Animal Crossing: New Horizons Halloween Event Guide

It’s finally here. You’ve been hearing about it and hopefully been preparing all month and Halloween has finally arrived. But while you’ve had all month to get ready, the event actually starting might be a time of confusion and reflection. Did you get enough candy? Did you grow enough pumpkins? Who the hell is Jack and what does he want? We’re going to cover all your questions and more in this Animal Crossing: New Horizons Halloween event guide explaining when it starts, what to do, and the rest.

When does the Halloween Event Start

The Animal Crossing New Horizons Halloween event will officially begin at 5pm on Saturday, October 31st and end at midnight. However, if it hasn’t started yet you should be preparing. What you’ll want to be doing is growing pumpkins and buying candy from Nook’s Cranny. You can only buy one piece of candy per day so try to hit the store every time you can and pick up a piece for 120 Bells. On Halloween you have many more chances to get candy, unlike in the real world, so don’t worry if you haven’t stocked up just yet. You can learn more about how to get candy and what it does here. Then at 5pm on October 31st just head to your island and Jack should have arrived to kick this Halloween event off the right way.

What to do During the Halloween Event

The Animal Crossing New Horizons Halloween event is all about getting all the items, DIY recipes, and costumes you can. Much of this is offered periodically before the event begins so we won’t worry about all of that. Once Jack gets there though things kick into high gear, especially with the candy, items, and DIY recipes. The first thing you should do when starting the Halloween event is to find Jack and talk to him. He’ll break everything down for you, but in short you will want to bring him candy, especially any lollipops you receive. He’ll then give you either a costume, an item, or a DIY recipe. You can keep track of all the items and DIY recipes right here to make sure you get them all. Once you do, just make sure you also have enough pumpkins to craft them all.

How to Get More Candy and What to do with Lollipops

So candy is the key, but what do you do if you didn’t collect enough? Well, this is Halloween after all so why don’t you go trick or treating? All of your fellow villagers have candy to offer you, so walk around and speak with them while wearing a costume. Some will be in their house and should give you candy right away. Others will be walking around and might not want to part with their candy for just anyone. Thankfully, you can trick them a bit by getting the Jack costume from Jack himself. While wearing this almost any villager will give you candy right away. Also, be sure to swing into Resident Services or your home to perform a sort of reset to try to get more from the same characters.

And if any of them give you a lollipop then you are in luck. Take that straight to Jack and you will receive one of the rarer and more exclusive items in the Halloween event set. These should include the Spooky Carriage and Spooky Wand, which you’ll definitely want for your collection.

So that’s our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Halloween event guide. Hopefully this answers all of your questions but be sure to check out our other guides in case they clarify anything we might have missed.