How much time counts

Load a save 10 seconds or more after it was written and the game replays the time in between. While the game is open, time the computer spends asleep is replayed the same way.

At most 24 hours is replayed. Offline-time bonuses add to that limit and never lower it. Time beyond the limit is lost, not kept for later. The rules are on the Offline Progress mechanics page.

Actions stop the way they would have

The replay runs every missed tick in order, the same ticks the game runs while you play. An action uses its materials, stops when they run out and respects its stop condition, exactly as it would have with the game open. A long absence does not supply missing ingredients: an Arrow Shaft batch in Fletching stops when the last Normal Log is used, however much time is left. The replay cannot be cancelled.

Read the Welcome Back summary

When the replay ends, Welcome Back! shows how long you were away, then one card per skill that progressed: Levels Gained, Experience Gained and Items Gained, each with an hourly rate. Confirm closes it.

After 49 minutes 47 seconds of Woodcutting on a Normal Tree, the card read +2 levels, +2,988 XP (3,600.03 an hour) and +996 Normal Logs (1,200.01 an hour), with 3 Bird Nests. A skill that runs on its own beside your action, such as Ranching, gets its own card next to it.

When the action ran out of materials, the card says so. After 7 hours 23 minutes of Arrow Shaft crafting, the Fletching card listed Items Used −3,872 Normal Logs and the line You were inactive for 5h 14m 13s while training Offline: the logs lasted about 2 hours 9 minutes, and the rest of the time earned nothing.

The character list shows the same thing before you load: Currently Training, the action and how long you have been away.

Products are not crafts

An Arrow Shaft craft gives 20 Arrow Shaft. A summary listing 2,000 shafts therefore means 100 crafts and 100 Normal Logs used.