If you’ve ever wandered around the Jinzhou region at midnight trying to find a day-only flower spawn, or waited 20 real minutes for a time-gated side quest to unlock, you’ve probably wondered how to change the time in Wuthering Waves without waiting for the in-game clock to tick on its own. Most open-world gacha games have a time skip feature, and Kuro Game’s latest title is no exception, though it’s not immediately obvious where to find the setting if you’re a new player. I’ve spent over 120 hours exploring every corner of the game, and I’ve tested this method across PC, mobile, and PlayStation versions to make sure it works every time, no glitches or lost progress involved.
How to Change the Time in Wuthering Waves: Exact Step-by-Step Process
First, you don’t have to unlock any special quests or reach a high account level to access this feature – it’s available from the very first hour of gameplay, which is a nice change from other gacha titles that lock basic quality of life features behind progression. I’ve seen a lot of new players waste time scrolling through the settings menu looking for time options, but it’s actually tucked in the main game menu for easy access.
- Tap or click the three-line menu icon in the top right corner of your screen (it’s the same icon across all platforms)
- Select the Time tab, which is located right next to the Inventory option on the bottom row of the menu grid
- Drag the circular clock slider to the time of day you want, or tap the preset options for Dawn, Noon, Dusk, and Midnight for one-click selection
- Confirm your choice, and the game will load a 2-second transition to the new time of day instantly
There’s no cooldown or in-game cost to use this feature, so you can adjust the time as many times as you want in a single play session. You don’t have to spend premium currency or resin to skip time, which is a huge win for free-to-play players who don’t want to waste resources on basic QoL tools.
Top Reasons to Adjust Your In-Game Time Regularly
You might think changing the time is only useful for pretty character screenshots, but it actually impacts almost every part of your gameplay loop. Time-gated side quests are the most common reason players use this feature – many NPCs only appear at specific times of day, and some quest objectives require you to be at a location at exactly sunrise or sunset to progress. I once spent 15 minutes waiting around for sunset to trigger a quest cutscene before I remembered I could just skip the time manually.
Another big reason is rare mob and material spawns. Some of the game’s most valuable ascension materials, like the Glow Lily you need to level up Jiyan, only spawn between 8 PM and 4 AM in-game. If you don’t want to wait around for 20 minutes of real time for night to fall, a quick time skip will get you the materials you need in seconds. You can also use time skips to reset non-limited open-world chests that refresh once per in-game day, which is a great trick if you’re farming for upgrade materials.
Even if you’re just a casual player who likes exploring, adjusting the time can help you clear weather-specific puzzles faster. Some regions have constant rain at night that blocks puzzle triggers, so skipping to noon will usually give you clear skies to finish the task without waiting for the weather to shift naturally.
Common Issues You Might Face When Changing Time (And Fixes)
For the most part, the time skip feature works flawlessly, but there are a few edge cases where it won’t work as expected, and knowing these ahead of time will save you a lot of frustration. First, you can’t change the time during active quests or combat. If you’re in the middle of a story quest or fighting a world boss, the Time tab will be greyed out and unclickable. All you have to do is finish the current quest objective or leave the combat area, and the option will become available again. I made this mistake last week when I was trying to skip to night to fight a hidden boss mid-quest, and I spent 5 minutes clicking the tab before I realized I had to finish the current dialogue first.
Another common misconception is that time skips will reset your daily commissions or resin refresh timers. Those are tied to real-world time, not in-game time, so don’t waste your time skipping 24 hours in hopes of getting more resin – it won’t work. That’s an important distinction a lot of new players miss, so make sure you don’t get your hopes up for that trick.
If your time skip button is glitched and won’t load even when you’re not in a quest or combat, a quick restart of the game will fix the issue 9 times out of 10. I’ve only run into this glitch once, and it was after I had the game open for 8 hours straight, so it’s pretty rare and easy to resolve.
Pro Tips to Get the Most Out of the Time Adjustment Feature
Now that you know how to use the basic time skip feature, there are a few small tricks that will make it even more useful for your daily gameplay routine. First, use the preset time options instead of dragging the slider if you need a specific time of day for materials or quests. The Dawn preset is exactly 6 AM, Noon is 12 PM, Dusk is 6 PM, and Midnight is 12 AM, which lines up with almost every time requirement for quests and spawns in the game. That saves you the hassle of trying to drag the slider to the exact minute you need.
Second, if you’re farming multiple materials that spawn at different times, group your farming runs by time of day. For example, collect all your day-time materials first, skip to night, then collect all your night-time materials in one go. That cuts down on the number of time skips you have to do, and makes your farming sessions way more efficient. I use this trick every time I’m leveling up a new character, and it cuts my total farming time almost in half.
Third, if you’re planning to log off for the day and know you need to farm night-time materials the next time you play, skip to night before you close the game. That way you don’t have to waste time adjusting the clock as soon as you log back in, and you can jump straight into farming. It’s a small hack, but it adds up to a lot of saved time over weeks of play.
At the end of the day, the time skip feature is one of the most underrated quality of life tools in the game, and knowing how to change the time in Wuthering Waves will make your entire playthrough way smoother, whether you’re a completionist trying to 100% the map or a casual player just working through the main story. You don’t have to jump through hoops to unlock it, there’s no cost to use it, and it cuts down on so much unnecessary waiting around that would otherwise drag your gameplay sessions out. Next time you’re stuck waiting for a specific time of day for a quest or material spawn, give this method a try – you’ll wonder how you ever played without it.