2:00pm EST - The update is live, devblog is out, and item store is refreshed!

1:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:00am EST - As development trucks along for this month, this years Rust Halloween event goes live with some spooky new additions!

Our update preview stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Halloween event overview

Similar to other holiday events in Rust, the 2021 Halloween Event will go live today and run till the next first Thursday update. It features a variety of seasonal items, loot, events in the game, and some exciting new additions for this year. This goes live via a mandatory patch on Thursday, October 28th at 2pm EST, it’ll be active on servers till the next forced wipe on November 4th.

Long and short for this year: Scarecrows and mummies roaming about, Trick or Treat events with candy and loot bag prizes, and some awesome new spooky items including pets! Given we won’t know the exact specifics of all the store items till they go live, I’ll be sure to update this post later today once the event has started.

Frankenstein pets

Highlight of the Halloween 2021 update, Frankenstein pets have been added to the game for the duration of the event.

Overview
Frankenstein pets are assembled from 3 parts and put together on the new Frankenstein table. You can find Frankenstein parts in the Mummy and Scarecrow NPC’s around the map. There are 3 types of Frankenstein: light, medium, and heavy. Once you have any 3 parts, you can combine them on a Frankenstein table to bring your pet to life. You can then give your pet different directives.

Frankenstein table
A default blueprint, the Frankenstein table is a base requirement for building your pet. At 200 metal frags, it’s pretty easy to craft. Simply craft it, place it, then add the Frankenstein parts. Once the parts are added, hold ‘e’ on the table and select ‘Wake Frankenstein’.

Blueprint
Default

Crafting
200 metal frags

Workbench
Level 1 required

Craft time
15 seconds

Types of Frankenstein
As mentioned above, there are 3 types of Frankenstein pets: light, medium, and heavy. They each have their own attributes. For example, the light Frankenstein moves fast but has less health. The heavy has more health but moves slower. 

There are 3 parts for each type. All parts are interchangeable (meaning you can have light legs, a medium torso, and a heavy head).

Controlling your pet
A new radial menu has been added for when you hold ‘p’ while looking at a pet (p for pet, get it?). This menu allows you to select what you’d like your pet to do. Here is a summary of each command:

Idle
Pet does nothing

Follow
Pet will follow you around

Guard
Pet will attack anything that attacks you

Assist
Pet will attack anything you attack

Move
Pet will move to where you are looking

Destroy
Pet is instantly killed

Combat
Pet will attack anything you attack, It will attack anything that attacks you, It will defend itself if attacked

Other things of note

• Frankenstein parts are found on mummies / scarecrows around the map

• You can only have one pet at a time

• Pets will only travel a max of 100m

• The Frankenstein table doesn't require power

• You can see your pets health on bottom right

• Pets placement is shown on map

Carvable pumpkins

An awesome new item for this years Halloween event, carvable pumpkins have been added! They are pretty straightforward - simply paint on them like a sign, add some wood, and light them up!

As of writing it’s not clear exactly how these will be obtained in game. We’ll update here once we find out more.

Edit: The carvable pumpkin is on the item store for $6.99USD.

Spooky Scarecrows and Mummies

The roaming, murdering NPC’s from previous Halloweens are back! This year Scarecrows and Mummies wander the map, looking for fresh Newmans to feast upon. They’ll run after you with a Chainsaw or Sickle and try to kill you if they see you, so watch out!

Details

HP
200

How many on map?
~ 40 on a default map

Weapons used
Chainsaw
Sickle
Beancans
Machetes

Example loot dropped
Fuse
Guitar
Metal Blades (2x)
Flashing Light
Pitchfork
Corn
Sickle
Rope
SAR Body
F1 Grenades (3x)

Trick or Treat event

Similar to the Egg hunt from the Easter event, Trick or Treating is back for Halloween 2021! About once every other in game day you’ll see a countdown and notice pops up saying “Trick or Treat Starts in: 14 seconds”. 

Once it starts, Halloween Candy will spawn around each player. Race to pick up as much as you can within 3 minutes. 

Now what do you do with all this candy? Well, like any normal trick-or-treater, you can just shove it all in your gullet till your stomach can’t take any more. You can also upgrade it to higher tiers of candy (loot). See below for more details on each tier.

Oh, and the top three people to get the most candy, get prizes…

Prizes

1st

3 Medium Loot Bags

2nd

1 Medium Loot Bag

3rd

1 Small Loot Bag

Halloween Loot Upgrades

Lowest common denominator on the treat loot ladder, Halloween Candy - which stacks to 10 - can be eaten (healing +1, calories +25) or upgraded to a Small Loot Bag (10 to upgrade). 

From there, you can continue to upgrade. Here’s a low down of each loot bag type and some loot examples you can find:

Small Loot Bag

Stacks to
10

Sample Loot
4 Chocolate Bars
Pumpkin bucket
Compound bow +10 arrows ~48 frags
Hunting bow + 5 arrows Scarecrow Wrap

Upgrade to Medium
10

Medium Loot Bag

Stacks to
10

Sample Loot
2.5k stones
Revolver + 20 ammo
Double Barrel + 5 buck shot Chainsaw + 22 low grade Spider Webs
Graveyard fence

Upgrade to Large
10

Large Loot Bag

Stacks to
10

Sample Loot
MP5A4 + 30 ammo
M249 + 50 ammo
LR300 + 20 ammo
M39 + 50 ammo
5 IC + 3 HV Rockets
Grenade Launcher

Upgrade
N/A

Pumpkin Bucket

This handy bucket found in Small Loot Bags allows you to pick up candy quicker during the Trick or Treat event using left click. You can also use right click to throw candy at people - it does about 20hp damage.

Scarecrow Wrap

The Scarecrow Wrap - found in Small Loot Bags - will give you extra candy vision when applied (basically allows you to see the candy from farther away).

Pickup-able resources

You’ll notice a change to the resources you can pick up off the ground with this update. Wood, stone, and ore pickups are now spooky looking! You can even pick up bones!

Other development news

We’ll be back next Thursday with a full rundown of what you can expect in the November update.  In the meantime, here are some highlights of what’s been going on in development:

• MLRS breaks down for 60 minutes after firing

• All SAM sites now target MLRS rockets (even player ones)

• Fixed diving mask and plate helmet UI screen overlays being affected by UI scale

• Fixed neon sign painter UI not allowing voice chat

• Fixed being able to open the gesture menu while sign painting

• Show no-target UI in the MLRS over safe zones