Bungie has outdone themselves this year with a surprise update to Destiny to celebrate Halloween. Last year, they did a couple things like allowing players to wear pumpkins on their heads, but this year? They’ve really gone all out.
The “Festival of the Lost” is a fully-fledged event that may not end up yielding any surprise exotics, but it’s a lot of fun and frankly, pretty hilarious. Here’s how it works, from what I’ve seen so far.
When you sign in, the game beckons you to head to the Tower and talk to Tess Everis and Eva Levante to start the party rolling. When you arrive, you’ll find the Tower made-over to celebrate the festival which includes new banners, candles everywhere, paper lanterns and what appears to be fireflies filling the air. Both in orbit and in the Tower, you’ll also hear periodic spooky sounds like screaming or wolves howling. Most the NPCs are wearing masks, masks that you yourself will be able to wear through the new “quest” system of Festival of the Lost.
When you first arrive, you’ll see that Tess Everis is selling Halloween packages which will give you a Legendary (permanent) mask along with a few other consumable treats, and she has three new emotes on display, one of which is the actual Thriller dance that fans have been requesting since emotes starting existing as microtransactions, but clearly it’s something Bungie has had cooking for a while.
After that, you’ll want to head over to Eva Levante who gives you a candy bag and a “quest” to collect candy from the various Tower vendors. All of them oblige except Eris, who, hilariously, gives you a box of raisins.
Screenshot: @Be11eBunny
That’s one of the little jokes of the Halloween event, and there are more to come. You get a free legendary bag from Eva, and you’ll get rare ones each time you fill up your candy bag via Crucible or PvE kills, which will give you a rare-level mask. There’s a consumable that allows you to upgrade a rare mask to a legendary mask, which will make it permanent after the Festival ends. The free one I got? The Cryptarch, which looks more than a little unnerving on my female Warlock.
There are a lot of these masks, and the ones uncovered so far have been Rahool, Petra, Xur, the Speaker, the Traveler, Uncommon Engram, Legendary Engram, Exotic Engram, Xur, Crota, Atheon, Oryx, Eris, Skull, Tiger, the Warden, Xur, and Skolas. Playing for only half an hour, I already got two more candy bags and have rare versions of the Warden and the Traveler now.
Eva Levante also gives you mask-specific quests, like you have to find engrams as the Cryptarch or beat a Heroic strike as the Speaker. My favorite one so far is one that tells you to “trip” off the tower (jump) in an Atheon mask, referencing the old cheese tactic used on the original Raid boss. Some of these are easy (like that one), but things can get a touch more challenging as putting on a mask erases your helmet slot, and drops your light level a solid 30 points instantly. For some challenges that’s fine, for a few, it’s a bit tough.
Perhaps the most significant addition to the game with the Festival of the Lost is a brand new multiplayer map, the creepy Cathedral of Dusk. It’s unclear if this is a permanent addition to the roster, or if it will disappear after. But it would seem like kind of a waste to only have it around for a week or so.
Many players seem to think that to get permanent masks you have to shell out silver to Tess Everis. That’s certainly the quickest and easiest way to get legendary masks, but by simply playing the game normally, you can earn candy to trade in for new masks, and get consumables to make them permanent. You may not end up with as many permanent masks in the end, but it’s definitely possible to get a bunch without spending a dime. But I'm sure Bungie will turn a tidy profit from the event all the same.
This seems like a purely fun event, and I doubt that there’s going to be any great mystery uncovered that leads to some hidden exotic, but who knows. For now, just have fun with all the little inside jokes and enjoy the game’s temporary makeover. Alright, I’m off to creep out some dregs in my Cryptarch mask.
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