Ticks

A tick is the game's clock. Generators, operations, studies, automation and loop bars all advance per tick.

Any time · ticks, timing, basics · updated 2026-10-25

Early ticks last about 4 seconds. Mod Tree time dilation nodes cut that down. See Mod Branch: Loop and Time.
A faster tick speeds up everything that runs on ticks, not just Cell income.
Automation levels are measured in purchase attempts per tick. An attempt can fail if you cannot afford the buy.
Arcade rounds pay extra ticks. Worth about ticks times seconds per tick of free time. At a 4 second tick, 40 ticks is a bit under 3 minutes.