Change the Time of Day on Your Rust Server

Rust runs its own day and night cycle on the server, and you can move the clock or freeze it with console commands. That is how an admin skips a dark stretch, and with a little setup how a server stays in daylight or night. The commands change the time for everyone on your Rust server.

Checked against Rust server build 2635 and Facepunch's Useful Console Commands wiki page, October 2026.

Set the time now

1. Open the Console tab.
2. Type env.time on its own. The server prints the current in-game time as a decimal hour, so 9.5 means half past nine in the morning.
3. Type env.time 12 to jump to midday, or env.time 0 for midnight. Facepunch's wiki gives the range as the hour of the day, and the game lists it as 0.0 to 24.0.

The change happens at once and applies to every player. Nothing needs a restart.

Freeze the clock

Setting the time only moves it. The sun keeps going afterwards unless you stop it. The game has a second variable for that, env.progresstime. Its default is True, and the game's own listing says disabling it freezes time at its current value. (Facepunch's wiki spells the name env.progesstime, but the game's spelling is env.progresstime.)

1. Type env.time 12.
2. Type env.progresstime false.

To let time run again, type env.progresstime true.

Keep it after a restart

A command typed into the Console is held in memory only, so it is gone at the next restart. A scheduled command is the way to make your choice stick. Lines for the time in server.cfg did not hold on our test server (env.time and env.progresstime read their normal values again after boot), so do not rely on server.cfg for this.

Open More, choose Schedules and press New Task. On What should it do?, pick Send a command, type env.time 12 under Command to run, press Next, and under When should it run? choose Every few hours or a daily time. Name the task and press Create job. The time is reset to your hour each time it fires.

The freeze needs its own task. On our test server env.progresstime read True again after a restart, so a time-only task does not hold the clock still. Make a second task with the command env.progresstime false and run it daily, or schedule it just after your restart time.

Change the time only for yourself

If you only want a bright view while you build or check a base, admintime does it for your own player. Facepunch's wiki describes it as setting the time of day to that hour for your player only, and admintime -1 goes back to the server's normal time. Run it from the in-game console (press F1) as an owner or moderator, since the panel's Console has no player of its own. Make yourself owner or moderator first if you have not.

Day length

The commands above move the clock but do not change how long a day lasts. The game also lists a variable called env.daylength, so type find env.daylength in the Console to read its description and current value before you change it. A plugin is another route: uMod lists a plugin called Time Of Day by misticos, described as altering the day and night duration. Its latest release on uMod is version 2.3.4 from 2018, so test it on a spare server before you rely on it. How to install Oxide/uMod plugins on your Rust server covers installing one. On Oxide, a newly installed plugin stays "Unloaded" until you restart the server or type oxide.load <PluginName> in the Console. Carbon loaded a plugin by itself on our test server, and c.load <PluginName> loads one by hand there.

Common problems

1. The time jumped back. The clock was not frozen, or the server restarted. Run env.progresstime false after setting it, and use a schedule for a permanent setting.
2. env.time does nothing in my game console. Server settings need admin rights. Use the panel's Console tab, or become an owner first.