How do I wipe my Rust server?

Stop your server, delete the save (.sav) and map (.map) files from its identity folder, then start it again. That’s a map wipe. Delete the player.blueprints files as well and everyone forgets their blueprints too.

Map wipe or blueprint wipe?

• Map wipe: a fresh map. Bases, loot and everything players built are gone, but they keep the blueprints they’ve learned.
• Blueprint wipe: learned blueprints go as well, so everyone works through the tech tree again. It’s usually done alongside a map wipe.

What’s in the identity folder

Your server’s world lives in its identity folder, inside the server folder. Here’s Facepunch’s example, a size 4000 map with seed 367122 on save protocol 251. Your numbers will differ.

• proceduralmap.4000.367122.251.sav: the world itself, with every building, box and deployable.
• proceduralmap.4000.367122.map: the terrain and monuments.
• player.blueprints.5.db and player.blueprints.5.db-wal: everyone’s learned blueprints.
• sv.files.251.db: pictures on signs.
• player.states.251.db: death markers, hostile timers and the like.

Rust’s databases keep recent changes in a -wal file beside them, so a .db and its -wal always go together.

Wipe the map

1. Download a backup from your Game Panel first.
2. Stop your server from the Game Panel. A running server still has the world in memory and will save it straight back.
3. In your Game Panel’s file manager, open your server’s identity folder.
4. Delete every .sav file, including any older backup copies Rust keeps beside it, and the .map file.
5. For a tidy start, delete the sv.files and player.states files too. They carry the same number as the save, so a forced wipe starts them fresh as well.
6. Start your server. Rust builds the map, which takes a few minutes. Watch the live console for Server startup complete.

The same seed and size give you the same map again, freshly reset. For a different map, change server.seed (any number from 0 to 2147483647) or server.worldsize (1000 to 6000) before you start it. Set them in your server’s settings in the Game Panel, or as lines in cfg/server.cfg. A new seed or size always means a new map, so only change them when you wipe.

Wipe blueprints as well

Follow the steps above, and at step 4 also delete every file whose name starts player.blueprints. (the .db and its -wal). Leave them alone and players keep what they’ve learned.

Forced wipe day

Facepunch releases Rust’s monthly update on the first Thursday of the month, from about 19:00 UK time. The update raises the save protocol (the number just before .sav), so a server that takes it starts a new map by itself. You don’t need to delete anything for that.

Forced wipes are map wipes. Blueprints stay unless you delete them yourself. Facepunch sets the date and can move it, so check their news on the day. Scheduled updates come with every HavoNode server, so yours can pull the update in without you sitting at a PC.

If you run Oxide, it needs updating after every Rust update. Carbon updates itself. Both are covered in adding plugins.