Desert Bus for Hope logo
Desert Bus 2025 Total Raised
$1,059,553.89
Desert Bus 2026 Begins Oct 23, 4 PM PT
141:23:18:42
Welcome to
Desert Bus 2026
Creative Challenge: The Night Watcher
November 18, 2025 at 11:29 PM PST
Posted by Juliana Cooper

For yesterday's creative challenge, we asked you to make us a pngtuber avatar. The bounty of submissions we received made us all long to shed our corporeal forms!

Honourable mentions:

JoTyler
Kye (they/he)
Sedangogh Studios
Miles/OtherEdgeworth (he/him)

And the winner is...

KiraKira

Thank you all so much for your wonderful work. We'd happily be isekaied into any of these states of existence!

Sponsor Love: Elgato!
November 18, 2025 at 08:00 PM PST
Posted by Juliana Cooper

There are many things that Desert Bus simply could not do without, and one of those things is a gargantuan mountain of tech. That's why we're especially thankful to longtime sponsor Elgato for generously providing us with the machinery we need to keep this bus on the road!

Map sits at a desk with 7 monitors and 7 stream decks, while Colin, Sarah, and Kai look on.
Desk heaped with stream decks, monitors, peripherals, and cables.

Elgato is a world-leading provider of audiovisual technology for content creators on all video sharing platforms.

Synonymous with quality and performance, Elgato products are either state-of-the-art inventions in their own right, or reimagined technologies designed to revolutionize creative workflows. Software and firmware are frequently updated to keep producers at the cutting edge of their craft. And cross-compatibility delivers a seamless user experience that keeps evolving as the Elgato ecosystem grows.

Elgato was founded in 1999. In 2018, Corsair Gaming, Inc., acquired the brand and its employees. Based in Germany and California, Elgato distributes products in over seventy-five countries around the world.

Elgato logo and text.

Thank you so much, Elgato. We're beginning to suspect that you might actually be wizards!

Tuscon or Burst
November 18, 2025 at 07:15 PM PST
Posted by Juliana Cooper

That's right, we're still firing on all ripcords here on Night Watch!

Gif: a blue and an orange Beyblade are released into a Bey stadium. Orange knocks blue out of bounds and then explodes.

The Night Watch Beyblade Rip-Off International started out hot and only gets hotter. That's friction, baby!

Here's what the brackets look like:

Tournament bracket with Night Watch Beyblade Rip-Off International logo.
Tournament bracket with Night Watch Beyblade Rip-Off International logo.

Tonight's Beybladers:

  • Logan (Wriggle Kraken)
  • Jordynne (Sterling Wolf // "Losing Dogs") AND Bonus Jordynne (Sting Unicorn)
  • Max (Keel Shark)
  • Adzy (Wand Wizard // "JunkRabbit")
  • Dan (Wolf Antler)

Good luck, have fun, and don't forget your eyepro!

Creative Challenge: The Map of Desert Bus
November 18, 2025 at 06:31 PM PST
Posted by Juliana Cooper
Matt Wiggins, dressed as a sea monster with a fish head, "kills" Liz; Carrie, Ashton, and James lie collapsed around the set.

Desert Bus for Hope may have monsters and mythos galore, but you know what we're missing? A map! For tonight's creative challenge, we're asking you for an atlas-worthy rendering of what Desert Bus might look like as a place.

Decide what that means to you, draw it in the medium of your choice, and then submit it as a .jpg (no bigger than 1920 x 1080 p, please!) to contests@desertbus.org with subject line "Desert Bus map". The winning entrant will receive the physical manifestation of hype that is the Desert Bus loot box!

The deadline for submissions is 10:30 pm PST. We look forward to finding our place in the world!

Night Watch, take the wheel!
November 18, 2025 at 06:02 PM PST
Posted by Juliana Cooper

Oozing with style, panache, and some other, secret third thing, it's Night Watch!

Ian in a red DEVO hat and Jordynne in a yellow hard hat, sitting at a table and giggling together.

Between mildly endangering our eyeballs with Beyblades and turning our aging millennial guts inside out with ice cream, we're gonna have a real great time.


Giveaways:

Silent Auction:

Kingdom Hearts Organization XIII HoodSold! Amount raised: $1,669.69


For super extra bonus fun (which you can sing to the cadence of "Alexander Hamilton"—try it now!), we'll also be holding another art challenge tonight. Stay tuned for details!

Silent Auction: Kingdom Hearts Organization XIII Hood
November 18, 2025 at 06:00 PM PST
Posted by Juliana Cooper

Show the world you're not just a nobody.

You're a Nobody, with a capital N, thank you very much.

Picture of a knitted black (with grey cable detailing) cowl with attached infinity scarf; white emblem worked into the side of the cowl.

Tonight's silent offering is brought to you by crafter and confirmed somebody Kelsey Clarey, and it could be yours if you drop in with the winning bid between 6 pm and 2 am PST.

Like last year, we'll be using the Vickrey Auction system to run all of our silent auctions; check out our information post from last year to learn how that works.

Let's keep tonight simple and clean, folks. Good luck!

Alpha Flight Landing
November 18, 2025 at 06:00 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

We did a lot on our flight today.

We exercised

Had coffee

Had a visit from a friend

Learned things

Educated ourselves

And enjoyed our beer o'clock

Silent Auction Update
November 18, 2025 at 05:00 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

We have silent auctions ending at 6:00 PM PST

First we have the Tomato Hat Variety Pack

Does your cat lack a hat? Do you need some haberdashery for your feline companion? The answer to these questions is yes. You can get this set of 6 tomato themed cat sized hats today if you win this silent auction.

Go here to learn more, (yes there is a cat photo).

Second we have the Desert Bus Shift Kitchen Towel Set

5 dish trivets and a Tea Towel, inspired by the Shift Banners 

Top: Dawn Guard, Omega, Zeta
Bottom: Alpha Flight, Night Watch
Underneath: Omega Tea Towel

This handmade set of kitchen towels is the perfect companion for your kitchen.

Sponsor Shoutout/ Giveaway: Rollacrit
November 18, 2025 at 04:20 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

We want to thank returning sponsor Rollacrit for their donation of a Heroes of Barcadia set. This includes the Heroes of Barcadia base game, the Party pack that adds two new characters, The Heroes for Hire expansion pack with FOUR new characters, and the Die of Barcane Chaos which adds fun new mechanics to the game.

Rollacrit was founded with the idea to be a hub for those of us who share a love of game days, where we’d unplug, get together and fight dragons, evil wizards, industry tycoons and the most evil being of all—social responsibilities.  

Thank you Rollacrit for helping us unplug. For ore information about Rollacrit go here.

For more information about this giveaway go here.

To enter donation $6.24 or any multiples there of before 5:45 PM PST

To donate go here.

$500,000!!!!!!!
November 18, 2025 at 03:23 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

Commence the excitement.

Thank you all for your support. Lets keep this bus going.