Hi all,
The shadows lengthen and the warmth leeches from the days. The glare of summer fades and trees shake the leaves from their branches to swirl on the wind in a Danse Macabre.
It is growing colder. It is growing darker. It is our favorite time of year.

Before I get too excited and go running off into the details of our Halloween event for this year, I’d like to talk about a couple of other things.

Due to popular demand, we will be having a Golden Weekend from the 9^th of October! Remember what these weekends are all about – Gaia’s gargantuan golden guardian giving good guys gigantic grief! And who can stop it but shadowy secret societies striking swiftly, slinging spells and shells!

Alliteration aside, join us for the Golden Weekend – we’ll be offering double AP and a brand new golden outfit!

Work on Issue #10 continues and is primarily focused on story missions and the new areas of Tokyo, but there has also been quite a bit of speculation about whether there would be a new area of “nightmare” monsters in Tokyo. The answer is yes, we are planning for a portion of the docks area of Tokyo to contain creatures that are above and beyond the regular challenge you would expect from a solo area in The Secret World. These nightmare creatures will be balanced for solo play, but they will require advanced knowledge of the regular game systems and the AEGIS system to be defeated. Not for the faint of heart – but definitely for those of you who love a challenge!

Due to the complexity of the mission where the player obtains the next Auxilliary Weapon, we have decided to remove it from the Issue #10 patch to ensure that we can maintain our update schedule. This means that the Auxilliary Weapon will most likely come in the update that comes after Issue #10. The AEGIS system update will still remain a part of Issue #10, as planned.

One other feature that will be of great interest in Issue #10 is our new UI editing mode. This allows you to unlock the UI by clicking the padlock at the top right of the screen and then you can drag any UI element (the exception being the mini map) around the screen and lock it in place where you will. Players have been requesting this feature for a long time, and as always, we are happy to improve the quality of your experience in The Secret World.

Halloween

As with last year, we will be bringing back both The Cat God event and Spooky Stories of Solomon Island. And this year we will be adding a brand new mission chain.

(Minor spoilers, so stop reading if you want the experience to be completely fresh!)

It begins when players are contacted by Dave Screed, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire. For many years, Dave has been corresponding with a series of friends who listen to and track Number Stations around the world. But something has changed and the signals have shifted.

Now, the dead stand in silent rows listening to radio from an age gone by. Who or what is responsible for the broadcast?

The Broadcast, The Cat God and Spooky Stories of Solomon Island will all be tied together with a new loot setup for Halloween – a new Halloween grab bag where every item that drops can be traded with other players. The event will begin on the 20^th of October.

We hope that this Halloween, everyone will join us for the unique blend of conspiracy, horror and atmosphere that only The Secret World can offer.

See you in the game,

Joel