Instead of selling its new Halloween skins, Fellowship's devs are giving them away for free after its 'rocky' launch

Fellowship, the co-op game where you get to endlessly run MMO-style dungeons, didn't have the smoothest launch a few weeks ago. As things tend to go for online games these days, the servers buckled under the weight of people trying to log in and queue up.

Things have settled now and the game is holding steady at around 25,000 concurrent players on Steam—which isn't half bad for an early access game still getting its footing. But developer Chief Rebel decided to make up for the shaky launch by giving away nine Halloween skins for free instead of selling them.

"We know that those first few days were really rocky," community director Hamish Bode said in an update video about the new Halloween event. "We just want to have some fun, so let's do this thing."

From today until November 13, finishing 10 dungeons on each hero will grant you their Halloween-themed skin. Tank players can turn the martial artist Meiko into a jiangshi; damage hero players can give Mara a witch outfit; and healers can drape a bed sheet over the dwarf character Vigour and turn him into a ghost. There are also two broomstick mounts available for a small bit of gold you can earn after a few dungeons.

Much like World of Warcraft's Halloween event, Fellowship's hub area has been spooky-fied with pumpkins, cauldrons, and ghosts. I've always loved when games change things up for holidays, especially in areas you get to hang out with other players in. I'm impressed that there's a Halloween event at all. According to Bode, this whole thing was put together over the last few weeks.

Alongside the Halloween event is a big balance patch that aims to bring up the underperforming characters. Elarion, the archer, will receive the biggest buffs to his damage output: Bode says he was one of the most played characters so far and that "ironically, [melee brawler] Tariq is the most overpowered and the least played, but go figure."

The update will also include a way to track your buffs and see timers for when your abilities come off cooldown. Bode says they're work-in-progress features that will have more customization in the future. All the details about how they'll work for now are in the patch notes.

Fellowship's The Haunting of the Stronghold event goes live later today and will run until November 13.