This month’s Rust update introduces new base upgrades like the Armoured Ladder Hatch, renewable power with Water Wheels, a full Tech Tree overhaul, fishing reworks, major UI improvements, and significant performance upgrades across servers and rendering.
This month’s update introduces new high-tier base upgrades, renewable power systems, major UI improvements, and a wide range of quality-of-life changes. Performance, networking, and anti-cheat systems also received significant upgrades.
New Armoured Ladder Hatch (Tier 3 upgrade)
New Water Wheel for passive electricity generation
Tech Tree multi-unlock system overhaul
Fishing overhaul with overfishing mechanic
Major F1 console UI redesign
Large-scale server & rendering performance improvements
🆕 New Items & Building Upgrades
Two new additions expand base building and power generation options, giving players more durability and renewable energy choices.
Armoured Ladder Hatch added as a Tier 3 upgrade
Available in square and triangle variants
Significantly increased durability for vertical access points
Water Wheel generates passive electricity from rivers
Works in oceans with reduced consistency due to tides
Can be manually powered by players (or prisoners 👀)
🌳 Tech Tree Multi-Unlocking
The tech tree system has been fully reworked to remove tedious step-by-step unlocking.
Select any item and preview the full unlock path
Unlock entire paths instantly with one click
Improved animations and sound effects
Tech tree now centers properly when zooming
🎣 Fishing Overhaul & Deep Sea Buffs
Fishing has been rebalanced to discourage AFK farming while rewarding active exploration.
New overfishing system reduces catches in heavily farmed areas
Overfished zones only yield junk temporarily
Areas recover over time
Deep Sea fishing buffed with higher-value loot pool
Low-value fish removed from Deep Sea catches
Fishing traps unaffected by overfishing
⚙️ Gameplay & QoL Improvements
Numerous gameplay systems have been refined to improve usability and balance.
Chainsaw now consistently hits tree weak spots
Watchtowers can no longer be spam placed
Junkpile spawn issues fixed
IO Counter now supports configurable reset values
Deep Sea sleeping bags now visually distinguishable on death screen
Plant ripe stage extended from 14 → 24 hours
🛡️ Combat & Shield Adjustments
Shield mechanics have been adjusted to better balance offense vs defense.
Shield hitbox now changes when raised vs idle
Smaller hitbox when not actively blocking
Fixed unintended recoil when shooting shields
Encourages more skill-based defensive play
🎮 UI & Control Improvements
Several UI systems were upgraded for better usability and customization.
New Light Toggle Radial system replaces togglelight bind
Tap = toggle all lights, Hold = individual control
Coloured buttons added with wire-style color system
First implementation of nested radial menus
Custom chat channel tag colors added (accessibility)
🖥️ F1 Console Overhaul
The F1 console has been completely redesigned with new tools and features.
Command list with all available commands
Improved admin tools (teleport, mute, player info)
Favorites and Recents tabs for items
New Loadouts and Copy Paste systems
CTRL + Scroll for resizing UI elements
Legacy console still available temporarily
⚡ Major Performance Improvements
This update includes major backend optimizations across CPU, GPU, and server performance.
New GPU-driven terrain renderer reduces draw calls (~60% reduction)
Improved terrain culling and CPU performance
Server mesh stripping saves ~600MB RAM and 2.7GB disk space
Improved network groups with distance-based entity scaling
UsePlayerUpdateJobs 2 now default
Experimental Jobs 3 introduces UniTask optimization
🔒 Anti-Cheat & Secure Servers Update
Secure servers continue to evolve with measurable improvements to cheating reduction.
Cheater rate reduced to ~1 in 63 players (from 1 in 42)
Requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot (~60% adoption)
Limited rollout for testing reliability
Future expansion planned based on adoption
🐰 Easter Event & Limited Items
Seasonal content returns with new cosmetics and gameplay features.
