| Time | Seasons | Weather Station |
|---|
In Dinkum, time continues even when the inventory or the Adventurer's Journal are open. The only exception is when the game is "Paused" under "Options" (Single Player only) at which point the only available action is to un-pause.
Time in Dinkum does not flow at the same rate as it does in real life (it's not real-time), but follows the same concepts: years, seasons, weeks, days, hours, and minutes. The Buff and Effect durations are the exception which are shown in real-time with "m" for minutes and "s" for seconds. Dinkum uses a 12-hour AM/PM clock which can be changed to a 24-hour display from the "Options".
Seasons[]
A year in Dinkum consists of 4 seasons, in order: Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Each season consists of 28 days meaning a year has 112 days. With this we can see Dinkum's short form date notation is as follows: <season> <day><suffix> . For example: Summer 1st or Autumn 15th. This format can be seen in Fletch's recruiting letter.
Weeks[]
In Dinkum, there are 4 weeks per season with 7 days per week on the same weekly rotation as in real life, in order: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Yes, Dinkum's weeks start on a Sunday, as can be seen in the Calendar on the Bulletin Board.
With this we can see Dinkum's long form date notation is as follows: Year <year>, <day> <date> <season>. For example: Year 1, Tuesday 24 Autumn or Year 3, Friday 20 Spring. This format is used on the "Load Game" and "Multiplayer" menus.
Since 28 is evenly divisible by 7, a date is always on the same day every season: day 1 is a Sunday, day 2 a Monday, etc. You can use this information to remember important dates, like the TownCo. Agent on Monday, the 23rd, or the Night Merchant on Thursday, the 19th of each season.
Days[]
Days start at 7am and go hour-by-hour until 12 midnight, at which point the time changes to Late. Even though technically this would be the next date, in Dinkum the date only changes during sleep.
Time of Day
A day is split into 3 periods, in order: Morning, Day, and Night. Morning starts from 7:00am to 11:00am and Day starts at 11:00am. The change between Day and Night is different depending on the Seasons (see the table below). In the last hour of Day the sun starts to set. This process takes a full in-game hour, so when the sun has set, it is now considered Night. Night technically has no end as it goes into Late.
| Change from Day to Night | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Summer | Autumn | Winter | Spring |
| Time | 9pm | 7pm | 6pm | 8pm |
The time of day impacts which fish, critters, and bugs are available throughout the seasons and when meteor showers start. However, the weather changes at 7am, 12pm and 6pm each day, regardless of season, which can be seen on the Weather Station.
Duration
Each day has 17 hours + Late, which is infinite. Each in-game minute takes 2 real-time seconds which means an in-game hour, being 60 minutes, takes 2 real-time minutes. An entire in-game day starting at wakeup (7:00am) is 34 minutes plus however long the player stays into Late. There are a few exceptions:
- On Year 1, Day 1, the clock starts at 10:00am and doesn't start moving until the player has received the Adventurer's Journal from Fletch.
- The Gold Pocket Watch can be used to rapidly speed up time, but cannot slow it down.
- The Silver Pocket Watch can be used to slow down time by half.
Late[]
At 12 midnight, the clock stops displaying a time and just shows "Late".
During Late, in-game time stops ticking and as long as the player doesn't sleep or pass out which means they can play the same day indefinitely.
This is made challenging as the maximum stamina bar shrinks and is set to 5 instead of 50 normally, which is just slightly above the point where the player starts getting tired and the screen fades to grey forcing them to walk slowly. Stamina can still be topped up, but players can only extend the stamina slightly by drinking coffee to get the sleepless buff. An animated sleepy face with "Zz" next to the fullness indicator by the stamina bar signifies that the player is sleepy and should go to bed.
When it gets Late in the Mine levels (including the Island Reef, but not inside the elevator/airship), map-wide radiation damage will appear, and the player will start taking 1 damage per 2 real-time seconds. This is healable with food and food-based regen and adds to the challenge of staying late in the mines.
Sleep to Save[]
The day ends when the player either "Passes Out" or "Sleeps Until Tomorrow", which can be done at any time. In multiplayer, the end of day doesn't trigger until all present players go to sleep. The game then shows progress for the day, saves, and then the player wakes up at 7:00am the next day. If the player quits without sleeping/saving, any and all progress made that day will be lost. The game does give a reminder before this happens.