Having spent much of my adult life working remotely, I’m all too familiar with the comfort of staying indoors. This update aims to encourage players of Rust to step out of their virtual homes and engage with the game’s environment. The developers, Facepunch Studios, recognize that the current gameplay encourages players to hide rather than explore.

In a recent Steam post, Facepunch stated:

“The current progression meta has grown stale, moving too fast and becoming too easy over the years. We don’t believe this has been overwhelmingly negative, but it has detracted from world PvP, especially in and around monuments.”
Essentially, the forthcoming update will introduce a new tier within the crafting system that requires players to gather specific resources (blueprint fragments) found in monuments to upgrade their workbenches. These fragments are not easily accessible and tied to challenging puzzles.

Furthermore, existing monuments have been adjusted to create a richer interactive experience, with the goal of getting players back into conflict and interaction in these high-stakes areas. The intent is clear: foster an environment where players are more motivated to venture out and engage with each other and the game world.