# Periodical Events

Periodical events are special events that occur, well, periodically. They will be continuously triggered every so often. For example, `every 2 hours:` will run every 2 hours once the script is loaded.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Note that periodical events **do not have event-values**. This means you cannot use the `event-player` expression inside a periodical event. All objects used in periodical events must be accessed some other way, such as global variables.
{% endhint %}

***

## Abuse

Many new Skript users do not realise how truly diverse Skript's event selection is; not bothering to check if there's an event that is already perfect for their needs. This leads them to abuse a periodical event when it is not necessary or practical.

Since periodical events do not have event-players, those who abuse periodical events then loop all players inside of the periodical event so they can access a player through the `loop-player` expression. This is even more inefficient because now the script is looping many players, most of which the code is irrelevant to, and being run when it might not need to.

{% hint style="success" %}
Always scour the documentation to find events designed for your ideas. Use them to host your code.
{% endhint %}

Some common projects that lead to abusing periodical events:

* For auto-compressors, use the `on pick up:` event
* For giving rewards to players in an AFK region, use the `on region enter:` or `on bound enter:` events
* For weapons or armour abilities, to detect when a player equips a tool or armour piece, use `on hand item swap:`, `on tool change:`, and `on armour change:`
* For scoreboards, use `on join:` and a `while player is online:` loop.
  * If your scoreboard is static (not changing), also consider setting it only once when the player joins, as it does not need to be updated.
  * If there are only a few values that change occasionally, only update it when needed. For example, if you are displaying the player's death count, you only need to update it when the player dies.


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