Destiny Halloween update: surprise ‘Festival of the Lost’ event brings new masks, missions and maps

The game celebrated the event last year by allowing people to pumpkins on their heads — but there’s a lot more in this year’s unannounced update

Destiny has received a huge update to celebrate Halloween, with developers Bungie running an entire festival in honour of the day.

The Festival of the Lost live event will run from 26 October to 9 November, and brings with it a range of new maps, masks and missions.

The company celebrated Halloween last year with the option to put pumpkins on players’ heads. But this year’s update if a full event.

When players sign in, they’ll be alerted to go to the Tower — which has been decorated with banners, candles, fireflies and paper lanterns everywhere. Like a haunted house, screeches fill the air and everyone around will be wearing masks.

From there, players can talk to Tess Everis and buy Halloween goody bags. In there is a Legendary mask, which is one of the few things that will stick around after the event is over, as well as other things.

The Legendary masks will stick around, and are the biggest of the things that can be found through the festival. In all, there are 16 masks, all of which can be collected by doing quests for Eva Levante.

Rare masks will also be collected through the festival. But they’ll disappear once it’s over — unless players find Paper Glue and Paper Scraps, which can be used to upgrade a mask from Rare to Legendary.

Bungie points out that most of the updates will be removed once the day is over.

“This event includes new Quests, Consumable items, themed Gear and new Eververse Trading Co. items,” Bungie says. “Festival-themed activities and most non-Legendary quality items will no longer be available once the event is over.”

The update also brings new emotes, including a zombie dance that is very similar to the dance in Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

The update also brings a new map, called Cathedral — a creepy and dark area that Bungie describes as a “vile site” that was once a tomb. That map will stick around once the festival is over.

The update is only available to players who have The Taken King, the downloadable and paid-for update, on their account.

Bungie has also provided downloadable masks for real life, which can be worn to make Halloween costumes in the real world.