Balance · 9
The DPV received lower fuel consumption, no condition loss on pickup, and faster acceleration.
vehicle buffCows no longer die of old age, and instead of dying of starvation they just lie down at 1 hp.
lifespan mechanicPersonal space needs are simplified to measure the pen area and check if enough cows can fit consistently.
personal space need calculationLead break distance has been increased and cows mirror player speed when being led to allow instant sprinting.
lead break distance and speed mirroringCows will now store up to 3 units of milk to reduce micromanagement.
milk storage capacityA limit of 6 Tool Cupboards placed per player has been added to softcore mode.
softcore game mode limitRandomly spawned modular cars now start with half of their engines filled with locked low-quality parts.
starting parts inventorySmall trees are now easier to hit.
hit forgivenessOvergrazing has been removed, so having enough grass simply causes cows to eat at the trough twice less often.
overgrazing mechanic
Content · 15
The Nailgun has received a visual refresh featuring a detailed model, higher-resolution textures, and new animations.
visual refreshThe iconic UZI 9mm Submachine Gun has been introduced with two different firing modes depending on stock configuration.
new weaponAnimations for dropping and attaching grenade-type items have been updated for both first-person and third-person views.
drop and attach animationMirrored versions of the L and U stairs have been added and can be flipped with SHIFT + R or a hammer.
mirrored stair building variantA rare set of roaming scientist boats that patrol the main island seas for up to an hour has been introduced.
roaming patrol boat eventCrocodile meat can now be cooked on the cooking workbench to create a Crocodile Pie that intimidates nearby animals.
new cooking recipeThe new Shears weapon has been introduced to produce more wool safely without hurting sheep if missed.
new tool weaponPlayers can now pet their cows and sheep to show love and appreciation.
petting interactionThe Scrap King Building Skin has been added for the Sheet Metal building tier.
new sheet metal building skin dlcA new set of animations has been added for when a player turns while standing, replacing the old sliding motion.
standing turn animationApples and coconuts now have a small chance to spawn on certain oak and palm trees.
fruit tree harvest additionFlocks of crows and seagulls have been added to fly across the map and interact with corpses and coastal monuments.
wildlife flocks expansionSupport has been added to initiate conversations with 4 new phone numbers providing weather forecasts, power grid status, event countdowns, and available apartment room counts.
npc phone conversation supportCows can now eat any food that a horse can.
dietary optionA new Armour Insert using Wool has been added, offering a small protection buff and a large cold resistance buff.
new armour insert
Economy · 3
The lowest tier blueprint can now be found in common loot sources like barrels and boxes, and can be upgraded into the next tier.
loot source and upgrade mechanicItems can still be researched using scrap on the research table.
research table functionalityThree new tiers of blueprints have been introduced to progress tech trees instead of requiring blueprint fragments for workbenches and scrap for tech trees.
tech tree progression currency
Controls · 2
Gamepad support has arrived in Rust, with controller functionality now available across core gameplay via Steam Input.
controller supportMap markers can now be dragged by holding the middle mouse button.
drag control
System · 29
Player update job level 4 is now stable and shipped as default, parallelizing server occlusion and queue saving.
multithreading job system levelUnused terrain texture channels and render textures were removed to improve memory and GPU performance.
terrain render texture cleanupCargoship and moving static colliders are now handled in a tertiary tree structure to prevent performance spikes.
physics collision performance optimizationBerries now feature an 'Extract' option to remove seeds without eating them.
seed extraction optionGun firing hitching and muzzle flash checks have been optimized by prewarming effects and reducing unnecessary copies.
firing effects performance optimizationNavmesh stalls were smoothed out by making ghostship navmesh building asynchronous, throttling tile rebuilds, and moving saves to a background thread.
navmesh performance optimizationUnnecessary memory allocations during gameplay were reduced across older UI and sleeping bag systems to lessen garbage collection lag spikes.
memory allocation reductionBase loading has been optimized by speeding up entity spawns, moving industrial pipe mesh generation off the main thread, and pooling major deployables.
base loading performance optimizationNetwork bandwidth and overhead were reduced through general payload cuts, network position LODs, and packet batching.
network overhead and lod optimizationScientist boats received improvements including a new movement system, seat swapping, and rewritten PT boat turrets.
ai and turret improvementServer restart times have been reduced by caching foundation connections and cargo ship paths and optimizing save loading code.
server startup time optimizationDeep sea content is now loaded dynamically only when entering the portal and unloaded upon returning, saving RAM.
memory management optimizationPrefabs and building blocks now have their unnecessary internal game object hierarchies stripped at build time to reduce memory usage.
prefab hierarchy flatteningVorbis audio compression was applied to reduce total audio memory usage without audible quality loss.
audio memory compressionFlashlight and laser calculations have been optimized using shaders and batched raycasts to improve performance with multiple instances.
attachment performance optimizationA new animal stat called Potential measures childhood happiness and multiplies rewards once adulthood is reached.
potential animal statCow names are no longer sampled from server language ratios; wild cows have no name and owned cows use a name based on the player locale.
naming conventionConservative compression settings were applied to animal animations to save memory without visual quality loss.
animation memory compressionProcedural map generation was optimized through improved erosion and rock placements, making it nearly twice as fast.
map generation performanceThe regular deep sea cycle now starts immediately once the lighthouse has been repaired.
deep sea cycle unlockBuilding privilege checks now use a block grid instead of expensive physics queries, significantly reducing CPU time.
performance query cache systemVolumetric clouds are now permanently enabled with performance optimized to match legacy billboard clouds.
graphics settings and performanceRedundant RAM copies of workshop skin textures sent to the GPU are now dropped immediately.
workshop skin memory cleanupThe prototype workbench upgrade now features a flat 25% success rate with the cost doubling removed.
workbench upgrade success ratePlayers are now simply the owner of a cow if they buy it or have it eat at a trough, removing the need to stay nearby.
ownership mechanicFree range owned cows stop reproducing past 6, indoor cows stop when space is insufficient, and unowned cows do not reproduce.
reproduction ruleAudio occlusion has been Cheaper and sound allocations reduced to nearly zero.
audio performance and allocation optimizationPlayers now only load terrain textures for their current quality level and environment, reducing memory usage.
texture memory optimizationThe salvage workbench upgrade now has a 20% chance to not consume a blueprint instead of reducing scrap usage.
workbench upgrade chance
UI · 5
The hackable locked crate map icon has been updated to reflect its 3D model.
map icon updateRecessive genes are now hinted at within both the UI and by the NPC buyer.
recessive genes hintingThe new demo UI is now enabled by default, bringing features like sandbox spotlights, animated lights, and video export.
default demo interfaceThe UI now shows owner, pregnancy status, father, cooldowns, and dung/milk/wool production status.
ui information displayThe trough UI now shows how long a trough can sustain a group of cows, similar to upkeep.
sustain ui indicator
Fix · 4
Unintended inconsistencies across building skins were fixed, such as roof overhangs only blocking deployables and side overhangs not blocking neighboring foundations.
building skin inconsistency fixRamps are no longer blocked through roofs by deployables or other ramps and are easier to place on foundations.
ramp placement and collision fixFixed an issue where triangle frames took splash damage from explosives through walls.
splash damage bug fixBugs causing cows to not eat, incorrect UI states, missing collisions, or head clipping through walls have been fixed.
bug fix
Also in this patch5
The author suggests that the tech tree should be nerfed further by removing guns from it so they are only learnable from finding or fighting.
progression balanceThe user is requesting to slow down the raid.
raid speedAll boxes can now be opened by anyone, resulting in raiding having 100% access to loot instead of 50%.
loot accesssoftcoreThe deployable corpse system has been removed from softcore mode.
softcore game mode removalJackhammers can be purchased at outpost for 300 scrap due to excess scrap acquisition.
shop price
Getting downed now adds heartbeat and heavy breathing sound effects to your character.
character audio and effectThere is a 20% chance of getting 2 small blueprint fragments from a large underwater crate.
drop rateGroups will no longer be able to rush Mil Tunnels and easily acquire MP5s.
loot distributionThe game is bringing back the old system where players can unlock T1, T2, and T3 workbenches with scrap.
unlock systemPlayers now need 10 Satchels or 2 C4 to enter the Blue Room for the new Blueprint Books.
access requirementLighthouse beacons need to be repaired for Deep Sea to open at a cost of 20 tech trash and 200 HQM for a single lighthouse.
repair cost and activation