Rust Naval Update - February 2026
February 2026 marks one of the biggest content drops in Rust's history. The Naval Update went live on February 5, 2026, introducing a fully reworked maritime layer to the game - from building your own boats plank by plank, to sailing into an entirely new biome filled with ghost ships, tropical islands, and a floating safe zone the size of Outpost. After that came rapid hotfixes on February 12 and another optimization pass on February 19. Here's a full breakdown of everything that changed.
Modular Boat Building
The headline feature is modular boat building. Players can now construct custom watercraft using a new Boat Building Station, which must be placed in shallow water to begin. From there, you use a Boat Plan item to lay out hull pieces, decks, sails, engines, anchors, steering wheels, ladders, ramps, door frames, and even mounted cannons on a floating grid.
Key details:
- Boat parts cost wood and low grade fuel (4 to 15 fuel per block)
- Maximum size: 10x5 tiles, up to 2.5 walls tall - no tower-boats
- Weight-to-thrust system - more engines mean more speed, but heavier builds move slower
- Global health pool - the whole boat shares one HP bar; when it hits zero, it sinks and is gone
- Upkeep via tool cupboard - currently only costs wood
- Lock code on the helm - stops thieves from taking your vessel
- Re-editing - use 'Deploy and Edit' from the steering wheel with a Boat Building Station in your inventory
Boat tech is mostly Tier 1, making this system accessible early in a wipe. Larger boats can physically smash through floating junk piles. You can even take a cannon-equipped boat to the oil rig - if you build with enough engines, you'll outrun the Cargo Ship.
Naval Combat
Boats are fully destructible and react physically to explosions - expect your vessel to get knocked around when rockets or cannonballs connect. Weapons that work on boats include standard rockets, HV rockets, incendiary rounds, and mounted cannons.
Cannon users now get 50% temporary damage protection while operating them. Player-built boats can raid other player-built boats, which means sea control is now a legitimate strategy.
The Deep Sea Biome
Sail south past the edge of the main island and you enter stormy open waters. A portal-style mechanic loads you into the Deep Sea Biome - a vast oceanic expanse separate from the main map.
This new zone includes:
- Floating City monument (described below)
- Ghost Ships roaming as AI events
- Tropical islands with resources and cannon emplacements
- PT Boats patrolling as AI threats
The entire biome resets every 2 hours by default, triggering rough seas, radiation spikes, and a full loot refresh. The countdown is visible on the player map.
Floating City Monument
The Floating City is the centerpiece of the Deep Sea biome - a massive ocean platform comparable to Outpost or Bandit Camp. It is a full safe zone, so PvP is disabled inside.
What you will find there:
- Vendors selling firearms, diving gear, boats, clothing - and accepting fish in exchange for scrap
- Greenhouse - pay 150 scrap to access a farm area with harvestable crops
- Recycler located conveniently underneath
- Arcade and casino - blackjack, poker, slot machines, pool, Chippy cabinets, boom boxes, instruments
- A Chinook parked on the rooftop
- "Floating John" mission NPC - rewards a rocket launcher and 6x HV rockets for eliminating 8 boat-bound scientists
Four variants can spawn per server, all offering the same facilities.
Tropical Islands
Scattered across the Deep Sea are tropical islands with white sand beaches, palm trees, and lush terrain. These are loot-and-leave zones - you cannot build on them - but they are packed with:
- Lootable POIs styled like electricity substations and ruins
- Resource nodes for mid-sea farming
- AI cannon emplacements you can take over and fire yourself
- Coconuts - a new consumable giving +2 healing, +15 calories, and +50 hydration
Ghost Ships
Five variants of Ghost Ships roam the Deep Sea biome. Each is crewed by blue scientists and carries light-to-moderate loot. One Ghost Ship per session has a lockbox below deck - starting its countdown triggers 3-4 AI-controlled RHIB patrol boats as additional defenders. Ships are static once spawned but add a consistent layer of danger and reward to deep sea runs.
PT Boats
AI-controlled PT Boats now patrol the Deep Sea. They are armed with a rear-mounted .50 cal turret and dual front-facing turrets loaded with 5.56 ammo. They are slower than RHIBs but tougher and harder to kill. If you take out the pilot the boat keeps fighting. Cleared PT Boats can be stolen by players.
RHIB Overhaul
The RHIB got a full visual refresh with a higher-detail model, a new headlight for night navigation, and a compass plus map display added to the cockpit. In the Deep Sea, RHIBs also appear as AI-controlled patrol vessels.
Artist Pack DLC
Launching alongside the Naval Update, the Artist Pack DLC is aimed at creative players:
- Paintball Gun and Overalls with team color support and two new server convars for damage tuning
- Paintable Reactive Target skin with a bucket-head that counts as a headshot zone
- Ornate Frames in 5 sizes
- Light-Up Frames with IO support
- Shutter Frames that open/close manually or via IO
- Frameless Canvases for large-scale murals
- Portable Easel - mount any frame up to Large size outdoors
- Paintable Window (skin for Strengthened Glass Window)
- 4 Rosette Award Sprays (1st, 2nd, 3rd, Last Place)
Homebrew 4 Twitch Drops
Running from February 5 to February 15, Homebrew 4 offered 10 exclusive drops and 4 general drops for watching participating Rust streamers on Twitch.
Fixes Galore - February 12 Patch
The week after the Naval Update, Facepunch deployed a steady stream of hotfixes covering:
- Boat building exploits and crash fixes
- Ghost ship and PT boat AI and turret balance
- Deep sea water and shore vector optimizations
- Shader memory and VRAM improvements that reduced server connection crashes
- Dive site spawning conflicts
- Mannequin paintball cosmetic bugs
- Deployable placement issues on boats
Optimization and Polish - February 19 Patch
The February 19 update focused on performance, UI cleanup, and weapon refreshes:
- Server browser overhaul - new region column, region-based sorting, clearer connection details
- Settings export tool - export all settings in ADX or Excel format
- Naval missions ~30x faster via WorldPositionGenerator rewrite
- Weapon visual refreshes: M92, binoculars, flashlight, medical syringe, molotov, salvaged cleaver, water bucket, flare
- Salvaged Axe new world model
- Melee audio rework for butcher knife and salvaged melee weapons
- Boat aim sway scaled by velocity
- Boat slowdown on cannon impact
- Wind turbine deploy SFX added
- Armored ladder hatch rig and animations integrated
What's Coming Next
Hackweek experiments currently in progress that may ship in future updates include:
- Tech tree branch unlock - unlock entire branches at once
- Towable trailer entity
- Capturable flag system with map broadcast
- Cinema screen UI
- Golf mechanics expansion
- Construction bots
- Boxes DLC - themed storage boxes approaching completion
- Apartment Complex monument - still in layout/set-dressing phase
- Local Tutorial - standalone tutorial island being built
Run Your Own Rust Server
With the Naval Update reshaping the way Rust is played on the water, there's never been a better time to run your own server. Set your own rules, configure the Deep Sea reset timer, and build a community around the new naval meta.
