You can time travel in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and while it’s one way to supercharge your playthrough, doing so comes with risks — to the degree you might not want to avoid time traveling altogether.
Much of the game progression in Hello Kitty Island Adventure is tied to the Frienship Level you reach with characters. The better friends you become with all the Sanrio cuties, the more quests and items you can unlock. You can level up your friendship with characters by giving them gifts, but the game limits the number of items you can give away every 24 hours in real time.
Time traveling is a way to circumvent this limitation, but the developers of Hello Kitty Island Adventure highly discourage time traveling, warning that it could restrict certain features of the game. (Update, Feb. 7: We’ve included more detailed comments from the developer about specific restrictions.)
The game doesn’t explain much along these lines, so this guide will teach you how time works in Hello Kitty Island Adventure and show you how to time travel, along with a broader explanation about the risks if you choose to do so.
How time works in Hello Kitty Island Aventure
Image: Sunblink via Polygon
Hello Kitty Island Adventure uses a time system that combines a short in-game day cycle with a 24-hour daily clock based on the actual time. Each clock regulates different features in the game.
As you play, the time of day on the island changes, as indicated by the amount of sunshine and the little sun and moon icons just above the minimap. The time of day in the game determines factors like what kinds of critters and fish spawn in a certain area. According to Polygon’s testing, one in-game day lasts one hour in real time. If you have a quest that’s dependent on the in-game time and you don’t want to wait, you can go to a cabin with a bed and select a specific time to wake up.
The game also uses a 24-hour timer based on the real-world date and time set in your gaming system. This timer is much more important because it restricts the number of gifts you can award to a specific character without using special items. You can also unlock daily rewards based on real-world time. For the real-world timer, a new day starts at 2:00 a.m. EST.
Can I time travel in Hello Kitty Island Adventure?
If you want to get around the restrictions placed by the real-world 24-hour clock, you will need to “time travel.” This is the term used to describe the process of editing the system clock in your PC or Nintendo Switch to “trick” the game into thinking a day has passed in the real world. Hello Kitty Island Adventure is extremely sensitive to time travel. According to a representative of its creator, Sunblink, time traveling can introduce “irreversible” and “game-breaking” bugs that take away your ability to participate in season content.
In a statement to Polygon, a representative from Sunblink provided a short list of examples of what could happen to your save file if you do time travel. To quote:
- Multiplayer
- Players will not be able to play with friends or complete multiplayer quests, even if the other players have also time-skipped
- Players will be unable to trade with other players
- No access to friend cabins
- Timed Event Exclusion
- Exclusion from future seasonal events and/or limited-time content, even if you engage with them in the future (such as birthdays or holidays), because their content is not yet released/implemented
- Resetting of event calendars when moving between years
If you’ve time-traveled already and are now worried about your game you at least have one option: start a new save file.
“Note that these effects are per save file and kick in when the save file is accessed. Normal travel through time zones and across the dateline should not trigger any of these.” The representative said, “Adjusting the clock when the game is closed, as long as it is reset to real time, should not trigger any of these.”
How to time travel in Hello Kitty Island Adventure
If you still want to do it — despite the risks — here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Each time Polygon time traveled, we only set the date for a future date. When we did this, we were able to progress the game without issues. When we did time travel “backward” and set the date for an earlier time, the game displayed an error message appeared on when we logged in.
- Once you time travel, it’s difficult to correct the now-incorrect system date and time since it would require you to go backwards in time. There is a potential way to do this, but due to the real-life time and waiting it takes, Polygon has not been able to test a solution. We will update this article as soon as we can with our results. You might just have to put up with an incorrect time and date in your system — which is very annoying!
Image: Sunblink via Polygon
Here is how to time travel in Hello Kitty Island Adventure on the Nintendo Switch:
- Close Hello Kitty Island Aventure. Do this by going to the Switch’s Home screen by pressing Home button. Highlight the game’s icon, press the X button, and click “Close” in the dialogue box that appears.
- Go to your Nintendo Switch System Settings by selecting the gear icon on the home screen. Once there, scroll all the way down, and select “System.”
- Select “Date and Time,” and turn off the setting that says “Synchronize Clock via Internet.”
- Change the date or the time to your desired date.
- Reopen Hello Kitty Island Aventure and the date and time in the game will match whatever you set it to in the Switch’s system preferences.
Here is how to time travel in Hello Kitty Island Adventure on Windows PC:
- Close Hello Kitty Island Adventure on your PC.
- Go to “System Settings” on your PC and click the section, “Time & Language.”
- On the left-hand column, select “Date & Time.”
- Under that section, make sure the top two settings: “Set time automatically” and “Set time zone automatically” are toggled to “Off”
- Just below the toggles, there is text that says “Set the date and time manually.” Click the “Change” button below it.
- It will pull up a small menu. Alter the date on the menu to your desired date and time and select “Change.”
- Relaunch Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Next, see how to unlock the Net and the Fishing Rod in Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
