The daily loop

In short: you get 20 turns a day, and up to 5 you leave unused carry into the next. Walking, hunting and searching ruins cost turns; talking, shopping, resting and drinking potions do not. At 0:00 UTC a new day begins: fresh turns, some health back, and the fallen wake at the inn nearest where they fell. Once the day's turns are spent, or you have fallen, the evening lets you choose where tomorrow takes you.

How it works

Turns

Turns are the game's clock. They exist so that every day is a small, complete adventure and nobody can grind ahead by playing for ten hours straight.

Getting badly lost is rare; see The world and the map.

The daily reset

Every day at 0:00 UTC a new day begins. You do not need to be online: the next time you play after that moment, the game catches up with you.

• Your turns go back to 20, plus any the turn bank saved (below). Missing several days still gives you one fresh day and a full turn bank, not a stockpile.
• Overnight rest: if you are alive and hurt, you recover 50% of your maximum HP wherever you are. You do not need to walk home to start the day in shape.
• The market and the settlement traders restock, every site can be used again and today's rumours replace yesterday's.
• Yesterday's temple blessing ends, and a quest trail that was waiting for the dawn can be followed (see Quests).
• A short chronicle of yesterday is written for you (see The chronicle and the story). After a break it covers every day since you last played, and a While you were away card sums up what happened to you and in the realm meanwhile.

Whenever you are out of turns or fallen, the big button becomes Evening, with a countdown to the next reset.

The turn bank

Up to 5 turns you leave unused carry into the next day. It is there for the days when life gets in the way, and for planning: stop a little early the evening before a long walk to a lair, and you wake with 5 more than the usual 20. It is not a second store of turns: anything above 5 is lost at the reset, so over a week you still get 20 a day on average.

• Falling in battle empties it. A death costs the rest of the day, so the fallen wake with 20.
• A missed day fills it. A whole day you did not play counts as saved in full, fallen or not, so you come back to 5 extra turns, however long you were away.

The dawn screen says how many of the day's turns were carried over: saved from yesterday, or, back from a break, extra after a long rest.

The dawn

The first time you open the game each day, the dawn screen greets you before anything else: the day of the season, the weather, how many turns lie ahead (and how many of them were saved from yesterday, or are extra after a long rest when you come back from a break), after a break the While you were away card (duels fought against you with the gold, including a hero you beat coming back for a rematch, who honoured your cairn, and the realm's news), on your first dawn of a season New this season, what it brings (see Seasons), yesterday's chronicle (press Listen and the narrator reads it; titled Since you were last here when it covers several days), after a day you slew a boss a letter from the dragon, sealed in ash-grey wax (see Bosses), The realm yesterday, the paper every hero reads that day, folded to its lead headline (Read the rest opens it; see The Daily Happenings), the day's omen if it has one (its emblem, a line of what the realm says and what it does; Listen reads it after the chronicle), what your rival did since you were last here, if anything worth telling (one or two lines, with how the race stands), and Today: first any nemesis of yours still prowling (where, the gold it holds, how long it stays; see Nemesis), then your quest's next step and up to three rumours you have not followed yet, led by the one you chose the evening before (Your word). Press Set out to start the day. It appears once a day on each device, from your second day on.

Running out of turns

With no turns left you cannot walk, hunt or search a ruin. You stay where you are. You can still finish an encounter you are in, drink potions, use free sites, and, in Oakhaven or a settlement, shop and rest. The day's work is done; the overnight rest will patch you up, and the evening is yours.

The evening

Once your turns are spent, or you have fallen, the big button reads Evening, with the time left until the new day. It opens wherever you are: in camp out in the wilds, by the fire at an inn, or where you fell.

• Tomorrow: tomorrow's rumours are already known, so you can choose one as your intention ("I'll seek the ruin at Kelford"). At dawn it heads the rumour list, marked Your word, in place of nothing (the list never grows), and the next chronicle says whether you kept your word. Keeping it brings nothing but the rumour itself, and missing it costs nothing. You can change or clear it until the reset. If the new day begins while the evening is open, the game moves on to the dawn, and a choice made on last night's board is not kept: choose again that evening. See Sites and rumours.
• The dice table, if you are alive at an inn or a waystation: a few games against the keeper for small stakes (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold).
• The turn bank: how many of your unused turns will carry into tomorrow (above).
• Tomorrow's omen, if tomorrow has one: its name and what it does, so you can plan for it (see Omens).

The fallen may read tomorrow's rumours and choose an intention, but they lie where they fell, so the dice are out of reach until they wake. Nothing in the evening gives experience or gear: it is there to close the day, not to stretch it.

Death

You can only die in a fight. Encounters, traps and ruins can hurt you badly, but they always leave you with at least 1 HP.

When you lose a fight:

• You drop 15% of the gold you carry. Gold in the Oakhaven bank is safe (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold).
• Your day ends: your remaining turns are gone, and none carry into tomorrow.
• You keep your level, experience, gear and potions.
• A cairn rises where you fell, for other heroes to find (see Crossings and cairns).
• If a monster you hunted killed you, it keeps the gold you dropped and becomes your nemesis, waiting where you fell for a few days: slay it and the gold is yours again (see Nemesis).

Until the next reset you can do nothing but spend the evening choosing tomorrow's intention: no moving, fighting, shopping, resting, dice or potions. The screen tells you where you will wake.

Waking after a fall

At the reset you wake with full health at the inn nearest where you fell: Oakhaven's, or the waystation of the closest settlement (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold). The distance is counted in steps, as you walk. A boss's lair is never a bed, but every lair has a settlement within a few steps, so losing to a boss far from home does not cost you days of walking back. The inn's keeper asks nothing for the night, and any encounter you were in is forgotten.

Death is meant to sting without ruining your week: one lost afternoon and a slice of your purse. The market, the blacksmith, the temple and the bank are still only in Oakhaven, so after a hard loss it may be worth the walk home to get stronger before you try again.

Inns and waystations

The inn in Oakhaven heals you to full for 10 gold per level; a settlement's waystation does the same for 1.5× the price. On a Harvest Fair every bed costs 70% of that (see Omens). A bed does not give turns back: turns only return at the daily reset. You cannot rest when you are already at full health. Beds are for the middle of a day, when you want to head out again at full strength.

Potions

A healing potion restores 40% of your maximum HP. Drinking one is free and works anywhere, as long as you are alive and hurt. You can carry up to 5. Buy them from the apothecary in Oakhaven, from settlement traders or from hermits in the wild, all of them cheaper on a Harvest Fair (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold and Sites and rumours).

Potions are what let you stay out longer: winning a fight only gives a little health back (see Combat), so a full pack of potions is a day spent hunting instead of walking home.

Tips

• A fight is settled in one go, so drink a potion before a hunt, never "during".
• If you are far from town and low on turns, stop hunting when your health is low. The overnight rest heals you where you stand; dying costs you gold.
• Bank or spend gold before a risky fight: the death penalty is a share of what you carry, so gold in the Oakhaven bank, potions and upgrades are safe from it.
• Resting and shopping are free of turns, so plan to pass through Oakhaven or a settlement rather than make a special trip.
• Spend your turns, or keep up to 5 for tomorrow: a light day before a boss makes the boss day longer. Anything above that vanishes at the reset.
• Open the evening before you close the game: choosing tomorrow's rumour tonight means the day starts with a plan.