In The Blood of the Dawnwalker, Time Is a Currency, But You Won’t Be Punished for Being Idle
One of the most stand-out features in Rebeal Wolves’ upcoming RPG, The Blood of the Dawnwalker, is the time mechanic that gives players 30 days and 30 nights to beat the game. Despite the time limit, the studio ensures that players won’t feel rushed to beat it, as time only advances based on specific actions.
So if you like taking your sweet time roaming the world and taking in the sights, you won’t be punished for it, though that’s not to say you should ignore the mechanic, as in this game, time is an important currency, and you’ll have to be wise in how you use it.
You Can AFK Without Penalty
If the news of the 30-day and 30-night time limit seemed like a turn-off, worry not, as Rebeal Wolves isn’t actually using a real-time clock to count the minutes. Instead, the game will only advance time based on specific actions, a feature we were informed about during our visit to gamescom this year. Rebel Wolves took to showing off the game behind closed doors during a media-invite event, where they walked us through a hands-off demo showing off new gameplay and plenty of in-game mechanics. Specifically, the time system, which in many ways acts more like a currency in the world of Dawnwalker.
For every mission or key activity you do, the day/night advances by a specific set of time. Some actions will take one or more hours, while tasks like entering and exploring a tomb can consume a whopping six hours per day. That’s not to say it will take that long to complete, but rather how much time will pass in the game’s world.
We assume that there will be plenty of time (30-40 hours is the current estimate for the campaign) to do everything the world has to offer, but even then, that does make time a pretty interesting aspect of the game. A currency that you have to keep an eye on and use wisely if you want to prevent the vampires from taking over the world.
The good news here is that players won’t be penalized for simply standing around and doing nothing (commonly known as going AFK or Away From Keyboard), or for freely exploring the world. If you want to sit there and stare at the sun all day, in real-world time, you can do so, and the game won’t advance at all. It’s not a dynamic day and night cycle in the traditional sense, where everything is in motion regardless of whether you do anything. It advances as you do.
Now you may be wondering what advantages this type of system may create, and there are a few when it comes to the gameplay. For example, during our demo overview, the team broke down how, during the daytime, we would embark on a quest to find a sword, which would lead through several questlines, interacting with NPCs, and performing various tasks. But at night, we could just teleport where we needed to go and take a more direct, offensive approach, given that’s when Coen’s vampiric powers are the strongest.
It’s a more direct approach, something that even the studio pointed out that we could just go straight to the objective without doing much else. It’ll be challenging, considering you’d be low gear and leveled, but it’s entirely possible to skip a bulk of things.
I think it’s a neat idea, and thankfully one that isn’t going to rush players, but give them unique opportunities to tackle things their own way.
The Blood of the Dawnwalker will launch on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2026. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the latest gameplay for the game, which features 15 minutes of combat and other activities.
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