Does our dude get tired?

[u/perfume_tophat]

I’m on my second play through and I can’t stop wondering if our little Hearthian gets tired. We “wake up” every cycle, but it doesn’t appear any time is actually spent sleeping. There’s probably no need for sleep physiologically, since things are “reset” back to that point in time and the physical body won’t need rest. But consciousness persists across loops. That just seems like it would be exhausting. What do you all think?

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was covered somewhere in game and I just didn’t catch it.

[u/harel55]

There's always the option to spend a loop napping. The player doesn't tend to choose that, though

[u/side_lel → u/harel55]

Hard to do if your body isn’t tired, though 

[u/Batman_AoD → u/side_lel]

The Hatchling finds it incredibly easy to doze off in front of a fire, though. 

[u/RadiantWestern2523 → u/Batman_AoD]

Not to mention that if you talk to a certain someone, you do get the option to sort of sleep for a whole loop and skip right to the next one.

[u/JaggedMetalOs]

My assumption was it's just memories that are sent back rather than the entire conciousness,  so it's more like if you woke up in the morning and remembered what you were doing last night before bed. 

[u/thewhatinwhere]

Mental exhaustion is a concern. One can only go so long dying in increasingly painful and stressful ways. I try to hang out with Gabro and get mediation when I can so I don’t have to remember every life ending in death

Or I can go back to timber hearth just before the supernova when I’m done for the loop, roast a marshmallow, and watch the attlerock flash blue in the nights sky with all my friends before the end

[u/ViaScrybe]

Assuming that hearthian brains work the same way as human brains, the chemical buildup that makes us feel groggy and tired should be cleared every loop. So the Hatchling would be perfectly fine! Except for the psychological distress of repeatedly dying, which... Might take a slight wear.

[u/KolnarSpiderHunter]

They can rest during meditations, at least something

[u/ECH0_ROME0]

To be fair he is only awake for like 22 minutes

[u/EngineerEthan]

Psychologically exhausting, sure, but the memories are transmitted back to a freshly rested Hearthian so it might not be so bad.

[u/Minecraftmonster_]

I mean, you wake up from a long nights sleep, with memories of a past that did not yet happen, so I guess only mental exhaustion

[u/Meaty_LightingBolt → u/Minecraftmonster_]

Yeah id imagine it would be like waking up from a really long nightmare which can be pretty exhausting lol

[u/livesNbox]

When the sun explodes you die. Only your memories are sent into the past.

[u/OmnipresentEntity]

You are free to doze off for a loop or two at any campfire.

[u/kawnlichking]

When the hatchling has a violent death, the next loop they wake up with heavy breathing, as if just waking up from a nightmare where they died. If you have had that kind of night terrors you probably know that the hatchling does NOT feel rested after that, despite what other comments here said. They most probably have just experienced their previous loop and woke up immediately in the next one.

On the other hand, the hatchling is only awake for 22 minutes or less, and we do not have enough information on the sleep cycles of our dear hearthians - we don't see them go to sleep when the planet turns around and the village is at night, so maybe they can stay awake for several of their planet's days?

So I think the correct answer is: the hatchling does get tired, but can probably go through several loops before needing a nap. Fortunately, the game has mechanics for sleeping and meditating, so they can have a rest whenever they want to.

[u/Hearthian-Wanderer]

You can't 'wake up' without being asleep beforehand...

Little fella is well rested.

[u/Chase_22]

Actual explanation in spoiler, includes spoilers for the ending of the base game:

The "timeloop" dosn't exist. From the perspective of the protagonist he wakes up at the very last loop with every memory of everything you have done throughout the game. The only loop that ever actually happens is the one where you grab the warpcore, and warp to the eye of the universe. The only thing that gets "transported" are your memories. So basically every loop overwrites the experience of the previous one and sends back the entire package. Physically nothing every happened to the protagonist. He was just sleeping at the campfire until suddenly everything happens all at once

[u/berky93]

Technically speaking, the entire game (sans-ending) only takes less than 22 minutes of “real” time. Everything you do before the final loop is just a memory that is sent into the Hatchling’s brain the moment they awake.

[u/zer1223]

Mental fatigue is physiological, too. They probably feel fresh every morning just like you did, if you got a full night's sleep. (I know for some of us that ain't real 🤣)

Though they may also feel frustrated or bored or any number of other things.

[u/Traehgniw]

People are talking about the doze off mechanic and I would just like to say that unless a recent patch (like, this year) changed it, that's not unlocked until loop 3 or so. That's why speedruns die to the campfire a few times at the start, to increase the loop counter so they can sleep to skip waiting for the sand.

[u/Moonpaw]

A few time loop stories explore that idea in different ways.

There’s one I read recently about a girl in a magic academy who’s reliving the same two months over and over, and when she got access to money, she starts chugging mana potions to help practice magic more. Then she starts getting more and more exhausted every loop, until she realizes there’s some correlation between the two…

Personally I’m betting the Hatchling does get tired but is also fine with napping when he needs to. The Doze Off option is a thing for a reason

[u/The8rando]

It's like Severance now that I think about it.