Atavistic survival sim Rust recently added a whole new area to get brutally murdered in while running around naked—a rainforest. Not only is this Rust’s snazziest biome, it’s also by far the busiest from an environmental perspective, far thicker in vegetation than the game’s other areas, as you would expect from a jungle. This makes it a uniquely hazardous playspace, offering ambush opportunities aplenty for both players and prowling animals like crocodiles and tigers.
Indeed, developer Facepunch Studios cautioned players about the dangers of the jungle on launch, stating on its website “The jungle is much denser than what you may be used to, so be aware that dangers and predators may lurk in every corner.” As it turns out, though, players have been far more concerned with another problem—Rust’s jungle is so dense that they can’t find any resources in it.
This was acknowledged and amended by Facepunch in Rust’s most recent update, which makes numerous alterations to the rainforest to make resource hunting easier. “One of the loudest bits of feedback we heard after last month’s Jungle update [was] ‘I can’t find anything!'” the studio explained in a Steam post. “The jungle was a bit too good at being a jungle.”
To compensate for the jungle’s, er, jungly-ness, Facepunch has adjusted the scale and distribution of several resource nodes to make finding them easier. For example, wild hemp bushes now have taller stalks and purple flowers to make them stand out among the undergrowth, while rock formation density has been increased so that extra ore nodes spawn. Berry bushes have also been given a “dedicated” jungle population, though this is more so that food is distributed evenly over the map.
Facepunch has also made several non-resource-related tweaks to how the jungle functions, such as cars and bikes spawning along jungle roads to facilitate a speedy escape. In addition, new players will no longer spawn directly in the jungle. Even Rust isn’t that mean, it appears.
The update’s changes aren’t exclusive to the jungle. Facepunch also makes general improvements to indoor lighting. This is partly an aesthetic change, but primarily a practical one. Previously the system made it hard for indoor players looking out to see the wider environment, putting them at a disadvantage in combat. The new system aims to address that, while also providing “soft physical transitions in and out of interiors” as a bonus.
Elsewhere, two new gun silencers have been added, while the existing silencer has been changed to be non-craftable, making them more of a precious resource and stopping every single player from running around with a silencer. PvP barricades have had their stack sizes reduced to discourage spam placement. Foliage rendering has been improved. Food spoiling has been extended to fruit, vegetables and eggs. Oh, and in addition to bee grenades, you can now craft larger bee bombs which can be launched from a catapult, in case you really want to stir up your enemy’s hive.
But that’s only the beginning, as there are even more changes for you to get your head around. Alongside the jungle biome, there have been a lot of new features added to Rust this year. Back in March, Facepunch added real-time food cooking and craftable pies, as well as those aforementioned bee grenades, while in February, the primitive update added a new mode that restricts players to pre-industrial weaponry (like swords, shields, grenades and catapults) for players who don’t want the game to be a rush to discover gunpowder.
