How to Wipe Your Rust Server

Force wipe: the first Thursday of the month

Facepunch ships a content update on the first Thursday of every month, typically from around 19:00 UK time. The update raises the game's protocol number, and because the world save file has that protocol number in its name, the old world can no longer be loaded.

That is why the map is always wiped after a force wipe. It is not something you can opt out of.

Blueprints, on the other hand, are not wiped automatically. They live in a separate database that survives the protocol change. Facepunch only wipes blueprints occasionally - usually when progression changes significantly - and it is announced. If you want them wiped, you have to do it yourself.

Plenty of sites predict the dates, but always confirm the current month on the official Rust news feed before planning around it.

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The three kinds of wipe

Type	Map and bases	Blueprints	Player data
Map wipe	Reset	Kept	Kept
Blueprint wipe	Usually also reset	Reset	Kept
Full wipe	Reset	Reset	Reset

If you keep blueprints, players have workbenches and guns within the first hour. Wipe them and progression starts over - which is why a BP wipe is the best moment to market a fresh start.

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The files: what lives where

Everything sits in server/IDENTITY/, where IDENTITY is the name you gave the server with server.identity.

The world:

proceduralmap.4500.702380609.247.sav
proceduralmap.4500.702380609.247.sav.1
proceduralmap.4500.702380609.247.map

The filename contains the world size, the seed and the protocol version. .sav.1, .sav.2 and so on are rolling backups.

Player data (SQLite databases in the same folder):

File	Contents
player.blueprints.*.db	Learned blueprints and tech tree
player.deaths.*.db	The death screen: time alive, who killed you
player.identities.*.db	SteamIDs and player names
player.states.*.db	Hostile timers and map markers
sv.files.*.db	Stored images - usually sign art

The number in the filename is a schema version, not a player ID. Different files can carry different numbers at the same time. That is normal.

The files you must never delete:

server/IDENTITY/cfg/server.cfg     your settings
server/IDENTITY/cfg/users.cfg      your admins (ownerid and moderatorid)
server/IDENTITY/cfg/bans.cfg       your bans

Delete the whole identity folder and your admins and bans go with it. That happens more often than you would think.

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How to wipe

Always stop the server first. A running server holds the world in memory and writes it back on shutdown - so the file you just deleted comes right back.

Map wipe

Delete these in server/IDENTITY/:

*.sav
*.sav.*
*.map

If you run a custom map downloaded through server.levelurl, delete only the .sav files. Deleting the .map forces a re-download - and if the link is dead, the server will not start at all.

Blueprint wipe

Delete only:

player.blueprints.*.db

This can be done on its own without touching the world. Do not delete every .db file - that also takes death stats, names and sign art with it.

Full wipe

Delete *.sav, *.sav.*, *.map and player.*.db. Leave cfg/ alone.

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A new map without waiting for a force wipe

The map is determined by two settings:

Convar	Values	Meaning
server.seed	0 - 2147483647	Determines how the map is generated
server.worldsize	1000 - 6000	Map size. 3500-4500 is the common band

The same seed and the same size always produce exactly the same map. Both are only read at startup.

To get a new map on any day: stop the server, change server.seed, delete the old .sav, and start again. To run the same map fresh with no bases, keep the seed and size and delete only the .sav files.

Look at the map before you pick it at rustmaps.com - you can search by seed and size and see monuments and resources in advance. It also makes a good post to share with your players a couple of days before wipe.

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Plugin data: what to keep and what to clear

If you run Oxide or Carbon, you need to make a decision about oxide/data - and this is where people either delete too much or too little.

Always keep:

File or folder	Why
oxide/config/	All your plugin settings
oxide/lang/	Translations
oxide/data/oxide.groups.data	Your groups and their permissions

Normally keep oxide/data/oxide.users.data too - it remembers which players are VIP or moderator. Delete it and every individual permission has to be granted again.

Clear out the plugin data files that describe the world: homes and teleports, kit cooldowns, clan and base ownership, ongoing events. Leave them in place and players end up teleporting into terrain and back to bases that no longer exist.

Many well-written plugins clean up after themselves through Oxide's OnNewSave hook, which fires exactly when the server starts on a new map. That is why you should not simply delete all of oxide/data - check plugin by plugin.

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The order of operations on wipe day

1. Announce at least a day ahead - in Discord, in the server name and on your listing.
2. Stop the server and wait until it is fully down.
3. Take a backup of server/IDENTITY/ and oxide/.
4. Update the Rust server files (force wipe day only).
5. Update Oxide or Carbon, then your plugins.
6. Delete the files for the wipe type you are doing.
7. Optionally change server.seed or server.worldsize.
8. Clear the plugin data that needs clearing.
9. Start the server. The first startup on a new map takes several minutes.
10. Verify: is the map new, did the plugins load without errors, are you still admin, do permissions still work?

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Tell your players when you wipe

Rust has a built-in wipe timer, shown both on the countdown at the Missile Silo and used for the server browser categories. Set it to match your actual schedule:

Convar	Meaning
wipetimer.wipeTimezone	Timezone, default Europe/London
wipetimer.wipeDayofWeek	0 = Sunday, 4 = Thursday
wipetimer.wipeHourofDay	Hour of the day, e.g. 19
PrintWipe	Console command: prints the next ten wipe dates

The common cadences are weekly, biweekly, monthly, or force wipe only. Whichever you pick, state the day, time and timezone - and state separately when blueprints are wiped. "Weekly" with no time reads as a red flag on server listings.

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
The old world came back	The server was running when you deleted the files	Stop the server, delete again, start
My admins are gone	The whole identity folder was deleted	Restore cfg/users.cfg from backup
Every plugin fails after the wipe	Oxide has not been updated for the new Rust version	Update Oxide and restart
Players still have all their blueprints	Only the map was wiped	Delete player.blueprints.*.db
The server will not start after a custom map wipe	The .map file was deleted	Check that server.levelurl still works
Players teleport into terrain	Old plugin data points at the old map	Clear that plugin's data file
The map is the same as before	Seed and size are unchanged	Change server.seed

Unsure what you are allowed to delete? Take a backup and contact our support before you do it - a wipe cannot be undone.

Need to sort out plugins first? See How to Install Oxide/uMod Plugins on Your Rust Server.