Much to the outrage of fans, it has been recently discovered in a Hearthstone analysis that players are actually receiving less gold in the game’s new battle pass system compared to the older system.

As a result, the game becomes pretty expensive despite the fact that it’s supposedly a free-to-play title. Battle pass systems have become prevalent in video games as of late, and each offers unique rewards and benefits.

In Hearthstone’s case, its system is called Tavern Pass and it completely revamped the way the Quest progression system of the game worked, which is a system that serves to reward players for playing on a daily basis.

Now, the purpose of this Quest progression system is that it gives players a better idea of their progress and how far along they are in each season. Consequently, players are supposed to receive MORE gold in general.

Even though the gameplay of Hearthstone: Madness at the Darkmoon Faire is looking pretty good, the changes it has made to its UI and progression are turning out to be a hurdle to the game’s success.

This is definitely unfortunate news for the title, as Hearthstone has recently been barraged with negative reviews from players because it seems as if Blizzard isn’t doing anything to help lessen the costs of playing the game.

This is especially the case for those who are new to the game, as they are quickly punished for not being able to gather a decent collection, especially since the title gets even more expensive as more expansions get released.

That being said, it’s worth noting that Hearthstone’s Standard sets tend to last for a long period of time while the ability to acquire cards is considered to be a single-player experience.

To put it simply, Hearthstone doesn’t have any form of card trading available, so you can only obtain cards either through packs or through crafting. As such, it can get quite expensive if you truly want to delve into the game and experience everything it has to offer.

Looked into new reward system. My take:

– ladder players get less gold/time (this is real bad)
– ladder are upset because Blizz said ppl will get same/more gold
– if you play not-ladder this system *seems* to be better than before
– Blizz needs to increase xp gain to fix

— Kripparrian (@Kripparrian) November 16, 2020

In an attempt to remedy the issue, Blizzard released the Tavern Pass to make it easier for both old and new players all while offering an all-new progression system. While it’s safe to say that the latter can be considered a success, the former doesn’t appear to be true.

According to content creator J_Alexander_HS, who posted his findings on Reddit, his analysis led him to believe that he would receive 5000 less gold after 120 days under the new battle pass system.

To put it in another perspective, this would mean players would receive 50 packs less, which is naturally a significant loss for anyone playing Hearthstone. This is an especially huge downgrade for those who prefer to go the free-to-play route, as they can only expand their collection through questing and using gold.

Other somewhat popular members of Hearthstone’s community also took notice of this controversy, including YouTuber Kripparrian. One of the main reasons why fans are extremely displeased with the new Tavern Pass is because Blizzard previously promised its players that the new system will not negatively impact the amount of gold they already made.

Plus, the battle pass itself costs about $20 USD, and that still doesn’t include the other expenses made to try and keep up with the meta. Hearthstone touts itself as a free-to-play game, but it’s becoming more of a financial burden to many players worldwide.

Given how upset the players have gotten, all we can do is hope that Blizzard makes some changes to the current battle pass system or perhaps make some kind of improvements to alleviate the underlying issue.