PEPEL CORE: questions players ask

Open Rust, press F1 and paste connect core.pepel.gg:28015, or use the Connect through Steam button on the server page. If the status page shows no recent heartbeat, the server is probably restarting or wiping, so check Discord before you sit in a queue. You need your own copy of Rust and your own Steam account; PEPEL never asks for your Steam password.

CORE runs in Limburg, Germany, on OVH hardware, so players in Europe get the shortest route. We do not quote ping numbers because yours depends on your ISP and where you sit; connect once and read it in F1. The current connection limit is 100 players. That is a starting cap, not a tested capacity figure, and we will only look at raising it after watching a full, built-up map.

The map wipes every Thursday at 18:00 UTC, and blueprints wipe on the first Thursday of the month at 18:00 UTC. Nothing resets on a timer: a person starts the wipe, and it is announced in Discord #announcements before it happens. The next map wipe target is Thursday 15 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC (new 3000 map, seed 1149845251), and the next blueprint wipe target is Thursday 5 November 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A date on the site is a target, not proof a wipe happened; the announcement and the fresh map are.

Three. The game refuses a fourth invite, and if a team is somehow oversized the server trims it back to the leader plus the two earliest members. The rule also covers the ways around it: rotating a fourth player in and out, sharing codes, bags or cupboard access with people outside your team, or two trios that raid, defend and split loot as one group. If you think a group is breaking it, report it under the Team limit category with the Steam IDs you know.

No. CORE has no teleport commands for anyone, members included, so you carry your loot across the map yourself. Membership also does not add admin powers, damage multipliers or access to DLC you do not own.

In game, type /report and pick a category: Cheating, Team limit, Abuse, Exploit or Other; the menu lets you choose a player or enter a Steam64 ID, and you can send one report per minute, one at a time. Give the time, the grid square, who was involved and what happened; a clip helps more than anything. You can also sign in with Steam on the site and open Player support. To appeal, email support@pepel.gg with your Steam ID, the decision and your evidence; a paid membership does not change how a report is judged.

Credits are the server currency for kits and the /shop, and the only way to get them is finishing contracts and BlackBox. There are no hourly or AFK credits. They are never sold, cannot be passed to another player, and reset with each map wipe together with your points. /balance shows your current total, and signing in on the site shows the receipts behind it.

Starter gives one stone hatchet, one stone pickaxe and three apples, free, every 6 hours. Type /kits and pick it, or /kit starter in chat; you need three empty slots in your main inventory, and it will not deliver while you are in combat or raid block. If a delivery shows as uncertain, an admin checks the record before you can claim again, so do not spam the command.

Recovery is 25 credits every 4 hours: stone hatchet, stone pickaxe, 3 apples and 30 cloth. Builder is 60 credits every 12 hours: 2,000 wood and 1,500 stone. Scout is 30 credits every 6 hours: 5 apples, 3 bandages and a burlap shirt, trousers and shoes. /shop sells single supplies for credits, from a building plan at 3 credits and a wooden door at 12 to 1,000 wood for 25 and a crossbow for 55; each item has its own cooldown, and the hunting bow and crossbow unlock 2 hours into a wipe.

A contract is a job you accept in chat with /contract scout, /contract delivery or /contract blackbox, or from the /contracts menu. Scout: visit three marked spots, standing within 35 m of each for 15 uninterrupted seconds; it pays 40 scrap, 30 credits and 20 points. Delivery: bring 3,000 wood to your own tool cupboard, look at it from within 4 m and type /deliver; the wood is consumed and you get 25 scrap, 20 credits and 15 points. You have 2 hours to finish, you collect with /contract claim, and the next contract opens 30 minutes after claiming.

BlackBox is an open PvP event that starts roughly every 2 hours while players are online: a cargo box spawns with two scientist guards; you clear them, type /blackbox capture next to the box and stay there for 15 seconds, then carry the cargo to the transmitter and hold that spot for 120 seconds. The winner gets 150 scrap, 60 credits and 40 points. You do not need a contract to compete; /blackbox shows the live state, and without a contract the reward is recorded automatically. If you accepted /contract blackbox beforehand, the win completes that contract instead and you collect it with /contract claim; your team roster is fixed when you accept it. The cargo drops if you die or disconnect, cannot be stored, and the event closes after 30 minutes or on a server restart.

Here is what is true: memberships are planned to include a daily kit, and the INFERNO kit contains a semi-automatic rifle and 64 rifle rounds once the wipe is 24 hours old. That is a gameplay advantage, not a cosmetic, and we will not call it anything else. What money never buys: credits, gather rates, damage, teleports or admin powers; everyone has the same 2x and 1.5x rates and the same research. Nothing is on sale yet; when checkout opens, this page and /store will say so.

Not yet: checkout is planned to open after Tebex finishes reviewing the store and we have verified a test purchase. Until then /store shows Checkout unavailable instead of a Buy button, and nobody should send money any other way. The planned prices are EUR 6.99 (EMBER), 12.99 (FLAME) and 19.99 (INFERNO) per 30 days plus applicable tax, planned as auto-renewing subscriptions; automatic renewal is not switched on yet, and under that plan cancelling keeps the days you already paid for. All three tiers are planned to include queue priority when the server is full and a longer window to pull down your own fresh twig (15, 30 or 60 minutes, against 10 for everyone); FLAME and INFERNO add automatic ore splitting in your own furnace, and INFERNO adds auto-sorting of your own wooden box. The daily kit is one claim per 24 hours on a single clock shared by every tier that keeps running through wipes and tier changes, highest active tier only, unlocking 6, 12 or 24 hours into a wipe, and missed days do not stack.

Three routes: email support@pepel.gg, open a ticket in Discord (https://discord.gg/4rVK5uT5WB: press Open a ticket on the pinned panel in #help, pick a topic, and a private thread opens for you and the moderators in #support-tickets; one open ticket per person), or sign in with Steam on the site and use Player support. People answer tickets by hand, so there is no promised response time. Send your Steam ID, the time in UTC, what you expected and what happened; for a missing kit or reward, add the receipt reference (operation ID) from your profile. One thing to know about receipts: pending or uncertain means the server has not confirmed the items reached your inventory, so do not buy or claim again to fix it; we check the original record first.

Sign in with Steam, open Profile, then Privacy requests, and submit an export or erasure request; or email support@pepel.gg from the address you want the reply at. A person reviews every request, so nothing is exported or deleted the moment you click, and records needed for an active dispute or a legal duty can stay under restricted access, with the reason explained to you. Never send passwords or ID documents; your Steam sign-in is how we verify it is you. A map wipe deletes your base, not your account data.