The Built Different update goes live today, bringing new player models, updated animations, ballistic armor, the M16A2, two new DLC’s, and a bunch of quality of life improvements to Rust.

The update is expected at normal time, 2pm EST (7pm BST). Due to a last-minute issue on our end, there won’t be an update stream today. We’ll still be keeping an eye on things and will post on X as soon as the server and client updates go live. The stream will be back next month!

New player models

One of the biggest pieces of this month’s update is the rollout of Rust’s updated player models. These new models are more detailed than the current versions, with broader improvements across faces, bodies, hair, clothing fit, and animations. There are also some new hairstyle options in the mix, including a crew cut, bun, and ponytail, helping add a bit more variety to the updated character lineup.

It’s not just a visual swap either, as the developers have also been doing a lot of cleanup around player movement, ragdolls, wearable compatibility, and how characters look across different poses and gear setups. That said, don’t get too attached just yet. These updated models are still subject to change, and they aren’t necessarily your permanent look forever. Player customization is still on the roadmap for later this year, which should eventually give players more control over their character’s appearance.

Player animations

Along with the updated player models, this month also brings a broader refresh to player animations. A lot of this is aimed at making characters feel more natural, with updated jump, sprint, crouch, idle, talking, weapon hold, deploy, and gesture animations all getting attention throughout development. There’s also been a bunch of cleanup around mounted states, ziplines, ragdolls, corpses, held items, and how different animation systems blend together behind the scenes.

The result should be a smoother overall presentation for players, especially now that the more detailed character models are in play. As with the models themselves, some of this may still be adjusted after release, but this update lays the groundwork for Rust’s next era of character visuals — not just how players look, but how they move, react, and carry gear across the world.

M16A2

The M16A2 makes its debut in today’s update, adding a new high-end rifle to Rust’s weapon lineup. This is a burst-fire only weapon, firing in fast 3-round bursts with a 30-round magazine of 5.56 ammo. It also supports 4 attachment slots, giving it plenty of room for the usual sight, muzzle, laser, or flashlight setups depending on how you want to run it.

Unlike most weapons, the M16A2 cannot be crafted or researched, meaning you’ll need to find it through loot instead of working your way to it through the tech tree (currently being seen in hackable crates). Stat-wise, it sits in an interesting spot compared to the LR-300: lower damage at 35 vs. the LR’s 40, slightly higher accuracy at 5 vs. 4, the same recoil at 3.5, a faster fire rate at 600 vs. 500, and a shorter range at 368 vs. 422. In other words, don’t expect a straight LR replacement — this looks more like a rare, controlled burst rifle built around accuracy and quick follow-up shots.

Ballistic armor and BDU gear

The update also introduces a new set of military-style armor and clothing items. There are 5 new pieces in total: Ballistic Helmet, Ballistic Vest, Ballistic Leg Armour, BDU Shirt, and BDU Pants. None of these can be crafted or researched, so you’ll need to find them out in the world through loot.

The ballistic pieces are the heavier hitters here. The Ballistic Helmet offers strong head protection at 60% projectile, 70% melee, 10% bite, -3% cold, and 13% explosion protection. That puts it above the Metal Facemask’s 50% projectile protection, though the facemask still has slightly better bite and cold stats. The Ballistic Vest protects the chest with 35% projectile protection, 20% melee, 3% bite, -3% cold, and 3% explosion, making it more bullet-resistant than the Metal Chest Plate’s 25% projectile protection, while also avoiding the heavier cold penalty. The Ballistic Leg Armour rounds out the main armor set with 30% projectile protection, 40% melee, 10% bite, -3% cold, and 3% explosion protection for your legs.

The BDU Shirt and BDU Pants are more of the lighter clothing side of the set, described as old, worn, standard-issue battle dress uniform pieces that provide moderate protection. Both are a step up from their regular clothing counterparts, with the BDU Shirt offering better protection than a hoodie and the BDU Pants offering better protection than regular pants. The shirt comes in at 23% projectile, 20% melee, 6% bite, 5% radiation, and 5% cold protection, while the pants provide 17% projectile, 15% melee, 3% bite, 5% radiation, and 6% cold. Overall, this gives players a new loot-only military gear path, with the ballistic pieces serving as the main armor upgrades and the BDU clothing acting as a stronger uniform layer underneath.

Industrial Decor DLC

Also going live with the update is the Industrial Decor Pack, a new DLC focused on heavy-duty, factory-style base pieces. The pack includes 20 industrial themed items, with new looks for barrels, the auto turret, torch, electric furnace, large furnace, garage door, salvaged shelves, wall shelves, painted concrete flooring, sprays, emojis, and more.

Most of the pack is cosmetic, but there are some nice practical touches in the mix. The industrial barrels and shelves give bases more storage variety, the garage door has a see-through industrial design, and the electric furnace comes with new indicator lights when it’s active. Overall, it’s a solid fit for anyone going for that bunker, warehouse, factory, or gritty compound vibe.

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Bowless Crossbow DLC

Separate from the Industrial Decor Pack, the Bowless Crossbow is also going live as its own premium DLC item. This is a standalone crossbow skin which gives the classic weapon a more mechanical, improvised look, ditching the usual bow arms for a compact salvaged frame. This one is cosmetic rather than a new weapon, so it should function like the regular crossbow while giving it a pretty distinct profile.

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Quality of life

Potential FPS improvements tied to the Unity 6 upgrade and updated player model work, though results will vary depending on your system.
Improved Skin Viewer, including better fullscreen navigation, view-in-hands support, keyboard controls, lighting fixes, bundled texture support, and viewmodel prefab loading
Auto Turret is now skinnable, with workshop / skin viewer support and support for the AK inside the turret
New Navmesh has been added, though it is disabled by default for now
Mountable / projectile validation improvements aimed at reducing “projectile invalid” issues when fighting from minicopters, ziplines, and other mounted situations
Cave wiring improvements, including fixes for wiring from underground cave areas to the surface
Deployable snapping improvements, including fixes for different snap modes not properly registering on the server
Spraycan / reskin improvements, including fixes for multiple players reskinning at once and better handling of deployable state when reskinning
Barrel conveyor filter fix so barrels properly show up again after reskin support was added
Wallpaper skin picker fix so default skins show up properly again
IO wire and hose visual improvements, including restored hose colors, invisible wire material fixes, and better visibility when showing IO directions
Rain grace improvements, including fixes after server restart and faster grace period checks
General performance and allocation cleanup across several systems

Fixes

Fixed scientists and animals ending up on roofs
Fixed torch attack animations not working properly on non-local players
Fixed industrial torch position / behavior issues in torch holders
Fixed held item animation issues, including bandage and syringe animations persisting when they shouldn’t
Fixed related sound issues after holstering certain items
Fixed 50 cal / PT boat turret animation issues
Fixed mortar animation issues
Fixed demos breaking when started while mounted on a mortar
Fixed console input field not being selected automatically when using console toggle
Fixed console parsing issues, including decimal and Vector3 parsing fixes
Fixed NVIDIA Reflex support detection
Fixed shadow caching / spot light rendering issues
Fixed several SprayCan client errors
Fixed deployable snapping settings not properly registering server-side
Fixed cave wire tool issues
Fixed industrial torch using the wrong attack sound
Fixed static instruments being offset in monuments
Fixed desert military base silo overlap after server restart
Fixed various render pipeline, lighting, shader, and allocation issues behind the scenes