This glossary collects the key in-world and in-system terms used throughout the Rewinding Cadence wiki. Where a translation differs between English-language sources and the official Chinese-language material, both are listed so the term can be tracked across mixed-language coverage. Each entry links to its dedicated article when one exists.
Story and World Terms
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
归环 (Guīhuán) | The Simplified Chinese title of the game; literally "the loop's return" or "returning through the loop." The English title is Rewinding Cadence. |
The player character. Drawn back through time to a point forty-two days before the world's destruction. The Simplified Chinese term is 归环者 (guīhuán-zhě). Also referred to as the Recursor in the official tagline. | |
Recursor | Alternate English title for the Returner, taken from the official tagline: "The Recursor shall overturn the prophecy of the Sunblight Tide, but the end is already written." |
The mysterious humanoid spirit who contracts with the Returner and grants the time-rewind power. Battles alongside the Returner as their fixed spirit companion. | |
The doomsday prophecy at the center of the story. Also rendered as the Corroding Tide in some early translations. The Simplified Chinese term is 蚀阳潮 (shí-yáng-cháo). | |
Corroding Tide | Alternate English translation of the Sunblight Tide; the wiki uses Sunblight Tide as the canonical English name to match the official tagline. |
42-Day Cycle | The fixed-length window of in-fiction time the Returner has each loop before the world ends. Resets when the player rewinds. |
颂灵者 (Sònglíngzhě) | Spirit Speaker. The official term for a playable character, used as a section label on the studio's own character page. Every Spirit Speaker is bonded to one spirit companion. |
契约使灵 (Qìyuē Shǐlíng) | Contracted spirit companion. The official term for the partner half of a duo, used opposite Spirit Speaker on the character page. |
金羊毛猎团 | A treasure-hunting troupe named for the golden fleece its leader chases. Introduced in the July 2026 character trailer; the troupe's leader is a playable character and the fleece is also her bonded spirit's name. |
Adar (亚达尔) | The continent the game is set on. Named directly by the studio in its introduction to the world. Also rendered Yadar or Adal in some coverage. |
Erosion (蚀) | The studio's own short name for the world-ending calamity is the Chinese 蚀; the English rendering used here is this wiki's, not the studio's, and English-language material uses both Erosion and Corrosion for it. Described as spreading across the land like a plague. The English marketing names for the same event are the Corroding Tide and the Sunblight Tide. |
Spirit Speaker (颂灵者) | The in-game term for a playable character. Literally one who chants spirits. In this world, speaking a concept whose true law you know brings a spirit into being, which is where the name comes from. |
Golden Fleece troupe (金羊毛猎团) | A treasure-hunting outfit led by the character Pata. Shares its name with the spirit Golden Fleece. |
Daphne (达芙涅) | A boss, and the only opponent from a dedicated combat dungeon in the game's first public playable build. |
System Terms
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
The 42-day repeating cycle that resets most of the world while preserving the Returner's memory, certain bonds, and cultivation progress. | |
Rewind | The player- or story-triggered reset that takes the calendar back to day one. Granted by Chu's contract. |
The dialogue-side mechanic. A 20-sided die roll plus stat modifiers determines whether a high-stakes choice succeeds or fails. | |
A bonded battle partner. Each playable character is paired with one spirit; the protagonist is paired with Chu, others with animal-form spirits. | |
Spirit Cultivation | The progression system that levels up spirit companions. Cultivation progress persists across the time loop. |
The world's reaction layer for player aggression in populated areas. Higher heat brings stronger faction response and blocked services for the remainder of the cycle. | |
Pair Attack | A coordinated combo activation that pulls the spirit companion into a cinematic flourish. The duo unit's high-damage tool. |
律行手记 | The in-game guide menu. Its skill-guide section hosts tutorial stages that walk through basic combos and card pairing for several different playstyles. Named in the First Playthrough Test (一周目测试) build. |
滑空匣 (Huákōngxiá) | Gliding Box. A spirit implement that activates when spirit energy lights its core crystal, then carries the player at high speed with heavy manoeuvrability. It is the primary fast-movement tool and is available from the opening of the playable cut. See traversal. |
Game-Info Terms
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
The Tencent-affiliated developer of Rewinding Cadence. Also developing Fate Trigger: The Novita. | |
An informal English-track aggregator umbrella label for the broader public test arc; some marketing also used 首测. The canonical Saroasis naming is First Playthrough Test (一周目测试) for the actual play window (April 28 to May 1, 2026) and Technical Test (技术性测试) for the smaller earlier closed pre-test (March 27 to 29, 2026); see the closed beta article for the full breakdown. | |
Account opt-in for upcoming beta and launch invitations. Currently live on Chinese-region Android storefronts. | |
The acquisition model used for characters. Specific rates and pity rules have not been published in detail. |
Translation and Naming Notes
Several terms in Rewinding Cadence have multiple translations floating around English-language coverage. The wiki's house style is to use the term that the developer's official English-language material uses, and to note the alternate translation in-line so older articles or fan coverage that used the alternate are still searchable. Where the developer has not published an English term yet, the wiki uses a literal translation of the Chinese-language source and flags it as provisional. As the official global landing page expands, this glossary will be updated to match.
Test-Build Vocabulary
Two additional terms surfaced during the First Playthrough Test (一周目测试) build and are catalogued here as build-specific vocabulary. They may be renamed, removed, or supplemented in later builds.
Term | Chinese | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
Time Tree | 时之树 | The persistent progression layer that survives the loop reset. Unlocking later nodes grants one-click level growth to existing characters and does not require duplicate character pulls. See spirit companions and time loop system. |
Skill Card | 技能卡 | A loadout slot on the per-character combat sheet. The First Playthrough Test build gave each character four skill cards, and different pairings of those four cards produced six distinct combat-role combinations. See combat. |
First Playthrough Test | 一周目测试 | Saroasis Studios's canonical name for the first broad public test play window (April 28 to May 1, 2026). Some English-track aggregator coverage uses "Crimson Test" as an umbrella label for the whole arc; this wiki uses 一周目测试 for the actual play window and "Technical Test" for the smaller earlier closed pre-test. See closed beta. |
Technical Test | 技术性测试 | Saroasis Studios's name for the small closed pre-test on March 27 to 29, 2026, ahead of the broader 一周目测试. |
Terms From the Character Panel and Community Posts
These terms come from the two lines each Spirit Speaker and contracted spirit speaks on the official character panel, from the first character trailer, and from the studio’s own community posts. Readings are the wiki’s unless marked otherwise.
Term | Chinese | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
Spirit amber | 灵珀 | The valuable the Golden Fleece troupe hunts. Pata’s recruitment pitch promises a hoard of it, and the studio’s own in-fiction disclaimer denies that any unregistered hoard exists in Loren. Whether it is a currency, a material or both is not stated. |
Loren garrison | 洛伦卫戍军团 | The city force whose disclaimer closes Pata’s recruitment notice. Named only there so far. |
众灵院 | 众灵院 | A place at whose gate crowds gather to call Xiuyite’s name. The reading is roughly "hall of all spirits"; its function is not published. |
Regent and inspector | 摄政王 / 监察官 | Enluoer describes himself as the regent’s son and as an inspector who walks the city listening to people. |
渊探 | 渊探 | The post Ying claims to be filling only temporarily. The reading is roughly "abyss scout"; nothing else is published. |
Card gear | 万相卡 | The studio’s developer letter names the freely combinable card gear system 万相卡 and pairs it with multi-style tactical play. It reads as the same card-based build layer that hands-on coverage of the 2026 demo described as standing in for a set-bonus artifact system, though the letter itself does not use the word gear. It is distinct from the four per-character skill cards (技能卡) of the test build. |
环宝 / 真环 | 环宝 | The persona the studio’s community account uses when it posts; it addresses readers as 归还者 (Returners). |
Lock-screen wallpaper series | 锁屏入侵计划 | A recurring official wallpaper series; the sixth edition, built around Luluya, went out on September 11, 2026. |
Spirit Speaker anecdotes | 颂灵轶事 | A recurring official illustration series; editions include a festival scene in June 2026 and a chibi squad in August 2026. |
A Note on the Calamity's Two English Names
Both Corroding Tide and Sunblight Tide come from the studio's own English-language material at the June 2025 reveal, not from fan translation. The description published on the studio's own trailer uses Corroding Tide; the longer promotional copy circulated at the same time uses Sunblight Tide alongside the term Recursor for the player character. Neither has since been retired, and no localised build exists to settle the question.
This wiki keeps Sunblight Tide as its headline term so that existing articles stay internally consistent, and treats Corroding Tide as equally official rather than as an also-ran. Readers meeting either term in coverage should treat them as the same thing. See Sunblight Tide for the event itself.