Hearth Stone: How to play

Itching to pick up a deck and start playing? There's no better way to learn than to simply download Hearthstone now and get started! And if you still have unanswered questions after the in-game tutorial, the pages in this section will help you catch up on anything you've missed.

Board Overview

All you need to know about Hearthstone's game interface can literally be summed up with just one screenshot. Don't believe us? Well, check it out for yourself below.

Playing Hearthstone

Let's get started by checking out the first few turns of a typical game of Hearthstone.

Pick Your Starting Hand

The match begins with a coin toss to determine who goes first, followed by both players drawing their starting hands: three cards for the coin toss winner, four for the other player. And because going first does offer a slight strategic advantage, the loser of the coin toss also gets The Coin: a special zero cost card that temporarily increases your mana by one! You can mulligan as many cards from your starting hands as you like. Once both players accept their hand, the match proper begins.

Draw a Card

You draw a cardfrom your deck at the start of each turn, and some cards allow you to draw additional cards during your turn.

Play Cards

One mana crystal isn't much, but there are plenty of low cost cards you can play during your first turn. Like this Argent Squire for example. Minions can't attack the turn they are played unless they have the Charge ability, so the squire is taking a nap until it's her turn to act.

Attack

Our opponent played a minion, and now it's our turn again. With two mana crystals, we can summon another minion, play a spell, or use our hero power. Decisions, decisions... Our Argent Squire is also ready to attack now; we can attack our opponent, or we can take out his minion. Since our squire has Divine Shield, we could take out the opposing minion without sacrificing our own.

Use Your Hero Power

Rogues can summon daggers, so let's grab a knife and use this weapon to take out our opponent's minion, saving our Squire's shield. Weapon-wielding heroes can target heroes or minions, but watch out: each attack costs one point of durability, and once your weapon runs out of durability, it's discarded for good.

End Your Turn

Satisfied with our play, we end the turn. Now it’s up to our opponent to find answers to our threats and adapt his tactics. Will he develop his board by playing more minions? Will he focus on removing ours? Will he bide his time until he can spring a deadly combo on us? Turn by turn, each match becomes more challenging, complex, and fun. What will your strategy be?

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