Pathologic 3 essentially retells the story of The Bachelor, but it does so while adding various new elements to the experience. One of these mechanics involves the use of clocks, making them much more significant to the overall gameplay than you may initially expect.
If you’re wondering what purpose the clocks found throughout Pathologic 3 serve, then know that there are multiple ways to use them. The main purpose is time travel. But to use clocks, you first need to grab Amalgam.
Where To Find The Clocks
For starters, the game features two kinds of clocks. Both the larger and smaller clocks can be interacted with, but for the purpose of this guide, we will focus on the larger clocks.
Note that while both types of clocks can be interacted with, the smaller ones cannot be looted. Nonetheless, these clocks are present throughout the Steppe in various buildings, and you will naturally run into them as you progress through the game.
How To Use The Clocks
The clocks serve more than one purpose. For starters, they offer the ability to store up to 12 items, which ties into the second main purpose.
Clocks offer 12-slot storage dedicated to each specific day, operating separately from your personal inventory. This system becomes essential because days reset during time travel, but your stored items remain intact for reuse.
The storage process works through an automatic transfer mechanism: at exactly 2 AM, which marks the end of each day, any excess items in your inventory are automatically dumped into that day’s clock.
But if your inventory is already full when this happens, the items can be lost permanently without notice from the game.
For manual access, all you have to do is approach a glowing clock and hold down E to deposit or retrieve items. The items persist across multiple runs, so storing rare meds like antibiotics and painkillers, shovels and knives, and important quest items will come in handy in alternate runs.
| Item Type | Why Store? | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Rare Meds (e.g., Panacea) | Limited supply, vital for plague fights | High |
| Tools/Weapons | Replays need ’em for scavenging | High |
| Trade Goods (e.g., Bull’s Blood) | Barter power across days | Medium |
| Food/Water | Consumable, easy to forage | Low |
As Pathologic 3 progresses and you reach Day 5, you unlock the ability to time-travel, which also ties in to the ability to issue Decrees. Clocks, as you might have guessed by now, are needed to time-travel. Those familiar with past games may also recognize the time-travel clocks as those previously used to save progress in Pathologic 2.
Once time-travel is unlocked, simply go up to a clock and tap the interact key to travel to a different day of the game. Once you have moved to a different day, you can also use stored items in clocks to make use of them on that specific day.
However, time-travel requires Amalgam, a resource you always want to have on hand. A quick way to save up Amalgam involves smashing all the mirrors that The Bachelor comes across. Amalgam can also be obtained by euthanizing plague victims throughout the Steppe.
How to Time Travel
- Q to spot clock.
- Tap E → Menu lists all 12 days (unlocked ones only).
- Select day → Spend Amalgam (costs scale with distance back) → Starts at 9 AM.
- Replay, make changes, end day to “commit” alterations.
How to Get Amalgam for Time Travel
Getting Amalgam is done through Eva Yan in the Stillwater guesthouse. At the end of each day, around 2AM, go upstairs and talk to her and end the day there. Each time you do this, she hands you 100 Amalgam.
Unfortunately, you can’t loop the day over and over to farm Amalgam because the day is over.
The second method of getting Amalgam is by breaking mirrors wherever you see. Eva Yan in the Stillwater guesthouse. But there are even more ways to get Amalgam:
| Method | Quick How-To | Rough Amount | Watch Out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eva Chat | End day at 2 AM in Stillwater upstairs | 100 | Once per day only |
| Break Mirrors | Smash any you see in town | Small each, stacks up | None – always do it |
| Mind Map Quests | Finish thoughts/tasks | Varies, big for time-travel ones | Save Amalgam first if low |
| Mercy Kills | Steady heart + euthanize infected | Small-medium | Fail = your health hurt |
