Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Starcraft II: What’s new at BlizzCon® 2017
november 06, 2017 - Blizzard Entertainment

Starcraft II: What’s new at BlizzCon® 2017

StarCraft II continues to evolve with a new Co-op Commander and Co-op Mission, the second season of the War Chest in support of #starcraftii esports, and an all-new way to play free.



STARCRAFT ® II GOING FREE-TO-PLAY
After more than seven years of epic real-time strategy gaming, including numerous content drops featuring dozens of versus maps and Co-op Commanders, StarCraft II is going free to play starting November 14. The entire award-winning Wings of Liberty campaign will be free, and for the first time ever, players will have a free path to unlock the matchmaking ladder, complete with all the multiplayer units from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void.

  • Wings of Liberty campaign free to all
  • Free players unlock ranked ladder by earning 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play
  • All Co-op Commanders free to play up to level 5
    • Weekly mutations are free
    • Raynor, Kerrigan, and Artanis completely free
The Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void campaigns remain purchasable separately. Purchase of any campaign or War Chest season will grant immediate access to the ranked ladder. The 10 first wins of the day requirement will only be for free players.


WAR CHEST – SEASON 2
Introduced earlier this year, the War Chest is a new series of seasonal content for StarCraft II designed to support SC2 esports.
With the War Chest, as players gain experience points playing StarCraft II matches or co-op missions online, they can unlock a full set of unit skins for their chosen army, as well as other exclusive digital content, including portraits, decals, sprays, emojis, and a special comic expanding the lore of the StarCraft universe. The Season 2 War Chest includes an even more expansive comic, new UI skins, and a co-op stim pack.
Players can purchase access to the War Chest for $9.99 (USD) per race or $24.99 (USD) for all three races. Part of the proceeds from each season will go into funding the #starcraftii World Championship Series (WCS). The Season 1 War Chest increased the prize pool for the 2017 WCS Global Finals at #blizzcon by $200,000, bringing the total prize pool to $700,000—the highest prize pool ever for a #starcraftii esports #event.



CO-OP UPDATES
Since Co-op Missions debuted with the launch of Legacy of the Void, the’ve become one of the popular game mode in StarCraft II—and more exciting co-op content is on the way in the coming months.
The newest Co-op Commander is actually two commanders in one: Mira Han and Matt Horner. Introduced in the Wings of Liberty campaign, Horner is Jim Raynor’s trustworthy and stalwart second-in-command. Mira Han is a notorious space pirate. Through an unusual set of circumstances, the two found themselves married—and now that unlikely partnership is extending to the battlefield.
Working together as a single Co-op Commander, Matt and Mira are a powerful duo. Horner has a fleet of high-powered Dominion air units at his disposal, while Han brings a more reckless edge with fast moving units that throw themselves into the fray with on-death effects.
A new Co-op Mission is also coming. Entitled Part and Parcel, the mission was adapted from a player-created map that won the recent Rock the Cabinet contest, where players submitted their own ideas for a Co-op Mission. Players will collect resources to assist an AI-controlled archangel mech against an imposing array of hybrid bosses.
Another new feature coming soon to co-op missions: leaderboards. All co-op games will be scored, and the best scores will be posted online for other players to beat.


MULTIPLAYER UPDATES
A comprehensive set of multiplayer design changes is coming to StarCraft II shortly after #blizzcon, and are now in public testing. The overall goal of this update is to reduce sudden game-ending moments, make support units effective in smaller numbers (but not scale up in effectiveness as much with more units), promote more player control over the game state, and address some underused units.
Some Protoss highlights include the removal of the Mothership Core, the addition of the Shield Battery structure, and improvements to the Stalker, Colossus, and Adept.
On the Terran side, the Raven’s abilities have been completely redesigned, with one notable new ability: repairing mechanized units. Widow Mines have been weakened slightly while transforming units like the Hellion and Viking will be able to change modes more quickly.
The Zerg will see changes to the Infestor, Lurkers, and the Viper’s parasitic bomb ability.
For a full list of changes, check out the article on the #starcraftii website.