The world of Where Winds Meet runs on an ancient Chinese hour system. Main story beats, hidden encounters, and even animal behavior can shift depending on whether the in-game clock sits at Zi, Mao, Wu, or another lunar hour. If a quest tells you to “come back at Zi hour” and nothing seems to happen, the problem usually isn’t the objective — it’s the time.
How the Chinese hour system works in Where Winds Meet
Instead of a 24-slot clock, Where Winds Meet divides the day into twelve two-hour blocks, each with a Pinyin name. Many quest prompts reference these names directly, so understanding them is essential.
| Hour name | Approx. real-time range | Typical in-game use |
|---|---|---|
| Zi | 23:00 – 01:00 | Late-night encounters, “come at Zi hour” objectives |
| Chou | 01:00 – 03:00 | Quiet night exploration, fewer crowds |
| Yin | 03:00 – 05:00 | Pre-dawn transitions |
| Mao | 05:00 – 07:00 | Dawn events such as “March of the Dead” progress checks |
| Chen | 07:00 – 09:00 | Morning village activity |
| Si | 09:00 – 11:00 | Late-morning errands and NPC routines |
| Wu | 11:00 – 13:00 | Midday puzzles like the Halo Peak Tower solar array |
| Wei | 13:00 – 15:00 | Early afternoon exploration and some wildlife peaks |
| Shen | 15:00 – 17:00 | Late afternoon combat and travel |
| You | 17:00 – 19:00 | Evening village scenes and markets |
| Xu | 19:00 – 21:00 | Early night gatherings and conversations |
| Hai | 21:00 – 23:00 | Night preparation for Zi hour encounters |
Every in-game time requirement maps to one of these blocks. If an objective calls out “Zi hour tomorrow” or tells you to return at Mao or Wu, you are being pointed to one of these two specific two-hour slots.
How to change the time of day in Where Winds Meet
Manually moving the clock is the main way to hit the right hour without waiting around. The feature is built into the main menu in Solo Mode.
| Step | Action | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open the game menu | Press ESC on PC or the Start button on a controller. |
| 2 | Find the clock icon | Use the scrolling function list on the right side of the menu and highlight the clock symbol. |
| 3 | Open the time screen | Select the clock icon to bring up a large circular clock with hour labels. |
| 4 | Choose a lunar hour | Move the selector to the named hour you need (for example, Zi, Mao, or Wu). |
| 5 | Confirm the change | Advance time forward to that block; the world lighting, NPC schedules, and quest triggers update to match. |
All adjustments are locked to those two-hour intervals — there is no way to dial in 11:30 specifically. If you pick Wu, you get the entire 11:00–13:00 window, which is enough to satisfy anything that checks for “midday.”
Another important limitation: you can only push time forward, never backward. If you overshoot Zi hour, you have to wind through the next in-game day and reselect it once the clock cycles back around.
What Zi hour actually means in quests
Zi hour is the late-night slot between 23:00 and 01:00 and sits at the end of the in-game clock. Several quests and encounters flag it explicitly, which can be confusing if you are expecting a precise clock readout rather than a named block.
The game usually handles Zi hour in three patterns:
- “Wait until the Zi hour, then head to X” — you are expected to move the clock to Zi using the menu, then travel.
- “Come to the tower at Zi hour tomorrow” — the script looks for Zi on the next in-game day, not the current one.
- Implicit checks, like certain shrine or shrine-adjacent encounters that only appear when the clock sits on Zi.
Zi is also the most common time for ambushes, duels, or meetings with characters who prefer to stay hidden. If a quest’s tone leans toward secrecy or vengeance, Zi hour is often where the story wants you.
Twisted Destiny and waiting for Zi hour
One of the clearest examples of the system in action is the hidden “Twisted Destiny” exploration quest in Qinghe. The earliest roadblock comes from its Zi-hour requirement.
How to start Twisted Destiny
Twisted Destiny doesn’t sit on the map. To trigger it, you have to stumble into it:
| Step | Location | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastern Qinghe, south of Bamboo Abode | A narrow passage that ends at a ruined house. |
| 2 | House entrance | A bloody note pinned to the wall with a knife, just to the left of the door. |
| 3 | Inside the house | A wardrobe behind the wall where the note hangs; this lets you change into Uncle Jiang’s old clothes. |
Interacting with the bloody note starts the quest. Swapping into the old clothes sets up the identity confusion that powers the rest of the story.
How to correctly “wait until the Zi hour” in Twisted Destiny
After changing outfits, the quest asks you to go to the General’s Shrine and wait for Zi hour. This is a direct call to the time-change system.
| Requirement | Action at the shrine | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Reach the General’s Shrine | Travel northwest from the ruined house to the marked shrine. | Quest updates to mention Zi hour. |
| Set the hour | Open the menu, select the Time screen, and pick Zi on the clock. | The world advances to late night. |
| Trigger the encounter | Exit the menu and move within the shrine grounds. | A cutscene plays: a mysterious blinded headsman attacks, leading into a non-lethal fight. |
If nothing happens after you change time, the most common issues are being outside the shrine’s trigger radius or still standing in the wrong quest step. Stepping out and back in after setting Zi often nudges the script into firing.
Once the blind man's confrontation ends, the quest turns into an investigation. You must inspect six clues in and around the shrine — three near the statues outside and three inside. Only after collecting all six does the Deduction puzzle unlock.
Twisted Destiny Deduction puzzle answers
The Deduction mechanic asks you to combine clues into conclusions and then use those conclusions to answer story questions. The logic chain in Twisted Destiny is fixed, so it is possible to lay it out cleanly.
| Question | Clues to combine | Resulting conclusion |
|---|---|---|
| What ties do these statues have to Wang Qing? | Statue’s Face + Confession Letter | Ones who wronged the General |
| How does the killer in the General’s Shrine view Wang Qing? | A General’s Death Repaid with Heads + Remember the General’s Teaching | From Respect to Blind Devotion |
| What brought the killer to the General’s Shrine? | From Respect to Blind Devotion + Ones who wronged the General | Avenge General Wang Qing |
| Where could this person go next? What for? | A Resident of Harvestfall Village + Avenge General Wang Qing | Go to Harvestfall Village and slay the traitor |
Solving the puzzle points you straight toward Harvestfall Village, west of the shrine, where the blind man reappears, and the quest moves into its final act of impersonations, stolen wine, and a chase after a fleeing veteran.
Other time-sensitive quests and encounters
Twisted Destiny is only one example of how the clock shapes the game. Several other activities either lock or unlock based on lunar hours.
| Activity | Region | Time requirement | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Man in the Well encounter | Qinghe | Zi hour | Requires returning at the final hour on the clock to progress the encounter. |
| Halo Peak Tower solar puzzle | Moonveil Mountain | Wu hour (midday) | Sunlight alignment only works when the clock sits at Wu. |
| March of the Dead quest | Moonveil Mountain | Mao hour (dawn) | Certain objectives only advance if you visit at dawn. |
| Various animal spawns, including horses | Across regions | Specific daytime blocks | Some creatures appear more often around midday than at night. |
For completionists chasing exploration points, Echo Jade, and side-quest rewards, the in-game clock becomes another tool: setting Mao before dawn-focused tasks, Wu for anything mentioning the sun at its peak, and Zi whenever a quest leans into ghosts, vengeance, or secret meetings.
Thinking in terms of lunar hours rather than minutes turns Where Winds Meet into a kind of living schedule. Zi hour in particular anchors some of the game’s stranger and more memorable encounters, from shrine killers to duels at lonely towers. As long as you treat the time screen as part of your toolkit, those “come back later” prompts stop being roadblocks and start feeling like deliberate appointments.
