Wildermyth - Definitive Time Guide

Time is a major factor in Wildermyth. It is the greatest predator of them all. So how much time can you take?

Guide to Time in Wildermyth

All credit goes to zgrssd!

How Time Passes

“Ah yes, we have aged like fine wine. You on the other hand have aged like milk: Spoiled, sour and ruining my meal.”

While on adventure, the game tracks time:

Every 30 days, one season passses.
Every 4 Seasons, 1 year passes.
It is not uncommon to spend ~5 years on adventure.

The big reasons to spend time on adventure are:

Travel times. Do not underestimate time it takes to get from A to B. This is dependant on Speed, so it ties back to aging.
Healing times. Especially as your heroes get older, this will be more and more of a issue.
Researching sites. Keep in mind that having Mystics will speed up this process.
Building defenses. Keep in mind that having Warriors will speed up this process.
Scouting. Required work, will be sped up by having hunters.

The bigger factor however is Peacetime. I personally observed pacetimes from 9 to 14 years.
The longer it took you to finish a chapter, the longer the peacetime. So people will age from two fronts.
Having some unscouted or even infested tiles left over relevantly shortens the peacetime.

Your enemies love the passage of time.

Every about 150 days, a pack of 5 Calamity cards is drawn. While these cards can be negated for Legacy points, this is generally prohibitively expensive to do.
Every 400 days – the exact rate varries based on how many infested tiles there are – incursions will spawn. Incursions will ruin your carefully secured provinces, setting back the progress. And recapturing them does not grant you anything.

Character Stats and Time

Half of the character stats are affected by time, and all of them negatively.
Young is the starting age. It has no penlaties.
Around 30, 40 and 50 the young, middle and late “middle-ages” begin.
Then come “old age”, “very old age” and “extremely old age” – the later keeps scaling, up to a penalty of around -50 to Recovery rate.
You can roughly picture it as getting “stacks” of the aging debuff.

There are some effects that actually turn off aging. This will not increase the retirement age (indeed the one Involving Lord Evergreen actually reduces retirement age), instead the age will actually stop ticking up. No more penalties will be acrued. However it will not save a hero that is already beyond retirement age.

Health

Health only sees about -0.2 per level. As each class level gives about +1 Health, age is only a minor factor for this stat. However do consider Recovery Rate.

Speed

Speed suffers about -0.15 per Age Level, rounded up. This is one of the hardest hit stats, given the very limited sources of bonus speed. This will limit your ability to maneuver in combat and increase your traveltimes on the overland map. Heavy armor is generally only something for young people.

Recovery Rate

While Health is not going down quickly, Recovery Rate is! The penalty is about -7.5 per Age Level, rounded up. Wounds that used to heal in a week, suddenly can take a month. This hits melee fighters the most, as they are most likely to be hit.

Retirement Age

If a Hero is past the retirement Age when a chapter ends, they will retire. They leave the team. Some of their experience can be transfered into a low level hero or legacy points.

Note that increasing the Retirement Age does not seem to delay when aging kicks in. So you might have a very late retiring character, that is still barely function by age.

There are a few ways to increase retirement age:

Class. Mystics gain +20, Hunters +10 years
Wisdom+ Skill grants +10 years
Every finished “Hook Quest” permanently adds a bonus. It starts at +10 years, then +7. The archievements indicate there are 3 in total, one per campaign. However this bonus does stick around through each incarnation of a legacy character, so it is a more or less permanent increase
Certain themes and transformations add permanent years, often in the tune of ~10. However those have a strong tendency to be for this campaign onl
Some decisions however can reduce the remaining years by a large amount – be carefull what you pick!

Dodge

The only defensive stat affected by aging, it will suffer a -2 per Age Stack.

Offense

Offense stats are not affected by aging as of writing this.

Stories Stats

These stats do go down – however this is poorly communicated. You start with a +15 Charisma, +10 Tenacity at you. Both go down by -5 per age Stack.

Strategy

Now the biggest question of course, is how to handle time? Should you rush? Take my time for a full clearing?

The answer is unfortunately: It depends.

There are pros and cons for either option. There is no hard and fast answer.

Leveling and Power:

More combats means more character power.
More clearing means more chance to get transformation events, which grant even more power.
More combats means more enemy calamity cards.
It means more time spend travelling and healing, increasing in adventure and peacetime.

Gear and Resources:

Securing sites gives Resources every chapter, and another time for the final fight.
Resource can be turned into gear for new members, that had to replace old ones.
Researching gives additional gear and one time resources.
The more sites cleared, cleared of infestation and/or secured, the longer the peacetime.
More time spend on clearing, securing or researching in adventure.

Current Situation:

The current situation can mater as well.
Are we just 2 months from the next calamity or incursion, but close to the Chapter goal? Rushing might help you in the long run.
Did we just have a clamity or incursion (or will we get one even if we rush)? If so, taking your time can work.
Is this the final chapter and I am already geared and leveled up? Aging will hardly mater, but the extra calamities might make a difference.
Do I have newly recruited people to train and gear up? If so, taking a few more fights and doing some research can help.
How many chapters do I still have left?