Playing Hearthstone Mercenaries and feel lost when offered Alliance or Horde characters buffs? Check which race belongs to each faction here!

If you are into Hearthstone Mercenaries and you are not a World of Warcraft player, it will be hard to know which characters belong to the Alliance, the Horde or other of the many factions. Luckily for you, in Esports.gg we got you covered!

The 25.4 Hearthstone update brought an amazing quality of life upgrade for Mercenaries players to help them identify character factions such as Alliance or Horde, among others, in-game.

Hearthstone Mercenaries Alliance and Horde characters

Initially, the game had no indicators of which minion type corresponded to each faction. This made it difficult for players to decide bonus effects if they didn't know which Mercenaries belonged to Alliance or Horde.

After the rising questions, Chadd “Celestalon” Nervig, Systems & Initial Game Designer on Hearthstone, brought some light to the matter:

As a general rule of thumb in Hearthstone Mercenaries, the Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, and Draenei races are a part of the Alliance. On the other hand, the Horde is represented in Hearthstone Mercenaries by Trolls, Orcs, Taurens, Blood Elfs, and Undeads.

As we mentioned, this is a “general rule”, with more Mercenaries and Factions added to the game, many of the new Human characters belong to other groups outside the Alliance. Many things have changed since the game launch so let's go over the current Factions and how to identify their characters.

Mercenaries Banners.
Mercenaries Banners.

The banners showcased above indicate the character's loyalties. This is what they stand for:

  • Alliance
  • Horde
  • Explorers: League of Explorers characters
  • Legion: Demons and demigods who make up the Burning Legion
  • The Empire: Old Gods and their followers
  • Pirate: raiders and rapscallions with no flag
  • Scourge: Lich King and his Undead servants

You can find these banners in the Mercenaries' top right corner.

Why is it important to know factions in Hearthstone Mercenaries?

During Bounties runs, in the PvE experience, you will get Treasures after encounters. Some of them are for a specific mercenary, others include buffs that affect a whole race, but some enhance Mercenaries characters belonging to either the Alliance or the Horde, faction references from World of Warcraft, the universe in which Hearthstone was originally based from.

Hearthstone Mercenaries Treasure buffing Alliance characters
Hearthstone Mercenaries Treasure buffing Alliance characters

We hope you find this information useful, and if you want to learn more about Hearthstone Mercenaries, feel free to check our specific section for guides and news. This is all for now for us here at Esports.gg. If you need me, I’ll be by the Campfire.