11 YEARS STRONG

11 YEARS

Servers are now wiped and Santa is packing up and clearing out the bodies, but we hope you enjoyed the Holiday Season. We're getting back to work after a couple of weeks off, which is why this blog is lighter than usual, but we're looking forward to the journey ahead in 2025!

At the end of last year, we celebrated Rust's 11th anniversary, marking an incredible journey. The game continues to experience year-over-year growth, which is quite remarkable for being 11 years old. Rust is now bigger than ever!

This year, we saw:

• Over 325 million game sessions

• Over 40 million hours played

• Over 5.5 million unique players

Here's a recap of some of the major updates we did last year:

World Update 2.0

This HUGE update completely changed the world and added many new unique points of interest around the world

Road Renegades

Added new forms of transport, bicycles and motorbikes

Bags To Riches

Finally added backpacks allowing players to carry more items and added the metal detector item

Waves Of Change

Updated the cargoship and helicopter events, additionally overhauled the Harbors

Lighting The Way

Allows players to see and navigate at night, we add a small illumination area around the player

Seismic Shift

Added a new item which will send notifications to your phone if an explosion is detected

Quality Of Life

Over 300 QOL changes from saving codelocks to floating items

New Weapons

Added 5 new weapons, the minigun, military flame thrower, SKS, High Calibre Revolver, Handmade SMG

Alongside a metric ton of improvements and bug fixes.

Rust continues to be a labour of love from all of us at Facepunch, and we couldn't have done it without your passion and feedback. Thank you for your continued support, be it playing the game, telling friends, and engaging and communicating with us. We've very much enjoyed everything we've worked on for the game this year.

LOOKING FORWARD

What’s in store for 2025? Consistency! Continued guaranteed monthly updates on the first Thursday of every month, alongside regular fixes, quality-of-life enhancements, improvements, and exciting holiday events.

Next Month

On February 6th, we'll release the Primitive update. The update will be one of the most impactful updates to date in changing the dynamics of early-game raiding and combat by introducing siege vehicles, primitive weapons, shields, and a dedicated game mode.

The Primitive update represents a time in Rust where the already scarce technology and the usual homemade armaments and ammunition have been depleted from Rust's current setting, forcing survivors to fashion crude weapons with less sophisticated methods of attack and defence.

The Siege Tower can be used to climb over exterior walls while players remain in cover. And it can be pushed or horse-drawn and has several floors, with extendable drawbridges that double up as shutters.

The Catapult will be a projectile launcher for longer distances that can utilise multiple projectiles such as boulders, radioactive barrels, and propane tank IEDs. While it does have wheels, its size makes it something that a vehicle or horse will have to help you move it towards your next target.

The Ballista is a combination of a catapult and a large crossbow which was highly accurate given the heft of its projectiles. And in Rust, those features remain with the Ballista also having multiple ammo types, being able to do heavy damage to people, doors, and vehicles.