Scar’s enormous candle-lit galaxy immediately turns a routine nighttime wait into a showcase of Hermitcraft’s creative excess. Grian’s astonishment feels genuine as he flies through the planets, lights, and celestial structures, while the unfortunate realization that his own observatory faces away from the spectacle supplies an excellent joke. It is a strong opening because it celebrates another player’s work without lingering so long that the episode loses its own direction.
The visit with Xisuma gives the observatory something equally distinctive on the audio side. The custom music is explicitly designed around the mood Grian associates with Majora’s Mask, and Xisuma offers enough explanation of the chord choices and relationship between the main and ambient pieces to make the collaboration more than a simple reveal. Grian’s appreciation also comes across sincerely: his excitement is not merely about receiving music, but about having another Hermit create something specifically for his build.
The central project is the new Haunted Hermits competition, which grows naturally out of Grian’s team winning Tango’s previous challenge. With Cleo helping construct the trophy area and Gem supplying the event name, the setup has the loose collaborative energy that suits the server. The giant pumpkin structure is admittedly improvised, but that rough spontaneity works here, especially once the armor-stand creation transforms it into a suitably ridiculous Halloween trophy.
More importantly, the rules are straightforward enough to encourage actual creativity. Teams must capture genuine jump scares against Hermits outside their own group, cannot stage the reaction, can submit up to three clips, and will eventually vote on their favorites without voting for themselves. That creates an amusing month-long premise while preventing the obvious shortcuts that could undermine it. The episode only establishes the competition rather than delivering any scares itself, however, so much of the concept’s entertainment value remains prospective.
A trip to the dappled forest shifts the pace into exploration and material gathering. Grian takes time to examine the biome’s foliage, fallen logs, mushrooms, grass coloration, animal variants, and poplar trees rather than treating the journey solely as a resource run. His disappointment that the orange grass appearance cannot simply be carried home feeds directly into the larger design problem: deciding which elements of the new environment can actually contribute to his own landscape.
That landscaping discussion gives the closing stretch a useful creative purpose despite leaving the construction itself for later. Testing poplar saplings, comparing their form with his expectations, harvesting the yellow foliage, and experimenting with pale blocks as possible custom birch branches all show the early stages of design rather than a finished transformation. The downside is that several substantial projects—the terrain, shared tree design, headquarters, trophy placement, and diamond prank—are repeatedly deferred, making the episode feel more like preparation for future installments than a major build-focused chapter.
Pros
- Scar’s galaxy provides an immediately memorable opening and generates naturally funny reactions.
- Xisuma’s custom observatory music adds a genuinely personal collaborative element, supported by an interesting explanation of its musical design.
- Haunted Hermits has clear rules, a strong seasonal theme, and plenty of potential for spontaneous multiplayer comedy.
- Cleo and Gem’s involvement gives the competition setup the playful collaborative character that suits Hermitcraft.
- The dappled forest visit connects exploration of new content directly to Grian’s developing plans for his base landscape.
Cons
- The newly created scare competition produces no actual scare attempts yet, leaving its biggest entertainment payoff for future episodes.
- Several ongoing projects are discussed or prepared for without receiving substantial construction progress.
- The extended resource-gathering and tree experimentation section has a gentler pace after the stronger collaborative material earlier in the episode.
A mix of spectacular server discoveries, custom music, seasonal competition design, and new-biome exploration makes this an enjoyable transitional installment even without a major finished build. Its collaborative moments are the highlight, while the abundance of setup leaves several of its most promising ideas waiting for later episodes.
