What Are Seasonal Events?  

         They're three short-term events that coincide with certain times of year/holidays; Spring/Easter, Fall/Halloween/American Thanksgiving, and Winter/Christmas/New Year's. (However, the exact start date will NOT line up with the holidays or the solstices/equinoxes, and it is NOT known to the players or BFG employees in advance). During these events, the game is altered in several ways.

• The hidden object scenes (HOSs) drop seasonal items. These include such things as Halloween candy, Easter eggs, and Christmas decorations. They're used for trading, crafting certain items/pets, and finishing certain achievements. While they can be bought and gifted all year, they are only free during their event.

• The morphing objects change from flowers to a seasonally appropriate shape. There's usually an achievement associated with them, or they may be required for crafting. They're usually easier to see than the flowers, and drop seasonal items and double coins/diamonds.

• Certain items and pets are added to the lab. You can craft them at any time, but the items needed only drop for free during the event.

• The Daily Quests change. Instead of the usual 3, 5, or 10-parters, a seasonal character will offer 1-parters involving seasonal items/activities.  Their exact nature varies by event, but usually involve some combination of catching floating objects, trading seasonal HOS drops, and crafting seasonal items.  They drop Pet Medallions and seasonal items, and since they're faster and use less inventory than the normal DQs, they're good for stocking up on Pet Medallions. However, they DO NOT count for DQ achievements!  Also, certain seasonal items used to craft pets may only come from completing these DQs.

• Holiday decorations appear and some items/characters will change to a seasonally-appropriate motif.

• The Airship will drop a seasonal item in addition to a pet food and a stamp if you fill all three crates AND send it (you must do both).

• New achievements related to the season's events appear, often giving avatars as rewards.

• In each room, a floating object will appear. Hitting the object with the required tool will "catch" it. Collecting one of each type or a certain number will earn achievements. The tool varies by season, and drops from HOSs.  It can also be traded for (see next point), bought, or gifted. You can review your collections all year by opening the Gargoyle in the Private Room and buying all 3 albums. Please note that these floating objects are RANDOM: you may find them all in a few days with just a few dozen tries, or you may use hundreds of tries and still not find them all during a single Seasonal Event!

• 3 children appear in front of the Castle. You may trade seasonal HOS drops with them in exchange for another item.  During the Fall and Spring Events, this is the collectible-catching tool.  During the Winter Event, you may trade for either the tool or the Gifts for Friends. There's also an achievement for trading with the children; trades done during any Seasonal Event count for it.

• New puzzles are usually available. Be sure to unlock them!

• Special Amulets may be available for purchase.  These amulets will reduce or remove the "cooldown" time for the collectible objects and the morphing objects, making them appear more quickly.  As with the regular Amulets, they are activated with Energy units, and the longer they last, the higher the cost in Energy.  These Amulets can be bought with the in-game coins (not real money) by clicking the Shopping Bag in the upper right-hand corner beneath the Gear icon.  Warning: they are very expensive, both in coins and in Energy, so consider potential costs and benefits before purchasing.

• The seasonal Private Rooms. See next post!

What's the Deal with the Seasonal Private Rooms?

            During the SEs, new Private Rooms will appear, decorated in a seasonal motif. There are five rooms for Spring, three rooms for Winter, and three for Fall. These rooms offer new decorations and furniture that you can unlock with Golden Keys, and purchase with shards, coins, or diamonds. You can also change the name of your room, just like with the regular room.

            The big draw of the seasonal Private Rooms, though, are the associated special challenges. Most of the rooms come with a special challenge that you can do both in your room and the rooms of all your friends, just like opening the Mystery Chest. During the Winter Event, you can leave Gifts for Friends (the gift-wrapped boxes that occasionally drop from the HOSs) under a Christmas tree (in the first Winter Room) or in a gift sack (in the other two Winter Rooms). Simply click on the tree or sack to leave the gift.  There is an achievement associated with this action, culminating in a Mrs. Claus avatar for leaving 1,000 Gifts. Similarly, the three Fall Rooms, four of the Spring Rooms, and two of the Winter Rooms have special HOSs that can only be done during the Event. These drop TONS of coins, Airship items, shards, seasonal items, items for crafting the seasonal pets and the season's collectible-catching tool. There is also an achievement associated with completing the HOSs in the 2 Spring Rooms, culminating in the Egg Hunter avatar.  Be aware that the crafting items for the seasonal pets will only drop in one particular Seasonal Room.  For instance, the Thermal and Black and White Eggs only drop from the 3rd Winter Room.

            The catch is, just like regular gifting, you can only do the HOSs and/or leave Gifts in your room and in your friends' rooms once a day. The requirements for the achievements are usually pretty high, making it difficult for those with few friends to achieve them during one event. Hence, the Seasonal Event friends! This topic warrants its own post, so see below for that.

Seasonal Event Friends

            You may see posts going around the forum asking for "special event friends" or "seasonal event friends". Since the seasonal Private Room achievements have such high requirements, many people opt to take on new friends for the season so that they can have access to more rooms and get the achievement done more quickly. Check around the forum for the latest threads.

            The community has established some general etiquette guidelines to make this rather unwieldy process easier for everyone.

• Please check to see if a new room is available as soon as possible when each event begins.  If so, please open it immediately, or as soon as possible, even if you don't plan to participate in the event.  Some people use this as a guideline for friend deletion, as they may assume you have stopped playing the game if you don't open the room within a day or two of the event starting.  People can only see the room which you currently display.
• Seasonal friends are ONLY for the purpose of having access to each other's rooms. Gifting is not required, expected, or even encouraged in most circumstances, and many seasonal friends will decline themselves AFTER the event is over.
• That being said, some people do establish "regular" gifting relationships that last even after the event. To initiate this, state your intention in your post with your ID number, contact the person via PM, or send them a token gift from their regular wishlist. If the gift is reciprocated, gifting can occur as normal, although you may still wish to contact the person to see if they are accepting new friends.
• Once you have accepted seasonal friends, please do not switch back to the regular room or a room for a different season until the entire event is over!  People can only access the room that you currently display. Some people play more slowly than others, or may have fewer friends, or may be collecting extra coins or spare seasonal items to donate to friends. It is considered rude in the extreme to remove their opportunity to complete their achievements.
• That being said, some people have reported that, even though they have switched to a seasonal room, some friends cannot see their room.  This is a known but unpredictable glitch.  Various solutions have been mentioned around the forum,; the most successful seems to be to change one item in your private room, and then log out of the game.  Next time you log in, your room should be visible.
• One warning about seasonal friends. Some people experience lag or problematic gameplay if they take on too many friends. Add friends slowly and monitor your game's performance closely. Don't be ashamed or stress too much if you can't take on as many friends as other people! You can only do what you can do!
• Now that there are multiple rooms for each season, some debate has emerged about which room to display and for how long.  The rooms with multiple HOSs obviously offer an opportunity for more coins, but as mentioned above, some item drops are specific to the single HOSs.  For instance, the Spiky Egg and Stony Egg from the 2019 Fall Event only drop from the Autumn Harvest HOS.  You will have to come to your own conclusion about balancing your needs for various items and to max out the HOSs, versus your friends' desires for items and/or coins.  Ultimately, it's your game; play in the way that suits your needs best!

             Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Consortium!

What's the Consortium?

             The Consortium is a group of MC players who stockpile seasonal items and distribute them to players who do not have an opportunity to finish the Seasonal Events when they occur. While the Seasonal Events will appear the next year, some people may wish to work on the achievements or craft the seasonal pets throughout the year. The Consortium exists to help this effort, especially now that there are three years worth of older achievements and pets!

              If you do take advantage of the Consortium, consider paying it back by becoming a member, or donating extra items to a member so that they can share your generosity with others. It's the holiday spirit!

              To ask the Consortium for help, or to become a member, go to the folder labeled "The Consortium", and find the thread labeled "Consortium~Seek Help/Donate".  I will also link it here:

 http://forums.delphiforums.com/midnightcastle/messages/3132/113 

              Have fun and enjoy the seasonal events! Happy All-the-Holidays!

                                                                                                                                                    Astra

Thanks SOOO much for the info on Seasonal rooms! 

I have been going crazy  trying to figure out how to do both room 1 & 2 for my various friends  their name says room 2 open  and I open MY room 2 figuring I can get to their room 2  Wrong..   So am I missing something what is the point of 2 rooms if you can only visit 1 of them.  IF I open my room 1 and do all my friends why cant I then go open MY room do them again?  Im perplexed.    IT also took  me ohh 2 weeks to figure out the extra HOS's in the spring rooms  BOY am I a slow learner or I need  more friends to ask questions of!! 

Thanks again
 

JackieLan623,

Yes, the dual rooms are a little confusing.  Which room you have open has nothing to do with what your friends have open.  I think the devs wanted to give us more to do during the Seasonal Events, but it does basically mean that one room gets neglected, or we switch back and forth like we have been doing.  Keep asking questions!  Everyone here is happy to help!

Astra

The coding is set up that you can visit your friends' room 1 time during the GMT day ..... HOWEVER, if you have YOUR Spring Terrace up, you can then change to your Spring Room 2 and do all 3 HOSs inside that room as well (each one time during the 24-hour GMT period).

Also, if you visit friend "Sally" and she has her Spring Room 2 open when you select her from the list, you can do all of her Spring 2 HOSs ...... AND if you later enter your private room, select "Sally" and see she has Spring Room 1 open, you can enter her Spring Terrace (even though you have already visited her private room 1x.

At the beginning of the Event, I presented my Spring Room 1 for a few hours each day at the same time ...... however, about a week ago, I "closed" my Rm1 and have only my Spr 2 room available. Each of those HOSs yield 250 coins upon completion (when maxed out), so I figure I am helping friends more by leaving it open. ..... Plus, not one of my friends had any of the pet components from the Terrace listed in their wish list .... that leads me to believe they no longer need the room.

Something I should add is that they changed the spring hunt achievement. Now all spring related HOSs contribute to the achievement...not just the Spring terrace

Werecatqueen,

Thanks for catching that!  I had changed some of the material to accommodate the Spring Room 2 changes, but I missed that part.

Astra