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Change ARK’s cycle in GameUserSettings.ini, under [ServerSettings]. The relevant keys are DayCycleSpeedScale, DayTimeSpeedScale, and NightTimeSpeedScale. Stop the server before editing, save the file, restart it, and measure the result in game. Community reports disagree about whether higher or lower values make a phase faster, so test one small change at a time on a private server rather than relying on a preset.
What you can change
ARK exposes three server settings for time. They are normally stored in GameUserSettings.ini, inside the [ServerSettings] section. Many installations do not contain these entries until you add them yourself.
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|---|---|---|---|
DayCycleSpeedScale |
Controls the speed of the complete day-and-night cycle. | It is the setting to investigate when you want the entire cycle to run at a different rate. | The exact relationship between a numeric value and elapsed real time is not consistently reported. |
DayTimeSpeedScale |
Controls the daytime portion of the cycle. | One community guide says lowering it lengthens daytime. | Other player reports describe opposite behavior for speed values, and the interaction with the other two keys is not formally documented. |
NightTimeSpeedScale |
Controls the nighttime portion. | A player report says lowering it lengthens night and that night is relative to the day value. | Steam discussions disagree about whether increasing or decreasing the value speeds a phase up. |
At the commonly reported default of 1.0 for all three settings, players have hand-measured a complete cycle of roughly one hour of real time. That is an anecdotal measurement, not a guaranteed duration for every ARK edition, patch, server configuration, or host.
Before editing the server
- Confirm that you control the server configuration. A rented server usually provides a control-panel file manager, FTP access, or both. A console-hosted or single-player installation may expose settings through a different interface.
- Stop the server completely. Editing while the process is running can be overwritten when the server saves its configuration.
- Back up the current file. Download or copy
GameUserSettings.inibefore changing it, and keep the original outside the server’s configuration folder. - Note the game edition and patch. Community threads from older patches, including 179.x discussions, may not describe current behavior. Do not assume a setting behaves identically on every ARK release.
- Prepare a way to measure time. A stopwatch and a test character are more reliable than judging the sky by eye.
Step-by-step: change the cycle in GameUserSettings.ini
- Stop the ARK server. Use the host’s Stop, Shut Down, or equivalent control and wait until its status shows that the process has exited.
- Open the configuration file. In the host panel, open the file manager or connect through FTP, then locate
GameUserSettings.ini. Do not editGame.ini; the cycle entries belong in the user-settings file. - Find the server-settings section. Search for the exact header
[ServerSettings]. Keep the entries below that header and before the next section. If the header is missing, do not guess at a different file; check the host’s configuration layout first. - Make a backup copy. Save the untouched file as a separate copy or download it locally. This gives you a known-good rollback if the server fails to start or the settings are ignored.
- Add or edit the three keys. Use one line per key and an equals sign with no extra punctuation. A neutral starting point is:
[ServerSettings]
DayCycleSpeedScale=1.0
DayTimeSpeedScale=1.0
NightTimeSpeedScale=1.0If the keys already exist, edit those lines instead of creating duplicates. Duplicate entries make troubleshooting harder because different parsers or control panels may retain only one of them.
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- Save the file as plain text. Preserve the
.iniextension and the section header. Do not let a desktop editor append.txtor convert the file to a rich-text format. - Restart the server. Start it only after the save has completed. Community guides say a restart is required before changes take effect.
- Join with a test character and record the time. Watch the in-game clock, sun or moon position, or another repeatable event. Record the real-world start and end times instead of relying on a visual impression.
- Change only one value for the next test. Keep the other two at known values, preferably
1.0, so you can identify which setting affected the result.
How to choose the setting
When the whole cycle is too fast or too slow
Start with DayCycleSpeedScale when your goal is to alter the rate of the complete cycle rather than independently redesigning day and night. Community descriptions call this the overall multiplier, but reports conflict on the direction: one Steam user says values below 1 take longer and values above 1 take less time, while another thread reports that 2 speeds the cycle up and 0.5 slows it down. Because those claims cannot all be treated as a universal rule, make a small change, restart, and measure before making a larger one.
When daytime needs to be longer or shorter
Use DayTimeSpeedScale for the daytime portion. One hosting guide says lowering the value lengthens the day. That direction is useful as a starting hypothesis, not a promise: other player discussions describe speed values differently, and the final duration can be affected by the other cycle settings. Change it alone, measure one complete daytime interval, and revert if the measured result moves in the wrong direction.
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When nighttime needs to be longer or shorter
Use NightTimeSpeedScale for the night portion. A player post says lowering it lengthens night and notes that night is relative to the day value. Other Steam reports disagree, and one guide claims that raising the value from 1 to 1.5 makes nights twice as fast. Treat all of these as unverified descriptions. Test the setting on your own server before applying it to a public cluster.
When you want different day and night proportions
Set a baseline, alter one phase setting, and record both phase durations. Do not assume that changing night leaves daytime untouched: community reports say the phase values can be relative to one another. A forum suggestion uses DayCycleSpeedScale=0.5 and NightTimeSpeedScale=2 to keep nights the same length while doubling days, but that combination is unverified and should be treated as an experiment, not a proven recipe.
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A reliable test method
The fastest way to resolve the conflicting value directions is a controlled measurement. Use a private server or a maintenance window so a mistaken setting does not disrupt other players.
- Copy the original
GameUserSettings.iniand write down the current values. - Choose one key and make a modest change. For example, test
0.8rather than jumping to an extreme number. This is a test value, not a guaranteed recommendation. - Restart the server and join with the same character or a fresh test character.
- Start a stopwatch when a repeatable phase begins, such as sunrise or the first visible stars.
- Stop timing at the same event on the next cycle, or measure a clearly defined daytime or nighttime interval.
- Repeat the measurement once. If the two results differ, record both and use a longer interval.
- Restore the baseline, change only the next key, and repeat.
- Keep a short log containing the patch, setting values, real-world start and end times, and whether the server was restarted. This prevents a control-panel cache or an unsaved edit from being mistaken for a gameplay result.
One player reported that a stopwatch measurement was 18 minutes shorter than the expected cycle. Several discussions mention similar mismatches between simple calculations and observed time. Therefore, calculate expected durations only as rough planning aids; use measurements from your own server for an advertised schedule.
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Values and combinations to avoid
Do not use zero as a freeze switch
A single user reported that setting both NightTimeSpeedScale and DayTimeSpeedScale to 0.000000 froze time completely. This is not a supported or dependable pause mechanism. Zero can leave a server in an unusable state, prevent normal progression, or behave differently after an update. Keep values non-zero and retain a backup so you can restore the file if time stops advancing.
Do not copy a value without checking its meaning
A number such as 0.035 is sometimes associated with a real-time 24-hour cycle in community advice, but the figure was not confirmed by a cited test. Do not paste it into a live server expecting a guaranteed Earth-length day. Verify the result with a stopwatch and adjust gradually.
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Do not edit multiple settings at once
Changing all three keys simultaneously makes it impossible to tell whether the server accepted the file, which key took effect, or whether the phase values interact. Keep a known baseline and introduce one variable per restart.
Troubleshooting
The server ignores the new values
- Confirm that the lines are under
[ServerSettings]inGameUserSettings.ini, not inGame.ini. - Check spelling and capitalization:
DayCycleSpeedScale,DayTimeSpeedScale, andNightTimeSpeedScalemust be written exactly. - Make sure the server was stopped before editing and restarted after saving.
- Check that the host panel did not regenerate the file from a separate configuration form. Some panels overwrite manual edits when a setting is changed in the web interface.
- Reopen the file after the restart. If your lines disappeared, the host may require its own configuration editor or a different permissions setting.
The server will not start after the edit
- Stop the server and restore the backup copy.
- Check for accidental smart quotes, extra section headers, malformed characters, or a filename changed to
GameUserSettings.ini.txt. - Remove duplicate cycle entries and reintroduce one correctly formatted line at a time.
- Start with all three values at
1.0. Once the server runs, test one change at a time.
The direction is opposite to what you expected
That result is possible because community reports disagree. Record the measured interval, revert to the baseline, and test the opposite direction with the same single-key method. Do not compensate by changing two values simultaneously; that can hide the actual relationship on your particular patch.
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The measured duration does not match a calculation
Use the measured duration as the operational result. Reports describe mismatches between documented or inferred math and stopwatch timing, and the effect can vary by patch or edition. Repeat the timing over a longer interval, verify that the server did restart, and check that no other configuration system is rewriting the file.
Time appears frozen
Restore the backup immediately, or set the affected phase values back to non-zero baseline values and restart. Pay particular attention to 0.000000; a single report links that combination to a complete freeze. If time still does not advance, remove the custom cycle lines, start the server with defaults, and then reintroduce one setting after confirming normal progression.
Keeping a public server predictable
- Document the exact configuration. Record all three values, the ARK edition, patch number, and the date of the change.
- Announce maintenance. A restart is required, so warn players before applying a change.
- Use a staging server first. A private copy lets you measure a complete cycle without affecting tames, crops, resource timers, or player plans.
- Re-test after updates. Community descriptions come from different versions, and a patch can change how a setting is parsed or applied.
- Keep rollback files. Retain the last known-good configuration and label backups with their values rather than overwriting them.
Practical decision guide
| Your goal | First setting to test | Safe test approach |
|---|---|---|
| Make the complete day-night cycle take longer or less time | DayCycleSpeedScale |
Change only this key by a small amount, restart, and time a full cycle. |
| Lengthen or shorten daytime | DayTimeSpeedScale |
Leave the other values at baseline and time one or more daytime intervals. |
| Lengthen or shorten nighttime | NightTimeSpeedScale |
Leave the other values at baseline and measure the night interval. |
| Keep a particular phase while changing the other | Test the overall and phase settings separately | Do not rely on an unverified combination; measure both phases after every restart. |
What to remember
The file location and restart procedure are consistent across the community instructions: edit GameUserSettings.ini, place the keys under [ServerSettings], save, and restart. The uncertain part is the numeric behavior. Reports disagree about whether higher values speed time up, whether lower values lengthen it, and how the phase settings interact. Treat every preset as a hypothesis, avoid zero, and let a controlled measurement on your own server determine the final values.
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