How to Use a Custom Map on Your Rust Server

## Procedural vs Custom Maps - **Procedural Maps** — Generated automatically based on a seed number and world size. Every seed produces a unique layout. This is the default - **Custom Maps** — Player-made maps created with tools like RustEdit. These offer hand-crafted layouts, custom monuments, and unique terrain ## Where to Find Custom Maps - **RustMaps.com** — Browse procedural maps by seed, or find community custom maps - **RustEdit.io** — The tool used to create custom maps (and a community of map makers) - Community Discord servers and forums often share custom maps ## How to Use a Custom Map You can set up a custom map yourself: 1. Download your .map file from RustMaps or RustEdit 2. Stop your server 3. Go to the **Files** tab in your game panel 4. Upload the .map file to your server's root directory 5. Go to the **Startup** tab and change the **Level** field to the name of your .map file (without the extension) 6. Start your server — it will load the custom map ## Important Notes - Custom maps have a **fixed size** — the map size is determined by the map file itself, not by server settings - After a forced wipe (first Thursday of the month), the custom map is preserved — only player data resets - Very large custom maps may impact server performance - Make sure the custom map is compatible with the current Rust version — older maps may have missing or broken monuments ## Switching Back to a Procedural Map To switch back, stop your server, go to the **Startup** tab, change the **Level** field back to "Procedural Map", and start the server.