Hearthstone Blackrock Mountain Expansion Launches Today

Hearthstone's third expansion pack, Blackrock Mountain, will be debuting today on PC, Mac, and tablets. Blackrock Mountain adds new cards and single-player challenges to the online card game.

Blackrock Mountain will launch in the Americas, Southeast Asia and Oceania by the end of Thursday. The expansion will then hit Europe, Korea, Taiwan and China on April 3rd.

The expansion pack lets players fight their way through Blackrock Mountain, a notorious location in World of Warcraft. The Mountain is split into five different wings, each with its own set of A.I. bosses to challenge. The bosses possess new abilities that will require specific strategies (and decks) to defeat.

Blizzard will roll out one wing of Blackrock Mountain per week. The first wing, debuting today, is called Blackrock Depths. Here's a breakdown of each boss in Blackrock Depths and their rewards:

Coren Direbrew

Hero Power: Pile On! (0 mana) - Put two minions from your deck and one from your opponent's into the battlefield.

Reward for beating him: Grim Patron (5 mana, 3/3 minion) - Whenever this minion survives damage, summon another Grim Patron

High Justice Grimstone

Hero Power: Jeering Crowd (0 mana) - Summon a 1/1 Dark Iron Spectator with Taunt.

Reward for beating him: Gang Up (2 mana) - Choose a minion. Shuffle 3 copies of it into your deck.

Emperor Thaurissan

Hero Power: Power of the Firelord (2 mana) - Deals 30 Hero Damage; Moira Bronzebeard (1/3 minion) - Thaurissan's Hero Power can't be used, never attacks minions unless they have Taunt.

Reward for beating him: Resurrect (2 mana) - Summon a friendly minion that died this game.

If you clear Blackrock Depths, you'll also unlock the Legendary card for Emperor Thaurissan. He's 5/5 minion that reduces the cost of cards in your hand by 1 mana at the end of your turn.

Clearing the wing also unlocks access to Class Challenges for the Hunter and Mage. These Challenges task you with beating a boss with that class and a specific deck. Here's what you'll earn by completing each encounter:

• Hunter challenge - Quick Shot x2 (2 mana) - Deal 3 damage. If your hand is empty, draw a card.
• Mage - Dragon's Breath x2 (5 mana) - Deal 4 damage. Costs (1) less for each minion that died this turn.

Unlike previous single-player expansion Curse of Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain doesn't have a free wing. You'll need to pay to unlock Blackrock Depths along with the four later parts of the expansion. Each wing costs 700 gold, or $6.99 USD. The price-per-wing is a bit lower if you buy in bulk:

• All 5 Wings - $24.99
• Remaining 4 Wings - $19.99
• Remaining 3 Wings - $14.99
• Remaining 2 Wings - $9.99
• Remaining 1 Wings - $4.99

The entire Blackrock Mountain expansion will give you 31 new cards by defeating all of its challenges. Beating bosses is the only way to earn them, though. There won't be any new booster packs like with the Gnomes vs Gnomes expansion.