Rust Wipe Schedule 2026 – Every Force Wipe Date and What to Expect

If you've played Rust for any length of time, you know the rhythm. The first Thursday of every month, Facepunch Studios pushes the monthly update, every official server wipes its map, and the whole cycle starts over. Love it or dread it, the force wipe is the heartbeat of Rust – and knowing exactly when it lands saves you from logging in to discover your 40-hour base is gone.

This page has every 2026 force wipe date, what actually resets (and what doesn't), how community and modded servers handle things differently, and what you should be doing before and after each wipe if you're running your own server.

What Is a Rust Wipe?

Two kinds of wipes exist in Rust, and they're different enough that confusing them will ruin your week.

Force wipe (map wipe) happens on the first Thursday of every month. Facepunch releases the monthly Rust update, and every server – official, community, modded, all of them – must generate a fresh map. Your base, your loot, your workbenches, your TC – all gone. This is non-negotiable. The game client updates, the server binary updates, and the old map data is incompatible with the new version. Even if a server admin wanted to skip the force wipe, they can't.

Blueprint wipe is the other kind, and it's less predictable. A BP wipe resets all learned blueprints, meaning everyone goes back to crafting rocks and spears until they research or find things again. Facepunch forces a blueprint wipe roughly every 3–4 months, usually alongside a major content update or rebalance – but there's no fixed schedule. They announce it a few days before it happens, and community servers can choose to wipe BPs more or less often than officials do.

The key difference: after a force wipe you keep your blueprints. After a BP wipe you don't. A force wipe resets the world; a BP wipe resets your knowledge. When both happen at once, that's a full wipe – fresh map, fresh BPs, everyone starts completely equal.

Complete 2026 Force Wipe Schedule

Every date below is the first Thursday of the month. Wipes typically go live around 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT / 7:00 PM GMT – that's when Facepunch pushes the update, though the exact minute varies. Give or take half an hour depending on how smoothly the rollout goes.

A note on January 1 – yes, that's New Year's Day. Facepunch doesn't skip holidays. They've shipped force wipes on Christmas week and during summer vacations. First Thursday means first Thursday.

Next upcoming force wipe: May 7, 2026.

What Resets and What Doesn't

After a force wipe (map wipe):

• ✅ Map is regenerated (new seed or same seed, depending on server config)
• ✅ All buildings, deployables, and entities are removed
• ✅ All player inventories, stashes, and loot are wiped
• ✅ Tool cupboard authorization is reset
• ✅ Team data may persist (depends on server)
• ❌ Blueprints are kept – you still know how to craft everything you'd learned
• ❌ Skins, Steam inventory items are unaffected (obviously)

After a blueprint wipe:

• ✅ All learned blueprints are reset to default
• ✅ Usually happens alongside a force wipe, so everything above applies too
• ❌ There is no "BP-only wipe" on officials – when BPs wipe, the map wipes too

This is why experienced players treat blueprint wipes as a much bigger deal than regular force wipes. Losing your base is Thursday. Losing your AK blueprint is a crisis.

When Do Blueprint Wipes Happen?

There's no published annual schedule for BP wipes. Facepunch decides based on game balance – if they're adding new items, reworking the tech tree, or doing a major rebalance, they'll force a BP wipe so everyone experiences the changes from scratch.

Historically, BP wipes have landed roughly every 3–4 months, but it's inconsistent. Recent years have settled into a bimonthly pattern, though Facepunch can change the cadence at any time. The best approach is to follow @playrust on X and the Rust blog – they announce BP wipes a few days in advance, and the community picks it up fast.

If you're running your own server, you can force a BP wipe whenever you want by wiping the player.blueprints.X.db file from your server data folder. Some community servers wipe BPs monthly or biweekly to keep things fresh. That's entirely your call as an admin.

Community and Modded Server Wipe Schedules

Here's where things get more interesting than the simple "first Thursday" answer. Official servers follow Facepunch's schedule and that's that. Community and modded servers? They wipe whenever the admin decides.

Common community wipe cadences:

• Weekly – the most popular for PvP-focused servers. Wipe every Thursday (or sometimes Monday/Friday). Keeps the meta aggressive, prevents mega-clans from snowballing too hard, and means you're never more than a week behind if you start late.
• Biweekly (fortnightly) – probably the best balance for most groups. Two weeks is enough time to build something meaningful without the server dying from boredom on day 10.
• Monthly (force wipe only) – common on build servers, PvE servers, and RP communities where people want time to actually finish projects. The downside is that servers tend to get stale in the final week as entity counts climb and performance drops.

Most community servers put their wipe schedule right in the server name – you'll see things like "2x Weekly | Thursday Wipe" or "Vanilla Monthly | BP Wipe Quarterly." If a server doesn't tell you its wipe schedule upfront, that's a yellow flag.

One thing that trips up newer players: community servers still have to wipe on force wipe day. A "biweekly" server doesn't get to skip the first Thursday. They wipe on their regular schedule and on force wipe day, even if the timing doesn't line up neatly. So a biweekly server might have a short 5-day cycle one month and a long 9-day cycle the next, depending on where the force wipe falls relative to their normal schedule.

How Wipes Affect Your LOW.MS Server

If you're hosting a Rust server with us, here's what wipe day actually looks like from the admin side.

Before the update drops: Facepunch typically publishes the devblog a day or two before the wipe, outlining what's changing. Read it. If they're changing a monument or adjusting crafting costs, your players will have questions and you should have answers.

When the update goes live: You'll need to update your server to the latest version. On LOW.MS, that's done through the Steam Update button in your control panel. Hit update, wait for SteamCMD to pull the new files (usually takes a couple of minutes), and the server will generate a fresh map on the next start.

Map seed: If you're using a specific seed for your map, it'll keep that seed but regenerate the terrain. Monuments, roads, and spawn points may shift between updates since Facepunch occasionally changes procedural generation. If you want an entirely new layout, change the seed before starting up.

Oxide/uMod plugins: This is the part that catches people. The monthly Rust update sometimes breaks Oxide plugins because internal game APIs change. Most popular plugins get patched within a few hours of the update, but niche ones might take a day or two. If your server relies heavily on plugins, consider waiting an hour or two after the update drops before updating – let the plugin authors catch up. Check umod.org for compatibility.

If you don't have a Rust server yet and want to get one running before the next wipe, grab a plan here – you'll be set up in a couple of minutes.

Tips for Wipe Day

Whether you're an admin or a player, wipe day has its own meta. Here's what I've learned from sitting through more of them than I'd like to count.

Pre-Wipe (The Day Before)

• Back up your server data. Even though the map is getting wiped, you might want old data for reference – player stats, BP databases, plugin configs. LOW.MS runs automatic backups, but it doesn't hurt to grab a manual one through File Manager.
• Warn your players. Discord announcement, server message, whatever you've got. "Wipe tomorrow at ~2 PM EST, BPs are safe" takes ten seconds and prevents a dozen angry tickets.
• Check the devblog. Know what's changing so you can answer questions.
• Pre-download plugin updates if your favourite plugin authors have posted pre-release versions.

Wipe Day

• Don't rush the update. Wait 15–20 minutes after Facepunch's announcement before hitting the Steam Update button. Early rollout sometimes has hiccups, and a slightly delayed start beats a corrupted install.
• Test your plugins before announcing the server is live. Connect, check that everything loads, run a few commands. Nothing kills wipe-day hype faster than a server that crashes every five minutes because a plugin is throwing errors.
• Change the map seed if you want a fresh layout. Or keep the same one if your players like the map – some communities vote on this.
• Update your server description with the new wipe date and any changes to rules or settings.

Post-Wipe (First 24 Hours)

• Be online. The first few hours after wipe are when your server sees peak traffic. Be visible, answer questions, deal with problems fast.
• Monitor performance. A fresh wipe runs smooth, but if you've added new plugins or increased your slot count, early-wipe is when you'll spot issues.
• Watch for cheaters. Wipe day attracts them. Fresh accounts, suspicious aim, people with full kits 20 minutes in. If you're running anti-cheat plugins, make sure they're active and updated.

Planning Your Own Wipe Schedule

If you're running a community or modded server, your wipe schedule is one of the most important decisions you'll make. It goes in your server name, it sets player expectations, and changing it after people have invested time is a good way to lose your playerbase.

My take: start biweekly. It's the safest default. Weekly is great for sweaty PvP servers but burns out casual players. Monthly sounds relaxing until week three when the server runs at 15 FPS because someone built a 200-turret compound. Biweekly gives people enough time to progress without the server turning into a ghost town or a lag fest.

Whatever you choose, put it in the server name, stick to it religiously, and announce every wipe at least 24 hours in advance. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds a community.

Further Reading

If you're running or thinking about running a Rust server, these should help:

• Rust Server Hosting – our Rust hosting plans
• How to Host a Rust Dedicated Server – the full setup walkthrough
• Rust Getting Started Guide – first steps for new server admins
• Rust Server Settings Guide – tuning your server config
• Best Rust Server Settings for Community Servers – opinionated recommendations
• Top Rust Oxide Plugins – the plugins worth running
• Rust Troubleshooting Guide – when things break

This page will be updated if Facepunch announces any schedule changes or unscheduled BP wipes throughout 2026.