4/1 Edit: Updated the post below to reflect any changes that hit the staging branch this week.

12:00am EST - With just one week till the big update and forced wipe, the farming2 branch has been merged which means there is a slew of new farming related things on staging!

This article summarizes all of the new items, functionality, and things you need to know related to farming2. All of this is still a work in progress, so take it with a grain of salt and don’t be surprised if things shift prior to the update going live (I’ll try to keep this as up to date as possible throughout the next week).

We’ll be showing all this off on our update preview stream which goes live at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Horse Dung

It all starts here. Horses now drop dung on the ground for you to eagerly pick up! What to do with this dung? No, it’s not for putting in a paper bag, lighting on fire and leaving outside your neighbors front door. Instead, you put this shit in a Composter and it turns into Fertilizer.

Edit: it appears as though horses now drop Dung at the rate of 3 per hour by default.

Plant Fiber

Also to be placed in a Composter, Plant Fiber is a new item you’ll come across in the agricultural journeys in Rust. To obtain, simply harvest the remaining dead plant after you’ve already picked whatever else off the plant. Then, like you do with the Horse Dung, toss it in the Composter to create Fertilizer.

Composter

At the core of all good plant growth: compost. Made of decaying organic material, Compost, after some time, turns into Fertilizer. How do you go about creating this effective plant food?

With a Composter of course! This default blueprint costs Tarp and Wood, can be placed on the ground, foundations, rocks, and floors, can be picked up with a Hammer (at the cost of durability) and produces Fertilizer out of food, plant fiber and horse dung. Here are some specifics:

Blueprint
Default

Crafting Cost
2 Tarp
200 Wood

Recycles to
1 Tarp
100 Wood

Crafting time
60 seconds

Edit: A bunch more items have been made compostable including: All meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, and granola bars. Seeds, wood, cans, clones, jugs, bottles, animal fat, and bones are all not compostable.

Fertilizer

Ok, a lot of talk so far about Fertilizer, but what do you need it for? Well, as most of you green thumbs have already guessed, it’s used to help plants grow better. Once you’ve made your Fertilizer, simply toss it in your planter box and your plants will be happier before you know it!

At the moment, it appears each planter uses one Fertilizer per seed planted. The Fertilizer lasts for a long time, so 1 per seed should cover you for a while.

Planter boxes

Now, if you’ve used Planter Boxes before, you might be wondering, “How the heck do I throw compost in them?” Thankfully, a storage space has been added to each Planter, allowing you to place your Fertilizer directly in them. To do so, just go up to the planter, and press E to open (just like a storage box).

Potatoes

Horse shit and compost isn’t the only new thing in farming2. A new crop has been made available for your growing pleasure: Potatoes. They function and grow just like other plants, except, you know, this gives you Potatoes. They can be eaten, have high caloric content and low hydration. Upon eating, you’ll receive 1 potato seed, which can be used to grow more Potatoes.

Plant info

As you’re fucking around with Fertilizer and planting Potatoes, you might notice the information panel when looking at plants has been completely reworked. You can now see a slew of information on each plant including: genetics, health, age, stage, water intake, yield, light, water saturation, ground, temperature and overall happiness.

Genetics

You might notice that genetics line on the top of the plant information. This stands for the genetic traits of each plant. Here is what each letter means:

W - Increased water intake requirement
G - Faster growth
H - Hardiness (ground and water condition bonus)
Y - Yield bonus
X - Empty

As for color, green is good, red is bad. Using this, you can get a sense for the quality of plant you’re dealing with.

Cloning

This genetic information is good and all, but the real fun begins when you start to tamper with it. That’s where cloning comes in. By clipping plants with genetic traits you like and planting them near other plants, players will be able to swap out traits over time.

Adam explained it to me like this: Surround the genes you want to remove with the gene you want to swap in. For instance, if a plant has a W gene in slot 3, surrounding it with plants with a Y in slot 3 will lead to it becoming a Y too.

Planting in the wild nerf

All of these changes to farming appears to have impact how plants grow in the wild. Gone are the days where you can just slap down seeds all willy-nilly wherever you please. I mean, you can still do that, they just won’t grow.

Placing seeds in the wild still works in some places, but seems to be much, much slower and less effective. Planting in harsher climates such as the snow, however, will result in a dead plant.

Edit: This nerf has been increased with the addition of a ‘nonPlanterDeathChancePerTick’ convar which gives plants not planted in a planter a chance to die each tick.

Sprinkler system

Last but certainly not least, farming2 includes a whole new set of tools for keeping your crops watered. The sprinkler system works much like electricity in Rust: use the hose tool (like the wire tool) to connect various components to water sources.

Each item can be deployed on the ground, foundations, walls, rocks, and floors. They can be picked up with a hammer (at the cost of durability) and are easily broken with a melee tool.

Below is a breakdown of each item.

Sprinkler

Lynch pin of any watering system, the Sprinkler. Upon receiving water, the Sprinkler will produce a spray around it and water any nearby Planter Boxes.

Crafting cost
5 HQM

Workbench
Level 1 Required

Crafting time
30 seconds

Recycles to
3 HQM

Research Cost
20 Scrap

Fluid Splitter

Need to split one water source into multiple? The Fluid Splitter is just for you! Hook up one water source and then connect up to three sprinklers.

Crafting cost
10 HQM

Workbench
Level 1 Required

Crafting time
30 seconds

Recycles to
5 HQM

Research Cost
20 Scrap

Fluid Switch

The Fluid Switch has two purposes. First, as you would guess, it allows you to turn the flow of water on and off. Second, it can pump water vertically if electricity is provided.

Crafting cost
5 HQM

Workbench
Level 1 Required

Crafting time
30 seconds

Recycles to
3 HQM

Research Cost
20 Scrap

Hose Tool

Connecting it all, the Hose Tool. Like the Wire Tool for electricity, the Hose Tool allows you to connect all these water devices together.

Crafting cost
5 HQM

Workbench
Level 1 Required

Crafting time
1 second

Recycles to
3 HQM

Research Cost
20 Scrap

Water Catcher ‘in’ slot

A ‘water in’ slot has been added to the Small and Large Water Catchers, allowing players to daisy chain multiple catchers to deposit into a single barrel.

Other stuff

New vendors in the works at Bandit Camp
Rugs cost 25 cloth instead of 100
More building block work
HDRP Progress
Vehicle work
Cinematic tools progress
New ‘Movie Maker’ and ‘Media Projects’ branches