The rumors are true. There is an extra Battlegrounds Quest Reward, Partner in Crime. What do you need to do to get this secret quest reward?
Blizzard confirmed what many Battlegrounds players suspected: there is an additional Quest Reward called Partner in Crime. The mystery has been around for a couple of days now. Until yesterday, everything relied on rumors or dubious screenshots. Were those pics real? Was this secret Battlegrounds Quest Reward a glitch? What needed to happen for Partner in Crime to show up? Today we have the answers to all these questions.
"Super-sleuths tracked down the rumors and put together the clues to discover that there was, in fact, another Battlegrounds Quest Reward option!"
Battlegrounds Secret Quest Reward: Partner in Crime
The Battlegrounds community was baffled after some screenshots showing an unknown Quest Reward named "Partner in Crime". This Reward gave you, upon completion, your Hero's Golden Buddy. Was this real?
For those who don't know or remember, Blizzard introduced Battlegrounds Buddies in January 2022 as the game's new mechanic. Much like what Quests did, but in the previous expansion cycle. Each Hero had a unique Buddy, obtainable after winning combats and dealing damage. Blizzard removed this unique mechanic in May after fulfilling its cycle.
Now, this secret Battlegrounds Quest Rewards brings Buddies back to life. Or, well, at least we get to talk about them.
How to get Battlegrounds Secret Quest Reward, Partner in Crime?
After much trial and error, players narrowed down some conditions for this secret Battlegrounds Quest Reward to appear. Since some Heroes were released after Buddies left, it made sense that picking those wouldn't help the quest to show up. With that in mind, Battlegrounds content creators went on a quest, proving once and for all that the Partner in Crime Reward was real.
Ninaisnoob posted a video in which, after 41 attempts, she, and the rest of the lobby, foreced the Partner in Crime Battlegrounds Quest Reward to appear. They were jamming lobby after lobby, selecting "Buddy Heroes" and conceding on Turn four if there was no quest. Game number 41 was the charm, and the bruteforce attempt was successful.
Once the word spread, Mitchell Loewen, Battlegrounds Game Designer, disclosed that this Partner in Crime secret Quest Reward was another mystery the team created. Mitchell explained how this secret quest worked, confirming what many truth-seekers assumed.
For the Partner in Crime Quest Reward to appear in any Battlegrounds lobby, the following conditions need to be met:
- ALL heroes in the lobby must have a valid Buddy option (that means no heroes that came after Buddies left, like Sire Denathrius or Queen Azshara)
- nobody can be playing as Sir Finley or Elise Starseeker
If both things happened, then there was a 1% chance for the lobby to roll Partner in Crime. When this rare event happens, everyone in the lobby gets the Partner in Crime Quest Reward, not just one player.
On top of this Twitter confession, there was also an official Forum Post explaining how this Battlegrounds Quest Reward worked.
False clues and deceive
Before we go, I wanted to highlight the effort made by the Battlegrounds in hiding this Partner in Crime Quest Reward. They knew who they were facing and came prepared to deceive and plant false and misleading evidence.
It's no secret that many sites check every file in the game for hidden content, but the team was prepared. guouey, a Chinese Hearthstone player, went undercover into the Matrix and extracted 10 Quests that were not announced the very next day the season started.
Partner in Crime was part of that batch of "unused" Battlegrounds Quest Rewards. However, since there were 9 more of them, no one suspected the quest was real. The consensus was that these were just drafts of quest that didn't make the cut. I can imagine the team cracking a smile after this successful deceive, hiding something at plain sight.
As Sire Denathrius did, the Battlegrounds team fooled us all with this secret Partner in Crime Quest Reward. I appreciate the effort and detail put into these small things that make the game experience unique for those who like turning every single stone looking for something.
On a final note, while the conditions and the 1% chance seemingly make it impossible for this quest to pop naturally, there is hope. Once Sire Denathruis and Murloc Holmes land into the general Hero pool and aren't guaranteed in every lobby, the chances of getting the reward will be higher.
Legendary Kripparrian even suggested bumping the rolling chance up to 10%. What do you think? Do you like this merge between Battlegrounds Quest Rewards and Buddies?
That is all for now, but stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Battlegrounds news and updates. See you next time in Bob's Tavern, partner.