The Halloween update graphics
The Halloween update was released on the 30th of October 2013 for iOS players and on the 7th of November 2013 for Android players. It was the first Holiday Themed Update released for the game.
The Halloween update introduced a new picture, Witch's Hut, new collections, new quests, and for Android players it introduced the friends aspect of the game for the first time along with the pictures Palatial Office, Night Garden, Ancient Library, Mill, Eastern Bazaar and Illusionist's Room (all of which had been made available to iOS players in previous updates).
The Halloween update was also the first time a set of holiday timed challenges were introduced: players had a limited time period (a few weeks) in which to complete tasks in the Halloween Holiday Event. The rewards for completing these tasks, such as earning the Sphere of Miracles desktop award, were only available during this time period.
Halloween Holiday Event
The Halloween holiday event had 3 main challenges:
- Complete 24 holiday quests to unlock the Sphere of Miracles
- Combine the 5 Halloween collections to create Witch's Talisman artifact
- Reach Academician level on Witch's Hut to win Halloween Avatar
Playing Witch's Hut
For the duration of the Halloween challenge, Pumpkin Lantern special items were needed in addition to energy points to play Witch's Hut. Pumpkin Lanterns were given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture (except for Witch's Hut itself) and for banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. The Sphere of Miracles had a 1 in 4 chance of awarding Pumpkin Lanterns for the duration of the Halloween event. The Christmas Update removed Pumpkin Lanterns from the game and turned Witch's Hut into a regular game just requiring energy points to play.
Only some of the quests for the Halloween Holiday event required successfully investigating Witch's Hut to find collection items needed to combine collections that formed part of the Witch's Talisman artefact. Many of the quests for the Halloween Holiday event required playing different pictures or having certain anomalies. The Halloween Holiday event is unique in this, as the later holiday events solely required investigating the new picture introduced with the update.
A new set of elements to combine collections were also introduced with the Halloween Update. These elements are required to combine the Halloween quest collections and some of the other new collections introduced with the update. These elements can be won for successful investigations of Witch's Hut once the picture has been advanced to certain levels with the exception of the Unicorn Blood. The Unicorn Blood was not available to win in any picture or puzzle for the first 2 weeks of the Halloween Holiday event. The only way to obtain Unicorn Blood at this time was to receive it as a gift from friends or by buying the element with crystals. After the first 2 weeks of the Halloween Holiday event the Unicorn Blood became available to win for successful investigations of Witch's Hut once it was advanced to Detective level, like the other new combining elements.