Baba Yaga will be joining Smite next year

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Here's what we know about the mortar-riding Slavic sorceress

Hi-Rez Expo 2019 is underway, and a new teaser trailer unveiled at the event hints at some new gods on their way to Smite's roster of dueling deities. While a couple aren't named, the video does highlight Baba Yaga—a character the Smite community has been begging for for years.

Smite's lead game designer, AJ Walker, was coy about details on what Baba Yaga will be able to do in the game, but he said fans should be pleased.

"I don't want to go into too many details about her kit, it's still being planned, it's at the very early stages," he told PC Gamer. "But we want to make sure we fulfil the community expectations there."

In other words, Smite's version of Baba Yaga will include the things she's most known for: living in a house with giant chicken legs, and flying around in a mortar and pestle.

"We've already started on something like that," Walker says, talking about the mortar and pestle. "The animation team is very interested in how they're going to get this old lady in a bucket flying around, but they think it will be a fun challenge."

So when can we expect Baba Yaga to park her walking chicken cottage on the Smite battlegrounds? It'll be in 2020, and after a "surprise" god who will be arriving some time after Heimdallr.

"We're having a surprise god after Heimdallr, then we're having Baba Yaga after that, and then a surprise god after Baba Yaga, then another community request later in the year," Walker said.

You can tune in to Hi-Rez Expo 2019 all weekend over on Twitch.