Want to participate in Hallow’s End in WoW Classic? Here are all the differences from the holiday in retail WoW

WoW has been around so long that naturally the in-game holidays have evolved as the years have gone by. We had a lot of the same holidays (though not all) back in vanilla WoW but they were very different versions. Since the in-game holidays now run concurrent in retail WoW and WoW Classic, we thought we’d list the differences between the two.

Trick or Treating works differently

Prior to 2011, Trick or Treating worked by visiting an innkeeper once every hour to gain a treat or be tricked. WoW Classic works this way. If treated, you get a Treat Bag which can contain candy, masks, or Hallowed Wands. If you’re tricked, you get turned into a different appearance either through a transformation or wand costume effect. You get a debuff preventing you from Trick or Treating for an hour — this runs off in-game time, meaning you have to stay logged in for an hour in order to Trick or Treat with the innkeeper again. The caveat to this is that it appears to reset daily as well.

In retail WoW, you can Trick or Treat by visiting the Candy Buckets at every inn around the world. It also has a chance to do the same “tricks,” but every Candy Bucket will still give you a “treat” in the form of Handful of Treats.

The “good stuff” is a random chance, not from buying

In retail WoW, Tricky Treats are the main currency to acquire everything from the Hallow’s End vendors — from candy to masks to wands to pets. In WoW Classic, you have to hope for luck from the RNG gods in order to get masks or wands. These can only be acquired from the Treat Bag that you get from Trick or Treating every hour with the innkeepers.

There aren’t cosmetic rewards, but there is a really nice bag

No pets, no toys, no achievements, no Headless Horseman’s mount. No broom. Seriously, the instant-cast Magic Broom mount may be the best part of Hallow’s End — but alas it’s only in retail WoW. The same goes for all the vendor stuff we’re so used to, and even the Headless Horseman dungeon. That wasn’t added until Burning Crusade.

WoW Classic, as you know, is hard on bag space. Players take any bags they can get because bag space is in limited supply. During Hallow’s End, a 16-slot bag — the second highest you can get in the game — has a chance to drop from mobs. Wowhead says Pumpkin Bag can drop off any level 50+ Undead mobs, but some players are reporting that demons count, and the drop is showing from some humanoids as well.

It’s much harder to get the Wickerman buff

One of the updates in Burning Crusade made it so that the buff from the Wickerman could be acquired at any time of the day. Prior to that — and what you’ll find in WoW Classic — is that the buff is very limited. Horde players can only get the Invocation of the Wickerman between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. server time by looting the ashes around the Wickerman effigy.

Unfortunately, Alliance have the harder task. They need to go to Undercity as well — there is no celebration in Stormwind like there is in retail WoW — and pull one of the Wickerman Guardians around the Wickerman. Ideally with some friends, since they have a lot of health and hit quite hard. When the guardians die, they release Wickerman Guardian Embers, which can then be looted for the buff.

Apple Bobbing and candy are actually useful

Apple Bobbing barrels are next to every innkeeper, but most people simply ignore them in retail WoW. That’s because the apples you receive don’t have anything unique and are just like regular food. However, in WoW Classic, the Bobbing Apples pack quite a punch in the form of a buff. Spend 10 seconds eating and you get a Stamina or Spirit buff worth 25% of your level (so, 5 Stamina for a level-20 player).

Likewise, the candies from Treat Bags are useful as regular food. If you get them you don’t have to buy food or get food from a Mage, which makes eating between mobs to regain your health and mana less cumbersome.

There are fewer quests, but they’re more impactful

Retail WoW has a whole array of quests for Hallow’s End — from putting out Headless Horseman fires, to stink bombing the other faction’s city, to going on a quest for the Creepy Crate. If you pick up the quest from your faction’s orphan, it’s pretty easy to get to the capital cities with all the portals around. Besides the Creepy Crate questline, most of these are just ways to earn more Tricky Treats for currency.

In WoW Classic, there are just a couple quests. That same orphan questline is much harder unless you have portals from Mages. However, it gives a nice chunk of reputation. The other quests revolve around the historically contested Southshore. Horde players go to Southshore to stink up the place and ruin kegs, before returning to Undercity. Alliance players can clean up the stink bombs and also crash the Wickerman Festival.

Hallow’s End runs in the second half of October through Halloween, so you still have plenty of time to participate in either festival. Which version of Hallow’s End do you prefer?