Wipe your Rust server

A wipe resets the server to zero: map (buildings, items on the ground) and/or blueprints (unlocked recipes). Since late 2025, blueprints are automatically wiped on every map wipe by default on official servers.

Cause / The problem

After a few weeks, a server gets saturated: too many buildings, degraded performance, an unbalanced economy. Regular wiping (usually the first Thursday of the month, 19:00 UTC, after the Facepunch update) is the norm in the Rust community.

Solution

1. Stop the server in the Pelican panel. Never delete files while the server is running.
2. Open the file manager and navigate to the server’s identity folder:

   /server/<identity>/

   By default <identity> is my_server_identity (or the value of server.identity in your startup settings).
3. Map-only wipe — delete the files:
   • *.map
   • *.sav
   • player.deaths.*.db
   • player.states.*.db
4. Blueprint wipe — also delete:
   • player.blueprints.*.db
5. Full wipe (map + blueprints) — delete all the files listed above. The /proc/ and /logs/ folders can also be emptied to free up space.
6. Automate the wipe (optional) with a tool like pterodactyl-rust-auto-wipe (a Node.js script) or the Rust Server Wiper addon available for Pelican/Pterodactyl. Configure the frequency (weekly, monthly) and the type (map only, or map + BP).
7. Restart the server. Rust generates a new map with the seed and size defined in your startup settings (worldsize, seed).

Check in the console that the server is actually generating a new map (Generating map...) on restart. If you want to keep the same map, note the seed before the wipe and put it back in the config.