You knew that there would be a special Halloween Event right? Sure you did! But did you know that the new Halloween Event would come at the same time that they changed the way that Ghost Hunting works? Yeah, so good-news and bad-news it seems.
Good news because the Event will get you hunting Ghosts, but bad news in that you will need to add a lot of Haunted Items to your Ghost House in order to ensure that you always have an item to explore in the game -- since the Haunted Items now have a recharge timer attached to them!
In addition to adding a recharge timer to Haunted Items the wizards have added TWO NEW LEVELS to the Ghost Hunter Hobby, AND they have added TWO NEW GHOSTS! How cool is that?! That is wicked cool!
Basically this new Holiday Event starts as an expansion to the Ghost Hunting Hobby -- so assuming you have already set up a Courtesy House in your town with lots of Haunted Items (you should have a courtesy house for your Neighbors to use mates, and it also helps you with the hobbies so if you do not have one yet you should build one!).
Head to your Courtesy House and call in all of your Sims who have Ghost Hunter as their Hobby. Bear in mind that Thanks to the Putting Green Challenge the hobby has changed temporarily -- and we will detail those Changes now!
First: The Ghost Sets have new rewards that are part of the Event and challenge. They are as follows:
The hardest one to get hands down was Hack-O-Lantern, who only showed up one time for the entire process for me all the way through Level 8!
The process by which you complete the challenge is to have your Ghost Hunting Sims simply Hunt Ghosts! The process is made a bit more complicated by the recharge timer that is now present on ALL of the Haunted Items.
Bear in mind that each item does not have the exact same timer -- we have seen timers ranging from 10 to 30 minutes depending upon the item... But there is so wide a variety of Haunted Items you can add from Doors and Windows to chains and other decorations, paintings, furniture, and the like, that you really should have no trouble maintaining a sufficient number to keep five or more Sims busy constantly at Ghost Hunting.
You may need to have those kind of numbers of Hunters to get the new Ghosts due to the fact that the Ghosts -- all of them -- are now a lot harder to catch. That and you should bear in mind that even if your Ghost Hunters are all at or near the previous Level 6 Cap the path to Level 8 will be slow indeed! The average gain from Level 6 to Level 7 which is the first target level is only 2% per hunt!
You need to attain Level 7 in order to unlock the first trio of New Ghosts, and then to Level 8 for the last two New Ghosts. This is no minor task or challenge mind you - it required two fairly solid days of Game Play and constant Ghost Hunting to first unlock the new levels and then capture the new Ghosts, but was it worth it? Oh yes, yes indeed!
Master Prize for unlocking ALL of the sets and Prizes? The Petrified Putting Green!
Bear in mind that as each of the prizes are unlocked with each set you clear you still have to actually go to the store and purchase them if you want them. I decided to temporarily upgrade the table in my Courtesy House to the Holiday Table prize just to add some colour to the whole thing :)
The Halloween Challenge Quest List is as follows:
Once you have completed this simple list of tasks above, you will find yourself rewarded with a rare treat indeed -- the Petrified Putting Green -- which is a Free item that can be found in the in-game store under the Outdoors > Outdoor Furniture Menu!
Your Sims will have the option to use it and its 3m Practice Putting action which has a rather interesting and holiday appropriate effect when a Sim manages to putt on target!
Bear in mind that there is a time limit imposed on unlocking and obtaining this very special reward -- but it is every bit worth the effort of obtaining. Enjoy!
SPECIAL LIMITED TIME PUTTING GREEN
In addition to these Changes if you have a Sim or three that have mastered Ghost Hunting (to Level 6) in the pre-Event Hobby (and you hope you do!) if you can somehow manage to get the new Levels AND the new Ghosts captured, you will unlock a Limited Time, Limited Edition Putting Green for your game!
The trick here is that you have to do this BEFORE 1 November 2013. If you don't get it done by then, well, then you don't get it!
NEW MYSTERY BOXES ADDED
In addition to all this holiday fun and the limited time limited edition Putting Green you can maybe get above, they have also added a New Mystery Box system in the game.
This is basically a weekly Quest-based system that has your Sims completing random Quests that allow them to obtain one Mystery Box Key each week -- you can then visit the Mystery Box Store and trade your Key for the contents of a Mystery Box.
The trick here is that there is a selection of Mystery Boxes, and each requires a different number of Keys -- so if you are a more patient gamer and save up the Keys you can obtain much better Items by simply obtaining your weekly Key and NOT spending it!
That stunk is was so bad I don't even know another word for bad it was gross I disliked it
Any one agree
By HATERS GONNA HATE[size=12][color=red][/color] [/size]
Timed Events
We are not sure what we could have done for you short of coming to your house and holding your hand while you did this event?
The terms of it are crystal clear - when a new event starts that has a timer associated with it, the game clearly spells out that IF you complete the quests within the timer period, you will receive whatever the special reward is for doing so.
The timer is prominently displayed as part of the quest screen - you can check it at any time by tapping the related icon.
Completing the tasks means just that, simply doing all of the tasks that are associated with the event.
The award of the special item IS NOT AUTOMATIC. Once you complete the event you still have to open the Build/Buy menu and then select the OUTOORS Icon, then select the icon specific for that type of object (in this case we believe it was the OUTDOOR DECORATIONS but as we have claimed and placed ours we did not see it there) then CLAIM and then PLACE it from your inventory.
Time Warp / Time Cheats
While we know - and understand - why the use of that cheat would be attractive, we urge you strongly NOT to use it. It messes up so many OTHER elements in the game, and has the potential for example to break the Party Boat making it unusable that what little benefits you gain from using it in the short term just are not worth it.
What is worse, the studio will flat out refuse to fix problems like that once they determine you created the problem by using the time cheat. The penlites for that cheat are not worth any benefits it provides mate.
Halloween Outside of October
Please bear in mind that the Ghost Hunting Quest while it makes sense that it would be attached to the Halloween holiday is not really attached to that holiday. Which is why you can get it at other times of the year.
Its actual purpose - when it kicks in at Level 20 of your Sim leveling - is to introduce to you the Ghost Hunting Hobby, which can and does take place at any time of the year.
Ghost Hunting
Yes, the Ghost Hunter Hobby is alive (dead?) and well (if you know, being a dead Sim ghost is well?) in the game!
To participate in it you need to meet the following criteria:
1. Reach Level 20 in your game.
2. Complete the associated quest - at Level 20 - to unlock the haunted objects in your game.
3. Place Haunted Objects in a Sim House. See Note “A”
4. Have one or more (See Note “B”) Sims doing the hobby.
5. Complete the Ghost Collections over and over as you level your Sims up in the hobby until you reach the point that you complete all of the collection and get your ghost storage thingy.
Note A: You are better off building a house no sim actually lives in, and placing all of the haunted objects in it. Then use it as your Ghost Hunter Courtesy House / Ghost Hunting House.
Note B: The optimal number is 3, and 3 shall be the optimal number!
Is the ghost hunting hobby still available at all? I'm level 18 & haven't seen anything ghost related. (I'm not referring to this Halloween event. I'm talking about the actual ghost hunting hobby)
I don't get any of this it's December and they wand me to do a Halloween challenge like what?
I just started playing this game last week (December 2013). Is possible is to do the " time warp" or date/time skip to complete this event? If I set my phone's date to October 3013 is this challenge and it's rewards still possible? And at what level does this appear? I'm only at 10 and haunted items are unavailable. Thanks!
I can't get any ghost furniture on my iphone to complete the quest...does anyone have any ideas? Would be much appreciated
NightRelic -- if you completed the Ghost Collection and mastered the hobby during the timer period you should still be able to go into the in-game store and purchase the Putting Green, since you have unlocked it. So it does not seem that it was wasted effort...
Wait, now that I'm re-reading this, it seems I may have misunderstood what the golf course was all about. I'm thinking maybe I got all there was to get. Maybe it wasn't EA that was unclear, maybe it was just this article that's a bit confusing.
This really sucks. I finished hunting the ghosts with one Sim in 2 or 3 days. I finished way before Halloween, but didn't know I needed to do more to get the Haunted golf course. EA needs to be more explicit with their timed events. Now I'm just ticked off I wasted my time. I think in the future I won't even bother.
Unfortunately I didn't find full instructions in time. Oh well.
Finding the fright in sharming armer is hard I hope I get it in time!!!!!!