How to Set Up a Rust Wipe Schedule

Regular wipes are core to how most Rust communities operate — a fresh map and fresh progression on a predictable cadence. Here's how to automate it properly instead of doing it manually every time.

What a "Wipe" Actually Involves

• Map wipe: deletes the generated world save, forcing a brand-new procedurally-generated (or seeded) map on next start.
• Full wipe (BP wipe): also resets player blueprints/tech tree progress, not just the map — typically done less often than map-only wipes (many communities do a full BP wipe monthly, with map-only wipes weekly).

Setting It Up With Schedules

Use the Schedules tab to automate this instead of remembering to do it by hand:

1. Create a new schedule set to your desired cadence (most communities run weekly map wipes, e.g. every Thursday or Friday at a fixed time — check what's conventional for your playerbase/timezone).
2. Add a task to broadcast a warning in chat a set time before the wipe (say Wipe in 15 minutes! as a console command task), so players aren't caught off guard mid-session.
3. Add a task to stop the server.
4. Add a task that deletes or moves the old map/save files via a console command or a pre-configured wipe script (many Rust server setups use a startup flag or script that regenerates the map fresh on next boot when triggered).
5. Add a task to restart the server — this triggers regeneration of a fresh map.

For Full (BP) Wipes

On your monthly full-wipe cadence, the process is the same but also clears the player blueprint database — check your specific Oxide/Carbon plugin setup (if you're running one) for the correct command or file to clear player progression data, since this varies depending on which framework and plugins you're running.

Communicating the Schedule

Automation handles the mechanics, but your player communication matters just as much — post your wipe schedule somewhere visible (Discord, MOTD, server description) well before it happens. A predictable, announced wipe schedule is a genuine trust signal for a serious Rust community; surprise wipes are one of the fastest ways to lose player trust.

Backing Up Before a Full Wipe

Even though a wipe is intentional, it doesn't hurt to back up the pre-wipe map and blueprint data first — useful if you ever want to reference server stats, resolve a post-wipe dispute about what existed before, or roll back if something in the wipe process goes wrong.

Choosing Your Framework First

If you haven't already, decide between Oxide and Carbon before building out wipe automation — many wipe-management plugins are framework-specific.