Homecoming is a big update. CDPR started to work on this update right after the mid-winter fiasco. The plan is to bring back Gwent to its roots. The update should be released in October.
The design will completely change and will be a bit darker (more like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). We will see boards from a new perspective and they will be more like battlefields and less gaming boards. We will see more animations (VFX) especially when powerful units appear on the board. Avatars and borders will be different in a way but we will keep currently unlocked avatars/borders. Expect modifications almost everywhere in the UI. Concerning music, we can expect new soundtracks but they don't plan to use more of old Witcher soundtracks.
The game play will also change a lot. Instead of three rows, you will only get two rows. Many cards will get a new "Preferred Row" or will be "Row locked". Other cards will also get two abilities and only one will trigger depending on the row you place your unit on. Placement will be more important and strategic. Some cards will also get abilities you'll be able to trigger at will during your turn. For example, you will be able to flip ambush cards whenever you want (but some effects may not trigger). Most cards will change and get different abilities (this is the case for Ciri: Nova, Shupe, Ilmerith: Sabbath, all CA spies, Pavko Gale for example). Tutors will be limited as well as carryover. They want to have a maximum of unique abilities. Effects like weather or boons will be modified. Gold weather still apply weather but will also get another effect. The row limit (9 cards per row) is still here but, token units may stack or we may be able to destroy a card to play one. Leaders will change a lot a be more versatile and will probably be very different from what we have now.
The deckbuilding will also be heavily modified. Instead of having 4 gold, 6 silver and 15+ bronze with a maximum of 3 copies per bronze card, we will get a provision system (each card will have a cost and your deck cannot exceed a maximum value) and you will not be able to have more than 2 copies of bronze cards. The minimum amount of cards in a deck will be increased to 30 (previous: 25). There's still a maximum number of card you can put in a deck but we don't know if it's still 40. Card pools for each faction will be adjusted to have the same number of cards in each faction (thus, some cards might be removed, this will be the case for Dagon and Radovid which will return later and we will also get some new cards). After Homecoming, we will have 4 leaders in each faction. The total cost to build a deck should not be significantly different from now. They also want to keep faction identity (Ambush will stay a ST ability, SK will be the faction with the more interactions with the Graveyard...).
With all these modifications, there will be a "soft" reset: we will keep everything except our cards. When the update will be released, your collection will be entirely milled (for full mill value). This mean you will receive 800 scraps for each gold card, 200 scraps for each silver card, 80 scraps for each rare card and 30 scraps for each common cards (+meteorite powder if premium). This is intended in order to let you choose what card you want to craft first according to the new abilities. You will also have to play through the new tutorial and also have to play through the new "challenge" to unlock the leaders.
The leveling and ranking system will change. We will get a new level/rank based on the previous system so we don't loose anything.
Right after Homecoming, we will also see the release of Thronebreaker, a singleplayer adventure with roughly 20 hours of gameplay. This singleplayer adventure will also add new cards to multiplayer. You don't need to buy the adventure to get the new cards but you need to buy it if you want to unlock the premium versions of these cards. Like The Witcher adventures, there are different endings depending on your choices. You will be able to replay the adventure and there will be different levels of difficulty. The price has not been announced yet. We will be able to pre-order it.
On a side note, Shupe will be able to open kegs faster, we will have achievements "but done in a different way", vanity items in the shop, new card backs... A card game will always be a bit random but CDPR aim to limit as much as possible the randomness of the cards.
