Rust wipe day guide for server owners

A wipe resets a Rust server: the map always, and players’ blueprints sometimes. Facepunch forces a map wipe on every server on the first Thursday of each month, when the monthly update comes out. Our Rust wipe day schedule preset handles that day for you: it warns players, stops the server, updates it, wipes and starts it again.

Map wipe or blueprint wipe

Map wipes keep a server fresh, so new players have a chance. Blueprint wipes are rarer, because players lose all their research.

Facepunch’s forced wipe

When: the first Thursday of every month, with Facepunch’s monthly update. Facepunch’s own wipe timer is set to 19:00 UK time, which is 2 pm US Eastern and 20:00 in most of Europe. For example, the December 2026 forced wipe falls on Thursday 3 December. Updates sometimes arrive a little late, so plan for a window rather than an exact minute.

Why it happens: the update changes Rust’s save format. The new version can’t load a map saved by the old one, so every server starts a new map. Players’ games update through Steam, and they can’t join a server still on the old version.

Blueprints: a forced wipe resets the map only. Blueprints stay, unless Facepunch announces a blueprint wipe with that update, or you choose to wipe them.

You can’t skip it. Facepunch’s own wiki calls renaming an old save to get around a forced wipe dangerous and a bad idea. Smaller fixes during the month don’t wipe anything.

Wipe schedules

Many servers wipe the map more often than once a month. Players pick servers by their wipe rhythm, so say yours in your server name, description and tags.

The tag also sets the wipe countdown on the laptop at the bottom of the Missile Silo, at 19:00 UK time by default. To move it to your own time, set wipetimer.wipeDayofWeek, wipetimer.wipeHourofDay and wipetimer.wipeTimezone in server.cfg, as shown in the config reference.

About 24 hours before each wipe on that countdown, Rust starts its end-of-wipe events, such as Bradleys patrolling the roads. Set eventschedulewipeoffset.event_hours_before_wipe 0 to turn them off.

Our Rust wipe day schedule

The Rust wipe day preset in Schedules runs on its own when Facepunch’s forced-wipe update goes live:

1. Warn: messages in game, so nobody is surprised.
2. Stop: saves the world and stops the server.
3. Update: installs the new Rust version, and the matching Oxide or Carbon release if you use plugins. A safety backup is made first.
4. Wipe: deletes the map, or the map and the blueprints, whichever you chose.
5. Start: the server builds the new map and opens again.

To set it up:

1. Open Schedules and add the Rust wipe day preset.
2. Choose a map wipe, or a map and blueprint wipe.
3. Save it.

You can also add your own weekly or every-two-weeks map wipe at a day and time you pick, with the same warnings.

Wipe by hand

1. Warn players in the Console: say "Map wipe in 10 minutes".
2. Make a backup in Backups, labelled with the date.
3. Stop the server.
4. In Files, open server/wilderack/.
5. For a map wipe, delete the .sav files (including the older numbered copies) and the .map file.
6. For a blueprint wipe as well, delete the files whose names start with player.blueprints.
7. Start the server. It builds a new map, which takes a few minutes.

Some plugins keep their own data in oxide/data/ or carbon/data/, such as shop balances or kit cooldowns. Check each plugin’s page to see if it should be cleared on wipe day.

After the wipe

• Join and check the new map loaded.
• Open Mods and update any plugin with a new version.
• If players see Wrong Connection Protocol, their game or the server isn’t updated yet. See common errors.
• Your old map stays in the backup from before the wipe. You can download it from Backups as a keepsake, but the new Rust version can’t load it.