October 27, 2026
The seasonal Autumn/Halloween event is upon us! The Kling-ghouls and Boo-rg are out tonight! Okay, sorry for the bad puns. I promise this article isn’t full of them. After all, I don’t have time to think of more. I need to wrap this up and get ready for some Trek-or-Treating. Yes, that’s a pun on trick-or-treating, and yes, it was the last one. I swear.
The Fall of the Old Ones is back for another year in Castle Pyris, running from October 22 through November 12. Like past years, it features the ground TFO Cat’s Tale, alongside two single-captain patrol missions, Skeleton Crew and Witches’ Brew. The event’s spooky theme goes back to the Original Series episode “Catspaw” and its Old Ones, and this year’s rewards add a fun Voyager twist.
Each day, complete any one of the three activities (Cat’s Tale, Skeleton Crew, or Witches’ Brew) to earn that day’s Daily Progress. You can only earn one per account per day. Collect 14 days’ worth and you’ll claim the Grand Prize:
Universal Kit Module – Fear Itself: summons the Kohl Entertainer, who holds your enemies in place (roots them, in PvP) and periodically confuses them into attacking each other.
Kohl Entertainer Costume: the outfit from Voyager’s “The Thaw,” found in the Off-Duty category at the Tailor. It includes a separate clown head option for each species and a mask.
3x Featured TFO Reward Boxes and 25,000 Dilithium Ore: these go to the first character on your account that claims the Grand Prize.
There are also new emotes this year, but they aren’t part of the grand prize. You buy them from the Lobi Crystal Consortium for 10 Lobi Crystals each.
It looks like we have to rescue Old One Yenvep’s compatriot from the Skeleton Lord to keep the Transmuter out of its bony hands. Overall it’s pretty easy. Walk around the castle, fight some skeletons, defeat the Skeleton Lord, and beam out.
As usual, Castle Pyris is as creepy as it gets. The skeletons are still annoying to fight, because they’re invulnerable until they step into candlelight. That means you have to light candles to weaken them.
A few tips that helped me:
Bring an Engineer. You’re only allowed one Bridge Officer, so pick one who can fabricate drones and turrets for extra firepower. My Captain is also an Engineer, so I spam drones and turrets and let them do all the work.
Lead the skeletons to the light. Draw them toward the candles, or use any ability that holds or pulls enemies in place so they stay in the glow. It saves a lot of chasing.
To be honest, between this and Skeleton Crew, I enjoy Witches’ Brew much more. For starters, it feels more in the spirit of Halloween, and I don’t have to light candles to defeat my enemies.
The ultimate goal is to defeat the witches and save another of the Old Ones’ compatriots. What’s fun about this mission is that it slightly changes every time. The first time I played I had to brew a potion to set a spirit free. The second time I had to inspect a corpse in a dining room and search for a key, or rather defeat a bunch of spiders to take the key.
The mission ends the same way though, fight a bunch of witches and free the compatriot. Don’t forget to target the floating skeleton while fighting the witches! It took me about 5 minutes, which is noticeably faster than Skeleton Crew, and I truly believe it's because of the candles.
Cat’s Tale is a group mission, and it’s the original Halloween content that started the event back in 2021. It’s also quick. Most players are strong enough now to fly through it, so I was done in no time. It plays out in three parts:
Skeletons: essentially Skeleton Crew.
Books: very similar to Witches’ Brew.
The Devidian boss: finally, you take down the Devidian who stole the Transmuter.
If you’re looking for more halloween fun in STO, the “Spectres” missions are fun. You can find them under the “Available” tab in your mission window. Definitely play “What Lies Beneath”. This has to be one of the spookies missions in Star Trek Online.
Overall, these are some frightfully fun missions with great rewards, and it only takes a few minutes a day. You only need to complete one activity per day, but since progress is capped at one per day, you can’t binge it all at once. You need 14 separate days, and the event runs for three weeks, so there’s still time if you haven’t started yet. Just make sure you finish before noon PT on November 12. My personal pick is Witches’ Brew, because it’s quick, it’s festive, and nobody makes me play with candles.
I leave you with this chilling spell!
Shadows fall on Castle Pyris,
Where the Old Ones’ magic stirs.
Stir the cauldron, mix the malice,
Heed the cosmic feline’s purrs.
Bones of redshirts, ships of old,
Rise beneath the starlight cold!
From the void where starships flew,
I summon forth my Skeleton Crew!
Add a spark of warp core blue,
To bubble in this Witches’ Brew.
Let the brave Starfleet captains quail,
As they become the Cat’s Tale!
Happy haunting! Watch out for the Devidians!