“Wipe” in Rust means the map — and often the blueprints — get reset to zero: every base, every stockpile, every hour of grinding gone, and everyone starts the next cycle from a fresh spawn beach. Servers advertise their wipe cadence up front because it defines the whole experience, and “monthly” is one of three cadences you’ll see repeated across almost every server browser.
Force wipe: the one every server obeys
Facepunch pushes a monthly game update, typically landing on the first Thursday of the month around 19:00 GMT (11:00 PST / 14:00 EST). That update bumps Rust’s network protocol, so a server still running last month’s build can no longer accept connections from an updated client. Every server — vanilla, modded, community, official — has to take the patch, and the new build can’t load the old map file, so a brand-new map generates in its place. This is the force wipe, and it happens to every Rust server on Earth on the same day whether the owner wants it or not. Blueprints (the unlocks you’ve researched) reset at the same time.
Monthly vs. weekly vs. biweekly
Outside of the mandatory force wipe, server owners choose how often to wipe the map in between:
- Weekly — a fresh map every Thursday. Favoured by hardcore PvP and raiding communities who want constant early-wipe chaos and don’t want one clan’s mega-base to dominate for a month straight.
- Biweekly — a map wipe every two weeks, with blueprints only resetting at the monthly force wipe. A middle ground: bases get more time to mature than on a weekly server, but the map doesn’t go stale.
- Monthly-only — the map only resets at the force wipe itself, so it’s the same map for roughly 30 days straight. This is the closest thing to “vanilla” Rust’s intended pace, and it’s the one base-builders and roleplay-leaning communities tend to prefer, since a build you spend a week on doesn’t vanish two days later.
There’s no objectively “best” cadence — it depends on whether you want to log in fresh every week or build something that lasts.
How to find a monthly-wipe server
Rust’s in-game server browser and third-party trackers (BattleMetrics is the community standard, along with wipe-schedule trackers run by hosts like GameServerKings, GHOSTCAP, and XGamingServer) let you filter or sort by last-wipe date. Look for servers whose “last wipe” lines up with the most recent force-wipe Thursday and whose description explicitly says “monthly” rather than “weekly” or “biweekly” — the map-wipe cadence is almost always stated in the server name or MOTD, since it’s the single biggest factor players filter on.
Buying tips
- Check the server’s population graph before committing a month of building — a monthly server that’s dead by week two isn’t worth the investment.
- Confirm whether blueprints wipe with the map or only at the force wipe; monthly-map servers almost always keep blueprints server-wide until the force wipe regardless.
- Community Discords usually post the exact next force-wipe date and time, since it can shift by a day if Facepunch delays a patch.