Spirit Hunt
The Spirit Hunt is an event in Bita that occurs each Halloween in which users capture unruly spirits, receiving prizes for their captures at the end of the event. Back in 2006, users were surprised and gleeful to find a new event going on in the month of October. Announced on the first of this autumn month, it was undoubtedly Bita's version of Halloween celebration. But how does it work? What will happen at the end of it? If you don't already know, just as no one did years ago, or perhaps you'd just like a bit of a refresher, read on.
At the start of the event a new page will appear on-site, the Spirit Hunt page. On this page, you will receive your very own Spirit Catcher. You can also revisit this page at any time to see how many spirits you've caught. After you get your Spirit Catcher, you will be able to capture the elusive Spirits. Each year the method of capturing them changes, so you'll never know for certain how to catch them. But to give you an idea, we'll review how they were captured in previous hunts. In 2006, spirits were caught through rather common random events. Because of the ease, all users had a fair chance and caught hundreds, sometimes thousands of spirits. Supposedly to cut down on the amount caught, the next year the catching method was changed. Instead of being random events that occurred throughout the site, spirits were only captured on user profiles, and only once per profile. For example, if Lumos looked at chizu's profile and captured a spirit there, when Sweety went to look at chizu's profile afterwords, she wouldn't capture one because Lumos already had. With this system, it was easier for one user to figure it out and snatch up all the spirits for themselves, leaving others still confused as how to even get them, which led some users to believe it was "rigged". The third year of the Spirit Hunt brought surprise and excitement to the Starbits community. The community was all pumped up for the Spirit Hunt this year due to random events involving taunting spirits with quotes such as "Bo0oOOoo00ooo" and "You'll never catch me!" When the Spirit Hunt finally began late Saturday night, users found that the spirits now float across the page, appearing and disappearing to create confusion, and you must click them in order to capture them. This year appears to be more closely related to the first hunt, as spirits seem to be able to appear on any page, not just once on certain pages. A favored technique for capturing spirits is pressing crtl+a (select all) on each page visited which highlights everything, including the image of a spirit that may be hiding.
Spirits come in different colors: regular (grey), red, green, yellow, and rainbow; in order from least to most points of worth. When the Spirit Hunt ends, everyone's scores are tallied up and a high score table appears, showing how many spirits everyone caught. Also at this time, prizes will be awarded depending on how many spirits you caught during the event (See below).
2006
Spirits appeared as random events and were automatically captured upon visiting a page.
2007
Spirits appeared on user profiles only and different colors were introduced.
2008
This year the Spirit Hunt started on the 18th and was supposed to end on the 31st; the first year that it was not a month-long event. However, the Hunt was extended this year due to chizu being rather busy with things. This was exciting for some, giving them a better chance to improve their score. At the end of the hunt, spirits were added up using a point system (Grey: 1, Red: 5, Green: 10, Yellow: 15, Rainbow: 30). By estimate, it seemed the Halloween and Spirit Catcher Avvies were achieved through participation and the highest prize, the Pockethaunt, required over 750 points. This is only a guess based on observing peoples' results however.
2008
The Spirit Hunt is exactly how it was in 2008, with the exception of it starting on October 1st. However, the hunt is not yet over, so perhaps there WILL be something new this year....
Items
Spirit Catcher |
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Clingy Spirit |
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Geist |
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Pocket Haunt |
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Avatars
Halloween Avvie |
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Spirit Catcher Avvie |
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Expert Catcher Avvie |
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Excellent Catcher Avvie |
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Cling Geist Avvie |
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Note: If you have participated in previous years and meet the requirements to receive an avatar you already have, you will instead receive Halloween Minibits and/or items. Jack-o-Lantern is given for the easiest avatar; all the others yield one of the following for each: Pandibat, Spookibit, Waroo, Werepoodle.
