Having a good understanding of how time works in the game can help the player make effective use of their day.
Days[]
An in-game hour is the equivalent of one real-world minute.
Every in-game day starts at 6:00 and ends at exactly 24:00 (18 minutes of gameplay).
The shop can only be opened at or after 12:00, and closes automatically at 18:00.
At 22:00, the lighting changes dramatically and player can look to the sky to see a Fallen Star descending like a comet.
At 23:30, a warning will pop up that the character is getting tired.
At 23:50, the screen begins fading into black and 10 real world seconds later the player's character passes out (regardless if the clock reached 24:00 or not), ending the day and saving the game. The day's stats are then displayed.
You can continue to do actions (moving items in storage, fishing, harvesting plants, etc) until the screen blacks out. Actions that complete before passing out will be saved. Actions you are in the middle of will be cut short as the passing out animation plays.
Passing out due to exhaustion does not penalize the player in any way the following morning, but does award an achievement and a Galaxy Skin the first time you pass out using each animal base.
Visiting the Dungeon consumes 3 in-game hours regardless of how much time the player actually spends in the Dungeon in real life.
Visiting another island, such as Halloween Island, Winter Island, or Kozita, will pause all progress on the Main Island while the player is away, no matter how long they spend on the other island. Upon return, crop growth and animal taming progress will continue where they left off.
This applies to crop and animal taming progress started on any other islands. Crops planted on Kozita will pause while the player is on the Main Island. Only sleeping on Kozita itself will progress crops and taming to the next day.
Seasons[]
An in-game calendar year begins in Spring and cycles through Summer, Fall, and Winter. (36 hours of gameplay). Each season lasts for 30 in-game days. (540 minutes, or 9 hours of gameplay).
The current date for a world can be found on the world choice screen (see image) using the format "[Day Season Year]". In-game however, the number following the season is the day of the month.
Changes occur through out Florens depending on the season, including new plants, access to festival vendors, and even access to other islands.
Certain NPCs, quests, and events are specifically unlocked depending on how far the player has progressed time-wise. (Ex. Kieran becomes available to the player when they reach the 15th day of Spring in Year 1.)
Each season has a small set of Seasonal Quests which repeat every year and offer the same reward. They are the only quests with any kind of time limit. They expire on Day 1 of the following season if not completed, at which point the quest is removed from the active quest log. There is no penalty or failure status for not completing seasonal quests.
Plants: Spring and Summer share the same variety of plants, with the exception of wild fruit trees. Lemon Trees are available in the Spring, and Cherry Trees in Summer.
Summer[]
Events: The Summer Festival is available for the whole month.
Plants: All non-Winter plants take one additional day to grow during Winter.
Wheat and Daisy are available in Florens all year.
Weather[]
The weather varies day to day, and types of weather (like snow) depend on the current season.
If the player wakes up to rain, they do not need to water their crops that day.
Light snow falls throughout the whole month of Winter.
Snow does not water crops like rain, so they must be watered every day.
There is a 1% chance each day for a rainbow to appear in the sky over Mr. Jones's farm. It lasts the entire day (6:20 in the morning until 6:20 the next morning), and can appear in any weather during any season.
Weather effects (rain, snow) can be turned off in Settings through the Paws Menu, but the sky will remain overcast.
There is currently an issue in multiplayer sessions where the client's weather does not match the host. In these cases, the weather the host is seeing is the "real" one for that world. (Ex: Client sees sunny sky, host sees rain, so client would see rain-watered soil even if it's sunny.)
Manipulating Time[]
Some activities cause the in-game time to pause in Single Player mode. These include:
Opening crafting windows. Note: this is not universal--the use of the oven or stove inconsistently pauses the clock. It may also pause for a period and then begin ticking again. (This is probably a bug.)
Entering Screenshot Mode via F11 in single player (also in F10 mode if time is paused in the F9 menu).
