Rust has just released its mid-year update for 2025, introducing a range of new features and improvements designed to enhance the game’s social aspects and overall smoothness. From easier friend connections to fresh mission content and deployable placement improvements, this update touches several parts of the game. If you’ve ever wished for a simpler way to team up or store loot, this update might interest you.
Patch Notes Highlights
Party System
One of the most welcome additions is the new party system designed to reduce the hassle of joining servers with friends. You can now invite friends to a party through the friends menu by right-clicking their name and selecting “Invite To Party.” Once your friends accept, the party leader can connect to a server, and everyone will join the same one. When you spawn, party members will appear close to each other and on the same team, giving you an immediate advantage in coordination. After the initial spawn, future respawns are scattered randomly on the beach.
Outpost Spawning Mission
A new mission involving CZ-721 at the Outpost has been added. Players can travel to a Fishing Village and back to unlock a permanent spawn point at the Outpost with a 30-minute cooldown. This doesn’t count against your bag limit and is available in Vanilla and Primitive modes, though disabled in Softcore mode. The mission system itself has been upgraded behind the scenes to facilitate easier future mission creation, with smoother conversations and improved performance.
Team Invite Improvements
Inviting friends to your team has been made simpler. There’s a new Invite button in the team UI that lets you add friends even if they’re offline or on another server. You can also send invites directly from the chat panel by right-clicking a player’s name.
Deployable Snapping
Deployable placement has been a bit tricky, but now you can snap deployables to walls, corners, or even to other deployables by holding Left Shift while placing. There are two snapping modes: Simple (which slides deployables along walls) and current (which snaps to corners and nearby similar deployables). You can choose your preferred mode in the settings.
Abyss Pack Update
The free Abyss Pack now includes vertical and horizontal storage tanks that hold as much as a Large Wood Box, perfect for storing your salvaged loot. If you own the pack, these tanks will appear automatically in your crafting menu.
Patrol Helicopter Changes
The recent Patrol Helicopter mechanics are getting tweaked. The helicopter will now always flee towards a monument, with its flee distance capped to one grid and visible on the map. It no longer flees if taken near or inside a memorial. These changes keep the idea of encouraging serverwide PvP but aim to reduce frustration from the previous multi-stage fights.
Improved Erosion in Map Generation
The procedural map generation now includes a better erosion simulation that blends canyons and lakes more naturally into the environment. While this adds a bit of time to map creation, it utilizes multi-threading to maintain reasonable performance.
Legacy Viewmodel Camera Animation
Older view models, including those predating 2017, now have hand-animated camera movements created directly in Unity. This update enhances how these models track movements on screen, resulting in smoother weapon animations.
Roof Stability Fix Explained
There was community concern over a fix to roof stability related to pyramid bases and “Jungle Temples.” The developers clarified they fixed the stability calculations that caused roofs to break unintentionally after server restarts, without removing all known bunker exploits. This fix was intended to address bugs that crossed the line into game-breaking territory.
Looking Ahead
Rust is nearing its 12th anniversary, with over 20 million copies sold on PC and more than 1 million positive Steam reviews. This year saw major updates like the Primitive Update, the Crafting Update, and the Jungle Update. Next month will bring a Hardcore mode refresh with quality-of-life improvements, and later in the year, the much-expected Naval Update will introduce modular, player-built boats with cannons.
There are also plans for AI and animal overhauls, a Warhammer collaboration, and other surprises the developers aren’t quite ready to reveal.
Steam Summer Sale
The Steam Summer Sale is running with 40% off Rust and its DLCs. It’s a good moment to grab the game for yourself or that friend you’ve been trying to convince to join your clan.
Watch the update trailer here:
