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Hackweek: Mortar strikes, extraction raids, and more!

With November's update out the door, Facepunch has jumped into a Hackweek. That means a flood of experimental features, from new 40mm ammunition and extraction raids to video cameras, improved rain, and even a turn-based Rust spin-off. Most of these projects are on dedicated Hackweek branches, and some might not make it into the game. Still, there's plenty of interesting stuff taking shape.

Hotfixes since the November update
Two optional client and server hotfixes went live on Friday, November 6, addressing a mix of gameplay bugs, visual issues, and server errors introduced or uncovered around the update. Here's what's been fixed:

Fixed Ballista bolts dealing no damage and item-drop keybinds dropping the item held in the inventory.

Fixed Night Vision Goggles sometimes failing to work and the Alien Costume being uncraftable despite being owned.

Fixed Auto Turret lasers stretching or flickering across the sky, overly bright distant monument lights, and an incorrect Wind Turbine highlight size.

Fixed seagulls disappearing or failing to float after death, along with audio problems when many livestock are gathered together.

Fixed a loot box getting stuck in the ground at the Lighthouse and missing Blueprint Pages from Supply Drops in Primitive mode.

Fixed Painting Tablet input, melee weapon Workshop preview errors, and a gamepad control error.

Fixed nametags.showindemos, a Softcore graphic incorrectly referencing deployable corpses, and a number of other client and server errors.

Added a tooltip for flipping stairs and improved roaming scientist boat AI.

Fixed a NameTagVisCheck error affecting administrators and modded servers, along with additional exploits. The Softcore changelog was also updated.
New 40mm grenade rounds
The 40mm grenade launcher is getting a whole arsenal of new tricks in a Hackweek prototype. Work includes Flashbang, Incendiary, and Illumination Rounds, along with a Mortar Strike Flare that marks an area for several incoming mortar shells. An even heavier Artillery Barrage Round calls in a 40-rocket strike after its blue flare lands. There's also a Tracker Round that sticks to vehicles, helicopters, boats, or bases and places a moving marker on the map for five minutes. The tracker has a flashing red light and audible beep, so subtlety isn't exactly its strong suit.

Another experiment adds selective ammunition loading. Players can queue different 40mm rounds in the Multiple Grenade Launcher using the radial menu, including partial loads, and similar mixed-shell loading is being tested for shotguns. These changes are on Hackweek branches and haven't been confirmed for release.

Third-person camera and extraction raids
A new Hackweek project is exploring an over-the-shoulder third-person camera, activated with F3. The prototype includes free look, camera movement adjustments, a visible throwing arc, a reload indicator, and the ability to slide by crouching while sprinting. There's even an experimental server setting that forces everyone to use the shoulder camera.

The same branch is building an extraction-style game mode around it. Players enter raids on a separate procedural map, fight enemies, and try to escape through hot air balloon extraction points before a countdown runs out. Outpost acts as a hub where players can store extracted loot, manage unlocks, and save progress between raids. This is a Hackweek experiment, not an announced replacement for Rust's usual first-person survival gameplay.

NPC services at safe zones
Facepunch is also experimenting with new NPC-run services around safe zones. The current prototype includes rentable armor and restoration garages at Outpost, a large furnace drop-off service, and attendants who handle services through conversations and dedicated interfaces. The services are being given their own kiosks, counters, and work areas, with rental earnings held for 48 hours after completion.

At the Apartment Complex, another experiment adds a canteen offering free meals to residents, filling their food level to 80%. Additional work includes NPC names, voice mumbling, and smoother conversation movements. All of this remains on a dedicated Hackweek branch.

Cargo Ship loot refresh
Another Hackweek project is reworking how players get their hands on loot aboard Cargo Ship. Instead of leaving the interior loot out in the open, the prototype divides it among seven shipping containers. One is empty, one starts unlocked with brown crates inside, and the others require a little more effort to access.

Rather than smashing through entire container doors, players must break the locks with melee weapons or explosives before opening them. One container features a code lock, which can be blown open with a heavier explosive investment or unlocked using a code found on a scientist's corpse. The prototype now extends to rare beached shipping containers along the mainland coast, including jungle, arctic, and desert areas. These come in Tools, Ammo/Medical, and Food varieties, with plenty of crates but no weapons or high-tier gear. The current test calls for roughly one coastal container per 100 players.

Video cameras, tapes, and televisions
Rust might be getting its own home video setup. A Hackweek prototype adds a video camera that records footage onto a video tape, along with a placeable television that can play those recordings back. The system currently records at 30 frames per second, with footage encoded using VP8 and played through the TV.

An additional experiment lets powered CCTV cameras record what they see onto tapes, with playback through a Computer Station. That branch also supports recorded voice chat, limits individual camera recordings to 60 seconds, and tests tapes holding up to five minutes of demo footage. It's still early work, but the potential for surveillance, replays, and general Rust nonsense is pretty obvious.

Industrial system overhaul
Industrial conveyors are getting a substantial experimental rewrite. Currently, the number of connected storage containers can influence how much a conveyor moves in a tick. The new approach caps transfers at a fixed amount based on item stack size, with recent tests using 24 standardized units per tick. The goal is more predictable behavior and better performance, particularly in large or nearly full storage setups.

The rewrite also changes how containers are handled. Furnaces, refineries, and Tool Cupboards can split incoming items evenly, while storage boxes fill sequentially, prioritizing partial stacks and containers closest to the conveyor. Conveyors can now sleep until a connected container's contents change, reducing unnecessary checks. Additional tests and benchmarks are being added to work through edge cases and keep complex sorting systems running smoothly.

Seamless Nexus travel
Work on seamless Nexus transfers has made a big leap during Hackweek. The prototype connects neighboring servers so players can see adjacent islands and cross between them without the usual abrupt handoff. Neighboring terrain is displayed using simplified distant models, while client connections and entity transfers are handled behind the scenes.

Vehicle travel is a major focus, with fixes for boats sinking, players being left behind, duplicate vehicles, and players arriving asleep or losing third-person visibility after crossing. The current experiment also supports transfers for players traveling without a vehicle. It's still a long way from a confirmed feature, but the groundwork for more natural travel between islands is taking shape.

Rain and wetness improvements
Rain is getting a visual and audio upgrade in another active Hackweek branch. Terrain, foliage, player skin, and first-person viewmodels now react to wet weather, with surfaces taking on a wet sheen and raindrops picking up nearby lighting, including distant light flares. Rain effects are also more varied and visible, with changes to drop speed, heavier wind turbulence during storms, and splashes against walls and floors.

The new system tracks where rain actually lands, keeping areas beneath solid cover dry and responding when doors or other moving building pieces open and close. Developers are also testing water pouring from structures and puddles that gradually appear during rain. New ambient audio plays when rain hits a roof, with room for different sounds based on the material. Performance is receiving plenty of attention to keep all the added effects from becoming a resource hog.

Crosshair customization V2
Players could eventually get a lot more control over their crosshairs. A new Hackweek version moves crosshair settings into their own tab, switches to shader-based rendering, adds pixel-based controls, and expands the available color options. Hit markers are getting their own customization options, including size, color, headshot color, and outlines.

The updated system uses a new crosshair code format while converting older codes automatically. It's not on main yet, but it's shaping up to be a substantial expansion of the existing customization tools.

Tattoos continue to expand
Work on player tattoos continues, with new stencil designs added and improvements to how tattoos render on bodies and exposed skin beneath clothing. Dozens of clothing prefabs have received the necessary texture mapping updates, along with adjustments to male and female body models at different distances. Stencil filtering has also been improved to reduce jagged edges, and the stencil menu now scrolls to accommodate more options. The work remains on its own development branch.

Customizable arrows
Archers are getting some attention with a Hackweek experiment centered on personalized arrows. Players can customize fletching and nock colors, add name labels based on their player name, and save color profiles for reuse. These details remain attached to an arrow after it's fired, and a new action can clear the customization to return it to normal ammunition.

A deployable fletching jig is also being prototyped as the station for applying arrow skins and color profiles. The interface now includes a larger arrow preview, additional colors, and options to change the shaft's skin or style. So far, the system is being tested primarily with wooden arrows.

Minicopter wrecks
A new Hackweek prototype introduces repairable Minicopter wrecks at monuments. The current concept calls for two wrecks per map, with players able to restore one using 10 gears, 400 metal fragments, 40 high-quality metal, and one random Tier 2 modular car part. Spawning hasn't been set up yet, so this is very much an early experiment, but it could offer another way to get airborne without buying a fresh Minicopter.

Rust XCOM experiment
One of the busiest Hackweek branches is a turn-based tactical experiment dubbed Rust XCOM. It uses familiar Rust assets and locations, including an Oxum's Gas Station mission, but plays more like a squad-management strategy game. Players manage a persistent squad, equip weapons and armor, move units around a tactical grid, take cover, use overwatch, and fight enemy raiders.

The prototype also includes an above-ground base built from Rust building pieces, upgrades from twig to metal, research, crafting, food, beds, resource gathering, repeatable raids, and survivors who can join the squad. A huge amount of work has gone into the visuals, animations, interface, and mission flow. This is an experimental side project, not an announced new mode for regular Rust.

UI experiments
Facepunch is also testing a different way of building Rust's menus using the panel system from s&box. The Hackweek branch has already converted prototype code-lock and radial-menu interfaces, with foundations for a replacement main menu and Settings screen. New components include buttons, toggles, dropdowns, sliders, text fields, scrollbars, and draggable elements, along with a preview editor for testing animations. A developer toggle currently switches between the existing and experimental menus. This is mostly behind-the-scenes work, but could eventually make Rust's interface easier to develop and maintain.Performance and bug fixes
Outside Hackweek, optimization work continues. Changes merged into main include improved foliage shadow settings, more efficient rendering of decals and environment volumes, and fixes to lighting behavior. Rust has also moved to another Unity 6.3 build, alongside ongoing server-runtime and networking maintenance. Other experimental work is improving water rendering and testing broader packet batching and network-thread efficiency.

Additional fixes merged into main address roaming scientist boat cleanup, client errors involving destroyed boats, storage adaptor power warnings, sound errors, map reloading, and wire tool behavior. Separate work continues on scientist flanking and cover behavior, along with improvements to the server browser's favorites and history lists.

Other Stuff
A deployable trampoline prototype lets players steer their bounces and sends dropped or thrown objects flying too.

Computer Stations are being tested with a Cobalt boot sequence, a redesigned camera menu, and the ability to jump back into the last viewed camera. Reopening within three minutes skips the boot animation.

A Hackweek door experiment stops doors opening when they hit nearby walls or foundations, rather than letting them clip through building pieces.

A related Garage Door prototype uses conditional meshes to prevent doors from visibly clipping through nearby walls.

Fishing Village docks are being adjusted to keep modular boats from getting wedged against the sides or blocking vendor access. Decorative buoys have also been added.

A new Crosshair V2 branch also fixes a tooltip-positioning issue and settings dropdowns reopening when closed.

Early work continues on better scientist cover and peeking behavior, with tools for testing AI movement routes.

FPV Drone and goggles development now includes a custom camera overlay with an artificial horizon showing pitch and roll.

A sticky grenade prototype lets grenades attach to entities, including other players. Sticky Beancan Grenades are also being tested.

Another Hackweek experiment makes weapons mounted in Auto Turrets lose condition as they fire. Broken weapons cause the turret's laser to turn off and sparks to appear.

The F1 console is being tested with smarter autocomplete, showing command arguments, expected value types, and suggested inputs as players type.

Bullet impact decals are being tested with parallax effects to give them more depth.

A Hackweek setting is testing consistent mouse sensitivity across different weapons.

Experimental boat hull changes aim to make boats' collision shapes better match their appearance.

Work continues on expanding Demo UI tools, including an effects panel, support for entities and mounted vehicles, camera parenting, and fixes for missing player limbs in demo recordings.

A prototype allows players to eat thrown pies while they're still flying through the air. Sure, why not?

An early dog prototype includes throwable meat, with the wider feature still very much in rough development.

Sleeping Bag placement and respawning are being tightened up to prevent players getting stuck in gaps too small for their character.

Inventory item checks are being improved so things like missions, tech tree unlocks, and vending machine interactions can recognize required items stored in backpacks. Crafting, building, and weapon reloading still exclude backpack contents.

A server browser fix targets favorites and history lists that sometimes fail to populate reliably.

The flamethrower's fuel gauge needle has been fixed to track the remaining fuel correctly.

Additional work on the Lever Action Rifle includes early first-person animation updates.

Rust+ camera development continues with better support for held items, effects, and animations in camera views.

Underground train tunnel development continues with collision meshes and LOD work for randomized rooms.

Early Christmas DLC work includes new wallpaper textures and related item setup.

Watercraft visuals are being adjusted for modified ocean shading, while new animation work is testing a different player animation setup.

Additional fixes address the Uzi's world model and textures, vending machine map markers, and a few UI and sound issues.

Facepunch has switched its version control system from Plastic SCM to Git. Rust development commits can now be followed at https://commits.facepunch.com/r/Rust instead of the old rust_reboot address.