A Forced Wipe and a Farm That Comes Alive
On October 1, 2026, Facepunch released Rust's monthly update, named Livestock, together with the forced wipe that comes with it. The studio presents it as a farming overhaul, and the lineup is dense, cows and sheep to raise, milk and wool, a biofuel generator, reworked sandbags, locked loot rooms in twelve monuments, a helipad to repair and a new render pipeline.
Two more dates to keep in mind. On October 22 at 18:00 BST, a mandatory client and server update will enable the Halloween features, with no wipe. And the next forced wipe falls on Thursday, November 5, the first Thursday of the month as always.
This article reviews the content for players, then details what the update changes for a server, convars, Oxide, performance and schedule. Everything comes from Facepunch's official devblog.
Cows and Sheep, Livestock Arrives
Rust's first two farm animals are captured in the wild, in several more or less efficient ways, then kept behind new animal fences and gates. They have needs, genetics and can be bred, with the option of hunting for the perfect clone, even if their genes do not behave quite like plant genes.
Both produce dung. The cow gives milk, the sheep gives wool, and both yield meat, bones and leather when slaughtered, with two new meats, beef and mutton.
One detail that matters for bases, when the new navmesh is enabled, NPCs can enter player structures and respect doors.
Milk, Cream and New Recipes
Milk can be drunk as is, but four hours in a fridge unlock skimming, which yields skimmed milk and cream, the stronger consumable of the two. In tea, milk extends the effect duration while cream increases its potency, and most pure teas gain a milky or creamy version. Two dishes arrive, Shepherd's Pie and Beef Pie.
Bartering at the Stable
Raised animals are sold to the Stable vendor. He makes a randomized offer based on the animal's gene quality, and you can refuse up to twice to get a better one. Beyond that, he sulks for 15 minutes. Wool is traded the same way, with a reward that scales with the amount brought in a single trade, up to 400 units. Facepunch sums up the logic in four words, high risk, high reward.
The Biofuel Generator
At last, a use for spoiled meat. The Biofuel Generator turns organic matter, raw or rotten meat included, into Low Grade fuel. It has to be stirred by hand, roughly every 30 minutes, and the IO system can warn you when it is time. Output depends on the calorific value of what you feed it.
The Critters
Frogs, rabbits, squirrels, sea turtles, crabs and jellyfish now populate the biomes that suit them. They are mostly decorative, with dedicated behaviours and a tight performance budget so they do not weigh on the server.
Sandbags, in Four Stages
The sandbag barricade is now built in four stages, by stacking a new bag on the previous one, up to the final pillbox. Each stage is taller than the last, every skin is supported, crafting cost drops, loot spawns them in stacks of 4 and the maximum stack rises to 20.
Powergrid Loot Rooms
This is the addition that changes the monument loop the most. Twelve monuments receive a locked loot room, which only opens once enough Heavy Fuses have been inserted at the Power Plant to generate the required power. The number of fuses needed varies with monument difficulty.
| Monuments |
|---|
| Airfield, Ferry Terminal, Harbour 1, Harbour 2, Junkyard, Launch Site |
| Military Tunnels, Nuclear Missile Silo, Radtown, Sewer Branch, Trainyard, Water Treatment Plant |
Fuse decay scales with population. At 10 players or fewer, fuses last four times longer, and the effect fades out by 100 players. The small Power Plant fuse box is now reachable from outside, through a broken window.
The Air Wolf Helipad to Repair
At wipe start, the Bandit Camp helipad is in disrepair, and the air vehicle vendor refuses any sale until it is fixed. Repairs work like siege weapons, by hitting the pad with a hammer to transfer resources. Once repaired, it stays that way until the next wipe. No more racing for a helicopter in the first hour.
Rust Render Pipeline and Performance
Facepunch migrated Rust from Unity's built-in render pipeline to a custom Scriptable Render Pipeline, the RRP. It can be tested right now through the Experimental tab, for one month only, and should become the default renderer with the next patch.
On the client side, the gains are mostly in memory. Store assets no longer load at boot, about 250 MB saved, and unload after a minute of inactivity, 450 MB more. Duplicate viewmodel hands were removed, 133 meshes and 100 MB, LOD textures were optimised, 100 to 300 MB depending on the case, and over 15,000 renderers were trimmed from procedural generation.
The Rest
- Machete fully remade, model, textures and animations.
- Ladder hatches skinnable in all four variants.
- Client-predicted throwables, grenades, C4 and satchels are simulated locally to reduce perceived latency.
- 11 new achievements, a new country selector in the server browser, and the Plague Doctor hazmat suit.
- Paint, a colour wheel and a larger brush for neon signs.
- Boats, the steering wheel code can be changed, and smart alarms can be placed on other deployables.
- Attack heli armour plates that fall off based on the side shot.
Halloween on October 22
A mandatory client and server update will roll out on October 22 at 18:00 BST, 13:00 EST, to enable the Halloween features. Facepunch has not detailed the content, but the devblog hints at new decorations, including a coffin.
What Changes for Your Server
1. Oxide Kept Up the Same Day, but Hotfixes Keep Coming
Oxide published its compatible build on October 1, with new livestock hooks and the removal of the deprecated OnComposterUpdate hook. Since then, Facepunch has pushed minor fixes on October 2, 8, 9, 12 and 13, and each one received its Oxide build. The rule stays the same, after every Rust patch, update Oxide before restarting your plugins, and check that those dealing with farming or composting have been adapted to the new hooks.
2. The New Convars Worth Knowing
| Convar | Role |
|---|---|
powergrid.fusedecaylowpop |
Fuse decay speed at low population |
powergrid.fusedecayhighpop |
Decay speed at high population |
powergrid.fusedecaylowpopscale |
Curve between the two thresholds |
vehicle.padrepairsrequired |
Set to false, the helipad no longer needs repairing |
vehicle.setrepairablepads |
0 to fully wreck it, 1 to fully repair it |
paint.outlineinvert |
Restores the old coloured brush outline |
On a small server among friends, vehicle.padrepairsrequired false avoids a pointless chore. On a public server, keep the default, that is exactly what Facepunch wants to slow down.
3. Server Performance Improves
NPCs are no longer all processed every frame, a fixed time budget is spread across them, and the overflow shows up as slower reactions rather than dropped frames. The navmesh at least doubled its performance through multithreading, vehicle physics now tick in parallel, and IK saves about one millisecond per frame with 100 players. Several fixes directly concern administrators, a SyncVar buffer leak during parallel saves, RCON disconnects that dropped other RCON connections, a more readable server console on Linux, client commands settable from the server again, and admin loadouts that finally save item positions.
4. A Wipe Behind Us, and a Maintenance Window on the 22nd
The October 1 wipe is done, but the Halloween update on October 22 at 18:00 BST is mandatory, with no wipe. A server that is not updated will refuse updated clients. Plan a short maintenance that evening, and wait for the matching Oxide build before restarting your plugins.
5. Secure Servers Only Concern Facepunch
The studio is extending the TPM and Secure Boot requirement to six more official servers, with global adoption as the long-term goal. Nothing changes for community servers at this stage.
What to Do on October 22
- Warn your players about the downtime and the time.
- Back up from the Backups tab of your panel, even without a wipe.
- Stop the server, update it, then update Oxide.
- Restart while watching the console to spot a plugin that no longer loads.
- Test a connection from an updated client before announcing the reopening.
To upload your plugins and configs, SFTP remains more comfortable than the file manager, our guide How to Connect to Your Gaming Server via SFTP walks through it. And to automate restarts and backups ahead of each wipe, the guide How to Schedule Automatic Restarts with Schedules covers the panel's CRON syntax.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the October 22 Halloween update cause a wipe?
No. It is a mandatory client and server update, but the map and bases are kept. The next forced wipe is on November 5.
Do my Oxide plugins still work?
Oxide has been compatible since October 1, but every Rust hotfix requires a new Oxide build. Plugins tied to farming and composting must be checked, hooks have changed.
Can the helipad repair be disabled?
Yes, with vehicle.padrepairsrequired false, or by repairing it outright with vehicle.setrepairablepads 1.
Are Powergrid loot rooms on every monument?
No, on twelve monuments, from the Airfield to the Water Treatment Plant. The full list is in the article.
Does the new render pipeline apply to the server?
No, the RRP is client-side. It is optional for a month through the Experimental tab, then should become the default renderer.
Looking for a Rust server ready for the November 5 wipe? Our plans are on the Rust Hosting page.
Sources, Facepunch's official Livestock Update devblog, the Changes page and the Oxide.Rust releases. All images are published by Facepunch.
Good wipe, and do not forget to feed the cows 🐄
