What happens when the 30 days run out
Nothing you would call a failure screen. The game keeps going — it just becomes a different story, and a worse one for Coen.
What actually happens
When the thirtieth day passes without you reaching them, Brencis finishes what he started. You find out through a cutscene rather than a fail state. From that moment the main objective rewrites itself: the quest is no longer to rescue anyone, it is to make him pay.
The timer is then removed. Everything that was time-sensitive stops being time-sensitive, and you can take as long as you like over the rest of the game. Some guides treat this as its own ending and call it the bad ending; it is more accurate to call it a branch, because you still choose how the story finishes from there.
What it costs you
- The best ending. Every outcome where the family survives is off the table.
- The “In the Nick of Time” achievement — currently held by 6.9% of Steam owners.
- The epilogue changes. Who is alive at the end is reflected in it.
What may also change
Brencis is reportedly crowned prince and grows stronger from the feed, making him harder to fight. His lieutenants may strengthen too, and some side quests may become unavailable, harder, or fail outright.
If you want this outcome deliberately
Wait at a shrine, over and over, until the thirty days elapse. It is the standard route people use when they are mopping up the remaining endings on a completionist run. Keep a save from before you start.
And afterwards?
After the timer expires, you can keep playing indefinitely — that is well attested. Whether you can keep playing after you trigger an ending is a different question, and one where sources genuinely conflict; we lay that out on the endings page rather than guessing.
When the thirty days run out
- Is there a game over if the 30 days run out?
- No. The game explicitly does not end. Your family dies at Brencis's hands, you learn about it in a cutscene, the timer is removed entirely, and you keep playing with the goal changed from saving them to avenging them.
- What do you lose by going over 30 days?
- The best ending, and the 'In the Nick of Time' achievement. Your family's absence also changes the epilogue. Brencis is crowned and becomes stronger from the feed, and some side quests may become unavailable or harder.
- Can you change or remove the 30-day limit?
- Not in the game's settings; difficulty does not touch it. On PC, mods can: the most endorsed one on Nexus raises the story limit to 90 days and the daily segments to 16 or 32. The mods page has which ones, how they install and what to back up first.
- Can you run out of time on purpose?
- Yes. Wait at a shrine repeatedly until the 30 days elapse. Guides list this as the deliberate route to the 'time runs out' ending.
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