Once every 24 hours, every game world has to save the changes in characters' stats (levels, items), process auctions for houses and guildhalls, process Char Bazaar auctions, process Character World Transfers, etc. Before such a server save can take place, all characters in the game world have to be logged out. Therefore, you may get notification messages like:
09:55:00 Server is saving game in 5 minutes. Please come back in 10 minutes.
09:57:00 Server is saving game in 3 minutes. Please come back in 10 minutes.
09:59:00 Server is saving game in 1 minute. Please log out.
In these examples, “09” is the hour before the hour of the server save. It’s always “09” in CET/CEST but it might look different for you if you’re not in the CET/CEST time zone.
Server Save, Server Boot, and Server Open
After the server goes offline at 10:00:00, the game world data is saved, and the server boots up again initializing a new day (including new Mini World Changes). Any auctions for houses and guildhalls, Char Bazaar auctions, and Character World Transfers are processed. Once complete the server is up and it’s possible to log in again. The time these different processes take varies per day, but is roughly similar on most days. Here’s an example:
- 10:00:00 Server Save: The server goes offline.
- 10:02:42 Server Boot: The server goes online, but logging in is not possible yet. Tibia Observer notifications about Mini World Changes are delivered.
- 10:06:00 Server Open: It’s now possible to log in to the server.
On days with extended server saves due to maintenance work, the time between Server Save and Server Boot lasts significantly longer.
It can be useful to know the Server Boot time since several time-based game mechanics start their clock at this point. The Server Boot time for your server can be observed by noting the time the first Tibia Observer notifications about Mini World Changes are delivered that particular day.
List of time-based mechanics starting from Server Save
Server Boot
The "first occurrence" timing of these events is determined by Server Boot.
| Event | First occurrence (minutes) | Interval (minutes) |
|---|---|---|
| Kingsday raid | 60? | 60 |
| Bank Robbery chance | 60 | 60 |
| Mawhawk spawn chance | 0 | 10 |
| Albino Dragon spawn chance | 10 | 30 |
| Bane Lord wave chance | 25 | 25 (carries over to following days) |
| Hive stage 3 bosses spawn chance | 0? | 15 |
| Oramond Factory Raids change | 5 | 60 |
| Oramond Factory bosses spawn | 60 | 60 |
| The Great Schnitzel Hunt during Orcsoberfest | 120? | 120 |
| Cake Golem raid during A Piece of Cake | 60 | 60 |
| Mystic Jaguar spawn chance | 10 | 15 |
Server Open
The "first occurrence" timing of these events is determined by Server Open.
| Event | First occurrence (minutes) | Interval (minutes) |
|---|---|---|
| Otherworld portal change | 0 | 120 |
| Mutated Pumpkin raid | 0 | 240 |
| Wild Horse raid | 0 | 180 |
| Fiendish Creature timer starts | 0 | 2:15 |
| Bewitched ingredients wave | 480 | 480 (carries over to following days, timer pauses during SS) |
| Last Creep Standing round | 255 | 240 (carries over to following days, timer pauses during SS) |
| Ebb and Flow flooding cycle | 0 | 2 |
Several raids begin at Server Open:
- The Abomination
- Morshabaal
- Rotrender
- Sir Leopold
- This raid always occurs on the 23rd day of every month. The boss spawns exactly 30 minutes after Server Open.
- Spectral Scum raids from A Pirate's Death to Me
Recommendations
Here are some recommendations if you are playing shortly before a server save:
- Leave your hunting cave immediately, or at least move your character to a place with little or no respawn. In the past it was common to die shortly after logging in into full spawn. However, since Update 9.5 it is no longer so dangerous to login in full spawn of monsters. Remember that the monsters will not see you anymore during 10 seconds period after login, unless you move or attack.
- If possible, go inside a Protection Zone, Player-killers often wait for server save to prey on others, as they are forced to logout at server save time, which dramatically cuts down the time they are skulled.
- If you are logged out at a dangerous place, try using one of your lower level characters to ask a friend with a level (preferably) equal or higher than yours to "rescue" you by clearing the spawn before you log in, this can potentially save your life, or at least prevent you from wasting a lot of mana or potions.
- Depots are usually refresh zones, i.e. they are reset to their original state after each server save to keep them clean (Floor Reset). If you put items you don't want to lose over your depot box (or anywhere else in the depot), and people trash them, just use Browse Field to be able to rescue them in time.
- Server saves are there to save the data of everybody, so if the server crashes they can look back at the latest server save before the crash, and reset it to that point.
History
Since September 21st 2011 all servers save at 10:00:00 CEST/CET. You can see the current CET/CEST time and information related to the previous and next Server Saves on our Daily Status article.
Before September 21st 2011 there were few different times of for the server saves. On this date Cip synchronised the daily server saves to improve maintenance processes. From then on, the daily server save takes place at 10:00:00 CEST/CET on all game worlds.
Before Summer Update 2006, on normal PvP-worlds, you could attack a player, thus getting a skull, and log out one second later. Needless to say, this made server save a very dangerous period.
Since then, Cipsoft has changed the rules for logging out before the Server Save. Players can now no longer log out with a logout block unless they are forced to by the server shutting down.