Forced wipes
Facepunch ships a Rust update on the first Thursday of every month. Every server has to wipe its map to run the new version, which is called a forced wipe. The update lands on Thursday afternoon or evening in the United States and the United Kingdom, which is Friday morning in eastern Australia.
Map wipes and blueprint wipes
A map wipe removes the world: bases, items and deployables. A blueprint wipe also resets what players have learned. Forced wipes always reset the map. Whether blueprints are also wiped depends on the update, so check Facepunch's patch notes each month.
Choosing your own schedule
Between forced wipes, the server owner decides when to wipe. Common choices:
- Weekly wipes for busy, competitive servers where groups progress quickly.
- Fortnightly wipes as a middle ground for active communities.
- Monthly only, lining up with the forced wipe, for casual and PvE servers.
Hosting a Rust server in Australia
Rust is one of the heaviest games to host. ASPEC Hosting runs it on the Extreme plan (8 GB RAM), lists that minimum before checkout, and bills in Australian dollars.