1:00pm EST - The update is live and devblog is out!

12:00pm EST - Our update stream is live and the update is expected to hit in an hour!

12:00am EST - The time is here: Rust is leaving early access! With the update today, Rust officially moves into the next stage of development. 

Given it’s a special day, we’ll be starting our update stream a couple hours early at 12pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here's an update summary video from Puddy!

Leaving Early Access

Rust officially leaves early access today. What does that mean? Well, Garry summed it up pretty well the other day, but here’s the skinny:

• Updates will now come out monthly instead of weekly (so next update after today will be March 1st).
• The staging branch is now a standalone game in your steam library
• The price will be increasing from $19.99 to $34.99

Here at Rustafied, we still plan on bringing you details of the latest additions to the staging branch on a weekly basis. We’ll also continue doing update streams each Thursday (stay tuned for specific times) and keep expanding our guides.

Forced map and blueprint wipe

In exiting early access, the team at Facepunch has decided to give everyone a fresh start. Therefore, all blueprints and maps will wipe when the update hits. As always, there is no set time for the update to hit. While it normally comes out between 3 and 5pm EST, there are fringe cases where it’s earlier or later.

Frog Boots return!

As a reward for leaving early access, the infamous Frog Boots have been added back in and awarded to every account which played during early access. These boots are not marketable or tradable, so only people who actually played during early access will ever have them. They also have more utility than ever, as Helk gave them a buff!

Graphical improvements

The team really knocked it out of the park with the Rust environment this week. Not only did the much anticipated tree revamp make its way in, but a new round of visual experimentation has been completed. The result is astonishing.

The new variants of trees look amazing. The sense of density created in these new forests is majestic. The vibrant colors of the landscape are a breath of fresh air. Oh, and rivers? They look awesome.

All this - coupled with the topology changes of last week - and the overall environment of the game has completely shifted. Best of all, I’m not noticing any significant decrease in FPS. *

* As always, performance may vary. This game still has a lot of work in the realm of optimizations, and slower computers will not render optimal results. Please consult a doctor (err, Amazon) if symptoms persist.

Recoil changes

What’s leaving early access without a couple shifts to gunplay? Helk agrees, and so he’s tweaked horizontal recoil so it kicks in faster when firing the AK. He’s also made aim sway no longer a factor while tap firing.

Barrel buff

Getting all your favorite BP's just got a bit easier as barrels now have twice the amount of scrap (2 instead of 1).

NPC Scientists on Facepunch servers

One of the final items on the roadmap out of early access, the NPC Scientists are going live on the Facepunch official servers today. They are still, however, turned off by default on all servers.

If an individual server owner would like Scientists on, they can simply run  squadmanager.squad_disable false in the server startup config.

At the recommendation of the devs, Rustafied servers will be keeping the Scientist NPC’s off till they’ve had a bit more testing and, more important, optimization.

Pickles added

In little a homage to Charitable Rust 2017 (read more below) - and because he was going to add food preservation at some point anyway - Helk has added pickles. They can be found in food boxes and provide 5 healing, 50 calories, and 20 hydration. They of course, come with a chance of botulism.

Standalone staging

Another step in leaving early access, the staging branch is now a standalone installation. That means you’ll never have to opt into staging through the properties menu in Steam again. Instead, you simply need to install the ‘Rust - Staging Branch’ item in your Steam Library (it automatically shows up if you own the game).

This will make it much easier to experience the latest changes of the game while still being able to play the main version.

Other stuff

• Double metal door default
• fire arrow costs less cloth
• Netting costs 1 rope instead of 3
• Workbench experiments can reveal ammo types
• Changed the way upkeep payments are processed so the decay time on the cupboard is more accurate and more intuitive
• Fixed door protection properties protecting against decay damage
• Road/scrap tutorial completion
• New default server browser image

Media team recruiting

Our media team is recruiting. We’re focusing on content creators - so if you can edit videos, use photoshop, or write a killer script, and you’re looking for a creative outlet, fill out an application!

Charitable Rust 2017 update

We have an update on the numbers for Charitable Rust 2017! Facepunch received their portion of the skin sales and have donated them to the Tiltify campaign.

This brings the official amount raised for Direct Relief up over $46,000!

This also does not even include Xtab’s portion of the skin sales. Estimated at around $7,000, these funds will be donated to the campaign too as soon as the they are dispersed to Xtab.

Speaking of unfinished things from Charitable Rust...

Helk’s pickles

Helk made a couple jars of pickles while researching food preservation for Rust. I thought it’d be fun to auction off Helk’s pickles live during Charitable Rust to raise more for Direct Relief.

To my dismay, people were much more interested in bidding for me to eat the pickles during a live update stream instead of bidding for the pickles themselves. In the interest of charity, I accepted.

Today, my chickens come to roost. Helk’s pickles have finally arrived at my doorstep, and I will eat them live on stream today at 12:30pm EST (that is, if the test for botulism comes back negative of course).