How to reset an area of the map on your Project Zomboid server

To make one part of the map new again, open Live map, choose Reset an area, drag a rectangle over the place and click Reset this area. The game rebuilds that area as on a fresh map, with its buildings, loot and zombies. Everything built or dropped there is gone, while characters, vehicles elsewhere and the rest of the map stay. A backup is made first, so you can undo it.

When to use it

• A town that players burned, looted empty or filled with junk.
• A spot where the map is damaged. When the game cannot load a part of the world, the panel's Why your server stopped card says so and offers Show on the Live map at that spot: How to find out why your Project Zomboid server stopped.

To reset the whole map instead, use a map wipe: How to wipe your Project Zomboid server.

Reset an area

1. Open your server in the panel and click Live map in the left menu: How to use the Live map of your Project Zomboid server.
2. At the top of the map, click Reset an area. The panel on the right shows three steps: Draw the area, Saved chunks in it and Reset.
3. Zoom in first for a small area, then drag on the map. The rectangle snaps to the game's chunks of 8 by 8 squares, and the panel shows its size, for example "48 x 32 squares". The largest area is 768 by 768 squares.

4. Under Saved chunks in it, the panel counts what will be made new, for example "9 saved chunks will be made new." If it says "Nobody has been here since the world began, so there is nothing to reset", the area is already as on a fresh map.
5. Click Reset this area. The window Reset this area? says how many chunks are deleted, that bases, items and changes there are lost, and that a backup is made first. If players are on, it says they get a 60 second warning. Confirm.

What happens next

The panel shows each step as it goes: Warn players (only when someone is on), Save the world, Stop the server, Back up, Reset the area, Start the server and Done. You can leave the page: the reset carries on and the result shows here.

When it is done, the panel says how many chunk files were deleted: "The game makes them new when someone goes there." The server starts again if it was running before.

Undo a reset

Restore the backup the reset made. The link Undo: restore with the backup's name, on the result, opens Backups, where that backup is named "Before area reset" and the date. Choose Restore to server in its menu: How to restore your Project Zomboid world from a backup. A restore brings back the whole world as it was at that backup, not only the area.

What it needs

• Reset an area shows only for people who may delete files, make backups and stop and start the server.
• The server must be running or stopped, not starting or stopping. One reset runs at a time.
• A free backup slot, and ten minutes since the last two backups. A reset refused for its backup deletes nothing.

Good to know

• The map is the base map. Areas added by map mods are not drawn, so you cannot draw over them here.
• The reset makes the area new for everyone at once. Tell your players, especially anyone who lives there.