# Rust META SHIFT - Product: Rust (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rust-game) - Vendor: Facepunch Studios - Date: 2025-10-02 - Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/252490/view/520851629825590004 - Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rust-game/releases/2025-10-02-meta-shift What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog. Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'. --- - **added** — Introduce Blueprint Fragments system requiring 5 Basic Blueprint Fragments for Workbench Level 2 and 5 Advanced Blueprint Fragments for Workbench Level 3 - **added** — Add Basic Blueprint Fragments to green puzzle rooms and blue-card puzzles at monuments and airdrops - **added** — Add Advanced Blueprint Fragments to hackable crates and elite crates at Launch Site, Military Tunnels, Nuclear Missile Silo, Underwater Labs, Small and Large Oilrigs, Cargoship, and Ch47 crate drops - **added** — Allow conversion of 20 Basic Blueprint Fragments into 1 Advanced Blueprint Fragment - **added** — Add basic green keycard puzzles to Dome, Ferry Terminal, and Radtown monuments - **added** — Add recycler at Dome puzzle room - **changed** — Greatly reduce scrap crafting costs for Workbench levels 2 and 3 - **changed** — Relocate majority of loot in almost every monument to new locations and refresh previously empty areas - **changed** — Rework Hackable and Elite crate loot rolls to remove junk items and ensure rewarding drops - **changed** — Change Nuclear Missile Silo from blue-card monument to red-card monument - **added** — Add 3 additional elite crates to Nuclear Missile Silo - **added** — Add drone storage slot able to hold a single stack of any item that can be dropped while piloting - **changed** — Make SAMs and Auto Turrets treat player drones as hostile and target them while keeping marketplace drones safe - **added** — Add crosshair customization options including Style, Colour, Dot size, Spacing, Line length and width, Outline, and Outline colour - **added** — Add option to hide crosshair when aiming or keep it visible - **added** — Add built-in crosshair sharing feature with import and export via code - **added** — Add Spike Trap primitive trap that slows and hurts players when stepped on, craftable for 80 Wood ##### BLUEPRINT FRAGMENTS The current progression meta has grown stale, moving too fast and becoming too easy over the years, with scrap inflation and scrap being everywhere. We don't believe this has been overwhelmingly negative, but it has detracted from world PvP, especially in and around monuments, and we want to experiment more with progression. This is experimental step 1: We’re introducing a new layer of progression to the Workbench system. The aim is simple: get players back out of their bases, contesting monuments, slow down progression and clashing over territory. Workbench level 1 remains unchanged, but Level 2 and Level 3 now require blueprint fragments to craft. These fragments are found at key monuments, creating a soft progression gate that pushes players into early fights and slows down clan snowballing. - **Workbench Level 2** now requires **5 Basic Blueprint Fragments** - **Workbench Level 3** now requires **5 Advanced Blueprint Fragments** Blueprint fragments are tied directly to puzzles and high-end loot, encouraging players to push deeper into monuments and hackable events. ##### **Basic Blueprint Fragments** - Always spawn in green puzzle rooms (x1) - Always found in blue-card puzzles next to the red keycard (x2) - Found in airdrops If you chain both green and blue, you've already had 3 Fragments in a run. ##### **Advanced Blueprint Fragments** - Guaranteed inside hackable crates - 1 in 10 chance to appear in elite crates - Always spawn in pairs The main areas where these can be found are: - Launch Site - Military Tunnels - Nuclear Missile Silo - Underwater Labs - Small and Large Oilrigs - Events: Cargoship and Ch47 crate drop You can also convert 20 Basic Fragments into 1 Advanced Fragment, giving a fallback path. Scrap crafting costs for workbench levels 2 and 3 are now greatly reduced, allowing players to have extra scrap to unlock items from the techtree. Larger groups will naturally eventually accumulate more fragments than they need, creating an economy where fragments and workbenches are traded. Smaller groups and solos will be forced to scrap harder for their progression, making monuments hotly contested again. We'll be watching and reading all feedback, and we'll adjust and balance as needed over the coming days and weeks. As mentioned at the beginning, this is just part 1, part 2 will be released in the December update. ##### MONUMENT PUZZLES By design, not all monuments are equal, some have trade-offs, while others feel bad for groups but ideal for solos or small groups. With blueprint fragments, we want to ensure all mid to large-sized monuments are relevant, so with that said, the following monuments have basic green keycard puzzles added: - Dome - Ferry Terminal - Radtown In addition, you'll now be able to find a recycler at the Dome, puzzle room. ##### MONUMENT LOOT SHUFFLE The meta of running the same paths in monuments has gone stale, we've not changes some monuments in over 5 years. Do you know where every monument loot crate is? Many of you will. Today, almost every monument has had the majority of its loot moved to new locations. Areas that previously had little to no loot have been refreshed, making these areas relevant again. Dead spots are gone, and new loot run paths have opened up. Our goal here is to break old habits and get players rediscovering movements, hopefully making loot runs feel fresh, least for a bit. ##### CRATE LOOT Every day, we see posts on Reddit, X, Discord, Facebook, of someone sharing a screenshot of awful loot roll they just got. Granted, sometimes it is terrible, but Hackable crates should always feel rewarding. We've reworked Hackable and Elite crate loot rolls, removing some of the junk. You should now always get something of use, hopefully multiple items. ##### DRONE STORAGE Drones now have a single storage slot, able to hold a single stack of any item. While piloting the drone, you will be able to drop the contents _[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/252490/view/520851629825590004]_