Battlerite Royale's Halloween event is live, mysteriously isn't called Battlefrite
Or even 'Battlenite'
The spookening draws near. That hallowed time of year where devs look at each other and go "oh we should do something for Halloween, right?" and people like me battlewrite about the consequences. Battlerite Royale has just finished pulling on its costume, chucking in a couple of creepy consumables as well as trick or treat shrines that may or may not turn you into a cat.
Update 0.2 has also landed alongside the "Curse of the Night" event, introducing private lobbies, a new champion and a sweep of balance changes.
Let's do the spooky stuff first. Those trick or treat shrines are actually jazzy pentagrams, which you can interact with "to gain an unknown effect". Each player can interact with each one once, and each one will spook up everyone that touches them in the same way. Observe.
I've encountered two of them so far, and they've both turned me into stone. I wasn't wild about that, but the second time I used it to ambush someone and felt a bit better.
One of the new consumables is a vampiric potion that gives its drinker 75% life leech for eight seconds, while the other is a scarecrow that you can plop down to 'fear' anyone in the area. That's an effect that's more rage-inducing than terrifying - it makes you lose control and run off in a straight line.
There are also the requisite cosmetics, along with quests that will give you some of them if you play around enough with the new items. I'll let you absorb the niceties on the update page.
Onto the non-spooky stuff! Those new private lobbies can fit up to 40 players and 6 observers, which is ten more players than a regular game. Good news for anyone with 39 battle buddies.
I almost missed these because they're next to two consumables that have merely been tweaked, but there are also two entirely new ones. One of them is a spring trap "that flings enemies into the air", and the other is a portable jump pad you can slap down if you want the sky to yourself. I waxed lyrical about the stationary jump pads on my royal visit a couple of weeks ago, so colour me happy.
The new character is, appropriately, "Ruh Kaan, the Crypt Warden". Not that he's that new to anyone who's played plain old Battlerite, which I've just seen is up to its own Halloween shenanigans.