Hearthstone Beta Accounts Won't Be Wiped Again

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft players don't have to worry about losing their levels or card collections. Blizzard has confirmed that they're not planning to wipe accounts again during beta or even when the game officially launches.

The developers wiped player accounts once during the closed beta. They did this for balance reasons. Certain cards were too weak or powerful and Blizzard wanted players to have an opportunity to reassemble their decks after the changes were implemented. Any cash spent in the game was refunded as gold.

While some players think having their progress erased again would be a bad thing, others are actually hoping for it. One player floated the idea of an optional, one-time wipe. The feature would offer players a chance to get a new set of booster packs if they were really unhappy with how they had spent their money. The player in question says he had spent $200 on the game thus far.

"This would at least allow players to feel like their money was well-spent, and would not punish them for having experimented with different cards," the player said on the Hearthstone forum. "Blizzard isn't losing anything in this deal, they're simply allowing players to get what was originally stated."

It's an interesting idea that might give players less anxiety over spending their cash in the game. Blizzard, however, has no plans along these lines.

"We have been very clear on our stance on wipes of Hearthstone cards/data, and we have continued to state repeatedly in blog content that we have no plans for any future wipes," said community manager Zeriyah. "We will not be doing any account-specific card wipes."

The developers are still making balance changes here and there. However, they prefer to handle them with targeted refunds rather than blanket wipes. When Blizzard nerfed Cone of Cold and Blizzard, they boosted the amount of arcane dust that they received from disenchanting these cards. This change allowed players to easily craft replacements cards for their collection. It's not much help to players who are dissatisfied with their whole collection, though.

The only time any progress is wiped is at the start of a new season. Players must restart at rank 25 with each new season and then try to climb back up the ladder. Cards and levels aren't erased when this happens, though.

Hearthstone's open beta launched in late January. The official launch is expected later in the year. The game's currently limited to the PC and Mac but will be available on iOS and Android devices in time.