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Halloween Special
Halloween Special
Halloween Special Competition Details
The Halloween Special 2024 competition will run from the 1st of October 2024 until the 30th of October 2024, winners are usually announced on the 31st of October in the xSnipez Games Discord server. There's no specific start or finish times for the competition, expect it to begin and end in a reasonable time for the BST/GMT timezone. This year, users in the xSnipez Games Discord server were offered the ability to choose what is won this year. Thanks to the poll results, I can announce that the prize will be a personalised gift of the winning player's choice (terms and conditions apply).
Halloween Special Official Trailer (2024)
Halloween Special Description
Halloween Special is an annual competition that takes place from the 1st of October until the 30th of October. The competition is a Minecraft PvE challenge. Players are required to fight various mobs and get through multiple waves and rounds. Completing waves and rounds rewards players with "pumpkins" which a player needs lots of if they're going to win. The player who at the end of the competition has the most pumpkins will win. Rewards vary annually.
Timeline >> 2020 - 2021 - 2024
Halloween Special Rules
Please be friendly and supportive to all players.
Be patient whilst others run the arena.
Please do not abuse any broken features.
Halloween Special Contents
Lore
The lore behind Halloween Special 2024's world is the same as that of 2021. This time, it is simply more fleshed out and detailed. The idea behind 2021's lore was that the "Warped" materials are the generic environment in the nether. This, later became "corrupted" and turned into "Crimson" related materials. The idea was that the longer you're in the arena, the more corrupt it becomes. Whilst there were changes to the arena to indicate this, it never actually did anything.
In 2024, the lore has been tweaked slightly. The area in which the arena resides is in a very corrupted environment. The corruption (still recognised by the "Crimson" materials) is a very deadly substance that causes side effects such as high illness and nausea. The longer more time spent in a corrupted environment, the more unlikely you are to survive the illness. Some very "scientific" discoveries were made by a certain "doctor" that allowed the ability to turn the corruption into a safer variety (still recognised by the "Warped" materials). There are a lot of technical details listed in the map's library which you'll be able to read.
Levelling System
Players will be able to level up whilst they compete in the Halloween Special competition. Levels will allow players to unlock new weapons and gear. It is vital to level up in the competition if you're going to stand a chance at the higher levels in the arena, which are worth more pumpkins. All players start at level 0. Players will need to gain experience points by killing mobs in the arena. Each killed mob rewards 1-2 experience points. Players will be able to view their current level, experience points and target experience points via the "View Stats" book in their inventories. You may also view a level system breakdown here.
Levelling Thresholds
Whilst gaining experience points through making runs in the arena, players will level up and reach new thresholds, these being the determining factors that allow them to gain new equipment. The level thresholds are as follows:
Newbie (Level 0)
Novice (Levels 1-10)
Apprentice (Levels 11-25)
Journeyman (Levels 26-40)
Expert (Levels 41-55)
Master (Levels 56-74)
Champion (Level 75)
Item Unlocking Mechanics
Weapons, armour and other items get unlocked as you progress through the levelling system. The higher your level, the better gear you're able to use. You may visit the armoury and pick up new weapons and armour, granted you meet the level requirement for that particular item. Other items may be obtained via the arena. Items that drop in the arena are based on two different factors. Suppose you reach a higher round in the arena while also at a higher level. In that case, you'll have a better chance of getting items that will be more fundamentally useful to you when progressing through tougher rounds. You may view a breakdown of this system here.
Armoury Mechanics
In the latest version of Halloween Special, a system has been introduced to lock items behind levels. The armoury is equipped with intelligence to detect and inform players when they are not at a high enough level for a particular item. The system is also equipped with a system to cleverly switch between item types and inform players when they're trying to re-unlock an item that is worse than the one they currently have. Additionally, players will be told when they try to unlock the same item twice. Players should unlock the previous tiers of items before trying to upgrade, if at a point where they may skip items.
Arena Mechanics
In the latest version of Halloween Special, the arena is tailored to bring a unique experience for every player each time they visit it. The arena has full control (within the set boundaries) to choose the number of mobs that spawn, what type of mobs spawn, what events occur during the round/wave, what and how many rewards the player gets, and what gear is applied to the mobs you fight. You may view a full breakdown of the arena by wave here (included are all the percentages for how likely the arena is to make particular decisions). The arena has a total of 12 rounds for the player to get through each scaling with difficulty. Each round has 10 waves of mobs and a boss fight to finish the round with.
Each round has a unique group of mobs that will spawn. Rounds 1, 5 and 9 will spawn variants of zombies. Rounds 2, 6 and 10 will spawn variants of skeleton. Rounds 3, 7 and 11 will spawn variants of illagers. Rounds 4, 8 and 12 will spawn variants of piglin. Each wave has different chances for each variant of the particular type of mob chosen for the round. Mobs chosen may spawn with randomly selected gear depending on the wave. Some mobs may perform a mob event depending on the wave too. The arena also has a chance to run an arena event depending on the wave, these events will occur during a wave once 50% of the mobs originally spawned are gone (rounded down).
Halloween Special Patch Notes
Patch 3.0.1
New additions -
Added the boss for the end of round 3
Details can be found here
Changes/fixes -
Fixed an issue with arena events incorrectly triggering all at the same time.
Fixed an issue with rewarded items not being cleared from the player once they died in the arena.
The player's inventory is now completely cleared when they die in the arena.
Fixed an issue with the between-round intermission triggering when players die during the boss round and the arena ends.
Limited the XP System and Mob Kill counter to only affect the fighting player.
This change means that all XP and Mob Kills are given to the player fighting and players outside of the arena will remain unaffected. No more levelling up just for being closer to the mobs than the fighting player!
Fixed an issue with mobs spawning inside the ground when summoned on top of mud blocks during boss rounds.
Mobs will still spawn next to the boss, but higher up to avoid collision between non-full blocks and full blocks then clipping through the ground and dying.
Players will no longer starve when outside of the arena.
Fixed an issue with Tier 1 Evokers not being able to spawn.
Updated vex to now contain a name relevant to the naming convention.
Hotfix 3.0.15
Changes/fixes -
Tweaked the door to no longer allow players to share the same block space as the door once it is closed.
Made a fix to the Arena Event system to have the event trigger on the wave it is chosen, instead of the wave after.
Update 3.1.0
New additions -
Added the following waves to round 4:
Added a way for players to access the arena roof (an invisible barrier above the arena which aims to stop flying mobs, excluding vex, from escaping the arena and straying off too far)
Players can access the arena roof through the repurposed buttons next to the arena door
Players may exit the arena roof through the mangrove button by the arena door when on the arena roof
This change aims to provide a new way to spectate the arena
Resistance applied to spectating players whilst the arena is active will now reach players on the arena roof to account for this change (you never know)
Added a parkour course for players to complete whilst they're waiting their turn in the arena
This feature was a suggestion made by a member of the community. After being accepted, it was voted for via the xSnipez Games Discord and then added to the game.
Changes/fixes -
Increased the reward amounts of round 1 wave 7 to 3 to 4 (from 1 to 2).
This should help increase the chances of still getting food for players who unlock the bow.
Applied a fix to skeletons, strays and bogged to slow them down a little, it isn't a marathon.
This fix excludes the boss and its guards, the speed increase seems like a fitting differentiation between them and the regular skeletons.
Fixed an issue with the following waves during round 3 not correctly rerolling the arena event chance and not triggering the system to apply the gear for mobs:
Wave 7
Wave 8
Wave 9
Wave 10
Changed the way the bridge towards the arena works:
Each section of the bridge will now change to the warped variation on either side of the individual sections instead of changing to warped when heading towards the entrance and corrupted when heading away from the arena.
Each end of the bridge is now equipped with a system to revert all the individual sections to their corrupted state once the player reaches it (this will not happen if there are other players on the bridge).
This change intends to make it so that players spectating the arena or the player who survives all 12 rounds of the arena don't have to face the consequences of corruption when returning.
Tweaked the effects of corruption to now only apply nausea once corruption levels reach 3% instead of 1%.
This should help players not lose focus in the arena after walking over corruption quickly whilst still allowing the effects to take place if players stay on the corrupted land for too long.
Patch 3.1.1
New additions -
Added a missing chat announcement for the "Fear the Presence of Thor" attack for the Lost Drengr (boss 3).
Added a feature to hide the warped fungus during round 4 so Hoglins are not in constant fear of them.
Changes/fixes -
Glass bottles will now be cleared from your inventory after consuming potions.
Fixed an issue with the Lost Drengr (boss 3) not being able to perform their "Regenerate Health" ability.
Fixed an issue with the Lost Drengr (boss 3) not being able to perform their "Invoke the Power of the Gods" attack.
Fixed an issue with the "Regenerate Health" ability for the Lost Drengr (boss 3) not displaying the chat announcement.
Fixed an issue with the "Invoke the Power of the Gods" attack for the Lost Drengr (boss 3) not displaying the chat announcement.
Fixed an issue with the "Invoke the Power of a Sorcerer" attack for the Lost Drengr (boss 3) not displaying the chat announcement.
The Lost Drengr (boss 3) is now immune to fire damage to prevent them from setting themselves on fire with the "Fear the Presence of Thor" attack.
They may still currently take damage from the lightning itself if they by chance happen to be standing where it hits, this may change in the future. This may also change for the "Invoke the Power of a Sorcerer" attack too.
Fixed an issue with round 4 waves 1 to 10 not triggering the tests to check for no mobs and then proceed to the next waves.
Fixed an issue with round 4 wave 5 not correctly spawning the Hoglins.
Fixed an issue with round 4 wave 5 not correctly spawning the correct amount of Zoglins.
Fixed an issue with round 4 wave 5 not correctly spreading the Hoglins and applying the 0 damage to make them target the fighting player.
Fixed an issue with some boss healing abilities causing the ground to disappear.
Made a change to the radius that boss mobs and their guardians spawn with.
These mobs now have a smaller random spread distance which causes them to spawn closer to the middle of the arena. No more edge camping the bosses! They will find you and they will kill you (or try to).
The change makes it so these mobs not only spawn closer together to one another but also don't spread out around the arena as much.
Changed the parkour start detection systems to be twice as fast to avoid the slight rare chance that players start the parkour but don't get identified as in the parkour and therefore don't see a timer.
Changed the end of the parkour to no longer rely on a pressure plate and instead detect the player when they enter the area above any of the white/black blocks.
This will help make the system more reliable when multiple players finish simultaneously.
Made a change to the parkour chat announcement message to now be public to everyone.
The new message will display your username along with your finish time with the intention to make the parkour more competitive, try to beat each other's finish time!
Patch 3.1.2
New additions -
Added pumpkin drops
This is an event that will trigger a pumpkin item to drop in a random location; players have 5 minutes to find the item before it despawns.
If a player finds the pumpkin item, they will be rewarded with 1 additional pumpkin on their score and an announcement will tell everyone that the pumpkin was found and who it was found by.
If no player finds the pumpkin item within the 5-minute despawn timer, an announcement will let everyone know.
Added the following books to the library:
"The 12 Titans [I]" by Dr. B
"The 12 Titans [II]" by Dr. B
"The 12 Titans [III]" by Dr. B
Changes/fixes -
Changed the special attack cooldown for the Skeleton Princess (boss 2) from every 25 to 28 seconds to 20 to 23 seconds.
Changed the amount of special attacks the Skeleton Princess (boss 2) has to 7 to 9 (from 5 to 7).
Fixed an issue with the particles not showing when the Lost Drengr's (boss 3) protection charm is at full strength.
Any new patch notes will be added here