We took on too much. The naval update is massive, lots of new systems, touching old ones, and the closer we got to patch release, the less confident and happy we were with the state of it. We could have pushed it out and crossed our fingers, hoping it behaved at scale, or we could pause, take a breath, and avoid shipping something that risks crippling servers during the busiest time of the year.

We do not want to drop server populations by 100 to 200 players or spend the holiday period firefighting performance and bugs. Rust is in a good state without the naval patch, we cannot justify risking stability for the sake of hitting a date.

I feel like we have let you down by missing the update window we have never missed before, but we would feel worse shipping something half baked. We are proud of the pace we work at, delivering updates at a speed most studios can't or don't. But we also care about Rust being fun, stable and worth your time. The naval update deserves that level of polish..

So here is the plan. The naval patch is moving to February 5th. We will keep pushing on performance and polish, we will tighten everything up, and we will make sure that when it lands, it is solid and fun.

Some of the content and DLC originally planned for today will instead be included in the Christmas update on the 18th at 19:00 GMT. That update will now include a few extra bits that were meant to drop today.

Tomorrow’s update will be a straightforward wipe only. The patch will go live at the regular time of 19:00 GMT, Thursday 4th, and servers will wipe as usual.

It has been a massive year for Rust, one of our biggest. From bringing Primitive at the start of the year, to the new Jungle biome, to sweeping meta changes, to backend improvements that most people will never see but everyone benefits from, the team has delivered patch after patch at a ridiculous pace. We are proud of what we have achieved this year and excited for what comes next.

Thank you for sticking with us, thank you for caring, and thank you for giving us the space to get this right. The naval update will be worth the wait, if you've not played Rust in the past few months, there is a ton of new content to use and explore. 

The January update will include some light changes and a review of 2025, and a preview of what we've got planned in 2026. 

The good news is, if you really want to try the naval content early, you can. Just be aware it comes with bugs, performance issues and all the rough edges we are still working through. We have fresh servers live on the Rust Staging branch that you can jump into.

If you want to help test, break things and give feedback, you are more than welcome. To learn how to get onto Rust Staging, check this out: https://rust.facepunch.com/staging

If demand exceeds current capacity, we'll be adding new servers.  

Sync your accounts and find links to all channels at twitch.facepunch.com.

And don't forget, there are generic Twitch themed Drops that you can grab by watching your favourite creator on Twitch not participating in the event too! 

As always, we'd like to thank Rustoria for working with us and Twitch to make this event possible. 

Thursday 18th of December sees the return of our annual Christmas event!