What is effect of weather and day-night cycle?

The game features a dynamic weather system and day-night cycle. Freaker activity is heavily affected by these factors. They tend to be more active and numerous during the night or cold weather like storms. During the day, they are slower and seem to have a shorter line of sight. You can check the time of day and weather conditions by accessing the Map menu.

This is also essentially important when you’re tackling missions like clearing Nests at Infestation Zones. If you burn a Nest during the day, more freakers will come out since they’ll be hibernating. You may consider burning nests at night but you’ll have to deal with more active freakers around the surrounding area.

At night, you may also encounter a Horde of swarmers. These large group of freakers can’t be taken out by conventional means and you can’t run through them either. They move as a group and alerting one of them will mean alerting the entire horde. Avoid them until you’re really ready.

Hordes will always wander near caves where they can return to when the sun rises. These caves will often have a NERO Beacon, and an Injector. (gives permanent health, stamina, or focus Boost to Deacon when used) That’s why it’s safer to explore the Cave at night while it is empty and while the Horde is out. Make sure to take note of the time since you don’t want to be inside a cave just when the sun rises and encounter the horde on the way back.

You can advance night or day by resting at a bed in encampment, safehouses, MMUs inside cleared checkpoints, Bunkers inside cleared Ambush Camps, and more. There are also certain Storyline missions that will advance the time of day upon reaching a story Checkpoint.

Can't sleep?

If you leave a speaker blaring inside a NERO Checkpoint, you won't be able to use the bunk to sleep. Make sure find the speaker and disable it so you can use the bunk inside the MMU and prevent unwanted guests from visiting.