Ooblets has always had an upbeat and cheery vibe, but Glumberland's newest Nullwhere update adds a whole lot of spook to the land of Oob. The free Halloween-themed update launched earlier this week and includes new crops, characters, ooblets, and a new explorable area.
Nullwhere is a new swamp region and its crooked trees, flashes of lightning, and marshy ponds definitely suit the season. You can get to the new zone using Gimble's Balloon and, upon landing, there seem to be some Nullwhere resident's quivering in fear at the area's entrance.
Could a ghost have spooked them? Or maybe a headless horseman? Turns out that they've been kicked out by a bunch of goofball kids called the Creep Cult who have taken over Nullwhere because it matches their style.
Ooblets in tow, you'll need to beat each member of the Creep Cult in an ooblet dance battle and convince them to stop bothering Nullwhere's native residents. There are only a handful of Creep Cult members, and their battles are easy enough to breeze through—apart from Spooky Steeve who won't let you pass without giving him 5 bungle buns, the cheek.
These dance-offs are the perfect opportunity to see the new Ooblets in action and the new Nullwhere types focus on affecting the opposition instead of buffing their own team. Marshling is a great example of this strategy and has dance moves that take away multiple beats from the opposition with one action, diminishing the number of cards they can play next turn.
You'll need to beat each member of the Creep Cult in an ooblet dance battle and convince them to stop bothering Nullwhere's native residents.
Other techniques include stunning ooblets so that they can't act and adding fluster to the opposing team, slowing down how fast they can gain points. These techniques aren't new, but certain Nullwhere ooblets have cards that allow them to do multiple effects with one dance move, which is pretty powerful.
The design of the Nullwhere critters matches their spooky surroundings but still remain as cute as ever. I really like Snurfler who looks like a chibi Cthulhu and the Nightmare Before Christmas ooblet Glanter is also super cute. But my favourite of the bunch has to be Gloopylonglegs, the startled jellyfish with legs for days and boots made for stomping.
Alongside the ooblets are the new Dregplant, Freep, and Hyperglob crops that take a heck of a long time to grow but are worth it for how much they sell for. The Freep crop, in particular, is great for making cash quickly because a single plant will produce four or five of its bulbous berries. Looks like that final house upgrade isn't a pipe dream after all.
One of the most important parts of the Nullwhere update is that it shares the same humour and charm as the other parts of Oob. One of the creep cultists, Howling Howurb, has the classic bedsheet ghost costume with two holes for eyes, and another character called Grand Arch Proto-Creepster Pezboot has turned Nullwhere's Ooblet Tower into a "Sacred Creep Temple and personal hangout zone."
There's also a potion seller called Witchy Wilma, an old lady who has nothing to do with the Creep Cult but her profession just so happens to fall into their aesthetic. These potions can be given to your ooblets and will transform them into being comically big or small. This has no impact on dance battles or the story whatsoever, it's just something silly that you can do for no good reason and I love it.
I decided to experiment with these potions on my ooblet Legsy, and now he's a giant among my smaller squad. If you don't like the changes, you can feed your ooblet other potions to make them normal-sized again, but my giant Legsy is staying with me for life.
I've really enjoyed the Ooblets Nullwhere update, and it's convinced me to continue my creature-collection journey from where I left off. Ooblets is currently in early access and the Nulllwhere update was the studio's first big pitstop on their development roadmap. The next update listed is the December 2020 Wildlands update, with a new Port Forward region scheduled for Early 2021, and the full release planned for mid to late 2021.
