Masquerade 2026!
Things are a little different this year. Before we get to the details, just know that the Masquerade will last until July 15.
Dance Floor
💃 The dance rooms are back on the Masquerade Forums! Join a dance room where you can step onto the floor and the Auto Dancing Machine will pair you with another dancer every few minutes. Each pairing will earn you 2-5 trinkets (lounge or steelworks) with up to 80 per day across ALL dancing booths. You will always have a partner, whether it is another user or one of the gossips!
💃 You can only be in 3 dance rooms at a time.
💃 At the bottom of the page, you'll see active Masquerade achievements to help you keep track of things! There are a few new achievements for you to work towards.
💃 Don't forget, you can also use the Mystery Dance feature!
Foods and Drinks!
🍸 Why should I feed or provide drinks to NPCs? You will be rewarded for your help! Instead of new items to the Steamworks Menagerie, we've added the small pool of items to the various NPCs on the floor. If you provide 3 items to an NPC, you will get to pick your prize out of that NPC's pool.
🍸 This is an excellent year to catch up on past Steamworks Menagerie and Libertine Lounge items. There are 17 years worth of items, after all!
Olivette's Shop
🎭 Olivette is in the ballroom this year building masks instead of opening Migrating Masks. She has a higher chance to create a new mask for you but you could potentially get an old mask too! These older masks include masks that once restocked in the Holiday Shop, like the Mardi Gras Face Mask, or from other holidays like the Orange Wreathed Red Rreign Mask. Make sure you CLICK/Select each item when crafting for a mask for the 'craft' button to work.
Note: We've moved everything back to legacy this year (dance rooms were on kumos!), so there may be a bug or two. You can report any you come across here. Thanks everyone!
Note #2: This is just the first day, there will be more to come! Perhaps a robot or two may challenge you.
Posted by Amber
Saturnine
I saw one of the masks uploaded yesterday and was excited to see it; nice to know we can craft it (also interested in talking to NPCs and giving food and drink :o)
Amber
STAFF
@brokensafety Yes! I'm going to be getting everything rounded up and added back there later today. It will include: Mystery Dance, Olivette's Workshop, Ballroom, Forums, Lounge + Menagerie. Any others you think should be included?
Amber
STAFF
@Laurey @Carlita Completely understandable if you are feeling lost. On the forums, there will be various threads and you can join up to three for the 'dance room' feature. This has a live chat, has NPCs dancing with people, and other users. You can also still dance using the scode dance=USERNAME on forums or statuses. I've also included the mystery dance up in the news post if you want to dance that way. :)
Can we get some links on the front page right side? There's been a lot of links added to the front page right side that I don't use at all. During holidays, it would be helpful to have the holiday related links added back.
I am loving having a bit more to do (creating masks, getting new achievements, giving food/drinks!!) AND superglad to see a way to use all my excess trinkets! I am glad to note there ARE new items, even if they aren't in the shops!!
And the fact you threw the crafting supply shop in there to make the masks, excellent idea, gives those items a use!!
And the fact you threw the crafting supply shop in there to make the masks, excellent idea, gives those items a use!!
I like the new features but I feel a bit lost. Where are the trinkets by dancing with others? I'm dumb xD
As someone who did not participate in the dance rooms on Kumos at all last year, it seems a bit confusing. I get that there are the dance rooms on the forums, so is that the only way to join? On the Ballroom page itself, trying to click the "step on the floor" button just returns an error that it's already full. So it's not really clear what is going on.
Totally digging this new Masq! I like having other stuff to do besides dancing. Excellent work y'all, it looks great!
Amber
STAFF
@MarchOnOff There is nothing new in the shops this year. Any new items are attached to the NPCs.
@BoaConstrictor Each NPC has a few new items as well as old retired holiday shop (and other shop) items to choose from. Thanks for pointing that out though the issue of not getting back to the prizes. I gave another item to an NPC and got the list again. I'll be sure to let Keith know though!
@BoaConstrictor Each NPC has a few new items as well as old retired holiday shop (and other shop) items to choose from. Thanks for pointing that out though the issue of not getting back to the prizes. I gave another item to an NPC and got the list again. I'll be sure to let Keith know though!
So I gave 3 drinks & food to someone , was presented with a list of rewards, tried to find out, what they were, chose the Item directory (my first visit at the new one), I didn't understand, these people gave out new stuff, it sounded as if this was the way to catch up on old wares. Anyway, how do I get back to that NPC I should get my reward from? There is a "Prize available!" filed, which is not a button.
Thank you, Amber! I'll never complain about having more retired items recirculated! 😁 the event is super fun this year!
Amber
STAFF
@Danis As of right now, those are the pool of items for each NPC. I'll likely look up some more old retired items to add to them later in the holiday but there will not be any new items. If I do add more items (retired!) items, there will be a news post. Also, each of the NPCs have different items attached to them. So you'll want to feed/hydrate them all!
Just did 5-6 masks and got only old ones. Hope some new ones show up. Interesting new activities.
sorry if I'm missing the obvious but how does one create a dancing booth? (one achievement is "Dance in a Dancing Booth room you created.")
Amber
STAFF
@StarShadow It's in the news post (forgot to add it before), but yes I'll work on getting it in the ballroom top header. There are a lot of older masks, some not even from Migrating Masks, that I've put in the pool. There is a higher chance of getting a new one but isn't a guarantee as you saw. I hope you at least like the mask you got!
@Sirensong Oh, good! It could be you clicked too fast, the site was hiccuping, or something else.
@Sirensong Oh, good! It could be you clicked too fast, the site was hiccuping, or something else.
Got the create mask to work but of course only got an old one. Hope I get a new one some time. Will the mystery dance button be added to the main page?
Would love to do the auto dancing again this year but, Keith, you need to cancel the ones that I was on in Kumos last year before it will allow me to get started this year.
So confused. I got a food item, a drink, and a craft supply. All of these buttons show I have the items, but the Craft button is grayed out. What am I doing wrong?
YAYYYYY! I've been away for TEN YEARS! I'm SO RUSTY! So everyone please be kind to me out there! <3 BUT I"M SO EXCITED!
yay, thanks! i tried to remember which forum threads i was part of, but it doesn't actually matter because if i remember correctly it was on kumos so i wouldn't have been able to leave anyway.
Amber
STAFF
The Auto Dancing Machine @PiinkSparkles is part of the forums! You'll want to join a group (forum linked in news post but also here) and go wild.
oh dear, i tried to join but it's telling me "You're already on 5 dance cards. Step off one first."