12:00am EST - The dev team is trucking on meta shifts and more as we pass the halfway point for Rust development for the month.

Meta Shifts Continue

The devs are still tinkering with loot balance and monument layouts, pushing more changes aimed at shaking up the meta. Here’s what’s new this week:

Excavator: Loot has been shuffled, the no-build volume increased, and new cover added to ore collection points to give at least a little protection from roof campers.
Power Plant: Loot spawns have been moved, diesel now sits behind the puzzle, and the no-build zone has been switched to a sphere.
Military Tunnels: Loot locations have been shuffled with more variation (previously they always spawned in the same spots). Elite loot remains unchanged. No-build zone switched to a sphere.
Rubble Piles: Radiation removed for now due to inconsistent application and poor feedback. May return after improvements.
Supermarket & Gas Stations: Loot spawn points reshuffled.
Harbors 1 & 2: Loot shuffled, with Tier 0 and Tier 1 now offering slightly different spawns.
Missions now reward more/better loot.

Oh, and according to the commits, solo players will now take 1 rad every 30 seconds until they make a friend… don’t worry, that one’s just a joke.

Blueprint Fragments

A brand new progression system is being tested with the addition of blueprint fragments. These come in two forms — basic and advanced — and are currently required to craft Tier 2 and Tier 3 workbenches.

Basic blueprint fragments: Found in puzzle rooms and some loot tables, needed to build a Tier 2 workbench.
Advanced blueprint fragments: Found in higher-tier loot like elite crates and hackable crates, required for a Tier 3 workbench.
Damaged diagrams: Contain partial info for constructing a T2 workbench.
Precision schematics: More complex pieces used for T3 workbench crafting.

This system is still very much a work in progress and subject to change, but it’s already shaping up to add a new layer to loot progression and tech advancement.

Turret Interference Tweaks

Turret behavior is getting an overhaul aimed at fixing the long-standing issue where turrets placed outside of a base could disable ones inside. The interference system has been reworked to be more efficient and less abusable.

Turrets within 40m are now cached instead of constantly running physics checks.
The interference system has been rewritten with no queues and no recursion — a turret can now only overload itself.
If a turret turning on would push a nearby turret over the interference limit, it overloads itself instead.
When a turret turns off, it checks nearby overloaded turrets to see if any can power back on.

As for which overloaded turret comes back online first, the system now prioritizes turrets with the least number of active neighbors. This should prevent players from stacking dozens of turrets inside a base to stall raiders, while still letting forward operating bases or smaller setups stay active.

Crosshair Customization

The long-requested crosshair customization system has now hit staging and is expected to roll out with the October update. This new feature gives players a ton of control over how their crosshair looks and behaves.

Here’s what you can tweak:

Modes: Static (always visible), static hidden during ADS, or dynamic (adjusts to accuracy and hidden during ADS).
Styles: Full, no dot, dot only, T-shape without dot, or T-shape with dot.
Colors: White, green, blue, red, yellow, magenta, or cyan.
Dot Size: Adjustable from 0–5.
Spacing: Outer line distance from the center dot (0–3).
Outline: Toggle outline on or off.
Outline Color: Black, green, blue, red, yellow, magenta, or cyan.

It’s a big quality-of-life addition that lets players fully customize their reticle — and it’s finally just around the corner.

Other Stuff

Work on Volcanos
More work on Drones ability to drop items remotely
Cargoship path no longer goes around oil rigs
More work on the Naval Update (floating cities, islands, boat ai, etc.)
Finishing up work on bike bunny hopping
Optimizations to in game store
Initial work on Halloween 2025 event
More work on livestock animals
Fixes for texture streaming
Rotatable paintings and signs during deployment