Hallow's End 2012 Guide (WoW MoP 5.3)

Last updated by Damien on 15 Oct. 2012

The Hallow's End world event is the World of Warcraft counterpart of Halloween and is meant to celebrate the Forsaken breaking free from the Scourge.

The event is much less time-consuming than Brewfest, the preceding world event. You will mostly be running around Azeroth and Outland to visit candy buckets. Other tasks include fighting the Headless Horseman, the boss of the event, do daily quests, or trick-or-treat innkeepers.

Parts of the events are opened to all players with no level restriction. As Hallow's End is updated from one year to the other, full completion in 2012 requires level 89.

The event itself takes places all over Azeroth and Outland. Some achievements will require significant travel times to complete.

This guide starts with a presentation of the various rewards that you can obtain. Then, we list the various tasks at hand before giving what we feel is the right order for completing them.

The difference with last year's installment is that the Headless Horseman drops loot with an item level of 470 (up form 365).

1. Overview↑top

The Hallow's End event provides with a variety of tasks to complete, which can be broken down as follows:

  • Visiting candy buckets all over Azeroth and Outland.
  • Killing the Headless Horseman;
  • Doing daily quests;
  • Trick-or-treating innkeepers.

A number of achievements will automatically be obtained while doing these tasks. The remaining achievements are obtained by collecting and using items.

2. Currency↑top

Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treat is the currency of the event, you can earn it by completing daily quests and doing various tasks such as killing the Headless Horseman. With it, you can buy almost all the rewards of the event, including two that are not available by other means: Little Wickerman Icon Little Wickerman and Feline Familiar Icon Feline Familiar. All the other rewards can also be obtained by doing the various tasks that the event gives you the chance to do.

The Alliance vendors are Dorothy and Spanky, located just outside the gates of Stormwind. The Horde vendors are Chub and Farina.

3. Date and Timeline↑top

The event is usually scheduled in such a way that it finishes on Halloween's day. This year, the event will take place from the 18th of October to the 31st of October.

As most of the items can be obtained by other means that buying them, it is not necessary to complete the various quests and tasks every day until you have reached enough Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats to buy all the rewards. Also, almost all the achievements can be earned the first day and only a few require you to repeat tasks over several days.

4. Rewards↑top

The rewards offered by Hallow's End are detailed in this section.

4.1. Experience and Stat Buffs

Unburdened Icon Unburdened (Alliance) and Grim Visage Icon Grim Visage (Horde) are buffs that increase your experience and reputation gained by 10% for 2 hours. These buffs are obtained by clicking the bonfires in front of the Wickerman at the entrance of Stormwind City and Undercity. The experience component of the buffs does not stack with Fast Track Icon Fast Track, the level 6 Guild Perk. However, the reputation component of the buffs does stack with Mr. Popularity Icon Mr. Popularity, the level 12 Guild Perk.

Whenever you complete the Headless Horseman event (putting out fires) in Goldshire, Kharanos, Dolanaar, and Azure Watch (Alliance) or Razor Hill, Bloodhoof Village, Brill, and Falconwing Square (Horde), you will receive Victory! Icon Victory!, which gives you a very slight increase in your main stats. This buff seems to persist through raids.

4.2. Vanity Items

Little Wickerman Icon Little Wickerman is bought 150 Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats.

Hallowed Helm Icon Hallowed Helm is bought for 150 Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats and is contained in several rewards that you get throughout the event.

4.3. Pet

Sinister Squashling Icon Sinister Squashling is a vanity pet that can be contained in several rewards earned during Hallow's End. This pet is also a requirement for the Sinister Calling Icon Sinister Calling achievement, see the related section for more information.

Feline Familiar Icon Feline Familiar is bought with 150 Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats.

Creepy Crate Icon Creepy Crate is obtained by completing the A Friend in Need (Alliance / Horde) quest line.

4.4. Mounts

The Horseman's Reins Icon The Horseman's Reins is a mount that has a chance to drop once a day from the Headless Horseman, the boss of the event.

4.4.1. Temporary mounts

Magic Broom Icon Magic Broom and Flying Broom Icon Flying Broom are temporary mounts that you can only use for the duration of the event. Magic Broom can be contained in a chest reward that you get for putting out fires in starting zone villages, while Flying Broom has a chance to drop once a day from the Headless Horseman.

4.5. Gear

The Headless Horseman, the boss of the event drops item level 470 rings as well as a plate helm and a sword of the same item level:

4.6. Achievements and Title

Hallowed Be Thy Name Icon Hallowed Be Thy Name is the meta-achievement of the event. It grants the The Hallowed title and requires the following achievements:

Other achievements can also be earned during Hallow's End, but they are not necessary to complete the Hallowed Be Thy Name meta-achievement:

The only location to visit that is not clearly marked on the maps is Deepmist Grotto in Vashj'ir. It is located in Kelp'thar Forest, in a cave just south of the place named Gnaws' Boneyard.

5. Main Tasks↑top

In this section, we present the main tasks that you will be required to perform during Hallow's End.

5.1. Candy Buckets

The simplest, but most time-consuming part of the event consists in completing the Tricks and Treats achievements:

  • Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms Icon Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms Alliance / Horde);
  • Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor Icon Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor (Alliance / Horde);
  • Tricks and Treats of Outland Icon Tricks and Treats of Outland (Alliance / Horde);
  • Tricks and Treats of Northrend Icon Tricks and Treats of Northrend (Alliance / Horde), not required for the meta-achievement;
  • Tricks and Treats of the Cataclysm Icon Tricks and Treats of Cataclysm (Alliance / Horde), not required for the meta-achievement;
  • Tricks and Treat of Pandaria Icon Tricks and Treats of Pandaria (Alliance / Horde), not required for the meta-achievement.

Completing the first 3 achievements, will grant you Tricks and Treats of Azeroth Icon Tricks and Treats of Azeroth, which counts towards the completion of the meta-achievement.

These achievements are extremely simple to complete. Go to the designated locations (notice that Horde players seem to have a lot more locations to visit than Alliance players). In each of these locations, you will be given a Candy Bucket quest from the nearby Candy Bucket. The quest completes instantly and rewards you with a Handful of Treats Icon Handful of Treats. This item can contain:

G.N.E.R.D.S. Soothing Spearmint Candy
G.N.E.R.D.S. Overhead Visual Smoothing Spearmint Candy Overhead Visual
Pyroblast Cinnamon Ball Chewy Fel Taffy
Pyroblast Cinnamon Ball Overhead Visual Chewy Fel Taffy

The first time you interact with a Candy Bucket, you will be given the Trick or Treat! Icon Trick or Treat! achievement.

5.2. The Headless Horseman

The Headless Horseman is the boss of the Hallow's End event. He is located inside the Scarlet Monastery instance (Graveyard). You can only access him through the Dungeon Finder tool. Only level 89 and 90 players are able to queue. Once inside the dungeon, interact with the pumpkin on the altar to summon the boss.

The fight is made up of three phases and is relatively easy:

  • Phase One: burn the boss until 1% health, then his head detaches and flies to a random location. The head has a separate health pool and you need to damage it until 67% health before the boss' health, which is regenerating, reaches 100%.
  • Phase Two: spread out and burn the boss again (the head is back on the body). At 1% health, the head, once again, detaches and flies to a random location; you need to damage it to 33% before the boss' health regenerates to 100%.
  • Phase Three: burn the boss and ignore the adds. At 1%, the head flies off and you need to finish it off.

The first time you kill the Headless Horseman, you complete the Bring Me The Head of... Oh Wait Icon Bring Me The Head of... Oh Wait achievement.

The first time you kill the Headless Horseman on a given day, you receive a Loot-Filled Pumpkin Icon Loot-Filled Pumpkin in your inventory. This chest has a chance to contain some of the following items (no Valor Points, though):

Every time you kill the Headless Horseman, one of the following rings has a chance to drop:

5.3. Daily Quests

There are two sets of daily quests available. The first one deals with extinguishing the fires started by the Headless Horseman before defeating him in lower level areas (for this purpose, the Headless Horseman is a level 11 elite mob). The second one deals with preventing the other faction from ruining your celebrations while disturbing their own celebrations.

5.3.1. Putting Fires Out

Costumed Orphaned Matron (Alliance) and Masked Orphaned Matron (Horde) serve as an introduction to this small event and are given by commoners in capital cities. These quests send you to an Orphan Matron in one of the following locations (you choose where you want to go):

  • Alliance: Azure Watch in Azuremyst Isle, Goldshire in Elwynn Forest, and Kharanos in Dun Morogh;
  • Horde: Falconwing Square in Eversong Woods, Brill in Tirisfal Glades, and Razor Hill in Durotar.

There, the Orphan Matron will give you a follow-up quest: Fire Brigade Practice (Alliance: Elwynn Forest/Dun Morogh/Azuremyst Isle) Fire Training (Horde: Tirisfal Glades/Durotar/Eversong Woods). It simply requires you to use a water bucket to put out 5 nearby fires (use the Water Barrel next to the Orphan Matron to refill your water bucket). Accepting this quest unlocks the Stop the Fires! (Alliance / Horde) daily quest. Note that the two-prerequisite quests can only be done once (i.e., they cannot be repeated 3 times, once in each possible location).

The idea behind Stop the Fires! is to fight off the Headless Horseman who regularly sets on fire buildings in the village where you took the daily quest (it can be one of the 3 locations mentioned above). Note that this daily quest is not available if the Headless Horseman has recently been fended off. Also, if you do Stop the Fires! in a given location, you will not be able to do it the same day in one of the other 2 locations.

Simply put out the fires around the village using the same technique as for the prerequisite quest. If your efforts and that of the other players are succesful, you will be able to engage the Headless Horseman (a level 11 elite). Upon defeating him, a Large Jack-o'-Lantern appears in the middle of the village. It gives you the Smash the Pumpkin daily quest, which you can turn in to the local Orphan Matron (together with Stop the Fires!) for a Crudely Wrapped Gift Icon Crudely Wrapped Gift, which can contain the following interesting items:

5.3.2. Trashing The Other Faction's Celebrations

The following 4 daily quests are available to Alliance and Horde players:

  • Stink Bombs Away! (Alliance / Horde): this quest takes you to Undercity (Alliance) or Stormwind (Horde), where you must drop 25 Stink Bombs. You are in the real city, and not an instanced version of it. As such, you can have fun trying to bomb players from the enemy faction!
  • Clean Up in Stormwind/Clean Up in Undercity: this quest requires you to clean the Stink Bombs dropped by players of the opposite faction. They are easily spotted by the amount of orange smoke that they produce.
  • A Time to Gain/A Time to Build Up: this quest requires you to take click the bonfire, next to the big Wickerman, where you took the quest.
  • A Time to Lose/A Time to Break Down: this quest requires you to go to the opposite faction's Wickerman (just outside of Stormwind or Undercity) and douse it with the provided quest item.

Each of these quests rewards Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats and all four of them are available each day. Completing them grants the Rotten Hallow Icon Rotten Hallow (Alliance / Horde) achievement.

5.4. Obtaining the Creepy Crate Pet

This pet is the reward of a small quest line.

A Season for Celebration (Alliance / Horde) serves as an introductory quest.

It leads to Hallow's End Treats for Jesper! (Alliance) and Hallow's End Treats for Jesper! (Horde). These quests are not related to the Creepy Crate Icon Creepy Crate quest line and should only be done for the 10 Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats that they reward.

The introductory quest also leads to A Friend in Need (Alliance / Horde), which starts the actual quest line for obtaining the pet:

6. Remaining Achievements↑top

If you have followed this guide so far, you should already know how to complete the following achievements:

The remaining achievements require you to obtain a variety of items. Each of these items can be obtained in a number of ways, which can make things confusing. Therefore, in the following sections, we give the different sources for all these items.

6.1. Check Your Head

This achievement should be completed while doing the candy bucket achievements, as you will most likely meet many members from the opposite faction, enabling you to use Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern Icon Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns on them. This item can be obtained in the following ways:

  • It drops from the Headless Horseman;
  • It is rewarded by the Putting Fires Out quests;
  • It is contained in the Crudely Wrapped Gift Icon Crudely Wrapped Gift, looted from the fiery pumpkin, after putting the fires out.

Note that using a Weighted Jack-o Pumpkin on a player already under the pumpkin head effect will consume the item without granting you the achievement objective.

6.2. Masks-related Achievements

The Mask Task Icon The Mask Task and A Mask for All Occasions Icon A Mask for All Occasions require you to obtain masks. Each of these masks can be obtained in the following ways:

6.3. G.N.E.R.D Rage

G.N.E.R.D. Rage Icon G.N.E.R.D. Rage requires you to kill members of the opposing faction while being under the buff given by the G.N.E.R.D.S. Icon G.N.E.R.D.S. item. This item can be contained in a Handful of Treats Icon Handful of Treats, which you can obtain by completing a candy bucket quest or a putting fires out quest (by opening the fiery pumpkin at the end). It can also be bought from Dorothy (Alliance) and Chub (Horde).

Battlegrounds like Alterac Valley or Tol Barad are ideal for completing this achievement. Note that the buff does not persist through death, so make sure to have enough items to rebuff yourself until you reach the 10 Honor Kills mark.

6.4. Out With It

Out With It Icon Out With It requires you to eat 3 Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats in very quick succession. Almost every task in the event rewards you with these items, so it will not be hard to get your hands on 3 of them.

6.5. Sinister Calling

Sinister Calling Icon Sinister Calling requires you to obtain two items: Sinister Squashling Icon Sinister Squashling and Hallowed Helm Icon Hallowed Helm. These two items can be obtained as follows:

6.6. That Sparkling Smile

That Sparkling Smile Icon That Sparkling Smile requires you to obtain and use a Tooth Pick Icon Tooth Pick. This item is contained only in Handful of Treats Icon Handful of Treats, which you obtain by interacting with Candy Buckets. It is also sold by Dorothy (Alliance) and Chub (Horde).

6.7. The Masquerade

The Masquerade Icon The Masquerade requires you to ask players to use various Hallowed Wands on you. These wands are obtained in the following ways:

  • they are contained in Crudely Wrapped Gift Icon Crudely Wrapped Gift (from successfully putting out the fires in a village under attack by the Headless Horseman);
  • they are bought from the Wand Vendor (at the daily quest hub, just outside of Stormwind or Undercity) with Tricky Treat Icon Tricky Treats.

A common way to do this achievement is to use the trade channel to ask for a Wand cast exchange with other players (if they have a wand you need and you have a wand they need) or to simply offer gold for Wand casts.

7. Conclusion↑top

We hope that this guide will have answered every question you had about Hallow's End. If not, we encourage you to leave a comment or contact us by e-mail, we will be happy to address the issue you encountered.