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Rust May 2026 Wipe (Upgrade Hard, Raid Harder Update): Release Date, Confirmed Features, Patch Notes & More

Posted on {{time}} by justin

Survivors, prepare yourselves for another Rust server wipe! While the worlds reset, this reboot, and the Upgrade Hard, Raid Harder Update, brings new content, features, changes, and improvements to the game. So, keep reading to learn what to expect in the Rust May 2026 Server Wipe!

Rust May 2026 Wipe Date

The Rust May 2026 release date lands on May 7th, 2026, keeping in line with the game's force wipe on the first Thursday of every month, and meaning it's officially live now! Check out all the biggest changes in this massive update below, and the official patch notes as well!

What’s New in the Rust May 2026 Wipe? (Upgrade Hard, Raid Harder Update)

Mortar, Mortar Shells, & Fragmented Mortar Shells

The Mortar is coming to the Rust main branch with the May 2026 wipe, and it’s a deployable, indirect-fire weapon unlocked at Workbench Level 2. Survivors can craft it using High-Quality Metal and Pipes, and it fires Mortar Shells and Fragmented Mortar Shells to any poor soul that dares invade your base. The Mortar Shell offers precise, high-damage hits, while the Fragmented Mortar Shells and their larger blast radius devastate infantry and vehicles. Use the Mortar and the required ammunition to take down tall walls, making it a pivotal evolution to Rust’s growing siege warfare.

Workbench Upgrades

With the May 7th wipe, Rust’s workbenches evolve from simple crafting stations into fully configurable utility hubs. For starters, a new storage add-on allows players to slot upgrade modules directly into the workstation. This new feature also unlocks ten new upgrades for the Workbench. These upgrades reshape the wipe tempo by adding new effects, such as doubling the crafting radius or increasing the Workbench’s health to enhance its survivability during enemy attacks.

Vending Machine UI overhaul

Rust also includes a comprehensive overhaul of the Vending Machine UI, a much-requested improvement from the community. This refreshed interface delivers new features, including sleek new status indicators for drone accessibility, stock, and broadcasting. The new UI also supports drag-and-drop order management and other visual enhancements to streamline shop administration. This Vending Machine upgrade is no mere design refresh, as it makes each transaction feel faster, smarter, and more polished than before.

Updated Binoculars

Rust veterans know that rushing into a location without a plan and guns blazing is a recipe for death and disaster. Intel helps you survive, and the May 7 Rust server wipe redefines the art of the scout with a massive update to the Binoculars. This seemingly humble tool undergoes a complete metamorphosis. For starters, the update changes its appearance to now have a sleek, high-fidelity model. It also has a new animation that feels weighty and deliberate as you survey the world. The main HUD also fades away as you peer into its lenses, leaving an unobstructed, cinematic view of the new rangefinder.

Rust May Wipe 2026 Patch Notes (Upgrade Hard, Raid Harder Update)

Now that the Upgrade Hard, Raid Harder update is officially here, let's dive right into the official patch notes!

Features

Workbench Upgrades
New Mortar deployable
Vending machine UI refresh
Binoculars refresh
New Server Browser region system
Tin Can Alarm can be rigged with explosives
Computer Station now needs power

Improvements

Improved consistency of player boat drag-by-angle system - boat shaped boats are faster than box shaped boats
Many light fixtures in monuments have been remodeled and updated
Can now use spraycan to reskin barrels
Improved 3p animation when throwing grenades by left clicking (rather than holding)
Reduced range of Armored Ladder Hatches SFX
Added split-out "dump" convar commands for each category of information
Improved Network Grid memory usage by reintroducing lazy-initialization
Internal constant GamePhysics.DefaultMaxResultsPerQuery is now a ServerVar
Improved UniTask pooling to consistently pool internals
Replaced StableObjectCache with StableObjectArray which can be more cache efficient
The boat vendor in the Floating City now sells boat building items and a cheaper DPV (and no longer sells kayaks or torpedos)
ownerid and moderatorid commands now set the connection authlevel, was only done after relogging in, removeowner and removemoderator remove it
Optimised the deep sea island navmesh generation
Horse network optimisations
Improved search in item list, typing 'wood' will show the wood item first
Improved items and vehicles list grid scaling, works better with any resolution and different UI scale
Scaled up the progress image on weapon attachment item icons
Buying items on the Steam web store will now show a notification in-game
Animations on grenades, syringes, and bandages now play out correctly when using the last in a stack
Smoothed out admin 3rd person camera mouse scroll zoom
Pressing F3 to change admin camera viewmodes will now only toggle between standard 1st/3rd person. Must now press Shift+F3 to cycle through the additional available viewmodes
Connecting to a server via the console will now correctly add it to the Quickjoin menu history

Fixed

Fixed some interactions breaking when hanging up a phone mid-call by changing weapon
Fixed players not always transferring between mainland and deep sea with their boats
Fixed dropped items often clipping through player boats and cargo ship
Fixed deploy guide on flame turret being too bright
Fixed contacts (and images) being added for players that are not actually visible
Fixed player elevator cables sometimes appearing in the wrong location
Fixed players getting killed when jumping underneath the elevators at Launch Site
Fixed players being killed by elevators even if there is a surface between them and the elevator
Fixed being able to deploy parachutes when standing on top of other players
Fixed an exploit allowing players to pass explosives through walls
Fixed players taking damage if they are crouched under a surface and there is an explosion on the other side of the surface
Fixed an exploit in Softcore allowing players to override auth of destroyed TC's
Fixed food cache not spawning at Water Well B
Fixed Armored Ladder Hatches getting culled at some view angles on low quality settings
Fixed recycler not stopping and unloading a loaded weapon if the weapon was inserted while recycler is active
Fixed code locks on cars disappearing after a player enters the wrong code too many times
Fixed exception when renaming a shot and the shot name already exists (Demos)
Fixed not being able to descend on Vines
Fixed terrain rendering issues on some older hardware
Fixed bug when trying to auth a friend at a TC/Turret with blocked visibility
Fixed HasCloseConnections not seeing connections in a >128m range
Fixed being able to jump on the side of the train and stick to it as it moves
Fixed cases of noclipping through walls using helicopters
Fixed cases of falling through helicopter floor
Fixed a rare bug that could cause NREs when corpses appeared in trigger volumes
Fixed the Fire Rate tooltip on guns referencing attachments
Fixed deep sea marker masking issues on the MLRS map
Fixed server admin ui player panel health rounding issues, it matches the health vital now
Fixed wallpaper planner errors
Fixed performance issues caused by the friends menu for player with a large friend list
Fixed RF receiver adding itself to the listener set when changing its frequency while unpowered
Fixed console auto complete preventing you to go through the history when open
Fixed console autocomplete not scrolling when using the arrow keys
Fixed client convars with an empty default value showing as [?] in the console
Fixed wallpaper not showing on wood, stone and armoured roof LOD1 models
Fixed salvaged axe not showing skins in third person
Fixed door and window deploy guides snapping to the origin of the boat when placing on a finished boat
Fixed deep sea loot spawning on top of each other after a server restart
Fixed F1 menu tools tab not showing in demos
Fixed cannonball using seimic sensor level 3 instead of 1
Fixed battering ram head not showing its health
Fixed HBHF sensor retaining its detection state if powered off while detecting someone
Fixed HBHFSensor detecting player through doors and thin wall in some cases
NPC’s now temporarily hide their held item whilst performing a gesture, like players do
Fixed various spectating functionality only working in 1st person view
Metabolism values now update immediately upon spectating a player
Metabolism values now get recorded for all players in demo recordings
Fixed player name of the currently spectated player being invisible in 3rd person
Fixed 3rd person camera mouse scroll zoom being inverted. Old behaviour can be restored with ‘client.invertthirdpersoncamzoom'
Whilst spectating in 1st person the camera viewmode should now update to the same viewmode of the spectated player if they interact with something which sets a new camera viewmode
Fixed not being able to change viewmode if the spectated player is using something which overrides their current viewmode
Fixed not being able to use additional viewmodes during demo playback
Fixed breasts becoming uncensored if mounting a ballista in 3rd person if nudity setting was set to pixelated
Fixed fog density decreasing if spectating a player who is using a computer station
Fixed chainsaw viewmodel VFX visibility issues
Fixed hover looting weapon attachments inside the gun inventory being inconsistent
Fixed an issue with invisible players appearing in some monuments with great height differences
Fixed legacy shelter door and cooking workbench bbq not having an owner id assigned when placed
Fixed some parenting volume issues with trains
Fixed items with custom names / icons stacking together
Fixed custom item names / icons not being preserved when splitting a stack
Fixed a community UI error with closable layers
Fixed elevators being able to kill players through ceilings
Fixed planters not being filled with water after reskinning via spray can
Fixed launch site elevator killing players jumping underneath
Fixed not being able to harvest planters on boats in the deep sea
Fixed road signs no longer spawning inside some monuments
Fixed health bar showing up for unbreakable softcore containers
Fixed only 4 servers showing up in the server browser until scrolling for the first time
Fixed being able to plant multiple seeds in the same planter slot