Amalgadon
What is Activate?
Activate is a Battlegrounds keyword that lets you spend Gold during the Recruit Phase to trigger a minion's special ability. You'll see it written on the card with the price in brackets. For example, Tyrael reads Activate (1): Set another minion's stats to 50/50. In one line: once per turn, click the minion and spend the Gold to get the effect.| When | The Recruit Phase, on your own turn |
| Cost | The Gold shown in brackets: Activate (0), (1) or (2) |
| Frequency | Once per turn, for each Activate minion |
| Where | The minion must be on your board, not in your hand |
| Introduced | Patch 36.2 |
How It Works
Using an Activate ability
It has to be on your board. An Activate minion sitting in your hand does nothing. Play it into your warband first. Click to fire. If the ability doesn't need a target, like Private Investigator's Gain 2 Gold next turn, a single click pays the Gold and resolves the effect. Click and hold to aim. If the ability needs a target, like Tyrael choosing which minion becomes a 50/50, click and hold the minion, then choose the target you want. Once per turn, per minion. Each Activate ability can be used once a turn. The limit belongs to the minion, not to you: two different Activate minions give you two uses, and both refresh when your next turn starts.💡
Tip
Because the limit is per minion, a board with several Activate minions turns leftover Gold into a small shopping list of its own. That makes it worth planning your Gold before you roll, not after.
Reading the number in brackets
The number is the Gold you pay each time you use it, and it runs from 0 to 2 in the current pool.
- Activate (1) and (2) compete directly with buying and rolling. Every use is a Gold you didn't spend at the Tavern, so the question is always whether the ability beats what that Gold would otherwise have bought.
- Activate (0) is free, but that doesn't mean it costs nothing. The zero-cost Aberrations ask you to discard a card instead: Abyssal Envoy turns a discard into a random Tavern spell, and Brain Rotter turns one into stats for your Deity.
The Headline Example
Tyrael
Tyrael
Tyrael is the clearest demonstration of what the keyword can do. He's a Tier 6 10/10, and for 1 Gold a turn he sets another minion's stats to 50/50. A cheap body with a great effect becomes a real threat, and it happens again every turn he stays on your board.
He has also been tuned twice since launch, which shows how sensitive Activate costs are:
| Patch | Tyrael |
|---|---|
| 36.2 | 8/8. Activate (2): set another minion to 40/40 |
| 36.2.2 | 10/10. Activate (2): set another minion to 50/50 |
| 36.4.2 | 10/10. Activate (1): set another minion to 50/50 |
The target number went up once and the price came down once. Halving the cost did more for him than either stat change, because it freed up a Gold every turn for the rest of the game.
What Activate Can Do
Activate minions in the current pool
The keyword covers a wide spread of effects. Here are the families, with the minions currently in the pool:
| Effect | Minions |
|---|---|
| Stats | Suspicious Prisonguard (Tier 1) gives another minion +3/+3. Living Prison (Tier 4) gains the stats of the next minion you buy that turn. Tyrael (Tier 6) |
| Card generation | Clever Castaway Discovers a Tavern spell. Hired Mount gets a Chromadrake. Breakout Mastermind gets a Murloc. Fruit Vendor gets Tavern Dish Bananas |
| Working the Tavern | Decoy Conjurer steals the highest-Attack minion. Deft Deserter buffs everything in the Tavern. Soulkeeping Jailer has your Demons eat Tavern minions for stats. Lurking Lionfish sets out Fishbait for your Beasts |
| Re-triggers | Kelp Keeper triggers a friendly Battlecry. Sky-hatch Runaway triggers a friendly Rally. Dead Bellringer gives an Undead Reborn, then destroys it to grow |
| Economy | Private Investigator pays 1 Gold now for 2 Gold next turn |
| Discard (Activate 0) | Abyssal Envoy, Brain Rotter, Mindbending Recruiter, N'raqi Frostcaller |
Golden copies keep the same price and double the payoff. A golden Tyrael sets a minion to 100/100, and a golden Kelp Keeper triggers the Battlecry twice.
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Note
The Efficiency Dark Gift, added in 36.6, makes a minion's Activate trigger twice. On the right minion, it effectively doubles the value of every Gold you put into the button.
Every minion in the current Battlegrounds pool, with its tier, tribe and full card text, including every Activate minion.