2:00pm EST - The update is live, devblog is out, and Twitch drops are underway!

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

12:00am EST - Update day has arrived. A bit sparse on new content this month, the team decided to pull the new missions functionality due to quality concerns. That said, there’s some solid balance shifts and tweaks in store for this forced wipe.

As usual, the patch is expected to hit around 2pm EST (7pm BST). Our update stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Update Summary Video

Here’s the update summary from Puddy:

Submarine storage and shifts

In the wake of their addition last month, submarines have undergone a number of changes with this update. First and foremost, storage has been added to each sub. Accessible from the driver's seat (potentially with a little alt-looking), 12 items can now be stored in each sub. You can’t lock this storage, so be careful where you leave your sub lying around.

Subs have also been nerfed in a couple of ways. Primarily, bullets now do much more damage. Instead of it taking 5 or 6 mags to destroy, subs will now lose all health within about 2 mags of the AK, making them much more susceptible to gun fire.

Runaway subs will hopefully be less of a thing this month as submarines now stop moving faster if the driver dismounts. Traveling in a sub will also now count towards players' global boating stats - so that’s nice. Finally, in the realm of sonar, only submarines with their engine on will show up as a blip on other people's sonar.

There’s also some new limitations to the time you can spend underwater…

Oxygen system

No longer can you spend the whole day submerged in your trusty sub. Oxygen levels have been added to the game — primarily impacting submarines. As you descend into the depths of Rust’s waters after the update, you’ll notice a new UI element on the bottom right of your screen. This counter (which starts at 10 minutes) lets you know just how much time you have left.

As long as you're underwater, this timer will continue to count down. Upon resurfacing with the sub, the oxygen will gradually refill till you eventually have another 10 minutes. Want a little extra time underwater? Bring a full diving tank and your player will start pulling oxygen from that once the sub is out (giving you up to an extra 10 minutes).

Run out of oxygen, however, and you’ll suffocate pretty quickly. This dynamic is true not only for submarines but other underwater activities which require oxygen (i.e. diving).

Torpedo balance

Player's ability to attack in subs has also shifted this update with some significant changes to torpedoes. Most notable, the rising torpedo has been completely removed from the game — it's now a direct torpedo or nothing. The direct torpedo won’t be quite as accurate when firing on the surface as some inaccuracy has now been baked in. Finally, torpedoes won’t fuck up boats quite as much as the explosion forces have been reduced by 75%.

Crawl nerf

Crawling around in the wounded state will be a bit more precarious after this update. With a significant nerf, the health of crawling players has been reduced by 75%, making them much more susceptible to immobility and death.

Underwater lab tweaks

The hottest new places to hang out underwater have received some changes this month. First, the amount of underwater labs on each map has been cut in half (about 3 should now spawn on a normal map size). With that in mind, the size of each lab should be larger overall (so long, small labs).

Also, puzzles will be a bit harder to solve as the blue and red keycard spawns have been removed from each lab. That means you’ll now need to bring your own card if you fancy that high quality loot. Keep an extra eye out while you’re going for said loot as NPC’s now spawn specifically by the puzzle rooms.

On approach, you’ll notice a new moon pool is also in the mix. Acting as a secondary to the large pool, this ‘dive-only’ pool is much smaller and will not accept sub-based visitors.

Twitch drops

A new round of Twitch drops is due out this month. Along with the expected fresh skins from content creators, a new dynamic takes effect for the first time which should help more people get the skins they want.

Towards the end of its normal 1 week duration, this campaign will open up all items to the general drop category during the last 24 hours. That means it shouldn’t matter what Rust stream you’re watching, you’ll be able to get any skins you missed out on earlier in the week.

As always, head to the Facepunch Twitch page to link your accounts and get ready for those drops! For more info on this Twitch drop campaign, check out the great write up on /r/playrust.

Edit: You can also see the full list of skins here.

Gravis Island coming to Zenlabs!

Winner of the map making contest from Facepunch the other month, Gravis Island is officially available for purchase and use by all server owners. We didn’t hesitate to pick up a copy so we can host this exciting new 3.5k custom map on our Zenlabs servers.

This map goes live after the update and forced wipe.

Other stuff

When the F1 console is opened for the first time, the last selected is now automatically set to the Items tab, so pressing Tab will switch to it
Automatically select the search box when the Items tab is selected, so you can start filtering items right away
Players can perform upper-body gestures in water (no full-body gestures allowed)
Fixed items dropping inside locker when stacked
Added decay to deployed cassette recorder
Added chocolate bar world model
Added bespoke raw and cooked fish models and added to prefabs
Fixes for animation issues on boogie boards, inner tubes, and kayaks
Fix to the diesel engine fuel storage container
Underwater crate loot panel size increased from 6 to 12
Block back movement on player temporarily if they just caught a fish
Anchovy icon tweaked because it was too small
Speargun and speargun spears now have world models (and some animation updates)
Duo sub torpedo hatch now animates
Fixed not being able to gesture on sofa