How long is a day in EmberFrost? Day, night and the cold

A day in EmberFrost lasts 8 real minutes: 6 minutes of daylight, then a 2-minute night. At night the outside temperature drops from -15 °C to -23 °C and the main fire burns 50% faster, so fill it before dusk. One hour of play is 7.5 in-game days, and the clock only runs while you play.

This guide covers the clock in EmberFrost, the cozy winter village builder: what the night changes, how long a full fire lasts after dark and how to see which day it is. Every number comes from the game's own How to play pages and its data. New to Tamarisk? Start with our beginner's guide.

How long is a day in EmberFrost?

A full day in EmberFrost takes 8 minutes of real time: 6 minutes of daylight followed by 2 minutes of night. The game's Night page says it plainly: "A day lasts 6 min, then the night lasts 2 min." Three quarters of every day is light, one quarter is dark. Day 1 doesn't start ticking the moment you begin a new game, though. The clock waits at daybreak until you light the fire, so your first lighting never runs into the dark. From then on, the day counter goes up by one at every dawn. By our count, an hour of play is 7.5 in-game days, and a 15-minute session is just under two. The mode doesn't touch the clock: Normal and Hard share the same 8-minute day and the same temperatures. What changes after dark is the cold, the fire's appetite and a few habits of the village.

Here is the whole cycle side by side, on Normal:

How cold are the nights in EmberFrost?

Nights are 8 degrees colder. Outside the warmth it is -15 °C by day and -23 °C at night, and the main fire adds 20 degrees inside its ring. By day that leaves about 5 °C beside the fire, which counts as warm. At night it leaves about -3 °C.

That's why villagers near a burning fire turn a little blue after dark. They are cold, so they work 30% slower, but they aren't freezing: freezing starts below -5 °C. If the fire sinks to embers, it gives only 3 degrees, the square drops to about -20 °C, and villagers start to freeze after 30 seconds. Our morale guide covers freezing, sickness and what they cost the village.

The game warns you. The light starts to turn about 30 seconds before nightfall, so the village is fully dark by the time the night cold arrives, and dawn brightens over the last 20 seconds of the night. On your first night, Granny Maud says it out loud: "Night falls. It's colder, and the fire burns wood faster." Villagers out for a stroll head back at nightfall, and nobody sets off on a new one until morning.

What changes for the fire at night?

The main fire burns 50% faster at night. With no villagers, one log lasts 20 seconds by day and about 13 seconds after dark, and every villager makes it burn 3% faster on top of that. The Night page sums up the advice in one line: "Build up the fire before dusk." Only the main fire speeds up, though. Braziers burn one log every 20 seconds, day or night.

How long does a full fire actually last after dark? We worked it out from the game's data, on Normal, for a fire that is full at dusk. Each upgrade is shown at the village size where it is first offered:

Read the night column against a 2-minute night. A full campfire with 10 villagers lasts about 2.1 minutes after dark, so it only just reaches dawn, and every log you skipped at dusk becomes cold minutes before morning. Each upgrade carries a full fire through the night with time to spare. For what the upgrades cost and how far they warm, see our fire levels guide.

Hard is tighter. There a log lasts 14.3 seconds instead of 20 with no villagers, so divide every time above by 1.4. That campfire with 10 villagers then lasts about 1.5 minutes at night, shorter than the night itself. Once you hire the carrier, he keeps the main fire above half. Until then, the night is your job.

What should you do before dusk?

Fill the fire, then stay close to it. The fading light is your cue: you have about 30 seconds before the cold sets in. A short routine covers it:

1. Top up the main fire when the light turns. Watch the fuel ring around the temperature icon or above the pit, and bring it to full.
2. Carry one more load. On a campfire with a growing village, a full pit barely lasts the night, so keep a stack of logs on your back near the fire.
3. Load the festival fire, if you have built it. Wood you drop in by day waits there, and it burns from dusk to dawn.
4. Check the braziers. They don't speed up at night, so on Normal a full brazier's 6 logs last 2 minutes, exactly one night.
5. Watch storm days. Small snowstorms hit on day 3 and every 2 days after, halfway through the daylight, so a storm never lands at night. It can still make the fire burn twice as fast while it blows, and once it passes you have about 2 minutes of daylight to refill (1.5 on Hard).

What happens at the festival fire at night?

The festival fire is a second fire that burns only from dusk to dawn. You light it with wood, like the main fire. It holds 10 logs and burns one every 30 seconds, so a night uses 4 logs and a full load lasts two and a half nights.

While it burns, villagers with no work gather round it, and it warms them within 6 m. It also adds 2 morale a minute, about 4 a night, on top of the 10 you get for building it. Granny Maud puts it simply: "Bring wood to the festival fire before dusk. We'll all come." It comes late in the build order, and our guide to morale explains what those points buy.

How do you see which day it is in EmberFrost?

Turn on Show the day in the settings. It is off by default. With it on, a sun by day or a crescent moon at night sits beside your population and morale, together with the day number, such as "Day 4". There's no hour or minute: the game shows the day only, and the number goes up at dawn.

Your save slots keep count too. Load game lists each slot with the hero's name, the day, the mode, how much of the village is built and the play time. For the rest of that screen, see our settings guide.

Without the setting, read the world:

• The sky. The light fades over the last 30 seconds of daylight.
• The thermometer. It shows the temperature where the hero stands, so it reads -23° when you step out of the warmth at night.
• The music. Night has its own music, unless the cold music takes over because someone is freezing or the fire is out.

One small touch: the main menu shows the village from your last save in evening light, and after 20:00 on your phone's clock it shows it at night, until 06:00.

FAQ

Does time pass when EmberFrost is closed?

No. Time passes only while you play. Closed or in the background, nothing burns and the clock stops, so you can put the game down in the middle of a night. Our healthy gaming habits guide and our post on offline games for iPhone explain why that helps.

Do braziers burn faster at night?

No. Only the main fire burns 50% faster after dark. On Normal, a brazier burns one log every 20 seconds, day or night, so its 6 logs last 2 minutes. On Hard, the braziers and the main fire both burn faster all the time.

Are days and nights different on Hard?

The clock and the temperatures are the same: 6 minutes of daylight, 2 of night, -15 °C by day and -23 °C at night. Hard changes the fire instead. A log lasts 14.3 seconds rather than 20 with no villagers, about 9.5 seconds at night, and snowstorms last 90 seconds instead of 60.

Does opening the map stop the clock?

Yes, by default. The game pauses while the map is open, so you can plan your evening without losing daylight. A switch in the settings called Pause on the map turns this off.

Get started

EmberFrost: Survival Tycoon is free to start on the App Store. Find out more on the EmberFrost game page, or browse every EmberFrost post.