When do forced wipes happen in Rust? Next, force wipe countdown

Rust developers Facepunch Studios enforce a force wipe in the game on the first Thursday of every month, resetting every player’s progress in the official and community servers. This restarts all the servers, thereby making you grind to establish your base and collect loot once again. 

While it can be annoying for some, getting a fresh start helps keep players coming back for more. If you’re wondering when the next force wipe will happen in Rust, here’s all the info you need to know.

When is the next force wipe in Rust?

The next Rust force wipe will take place at 1pm CT on Oct. 3, along with the monthly update going live. While the developer usually sticks to the same time every month, it can change by an hour or two, depending on technical issues at the backend. Here’s a countdown to the next Rust force wipe and reset.

The previous force wipe happened at 1pm CT on Sept. 5.

Why are there forced wipes in Rust?

The force wipes in Rust ensure a level playing field for new players joining a server by making existing players kickstart their grind again. It also allows everyone to set up camp at a new place, ideally with some decent environmental cover.

Servers also have their set timings for map wipes, BP wipes (Blueprint Reset), and regular wipes. For example, an admin can set their server to perform map wipes every Wednesday, which will clear all the structures built by players and their inventories. Additionally, it will generate a new may layout for servers running procedural maps (randomly generated). 

The force wipe will happen regardless of the server’s settings, though, so a server may have more than one wipe every month.

What to do after a force wipe in Rust?

After a forced wipe, your goal should be simple: Be one of the first players to join your Rust server. It will give you a head start on those still downloading the update or hopping into the server the next day. 

To avoid the long queue and load into a server quickly after a force wipe, ensure you have the Rust Staging Branch installed (around 31GB for PC) on your device. Then, use the console to quickly connect to the desired server once the update goes live. The developer tests upcoming updates on this version before making the changes live on the regular game client. 

I personally tend to wait at least one day before hopping back in as I find most of the players quickly joining after a force wipe are try-hards. I get killed a bunch of times, leaving me no time to collect the day-one loot properly. Of course, your experience may differ depending on the server you join.