What is a Tick?

From Guide

Symbol for ticks:

Battle Dawn is a turn-based game. A tick occurs once every hour in which the world advances: Resources are gained, squads move, units are trained, battles take place and your score updates. You can check how many ticks have passed on your server by looking in the corner of the resource bar:

For example: building a specific structure may take 4 ticks, meaning 4 hours. You place your order to build the structure and after 4 ticks have passed it will be ready. If you build a structure with 30 minutes remaining untill the next tick your structure will be done in 4 hours and 30 minutes. Sending a squad takes ticks too: depending on how far your destination is, the squad travel time will increase. A classic example would be sending your squads to attack a target 12 ticks away – you submit your order and return to check the battle results the day after.

Ticks advance regardless of whether or not you're logged in. To play the game you're advised to login at least once a day to check your colony's status.

Double Tick Servers

Earth 6, Earth 7, Mars 1, and Mars 3 are double tick servers; ticks pass quicker than on a normal server. On each, a tick is half an hour. So for example: Building a specific structure may take 4 ticks, meaning 2 hours.