"Dark Skies" event Guide 2013

Here is a guide for those wanting to do the "Dark Skies" event.  Please comment below or PM me with any errors or omissions and I'll update here.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this!

1st Task - Land guest Ghost Planes (Crystal Ball bonus needed)

Fly to the 5 new destinations:

Transylvania - Turbo Prop - 1 hour (Stars at 10, 20, 40) - need landing lamp
Machu Picchu - Jet - 3 hours (Stars at 19, 38, 75) - need fuel supply
Salem - Delta - 5 hours, 20 min (Stars at 20, 41, 81) - need oscillating beacon
Fountainebleau -Powerful  Delta - 7 hours (Stars at 23, 46, 92) - need flight catering
Windsor -Jumbo - 8 hours (Stars at 30, 60, 120) - need flight catering, oscillating beacon

Flights may drop Aerosol, Leydan lamps, or Bright Lanterns along with items from the Abnormal Activity Collection.  Completing the Abnormal Activity Collection will earn a Crystal Ball and Fuel(50).  Activate the Crystal Ball to land Ghost Planes. (Lasts for 12 minutes).  It will be located in your Warehouse under Bonuses, (the Happy Face).

Tip:  Wait until there are 2 planes waiting to land before activating.  One plane appears every minute - you should be able to land 13 planes with one Crystal Ball. (2014 edit: Visit neighbors, then return to quickly land more planes. This should up the number of landings to 25-30.
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2nd Task - Banish Black Wraiths off from your airport (Soul Net bonus is very helpful).  SoulNet lasts 6 minutes.

To Banish Black Wraiths that appear randomly around your airport you will need Aerosol.  This is dropped from flights to the above destinations or can be gifted by some of your friends.

Landing Ghost Planes will drop items for the Warlock's Collection.  Complete the Warlock's Collection to earn the Soul Net and Fuel(50).  (2014 edit: no Fuel(50) this year). Activate the Soul Net to help attract Black Wraiths.  

Banishing Black Wraiths will sometimes drop items for the Witch Costume Collection.

Tip:    Before Activating:  Be sure you have neighbors to visit.  Be sure there are 7 or more Aerosol in your inventory.  Once activated 5 Black Wraiths will appear around the airport.  Another should appear at the 4 minute mark, and another at the 2 minute mark.  After banishing the last one, head over to your neighbors.  You should find a Black Wraith around their airport, banish it, then head over to another neighbor.  I have only found 2 visiting neighbors each time.  

Neighbor Black Wraiths do not use your Aerosol and do not count toward your mission.  They do sometimes drop Aerosol or items for the Warlock's Collection.
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3rd Task - Put together the Collection of the Seal and create the Great Seal itself

Complete the Witch Costume Collection to receive a Halloween Shop.  This will show up in your Warehouse under the buildings.  Build the Halloween shop.  Collecting coins from the Halloween shop, Pumpkin Patch, or Cemetery will drop items for the Collection of the Seal.  Complete this collection for The Great Seal.

You can also visit Halloween shops of your neighbors.

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Other Items

Banishing white Ghosts only seem to be worthwhile when it is for a mission.

Layden Jars have been asked for in 3 missions:
- need 2 Layden jars for the 1st one,
- need 5 Layden jars for the 2nd one
- need 10 Layden jars for the 3rd one.  So far, no other use.
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Also, your can check this link for some additional information:
https://airportcity.forumotion.com/t171-dark-skies-challenge?highlight=dark+skies

On event completion flight destinations and increased drop rates disappear...

Tip - Suggest NOT completing MAIN pumpkin quests until near end of time so you can keep flying to the destinations available - earning experience and stars. eg Wait till the last day to collect your last couple of dark wraiths.  Unused Crystal Balls and Soul Nets will remain in your inventory so you have a headstart if this event is repeated next year.
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Reward for completing the event is a Mystery Manor, +200 coin/1day, +20 max population.

Good Luck and Happy Flying,

DF99

DF99 ... Thanks for the comprehensive event guide.  You are the best!

By completing "Abnormal Activity Collection" and "Warlock's Collection", you will also earn a unit of fuel(50)!!

littleb

Thanks littleb - I updated.

and FYI - I have 3 cemeteries and 1 Halloween shop near my broadcasting tower for anyone who wants to visit.

what are the leyden jars for?

I don't have a clue  . It says "Allows to keep Phantom plasma stable". A couple of the quests so far had me collecting phantom plasma but they aren't in my inventory.... so I don't know.

df - it looks like they recycled this challenge from last year. Here's the thread about it that may have more info for you (hat tip to Falubaz, who pointed me to it earlier this month when I noticed the Halloween-themed collections):

https://airportcity.forumotion.com/t171-dark-skies-challenge

Thanks ParkGod,

I included it above.

df99

Following the minor quests..
You need to be sent 5 layden jars from your neighbors ...
Rgrds Canterbury

Ps have A halloween shop and 10 cemeterys

Also, I have a Halloween Shop and 6 Cemeteries to the right of my Car Dealerships.

Thanks Canterbury,

I added it under Other Items above - I also remember one for 2 layden jars in the beginning.

Clicking on the ghosts seems to be useless unless it is to complete a mission. I am getting nothing to drop on mine or my friends. Anyone else having different results?

I have found that when I use a soul net 5 black wraiths instantly appear. Then at 4mins and again at 2 mins remaining on the timer another black wraith will appear. So each soul net will gain you 7 of the 60 black wraiths needed for the challenge. Hence 8 or 9 soul nets in total are needed (8 if you are lucky enough to get a few random black wraiths - so far I have had 3).

I recommend you have at least 7 aerosols in your inventory before activating a soul net. Apologies to all my neighbours that I cannot gift aerosols...

drivefast99 wrote:...
Clicking on the ghosts seems to be useless unless it is to complete a mission.  I am getting nothing to drop on mine or my friends.  Anyone else having different results?

Same here, not a thing drops - only when a mission is active.

Cheers to Big Kev, exactly what i wanted to know regarding soul nets...

Rgrds Canterbury

Big Kev wrote:I have found that when I use a soul net 5 black wraiths instantly appear. Then at 4mins and again at 2 mins remaining on the timer another black wraith will appear.

This sounds different from how Soul Nets worked last year and would be a nice improvement - people were complaining that they'd only see two Black Wraiths on their territory per Soul Net. They'd worked out some trick to collect BWs from neighbors after they got their own two, but that may also have been changed. My gift/visit timer resets in a few hours so I'll give it a shot.

Also, I think you may get one BW appear on your territory per day (possibly resetting with the gift/visit timer?). Just a hypothesis so far, but I'll keep an eye out for that too.

I'm not getting any items visiting my own halloween store (which I already built a few weeks ago).
And neither when I visit friends halloween stores, cemeteries and pumpkin patches.
Is this bad luck or does anyone has the same issue? Got a tip?
Love to collect some items for the Seal collection.

Other tasks are going great though!

SS

SannSunn wrote:I'm not getting any items visiting my own halloween store (which I already built a few weeks ago).
And neither when I visit friends halloween stores, cemeteries and pumpkin patches.
Is this bad luck or does anyone has the same issue? Got a tip?
Love to collect some items for the Seal collection.

Other tasks are going great though!

SS

The drop rate has never been good for the Halloween shop. Just keep clicking... Maybe they will make it better before the game ends.

Good Luck.

parking_god wrote:

Big Kev wrote:I have found that when I use a soul net 5 black wraiths instantly appear. Then at 4mins and again at 2 mins remaining on the timer another black wraith will appear.

This sounds different from how Soul Nets worked last year and would be a nice improvement - people were complaining that they'd only see two Black Wraiths on their territory per Soul Net.  They'd worked out some trick to collect BWs from neighbors after they got their own two, but that may also have been changed.  My gift/visit timer resets in a few hours so I'll give it a shot.

Also, I think you may get one BW appear on your territory per day (possibly resetting with the gift/visit timer?).  Just a hypothesis so far, but I'll keep an eye out for that too.

I observed similar behaviour as noted by Big Kev ... was able to get 6-7 Black Wraiths per usage of soul net.  I have also seen 1 BW appear in my game everyday so far, but I don't think it is related to the gift/visit timer.  I do click on about 10 White Ghosts per day, however -- I'm not sure if this helps speeding up the appearance of BW.

Do suggest to follow the mission before clicking on the White Ghosts randomly.

Another question ... There has been another update to the game app. Does anyone know what has changed?

df - I think I have another data point. You can banish Black Wraiths from neighbors without Aerosols, and they'll still (maybe) drop Witches Outfit items, but it won't count towards your 60.

Big Kev - I did see the same behavior: 5 BWs right away, one more with 4min remaining and one more with 2min remaining.

Thanks Everyone - I have updated the main post.

Drivefast99
Another mini pumpkin quest
The Origins of Evil
*Collect income from Bookstores until you find the Book of Superstitions
(came after collecting another lot of 8 Black Wraiths (mini pumpkin quest )

*Same with me and soul net 3 times now - 7 total each net over the 6 mins

Definitely recommend not using lanterns unless to complete mini pumpkin quests - as they are needed.

*Suggest NOT completing MAIN pumpkin quests until near end of time so you can keep flying to destinations available. eg Wait till the last day to collect your last couple of dark waiths..
On quest completion flight destinations usually disappear... (not confirmed)

SannSunn wrote:I'm not getting any items visiting my own halloween store (which I already built a few weeks ago).
And neither when I visit friends halloween stores, cemeteries and pumpkin patches.
Is this bad luck or does anyone has the same issue? Got a tip?
Love to collect some items for the Seal collection.

Other tasks are going great though!

SS

Same here - not a thing has dropped from any of mine... luckily i'd already completed the Great Seal requirement prior to quest starting......
So only need to catch the Dark Wraiths now to complete
Rgrds Canterbury

littleb wrote:Another question ... There has been another update to the game app.  Does anyone know what has changed?

When you checked out the 'i' at the flights to see which items can be dropped, only the first 5 items where visible. When you clicked on the arrow to see the rest, the list dissapeared. This problem is now fixed.

Noticed one other small change, don't know what that is anymore. Nothing big though.

SS

Canterbury wrote:Drivefast99

Definitely recommend not using lanterns unless to complete mini pumpkin quests - as they are needed.

*Suggest NOT completing MAIN pumpkin quests until near end of time so you can keep flying to destinations available. eg Wait till the last day to collect your last couple of dark waiths..
On quest completion flight destinations usually disappear... (not confirmed)

Thanks for the great tips! (just used all my lanterns;) )

a few mini quests on from the book store quest you need to collect another 
*10 Leyden Jars from friends (or plans that drop them)

Rgrds Canterbury

Thanks Canterbury, just updated  - I'm right there with you. Need 6 more jars

Confirming all this seems spot on. Where most of you are at, waiting to get my 10 jars for the mission. 60/60 ghost planes, 31/60 wraiths, 1/1 on great seal (was done prior to challenge starting).

In have 3 Halloween Shops, 4 cemeteries and a pumpkin patch if anyone needs them for tapping to get the Great Seal.

Ok, The collecting of 10 Leyden Jars is the last of the mini quests...

Also, I'm noticing the Leyden Jars dropped from flights count towards the "get x from Leyden Jars from friends" missions, kind of nice since I don't have to waste gifts on them then.

I get two black wraiths counted for each one banished. Anyone else see this? I haven't updated and don't know if this is related. This is a great way to stock up on fuel and I'd encourage everyone to not complete the event until the last minute per Canterbury's suggestion.

Can the Crystal ball be used after this quest?

I have a lot of them, and don't need them anymore. But is it better to use them all to get some collection and earn money like that? Or can I save some without getting worthless?

SannSunn

I had some left over from last year and used them to get more fuel but I have not tried to use the soul nets.

Mini quest has no rewards, just exp and coin.

The usual applies when you finish the main quest. Routes dissappear, you keep any leftover crystal balls and soul nets. Main reward is a Mystery Manor, +200 coin/1day, +20 max population.

Thanks kcnwa!

I updated the main thread with this last piece of information

I really appreciate everyone's contributions... and we'll all be ready for the refresher next year

SannSunn wrote:Can the Crystal ball be used after this quest?

I have a lot of them, and don't need them anymore. But is it better to use them all to get some collection and earn money like that? Or can I save some without getting worthless?

SannSunn

Keep using them! (I have 20+ now)
You get 50 fuel every time you complete the Warlock's collection (soul net)
Rgrds Canterbury

A couple screen caps from completion: