How does Honorable Kill work in Hearthstone?

Hearhtstone’s new Fractured in Alterac Valley expansion recently went live and introduced a ton of new features to the game. Among those features is a new keyword ability called Honorable Kill.

Keywords in Hearthstone are what give cards unique characteristics and keep them from being vanilla stat sticks. If you’ve played Hearthstone up to this point, some keywords you’re likely familiar with include Charge, Rush, Deathrattle, and Battlecry. Fractured in Alterac Valley introduces Honorable Kill to the fold.

Cards with Honorable Kill gain an extra benefit when they have successfully dealt exact damage. To understand exactly what that means, take the above card Direwolf Commander for example. The Direwolf Commander has “Honorable Kill: Summon a 2/2 Wolf with Stealth” as its card effect.

That means to trigger Direwolf Commander’s effect and summon a 2/2 Wolf, you’ll first need to deal exact damage to destroy a minion using Direwolf Commander. Assuming there are no buffs on your Direwolf Commander, that means you’d need to attack and kill a minion using Direwolf Commander that has exactly two health. Killing a one-health minion won’t net you a benefit and won’t count as an Honorable Kill.

Honorable Kill isn’t limited to use by minions, however. Fractured in Alterac Valley also introduced spells and Hero cards that make use of the Honorable Kill keyword. The new Mage Hero card has a hero power that has its damage increased based on using it to get Honorable Kills. That’s something you’ll definitely want to try out if you’re a Mage player.

The main thing to keep in mind when using a card with Honorable Kill is that the damage it deals must match the health of the minion you’re trying to kill. Overkilling will grant you no benefit. As long as you remember this, you’re ready to rack up those Honorable Kills.