How the Excavate keyword works in Hearthstone

The Excavate keyword made its debut in Hearthstone's Showdown in the Badlands expansion. Here's how this keyword works in the game and more.

In Hearthstone, cards with the Excavate keyword lets you dig for increasingly rarer treasures. The keyword then resets after you get a treasure of the highest rarity.

For example, you get a random one-cost common treasure when you use Excavate for the first time. The second time you make use of the Excavate keyword, you get a random two-cost rare treasure. The third Excavate results in a three-cost epic treasure. Certain Hearthstone classes can also Excavate a fourth level of treasure that's a class-specific legendary.

There are five classes that have dedicated cards with the Excavate keyword. These include Death Knight, Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior. Meanwhile, the few neutral cards with this keyword include the Kobold Miner, Bounty Board, and Burrow Buster.

In an interview with esports.gg, Hearthstone lead narrative designer Valerie Chu revealed how the Excavate and outlaw classes were chosen. Chu noted that the Death Knight, Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior can be more mischievous compared to Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Demon Hunter, Priest, and Shaman.

"We did have a bit of an advantage starting out with this because we knew we wanted Elise to be the leader of the outlaws," Chu explained. "So that seemed like a shoo-in for Priest. And then you can see Theldurin, because he's a Hunter, he's part of that as well. So some of those key characters helped us decide who should go where. But also, I think the vibe of having the townsfolk be up to something that kind of helps you with those more mischievous classes, perhaps."

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