Heroes of the Storm/Patch 20.0

Patch 20.0
Heroes of the Storm
Release date	September 13, 2016 (2016-09-13)
Version	20.0
Related links
Patch 20.0 patch notes PTR Balance Update - September 1, 2016 PTR patch notes - August 29, 2016
Patch chronology
← Previous Next → Patch 19.5 Patch 20.1
Additional links
Patches category, Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm patch 20.0 was the ninth major patch since patch 11.1a.

General

New Special Event: Xel’naga Artifact Hunt

Xel'naga artifacts have begun to appear all across the Nexus, and SCVs are being deployed to collect them. Terminate these interlopers with extreme prejudice and collect artifact pieces to earn some sweet new rewards!

• Daily Quest:
  • Collect 12 Artifact Pieces during a single game.
  • Reward: 1 Day Stimpack
• Event Quest:
  • Collect 150 Artifact Pieces before the Machines of War liftoff from the Nexus on October 18, 2016.
  • Reward: Xel’naga Artifact Portrait
• SCVs and Artifact Pieces will have a 50% chance to spawn at the start of a game if any players on the team have not yet completed their Artifact Hunt Daily Quest. This task will be difficult to accomplish alone! Teammates must work together to eliminate the SCVs and reclaim the Artifact Pieces before the game begins.

Free Hero for All!

After downloading today’s patch and logging into Heroes of the Storm, all players will be able to add a new Hero to their collections for free!

• On login, players will be able to pick one of the following three Heroes: Anub’arak, Thrall, or Tyrande.
  • If any of those Heroes are already owned, they will be replaced by Nazeebo, Sonya, or Uther on the selection screen.
  • Players who already own all six of these Heroes will automatically receive 4,000 Gold instead.
• Learn more by reading our recent blog post.

New Battleground, More Often

• Starting today, the pool of Battlegrounds available in all modes, except Custom Games, will be temporarily limited to the following:
  • Braxis Holdout
  • Towers of Doom
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Sky Temple
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
• This has been done to increase the frequency with which players encounter the new Battleground, Braxis Holdout.
• During this time, players can still select and play on any Battleground they wish using Custom Games.
• A second group of 6 Battlegrounds will replace those listed above during the week of September 26, and the reduced Battleground pool will remain in effect until the Machines of War event concludes during the week of October 17.

New Player Battleground Progression

• New Heroes of the Storm players who enter matchmaking modes will initially only be matched for games on certain Battlegrounds. As they complete more games, new players will unlock additional Battlegrounds as follows:
  • 0-5 games played: Players will only receive matches on Cursed Hollow.
  • 5-15 games played: Players receive games on the first four Battlegrounds listed in the reduced pool mentioned above.
  • 15+ games played: Players can now be matched on any of the Battlegrounds listed in the reduced pool mentioned above.