What "vanilla Rust" actually means

Vanilla Rust is the game as Facepunch ships it for the monthly retail patch. No code modifications, no third-party plugins, no convars tuned outside the defaults Facepunch sets for their own official servers.

In practice, that means a server is vanilla if and only if all of the following are true:

• No Oxide / uMod / Carbon framework installed. These are the two big plugin systems. If either is loaded, the server is not vanilla, even if no plugins are active.
• No DLL injection or custom mods. The binary running is exactly the one steamcmd pulled from app 258550.
• Gather rates, smelt times, recipe costs are stock. No 2x, 3x, 5x, or "weekend bonus".
• Loot tables are stock. No custom monument loot, no "wipe-day kit", no shop, no /kit commands.
• EAC is on. Anti-cheat enforced. Server is signed and verified by Facepunch's server list.
• Map is procedurally generated. No custom maps. The seed regenerates on monthly force wipe.
• Wipe schedule matches Facepunch. Monthly map wipe on the first Thursday at 18:00 UTC.

Vanilla doesn't mean zero customisation — Facepunch ships convars that admins can tune within the "official" umbrella. The acceptable list:

• Server hostname, description, header image, banner.
• Server tags (region, language, monthly, solo/duo).
• Team-size cap via relationshipmanager.maxteamsize. Facepunch's own official solo/duo servers use this.
• Daily restart times and update windows.
• Admin Steam IDs in users.cfg.
• Ban list management.

None of those modify gameplay. They're operational settings, not balance changes.

• Auto-kits at spawn — even "just a hatchet". Vanilla starts you with a rock and torch.
• Skin shops, RMT shops — pay-to-skin or pay-to-win, both kill the economy.
• Server-wide chat with formatting — anything beyond stock chat means Oxide.
• Custom welcome /info commands — same.
• Anti-decay or extended decay timers — modifies a balance system.
• Custom loot tables, even "buffs" — not vanilla regardless of how minor.
• Faster gather, even by 1% — same.

Players prefer vanilla servers for the integrity and community size. Modded servers wear the label to attract that traffic. You'll see "vanilla 2x", "light vanilla", "vanilla++" — none of those are vanilla. They're modded servers banking on the keyword.

The Steam server browser exposes the truth: vanilla servers carry the vanilla tag in their tag string, set by Facepunch's own validation, and have the modded tag absent. You can read tags via the Steam Web API or just trust the Battlemetrics filter.

On modded servers, progression is accelerated and gear is cheaper. That sounds friendly to solo players — until you realise it's even friendlier to the clan grinding 18 hours a day. By compressing the time-to-AK, modded servers amplify player- count advantages instead of evening them out.

Vanilla's slower progression is what gives solos and duos a real chance: an AK costs hours of monument running, and a clan isn't 10× faster than you at running Sphere Tank.

We run stock Facepunch dedicated binary, EAC on, no Oxide / Carbon / uMod installed. Tags are vanilla, monthly, solo/duo. The one server-side feature we've added — Base Radar — runs out-of-process via RCON. The game binary is untouched, EAC is unaffected, and nothing about gameplay balance changes.