How to wipe your rust server

Run a map wipe or a full blueprint wipe, follow Facepunch's forced wipe schedule, and keep the settings you want in place.

QUICK ANSWER

Files, delete the map .sav files. For blueprints, wipe player.blueprints.*.

Fact

ban in Rust takes a SteamID, not a player name, so you need to grab it from the F1 console or an admin tool before you can ban someone who's already disconnected.

How to Wipe a Rust Server: Map, Blueprint and Forced

This doc shows Rust server owners how to grant themselves admin, use the F1 console or RCON, and run the moderation and world commands that actually get used.

Before you start

Stop the server first. Deleting files while it's running can corrupt the save mid write. Deleting the old map alone isn't enough for a new layout, you'll need a new server.seed too.

Steps

Map wipe

1Stop the server.
2In Files, delete the current save set: identifier.sav, identifier.sav.bak, and identifier.sav.corrupt.do_not_upload.
3Change server.seed to a new number, otherwise the same map just regenerates.
4Start the server, a fresh map builds on boot.

Blueprint wipe

1Stop the server.
2Delete player.blueprints.3.db in Files.
3Start the server, everyone's back to the default blueprints.

Full wipe

Do both at once: delete the map files, change the seed, delete the blueprint db, then restart.

Facepunch's forced wipe

Facepunch pushes a forced update most first Thursdays of the month, so most servers wipe the map that day too. A blueprint only wipe mid month is common as well, though that one's just a server owner habit, not something Facepunch requires.

Verify

A new map loads, check the in game map or F1 console for a different layout than before. Blueprint wipe worked if a player's crafting menu only shows the defaults.

If it doesn't work

Same map keeps coming back: you didn't change server.seed, so it's regenerating from the same one. Save looks corrupted or wipe didn't take: you deleted files while the server was still running, stop it fully first.