raise Dead (0 mana) - Whenever an enemy dies, summon a 5/5 Skeleton.

Description: If you like flooding the board with cheap minions, Noth is not going to be a fun fight. His Hero ability allows him to turn the tables on players with armies of 1 or 2 mana minions. Every time he kills one of your henchmen, he gets a powerful minion for free. You can get overwhelmed very.

Even if you survive late into the game and get control of the board, you're not in the clear. Noth can quickly flip things around on you with Plague. This 6-mana card instantly kills any minions who aren't Skeletons - giving himself some new Skeletons in the process.

Strategy: The key to beating Noth is to not feed him new Skeletons. This means you should only use a few minions. The minions that you do use need to be durable. Use a deck slanted toward spells that allow you to kill Noth's minions and damage him without risking a Skeleton spawn.

I say "spells" instead of "weapons" for a reason. Noth has a pair of Skeletal Smiths in his deck that cost 3 mana and can destroy weapons. Rogues and Warriors may have a rough time with this fight as a result.

Even in the late game (6+ mana), make sure you don't have multiple minions on the board. Otherwise you're asking for a beatdown with Plague. One thing to note, though, is that he only has one of those cards in his deck. After the first Plague cast, feel free to start throwing all your big minions on the board.

Suggested deck: Spell-heavy mage decks like this one can do the job. They allow you to mount an early defense and keep the board clean until you have enough mana to start throwing down damage-heavy minions and spells. Control druids work well for the same reason.

Heigan the Unclean

Hero power: Eruption (0 mana) - Deal 3 damage to the left-most enemy minion.

Description: Heigan is at his core an aggro lock. He has a lot of low-mana minions and abilities to establish an early lead. Meanwhile, his Hero power Eruption prevents you from getting a foothold with minions.

Strategy: This fight's not really that bad. If you've been playing Hearthstone for any length of time, you've run into a crap-ton of aggro locks at this point. Your plan-of-attack for Heigan is roughly similar: prevent his offensive for the first few turns and then counter-attack. His biggest monsters are a pair of Dread Infernals (6/6) so he's not well-equipped for taking down your heavies.

Eruption will wipe out most cheap minions. If you plan to play any, make sure they're to the right of a more durable comrade. However, the low end of your deck's mana curve should be slanted toward abilities. Like Noth, Heigan has a couple weapon-breaking minions so you should leave your weapons outside.

Suggested deck: Priests are a popular choice because of their assortment of offensive spells, buffs and heals. This Control Lock deck is another cheap option that leverages high-health minions and deathrattles to stomp Heigan.

Loatheb

Hero power: Necrotic Aura (0 mana): Deal 3 damage to the enemy Hero.

Description: Loatheb looks impossible at first. He's 99 health instead of the usual 45 for a Heroic boss. Every turn he smacks you in the face for 3 damage. On top of all that, he starts with a taunt minion (Fen Creeper, 3/6) on the board.

Oh, and his boss Kel'Thuzad just noticed that you've been cheesing fights with Alexstrasza. He'll kill the minion as soon as you play it.

Strategy: You do have a chance in this battle, though: the Spores. Loatheb summons these little 0/1 minions that give ALL of your active minions +8 attack when you kill them.

Your challenge is to have multiple minions on the field when a spore is popped so you can take full advantage of their +8 damage buff. You also have to make sure that they stay alive long enough to pummel Loatheb or any minions in your way. Low-mana minions that have higher-than-average health or a quick way to attack Spores are very valuable.

Loatheb has strong board-clearing capabilities, thanks to his abundant supply of Sporeburst (1 damage to all enemy minions) and Deathbloom (5 damage to a single enemy) cards. However, as long as you're releasing a steady stream of minions and keeping them safe, you'll be able to complete this damage race.

Suggested deck: A Priest deck is a natural choice due to their ability to keep minions alive and boost their effectiveness. Because so many low-mana minions are neutral, though, a lot of classes are viable. Here's an example of a Shaman deck.

Military Quarter

Instructor Razuvious

Hero power: Unbalancing Strike (1 mana): Deals 4 damage

Description: Razuvious is the hardest-hitting boss you've encountered yet. His Hero power lets him smack you or one of your minions for 4 damage just a single mana crystal. Then there's his Massive Runeblade, which can hit you for 20 damage. This means you can end up with only 6 damage after a turn.

Fortunately, you start the fight with a Mind Control Crystal in your possession. This lets you convert his two Understudy minions to your side. You're going to need them to have a chance in this fight.

Strategy: To survive long enough to kill Razuvious, you need to keep yourself behind Taunt minions. The two Understudies are a nice start. However, he can take one out with a single swing of his Massive Runeblade (a 3-mana card). It's a good idea to have some other Taunts in your deck just in case one or two of your Understudies fall.

A class that can heal or buff Understudies is very useful for this encounter. You want to keep them alive as long as possible. They start with 0 attack and if you give them some offensive capabilities, the battle's going to go a lot smoother.

Finding a way to neutralize Massive Runeblade is crucial as well. He has four in his deck so eventually he'll break through your defenses with a Runeblade at the ready. However, if you can break a couple of these blades or steal them from his deck, you'll buy yourself enough time to take out Razuvious.

Suggested deck: Priest decks like this one and this one are cheap paths to victory. They can boost up an Understudy to ridiculous attack and health with Divine Spirit and then Inner Fire. These decks have everything else you need, too: cheap alternate taunts, weapon breaks, and card steals.

Gothik the Harvester

Hero power: Harvest (1 mana): Draw a card. Gain a Mana Crystal.

Description: Gothik is a marathon runner. He uses his Hero power to collect mana along with a pile of cheap minion cards to spend them on. He also has Warlock spells like Corruption and Shadow Bolt to keep you from assembling an army of your own.

Many of his minions will summon ghosts to fight on your side. Don't thank him, though. These minions cause 1 damage to you each turn, which can quickly put you behind in the health race.

Strategy: This fight is similar to Razuvious: you're handed minions and need to put them to work for you. That's a harder task in this fight, though, because the Spectral minions spawned on your board are worthless at first. They have 0 attack and no Taunt, so their only function is to bleed you of health.

This means that buffs are even more important. Minions that can buff numerous allies at once like Sunfury Protector or Defender of Argus are especially valuable. if you're going to be stuck with these ghosts, they may as well help you out.

Corruption and Shadow Bolt allow Gothik to quickly wipe out high-cost minions. It's a better idea to summon several cheaper minions. The added advantage of this approach is that if you fill your side of the board, there are no room for Spectral minions that would normally be summoned by killing Gothik's henchmen.

Suggested deck: Paladins and Shaman are both strong choices thanks to their buffs and board clears. They can stay in the fight long enough to counter all Gothik's punches and slowly take him down.

The Four Horsemen

Hero power: Unholy Shadow (5 mana): Draw 2 cards.

Description: Baron Rivendare starts the fight with three 2/7 minions on the board. You'll need to kill them before you can attack the Baron. He's immune to damage before all three are dead.

Even alone, Rivendare is a formidable opponent. His Runeblade's attack power is boosted by 6 once his companions are dead. His Hero power allows him to rapidly accumulate cards in the late game. These cards are spells from several different classes that allow him to weaken or kill your minions.

Strategy: Getting rid of Rivendare's three minions is the first challenge. You can't use Equality or Doomsayer on the fight; I guess Blizzard figured that would be too easy. Other quick takedowns like Shadow Word: Pain or Charge minions will work, though.

The Baron only has 14 health but killing him is easier said than done. His spells make it tough for you to mount an offense. Minions might not stay alive long enough to do any damage. Use heavy-hitting offensive spells or Charge minions to finish him off.

Acidic Swamp Ooze is a good card to bring into the battle. It's a cheap minion that lets you break the Baron's Runeblade. This will spare you some serious damage while you collect enough spells or minions to kill him.

Suggested deck: Hunters can be a good choice because of their quick offense. They can wrestle the board away from the horsemen and keep it. This Druid deck is a good choice as well because of its heals and Taunts. Both of these decks use the legendary Loatheb card from the Plague Quarter because his Battlecry stalls his flurry of spells.

Construct Quarter

Patchwerk

Hero power: Hateful Strike (4 mana): Destroys a minion.

Description: Patchwerk, like his World of Warcraft incarnation, is a DPS race. His weapon lets him hit for 4 damage two times every round. Meanwhile, his Hero power lets him instantly kill any of your minions.

That's the entire fight. He doesn't draw any other cards. He wants to smash you so you have to smash him faster.

Strategy: This is a really simple fight. All you need to do is stall his offensive long enough for you to wear down his health. The key is finding ways to keep him from hitting you. Freezes, weapon breaks, and taunts are all good options.

Cheap minions with these stalling effects are very valuable. His Hero power lets him wipe out any minion regardless of health so you should go for quantity rather than quality. Summon minions at a faster rate than he can wipe them out and you'll win the fight easily.

His lack of cards can be exploited in some ways as well. If you force him to draw cards by playing Coldlight Oracle, he'll take Fatigue damage. Deathlord normally summons a random minion for your opponent on death. Patchwerk has no minions, though, so this card becomes even more effective than usual.

Suggested deck: Ice mage decks like this one or this one make short work of Patchwerk. They have freeze spells to render Patchwerk helpless and enough defensive tricks to buy some time.

Grobbulus

Hero power: Poison Cloud (0 mana): Deal 2 damage to all enemies. If any die, summon a slime.

Description: Grobbulus is a pain in the ass. He's very good at taking control of the board and keeping it. His Hero Power quickly eliminates your cheap minions and turns them into 2/2 slimes for his team.

Maybe his most devastating move, though, is Mutating Injection. This ability adds four Health and four Mana to his minion along with Taunt. If he uses this in conjunction with Echoing Ooze, he'll end up with two 5/6 Taunt minions on the field. That combo by itself could sink you.

Strategy: Don't feed Grobbulus slimes. He's bound to finish off some of your minions with his Hero Power but don't make it easy on him. Try to kill your minions in clearing his side of the board. Or, better yet, keep your team alive with buffs or heals.

Make sure you've got some cards to quickly remove or silence his minions. Don't just fritter them away on his cheaper minions. Your success or failure in this game is going to hinge on how quickly you can get rid of his high-health Taunts.

Suggested deck: These Priest decks have the right idea: durable minions, healing spells and removal abilities. The Divine Spirit and Inner Fire combo lets you boost minions to outrageous power. Once you've beefed up a minion, keep him or her alive with heals and wipe out all opposition.

Gluth

Hero power: Decimate (0 mana): Change the Health of enemy minions to 1.

Description: Gluth is a powerful enemy that uses your efforts against you. His weapon, Jaws, starts out with only 3 attack but that ramps up by 2 each time a minion with Deathrattle dies. That's unfortunate because almost every minion he plays has a Deathrattle.

He's able to boost the power of Jaws even without your help. Bite and Enrage bumps up his Attack by 4 and 6. These abilities, combined with some careless killing of his minions by you, could allow him to stomp you before you have a chance.

If all that isn't annoying enough, he knocks all of your minions down to 1 Health every turn.

Strategy: This is another fight that could be one or lost depending on your mulligan. You want an Acidic Swamp Ooze in your hand to be able to destroy Jaws. He has 4 in his deck so he may be able to replace it right away. However, if you'll get lucky, you'll have a few turns where he has no weapon to strike you with.

Once his weapon is gone, you can do some significant board clearing. The explosions from Abomination and Unstable Ghoul can help a lot. Zombie Chows, meanwhile, can help you regenerate some needed Health.

Decimate makes your minion choices a bit easier. Because their health is going to get knocked down to 1, you can favor high Attack minions over high Health ones. Charge and Divine Shield minions, meanwhile, have a better chance of causing some damage before they die.

Suggested deck: Paladins can quickly clear out a crowded field with Equality or Consecrate. Mages have strong clears as well, and can generate more Oozes thanks to Duplicate.

Thaddius

Hero power: Polarity Shift (0 mana): Swap the Attack and Health of all minions.

Description: Thaddius starts with two formidable minions on the board. Feugen and Stalagg are 4/7 and 7/4. This means that they'll pummel you for a whopping 11 damage right off the bat.

Getting minions on the board to stop this duo isn't easy. Thaddius is a Shaman so he has two AoE lightning spells at his disposal. The result is that you might be defeated in just three or four rounds.

Strategy: The key to this fight is getting Feugen and Stalagg off the board as quickly as possible. If you've got any cheap removal spells, this is the fight to use them. Surviving these two will probably require some luck with your opening hand, though.

You can take advantage of the Attack and Health switch every round to killing them easier. For example, the Paladin card Humility reduces a target's Attack to one. If you use this on Feugen or Stalagg, they'll then have 1 health the following round - making it much easier to take them out.

Once the two are dead and you have a fair amount of Health, the rest of the fight's a snap. Just keep his other minions off the board and get some damage on him before he devastates your side with AoE.

Suggested deck: Paladins work well because of Humility, Equality and their damage spells. Their buffs and heals, meanwhile, keep their minions and Hero afloat long enough to strike back at Thaddius. Regardless of class, Nerubian Eggs are a good choice because Polarity Shift will pop them the following round and give you a 4/4 minion.

Frostwyrm Lair

Sapphiron

Hero power: Frost Breath (0 mana): Destroy all minions that aren't Frozen.

Description: Heroic Sapphiron is a big step up from his Normal mode incarnation. You no longer have a Frozen Champion on your side to shield your minions from his breath. This means that any minion you play is going to be killed by the start of his turn.

While you can't keep a consistent team of minions alive on your side, Sapphiron doesn't have any such problems. He plays minions like Shade of Naxxramas, Faerie Dragon and Spectral Knight that can't be easily killed by you. His Skeletal Smiths, meanwhile, will smash your weapon upon death.

Sapphiron is also armed with a very nasty card called Pure Cold. This spell deals 8 damage to you and then Freezes you. This card is only 5-mana so it can bring a swift end to the match.

Strategy: Sapphiron's Frost Breath limits your options a lot. If you're going to have any minions, they need to be useful in the span of one turn. If they don't have a Charge, Battlecry or Deathrattle, you probably shouldn't bother having them in your deck.

No matter what your actual strategy is, your deck should be skewed toward abilities and weapons. Yes, you can keep minions alive by freezing them with your Water Elemental or Ice Lance. You're throwing a lot of mana around just to buy your minion another turn, though. It's best to just enter battle with deck stocked only with a few pivotal minions.

The key to this fight is avoiding damage while hitting him as quickly as possible. His two Pure Cold cards can do a combined 16 damage to your Hero so if you let him get easy shots in early on, you're not going to survive until the late game when you can bring your heaviest artillery to bear on him. Secrets and spells that can wipe out or defang his minions are a must.

Suggested deck: Mages are popular because of their defensive ability, AoE, and heavy-damage spells. This Mage deck is based around stalling with ice spells until you can summon Feugen and Stalagg, who in turn bring Thaddius (11/11) to the battlefield. Charge and weapons make Warriors a smart pick as well, though you need to make sure not to kill Skeletal Smiths while your weapon is out.

Kel'Thuzad

Hero power: Phase 1 - Frost Blast (0 mana): Deal 3 damage to the enemy Hero and freeze it. Phase 2 - Chains (8 mana): Take control of a random enemy minion.

Description: There are two phases to Kel'Thuzad's fight. Both of them suck.

In the first phase, he's protected by a thick wall of armor and will steadily smack you for 3 damage per round. Once you've torn down that armor, he ends your turn and summons two 5/5 Taunt minions called Guardians of Icecrown. This is the start of Phase Two.

Phase Two doesn't get much easier once you've taken out these new minions. He's still got a range of ice spells and minions at his disposal to blunt your offensive. Then there's Twisting Nether, a lovely card that kills every minion on the board. On top of all that, his Phase Two hero power lets him permanently take hold of one of your minions.

Strategy: This fight is all about speed. You need to get through Phase One before he hits you with too much damage. Then you have to get the Guardians of Icecrown out of the way so you can go back to hitting Kel'Thuzad. After that, you have to kill him before he can turn the match around with Twisting Nether, Blizzard, or Chains.

Buffing up minions to incredible health and attack worked well for a lot of Curse of Naxxramas bosses. However, Chains throws a wrench in that plan. There's no sense in investing cards and mana to strengthen a minion just to have Kel'Thuzad steal it the following turn.

His Twisting Nether and ice mage attacks, meanwhile, make it very easy to stall or wipe out weaker minions. So yeah, don't get too attached to any minion in this match. Just make sure you can replace them in quick fashion and keep the pressure on Kel'Thuzad. Don't let him get control of the board.

Suggested deck: Priest and Paladin decks seem to be widely-used. However, I personally found more luck with aggro decks like Zoo Lock or a Bloodlust Shaman. They have quick offense but no mega-minions to get mind-controlled. Twisting Nether sucks obviously but as long as luck's on your side, you'll eke out a win.

Right now the first wing of Hearthstone's expansion Curse of Naxxramas is free to download. That won't always be the case, though. Today Blizzard revealed when this offer will expire.

"The Curse of Naxxramas launch event is ending soon!" Blizzard announced on the Hearthstone forum. "This means you have until September 30 at 11:59 p.m. PDT to log in to Hearthstone and unlock the Arachnid Quarter for free. If you haven’t experienced all of the creepy-crawly fun of The Arachnid Quarter, now is a great time to skitter into Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure. Emerge from the wing victorious and you’ll earn new (web-covered) cards for your Hearthstone collection!"

Starting on October, the Arachnid Quarter will be the same price as the four others: $6.99 or 700 gold. You can also purchase several wings at the same time. Here are the prices for buying multiple wings:

• All five wings: $24.99
• Already own first wing: $19.99
• Already own first two wings: $14.99
• Already own first three wings: $9.99

The Arachnid Quarter includes three A.I. bosses for players to conquer. Defeating each boss earns you a new card for your collection. You'll also get a bonus Legendary for clearing the wing.

After completing the Arachnid Quarter on Normal, you can revisit the fights with Class Challenges. You have to beat Grand Widow Faerlina as a Druid and Maexxna as a Druid while using set decks. Your rewards for these challenges will be a new card for each class.

The last challenge is to beat the bosses on Heroic mode. Each opponent has increased health and new abilities on Heroic. You'll need to have a very clear strategy and a well-suited deck to take them down. If you need help, check out our Curse of Naxxramas guide.

The point of all this is that Arachnid Quarter's worth grabbing while it's free. You may find the A.I. bosses an entertaining diversion - and even if you don't, you're getting some new cards. They could help you get an edge in Ranked Play. Nerubian Egg's turned out to be a very potent addition to some decks.

Curse Of Naxxramas was released over the course of several weeks this summer. The fifth and final wing, Frostwyrm Lair, arrived last week. They collectively offer 15 bosses, 9 class challenges and 30 cards to collect.

Naxxramas is the first of multiple single-player expansion packs for Hearthstone. The future expansion packs shouldn't take nearly as long to be released, though.

"We are currently laying a lot of the groundwork for Adventure Modes in general and intend to be able to leverage this groundwork for future Adventure Modes," Blizzard said in July. "This should definitely help with future Adventure Mode rollout times."

Blizzard will release the fifth and final wing of Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas today. The expansion's last component, Frostwyrm Lair, will be released worldwide on PC, Mac and iPad in a matter of hours.

As usual, the exact release time depends on the region. The expansion actually live in Korea, Taiwan and China right now. Here's when America and Europe will get it, according to Blizzard:

• Americas: Tuesday, August 19th at 11:59 PM PDT
• Europe: Tuesday, August 19th at 11:59 PM CEST

The Frostwyrm Lair will cost 700 Gold or $6.99. The entire Curse of Naxxramas expansion can also be purchased for $24.99. Blizzard knocks five dollars off that price for each wing you've previously purchased on its own.

Hearthstone players will face two bosses in Frostwyrm Lair: the ice dragon Sapphiron and the lich lord Kel'Thuzad. They'll be available in both normal mode and heroic mode. Heroic mode ramps up the health of the bosses and gives them more powerful abilities.

If you beat Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad, here's what you'll unlock:

• Sapphiron - Echoing Ooze (1/2, 2 mana): Battlecry: Summon an exact copy of this minion at the end of the turn.
• Kel'Thuzad - Shade of Naxxramas (2/2, 3 mana): Stealth. At the start of your turn, gain +1/+1.

Additionally, beating Kel'Thuzad will unlock access to his Legendary card. The Kel'Thuzad Legendary is a 6/8 minion that summons all friendly minions that died that turn. You'll need 8 mana to play that card in battle.

The Frostwyrm Lair also includes Curse of Naxxramas' ninth and final class challenge. You'll be provided with a custom Paladin deck and asked to defeat one of the bosses from the Lair. Completing this challenge will unlock the Paladin-only card Avenge. This Secret card gives a random friendly minion +3/+2 when one of your other minions dies. Don't play the card with only one minion on the field or we're all going to laugh at you.

Curse of Naxxramas is the first single-player expansion pack for Hearthstone since the card game launched earlier in the year. Blizzard has said that there will be additional expansions just like it in the future. They promised that these future add-ons will be released at a faster rate, too.

If you're stuck on any of the bosses in Naxxramas, check out our our guide. We'll be updating it very soon with strategies for the Frostwyrm Lair bosses.

Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas is about to receive its biggest update yet. Today Blizzard will add the Construct Quarter, a collection of four new A.I. bosses for players to challenge.

The release time will vary depending on your region. Here's the full schedule, courtesy of Blizzard:

• Americas: Tuesday, August 12th at 11:59 PM PDT
• Europe: Tuesday, August 12th at 11:59 PM CEST
• Korea/Taiwan: Wednesday , August 13th at 12:59 AM KST / Tuesday, August 12th 11:59 PM CST
• China: Tuesday, August 12th at 11:59 PM CST

The Construct Quarter is named such because each of its bosses were actually created, rather than born. Kel'Thuzad and his scientists stitched them together using god-knows-how-many corpses. They're like Frankenstein's rejected designs.

You'll unlock at least one card for beating each boss on Normal mode. These cards should look familiar to you if you've played the other wings' bosses:

• Patchwerk - Undertaker (1/2, 1 mana): Whenever you summon a minion with Deathrattle, gain +1/+1.
• Grobbulus - Mad Scientist (2/2, 2 mana): Deathrattle: Put a secret from your deck onto the battlefield.
• Gluth - Zombie Chow (2/3, 1 mana): Deathrattle: Restore 5 health to the enemy Hero.
• Thaddius - Wailing Soul (3/5, 4 mana): Battlecry: Silence your other minions

Usually, beating the wing's boss in Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas earns you a Legendary as well. However, in this case, you'll earn two Legendaries: Feugen (4/7, 5 mana) and Stalagg (7/4, 5 mana). When both are killed in battle, Thaddius (11/11) will be summoned to the battlefield.

The Construct Quarter's two new Class Challenges are for the Warrior and Priest. Here's what you'll earn for each class by completing these trials:

• Priest - Dark Cultist (3/4, 3 mana): Deathrattle: Give a random friendly minion +3 Health.
• Warrior - Death's Bite (weapon, 4/2, 4 mana): Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to all minions.

Once the Class Challenges are done, the Heroic versions of all bosses will be unlocked. We'll update our heroic mode guide with strategies for the Construct Quarter soon.

Like other Curse of Naxxramas wings, the Construct Quarter costs $6.99 to download. Alternately, you can pay with 700 gold. Blizzard offers discounts to Hearthstone players buying multiple wings at a time. You can find the full price breakdown for the U.S. and Europe here.

There's only one more wing in Curse of Naxxramas to be released. Frostwyrm Lair will go live in a week with two bosses. I suspect these bosses will be more complex than usual because they're the final fights. Or maybe Blizzard's got some other surprise up their sleeves?

Blizzard's rollout of Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas continues Tuesday with the release of another wing. Players across the world will be able to download the expansion packs's Military Quarter.

Like the Arachnid and Plague wings that came before it, the Military Quarter challenges players with three A.I. bosses. Each has a different deck and Hero ability. Here's a general description of each boss and the card you'll unlock by defeating them.

Instructor Razuvious

Overview: Razuvious is the trainer of the Lich King's Death Knights. Players must use his Understudies against him in battle.

Reward: Dancing Swords (4/4, 3 mana) - Deathrattle: Your opponent draws a card.

Gothik the Harvester

Overview: Gothik is a necromancer who commands an army of undead soldiers.

Reward: Spectral Knight (4/6, 5 mana) - Can't be targeted by spells and Hero powers

The Four Horsemen

Overview: Baron Rivendare is protected by his three fellow horsemen: Lady Blaumeux, Sir Zeliek and Thane Korth'azz. They must be dealt with before Rivendare can be defeated.

Reward: Deathlord (2/8, 3 mana) - Taunt. Deathrattle: Your opponent puts a minion from their deck on the battlefield.

Completing the Military Quarter also unlocks Baron Rivendare's card for your collection. This 4-mana minion has 1 attack and 7 health. When Rivendare is on the battlefield, he causes your other minions to trigger their Deathrattles twice. This should an effective card when used in conjunction with other Curse of Naxxramas minions, which commonly have Deathrattles.

Two Class Challenges will be available once you've completed the Military Quarter once on Normal. You'll have to beat specific Military bosses with the Warlock and Shaman. Here are the rewards you'll earn for each:

• Shaman: Reincarnate (2 mana) - Destroy a minion and then return it to life with full Health.
• Warlock: Voidcaller (4 mana, 3/4) - Deathrattle: Put a random Demon from your hand into the battlefield.

The launch time for the Military Quarter will depend on where you live. Here's the schedule Blizzard published today:

• Americas: Tuesday, August 5th at 11:59 PM PDT
• Europe: Tuesday, August 5th at 11:59 PM CEST
• Korea/Taiwan: Wednesday , August 6th at 12:59 AM KST / Tuesday, August 5th 11:59 PM CST
• China: Tuesday, August 5th at 11:59 PM CST

If you're still finishing up the earlier wings from Curse of Naxxramas, check out our strategy guide. We'll update it soon with strategies for the Military Quarter bosses.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's single-player expansion Curse of Naxxramas will add another wing later today. The Plague Quarter will go live in all territories by midnight.

While American gamers will have to wait until late at night, everyone else will get it several hours before then. Here's the full release schedule released by Blizzard:

• Americas: Tuesday, July 29th at 11:59 PM PDT
• Europe: Tuesday, July 29th at 11:59 PM CEST
• Asia: (Korea) Wednesday , July 30th at 12:59 AM KST / (Taiwan) Tuesday, July 29th 11:59 PM CST
• China: Tuesday, July 29th at 11:59 PM CST

The Plague Quarter of Naxxramas introduces three more bosses: Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean, and Loatheb. Defeating each will unlock new cards for your collection:

• Noth - Stoneskin Gargoyle (1/4, 3 mana): At the start of your turn, restore this minion to full health.
• Heigan - Unstable Ghoul (1/3, 2 mana): Taunt. Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to all minions.
• Loatheb - Sludge Belcher (3/5, 5 mana): Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon a 1/2 slim with Taunt.

Additionally, defeating Loatheb will unlock his Legendary card. He's a 5/5 minion that costs 5 mana. His Battlecry makes your enemy's spells cost 5 more mana next turn. It would be a good way to blunt a mage or miracle rogue's offensive. It could be a really potent ability if you have a way to return the card to your deck like Shadowstep.

Once you've beaten the Plague Quarter on Normal, you'll unlock two Class Challenges. These Challenges will ask you to beat a specific Plague boss with a Hunter and a Mage, respectively. You'll be forced to play with a custom deck in the match. Here are the rewards for these Challenges:

• Mage - Duplicate (3 mana): When a friendly minion dies, put 2 copies of it in your hand.
• Hunter - Webspinner (1/1, 1 mana): Deathrattle: Add a random Beast card to your hand.

The final challenge of the Plague Quarter is Heroic mode. This mode cranks up bosses' health from 30 to 45. It also makes their Boss abilities more potent than usual. We'll update our Naxxramas guide with strategies for defeating these new bosses on Heroic soon.

Last week's wing, the Arachnid Quarter, was free to download. The Plague Quarter, however, is going to cost you. You can unlock it by either spending $6.99 or 700 gold. Bulk discounts are available as well if you're comfortable buying multiple wings. However, you can only spend cash with bulk purchases.

Blizzard will release three more wings in Curse of Naxxramas in the coming weeks.

Update: The expansion is now live.

Original article: Hearthstone players are getting new challenges today. The first wing of single-player expansion Curse of Naxxramas will be released on PC, Mac and iPad.

The wing, called the Arachnid Quarter, is home to three bosses. Here's a brief description of each, from our complete boss guide published earlier in the month:

• Crypt Lord Anub'Rekhan - Anub'Rekhan was once a leader of the nerubians, an intelligent and spider-like race that lived in secrecy for millenia before being conquered by the Lich King. The fallen nerubian lord was resurrected by the Lich King to guard the inner chambers of this wing.
• Grand Widow Faerlina - Faerlina is a human cultist that helps raise the army of spiders produced in the Arachnid Quarter. The extensive time she spends with these spiders has made her proficient with poisons.
• Maexxna - The source of the Lich King's spiders is Maexxna. This enormous spider will web and eat any intruders into her domain.

The Arachnid Quarter will be free to download for at least a month. After that, it'll cost you $6.99 or 700 gold to download. Blizzard will also let players buy multiple wings at once at a discount. The full price details can be found here.

Curse of Naxxramas' other four wings will be rolled out on a weekly basis. They'll be released in the following order: Plague Quarter, Military Quarter, Construct Quarter, and Frostwyrm Lair. Each wing contains a new set of bosses to defeat and cards to earn. After beating the wing once on Normal mode, you can replay it in Heroic for an added challenge.

Hearthstone's servers are currently down for extended maintenance. The Curse of Naxxramas content won't be playable right after maintenance is over, though.

"Just wanted to clarify that this maintenance is not for the Curse of Naxxramas Adventure," said community manager Aratil on the Battle.net forums. "We will be turning on Curse of Naxxramas for all regions at the same time some time after this maintenance is complete, but please do not expect Naxxramas to be available immediately following this maintenance."

The mention of an "all regions" release is interesting. Blizzard previously said that Europe wouldn't get it until the 23rd. I just assumed that they meant the North America and European launches of Naxxramas would be 24 hours apart. However, they might be planning to push out Naxxramas in the evening in North America today, which would be the early morning hours of Wednesday in Europe.

While you're waiting for Curse of Naxxramas to launch, check out the full list of cards in the expansion. Players will be able to add 30 cards to their collection, six of which are Legendary. They can also craft golden versions of these cards in time as well. These new cards will also be available for Arena mode once their corresponding wing goes live.

Hearthstone's first single-player expansion Curse of Naxxramas will add dozens of new cards to the game. Let's take a look at the full list of new additions.

Nine of the new cards are class-specific. They can be unlocked through Class Challenges, which ask players to beat certain Naxxramas bosses with specific characters. For example, Rexxar the Hunter has to defeat Loatheb to get his new card. Each class has their own challenge and card reward:

• Druid: Poison Seeds (spell) - Destroy all minions and summon 2/2 Treants to replace them.
• Hunter: Webspinner (minion) - Deathrattle: Draw a random Beast card.
• Mage: Duplicate (secret) - Secret: When a friendly minion dies, put 2 copies of it in your hand.
• Paladin: Avenge (secret) - Secret: When one of your minions dies, give a friendly minion +3/+2.
• Priest: Dark Cultist (minion) - Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion +3 Health.
• Rogue: Anub'ar Ambusher (minion) - Deathrattle: Return a friendly minion to your hand.
• Shaman: Reincarnation (spell) - Destroy a minion, then return it to life with full Health.
• Warlock: Voidcaller (minion) - Deathrattle: Put a Demon from your hand into the battlefield.
• Warrior: Death's Bite (weapon) - Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to all minions.

The expansion also introduces several Legendary minion cards. They're based on the final bosses of Naxxramas's five wings. Presumably you unlock them by defeating them in battle. In the case of the Construct Quarter, there are actually three Legendaries to gain: Feugen, Stalagg and Thaddius. Here's the complete list of Legendaries, along with the wings they're located in (via Hearthstone's official Facebook page):

• Baron Rivendare (Military Quarter): Your minions trigger their Deathrattles twice.
• Loatheb (Plague Quarter): Battlecry: Enemy spells cost (5) more next turn.
• Maexxna (Arachnid Quarter): Destroy any minion damaged by this minion.
• Kel'Thuzad (Frostwyrm Lair): At the end of the turn, summon all friendly minions that died this turn.
• Stalagg (Construct Quarter): If Feugen also died this game, summon Thaddius.
• Feugen (Construct Quarter): If Stalagg also died this game, summon Thaddius.
• Thaddius (Construct Quarter): Summoned when Feugen and Stalagg die. No special abilities of his own, but he has 11 health and 11 attack.

The rest of the Naxxramas cards are minions ranging from Common to Epic. Like the Legendaries, these cards are Neutral so you can use them no matter what class you're playing as. You can check them out in the gallery below along with the Class cards and Legendaries mentioned above.

Curse of Naxxramas will debut in North America on PC, Mac and iPad on July 22nd. European gamers will get their hands on the expansion on the following day. Blizzard plans to release Naxxramas one wing at a time over five weeks. You can check out the full release schedule and price list here.

Blizzard is following through on their promise to release Hearthstone's first expansion pack this month. Curse of Naxxramas will be available next week on all platforms.

Naxxramas marks the debut of Adventure Mode, a single-player-only experience. Players will venture into the undead citadel of Naxxramas and face fifteen A.I. bosses with different abilities. The expansion won't be available all at once, though. Instead, Blizzard is rolling it out in five installments.

"Curse of Naxxramas goes live in the Americas region for Windows, Mac, and iPad on Tuesday, July 22, starting with the Arachnid Quarter, the first of five creepy wings that will be released weekly after the gates are opened," Blizzard said on the official Hearthstone website. The Arachnid Quarter will be free to play during the Curse of Naxxramas launch event, which will last roughly a month. Those brave enough to step foot into the Arachnid Quarter during the launch event will unlock it permanently for free."

European gamers will be getting Naxxramas next week as well. They'll have to wait a day more than American Hearthstone players, though.

The Arachnid Quarter will be followed in subsequent weeks by the Plague Quarter, Military Quarter, Construct Quarter, and Frostwyrm Lair. Each contains a different set of bosses for players to test their skills against. Assuming that the wings are all spaced one week apart, here are the release dates for the other wings:

• Plague Quarter: July 29 (NA), July 30th (EU)
• Military Quarter: August 5th (NA), August 6th (EU)
• Construct Quarter: August 12th (NA), August 13th (EU)
• Frostwyrm Lair: August 19th (NA), August 20th (EU)

Wings can be purchased individually or in a bundle. Here are the previously announced prices for the additional wings:

US

• All five wings: $24.99
• Already own first wing: $19.99
• Already own first two wings: $14.99
• Already own first three wings: $9.99
• Individual wings: $6.99, or 700 gold, each

Europe

• All five wings: 21.99 euros or 17.49 pounds
• Already own first wing: 17.99 euros or 13.99 pounds
• Already own first two wings: 13.99 euros or 11.49 pounds
• Already own first three wings: 8.99 euros or 6.99 pounds
• Individual wings: 5.99 euros, 4.99 pounds or 700 gold each

Players who defeat the bosses and complete wings will unlock never-before-seen cards. They'll also gain access to two new game modes in the expansion: Class Challenges and Heroic. Heroic is a higher difficulty that enables players to craft new golden cards. Class Challenges are quests that must be completed by specific characters, with class-exclusive cards as rewards.

Curse of Naxxramas will be followed by other single-player expansions. No details have been released about these other DLC packs. However, Blizzard said that the groundwork that they laid for Adventure Mode with Naxxramas will result in a quicker turnaround with the later expansions.

Hearthstone expansion pack Curse of Naxxramas allows players to earn a new set of golden cards. On Wednesday, Blizzard explained how they can be acquired.

Originally the golden versions of Naxxramas cards were earned through Heroic mode, a harder difficulty level. Heroic mode is unlocked for a wing after beating all of the bosses in it. The initial idea is that players would have to beat Heroic versions of bosses to earn the right to craft them with arcane dust.

However, community manager Neriyah said on Hearthstone's forums that there was a "lot of negative feedback" to this plan from internal testers. Heroic Mode bosses are too difficult for some players, preventing them from ever being able to get these cards. Blizzard felt that this was too frustrating and "didn't feel like a good reward for beating a Heroic Mode boss in Naxxramas."

The golden cards are still only available through crafting. However, players won't have to beat bosses on Heroic mode first. Instead, they just have to acquire the non-golden versions of the cards through Normal mode. This gives them the ability to then craft the golden cards once they have enough arcane dust.

Some players were hoping that the gold cards would simply drop from Heroic bosses. That would make acquiring them much quicker - or at least give players a way to earn them that doesn't burn through their supply of dust. However, Neriyah says that this was never an option through Curse of Naxxramas' development.

It doesn't really bug me if Naxxramas' golden cards are just a long arcane dust grind. They're just cosmetic items, after all. These cards give players a long-term goal to shoot for once they've unlocked everything else meaningful.

The original batch of golden cards take a significant time investment as well. Each of the golden hero cards requires you to win 500 games in Ranked Play mode with a specific class. I'd argue that that's a much more frustrating goal to strive for than collecting mountains of arcane dust.

Curse of Naxxramas lets players earn 30 new cards, both neutral and class-based. The neutral cards, some of which are Legendary, will be earned through competing wings and defeating bosses. Class cards can be unlocked by completing challenges.

Blizzard announced the pricing structure for Curse of Naxxramas earlier this week. Players can unlock individual wings by spending gold or real-world cash. Several wings can also be purchased in bulk for a discount. The full list of prices can be found here.

Naxxramas, the first single-player expansion for the game, will launch later this month. Blizzard will roll out the expansion's five wings on a weekly basis. The company hasn't announced release dates yet, though.

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Blizzard has revealed a few more crucial details on Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's first expansion, Curse of Naxxramas. They outlined the prices for each part of the expansion and also explained how Heroic Mode will work.

As previously announced, Curse of Naxxramas is a single-player adventure split across five wings. These wings will be released one at a time over five weeks. The first, the Arachnid Quarter, will be free to download.

However, Blizzard said today that the Arachnid Quarter will only be free during Curse of Naxxramas's "launch event."

"The launch event will last roughly a month or so, meaning you’ll have plenty of time to get your foot in the door—we’ll have more details to share about that later on," Blizzard said on Hearthstone's website. "The web-choked corridors of the Arachnid Quarter are home to the bosses Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, and Maexxna. Defeating these bosses will add new cards to your collection and give you a taste of the dangers that await you deeper inside Naxxramas."

The other wings will be released in the following order: Plague Quarter, Military Quarter, Construct Quarter, and Frostwyrm Lair. You can buy wings individually or purchase them in bulk for a discount. Here's the full list of prices:

US

• All five wings: $24.99
• Already own first wing: $19.99
• Already own first two wings: $14.99
• Already own first three wings: $9.99
• Individual wings: $6.99, or 700 gold, each

Europe

• All five wings: 21.99 euros or 17.49 pounds
• Already own first wing: 17.99 euros or 13.99 pounds
• Already own first two wings: 13.99 euros or 11.49 pounds
• Already own first three wings: 8.99 euros or 6.99 pounds
• Individual wings: 5.99 euros, 4.99 pounds or 700 gold each

It's a little disappointing that there's no bulk discount for buying the expansion with gold. It would take quite a while to get 3,500 gold. Still, I'm glad that there's at least an option to earn the expansion without spending cash.

In Curse of Naxxramas, players face 15 A.I. bossesfor the opportunity to earn new cards. Completing Naxxramas on Normal gives you access to Class Challenges, objectives that need to be completed by specific classes. Completing a challenge unlocks a new card for that class.

Finishing a wing of Curse of Naxxramas on Normal allows you to try Heroic mode. Heroic mode bosses are "significantly more difficult" than usual. If you manage to best all the Heroic bosses in Naxxramas, you'll unlock a new card back for your collection. Blizzard hasn't revealed what this card back will look like yet but I'm sure that information's coming soon.

The other missing piece of information about Curse of Naxxramas is the release date. Blizzard has said that the expansion will launch sometime in July, though, so expect a specific date in the near future.

Blizzard has confirmed the full list of boss fights in Hearthstone's expansion Curse of Naxxramas. The list of enemies should look familiar to World of Warcraft veterans.

Naxxramas was one of the earliest raid instances in WoW. The floating necropolis is a major base for the Arthas the Lich King that produces new soldiers for his undead army. Like the WoW raid that inspired it, Curse of Naxxramas features five wings with fifteen bosses. Here's a breakdown of each wing:

Arachnid Quarter

• Crypt Lord Anub'Rekhan - Anub'Rekhan was once a leader of the nerubians, an intelligent and spider-like race that lived in secrecy for millenia before being conquered by the Lich King. The fallen nerubian lord was resurrected by the Lich King to guard the inner chambers of this wing.
• Grand Widow Faerlina - Faerlina is a human cultist that helps raise the army of spiders produced in the Arachnid Quarter. The extensive time she spends with these spiders has made her proficient with poisons.
• Maexxna - The source of the Lich King's spiders is Maexxna. This enormous spider will web and eat any intruders into her domain.

The Plague Quarter

• Noth the Plaguebringer - Noth was once a mage of Dalaran. However, he joined the Lich King in hopes of increasing his power and now serves as a necromancer in his army.
• Heigan the Unclean - Helghan is an alchemist that created a powerful undead plague. Countless humans, plants and animals were corrupted throughout Lordaeron due to his handiwork.
• Loatheb - Loatheb, a corrupted swamp monster, is a striking example of the undead plague's effects. The plague has enabled Loatheb to spray deadly spores that can hurt enemies while also preventing them from healing themselves.

The Military Quarter

• Instructor Razuvious - Razuvious trains the Death Knights in the Lich King's army. Adventurers must use his students against him to have a chance at surviving.
• Gothik the Harvester - Like Razuvious, Gothik instructs Death Knights. His specialty is necromancy. Players will have to contend with ghouls, skeletons and other minions resurrected by him.
• The Four Horsemen - Baron Rivendare commands the royal guard of Naxxramas along with his three companions. All four are deadly opponents with their own special sets of abilities.

The Construct Quarter

• Patchwerk - Kel'Thuzad's most powerful abomination is Patchwerk. He possesses extraordinary strength and speed that let him pound enemies into submission with an enormous meat cleaver.
• Grobbulus - Grobbulus is a flesh giant designed to spread the undead plague as quickly as possible. His arm has been replaced with a giant syringe filled with the plague.
• Gluth - Gluth is a plague-dog with an unusual diet: zombies. He chomps down the undead in order to heal himself in battle, making him a hard opponent to take down.
• Thaddius - The most frightening creation in the Construct Quarter is Thaddius, an abomination fused together with electricity. Adventurers will have to fight him as well as his wight minions Stalagg and Feugen.

Frostwyrm Lair

• Sapphiron - An undead dragon is a deadly enough opponent. However, Sapphiron is even more formidable because of his skill with ice magic.
• Kel'Thuzad - Kel'Thuzad is a powerful archlich and the master of Naxxramas. Once one of the most powerful mages alive, he's become even mightier in undeath. He surrounds himself with a legion of undead to ward off intruders.

By defeating the bosses of Curse of Naxxramas, players will earn new cards for their collection. Once they've completed the entirety of Naxxramas, they can tackle specific challenges to unlock class-specific cards.

Blizzard said that Curse of Naxxramas will be released sometime in July. It's the first expansion to the card game. The development says that the framework they've created for Naxxramas will make future expansions come even faster.

Hearthstone players have been waiting several months for the Curse of Naxxramas expansion pack. Today the development team explained how far along the single-player DLC is and why it's taken them so long.

"We recently just completed all major implementation tasks and are now working on polish as well as some final implementation items," said community manager Aratil on the Battle.net forums. "Our primary focus now is on bug fixing and getting the game ready for ship."

"The team has fixed over 200 bugs just in the last week alone, and new bugs continue to be discovered. After all of the identified bugs have been addressed, the game will still need to undergo several rounds of quality assurance tests to ensure that the game is ready."

Blizzard recently announced that they're going to release Curse of Naxxramas in July. They had hoped to release pricing details on July 1st but they're still deliberating the final details.

"Adventure Mode is a completely new thing for us; in fact, Hearthstone itself is still quite new. There are a lot of factors to consider when determining pricing and we want it to feel accessible to newer players as well as obtainable by players who do not wish to spend real money. This requires not only a lot of research on our part, but also a lot of back and forth on what could work and what won't. In fact, it took us a while to even determine that we wanted to separate the Curse of Naxxramas Adventure Mode into different wings."

Curse of Naxxramas is a five-wing dungeon. Players will battle A.I. opponents with unique abilities. The rewards include new Legendaries and class-specific cards.

Though Blizzard is still finalizing the price information, they already announced the general business model. The five wings will be rolled out one at a time across a five-week period. The first wing will be free to download and play. The remaining four, however, will have to be purchased with in-game gold or real-world money.

Blizzard is planning to release additional Adventure Mode expansions in the future. Aratil said that they won't take as long as Curse of Naxxramas, though.

"We are currently laying a lot of the groundwork for Adventure Modes in general and intend to be able to leverage this groundwork for future Adventure Modes. This should definitely help with future Adventure Mode rollout times."

Season 4 of Hearthstone's Ranked Play launched earlier this week. The new season brings a special reward: a purple-and-green card back inspired by Naxxramas. Players can earn this reward by hitting Rank 20 by the end of the season. The card back will be given out on August 1st, the start of Season 5. Hopefully by then you'll be able to use that back to decorate a slew of new cards you earned from Curse of Naxxramas.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's first single-player expansion pack Curse of Naxxramas will be coming next month, Blizzard revealed today. They also said when they're going to be revealing the price of the content.

"Just wanted to give everyone a head's up that we are currently targeting to release Curse of Naxxramas during the month of July," said community manager Aratil on the Battle.net forums. "Unfortunately, we still have a lot of implementing and bug fixing to get through, so please stay tuned!"

"With that said, we are also targeting to reveal pricing details regarding Curse of Naxxramas next week on July 1st, so please keep an eye out for that."

Curse of Naxxramas is a five-wing dungeon inspired by a World of Warcraft raid. Each wing is filled with new A.I. enemies with unique abilities. When Blizzard first announced Naxxramas, they said that the expansion would be released one wing at a time over five weeks. The first part of the adventure, the Arachnid Quarter, will be free to download.

The other four wings (Construct Quarter, Plague Quarter, Undead Quarter and Frostwyrm Lair) will cost you, though. Blizzard said that players will be able to purchase them with each real money or in-game gold. The more sensible Hearthstone players have been hoarding gold in preparation. I am not one of those players.

Depending on the price, the expansion could be a better use of your money than booster packs. Completing the battles in Naxxramas will earn you new cards, some of which are Legendaries. Each class is getting a new card as well through a challenge mode. These cards could give you a serious competitive advantage in the weeks after Naxxramas' release because not many other players will have them or know how to counter them.

Blizzard is using these new cards to change the Hearthstone meta. Community manager Zeriyah says that they still have no plans to make meaningful changes to existing cards:

Earlier this week a slew of screenshots from Curse of Naxxramas were leaked. These screenshots gave us some insight into the new Legendaries and boss enemies we'll face in the expansion. The images may be from an earlier version of Naxxramas but the final product should still be fairly similar.

Several screenshots from the upcoming Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft expansion Curse of Naxxramas leaked today. These screenshots give some crucial details on the game's first single-player adventure.

Curse of Naxxramas, like the World of Warcraft raid that inspired it, has five wings filled with A.I. bosses. These bosses have some interesting mechanics that make them a little like their WoW counterparts. Baron Rivendare has three horsemen minions accompanying him into battle. Noth the Plaguebringer summons a 1/1 skeleton whenever an enemy minion dies.

Maybe the most interesting boss fight revealed through today's screenshots (via Reddit), though, is Patchwerk. In WoW, Patchwerk was a simple DPS check. If your group couldn't deal enough damage to him before his enrage timer was up, he'd murder everyone. He operates much the same way in Hearthstone. He has no cards in his hand but a 5 damage, 7 durability Hook weapon. It seems he'll just beat on you every round with that Hook until one of you is dead.

Completing each wing by defeating its final boss earns you a new Legendary. For example, beating Frostwyrm lair will unlock the Kel'Thuzad card for your collection. At the end of each turn, he resurrects any friendly minions that died during that turn:

Completing the Construct Quarter actually gives you two Legendaries: Feugen and Stalagg. This midrange minions are decent enough on their own. However, if both of them die in the same match, the player will summon Thaddius. Feugen and Stalagg were Thaddius' minions in World of Warcraft so presumably he's much more powerful than either in Hearthstone.

The leaked screenshots give us a better understanding of Curse of Naxxramas' structure, too. They reveal three modes: Normal, Class Challenge and Heroic. You have to beat Naxxramas on Normal to unlock Class Challenges. Presumably Heroic is unlocked in turn by beating the Class Challenges. Heroic is the term for hard mode in WoW raids so expect a higher difficulty level.

Class Challenges ask players to defeat specific bosses with specific characters. In doing so, you'll earn a class-specific card. For example, Rexxar the Hunter must defeat Loatheb to unlock Webspinner. Webspinner is a 1/1 spider that draws another random Beast card on death.

Because these screenshots weren't released by Blizzard, they probably don't represent the final version of Curse of Naxxramas. Certain stats or mechanics could change. Just keep that in mind when you're checking out the full gallery below.

Blizzard revealed the first single-player adventure for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft at PAX East. Curse of Naxxramas will take players to a location very familiar to World of Warcraft players.

"The ancient necropolis Naxxramas, a base of operations for the powerful lich Kel’Thuzad and his plague-bearing undead host, comes to Hearthstone in a single player PvE Adventure that anyone can undertake!" Blizzard said on the Hearthstone blog. "Progress through one of the five unique wings of the dungeon and gain new cards for your Hearthstone collection."

Bosses from the WoW Naxxramas raid like Loatheb and Patchwerk will make a return. Each of these enemies has unique cards and Hero Powers. For example, Heigan the Unclean has an Eruption card that hurts your left-most minion. His Mindpocalypse gives 2 cards and a Mana crystal to him and his opponent.

Beating these bosses will unlock a new card for your collection. Completing a wing also guarantees you a new Legendary. Additionally, Curse of Naxxramas provides a new challenge for each class with a new class-specific card as a reward. All told, players can earn 30 new cards through Curse. They'll show up in your Arena collection regardless of whether you've permanently unlocked them yet.

Curse of Naxxramas will be released wing by wing over the course of five weeks. Players can dive into the first wing, the Arachnid Quarter, and battle the giant spider Maexxna for free. The other four wings must be purchased with either in-game gold or real money. Maybe it's time to revise that estimate about Hearthstone's revenue. I suspect that single-player content will be very popular for all types of players. The hardcore crowd will want the new cards to stay competitive while more casual players will jump at the chance to play the game against new bots.

The prices and release dates weren't announced. However, community manager Zeriyah said that we can expect the adventure within the next few months:

Blizzard will release Curse of Naxxramas on PC, Mac, and iPad simultaneously. The iPad version is currently only available in three countries but there's a way around that restriction.

Screenshots of the new game board and cards included in Curse can be found below.