This is an overview of the various factors in-game that are used in triggering randomly-occurring events across the dream world.
Per Dream Session
Every dream session, or when sleeping in the bed in Urotsuki's Dream Apartments, there are certain elements in the dream world that may appear differently. This could result in a change to The Nexus' background, or influence the availability of some events. This is determined by Variable #44, a fixed value that falls under the range of 0 and 255.
There are many Variable #44 events that use it to make the event a rare occurrence or to change how the event appears. Some events can be used to approximate the value of this variable.
Seasonal System
Seasons change every three dream sessions, where the seasonal system follows the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall.
Internally, the season is determined by Variable #0094. Refer to the table below.
| Season | Variable #0094 |
|---|---|
| Winter | 0 |
| Spring | 1 |
| Summer | 2 |
| Fall | 3 |
The easiest and fastest way of checking the current season is by looking at the clothing rack on the balcony of Urotsuki's Dream Room, which will have different clothing hung on it depending on the season. The different appearances are as follows:
Winter or Spring
Summer
Fall
Additionally, there are specific worlds that give signifiers of what the current season is. The Four Seasons Forest changes its overall appearance depending on the in-game season, a cup near a vending machine in Coffee Cup World changes its contents depending on the season, and a circular panel in the Subterranean Research Center will light up a portion of itself depending on the season.
The in-game season may also affect different gameplay features. One well-known example is the Teru Teru Bōzu effect creating snow instead of rain if the season is winter. Below is a list of various ways the season affects various worlds:
- In the Sofa Room, a cat NPC will appear if the season is summer or winter. If Variable #44 has a value of 223 or higher and the season is spring or fall, then an NPC called Noranyan will appear there.
- In the Tricolor Room, if the current season is spring or summer and you have killed the Piano Girl, interacting with the chair with the Child effect will take you to the Serenade, a blue sub-area of the Tricolor Room.
- Three out of the twelve zodiac signs will appear in Constellation World depending on the zodiac's associated season in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Aries, Taurus, and Gemini appear if the season is spring.
- Cancer, Leo, and Virgo appear if the season is summer.
- Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius appear if the season is fall.
- Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces appear if the season is winter.
- If the in-game season is winter and the Teru Teru Bōzu effect is used to make it snow at the Calcarina Sea, a white star will appear that takes the player to the Calcarina Snowfield sub-area.
- In Libra Palace, a gray scale will appear in the world if the season is fall. This leads to Constellation World and creates an unlocked connection between the two areas, though it will still only appear during the fall even after the connection is unlocked.
- In Snowman World, a snowman dressed as Santa Claus will appear if the in-game season is winter. Interacting with this dressed snowman gives the player Menu Theme #47.
- If the in-game season is summer, a door within the Honeybee Laboratory will open and allow access to the Energy Complex.
- An ice door will appear on the seventh floor of Refrigerator Tower if the in-game season is winter, granting access to the Freezer sub-area.
- The hat stand in the Home Within Nowhere will have a different wearable hat depending on the in-game season: a straw hat for summer, a puffy cap for spring, a beret for fall, and a beanie for winter.
- Additionally, there are statues/gravestones in the Field of Cosmos that allow you to place these hats on them, which will persist even after waking up or changing the season, allowing for the hats to be worn outside of their assigned season.
- In the Hatred Palace, if the in-game season is winter and a combination of the Teru Teru Bōzu and Penguin effects is used in front of a painting within the palace, a hole will open up that grants access to Digital Heart Space.
- A telescope within the Astronomical Gallery can be looked through to view different constellations and planets that differ depending on the in-game season.
Season Calculator
It is also possible to calculate the current season by using the amount of dream sessions that have been had since the game started. This value can be obtained when loading a game, saving a game, or on the fourth page of the data section on the Computer.
Input the aforementioned value in the following field to calculate the season in your next dream.
It is also possible to manually calculate the season in the next dream using the following formula:
season = floor((#+5)/3) mod 4
In this equation, # refers to the current number of dreams, floor() rounds down to the nearest integer, and mod 4 returns the remainder after division by 4. The seasons output by the formula are numbered 0-3 as in the table above.
Coin Acquisition
When killing creatures across the Dream World, there is a probability that you earn money upon doing so, and it is determined by the Coin Acquisition variable, Variable #15, where the range is assigned to different NPCs that can be killed. One example of a random event linked to this variable is in the random events on the TV of Urotsuki's Dream Room.