Halloween has come to City of Heroes once more, bringing with it a month of darkness, ghoulish events, and trick or treating galore. Below is a guide on how to take part in all the City of Heroes Halloween events and enjoy the festivities.

Trick or Treating

Trick or Treating is perhaps one of the most popular things to do in City of Heroes during the Halloween season. Anyone can do it no matter what size team they’re on and your level doesn’t matter either. It can be done in just about any zone too.

How do you do it? Walk up to a door in a zone that you’re in range for and click on it. If it isn’t a door that is used for anything else you’ll either get a trick, a bunch of Halloween themed mobs coming out, or you’ll get a treat which could be several things.

The most valuable thing you can get from a treat is a piece of costume salvage. Once you have the complete set you can turn that salvage in to Annah in Croatoa, Granny Beldam in Nerva Archipelago, or Acantha in Imperial City and unlock an extra costume slot. A complete set consists of Back Alley Brawler Halloween Gloves, Statesman Halloween Mask, Lord Recluse Halloween Helmet, and Hamidon Halloween Costume. New to Homecoming this year is the vendor Malkiel Ivesse who also sells costume slots, respecs, and other things. He can be found in Atlas Park at the bottom of the steps to City Hall in the grass surrounded by Jack-o-lanterns.

There are 5 Trick or Treating related defeat badges for you to get.

Hunter – Defeat 20 Vampires

Buster – Defeat 20 Ghosts

Shifter – Defeat 15 Werewolves

Dead Head – Defeat 50 Zombies

Malleus – Defeat 75 Witches

There are also badges for the classic costume temporary powers that drop during Trick or Treating.

Clothes Horse – Collect 10 Classic Costumes

Fashionable – Collect 25 Classic Costumes

Ostentatious – Collect 50 Classic Costumes

The best way to Trick or Treat in City of Heroes is to get on a full team and head to an area with a lot of doors like a motel. Then each player can take turns opening the doors, allowing for a constant stream of enemies to fight. This is a great event for leveling up characters quickly as it is effectively just an enemy grind.

Giant Monster Hunting

Giant Monsters Eochai and Jack in Irons invade Paragon and the Rogue Isles during the Halloween season. You can find one of them wandering around most city zones. There’s a 90% chance of Eochai spawning and a 10% chance of Jack in Irons. They are surrounded by the Unseelie Court. It takes a team of heroes or villains to take down one of these monsters. Thankfully, during the event, it is common to see monster-hunting teams form in Talos Island.

There are 3 badges for defeating the giant monsters.

Hallow Spirit – Defeat Eochai

Iron Warrior – Defeat Jack in Irons

Ghost Touched – Defeat 20 Unseelie Court

Joining monster-hunting teams is a great way to farm Reward Merits. This is perhaps one of the easiest ways to obtain them in the entire game.

Zombie Apocalypse

From time to time throughout Halloween, a city zone will experience a zombie invasion. These invasions use the same mechanics as the Rikti invasions. The best way to tackle them is by getting a league together in one focused spot. Typically these are organized on the hill next to the Talos train station or in front of Positron in Steel Canyon. The more people that are gathered the more enemies there are and if you get enough players (I believe the number is 11) you will have more difficult enemies spawn. When these events take place a warning will appear in chat and the sky will turn an amazing shade of red.

There are 4 badges to get during the Zombie Apocalypse event. Including some that require being in a large group event.

Glimpsed the Abyss – Defeat 100 Zombie Minions

Safety in Numbers – Defeat 33 Zombie Lieutenants

Evil’s Resident – Defeat 25 Zombie Bosses

Apocalypse Survivor – Defeat a Zombie Elite

Deadly Apocalypse

Zombies aren’t the only thing invading this Halloween, you also have to contend with the Deadly Apocalypse. This event comes with the warning “Supernatural Activity Detected in…” After that, there are four banners players need to defeat and there are only 20 minutes to do it in. This means that everyone taking part needs to split up between the four banners. This isn’t an event you can do solo or with a small group.

The goal is to defeat the four banners and the giant monster that spawns after they’ve all been taken down. But, banners are untouchable until a certain number of their defenders are defeated. All four banners have to be defeated simultaneously.

When the giant monster has been defeated you will receive 2 reward merits, a choice of temporary powers or a medium inspiration. The temporary powers are as follows:

Beastly – Auto Self +Damage. Your body has been infused with a small portion of the power of the Mystic Banner protected by the Abominations this will increase your damage slightly for 1 hour of in game time.

Fiendish Glare – Ranged Foe Fear. You’ve gained a portion of the power within the Mystic Banner protected by the Dark Fiends, this will allow you instill fear into the hearts of your enemies with just a glance. A foe that is affected by this power will become Terrorized and will cower in place. Recharge: Long

Seduction – Ranged Foe Confuse. You’ve obtained a fraction of the power of the Mystic Banner protected by the Women Scorned. Using this power will confuse a target for a short time. Recharge: Long

Spectral Touch – Auto Self +Def(All), Res(Negative Energy). Your proximity to the Mystic Banner protected by the Transparent Terrors has left a temporary effect on you, tying you to the Netherworld. While this power is in effect you will gain a small bonus to defense and a moderate amount of resistance to negative energy damage. This power will last for 1 hour of in game time.

There are 5 badges and 1 accolade for completing the Deadly Apocalypse.

Dark Fiend – Destroy the Banner of Fiends

Hell Hath No Fury – Destroy the Banner of Scorn

Terror – Defeat the Banner of Terror

Monster Masher – Destroy the Banner of Mayhem

Monstrous – Defeat the Greater Mystic Aspect Giant Monster

Hell and Back – Complete all 5 of the badges

Dr. Kane’s House of Horror

The eccentric scientist Dr. Kane has turned his mansion into a haunted house, but of course, not everything is as innocent as it seems. He has been transforming innocent citizens of Paragon City into a horde of zombies. Investigate the halls of the mansion and defeat all foes who cross your path until you ultimately come face to face with the doctor’s greatest achievement, the giant Abomination. Accessing the House of Horrors is done through the LFG window.

There are 3 badges to obtain for completing Dr. Kane’s House of Horror.

Is There a Doctor in the House? – Defeat the Abomination

Tricked Out – Defeat the Abomination wearing nothing but a temporary costume

It’s Alive! – Defeat the Abomination and 99 of Dr. Kane’s zombies in under 12 minutes

Whispered Rumor Tip Mission

When a player goes Trick or Treating in a temporary costume there is the chance for them to get the Whispered Rumor tip mission as a drop from Treats. The mission grants minor rewards but it has 5 badges attached to it.

Secured – Complete the mission and select the option to Keep the Malleus Mundi secure

Power Hungry – Complete the mission and select the option to Use the Malleus Mundi to gain personal power

Artifact Destroyer – Complete the mission and select the option Attempt to destroy the Malleus Mundi

Veiled – Complete the mission and select the option Hide the Malleus Mundi

Trusting – Complete the mission and select the option Send the Malleus Mundi to MAGI (This option will replace the Arriviste badge)

Arriviste – Complete the mission and select the option to Sell the Malleus Mundi to the highest bidder (This option will replace the Trusting badge)

Collecting all 5 of the badges rewards the accolade Meticulous

Eternal Night

As mentioned previously throughout October while the City of Heroes Halloween event is running the sky goes dark in the majority of zones. This means that not only is it night time all the time those creatures that only come out at night are always out. That makes Halloween a great time to farm them for their badges. Here are some of the badges you should work on during October.

Heroes:

Banisher – Defeat 200 Banished Pantheon Spirit Masks

The Slayer – Defeat 200 Council or 5th Column Vampyri

Haunted – Defeat 333 Croatoan Ghosts

Villains:

Pirate – Trap 10 Spectral Pirates

Spectral – Defeat 100 Spectral Pirates

There are 36 badges and accolades for you to get during Halloween and all sorts of things you can only find this spooky time of year, but that isn’t all that is going on. There will be costume contests and roleplay events to enjoy as well. For more information on those head to the official forums for your server.

Don’t forget to stop by Atlas Park to enjoy all the festive changes that have been made to the zone and Pocket D where if you talk to Null the Gull you can go to the Harvest Festival in Atlas Park or the Spooky Halloween Atlas Park map.

Finally, head into Icon and see what Halloween costume you can create! That’s half the fun of a City of Heroes Halloween right there.