Surface RUST: What’s Coming in RUST’s October 2026 Update
Non-combatants, this is your time. All of the animals you’ve been begging for for literal years are making their way into the game, along with a few you might not have. Teas and Pies are being made great again, and more things are being integrated into the Power Plant heavy fuse system. This likely won’t be a full list, since so many changes are being added, but we’ll cover the bigger-ticket items. Sorry, machete refresh. Check it all out now.
Livestock Husbandry
Like horses, bees, and chickens, this is a large system you can add for a variety of profitable ventures. It doesn’t really deviate much from what you’d expect it to be, as it parallels the real world in how the animals behave and produce. This one is sure to be a hit with the Roleplay community, as the models for said animals are very high quality, as are their animations and, hopefully (still WIP), their sounds.
We’ll go over the basic premise in this article since most of it is still subject to change, but as always, we’ll add a link to our more consistently updated guide.
New Animals
The larger, more domesticated barnyard fare is available through either discovery, with them spawning throughout the world in small groups and being leadable back home, or through purchase from a Livestock Vendor at either the Large Barn or Ranch. Reckon once things get going, you could also steal livestock from your neighbor if he leaves gaps in his fence, or you make one.
Familiarity & Bonding
Unlike horses, livestock have a bonding period before they’ll tolerate, listen to, and finally accept a player so players can lead them. Shepherd and Rich Shepherd Pies help considerably.
There are both Herd and Individual animal trust meters, even though you can’t currently see them. Attacking or hurting any one animal drops its trust with you a lot, and the trust you have with the rest of that herd a little. You gain familiarity by being around the animal, physically close.
It is advised that you give an animal at least 90 seconds before attempting to lead it. Bulls and male sheep will attack and attempt to kill those they don’t trust. If you are attacked, they will keep attacking until you run away and they break chase. You may then try again.
Familiarity is a definite work-in-progress metric, with convars that also imply that newborn or bought calves and other livestock must integrate into the herd. Honestly, so much of this system is being added, subtracted, and altered daily that we’ll include every possible convar we can find at the bottom of the Livestock Guide for you to review. As it stands now, the trust cap, which is determined by seconds spent around livestock to gain familiarity, is set to 960 seconds.
Mating & Reproduction
Assuming that you’re all familiar with the basic tenets of real-world reproduction, I am going to limit how much is disclosed to say that the Cow would take the form of the Mother and that the Bull would thereby be the father. The same can be said of Sheep, with those having male names and horns being the Fathers and those with feminine names and no horns being the Mothers.
Males of the species have a 600-second cooldown on their part of the process. Cows may be bred with nearby Bulls and female sheep with nearby male, indicated by the Pregnant label appearing on their stat info. For breeding to occur, by default, both animals must have a minimum Overall condition of (0.7), paused at (0.6), to mate.
Younger animals are not included in this process, but once they’ve reached adulthood, there aren’t current restrictions on the mate they choose, so long as it’s of the same species and the correct opposite gender.
Cow
Matriarch animal, protective of calves it has birthed. Mostly docile creatures.
Outputs:
Milk (1-2) when applicable, gained by looking at a familiar cow’s udder area and pressing Milk. There’s a sub-5-minute cooldown on milking, but there’s no definitive convar; subject to change.
Killing and skinning yields 20 Raw Beef Meat, 30 Cloth, 100 Bone Fragments, 40 Animal Fat, 100 Leather, subject to change.
Bull
Patriarch animal, protective of the herd and much less trusting than Cows.
Outputs:
Killing and skinning yields 20 Raw Beef Meat, 30 Cloth, 100 Bone Fragments, 40 Animal Fat, and 100 Leather (subject to change).
Calf
Cute and cuddly, mostly unisex for the purposes of a guide, curious, and tends to wander off.
Outputs:
Killing and skinning yields 20 Raw Beef Meat, 30 Cloth, 100 Bone Fragments, 40 Animal Fat, 100 Leather, subject to change.
Sheep
If horned, it acts like a smaller bull with a worse attitude. The females are a bit nicer.
Outputs:
May be hit with a knife-type item in areas where Wool is evident, one time per segment, for currently indeterminate Wool output (ranging between 5-30 right now, highly WIP).
Killing and skinning yields 12 Raw Mutton Meat, 10 Cloth, 50 Bone Fragments, 20 Animal Fat, 20 Leather, subject to change.
Lamb
Cute and cuddly, mostly unisex for the purposes of a guide, curious, and tends to wander off.
Outputs:
Also semi-fleecable, but this animal isn’t finished yet. When killed and you attempt to skin it, the corpse disappears.
Stats
Like Bees and Chickens, these new livestock forms have their own preconditions for doing things. It might be best to go through these line by line, and keep in mind that this is highly subject to change and has been altered several times already. In earlier iterations of staging, the animals had things like genetics (yes, just like plants), but that seems to have temporarily disappeared despite the convars remaining.
- Name – Each cow, bull, sheep, whatever, is born with a name that cannot currently be altered. If a calf or lamb is bred and born, as opposed to just spawning, they are often named as a derivative of their father’s or mother’s name, i.e., Grant the 2nd, and so on.
- Age – Hit or miss at this time. Sometimes it cites a relatively logical, hour-based age for your Animal. The tick rate doesn’t increase correctly; some animals stay at 0 hours old, even after days on the server, etcetera. Work in Progress.
- Food – At the moment, all of these animals can graze around naturally and eat to keep themselves alive. The exact specifications of how the grass replenishes itself are unknown. They will also eat from nearby hitch & troughs, which have also recently been given a smaller, segregated water section. On staging, at least for now, without using a fulling convar, keeping them at 100% food and hydration is nearly impossible.
- Water – Same as food, water doesn’t seem to go down nearly as fast or consistently as food. In our testing, we built our livestock pen slightly into a river and never had any trouble keeping this level at 60% or higher.
- Personal Space – Ironically, this stat has little to do with the overall size of the area you designate with fencing for your animals. It is about how stacked the animals are on top of each other when attempting to feed or mate, which currently seems a bit broken. You can set up different troughs at varying distances, and it almost seems like the AI goes out of its way to stack on top of one another.
- Overall – Represented exclusively by the lowest % number of any of the other 3. Doesn’t matter if everything is 100% except one that’s 5%; this will set the overall to 5%, so it isn’t an average
- Grazed Bare – An animal with this listed at the bottom of their stats window indicates that there is no grass for it to eat, despite the appearance of such. This animal requires third-party food, i.e., a trough with any vegetable inserted.
Transportation & Retention
You’ve probably seen images of the Animal Fencing and Gates, and if you haven’t, I know you’ve all seen these sorta structures when going down the road in the real world. They are simple enough Tier 1 Workbench blueprints that use the same snapping and privilege rules as any other wall or barricade. They keep your animals in, and more importantly, other animals out. Wildlife like to attack livestock, and since they’re such a time and money investment, you better keep them secure.
Of course, the usual method of leading an animal in Rust, such as a horse, still exists for all of the aforementioned livestock. This involves walking up to the animal, once properly familiarized, and simply leading it around. But in 2026, we have an alternate method. For once, the images properly map out how to do something, so I will let them speak for themselves. Yes, they really sit there as you whip around like a drunkard.
Livestock Vendor
As an alternative to raising animals for meat and resources, you now have the option to raise them for trade. At each Ranch and Large Barn, there will be a Livestock Vendor. He will both sell you young animals and buy what you have. The crux is that you have to transport the animals to and from the vendor to make the transaction. Now, all figures in these images are still work in progress, but they should give you an idea of what you can buy and sell.
To sell an animal, it must be actively in a state of being led. You can deny the vendor’s offer twice, but a third time will make him not want that animal (or wool) for a while. Depending on the complexity of the animal system when it ships, what you are offered might vary a great deal per animal, or very little at all. It depends on how deep they go into genetics and rarity. Convars are pointing towards ‘special’ animals.
While we’re here, he will also buy your wool. The same 3-strike offer and no-deal rule apply.
Cooking & Brewing Expansion
So as a byproduct of a byproduct of Cows, we are getting a whole mess of new Teas and Pies. The pies are, of course, a new product of the Cooking Workbench, and we will go over the new positives and negatives of each compared to the original.
The new teas, however, are just a combination of either Milk or Cream mixed with the Pure tea of your choice to either amplify the tea’s effect at the cost of some duration, or add some caloric gain and increase its base duration. Because of the sheer volume of iterations of each tea, we’ll leave it here with a base of what each prefix means, and go into more detail with the specific item description of each.
Milky
Milky teas are created by combining any Pure Tea with 3 Milk in your crafting menu (not a cooking workbench) to make a Milky Version. The Milky prefix does the following;
- Adds a +90 Calorie and +15 Hydration bonus
- Increases the tea’s base duration by 50% (30 minutes becomes 45 minutes, etcetera)
Creamy
Creamy teas are created when you take any Pure tea and combine it in your crafting menu with 3 Cream (not a cooking workbench) to make a Creamy Version. The Creamy prefix does the following;
- Adds a +5 instant health and +15 Calories bonus with the same Hydration
- Increases the tea’s base effect (comfort from 75% to 100%, or bleeding reduction from 75% to 100%) or otherwise raises the yield bonus from 50% to 65%
- Reduces the effect duration by 20% (30m to 24, etc.)
Rich
Rich pies are a new thing all to themselves, on the cooking workbench. They take the base pie recipe and toss in Cream to add the rich element. Essentially, Rich pies are base pies in form and name with a 25% across-the-board bonus to every individual effect.
- Rich Apple Pie
- Rich Bear Pie
- Rich Beef Pie
- Rich Big Cat Pie
- Rich Chicken Pie
- Rich Fish Pie
- Rich Hunters Pie
- Rich Pork Pie
- Rich Pumpkin Pie
- Rich Shepherds Pie
Power Grid Loot Rooms
As a bonus to players participating in the Powerplant Heavy Fuse maintenance system, we are getting a few bonus loot rooms added to quite a few monuments. They are broken up into activation tiers, just like the other system bonuses. Some are opened when the first threshold is crossed, some with the second, and so on.
The loot inside these rooms is basic brown/green crate stuff. There are no keycards to be collected, although some of the rooms are behind keycard puzzles. They’re just a mild 2-4 box buff for people putting in Heavy Fuses.
Phase Level 1
Phase 1 is the state when the total number of heavy fuses in either/both boxes at the Power Plant is between 1 and 3. During this phase, the following world loot room doors open up:
Ferry Terminal
Junkyard
Large Harbor
Small Harbor
Phase Level 2
Phase 2 is the state when the total number of heavy fuses in either/both boxes at the Power Plant is between 4 and 9. During this phase, the following world loot room doors open up:
Airfield
Radtown
Sewer Branch
Trainyard
Water Treatment Plant
Phase Level 3
Phase 3 is the state when any number of heavy fuses in either/both boxes at the Power Plant total between 10 and 17. During this phase, the following world loot room doors open up:
Launch Site
Launch Site 2
Military Tunnels
Missile Silo
Of course, if players maintain Phase 4, all of the above lootable areas will be accessible. Once you reach each room, it opens with a simple switch on the wall nearby.
Everything Else
Did you think we were finished? HA! Here is a semi-comprehensive list of just about everything else we found this month, going through every commit one by one and picking the ones we thought you might actually care about.
Machete Refresh
I was joking at the beginning; I have to include my favorite on-the-go Legacy Shack-breaking melee weapon. I’ll reserve the new visual, though. Have a peek at it yourself.
Bandit Camp Helipad Sabotage!
Alright, it might have just been storm damage from the world that ended the previous wipe, but long story short, the helipad must be repaired before the vendor will sell anyone any flying machine. Figures in the images are still work in progress.
All the Critters
At the moment, most of these critters are more decorative than anything. Some are killable, some are skinnable, some disappear when you hit them, and others ignore it completely. In total, I think we have 6 others? Squirrels, jellyfish, sea turtles, crabs, rabbits, and frogs? 6, right? Here are some select photos of each.
Biofuel Generator
This one is a bit Mad Scientist, and to some, a bit overdue. What do you do with excess produce and body parts you have lying around the base? Well, you stick it in a pot, add some electricity, stir, and wait; that’s what. In only a… considerable amount of time, you could be rolling in excess Low Grade Fuel instead.
Ladder Hatch Refresh
There was a commit at the beginning of the wipe about that annoying triangle ladderhatch deployment being blocked by a nearby deployable bug, so here’s hoping that goes through. Alternatively, the older two ladderhatches have had their in-game and icon appearances updated, and all ladderhatches are now skinnable. Who knew the community wanted that.
Discord Zombie Plush?
Just a highly redacted commit for now, but they already did one Discord-linking in-game item. Maybe something for the Halloween event? There are also commits for a Halloween-specific DLC, but they haven’t made it onto staging. If it’s a DLC, it’s definitely coming.
Shears
Just as an amendment to the previous instruction about hitting sheep with knives to shear them: they have an in-progress commit to add proper shears, but they haven’t been added as of this writing. We might get them on wipe day, but you never know.
New Achievements
The best way to describe them is to list them;
- Putting a note in another player’s mailbox
- Purchasing from the traveling vendor
- Starting the satellite crash event
- Distance traveled on jungle vine swingers
- Killing a player with a mortar round
- Renting an apartment
- Inserting a heavy fuse into the Powerplant doohickey
Oil Rig Pump Delays
They’re adding a 15-minute delay to the oil rig portion of the Crude pumping procedure, and once activated, it now runs for 20 minutes.
Prison Hood Sound
Much like what they did with the Heavy Plate helmet altering how you hear things while wearing it, the prisoner hood is getting a bit of muffling of its own for a more authentic feel.
Rail Junction Improvements
Things got a bit weird in the September patch, with many procedurally generated above-ground train tracks colliding, going subterranean, or just not working. We worked on this in great detail, but please report anything you still see broken after wipe.
Sandbag Barricade Changes
This is more of a radical change than we are used to, in that what this item was and what it will be after wipe are honestly 2 totally different items. It should be mentioned that while on staging, it appears as if sandbag barricades not under a TC decay SUPER fast. Like, 2 minutes fast. Anyway, placing these items is now a tiered, multiphase operation. One picture for each step. Yes, you can use your skins with it.
Gear, Weapons & Loadout Updates
No new gear appears to have been added in October, but there are a metric ton of new eats. Here is what we can see in-game.
New items
| Item Name | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Animal Fence | “A sturdy fence for penning animals.” | Requires TC priv. Cannot be picked up once placed. |
| Animal Fence Gate | “A gate for accessing your animal pen.” | Requires TC priv. Cannot be picked up once placed. |
| Beef Pie | “A pie made of beef, increases the maximum amount of food that can be eaten. High calorie consumption increases chance of recovering from injuries.” | New baseline pie. |
| Biofuel Generator | “A large pot that can convert organic matter into fuel.” | More in-depth description above in this article. |
| Brioche Bread | “A loaf of rich brioche bread, eating it provides a large boost to health, hunger and hydration. Feeding to a horse will provide a boat to its digestion and dung production for a short time.” | New, upgraded bread. Better than Bread Loaf. |
| Cooked Beef | “Delicious Beef, Eating it will restore some health, hunger, and thirst.” | New meat type, cooked, from either a Cow or Bull. |
| Cooked Mutton Meat | “Delicious Mutton Meat, Eating it will restore some health, hunger, and thirst.” | New meat type, cooked, from a Sheep. |
| Cream | “A fat skimmed off whole milk. Calorie dense and restorative, but it will barely quench your thirst.” | New byproduct item used in advanced cooking recipes, from skimming Milk. |
| Creamy Teas | See above for more information. | |
| Dung | “Fresh and fertile.” | Not actually new, just a renamed version of Horse Dung with the same purpose. Comes from any large animal. |
| Milk | “A small bottle of milk. Very calorie dense.” | Taken from Cows, can be skimmed after being placed in a powered Fridge for 4 hours, or used on its own. Skimming produces both Cream and Skimmed Milk, but eliminates the base Milk. Key component in making Milky Teas. |
| Milky Teas | See above for more information | |
| Raw Beef | “Raw Beef. Eating it will damage your health, try cooking it first.” | New raw meat type, collected from harvesting Cows and Bulls. |
| Rich Pies | See above for more information | |
| Shepherds Pie | “Hearty mutton pie, provides a boost to hunger, health and hydration. Livestock grow used to you twice as fast, and are far less likely to turn on you, for a short time.” | New pie made from Mutton, used as a tool to domesticate livestock more efficiently. |
| Skimmed Milk | “Milk with the cream separated out. Hydrating, but less calorie dense than whole milk.” | The great lie of grocery shopping. Water in disguise. The secondary, less useful byproduct of skimming Milk. |
| Spoiled Beef | “Spoiled Beef. Consuming will damage your health.” | Spoiled Raw or Cooked Beef that wasn’t properly refrigerated. |
| Spoiled Mutton Meat | “Spoiled Mutton Meat. Consuming will damage your health.” | Spoiled Raw or Cooked Mutton Meat that wasn’t properly refrigerated. |
| Wool | “A bundle of wool Might be able to take this to a stable to sell.” | Product of shearing sheep. May be traded in bundles of 100-1000 to the Livestock / Stable vendor for an assortment of rewards. See above for more information. |
What’s Next?
Looking beyond October, I must say that the underground rail network redo has my absolute attention. There is talk of an M79 grenade launcher; we’re still waiting on the Uzi, and there was a weird commit about being able to call NPCs with an in-game phone? That’s how they getcha.
The Halloween DLC and Scrap King building skin have also surfaced in recent commits, and we should assume that we will get at least one of them by the end of October.
As always, development can change quickly between staging and release. If we missed something, join our Discord and drop us a line.
