Time

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Time in RimWorld is split into two related systems - real time, that is the time experienced by the player, and in-game time, that is time that passes in the gameworld of the colony and experienced by the pawns themselves.

Real time

Time in RimWorld passes as a series of ticks. On normal game speed, there are 60 such ticks to a real second; there are always 2,500 ticks to one in-game hour. The play speed controls add multipliers to both of these numbers.

In-Game Time		Ticks	Real Time
1.44 Min		60	1s
1 Hour	60 Min	2,500	~42s
1 Day	24 Hours	60,000	16m 40s
1 Quadrum	15 Days	900,000	4h 10m
1 Year	4 Quadrums	3,600,000	16h 40m

Technical details for modders
	Ticks	Time
1 tick	1 tick	1/60th second
1 rare tick	250 ticks	4.16 seconds
1 long tick	2000 ticks	33.33 seconds

In-game time

The year is divided into 4 quadrums* of 15 days each. Quadrums are the same everywhere, while seasons are different in different places

Time on the rimworld proceeds largely as one would expect except for three primary differences. Years only last 60 days, years are separated into 4 15-day "quadrums" instead of months, and the year is seasonal - that is, last season ends at the same time as the year. Note that times given in-game will use this system - thus if something "spoils in 1 year", you have 60 in-game days, not 365.

Like terrestrial seasons, the temperature changes with progression of the quadrums and the temperature effects depend on the latitude. When it is "Summer" in the Northern Hemisphere, it is "Winter" in the Southern, and vice versa, while areas near the equator remain temperate year-round.

Each quadrums is given a name that is a portmanteau of the terrestrial months of the season that quadrum is equivalent to, rather than named for months in the same period of the year. Thus, Aprimay is a portmanteau of April and May, but is the start of the year and relates to Spring in the North, but Fall in the South. Mouse-hovering over the in-game date in the lower right-hand corner will list what "local seasons" each quadrum represents for the settlement currently viewed.

The names of these 4 quadrums are:

Name	Northern Season	Southern Season	Days
Aprimay	Spring	Fall	1 to 15
Jugust	Summer	Winter	16 to 30
Septober	Fall	Spring	31 to 45
Decembary	Winter	Summer	46 to 60

The game starts in the year 5500, and by default begins in Spring (Aprimay or Septober). In colder biomes, the season will adjust to Summer, to allow players to survive and grow plants, although some colder biomes there is permanent winter, and this changes nothing. Starting season may be changed in World Generation.

Time of day

Days in RimWorld last 24 hours, or 60,000 ticks (16.67 mins). The in-game clock is in 24-hour format, with the hours displayed in military time from 0h to 23h. The time of day has a few effects on gameplay:

• Time determines the level of light outdoors.
• Plants can only grow from 6:00 to 19:12.
• Night owls consider it "Day time" from 11h to 18h, and "Night time" from 23h to 6h.

Daylight length is also tied to the season and latitude - the day will be independent of the season at the equator but get longer in the Summer and shorter in the Winter the further north or south you go. Exact details of the relationship between season, latitude and day length are currently unknown.

The hour of the day is relative to the location on the World map. If it's noon (1200) at your home base, it will still be late morning (1100/11 AM) a bit to the west, and already early afternoon (1300/1 PM) a bit to the east, as "time zones" are in our world. Time of day is modeled on the planet view; local time of day corresponds to how the sunlight hits the planet.

Work

Items in game list values with names like "Work to build", "Work to uninstall", or "Work To Make" in their info boxes. One unit of work is approximately 60 ticks (1 sec). Note that the work values are rounded to display nicely as seconds, and the actual tick amounts are used by the game engine, not the displayed work.

Version history

• 0.0.254B - Abolished cycles - dates are measured in days only.
• 0.10.785 - Day length extended from 24,000 to 30,000 ticks. Days per month reduced from 12 to 10.
• 0.13.1135 - Days are now twice as long as before, with years being half as many days i.e. years are exactly as long as before in actual play time, just divided into a smaller number of longer days. The year is now split into seasons instead of months.
• 0.17.1546 - As season names could no longer be consistently applied to the entire globe, necessitating that they be named as month-like "quadrums."