Rust's March update in detail: longer days, power on boats and a fairer Deep Sea
Shipshape landed on 5 March 2026. It polishes the player-built boats and the Deep Sea from the Naval Update and makes every day a good deal longer.
Longer days
Each day now has about 20 minutes more sunlight. The night is unchanged at around 10 minutes, so there is more time for daytime activities while night tactics still work.
Boat building fixes
Boat building blocks can be rotated and demolished at any time in edit mode; the usual 5-minute timer no longer applies. The small dive site buoys no longer stop a full-size boat dead, and sails no longer get destroyed at random after being rotated. The Deploy & Edit option on the steering wheel is always shown and now tells you when editing is not possible at your location.
Electricity, industrial parts, water and wallpaper on boats
Electrical, industrial and water items now work on player-built boats, and wallpaper can be used the same way as in a base. A few items stay blocked for performance or balance reasons: auto turret, SAM site, windmill, CCTV cameras, seismic sensor, hanging lights, door controller and hopper.
Deep Sea changes
Loot in the Deep Sea now respawns slowly, and the first fill when it opens is down to about 70% of what it was. It opens on a random side of the map each time, no longer right after a wipe, and a sound plays when it opens. RHIBs can no longer take you there. Out at sea you can now see ships from 620 metres instead of 300, and every Deep Sea island has a fixed Boat Building Station that gently pulls a powered-down ship in for docking.
Ship combat
Cannon hits now slow a player-built boat down; repeated hits can bring it to 30% of its top speed. Players on cannons are better protected. Aiming down sights on a moving boat now sways with its speed, which favours cannons over rifles. Sunken player boats can be broken up block by block to recover the loot.
Boat decay
The decay delay has doubled from 12 to 24 hours, and the decay itself now takes 12 hours instead of 18. You can stay offline longer without losing your boat, while abandoned boats disappear sooner. A boat only counts as used when someone is steering it.
Also in this update
- Deployable snapping works on player boats: hold Left Shift while placing.
- Painting has a line tool: hold Shift and drag.
- Against naval scientists the hazmat suit now protects 30% instead of 5% and full metal 50% instead of 25%. They miss less but hit for less, carry flashlights and lasers, and can no longer see through smoke.
- Servers can require TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot; those that do get a Secure tag in the server browser.
- The Barbeque can now be skinned through the workshop.
Source: Facepunch devblog rust.facepunch.com
