Game clock

The game clock, also known as the server cycle, is the fundamental unit of time used in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, where one minute outside of the client is equal to 1 hour. All actions that require server processing are governed by this value. Purely client-side actions, such as opening the pause screen whilst on a solo world and in the character creation screen, are processed separately and thus are unaffected by the game's internal clock. Each day/night cycle in the game, unaffected by the pause screen or character creation, lasts 24 minutes.

Examples

Combat

There is roughly a 70-millisecond delay between the user pressing a keystroke and the action initiating client-side actions, even in solo worlds. This is important during PvP, as this delay will affect both players in a multiplayer world. In addition, pressing the block key will result in a 70-80 millisecond delay between the user and the client, which players must time correctly before being hit by another player or monster.

Processing

Cooking, crafting, smelting, and other types of processing actions will have differing processing timers. For example, whilst cooking a steak, there is a timer on the fuel and a separate timer on the food being cooked. This is the same for fuel-dependent processing stations, such as furnaces and the brewing cauldron.

Interface

A day/night widget.

There is a day/night widget that visually shows the player the time of day, and the arrow rotates 15° every in-game hour.

Status effects

Many status effects have their own separate countdown, such as the burning debuff. The burning debuff has a client-side cooldown of six seconds, which translates to six minutes in the game.