Here are the things that actually make your Buddy Meter move in Hearthstone Battlegrounds

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Players have been confused since the system was added to the game earlier this week.

Forest Warden Omu's Buddy gives you free minions each turn, but it's slow to earn at Tavern Tier 4. (Image credit: Blizzard)

According to a survey last summer, just over one in four American men has six or more close friends. So as you can imagine, I was absolutely delighted to receive 75 new Buddies this week when the latest patch for Hearthstone dropped. Buddies are the new attraction in the Battlegrounds mode, where these units are earned over the course of a match. Each Hero has its own bespoke Buddy, and that Buddy has an ability designed to synergise with its Hero's expected game plan.

Mishmash is the Buddy of The Curator. Its ability to scale  alongside Amalgam means it's not unusual for it to reach triple digit stats in the late game. (Image credit: Blizzard)

Having jammed a bunch of games already, I love my new Buddies (especially you, Mishmash), which have certainly freshened up the meta, though I suspect we're going to need another balance to nail down some powerful outliers.

Before that, there is another problem. Most players don't seem to understand how the Buddy Meter actually works. I know I didn't, beyond the general notion that it went up during combat. See, in order to acquire a Buddy, you must first fill the Buddy Meter (found on the bottom left of the screen) to the halfway mark. After that, you can earn two more copies of your Buddy by filling the meter completely, thereby enabling you to create a golden 'Triple' version, assuming you kept the first one around.

Matters are complicated by the fact that not all Buddies are created equal. As with other units, the Buddies have a star rating that reflects how powerful they are, ranging from 2-4. The higher the rating, the slower the meter fills. As to what actions actually fill the meter, unfortunately nowhere in the game tells you. All we've got to go on is this list tweeted by Blizzard.

My understanding is that the number of minions on your board will also affect how much Buddy energy is earned in a round, and that you will also receive a small amount passively even if nothing happens. However, neither leveling up your Tavern, nor buying and selling minions, will affect the Buddy Meter. Note too that the amount of energy you can earn is capped, so once you've received a certain amount during a round the Buddy Meter will close. 

Not incredibly clear then, although I'm not sure it will end up mattering too much. Everything about Battlegrounds was baffling to me initially, having not been an Auto Chess guy, but you soon pick up how it works. No doubt the rate at which different Buddies drop, based on particular Heroes and board states, will become second nature before long. 

What I will say is Buddies seem to have pushed the game towards a tempo rather than value-based meta. Which is to say that if you're too greedy with how you level up, you'll get clapped quickly by players who've maximised their stats early on. For now, the plan with most Buddies seems to be to get them down as early as possible to benefit from the power spike they bring. 

Hearthstone grew a lot over the course of 2021, to the point that it now essentially encompasses multiple different game modes. To learn more about where things stand now, take a look at our deep dive into the state of Hearthstone in 2022. 

Tim Clark
Tim Clark

With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in 'co-op' on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He's almost certainly doing one of these right now.