Halloween Event 2008

The event was scheduled to run from October 20th through November 2nd, but actually started earlier, on the evening of Saturday, October 18, 2008 as a surprise. Announcement link.

Overview

The Halloween Event is a suite of gaming tasks and visuals that are reminiscent of the Halloween holiday season. This includes Trick or Treating, costumes, monsters, ghosts, witches, and horror movie cliches such as a Zombie Apocalypse.

Eternal Night

During the event, the entire game is locked in nighttime mode. This is not just a visual effect. All aspects of the game that depend on a day/night cycle are locked to the night side during the event. Enemies that only spawn at night spawn continuously during the event. Banisher, The Slayer, and Haunted badges (Hero side) and Pirate and Spectral badges (Villain side) are examples of badges for which hunting will be much easier during the event.

Note that some zones, such as Cimerora, The Hive and The Abyss are unaffected by Eternal Night.

New to the 2008 Halloween Event

The Zombie Apocalypse is new to the 2008 Event which includes new enemies, badges, and an unlockable player costume piece, the Pumpkin Head. Also, the door timers for the Trick or Treat game have been shortened to 10 seconds for a character so they can 'knock' more often, but the cool down for a particular door for a character has been raised to five minutes to keep players moving from door to door... just like real Trick or Treating. The Tier 3 Inspiration Treats have been replaced by Tier 1 and 2 by the Devs intentionally -- presumably to prevent Tier 3 hording since doors can be knocked more frequently. Some zones have been added as Trick or Treatable (see the Trick or Treat section below for a full list).

Zombie Apocalypse

Main article: Zombie Apocalypse

The Zombie Apocalypse is a zone event that uses the Rikti World Invasion engine; random zones throughout the game come under attack by zombies for periods of time as the sky turns red. A new enemy group, Zombies, appear during this event. There are badges for Zombie defeats and an unlockable costume piece, the Pumpkin Head.

Trick or Treat

Main article: Trick or Treat

During this event, players are be able to 'Trick or Treat' by knocking (that is, 'clicking') on mission doors in the various zones. Treats are rewards which include Temporary Powers (a throwable Rock and Costume Powers), Tier 1 & 2 inspirations, and Halloween Event Salvage which can be traded in for an extra costume slot. Tricks include spawns of special event enemies for which there are defeat badges.

Giant Monsters

Main article: Giant Monsters

The Giant Monsters from Croatoa, Eochai and Jack in Irons spawn in most zones (including the City of Villains zones) along with the Unseelie spirits. There are Halloween-specific badges for their defeat (which are different than the badges for the defeat of the regular Croatoan Eochai and Jack Giant Monsters).

Rewards

Event Salvage & Extra Costume Slot

See the article on Trick or Treating

Special Event Salvage drops can be traded in for an extra Costume Slot.

Temporary Powers and Inspirations

See the article on Trick or Treating

By Trick or Treating, you can collect the Rock and Costume Temporary Powers and also get Tier 1 & 2 inspiration drops.

Badges & Costume Piece

Main article: Halloween Badges

There are badges for defeating the Giant Monsters and their Unseelie companions; for defeating the enemies that spawn as Trick or Treat 'tricks'; for collecting Temporary Costumes; and for defeating the Zombies of the Zombie Apocalypse. One of the Zombie Apocalypse badges unlocks a Pumpkin Head costume piece.

Bugs in 2008

Bug! Spirit spawning is bugged in the 2008 event, and they are spawning very rarely.

Bug! Bloody Bay is currently bugged. It appears to be set to allow trick or treating for levels 10-20, but since all characters entering the zone are Sidekicked/Exemplared to level 25, they are no longer in the level range for trick or treating.

Notes

• Testing for this event was on July 31st from 4:30-6pm Eastern

Links

• Testing announcement thread
• Early Start Announcement