Rust’s Arctic Update is here, and it brings a bunch of fresh content, including a new monument, polar bears, and snowmobiles. New features and quality-of-life changes have been added as well.
Brave the Frigid Landscape
The Arctic Research Base is the newest monument in the game and is found exclusively in the arctic biome. Here, you’ll find a lot of lab modules and buildings around the base. Be sure to explore these areas as there might be some good loot for the taking.
Snowmobiles can also be found in the Arctic Research Base. They use low-grade fuel and can be utilized on various terrains, but they’re best driven on sand or snow. Although they can go smoothly even on rough land, they do require some skill to control well.
Polar bears now populate the arctic biome as well. They are the most hostile and strongest among the other animals in the world, but they yield more resources compared to their bear cousins. That said, regular bears no longer spawn in the arctic. Moreover, they’ve received some slight reductions to both HP and level of hostility.
Other Features
Do you want to give your equipment a new look? If yes, then you’ll be happy to know that a new default tool can make that happen. The Spraycan gives you the ability to reskin your items. All you have to do is hold the Spraycan and use the right mouse button to open up the skin options. It costs 100 metal fragments to craft.
If you’ve used this particular tool in the game’s Staging branch before, you might find that its other features are not present in this update. That’s because the developers have encountered some issues, so they had no choice but to delay them. Hopefully, they will be released soon.
Aside from that, the devs received reports that game performance has suffered in the past couple of updates. After some digging, they’ve found that the tree impostor system is the likely cause.
Do not worry about this as they have already implemented a fix. Frame rates should be a lot more consistent now, especially in areas where trees and bushes are abundant, like in the Bandit Camp.
New Items
The Arctic Pack is a new addition to the game’s permanent store. It contains three items: the Arctic Suit, Tomaha skin for the Snowmobile, and Ice Assault Rifle skin.
The Arctic Suit is a cosmetic for your Hazmat Suit. It offers slightly better protection against cold, but this comes at the cost of lower melee, explosive, and radiation protection.
If you want the Snowmobile to look more stylish, use the previously-mentioned Spraycan to apply the Tomaha skin.
When crafting your assault rifle, you can apply the Ice Assault Rifle skin to make it look more appropriate to use in the cold. Alternatively, you can place the weapon inside the repair table to do the same thing.
You can learn more about the Arctic Update by heading to Rust’s official Steam page.
