Rust Wipe Scheduler: Automatic Map, Blueprint and Full Wipes

A Rust server needs a fresh start on a regular cadence — that is the wipe, and a healthy server lives or dies by how predictable its wipes are. The Rust Wipe Scheduler is a built-in LoafPanel tool that runs those wipes for you on a timetable you set, so you never have to log in late at night to stop the server, delete the right save files, and start it again by hand. It can run a map wipe, a blueprint wipe, or a full wipe; it can repeat weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or on the classic first-Thursday force-wipe day; and it can optionally roll a brand-new map seed and warn your players over RCON before it fires. This guide explains exactly what each wipe type deletes, how the schedule cadences work, and where to find every option on a Rust server you host with Loafhosts. Whether you searched for Rust wipe scheduler, automatic Rust wipe, or first Thursday force wipe, everything you need is below.

What the Rust Wipe Scheduler Does

The scheduler automates the whole wipe sequence that you would otherwise do manually. When a schedule comes due — or when you press Wipe now — it optionally rolls a new world seed, stops the server, waits until it is actually offline, deletes only the save files that the chosen wipe type targets, then starts the server back up so it regenerates fresh. Every wipe is recorded in a history list and in the server’s activity log, so you always have a record of what ran, when, and how many files it removed. It is a Rust-only tool: the Rust Wipe item only appears in the sidebar on Rust servers, and the backend rejects any attempt to use it on a non-Rust server.

Note: A wipe always stops the server, deletes the targeted save files, and starts it again — players are disconnected for the duration

Note: The scheduler waits for the server to confirm it is fully offline before deleting anything; if the server won’t go offline in time, it force-kills it first so files are never held open during the delete

Note: If anything goes wrong mid-wipe, the scheduler still attempts to bring the server back online and records the run as failed — it never leaves the server silently dead

The Three Wipe Types

There are exactly three wipe types, and the difference between them is which save files get deleted. A map wipe removes the generated map and world save (the procedural .map and .sav files, plus any custom-map .sav), so the server generates a fresh map on restart while players keep their learned blueprints. A blueprint wipe removes only the blueprint databases, so the map is left completely untouched but every player has to relearn their blueprints. A full wipe is the clean slate: it removes the map and world save, every per-player database (deaths, identities, states, tokens, and blueprints), and your Oxide/Carbon plugin data — kits, teleport homes, server rewards, and the like. Pick the type that matches the kind of fresh start you want.

Tip: Map wipe = new map, players keep blueprints — the gentlest reset and the most common weekly wipe

Tip: Blueprint wipe = same map, everyone relearns — useful when you want to reset progression without changing the world

Tip: Full wipe = everything goes, including Oxide/Carbon plugin data — use it for a true season reset

Choosing a Cadence

A schedule repeats on one of five cadences. Weekly fires every week on the weekday you pick, at the time you set. Bi-weekly fires every second week on that weekday, anchored so the every-other-week rhythm stays stable across the turn of the year. Monthly fires on a day-of-month you choose (1–31); if a month is shorter than the day you picked — say you chose the 31st — it fires on the last day of that month instead of spilling into the next one. First Thursday is the classic Rust force-wipe cadence: it fires on the first Thursday of every month, the day Rust’s monthly forced wipes land. Custom behaves like a weekly schedule and is simply labelled separately for advanced setups. For weekly, bi-weekly, and custom you also choose the weekday (Monday through Sunday); for monthly you choose the day-of-month.

Note: Monthly wipes are clamped to the month’s length — day 31 fires on the 28th or 29th in February rather than skipping the month

Tip: First Thursday is the option to match Rust’s monthly forced wipe — pair it with a full or blueprint wipe so your server wipes when the game does

Tip: A single server can hold several schedules at once, so you can run, for example, a weekly map wipe plus a monthly full wipe side by side

Setting the Time and Timezone

Every schedule has a run time entered in 24-hour HH:MM form and a timezone chosen from the standard timezone list. The scheduler does all of its date math in the timezone you pick, so a wipe set for 18:00 in your local zone fires at 18:00 local regardless of where the server is hosted or how the clocks shift for daylight saving. The panel checks each schedule once a minute, so wipes fire promptly at the minute you set. When you create or edit a schedule, the panel immediately works out and shows the next time it will run.

Tip: Always set the timezone to your community’s timezone, not the server’s — the wipe time you enter is interpreted in the timezone you choose

Note: The run time uses 24-hour format, so 6 PM is 18:00

Note: Schedules are evaluated every minute, so the wipe fires at the exact minute you set, not on a vague hourly sweep

Rotating the World Seed

Each schedule has an optional seed-rotation toggle. With it on, the scheduler picks a fresh random world seed and applies it before the wipe runs, so when the server regenerates it builds a genuinely new map rather than the same layout again. Seed rotation only changes the map when the map files are actually wiped — that is, on a map wipe or a full wipe — because a new seed only takes effect when the world is regenerated. On a blueprint wipe, where the map is left in place, a rotated seed has nothing to act on until the next map wipe. Leave it off if you want to keep the same map layout from one wipe to the next.

Tip: Turn on seed rotation with map and full wipes when you want a brand-new map every wipe

Tip: Leave seed rotation off if your community likes a familiar map and you only want to clear loot and bases

Note: Seed rotation only does something when your server builds its map from a world seed — the default procedural map; on a fixed or custom map there is no seed for it to change

Announcing a Wipe to Players

Each schedule can announce the upcoming wipe in-game over RCON. When announcements are on, the scheduler sends a single warning message to chat once the wipe enters its lead-time window — you choose how many minutes before (up to 60) that warning goes out, and you write the message yourself. The message supports a {minutes} placeholder that the scheduler replaces with the number of minutes remaining when it sends, so a message like “Server wipe in {minutes} minutes.” comes through with the real figure filled in. The announcement fires once for each wipe, so your players get a clear heads-up without chat being spammed every minute.

Note: Announcements are sent over RCON, so the server must have RCON working for the warning to reach players

Tip: Use the {minutes} placeholder in your message and it will be filled in with the actual minutes left before the wipe

Note: The default warning is five minutes before the wipe, and you can set anything from off up to a 60-minute lead time

Running a Wipe Right Now

Alongside the scheduled wipes, there is a Wipe now action for a one-off wipe on demand — handy when you need to reset immediately rather than wait for the next scheduled run. You choose the wipe type (map, blueprint, or full) and whether to rotate the seed, and the scheduler runs the exact same stop-delete-start sequence straight away, reporting how many files it removed when it finishes. A wipe in progress is locked per server, so a stray double-click or a scheduled wipe firing at the same moment can never start two wipes at once against the same server.

Note: Wipe now runs the same safe sequence as a scheduled wipe — it stops the server, deletes the targeted files, and starts it again

Tip: A wipe is locked while it runs, so clicking twice or colliding with a scheduled wipe won’t double-fire — the second attempt is simply turned away

Note: Because a manual wipe stops and restarts the server, only run one when you are ready for players to be disconnected

History, Permissions, and Limits

The Rust Wipe page keeps a recent history of every wipe — its type, whether it was triggered by a schedule or run manually, whether it completed or failed, how many files it removed, and any new seed that was rolled. The same events are written to the server’s activity log for a permanent audit trail. Access is controlled: the wipe is destructive, so it sits behind its own dedicated permission. The server owner has it automatically, but a sub-user must be granted the wipe-management permission explicitly before they can create schedules or fire a wipe. There is also a cap on how many schedules a single server can hold, which keeps your schedule list tidy and prevents runaway creation.

Note: Every wipe is logged in both the in-page history and the server activity log, so you always know what ran and when

Note: Wiping is a separate permission node — a sub-user needs the wipe-management permission granted to them before they can use the scheduler

Tip: If a wipe shows as failed in the history, the server was still brought back online — open the entry to see the reason recorded against it

Where to Find It in the Panel

Open your Rust server in the LoafPanel control panel and look for the Rust Wipe entry in the left-hand server sidebar; it appears only on Rust servers. From there you can see your existing schedules and their next run times, add a new schedule by choosing the wipe type, cadence, day, time, timezone, and the seed-rotation and announcement options, edit or remove any schedule, run a one-off Wipe now, and review the recent wipe history. The tool only ever deletes from a fixed, curated list of save-file patterns in two known places — the Rust save directory and, on a full wipe only, the Oxide/Carbon data directory — and re-checks that every file sits directly inside one of those directories before removing it, so it never deletes arbitrary paths and is safe to leave running unattended on the cadence you set.

Tip: The Rust Wipe item only shows on Rust servers — if you don’t see it, confirm the server is a Rust server and the feature is enabled for it

Note: Deletions are confined to a fixed target list per wipe type, in the Rust save directory plus — on a full wipe — the Oxide/Carbon data directory, each path re-checked to sit directly inside its own directory, so the scheduler can never reach outside those folders

Tip: Set your wipes once and leave them — the scheduler checks every minute and fires each schedule automatically on its next due time