Trove Celebrates Shadow’s Eve .

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays simply because it has this whimsical, childlike desire for pure, zany fun. This goes hand in hand with a game like Trove, which I’ve always played as that casual just-for-fun MMO for when I needed a light-hearted change of pace.

While I did take part in Trove’s alpha phase, I didn’t play it early enough to check out Shadow’s Eve last year. Due to that, I’ve been excited to see what kind of things Trove has cooked up for the spookiest time of the year. I was surprised to see that while Trove has a number of holiday-themed rewards, the game really makes you work to earn your prizes.

 

In the Shadow of the Moon

Trove is a world that is blessed by the sun goddess and plagued by the dangers of the jealous goddess of the moon. Stories say that during Shadow’s Eve, the powers of the lunar goddess grow stronger. In order to protect themselves and their land from the cold goddess’ ire, Trovians carve pumpkins in spooky designs.

One thing that I love about Trove is how it provides tools to the players to make great new pixel creations, which can be discovered, battled against, and even worn (in the case of weapons and armor) by other players. Earlier this year, Trove hosted an in-game pumpkin carving contest. The team provided a template and challenged the community to come up with pumpkin designs that fit with the various biomes in the world. The winners of this content can expect to see their designs on display in the randomly generated Shadow’s Eve lairs that can appear across the biomes.

 

Tricks for Treats

This year’s Shadow’s Eve event brings back the craftable decorative items and many of the special mounts from last year. But as I said above, if you’re a new or casual player in Trove, who hasn’t amassed a large savings in the game yet, you’re going to have to work to earn your treats for free.

The Hub World is decorated with all sorts of fun holiday-themed items, and the moon that rises every night grins down in dangerous delight. Located in the south eastern corner of the Hub is the Shadow’s Eve crafting area. A huge pumpkin building (you can’t miss it) hosts several Shadowy crafting stations where you can go to formulate your Halloween loot.

Keep in mind that Trove is a game built around exploring, gathering and crafting. The holidays reflect this, and require you to put the effort into earning your décor. Not only that, but when I activated the crafting table as a first-time event player, I discovered all but three of the recipes required to make the holiday items were locked to me.

This surprised me at first, but I suppose it shouldn’t have. In order to create new décor for your Trove cornerstone or clubs, you have to find the recipe first. The same can be said for the Shadow’s Eve content. If all you want is the Halloween themed mag rider or Smashing Pumpkin mount, those are unlocked to you (provided you have the materials to make them). To craft anything else, however, means you need to put some time into the game.

 

Nightmare of Mystery Boxes

The only way to find these recipes is in drops from the Nightmare Mystery Boxes. These boxes can be crafted from the Shadowy Stations and require five candy corn each. Along with a common chance for one of the recipes, there’s also a rare chance at earning coveted the black cat Samantha ally and Sameowntha mount. You can also get Shadow’s Eve Adventure Chests as a common drop.

During Shadow’s Eve, the Shadow’s Eve Adventure Chests also randomly drop as loot throughout the world. I got one of these from a normal monster just roaming up on the overworld, so they can drop from anywhere. The drop rate for these is somewhat low as I only earned one over a few hours of playing normally. But then again, I wasn’t farming for them.

 

The majority of the Shadow’s Eve Adventure Chests will drop crafting components. However, there’s also a rare chance for one of four Halloween mounts, including the Sproingy Skull and the Pumpkin Patch Poltergeist.

Now, back to the topic of the Nightmare Mystery Boxes, which feels like the center of this event, since they hold the keys to all of the recipes. As I noted before, these are crafted using candy corn.

From my understanding, candy corn used to drop from the old Shadow Arenas, which no longer exist. So currently, you can earn candy corn from beating the Shadow’s Eve jack-o-lantern lairs that are scattered through the biomes or from opening Autumn Pinatas, which you can only buy from the in-game cash shop.

Given the randomly generated nature of Trove, hunting down the Shadow’s Eve lairs will be an adventure within itself. I’ve also run across peaceful pumpkin patch lairs in various biomes, which allowed me to harvest lots of pumpkins that you use as crafting materials for the Halloween recipes.

So the bottom line on this event is: if you have the time to hunt down the Shadow’s Eve lairs, you can earn your goodies in game. If you don’t have the time or don’t want to spend the effort, you can use cash to purchase the pinatas that provide the candy corn you can use to craft the Nightmare Mystery Boxes which lead to recipes and loot.

 

Dressing Up

Oh, and costumes! What is Halloween without costumes. There is a cash-shop alternative to crafting holiday-themed hats in the game as well. This is the Shadow’s Eve Costume Pack, which appears to provide an alternate costume for each class in the game. I will admit that the costumes they offer look good and some are pretty original. I especially like the idea of the Fae Trickster wearing an owl costume for some reason.

Enter the Marketplace

The Glim Life update, which included the launch of Shadow’s Eve, brought another big feature for Trovians: the Player Marketplace. Up until now, players had to travel to a specific station in the Hub World to purchase and trade things from other players. Now, the new Player Marketplace allows you to buy and sell from a public auction house.

I make note of this because it’s another new way to get a hold of Shadow’s Eve recipes and items. I did a few searches and saw some items up for sale, all for pretty high prices. I’ll wager that the prices on these items may come down as more players get them in circulation, though. So, if you’re sitting on a stack of flux or glim, and you’re missing a few items on your Halloween list, the Player Marketplace might have what you’re looking for.

I wish all Trovians a spooky scary Shadow’s Eve and the best of luck hunting down those candy corn!