How to set them
Tags go in the server.tags convar as one comma-separated value with no spaces. Put it in your server.cfg, or on the startup line, then restart the server.
server.tags "monthly,vanilla,EU"+server.tags "monthly,vanilla,EU"Some tags are set for you by other convars. Facepunch’s example is server.pve, which adds the PvE tag on its own. The wipe-schedule tag also does a second job: Rust’s built-in wipe timer reads it to decide how often your server wipes. Our wipe timer generator writes the tag and the timer together.
Three rules that decide whether players find you
- One tag per group. Wipe schedule (monthly, biweekly, weekly), difficulty (vanilla, hardcore, softcore) and region are groups. Facepunch’s wiki says the browser shows only one tag from a group, and a second one “will not work properly with search” and can stop your server showing up for that filter. A server tagged both
weeklyandmonthlyis harder to find, not easier. - Four are shown. The browser displays up to four tags per server. Put the ones a player filters by first: wipe schedule, region and difficulty.
- Oxide, Carbon and Modded are not yours to set. Facepunch’s table lists no value for them, so they can’t go in
server.tags. In the browser data they appear on servers running those frameworks.
The full list, with how many servers use each
The value column is what you type. The code is how the tag appears, compressed, in Steam’s server list: ^m^v is monthly plus vanilla. The last two columns are from our census of every public Rust server on 19 October 2026.
| Value | Shows as | Group | Code | Servers | Avg players |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
monthly | Monthly | Wipe schedule | ^m | 3,518 | 4.0 |
biweekly | Biweekly | Wipe schedule | ^b | 1,084 | 10.2 |
weekly | Weekly | Wipe schedule | ^w | 1,620 | 9.1 |
vanilla | Vanilla | Difficulty | ^v | 2,648 | 8.9 |
hardcore | Hardcore | Difficulty | ^h | 71 | 1.2 |
softcore | Softcore | Difficulty | ^s | 146 | 3.4 |
pve | PvE | — | ^p | 1,764 | 3.0 |
roleplay | Roleplay | — | ^r | 238 | 4.0 |
creative | Creative | — | ^c | 189 | 6.3 |
minigame | Minigame | — | ^e | 175 | 8.3 |
training | Combat Training | — | ^d | 196 | 11.4 |
battlefield | Battlefield | — | ^i | 256 | 3.8 |
broyale | Battle Royale | — | ^j | 29 | 14.4 |
builds | Build Server | — | ^k | 169 | 6.9 |
tut | Tutorial | — | ^t | 457 | 20.3 |
premium | Premium | — | ^q | 293 | 11.7 |
| none | Modded | — | ^z | 8,249 | 3.3 |
| none | Oxide | — | ^o | 7,315 | 3.8 |
| none | Carbon | — | ^y | 1,854 | 3.2 |
Region tags
Regions form one group and travel uncompressed, so EU appears as EU.
| Value | Region | Servers | Avg players |
|---|---|---|---|
NA | North America | 1,672 | 11.0 |
SA | South America | 158 | 13.6 |
EU | Europe | 2,501 | 5.3 |
WA | West Asia | 20 | 1.5 |
EA | East Asia | 403 | 5.5 |
OC | Oceania | 187 | 3.3 |
AF | Africa | 21 | 0.2 |
| no region tag | — | 6,540 | 1.1 |
What the census says about tags and players
On 19 October 2026 we pulled every public Rust server from Steam’s master list: 11,502 servers and 43,945 players. 8,234 of those servers had nobody on them.
Region tags show the same pattern. The 4,962 servers with a region tag averaged 7.4 players. The 6,540 without one averaged 1.1.
| Tags shown | Servers | Avg players | Servers with 10+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4,293 | 0.3 | 16 |
| 1 | 1,170 | 1.4 | 33 |
| 2 | 2,349 | 4.8 | 151 |
| 3 | 2,867 | 6.7 | 348 |
| 4+ | 823 | 13.2 | 163 |
How to check what your server is sending
The fastest check is the in-game browser: search your server name and look at the tags under it. To see exactly what Steam has, ask its server list for your IP. You need a free Steam Web API key. The filter must include the Rust app id: an IP on its own returns nothing.
https://api.steampowered.com/IGameServersService/GetServerList/v1/
?key=YOUR_KEY
&filter=\appid\252490\gameaddr\YOUR.SERVER.IPIn the reply, gametype holds your tags. Look for the ^ codes and the region, for example mp100,cp12,…,^m^v,EU,…. If your wipe schedule is missing, the tag never reached the server. Check for a typo in the value, or a second server.tags line later in the config overriding the first.