- The limit
- 30 in-game days and 30 nights to rescue Coen's family before Brencis's coronation.
- The unit
- 16 Time Segments in a full day-and-night cycle, split equally between the two.
- Does it tick?
- No. Time doesn't progress automatically in the background; instead it is spent like a currency.
- Story cost
- "Finishing the story takes 7-10 in-game days".
- Target
- Stay below 15 days through the open world; "Aim to reach the ending by day 22".
- Past day 30
- No game over. The story continues with permanent consequences, and you can keep playing past the 30-day limit.
What spends time
- Completing quests, and the key dialogue lines inside them — those are marked with an hourglass icon, so the game tells you before you pay.
- Learning and upgrading perks. Levelling is not free: skill points cost days.
- Waiting at shrines, which is the deliberate way to fast-forward to night or to day.
- Unlocking significant thresholds and secret locations, and exploring major areas such as the Astral Planes.
- A concrete example: agreeing to practise Latin with Anca during Withering Away costs 2 Time Segments and starts Page-Turner; refusing costs 1 and locks that quest out. The cheaper option is the one that closes a door.
What does not spend time
The clock does not run while you walk, ride, fight or stand still. Time doesn't progress automatically in the background; it is spent like a currency on certain dialogue choices, unlocking skills and completing quests, and it does not count down in real time once the time limit begins — it only moves when you take meaningful action. ⚠️ No source states either way whether ordinary exploration or combat encounters advance it, so that is not asserted here. What is clear is that a long detour through the map costs nothing by itself; the quests you start at the end of it do.
What day 30 actually costs
One gold trophy and the shape of your ending — not the run. In the Nick of Time ("Rescue your family before the time runs out") is the only thing the limit gates, and it is the most missable requirement in the game. Past the deadline the story continues, but with permanent consequences in your current playthrough for not managing your time properly, and there is a distinct Past 30 Days outcome. You can keep playing afterwards, which is exactly why the roadmap's whole plan is a save on every in-game day.
Day and night is a separate clock
The 30 days are the deadline; day and night is a state you can choose. Coen is human by daylight and a vampire at night, with different abilities in each, and several things in the game are night-only: the route out of the valley needs Planeshift or Shadowstep at night to reach the broken bridge, the betrayal route has the Manumit Hideout door used at night, and draining a vassal rather than killing them is a night action. Waiting at a shrine is the intended way to move between the two, and it is among the things that spend time — so switching to night has a price in segments.
Cross-checked
Cross-checked on 22 September 2026 against the guides of Game8 and PowerPyx. Not from a playthrough: nobody here has played it, and what the sources do not describe is not on this page.