Heartopia: All August 2026 deadlines before the end of Whale Season

The shortest deadline first. The gift sent after the August 5 hotfix — 8,000 gold coins and 5 Wishing Stars — expires on August 8 at 5:00 p.m. (UTC-5), i.e. August 9 at midnight Paris time. It's collected from the in-game mailbox, not the event page. Once the deadline passes, it disappears with no reminder.

The rest of the month is a string of closures. The Whale Season — the official French name for what XD's announcements call Fashionwave: Call of Whales — ends on August 22 at 5:59 a.m. (server time). The SANRIO CHARACTERS collaboration closes its events on August 24 at 5:59 a.m.. And three isolated deadlines drag on until August 29 and 31, which catches quite a few people out: you think you've wrapped everything up on the 22nd, when there are still passes to spend and a journal to finish.

Here is the full calendar as it stood on August 6, 2026, deadline by deadline, with an order of priority if you only play half an hour a day. Two warnings before we start. First, XD's official announcements are published in English: the item and event names listed below are those used in those notes, and the French client only translates part of them. Second, XD alternates between two time references in its announcements — "UTC-5" for maintenance and mail, "server time" for events — without publicly clarifying whether they coincide. So never leave things until the last hour of a deadline.

The calendar at a glance

Before August 8: the hotfix mail

The August 5 hotfix took the servers down from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (UTC-5). It wasn't new content, just maintenance, but it fixes two annoyances players had been reporting since the underwater content launched.

• Mouse Mode A (PC): the game now displays all interactive objects within your interaction range. This is the most useful fix of the batch for anyone playing with keyboard and mouse in the canyon, where interaction points get lost in the scenery.
• Harp and Conch: the sound did not fade correctly between 20 and 60 meters. In practice, a neighbor playing the harp could be heard at full volume from the other end of the area.
• Whale Canyon: the level-up description did not match the actual unlock level of one of the Seamount's ecological fish.
• Optimized Dolphin gift system, fixed the SANRIO Night Lights reception limit that wasn't resetting, corrected an erroneous calculation of animal satiety in certain situations, and various text display fixes.

The associated compensation follows the usual format XD has used since the start of summer: 8,000 gold coins and 5 Wishing Stars, with about 72 hours to claim them. Same scheme after the July 22 maintenance, and 8,000 gold coins + 10 Wishing Stars after the July 8 one. Get in the habit of opening your inbox the day after each maintenance: it's the most regular source of Wishing Stars in the month, and these stars are used to raise the caps on the album, books, music, gallery, and blueprints, all of which were raised on July 8.

Before August 15: the Sample Collection

Opened on August 1 at 6:00 AM, the Sample Collection ends on August 15 at 5:59 AM (server time). The concept is cooperative: you deposit the requested items in the Collection Box placed at the entrance of a house — yours or another member's — until the challenge is completed. The two rewards, the Sea Star Wavy Bandana and the Beach Flower Shoulder Bag, are exclusive accessories for the season.

This is the deadline that's easiest to let slip by, because it doesn't remind you of itself: nothing shows up on the main event page. If you're missing an ingredient, try the entrance of a friend's house rather than waiting for a respawn at your own.

August 22: what the Whale Season takes with it

The season started on July 11 at 6:00 AM and runs until August 22 at 5:59 AM (server time). To access it, you need Builders Association level 7 and to have completed the main quest The Answer Lies Within. If you haven't set foot in the canyon yet, there's still plenty of time to catch up on the essentials — but in a specific order.

Fashionwave tokens first

This is the rule that costs distracted players the most: unspent tokens are converted to gold at a 1-to-1 rate and sent by mail at the end of the season. In other words, they lose almost all their value, since they're normally used to buy exclusive clothing, furniture, vehicles, puzzles, and actions from Azure, the fashion ambassador stationed at the Whale Canyon base camp. Empty your balance before the 22nd.

The shop also offers, every day and for each member, random seasonal items and a purchase at a marked-up price. Face to face, you can ask a friend to buy back an item they already own, or have them handle the sale of an item that appears in their daily request. It's the best token multiplier of the season, and it only works while the shop is open.

The collectibles that are disappearing

• Limited fish, insects and birds: fish and birds appeared on July 11, insects on the 18th. Their star rating feeds into the season's total.
• Limited crops: Starfruit since July 11 and the Daffodil flower since the 18th, purchasable from Blanc. Plan for growing time: planting on August 20 won't do you any good.
• Limited recipes: Massimo unlocks the seasonal batch and gives you the recipe for the Tidal Stove, essential for cooking these dishes. Without the stove, no dishes.
• Treasure Hunt: 16 Splash Whales to photograph, with a new target every day. Each photo makes reward bubbles appear on the map, and completing the collection earns Fashionwave tokens. With one target per day, the window is tight if you're starting now.
• Shoot Hearts: seven cumulative days of face-to-face interaction with the same friend unlocks this exclusive action, with progress tracked separately for each friend. Starting from August 6, there's still some room, but it's tight.

The concerts

The Call of Whales Concert runs from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm (server time). After a daily run in July, it now only plays on Saturday and Sunday evenings until August 16 — so August 8, 9, 15 and 16 — before switching back to daily for the final stretch, from August 17 to 21. If you want to catch it without having to plan around it, aim for the week of the 17th.

What survives past August 22

Not everything expires, and that distinction changes your priorities. The Whale Canyon itself remains accessible: the underwater zone added this summer, with its free swimming in every direction and its aquatic sprint, is not a temporary set piece. The Seamount, that underwater plot obtained via the Seamount Management Terminal after the expedition quests, also remains your property: you can build there, invite others there, and put together your own schools of ornamental fish by releasing catches from your bag or warehouse, then raising the zone's ecological tier.

The Ocean Cleanup passion holds the same status. Its dedicated event opened on August 1 at 6:00 am, but the July 10 notice gives it no end date, unlike the season. To be safe, treat August 22 as the deadline for the event portion and save the regular cleanup for afterward: the shells collected feed into Collection Points that can be exchanged for furniture like the Seashell Beaded Curtain or the Coral & Seashell Display Case.

The practical takeaway is simple: between short sessions, the token shop, seasonal collectibles and photos come before cleanup and building on the Seamount, which will still be there in September.

August 24: the end of the SANRIO CHARACTERS collab

Launched on July 17, the collaboration closes almost all of its modules on August 24 at 5:59 am (server time). Five blocks to keep an eye on.

• SANRIO CHARACTERS Gacha Machine: five draws maximum per day, but only once per machine. You'll need to spin at other players' machines to hit the daily quota. You can win My Melody, Kuromi, and Cinnamoroll night lights; collecting all three unlocks an additional reward, and the event page lets you gift your duplicates.
• SANRIO CHARACTERS' Sweet Secrets: stickers earned through daily quests, sorted by theme. You can send up to five stickers per day to the same player — organizing a trade with two or three friends sorts out incomplete themes much faster than solo farming.
• Gilded Acorn Exhibition: SANRIO CHARACTERS: three exhibitions (My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Kuromi), with no duplicates within the same exhibition and the full set guaranteed within ten draws. Drawing the Special Treasure, meaning the vehicle, automatically grants the rest of the exhibition. The hairstyles in these sets are locked to fixed colors.
• SANRIO CHARACTERS' Rainbow Cottage: the furniture exhibition and its exchange shop for Thank-You Cards. This shop closes along with the event, and that's the classic trap: stockpiling cards without ever converting them. Thank-You Cards are earned by backing a set with Heart Diamonds, or directly exchanged for Wishing Stars at the shop, up to a set limit.
• Stellar Fantasy: a spending milestone track in Heart Diamonds — gifts don't count — whose top reward is the Starry Dream Ferris Wheel furniture. Good news: milestones reached but not claimed are sent by mail after the event ends.

The three end-of-month deadlines

August 29, 5:59 AM (server time) — the editing period for the Fashionwave Memory Journal closes. The journal fills up through photo quests launched on July 11; edit mode lets you add materials to it and publish it for other members. So you can finish laying it out a week after the season ends, but no later.

August 29, 4:59 PM (UTC-5), i.e. 11:59 PM Paris time — final deadline for the collaboration's Thank-You Gift: 120 Time-Limited Exhibition Passes and a commemorative outfit. It's claimed from the Event page, in the top right of the main screen. It's the biggest free reward of the summer and takes just two clicks to grab; don't let it slip by.

August 31, 5:59 AM (server time) — a double deadline. First, the Party Festival, running since July 25, comes to an end: it's the window during which all ongoing public parties are browsable, and during which the new Party Club feature makes its blueprints available to everyone, including other players' custom creations. Second, and this is the critical point, this season's Time-Limited Exhibition Passes expire. If you've stacked up the 120 passes from the Thank-You Gift plus those from the catalog and the vehicle collection, you'll need to have spent them — except the collab exhibitions close on the 24th. Do your draws before the 24th, not before the 31st.

The order to follow if you play only a little

1. Open your inbox now and clear out the compensation mail (before the 8th).
2. Spend the Time-Limited Exhibition Passes on the SANRIO exhibitions before the 24th, focusing on one exhibition at a time to take advantage of the ten-pull guarantee.
3. Convert the Thank-You Cards at the Rainbow Cottage shop before the 24th.
4. Clear out your Fashionwave token balance at Azure before the 22nd.
5. Complete the Sample Collection before the 15th, then the Splash Whales photo targets.
6. Claim the Thank-You Gift if you haven't already, before the 29th.

One last thing to keep in mind: the Heartopia × DAVE THE DIVER collaboration was announced on July 16, but without a date. There's nothing indicating it will start before the Season of Whales closes, and nothing saying it will wait until September either. Given the pace of XD's announcements since June, keep an eye on the maintenance notes: that's where the exact windows are published, not in the teasers.