Hearthstone is heading to the Barrens at the end of March

Hearthstone's dusty new expansion, Forged In The Barrens, is taking us on a Horde-themed adventure on March 30th—and there'll be a pre-launch party to prepare you for your hike across The Barrens.

Blizzard revealed the release date for the card-shuffler's next set in an announcement post yesterday. But you won't have to wait quite as long to get your hands on the new cards, with a slew of events in the run-up to release starting with a series of theorycrafting livestreams.

Starting March 22nd, you'll be able to put together your own Forged decks, and submit them to your favourite Hearthstone streamers to put them through their paces. That'll be followed by the theorycrafting streams themselves on the 23rd, with Mega Bundle giveaways on Reddit and Twitch over the following four days.

The weekend before release, you'll be able to open Forged packs at private Fireside Gathering events. Considering, y'know, Covid, official Fireside Gathering events have been postponed indefinitely—in their stead, Blizzard will let people register "one-person" gatherings to crack open packs and take part in limited new brawls.

"In light of the ongoing global health risks associated with in-person gatherings, we’ve cancelled official Fireside Gatherings for the near future and disabled the ability to create public events," Blizzard explained.

"We do, however, want individuals at home to have an opportunity to partake in the upcoming Pre-Release weekend, so we’ll be keeping private event functionality intact. Players can register their own one-person event to enjoy opening Forged in the Barrens card packs from March 26-29."

Forged In The Barrens finally arrives on March 30th, bringing with it 135 new Horde-themed cards (including Mankrik and his late wife).

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.