Editing Gameplay

This page goes deeper than [[Getting Started]] into how Primal Idle actually plays moment to moment: how actions and timers work, how experience and levels are earned, what the offline summary shows, and how your progress is saved.

== Actions and timers ==

Everything you actively do in Primal Idle is an '''action''' belonging to a [[Skills|skill]]. Each action defines:

* a '''level requirement''' — the skill level you must reach before it unlocks;
* a '''base time''' — how long one completion takes (shown as seconds or minutes);
* an '''experience reward''' — granted to the skill each completion;
* '''inputs''' — items consumed each completion (gathering actions have none; processing actions consume raw materials);
* '''outputs''' — the items produced, some guaranteed and some chance-based.

When you select an action it runs on a repeating timer. Each time the timer fills, the game grants the experience, consumes the inputs, and rolls the outputs, then immediately starts the next repetition. Only '''one action runs at a time'''; starting another replaces it.

The game measures real elapsed time rather than counting ticks, so an action behaves identically whether the tab is focused, backgrounded, or closed — a key reason offline progress stays consistent.

=== When an action stops ===

An action keeps repeating until something interrupts it. Common reasons it stops on its own include running '''out of the inputs''' a recipe needs, your '''Bank being full''' with no room for the output, your '''Stable being full''' during [[Taming]], or your '''health running too low''' during [[Hunting]] or [[Expeditions]]. You can also stop or switch actions manually at any time.

While you are '''offline''' a low-health combat action always stops safely before a knockout. While you are '''actively playing''', however, running out of food mid-fight can end in death and the loss of a piece of gear — see [[Expeditions#Death and reclaiming gear|Death and reclaiming gear]].

=== Drop chances ===

Some outputs are guaranteed every completion, while others appear only some of the time. Rather than exact percentages, drop tables label chances by rarity tier — '''Always''', '''Common''', '''Uncommon''', '''Rare''', and '''Very rare''' — so you know roughly how often to expect something without the number changing under you.

== Experience and levels ==

Every skill runs from '''level 1 to level 99''', tracked by total experience earned in that skill. Your level is always derived from your experience total.

The curve is '''exponential''': each level costs meaningfully more experience than the one before. The early levels come quickly — reaching level 2 takes only a small amount of experience — but the requirement climbs steeply, so that the last stretch toward level 99 represents the great majority of a skill's total experience. In practice this means new actions and milestones unlock rapidly at first and become long-term goals at high level.

Higher skill levels unlock new actions, better resources, faster processing, and access to gated content across the game. Reaching level 99 in a skill is a major achievement, and several skills also feed into the separate [[Mastery]] system for per-action progression on top of the main level.

== "While you were away" ==

When you load the game after being away, Primal Idle resolves the elapsed time through the same simulation used during live play, then presents a '''"While you were away"''' summary. It reports what accumulated in your absence — experience gained, levels earned, items collected, and progress on timed activities.

Offline time is '''capped at 18 hours''' (extendable to 24 with the Offline Satchel from the [[Shop]]); any time beyond the cap is not simulated. If you were away for less than a minute the game still applies the progress but skips the summary screen. See [[Getting Started]] for the practical implications of the cap.

== Saving your game ==

Primal Idle '''autosaves''' automatically at a regular interval (30 seconds by default, adjustable in Settings) and again when you leave the page, so you rarely need to think about it. Your progress lives in your browser.

For backups or moving to another device, Settings offers '''export and import''': export produces a single portable save string you can copy and store safely, and import restores your game from a string you paste back in. This lets you keep manual backups and carry a save between browsers.

'''Cloud saves.''' Creating an account (from the login page) backs your save up online and keeps it synced across devices. A '''cloud chip''' in the top bar tells you at a glance whether your progress is safe — ✓ synced (with the time), ↑ while syncing, and {{Icon|glyph-warn}} if a sync failed (click to retry). Only '''one tab plays at a time''': opening the game in a second tab shows a takeover screen so two copies never race over your save. The cloud also '''archives older copies''' of your save a few times a day — Settings → Cloud save lists them with their date, levels, and amber, and any can be restored (your current save is archived first, so even a restore is undoable). If a device's save and the cloud disagree, the game shows a side-by-side comparison and lets you choose which to keep.

See also [[Getting Started]], [[Skills]], and [[Bank]].

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[[Category:Gameplay]]
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