1:45pm EST - The update is live! Game on!

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

The May update is here, bringing a new deployable mortar, a full workbench upgrade system, and a refreshed vending machine UI. Along with deep sea balance changes, binocular improvements, tin can alarm chaos, and a pile of quality-of-life updates, this is a pretty packed one.

The update is expected at normal time (2pm EST / 7pm BST). Check out our update stream starting at 1pm EST.

New Mortar

The May update introduces the Mortar, a new deployable weapon which brings indirect fire to Rust. Players can place the mortar, mount it, adjust the firing angle, and launch shells over distance, opening up a very different style of explosive gameplay compared to rockets, satchels, and other direct-line-of-sight tools.

Two ammo types are included: the standard Mortar Shell and the Fragmentation Mortar Shell. The standard shell is geared toward heavier explosive impact, while the fragmentation shell offers a wider-area option for spreading damage around the target zone. The mortar also includes its own dedicated UI with an angle indicator to help line up shots, along with new sounds, animations, screen effects, and shell visuals.

There are also several deployment rules in place to keep things from getting too messy. Mortars can be picked back up, have improved placement behavior, can’t be deployed underwater, and shouldn’t be usable in awkward spots where they clip through terrain or structures. Overall, this is one of the biggest new gameplay additions in the May update, with obvious potential for raids, defenses, and large-scale fights.

Craft time
30s

Workbench
Level 2 required

Cost
20 High Quality Metal
3 Metal Pipe

Workbench Refresh

The update also introduces a major refresh to workbenches, adding a new upgrade storage system and 10 different workbench upgrades. These upgrades are found through loot and installed through a new “Upgrade Workbench” interaction, giving players more control over how their crafting setup functions throughout a wipe.

Each upgrade adds a specific benefit, ranging from faster crafting and larger crafting radius to improved durability, scrap savings, and bonus item chances. The upgrades are also reflected visually on the workbench itself, making benches feel a bit more personalized and built-out as players improve them.

Prototype Upgrade – Allows unlocking any tech tree item regardless of progression at double cost, with a chance to fail and still consume resources
Range Upgrade – Doubles the workbench crafting radius
Comfort Upgrade – Provides a 100% comfort zone around the workbench
Salvage Upgrade – Reduces the scrap cost of tech tree unlocks
Defensive Upgrade – Guarantees crafted clothing has at least one armor plate slot
Efficiency Upgrade – Gives a chance to produce a free bonus item when crafting in batches, with some explosive-related items excluded
Recycle Bin Upgrade – Gives a chance to refund some crafting ingredients as raw materials
Reinforced Upgrade – Increases workbench health and adds explosive resistance
Accelerated Upgrade – Increases crafting speed based on batch progress
Surplus Upgrade – Gives a chance to produce random surplus parts used in alternative recipes

The upgrade modules are distributed across loot tiers, so players will find different options depending on where they’re looting. Regular crates can contain upgrades like Comfort, Defensive, Recycle Bin, and Range, while military crates can contain Prototype, Reinforced, and Efficiency. The higher-end Accelerated and Salvage upgrades are found in elite and locked crates.

Vending Machine UI Refresh

Vending machines are getting a full UI refresh, making player-run shops cleaner, easier to manage, and more informative for buyers. The new interface improves both sides of the vending experience, from setting up sell orders to browsing what’s available.

For sellers, the refreshed UI makes it easier to create, modify, reorder, and clear listings. There are also several usability improvements, including clearer modify and discard buttons, better input behavior, and a confirmation popup when clearing all orders. For buyers, item listings now show more useful details like condition, ammo, genetics, skins, and broken item states where applicable.

Overall, this should make vending machines feel much less clunky, especially for players running larger shops or dealing with skinned and condition-based items. It’s a nice quality-of-life pass for one of Rust’s most important player-driven trading systems.

Tin Can Alarm Update

The Tin Can Alarm is getting a sneaky little upgrade, now allowing certain throwable items to be dropped when the alarm is triggered. That means it can do a bit more than just make noise, opening up some new trap base potential and general Rust nonsense.

Supported items include:

F1 Grenade
Molotov
Bee Grenade
Beancan Grenade
Flashbang
Smoke Grenade
Supply Signal
Firecrackers

How effective—or ridiculous—this ends up being will depend on what players rig together, but giving the Tin Can Alarm actual triggered item drops should make it a lot more interesting than its old role as a simple noise maker.

Deep Sea Loot & Vendor Changes

Deep sea content is getting a balance pass, with loot from deep sea boats being toned down a bit. The biggest change here is fewer guns showing up in deep sea RHIB loot, along with some of the more generic scientist-style items being removed, such as pickaxes, green cards, and flares.

Alongside the loot nerf, the deep sea boat vendor now sells boat equipment, making it easier to get set up for ocean runs without needing to piece everything together elsewhere first. There’s also a related fix for deep sea sulfur ore fields, which should no longer respawn as metal. Overall, ocean content should still be worth doing, just a bit less overstuffed on the loot side.

Binocular Refresh

Binoculars are getting a full refresh, covering their model, animations, and UI. The updated version now feels much more like a proper scouting tool, with a cleaner view while looking through the lenses and new visual details to make them feel more polished in use.

The refresh includes a suppressed HUD while using binoculars, hidden crosshair, updated rangefinder visuals, tick marks, distance-based click feedback, and improved lens effects like scratches and dirt. Ping markers are also supported, making it easier to call out points of interest while scouting with a team. Binoculars also had their gear crafting cost removed as part of the refresh. Combined with the new model and animation work, binoculars should feel a lot more useful and immersive than before.

Crypt Stone Building DLC (maybe)

A new Crypt stone building skin is likely arriving with the update, bringing one of the more distinct building skin looks we’ve seen so far. This skin gives stone structures a darker, gothic overhaul, with skulls and bones worked directly into the textures. The hard side leans heavily into the crypt theme with dense skull detailing, while the soft side keeps things a bit more subtle with lined stone patterns.

The set covers the usual building pieces, including matching stairs, ramps, roofs, and other stone structure elements. The roof trim is especially noticeable, with skull accents giving the whole thing a bit of a Doom / Quake vibe while still fitting pretty naturally into Rust’s world. Like other building skins, this is a visual change only, with no expected changes to peeks, exploits, or gameplay behavior.

New Steam Achievements

A new batch of Steam achievements has been added with this update, focused largely around Rust’s newer ocean content. As usual, standard achievement rules apply, meaning these can only be unlocked on official servers.

Shipshape – Build your first boat
Oceans are now battlefields – Hit another boat with a cannon
New Horizons – Enter the deep sea
Stolen Goods – Kill a player with a weapon on a stolen PT boat
Need more fibre – Eat 10 coconuts
Treasure ahoy! – Open 5 loot containers on tropical islands
Hostile Waters – Start opening a locked crate on a ghost ship
Safe Harbor – Reach a floating city

There are also two hidden achievements included: “Dude, where’s my boat?” and “Swim with the fishes.” No spoilers on those just yet.

Backend & Performance

There’s also a solid amount of backend and performance work included this month, covering AI, rendering, networking, and general stability. Most of this isn’t the flashy stuff players will immediately notice, but it should help smooth out some rough edges behind the scenes.

AI navigation work continues with more NPCs being moved toward the newer RustNav system, along with fixes for agent creation, NPC networking, and cases where NPCs could update more often than needed. On the performance side, there are optimizations for vegetation LODs, terrain rendering, cubemap UI updates, object pooling, and batching systems. There are also a number of networking and server-side fixes, including reduced horse RPC spam and broader automated testing improvements to help catch issues earlier.

Fixes

Deep sea sulfur ore fields should no longer respawn as metal
Electric furnace emission issues fixed after loading a skin
Workshop emission intensity getting/setting fixed
Horse RPC spam reduced so horse updates are no longer sent constantly to nearby clients
F1 tools / demo fixes, including the tools tab not showing in demos and unnecessary admin UI refreshes
Spectator fixes, including third-person view / demo playback improvements and local player model issues after respawning
Spraycan / reskin fixes for edge cases with redirect skins
Large Furnace reskin / upgrade placement fixes through new placement ignore entity support
Battering Ram head health display fixed
Shadow caching exception fixed when no lights are present in a scene
Store warmup page NRE fixed when the manifest is null
Missing script warning spam fixed when starting a server
Fixed wire isolation not working on player boats
Fixed players getting stuck in the aiming animation when throwing a grenade
Fixed not being able to connect a wire to a door controller while the door is open
Fixed storage adapters going invisible
Fixed items not stacking after being part of a copypaste
Fixed new Steam inventory items not showing if bought while the game was closed
Fixed duplicated Steam inventory packs after purchasing while the game was closed
Fixed electric furnace gibs not being skinned
Fixed Chippy arcade assets appearing blurry
Fixed console autocomplete not adding sv before server commands when using arrow navigation
Fixed DigitalClockAlarm pooling issues
Various player model, clothing, parachute, breath, animation, and skinning fixes
General backend cleanup, serialization fixes, networking fixes, and performance improvements

Other Stuff

Barrels can now be reskinned
Electric Furnace is now a skinnable item
Computer Station now requires power
Computer Station passthrough has been removed, with the input plug adjusted to better line up with the model
Many monument light fixtures have been updated
Salvaged cleaver received a model, animation, and audio refresh
Server browser sorting has been adjusted to prioritize population, use distance as a tiebreaker, and improve country selection UI behavior
Barrels and shelves received updated name and description keys
Terrain lowering has been enabled on Nuclear Missile Silo and Large Cave Sewers
Terrain hole rendering received improvements for clipping, shadows, probes, and depth handling
Player model and animation work continues, including fixes for parachutes, frosty breath, sleeping eye popping, clothing LODs, and skinning issues
Automated testing and CI coverage expanded across combat, vehicles, deployables, and backend systems
Ongoing AI / RustNav work continues behind the scenes, improving NPC navigation, networking, and update handling
Various rendering, networking, serialization, and backend stability improvements