The Rust Naval Update is one of the biggest patches the game has seen, reshaping how players explore, fight, and survive at sea.
This naval update introduces boat building through the new boat mechanics, expanded naval combat, and a complete RHIB rework, alongside new ships, sails, and engines designed for both shallow water and the deep sea.
The Naval Update was originally delayed from its original date due to concerns about performance and stability because Facepunch did not want to release a half-baked update that could negatively impact player experience during a busy period of the year. This delay gave time for the team to focus on performance issues and really polish the update before launch.
Players can explore tropical islands, encounter ghost ships, and push into the dangerous deep sea event area, turning the ocean into a core part of Rust gameplay rather than empty space between monuments.
Rolling out through the Rust staging branch, the Naval Update released on February 5th, 2026.
The Deep Sea Biome
This new biome changes Rust's ocean into a massive, fun late game progression area with loads of new content. In the deep sea, there's new missions and new progress to be made on wipe day. Kill scientists on the islands and boats to get loads of loot.
The deep sea (unlike other areas of the Rust map) is a time capped area, meaning that you cannot base there or stay there for an extended period of time. When the event zone opens up, you will have 2 hours to loot. After the timer ends, all crewed vessels and items will disappear, and all players inside of the zone will die. Don't get lost!
Floating City
The Floating City is a safe zone area with lots of space for ships to dock. With lots of vendors (including a rare weapons NPC) this is your spot to turn your components into more chaos and explosions.
Get a little bored while you're in town? Go to the top of the casino building (with the huge chinook on the top of it) to play the Chippy cabinets and gamble to your hearts desire with games like:
Blackjack
Poker
Slot Machines
Boomboxes & Instruments
Feel like messing with some scientists? Find Floating John! He'll give you a rocket launcher and 6x HV Rockets for taking out 8 boat bound scientists.
Boat Building Station
Players can now construct custom boats using the Boat Building Station in shallow water. Once it's down, use a boat building plan to place down parts for your boat. Each building block costs wood, as well as between 4-15 low grade fuel.
Parts you can add to your boat include:
Sails
Tier 2 Engine
Steering Wheels
Ladders & Ramps
Doorframes
Mountable Cannons!
The maximum size a boat can be is 10x5, with a height cap of 2 walls.
Tropical Islands
On the ground, you can't miss the tropical islands. If you get to them early enough, there's loads of scientists to fight, storage boxes to loot, and low grade barrels to hit. If you're looking to do some early game farming, you can also find lots of nodes to hit and substations.
RHIB Overhaul
The RHIB boat vehicle has gotten a reworked modern model, bringing it up to par with some of the higher detail models Facepunch has been releasing in prior updates. RHIBs also now have a headlight, making nighttime on the deep sea easier to deal with.
RHIBs are also controlled by AI scientists patrolling the sea, looking to kill anything in their sight.
If you're lucky enough and kill enough of these scientists, you might even find a PT Boat with turrets on it to own the deep sea with your party.
Naval Combat Rework
With this update, Facepunch is looking to make the ocean one of the core parts of Rust's gameplay. Player built boats can be fully destroyed, and venturing out into the ocean comes with more benefits (and more risk) than it has in the past.
Ghost Ships
Ghost ships are a new monument filled with scientists and high quality loot. Drive up to these ships with your boat and loot the lock boxes below deck to get rare loot. Starting the countdown for the lock box will spawn 3-5 RHIBs that attack you.
RustGodTools x Rust Naval Update
To ensure you can stalk your players in the deep sea biome with the utmost detail, we've made all boats, monuments, and islands render inside of RustGodTools!
Now, you can track:
Player (and Scientist) Boats: RHIBs, Kayaks, Tugboats, and more...
Islands
Ghost Rigs
The Floating City
Cannons (& Cannonballs)
and more!
How The Naval Update Impacts You
Server owner? Prepare for increased load due to new boat builds, AI ships, and ocean monuments.
Player? Next wipe, treat your boats like mobile base. Add respawn bags, stash your loot, and keep a lot of backup fuel. All the boats (including player built boats) have upkeep requirements, you will need to add fuel to keep your boat from decaying.