You’re going to need to do everything possible to increase your chances at his exceedingly rare loot. Lucky for you, this year’s Hallow’s End added a way to help you beat the odds, even if only a little bit.
How to Activate Hallow’s End Hard Mode
For a shot at earning more rewards, you’ll need to make the fight a bit more challenging. To do this, talk to the Wickermen near the entrance of the fight, each of which has its own hard mode modifier. The more you activate, the better your odds at rare drops. The effects of each are as follows:
- Ember Curse: Cursed enemies emit Shadowflame around their location periodically. Each blast inflicts a stack of Wicker Man’s Shadow.
- Cursed Hot Head: Cursed enemies suffer dark hallucinations manifesting in front of their location. Moving to the hallucination dispels it. Ignoring the hallucination inflicts two stacks of Wicker Man’s Shadow to the enemy.
- Shadow Curse: Insidious Cackle shackles the souls of cursed enemies in fear. The shackled soul slowly moves towards consuming flames. Souls that reach the flames before their shackles are destroyed inflict two stacks of Wicker Man’s Shadow to the afflicted enemy.
- Thorny Surprise: Piercing thorns erupt under cursed enemies periodically. Enemies hit by the thorns suffer a stack of Wicker Man’s Shadow.
You’ll notice each of these applies stacks of Wicker Man’s Shadow. This nasty debuff reduces the target’s maximum health by 10% per stack.
Worth noting is that the curse will be removed if you hit ten stacks of the Wicker Man’s Shadow debuff. You’ll be stunned for two seconds if this happens, so keep moving and kill those adds.
If you want the best chance at rewards, you’ll be dodging flames, running towards ghosts, breaking shackles, and dodging thorns. It’s worth noting that these are personal debuffs, so if your party member activates curses, you and the others won’t be affected unless you choose to do so as well.
If you’re interested in what sort of rewards you can earn from the Headless Horseman, check out our Hallow’s End 2023 Rewards Guide!
