Hearthstone Crafting System

Hearthstone is in many ways very similar to other Collectible Card Games (CCG) out there, however it is very different in one very important way. Most other CCG's are also referred to as trading card games, and Hearthstone most definitely can not be referred to as such, since there is no way to trade cards in it.

Instead, Blizzard has built in a way to create the cards you really want to own right into the game. This is referred to as the crafting system, however it really is a two part process. First you need to disenchant cards you don't want and then you can craft the cards you do want. We will call both of these two separate parts together the Hearthstone Crafting System.

NOTE: Over time and through the arena reward system you can earn enough materials to create cards without disenchanting any other cards. However the time it takes to do so is too long to be viable, so while possible to not have to disenchant anything, we will assume you do in fact need to disenchant cards first.

Disenchanting Cards in Hearthstone

To be able to disenchant cards you must first enter your Collection of cards, and then you need to click on the "Crafting Mode" button in the top right corner of the screen. When you click the button it leave your collection open but brings up several additional options as shown below:

It is important to note that you can only disenchant Expert cards, meaning those that you got from booster packs. You can not disenchant the free starter cards that you get when first joining the game and from leveling each class.

Once in Crafting Mode you can disenchant a card in one easy step!

All you need to do is find the card that you want to disenchant and then right click on it. This will bring up a screen that tells you how much Arcane Dust you will get for disenchanting it. If you are happy with this amount, simply click on the accept button and the card will be destroyed and Arcane Dust will be added to your inventory.



This shows the different amount of Arcane Dust that you can get from a regular or golden card.

When disenchanting, Blizzard has added two really nice safeguards to they system.

When you click disenchant, if doing so will leave you with less than 2 of that card (normal and golden versions combined) if common to epic, or 1 if legendary, the game will warn you that disenchanting the card will leave you with less than the number that you could use in a deck.

If you disenchant a card and then suddenly realize it was a mistake, you can undo the disenchanting of it as long as you do not leave the screen.

Not All Cards Are Created Equally in Hearthstone

One important thing to realize is that not every card is equal in the disenchanting and crafting system in Hearthstone. The various levels of cards are not all worth the same amount of Arcane Dust when you disenchant them.

Cards are worth the following when disenchanted:

Rarity Arcane Dust Earned for Disenchanting a Normal Card Arcane Dust Earned for Disenchanting a Golden Card Common 5 50 Rare 20 100 Epic 100 400 Legendary 400 1600

The two most important things to realize from this are:

The rarer the card the more Arcane Dust you get if you choose to disenchant it

Golden Cards give you significantly more Arcane Dust when disenchanted

Early on in your Hearthstone career, the second point is far more important than the first. Golden cards offer no additional value in the game than their normal version. All they do is have an animation, which has zero game effect. This means that they are your best source of Arcane Dust and provide the best bang for the buck when disenchanting.

Crafting Cards in Hearthstone

To craft a card that you want in Hearthstone, you simple follow two simple steps.

1) Be in the crafting system (described above), and search for the card that you wish to create. Cards that you do not own will show up as faded (or greyed out). Once you find the one that you want, right click on it to bring up the crafting option.

2) Once the crafting option is shown, it will tell you how much it costs to craft the card. Simply click on "Create" and watch your card be created and added to your collection.

If you create the card and then realize you did so accidentally (maybe you were just checking it out and accidentally clicked while moving the mouse), you can undo it and get your Arcane Dust back as long as you do so before leaving the current screen.

The Crafting System is Not Fair in Hearthstone

A critical point to realize is that even though you can create any card you want or need in the crafting system, you should not expect to do so easily. While you can create any card, you do not do so at a one-to-one ratio for your disenchanted cards.

Messiahs Commentary: While I not "fair" meaning not a fair and equal trade, it is a good concept for this system. If it was a one-to-one trading system then there would be no long term economy in the game and no continual need to earn (or buy) new packs of cards from Blizzard. There would also be no real point in a crafting system at all, as you would essentially have access to all cards anyway. Since there is no trading system, this seems like a reasonable alternative.

The crafting of cards takes between 4 and 8 times the Arcane Dust that you would earn from disenchanting that card.

The Arcane Dust that is required to craft each card is as follows:

Rarity Arcane Dust Required to Craft a Normal Card Arcane Dust Required to Craft a Golden Card Common 40 400 Rare 100 800 Epic 400 1600 Legendary 1600 3200

As with disenchanting cards, Golden Cards are at a premium, but this time definitely not in your favour. Again since they have no additional game value, I would suggest skipping them early on in your Hearthstone career. It is far better to create 8 different rare cards that you need than 1 golden rare just for vanity purposes.

Comments

Hopefully this guide has covered everything you need to know to craft your way to success in Hearthstone. If you have any additional comments or suggestions though, please make them known in the comment section below.