Hearthstone‘s next expansion, The Boomsday Project, brings Mechs back to the forefront for the first time since the tribe was introduced in Goblins vs Gnomes. A big part of the refreshed Mech focus is the new Magnetic ability, which allows you to stick Mechs together to build your own bot. Lead designer Mike Donais shared some design insights and gave a hat-tip to a classic giant robot in the process.
“We wanted to do something different for Mech, something we hadn’t done before,” Donais told GameSpot. “And we really liked the idea of you assembling some kind of Voltron-type deal where you’re stacking Mechs on top of each other to make the ultimate Mech.”
This wouldn’t even be the first time the classic anime series has been referenced in regards to Hearthstone. A Legendary card called Mimiron’s Head from Goblins vs Gnomes would reward you for keeping three Mechs on the board with the powerful “V-07-TR-0N”–a minion that boasted the rarely used “Mega-Windfury” ability. Mimiron’s Head never saw much serious play, but for the return of Mechs, Blizzard has handed the fantasy of building your ultimate weapon over to the players. It also, not coincidentally, supports the tone of this expansion.
“It really captures the flavor of the labs where you’re building science things,” Donais said. “Dr. Boom loves making Mechs, but the thing he loves even more is making even bigger Mechs, so this really follows into his strategy.”
He says the team learned a lot from Deathstalker Rexxar, a Hero card introduced in Knights of the Frozen Throne set that allows him to create “Zombeasts”–unholy fusions of two different Beast minions. This mechanic operates a little differently though. While Zombeasts were naturally kept in check by the randomness of the options presented, the Magnetic ability will let players build a deck specifically to take advantage of particular combinations. That makes balance trickier.
“That’s kind of the fun, combining things together and finding this crazy stuff,” Donais said. “And sometimes it was like, wow, that was really powerful. Let’s leave it in and make it expensive and powerful and let people have that fantasy of doing that because I think it’s really cool. As long as we just cost it right. So there’s going to be a mix of those in the expansion. Sometimes just building a Mech–it has untargetable, and Divine Shield, and Windfury, all those things. Put them all together into this giant, powerful Mech is kind of your fantasy.”
The Boomsday Project launches on August 7. To view all the currently revealed cards, including all the Mechs, check out our gallery of Hearthstone’s Boomsday Project cards.