Hearthstone strategies: earn gold fast and get free cards

Hearthstone's finally out of closed beta. It's free, it's great and it comes with near universal approval. In an ideal world, this would be where you saunter in to kick neatly arranged posteriors. However, unless you're a card shark, chances are you're going to spend at least a few weeks being thoroughly trounced.

What are you going to do?

Madly munch through guides from across the Internet, of course - beginning with this one. In celebration of the perennial hunt for nerd glory, we've got a line-up of tips, tricks and strategies on how to get started with Hearthstone. Previously, we touched on the most common Hearthstone terminology and building great decks using just basic cards. Here, it's all about the gold.

As you might have guessed, gold, which functions as the in-game currency here, is a pretty big deal. It's used to both purchase entry into the Arena and to acquire new card packs, things no Hearthstone fanatic can really live without. But gold, if the real-world market is any barometer of things, is expensive. It costs money - money that you may or may not have as a connoisseur of free things. Happily, we've got a short guide right here outlining precisely how you can acquire more gold without spending actual moolah.

Achievements

I know it's tempting to blaze through the tutorial, skip over the A.I. opponents and just dive headlong into the Arena. However, if you're shooting to make the maximum amount of gold possible without spending any extra cash, you're going to want to hold those horses. Sure, the Arena is exciting. Sure, it's a calculated gamble rife with all the excitement you'd expect of such a setting. Sure, it levels the playing field by ensuring everyone has to work with random cards instead of pre-mediated decks of murder. Sure, it's fun but you're still new and it's likely that you're going to get trounced by Arena veterans, thereafter resulting in a waste of your first free trip to the Arena.

Focus on cashing in on all the achievements first. Seriously. They're there for a reason. While there's currently no way to do anything but verbally brag of your Hearthstone achievements, they're still a relatively easy avenue to a free 900 gold or so. 1000 gold, if you've got a nose for savvy crafting. (Don't worry, we'll talk about crafting in another installment.)

Yup. 900 gold. You completely read that right. Bet the idea of rushing off to the Arena doesn't seem so tempting now, eh? Ahem. Anyway, without further ado, here are the relevant money-making quests/achievements.

Unlock every hero – 100 gold.
Win 100 games in any mode – 300 gold.
Win 1,000 games in any mode – 300 gold.
Defeat all expert A.I – 100 gold.
Collect every card in the Basic Set - 100 gold.
Collect every card in the Expert Set – 100 gold.

P.S: If you finish all these achievements, there's a strong likelihood you won't be immediately flattened like a pancake at a truck stop when you finally swagger into the Arena.

Your daily bread

Ah, daily quests. Truly a staple of modern-day gaming. It's hard to imagine a world without them these days. I'd honestly have been surprised if Hearthstone was shipped without daily quests especially given, you know, their prevalence in World of Warcraft. By and large, you should always attempt to finish your daily quests in Hearthstone. On a bad day, they'll net you 40 gold. Not enough for a trip to the Arena, but certainly still something. On a really good day? There's a chance you might go home with 100 gold.

But it's seldom a good idea to blindly do everything you're told. Hearthstone allows players to re-roll a daily quest once a day. Ostensibly, it's an opportunity for players to swap more difficult missions for something easier. However, many also use it as an avenue to better gains. ShrivelTwitch from the Hearthstone subreddit has a rather efficient approach to daily quests.

"Reroll all 40 gold quests. Don't finish 40 gold quests. Finish 60/100 gold quests as soon as possible, unless they require finishing a 40 gold quest. Finish a quest if you can't reroll and you have 3 quests."

The general idea here is that you should neither complete nor frivolously trade in your 40-gold quests. Let's use an example here. Pretend you just picked up a daily quest in Hearthstone. If completed, it'd give you 40 gold. The first response for many is, of course, to simply try re-rolling for an attempt at something more profitable. You do so. You get another 40 gold quest, complete it and go on your merry way. On the second day, you find yourself the recipient of a quest that pays 60/100 gold. Obviously, trading something like that is a little bit silly so you don't. However, in the process, you would have also wasted that daily re-roll. If you had kept the quest from last night, you would have had something to use that daily re-roll on. Yeah, something like that.

Ready... fight!

Look, at the end of the day, Hearthstone is all about one versus one conflict. It's about two people matching wits, trading blows and occasionally having your Hero shriek pre-set messages. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that one of the best ways to get gold is to simply play a lot of Hearthstone.

If you're the sort who prefers to play with a pre-constructed deck, the "Play" mode is your answer. 10 gold will be awarded for every three games won, up till the point you've hit the daily cap of 100 gold. This can, of course, take time. Which is why the Internet is rife with some interesting tips: run a "rush" deck so that you can move on quickly to the next match regardless of the outcome! Concede a match if things are taking a turn for the worse!

Currently, the most lucrative path to success remains the Arena. After 7 or so wins, you're more or less guaranteed at least 150g -- the entrance required to play in the first place. Naturally, if you're a great player, the rewards are potentially way, way better.

Quests

This is simple. Do all the quests. Many of these were designed as gimmes for beginner players, so don't overlook them.

Quest: One of Everything - collect every expert card in the game.
Reward: 100 Gold.

Quest: Beta Hero - use real money during the beta.
Reward: Golden Gelbin Mekkatorque (card).

Quest: Big Winner - win 1000 games across all modes
Reward: 300 Gold.

Quest: Chicken Dinner - win 100 games across all modes.
Reward: 300 Gold.

Quest: Crafting Time - disenchant any card.
Reward: 95 Dust.

Quest: Crushed Them All -defeat every AI character at least once.
Reward: 100 Gold.

Quest: Enter The Arena - select The Arena from the main menu.
Reward: One Arena Key.

Quest: Arrrrrr!!! - acquire every Pirate card.
Reward: Captain's Parrot (card).

Quest: Golden Arrrrrr!!! - acquire every golden Pirate card.
Reward: Golden Captain's Parrot (card).

Quest: Mrglglglgl! - acquire every Murloc card.
Reward: Old Murc-Eye (card).

Quest: Golden Mrglglglgl! - acquire every golden Murloc card.
Reward: Golden Old Murc-Eye (card).

Quest: Ready to Go - unlock every hero in the game.
Reward: 100 Gold.

Quest: Ready to Rock - only given to attendees of Blizzcon 2013
Reward: Golden Elite Tauren Chieftain (Card).

Quest: First Blood - complete a casual or ranked match in Play Mode.
Reward: One Booster Pack.

Quest: The Duelist - complete three casual or ranked matches in Play Mode.
Reward: 100 Gold.

Head back for the rest of our Hearthstone strategies.