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

12:00am EST - Rust’s world just got a whole lot wilder. The Jungle Update is going live today, bringing a massive new biome, terrifying wildlife, fresh monuments, new weapons, building skins, and a bunch of quality-of-life improvements.

The update is expected to hit at normal time (2pm EST / 7pm BST). Our update stream goes live at 1pm EST. Here’s everything you can expect when you dive in.

New Jungle Biome

A new biome is here — and it’s thick. The Jungle Update adds a lush new environment filled with dense vegetation, climbable vine trees, and a whole new vibe for map traversal and combat. Visibility is low, making it perfect for ambushes and sneaky plays. Unless you’re running through open areas or along the road, it’s tough to spot players tucked into the brush.

This new jungle biome shows up as a darker green on the map and is roughly comparable in size to other biomes (maybe a bit smaller). It features some new monuments specific to the area (more on that below), and lower-tier monuments like Harbors can spawn here too. Caves also show up with new jungle-themed entrances, but once inside, they’re the usual cave layout. Performance seems solid despite all the foliage, but your mileage may vary depending on your setup.

There’s a wide variety of new tree types — including climbable vine trees, towering jungle giants, and bamboo. While the trees themselves aren’t quite as densely packed as in a forest, the ground cover is extremely thick. Camo gear is definitely going to come in handy here. Also worth noting: you might run into the occasional scientist NPC patrolling the jungle roads, rocking a new outbreak-style skin.

Tree Climbing and Vine Swinging

The new vine trees aren’t just for show — they open up a whole new layer of vertical gameplay. You can climb them, letting you perch high above the jungle floor to scout, ambush, or just enjoy the view. When grabbing a vine, you’ll get options to swing across to the next tree, toss it to a teammate, or rappel back down.

These trees do come with some caveats though. For one, they can be chopped down, which instantly disables the vines and removes your climbable path. Once cut, the tree leaves behind a stump and takes about 20 minutes to grow back. You also can’t build on them — they block construction similar to monuments. Wood yields are about the same as other trees, so don’t expect any big farming advantage here.

New Jungle Monuments

Scattered throughout the jungle, a variety of ancient ruins provide new points of interest to explore — with the Ziggurat monument acting as the main attraction. It’s a multi-level concrete structure with basic loot sprinkled throughout, including brown boxes, small crates, and some barrels. There’s no puzzle, but it does offer a recycler and solid PvP potential and a decent spot for low-tier loot runs. It’s not massive, but could get expanded in the future.

Beyond the Ziggurat, several smaller ruin variants are tucked around the jungle. These include things like a water tower reskin and small climbable structures with the occasional loot spawn. No scientists here — it’s all player-driven action. Overall loot is pretty in line with what you’d find at other small monuments in the game.

New Wildlife

The jungle isn’t just thick with foliage — it’s crawling with new threats. This update introduces snakes, tigers, panthers, and crocodiles, each bringing their own brand of danger to the dense undergrowth. Whether you’re gathering loot or just passing through, these predators can and will mess you up if you’re not paying attention.

Each animal drops its own unique meat type (like croc meat or big cat meat), and some of these tie into new crafting recipes — think hunter vision buffs from big cat pie or poison darts crafted with snake venom. Bottom line: the jungle bites back, so keep your eyes peeled and your weapon loaded.

Snakes
Snakes are a sneaky new jungle threat that lurk low in the underbrush, almost invisible until it’s too late. There’s currently one blue-colored variant, and it blends right into the thick foliage. Step too close and it’ll strike fast — poisoning and slowing you for 5 seconds. After the hit, the snake quickly dashes away and burrows underground, making it tough to retaliate. If you manage to kill one, you’ll get venom, which is used for crafting poison darts. Stay sharp — these little guys hit hard and vanish fast.

Tigers
Tigers are fast, fierce, and love to ambush. These big cats will sneak up on players, pounce, claw, then dart off into the jungle. If they manage to kill their prey, they’ll actually drag the carcass away — including player corpses — which adds a whole new layer of wild to the jungle. Keep your ears open and don’t stand still too long… you might be next.

Panthers
Similar to tigers but even stealthier, panthers are sleek, black, and deadly. They stalk quietly through the jungle, pounce from a distance, and will drag away bodies just like their striped cousins. If you see a fresh corpse suddenly vanish into the brush, chances are a panther's nearby. They look cool — but they hit hard and don't scare off easy.

Crocodiles
Crocodiles are the aquatic terror of the jungle. They lurk near rivers, often striking from the water but they’ll even crawl up onto land. These beasts are tanky, vicious, and relentless — they don’t back off. On top of that, they’ll drag prey back into the water, making them one of the more brutal predators in the new biome. Stay sharp near the shoreline.

Blowpipe

The blowpipe is a brand new stealth weapon hitting the game with today’s update. A silent, primitive option perfect for jungle ambushes, it fires darts with a soft puff and offers four dart types to choose from: basic wood, incapacitate (uses snake venom to blur vision), scatter (a shotgun-style spread using stone), and radiation (causes rad poisoning). All darts are crafted from basic materials, keeping it well within early-game reach. It’s one shot per reload, so make it count — but if you land a hit from the shadows, your target’s gonna feel it.

Cost
200 Wood
1 Metal Pipe
25 Cloth

Craft time
30 seconds

Workbench
Level 1 required

Boomerang

The boomerang is a new primitive throwable landing with today’s update. To throw it, just hold right click to ready, then tap left click to send it flying — it’ll arc out and automatically return to you for a clean catch. No timing needed, just keep your hands free. If you don’t want to throw it, you can also just left click like a melee weapon and give your target a solid bonk. No ammo required, and it fits perfectly with the low-tier jungle chaos.

Cost
300 Wood

Craft time
10 seconds

Hunter Vision

This update introduces a fresh type of buff via a brand-new pie: Big Cat Pie. When eaten, it grants Hunter Vision — a unique effect that lets you see glowing trails left behind by animals. Red trails mark hostile creatures like tigers and crocs, while white trails show passive ones like deer or boar. The trails fade in near the start and stretch quite a distance, making tracking through the jungle a whole lot easier. Just keep in mind: this only works on animals — players won’t leave a trail.

New Items

The Jungle Update is also packing in a bunch of new cosmetics, most of which will likely come via DLC. We’re not sure if this will be one big pack or split across several, but keep an eye on the item store as the update drops. Here’s a rundown of what’s in the works:

Jungle Stone Building Skin – Mossy stone and carved faces, great for blending into the jungle
Obsidian Knife – A sleek reskin of the bone knife
Wicker and Bamboo Barrels – Reskinned storage barrels originally from the Frontier set
Jungle AK Skin – New look for your favorite rifle
Wooden Gloves – Fresh glove cosmetic in a primitive style
Jungle Rock Skin – A jungle vibe skin for your rock
Jungle Shelves – A new shelving unit that fits two small storage boxes
New Emojis – Includes “Bush,” “Hide,” and “Sick.”
New Gestures – A few fresh gestures are also being added with the update
CocoKnight Armor Set – for wood armor users

Edit: Looks like it’ll be two DLC’s: Jungle Item Pack and the Jungle Building Skin

Other stuff

Items in powered fridges now show a snowflake icon
Bread now heals over time instead of instantly
Leather gloves no longer require sewing kit
Leather gloves removed from techtree
Fixed Holosight reflection glare

Twitch Drops!

A fresh Twitch Drop campaign goes live with this update! The Local Legends campaign highlights official server communities in Rust and runs all month long. All the drops are general, so you can watch any streamer with drops enabled to earn them — just make sure your Twitch and Steam accounts are linked via the Rust Twitch page.

We’re proud to have our own Large Wood Box skin featured as a drop this time around — you’ll unlock it after watching for six hours. Huge thanks to the team at Facepunch for showing love to the official server communities!

Switching Servers to Premium

With this update, we’re switching seven of our servers over to premium. Premium servers have been resonating well with the Rust community and show real promise in helping reduce hacker activity, so we’re giving them a shot on the following:

Rustafied.com - EU Long 3
Rustafied.com - EU Medium 3
Rustafied.com - EU Monday
Rustafied.com - EU Monday Trio
Rustafied.com - US Long 3
Rustafied.com - US Medium 3
Rustafied.com - US Monday

We’ll be keeping an eye on feedback as this rolls out.