Hallows End Achievement Guide

Garry's Mod Hallows End Event Achievements

Hallows End Achievement Guide

Hallows End in Garry's Mod is a limited-time Halloween event that adds special achievements across various DarkRP and sandbox servers. I spent way too many nights last October running through NPC-spamming maps trying to unlock them all before the server reset. Here's what I actually learned. The event typically runs from October 28th through November 1st. Achievements vary by server, but there's a core set that appears consistently on most properly configured Hallows End setups. The main ones involve killing holiday-themed NPCs, surviving specific events, and completing dark ambient challenges.

How to actually complete them

Most Hallows End achievements on DarkRP servers fall into a few categories. The kill-based ones require eliminating a set number of event-specific NPCs — these are usually the spooky variants of base NPCs with changed textures and slightly different health pools. Pumpkin zombies, ghost combines, that sort of thing. You need the right weapons. Light weapons like the crowbar will take forever because the event mobs often have 150 to 200 health compared to normal NPC baselines. I ran into a specific issue on a server that used custom Hallows End scripting where the ghost NPCs wouldn't register kills unless you hit them with light-based weapons specifically. Standard bullets did damage but the achievement counter didn't increment. Workaround was finding the flare gun in the spawn menu and using that for everything. Took me three reconnections and checking the server's GitHub repo before I figured out the event hook was specifically checking weapon class "weapon_flare" for ghost kill registration. The survival achievements are simpler — they require lasting through a full wave event without dying. Waves trigger automatically on most servers during the event window. These typically start every ten to fifteen minutes. The trick is understanding that most servers spawn waves near player clusters, so spreading out actually helps more than grouping up. I lost count of the deaths I had by camping with five other people trying to "stick together."

Server-dependent variables you need to know

Not every server implements Hallows End the same way. This is the part nobody writes about. Some servers use the official DarkRP Hallows End framework, which has consistent achievement triggers. Others roll their own addon with modified requirements. A few just copy-paste the achievements without proper testing and half of them are soft-locked because of broken NPC pathing or flags that prevent the wave spawning entirely. You can usually tell what system a server uses by typing convar checks. On most official implementations, the key convars are "gmod_hallowsend_enabled", "hallows_end_waves", and "achievement_hallows_kill_count". If those don't exist on the server, you're dealing with a custom implementation and the achievement list changes significantly. I once spent two hours on a server that had completely removed the ghost NPC type from its build. There was no way to complete the ghost-related achievements. Had to find an admin who confirmed the addon was loaded but the wave spawn config was set to zero.

Edge cases and common failures

Achievement tracking during Hallows End has several failure modes worth knowing about. First, if you change classes during DarkRP mode while a wave is active, some servers reset your progress counters. This is because the event checks your class at wave start and only credits you if you're still in that class when kills are registered. Stay in your initial setup or you'll waste a wave. Second, the zombie achievement — killing twenty pumpkin zombies — will not count if the zombies are killed by environmental damage. Explosions from RPGs, falling, pushback from stuns. The event hook specifically checks for direct player weapon damage. I learned this the hard way when I blew up eight zombies with a rocket launcher and watched my count stay at zero. Third, time limits. The event only runs for a few days each year. If your server doesn't extend the window, you can miss the entire thing. Some servers disable it by default to save resources, so check the server rules or admin announcement before investing time. There's also the matter of save persistence — most servers wipe Hallows End progress on map changes. Set your strategy before traveling, don't assume you can pause and resume.

Efficiency tactics that actually work

If you're grinding multiple kill-based achievements, the fastest approach is weapon specialization. Pick one high-damage, fast-fire weapon and stick with it. The UMP or the pistol work well early because they're available from spawn without needing to search buildings. Once you grab a shotgun or a rifle, switch to that for the bulk of your kills. The achievement counter tracks total kills regardless of weapon, but ammo management matters for wave survival. Map knowledge is another factor people overlook. On maps like rp_downtown_v4c_v2 or rp_doomsday, the hallows end NPCs spawn in predictable clusters. Learn those spawn points and route between them instead of running randomly. I cut my average completion time from about forty-five minutes down to roughly eighteen minutes this way. That's not a precise measurement but it's close enough for a server with a standard wave cycle. For the survival achievements, bring health packs and armor from the start of the wave. Don't wait to scavenger hunt mid-wait. Most players die on wave three or four because they're low on medkits and keep getting pushed toward danger. Having fifty health minimum and a shield when a wave starts keeps you in the fight long enough for it to end.

When Hallows End achievements just won't work

Sometimes the event is broken and there's no workaround. VAC-secured servers sometimes have addons loaded in a way that conflicts with achievement tracking. Community servers with heavy custom scripting can have race conditions where the kill is registered but the achievement hook fires before the counter increments. If you complete an apparent challenge and the achievement doesn't unlock after leaving and rejoining, the server's implementation is likely at fault. Report it to the admins rather than spamming the same attempt expecting a different result. The achievement system also doesn't carry over across different servers. Getting the "Hallows Conqueror" badge on one server doesn't transfer it to another. Each server tracks its own completion state locally. This is true even between servers run by the same network, which trips up people who assume backend syncing exists. If you're hitting dead ends consistently, the alternative is focusing on community leaderboards instead of individual achievement completion. Some servers track Hallows End stats publicly through external databases. Even if the in-game achievement won't register, your performance might show up there, and that's often more useful for community recognition anyway.