Rust Printed and Polished Update Patch Notes: Blueprint Overhaul, the Uzi and a Livestock Rework

Rust's November forced wipe landed on Thursday, November 5, 2026, and Facepunch's "Printed and Polished" update is not a light one. The headline change rewrites how you progress through the tech trees: scrap is out, blueprint items are in. On top of that, there's a new loot-only Uzi, a fresh round of livestock changes, roaming scientist boats, a crocodile pie that keeps predators away, and a long list of performance work that cuts memory use by gigabytes in some areas. The update went live around 18:45 UTC (1:45 p.m. EST).

TL;DR

• Tech-tree unlocks no longer cost scrap. You now spend blueprint items – Fragments, Pages and Books – one per unlock, matched to the workbench tier.
• New weapon: the Uzi, a loot-only SMG with a folded fully-automatic mode that works with shields and an unfolded semi-automatic mode for accuracy.
• Livestock rework: easier ownership, cows no longer die of old age, a new "Potential" stat for captive-born animals, plus new Shears and a Wool Armour Insert.
• Lighthouses start damaged each wipe, and repairing one kicks off the deep sea cycle.
• Rare roaming scientist boats now patrol the main island's coast and go after geared players.
• Crocodile Pie repels wolves, bears, boars, sharks and bees.
• Large performance gains: around 1.6GB lower total memory use, smoother frame times and much faster restarts on big servers.

The big one: blueprint progression

For years, the tech tree has been a scrap sink. That ends with this update. Unlocking anything on a workbench tech tree now requires a blueprint item instead, and there are three of them: Blueprint Fragments for Tier 1, Blueprint Pages for Tier 2 and Blueprint Books for Tier 3. Each unlock costs one item of the matching tier.

Fragments are the common currency – you'll find them in barrels and boxes – and they can be combined into Pages. Facepunch has also spread blueprint drops into other activities, including fishing, hunting and the new scientist boat encounters, so roaming and gathering now feed directly into your progression.

Scrap isn't useless. The Research Table still runs on it, so researching items you've found is unchanged. Two workbench upgrades have also been adjusted to fit the new system: the Prototype upgrade now has a flat 25% success chance with the old cost doubling removed, and the Salvage upgrade gives a 20% chance not to consume a blueprint.

Facepunch is open about this being a first pass. Expect the drop rates and costs to move in the coming months as the team sees how wipes play out – especially on high-pop servers where scrap farming used to dictate the pace.

New weapon: Uzi

The Uzi has two personalities. With the stock folded, it's fully automatic and can be used alongside a shield. Unfold it and it becomes semi-automatic with better accuracy. You switch by holding the fire-mode button.

You can't craft or research it. The Uzi is loot-only, turning up in high-tier sources such as Elite Crates and Hackable Crates, so it's a mid-wipe find rather than something you can rush.

Livestock: less babysitting

Animal farming got a meaningful quality-of-life pass:

• You become a cow's owner when you buy it or when it eats from your trough, and you no longer have to stay close by.
• Cows don't die of old age anymore, and a starving cow lies down at 1 HP instead of dying.
• Cows can store up to three units of milk and can now eat any food a horse can.
• Overgrazing is gone, and troughs show how long their food will last.
• Free-range owned cows stop breeding once there are more than six.
• A new Potential stat rewards good care: how happy an animal was while growing up gets locked in at adulthood and boosts what it produces. Only animals born in captivity have it.

Sheep farmers also get Shears, a new default blueprint made with a Level 1 Workbench. They gather more wool than a knife and don't hurt or startle the sheep when used properly. That wool feeds the new Wool Armour Insert, a Tier 1 tech-tree item crafted from 20 wool that adds a big chunk of cold protection and a little melee and projectile protection.

World changes: lighthouses, scientist boats and wildlife

Lighthouses now begin each wipe damaged. Repair the light mechanism at the top to start the deep sea cycle – multiple lighthouses share progress, and maps without any lighthouses start with the deep sea already active.

Roaming scientist boats are a new, rare threat on the main island's waters. They don't show up on the map or announce themselves, and like the patrol helicopter they only pick fights with geared players. Defeating them can pay out blueprints. The PT Boat turrets also got rewritten with new viewmodels and a new shooting system.

The sky is busier, too: crows and seagull flocks now cross the map. Crows circle corpses inland and scatter at explosions, while seagulls gather over coastal and water monuments when players are inside.

New food: Crocodile Pie

Cooked from the jungle's crocodile meat, Crocodile Pie makes wolves, bears, boars, sharks and bees keep their distance, and rams and bulls won't charge you. A Rich version lasts twice as long. It's a handy pick for jungle trips and long swims.

Building and other changes worth knowing

• Mirrored stairs: L and U stairs can now be flipped.
• Ramps are no longer blocked through roofs by deployables or other ramps.
• Triangle frames no longer let splash damage through walls.
• The Nailgun has a new model and animations and now supports Workshop skins.
• Berries get an Extract option that turns a berry into a seed.
• The DPV accelerates twice as fast and uses less fuel.
• New modular cars come with half their engine slots filled with low-quality parts.
• Map markers can be dragged with the middle mouse button, and small trees are easier to hit.
• Phones get four new NPC numbers, including weather and a travelling vendor countdown.
• Softcore removes the deployable corpse system and limits players to six Tool Cupboards each.
• A new Scrap King building skin for the Sheet Metal tier is available as DLC.
• Rust now runs only on Apple Silicon Macs; Intel Mac builds are discontinued.

Performance: the "Polished" part

This is where the update earns its name. Facepunch reports roughly 1.6GB lower total memory use, with garbage collection running about half as often. Building-privilege checks in a large base dropped from 5.7ms to under 0.02ms, map generation is almost twice as fast, and restarts on the busiest official servers fell from about ten minutes to around two. Audio compression alone saves roughly 470MB, and deep sea content is now only loaded when you actually go there. On the network side, packet batching can cut bandwidth by up to 25%.

What it means for players

The blueprint system is the change that will define this wipe. Scrap no longer decides how fast a group climbs to Tier 3 – looting barrels, fishing, hunting and fighting boats now do. Solos and small groups that roam a lot may find progression feels fairer, while big clans lose the ability to simply out-recycle everyone. Combine that with a loot-only Uzi, tougher seas and a softer farming loop, and November is a good wipe to jump back in – just know that the numbers behind blueprints are likely to change.