Survival game Rust has finally gotten around to letting players raise animals, and the update is now live. Sheep and cows are the stars of the show, complete with breeding, gene inheritance, and a new generator that turns spoiled meat into fuel.
Shearing, Milking, and Dung
The livestock update centers on two animals: sheep and cows. Like any other wild creature in Rust, you can kill them for meat, bones, leather, and animal fat. But the new fence and gate blueprints let you build a farm instead. That means you can keep animals alive, breed them, and collect dung, milk, or wool from them.
Dung was already a resource in Rust, used to make fertilizer that helps plants grow and can be traded for scrap. Milk can be drunk directly or turned into cream or skimmed milk, which boost the duration and strength of pie and tea recipes. Wool can be sold to vendors at Stables, just like the animals themselves.
Vendors make a random offer when you try to trade wool or livestock. Players can reject the offer up to three times. After that, the vendor is unavailable for another 15 minutes.
Breeding With Genes
Breeding is the heart of the update. Each creature has its own set of genes, similar to plants. The offspring’s genes depend on the parents’ genes. Animals with better genes will be more valuable at vendors and produce goods more efficiently.
To breed successfully, players need to keep animals safe and attend to their needs. The update also introduces breedjects, which may eventually appear as a result of breeding. Those breedjects can be fed into a new biofuel generator. The generator turns spoiled or raw meat into low-grade fuel. The higher the calorific value of the bio-matter you put in, the more low-grade fuel you get out.
Essentially, Rust now lets you make fuel from your dead animals.
Wildlife and Skins
The update is not just about raising livestock. It also adds decorative wildlife depending on the biome. Players might spot frogs, turtles, jellyfish, crabs, and squirrels in the wild. These are purely visual additions rather than new gameplay elements.
Alongside the gameplay changes, there is a new cosmetic DLC: the Plague Doctor skin for the Hazmat Suit. It fits right into October’s spooky vibe. The Plague Doctor DLC costs $9.99 on Steam.
What Players Need to Know
The update brings several new resources and systems:
| Resource | Use |
|---|---|
| Dung | Fertilizer, trade for scrap |
| Milk | Drink, make cream or skimmed milk |
| Wool | Sell to vendors at Stables |
| Breedject meat | Feed into biofuel generator |
The generator handles the rejects from your breeding efforts. It is a practical way to use meat that would otherwise go to waste.
The Verdict on the Update
This is a solid quality-of-life addition for Rust. The breeding system gives players a clear goal beyond scavenging and fighting. The gene inheritance mechanic adds depth, and the ability to turn breedjects into fuel closes the loop nicely.
The decorative wildlife and the Plague Doctor skin are nice extras, but they are smaller additions compared to the farming systems.
Whether players will want to set up a farm depends on how much time they are willing to invest. Building fences, feeding animals, and waiting for them to breed takes effort.
Rust’s livestock update is live now, and it gives players a reason to stop thinking like survivors and start thinking like farmers.
Source material: “Survival Game Rust's Big Update Adds Raw Milk and Rotten-Meat Fuel,” Polygon.
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