Rogue to Redemption is a great, adventure-packed game that has been (after much anticipation) released, nearly 20 years since the last Quest For Glory game came out.

As anyone who plays the game can quickly surmise, the gameplay centers very heavily around the school day (and night) schedule, so Shawn is constantly making decisions about how to spend his time. This lends itself to an entire behind-the-scenes form of gameplay, where you use the minutes and hours you have to the best effect (or worst, depending on how wisely you spend your time).

This guide gives a mostly spoiler-free way to best spend your day, with quite a bit of meta-game analysis along the way. This should be a perfectly safe guide to read if you are early in the game or even if you haven’t even fired it up for the first time.

Time in Hero-U is the unspoken currency - how much you spend it depends on where and when you use it.

There are essentially four ways time passes in Hero-U: Traveling, Training, Tasks and Scheduled Events (sorry, couldn’t keep up the alliteration).

• Traveling: If you stand perfectly still in Hero-U, you’ll notice something interesting: time stops! The only way time moves forward is if you are doing something or going somewhere. The second part is where Traveling falls under - waking up the stairs between areas, sneaking slowly in the hall to avoid Terk, running through the wine cellar away from Drats... these all eat up time. Keep this in mind if you have to be somewhere at a given time: it can take 30 minutes or more to reach some of the more remote areas. With this in mind, don’t go from one wing of the school to the next and then return to the first area if you can avoid it - you’re wasting valuable time that you could have spent in one location.
  
  
• Training: This is one the of the BIGGEST time eaters in Hero-U, which makes sense given that you are in a school. Whether you are reading a book, training with the combat dummies or taking an elective, these usually take an hour (sometimes more) of your day. In addition, if you have an upcoming Scheduled Event (like Dinner), you won’t even be able to START a Training activity, so you must choose VERY wisely when picking when, where and what Training activities you will do (see my separate Skills + Training guide on which Training is the most effective).
  
  
• Tasks: Everything you do in Hero-U, whether it is having a conversation to picking a lock to purchasing something in a store takes a chunk of time. If you sit with someone and exhaust all the dialogue options it will take more time than just opening the store and grabbing a quick purchase. Keep in mind... when it comes to learning, DOING is better than TRAINING. Let me repeated that again... **DOING is better than TRAINING** Sure, you can spend an hour on the training dummy... but you can often get the same amount of experience with a two minute fight with a Drat (albeit more dangerously). There are some pretty key exceptions to this, which is why you should Train every day (and why you should read my Skills Guide)!
  
  
• Scheduled Events: This can be one of the most misunderstood parts of the time management in Hero:U. When we hear the dinner bell ring, we naturally assume it’s time to head to the kitchen. However, the game will “end” dinner at 7 PM, regardless of when you arrive. There is no penalty to being late, so if you arrive at 5 PM sharp when the dinner bell rings or if you spend your time talking to your classmates, picking mushrooms from the garden or playing Solitaire and the game forces you to show up “late,” then dinner goes on as planned, no hiccups or delays. This is true of Dinner ONLY as long as you are in either the school or Cellars, any other locations will not insta-teleport you. Also keep in mind that Elective classes are NOT forced Scheduled Events, so if you just flat don’t show up, then you miss the class entirely.

When using your day, you will notice not all days are created equal. Some have plot-driven days, some have detours to places like Terk’s office, some are much shorter or longer than others. However, generally speaking, there are three types of day: Normal School Days, Elective Days and Days Off.

In my Skills Guide, I will talk about the Ideal Training Method, which will involve getting two hours training in the Practice Room and one hour Reading. For more details, see that guide, but keep in mind that the below review of the different Days will involve maximizing these three hours of Training.

In addition, to Maximize Plot, there’s a few things you should do every day - talk to Herr Gerhard, talk to Joel (he’ll clue you in on most developments within the school), talk to any other classmates where you can find them (such as the Practice Room), talk to the Healer Moira, talk to the Receptionist Sophia (all can be done after class, before dinner), talk to the Chef (best time is right after dinner), go up to the Mezzanine after dinner and listen to the doors at outside the Paladin hall (listening for a scene with Thomas) and outside the Faculty Lounge (to eavesdrop on the teachers). Also, you can read the large book in the center of the library to talk about the history of the founders of the castle (and their dark fate), which makes things in the end-game make a little more sense. In addition, between 7-10, you can usually find your classmates in the Rec Room, where you can talk, play games (like Poobah) and even go on a date with someone you are romancing!

• Normal School Days: These days start with class and then open up for exploration at 2 PM, starting outside of the ~~Rogue~~ Disbarred Bards class. You will have between 2 and 6 open to do as you please, then from 7 to 10 PM until curfew, then from 10 to 1 AM until Shawn collapses from exhaustion. This is your “standard” day and gives you 10 hours to do with as you see fit. Anytime between 5 and 6 will prevent you from training, and you won’t be able to read any book outside of the desk in your room after 9 PM. The ideal here is to do your two Workout Training right after class, then spend the time afterwards (4:30-6) talking to people, exploring the area and practicing games by yourself in the Rec Room (see my Skills Guide for a review on the Rec Room games).
  
  
• Elective Days: This closely mirrors the Normal/Standard day, except you have your elective class. The bell rings for the class to “start” at 3 PM, however I have had Shawn show up to class as late at 4:15 and still have things proceed as normally. Regardless, this really cuts up your day. What you can try to do is do one Workout at 2, hustle upstairs to talk to a few people (it will take you every bit of 45 minutes to talk to everyone and walk to any elective classroom, especially if you need to Sneak past Terk), getting your second workout and reading your book after dinner. Conversely, you can go straight from class to the library to read and talk, then do your workouts in the evening. Either way, make sure you arrive at your elective before 4:15, otherwise you won’t get any credit...
  
  
• Days Off: These are unique, as you will start your day earlier (11 AM), you will begin it upstairs (in front of the kitchens), you often won’t have your classmates to talk to and you won’t have an elective to manage. This gives you a lot of time to either get some practice in, do some exploring or even Read (I wouldn’t recommend this - there is a “Read Until Supertime” option now when reading a book, but this is rarely worth the time lost in terms of the boost). These are easy, however, to lose track of time... make sure you plan enough time for your daily Trainings and Dinner if you go diving into dangerous places. Lastly, if you were up late the night before and are Sleepy, you can spend an hour taking a nap with more leisure time, which can help make nighttime activities like dungeon diving an easier affair.

The final aspect of managing your time is my favorite pastime... SLEEP!

Sleep in Hero-U is pretty straightforward: you go to Shawn’s room, you click on your bed and you enter blissful dreamland. If you go to bed before midnight, Shawn wakes up bright eyed and bushy-tailed. If you go to bed after midnight (even by one minute), Shawn will be Sleepy the next day, which puts penalties on Perception, Smarts and possibly a few other things (as well as earns you a tongue lashing in class the next day). And, of course, if Shawn is ANYWHERE (even the most dangerous dungeon) at 1 AM, the game will automatically take you to bed (and, of course, Shawn will be Sleepy).

Seems cut and dry, right? Go to bed on time. However... how bad is Sleepy? I’ll wager it’s not bad at all. I’ve never had trouble eavesdropping on a conversation because I was Sleepy, not does Smarts often have a massive effect on gameplay most times of the game. In addition, the penalty given by Sleepy is very minor, -2 or -3, as far as I can tell. However, if instead you can fight five more Drats (boosting your Combat, Defense and Luck) or sneak off and practice Lockpicking your teacher’s office, is that worth having an extra hour in your day?

Keep in mind that despite the harsh words in class the next day, your relationship score with your teacher will not go down because of it. So it’s up to you whether or not it is worth the cost.

Keep in mind that it’s important to not become so rigid in your schedule that you miss the game itself. If going on a date prevents you from getting all your Training in, don’t sweat it. If figuring out a puzzle takes the entire night and you don’t get to listen outside the Faculty Lounge, it will be all be okay.

Certain tasks will need to take precedence, of course:

• Any event where the game is clearly saying you will run out of time in X amount of time. While even these events will ultimately resolve themselves (one way or the other), Shawn will lose the chance to resolve them on his terms, so listen when the game gives you hard timeframes.
  
  
• Poobah is, hands down, one of the best ways to earn money at any point in the game. Always make sure you attend the game with your classmates, as you will be hard pressed to buy some pretty necessary items if not for their hard-earned winnings. NEVER miss Poobah nights.
  
  
• MINOR SPOILERS: There is a limited amount of time during the Nights of the Dead where you can interact with ghosts and do certain tasks. Make sure you do what you can during these nights, with any sort of normal adventuring likely taking a backseat.