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Hearthstone Unlicensed Apothecary Bug Will be Quarantined Soon

Unlicensed Apothecary has been practicing some dangerous medicine without a license and Blizzard is about to step in.

Ozzie Mejia

October 4, 2017 11:15 AM

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As is often the case with a new expansion, Hearthstone's Knights of the Frozen Throne has resulted in some cool interactions and some hilarious bugs. One bug in particular was a laugh riot when it first popped up. Then it got less funny. Then it got annoying. It's the Unlicensed Apothecary bug and it's one that Blizzard will issue a fix for in the card game's next major patch.

"The Thrall interaction should be fixed in the next patch," Hearthstone Principal Game Designer Mike Donais said on Reddit. "The first big patch since Thrall's release."

The bug centers around Death Knight card Thrall, Deathseer. He can evolve minions into random minions that cost (2) more. If he summons Unlicensed Apothecary, it'll trigger the minions effect of "Whenever you summon a minion, deal 5 damage to your Hero" for every other minion on the board. Since those other minions are transformed and not summoned, the minion's effect should not kick in. And such an effect has cost players entire games. Take a look at the video below (the 1:29 mark) for a quick example.

It's an aggravating bug, especially given the Evolve Shaman's place in the current meta. So look for this pesky bug to go away, along with some other potential big changes on the horizon, given that Donais says the fix will be part of "the first big patch" since the Death Knights were issued. Considering Hearthstone's last patch, one wonders how much bigger the next update can get.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?