The App Store's Halloween event card now opens the game straight away. Small fixes behind the scenes.

Hallowe'en comes to the zoo, from 24 October to 1 November. The sky turns: pumpkins line the path by day, the lanterns come on at sunset, and a full moon rises over the mist. Three of the animals come out in costume — a pumpkin, a bat and a ghost — and bats drift across the menu and out of every merge. New music for the season, in the menu and in the game. The jokers have new faces too, and the whole bar is bigger and easier to hit.

Leaderboards are here. Every run you finish is ranked against everyone else playing, and the end-of-run card shows the places you climbed. Hold to play. Keep your finger down and the animals keep dropping, four a second, each one landing with its own tick. Chains pay. Set off more than one merge from a single drop and the board sparkles and pays you bonus coins. New sounds throughout, a separate piece of music for the menu, and a haptic tick on every drop, merge and button.

A quiet one. • The game itself plays exactly as before. • Added anonymous usage analytics, so we can see where new players get stuck and fix it in the next update. • No accounts, no personal data, and your tracking choice is respected.

Rescue more animals, every run. • Watch an ad to keep a lost run going — as many times as you like. • The pen filling up? Watch an ad to pop the top animals and make room. • Merges are worth far more now, especially the big ones and the rare coats. • Your final score is front and centre — made for screenshots. • Fixed: the sound button now brings the music back when you turn it on again.

Your zoo just got a lot livelier! • Rescues happen the moment you earn them. Beat an animal's score in a run and it joins your zoo right away, with its coat and joker ready to use in that same run. Animals you had already earned are waiting in your zoo when you open the game. • Can't wait? Bring the next animal home early with coins or diamonds, right from the zoo map. • A daily gift of coins waits on the main menu. • Out of coins? Watch a short video to use a joker, swap the animal coming up next, or double the coins from a run. • Free Coins now grow as your zoo grows. • Lots of small fixes and polish.