Hearthstone Battlegrounds – How to Get Into Early Access

Here’s how you can get access to Hearthstone Battlegrounds early.

Hearthstone Batlegrounds was announced at Blizzcon a few days ago, and while the full release is still a ways away, there’s a playable beta available now. If you want to get access to Blizzard’s new auto battler mode for Hearthstone, you have quite a few options.

The first opportunity has already passed, but if you were a Blizzcon attendee, you’ll have access to the beta when it unlocks at around 10am PST on Nov. 5, and you will retain that access until the beta ends on Nov. 12. If you instead purchased a Virtual Ticket (or purchase one now, as they are still available), you will also get access when the beta releases.

The third way you can get access is by pre-purchasing the Descent of Dragons expansion for Hearthstone (either version).

However, for those who don’t feel like shelling out that much for beta access to a new game mode, worry not: there is one other way: You can link your Battle.net and Twitch.tv accounts together.

This is a pretty simple process: Go to the Settings menu on Twitch (click on your username in the top right and follow the drop downs), go to Connections under Settings, find the Battle.net section, and follow the instructions given there, then hit Connect, login to your Blizzard account, and you’re done. Finally, watch any stream under the Hearthstone category (not just Hearthstone Battlegrounds, any Hearthstone stream will do), and you’ll have a chance to gain free Beta access.

This is tied into an event: the Battlegrounds Brawl, where you can choose one of four teams to root for. Wins by any person pledged to that team count toward the total wins for that team, and the winning team, as well as the people who pledged to them, are awarded prizes. It should be fun to see who comes out on top.