Rust wipes: picking the right schedule and automating it
Wipes may well be the most discussed topic among Rust server admins, and for good reason: your wipe schedule largely determines who plays on your server and how long they stick around. Pick wrong and your server empties out. Pick well and communicate clearly, and every wipe day becomes your busiest day of the week or month.
Below you'll read why wipes are part of Rust, what the difference is between a map wipe and a blueprint wipe, how to choose a schedule that fits your players, and how to automate the whole process so you don't have to sit at the controls every wipe day yourself.
Why wipes are part of Rust
If you're new to server administration it feels odd: throwing away all your players' work? Yet wiping is essential, for three reasons.
- The map clogs up. After a few weeks the map is full of bases, abandoned stone 2x1s and walls from clans that left long ago. The server has to keep track of all those objects, and you'll feel it: the fuller the map, the harder the server has to work.
- New players don't stand a chance. Anyone joining halfway through a cycle starts with a spear against clans in full metal gear behind three walls. Without wipes, simply nobody new joins anymore.
- The game is built around it. Rust's tension lies in the progression: from naked on the beach to a raidable endgame base. That arc only works if it starts over every now and then.
There's a flip side too: every wipe you lose players who had just finished a nice base and don't feel like starting over. That's why the core of good wipe policy isn't "wipe as little as possible" but wiping predictably, so players know where they stand.
Map wipe or blueprint wipe: two flavours of clean slate
There are two kinds of wipes, and the difference matters for how harsh the reset feels.
With a map wipe the map is regenerated. All bases, stored items and placed objects disappear; you often pick a new seed at the same time, so the terrain and monuments end up in different places too. What players have learned, however, stays.
With a blueprint wipe (BP wipe) it's precisely those learned blueprints that get erased. Players have to unlock all items again via the tech tree or found blueprints. That's a much deeper reset: not only is your stuff gone, so is your progress.
In practice, most servers combine it like this: the map is reset every wipe, blueprints far less often, for example once a month. That keeps every wipe fresh without players losing their entire progression every time. Servers that also wipe BPs every single wipe do exist, but they mainly attract hardcore players with lots of time.
Weekly, biweekly or monthly: how to choose
There's no "best" schedule, only a schedule that does or doesn't fit your audience. These are the common flavours:
| Schedule | Who it's for | Upside | Downside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Hardcore PvP players, clans | A fresh start every week and a busy wipe weekend | Casuals drop off; bases feel disposable |
| Biweekly | The happy medium | Enough time for a proper base, yet regular fresh blood | Week two is often noticeably quieter |
| Monthly | Builders, casuals, laid-back communities | Lines up perfectly with the force wipe; projects get time | The last week and a half can empty the server out |
Two honest caveats. One: the end of a cycle is quieter on virtually every server, whatever schedule you pick; that's part of the deal. Two: don't keep changing your schedule. Players plan their playtime around your wipes, and nothing drives them away faster than an unannounced or shifted wipe.
Force wipe: the first Thursday of the month
One wipe isn't up to you. On the first Thursday of the month Facepunch releases the monthly update, and it forces a map wipe on every server, yours included. This is the force wipe. The update usually rolls out in the early evening European time, though the exact time can shift slightly from month to month. Blueprints are not wiped by default during a force wipe; very occasionally Facepunch forces a BP wipe as well, and that gets announced in advance.
For your schedule this means you use the force wipe as an anchor:
- Monthly servers simply wipe on the first Thursday and never otherwise. Nice and clear.
- Biweekly servers wipe on the force wipe and once more halfway through, usually two weeks later on the same day and time.
- Weekly servers wipe every week at a fixed moment, with the force wipe replacing one of those weekly wipes.
So never plan your own wipes right before a force wipe: two resets in three days is the fastest way to frustrate players.
Automate wipes instead of losing sleep over them
Wiping manually means: sitting ready on wipe day, stopping the server, deleting files, changing the seed, updating, starting and hoping everything works while your community spams "WHEN WIPE" in Discord. There's a smarter way. Through your server panel you can set most of it up automatically:
- Make a backup first. If anything goes wrong during the wipe, you can always go back. A backup from just before the wipe also comes in handy if you want to look something up later.
- Schedule the wipe at a fixed time. With scheduled tasks in the panel you stop the server, delete the map and save files and start it up again, every cycle at exactly the same moment.
- Rotate your seed. A new seed per wipe keeps the map exciting. Some admins prefer picking the seed by hand to find a nice map; that's fine too, as long as it's ready before wipe time.
- Don't forget the update. Especially at the force wipe, the server update must be installed before you start back up, otherwise players can't connect. If you run plugins or a framework like Oxide, keep in mind that after a big update those sometimes need a day to get updated.
Test your wipe routine once, calmly, outside peak hours, and you'll know for sure it runs by itself on the real wipe day.
Communicate your schedule and pick a server that can handle it
The best wipe is an announced wipe. Put your schedule in three places: in your server name or description (players genuinely filter on it), in your Discord with a standing announcement a day in advance, and as an in-game message just before the wipe. Always mention whether blueprints will be wiped too; for many players that's the difference between coming back or not.
Finally, the hardware side: a Rust server is considerably heavier than the average game server, and the wipe moment is exactly the busiest, because everyone logs in at the same time on a fresh map. That's why at MC-Node, Rust servers run on our own hardware with NVMe storage and DDoS protection in the Previder PDC2 data centre in Hengelo. The plans run from Explorer (€12 per month) through Researcher (€15), Maintainer (€18) and Veteran (€21) up to Chief (€24 per month). For a small map with a handful of friends the entry plans will do; if you want to run a bigger map with a serious pop, choose generously, because with Rust you feel a memory shortage immediately. Everything can be cancelled monthly, so you can start small and grow with your community. Check out the plans at mc-node.net/store/rust and set up your wipe schedule tonight.