Time

**Time** is a major factor of the gameplay in TerraGenesis. Time continues to run in all games even if you don't have the game open (population grows, revenue is gained, world stats change). This does not update on the Switch Game interface; this must load the game to see the changes that have taken place.

By default, time is measured in real-life minutes for gameplay purposes. For example, a revenue stream of +1000c means gain 1000 credits per minute, 60.000 in an hour, or 1.440.000 in one real-life day.

Since version 5.1.2, the possibility to make the game calculate stat changes per hour and per day has been added. To do this, go to the Stats Page (the blue button with the rectangles at the top left of screen, where can keep an eye on the planetary stats), then go to one of the stats (for example, Credits), and tap on the calculated stat change (for instance, +1000c/min) to make the game calculate it per hour (+60000c/hour) and per day (1440000c/day).

Events do not happen when you are not in the game. This means you could feel safe letting a world run without checking up on it if its planetary stats are perfectly balanced and you have a Sky Farm satellite to offset the increasing biomass consumption of a growing population. Do not do this in a world that uses biospheres, because this is never perfectly balance one of those. Oxygen can change by less than 1 per minute, but the game will not indicate that. It may look perfectly balanced, but it is not. This tiny oxygen change can cause major changes in biospheres over time, which will further destabilize world. Consider making the game recalculate oxygen change per hour or per day to be able to see such tiny stat changes.

A tip on how to stabilize oxygen on planets is to cull or conserve some species, and counter the effects with more credit-increasing events like The League. If did it correctly, not even a single oxygen particulate is released into the atmosphere of the planet.

To see how the construction and upgrade effects of governors work, see this page.

If you try to change your phone's clock to undo your actions, the Time Traveler event will ruin **all** of worlds when you open the save of world.

## Wait timers

The world's culture influences the time it takes for building and research timers to complete. The wait timers are also shorter in Beginner mode than in Normal or Expert.

Wait timers for building and researching can be skipped using Genesis Points, at 1 GP per 20 minutes in Normal mode, and 1 GP per 15 minutes on Expert mode, rounded up.

The governors Minh Tran, Pim Jansson, Steve, and Te Hau Arataki have effects that reduce the time it takes to construct new facilities in the city they are assigned to.

The governors Malakai Folau, Johanna Longhair, Etta Thitapura, and David Munoz have effects that reduce the time it takes to upgrade existing facilities in the city they are assigned to.

## Pause

You can pause a world in the control panel. The control panel can be accessed by clicking on the world's name. A world can be unpaused at any time you wish. If you are done with a world and won't be checking up on it anytime soon, it is advisable to pause it.

If you have revenue or birthrate boosts from transmissions (videos) running, pausing the game will mean those boosts keep running out, but you don't earn anything extra.

In the TRAPPIST-1 campaign, pausing the world also stops artifacts from firing. These normally fire every half hour (in real time). If you don't pause the game, the artifact will not keep firing while you are gone, but it will fire as soon as you enter the game.

Pausing the world will also halt Worldkiller Asteroids' progress towards the world, though since all other processes will also stop, this does not help you in any way except to give you time to think about what to do.

## Fast-forward

You can fast-forward world. This will impact world's planetary stats (temp, pressure, oxygen, water, biomass, and biospheres enabled), as well as world's population, but it will not earn you any credits nor speed up any construction or research. It also won't impact governor boost timers.
You get three free hours when you first download the game, but it costs GP afterwards.

You can watch advertisements to fast-forward world one hour at a time, though this is limited to five videos a day. After that, you will need to spend GP to fast-forward world. It costs 5-GP per hour until the 8 hour mark, after which the 9th hour and after cost only 4 GP per hour. The 17th hour and after cost 3 GP per hour. 24 hours is the maximum amount you can fast-forward in one go, and that costs 96 GP. Clearly, longer fast-forwards are a little bit of a better deal than shorter ones. You can also calculate change here, but do not accept the offers.

## Year counter

There is a year and date listed in the middle of the top bar, but it appears to be cosmetic or indicative of the passage of time, story-wise.

In a previous version of TerraGenesis it moved at about 1 year per 10 real-life minutes. This meant the game was played at 52,560× the speed of realistic story progression.

Now, not only the year counter is visible, but a date counter was added too. One in-game day passes per 2 real life seconds. This means the game is played at 172,800× the speed of realistic story progression.

Each world is started in a different, but pre-set year (like Mars in 2035, Mercury is 2061, Venus is 2061, the Moon is 2035 and Earth is the current date.). Worlds in the Historical Earths campaign show a negative year count. Since story-wise Vaalbara starts out 3.6 billion years ago, the counter actually indicates you start at 3.6 billion years ago (Ga). Rodinia starts at 750 Ma. Cambria starts at 541 Ma. Cretacea starts at 145 Ma. Dania starts at 60 Ma. Chibania starts at 2.2 Ma. Of course, Ultima, which takes place in the future, starts at 250 million years from now. Every other world, including randomly generated ones, start in the year 2247. The year is actually the year when Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune.