Hearthstone team talks Perils in Paradise expansion: “You can feel what it would be like to take the iconic Warcraft characters on vacation.”

Hearthstone's new expansion is launching soon! Ahead of the Perils in Paradise release date, we sat down with Hearthstone executive producer Nathan Lyons-Smith and game director Tyler Bielman for an exclusive interview. We talked about the inspiration behind the expansion, the new keyword and mechanics, plus what players can expect in terms of the meta. Read on for the interview plus some Hearthstone Perils in Paradise deck ideas!

Hearthstone's expansions are typically led by a specific team member who chooses a theme. For Perils in Paradise, Bielman revealed to esports.gg that the initial theme used to be all about pirates. However, this later evolved into the broader concept of Hearthstone on holiday. Now, the expansion features beloved Warcraft characters on vacation. Pirates are still included, of course. The expansion lead is Sage Georgiou.

"It kind of started as a pirates theme," Bielman said. "Sort of a swashbuckling pirates kind of vibe. And then gradually, it kind of morphed into something that's a little bit broader than that. When the team came up with the idea of Hearthstone — but on holiday — you can sort of imagine it. You can sort of close your eyes and you can see it and you can feel what it would be like to take the iconic Warcraft characters on vacation."

In addition to seeing iconic characters on vacation through the artwork and cards, the Perils in Paradise expansion features the Tourist keyword. A card with Tourist lets a class vacation to another class during deck building. For example, while Paladin heroes can venture into Rogue shenanigans, Rogue's destination is the Warlock class. The list goes on. This concept was inspired by the dual-class cards.

"The team was very excited to really do a true dual-class expansion," Bielman said. "In the past, when we made dual-class cards, they were somewhat compromised because they really had to fit in the middle between the two classes. They weren't entirely one or entirely the other."

He continued, noting how the Hearthstone team experimented with Tourist by creating cards grounded in another class' mechanics.

"We have newer things like the Death Knight class, for example. That hasn't had a lot of splashing around. So a lot of it has to do with finding a way to unlock a lot of different tools for players to create new archetypes that we've never seen. There's a spell school Death Knight thing that we imagine will happen. And that is just mind boggling, right? We hope that as the meta evolves through the course of the expansion, people will be able to reach into the other class' toolkit and adapt to the meta in a way that's more dynamic than they've never really been able to do before."

According to both Bielman and Lyons-Smith, the Drink cards in Perils in Paradise are an extension of the Hunter class cards Bunch of Bananas and Barrel of Monkeys, which had high-value, versatile play in the past. The design team then expanded this mechanic across more classes with themed cards as beverages to fit the whole vacation setting in Perils in Paradise. This approach came from a bottom-up design process rather than a top-down one.

"Bunch of Bananas and Barrel of Monkeys have been staples in Hunter because of the additional value and utility," Lyons-Smith said. "And so I love how the team tries a mechanic out in a limited set and then [goes], 'Oh, hey. That's fun. How would we take that to other classes or how would we make that bigger?' I'm excited for this. I'm a little nervous of Malted Magma spell power in Shaman and the damage to all enemies multiple times. That's on my radar of what could be powerful."

As for cards like Travel Agent, Cruise Captain Lora, and Sanc'Azel, these let players interact with Locations. For example, after Sanc'Azel attacks, it turns into a Location that can buff the attack of friendly minions and give them Rush. It then turns back into a minion.

"So this idea of retriggering them based on activities that you do in the game leads to some really fun turns," Bielman explained. "You can slowly increment or hold on to the value or you can have big, bursty turns where you're just reopening and reopening and reopening and trying to really go for the win."

In terms of what decks or deck archetypes that Lyons-Smith and Bielman are the most excited about, they are Pirate Demon Hunter and Sandwich Warrior.

"I'm a big Demon Hunter fan, and we've got Patches the Pilot," Lyons-Smith said, recalling the history of the original Patches the Pirate.

"But he's back as the pilot, and there's a lot of Pirates and Charge and synergy with Pirates attacking and getting more attack. That is in Demon Hunter here. The first thing that I'd cracked open and try to combo [would be] Dangerous Cliffside — reopening that with Pirates, attacking with Adrenaline Fiend, and trying to figure out how to get multiple attacks with my hero and to open [Dangerous Cliffside] as many times as possible."

As for Sandwich Warrior, this deck involves cards such as The Ryecleaver and cards the represent ham and cheese.

"The deck I've been playing the most is Day9's Sandwich Warrior deck, which uses Ryecleaver — which allows you to create a sandwich in your hand of minions, and then it packages it up for a two-cost to cast all of them," Bielman explained, referring to the 2-mana Minion Sandwich spell. "I've been having a lot of fun making a Hamm, the Hungry, Muensterosity, and a Beached Whale sandwich and dropping all of that on the board."

As for more Perils in Paradise decks, the Hearthstone team worked with several content creators to create unique recipes. They invited the creators to the Blizzard campus, recorded them duking it out, and included their decks in the game. Each deck got credited by name as well, Bielman added.

Another way that the Hearthstone team involved the community was through a promotion video for Perils in Paradise. Streamers and even cosplayers were featured in the announcement, which parodied flight safety videos.

To Lyons-Smith, this worked out well. "I'm excited for the community to see what we've got next for the coming expansions because this landed well," he said. "And we're excited to see how far we can push it in different directions to have that be fresh and fun and get eyeballs on Hearthstone and what's next."

That's all for now. The Perils in Paradise release date is July 23, 2024. Until then, stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates!