Cron

Cron is a term borrowed from Unix and indicates a timed, repeatable event. HabitRPG refers to the Cron as the processing which takes place when a player's account interacts with the game for the first time after the start of a new day.

Cron Cycle
One day (24 hours) generally constitutes a Cron cycle, and all HabitRPG players start with new days beginning at midnight in their selected timezones. Cron processing does not immediately occur at midnight (or the player's set custom day start time), but when the player's account first interacts with the site following that set time.

Syncing
Therefore, if you are logged in at your Day Start time (midnight by default), you may need to press the Sync button to refresh your tasks. This shows particularly during boss quests, when a player interacting with the site for the first time after Cron will deal out damage to the party.

Triggering Cron
Any action that you take will trigger the start-of-day processes (Cron) if that action is your first action of the day.

Examples include (among others)
 * logging in to the site,
 * ticking off a task,
 * hitting the sync button,
 * reloading the page,
 * buying a Reward,
 * changing equipment,
 * casting a skill.

Resting In the Inn
The very first thing that HabitRPG does is check to see if you are Resting in the Inn. If so, it skips ALL of the other start-of-day processes listed below EXCEPT
 * Reset Dailies
 * Reset your drop count to zero (allowing you to find more drops today even if you reached your drop cap yesterday),
 * Remove any buffs you had gained the previous day (this includes effects from Snowball, Spooky Sparkles, and Shiny Seeds).

Normal Cron Processes (Summary)

 * Dailies reset and damage is dealt from any unfinished tasks.
 * Habits that do not have both a "+" and "-" action will have the magnitude of their value reduced towards zero (become more yellow).
 * Mana regenerates by an amount that depends on number of completed Dailies.
 * Snowball, Spooky Sparkles and most buffs expire.
 * Damage to and from quest bosses is calculated and dealt.
 * Drop tallies for collection quests are calculated.

Normal Cron Processes (Detail)

 * For each incomplete active Daily (none of the below applies to grey Dailies)
 * reset the Daily's streak to zero and apply damage to you,
 * if you are on a boss quest, apply extra damage to you and to all other party members on that Quest,
 * change the value of the Daily to make it slightly more red,
 * untick all of the Daily's checkboxes.
 * For each completed Daily
 * untick all of the Daily's checkboxes,
 * untick the Daily itself.
 * Habits that do not have both a "+" and "-" action will have the magnitude of their value reduced towards zero (become more yellow).
 * For each To-Do, change its value to make it slightly more red.
 * Check your Health to see if it is less than zero, and if so, complete the Death Mechanics actions.
 * Reset your drop count to zero (allowing you to find more drops today even if you reached your drop cap yesterday).
 * Remove any buffs you had gained the previous day (this happens after the above actions so that your buffs are still helping you during the Cron actions).
 * Work out if a Perfect Day buff has been earned and if so, apply it.
 * Mana regenerates:
 * On a Perfect Day, the user gains 10 points or 10% of Max MP, whichever is highest.
 * If some due dailies are left incomplete, amount of mana gained is proportional to percentage of due dailies completed. For example, a player who completes 70% of their due dailies will gain 70% of their Perfect Day mana (i.e. 7 MP or 7% of max MP, whichever is higher).
 * Ticked checklist items on incomplete dailies count towards earning mana. For example, a player with 10 active dailies who completes 9 of them will receive 90% of their Perfect Day mana. However, if that player checks half the checklist items on the final uncompleted Daily, they will gain 95% of their Perfect Day mana. If all checklist items on the last incomplete daily are ticked, the player will gain 100% of their Perfect Day mana even though the daily itself has not been ticked.
 * If you are on a quest (boss or collection)
 * Score the quest progress that you personally had accumulated since the previous Cron (i.e., damage to the boss or collection items found), applying that progress to the quest,
 * Return your personal quest progress to zero,
 * Check to see if the quest is finished.,If so, complete end-of-quest actions (victory message and giving out rewards).

Triggering Cron after Several Days of Inactivity
If a player has no interaction with HabitRPG on a certain day, they will experience no Cron that day.

If a player is inactive for several days, and then triggers Cron by interacting with the site, the resultant damage will take into account missed Dailies for all the days on which the player was inactive. This means that a Cron after several days of inactivity can deal large amounts of damage to the user, and also to party members if the user is participating in a boss quest. This can be avoided if the user rests in the inn over the period of inactivity.

All other effects of Cron are the same regardless of when the user last logged in. For instance, Cron-based Mana regeneration will not be higher after several days of inactivity.

Daylight Saving Time
When Daylight Saving Time starts or ends, Cron might occur at an unexpected time or might occur twice in one day. To avoid taking damage, it is recommended to either unschedule your Dailies for that day or Rest in the Inn for the day before and after the time change.

If you die or receive damage during Daylight Saving Time, use the combination of User Data Display tool to see your previous stats and streaks and Fix Character Values to change them.

Running Multiple Devices
If you use HabitRPG on two or more devices, check that the time zones and clock times are the same. Even very slightly different times might cause a problem with multiple Crons being triggered due to multiple day resets.

Custom Day Start
A player may change the time when a new HabitRPG day begins by selecting a custom day start in the Settings screen. A 24-hour clock is used, where 0 is midnight, 12 is noon, and 23 is 11pm. Changing the Custom Day Start time can trigger Cron unexpectedly. To avoid damage from this, it is strongly recommended that you read and follow the guidelines at Custom Day Start.

Damage from Quest Bosses
Cron calculations after the first interaction with the game can be especially tricky for parties where members are in different time zones. Actions by your party members that occur between your Day Start time and your account's first interaction with the game will affect your character. If you know the time zones of your party members, it can help prevent damage from boss quests.

For example, John is 8 hours ahead of Jane. John wakes up, logs in, and his calculations begin. He didn't complete 5 of his Dailies, so the boss deals 10 damage to him AND to Jane. Jane wakes up 8 hours later, logs in, and her calculations begin. She automatically gets 10 damage caused by John. Then she didn't complete 2 of her Dailies, so the boss deals 4 damage to her AND to John. She will have 14 total loss of HP for that day.

Buff Strategy
On a related topic, any buffs you cast for your party disappear after your party member's next Cron. If you are the first person in your party to log in for the day, you will want to hold casting your party buffs until after everyone has logged in. Otherwise, you are effectively buffing the group for their yesterday, since their Cron hasn't processed yet, and they immediately lose the buff when they log in.

Furthermore, any Habits they check off after they log in but before you cast your buff do not get the benefit either; buffs for the day are not retroactively applied. So the most effective way to make sure everyone gets their buff for the day is to check off Dailies after everyone else has logged in and used their buff spells for the day.

Cron Ran - Dailies Remain Checked
Cron