How to Wipe Your Rust Server

Understanding Wipes

Wiping is a core part of running a Rust server. A wipe resets the server — clearing player buildings, items, and optionally blueprints — to give everyone a fresh start.

Types of Wipes

• Map Wipe — Resets the map and all player structures, but players keep their learned blueprints. This is the most common type of wipe
• Blueprint Wipe (Full Wipe) — Resets everything including learned blueprints. Players start completely from scratch. Sometimes called a "BP wipe" or "full wipe"

Forced Wipes

Rust has a forced wipe on the first Thursday of every month. On this day, all servers must wipe their maps. Facepunch pushes an update that resets the map save format, so a wipe is mandatory — you cannot skip it.

Forced wipes reset the map only. Blueprint wipes on forced wipe day are optional (server owner decides), except during biannual forced BP wipes announced by Facepunch.

How to Wipe (Map Only)

1. Stop your server from the game panel
2. Go to the Files tab
3. Navigate to server/rust/ (or your server identity folder)
4. Delete the following files:
   • proceduralmap.*.map
   • proceduralmap.*.sav
   • All proceduralmap.*.sav.* backup files
5. (Optional) Change the Seed value in the Startup tab if you want a different map layout
6. Start your server — a new map will generate automatically

How to Wipe (Full — Map + Blueprints)

1. Stop your server
2. Go to the Files tab
3. Navigate to server/rust/
4. Delete all files inside this folder except the cfg/ folder (this contains your admin list and server config)
5. Start your server

Before You Wipe

• Create a backup before wiping in case you need to restore
• Announce the wipe to your players in advance — wipe day is when you will see the highest player count, so plan accordingly
• After wiping, update your Oxide/uMod plugins if a Rust update was released alongside the wipe

Common Wipe Schedules

• Weekly — Keeps the server fresh; attracts competitive players
• Biweekly — Balance between freshness and progression
• Monthly — Suits smaller communities who want longer progression