Rust's November update is here! This month's update brings a major overhaul to blueprint progression, a brand-new Uzi 9mm, roaming scientist boats, and plenty of livestock improvements. There's also new wildlife, building improvements, expanded controller support, and a hefty round of optimizations.

The update is expected at normal time (2pm EST / 7pm GMT). Our update stream goes live at 1pm EST. Here's everything coming with November's update.

Blueprint progression overhaul

One of the biggest changes this month is a complete overhaul of blueprint progression. Scrap is no longer used to unlock items through the tech tree. Instead, players will need Blueprint Fragments for Tier 1 and Engineering Workbench unlocks, Blueprint Pages for Tier 2, and Blueprint Books for Tier 3. Each unlock requires one corresponding blueprint item. Fragments can be found in barrels and common loot, while Pages and Books appear in progressively higher-tier loot. Ten Fragments can be combined into a Page, but Pages cannot be upgraded into Books. Workbench crafting costs have also returned to scrap: 50 for Tier 1, 500 for Tier 2, and 1,250 for Tier 3.

Blueprints have been added to additional loot sources, including underwater crates, scientist boat rewards, and select fishing and hunting activities. Barrels now have a 16.6% chance of dropping a Fragment, while certain crates have a 20% chance of dropping two. Gutting Catfish, Orange Roughy, Salmon, or Small Sharks also has a 20% chance of providing a Fragment, and Large Barn/Ranch hunter missions have a 50% chance of rewarding a Page. The Research Table still uses scrap, with costs of 20, 40, 100, and 300 depending on item rarity. The Prototype Workbench Upgrade now has a 25% success chance, while the Salvage Workbench Upgrade has a 20% chance of preserving a blueprint when used.

New Uzi 9mm

A brand-new weapon joins Rust's arsenal with the arrival of the Uzi 9mm. This compact SMG features a collapsible stock that changes how the weapon handles. With the stock folded, the Uzi fires automatically and can be used one-handed alongside a shield, although aiming down sights is limited and bullet spread is considerably higher. Extending the stock switches the weapon to semi-automatic fire, allowing players to aim down sights with significantly better accuracy and recoil control.

The Uzi is a loot-only weapon, meaning it cannot be crafted or researched. Players can find it in Elite Crates, Hackable Crates, and certain underwater crates. Recent loot simulations showed approximately a 5% chance from Elite Crates, 13% from Hackable Crates, and 2% from underwater crates. Current weapon stats include 33 damage, 750 fire rate, and 58 range. The Uzi also supports various weapon attachments and can be deployed in auto turrets.

Livestock overhaul

Rust's livestock system is getting a substantial round of improvements, making cows and sheep easier to manage and a little more interactive. Players can now pet their animals, with new animations, sounds, and reactions. Cows and sheep can also be renamed, although animals with rare special names and genetics retain their original names. Movement and leading behavior have been improved, along with fixes for animals getting stuck, clipping through walls, and struggling to reach food.

Feeding and breeding have received plenty of attention as well. Animals now consume food from troughs even when grass is available, with grass reducing how much additional food they need. Young animals only need to reach 80% happiness to achieve their maximum potential, while improvements to genetics make recessive traits easier to understand. These hidden genes also influence livestock vendor payouts, with the vendor now focusing on raised, mature offspring rather than animals simply collected from the wild.

New shears and wool armor inserts

Players have a couple of new uses for their wool supply. First up are Shears, a new tool crafted using two metal blades at a Level 1 Workbench. Shears harvest 25% more wool than a knife, have twice the durability, and won't damage or startle sheep when used correctly. There's also a new Wool Armor Insert, crafted using 20 wool and unlocked through the Tier 1 tech tree. Each insert provides 4 cold protection, 2 melee protection, and 1 projectile protection, giving players another way to customize their armor and clothing for different conditions.

Roaming scientist boats

Scientists are taking their patrols to the water with new roaming boat encounters around the mainland. Groups of scientist RHIBs and PT boats will periodically appear offshore before moving toward the coastline. Under the current setup, one or two groups spawn approximately every five to eight hours, remaining active for 30 to 60 minutes before departing the map.

These scientists operate similarly to the Patrol Helicopter, targeting visible players who are armed or geared, along with anyone who attacks them. Boat AI has received numerous improvements to navigation, targeting, and pursuit behavior. Scientists can give up a chase after losing sight of their target, maneuver around obstacles, and even take over driving when another scientist is killed. The encounters also provide additional opportunities to obtain Blueprint Pages from defeated scientist boats.

Lighthouse repairs

Access to the Deep Sea now requires a little maintenance. Lighthouses start damaged after a wipe, and players must head to the top and repair the light mechanism before the Deep Sea becomes accessible. Repairing one lighthouse restores the system across the map, so there's no need to visit every lighthouse on the server.

Performance and optimizations

A substantial amount of work has gone into improving both client performance and server stability. Building privilege checks have been optimized, with testing around a large base reducing certain calculations from 4.6ms to approximately 0.09ms. Additional improvements to building occlusion, object LOD processing, vegetation culling, and rendering help reduce unnecessary work. Networking has also been streamlined, cutting redundant updates from animals, turrets, building blocks, and other entities, while new packet batching reduces networking overhead. Memory optimizations, workshop skin improvements, and reduced asset loading round out the changes. Actual performance gains will vary depending on hardware and server conditions.

Controller support

Controller players are getting some much-needed attention with expanded Steam Input integration and numerous improvements to gamepad functionality. Players can now customize more of their controls, including rebinding firing and aiming away from the default triggers. Inventory navigation, radial menus, interface prompts, and vehicle controls have also received improvements. Several fixes address problems when switching between controller and keyboard/mouse, including unwanted inputs and controller stick behavior interfering with gameplay.

Building improvements

Builders have a few new tricks available this month, including the ability to mirror L-shaped and U-shaped stairs. Stairs can be flipped during placement or shortly after they've been placed, with rotation and flipping sharing the same radial menu location. Players can switch between these options using Q and E. Additional checks prevent stairs from being modified when deployables are attached, avoiding accidental destruction. Ramp placement has also been improved, along with clearer building error messages and various fixes to building piece placement.

Scrap King building skin

The Scrap King metal building skin has received its final round of polish, bringing a distinctly makeshift industrial look to metal bases. The skin features rusty corrugated surfaces, exposed metal details, and updated interior textures. Recent work has refined roof overhangs, collision geometry, mirrored stairs, and destruction effects to improve compatibility with existing building pieces. You’ll likely be able to find this new building skin on the item store around when the update is release.

Fruit trees

Gathering food in the wild is getting a little more interesting with the addition of apples and coconuts to select trees around the map. Apples can now appear on certain oak trees, while coconuts can be found on smaller tropical palm trees. Players can knock the fruit down and collect it, providing another source of food while exploring. Spawn probabilities, fruit placement, and tree interactions have been adjusted to keep things looking and behaving naturally.

Bird flocks

Rust's wildlife is getting a little livelier with new crow and seagull flocks appearing around the map. Crows can circle corpses, while seagulls gather around locations such as harbors, fishing villages, and other coastal monuments. Seagulls can land, walk around, and take flight when startled by nearby players. They can also be shot and harvested for resources, with additional improvements to their animations, sounds, and behavior.

Nailgun refresh

The trusty Nailgun is getting a visual overhaul, with updated first- and third-person models, improved textures, and new weapon effects. Firing animations, magazine visuals, and projectile effects have also received attention. Better yet, the Nailgun now supports Workshop skins, opening the door for custom appearances for this early-game favorite.

Crocodile Pie and survival balancing

Crocodile Pie is getting a new purpose with an animal-repellent effect that helps keep dangerous wildlife at bay. The effect influences sharks, bulls, rams, and bee swarms, preventing several of these creatures from actively pursuing or attacking affected players. Walking directly into a bee swarm can still cause damage, however, so don't get too comfortable. A Rich Crocodile Pie variant has also been added.

Several teas are receiving balancing adjustments as well. Advanced teas have had their bonuses reduced by approximately 11%, while Pure and Milky teas see reductions averaging around 18%. Creamy teas have been reduced by roughly 20%. Healing, Crafting Quality, and Radiation Removal teas remain unaffected by these changes.

Other Stuff

The Halloween event will be turned off when the update goes live.
Military Tunnels entrance blockers now require explosives to destroy, matching the blockers protecting red card rooms.
Handmade SMG damage increased from 20 to 21.
Diving Propulsion Vehicle acceleration has been doubled, with reduced fuel consumption while moving and idling.
Sprinting now consumes 10% more calories and hydration than before.
Wild modular cars now spawn with approximately half their engine slots filled with low-quality parts at 40–75% condition. These parts cannot be removed until the vehicle is placed on a modular car lift.
Berries now have an Extract option, allowing players to obtain one seed without eating the berry. Extracting consumes the berry.
Loot containers now automatically close when players move out of range, with the feature enabled by default.
Map markers can now be repositioned using the middle mouse button.
A new accessibility option allows players to change the color of wild hemp plants, while mature hemp plants are now visible from greater distances.
Small and thin trees are more forgiving when struck, reducing frustrating missed hits.
The Prisoner Hood now muffles sound for the player wearing it.
Softcore now limits players to six Tool Cupboards, disables clans and the Clan Table, and removes the deployable corpse system.
Hardcore upkeep values have been adjusted, reducing costs for smaller bases while maintaining higher upkeep requirements for larger structures compared with vanilla.
The Mixing Table and cooking interfaces now feature improved search and recipe category filtering.
Milk, skimmed milk, and cream have received updated inventory icons to make them easier to distinguish.
The crafting menu has been reorganized, moving additional decorative and entertainment-related items into the Fun category.
Phones can now provide information about weather forecasts, apartment vacancies, traveling vendor schedules, and power-grid status.
The locked crate map icon has been updated.
Improved player turning animations, including fixes for weapon aiming and character orientation.
Demo tools have received an updated interface, improved camera controls, keyframe editing, undo functionality, and additional fixes.
Grenade and throwable animations have received improvements to dropping, throwing, and third-person visuals.
Fixed shotguns and other partially reloaded weapons failing to reach full capacity after switching ammunition types.
Fixed several issues involving vehicle mounting, dismounting, and boat interactions.
Fixed various building placement problems involving ramps, roofs, staircases, and other building pieces.
Fixed wires attached to doors and boats stretching or behaving incorrectly.
Fixed several issues with animal movement, corpses clipping through terrain, and incorrect animations.
Additional fixes to UI behavior, inventory interactions, sound effects, and graphical issues.
Players can no longer use the Rust Staging Branch client to connect to live servers ahead of the update. The regular Rust client is now required, preventing players from joining servers early through staging.
DPV improvements include an updated radial menu showing Mount, Fuel, and Pickup options. Picking up a DPV also no longer removes condition.
Added a countdown timer to the Dome crude oil pump when the Oil Rig pump delay is active.
Fixed the selected Rock and Torch skins not appearing when joining a server for the first time after a wipe.
Radioactive water now has a slight green tint when thrown or used through sprinklers.
Water Jugs can once again be recycled while remaining compatible with refrigerators.
Fixed plants placed directly in jungle soil incorrectly receiving zero water.
Softcore traincars now correctly receive the increased loot multiplier.