Changing the time in a Rust server is a common task for server admins who want better control over gameplay flow, testing conditions, and scheduled server events.
Whether you are trying to skip night, extend daytime hours, or check the current server time, Rust provides console commands that let you manage time directly in the game world.
In this guide, you will learn how to change time in a Rust server using the correct time command, view the current day, month, and year, and understand how server time affects players and events. We will also cover examples for adding hours, setting a specific time, and running commands through the console or control panel so your changes are executed correctly without causing errors or disrupting users.
Changing Server Time On A Rust Server
In Rust, there is a vast set of options that allows an owner, moderator, or admin to manipulate the time on their server without needing any plugins. You might want to do this to set the scene for events, change the season, or maybe even disable the progression of time because you can’t stand how dark the game gets at night.
It’s important to note that changing the time of your server doesn’t just affect values like the time, day, month, and year. It also affects in-game timers and events. This includes supply drops, spawn rates, and events that are supposed to occur at a certain time. For example, if you have events that are supposed to trigger once per day, moving forward a day would cause all of those events to trigger.
Rust Time Commands (Setting The Current Time)
Time commands are executable through your server panel, RCON console, or the in-game F1 console. To change the time of your server, you’ll first want to know what time it currently is in the world. To do this, you’re going to want to use the env.time command. This command is also used to set the time afterwards.
env.time [optional number]By typing the command without the optional value, your console will display the current time of the server at the time the command was typed. Additionally, you can add a numeric value to the command to set the time of day to the particular point specified in your argument.
Alternatively to directly setting the time, you can enter the env.addtime command to increase the current server time (in hours) by a certain value.
env.addtime [number]This command will cause time to instantly pass by the amount specified in the syntax. This helps trigger events that require a certain amount of time to pass in order to happen.
If you want your server to have a static time, you can use the env.progresstime command to determine whether or not time should pass at all on its own.
env.progresstime [true/false]Setting the value to true will enable the automatic progression of time, but setting it to false will stop the passage of time altogether. This can prevent time-sensitive events from happening, so it’s best to only use this command temporarily if you still want these events to automatically occur.
Next, let’s say you want the day/night cycle to be shorter, or you’d like events to occur more frequently. You can enter the time.timescale command to determine how quickly time will pass on its own.
time.timescale [number]By default, this option is set to 1, but can be increased or decreased by multiplying it by the defined value. For example, setting it to 2 will double the speed at which time passes, and setting it to 0.5 will halve it.
Setting The Current Day
To set the current day of your game world, you will want to use the env.day command. The command uses a numeric argument between 1 and 31, corresponding to a typical calendar month. For example, if the in-game month is January, you can choose a number between 1 and 31, but if the month is February, you can only choose a number between 1 and 28.
env.day [number between 1-31]Setting The Current Month
Setting the month of your Rust world is just as easy as setting the day. This time, you will be using the env.month command. This command uses a number between 1 and 12, corresponding to a typical calendar year, with 1 representing January and 12 representing December.
env.month [number between 1-12]Setting The Current Year
Changing the year of your Rust world is a little trickier than changing the day or month, not because of the command itself, but because of the unforeseen complications it may cause. Jumping too far ahead by years can lead to spawning bugs, event timers breaking, and client-side values being out of sync with the server. Most of these issues will repair themselves in time, but it’s still a major inconvenience to yourself and your players. Nonetheless, if you’re willing to take the risk, you’ll be using the env.year command and specifying the year you want the server to be set to.
env.year [number]