A new Rust Maintenance update from Facepunch Studios arrived in September, tightening combat and addressing long-running bugs across servers. It matters because gunfire is now audible from much farther away, a change that raises risk in firefights and alters how players weigh weapon choices.
Rust’s world is loaded using ‘grids’ that previously limited what sounds players could hear, and Facepunch has separated gunshot audio from that system to expand detection range. The old maximum distance for sounds was 350 meters, but sounds now vary by weapon: pistols and SMGs reach 400 meters, AKs and LR rifles reach 500 meters, and LMGs and long-distance rifles reach 600 meters. That changes firefights.
There are several more minor, practical tweaks beyond sound. Players with building privilege who are holding a hammer will now see which bags are owned by which members of their team, and the minicopter gains visual and audio damage indicators that escalate as its health falls. Foliage displacement now behaves more smoothly, allowing grass and plants to spring back up gradually when objects are removed. Volumetric clouds, introduced previously, are set as the default option though they can be turned off manually.
Workshop submissions made with the in-client skin creator will automatically include screenshots of designs, improving how creators show off work. A range of bug fixes target longstanding quirks such as characters appearing with closed eyes, invisible players on respawn while asleep, and odd interactions that removed deployables from rugs on tugboats.
Among the many fixed bugs are random closed eyes on players, characters being invisible when respawning while asleep, C4 not being stackable when the RF toggle is enabled, rugs deleting deployables when you pick them up on a tugboat, and horses ragdolling on planters and dead trees. The sand dunes around the giant excavator should no longer block barricade deployment, the AK’s missing ’empty mag’ sound has now been correctly implemented, and improved deploy guides and physics for ceiling lights should make them behave more realistically.
Here you can find the official Facepunch announcement. The studio also says it’s lining up meta and balance changes for October, and the Naval update is scheduled to introduce modular boats in November.
Share your thoughts in the comments and connect on X and Bluesky to discuss whether these audio and visual changes will alter how people engage in Rust.
