Animal Crossing New Horizons Halloween Guide - How To Spook Your Villagers + Bonus Costume Ideas

Happy Halloween! A special event is taking place in your Animal Crossing Island on the 31st of October. It starts at 5.pm and runs until the clock strikes midnight! Read this to find out how to get the most rewards from your treats and avoid nasty tricks!

Trick Or Treat!

If you have any candy at home already it’s best to grab it as from 5pm onward your villagers may run up to trick or treat you. Candy can be purchased throughout October with one a day (though you can buy another at other islands). Thankfully you haven’t missed on your chance to get some as I’ll explain how you can get more during the Halloween event.

Villagers may run up to you or you can initiate a conversation to any villager outdoors. If you give them a piece of candy they may reward you with a new Halloween item listed below. If not you might get tricked, which seems to be a change of make-up skin colour and some face paint. The make-up can be changed at a mirror (which the first trick dealer might give you) while the face paint can be unequipped.

Jack the Pumpkin Czar

First you should find Jack, this short fellow should be roaming around near the town plaza. Giving him a piece of candy will give you a treat in turn. From then he will ask you for lollipops (but will still take candy) doing so gives you better rewards. To get lollipops go to your villagers and give them a treat and sometimes you will be given a lollipop. Give the lollipop to Jack and he may give you new rewards including Jack’s Robe and Face.

The Delicious Cycle

Don’t fret if you run out of candy. Upon finding an indoor villager they might say you need to earn your candy with a frightening costume. The make-up isn’t enough apparently. Likely you can use a costume made from some of the Halloween themed clothing sold throughout October and the Able Sister’s shop such as the Flashy Animal costume or such. I had already gotten Jack’s Robe and Face which is a foolproof way to scare candy out of a villager.

Then you can simply talk to them again (you might not even have to take the costume off) to get a trick or treat response and give them the candy back for a reward! Going in and outdoors tends to refresh the villagers so you can prompt them again. Once you’ve gotten all the rewards they’ll cycle through and you might be given pumpkins.

Halloween Specific Rewards

Animal Crossing New Horizons LadiesGamers.com — Spooky Wall and Flooring

Haunt Reaction
Scare Reaction
Lollipop
Spooky Table Setting
Spooky Wall
Spooky Flooring
Spooky Rug
Spooky Garland
Spooky Carriage
DIY Recipes for Table Setting, Garland, Carriage and Spooky Wand
Jack’s Face
Jack’s Robe

If you hadn’t gotten the previous recipes you might also get them from villagers or Jack. You may also be given pumpkins as a reward. Most of these recipes use orange pumpkins as the primary ingredient which can be grown throughout October, but to customize them you’ll need either yellow, white or green pumpkins.

Gruntilda Costumes

While I stuck with my creepy Alice theme I did design some Gruntilda themed costumes that I’ll share here. The basic Gruntilda uses the green skin make-up which you can buy with Nook Points at the ATM and apply with a mirror. While you’re there put on black hair and a triangle nose to accentuate the look. I used a plain black Mage’s Hat (though there are many styles) and Mysterious Dress with black stockings and Vinyl round-toed pumps. If you find a more slinky black dress you could ditch the hat to create a Gruntilda based on the Game Over screen.

Using the basis of this you can also make a Banjtilda costume like the Gruntilda alt for Banjo & Kazooie in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The key components of this look are the Green/Black Flashy animal costume with Flashy round-ear animal hat, flashy animal boots, a black dog nose and a Traveler’s backpack (Kazooie not included).

Read here for more costume ideas!