Heroes of the Storm microtransactions guide

Heroes of the Storm is free-to-play. This means you don’t have to purchase the game to play, but there are Heroes of the Storm microtransactions that you can pay for to unlock additional heroes and customizations. These microtransactions can be in the form of cash (through the preferred payment method you’ve set in your Battle.net account) or through in-game gold you’ve earned while playing, much like Hearthstone.

The good news is that you can enjoy a huge part of the game without paying a single shiny penny. All battleground maps are free and every week seven heroes chosen by Blizzard are available to play at no charge. Completing the tutorial missions, leveling your account through matches, leveling individual heroes, competing in matches and completing daily quests all reward you with gold. You won’t be able to purchase everything through the in-game store with gold, but you will be able to play the game with many free heroes to choose from.

If on the other hand, you’re ready to drop some cash up-front there are many deals offered on the in-game store for you to start collecting heroes, mounts and skins immediately. Plus, the $10 for a 30-day Stimpack to boost your gold and experience gain can almost be seen as a monthly fee. Not that it’s necessary, but it sure helps as many rewards in the game are level-locked.

To help you make a decision on how to spend you cash and/or gold, we’ve broken down what types of microtransactions are available and how they can be paid for.

Heroes

Heroes can be bought with both gold and cash. The price for heroes can range from 2,000 – 10,000 gold or $4 – $10 each. Purchasing a hero makes their base skin available to you at all times. They can ride any mount you own (with the exceptions of heroes that don’t use mounts such as Zagara, Falstad, and Rehgar).

New heroes debut in the store for 15,000 gold and drop to 10,000 gold after two weeks. Their cash price is $10 for the base appearance. Bundles are often offered when first released that includes the hero and a skin together for a discount but usually only for cash.

You can try out any hero before purchasing them. Click the TRY button on the hero page in the store and you will be put into a single player, one-lane map that you control. You can toggle the minions and enemies on and off as well as auto level yourself to experiment with talent builds. You can also view their abilities and talent choices on the hero page in the store.

Every week after the Tuesday maintenance is complete seven new heroes are free-to-play. Five of them are available to everyone while the sixth is available to players at least level 12 and the seventh to players at least level 15. You maintain all your progress on these heroes whether or not you end up buying them — so if you decide to buy them or they come up for free rotation again, those heroes will be at the same level as you left them.

Hero skins

Every hero comes with a base skin and two color variations of that appearance. Purchasing the hero gives you access to the base skin only. The additional recolors unlock at hero level 7 and 8 at no additional cost. At hero level 10, a Master Skin unlocks and can only be purchased with 10,000 gold, not cash. This is an entirely new appearance and has two color variations of its own at no additional cost.

Heroes have 1-3 additional skins available for cash purchase. These can range from $7.50 – $15 and come with two color variations at no additional cost. The more expensive skins have additional features such as custom animations or new voice-overs. Any additional features that come with the skin will be listed on the hero’s skin page. Some skins, such as seasonal ones, are not available year round.

All heroes, their alternate skins, and color variations can be previewed at no charge on the hero page in the store.

Consider paying for your heroes with cash and saving your gold to unlock the Master Skin for your favorite character. 10,000 gold is not easy to come by and the Master Skins allow you to show off how far you’ve leveled a hero.

Mounts

Mounts can be purchased for cash and in the case of the Piggy Bank mount, gold. Costs range from $10 – $20 cash and 20,000 gold for the Piggy Bank mount. All mounts grant the same run speed bonus to the hero and all accounts start with the Horse mount at no additional charge. Mounts also come with color variations that unlock at account level 6 and 9.

Certain mounts are only available for a limited time and can no longer be acquired such as the Nexus Charger for BlizzCon 2014 attendees and Wonder Billie which was only available for those who purchased items in the store during the Alpha and Closed Beta. The Golden Tiger mount comes exclusively with the purchase of the retail box of Heroes and should not be confused with the Lunar Tiger mount available in the shop.

New mounts in development have been announced including a Hearthstone-card themed flying carpet and Iron Wolf World of Warcraft-themed mount, both of which require achievements in their respective Blizzard games to unlock in Heroes.

Stimpacks

You can increase your experience and gold gains from matches by purchasing a Stimpack. They cost $4 for a 7-day Stimpack and $10 for a 30-day Stimpack. While a Stimpack is active, you will receive a 150% to your gold payout and a 100% boost to your experience award. The Stimpack countdown timer runs even through maintenance periods and other downtime and cannot be paused. Additional Stimpack purchases will extend the duration of your current Stimpack if you have one active. The experience boost applies to both hero experience and account experience gained from competing in matches.

Bundles and sales

There are various bundles for sale that contain a combination of heroes, skins, mounts and/or stimpacks at a price cheaper than if you bought all the items separately. For example, the current Starter Bundle includes three heroes, a mount and a 7-day Stimpack for $5, 75% off the cost of buying them separately. The Kael’thas Hero Bundle will get you the base character plus his Stormpunk skin together for 25% cheaper.

A handful of individual heroes and skins are also on sale at deep discounts up to 50% off. Every week on Tuesday at 2:30pm PT, the in-game shop is updated with new bundles and sales.

NOTE: All prices valid at the date of publication and are subject to change by Blizzard at any time.