You're stalking a high-level Rex in the shadows of the Redwoods. It’s pitch black. You can barely see your own map, let alone the massive carnivore that's about to turn you into a snack. We’ve all been there. ARK: Survival Evolved (and Ascended) is a beautiful game, but let's be real—the night cycle can be a massive pain when you’re trying to actually get stuff done. Knowing the right ark commands day time shortcuts isn't just about cheating; it’s about managing your playtime so you aren't staring at a black screen for twenty minutes straight.
It's frustrating.
You login after work, ready to build that new gatehouse, and the sun immediately sets. If you're playing on a private server or a single-player world, you have the power to change that instantly. You don't need to wait for the dawn.
The Core Commands You Need Right Now
The most direct way to fix the lighting is the SetTimeOfDay command. It’s the gold standard. To use it, you’ll need to open your console. On PC, that’s usually the Tab key. If you're on console, it's the bumpers and triggers (LB+RB+X+Y for Xbox or L1+R1+Square+Triangle for PlayStation) held down at the same time in the pause menu.
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Once that bar pops up, type SetTimeOfDay 09:00.
Boom. Morning.
The game uses a 24-hour clock. If you want high noon, you go with 12:00. If you want that nice golden hour glow for some screenshots of your base, try 17:00. It’s instantaneous. One second you're squinting at a torch, the next the sun is blinding you over the horizon of The Island.
There is another option, though. Some people prefer cheat settimeofday 09:00. Whether or not you need the "cheat" prefix depends entirely on your server settings. If you’re the admin of a dedicated server, you almost always need that prefix unless you’ve already authenticated with your admin password. Single-player users can usually skip the prefix.
Why the Simple Cheat Command Sometimes Fails
Sometimes you type it in and... nothing happens. This is usually because of a syntax error or a server lag spike. ARK is notorious for being "fussy" with how it reads inputs. Make sure you have the colon in the time. If you type SetTimeOfDay 0900, the game might just ignore you. It wants that specific HH:MM format.
Also, keep in mind that this doesn't stop time. It just moves the hands on the clock. The world will keep spinning, and eventually, it’ll be dark again. If you find yourself spamming ark commands day time every ten minutes, you might want to look into changing the actual scaling of the day-night cycle, which is a different beast entirely.
Changing How Fast Time Moves
If you’re tired of the sun setting every few minutes, you need to mess with the DayCycleSpeedScale. This isn't a command you usually run every five seconds; it’s a setting that changes the fundamental physics of your world.
The default value is 1.0.
If you want the days to last twice as long, you actually move the number down. Set it to 0.5. It feels counter-intuitive, right? But you're scaling the speed. Lower speed equals a longer day. I’ve seen some players set this to 0.1 for massive building projects so they can work for hours in the light without ever touching the console again.
Specific Night and Day Scaling
ARK lets you get even more granular. You can make the day last forever but keep the night incredibly short.
DayTimeSpeedScale: Controls how fast the sun stays up.NightTimeSpeedScale: Controls how fast the darkness passes.
Set your NightTimeSpeedScale to 4.0 or 5.0. The sun will go down, you’ll hear the crickets for about three minutes, and then the sun will come right back up. It’s a great compromise for people who want to keep the "vibe" of the night cycle without the actual mechanical annoyance of not being able to see their own feet. Honestly, playing on a server with 2x day length and 5x night speed is the sweet spot for most casual players.
Admin Logistics: EnableCheats
If you are on a server and the commands aren't working, you likely haven't logged in as an admin. You can't just hop onto a random official server and turn the sun on. That would be chaos.
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You need to type enablecheats YourPassword.
Replace "YourPassword" with whatever you set in your server files. Once you do that, you're the master of time and space. You can then run your ark commands day time strings with the cheat prefix. For example: cheat SetTimeOfDay 07:00.
The Gamma Alternative
Sometimes you don't actually want to change the time. You just want to see. Maybe you’re waiting for a specific creature that only spawns at night (like the Megalosaurus), but you can't see the terrain.
Use gamma.
Typing gamma 4 or gamma 5 into the console won't change the clock, but it’ll crank the brightness of your game so high that the night looks like a weird, washed-out afternoon. It’s the "cheater's night vision." When the sun comes back up, your screen will look like a nuclear explosion, so you'll need to type gamma or gamma 2.2 to reset it to normal. It’s a quick fix that doesn't mess with server-side time, which is helpful if you’re playing with friends who actually like the darkness for some reason.
Common Misconceptions About ARK Time
People often think that changing the time will mess up dinosaur spawns or taming progress.
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It doesn't.
If you have a baby dino that takes 4 hours to mature, and you skip from midnight to 8:00 AM, that baby hasn't magically aged 8 hours. The game tracks the "world age" separately from the "time of day." You are effectively just changing the position of the light source in the sky. Your taming bars will stay exactly where they were.
The only thing this really affects is "time-sensitive" buffs and spawns. For instance, the Glowtail or other Aberration creatures that rely on light levels might react, but generally, it’s a visual-only change.
Actionable Steps for Server Control
If you want to permanently fix your lighting issues rather than just using a temporary command, follow this flow:
- Open your GameUserSettings.ini file if you are hosting a server or playing locally.
- Locate the [ServerSettings] section.
- Adjust DayCycleSpeedScale to 0.5 for longer overall cycles.
- Adjust NightTimeSpeedScale to 3.0 to make nights fly by.
- Save and restart. If you prefer the manual "god mode" approach, just keep
SetTimeOfDay 08:00on your clipboard. ARK is a game about survival, sure, but there's no rule saying you have to survive in total darkness because the server clock decided it's 2:00 AM. Control the light, and you'll find that taming, building, and exploring becomes a significantly less stressful experience.
Stop squinting. Just change the time.