Timers, happy, and life

Cosca has no energy bar and no nerve bar. What paces you is a countdown per action: do a thing, and that particular thing is unavailable for a while. Nothing to ration, nothing to spend, nothing to work out before you can play.

The timers run whether or not you are online. Logging off costs you nothing and idling in a tab gains you nothing.

One timer per system

Every crime keeps its own timer — a running clock on the truck job never stops you picking a pocket — plus one for the gym, one for street attacks, one for the ring, one for corners, one for bust-outs, and one for signing on to a crew job. They all run independently, so something cooling off never stops you doing something else.

Two things to know about the ladder. The big jobs run on long clocks — hours, not minutes — and pay accordingly. And a crime stops teaching you anything once you've unlocked the job two rungs above it: the money keeps coming, but the XP dries up. Rank is earned at the edge of what you can do, not by repeating what you've outgrown. The attack clock still covers everybody on the street, so the first hit on a stranger is never free.

Bigger jobs run longer clocks and pay more for it. A pickpocketing is two minutes; hijacking a truck is closer to an hour of quiet afterwards.

Happy — the multiplier

Happy is one of two meters left, and it is never spent on an action. It multiplies what you gain from gym training, so training with a full happy bar is worth substantially more than training on empty.

Property raises your happy cap, which is the main mechanical reason to want a house.

Life — the one that hurts

Life is your health, and the only thing an action still spends. Losing a street fight empties it outright, and a failed heist takes a piece of it. At zero you are hospitalized on a timer, and you can pay to be treated early. The ring is the exception: a bout has its own tank, full at every bell, and a beating there never follows you out.

What money can do to a timer

One thing, once a day: a Points purchase clears everything currently running. It cannot make a timer shorter than it already is and it cannot be stacked, so at best it puts you exactly where a free player already is.

Premium standing shortens the gym timer by a fifth. That is the whole list. Crime timers are never shortened for money — crime is the game's main source of income, and paying to earn faster is the line this game does not cross.