I’ve recently started playing Hearthstone, Blizzards online TCG. Coming late to the party (by roughly 3 years) I’ve been at a significant disadvantage not only due to my inexperience but also my rather small card collection. As a result, I’ve been determined to grab every free pack that’s available and so I’ve put together this guide to help other new players in a similar position to me and I’ll also touch on some great tips for new players not directly related to getting packs.

Starting Out

After completing the tutorial you’ll have a basic mage deck but much else. The next stop is to go to Practice Mode there you’ll be able to grab five packs for winning five games. Keep playing the Mage until you get to level 10, as that’ll net you another classic pack. Beating every hero in practice mode will get you 100 gold, the cost of a pack of your choice and will unlock the expert AI.

Beating each of the expert AI is good for another 100 gold. It’s worth doing this in one sitting by beating them down the list in order as there’s no way to track which ones you’ve beaten or not. All of these are relatively straightforward to beat except the Warrior and Shaman.

Play mode is your final stop. Completing your first game (yep, conceding counts!) gets you one pack. Two more games after that gives you 100 gold.

By this point you should have three packs and 300 gold, enough for another three. That’s good but there are much easier packs to get!

Promo Packs

There are packs available for playing a game on specific types of devices. In total there are seven classic packs available plus a unique card back. A pretty good deal! There is one pack available for playing a game on an iPad, Android Tablet, Android Phone, and iPhone and the additional three packs and card back are available for playing on a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone.

You might think you’re out of luck if you don’t have those devices but it is possible to fake being on them assuming you have either a Windows PC or a Android device using these fake APKs and DLLs. If you do use the DLLs on Windows don’t forget to backup the DLL you’re ‘replacing’!

The Galaxy packs are obtainable by using NOX.

Here are the steps for doing so.

1. Download, install, and run Nox.
2. Go to System Settings -> Properties and change the following
   1. Manufacturer to samsung
   2. Model to SM-G930A
   3. Brand to SM-G930A
3. Restart NOX
4. Download Hearthstone from the Play Store
5. Log in with your account

Welcome Bundle

As a new player you’re eligible for a special discount on packs. There’s a welcome bundle with a guaranteed useful class legendary and 10 packs for the price of £4. That’s some amazing value compared to normal pack prices and is well worth getting to start you off.

Keep Your Ear to the Ground

It’s worth keeping a track of the Hearthstone Blog I’ve earned a number of packs by being aware of time sensitive promotions.