{"id":852,"date":"2021-09-17T20:55:31","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T20:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/?p=852"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:22:28","slug":"how-to-change-the-map-on-your-rust-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/how-to-change-the-map-on-your-rust-server\/","title":{"rendered":"How to change the map on your Rust server"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Changing the map is one of the most common things a Rust server owner does, and it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Whether you want a fresh procedural seed for your next wipe, a hand-crafted custom map for a roleplay community, or one of Rust’s built-in preset maps like Hapis Island, the controls all live in a handful of server.*<\/code> convars. Get them right and you regenerate a clean world in a single restart. Get them wrong and you either fail to load, or you wipe something you didn’t mean to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This guide walks through every method of changing your Rust map: procedural maps with server.seed<\/code> and server.worldsize<\/code>, built-in presets with server.level<\/code>, and fully custom maps with server.levelurl<\/code>. Just as importantly, it explains exactly what happens to your existing world, your players’ bases, and their learned blueprints each time you make a change, because the answer is not always “everything wipes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map convars at a glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rust generates or loads its world from a small set of server convars that are read at startup. You set these either on the command line (with a +<\/code> prefix) or, better for anything beyond a couple of values, inside a server.cfg<\/code> file that the server reads when it boots. Here are the four that control the map itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convar<\/th>Accepted value<\/th>What it does<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
server.seed<\/code><\/td>Any integer 0 \u2013 2147483647<\/td>The random seed that determines the entire shape of a procedural map.<\/td><\/tr>
server.worldsize<\/code><\/td>1000 \u2013 6000 (wiki example: 4000)<\/td>The size of the procedural map in world units (roughly km\u00b2 scaling).<\/td><\/tr>
server.level<\/code><\/td>Map name string<\/td>Which map type to load: “Procedural Map” or a built-in preset.<\/td><\/tr>
server.levelurl<\/code><\/td>Direct-download URL to a .map file<\/td>Loads a fully custom map instead of generating one.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A quick word on where to put these. The Rust wiki’s own advice is to “set only necessities like ports or rcon on the command line. If you want to change a bunch of variables a good option is creating a server.cfg<\/code> file.” The server reads server.cfg<\/code> at startup and it takes priority over command-line settings, so it’s the cleaner home for your map configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Method 1: Procedural maps with seed and worldsize<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The default and most popular option is a procedural map, generated on the fly from two numbers: a seed<\/strong> and a worldsize<\/strong>. The same seed and worldsize will always produce exactly the same map, which is why server owners share “good seeds” with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seed can be any integer from 0 to 2147483647<\/strong>. Worldsize is documented for a range of 1000 to 6000<\/strong>, with the wiki’s example using 4000<\/strong>. Bigger worldsizes mean more monuments, more terrain, and more room to spread out, but also more entities for your server to simulate, which matters for performance on a busy server. A 3000 worldsize works out to roughly 9 km\u00b2 of playable terrain to give you a sense of scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the canonical launch line from the official wiki, which sets a procedural map directly on the command line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RustDedicated.exe -batchmode +server.port 28015 +server.level \"Procedural Map\"\n+server.seed 1234 +server.worldsize 4000 +server.maxplayers 10\n+server.hostname \"Name of Server\" +server.description \"Description\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you prefer to keep these in server.cfg<\/code> instead (recommended), the equivalent lines look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
server.level \"Procedural Map\"\nserver.seed 1234\nserver.worldsize 4000\nserver.maxplayers 10<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To roll a brand-new procedural map, change the seed (or the worldsize, or both) and restart the server. That’s all it takes. Many owners simply pick a fresh random seed every wipe to keep their map novel for returning players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Method 2: Built-in preset maps with server.level<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rust ships with a few hand-built static maps you can load instead of generating one. These never change between wipes (the terrain is fixed), which some communities prefer for learning a map inside-out. You select them with server.level<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wiki formally documents only \"Procedural Map\"<\/code>, but in practice the following preset strings are used on live servers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n