Halloween in Farpost: a costumed horde, the Cauldron Witch and the soul pumpkins

From October 29 to November 6, Farpost celebrates Halloween. You don’t have to do anything: the event turns on by itself when you open the demo (with an internet connection) and turns off by itself when it ends. It’s in version 0.1.12, which Steam downloads automatically. If it’s not your thing, you can turn it off in Options » Game » HALLOWEEN.

The video above is a walk through the party, recorded in the game, with sound.

Farpost dresses up

The people of the fort decorated the entrance: carved pumpkins on both sides of the gate, candles, a scarecrow in a witch’s hat, a garland and cobwebs on the palisade. Across the map, pumpkins show up in the grass and at the foot of every torch (if the torch goes out, so does its pumpkin), and flocks of bats cross the sky and burst out of the mist when a boss arrives.

Click any decorative pumpkin: it smashes on the ground, and sometimes a bat escapes.

The horde comes in costume

The same old enemies, dressed for the party:

• Pumpkin-headed soldiers, with their faces lit up.
• The Headless Knight, with a green flame where his helmet used to be.
• The Ghost Priest: a sheet with two glowing blue eyes.
• The Thurifer as a lost soul: pale, glowing, with will-o’-the-wisps circling around him. He still puts out your torches.
• The Haunted Siege Ram: bloodstained, with a skull on the tip, candles on top and green fire on the wheels.
• The Wrecker with a bone hammer wrapped in ghost fire.
• The Scout with bat wings on his back: when he falls, the bat flies away.
• The War Banner Bearer, who raises a scarecrow instead of his banner.
• Witch hats for the pilgrims and a candle on the skeletons’ skulls.

Even the Torchbearer dresses up

During Halloween the Torchbearer’s head and body are two carved pumpkins with their faces lit up, with his pauldrons, arms and boots sticking out. The events celebrate too: Josh’s camp and Stillwater are decorated, Josh greets you with a pumpkin skewered on his spear and a crown of candles on his helmet, and the refugees arrive wearing little witch hats.

The soul pumpkins

Five pale pumpkins with a green glow hide in every watch. Click one to find it: it bursts into a cloud of bats. The first time one shows up, the Torchbearer tells you what they are. Finding them doesn’t change your gold or your score, but they count toward two new achievements: Halloween Night (all five in a single watch) and Pumpkin Hunter (twenty in total).

The Cauldron Witch

She doesn’t come to every watch. After wave 9 she may show up next to the gate, and she’s more likely to come the more soul pumpkins you’ve found. She brings her bubbling cauldron and a tree of souls: a dead tree hung with iron cages where green souls burn, little pumpkins swaying in the wind and a perched crow that watches everything.

The Torchbearer is scared to death (he screams, jumps back and shivers every now and then), but for 100 gold he works up the nerve to go talk to her. She offers a single deal: an epic card, one of a champion’s spoils, in exchange for 40 BLOOD from the Workshop and a horde that comes 10% stronger for the rest of the watch. The note under the card tells you the price, how much Blood you have and how much tougher the horde gets. You pay or you refuse. If you pay, the deal explodes in her cauldron, the curse sweeps across the whole map, and the witch vanishes with a spell.

The witch never shows up in SPEEDRUN MODE, so the tournament isn’t affected.

Listen closely

Halloween brings its own sounds: the witch’s cackle and her spell as she leaves, the bubbling cauldron, the smashing pumpkins, the flocks of bats and, every now and then, a distant howl and an owl. If you play with PERFORMANCE MODE, the costumes use fewer effects.

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See you on the palisade, among the pumpkins. If you haven’t tried it yet, the demo is free on Steam. And if something breaks, use Report a problem in the pause menu: it comes straight to us.