Card pack concept art
Card packs are items which can be used to obtain additional cards for your collection.
There are two types of card packs, each providing cards from the corresponding card set: Classic, and Goblins vs Gnomes.
Each card pack contains 5 Classic or Goblins vs Gnomes cards. Each card has a chance to be of common, rare, epic or even legendary rarity, but each pack is guaranteed to contain at least one card of at least rare quality. While the majority of cards in card packs are common, it is possible to find multiple cards of high quality within a single pack. Each card also has the chance to become a golden version of that card. All types of card packs offer the same chances for rarities and golden versions.[1][2]
The contents of each pack are decided at random, at the time of purchase.[3] Details such as the amount of cards you currently have, and which heroes you have unlocked, will not affect which cards are found.
Opening a pack
A gnome opening a new card pack.
Card packs can be opened by clicking on the "Open Packs" icon from the main menu screen. The number underneath the icon indicates how many unopened card packs you currently possess.
Once the Open Packs screen has been reached, all current unopened packs will be displayed on the left-hand side. Drag a pack over to the right-hand section to open it. Once you open a pack 5 cards will appear face down. This forces you to turn each card individually, heightening the suspense.
Hovering over a card will show a border depending on the rarity of the card. Hearthstone uses quality colors based on World of Warcraft's gear system.
- No color means the card is of common quality
- A blue glow means the card is of rare quality
- A purple glow means the card is of epic quality
- An orange glow means the card is of legendary quality
How to get
There are two ways of obtaining card packs. They can be gained as a reward, from competing in the arena or from certain unique quests; or they can be purchased from the shop, either for gold, or for real money.
Purchasing
Hovering over an Epic card.
The following purchasing options are available. Only the single pack option is available for gold; all other options require real money. Players can use any of the payment methods that are also available for buying games and goodies from the Blizzard store.
| Packs | Gold | USD | GBP | EUR | RUB | BRL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | |||||
| 2 | $2.99 ($1.495 per pack, $0.299 per card) | £1.99 (£0.995 per pack, £0.199 per card) | €2.69 (€1.345 per pack, €0.269 per card) | 99.00 р. (49.50 р. per pack, 9.90 р. per card) | R$6.50 (R$3,25 per pack, R$0,65 per card) | |
| 7 | $9.99 ($1.427 per pack, $0.285 per card) | £6.99 (£0.999 per pack, £0.200 per card) | €8.99 (€1.284 per pack, €0.257 per card) | 329.00 р. (47.00 р. per pack, 9.40 р. per card) | R$22.00 (R$3.143 per pack, R$0.629 per card) | |
| 15 | $19.99 ($1.333 per pack, $0.267 per card) | £13.99 (£0.933 per pack, £0.187 per card) | €17.99 (€1.199 per pack, €0.240 per card) | 649.00 р. (43.27 р. per pack, 8.65 р. per card) | R$44,00 (R$2.933 per pack, R$0.587 per card) | |
| 40 | $49.99 ($1.250 per pack, $0.250 per card) | £34.99 (£0.875 per pack, £0.175 per card) | €44.99 (€1.125 per pack, €0.225 per card) | 1690.00 р. (42.25 р. per pack, 8.45 р. per card) | R$110,00 (R$2.75 per pack, R$0.55 per card) | |
| 60* | $69.99 ($1.167 per pack, $0.233 per card) | £47.99 (£0.799 per pack, £0.159 per card) | 2290.00 р. (38.16 р. per pack, 7.63 р. per card) |
- * Only available on PC and Mac.
Note that a discount is offered when buying in bulk. Purchasing 40 packs of cards at once presents a 12-16% discount compared to buying cards in sets of 2. Exact prices and discounts vary by currency.
While no bulk purchase option is presented for gold transactions, players can double-click on the '1 pack' option to instantly order multiple packs by entering a number from 1 to 50. No discount is offered. Players are informed of this option upon entering the shop for the first time with a large amount of gold.
Notes
Purchasing options in the US region.
All types of card pack feature the same chance of producing cards of any given rarity, and of golden and regular versions.[4] This suggests that the internal process for the selection of each card functions by first determining a rarity, then randomly selecting a card of that rarity to produce.
The cards rewarded from card packs are selected randomly, and may not suit the player's taste or preferred classes. Additionally, players can only use 2 of each card in a deck (and only 1 of each Legendary), meaning additional copies of cards beyond these limits are of no value. When receiving unwanted cards from card packs, the disenchant option can be used to destroy unwanted cards in exchange for Arcane Dust, which can then be used to craft new cards. This process allows players to convert unwanted cards into more desirable options.
When opening packs, cards are displayed using the player's currently selected card back.
Statistics
Various attempts have been made to establish the chances of receiving each rarity of card when opening card packs. Note that all types of card pack have the same chances at rarities and golden cards.[1][2]
Steve Marinconz
On June 5th 2014 Steve Marinconz published the following results in an article on Kotaku.com.[5] The data was collected by aggregating the results of numerous card pack opening videos found online, with a total of 1,000 packs. The study used only videos filmed in the last two months.
As well as the chance of each card being of a specific rarity, Marinconz also calculated the probability of finding at least one card of each rarity in any given card pack.
| Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of total | 71.30% | 23.10% | 4.30% | 1.30% |
| Probability per pack | 99.81% | 73.11% | 19.73% | 6.33% |
| Count per 1,000 packs | 3565 | 1155 | 215 | 65 |
Based upon this data, Marinconz' provided some interesting 'fun facts':
- The chances of getting a pack with any 5 legendary cards is one in a million
- The chances of getting a pack with any 5 golden legendary cards is 1 in 3.2 billion
- There's a 0.4% probability of getting 2 legendaries in a single pack
- The probability of getting a pack with only one common card is about ~0.80%
- There's a 16.26% probability of getting a pack with any golden card
- Only 2.19% of common cards were golden, while 7.69% of legendaries were
- The average $50 purchase of 40 packs will be worth about 3,600 Arcane Dust
- The most common distribution was a '4100' - 4 commons and 1 rare - accounting for 61% of packs opened
- The second most common distribution was a '3200' - 3 commons and 2 rares - accounting for 12.2% of packs opened
E. R. Kjellgren
In August 2014 E. R. Kjellgren published an investigation into the rarities of cards found in card packs.[6] This was achieved by collecting user data from forums regarding the contents of 11,349 different card packs. The author notes that the investigation suffered from two main problems: the information collected was anonymous and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed; and the sample size, while adequate for the lower rarities, is still smaller than might be desired for the higher rarities.
| Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of total | 71.47% | 22.77% | 4.588% | 1.191% |
| Count per 11,349 packs | 40,581 | 12,928 | 2,608 | 678 |
Kjellgren also divided rarities into golden and regular versions.
| Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of total | Regular | 70% | 21.4% | 4.28% | 1.08% |
| Golden | 1.47% | 1.37% | 0.308% | 0.111% | |
| Count per 11,349 packs | Regular | 39746 | 12148 | 2433 | 615 |
| Golden | 853 | 780 | 175 | 63 |
The data showed golden cards to be on average around 30 times less common than regular cards. However, the proportion of golden and regular versions varied substantially by rarity. The author also notes that the sample sizes for the higher golden rarities are too small to be considered conclusive.
| Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage golden | 2.1% | 6.42% | 7.19% | 10.24% |
| Rough probability | 1 in 50 | 1 in 16 | 1 in 14 | 1 in 10 |
Trivia
Concept art for the Goblins vs Gnomes card pack opening animation
The Goblins vs Gnomes card pack and its opening animation was originally designed by Jomaro Kindred,[7] and animated by John Zwicker.[8]
Videos
Gallery
Patch changes
Patch 2.0.0.7234 (2014-12-04): Expert card packs have been renamed to “Classic” card packs.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hearthstone Fireside Chat Goblins vs Gnomes. (2014-11-07).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Error on call to Template:Cite web - parameters url and title must be specified.
- ↑ Zeriyah on Twitter
- ↑ Ben Brode on Twitter. (2014-11-19).
- ↑ http://kotaku.com/here-are-the-actual-hearthstone-legendary-card-drop-rat-1586156518
- ↑ http://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/mCdvUh9Wce
- ↑ John Zwicker on Twitter. (2014-12-09).
- ↑ Yong Woo on Twitter. (2014-12-08).