Thyme serves as the the game's "risk/reward" Character.
General Description
Thyme is a playable Character designed around a risk/reward playstyle, as demonstrated in their starting Item, the Thymepiece. They are the last Character to be unlocked through the traditional means of beating Years, as they require Year 4 to be beaten in order to be unlocked.
Upside
Thyme features two upsides; their additional time and their starting Pig.
Thymepiece
Thyme's main upside is from their custom Item, the Thymepiece. This device adds 50% more time to each day, making the average day will go from one minute to about one minute 30 seconds. This vast increase allows players much more time to complete daily tasks, such as farming Crops and clearing Camps. In addition, various Farm Animals will be able to do more of their specific tasks, making them more productive overall. Chickens and Turkeys especially will become more useful, as the increased time allows for them to lay more eggs overall. Players will also have more chances to use their Tractor, as the Thymepiece's increase allows for more time for the given Tractor to recharge. The increased time also affects nightly waves, allowing players to also be more productive and how more time to deal with Enemies during the night.
Starting Pig
Thyme's other perk is always beginning with a free Pig at the start of each run. This allows Thyme an immediate source of breaking open crust right from the start. This can be of benefit, as in the beginning of the run players will only have very little land to farm Crops on otherwise. In addition, the free Pig pairs well with the Thymepiece, as it will have more opportunities to till soil and break open crust.
Downside
Like Thyme's upside, their downside can also be found within the Thymepiece. Upon taking damage 20 seconds will be removed from the current day timer. Note that this effect only affects that current day; the effect will not be carried over into the remaining days in the run. This effectively means that Thyme is heavily based around not taking damage, as taking damage only twice in the same day negates the benefits proposed by the Thymepiece for that day. In addition, taking damage at the wrong moments can have disaterious consequences, such as the moments prior to or during dusk or during nightly waves. This is because taking damage during these points can prompt the night attacks to begin earlier than the player intended. This can be especially detrimental while the player is out clearing Camps in higher tier Biomes and lack a means to quickly return to the Farm. Due to these aspects, Thyme may be a difficult Character to play as for less experienced players.
Strategies
In order to maximize the benefit of the Thymepiece, players will need to minimize how often they take damage. To accomplish this, Items such as Bubble Shield, Gourds, Harvest Shield, Helpful Worm, Lard, Psychoactive Weeds, and Sow Shield can all be used to help minimize damage. Despite how it blocks the player's main health bar, Organic Armor will still cause the day to lose 20 seconds when the player takes damage. Due to this, Organic Armor does not serve as a great method to avoid Thyme's downside. It is advised to avoid utilizing Hotwire as Thyme, due to it's possibility to invoke damage. Likewise, players will need to justify if losing 20 seconds is worth sacrificing at damage Shrines. Depending on the situation, they may want to take the farming option instead.
Trivia
- Thyme's name is an obvious pun on the word "time".
- Thyme was one of the two Characters added in the Thyme Flies Update, the other of which was Dandelion.
- Thyme used to face backwards during the marriage animation, making the given Spouse kiss the air behind Thyme's head. This was fixed in a stealth patch.
- Thyme was originally going to be reworked in the Invasive Species Update. While this update was still in beta, Thyme was modified to be different than their current version, which is now referred to as Beta Thyme for reference purposes.
- This reworked version was pulled before it could be implemented into the main branch due to feedback from the community.
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