Rise of the Ronin is a massive open-world RPG with a full day and night cycle, and as you would expect from a game like this, certain activities will only be available at certain times of day. Instead of waiting for the clock to strike a specific hour, however, you can fast forward time with the help of a useful item that you obtain very early in the main storyline.
How to Skip Time in Rise of the Ronin
To change the time of day in Rise of the Ronin, you can use the Pocket Watch. Just open the Equipment menu and add it to your equipped items so you can use it. Once you open it up, you’ll be able to choose the exact time that you want and the game will automatically fast-forward in real-time with no loading screens.
You get the Pocket Watch from Sakamoto Ryoma very early in Rise of the Ronin, so if you don’t have it yet, just keep following the main story until you reach Yokohama and complete the first few quests there. You can’t miss the Pocket Watch and you can’t accidentally sell it or anything like that, so it’ll always be in your key items alongside the Horse Whistle and other useful things.
While you can start most missions and side activities in Rise of the Ronin at any time of day, there is one major exception to this rule: Fugitives. These are minibosses scattered throughout the open world that will reward you with new combat styles upon defeat, but some of them only spawn when certain criteria are met. Quite a few Fugitives will only appear at nighttime, for example, so make use of the Pocket Watch to force them to spawn.
The Pocket Watch doesn’t have many other uses in Rise of the Ronin so you don’t need to keep it equipped at all times during your adventure, but don’t forget about it if you encounter an enemy that only appears at a certain time or need the cover of darkness to make a stealthy infiltration a bit easier.
