What does time lapse do in Clicker Heroes?

What does time lapse do in Clicker Heroes?

Time Lapse in Clicker Heroes is a powerful ability that allows you to instantly simulate a significant duration of offline gameplay, providing you with all the gold, hero levels, and zone progression you would have achieved during that period. It effectively fast-forwards your game by a chosen amount of time.

Core Functionality of Time Lapse

Time Lapse serves as a rapid progression tool, simulating hours or even days of game time in an instant. This immediate burst of progress can be instrumental in pushing further into the game or quickly accumulating resources.

• Activation: Time Lapse is purchased using Rubies, the premium currency in Clicker Heroes. The Ancient Chor'gorloth specifically reduces the Ruby cost associated with activating Time Lapse.
• Simulated Duration: Players can choose from various durations (e.g., 8 hours, 24 hours) for the simulated time, allowing for flexible progression boosts.
• Resource Generation: Upon activation, the game quickly calculates and awards you gold, grants experience to your heroes (leading to level-ups), and advances your current zone based on your in-game efficiency (DPS, gold multipliers) during the simulated period.

How Time Lapse Affects Progression Details

While Time Lapse is designed for speed, it has a unique interaction with how zone progression is processed internally:

• Normal Zone Skipping: In standard gameplay, especially when you are instakilling monsters (defeating them instantly) with "Progression Mode" active and zones require two monsters to advance, the game often optimizes by skipping the last frame or death animation of every zone. This streamlines continuous play.
• Time Lapse Behavior: Conversely, when a Time Lapse is active, this specific optimization is intentionally bypassed. During a Time Lapse, the last death animation of every zone is not skipped. While the overall process is incredibly fast, this detail ensures that the internal calculations for each cleared zone—including gold and progression—are meticulously accounted for without skipping crucial, albeit brief, visual cues.

Benefits of Using Time Lapse

Strategic use of Time Lapse can greatly enhance your Clicker Heroes experience:

• Accelerated Advancement: Quickly push to higher zones, which is crucial for reaching new ascension targets or breaking through current progression walls.
• Instant Gold Infusion: Obtain a large sum of gold immediately, enabling significant hero upgrades, Ancient leveling, or purchasing transcendences.
• Catch-Up Mechanism: Ideal for players who have been away from the game, allowing them to rapidly catch up on missed progress without extensive grinding.
• Efficient Ascension Cycles: Speed up the early to mid-stages of new ascensions, reducing the time spent in less profitable zones.

Important Considerations for Time Lapse

To maximize the value you get from Time Lapse, keep these points in mind:

• Cost-Effectiveness: Always weigh the Ruby cost against the benefit of the progress gained. Rubies are a valuable resource for other game elements.
• Pre-Optimization: Ensure your current setup (Ancients, Outsiders, active Auto-Clickers, and hero levels) is optimized for maximum damage and gold income before activating Time Lapse. The simulated progress directly reflects your potential earnings during that time.
• Idle vs. Active Play: Time Lapse primarily simulates offline progression, benefiting from idle gold and damage bonuses if your build is idle-focused. However, it will also factor in any active bonuses (like those from Auto-Clickers or active skills) that would have been running during the simulated duration.

Utilizing Time Lapse effectively is a cornerstone of efficient play in Clicker Heroes, offering a significant boost to your progression and overall power.