Surviving overtime

What exactly happens when the phase clock runs out — and how to use it without dying trying.

What overtime is

Phases last 10 minutes for phase 1, 8:30 for phase 2 and 6 for phase 3 — and some maps bring a shorter clock of their own (the Corrupted Desert, 8:30 from phase 1; the Marshland, 6 in all three). If you're still on the map when the phase clock runs out, you enter overtime: difficulty, which until then climbed a gentle +3% per minute, starts climbing +60% per minute. And if you've already killed the boss and still stick around, the pace rises to +150% per minute. The game calls it “advance or die” for a reason.

Everything that speeds up

It's not just enemy damage and health. In overtime, spawn rate also grows (+50%/min before the boss, +90% after, up to ×6) along with enemy movement speed (+7%/min before, +18% after, up to ×1.9). After the boss dies, finisher waves also appear: every 60 seconds, 4 + 1 per minute (up to 12) charging at you at ×1.8 speed. And from difficulty ×30, enemies spawn with shield charges and mini-bosses with extra armor.

TipThe cheap window is the one BEFORE killing the boss: +60%/min versus +150%/min. If you still have things to do on the map — chests, altars, apothecaries — do them with the boss alive, and kill it last as your exit ticket.

How to get out

The only way out of overtime is through the portal, and the portal opens once the phase boss is dead and the phase clock has run out. When the map turns impossible, remember the order: kill the boss, use the portal, and start the next phase at floor difficulty (the overtime ramp is wiped when you cross). That holds for phases 1 and 2: in phase 3 the portal no longer advances — it announces that you've completed the 3 phases — and overtime becomes the real ending, with no way out and at the expensive pace (+150%/min and finishers), until you die or abandon with your score made.

Watch outBoss health freezes the moment it spawns: a boss summoned deep into overtime comes in far beefier than one from its scheduled time (minute 8 in a 10-minute phase, 7 in an 8:30 one, 5 in a 6-minute one). One more reason not to let the clock run for free.

In dungeons

Dungeons have no phase clock, so there is no “clock” overtime either: while you work through objectives, difficulty only rises the usual +3% per minute, with no cap. Overtime starts when the exit opens — when the boss dies or, in the bossless phases of the Dwarven Dungeon, when the last objective is done — and it starts straight at the expensive pace: +150% per minute and finisher waves. Overtime gains you nothing there: your record is your time, so use the portal as soon as it opens.

Guide checked against game v0.9.16.