I want to use two complications, but I understand that I cannot copy them and use them for AOD as well. I tried and it did cause issues.
So in this case, how would I use one set of complications to appear at 100% brightness, but be dimmed to say 60 or 70% brightness when it changes to AOD mode?
Make a grey image about 30% opacity and put it over them and show it only in AOD mode.
I don’t recommend complications in AOD mode because if someone sets it to something that uses a lot of battery it may drain it and be a bad user experience. But if this is for your own use then that is different.
Ron
Samsung Developer Relations
Thanks a ton Ron, it’s a great idea. I’ll also consider about showing them on AOD or not.
Hi @r.liechty_SDR ,
custom complication are not working (not refreshing) on AOD. This is default Wear OS behavior.
Complication refresh will happen as soon as screen enters active state.
@NeoHeritage, this is why keeping complication will not ruin your battery but it also does not really make sense as the complication data on AOD is the same data you saw last time your watch was “Active”.
Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the input!
Actually, a lot of complications DO refresh during the AOD state. They update in the background and the data shown is updated, when the AOD refreshes itself at the next minute.
A few examples of such complications exhibiting such behavior are Samsung Weather
complications from Samsung, and many others.
It’s even possible to show this behaviour by using the Chronus Weather complication that updates every 30 mins, of the Notification Icon complications that shows you the latest notification you get, from your phone. 
The complications involving the time and date also updates itself at every minute (and rightfully so).
It is true that not all of them do though. The Phone Battery Complication only updates when the watch wakes up.
I think system providers have an exception. (time, date, notification, Samsung Weather on Galaxy Watch is maybe also considered system safe)
I’ll test that Chronus Weather Compilation. Maybe it’s possible to force refresh complication on AOD with some foreground service ?(Does Chronus Weather have it’s own watch face?)
From my experience, when an update is requested on AOD, system will schedule it (postpone) for next wake up.
I’m also using TimeTextComplicationBuilder in the Complications Suite and it behaves the same way.
Chronus Weather has its own Watchface, yes.
I have to correct this, never really followed it much before. TimeFormatComplicationText.Builder updates on AOD pretty much instantly. (Date, Day of Week, Day of Year, Week of Year Custom Complications).
Now I’ll monitor other 3rd party custom complications (Simple Weather etc.)
After they finish updating in the background in their own intervals (when given the permission), the AOD will show the updated data in the next minute.
You’re right. Some complications are really updating in AOD. With some strange pattern. Phone Battery too. Maybe this is a thing in the recent Wear OS versions?
No.
I also own a TicWatch Pro 3 GPS (WearOS 2), and the complications update in the background, as they should 
Is there any method (when developing a watchface) to force complications to update even on AOD?
I’m not aware of anyway with Watch Face Studio. But selecting a different watch face and then going back should update things unless they are things like weather that have settings on the mobile for how often it is updated.
Note that Wear 4 frowns upon using complications in AOD mode.
Ron
Samsung Developer Relations