Announcing Battlegrounds Season 9 (2024)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why are you making these changes?

A: Battlegrounds is a huge part of our Tavern, and we want to better serve you and make a more awesome experience for you all. We love the core Battlegrounds experience and want to be very careful about any changes we make. That’s why we are pursuing angles that provide you with more optionality rather than direct power. For example, we are not interested in selling perks like additional Armor at the start of the game or additional Gold or Tavern Refreshes during the game. By keeping Battlegrounds Tokens small, instead of all-or-nothing, you can engage however much you want. This also opens up a wider range of uses for us like drops, events, and freebies.

Informed by game data and direct player feedback, we have decided to shift some of our attention towards new offerings, like Battlegrounds Tokens. We’ll be watching for your feedback on these changes as we continue to refine this approach going forward.

Q: How do I get Battlegrounds Tokens?

A: The primary source of Battlegrounds Tokens is the Rewards Track. The free Track includes 8 Battlegrounds Tokens and the Season Pass adds an additional 25 Battlegrounds Tokens.

You can earn 4 Battlegrounds Tokens from Drops during our Preview Event. At Patch launch, all players will automatically get 2 Battlegrounds Tokens and be able to claim an additional 4 Battlegrounds Tokens from the shop. We also plan to include Battlegrounds Tokens as part of in-game Events.

Players who want even more Rerolls can also get Battlegrounds Tokens from the Shop (at a base price of 4 Battlegrounds Tokens for $0.99 or 100 Runestones; bundles will also be available), or pick up the Season Pass+ to get one Reroll per game without using up their Battlegrounds Tokens.

Since Hero Rerolls are an entirely new system, we’ll be watching play patterns and your feedback to see how this initial launch and distribution of Battlegrounds Tokens feels. Let us know what you think to inform our future iterations of this system.

Q: How exactly do Hero Rerolls work?

A: When you are on the Hero selection screen, there will be a Reroll button underneath each particular hero. The buttons under each Hero will indicate that it takes 1 Battlegrounds Token to Reroll (except, if you have the Season Pass+, your first Reroll won't cost a Battlegrounds Token). Your total Battlegrounds Tokens will be displayed in the corner of the screen as you decide.

Each hero slot is independent and can be Rerolled up to once (meaning that you can’t Reroll the same slot multiple times and you’ll have either 0-2 or 0-4 hero Rerolls per game, depending on whether you have the +2 Hero Options perk from the Season Pass). You can’t Reroll into a Hero you’ve already been offered, or a Hero that isn’t allowed in your game, and your Rerolls aren’t affected by the other players’ Rerolls (so you don’t have to try to game the timing of your Rerolls). Once you see a Hero you want to play, just stop Rerolling and select it like normal.

We limited it to one Reroll per Hero slot because we wanted to avoid games being too samey as everyone rolled for the most popular Heroes. Rerolls are done individually (instead of Rerolling all your Heroes at once) so that you can stop once you've found a Hero you like, and so that each Reroll isn't more valuable to people with 4 Hero Options than people with 2 Hero Options.

Q: How will Rerolls work in Duos?

A: Rerolls work the same in Duos as in regular Battlegrounds, with one major special case just for Duos: two-player Heroes, like Cho and Gall. We won’t force anybody to use a Battlegrounds Token when they don’t want to, so one player Rerolling the paired Hero won’t affect the other player’s Hero options. Similarly, if you Reroll a Hero, you won’t roll into one of the paired Heroes (which would be useless to you, because your partner wouldn’t have the other half). You’ll also never Reroll into a banned Hero pairing.

Q: Why aren’t you changing the Damage Cap in Duos, too?

A: We tested it out in Duos and found that it made the Mode worse instead of better. Duos already inherently rewards greedy scaling more than regular Battlegrounds does because your partner can help support you, so we didn’t want to further incentivize that strategy. It’s still our overall goal to make normal Battlegrounds and Duos overlap as much as possible, so players can smoothly take experience in one into the other, but we don’t want to restrict ourselves to that requirement if it makes the overall experience less than it can be.

Q: How will the StarCraft cosmetic unlocks work?

A: The StarCraft cosmetics are earned just like everything else on the Track, except that they won’t be unlocked until a later patch, planned for February 2025. If you earn that level of rewards prior to that patch, you won’t be able to claim them until they unlock.

Q: What’s the bottom line for me?

A: People who are free-to-play will continue to have that option. There are slightly fewer cosmetics on the free Rewards Track, but they’ll get some Battlegrounds Tokens from the Track, events, drops, and other free grants. So, they can keep engaging with Battlegrounds as they always have, with the option to occasionally Reroll a Hero they don’t feel like playing for a chance at one they like better.

People who are used to buying the Season Pass each Battlegrounds Season will get the +2 Hero Options and a range of cosmetics similar to what they’re used to from the Season Pass, with the addition of 25 more Battlegrounds Tokens on the Season Pass (plus the free Battlegrounds Tokens mentioned above).

People who want to maximize their Hero selection options can upgrade to the Season Pass+ to get one free Hero Reroll every game, plus the Rerolls they get from all the Battlegrounds Tokens on the Rewards Track and other sources.