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Hearthstone takes place in turns. Each turn gives a player the opportunity to act. At the end of each turn, play is passed back to the other player. A round describes one turn for each player.

Order of play[]

At the start of each of their turns, the player gains a Mana Crystal (up to a maximum of 10), and attempts to draw a card. The player is then free (but not forced) to take action, playing cards, using their Hero Power, and/or attacking with their minions or hero. Once all possible actions have been taken, the "End Turn" button will light up, often accompanied by the "Job's done" voiceover.

Each turn lasts a maximum of 75 seconds, at which point it will end automatically. However, animations can cause the turn to last longer than 75 seconds. To compensate, when the start of the player's turn is delayed, extra time is added to their turn to compensate.[1] This time is known as the 'slush', and makes up the difference between when the player's turn starts on the server and when it appears to start in the client.[1] This time appears to take place at the end of the current turn but is actually added to the start of the next turn. However, the slush time does not always fully account for the entire length of the animations.[2]

Solo Adventures does not normally feature a turn timer; however, LegacyNozdormu's effect is able to introduce a turn timer.

  • For example, in Practice mode, Nozdormu introduces a refreshed turn timer of 40 seconds when played, 30 seconds for turns after a turn in which the player presses the "End Turn" button, and 20 seconds for turns after a turn in which the player does not press the "End Turn" button.[3]
  • Nozdormu also introduces a longer turn timer when played in some adventures. For example, in the One Night in Karazhan Class Challenges, Nozdormu introduces a 100 second turn timer when played, and for turns after a turn in which the player does not press the "End Turn" button, the turn timer is 70 seconds.[3]

When around 20 seconds are remaining in the current turn, a burning rope fuse[4] will appear across the centre of the battlefield, illustrating the time remaining.[5] Once the fuse has reached the "End Turn" button, the turn will end. Failing to take all desired actions before the rope burns down completely is known as "roping".

At the end of each turn, play is passed to the other player, and their next turn begins.

If a player takes no actions during their turn and the time limit expires, that player's next turn will begin with an even faster burning fuse, giving them around 7 seconds to play.[6] However, as soon as the player takes any action, the fuse will disappear, and the player's total turn time will be extended to the usual 75 seconds.

Notes[]

  • Many triggered effects activate at the start or end of either the player's turn, or each player's turn. See Triggered effect#End of turn and Triggered effect#Start of turn for a list.
  • Each game of Hearthstone has a limit of 89 turns. At the start of the 90th turn, both heroes will explode, and the game will end in a draw.[7] This means that Player 1 has 45 complete turns (turn 1, 3, 5... 87, 89), while Player 2 has 44 complete turns (turn 2, 4, 6... 86, 88). Player 2 does not start turn 90, he will not draw a card nor will start of turn triggers happen. This limit is very rarely reached, due to fatigue damage.
  • Neither the turn countdown timer nor the round counter is visible to players.
  • In the alpha, the turn timer was 90 seconds, but it was changed to 75 seconds before the release of the beta.[8]
  • With Patch 10.2.0.23180, the turn timer for the first two turns of a match are now shorter.
  • In exceptional cases, the player can be required to interact after pressing the "End Turn" button. This happens if, for example, the Plague of Wrath Twist is active in the singleplayer Tombs of Terror adventure and the player's rightmost minion is a Journey to Un'GoroVicious Fledgling, as if the Vicious Fledgling hits the enemy hero after the end of turn the player is required to choose an adaptation for it.
  • The turn limit still exists for the practice mode.
  • If Journey to Un'GoroTime Warp is played multiple times, turn limit rules still apply. This makes edge cases possible, such as the caster taking 80 turns and leaving the opponent with only 10 turns.

Terminology[]

The terms turn and round are often confused by Hearthstone players, and can mean different things in other games. The text of numerous cards such as LegacyRagnaros the Firelord, LegacyPower Overwhelming, The Grand TournamentCompetitive Spirit and NaxxramasLoatheb clearly use turn to refer to individual player turns, rather than the completion of a round, which occurs only after the second player completes their turn and control passes back to the player who was chosen to go first at the start of the match.

Related cards[]

For Wild format listings, see Turn/Wild format

This section lists cards related to the current, previous, or following turn(s).
NOTE: This does NOT list cards that have Triggered effects related to the ends or starts of turns. For those effects, see Triggered effect#End of turn and Triggered effect#Start of turn

Customize this list

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TSC 654
CORE EX1 169
ETC 367
CORE EX1 145
NX2 004
RLK 823
CORE CS2 188
CORE BT 427
TTN 950
TSC 952
TTN 317
TTN 486
REV 313
TSC 828
NX2 012
TTN 726
NX2 029
TSC 946
TSC 827
ETC 081
MAW 025
RLK 123
CORE BT 035
RLK 656
JAM 006
CORE SCH 713
RLK 923
ETC 084
TTN 830
TTN 744
TTN 854
CORE DMF 057
MAW 010
TSC 006
RLK 116
RLK 956
TSC 213
REV 942
TTN 851
REV 337
REV 939
ETC 410
CORE DMF 058
ETC 423
TTN 844
REV 960
ETC 079
RLK 113
TTN 731
ETC 523
RLK 952
CORE OG 047
REV 378
TTN 930
NX2 007
CS3 017
RLK 512
MAW 002
MAW 026
ETC 335
RLK 834
TSC 651
RLK 218
REV 750
REV 504
TTN 923
TTN 469
CORE UNG 928
RLK 527
TTN 722
RLK 552
NX2 003
REV 361
TTN 713
TID 744
TTN 908
TSC 610
RLK 829
TID 718
RLK 529
MAW 014
ETC 387
JAM 034
TSC 936
TTN 475
CORE CS2 046
TID 719
TTN 831
RLK 832
TTN 842
TTN 841
REV 940
RLK 815
RLK 927
RLK 591
TTN 800
TTN 415
TTN 075
RLK 919
CS3 035
MAW 020
ETC 386
RLK 659
TTN 811
TTN 462

Specifications[]

Turn-related cards can be split into the following categories, depending on what turn affects them:

This turn[]

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Swipe left or right to see the cards.
TSC 654
CORE EX1 169
ETC 367
CORE EX1 145
NX2 004
RLK 823
CORE CS2 188
CORE BT 427
TSC 952
TTN 317
REV 313
TSC 828
NX2 012
TTN 726
NX2 029
TSC 946
MAW 025
CORE BT 035
RLK 923
CORE DMF 057
TSC 006
TSC 213
REV 942
REV 337
REV 939
ETC 410
CORE DMF 058
TTN 844
ETC 079
ETC 523
CORE OG 047
CS3 017
RLK 512
MAW 002
TSC 651
RLK 218
REV 750
TTN 469
RLK 527
TTN 722
TSC 610
TSC 936
CORE CS2 046
TTN 831
TTN 841
REV 940
RLK 927
TTN 415
MAW 020
ETC 386
RLK 659

Last turn[]

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NX2 007
NX2 003
TTN 475

Next turn[]

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Swipe left or right to see the cards.
TTN 486
TSC 827
RLK 656
JAM 006
CORE SCH 713
TTN 830
TTN 744
REV 960
REV 378
REV 504
RLK 527
TID 744
MAW 014
JAM 034
TID 719
TTN 075

See also[]

  • Gameplay - An exploration of Hearthstone's basic gameplay.

References[]

 
  1. 1.0 1.1 Ben Brode on Twitter. (2015-09-05). 
  2. https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/3agk6v/turn_time_has_been_reduced_from_90_to_70_seconds/
  3. 3.0 3.1 Tested by User:Aegonostic in September 2019
  4. Yong Woo on Twitter. (2016-06-04). 
  5. This appears to be around 22.5 seconds, but animation lag makes precise measurement difficult.
  6. Full time appears to be 10 seconds, however, the remained is wasted in non-playable animation time. Playable time appears to be approximately 7.5 seconds.
  7. Patashu (2015-06-07). Maximum Length (in turns) of a Game (Blackrock Mountain Edition)
  8. Droggelbecher (June 19, 2015). Turn time has been reduced from 90 to 70 seconds. That's a huge change and nobody knows about it.. Retrieved on 2018-12-30.
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