At its heart, Rust is a game about controlling territory by creating bases using resources acquired over time. The problem is, for a multiplayer game, this is a flawed system. Not all players will join the server in the beginning, and not everyone has an equal amount of time to spend building up their base. This means that the balance of power can become weak really quickly and it can stay unbalanced forever, theoretically. Rust, however, has found a solution to this problem in the form of ‘force wipes.’ Today, we’ll go over how force wipes work and when you can expect to see them. Let’s begin.
Force Wipes
Force wipes are an implementation from Rust to keep servers running. In other games, players are used to saving their progress in their favorite game and picking right back up where they left off whenever they can play again. But in Rust, every player’s progress is regularly force wiped by the developer, Facepunch Studios for the sake of keeping the game servers running smoothly.
These force wipes delete everything a player has created for that month, including all buildings and objects across the whole map. Every Rust server is affected by these wipes no matter if it is public or private, however, private servers can use creator tools to perform more frequent wipes if they so please. Depending on your location, the exact time of the forced wipe will be based on your time zone.
Forced wipes are an effective system because they allow newcomers to have a chance at starting the game for the first time on a level playing field. While they may not have experience or game knowledge, they can find comfort in the fact that if they play on the beginning of a wipe they won’t be totally obliterated by a squad with full armor and assault rifles when logging on. Also, the server performance should be better as a result of having a lot fewer buildings.
The official force wipe takes place on the first Thursday of each month at 11:00 AM PST and 2:00 PM EST. If you live in a totally different timezone and don’t know how to do the calculation to determine when exactly that is for you, use this link.
Conclusion
Ok, so now you know all there is to know about force wipes in Rust! While it isn’t an ideal system to rip away everything you’ve worked hard for in one fell swoop, it is extremely effective at creating a healthy balance of power for all types of players. Whether you’re new to the game or you just don’t have as much time as the others, everyone can get some fair time to become the top of the food chain. In all honesty, servers in Minecraft can learn a thing or two from this system. With that being said, I hope you’re now more informed, and have a great day!
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