Timekeeping
Three rules: the clock runs only while Ken can walk, the rate belongs to the floor you are on, and the season only flips at a checkpoint. What happens at a season change (bank, lottery, spoiling, climate) is in the last section.
THE CLOCK
- Time only advances while Ken is free to move, standing still included. Messages, menus, event scripts and battles freeze it.
- Once the clock is full, extra time is thrown away. The season does not flip until the next checkpoint.
- The pager still counts down in towns, Galax and the Ark. That timer ignores the season rate. Voicemails.
Season length is the difficulty chosen at the start. Scenario D is locked to mode 2.
| Difficulty | Length | Field (rate 4) | Dungeon (rate 1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 450 | ≈ 1 min 53 s | ≈ 7 min 31 s |
| 2 | 550 | ≈ 2 min 18 s | ≈ 9 min 11 s |
| 3 | 700 | ≈ 2 min 56 s | ≈ 11 min 41 s |
| 4 | 850 | ≈ 3 min 33 s | ≈ 14 min 11 s |
Times assume 60 frames per second. One dungeon step is worth a quarter of a field step.
RATES
Every warp, including stairs, stops the clock first. The new floor then sets it, or doesn't. Same in A, B and C:
| Rate | Where |
|---|---|
| 4 | The 51 outdoor field areas (East, West, South and Underground Eden), main map only |
| 1 | Dungeons: caves, towers, ruins, Crianc Annabis, Tri-cross, Fontana… (all but the inner Gapia B2), and the battle maps. Tent floors excepted |
| 0 | Towns, buildings, gates, birdline terminals, Red Pole, the Minago Well, Galax, Annabis city and tower, every Ark module, tunnels, dungeon tents, and a few dungeon floors that forget to set it |
CHECKPOINTS
The season only flips when a script checks the clock on the way into a field area. If time is already over, it resets, the season counter goes up by 1, and the bank / lottery / spoiling / climate routine runs right there. Then the destination loads as the new season's map.
| Checkpoint | Where |
|---|---|
| Camping | Field areas only. If the season flipped, the area reloads. Camping in dungeons, tents, Rose Garden etc. never checks |
| Whistle | Field areas: the bird drops you in W East Area |
| A door into a field | Dungeon exits, Red Pole front doors, Red Pole inner-room exits to Eden, every town gate's field door, tunnel exits, the Astro Ark dock, and the field-side exits of OzPort, Hospico, Paraside, G Factory, Spurr Valley, Dogyf Heights, Ragna Rim and Annabis |
| Escape Device | Only when the stored escape point is a field area |
Not checkpoints: walking between two places that are both not field areas, entering a town or Red Pole from a field, camping outside the field areas, being sent back to the Ranger HQ infirmary, and Fontana's second door to E Eden.
PLACES WHERE TIME STOPS
| Place | Clock | Season check | Next flip when you… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galax (city, ruins, Shelter 1F–B8) | Stopped | None | Leave the Galax gate into W South Area |
| Minago Well | Stopped | None | Reach a field (Q-14's inner room to E Eden, or Minago's gate) |
| Red Pole, all 15 temples and 5 inner rooms | Stopped | Every front door, and inner-room exits to Eden | Walk out the front door. Pads into dungeons do not check |
| Annabis city | Stopped | The exit to E Eden | Walk out to E Eden |
| Annabis 1F and the tower (2F–5F, B1) | Stopped | None | Go back out through the city. The B1 ring-pod pads into dungeons do not check |
| Crianc Annabis | Runs (1) | 1F exits to E Eden, Escape Device | Exit 1F to E Eden |
| Astro Ark (dock, interiors, registry) | Stopped | None | Walk off the dock into W East Area |
| Old Ark (behind inner Gapia B2) | Stopped | None | Back through the Giraffe floor, then Gapia 1F to NW Eden |
| Gapia B2, Giraffe floor | Runs (1) | Escape Device | Exit Gapia 1F to NW Eden |
| Inner Gapia B2 | Stopped | None | Back onto the Giraffe floor |
- A long stay in Galax, the Annabis tower or the Ark costs no season time. If the clock was already full when you went in, the season turns over at the door on the way back to a field.
- Tunnels and dungeon tents are rate 0. Coming out of a tunnel into the next field area is the check.
- Some floors have wildlife with a stopped clock: Ark 2F (Crickets), the Love Nest (Maggots), OzPort Power Station, Koshikata Church B1, Rose Garden, Annabis 1F / 3F / 4F, and scenario B's zombie Minago. Camping there neither adds time nor checks the season.
WITHOUT THE CLOCK
- Scenario C's opening banana peel, after the Ranger HQ briefing, adds 3 seasons at once (bank, lottery, spoiling, climate ×3). The season clock itself is not touched.
- No inn, camp, item or event adds a fixed amount of season time.
- Spring 1999 is the last playable season. The deadline can only arrive as you step into a field area.
WHEN THE SEASON CHANGES
- If you have now filed both sexes of the 18 West species, the West stays snowbound from then on and Pandas can appear.
- Per-season event flags reset. Seasonal pickups come back.
- Bank: 3% interest on savings; winter bonus; wages from Ken's level; arena pay for ranked dogs; 5% loan interest taken from savings. Money goes into savings, not the wallet. Lottery draws in spring/autumn.
- Spoiling: bouquets and most herbs wilt; dung dries; raspberries, snowberries, blackberries and bloodberries rot. Blueberries become Bloodberries only as winter starts. Meat dishes rot with a chance that depends on the season. In winter, if Linda is with you and the bag has room, Ken receives a Sketchy Candy.
- Scenario C: the Karhagolem dig may strike water.
- Rental animals go home.
- Regional climate is rolled for the new season:
| Region | Effect | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | Wetlands flood | 50% | — | 75% | — |
| West | Snow and frozen ground | 12.5% | — | 37.5% | 87.5% |
| South | Dry land turns green | 25% | — | 50% | — |
Once the 18 West species are filed, West snow is forced on. Scenario B forces it off. South green only matters in spring and autumn: the green maps fill riverbeds and turn desert into grass, and some encounter cells change.