Twitch is offering Halloween loot boxes with temporary emotes

Twitch introduced loot boxes (aka Twitch Crates) back when it started selling games in April as bonuses for spending $5 or more on games or in-game items. They contain randomized rewards "like chat badges, emotes, or a surprise number of Bits." Yeah, websites have loot boxes, too.

Today, Twitch started offering something a little different: Halloween-themed Twitch Crates that you get every time you Cheer a streamer with 250 or more Bits. As usual, one cent per Bit used in a Cheer goes to the streamer, while Twitch keeps the leftover fraction of a cent.

The Halloween Twitch Crates are available until noon Pacific on November 3rd, and contain temporary zombie emotes that will work until the end of the year. Cheering with more than 250 Bits won't unlock more than one loot box (you have to do multiple Cheers of 250 Bits or more to get more boxes), though a 5,000 Bit cheer will permanently unlock Zombie Lord Kappa. 5,000 Bits costs $64.40 at an 8% bulk discount.

I Cheered with 250 Bits (after spending $4.20 on 300 of them, blaze it) and got zHeyGuys. It's Twitch's Selen Akay waving, except she's a zombie.

If you regularly Cheer streamers you watch, then it's a little bonus. If you don't, like I don't, then it's an emote you now have to spam relentlessly until the end of the year in the hopes that it'll feel like it was worth it. I'll get started here:

Still doesn't feel like money well spent, I'm afraid.

Tyler Wilde
Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.