Halloween Plugin

Halloween Plugin
An advanced seasonal plugin that transforms your Minecraft server into a cinematic Halloween experience

Developed by Softici s.r.o.

Overview
The Halloween Plugin adds a complete suite of atmospheric events, encounters, and visual effects to bring authentic Halloween immersion to your server.
It includes random scare events, boss fights, a dramatic grave system, ambient sounds, and custom pumpkin buffs — all fully configurable and optimized for performance.

This plugin is designed for both small community servers and large networks seeking an event‑ready, stable Halloween system with minimal setup.

Works on Minecraft 1.21.3+ and the new year-based versions 26.1 / 26.2 (Spigot, Paper, Purpur); 26.3 is expected to work (tested on Paper 26.3 alpha), not yet guaranteed.

Halloween Boss Showcase

Grave Event Showcase

Pumpkin Trader Showcase

Documentation & Links

• Documentation site – installation, FAQ, commands, permissions, full config.yml & messages.yml reference
• FAQ · How to build the graves & summon the bosses · Changelog
• Also on Modrinth and Hangar
• Source code: GitLab (primary) · GitHub mirror · Bug reports & ideas

Core Systems

• Scare Events – Randomly trigger harmless but atmospheric effects such as lightning, darkness, fire flashes, Slenderman encounters, and Herobrine appearances.
• Boss Battles – Summonable Pumpkin Zombie and Skeleton bosses with multiple combat phases, minion spawns, and configurable rewards.
• Grave System – Build player graves to summon undead armies through an animated ritual sequence, complete with wave progression, a wave bar and a glowing treasure chest.
• Pumpkin Buffs – Wearing a carved pumpkin grants temporary configurable potion effects with optional glowing visuals.
• Sound System – Play from sixteen curated horror sounds directly via commands for custom events or ambience.
• Bat Transformation Event – Bats can transform into witches with enhanced health, potion drops, and pumpkin rewards.
• Player Management – Each player can enable or disable personal Halloween participation, ensuring event flexibility across servers.

Key Features

• Modular event control: enable or disable any system individually.
• Safe upgrades: config and messages are smart-merged – your values, comments and custom messages are kept (v3.0.5+).
• World blacklist: keep events out of the Nether / End or any world you choose.
• Smart XP scaling for fair progression rewards.
• Optimized entity management and cleanup utilities.
• Cinematic animations for graves and boss spawns.
• 100% translatable: every text (events, help, admin feedback) is in messages.yml with &/hex colours and case-insensitive placeholders.
• Vanish & spectator aware: hidden staff get no events and are never named in broadcasts.
• Season scheduler, witching hour, /halloween trigger, Discord webhook (v3.4.0).
• Statistics & leaderboards with PlaceholderAPI, boss bars & titles, WorldGuard region flag (v3.4.0).
• Flexible rewards (items, commands, Vault money, candy) and a candy economy with a configurable Pumpkin Trader (v3.4.0).
• No external dependencies required.

Configuration Example

config_version: "3.4.0"

command_prefix: "halloween"

broadcast_events: false

worlds_blacklist:
  - nether
  - world_nether
  - the_end
  - world_the_end

player_filters:
  respect_vanish: true
  skip_spectators: true

login_pumpkin:
  enabled: true
  cooldown_minutes: 30

login_messages:
  enabled: true
  sound: true

helmet_rewards:
  enabled: true
  first_reward_minutes: 5
  increment_minutes: 5
  max_minutes: 30

pumpkin_zombie_boss:
  enabled: true
  cooldown_minutes: 10
  health: 100.0
  damage_boost: 2.0
  speed_boost: 0.3
  xp_reward: 10
  rewards:
    - material: CARVED_PUMPKIN
      min: 15
      max: 20
    - material: CAKE
      min: 3
      max: 5
    - material: PHANTOM_MEMBRANE
      min: 1
      max: 5
    - material: ZOMBIE_HEAD
      min: 1
      max: 1
      chance: 0.3
    - material: GLOWSTONE_DUST
      min: 10
      max: 32

pumpkin_skeleton_boss:
  enabled: true
  cooldown_minutes: 10
  health: 100.0
  damage_boost: 3.0
  speed_boost: 0.3
  xp_reward: 15
  bat_spawn_interval: 10
  phantom_spawn_interval: 60
  minion_range: 20
  rewards:
    - material: CARVED_PUMPKIN
      min: 15
      max: 30
    - material: PHANTOM_MEMBRANE
      min: 2
      max: 4
    - material: ANCIENT_DEBRIS
      min: 1
      max: 2
    - material: POTION
      min: 1
      max: 1

random_pumpkin_mobs:
  enabled: true
  chance: 0.10
  pumpkin_drops:
    min: 1
    max: 3

pumpkin_villager:
  enabled: true
  trades:                       # item: any material, or CANDY = Halloween Candy
    - cost:   { item: EMERALD, amount: 1 }
      result: { item: CARVED_PUMPKIN, amount: 64 }
      max_uses: 999999
    - cost:   { item: CANDY, amount: 10 }
      result: { item: GOLDEN_APPLE, amount: 1 }
      max_uses: 5

candy:
  enabled: true
  material: COOKIE
  name: "&6&lHalloween Candy"
  edible: false
  drops:
    grave_mob:          { chance: 0.25, min: 1, max: 1 }
    boss_defeat:        { chance: 1.0,  min: 5, max: 10 }

bat_transformation:
  enabled: true
  chance: 0.33
  health_multiplier: 1.5
  message: "§5§l✦ §dThe bat transforms into a witch! §5§l✦"
  xp_reward: 5
  rewards:
    pumpkins_min: 3
    pumpkins_max: 8
    potion_drop: true

events:
  pumpkin:
    enabled: true
    min: 5
    max: 20
    enable_pumpkin_surprise: true
    pumpkin_surprise_count: 3

  slenderman:
    enabled: true
    min: 15
    max: 40

  fire:
    enabled: true
    min: 30
    max: 60
    damage_enabled: false

  lightning:
    enabled: true
    min: 20
    max: 35
    damage_enabled: false

  darkness:
    enabled: true
    min: 10
    max: 50
    duration_seconds: 2

  herobrine:
    enabled: true
    min: 40
    max: 80
    render_distance: 3

pumpkin_buffs:
  enabled: true
  glowing: true
  duration: 15

  effects:
    - type: HASTE
      level: 2
      enabled: false
    - type: SPEED
      level: 2
      enabled: true
    - type: STRENGTH
      level: 2
      enabled: false
    - type: REGENERATION
      level: 2
      enabled: true
    - type: RESISTANCE
      level: 2
      enabled: false
    - type: JUMP_BOOST
      level: 2
      enabled: false

grave:
  enabled: true
  cooldown_minutes: 15
  wave_timeouts:
    wave1: 90
    wave2: 120
    wave3: 180
  spawns:
    wave1:
      skeleton: 3
      zombie: 2
      skeleton_horse: 2
      zombie_horse: 3
    wave2:
      skeleton: 5
      zombie: 7
      skeleton_horse: 3
      zombie_horse: 4
    wave3:
      skeleton: 10
      zombie: 8
      blaze: 3
      skeleton_horse: 6
  health_boost: 1.3
  damage_boost: 1.5
  speed_boost: 0.2
  chest_glow: { enabled: true, minutes: 15 }
  pumpkin_drop_chance: 0.10
  pumpkin_drops_per_mob: 1
  xp_per_mob: 5
  rewards:                      # also: - command: "give %player% ..." / - money: 100 / - candy: 5
    - material: CARVED_PUMPKIN
      min: 10
      max: 32
    - material: CAKE
      min: 2
      max: 5
    - material: SKELETON_SKULL
      min: 0
      max: 1
      chance: 0.5
    - material: ZOMBIE_HEAD
      min: 0
      max: 1
      chance: 0.5
    - material: DIAMOND
      min: 5
      max: 10
    - material: ANCIENT_DEBRIS
      min: 1
      max: 3
    - material: PHANTOM_MEMBRANE
      min: 1
      max: 1

season:
  enabled: false
  start: "10-01"
  end: "11-05"
  countdown_days: 7

witching_hour:
  enabled: false
  mode: real                    # real (server clock) or minecraft (world time)
  start: "20:00"
  end: "22:00"
  interval_multiplier: 0.5

discord:
  enabled: false
  webhook_url: ""

statistics:
  enabled: true
  player_visible: [scares, pumpkins_received, halloween_mob_kills, bosses_defeated, graves_completed, cakes, candy_earned]
  top_public: true
  season_end_top: 3

visuals:
  boss_bar: { enabled: true, radius: 40 }
  titles:   { enabled: true, boss_spawn: true, wave_start: true, grave_complete: true }

worldguard:
  enabled: true                 # region flag halloween-events (when WorldGuard is installed)

update_checker:
  enabled: true
  message: "§6[Halloween] §eNew update available!\n§7Current: §c%current_version% §7→ Latest: §a%new_version%\n§eDownload: %link%"

Commands

• /halloween on – Enable all events globally.
• /halloween off – Disable all events and remove active entities (bosses, grave waves, witches).
• /halloween reload – Reload configuration, messages and player data.
• /halloween set <event> <min> <max> – Adjust event timing or disable an event.
• /halloween sound <player|@a> <sound> – Play horror sounds to selected players.
• /halloween cleanup [all] – Remove spawned bosses, mobs, and optional traders.
• /halloween enable|disable – Turn Halloween on/off for yourself.
• /halloween buffs list|toggle|add|remove|level – Manage the pumpkin helmet buffs.
• /halloween stats [player], /halloween top <stat> – Statistics and leaderboards.
• /halloween trigger <event> [player|@a] – Fire any event or boss now.
• /halloween candy give <player> <amount> – Hand out Halloween Candy.
• /halloween debug eligible [player] – Why does a player (not) get events?
• /halloween reset <pumpkin|helmet|cooldowns|all> [player] – Reset one-time rewards or boss/grave cooldowns.
• /hlw – Short alias; the command name itself can be changed via command_prefix.

Read more in the documentation tab.

Permissions

Installation

1. Place the plugin JAR into the server’s plugins/ directory.
2. Restart the server to generate configuration files in plugins/Halloween_Softici/.
3. Edit config.yml and messages.yml to your preference.
4. Run /halloween reload or restart to apply changes.

Upgrading
From v3.0.5 or newer (drop-in):

• Stop the server, replace the JAR, start.
• config.yml is smart-merged: your values and comments are kept, only new sections/keys are added.
• messages.yml keeps every category you customized; new categories are appended. A YAML typo in the file no longer wipes it – the plugin logs the line/column, leaves the file untouched and uses default messages until you fix it and run /halloween reload.
• data.yml (player opt-outs, global on/off) is never touched.

From v3.0.0 – v3.0.4: config is replaced with fresh defaults, the old file is kept as config.old_<timestamp>.yml – copy your values back manually. messages.yml and data.yml are preserved.

From v1.x / v2.x (folder plugins/Halloween/):

• Backup plugins/Halloween/, replace the JAR, start the server.
• A fresh config is generated in plugins/Halloween_Softici/. The old structure (intervals:, old boss section names) is not converted – re-apply your custom values by hand.
• Optional: copy data.yml to Halloween_Softici/ to keep player preferences.
• Delete the old plugins/Halloween/ folder once everything works (it only triggers a startup notice).

Technical Information

• Current version: 3.4.0 (config version 3.4.0)
• Optional integrations: Vault (money rewards), PlaceholderAPI (placeholders), WorldGuard (halloween-events flag)
• Spigot / Paper / Purpur: 1.21.3 or newer, including Minecraft 26.1 / 26.2. 26.3: builds and runs on Paper 26.3 alpha in our tests - expected to work, but Paper 26.3 is still alpha, so no promises until it goes stable.
• Java: 21 or newer (Paper 26.x itself requires Java 25)
• Servers on 1.21.1 / 1.21.2: use v3.1.1
• Smart config/messages merge on upgrade (v3.0.5+), timestamped backup when a full replace is needed
• Unique plugin folder (Halloween_Softici) prevents conflicts with other Halloween add-ons
• No external dependencies, optimized for low performance overhead
• Source code & downloads: gitlab.com/softici/halloween (Releases)

Version Summary

• v3.4.0 – season scheduler, /halloween trigger, witching hour, Discord webhook, statistics + PlaceholderAPI, boss bars & titles, WorldGuard flag, command/money/candy rewards, Halloween Candy & configurable trader.
• v3.3.0 – &/hex colours, case-insensitive placeholders, everything translatable, vanish/spectator filters, join-message toggle, 1-based buff levels (auto-converted).
• v3.2.x – Minecraft 26.x / Paper 26.2 support, grave event fix after /halloween off, messages.yml typo protection.
• v3.1.x – Smart config merge, world blacklist, all messages customizable, configurable pumpkin surprise.
• v3.0.5 – v3.0.9 – Boss/grave cooldowns, rapid-click fix, bosses keep player gear safe, grave and boss messages in messages.yml.
• v3.0.0 – Major update with new structure, bug fixes, and bat transformation system.
• v1.7.x – Grave wave system, dynamic rewards, and enhanced animations.
• v1.6.x – Horror sound system and command customization.
• v1.5.x – Boss battles, trading system, and improved XP handling.
• Earlier versions – Core scare events and pumpkin curse mechanics.

Made by Softici s.r.o. – A complete Halloween event framework for Minecraft servers.