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Animal Crossing Halloween event: costumes, items, dates, more

Jesse Lennox
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Just like the real world, your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons will change with the seasons. With the change of seasons also come the major holidays, which the residents of your island are always excited to celebrate with new events, items, and special rewards that only come around during specific times of the year. With Halloween fast approaching in real life, special spooky and tasty additions are already arriving.

While this isn’t the first Halloween players will experience in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it is the first since the 2.0 update added a ton of new features and items. This makes this year’s Halloween festivities the biggest yet. If you’re a fan of all things creepy and spooky but always in a fun and adorable way, here are all the events, costumes, and items you can look forward to picking up during the Halloween event in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

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What are the Halloween items?

Isabel announcing halloween.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Starting in October, a set of exclusive Halloween items became available to purchase and craft. Many of these return from 2021, but this month will mark the first time you will be able to craft the Spooky Cookies item.

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In order to craft nearly all of the other Halloween items, you will need to get the DIY Crafting Recipe from Nook’s Cranny, other villagers, balloon presents, or messages in bottles on the beach. The only exceptions will be the Spooky Fence and Spooky Cookies, which cannot be purchased from Nook’s Cranny and have to be found using one of the other methods.

Here’s the full list of Halloween items you can get this year, most of which come in multiple colors, excluding the items you can only get during the Halloween event:

  • Spooky Arch
  • Spooky Candy Set
  • Spooky Chair
  • Spooky Cookies
  • Spooky Fence
  • Spooky Lantern
  • Spooky Lantern Set
  • Spooky Scarecrow
  • Spooky Standing Lamp
  • Spooky Table
  • Spooky Tower
  • Spooky Treats Basket
  • Spooky Tree
  • Spooky Trick Lamp

What is the seasonal item, and how do you get it?

The seasonal item for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in celebration of the Day of the Dead. It can only be obtained between October 25 and November 3 of this year, so you do have some leeway in grabbing it.

The seasonal item is called the Marigold Decoration, which you can simply purchase from the Special Goods section in Nook’s shop.

What are the Halloween costumes?

Animal Crossing Halloween
Nintendo

What would the Halloween season be without costumes? While you don’t technically have to be in costume for the Halloween Night Event, it just wouldn’t feel right not to dress up for the occasion.

To browse the selection of costumes, visit the Able Sisters shop to browse the selection of 14 costumes. These are sold all year, so you probably have seen them before. However, there are two exclusive pieces of clothing that only appear on October 31. If you need a refresher, here are all the always-available costumes:

  • Flashy Animal Costume
  • Mage’s Dress
  • Magic-Academy Robe
  • Raggedy Outfit
  • Flashy Point-Ear Animal Hat
  • Flash Round-Ear Animal Hat
  • Impish Horns
  • Mage’s Striped Hat
  • Magic-Academy Hood
  • Horizontal-Striped Tights
  • Flashy Animal Boots
  • Mage’s Boots
  • Impish Wings

What is the Halloween Night Event and rewards?

Jack smelling some candy.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Now for the event itself, which begins on Halloween night starting at 5 p.m. local time and ends at the stroke of midnight. During this spooky evening, all your villagers will dress up in costumes, and Jack the Pumpkin Czar will pay your island a visit.

Your task is to go around trick or treating your fellow villagers to get either candy or lollipops from them. You can get candy from any villager roaming around outside just one time, but you can keep asking villagers for more if they are in their homes. Once you get candy, you can either give it to another villager in exchange for a lollipop or to Jack for exclusive items. You will want to do both since giving villagers candy, as well as giving Jack lollipops, is the only way to get some of those exclusive Spooky Set items mentioned earlier.

Here are all the rewards you will want to go after on Halloween night and how to get them:

  • Jack’s Robe: Give Jack one piece of candy. This will also unlock the Haunt Reaction.
  • Jack’s Face: Give Jack a second piece of candy.
  • Spooky Carriage: Give Jack one lollipop.
  • Spooky Carriage recipe: Give Jack a second lollipop.
  • Spooky Wand recipe: Give Jack a third lollipop.

The following Spooky Item set items are obtained by giving a piece of candy to a villager but are all a random chance to get. If you don’t get the one you want, you will just need to keep trying until you do. You will also get the Scare reaction upon giving candy to any villager outside their homes.

  • Spooky Garland (and recipe)
  • Spooky Table Setting (and recipe)
  • Spooky Flooring
  • Spooky Rug
  • Spooky Wall
  • Lollipop

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Jesse Lennox
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