World of Warcraft’s Hallow’s End event received a major update this year, with changes and additions coming to the beloved holiday across the board. From a new open-world storyline to a revamped edition of the Headless Horseman encounter, this year’s Hallow’s End holiday should look a bit different than previous versions.
For 2023’s event, the classic Hallow’s End Headless Horseman boss fight has received a huge update, with all of his abilities being reworked, his boss room getting a sizable renovation, and most importantly, a “hard mode” difficulty being added to the fight.
If you’re one of those players looking for a bit of an extra challenge this Hallow’s End, the hard mode version of the Headless Horseman encounter is going to be right up your alley. Here’s how to activate (and successfully conquer) the Headless Horseman on hard mode in WoW.
WoW Hallow’s End: Headless Horseman hard mode, explained
The new version of the Headless Horseman has four abilities: Pumpkin Breath, Vine March, Insidious Cackle, and Hot Head. When on hard mode difficulty, all of the Horseman’s abilities will be amplified, and you’ll also receive a debuff that reduces your maximum HP. Dodging abilities and dealing with extra mechanics will make the hard mode version of the encounter a bit more hectic to deal with, but you will receive one of the new Hallow’s End achievements—”Kickin’ With the Wick”—for your troubles.
To activate hard mode, enter the Headless Horseman’s boss room and immediately click on all of the Wicker Men stationed on the left side of the road. It’s hard to miss these large humanoid statues as they are some of the only pieces of set dressing in the boss room now that all of the flaming piles of corpses have been removed from the Scarlet Monastery’s graveyard. Make sure you go from Wicker Man to Wicker Man and click the dialogue option “I accept your curse” when speaking with each of them to activate hard mode.
After clicking on all four of the Wicker Men and accepting their “curses,” you’ll notice that each of the Headless Horseman’s abilities are a bit tougher to deal with. For example, Insidious Cackle spawns additional shackled enemies that must be destroyed, and Hot Head causes you to suffer from hallucinations. Every time you fail to interact with a mechanic or get hit by a stray ability, you’ll suffer another stack of the Wicker Man’s Shadow, decreasing your maximum HP by an extra 10 percent. The Wicker Man’s debuff is a stacking effect, meaning you can eventually see your max HP decrease to an incredibly low number should you continuously fail mechanics.
Thankfully, all of the abilities that are amplified by your Wicker Men curses are completely personal, meaning you won’t affect the entirety of your group when upping the difficulty. All of the extra challenges are completely on you.
The new Headless Horseman encounter is now live in WoW Dragonflight and will be available until Hallow’s End wraps up on Nov. 1.
