Planning Your Rust Wipe Schedule

The forced wipe sets the baseline

Facepunch ships Rust's monthly update on the first Thursday of every month, and that update forces a map wipe on every server. Whatever schedule you choose, that day is a wipe day — and it is also the day the largest number of players look for a fresh start, so plan for it.

Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly?

• Weekly suits players with limited time who want a fresh start often. Expect high turnover and busy first days.
• Bi-weekly balances progress and freshness and is a common choice for community servers.
• Monthly follows the forced wipe only. It rewards long-term play but needs a strong community to keep the second half of the month busy.

Blueprint wipes are a separate choice. Many servers wipe blueprints only on the forced wipe so players keep their progress through the month.

Make the schedule easy to trust

Players come back to servers they can plan around. Keep the same day and time every cycle, put it in the server description and post it in a dedicated channel on your Discord. A wipe that starts late or moves without notice costs more players than one that never changes.

Get ready before the doors open

1. Test the new map and your plugins on the day before.
2. Have staff online for the first hours.
3. Make sure the listing looks active when players start browsing — starting a player package a day before wipe means the server is already busy at the moment people choose.

When your address changes after a wipe

Some hosts hand out a new address or port after a wipe or a server move. A Rust player package is tied to the server address, so if yours changes, open a support ticket with your order number and we move the order to the new address instead of starting it again.