Halloween Masquerade Ball Update

The Halloween Masquerade Ball Update (v1.34.3400) was released on the 3rd of October 2018 for Android and Amazon Fire players, the 4th of October for iOS and Windows 10 players, and arrived the 8th of October for Mac OS players.

When the update was released and downloaded, the Halloween Masquerade Ball Update triggered automatically. The Halloween Masquerade Ball Event contained 30 new quests, 5 challenge collections, 2 new Avatars, a unique Sphere of Miracle desktop award or upgrade, the Scarab Talisman, and 2 new Artifacts, the Necklace of Memory and the Spiritual Guide.

The Halloween Masquerade Ball timed challenges begin when a player reaches level 7 in the game (or automatically after downloading the update if the player is already above level 7).

The Halloween Masquerade Ball Update introduced 2 new pictures - Mysterious Attic and Living Room; 60 new quests and 10 new collections.

The Halloween Masquerade Ball Event[]

The Halloween Masquerade Ball Update timed event contains 3 challenges. Players have a set number of days to complete the following tasks:

Collect 500 Witch's Hats by winning games of Jigsaw to win or upgrade the Sphere of Miracles Desktop Award, which gives you a random item to study the locations every 12 hours.
Complete 30 special quests to win the once-off Scarab Talisman which increases power restoration by 5 times for 24 hours. Upon completing these quests you will also be able to combine the Necklace of Memory Artifact which decreases energy consumption by 10% for 24 hours.
Achieve 'Academician' level in Mysterious Attic and win 2 unique avatars, one male and one female.

For the duration of the Halloween Masquerade Ball challenge, Jack-O-Lantern special items are required in addition to energy points to play the Mysterious Attic. Jack-O-Lanterns are given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture, and as rewards for banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. Jack-O-Lanterns cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new Halloween Masquerade Ball collections, and they can be given as rewards by the Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonder.

The Jigsaw Challenge - Collecting Witch's Hats[]

Players can win the Sphere of Miracles Desktop Award, which will give you a random item to study the locations every 12 hours.

The Sphere of Miracles Desktop Award[]

The Sphere of Miracles desktop award sits in the center of the top row of a player's Home Desktop. The Sphere gives out rewards on a 12 hour timer. The first 12 hour timer starts from the moment the Sphere is won, and after that the 12 hour timer resets every time the award is discharged.

When discharged, the Sphere of Miracles gives out a number of one of the game's special items (e.g. Fireflies, Ladybugs, Carrots, Cupid's arrows or Tokens) at random. During Event challenges the Sphere may also reward special items needed to play the event picture, such as the Jack-O-Lanterns needed to play the picture Mysterious Attic. This means that in normal play, there is a 1 in 5 chance of receiving any one of the regular special items every time you discharge the Sphere, but during Event challenges there is a 1 in 6 (or 1 in 7 during double timed challenge updates) chance of getting a specific special item when discharging the Sphere.

The Sphere of Miracles was originally offered as part of the Halloween 2013 Update. A second opportunity to win the Sphere of Miracles was offered as part of the Halloween 2014 Update, a third opportunity was offered as part of the Halloween 2015 Update, a fourth opportunity was offered as part of the Halloween 2016 Update, a fifth opportunity was offered as part of the Halloween 2017 Update and a sixth opportunity was offered as part of the Halloween 2018 Update.

Players who have already won the Sphere of Miracles during the 2013/2014/2015/2016/2017 events have the opportunity to increase its level to the next award level by completing this year's challenge.

It does not matter which year you previously won the Sphere or what your current level for the Sphere is, as soon as you complete the 2018 challenge, your Sphere will be upgraded to the next level.

Six Sphere of Miracles desktop award levels available

Sphere of Miracles (Level 1)
Sphere of Miracles (Level 2)
Sphere of Miracles (Level 3)
Sphere of Miracles (Level 4)
Sphere of Miracles (Level 5)
Sphere of Miracles (Level 6)

Players can win the Sphere of Miracles by collecting 500 Witch's Hats. Witch's Hats can only be won by successfully completing the Jigsaw puzzle. For each successful win of Jigsaw, you will win between 2-5 Witch's Hats as one of the rewards for completing the puzzle. It is chance how many Witch's Hats you will get after any given play. You can think of it like rolling a 4-sided dice. On average you will get 3.5 Witch's Hats per play. Therefore it will require approximately 143 plays of Jigsaw to complete the challenge.

Halloween Masquerade Ball Witch's Hat — Witch's Hats can be won by winning games of Jigsaw.

When you open the Research Window for Jigsaw by tapping on the Jigsaw puzzle icon on your Home Desktop you will see Witch's Hats listed as the first item in the 'Can be found' list for the puzzle. Witch's Hats are available to win for every play of the puzzle at every puzzle level.

You must keep playing (and winning) Jigsaw until you have collected 500 Witch's Hats in order to complete the challenge. Once you have collected all 500 Witch' Hats, the Sphere of Miracles Desktop Award will automatically appear (or upgrade) in the row of awards at the top of your Home Desktop.

The Sphere of Miracles Desktop Award is located to the left of the Lucky Explorer Desktop Award in the middle of the Home Desktop. You can tap on the Sphere of Miracles at any time to bring up its information window.

If the Sphere of Miracles Desktop Award is charged by a visiting Friend, then its rewards will be doubled; giving you twice as many random items (special items) to study the locations the next time it is ready to collect.

As soon as the reward is collected, a new 12 hour timer starts to count down before the next reward is ready for collection. Note that the timer doesn't restart until the reward is collected, so leaving the Sphere of Miracles for more than 12 hours before collecting the reward does not change the rewards and delays collecting the next reward.

However daunting it may seem, all of the Timed Challenges are designed to be completed within the given time limit, so it is possible to collect 500 Witch's Hats well within the time given. The task is designed to be challenging, but it is not impossible! For more information, see Hints and Tips for Event Challenges.

The Unique Avatars - Getting Mysterious Attic to Academician Level[]

Players can win the unique Avatar by playing the new picture Mysterious Attic until they increase its scene progress level up to Academician Level during the Halloween Masquerade Ball time sensitive challenge.

For the duration of the Halloween Masquerade Ball Update, Jack-O'-Lantern special items are needed for each play of the Mysterious Attic picture.

While the Timed Challenges are active (before you complete all three, or the timer expires; whichever happens first), Jack-O'-Lanterns are given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture in the game (except Mysterious Attic itself). At least 1 Jack-O'-Lantern is given for every game you win, but winning up to 16 at a time is also possible depending on the picture played. Higher energy pictures, e.g. Adventure City or Actress Room, gave more Jack-O'-Lanterns.

Jack-O'-Lanterns are also given as rewards from banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. Jack-O'-Lanterns cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining 5 of the new Halloween Masquerade Ball collections. Players with the Pyramid of Wonder or Sphere of Miracles also have a 1 in 6 chance of receiving Jack-O'-Lanterns from these Desktop Awards when collecting their rewards every 12 hours. The number of Jack-O'-Lanterns needed for each play of Mysterious Attic increases as you increase the Picture Levels of Mysterious Attic (+5 Jack-O'-Lanterns per Level increase), starting at 5 Jack-O'-Lanterns per play when the picture is opened at Novice Level and increasing to 45 Jack-O'-Lanterns per play when the picture is at Grand Magister Level.

As a guide, in order to reach Academician Level on Mysterious Attic and win the new Avatars, you will need to play the picture approximately 150 times, which will require approximately 3285 Jack-O'-Lanterns! (or 2628 Jack-O'-Lanterns if using the Amulet of Santa/Amulet of Rarities Artifact, or a similar Artifact of Talisman).

Level	% progress per play of picture at level	No. plays needed for 100% (i.e. to reach next level)	Jack-O-Lanterns per play at level	Total Jack-O-Lanterns to reach next level
Novice	20%	5	5	25
Trainee	12-13%	8	10	80
Detective	8-9%	12	15	180
Pro	4%	25	20	500
High Explorer	1%	100	25	2500
Total to Academician level				3,285

As soon as you return to your Home Desktop after playing Mysterious Attic for the 150th time, a notification screen will appear to say that the avatar challenge is complete and you have won followed by a visual display of both of the unique Avatars which are displayed separately in a star filled background.

Both Avatars will automatically go into the Avatar section, but will not automatically replace your current Avatar. To use either of the new Avatars, you must tap on your current Avatar to bring up the Avatars window and scroll to the end of the list to find the new Avatar. Tap on the Avatar to select it.

The Challenge Quests: The Scarab Talisman, Necklace of Memory and Spiritual Guide Artifacts[]

The Scarab Talisman can be won once a player completes all 30 of the special Halloween Masquerade Ball challenge quests introduced as part of the update. The quests must be completed within the time limit of the Timed Challenge in order to unlock the Talisman.

Once the quests are completed, the Scarab Talisman automatically goes into your Inventory.

A notification screen will appear to say that the 30 challenge quests are complete and you have won the Scarab Talisman, but you must go to the Talisman section of the Inventory itself to see and use the new Talisman.

Halloween Masquerade Ball Quest Complete Notification

Once activated, the Scarab Talisman will increase your power restoration by 5 times for 24 hours.

In addition to winning the Scarab Talisman, players will also be able to combine the Necklace of Memory Artifact once they have completed the 30 challenge quests since the collections combined as part of the 30 quests create the 5 items needed to combine this new Artifact.

Once the quests are completed, players must manually combine the Necklace of Memory Artifact. To do this, open the Collections Window and select the Artifacts tab. Locate the Necklace of Memory Artifact and press the green combine button.

You will need 20 each of the following combining elements to combine the Artifact - Second Hand, Minute Hand, Hour Hand and Clock Face. All Artifact combining elements can be won by combining collections in the game. You can also be given these combining elements as free gifts by your friends. Like collection combining elements, Artifact combining elements are free gifts and do not come out of your inventory when you send them as gifts to your friends.

Once combined, the Necklace of Memory Artifact will go into the Talisman tab of your Inventory, where it can be activated. Once activated, the Necklace of Memory Artifact decreases energy consumption by 10% for 24 hours.

Note: There is a second Artifact available at the end of all 60 regular quests for this update. This is the Spiritual Guide Artifact, which once obtained increases rewards by 50% for 24 hours. You will need to combine this Artifact manually.

Winning the Scarab Talisman[]

A special decorative border in the quest list marks the 30 quests needed to win the Family Bond Talisman. Other quests added by the update with regular gold borders, do not count towards the 30 when completed.

Halloween Masquerade Ball Quest border — Decorative border indicates the quests needed to complete the Scarab Talisman

Note: The very first quest that displays the special decorative border is the quest to find the picture pieces needed to unlock and open the Mysterious Attic picture. However, this quest does not count towards the 30 quests needed to win the Scarab Talisman. This means there are actually 31 quests that display the decorative border, but only the last 30 of them count towards the challenge. Most importantly, you will need to complete this first quest in order to complete the challenge as the 30 quests that make up the event will not start until this quest is completed (there is only ever one quest with a special decorative border active at any one time) and the other quests require you to play the Mysterious Attic picture (which this quest opens).

Note: For the Halloween Masquerade Ball Event, the task to find the picture fragments was removed and the fragments were automatically rewarded.

There are 30 special quests that must be completed in order to win the Family Bond Talisman. They consist of 5 collection sequences of 6 quests each. The first 5 quests are to find each of the 5 items while the 6th quest is to combine the collection.

The 5 collections players gather as they complete the 30 quests are:

Gargoyles at the Gate (combines to create "Shadow Gargoyle" and rewards 10 Jack-O'-Lanterns when combined)
House That Jack Built (combines to create "Old Clock" and rewards 15 Jack-O'-Lanterns when combined)
Trick or Treat (combines to create "Jack-O'-Lantern pumpkin" and rewards 20 Jack-O'-Lanterns when combined)
Here I Come (combines to create "Labyrinth Map" and rewards 25 Jack-O'-Lanterns when combined)
Catch Me If You Can (combines to create "Black Bead" when combined and rewards 30 Jack-O-Lanterns when combined)

All the items that make up these collections cannot be gifted between friends (they do not have green plus signs to add them to your wish list and they will not appear in the 'Send a collection item' tab when sending gifts to your friends).

They are all also 'Quest only' items, which means that they cannot be won normally by playing pictures/puzzles. They are only available to win in pictures while the quest for the particular item is activated and will stop being available to win in that picture once the quest is completed. They may also drop as random items when you are visiting your friends and charging their desktops; from the Collectors Desktop award when collecting its rewards; and from opening Pandora's Chests, however whether or not you get any of these items in those ways is completely up to chance.

This means that the only way to complete these special quests is to follow the special quest instructions as you get the quests. This makes these 30 special challenge quests slightly more difficult than the challenge quests from previous updates, which as noted above are not giftable during the event.

The Challenge Quests[]

The 30 special quests that are needed to win the Scarab Talisman are:

Quest Number	Quest Name	Quest Instructions	Item Won	Collection Sequence
0	Invitation from a Stranger	Automatically rewarded	Fragments of "Mysterious Attic" picture	N/A
1	You Shall Not Pass	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Skeleton Gargoyle	Gargoyles at the Gate
2	Dragon Wings	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Dragon Gargoyle	Gargoyles at the Gate
3	Bull Fight	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Ox Gargoyle	Gargoyles at the Gate
4	Night Hunters	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Vampire Gargoyle	Gargoyles at the Gate
5	Beware the Gray Wolf	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Wolf Gargoyle	Gargoyles at the Gate
6	Scent of Trouble	You must gather (combine) the collection to obtain the object	Shadow Gargoyle	Gargoyles at the Gate
7	Mysterious Mansion	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Indian Amulet	House that Jack Built
8	Burn Brightly, My Candle	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Magic Candle	House that Jack Built
9	Yarn	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Balls of Yarn	House that Jack Built
10	Forbidden Knowledge	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Spell Book	House that Jack Built
11	Mind Games	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Hypnotic Pendulum	House that Jack Built
12	Tick Tock	You must gather (combine) the collection to obtain the object	Old Clock	House that Jack Built
13	The Labyrinth	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Gummy Bears	Trick or Treat
14	Under the Roof	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Bat	Trick or Treat
15	Sweets Gift	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Lollipop	Trick or Treat
16	Spider Design	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Spider	Trick or Treat
17	Mint and Vanilla	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Chewy Candies	Trick or Treat
18	Jack-O'-Lantern	You must gather (combine) the collection to obtain the object	Jack-O'-Lantern pumpkin	Trick or Treat
19	Masquerade Ball	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Eye Patch	Here I Come
20	King Wizard	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Mage's Staff	Here I Come
21	Little Ghost	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Ghost Costume	Here I Come
22	On a Broom	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Broom	Here I Come
23	Fortune Telling	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Tarot Cards	Here I Come
24	Escape From the Labyrinth	You must gather (combine) the collection to obtain the object	Labyrinth Map	Here I Come
25	Necklace of Memory	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Blue Bead	Catch Me If You Can
26	Fiery Memories	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Red Bead	Catch Me If You Can
27	Sunny Road	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Gold Bead	Catch Me If You Can
28	Under the Sign of Road	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" in "Text" mode to find an object	Green Bead	Catch Me If You Can
29	Secret Signs	Investigate "Mysterious Attic" to find an object	Silver Bead	Catch Me If You Can
30	Black Bead	You must gather (combine) the collection to obtain the object	Black Bead	Catch Me If You Can

After the Challenge is complete[]

Once you complete all three Halloween Masquerade Ball Update Challenges, or after the challenge timer expires (whichever happens first), Jack-O'-lanterns will be restricted so that they will only be won in Bungalow and Palatial Office (instead of in all of them like during the Timed Challenges).

This restriction of the challenge quest special items after completion has been a feature of many updates now and is designed to allow players to collect enough to complete the challenge within the short time frame but not amass a large quantity after finishing the challenge.

Collections Added with the Halloween Masquerade Ball Update[]

Along with the 5 challenge collections for the Halloween Masquerade Ball Event, this update added 10 new regular collections. These collections continue the main story line of the Diary.

The following are the this event's quest driven collections that are needed to combine for the Necklace of Memory artifact: Future updates will determine if these collections will continue to result in this artifact.

Additional collections added but unrelated to the Halloween Masquerade Ball Event.

Angelica - Non-Event collection - item created used to make the Spiritual Guide artifact
Family curse
Abduction
Night adventure - Non-Event collection - item created used to make the Spiritual Guide artifact
Beauty or the beast
Taming the curse - Non-Event collection - item created used to make the Spiritual Guide artifact
Thief's notes
Inquisitor's plan - Non-Event collection - item created used to make the Spiritual Guide artifact
Trump card
Portal to the abyss - Non-Event collection - item created used to make the Spiritual Guide artifact

Changes Made by the Halloween Masquerade Ball Update[]

Special Item Conversion: Upon opening the Halloween Masquerade Ball Update, any remaining Cameras in the player’s inventory (special items from the Dangerous Journey update) are converted into equal parts Ladybugs, Fireflies, Carrots, Cupid’s arrows, and Tokens. Any inventory of other special items from previous events are also converted. Adventure City is now free to investigate.
Scene progression returned to 'old' progression. High Explorer level requires 100 plays.
An exclamation point was added to the name of Collection 769, Gotcha!, which was first introduced during the Dangerous Journey Update (August 2018).

Issues and Other Changes Reported with Update[]

Downloading and opening issue reported by Amazon Fire and Android players
iOS players with Frozen Wish List continues
Inability to scroll to the far left of boards of players with Frozen Wishlist or those who have not updated. Scrolling left will not pass Rock Stage picture.
Release of v1.34.3401, October 6, 2018, for Android and Amazon Fire players seems to have fixed some of the issues affecting Android and Amazon Fire players.