Galakrond's Awakening in Hearthstone is here, and I'm here to help you beat it. The Year of the Dragon is almost over, so Blizzard are seeing it out with a final solo adventure: Galakrond’s Awakening. Its first chapter follows on directly from Tombs of Terror, as Arch-Villain Rafaam plans to resurrect legendary warrior, Galakrond.
While much of the story is shrouded in mystery, we know there are two sides of it to play through. With cards from previous expansions and solo adventures returning to the party, prepare for a journey overflowing with powerful spells and minions.
You have plenty to prepare for, too: the League of E.V.I.L are waiting eagerly to meet the League of Explorers in the Battle of the Frozen Coast. Playing firstly as a band of villains—Kriziki the Winged, Puppetmaster Lazul and Dr. Boom—you’ll face three pure-of-heart bosses using premade decks. Then, try your hand as the good guys: Brann Bronzebeard, Archmage Khadgar and Commander Elise in a further three battles. Hearthstone Galakrond's Awakening rewards are ready and waiting, so here’s how to make quick work of your fiendish foes. I’ll guide you through the regular mode first, before heading into Heroic.
League of E.V.I.L
Sir Finley
Rewards: 2x Air Raid (Twinspell: Summon two 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits with Taunt)
Playing as Kriziki the Winged, it’s time to take on the ‘gentleman Murloc adventurer’. Sir Finley has his eyes set on a quick aggro match as he tries to rush you down. His two-cost Hero Power gives a friendly minion Rush and Divine Shield to strengthen the little creatures he plays. He also attempts to summon Silver Hand Recruits to make use of the new Twinspell card, Air Raid. These tiny foes can be worrying considering the Paladins' buffs so clear them as soon as possible.
As Kriziki, you have plenty of early-game options in the form of Lackeys. Play them to establish your board and use your two-cost Hero Power to give them Reborn and ‘Can’t be targeted by spells or Hero Powers’. Keep the pressure on by trading with Sir Finley’s weak minions and use your board clears where necessary. This leaves him with an empty hand. He may play a few Paladin secrets, but fear not: your minions will stick to the board and whittle down his health.
Chenvaala
Rewards: 2x Eye of the Storm (Summon three 5/6 Elementals with Taunt. Overload: (3))
This is an ice-cold fight filled with frosty foes. Chenvaala’s three-cost Hero Power summons a Frozen 4/4 Elemental. You’ll also notice an inactive frozen minion on Chenvaala’s side of the board. Dragonslayer Skruk is an intimidating 12/100 minion, but you don’t have to worry about it as you’ll end the game before it's summoned. Chenvaala’s synergies work off its minions freezing you and your board, and will then remove your frozen allies with the effects of its other cards.
Puppetmaster Lazul has many options to keep you safe while generating more value. Your cards are strong enough to get the job done on their own, but your one-cost Hero Power lets you copy a card from your opponent’s deck. Now you can use Elementals and Mechs with the Freeze ability.
Convincing Infiltrator removes enemies as you build your board. Meanwhile, many of your minions will give other minions health, either as a Battlecry or End of Turn effect, which makes board control easier to retain. Use Herald Volazj to summon a 1/1 copy of each of your other minions to control the board and overpower Chenvaala. This way you’ll win the match before Dragonslayer Skruk even emerges.
The Amazing Reno
Rewards: 2x Twisted Knowledge (Discover 2 Warlock cards) and 2x Bomb Wrangler (Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 1/1 Boom Bot).
Holy Mecharoni! As Dr. Boom, your deck is all about tinkering with Mechs as you place a few sneaky bombs in Reno’s deck. Your two-cost Hero Power will keep offering you more Mechs that gain you armour, summon Boom Bots, and create Magnetic Mech-strosities.
Reno mainly deals with low-cost Elementals and spells, so his board is easy to handle. Your best spell is the two-cost Boom Barrage, which deals 2-4 damage to a random enemy minion. This spell repeats if you kill something and proves very effective against Reno’s weak minions.
Reno’s passive Hero Power activates after he casts a spell:it casts a random spell of the same cost. While a few of these random spells can prove useful to him, I found most of them give him a small, yet manageable advantage, and some even worked in my favour. This isn’t Heroic, so you shouldn’t find these spells too troublesome. Once your Mechs beat down the not-so-Amazing Reno, Kriziki will take him away.
League of Explorers
Dr. Boom
Rewards: 2x Skydiving Instructor (Battlecry: Summon a 1-Cost minion from your deck).
In this fight you play as Brann Bronzebeard with lots of beasts by your side. You also begin the battle with The Amazing Reno (After you play a spell, gain Spell Damage +1) on your side of the board. You might as well trade into the first minion Dr. Boom plays as Kriziki promptly snatches him up.
Using his two-cost Hero Power, Dr. Boom adds random Mechs to his hand. Your main challenge—or lack thereof, thanks to your beasts and buff cards—is to keep up with and overpower him. Hippogryph is a great beast to rely on as its Health will keep it alive long enough for you to draw a card like Fresh Scent (Twinspell: Give a Beast +2/+2) or Dire Frenzy. If you can pull off this combo, face is the place. Stockpile your damage using Ol’ Faithful to obliterate Dr. Boom’s health, and keep his pesky board at bay.
Avalanchan
Rewards: 2x Animated Avalanche (Battlecry: If you played an Elemental last turn, summon a copy of this).
Test your Mage skills as Archmage Khadgar against Avalanchan. Your deck, complemented by your two-cost Hero Power—summon a 2/3 Elemental that copies your spells—is built to copy spells and recast them. Plant an Elemental on turn two and cast spells in subsequent turns. Primordial Glyph helps you to discover more spells and Astral Portal summons Legendary minions. Save a spot for Archmage’s Apprentice who will keep shuffling your spells into your deck as you play them.
As the game progresses, you receive help from Wondrous Wisdomball: he adjusts the cost of cards, place copies of minions in your deck, and more. It’s almost like you’re supposed to win this easily.
Avalanchan starts with a whopping 150 Health and a three-cost Hero Power that creates a copy of a minion and silences it. You needn't worry about it copying any of your chunky followers when you cast Rolling Fireball, though: cast it once and watch it tear across the other side of the board. Plant Archmage Vargoth and unleash hefty burst damage with the spells you discover to defeat the boss.
Kriziki the Winged
Rewards: 2x Winged Guardian (Taunt, Reborn. Can’t be targeted by spells or Hero Powers) and 2x Dark Prophecy (Discover a 2-Cost minion. Summon it and give it +3 Health).
Commander Elise is less than impressed that Reno has been dropped off at the Violet Hold, and she’s ready for a fight. For two mana, your Hero Power lets you look at the top three cards of your deck, before choosing one to draw. Kriziki’s Hero Power is the same as when you fought Sir Finley.
You have the chance to test out the new Twinspell, Rising Winds to choose between drawing a card or summoning a 3/2 Eagle. Play minions on curve and expect Kriziki to play a few dragons. If you need to address a problematic situation, use The Perfect Idea (Discover the perfect card, then shuffle this back into your deck) to get back on track. Spread wide with your Treants and play dragons when you need something a little stronger. Before you know it, that wretched bird will fall from the sky.
How to beat Hearthstone's Galakrond’s Awakening Chapter 1 Heroic mode with just one deck
The challenge of Heroic is infamous, but what would you say if I told you that you could blast through all six heroes using just one deck?
Resurrect Priest is known for its controlling nature and frustrating ability to keep filling the board with strong minions. If you’re using the Activate the Obelisk quest, you’ll never be short of health and you can continue to buff your minions until they can withstand any threat. I’ve opted for the Standard version to keep the crafting cost low, but you can use a Wild variant of this deck, if you have the cards.
Use this approach for every Heroic fight in Chapter 1 and see each of the hero sections for more information to see how to tweak your approach.
Cost: 11860 dust
Deck Code: AAECAZ/HAgbTCqCAA42CA9aZA5ObA92rAwzWCpeHA4KUA5ibA5mbA4OgA6GhA6+lA9GlA5mpA5+pA/KsAwA=
Play your quest on your first turn and hard-mulligan for your (at least) one board-removal spell. Breath of the Infinite should clear most threats in early rounds. Mass Hysteria or Mass Dispel can then be used when larger threats come into play. After taking some damage, use Penance for its Lifesteal ability. Now begin working on completing your quest.
Play cards like Convincing Infiltrator, Khartut Defender and Zilliax on turns 5 and 6. Then use Psychopomp to resummon them and top up your Health, or destroy enemy minions. As your pool of dead minions is relatively small, you’re guaranteed to resurrect one of these useful bunch.
Sandhoof Waterbearer keeps your quest ticking over until you complete it. Next use your Hero Power to buff your minions so they can stick against incoming threats. Batterhead will be your champion for clearing the board with brute force, so kill minions to get the most from it. Catrina Muerte also serves as a sturdy menace as she continues to resurrect friendly minions each turn.
Play Zerek’s Cloning Gallery as soon as you can. As these minions die, you’ll reap the effects of their Deathrattle abilities. These will also be added to your resurrection pool and will be summoned with their original Attack/Health when you use Mass Resurrection. Use this spell with Archmage Vargoth on the board to have him recast the spell at the end of your turn.
Your two Plague of Deaths serve as emergency lifelines because this card silences and then destroys all minions. Only use these if you feel overwhelmed as many of your minions have precious Deathrattles.
Heroic: League of E.V.I.L
Heroic: Sir Finley
Sir Finley focuses fully on Murlocs in this fight: he plays the Unite the Murlocs quest to use Megafin. His Hero Power now only costs one and still gives a friendly minion Rush and Divine Shield.
Assume that Finley can always find and play Murlocs: he can generate more with the likes of Neptulon and reduce their cost to one with Scargil. Keep resurrecting your minions and healing to stay alive and trade or clear the board where possible. Unlike the previous Sir Finley match, he won’t run out of cards. So if you’ve just cleared the board, expect a fresh one imminently.
You may need to use Plague of Death towards the end of the game if Sir Finley spreads his Murloc army too widely. This becomes a very long fight, but rest assured, you’ll finish the game with a comfortable store of health.
Heroic: Chenvaala
Chenvaala’s Heroic game reduces its Hero Power to 1 and starts it with 30 Health and 30 Armour. The fruits of its Hero Power will pose a problem for you as they fill up the board, but be patient and play your Taunts and Psychopomps to keep you going until the late game. Snowfury Giants are its strongest minions, but by the time these start to drop on the board, you’ll have healthy minions to trade with them.
Heroic: The Amazing Reno
Stop Reno from gaining too much armour from his Arcane Artificer and remove it as quickly as possible. Gradually build your board and don’t be deterred by his minions. You need to take 15 damage to heal for that much and complete your quest so it’s fine to take a few hits. Use your high-cost spells to flood the board with your prized minions and keep resurrecting them to keep up. Reno’s deck includes powerful minions like Kalecgos to discover spells, along with his passive Hero Power, but even these are no match for your consistent removal and healing.
Heroic: League of Explorers
Heroic: Dr. Boom
In true Dr. Boom style, he starts his Heroic battle with 30 Health and 30 Armour, along with his Hero Power now costing just 1. He’ll establish early board control with low-cost minions and will acquire more random Mechs from his Hero Power. From turn 5, use your Taunts to create a wall against further damage and begin healing back to full health as a result.
Batterhead clears most small targets, but beware of giving Dr. Boom too much armour when trading. Like you, Dr. Boom has strong Deathrattle cards: F.U.S.E. (Deathrattle: Deal 5 damage to your hero) and Sneed’s Old Shredder. He’ll also use his Mech’s Magnetic abilities to stack them into sizable threats. Silence and clear when they become too large.
Heroic: Avalanchan
Avalanchan starts at 150 Health again, however its Hero Power now costs just 1. As a result, expect to see the minion it plays on its first turn to be copied for the next few turns. It’ll retain its hand to play Mountain Giant, but later on Animated Avalanche floods the board with beefy minions. It will also use spells like Blizzard and Ray of Frosts to freeze and damage your minions. After taking considerable damage, it’ll play Molten Giants, using its Hero Power to copy them and flood the board once more. You’ll definitely need to use your Plague of Death here. Prepare to head into fatigue with your Sandhoof Waterbearers on board to top up your Health.
Heroic: Kriziki the Winged
Heroic treats Kriziki to a starting 30 Health and 30 Armour, along with a one-cost Hero Power. Kriziki will try to use its Hero Power on most of its minions, making them tricky to remove while gaining the benefits of their Deathrattles twice. Chronobreaker is used to clear your board and Psychopomp will keep regurgitating annoying minions. You’ll also tip your hat to Old God, N’Zoth, the Corruptor. Trade when possible, use your board clears when you feel threatened, but save a silence in preparation for Hadronox to rear its head. Your Plague of Deaths have never felt this satisfying.
Galakrond’s Awakening Chapter 1 Rewards
Feast your eyes on the new cards in Galakrond’s Awakening Chapter 1:
- 2x Air Raid
- 2x Eye of the Storm
- 2x Twisted Knowledge
- 2x Bomb Wrangler
- 2x Skydiving Instructor
- 2x Animated Avalanche
- 2x Winged Guardian
- 2x Dark Prophecy
Completing the first chapter of Heroic doesn't grant you any rewards, but once you complete all four chapters, you’ll get these cardbacks:
