Our pals over at Hearthpwn have data mined the upcoming Hearthstone (Free) Goblins vs Gnomes patch data, which is a fancy way of saving they poked through it looking for any relevant text strings and image files. This sort of thing has been going down in Diablo and World of Warcraft patches forever, so, it only makes sense that Hearthstone gets similar treatment. They’ve got all the golden cards, along with catching a bunch of flavor text changes as well as the expected card type update to make a lot of previously-released mechanical cards count as Mechs.
Most interesting though is the bonus achievements which Blizzard is going to be offering during the Goblins vs Gnomes release window. Just like Curse of Naxxramas, Blizzard is going to be pushing players hard to get back into the game for the new Goblins vs Gnomes content. Per the data mining, this seems to include two different events: The first of which is a sneak peek where you’ll be able to play in the arena with Goblins vs Gnomes cards. “Goblins vs Gnomes Arena Mischief!" earns you free arena entry, although it’s not entirely clear right now if you’ll just be able to do this once, or if it’s going to be a repeatable thing.
If you play during the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion opening (which probably means in the week or so following its release) you’ll get three free GvG packs. Last, and arguably the best news out of this, is that there’s a reward for a free pack of cards if you play the game on an Android tablet. Blizzard has been teasing plans to release Hearthstone on Android tablets for a while now, with the most firm statement involving something about how they hope to have it out by the end of the year.
It seems like a great time to release something like that would be along side the new expansion, as Blizzard would be able to double dip on the news of the new card set and the Android client. This is all speculation of course, but, the text wouldn’t be in the patch if it wasn’t happening very soon. We’ve got a lot of TouchArcade readers who mention they’ve got an iPhone but have an Android tablet, so, if that describes you, now seems to be a good time to start getting excited to play Hearthstone like us iPad owners. Goblins vs Gnomes is launching on the 8th, so, keep your eyes opened as that’s less than a week away.
