Star Citizen's Day of the Vara 2956 is live: skeleton invasion in Arena Commander, a Vanduul mask, Creature Feature paints and a pumpkin contest

The Vara crowds are here. As promised in Monday’s This Week in Star Citizen, Day of the Vara 2956 went live today. RSI’s Comm-Link post is titled “Don’t Wake the Dead” and promises to “honor the lost with reverence, revelry, and the comfort of company. There’s safety in numbers… supposedly.” The official Star Citizen account on X boiled it down to three things: monstrous ship paints, a skeletal invasion in Arena Commander and a pumpkin decorating contest.

Skeletons in Arena Commander. The free part of the event is a skeleton-themed mode in Arena Commander, Star Citizen’s built-in combat simulator. Players report that if you survive two rounds against the skeletal horde, you unlock the Snarling Vanduul Mask, a returning Halloween helmet (CMDR Quattro on X). Last year’s version of this was the FPS Kill Collector mode, which handed out older Halloween masks to the top scorers (Massively Overpowered), so this year’s “just survive” requirement sounds friendlier.

Creature Feature 3 paints. The “monstrous” paints are a new set inspired by classic horror monsters. According to CMDR Quattro’s breakdown of the store listings, the three-paint bundle is $21.60 with a 20% discount, or you can buy them one at a time:

• Kruger L-21 Wolf, Lycan: $7
• Drake Vulture, Abomination: $9
• Aegis Eclipse, Desmodus: $11

Paints are optional cosmetics, and nothing in the event requires buying them. Community posts also note that Halloween event ships are back in the pledge store for the season.

Pumpkin contest. The yearly pumpkin decorating contest is back too: carve, paint or decorate a real pumpkin with a Star Citizen theme and enter it on Spectrum. RSI hasn’t changed the basic idea from past years, but check the Comm-Link for this year’s deadline and prize list before you start carving.

PPR take: The Vanduul mask for surviving two rounds is the easy win here, and it costs nothing, so it’s worth a quick Arena Commander session tonight. The Eclipse Desmodus is the paint people are talking about, but if you’re on a budget, the Discovery Month missions and the free Phoenix Insignia Twitch Drop (ends October 27) are still running alongside the event.