Tick

The tick (also called an "AP tick") is the moment when a player's character receives an additional action point (AP). Both zombies and survivors, whether alive or dead, receive AP ticks at regular thirty minute intervals throughout the day. AP ticks only occur while the character is below their maximum AP of 50. Once they reach 50 AP, ticks cease to occur until the character dips below their maximum AP by engaging in an action.

Pausing and Resuming

The thirty minute timer that tells the game when a character should receive their AP tick pauses once the character reaches 50 AP. Once the character engages in an action and dips to 49AP, the timer resumes its countdown. As a result, characters in the game receive their ticks at different times throughout the day, though everyone still receives them at the same rate of one per thirty minutes.

For an example of how the pausing and resuming might appear in practice, consider the following hypothetical timeline:

1. 10:00 Random_Player receives AP tick, reaches 49 AP
2. 10:30 Random_Player receives AP tick, reaches 50 AP; timer pauses
3. 11:00 Nothing happens since timer is paused
4. 11:12 Random_Player engages in an action, drops to 49AP; timer resumes
5. 11:42 Random_Player receives AP tick, reaches 50 AP; timer pauses
6. 11:44 Random_Player engages in an action, drops to 49AP; timer resumes
7. 11:47 Random_Player engages in an action, drops to 48AP
8. 12:14 Random_Player receives AP tick, reaches 49 AP
9. 12:44 Random_Player receives AP tick, reaches 50 AP; timer pauses

Meanwhile, a second player who started off at a lower AP but received their first tick at the same time may have received subsequent ticks at 10:30, 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, and so on.

Because of the fact that the time the tick occurs is entirely the result of when a player engages in an action, players are effectively capable of choosing when they would like for their ticks to occur.

Tactics

It may be possible to leverage an awareness of how ticks work in order to "steal" an AP for use at an earlier time. For instance, strike teams that meet at the same time every day may benefit from arranging to have their tick take place shortly after the strike is set to start. Doing so allows them to receive an "extra" AP to use. That said, since failing to use it would simply result in it being used the next day, there is no net benefit. It's simply a matter of making available a choice (i.e. is it better to spend this one AP now or tomorrow?), and is probably best saved for situations where one AP can make a difference, such as when using ?rise and the like.